Breakfast fit for an Ultrarunner

I decided to try a quasi-recipe that I read about in "Born to Run." For breakfast the day of the big ultra-marathon (100 miles in scorching heat and over deadly terrain) this Mexican woman made all the runners a special kind of pancake. It included corn meal, goat's milk, overripe bananas, and boiled rice mixed into the batter. I used Trader Joe's whole grain pancake mix, three overripe bananas, boiled rice, half and half (this was last minute so I had to make due with what I had) and skipped the corn meal all together.

They were delicious - but filling!

30 Facebook-Free Days

I feel like every few months or so I say that I'm additcted to Facebook and need to stop going on so much. I also feel like that has only lasted 3 days at the longest (not counting the times that I'm out of the country and physically can't get on). SO this time I had my little brother change my password. He's not allowed to tell me the password until July14th.

So how did my first day go?

Gloriously.

After work I went to my kickball game, hung out with the team for dinner, came home to my empty apartement where I took a bath and read, did a yoga DVD on mute with Cat Power playing in the background, and literally just sat on the couch drinking tea. It was relaxing and much needed! Besides the time I wasted checking facebook, I think I also was clogging my head. I was thinking about things I read or people who posted, rather than focusing on what I was doing, or being in the moment. I think this will be a very refreshing 30 days.

I'm now on day four, and I still don't miss it.

Books, Sun, and Beach Runs

Down in OCNJ for another relaxing weekend.

Last weekend I finished reading "Born to Run," and tried out the barefoot running idea on the beach. A full week later and my calves are still more sore than ever, but it definitely made it easier to run with a pulled hamstring, so I'll do it again this weekend.

Now I'm on to two other books, switching back and forth between moods (nerdy vs comical). I'm currently reading:

I think it is pretty clear which one is the nerdery and which one is comical... Both were gifts from my brother, by the way. Sedaris was from two Christmas' ago, Bryson was from this year. Both are not disappointing so far!

Have a great weekend.

The Love of Running

Lately I've been reading "Born to Run, A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall. It was given to me as a Christmas present, and I started it soon after the new year but have just recently gotten serious about reading it (mainly due to all the plane trips I've been taking lately). I am so sorry that I didn't get into it earlier. The usual take-away from this book seems to be that we should return to the way humans used to run, the way we were built to run, with little or no footwear. I however, am being incredibly inspired by the description of the pure love of running. As I'm waiting for my running partner to get here, I'll jot a few of my favorite excerpts:

That's the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self=propulsion over wild terrain.

No wonder so many people hated running; if you thought it was only a means to an end -- an investment in becoming faster, skinnier, richer -- then why stick with it if you weren't getting enough quo for your quid?


Posted on the wall of Vigil's office was a magic formula for fast running that, as far as Deena could tell, had absolutely nothing to do with running: it was stuff like, "Practice abundance by giving back," and "Improve personal relationships," and "Show integrity to your value system." [...] "Eat as though you were a poor person."

Off for a sunset run!