An easy 13.8 miles and Pizza

Running

Yesterday I decided to go easy on the elliptical machine.  My left 1st metatarsal on the distal end was giving me issues.  I did 4.2 miles which was 1.2 more miles than I originally intended, but they were easy aerobic miles and I felt great when I was finished.  I was taking it easy because I knew today was the long run of 13+ miles.

Part of the running training that I haven't talked about is my strength training.  I've been lifting weights since I was 15.  One day I looked down and saw this belly roll and thought to myself - "I need to exercise."  I knew running was not the answer, because running made me feel like vomiting.  Seriously, I went to try-outs for the soccer team at high school and that lasted all of one day because the first day I almost puked from the running.  So I turned to weight training.

I started with a lot of sit-ups, then put on a pair of old ski boots (weights) and started leg lifts.  Somewhere along the line I convinced my parents to buy me a weight set.  That was my first and only weight set as I gave them away when I finished graduate school.  I have done all my weight lifting since then at gyms.

When I started this running business last year I didn't have to worry about mixing in strength training.  The only issue I had at first were with my knees.  All my life I have had good knees.  I've done a lot of squats, have great flexibility and I haven't lost much of this flexibility even at my advanced age.  Trying to run 6 miles as my long run several months ago changed all of that.  I thought to myself - "What have I done to my knees?'  So I stopped running anything over 4 miles for awhile.

Then I ran my first 5k race.  It really took it out of me.  I had no endurance and so I went to the oracle (google) and started looking for ways to improve my endurance.  Everything I read agreed on three major points:

1. Run more miles per week.
2. Run intervals, fartleks, or tempo runs.
3. Include a long run in your weekly training schedule.

So I tried doing intervals during a 6 mile run, smart right?  Actually it was.  I breezed through the 6 miles.  My knees didn't bother me.  I didn't feel like I was going to die after finishing.  I recovered rather quickly and didn't find my entire day ruined for productivity.  All of these were features of the first efforts at 6+ miles mentioned above.  Somehow during the "break" where I didn't run more than 4 miles, my knees got stronger again, and were no longer an issue.

So I started ramping up my weekly miles, and increasing the length of my long run.  Perhaps, 13 miles is the new 6 miles.  Fortunately my knees still don't bother me.  Increasing the weekly miles has caused other issues, like the metatarsal I mention above and before I went on vacation, there was the "calf" issue.  This is why I built in a rest week for my training schedule upon returning from vacation.  Before I went on my jaunt today I reminded myself of the upcoming rest week to motivate me to go out the door this morning.

I told myself - "We are just going to have an easy aerobic run, no intervals, no pace training, whatever is fun."  I wasn't feeling it.  I mean, the first 10 miles weren't a big deal, but the last 3.8 made me want to die.  It was almost as bad as the 14.4 mile run.  In some ways it was worse, because I really feel liked I "bonked" at mile 12.5.  I almost stopped running.  I pushed through, although at one point I'm sure someone power-walking could probably have past me.

13.8 miles in 2hours and 39 minutes.  Pace was a 11.5 minute mile.

I'm so glad I'm not running tomorrow and that next week is a rest week where I reduce my weekly miles.  I may rethink the long run.  Perhaps I should only do half-marathon distance every other week?

Culinary

Wood-fired pizza

The primo ready to rumble.  Actually, I still had to close it up, open the vents and wait for the temperature to get above 400 F

Pizza before cooking.  I haven't used the refrigerator for aging pizza in awhile.  I thought I might have put it into the fridge too early.  I took it out at 1pm, formed the dough balls and put them back into their plastic bowls to incubate on top of the fish tank.  Internal house temperature was 82 F.  At 5:30 they didn't look like thy had risen enough, but upon dumping onto a floured surface it became apparent that they were very ready.  They were actually aggressively fermenting.  Bubbles kept forming in the dough as I formed the pie.  You can even see an unpopped one on the left of the picture.  You can also see the light green sweet Italian peppers that my wife grew for us littering the surface.

 Pizza after 2 minutes and 30 seconds in the Primo.  When I went out to the Primo it was at 550 F, youch!  I've cooked pizza at 700 F without burning it.  It was very Neapolitan with leopard spotting.  It took 90 seconds to cook!  In order to get that to work, I had to devise a rather complex protocol and set-up for the Primo.  I'm too lazy for doing that all the time, so now I mostly shoot for a temperature of 450 F, and the pizza that comes out at that temperature is just fine for me.  I'm more picky about how the dough is prepared.  So with a 550 F temperature, I used my trusty spray water bottle to cool the pizza stone and everything came out fine.

Tonight is not my turn to make dinner.  My wife is going to be making tomato-basil soup, yum!  However, I will be slow smoking some salmon I prepared last week.  It's was equilibrium cured in a 2% salt, 2% sugar and a splash of tumeric mix.  I've been allowing it to dry age in the fridge for the last three days.  It is now ready for the smoker.