Coping with rage hunger

It's official: my stomach has taken control of my body. Obviously that's a slight overstatement (errr not really), but in all seriousness, my hunger has reached new levels often times leaving me bonking halfway through a run or rage hungering at all my friends. Sorry!

This week has been case in point. Since Saturday's 18 mile run (!!!), I have literally been constantly hungry. Embarrassingly so. I highly doubt it's professional to be downing your lunch during a 10am meeting, but desperate times call for desperate measures? Obviously my high mileage has forced my body to burn calories like never before, but the issue has also been exacerbated by less than great eating habits for the past couple of months. I most likely haven't been getting as much fiber/protein as I should since Seamless provides at least two of my meals a day, leaving me at the nutritional whim of Tribeca's restaurants. Less than ideal. Besides being fun and wonderfully destressing, cooking is the best way to ensure you get the proper nutritional mix to maximize your training.

So last night, I took advantage of an early exit from the office to swing by the Union Square Greenmarket to scope out the vestiges of summer's produce. Snagged a few pints of shiny yellow and red cherry tomatoes, a couple shallots, and a bundle of fresh basil, which I decided to combine with some pasta and spicy Italian sausage. Perfect combination of carbs, MEAT, and fresh veggies for a hungry runner. I wanted to whip up one of my mum's standard summer pasta dishes, but of course I couldn't find the recipe and was way too lazy to fill out the form for Cook's Illustrated free online trial. So I winged it!

Homage to end of summer tomatoes
(Loosely adapted from the vague memory of a Cook's Illustrated recipe)
2 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes
3 cloves garlic (1/4 inch slice)
4 large shallots (sliced in rings)
3/4 lb spicy Italian sausage
2 tbsp olive oil
red pepper (to taste)
kosher salt
pepper
basil
farfalle or orecchiette pasta
arugula (optional)
pecorino or some other hard cheese, preferably with a little bite

Preheat oven to 300F. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and place whole cherry tomatoes on sheet along with sliced garlic and shallots. It's okay to leave the shallot rings intact rather than separating as it will help prevent them from burning. Toss vegetables with 2 tbsp olive oil and salt pepper to taste. Slow roast in oven for ~30-40 minutes, tossing every 15 minutes.

While the tomatoes are doing their thing, heat a dash of oil in a frying pan and quickly sear the outside of the sausages on high heat (3-4 minutes). Turn heat down and cook the sausages almost through for another 10 minutes. Drain fat from the pan and then allow meat to rest/cool for a few minutes before chopping into bite-sized pieces.

Stir the sausage into tomato mixture and put back in the oven for another 20-30 minutes, or until the tomatoes begin to burst. While you're waiting for your tomato sausage mixture to finish up, boil water and cook your pasta of choice - I prefer farfalle or orecchiette. After the tomatoes have burst and the onions look nice and caramelized, remove from oven and mix with pasta and arugula if you want some extra veggie lovin'. Garnish with basil and shaved pecorino cheese. Last step, put food to face.
I got a little overzealous in my cooking binge last night, so I also tried my hand at this fantastic recipe for goat cheese and caramelized onion cornbread from Smitten Kitchen! If you like corn, cheese, bread, or really just happiness, then you should definitely bake this immediately. Clearly I had to sample a smidge before getting around to photographing it.

Coming up: tackling the formidable 20 mile run, energy gel reviews, my running bucket list, and more NYRR races!

All my runner ladies

Courtesy of Kim, a great article on "8 Wonder Foods for Female Runners." These days it's impossible to pick up an issue of Runners World or troll a running blog without reading an article on the best foods, ingredients, or crazy Native American protein powders to supplement your running and maximize performance. However, many of them force readers to search out ingredients that you could only maybe find in your local veganlocavorefairtradesustainablyorganic market. Eh, that sounds like far too much effort. This article offers accessible advice for health conscious runners, and some tasty recipes to help you tap the various benefits of several foods. Although the author gears the article towards female runners' needs, the nutrition tips are applicable for most athletes. Pretty sure pomegranates' antioxidant power doesn't gender discriminate.

Personally, I'm usually slightly skeptical of the ever changing "food of the day", preferring to focus on eating well balanced meals full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and MEAT. Hey, I'm a growing girl - I need my protein. Speaking of healthy running snacks, spent Memorial Day having a much needed bakeathon and whipped up a massive batch of my favorite whole wheat muffins. NYTimes' Mark Bittman posted this recipe a few months ago, and it's absolutely one of the most flexible quick-breads I've tried. The recipe can hold up to 3/4 cup of whatever add-ins you like, giving you so many yummy variations! For the past month, I've been itching to get my hands on all the fresh berries abounding in my farmer's market. So Monday I picked up some fresh blueberries, threw in a handful of oatmeal and poof! oatmeal, blueberry whole wheat muffins. Definitely my new favorite combination!

What recipes are you dying to try this summer?

Great success!

Highlights of a fantastic weekend:

1. Engaged in healthy decisions for once and pregamed the 15K with a trip to the Korean spa in Flushing with the girls on Saturday. Sweated out any residual toxins/alcohol and loosened up my muscles in the 195degree sauna! Despite a brief freak-out when forced to go into the naked only shower/bath area, yesterday was delightfully relaxing and a great way to rest up before a long race. On the way back, there was no way Dasha and I were going to pass up a return trip to the Golden Mall (aka the most amazing place in the world) to get some authentic Chinese food. Yummy hand-pulled noodles and stuffed pork bao buns were the perfect carboloading for today.

2. Made it through the 15K without blowing out my knees! Low standards, I know, but seriously, I was crazy nervous earlier this week about the prospect of running 9.3 hilly miles in Central Park without incurring (additional) serious injury. Think my awesome new knee strap helped quite a bit. Not exactly the foxiest look out there but the straps did their job and kept my patellar tendon slightly in place. The pain only hit hard around mile 5 when it was time to climb back up Cougar Hill for the second time. Gutted it out and came in at 1:31, around a 9:45 pace. Pretty much the same pace as the 10 miler a month ago, but aerobically I felt that I could have gone a lot faster. Good to know for when my knees finally heal!

3.. Greg ROCKED the race and left slow-poke me behind to finish in 1:21, a 8:40 pace. Very impressive, especially since he's only been seriously running for around 3 months. Gonna keep that up for 56 miles at Comrades?

Up next: long runs in Alexandria next weekend and the NYRR/JPM Run as One four-miler in the Park on April 11th. Greg's sitting this one out as he'll be too busy getting his blackout on at a bachelor party in Philly, but the GTS runchers will be turning up for a short run then our typical AYCD brunch.

Food for thought

Literally. In case you didn't know by now, one of the few things I love more than running is food and as a runner is especially important to stay properly fueled with lots of carbohydrates and protein. Enter granola and Greek yogurt. My roommate and I should take out stock in Fage given the amount we go through in a week. And I'm the same with granola, which is often my breakfast, dinner, snack, you name it. However, this little food addiction adds up pretty quickly. Sadly I'm not exactly equipped to make my own yogurt (next life goal!), but granola? Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Even our tiny little oven can handle that.

Crunchy delicious granola

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and King Arthur Flour

The original recipe molds the granola into little chewy bars. The first time I tried the recipe that was my intended goal; however, after a little bit of fortuitous over-baking they were not the chewy bars SK had raved about. Blessing in disguise! After crumbling up the crispy bars, I discovered some of the best granola I've ever had. The maple syrup and sugar caramelizes into deliciousness without becoming too sweet and the recipe can hold a TON of fruit and nuts - perfect for breakfast or a pre-run snack.

1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats

1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar (use more for a sweetness akin to most purchased granola)

1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (total of 10 to 15 ounces)*

1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (optional)

6 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

* My fave is 1 cup raisins, 1 cup dried apricots, 1/2 cup wheat germ, 1/2 cup pecans, 1/2 cup hazelnuts, and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes. Honestly, you can pretty much throw anything into this recipe and it'll still be good. Okay, maybe not anything.... Pretty sure you wouldn't want PBR granola.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ pan in one direction with parchment paper, allowing it to go up the opposing sides. Lightly grease the parchment paper and the exposed pan, or coat with a non-stick spray.

Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter or oil, liquid sweeteners and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the dry (and peanut butter, if you’re using it) until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in the prepared pan, pressing them in firmly to ensure they are molded to the shape of the pan.

Bake the bars for 40 to 50 minutes, until they’re brown around the edges — don’t be afraid to get a little color on the tops too. They’ll seem soft almost underbaked when you press into the center of the pan but do not worry, they’ll set completely once completely cool.

Cool the bars in their pan completely on a cooling rack. (Alternately, after about 20 minutes you can use your parchment “sling” to lift and remove the granola, and place them in their paper on the rack to cool the rest of the way. This can speed the process up.)

Once cool, a serrated knife (or bench knife) to crumble the granola. It should break pretty easily at this point so you can even use your hands. To store, wrap the bars individually in plastic or stack them in an airtight container. In humid weather, it’s best to store bars in the refrigerator. They also freeze well. Assuming it lasts that long.

What's your favorite afternoon snack?

Double trouble

Citi: 3, Monica: 0. Was held hostage in my cubicle (see: shamble photo) again yesterday and forced to skip out on my planned 7 mile run. Angstangstangst. I probably could have hustled down to the gym at one point in the afternoon, but was way too paranoid that my boss would call halfway through my run and then I'd have to sprint up to a meeting nice and sweaty. Not so professional. What spandex isn't appropriate office attire? Lies.

Oh well, I made up for it today by sneaking in two runs. Mwuahahaa. Straggled back to the office this morning before 7am to pound out some work and, more importantly in my opinion, a few miles at the gym (lovely photo below). Logged six miles at what felt like a turtle's pace (9:50 - 10:00) compared to all the speedwork I've been doing the past month. However, it was a chance to check my form and see what I could do to ease this reoccurring knee pain. Not much, apparently, but I did discover that my stride is actually a lot faster than I thought. Endurance running is all about being as efficient as possible, so it's important to minimize over-striding (i.e. covering too much ground in each stripe). Elite/legit runners usually have a turnover rate of 178 to 184 a minute. If you're interested/as nerdy as I am, Runner's World had a really interesting article on how run faster by making your stride more efficient. Anyways, I counted out my stride and it turns out it's consistently between 170 to 172 - way better than I thought. Could obviously still use some tweaking but always nice to have empirical evidence of improvement.

Second run of the day was a smidge more intense... One of the "nice" things about running doubles is that your legs are more fatigued for the second run so it helps the body get accustomed to how the latter miles of a long race feel. Or least that's what I kept telling myself when I thought my quads were on fire. Started off with a warm-up mile at 9:20 to get the blood moving and then ran intervals 4 x 800 at 5K pace (~ 8:20) with 400m recovery at 10K pace (~9:05) followed by an easy mile to cool down. 11 miles total for the day - take that Citi! Can't let the man get you down. The knee held up okay but I think I'll stop behaving like an idiot and let it rest up for 48 hours. Ice ice, baby.

A few pointers on dipping your toes into the realm of running doubles. Multiple runs in a day may sound crazy, but if you're short on time to do a long run in one fell swoop or really looking to up your training, there are definitely some benefits. But first, start off slow! Don't do doubles multiple days in a row and you may even want to ease into it by running for the first workout and then doing cross-training later in the day. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time (at least 5 to 6 hours) between workouts and fuel up. I devoured Greek yogurt and granola post run then leftover Vietnamese from last night for lunch. Mmmmm pho to face.

Question of the day: What's your favorite cross-training workout? I need a little (read: a lot) of inspiration since I'll have to stick to non running workouts as I rest/ice/chop off my knee for the next day or two. Boooo. There are few things worse than the cyclebike...

Weekly revelation: Missed runs equal cranky Monica

Apologizes for being a total slacker at posting over the past week. A manic week at work devoured all free time and any motivation to even look at a computer at night after living in front of one at the office. Promise to inundate y'all with my word vomit at least a few times this week.

So. About that running. Forced myself to take last Monday and Tuesday off after the back-to-back races. My knee has been acting up a bit the past couple weeks so I figured it was best to give it a little rest before throwing myself back into training. 4 weeks till the 15K and given my recent times I think it's totally possible to hit a sub-8:45 pace if I stick with the training plan. Oh and don't blow out my knee. Last thing I need is a case of ITB syndrome. Unfortunately, speaking of injuries, Smithies was taking it easy last week and sat out Sunday's 4 mile race in Prospect Park as it's looking more and more like he's got a bad case of planters fasciitis, which does not bode well for his running mission. Hopefully with a little more R&R he'll be back out on the road! I don't know how he's holding up - literally two days sans running had me going bat shit psycho. More so than usual.

Fast forward to Sunday, which was the NYRR Al Gordon 4 miler in Prospect Park. Great turn-out with over 9,000 runners braving the cold and icy paths. Luckily no falling tree branches (several people were killed in Central Park this week...) but the sidewalk and asphalt were definitely slick with black ice. The race route followed the same loop from last weekend's 10 miler, but rather than starting on a slight downhill, the 4 miler threw us smack onto the steepest incline for the first mile. Didn't mind getting it out of the way early on, but probably started out a bit fast, especially for uphill, clocking ~8:10 for at the first mile marker. Mile two was a series of undulating hills and by that point my right knee was being pretty vocal that I need to start doing freaking FLAT RACES. No more of this hilly crap - Comrades, what? Pretty much straight downhill for the third mile and then climbed a long gradual hill to the finish line. Finished in ~35 minutes at a bit over a 8:45 minute pace. Not too shabby and my best race finish yet for a 4 miler!

After the race, my legs were feeling pretty fresh so I decided to go on a scenic tour through Brooklyn and run home. Not that I exactly knew where I was going or anything as is pretty clear from the meandering route on the map... Only intended to run 7 to 8 miles back, but I got slightly detoured on Vanderbilt Avenue so the long run came out closer to 10 miles. Oops? Had fun exploring Prospect Heights though and discovered some super yummy looking restaurants that need to be tested (Le Gamin anyone?). Of course by this point, everything looked tasty because I was STARVING. Really should have eaten more of the post-race bagel since I was definitely not fueled up enough to run 10 miles. Minor details. It was my first time running across the Manhattan Bridge - lovely view up the river of Manhattan and luckily the bridge wasn't too swarmed with touristas since it was still pretty early in the morning. Once back on the island, just popped over to my standard running path along the East River, waved goodbye to Brooklyn and pushed the last couple of miles up to 10K pace (~9:00mm). All in all, almost 14 miles for the day so more than made up for the missed runs during the week!

Later in the day, I definitely made up for the lack of food with two lunches and then the Taste of 7th Street, where I snagged some arepas, a porchetta sandwich, lobster roll, two cupcakes, and a few beers for just $18. Amazing! If you haven't explored the ethnic culinary greatness of E7th St between Ave A and 1st Ave, do so immediately! It is a foodie's dream. And apparently a great place to get your eat on after long runs.

Up next: no races this weekend! Will do a long run on Saturday or Sunday and a few tempo runs this week to keep whittling away at my times. I have no doubt that work will give me plenty of frustration to pound out on a fast treadmill run...

Myoplex Monster

Monica's waxed poetically about the joys of the home-made granola bar, the cream-cheese filled muffin, lauded locavore eating attitudes, and no doubt will spout much more prose regarding the merits of organic munching when it comes to staying fuelled for runs. I, being an engineer at heart, have a much simpler solution - protein shakes.

There are those out there who despise the flavour of these scientific wunder-drinks, but with a little shopping around, there's more than enough selection for anyone to find something that they like. The simple truth though, is that when you're looking for a fast, efficient, and above all, convenient way to get nutrients to your starved muscles as quickly as possible after a run, it's incredibly difficult to beat a good micronised whey infusion.

Of course, as a guy, we have a few other things to worry about when burning thousands of calories a day running - muscle catabolism can leave you breaking down more muscle than you build after each work-out, meaning those pounds you're dropping could easily be lean muscle as opposed to beer muscle.

Keeping a high protein diet helps to maintain muscle-tone even whilst you're running a calorie deficit in order to drop pounds, ensuring that you don't end up with a grossly out of proportion upper body.

Protein also helps to keep up the nitrogen balance in your blood stream, vital to proper immune function, because we all know that nothing destroys your work-outs faster than being sick (...or hung over.)

Of course, the other side of the equation is that you can't ignore the rest of your body when working out. Lifting heavy objects at least twice a week will help you stay in proportion, as well as preventing injury by strengthening connective tissue and support-muscles.

All of this exercise can only be supported if you're putting the right stuff into your body. Go with the Munn-chies and eat lovely luscious legumes if that's your calling, but the engineer in me will stick to the Myoplex.

Post-script: My actual weapon of choice.

ME WANT FOOD

Hi, my name is Monica - a natural born eater and recent running addict. These days I'm hungry CONSTANTLY thanks to an aggressive training plan, and have begun to notice the ways in which running has slowly adjusted my eating/drinking outlook. While I've always enjoyed healthy, produce filled meals, I'm much more likely to pass on the double fried pommes frites in favor of a salad and some multi-grain bread since I know I'll regret that greasy cart food come mile 5 of my long run a few hours later.

One of the biggest issues I had while training for the half marathon was getting enough calories. I mean as tempting as it is to chug PBRs at Doc Holiday's somehow I don't think beer is the preferred choice for carbo fuel. Finding healthy, filling meals and snacks is my new mission and luckily, New York has plenty of options for fresh produce that don't break the bank (cough, Whole Foods, cough). Current fave pre-run snack is one or two Kashi granola bars and some dried apricots. Although given my current granola bar consumption rate, I may have to resort to making my own - at $5.99 a box, those tasty little chewies definitely add up.

Food for thought (pun entirely intended) - what gets you energized for your evening or morning runs?

Obviously there are a ton of resources on the internet for foodies on the run. Shout out to Runners Kitchen for a great blog on running with some yummy looking recipes - perfect for runners logging long miles. My all-time favorite food blog, Smitten Kitchen, definitely takes advantage the city's farmer's markets and offers inexpensive, locavore(ish) recipes for the NYC foodie and runner alike.

Last moderately unrelated note, today begins my new training program for March's 15K, courtesy of Runner World's free online coaching program. Very excited for this Saturday's long run - an 11 mile trot uptown then over the Queensboro Bridge and ending on Roosevelt Island. Pretty! And after I think I'll treat myself to these delish looking muffins from SK :)