The Highs and Lows

Very often, as I lay awake in the twilight, my mind reverts to those by gone days of my youth and I recall the simple pleasures of being a kid.  I was able to relive some of those moments two weeks ago as I went back to Montclair, NJ to visit my father, brother and one of my sisters.  It was a fun little reunion.

I took a rest day on Friday due to the 6:00 am flight.  That was the first rest day I’d taken in 54 days.  The last day I rested was May 18^th, the day before the Colfax Marathon.

I brought my running gear, of course, and found time for two eleven mile runs.  I weighed my shirt before and after one of the runs and found that it had absorbed about ¾ of a pound of sweat.  That is about a cup and a half of sweat.  Sweat poured from me in rivers.  The air there was so dense and there was little wind.  I remember hot summer nights when my brother and I would ride our bikes up long hills and coast down just to enjoy a cooling breeze. 

One week later I was in Vail for the annual golf-sushi outing with my old friends.  We walked 18 holes at the Vail Golf Club.  That burned about 1,000 calories, justifying the gluttony that followed at Yama Sushi in heart of Vail Village.  Afterwards it was a mall-crawl that ended at The Red Lion. 

As compelled by inertia, I awoke at 5:00 and ran 11.5 miles along the recreation path that runs east and west through Vail.  One thing became obvious after comparing my efforts in the runs in Montclair and Vail.  My body prefers cool, dry conditions, even at elevation, and I have statistics to prove it. 

City	Elevation	Temperature	Humidity	Pace / mile
Montclair	300 ft	88	90 %	8:04
Vail	8,100 ft.	50	34 %	7:47

And the last mile in Vail I was carrying a bunch of bananas and a pint of non-dairy creamer.  My mates and I capped off the weekend with a hike up the West Vail Trail.  Man, we’re getting old!

Pancakes – Pizza – Pasta (and sometimes Popcorn)

Which came first, the workout or the meal?

I love the gluttony of a holiday weekend.  Watching me eat is like a scene out of an “Athletes Gone Wild” video.  Anything that comes within a foot of my mouth is fair game.  Which is fine because I ran 68.5 miles and swam 13,100 yards this week.

The cycle is insidious.  I eat to train and train so I can eat some more.  The more I train, the more I can eat.  I justify eating more because I am training more and I train more because I am eating more.  The thing is, I love both of these activities.

I am not indiscriminant.  Nothing tastes as good as fit feels.  Everything I eat is good for me.  It is just that I eat so much of it. 

Admit it.  At the end of a long run you have craved a specific food.  Maybe you’ve even made a little mantra with the food – “chocolate chip - chocolate chip - chocolate chip cookies.”  Whatever gets you through the run is alright. 

Eating was simpler six months ago, before my aversion to gluten.  While I’ve never met a spud I didn’t like, there are three foods I love above all others:  pancakes, pizza and pasta.  This week I will highlight Carl’s Power Pancakes.  These recipes are clean burning, gluten-free delights designed to fuel your body.

Sunshine Pancakes:

Ingredients:

1 cup ‘flour’ (I grind equal parts of quinoa, buckwheat, oatmeal, cornmeal, amaranth, flax seed meal and mix them together.)

¾ cup orange juice

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 medium banana

1 teaspoon oil

Put the orange juice, egg, oil and banana in a blender and process until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt.  Blend until smooth.  Check the consistence of the batter.  You may need to add more orange juice or flour depending on the moisture in the banana.

Cook as usual on a pre-heated griddle.

Nut-Spice-Rice Pancakes:

Ingredients:

¼ cup cashews

¼ cup water (you may need to add more depending on moisture content of the rice and banana.)

1 tablespoon honey

¼ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt (optional if cashews are salted)

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 banana

1 egg

1 cup brown rice (cooked)

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon baking powder

Blend cashews, water, honey, extract and salt until smooth.  You may substitute this with ½ cup almond milk.  Add the egg, banana and oil and blend until smooth.  Add the rice, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg and blend until smooth.  Check the consistency.  You may need to add more water or rice. 

Cook as usual on a pre-heated griddle.

Each of these recipes contains about 900 calories, 20 grams of protein, 30 grams of fat and 140 grams of carbohydrate.  There is enough batter for about 18 three inch pancakes.  If you are normal, you’d share them with one or two of your family members.  If you are me and had just run 21 miles, you’d eat the whole batch. 

___________________________________________

Today Caroline, Maggie and I participated in The Inaugural MHM Cancer Sucks Freedom Swim, a fundraiser for Lauren Alfino who is battling Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  Lauren and Maggie were classmates and Lauren and Caroline are teammates on the Mountain Vista Swim team.  Here are the before and after photos.