For me, nothing is better than a Friday evening... slowing down the pace of the work week. Cooking something good for dinner and enjoying a glass of big red wine. If you can do that with an ocean breeze and a view of the sea... well, that's about as good as it gets.
For those of you that know me well, that means that Loving Man & I (and the wee perros), have escaped the Phoenix environment and woke up next to the Sea of Cortez at our little Rock House bungalow. The 7 hour drive is daunting to some, but the decompression when I cross the border and the delight of the last 40 miles (all dirt road in the middle of the best display of the Sonoran desert) bring me to a simple life with peace and wonder. The Sea of Cortez never fails to make me feel like a child - delivering dolphins and sea creatures and magnificent sunrises and sunsets. The quiet of a village with no electricity is something rare and something very good for the soul.
That forty mile dirt road is my destination tomorrow. I depart at 5:30 am for a 14. Nothing like running at sea level - my heart rates are a full 10 beats per minute slower - that and a view of the sea is about as good as it gets for a runner - considering no traffic, no tourists, just a desert meets the sea view in every direction.
So let's talk about making dinner. When you start to run long distances, you start to become aware that meals are fuel and there are good fuels and bad fuels and when you train, you need far more of the good than the bad.
Runners need protein. Absolutely essential for recovery of the muscle damage that is the result of every run. My buddy and e-Trainer, (GDC), has told me that after a work out you should ingest protein within 20 minutes. And everyone has heard of Carb-loading. What a mixed bag Carb-loading is! Yes we need carbs for long runs and there are ways to pack them in before a run, but don't be dumb. There are good carbs and bad carbs. Good carbs will keep you feeling good and trim. Lean proteins will keep you feeling good and trim. So skip the fat and the simple sugars whenever you can and concentrate on fuel=performance. Eat only what you need and eat fresh, lean meals. I also like the idea that one glass of red wine is good for your heart - because I love big smelly red wines! : ) But one thing I have learned... more than one glass and I feel like junk and my runs are miserable. So I stick with one. Ok, it is a big one, but just one!!!!
Tonight I have made a stock of broth and celery and onion and garlic and potato. Soon I will add some sherry and milk. And when Loving Man comes ashore, I will finish it off with cubes of fresh fish, cilantro and we will enjoy a yummy fresh fish and vegetable chowder.
And that leads me to my new friend Joanie. You can't help but immediately love Joanie! She is from BAWSTON and has a great big personality that draws everyone in the room to her. She is one of you quiet readers of the the 50isthenew30Runners that read but don't comment! Trust me, she has many in-person comments for me regarding my postings... maybe one day she will overcome her fear of blog-commenting and add her personal experiences on the SPANDEX post! Just to make you all step up to the plate - please comment and tell her she MUST NOW SHARE!!!! I promise, you will be laughing as hard as I was when she told me her stories!
Anyway - Joanie is walking and she is walking crazy miles. Like 5 and 6 mile walks out there in the Arizona Sun. She is liking her change of venue... Boston is so far from Phoenix in so many ways. But Joanie now works for some of the finest docs on this planet - in the awesome area of Endovascular Neuro Research. She coordinates all of their Research Studies - talk about working on the next frontier! And Joanie has bought into our club and has been doing some of the things all of us are doing to reach a healthier place and achieve distances never thought possible.
So Joanie is emailing me as we are driving to Mexico. The iPhone does not let me down and I am connected even south of the border! Joanie is angry with me for suggesting a great quickie restaurant close by her new employment. Seems she ordered an otherwise delightful salad and as she is eating her healthy lunch she finds a bee marinating in her dressing on the tip of her fork! Or as Joanie would say, on the tip of her fawk. ( I know I am going straight to hell for telling this story, but I could not resist!!!) So she tells me how she immediately informed the servers of this insect incident, (I am sure the Boston personality shown thru in great color), and if you can imagine... they did not throw out the entire serving pan of that salad! She was very upset that her decision to eat healthy had cumulated with a Bee embalmed by vinegarette on her fork (fawk). Clearly this would have never happened if she wasn't eating such garden items!
I tried to calm her with my suppositions that bees have medicinal qualities (royal bee jelly?) I am sure I have read that somewhere! Well, bees collect pollen and bees make honey and my guess is those things are good for you... So eating a salad with a marinated bee can't be all that bad... right?!!! She wasn't buying it. I was glad I was heading south on this day...!
Well - the Loving man has returned. It is time to add the fish to the chowder. I must sign off because the little solar powered kitchen is smelling so good... I can't wait to eat. It's time for fish chowder and fresh tortillas... and a good night's sleep for tomorrow's big run. I'll let you know how it goes.
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2 comments:
Would love the recipie for the fish cowder!!
Fish Chowder! It is SO EASY to make and it tastes SO GOOD!!!!!
Get yourself a big pot. First chop up a yellow onion and about 4 garlic cloves and saute them in a little olive oil in the bit pot. I had 2 potatoes, so I peeled and cubed them, along with about 4 celery stalks (plus leaves). No carrots around, so I skipped them, but they are good in there too! Throw all that in the pot and add a bunch of chicken broth. I had 2 of those soft sided boxes - maybe about 4 cans? - and let that stuff boil for awhile until your potatoes are getting soft. Add about 1/4 cup cream sherry. (that's the secret!) About 2 cups of milk - some people use cream or even whipping cream (yikes! talk about adding to the chub!), but milk or lowfat milk is fine. Get that all warming up good, but not boiling away.
Fish - we used Grouper because we caught one! But any white, firm fish would be good. When the fish shows up, cube your fish filets in about 1 inch cubes. Toss them in for about 5-10 minutes until they are cooked. Salt and Pepper to taste. At the last minute I put in a bunch of cilantro leaves, just because we love that flavor at our house. They impart a nice snap to the soup. If you have some english muffins and can toast them, do that and cube them and toss them in too...! Yummy!
Anyway... the loving man had 4 bowlfuls! We ate it again the next day for lunch with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. It was great.
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