I've been making a lot of pizza. I mentioned the spelt flour that I've added, but here is another new grain.
Kamut flour turned out not to be that great for creating a crust as it made the dough too fragile, at least in the proportions that I have tried so far. However, it is a great flour to put on the pizza board in order to slide the pie into the oven. It will take awhile to get through 4 pounds of the stuff! Stretching the dough out.
Veggie pizza!
A variety of cheeses.
The before and after shots.
Finely ground black & white pepper with an equally ground up tiny dried jalapeno pepper is the key to an excellent sauce. The jalapeno peppers are the same ones I use for my Kim-chi.
Dumplings
I was feeling nostalgic for chicken and dumplings. In my youth, the dumplings were made with quick breads, but I was thinking, "why can't I make them with my wild dough?" So I gave it a go using my usual pizza dough recipe of 210 grams of flour (Kamut, Spelt, and Organic white in equal proportions), 150 grams of filtered water, 40 grams of fresh starter, and 8 grams of salt. After developing the dough overnight, I portioned it out into dumpling sized chunks, and let them rise.
After rising for about 3 hours.
Plop them into some cooking chicken soup.
And served...
The dumplings where open airy, just the way I wanted them, but the flavor match up was off. It did not go well with this watery soup. So the next day I used the remainder of the soup and turned it into a creamy sauce using a roux and some whole milk. The resulting sauce was poured over the dumplings.
This was excellent! It was delicious. I wish I had saved more dumplings for this treatment. It was also an excellent example of how to transform a mediocre meal into an exquisite dining experience. The next time I will shape and separate the dumplings a little better, cook them separately in some water, and make a chicken gravy for them. Bon appetite!
Second tactical phase, the elite Panzergrenadiers and Panther company spring into action. I failed to mention the Germans had the armor advantage over the Hellcat and inflicted an additional hit that ended that tank destroyer company.
The Americans held onto the square, barely. Now they use the position to attempt to take the objective. The odds were not with them...
With just enough operational chips, the Americans activate a second tactical phase...
The Germans reorganize their defenses.
I got a chance to use the "Gap in their lines" tactic...
This game could go down to the 16th turn. I'm not sure if there is much interest in finishing the videos.
I set my gaming table for Rommel using my homemade mat.
I rolled for terrain as called for in the rules, and then generated it randomly, and placed it randomly. Here is a video of the set-up.
The scenario called for a fighting withdrawal by the Germans. There were 5 objectives for the Americans to capture. These objectives disappear over time. So the Americans are in a bit of a rush to capture 3 as soon as possible. They gobbled up the first one on the first turn. Here are videos of the first three attempts.
Second attack: the Germans were able to use some tactics to hold on.
The third attack: with just enough op chips to launch a third tactical phase, the Americans take the objective.
Conducting three tactical phases for a turn was expensive. The Americans were doing some maneuvering that I didn't cover in these videos. This gave them a shot at a second objective. Here is a video covering a little of that maneuvering and the German response.
My final video, of the first attempt to take the "second" objective.
So that right hip thing turned into a good and proper injury. I took almost a week off from running. I looked at my Kindle copy of Hanson's Half-Marathon, and saw that this could potentially interfere with my ability to have a successful training cycle. I started casting about for other, shorter training programs.
Obviously Hal Higdon's web page came to mind. It's a 12 week program, which would give me up to 2 weeks more of no to easy running. That 2 week window shrunk as I tried to recover and get back into the Hanson's plan before it was too late. I wasn't convinced the Higdon plan would work, simply because it looked too easy, and too simple.
I had just finished reading an inspirational running book: "Older, Faster, Stronger" - Margaret Webb. A good read, but no training plans. It gave me hope that I still could achieve some fairly significant improvements in my times, despite my advancing age.
In looking for another book, my eye was drawn to "You (Only Faster)" - Greg McMillan. This was a pure training book, and one that tries to personalize training for you. It had 12 week training programs. It actually has 8 week training programs that you can tack onto 4 week modules. With my 2 week window gone, and my hip just starting to feel like it could handle training again, I went with this program.
I finished Greg's book and I bought another running book: "The Science of Running" - Steve Magness. Greg's book started me thinking about how to tinker with training. Steve's book opens the mind to all types of new possibilities. It made me want to find out what my Lactate threshold was, and I hate the idea of anything that draws blood.
I'm sticking with the somewhat generic training plan that Greg McMillan provides. I now have an idea as to the "why" for each of the training exercises. I'm definitely paying attention to what works for me, and what doesn't. I'm pretty sure I'm a slow twitch type of runner, not a pure "endurance monster" as Greg labels them, but maybe a "Combo Endurance." I won't know without that Lactate threshold test.
All this rain has been great. I was so tired of living in a drought. However, the wind and rain has played havoc with my outdoor training. I began the first of my race specific training weeks, which included "cruise intervals." I did these 10 x 1km repeats at a 7:20 pace, but it was on the treadmill. Hopefully this type of pace will hold in the outside environment.
I gave up 2 a day runs. Too many runs might be one of the reasons for my injury. I really like that second cardio workout though. So I bought a device to re-purpose my old off-road bike into an indoor trainer. It needs to be indoors because of rain, wind, the speed needed achieve true cardio, and almost no bike paths in town. So now I'm cross training.
It works great, and I can watch Netflix/Amazon while riding.
First post of the new year, hopefully I can manage at least one per month this time.
Running
I just finished the third week of training for the Silicon Valley Half-Marathon. Pace has been good, but recently my right hip started acting up, so perhaps I am pushing too hard. I will eliminate doubles until it gets (hopefully) better.
Some sub-8 miles during a 3 mile tempo run:
Today I managed an 8:05, 7:53, and an 8:03. All have so far been under the 8:12 pace called for in Hanson's. I've modified Hanson's. The tempo runs fall on Sundays if the plan calls for an easy run that day. On Friday I run short repeats and do hill sprints. Wednesday remains devoted to interval/strength training. On weeks were a "Long Run" of moderate pace is called for, I will move tempo to Friday and find somewhere else to fit hill sprints in. So far 150 miles for the three weeks.
Culinary
I've recently picked up some Whole Spelt flour. I resurrected my Levain and made some pizza with it.
My son was home for dinners, so ham and pineapple was a must. Even Poppy was interested.
I cured and smoked a pork loin. Sadly, I didn't get a picture. A single one of these is enough for three dinners for my wife and I. For the third one, I felt the call of potato au gratin. I focused my attention on a rich and complex sauce first.
Then I cubed an assortment of Russets, Red, and Yellow potatoes.
Mix them all together and bake for an hour and a half. It looks like too much sauce, but it was soooo good!
I've never been to Costa Rica. I went to Belize in 2010. I was hoping Costa Rica would be a little less bug intensive.
Italian restaurants are very prevalent in the country. I'm not sure why?
I'm not really drinking beer much these days. But they had a lovely Marzen in Arenal that I couldn't resist.
Gallo Pinto is a popular dish that is more traditional Costa Rican. I liked it a lot! I also enjoyed the cooked bananas, plantain and cavendish.
My Huevos Rancheros were not exactly what I expected. I was hoping the tortillas would be on the side to push my eggs, salsa, avocados, beans and rice around with.
Here are some plantains with a seafood and rice dish I ordered.
I had this light blonde ale in Tamarindo along with the Nachos. The beer was not as good as the Marzen, and not a good match for the meal.
I booked all of our stays through https://www.airbnb.com/. I wanted the practice for future travels. There were many of these cool little one cylinder motorcycles running around Costa Rica.
The picture below is where we stayed while on Lake Arenal. Our rental in Playa Flamingo wasn't much to look at on the outside, but it was very posh on the inside.
I should say that we focused our travels on the Nicoya peninsula. We flew into San Jose only because that is where my frequent flyer miles took us first class. It was only my second time flying first class. We did get a couple of nights in the Arenal area. I think I would have enjoyed one more night there.
While on the Nicoya peninsula we went to Ostional to visit sea turtles. You had to go early, before sunrise to see the babies hatching and struggling for the ocean.
We were surprised to find this adult female. She must have just finished laying her eggs.
There were also those that hunt baby turtles present.
We visited Tenorio National Park while in the Arenal area.
We hung out on the beach a lot!
It was a birder's paradise for my wife. I even saw my first Toucan, but not close enough for a picture.
There were many ants of different varieties, but my favorite were the leaf cutters.
A little research suggested I rent a vehicle with good clearance. This little Daihatsu Terios had enough clearance and four wheel drive. I didn't need the four wheel drive. Still, I made the right choice as this little car handled the MANY dirt roads/highways in Costa Rica quite well. I even had to drive through some water features that made me wonder if I should have gotten a vehicle with a snorkel.
I have been recalcitrant in posting about this race because it was such a disappointment. I devoted a whole training cycle (my Fall semester) to this race. It was only a 9 week program, and perhaps that is why it led to such a slow race.
My race support team (wife) wasn't able to make the trip. Maybe that is why I raced so slow.
The race was on November 10th, 2018. I ran it in 24 minutes and 1 second according to chip time.
My prerace dinner was also a bit of a downer. I ordered a nice pasta with ragu sauce. But the chef was really into their hot spices and it was too warm for my palate.
The room had a nice view of Cannery Row.
I'm trying to comfort myself in thinking that I ran 3.1 miles at a 7:45 pace. If I could extend that another 10 miles, that would be a new half marathon PR.
There were some hills, it was crowded at the start line. I'm not sure why that would result in increase of over a minute from my Stroke Awareness run. Perhaps the 80/20 plan by Fitzgerald just doesn't work for me. I don't want to go back to Hanson's, still feeling burnt out on it, but I don't have the time for Hudson's plan either. I'm going to try and build my own training plan, probably a mistake, but hey, it's only a hobby.
I declined the medal at the end of the race. I didn't feel like I had earned it.
