To Battery Park and Beyond...

The past few weeks have truly come together for me.Saturday, June 26, I slept in through practice because of a late night in the East Village with my dear friend Mary.  At 11AM, I knew it was now or never.  I stepped out of my apartment and jogged west on 14th street to West Side Highway.  I know the mileage for each major street point. 2 miles to Christopher Street, 2.5 to Spring, 3 to Harrison. 

By the time I reached West Side Highway, I felt slightly fatigued and all the minute muscles and tendons of my knees and hips were protesting.  I knew I had to make it to Christopher Street, so I could meet 4 miles roundtrip.  20 Minutes in, approaching Christopher, my body started to loosen up and I felt better and better.  I kept going, making it all the way to the edge of the Financial District at Harrison.  I turned around and ran all the way back home, making it my first 6 mile run since beginning training in late March, early April.  AND IT WAS GLORIOUS.

I took Sunday off due to a rigorous soccer-watching schedule, but was back in action on Monday.  I repeated the same run from Saturday, but took a slight shortcut past The Standard beergarden and watched glamorous people drinking on a Monday night.

Tuesday, a rare day I felt pessimistic and lethargic, I didn't run, so Wednesday, June 30, really had to count.  I went for an up-tempo 30 minute run by my apartment and then to yoga: Power Vinyasa at Yoga to the People on St. Mark's. I felt so relaxed afterwords.

I went home for the holiday weekend and executed a most holistic run in the PA countryside.  On the 4th, my father drove me 5.25 miles from home and dropped me smack in the rolling hills of Unionville.  The first quarter mile of my run (which began at 8:00PM), was down a plunging hill and up a gradual, but long incline.  I was panting and hurting badly; as I reached the pinnacle of the climb, I looked up to see my father waiting in our Jeep... dangling the water bottle which I had refused to carry.  I was so thankful he didn't head back to our home, as I had insisted.  For the next 5 miles, he drove ahead and waited for me, offering water and motivation at each check-point.  My legs finally loosened up about 3.5 miles into the run, and I sprinted the final 1/3 mile home.  The dizzying adrenaline from sprinting felt exhilarating.  I think I may add some high tempo pieces into my future workouts.

Now cracking into July, I need to up my mileage.  June's weekly mileage averaged in the mid-teens, but I need to break into the mid-twenties for the next few weeks. 

This past week was rough.  Tuesday's run with Team in Training was absolutely draining.  The temperature at noon was 100+ degrees; the park had cooled down nominally by 7:00PM.  I ran two lower loops (Central Park, 1.7 mi per loop), focusing on switching between Effort Level 1 (steady state/slow jog/easy to talk) and Effort Level 2 (more pressure, long run pace).  The heat kindly emphasized the switch between paces; I immediately felt out of breathe when I sped up.

Wednesday, July 7, I joined a strength training workout at work with a personal trainer (a colleague was on vacation and offered me her spot).  I found out I can barely do a handful of push-ups and CANNOT DO A SIT-UP.  Yikes.  Time for some serious ab work.

My roommate Lauren, my marathon accomplice and roommate, brought me as a guest to her gym on Thursday.  We woke up at 5:45AM to go before the workday.  I ran a slower pace on the treadmill than I usually do outside (usually run at 10:30/mi, but averaged 11/mi), but kept it up for 5 mi / 55 min before I had to stretch and shower for work.  I hate the way my mind can't wander when I'm on a machine.  I never ever wear headphones outside while running, so having my iPod on shuffle and watching Joan Rivers sell hairspray that disguises baldness was interesting.

Running in Unionville

For Father's Day, I traveled home to Pennsylvania.  Along with a bottomless bread basket (CARBS) and a wing of the house to myself, I also enjoyed running on the softer country road.  From my house, I ran into a nearby town and back... It was not the most scenic outing, but being alone on the road felt... pioneeresque! One is never alone in NY, always exposed and always surrounded.  Plus, tasting wheat and pollen instead of dust or stale seaweed (West Side Highway, though I love that taste) was refreshing.

Today's team run in Central Park was all about arm technique and maximizing lower arm swings.  We ran two lower loops of the park (1.7mi x2) and then it started to rain... to POUR. Lauren and I walked blissfully through the rain, wishing we were hidden away in one of the groves!

Marathon: Oh. My. (re: Fight Cancer with Tara)

HEY. this is my culture blog, but I am expanding it to incorporate my most recent pastime: training for the 2010 ING NYC Marathon! (AHHHHH.)  I am running with Team in Training benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which hits close to home for reasons I will explain in the future. 

HOLY COW. Training started June 3, and now I can't believe I'm two weeks into it! I truly started training on my own in early April, then got in the groove of running, then went to Italy for two weeks (a magnificent break from exercise!), and came back full-throttle after Memorial Day.  I've been training at 11 minute mile pace (my current goal for the marathon), running 3-4 miles 3-4 times per week.

This past Wednesday, I ran the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge (3.5mi) with the Foundation.  It was wonderful to be running in CENTRAL PARK! with my co-workers, and feeling the pressure of a real race.  My time was WAY faster than I've been training and it felt great to push myself. 

Today, oh man, I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time at Yoga to the People. It was exhausting... and as my roommate Lauren said, it feels like a religious experience.  The class was 90 minutes and temperature was above 105 degrees. I'm not used to Yoga, much less a class packed with 50 people, all sweating bullets. I didn't even know my shins could sweat?!?!?

I felt like a new person afterwards and can't wait to see how I feel tomorrow... hopefully completely relaxed and all stretched out for the weekend.

Finally: my Team in Training website!

Mistranscommunication

After nearly two weeks roaming Rome and flitting about Florence, I am still pre-programmed to think through my request before entering a store (and translating that request to Italian, foreseeing the attendant's response, and formulating contingency replies).  A memory more prominent coming from this trip than when I was abroad: I found the English-speaking Italian population to be very sparse!

Maybe we were simply very successful at eating in less touristic areas, or maybe we were just very fortunate to intermix with an authentic population.  Whatever the case, my travel companion, Mary, and I found ourselves speaking more conversational Italian than the typical "vorrei.... qualcosa di mangiare" fare.

I am confident my subject-verb agreements were patchy at best, and I know my conjugations/tenses beyond passato prossimo and present were a tangle of extra vowels, but I always tried my best when we met an Italian whose English skills fell short of ours in Italian.  The point of my entry is to ponder what, in the English language, might procure the most hang-ups and mistakes for a word-stumbling Italian.  I'm sure I sounded like I was speaking with a mouthful of marbles and I want to KNOW what it's like to hear that kind of incapacitated mumbling!

time well spent

So after an angst-ridden jobless-driven post, I am happy to say I am employed! Which means less time for cooking in the interim between moving to my new locale (New York!).  Previously, with quite a bit of time on my hands, I made these delicious pici or pinci which is a type of eggless tuscan pasta.

 

Simply put, they are hand-rolled pasta made from just flour (all purpose will do), a few Tablespoons of oil, and water, oh and a pinch of salt.  The recipe is from a cookbook I bought at an Italian/English bookstore in Florence.  After sifting the salt and flour, add the oil and water to a well in the center of the flour mixture.  Combine with a fork until a dough ball forms, knead, cut in half, roll one half until almost flat like a pie crust.  Then strips are cut and rolled between your hands, or between a hand and a cutting board.  These strands should be smaller in diameter than a pencil.

 I watched carefully while they cooked (bring pot to boil, add pasta, bring back to boil, wait until they float).  They were DELICIOUS and a great vehicle for sauce!!!

So, probably not more of that hand-rolling for a few weeks until I am settled, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this handmade recipe was to execute. I am excited to pursue more handmade pastas!

you are only as imposing and powerful as your tallest cake

Maybe it is the dull ache of unemployment nagging at my insides, or perhaps I was attempting to compensate for cake-less months past when, uninspired but pressed to create confections, I sloppily scooped spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a sheet and choked them down with tearful milk.

In any case, I haphazardly chose the most difficult cake recipe in the book and applied an afternoon to its inception.  Devil's Food. Gah! And I was much too indulgent to restrain myself and make 7 Minute Meringue Icing... I sprang for the chocolate buttercream!

 This cake. This cake! Actually I over-baked the poor thing into three dry discs.  The difficulty of the recipe (any Devil's Food recipe), is first creaming butter and sugar (in a stand mixer), then adding blended egg yolks (which is much easier to do in a mixer, though I did it by hand), and then (after adding milk and flour in intervals) adding whipped egg whites.  So, if you keep the developing batter (beginning with butter and sugar) in your stand mixer, you need to devise other ways to whip the yolks and whites, or buy another mixer!

I whipped the yolks by hand, but dangerously held a bowl under the paddle of the mixer for the whites. Concentrating fully on not launching the bowl onto a wall, I over-beat the poor whites until the peaks were crumbling (peaks should be stiff but not crumbling mountain tops!!).  This error would not solely doom the cake, but it did contribute to my next fatal move.  The over-beaten egg whites deflated during the last portion of baking time, making the cake appear to have "fallen" (the middle of cake is slightly depressed instead of being the highest point).  Fallen cake syndrome is usually a symptom of being under-cooked or deflating because of erratic oven temperatures. Therefore, I left the cake in for the later time in the cooking range (ie: 30-35 minutes, I left it in for 35) which is rare for me because we have an excellent convection oven which typically reduces cooking time.

For the first day, the rich buttercream seemed to trap moisture inside resulting in a palatable vehicle for ice cream.  The second day, I found myself shaving icing off the three-tiered visual-masterpiece. Oops?  I've learned my lesson - cakes take time, practice and attention to the most finite of details.

This blog...

Clearly has been ages in the making. I have reluctantly stored little nuggets of cultural wisdom, foodie tricks, divine wines, style snips, and more.  Things too important and fundamental to text or call about; they need announcing!  Though this blog is far from completion (regarding layout, colour scheme, and narrative thematic elements), it is a highly-anticipated start (anticipated by me).

Grapes in the Sunset (a la my backyard)