Heart Breaker PR!

I got up about 5:45 a.m. to get ready for the Heart Breaker race in downtown Portland. I've really started enjoying getting up a couple hours early in the mornings - to have a nice breakfast, check the blogs and the news and the comics and make a slow start to the day.

Then I got ready to run in my special race socks... gotta do it!
Brrrr! Just 32 degrees when Sarah rang the doorbell. Ready to head downtown...
The pre- and post-parties were at the World Trade Center, which was stocked with lots of porta-potties and propane heaters to keep us warm while we waited. There was also fun music, snacks and some vendors, along with a bag check to hold our winter clothes while we ran.
The event included a 5K, 10K and half-marathon - all different courses. Sarah and Brad lined up a block away at 2nd and Taylor for the 9 a.m. 10K start.
I met up with Lindsey and headed to the 9:30 a.m. 5K start on Naito Parkway. We began southbound on Naito, the first 1+ mile uphill. Then we turned right onto Whitaker, which is short but very steep. Then a right turn put us on Barbur Boulevard - downhill! We took a couple more turns and then ended up northbound on Naito, running past the start line and then the short distance to the finish line. I was thrilled to see Sarah and Brad cheering me on as I finished strong!

I sprinted the last quarter-mile or so and set a new PR: 9:10/mile!! My previous PR was 9:16/mile - woohoo!
I celebrated with AWESOME free food at the post-party: snacks, hot chicken noodle soup and strawberry shortcake:
We also got a couple other goodies:
Brad set a new PR too - he's getting really fast!
After posing for our group shot, we thought we heard the award announcer say Sarah's name. HE DID! She took second place in her age division - WOOHOO!!!!!!
I checked the results online and discovered that I was 5th out of 40 for my age group, 39/216 for women and 85/319 overall for the 5K! I'm so excited!

Brad was 6/18 in his age group, 23/82 for men and 40/290 overall for the 10K - very nicely done!

Lindsey, Sarah, Brad and I decided that the Heart Breaker, which was the first annual, was very well done. It was organized, great food, plenty of food, free long-sleeved shirts, finisher medals and a lot of fun! Our only real problem was locating the starting lines - could have used some signs pointing from the Trade Center area. Linus gave it his seal of approval too ;)
:)

Unintentional taper

I have a bum knee. Many years ago I was running stadiums at THS when my right knee went "pop." It's never been a HUGE problem, but it's never been the same.

Tuesday I was running when I started to feel it. If you've ever had an injury, you know what I mean. It didn't hurt - but it didn't feel right, either. I could "feel" it - and you're not supposed to feel your knees. They are just supposed to be there doing their thing.
It seemed to go away, so I went ahead and did my Wednesday spin class. Near the end, we were climbing really steep when that stupid knee grabbed and I pretty much had to stop. Shoot.

Hoping to ease my runner's knee, I've now been doing some PT exercises Brad learned from past knee problems of his own. And I decided to rest it Thursday and Friday before 5K my race Sunday. I got up Saturday to do a short, easy run to warm up my muscles and test the knee. I bundled up for our below-freezing temps, but as I started down my cul-de-sac, I slipped a little. Then I slipped a little more. BLACK ICE! In the shady spots the pavement was covered in black ice.

OK - if I can't even walk on it, I certainly can't run on it! I carefully walked back up to the house and decided I'd just call it a couple taper days. Hopefully my knee and muscles will be happy with the additional rest and perform for me this morning :)

Jam oat squares

Our weekend baking continued with jam oat squares I spotted on Oh She Glows. We had very high hopes and were fairly disappointed. They were OK but certainly nothing to brag about. And our dough did not turn out like hers, so we think she may have typed the recipe wrong.
I was going to post the recipe, but I decided that it's just not worth it. If you want to give it a try, check out her Web site. Good luck :)

PB chocolate chip pretzel cookies

My obsession started last week when I saw Double White Chocolate and Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies on Picky Palate. I LOVE salty/sweet. Chocolate-covered pretzel are amazing. Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are amazing. So these would have to be amazing, right? I had to make them.
I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate. In fact, when offered a white chocolate chip cookie, I almost always turn it down. But I figured I'd go for it because the recipe was tried and true. Brad and I went to three different stores after church Sunday and couldn't find the chips! Granted, that included two drug stores, but Trader Joe's also failed us. We didn't want to hit another store, so we concluded that it wasn't meant to be.

Since Picky Palate's recipe included melted chips and whole chips, I decided to just use my standard Peanut Butter Cookie recipe (thank you, trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook), stir in the chocolate chips and pretzels and see what came out. Fantastic!
1/2 c butter
1/2 c peanut butter
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1 1/4 c flour
chocolate chips
pretzel, broken into small pieces

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.

3. Stir in chocolate chips and pretzel pieces until the ratio makes you happy.

4. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with your palm. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I put in a lot of chips and pretzels, so the dough was fairly crumbly, and some cookies fell apart because there wasn't enough "glue" to hold the goodies together. But they tasted great - and that's good enough for me. I took them to school and the students and staff gobbled them up - again, good enough for me!

:)

Pillow ornament

And this is exactly why Linus sleeps in the garage. If left inside, I always wake to this:

:)

Muffin Wednesday: Almond

That's right, folks, it's MUFFIN WEDNESDAY!!

Last week, Lindsey spotted an interesting recipe by Giada de Laurentiis in a newspaper food/advertising pullout and suggested I try it out with my students. It's unusual because it calls for olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sounds intriguing!

1 3/4 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c sugar
4 eggs
2 t orange zest
2 t lemon zest
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T whole milk
3/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 c sliced almonds, toasted and crushed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin pan.

2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. In a larger bowl, beat sugar, eggs and zests. Add vinegar and milk. Slowly beat in oil. Add the flour mixture and stir by hand just until blended. Add almonds.

3. Fill the cups almost to the top and bake until golden, 20-25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then another 5 on a wire rack.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I doubled this recipe and had 24 perfect, golden muffins. I didn't measure out the zest, instead just used an entire lemon and an entire orange and called it good. WinCo bulk was out of sliced almonds so I opted for the raw chopped almonds. I toasted them while my oven heated and I whipped up the batter.

Surprisingly, I didn't screw up this recipe at all! I remembered all my ingredients and didn't do anything out of order. Yay me!

The batter came together quickly and easily - and tasted really good. The muffins baked up perfectly, and as they cooled, they sorta crisped up. The result was a very nice muffin top. And I now have that too from eating too many ;)

This recipe's a keeper!

Lazy No-TV Tuesday

I had big plans for this week's No-TV Tuesday... a great run right after work, grocery shopping, then a bunch of chores around the house. I managed the run, but it was a struggle. And I managed the shopping. But that's where it ended :)

We ate fruit salad and leftover chili dogs (not feeling very ambitious in the kitchen, either!) and then curled up with our books. Eventually, we started chatting, discussing our books, philosophy, friends, family, life. Then came plans for my rain barrels (Brad's Valentine's Day gift to me!!) and my driveway garden.
Over the weekend we hit the half-off seed sale at Bi-Mart and stocked up on veggies for our new experiment. Brad's designing a potting bench/platform for all my pots of vegetable goodness. If all goes well, the rain barrels come this weekend. I'll keep you posted :)