The 70+ mile week and Sourdough Obsessions

Running

All the article agree, run more miles run faster.  Well, not all of the articles, nor books for that matter.  There are the articles that also say to run slower to run faster, the book on the 80/20 week, were only 20% of your miles should be speed work, and the rest easy miles.  There is the book on 3 runs per week; long run, intervals run, and tempo run - with cross training on non-run days.  

I read a blog post about 70 miles per week by the Boring Runner, that cracked me up, and the distance sort of stuck in my mind as a goal.

Here are how some of my 70+ mile weeks went:

M	Tu	W	Th	F	Sa	Su	Total
5.2	10.4	9.5	10.4	12.2	12.2	16.5	76.4
	10.4	7.5	6	15.1	6.2	15.8	61
	12.3	15.5	5.6	13.3	9.5	16.5	72.7
	5.6	9.5	11.2	13.2	8.72	19.22	67.44
	11.3	15.7	5.6	12.2	9.5	16.5	70.8

The first week I was crazy and didn't take Monday off after running 18 miles the previous Sunday.  I almost injured myself that week and swore never to do that again.  The Tuesdays with more than 10 miles are "doubles" where I ran both in the morning and afternoon, same for Thursday.  Any Wednesday or Saturday over 10 miles is a "double" run day.  Any Friday over 14 miles is a double run day.  The second run always being an easy pace 5-6 mile run.  Wednesday is my intervals day, and Friday is my Tempo day.  Sunday is my long run day and never features a double.

So, am I any faster?

I nailed my first sub 2-hour half marathon distance with my first ever sub 9 minute mile average pace.  However, it really took it out of me, and I haven't been able to repeat the performance, which was 9 days ago.

Culinary

Almost a year ago I bought two sourdough cultures from Amazon  

I was going to use them for Pizza dough, because all "real" pizza makers use sourdough yeasts.  I figured I would have time to pamper them when Summer rolled around.  Summer came and went, and I never did start the starter.

So I figured, rather then get nothing out of them as they aged in my refrigerator, I would start one just to see how it went.  I went with the Camaldoli.  I found this website that talked about how to care for and feed a sourdough starter.

It started right up.  And then I read about how to make your own sourdough starter, taking advantage of wild yeast.  I was hooked.  Being the Microbiologist that I am, this aspect of food microbiology was fascinating.  I made sourdough pizza:

I still have yet to make it in the Primo, where I will get a better char on the top, but it was really good, and not really all that sour.  It did take me some time to learn how to be patient enough to get that kind of bubbling by allowing the starter to create enough gas in the dough.  

I cut lard into the flour that I added to the dough and made sourdough tortillas:

.  And buns:

The lard made the tortillas and buns so tender and flavorful.  Of course the lard I made from our free range pork.  I found this King Arthur website that had a recipe for using the same amount of starter that you "feed" to your starter, so that I don't waste or throw away any starter.  I love that you can view it by weight in grams.  Although the amount is way more than any of the "real" pizza makers on the pizza forums would recommend, it works just fine, even when I allow it to age for 4 days in the refrigerator.  I made adjustments to fit my own needs.

I threw out the Amazon bought starter, and now work from a "wild" sourdough starter that I maintain in a mason jar.  I feed it daily if it is out at room temperature, or weekly in the refrigerator, taking it out on the weekends to "wake up."  My feedings are 50 grams of unbleached all purpose flour mixed with 50 grams of reverse osmosis water.