50+ Tripel

Running

Here is the official tally for this week:

8/25 to labor day
Day	Activity	Miles
Monday	Easy	6.3
Tuesday	Intervals	3.4
Wednesday	Aerobic	10.7
Thursday	Intervals	4.2
Friday	Recovery	9.9
Saturday	Easy	5.3
Sunday	Long Run	14.5
		54.3

This is the first time that I have managed over 50 miles in a week, my previous distance maximum was 44 miles.

Today I topped it off with my second ever 14+ mile effort.  This run was without all of the unpleasant experiences documented in "Running off the pork." 

I prepared for this run by having a breakfast of two pieces of toast with Lardo, and a banana.  The idea being that Lardo would bring sodium and chloride along with fatty acids, while the banana brought the potassium.  So I had electrolytes, complex carbs (the toast also had sunflower seeds), and a good source of longer endurance ketone bodies.  Also, during the run I made a conscious effort to regularly hydrate with RO water and took one Cliff (TM) shot for the final 4.5 miles.

I crushed my previous half-marathon PR of 2hours and 29 minutes by hitting the mark at 2hours and 17 minutes.  

As I mentioned before, when the weather cools off I plan to pursue 60+ mile weeks by adding a second run of ~5miles Tuesday and Thursday.

Cadence versus Stride Length

I was reading a forum that was discussing what was more important - how many times your foot hit the ground per minute (Cadence) or how long was your stride.  Most were siding with Cadence.  I suspect, as with all debates, the truth lies somewhere in between, with both being important (pace=cadence x stride length), and an individuals personal characteristics playing an important part. 

I tested this on today's run and found my best time with cadence was a 10:30 minute mile, while by increasing stride length I could comfortably hit 9:30 minute miles or better.  So for me, I need to work on stride length.  In fact the 9:30 pace stride length felt so right that I managed to maintain it for long periods of time and if my endurance improves just a little more, this could become my new 10k+ pace.  A sub 1 hour 10k could be in my future.

Reasons to never run a marathon

1. Peeing at the start line - seriously, it happens.
2. Peeing while running
3. Blood in your urine
4. Sharts
5. Bloody nips
6. Loosing toe nails
7. 5+ day recovery times
8. Fudge slides while running
9. Vomiting while running
10. 26.2 miles just doesn't work as a training distance except for god-like people like certain ultra-marathoners.

Culinary

So a week after my 50th birthday party it was time to make the 3rd beer (party goers drank all of my Honey beer) in my cycle with the Belgian Strong ale yeast - a Belgian Tripel.

Here is the recipe:

Date	8.23.14	Name	Triple Threat
Grains	Weight #
Acidulated Malt	4	Strike Vol.	10	Grain Temp.	77
Crystal 10L	1	Infusion Vol.	0	Strike Temp	155
Abbey Malt	1	Sparge Vol.	7.6	Targ.H2O Temp.	172.4561328
Pilsner Malt	23	Approx. Final Vol.	12.5
Western Malt	5	Theoretical Yield	1224.0
		Expected Yield	979.2	Exp. Gravity	85.14782609
		Measured Gravity	79.0
		Wart Volume	12.0
		Actual Yield	948.0
		Efficiency	77.5
		Final Gravity (FG)	90.4	FG Batch 2	90.4
Total #	34
Sugars - at boil	Weight	Gravity Units (GU)	Sugars	Batch 2	Wt
Belgian Candi Sugar	2	46
~1gallon fresh cab grapes
Total	2	92			0
Bittering	Wt. Oz	Alpha Acid	HBUs	IBUs
Warrior	0.75	16	12	19.5
			0	0.0
			0	0.0	Whole Hops
Total	0.75		12	19.5
Flavor
Santiam	1	8.2	8.2	6.7
			0	0.0
			0	0.0	Whole Hops
	1		8.2	6.7
Aroma
			0	0.0
			0	0.0
			0	0.0	Whole Hops
Total	0		0	0.0
Total Bittering Units				26.2
Additional Spices
Mixture of home grown hops	1/2oz	Hop Use Grav.Adj.	1.202174

 Some unique features of this tripel:

1. One gallon of freshly juiced cabernet grapes from the backyard - thanks to my wife.  We might have been able to make a small batch of wine, but I felt this was a better use for them as I could sanitize the juice by adding to the last 5 minutes of the boil, and not resort to sulfates.
2. Four pounds of acidulated malt that I had been saving for two years for this tripel which should have been made two years ago.  My thought is to balance the sweetness of the tripel with the acidity of this malt and the grapes.  This is basically what balances most wine, with a little help from oak barrel tannins in some instances.
3. My home grown hops.  Although not enough for any significant addition of bittering, this mixture of Magnum, Nugget and Chinook hops could be an important aroma characteristic of this beer.
4. Home made Belgian candy sugar which I made the night before using a fellow bloggers recipe.

The wort tasted awesome which is usually a good indicator of the beer to come.

Of Footpods and Lardo

Running

Turns out the Garmin FR70 doesn't do much other than track time and give you a heart rate unless you purchase a footpod.

Now my Garmin gives me all kinds of interesting bits of information, like foot speed, cadence, minutes per mile pace, and stride length.  The date confirms that I need to work on both cadence (foot strikes per minute) and stride length - no surprises there. 

It also shows me average speed per mile which in runners language I believe is referred to as splits.  As I suspected, I tend to run faster in the second half of my run, then in the first half.

I'm still working on aerobic training, but I have been mixing in speed work on the treadmill and can pretty reliably do a 1:1 ratio of 5.3 mph: 6.8 mph for up to 40 minutes.  This varies from 1 minute 5.3 then 1 minute 6.8, to 2 minutes of 5.3 followed by 2 minutes of 6.8.  The 6.8 mph is crucial as this breaks a 9 minute mile, my goal in my 5 year plan.

I'm going to bump up the intervals to 5.4mph:6.9mph for next week.  I really want to run a sub-30 minute 5k this year, and I think I may have one lined up for early October.  I'm also starting to look at half-marathons, but I want to see how my long run goes tomorrow before deciding.  Finally, when this weather cools down, I hope to start running twice a day on Tuesday and Thursday to get my mile total up to 60+ before the end of the year.

Culinary

I bought some chuck roast, cured it with 1.5% salt, some Oregano powder and garlic powder for 3 days.  I then ground it and mixed with 3/4 cup of my Mystery Beer along with 4 finally chopped peppers - two sweet Italian peppers, one yellow bell pepper and an Ancho pepper.  I made hamburgers and cooked them out on the Primo - delicious!

Back in February I put some pig back fat into a mixture of salt, thyme, oregano and garlic.  It is now 6 months later and I pulled it out to reveal lovely Lardo!

The salt mixture:

 The larger piece of Lardo:

 A smaller piece for tasting and cooking for today:

It is quite tasty sliced thin and eaten.  I cubed some up to put into a pot of beans I am cooking.  I also put in some ham trotters (that I smoked and froze earlier in the year) along with garlic, oregano, a bay leaf, carrots, and onions.

The beans are to accompany a pork shoulder that I cured with the same seasoning mix I used on the chuck roast.  I am slow cooking/smoking the pork shoulder in the Primo.  I am just using chunk charcoal this time, no wood chips to add smoke.

Following My Heart

Running

I get panic attacks, not very often, and only under specific circumstances.  Basically, I have to be tired and feeling stressed.  And strangely, they can come in two forms, either the heart pounding, I'm going to die kind, or a gastric variety that results in an emetic response.  I at first thought the second type was food poisoning, but I began to recognize  a pattern, new environment, tired, and large meal.

I've learned to manage these fairly well and I thought running would also be another tool to keep these from occurring.  I've gotten so good at anticipating and managing, that I can almost always stop them before they get out of control.

I then started thinking about the root of panic attacks.  Panic attacks are actually also known as anxiety reactions and part of our normal stress response system, a part of the autonomic nervous system called the sympathetic division.  It is also referred to as the "fight-or-flight" response.  Well doesn't running equal flight?

This made me wonder if my heart rate was part of my running slow problem.  Perhaps when I start running my heart speeds up before I actually hit my aerobic maximum endurance and this is limiting the length of time I can run at faster speeds.  I know, I'm grasping at straws here, but that is how my mind is, it keeps picking away at a problem looking for a solution.

The other event that got me thinking about heart rate was stumbling upon the Maffetone formula.  This is old news for most runners.  I recently encountered it while perusing running blogs about maximum aerobic fitness.  The basic ideas is that you do all of your training to increase your aerobic base by keeping your heart rate at a level based on this formula of 180-your age, with some modifications.

So a couple of weeks ago I ordered a Garmin FR70.

Having a heart rate monitor is interesting.  I love data, and this gives me something to think about, monitor, and attempt to control while running.  It potentially will reduce my risk of over doing my training.  In fact, I've learned that I really had been pushing myself pretty hard in my effort to go faster.  I wonder if I will learn some biofeedback this way?

I'm not completely following the Maffetone training method.  I still have a day that I do interval training to increase speed and a day that I do incline training to increase strength.

Still, I think it may have already paid off in that I had an interval training session where I managed 1:1 ratio of 5.3mph:6.8mph for 25 minutes after a 5 minute warm-up.

I also got rid of a "long run" as I am doing two 12 mile runs and a 10.5 mile run at aerobic capacity.  Yesterday I wasn't able to keep my heart rate under the aerobic threshold for the final mile in a 12 mile run and had to run-walk the last bit.  This provides me with a new goal, and I love goals.

Last week I ran a total 2.5+6.22+12+3.2+12=35.92.  This is less than my target of 40 miles due to not being able to run on Thursday.

Culinary

Not much to talk about here.  I made some tomato risotto using more seasoned and ground pork.

I love kimchi on an omelet filled with almost anything, but it is particularly good with smoked salmon and cheddar in the omelet.

Back At It

Running

So this week I was back at training.  This week was not to be a rest week, none of that wussing out and reducing my mileage...

After my usual Monday rest-day I decided to combine incline running (3%) and interval training on the tread mill.  This was not a good idea.  I mean, I even tried to compensate by reducing my run speeds to 5.2 mph and 6.7 mph.  I couldn't even maintain a 2:1 ratio, it was so sad.  The next several days featured very sore calves.

On Wednesday I knocked out my typical 10k, but it was not an easy 10k.   Did I mention my calves hurt?

On Thursday I decided to try just flat interval training at the lower speeds of 5.4mph and 6.8mph.  Nope, my body was not having it.  I wasn't able to get to the running until later in the day (~5:30pm) and the unusual time, combined with sore calves did not make for a good running experience.

I knew I wouldn't be able to get to running until later on Friday.  Work related activity kept me busy from early in the morning.  So I planned on an hour of treadmill work at the gym in the afternoon.  I looked at my current paces for 5 and 10 kilometer and set a speed close to these using the interval training button again.  I really find treadmill work boring, particularly for more than half an hour.  Treadmill running at only a single speed is particularly boring so I always try to use the interval button.  My thought with the 5k and 10k paces was that I would stay close to my lactate threshold during the run.  This worked out pretty well although I wasn't able to hold the 5k pace for any more than widely dispersed 2 minute intervals.  I was completely drenched at the end of this run.  During the post run stretch I pulled my foot back to my gluteals, and sweat from my leg and my femoral region combined to create a continuous stream of sweat onto the treadmill belt.  It created a puddle.  I hope nobody thought I was micturating.  Given the relatively slow pace I was keeping myself at, and supposed ease of treadmill running, I was left wondering once again if my gym's treadmills were really properly calibrated.  I've read a lot of internet articles that claim treadmill running is easier and faster than road running.  This has not been my experience.

On Saturday I did elliptical cross training for 40 minutes which equates to 4 miles with the 5 minute cool down.  Normally elliptical work is pleasant, particularly at the relatively easy pace I was keeping it at, and in comparison to running, not today.

And so today (Sunday) arrives and I do my long run.  I chose a different route out a long country road with decent scenery on the way out for my run.  I planned on 12.7 miles.  Given how the week had been I had trepidations about being able to do the distance.  I even asked my wife to keep her cell phone handy in case I needed rescuing.  The run went without a hitch.  I even kept an 11:00 minute per mile pace, which is a new PR for this kind of distance.

Total week mileage ~34 to be generous.  I did mention I wasn't going to see 40+ mile weeks for a bit.  I really want to focus on incline and interval training to try to improve my speed.

Culinary

I'm in a pasta zone right now.  I had lots of ragu sauce left over from my previous post and made another batch of fresh pasta for it on Wednesday.  I cut the noodles thinner.  It didn't quite turn out as spectacularly as the previous effort, but it was still very good.

I had some hickory smoked steaks (New York strip) from Monday and decided to make stroganoff sauce for more pasta on Saturday.  I call it stroganoff because it has beef, sour cream and pasta.

I usually do this with left over steak, preferably 2 steaks, although one large steak works.  I've made sauces using undiluted sour cream, but the following recipe is what I usually prefer.
1/2 onion (~1/2 cup) finely minced
2 cloves of garlic finely minced
6 ounces of diced mushrooms
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
Milk (~2 cups? see below)
12 ounces of sour cream

Sauté the onions and garlic in the butter until soft.  Add in the steak (cubed) and mushrooms.  Cook until well done and most of the water has evaporated.  Sprinkle in the flour and mix well.  Add milk until you get a loose gravy like consistency.  You want it more liquid because the sour cream will thicken it up.  Fold in the sour cream and warm to just shy of simmering.  Put on pasta (preferably fresh) and enjoy.  We steamed a couple of beets from a local farmer for our side dish.

Inexplicable Transcendence

You ever have one of those days that didn't go as planned?  Usually when this happens to me, it isn't a good thing, but this time it led to culinary transcendence.

Running

However, first we must talk about running.  I just finished the last miles of my "Rest Week."

Here is how I did:

What I ran 7/28 to 8/3
Day	Activity	Miles
Monday	Rest	0
Tuesday	5km	3.1
Wednesday	10km	6.2
Thursday	Intervals	3.2
Friday	Recovery	5.35
Saturday	Cross Train	3.1
Sunday	Long Run	10.13
		31.08	78.4%

The 78.4% was on target for the mile reduction for which I was striving.  Actually, for a number of reasons I may not hit 40+ miles for a few weeks.  My interval running on Thursday was good, but I strained something in my left gluteal region which slowed me down on Friday.  For the 10 mile run I managed to hold onto a 10:36 minute/mile pace.

For next week I plan on adding a 2% incline to my intervals to work on running strength.  For Tuesday I'm torn between trying to do a pace run on the treadmill or doing an outside 5+k for PR.

I was talking to a friend over the week about minimalist shoes and I may break my trail shoes out again for my 10k run on Wednesday.  I'm still not going to run half marathon distance on Sunday, but I might try for 12.5 miles.

Culinary

Saturday was a long day.  My wife and I made a Belgian Dubbel.  I got in 2 hours at the gym of strength training and elliptical.  I then came home to make ragu and fresh pasta.

Beer

Started at 6:15am and finished with clean-up by 12:15.  A 30 pound all grain brewing in 6 hours is actually pretty good.

We made a Belgian Dubbel as planned.  Transferred the almost finished Belgian ale (single?) to sanitized carboys for aging, leaving a nice healthy yeast bed hungry for more wort.  Here is what we fed them:
10 pounds british pale ale malt
18 pounds great western pale ale malt
1 pound special B malt
1 pound british  crystal malt at 135L darkness
1 pound of raw sugar
4 ounces of chocolate malt
0.75 ounces of Warrior hops for bittering (16% alpha acid)
0.5 ounces of Satiam hops for flavoring (8.2% a.a.)
Specific gravity was 1.077 which will make for a very nice beer that will knock your socks off if you aren't careful.

Pasta and Ragu

I took the pork out of the refrigerator where it has been in an equilibrium cure with about 1.5% salt and spices as mentioned in a previous blog.

I sharpened my favorite knife and cubed the pork, then put it in the big freezer to get it very cold for grinding.  I also put the assembled grinder attachment to my Kitchenaid in the freezer.

I used a finer grind then I usually do for sausage.

This went into a mixture of half a minced yellow onion, 1 minced celery stalk, ~10 baby carrots processed into very small pieces, 3 crushed cloves of garlic, some left over peppers, and olive oil, all simmering.  I cooked the pork until I got some browning and then added about a cup of Opolo Zinfandel (hmm, what to do with the rest of the wine?).

I then processed a lot of tomatoes (~4cups after blending?) with several (~12 ) large basil leaves.  These were both from the garden and completely processed by my Vitamixer into a puree, seeds and skins included.  I meant to add only enough to color the meat veggie mixture red, but I got carried away (mistake? #1)

I made a 3 egg pasta because it was really just my wife, my son and I.  I set-up my pasta board and roller.  The board is VERY sturdy and VERY heavy.

I rolled out the pasta as planned...

It was going so good that I rolled it out very thin - #8 on the Mercato (mistake? #2).

Then I used the pasta cutter instead of cutting it by hand (mistake? #3).  Every time I have tried to use this cutter before (albeit with thicker #6 or #7npasta) it didn't cut the noodles completely apart and I had to pull them apart by hand - very tedious.  Was not a problem this time...

I even managed to cook them perfectly for a transcendent ragu and pasta dinner.  Even the wine I served with it was a perfect match.  The food did not last on the plate, so no picture.  I topped it all with grated Asiago cheese.

It was a long day.  Dinner making started at 3pm and wasn't done until almost 7pm.  My wife who was also tired from the early brewing and her own list of tasks, suggested, as I was getting ready to make the pasta dough, that I just use some of the store bought pasta I had in the pantry.  I know she loves me, but I felt greatness could be achieved this day and store bought pasta wasn't the path to it.

It is a perfect storm when I can make my own ground pork from free range pork, seasoned how I want.  It is even better when I can use it to make a ragu using garden grown tomatoes and basil.  It is truly sublime to match it with freshly made, tender to the tooth, elegantly thin, pasta.  It was a lot of work, but oh the reward was ever so worth it.