Tomato Canning 101

/

Tomatoes waiting to be cannedSo. I've never canned anything in my life, which makes me a bit of misfit in these parts. Men and women of all ages here tell stories of helping mothers and grandmothers put up mounds of canned peaches, pickled cucumbers, spaghetti sauce, okra, squash, zucchini, green beans, apples, etc. 

As I learn more about food (and the horrible, horrendous things that go into the canned goods on the supermarket shelves), the more interested I become in learning how to grow and can my own food. (The growing part didn't go so well this year. We harvested one perfect, beautiful squash. Everything else died.) So I was super excited when...

Read More

Running Commentary: Three Run Thursday

/

And so it begins.

In a little less than an hour, Josh and I will be starting the first of our three runs for the day. We're getting the worst out of the way first. "The Hill" is a nasty 2.8 mile stretch in Mayodan with 7-10% grades that Josh trained on for the Grandfather Mountain marathon and that his wife is using to train for her upcoming half-marathon in Asheville. We'll run it twice. Here's the hill profile (thank you, Iris):

I only got 5 hours sleep last night and my eating was not-so-great yesterday, but I'll probably be tired and off my regular eating patterns on race day, so it's good practice, right? I debated whether to bike yesterday to make sure I was running on tired legs but decided against it. Feeling good about that decision at the moment. More later. 

Read More

A Little Preview of Tomorrow's Misery...

/

In the hopes of preparing ourselves mentally and physically for the Blue Ridge Relay, Barefoot Josh and I are doing a trial run tomorrow. We will do three runs throughout the day and see if our legs are able to withstand the lactic acid rush. Our schedule is as follows: 

  • 7 AM: The Hill, out-n-back x 2= 5.4 miles, elevation change: 1100 ft up and down (9 min pace)
  • Noon: Farris Park x 5 = 5 miles, elevation change: 615 ft up and down (8:30 min pace)
  • 6 PM: Local lap(s)= 5.5 miles 675 ft up and down (8:45 min pace)

 For a grand total of 16 miles, 2390 feet of elevation change!

I plan on doing a running blog post throughout the day, posting how I'm feeling before and after each run. I'm also going to run to the store and load up on bananas, bagels, peanut butter, and protein bars to simulate what I'll be eating on race day. 

Even though I think (know) tomorrow will be a brutal, painful, "why-am-I-doing-this-please-make-it-stop" kind of day, I'm secretly looking forward to it. I love a challenge.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an article on Making Marathons Even Tougher and highlighted the Pikes Peak Marathon, one of the more brutal trail marathons around. Blair saw me reading the article and was like, "No. No. Hand it over. That's it. You are officially banned from reading anything in the media." 

He knows me well. I'm not even close to being in the competitive shape needed to tackle something like the Pikes Peak marathon. But that didn't stop me from spending 40 minutes on the site, reading the course description and thinking, "Hmm... maybe... someday..."

Cheers!

Remember to Walk

/

A friend reminded me the other day of the value of walks. A composer, he'd been blocked on a new work until he took a walk, giving his mind time to puzzle over the answer. He returned home inspired and got to work on the piece.

I don't walk anywhere near as often as I used to. After sweating it out on a run, the last thing I feel like doing is re-entering the humid swamp that is the South. I've put in my time and I lock myself in my air-conditioned castle for the rest of the day, thank you very much. 

But I think I'm doing myself a disservice. Walking allows time for mulling things over... making connections... daydreaming. Running is work. Fun work that I enjoy, but work. I'm thinking about pace and form and--oh yeah--remembering to breathe. Do marketing strategies and my next book project ever cross my mind? Not so much. 

So I'm going to start walking more, hot weather be damned. A little sweat seems a small price to pay for artistic inspiration. In fact, Blair and I just returned from a walk and I came in, sat down, and wrote this blog post.

See? It's working already.