The Desert Classic

(February 2nd, 2013) As one of the pillars of this blog is, presumably, about running, I thought I'd include a blog entry on running.  At the start of February, partly to be with my sister on Dad's birthday, and partly to run a tune up race before my big marathon, I headed down to Phoenix to run the Desert Classic.  Mark and Kim both came with, we all had a good time (save for the getting up super early, but that's always an annoying aspect of racing), and photos are below.

Looking back, I think that I need to do fewer tune up races before marathons.  Granted, I only ran two half marathons this spring before my marathon, but they ended up being very disruptive to my training. It was difficult to get into a good rhythm as I'd just start to get into a full week of running before I had to ease back for the race.  It took me a few years of marathon running, but I think I'm finally learning this lesson now. I think this is well illustrated by my running log for the new year:

1/1-1/6: 75 miles
1/7-1/13: 99.5 miles (and for the next couple days I was over 100 miles for the 7 day running total)
1/14-1/20: 90 miles
1/21-1/27: 67 miles (starting to back off for the Desert Classic)
1/28-2/3: 57.5 miles (way down from mid January!)
2/4-2/10: 91 miles (and back up on the roller coaster of spring miles!)
2/11-2/17: 83.5 miles
2/18-2/24: 94 miles
2/25-3/3: 59 miles (backing down for the Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon)
3/4-3/10: 46 miles (even farther down than for the Desert Classic!)
3/11-3/17: 76 miles
3/18-3/24: 81 miles
3/25-3/31: 81.5 miles
4/1-4/7: 59 (backing down for Boston)
4/8-4/14: 31 miles (taking it really easy for Boston, on 4/15)

I like some amount of roller coaster in my running, but the drop from 90 to 67, then the jump from 57.5 to 91 is just too much.  One day I'll find a nice compromise, and I'm sure you'll hear about it here.

You really can see me thinking 'ugh, this is too early.'

Cruising in to finish 3rd at a time pretty close to my PR.  Not bad considering you get to run up and down a big hill essentially...

Mark and I placed second and third respectively.  A good day for the Dukes (our track club).

People (Kim and Elizabeth) complained that we didn't look tired enough, so this is how we tried to look tired after the race.

Next stop: Seattle!

Midwinter Dining

(January, 2013):

Well, I'm running down the road
tryin' to loosen my load
I've got seven women on
my mind,
Four that wanna own me,
Two that wanna stone me,
One says she's a friend of mine
Take It easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Well, I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see...

You may be wondering why I'm quoting the Eagles right now..

It all started with another 

visit from my mother 

who flew into Albuquerque.

She had been visitin' my sister

who needed some space from her

and that's when she came to me.

Take it easy...

So, in order to spell my sister (who had been hosting mom for 2 months at that point), we set off to visit some of my favorite restaurants in the area (don't worry, we'll get to the Winslow, Arizona bit soon)...

First off, one of my favorites is Farm and Table.  Just as the name sounds, they specialize in fresh, local cuisine.  Heck, sitting on their patio, you're less than a stone's throw away from the farm, and by the front door is a list of what their current crops are.  I don't often highlight Albuquerque restaurants here (since I see them so often), but I think that Farm and Table has crept up quite a few times.  That is no accident!

The farmer's salad, complete with pickled radishes and pistachios. Hiding under the carrots in that salad are sunchokes, aka Jerusalem artichokes.  Do not confuse these with artichokes as sunchokes, much like hickory root extract, are vile ingredients. Most people find them innocuous, but not I. This is the only time I've found fault with Farm and Table since sunchokes, for maybe half of us if not more, can cause stomachs to rumble and bumble about for the rest of the day. It turns out that we can't really digest sunchokes fast enough, so they start to ferment inside of us.  True story, go and google it if you don't believe me. Unlike me, Kim loved the sunchokes at first, and insisted on trying to cook with them for the next few weeks since they grow extremely well in Albuquerque.  But, fortunately, like all good and bad things, that phase came to an end.

The special of the week was a boudin with poached eggs.  Boudin, in Farm and Table's rendition, is a creole sausage. This particular dish was served with a Cajun hollindaise sauce.

Farm and Table's version of Eggs Benedict changes just about every weekend. Sometimes it's served on green chile biscuits with pork, other times on sourdough with steak. Here, its served over a slice of tenderloin.

And, let's not forget the pastry of the weekend.  Usually they have some irresistible sounding bread pudding or coffee cake (such as raisin bread bread pudding marbled with chocolate and etc.).  As I'm usually famished by the time we get to a weekend brunch at Farm and Table, the pastry is the first thing we have come out in order to stave off hanger (hungry + anger = hanger, hungry + angry = hangry...great words that should have been included in the OED instead of things like Srsly.  I mean, seriously, srsly?).  This week it was a bread pudding coffee cake.  At first I thought that this was two separate pastries, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had taken the best of both pastries and combined it into that delectable morsel you see above.

A second stop for us was Indigo Crow, which is just up the river from Albuquerque in Corrales.

Guessing by the number of dishes we had, we must have been hungry (there are three of us, including Kim, but still...).

One of their iconic dishes, more so for style than anything else, is the Catalina salad.  Yes, it is a cube. Yes, it tastes pretty darn good too.

Salmon, grilled with a red chile puree, vegetable risotto stuffed poblano pepper, and crispy blue corn strips.

Duck breast, pan seared with a cherry zinfandel glaze, potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Here, they do the duck breast right. A little crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. But I've gone to great lengths describing the perfectly cooked duck breast before...

The dinner special, a pepper crusted trout served with a bell pepper sauce over a bed of riso.

And dessert, a strawberry shortcake I'm guessing. At this point, I had started taking some notes of the meals I was eating, but things became lost during my move later in the spring.

As the weekend of mom's visit drew to a close, it was time to take her back to Elizabeth (as I had work and she had houses in Phoenix to look at still). So, we planned on meeting Elizabeth halfway in Winslow, Arizona at La Posada. This grand hotel certainly is a sight to see.  Where to begin...the Tina Mion gallery, with paintings such as “A New Years Eve Party in Purgatory for Suicides.”  I kid you not:

Keep in mind that the front row is all life size in this 18 foot wide painting.  See how many people you can identify.  The rest, well, you'll just have to see for yourself to take in the full awe of this hotel.  On one side of it, though, is the Turquoise Room, where we stopped for lunch.  It was good.  Authentic in some ways, creative in others...

Piki bread with Hopi hummus.  Two Piki breads made by Joyce Saufkie of Second Mesa, served with the Turquoise Room's version of Bad- dap – suki. A hummus made with reservation grown Tepary beans pit roasted corn, corn and sunflower oils. Garnished with sunflower seeds.

Squash blossom quesadilla. Whole wheat tortilla filled with Jalapeno Jack and Oaxaca cheeses, torn squash blossoms, grilled squash and roasted corn salsa.

Crispy pork carnitas platter. Large pieces of crispy pork carnitas, with red and green salsas, white tortillas, black beans and sweet corn tamale.

Cured salmon, sprouts, cherry tomatoes, and slices of pickled radishes. Elizabeth thoroughly enjoyed her dish.

And just like that, we're through January.