Introducing Chef Surfrunner..

It's time for "Jog in Ocean" to undergo some re-designing. I'm not talking about a facelift to the page, I mean I want to modify the purpose of this blog. Per Mayumi's suggestion, I'd like to start blogging about some of my culinary adventures as a foodie. And per Sidewalk Monkey's suggestion, I will be occasionally taking pictures of my creations and posting them. This doesn't mean I'll stop chronicling about my training/technique. On the contrary, I think this gives you folks a better grasp of how I train because food/nutrition is a big part of the regiment.

I also want to quell the myth of having to sacrifice good food as a part of marathon training. It doesn't have to be a boring diet, and you'll see once I start posting about my meals. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my own cooking background, I've been dabbling around with it since college. But, my interest really started to take-off when I graduated, moved to the bay area, and started hosting a lot of dinners.

In the beginning, I was always inspired by that old "Ready, Set, Cook" show, which was a pre-cursor to Iron Chef, but not as elaborate. In other words, I hated recipes and made up my own stuff. But now, I think I've come to a happy medium where I'll use a recipe as a guideline, then add my own twist. And as far as cuisine goes, I'll tend to cook food from any region as long as it's relatively healthy and the ingredients are fresh. But, here are some sample cuisines I've worked with: Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Pacific Rim, Cajun, Mediterranean, Morrocan, Irish, and Californian (yes, this is a genre, just check Yelp).

In any case, this change also comes just in time for the Reno Rib Fest that a bunch of us will be attending this weekend. Stay tuned for food pics from that as well as whatever I cook this week*!

*This is usually dependant on whatever Raquel is craving, because even though I'm the chef, she's the eater. What a hard job...