3 Years Later....

I woke up in the middle of the night to hear the rain pouring down outside. California has been battered with storms lately and a new one had moved in overnight, promising to last through the next day and soak the bay area. While Ed and I kept hoping that the storm would hold off, it made it clear that it was here to stay.

I fell back asleep and before I knew it, it was seven o'clock and time to get up. The rain had stopped and the weather report claimed only a 10% chance of rain during the race time.  I chose to wear my running skirt, short sleeved shirt, and jacket. I figured if the rain held off, I wouldn't need to dress that warmly and, with all the hill climbing, I didn't want to overheat.

After a breakfast of oatmeal with half a banana, we jumped in the car and headed to Woodside.

PCTR's Woodside race holds a special place in my heart (which I talked about a few weeks ago), and I was looking forward to traversing those trails once again. It was even more special because this would be the first race that Ed and I would get to do "together". Yes, he was doing the 35k and would be going much faster than me, but our races started at the same time and would be traveling a lot of the same trails.

We picked up our numbers and then took shelter in the car until 15 minutes before the race start, as the rain continued to sprinkle down on us. I did a last minute switch into a long sleeved shirt underneath my jacket (great decision) and then we headed out to line up. I got to see my friend Sarah, who I hadn't seen in ages. She was running the 35k, just like Ed. Being faster, both Ed and Sarah moved their way up in the pack, while I edged backwards, content to seek out slower running folk. Wendell gave the traditional directions and then we were off!

From the first steps, mud made itself known as a constant companion on this race. From the muddy hillside to the sticky trails, it would be with us the whole time, sometimes sticky, sometimes slippery and always wet.

We all rushed down the hill, only to be brought to a standstill as we entered the singletrack. This beginning was, I think, the most memorable part of the race the first time around, and I still got a little bit of that feeling that I was embarking on an amusement ride of sorts, about to be launched down a fast and fun track.

As we got going again, I began to chat with the two women behind me, who were talking about running AR50. I forget how I entered into the conversation, but ended up telling them about Dick Collins (giving it a hearty recommendation) and talking a little bit in general about how elevation isn't all that scary if you just practice (the 7,000 + ft in DC had them a bit unsure about contemplating that race). We shifted into the more general small talk (where you from? what do you do? etc?) and just generally enjoyed a nice pace along this relatively flat section of the course. I also got something I didn't expect along this section - a compliment on my skirt! I ended up getting a few along the way, which surprised me. I didn't realize that I was making a fashion statement with my skirt :).

As the fireroad shifted from flat to uphill, we slowed to a brisk hike. It was here that I ended up meeting my running partner for the next several miles, Cally. She and I were going about the same pace (though she was doing the 35k) and it was great having the company on the steady uphill. We shared stories and histories, and she even gave me some advice about ways to try to deal with my leg.

However, as we got nearer to the summit, I felt ready to pick up the pace, surprisingly enough, and so we exchanged contact information and I went ahead. It felt good to be going a bit faster until I reached what felt like a wall - the singletrack had opened up to an incredibly steep fireroad, and it took all I had to hike up. I commiserated with a few other racers as we hoped for the trail to flatten.

Once we reached a more manageable steepness, we all picked up the pace again, and in not too long, we were finally at the aid station - the halfway point for me!

I looked with longing at the spread set before me, but that little voice in the back of my head reminded me that 10 miles wasn't really that long, and I didn't really need junk food calories. So, I chose 4 slices of orange, which was nice and refreshing, and then headed back, retracing my steps the quarter mile back to the fork, where I would get to go straight down an incredibly fun and thrilling downhill singletrack.

The next few miles flew by and I rocketed down the winding trail. The misty fog was hanging in the redwoods and I was drinking in the heady air with glee. I did have brief (well, maybe not so brief) moments of worry as I looked around for the potential mountain lion. However, I reasoned that no self respecting mountain lion would be out in such dreary weather when it could be curled up in a cozy cave somewhere. It helped that I passed a fellow racer at one point, so I didn't feel quite as alone.

I also had an embarrassingly selfish thought about that runner (which only serves to emphasize my psychosis when it comes to mountain lions) - the runner I passed was dressed head to toe in a beige tracksuit and my fearful mind told me that, if anything, his clothes made him look much more like a deer than me so, if the mountain lion had a choice, he would look much  more tempting. I know, I'm a somewhat horrible person - please don't judge me too harshly! I promise I didn't really want him to be eaten :(.

As I continued my fast descent, I had a small moment of panic when I realized that I was enjoying myself so much, I had forgotten to keep my eye out for the bright pink ribbons that marked the race route. When was the last time I had seen one? I couldn't remember, and didn't see any in the near future. As I kept up my pace, I told myself that this downhill was so fun, even if it wasn't part of the course, I would just figure it out later. I had a map after all.

Thankfully, after a few more minutes, a bright spot of pink appeared in the distance, and I knew I was still on course. However, while I was happy to be going the right way, I wasn't happy when the downhill suddenly stopped. I didn't remember this from my 1st race here, but the ribbons affirmed that this was correct. Well, darn...I wasn't counting on doing any more uphill! Much to my relief, it didn't last that long and I eventually got back to the downhill once again.

With all this pounding, my legs were beginning to feel it. I hoped that it wasn't much further, but my Garmin claimed I still had over 2 miles ahead. I tried to keep up the pace, and eventually saw another racer on the trail ahead. She was going a good pace herself, but I soon caught up. I stayed with her for a few minutes as we chatted. She told me she thought we had less than a mile left, and I didn't want to break the bad news to her that it was much further, according to my GPS. I said goodbye and, just when I was just about to slow down, I saw something amazing.

Cars. A whole row of them! Wait, was I really seeing the parking above the finish? Indeed I was. I started smiling as I realized that my Garmin had lied and I was about to finish my longest run in years. As I speeded towards the finish, I gave a smile to the camera and said hi to Hao, yelling hello as I passed and then, that was it, I was done.

After I crossed the finish (in 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 2 seconds), I slowed to a stop and milled around the finish, picking up my shirt and taking in the scene. It was still drizzly and I started getting cold. I knew it would probably be a while until Ed finished, so I headed back to the car, where I changed into a dry shirt and sweatshirt, and curled up in the car with a few jackets over me and a good book.

Less than an hour later, Ed arrived, happy with his own race (4th place!!!) though a little put out that I wasn't at the finish to cheer him in. If only it hadn't been so wet and cold!

We drove back home, contented and exhausted, having given our best efforts to the trails.

The conversation on the way home?

Our next race. Looks like we'll be racing together next month at Pirate's Cove :)

Our very muddy legs post race :). You can tell that we had fun!

Oven Puffed Pancake

Ed has been craving pancakes lately, since there has been a definite lack of pancake-y breakfasts since I started eating healthier.

I decided to do a bit of research and came up with Cooking Light's, "Oven Puffed Pancake," a lower calorie and delicious alternative to the traditional breakfast treat. As an added bonus, it's much easier to make than a normal pancake and it also a bit more fun.

Oven Puffed Pancake 
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c. fat free milk
2 T granulated sugar
1/4 t salt
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 T butter
Powdered sugar (optional)

Nutritional Information

(serving size - 1/4 of pancake)

Calories:

141 (28% from fat)

Fat:

4.4g (sat 2.3g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.4g)

Protein:

5.2g

Carbohydrate:

19.9g

Fiber:

0.4g

Cholesterol:

64mg

Iron:

0.9mg

Sodium:

222mg

Calcium:

48mg

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through egg white); Stir until combined. (Edited: On making this again, I used a wisk instead of a spoon and it was easier to combine)

Melt butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet or other oven safe pan (we used a stainless steel pan).

Pour batter into pan. Cook over heat for 1 minute. Do not stir!

Transfer pan to oven and bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, or until golden.

Ours barely made it 15 minutes, and was very poofy and golden brown.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar using a sifter (if desired) and cut into fourths (kitchen shears worked the best for this!). I had a little over 1/4 (the serving size) and Ed had the other 3/4's.

We topped ours with cut strawberries and just a touch of low calorie maple syrup. The pancake would also be lovely with honey, jam, or even plain, as it is sweet and delicious on it's own!

Happy Breakfasting.

(Edit: I've just made this recipe again, and have to say, I love making it from my blog with the pictures! It was easy to follow :). Good motivation to post more recipes)

Vanilla Cupcakes

With all my healthy eating, treating myself to cupcakes was not high on my list of dessert options. However, Ed and I had been feeling a little bored with our pudding and ice cream treats, and thought that this would be a fun treat.


The recipe is officially titled, "Hungry Girl Fluff Cakes," and is a lightened version of the traditional cupcake, that can pack a mind boggling 348 calories and 14 grams of fat. This version has a much more respectable 164 calories and only 3 grams of fat. It tastes lighter, but it still really enjoyable! To see the original recipe, click here.


Light Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 9 - 10 Servings


For Frosting
1 1/4 cups Cool Whip Free, thawed
1 1/2 tbsp. Jell-O Sugar Free Fat Free Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix


For Cupcakes
Half of an 18.25-oz. box (about 1 1/2 cups) moist-style yellow cake mix (I used my food scale to measure out 9.15 oz of cake mix)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup Sprite Zero (or another diet lemon-lime soda), room temperature (I used Fresca)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites


For Topping

3 tbsp. rainbow sprinkles


Directions:


First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 


You'll want to make the frosting first, because it needs time to sit in order to reach it's full potential :). 


To make the frosting, place your Cool Whip in a bowl, and then add the pudding mix. Mix until smooth. Then, take plastic wrap, and press into the top of the frosting until covered, press into sides of bowl and over the top. Place in fridge and keep there until needed. 

Next, I took a large bowl and put my sifter over it. Into the sifter, place the cake mix and baking powder and sift so that there were no lumps. Then, add the soda and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth. The batter will be fizzy! That's okay :). Once you've finished this step, set it aside. 

In a smaller bowl, whip egg white with a handheld mixer, set on medium speed until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. (This part was very cool, as I've never whipped egg white before! They got very fluffy. I whipped mine for about 1 1/2 minutes). Gently mix egg white into the cake batter until thoroughly combined. It took longer than I expected to mix these together, but they got there.




Now, it's time to get the pan ready. Line 10 cups of a 12 cup muffin pan with baking cups (the recipe says it will only fill 9, but ours filled 10 with a little to spare). Evenly distribute the batter among the cups (start with filling 9 and then add to the 10th if you have enough batter). The cups will be VERY full - that's okay! All of the cups on ours will fill to just above the brim, which was perfect. 

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes (ours baked for 17) until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out fairly clean. Your cupcakes should be slightly golden and poofy. 

Remove the cupcakes from the pan using a knife and your hand to carefully lift them out and onto a plate. This will help them to cool faster. Once the cupcakes are cool (it takes what feels like a long 20 minutes, with the cupcakes removed from the pan) frost with your reserved frosting and add sprinkles. The frosting is delicious and we'll need to make a bit more to frost the last of our cupcakes, but if you do a thin layer yours should cover all of them. We only frosted the ones we were eating so that we could leave the cupcakes out overnight and have freshly frosted cupcakes when we're ready for them!

Enjoy!


Makes 9 - 10 Servings

"Homemade Pizza"

While this isn't really a recipe, it's a good reminder that making "homemade" pizza can be a quick and fun activity, and is infinitely superior to the boxed variety.

Heirloom Cherry Tomato Pizza

*Trader Joe's Pre-made pizza dough, fresh herb (sold in small bags in the refrigerated section of the store.
* Tomato sauce (we used Classico's Red Bell Pepper and Roasted Garlic)
* 1/2 an onion
* 2 zucchini
* 4 artichoke hearts, (canned in water)
* minced garlic (to taste)
* Fontina Cheese (about 2 cups)
* Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes (also from trader joes)

Ed and I were in the mood for pizza and, since we were given a very nice toaster oven for Christmas, from Ed's Brother Tom, that promised it could cook a 12 inch pizza, we decided to give it a try.

We began by pre-heating the toaster oven at the "pizza setting". We realized afterwards that this setting is probably for frozen pizza and wasn't quite hot enough for ours. Next time, we'll set it at 450 like the dough packaging recommends.

Once the oven we going we started cooking the onion and zucchini. I like crisp zucchini, so I cooked the onion first, until it was slightly caramelized, and then cooked my zucchini over a higher temperature, sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Once they were cooked, we put them aside.

Next, we took the artichoke hearts and cut them into bite sized pieces. Then, we put them in a pan with some minced garlic and cooked a minute or two, until slightly browned.

Once the "cooking" was done, we were ready to assemble the pizza.

The fun part was making the crust. Ed and I took turns turning and stretching it until it reached the 12 inch size needed to cover our pan. Once it was made, we put down a thin layer of tomato sauce, and then covered with our onion, zucchini and garlic artichoke hearts.

After our layer of veggies, we coated the pizza with a layer of fontina cheese.

Next, we put down a layer of sliced heirloom cherry tomatoes, face down.

We put the pizza in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It was very delicious and fresh tasting, and we especially loved the dough. We topped it with some parmesan and red pepper flakes to give it some spice. The dough wasn't quite as crispy as we would have liked, and next time we'll pre-heat the pan to see if that helps.

All in all, though, a very successful meal of pizza!

Seared Sesame Encrusted Ahi with Onion Quinoa and Asparagus

This recipe is my go to recipe for when we have company over, because it is reliably good, somewhat impressive, and pretty healthy.

Onion Quinoa

*1 large yellow onion
*1 T Olive Oil
* 1/2 C. White Wine

* 1 t olive oil
* 1 - 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 C Quinoa (rinsed)
* 2 1/4 C. Chicken Broth
* 1/2 t. onion powder
* 1/2 t. garlic powder

The quinoa should be started first, as it takes the longest to cook.

To begin, caramelize cut up one large, yellow onion into small pieces. Place onion into a heated pan, coated with olive oil. Put a lit over onions and let cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once onions have started becoming translucent, add about 1/2 a cup of white wine and recover, cooking another 10 minutes or so, until the wine has cooked off. Once the onions look caramelized, take off the heat and place to the side. I usually only do this step before guests arrive, as from here on out, it is very simple and takes only about 25 minutes for dinner to be ready.

Once you are ready to start cooking dinner, take a medium saucepan and add a small amount of olive oil (1 tsp or so). Heat the pan over medium heat until oil has warmed, then add chopped garlic (1 -2 cloves). Let cook for about one minute and then add 1 cup of rinsed quinoa and the caramelized onions. Cook for another minute, to toast quinoa, and then add 2 1/4 cups of Chicken Broth, and the onion and garlic powders. Stir a few times to mix, and then put on the lid. Continue cooking until liquid has been absorbed (20-30 minutes).

Seared Sesame Encrusted Ahi

* Seared Grade Ahi Tuna Filets
* Sesame mixture from whole foods (A mix of black and tan sesame seeds would also work)
* 1 T sesame oil

The Ahi is the easiest part of this recipe. I start with sear grade Ahi filets from Whole Foods (though any good produce store will work). Whole Foods is best, though, because when you buy their Ahi, you can get complementary sesame mix that works perfectly for encrusting the filet.

The Ahi is a very quick cooking fish and should be started about 5 minutes before you would like to eat. To prepare, cut the Ahi into filets. Then, take a stainless steel pan and heat over medium high heat. After pan has heated, at a few tsp of sesame oil to pan, swirling to coat. Once oil has heated, take each filet and dip one side and then the other in the sesame mixture. Place filets in pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. The filet should still be pink around the center, with a tan color around each edge.

Asparagus

* 1 lb. Asparagus, trimmed
* salt and pepper, to taste

The asparagus goes well with this dish, and can be roasted in the oven (with a little olive oil, salt and pepper) or steamed on the stove.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Food

My Woodside Race report is still coming (but, long story short, it was wet and fabulous! I had a great time :) ), but I thought I would take a moment to put up some of the many food creations I've been making lately. Ever since I've begun my journey to be healthier, I have become a lot more adventurous with cooking and baking. I've also been using my camera to document my lovely creations. I thought it would be fun to actually post some of those recipes on here, both to share with all of you, and to have a record of things I've tried so that I can look back on it :).

So, the next few posts will be some of my favorite food successes from the last month!