It never gets old

The book sale ends today, though it's long since been picked clean by the final half-price Sunday. This year, Cassie and JC came for the FotL member pre-sale on the Friday evening before the book sale's official start on Saturday morning at 10:00 AM. Everyone did pretty well, though Mom took the prize as usual with not one but two big bags of books. Mom didn't want to take the time to line her purchases up nice and neat, so you won't see her piles below. But here are photos of the stacks of books that Cassie, JC, and I picked up. Can you match the stack with the book buyer?

Running and executive function

There are lots of studies showing that running improves executive function, which Psychology Today describes as

a set of cognitive processes and mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor, and successfully execute their goals. The “executive functions,” as they’re known, include attentional control, working memory, inhibition, and problem-solving, many of which are thought to originate in the brain’s prefrontal cortex.

For example, one Japanese study from 2019 found that, compared to brain function at rest, just 10 minutes of moderate-intensity running (50% of VO₂ Max) increases blood flow to the prefrontal cortex and thereby significantly boosts both executive function (measured using the Stroop Color and Word Test) and mood, which is also controlled by the prefrontal cortex. The lead author has opined that "running may stimulate the prefrontal cortex more broadly to benefit mood and executive function than other forms of exercise that do not require as much coordination of weight-bearing activity, such as pedaling."

Simple rules

Toward the end of The Nature Fix, Florence Williams distills what she learned in three years of studying the science of "why nature makes us happier, healthier, and more creative" (which is the subtitle of her book) into an "ultrasimple coda": "Go outside, often, sometimes in wild places. Bring friends or not. Breathe." That reminded me of some other similarly useful succinct summaries I've encountered over the years. There is Michael Pollan's short answer to the seemingly complicated question of what we should all eat to be our healthiest selves: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Another one is Jonathan Beverly's generalized guideline on how to run better: "Run often. At different paces. Mostly easy."

The rules may require a little explanation at first, but they're all easy to internalize, if they appeal to you, once you've read the explanation or thought them through once. For example, "eat food" seems obvious, but what Pollan means is to eat the naturally occurring "real," whole foods that people have been eating since we first starting walking the Earth—plants, animals, and fungi—rather than the highly processed products of modern science that Pollan refers to as "edible foodlike substances." Of the real foods, concentrate on plants, treating meat only as a flavoring or special occasion food (or skip it altogether if you prefer). And finally, eat like the French: don't snack, eat small portions from small plates, don't go back for second helpings when you're already full, and eat most of your food at a long, leisurely meal shared with other people.

Beverly's running rules are pretty straightforward. The more often you run, the better you'll be—if you're a three-day-a-week runner, five days is better; if you already run every day, try a day with two runs. Run at different intensities—marathon, threshold, interval, repetition, conversational—to work all of your muscular and metabolic systems, but keep it mostly easy to avoid overtraining and injury.

Williams's first rule ("Go outside, often, sometimes in wild places.") is derived from her central hypothesis that the benefits of nature work along a dose curve that is shaped like a pyramid. At the base are daily interactions with nearby nature, such as birds and trees. The next step up is weekly outings to parks and waterways to approximate the nature dose recommended by the Finns to ward off depression: five hours a month, minimum. After that come one-weekend-a-month excursions to forests or other restful, escapist natural areas. And at the top of the pyramid is a yearly or biyearly trip involving a longer, deeper immersion into wild spaces, which makes for a more lasting reset. Visiting nature with friends deepens social connections (through our shared awe), but being alone lets us think things through. Finally, just breathing deeply strengthens our immune systems and allows us to tamp down the fight-or-flight response that modern living causes us to experience all too often, even though we're not running away from saber-toothed tigers anymore.

 

These rules are all great and useful in their various spheres, but they're all way too verbose for my taste. If you want to live your life happily and meaningfully, you still can't go wrong with the four words on my index card of fatherly wisdom: "Be good. Have fun." By now, you should be able to fill in around the margins as to what I've been getting at all this time.

 

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Glory days

We were looking for any kind of change of scenery last weekend, so Brad (!) drove Cassie and me to Monticello High School. We walked the grounds of MHS and PVCC, including the places where Brad (and presumably Dylan before him) trained for cross-country by running 800-meter intervals and repeats up the short hill across from the PVCC tennis courts on which, as of today, Brad still holds the Strava course record (with some fossil seven places behind him). The route was studded with redbuds in full bloom, which made for an odd juxtaposition between nature's outward show of beauty and the invisible scourge attacking humanity only.

While we were walking the MHS campus, we also recalled the frisbee trick shot video Dylan and his friends made there to publicize a then-upcoming ultimate frisbee tournament. One can only assume Dylan et al. were supposed to be in class while these hijinks were being filmed, but no lasting academic damage was done, obviously, so no harm, no foul, I guess.

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"Running pauses the world around me"

After many, many months off from running due to injury, I have finally reached the point where I can again run every other day for 45 minutes to an hour without a walking break and actually enjoy it. It couldn’t have come at a better time, as the mental health benefits from being able to do even that much running have been very useful for me.

I saw a good take on running as an exercise in mindfulness in a short essay by Holly Robinson in the April 2020 issue of Real Simple magazine. Robinson came to running late, starting a Couch to 5K program (sorta like the Women's Four Miler Training Program here in town) when she was 59. From there, she graduated to a 10K, which was an achievement but not as important as her discovery that “running pauses the world around me.” That’s in stark contrast to our usual state of being on autopilot, or “nonbeing.” But

being happens [only] during those rare times when we’re fully conscious of our surroundings and feel connected to them. We’re all guilty of too many hours of nonbeing. Various tasks fracture our time, tech fills our heads with noise, and we stop paying attention to anything beyond ourselves. When I run, I have to pay attention. Running lets me be completely in the world, noticing small details, experiencing the joy of moving through snowflakes so big, it’s like floating through lace.

All of that rings true to me, as does her additional observation that running is also the “best salve for emotional turmoil,” which I’ve experienced in spades over the past eight months. There are many other ways to take a pause—such as meditating, doing yoga, even cooking if you do it mindfully—but running is the surest way for me. Who’d have thought there could be so much wisdom in Mom’s otherwise light john reading?

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Life lessons from my children

This blog is subtitled "cooking advice for my children," but I have plenty to learn from you all as well. You know I think of running as something more than exercise. It's a metaphor for life, with plenty of lessons along the way for how to get through it all with grace and courage. You don't have to be the fastest dude on the course, but preparation, grit, and determination are necessary to help you be the best runner (and person) you can be out there.

Brad's high school cross country career, which came to a close at the regional meet at the Lexington Horse Center last week, frames the issue perfectly. There have been plenty of ups and downs over the past four years—PRs tempered by injuries, illness, asthma/VCD—but through it all Brad was determined to give it everything he had. Before the season started, we visited with Mark Lorenzoni, who asked Brad what his goal for the season was. And Brad didn't hesitate to say he wanted to run varsity (top 7). Brad did the work through the hot summer and the tough workouts with his team and accomplished that goal, running 6th on his team throughout the season. And he capped it all off with a PR at the regional meet, on a warmer day and harder course than when he ran his previous PR at Great Meadows. There will be no better reminder for me of how to meet a challenge in life than remembering Brad coming down the final stretch in Lexington, grimacing from the effort of giving it everything he had to finish strong.

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So here is a recipe I'm not particularly proud of, but it works. Brad liked it and says, "It tastes like chili." Mom went that one better, saying "It's like chili, only better." I won't go that far, but we'll have it again when we want some warm soup on a cold night and have only pantry ingredients to work with.

Desperation Black Bean Soup

Adapted from Cooking with Trader Joe's

Try to use canned beans and salsa that aren't too high in sodium. If you have to, you can rinse the beans and substitute low-sodium broth or stock for the liquid in the can. The juice looks pretty gross when you open the can, but it's just starch and is perfectly edible and makes for a thicker soup. If it helps, "think of it as a broth of sorts." Depending how spicy your salsa is, you may want to add a dash of hot sauce to the soup.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
1 medium (~4 to 6 ounces) yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, such as Trader Joe's Organic Black Beans (do not drain; see note)
1 cup (~half a jar) of your favorite salsa, such as Trader Joe's Chunky Salsa (see note)
juice of 1 lime (~2 tablespoons juice)
plain yogurt or sour cream (optional)

    1. In a large saucepan or saucier, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent but not browned.
    2. Stir in the cumin and garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
    3. Stir in the black beans, salsa, and lime juice. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a gentle simmer.
    4. Serve promptly, with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if desired. If you want a thicker or smoother soup, you can blend some of the soup before serving, or you can puree one of the cans of beans before starting. Serves 3–4.

PR food

Brad usually asks for pasta the evening before a race, but last Friday we had fried rice instead. Brad liked this fried rice so much he ate at least half of it. Then he busted out a 45-second PR at Great Meadow. So I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of pre-race meals consisting of fried rice for the next month. Mom says she "could eat this every night," too, so I guess that's okay.

Veggie Fried Rice

Adapted from J. Kenji López-Alt via Serious Eats

I like Trader Joe’s Jasmine Rice for fried rice. You can either  (1) cook the rice fresh, then spread it out on a baking sheet, and let it cool for about 5 minutes, or (2) cook the rice and store it in the fridge for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days. Either way, before you cook the rice, rinse it off for a minute with cold tap water, while shaking the rice in a fine-mesh strainer. If you’re using a rice cooker, 2 rice cooker cups (~1½ cups) of raw rice will make a little more than the 4 cups cooked rice you need for this recipe.

4 cups (~24 ounces/700 grams) cooked white rice (see note)
4 tablespoons sunflower, vegetable, or canola oil, divided
1 large (~8 ounces/225 grams) onion, finely chopped
3 scallions or a handful of fresh chives, sliced thin on the bias
4 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed (~4 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
freshly ground white pepper
2 large eggs
kosher salt
½ bag (8 ounces) frozen vegetables (I used Trader Joe’s Soycutash)

    1. If you’re using leftover rice, use your hands to break it up as much as you can into a bowl.
    2. Heat ½ tablespoon oil in a large wok over medium-high heat until very hot. (I have made this a number of times in a 12-inch nonstick skillet, but it really is a struggle to fit everything in and get it all cooked properly, and you shouldn't have a nonstick skillet over really high heat anyway. If you think you’re going to make a lot of fried rice or other Chinese food, get yourself a decent wok.) Add 1 cup of the rice and cook, stirring almost constantly, until the rice is pale brown, toasted, and slightly chewy, about 3 minutes. Transfer the rice to a large bowl. Repeat the process, 1 cup of rice at a time, until all of the rice is fried.
    3. Return all of the rice to the wok, and press it up the sides, leaving a cooking space at the bottom. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the space, and add the onion and scallions or chives. Cook, stirring, until lightly softened and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds only. Stir the rice into the onion, scallions, and garlic. Stir the tamari and sesame oil into the mixture. Season with a few grinds of white pepper.
    4. Press the rice up the sides of the wok, again leaving a cooking space at the bottom. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the space. Crack the eggs into the oil, and season with a pinch of salt. Scramble the eggs, breaking them up into small bits. Combine the eggs with the rice mixture.
    5. Stir in the frozen vegetables. Cook until the vegetables are thawed and warmed. Serve promptly. Serves 3–4.

The last plums of the season, episode II

We don't need to be prodded too much to celebrate something around here, so I was happy to oblige when Brad gave himself the best kind of belated birthday present this morning by busting out another huge PR at Great Meadow (where Dylan ended his illustrious high school cross country career by running his own PR). When I texted Brad's time to Dylan, Dylan responded "Holy shit! What a race." Well said, college boy.

Every celebration needs a dessert. Luckily, I just happened to have picked up some Italian prune plums at the City Market before Brad ran. Two years ago, I wrote about Marrian Burros's famous Plum Torte (the most requested recipe in the history of the New York Times), which I make several times every year during the short season for Italian prune plums. Recently, I was surprised to discover that Burros created a sequel to the Plum Torte, in the form of a Plum Crumble, the recipe for which was published 22 years to the day after the Plum Torte article. The ingredients are actually very similar, except for the notable addition of ginger, in two forms, to the Plum Crumble. But the results are very different. Where the Plum Torte is light and airy, the Plum Crumble has a hard shell, like a crispy cookie, with a gingery plum jam beneath.

So, does a sequel ever live up to the original? Not too often. The Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, maybe a few others, but not many. Usually, you end up with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. But in this case, the Plum Crumble is just as fabulous as the Plum Torte. I am happy to add this to my Italian plum repertoire, though, like the Plum Torte, it should also work well with other kinds of fruit.

Plums in situ

Topping

The finished product, while it lasted

Italian Plum Crumble

Adapted from Marrion Burros via The New York Times

Plums
2 tablespoons (25 grams) brown sugar
2 tablespoons (15 grams) finely chopped candied (crystallized) ginger 
1½ tablespoons (11 grams) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger 
12 Italian prune plums, cut in half along the crease and pitted 

Topping
1 cup (120 grams) all-purpose flour
¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder 
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt 
1 egg (~57 grams in the shell), well beaten 
½ cup (1 stick/113 grams) unsalted butter

    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 375 degrees. Rub the end of the stick of butter gently around the bottom and sides of a 9- or 9½-inch deep dish pie plate to grease it ever so lightly. Melt the rest of the butter, and set aside.
    2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, candied ginger, 1½ tablespoons flour, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and ground ginger. Add the plums and mix well. Arrange the plums skin side up in the pie plate. Sprinkle whatever is left in the bowl evenly around the plums (see first photo above). 
    3. In the now-empty bowl, whisk together the 1 cup flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the beaten egg with a fork. Use your hands to mix everything together thoroughly till it looks like large bread crumbs (see the second photo above). Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the plums.
    4. Spoon or drizzle the melted butter evenly over the crumb mixture. Bake until the top is well browned and the plums yield easily when pricked with a toothpick, about 30 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.
    5. Serve warm or at room temperature or refrigerate for up to 2 days. If reheating, bring to room temperature, then warm briefly at 300 degrees. Serves 6 to 8 (normal people). 

The howling fantods, or, a parent's life

Orin's special conscious horror, besides heights and the early morning, is roaches. There'd been parts of metro Boston near the Bay he'd refused to go to, as a child. Roaches give him the howling fantods.

                    --From Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace

At the beginning of 2017, I vowed that this would be the year I checked off two items that have been on my bucket list for about 20 years: (1) running the whole Rivanna Trail around Charlottesville, and (2) reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. In the words of George W. Bush (or "the Shrub," as DFW called him), "Mission Accomplished." I tackled the Rivanna Trail in February, then took up Infinite Jest in June and finally finished it today.

The final kick in the pants to get on Infinite Jest was when Dylan started reading it after Andi's wedding, which is sort of funny. While he was in C'ville that week, I tried to get him to take an extra copy I have of Consider the Lobster, which is a great collection of DFW's "creative nonfiction" essays, including the one about the Shrub's run against John McCain in the Republican presidential primaries in 2000, but Dylan was having none of it (so many books stacked up already, so little time). Except Joan then told him what a great book Infinite Jest is, and Dylan was 300 pages in before you know it. Yeah, that's how it is when you're a parent. But as long as you get there in the end, that's what matters.

Anyway, Infinite Jest was well worth the time and effort, a real tour de force as they say. It was really interesting reading it 20 years on, finding bits of things that showed up later in his work. The "howling fantods," which became something of a Wallace catchphrase, appears a few more times in addition to the quote from page 45 above. The parable at the center of his famous 2005 Kenyon College commencement address (later reprinted as the book This Is Water) is right there on page 445 in nearly identical terms. And the Zen-like message underlying the address is also encapsulated later in the novel, in the thoughts of Don Gately lying in his hospital bed:

He wonders, sometimes, if that’s what Ferocious Francis and the rest want him to walk toward: Abiding again between heartbeats; tries to imagine what kind of impossible leap it would take to live that way all the time, by choice, straight: in the second, the Now, walled and contained between slow heartbeats.

Other bits struck me for different reasons: the reference to "fake news" on page 385, 20 years before Donald J. Trump (on his way to shoving the Shrub off the bottom rung of the bad presidents' ladder) came to prominence for something other than being The Donald; Lenz saying he had to "piss like a racehorse," just like De taught me to say in law school; and, best of all, the description of the A.F.R.s (and later John Wayne—the tennis prodigy, not the actor) as "com[ing] always in the twilight, implacably squeaking, and cannot be reasoned with or bargained with, feel no pity or remorse, or fear," which is almost exactly how Reese describes the Terminator to Sarah Connor in T1, which DFW was a big fan of.

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Running fuel

Brad expressed an interest recently in eating healthier while he trains for track season, so I jumped on that with both feet. I found this relatively new cookbook called Run Fast Eat Slow by U.S. Olympic marathoner Shalane Flanagan and her college cross-county teammate Elyse Kopecky (Tar Heels, ugh). The philosophy looks sound and sustainable to me: enjoying and celebrating "real food," including nutrient-dense whole foods and high-quality meat like grass-fed beef, without getting "bogged down in calorie counts, carbo- or protein-loading or restrictive diets."

Two days later, the book was in my hot little hands. Brad and I sat down this morning and in just a few minutes had found about a dozen recipes we were both eager to try—and we only made it through a third of the book. We tried the Teff Pumpkin Pancakes, which were a significant upgrade over Ryan Hall's Molten Lava Cocoa Teff Pancakes. Skinny little Brad had 11 of the pancakes all by his lonesome, and Mom wasn't too far behind.

I also made the "Race Day Oatmeal," which has been Flanagan's "go-to breakfast before all of her hard workouts and races" for years. It works for her when she's travelling to a race because she can make it in 5 minutes using boiling water from the electric tea kettle they have in most hotel rooms. Everyone (except Cassie—bananas, you know) tried a spoonful of my oatmeal and loved it. The bananas get soft and creamy in the microwave, and they add a lot of sweetness without any of the brown sugar used in most commercial instant oatmeal. This is definitely a handy recipe to know, and travel with, even if you're not running an Olympic marathon.

Banana Oatmeal

Adapted from Run Fast Eat Slow (2016) by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky (also available at Women's Running)

Time: ~8 minutes

50 grams (~½ cup) quick oats
1 banana, sliced
A pinch of salt
175 grams (¾ cup) water
Up to ¼ cup (60 grams) dairy or nondairy milk, as needed
Chopped walnuts or pecans or sliced almonds, or almond butter
Dried cranberries or raisins or fresh berries
Ground cinnamon
Honey

Stir the oats, banana, salt, and water together in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Zap on high power until thickened to your liking. This takes about 2 to 2½ minutes in our ancient 700-watt microwave; it will cook faster in a newer, higher-powered microwave. Using a fork, mash the banana lightly against the sides of the bowl. Stir in enough milk to get the consistency you like, then the nuts or almond butter and the raisins or berries. Top with a little sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey. Serves 1.

Not bad for an old guy, episode II: a promise fulfilled

On November 16, 2014, I tore my right hamstring in several places while running out to the Ragged Mountain Reservoir on Reservoir Road. What followed was a lot of pain and heartache, but not much running. After a minimally effective course of physical therapy, I switched to a new physical therapist on April 28, 2015. By then, I had developed such a bad case of sciatica that Rodney couldn't figure out what PT to try with me because every movement caused searing pain. A week later, I saw Dr. Lehman, my orthopedist, who did an ultrasound and confirmed that all three of my hamstring tendons were damaged, with some calcification. She gave me a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection, a somewhat experimental technique, on May 15, 2015. The next day—six months to the day after my injury—I did an unusually hopeful thing for me: I saw hydration vests—the lightweight packs used by ultrarunners to carry water, food, whatever, on long runs—on sale and ordered one. I promised myself that I would use it while I worked up to running long enough to do the whole Rivanna Trail, the loop trail around all of Charlottesville, in one shot, which has been a pipe dream of mine for about 20 years. When the package arrived, I stashed it in the closet, unopened, waiting for the day I could finally use it.

In the meantime, I wasn't allowed to run for 12 weeks after the PRP injection. During that time, I saw Rodney twice a week, very slowly building up what I could do in PT. On July 9, 2015, I started using the elliptical; a week later, Rodney turned me loose to start walking up to 30 minutes at a time. I saw Dr. Lehman again on August 11. She was "thrilled" with my progress, which she thought was well past the 80% mark, a figure she had said might be my maximum improvement ever from this injury. Finally, on August 23, I started on a back-to-running program, doing 10 intervals of jogging/walking, with 1 minute each. From there, we scaled up ever so slowly. My first 20-mile week ended on November 15, 2015, a year after my injury.

I had two more setbacks with calf strains, then finally figured out how to increase my mileage slowly enough to work through that issue (with the help of a Marathon Stick, how I love that thing). Last week, I finally pulled the hydration vest out of my closet and used it on the 14-mile trail run from Sugar Hollow up to Blackrock summit and back. And today, at last, I fulfilled my unusually hopeful promise to myself and ran the whole Rivanna Trail.

There's no "cooking advice" in this particular story, but I guess there is a lesson in optimism and hopefulness, maybe made a little more meaningful coming from such an unlikely source.

Since it's Super Sunday, we celebrated another awesome day with Black Bean Chili (made with pinto beans, too, which we're really starting to like in our chili), but no Cornbread, since our stove is temporarily out of commission. That being the case, I improvised and whipped up these simple chocolate cakes in the microwave. They're not as good as a real chocolate cake evenly baked in the oven, but they'll satisfy your chocolate craving in a pinch.

Microwave Molten Chocolate Cakes

From Cook's Country #53, Oct/Nov 2013 via The Bitten Word

The recipe was developed for a full-size, 1200-watt microwave. If you're using a microwave with 800 watts or less (like we are), increase the cooking time to 90 seconds for each interval (still using 50% power).

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped, plus 1 ounce broken into 4 equal pieces
¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons (⅜ ounce; 11 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (1¼ ounces) all-purpose flour; or white rice flour for gluten free
½ teaspoon baking powder

    1. In the largest bowl that fits in your microwave, zap the butter and the chopped chocolate on 50% power for a minute. Stir, then continue zapping on 50% power until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Add the sugar, eggs, cocoa, vanilla, and salt, and whisk until smooth.
    2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder, then whisk into the chocolate mixture until smooth. Divide the batter evenly between two 11-ounce coffee mugs (any smaller and the batter may overflow).
    3. Place the mugs across from each other in the microwave. Zap at 50% power for 45 seconds (see the headnote if you have a low-power microwave like we do). Stir the batter with a spoon, then zap at 50% power for another 45 seconds (see note). The batter should rise to just below the rim of each mug (ours didn't rise that high, probably because we used gluten-free rice flour). Press 2 chocolate pieces into the center of each cake until the top of the chocolate is even with the top of the cake. Zap at 50% power for another 35 seconds (see note). The cakes should be just a little wet around the edges and somewhat drier in the middle. Let the cakes rest for 2 minutes. Serves 2.

Not bad for an old guy

I had an awesome day today. This morning, I went for my longest-ever run: 14 miles and 2½ hours from Sugar Hollow up 7 miles, at an average 6% grade, to the Blackrock summit in Shenandoah National Park, and then 7 miles back down. (You can see the map and stats for the run in my Strava feed.) Most of the run is along the north fork of the Moormans River. In fact, the trail crossed the river five times on the way up, and five more times on the way down. We had a lot of rain this week, so the river was running pretty high and fast. And it was 32 degrees when we (I went with a big group of the Charlottesville Area Trail Runners, or CATs) started the run, so each time we waded through the river, sometimes up to my calves, my feet went numb for a few minutes. Here's one of the crossings:

Moormans River crossing

Check out the blur in the lower left-hand corner. That guy must be really fast! 😉 And you can even see video of some of my river crossings here (especially starting at 1:45 in).

A few miles in, we passed by Big Branch Falls:

Big Branch Falls

You can take a spur trail up a quarter mile to get closer to the falls, but I wasn't adding anything on today.

Four miles in we ran by a derelict bus. I have no idea how it got there, but it reminded of the bus in Into the Wild, if any of you have read the book by Jon Krakauer or seen the movie. 

The bus

Check out the curtains in the windows and the grill out front. Someone's been living it up in that thing.

After five-and-a-half miles of relatively gentle climbing, we hit the Appalachian Trail, crossed Skyline Drive, and the climbing really started. There is a 726-foot elevation gain in the last mile up to the Blackrock summit, which works out to a 14% grade. Time for some "power hiking," as the ultrarunners like to say.

The Blackrock summit was well worth the effort, with awesome views all around:

Blackrock summit 1

Blackrock summit 2

Blackrock summit 3

Then we turned around and ran back down, which was a little harrowing in places.

I was so impressed with my effort, I texted a link to my Strava feed to Mom, Uncle Bob, and Dylan. Dylan reminded me that my run was almost as long as his UVA to Carter Mountain 15 miler, but then admitted that it was "not bad for an old guy." Thanks, son.

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Mom's favorite runner

Brad and I ran the Kelly Watt Memorial Race this past weekend on the same 2-mile course at Panorama Farms where Dylan and Brad have run many season-opening Ragged Mountain Cup races. It was the first race I've run hard since tearing my hamstring two years ago and the first true cross country race I've ever run, so I was a little apprehensive. Mom went with us to cheer us both on, or so I thought. About a mile in, I was starting to feel the burn and was looking forward to getting some encouragement, but Mom was nowhere to be found. She had already moved on to the next viewing spot so she could be there when Brad, who was obviously ahead of me (in an absolute sense), went by. So now I know where I am in the pecking order.

Despite Mom ditching me, I still made these gluten-free cookies so she could participate in celebrating our achievement. The top picture shows a Chocolate Pistachio variation, but we didn't really like it that much (the cocoa was somewhat bitter), so I didn't include the recipe. On the other hand, everyone loved the standard Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies, and the Maple Pecan Shortbread Cookies (bottom left) and the Thumbprint Cookies (bottom right) are also good, especially with Apricot Marmalade, blackberry jam, or fig butter. (We haven't tried the cranberry variation yet.) The dough comes together so quickly (as long as the butter is soft) that you can make one batch and get it in the oven, then make a second batch with a variation while the first batch is still cooking.

Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Time: 23 minutes to get the cookies into and out of the oven

King Arthur's blog post for this recipe also shows you how to make these as cut-and-bake refrigerator cookies if you want to make the dough ahead of time.

1 cup (96 grams) blanched almond flour (Trader Joe's has this at a great price)
3 tablespoons (43 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
3 tablespoons (21 grams) confectioners’ sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

    1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
    2. Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl, or on medium-low speed in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until a smooth, cohesive dough forms.
    3. Scoop 1-inch balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet; a #60 (2 teaspoon) cookie scoop works well here. Arrange the balls of dough about 2 inches apart.
    4. Use a fork to gently flatten each cookie to about ¼-inch thick, making a crosshatch design.
    5. Bake until the cookies start to turn light golden brown on top, 10–12 minutes.
    6. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them on the sheet for 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely before serving. Makes 12 small cookies.

Thumbprint Cookies
Instead of creating a crosshatch design with a fork, use the bottom of a wooden spoon handle to press an indentation into the center of each ball of dough. Fill the hole with about ¼ teaspoon jam—too much jam will boil out during baking.

Maple Pecan Shortbread Cookies
Add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons maple syrup, and ⅓ cup (40 grams) diced pecans to the dough.

Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies
Add ½ teaspoon orange zest and ¼ cup (30 grams) dried cranberries to the dough.

Olympic marathon trials day

The U.S. Olympic marathon trials are being run in Los Angeles today. The top three men and women are selected to represent the U.S. in the Olympic marathon in the Rio games next summer. Among the women running the trials is Sara Hall, who is married to Ryan Hall, who won the 2008 men's Olympic marathon trials and is currently the American record holder in the marathon and half marathon.

After Ryan retired recently, I was reading some articles about him and saw a mention of his Cocoa Teff Pancakes, which he and Sara and the four Ethiopian sisters they adopted eat everyday for breakfast. Ryan says he realized a bowl of cereal wasn't really the proper fuel for his marathon training, so he did a lot of R&D and came up with these pancakes. They are loaded with healthy carbohydrates, protein, and iron from the teff flour, which Ethiopians use to make their staple bread, injera. Plus, they're gluten free so I figured I'd give them a try. Your Mom loved from the start but I wasn't too impressed with the taste. I've worked the recipe over a few times now and finally come up with a version that I think is pretty good. So if you need to fuel up or recover from running, playing soccer, climbing, etc., you might want to give these a try.

Ryan Hall's Molten Lava Cocoa Teff Pancakes

Adapted from Ryan Hall

I cut the cocoa powder in the original recipe by two-thirds—it was way too bitter with that much cocoa powder. Also, for such a supposedly healthy recipe, it's odd that Ryan uses 5 packets of Splenda or Stevia to sweeten the pancakes. Each packet provides the same sweetness as 2 teaspoons of sugar, which means that his pancakes will taste like they have more than 3 tablespoons of sugar in them. Not to mention that I'm not too impressed with Splenda or Stevia, even if they are FDA-approved. So I went with 1 tablespoon (or less) of real sugar, which is plenty. Owing to his sugar avoidance, Ryan also warns you to "skip the syrup," to which I say, "Hogwash." These pancakes, like all others, are significantly improved by the addition of some pure maple syrup. (As you can see from the picture, I also tried them topped with homemade Nutella, but that was a bust.) Ryan makes this as one big pancake, which he eats right in the pan, but I think it's nearly impossible to flip that way, so I make regular-sized pancakes.

½ cup (80 grams) teff flour
1 scoop (~23 grams) protein powder, chocolate flavor
1 scant tablespoon (10 grams) sugar
1 tablespoon (5 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon oil, optional
½ teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
almond milk or water or a combination
Kerrygold grass-fed butter
maple syrup, for serving

    1. In a small bowl, whisk all of the dry ingredients (teff through salt) together. Slowly whisk in the oil, vanilla, and enough almond milk or water to achieve a pancake-batter consistency—slightly gooey, but not overly runny. It takes a little over ½ cup of liquid. Taste and adjust for sweetness before you make the pancake.
    2. Melt a pat of butter over medium heat in a nonstick skillet—10 inches if you're making 1 big pancake or 12 inches if you're making smaller pancakes. For 1 big pancake, pour all of the batter into the skillet. For smaller pancakes, use a ¼-cup scoop (#16) or measuring cup to pour three rounds of batter into the skillet. Flip when some bubbles appear on the pancake(s) and the edges begin to look firm.
    3. Cook the pancake(s) for another 10 to 60 seconds, depending on doneness preference and the size of the pancake(s). The earlier you take them off the heat, the more the pancake(s) will be like a molten lava chocolate cake in the middle, which is how Ryan likes them. Repeat with the remaining batter if you're making smaller pancakes. Serve with additional butter and/or maple syrup. Makes 1 very large pancake or 5 small pancakes. Serves 1 or 2, depending on how hard you worked out.

Snow day

Everyone had a snow day today, including me. I ran before the snow started, figuring I wouldn't get to run for a few days at least. There was a beautiful sunrise over Carter's Mountain, so I decided to head over there and do a lap around some of my favorite trails. The gate was locked so I hopped over the fence and had the place practically to myself (there were a few other people who had the same idea). Here's the lame haiku I used to describe my run on Strava:

Sunrise over Carter's:

The calm before the storm,

Red snowpocalypse dawn

On my way to and from Carter's Mountain, I ran by Food Lion, which was really crowded even at 8:00 am with people stocking up for the big one. And I knew there'd be no bread there anyway, so I went through all the bread machine recipes at the Bob's Red Mill website, just because that's where I found the Russian Black Bread recipe I really like.

I picked out a simple recipe that's one-third whole wheat. It's a low-rising, dense loaf so it's good for grilled cheese, which is what I made for Cassie and me (Brad wanted a plain cheese sandwich).

I have never liked mayonnaise, but I recently discovered it's the perfect way to make grilled cheese—even coverage, no waiting for the butter to soften, and it browns and crisps perfectly without burning as easily as butter. But you have to use good mayo or the sandwich will just taste like bad mayo. Homemade mayonnaise is best and quick to make, but it doesn't last long, so I keep Duke's Mayonnaise in the fridge just for making grilled cheese sandwiches.

Sandwich Bread

Adapted from Bob's Red Mill

You can find general instructions for making this bread by hand here.

295 grams (1¼ cups) warm water
3 tablespoons (40 grams) neutral-tasting oil
1 tablespoon (12 grams) sugar
1 tablespoon potato flakes
1½ teaspoons sea salt
272 grams (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
152 grams (1 cup) stone ground whole wheat flour 
1¼ teaspoons instant yeast

    1. Add the ingredients to your bread machine pan in the order listed.  Set the machine for a 1.5-pound loaf, "Basic" cycle, and "Medium" color, and press "Start."
    2. The first kneading cycle lasts 10 minutes (on my machine). Near the end of that time, check the dough. If it feels a little sticky and there's a slight smear of dough under the knead blade(s), the dough is fine. If the dough is very sticky and clinging to the sides of the bread pan (which is what I found with this loaf), add 1 tablespoon of flour. Allow the flour to be mixed in completely before making any more adjustments. If the dough is dry and very firm and the machine appears to be laboring, add 1 teaspoon of lukewarm water. Allow the water to be mixed in completely before making any more adjustments. The dough is just right when it is smooth and soft, and the bottom of the pan is clean. Because I found this to be a very sticky dough, I checked again during the second kneading cycle (about 45 minutes in, when the alert sounds), and found that I needed to add another tablespoon of flour.
    3. Set a kitchen timer for about 8 minutes shy of the machine's full baking cycle. When the timer sounds, turn the machine off and unplug the power cord. Remove the bread pan, turn it upside down, and shake gently until the loaf comes out. Transfer the loaf to a rack to cool completely. Store the bread cut side down on a piece of foil. Makes one 1½-pound loaf.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Adapted from Gabrielle Hamilton via Food52

Homemade bread is great, but you won't usually have that around. The original recipe recommends "rustic bread." I've made this with pain de campagne from Albemarle Baking Company. It tastes good and gets really crispy, but the bread is too airy for grilled cheese, which is true of most bakery breads. So the easiest alternative is the best bread you can get at the grocery store, which is probably Arnold, unless you have a Trader Joe's, in which case I like Trader Joe's Sprouted Multi-Grain Bread or Harvest Whole Wheat Bread.

You can use whatever cheese you want, including all Cheddar, as long as most of it melts well. Gouda is another good option for a melting cheese—a red wax Gouda is typical, but Trader Joe's has an especially good goat's milk Gouda. I like to use some Asiago because the sharp flavor adds some oomph to the sandwiches. There are plenty of other ways you can sexy up your grilled cheese, including spreading duxelles or cranberry sauce on the inside of the bread before sprinkling the cheese on. 

40 grams grated Asiago cheese (see note)
40 grams grated Gouda or Cheddar cheese (not extra-sharp)
Good mayonnaise
4 ½-inch-thick slices of good sandwich bread (see note)

    1. Mix the cheeses together in a small bowl.
    2. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise evenly over 2 slices of the bread, then place them mayo side down in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat to start. Sprinkle each slice of the bread evenly with the cheese. Spread the remaining 2 slices of bread with a thin layer of mayo, then place them mayo side up on top of the cheese.
    3. Cook until the bottom slices are golden brown and crispy. If you start with a cold pan (which you should since you're using an ungreased nonstick skillet), this can take about 10 to 12 minutes, so be patient. Adjust the heat down, if needed, so the bread gets to golden brown as the cheese is starting to melt. Flip the sandwiches over carefully. Cook until the other side is golden brown and crispy and the cheese is completely melted, about 5 minutes more.
    4. Remove from the heat to a cutting board. Let the sandwiches cool for a minute or two, then cut each in half and serve. Makes 2 sandwiches.