Page 56

Sorry gang, I think I've been a bit absent from my blog lately. It's because I haven't had that many inspiring runs or taken any pictures of the food I've cooked. So here's my fun, random post of the day inspired by Sidewalk Monkey's last post.

Here are the rules:
* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Here's mine:
"If the command is 'done', the code does a break to terminate the loop". --Chris Spear, System Verilog for Verification, 2006.

That sounded poetic, right? In a nerdy sort of way? Maybe? Shucks, I wish I was at home when I posted this entry, because I actually do have an interesting book that I'm reading there instead of my geeky one at work.

P.S. Thanks for giving both of us the idea, May!

Runners are gassy

I've had my annoying share of gym faux pas committed to me during treadmill days: sweat flung on me and intensive BO emanating from my neighbor. But last night's incident, while still gross, was inevitable. After taking a week of break after the SJ Half Marathon, I dragged my butt back to the gym to start over from the basics. The plan was to run an easy 5K to stretch my legs and reawaken my stubborn drive to succeed in endurance sports. So naturally, the day that I decided to jump back on the bandwagon was the day that the gym became ridiculously packed.

After waiting for 15 minutes, I finally finagled a free treadmill by staring the last runner down. And excited with my acquisition, I hopped on without noting what kind of treadmill neighbor I had. However, his presence soon waved it's ugly head at me during my second mile, when he started passing gas. I have no idea what that man had for dinner, but it was darn potent. Now, I'm not going to get mad at the guy because sometimes that isn't something you can control. But, usually I'll only have to endure the torture for just a minute or two. I could smell this guy's gas for half a mile of running! Thankfully, he was finished with his run when I was at mile 2.5. Unfortunately, that's when the man on the other side of me started with his gaseous performance until I finished my run.

I must say that despite feeling like I was running through a sewer plant, that was one of the best runs I've had in a while. In fact, I think I mangaged to hit a "runner's high" moment for myself, because I felt like my legs could go on forever and I physically felt like I was floating. I love it when this happens, especially because it's rather rare for me. Yippie! Although, I have absolutely no suggestions on how to overcome the gassy neighbor obstacle. If there aren't any other free treadmills, I don't know what to do. But, I'm open to suggestions.

Game Face

Yesterday I just received the pictures taken of me during the SJ Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I must say that I'm a lot happier with these photos than I was with the SF Half Marathon. Why? Well, because I don't look constipated in these photos like I do in the last ones. But more specifically, it allowed me an opportunity to see a snapshot of my running form/technique.

In these photos, I've managed to relax my shoulders and upper body while running, which is something that I've been consciously trying to improve for my form. I know it sounds backwards, but many elite athletes try to be zen and relaxed while they are competing. It not only improves performance, but also is more efficient for your body. And I know I sound like an obsessed little fan girl right now, but Michael Phelps is a master at relaxing while competing and look where that got him. In any case, even though I'm not trying to be an elite athlete, I would still like to be performing at my best and have minimal pain after a workout.

These pictures show that I am truly "running tall" towards the finish line as opposed to my SF Marathon photos where my shoulders were scrunched up to my cheeks. I'll take this small victory as the one saving grace from this race. Now all I have to do is work on my game face, because I think I look a little too angry.

Recipe of the Day: Thai Pumpkin Curry

One of Raquel's favorite thai restaurants is Osha Thai Restaurant in San Francisco. And tonight's dinner was inspired by our favorite dish there: Thai Kabocha Pumpkin Curry. I ended up searching the internet and modifying this Thai Red Curry recipe. Now, I've never cooked with Kabocha Pumpkin before. So as I was preparing it, it felt like doing battle with a brick! Here's a tip I found elsewhere that will help in the preparation: Before cutting the pumpkin, place the whole pumpkin in 1/2 an inch of boiling water for about 5-10 minutes. Then, you can cut it up after it has cooled.

Here are the modifications I made for this particular recipe:

-use light (reduced fat) coconut milk
-use low sodium chicken broth
-I ended up using chicken instead of shrimp, but that's just cause I didn't have any shrimp
-add bamboo, and sliced red bell pepper instead of tomatoes and frozen peas
-add a handful of fresh basil
-add garlic to season the chicken (saute the chicken before you start the curry, and set it aside till the end)
-serve it over brown rice instead of white rice

Raquel loved my recreation of Osha's dish, and I thought it was tasty too. In my opinion, I don't think it's to their level of yummy goodness, but at least I don't feel as guilty when I eat it.

Recipe of the Day: Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Last week I had to take a sick day because of a massive headache. I'm not sure what caused it, but I've never been able to sit still when I'm sick at home. So, I ended up baking a healthier version of Food Network's Chocolate Chip Cookies. How is it healthy? Well, you've got to know the tips for healthy baking. For this batch, here's what I substituted:

-add roasted pecans for healthy protein.

-use dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet chocolate (dark chocolate is better for you as far as sweets go)

-use half the amount of regular flour and substitute whole wheat flour for the rest of it.

-use "I can't believe it's not butter" instead of real butter

As you can see, the color turns out darker than it normally does, but I can assure you that it tastes just as good. Give it a shot!

San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon Race Review

After the San Francisco Half Marathon that I finished two months ago, I wanted to focus on getting a better finishing time in yesterday's San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Unfortunately, I can't say that my intended plan worked. My atrocious finishing time for the SF race can be attritbuted to my lack of proper training. I had only been completing my usual minimal running routine, without building up on distance. So after that fiasco, did I turn things around? Truthfully, no. Yet again, I let the excuses pile up: my birthday, Reno Ribs Fest, a climbing trip, etc. and I never made it a priority to fit in my long runs. So, not only did I not beat my finish time for the SF race, I made it worse:

SF Half Marathon (8/03/08) - 3:18:02
SJ Half Marathon (10/05/08) - 3:25:45

I think I'm mildly depressed now and it's all my fault. Finishing a race like that always gives me a rush and a huge sense of accomplishment. But this time when I crossed the finish line, I couldn't help but feel a big let-down. The only thing that I proved to myself was how bad my time can be when I attempt to run a race out of shape and ill-prepared. Not to mention that my body is in a world of pain that I've never felt before now. I think it's time to retreat and let my wounds heal before I attempt another race. I've always thought of myself as a positive person, so I'm determined to start over with the basics and remember why I loved to push myself this hard. But for now, I'm feeling the full force of my own disappointment.

There are good races and bad races for every runner. Obviously this was a bad one for me, but I didn't want to let this one go without a review. So here are my highlights:

Highlights:

• I finally got one of my friends, Victor, to run a race with me. However, Victor has been a serious cross country runner since highschool, and he took off. Also, with the way the course is laid out (double-backs on itself), you can see people on their way back to the finish line. So I caught up with Victor when I was at mile 6, while it was his mile 11. As I saw him waving and cheering me on at that intersection, I wanted nothing more than to kick him in the ass for being so fast. Oops, I mean cheer him on all the way to the finish. Yeah, that's what I meant...
• The world-famous Kenyans ran this race! I had the pleasure of seeing them charging towards the finish while I was maybe on mile 5 or so. Gilbert Okari's finish time: 1:01:46.
• I also got to see the winning female from Japan whiz by me. Yuri Kano's finish time: 1:10:03.
• The race course was flat. That was a refreshing reprieve from all the hills in SF.
• There was a live rock band performing at every other mile.
• I saw these two women runners, dressed in silver sequins, stop at every stage and dance around like disco balls. Obviously, they had a blast.

Alright folks, that's my recap. FYI, my next race will probably be next year, but I haven't decided yet.