More of a slide than a run...

Shortly after I woke up that morning, I knew it was going to be a messy day. While Saturday had been relatively dry though overcast, Sunday morning greeted me with the sound of water pouring through the gutters onto the brick walkway outside my bedroom window.

I was pretty psyched.

I can't really explain it, but the rain is a big motivator when I run. Perhaps because it never gets too cold here to run in the rain, or maybe its because I end up feeling like a bit of a badass, or maybe its that great post shower feeling of still cold but warming up that is reminiscent of days in early March in Georgia when my brother and I would brave the chilly water of our pool and follow up by watching Beetlejuice wrapped up in blankets on the living room couch.

Lately, I've been thinking its the mud.

On Sunday, I set out to do 27 miles, the longest distance I have yet to run. I packed up my Hydrapak, grabbed some GU, downloaded the most recent podcasts from my favorite shows and called a cab.

The cabbie took me out past the St. John's bridge (above). It was partly obscured by low lying clouds and I knew that most of my run would be spent in the quiet cover of fog. The rain had slowed to a drizzle as we approached the Wildwood trailhead on Germantown Road and I happily took off my rain jacket and stuffed it into my pack. I paid the cabbie and ran off into the woods.

It was pretty sloppy. And while the puddles and muck made the downhills a bit of a thrill ride, it was hard work and I was reduced to a walk through many of the more treacherous parts. It was slow going. Then, around three and a half hours of it, I passed the 18 mile marker and slipped and twisted to the side. My right leg gave out and I felt a great strain in my quad. No good.

I had strained my quad two nights previous in a less than exciting adventure that involved squatting down to put food in the dog's bowl. That morning, I hadn't felt the strain at all, so I went out with positive thoughts that I could make it through the run.

I guess I was wrong.

I was very disappointed. I had to chose to ride it out with the possibility that I wouldn't be able to move the next day or to cut it short. Because J and I have a big roadtrip planned for next week with heaps of skiing, I opted to bail. This was the first time that I would not be able to finish a distance I set out to achieve. I finished up the half mile of trail and the 1.5 miles home for a total of only 20 miles. I know that's still a decent distance, but falling so short of my goal left me feeling like I had hardly done anything at all.

This is especially disappointing since I didn't even make it to my favorite part of the trail that winds through the redwoods with big climbs and steep downhills that give me the sense of skiing without snow as I careen down them.

But, perhaps it was for the best. I want to be in the best shape for our ski-athon next week and I really don't think my shoes could have handled too much more mud.

Happy Valentine's Day?

Last weekend, while at the incredibly fun opening for The Pink Show at Splendorporium , in between watching the hula hoop dance act and making a valentine for J, I sampled a candy heart from the refreshment table. My tongue was met with the an overpowering blue raspberry flavor. I must have winced, but tried to recover smoothly as to not let on that I had discovered that gallery had purchased an off brand of Valentine message hearts.



I couldn't contain myself for long and said to my lovely friend A, my link to this gallery, "Those just aren't right." while pointing at the bowl of offending hearts.

Still, we didn't think much of it...surely these Necco knock offs were created with a younger, less sophisticated palette in mind, perfect as a chaser to the VooDoo Doughnuts the kids (and most adults) were eating as they viewed the collection of paintings, etchings and lithographs that made up the show.

Or so I thought. This morning as I lay in bed listening to NPRs Weekend Edition on OPB contemplating how the pouring rain outside would affect my planned 27 mile jog, I learned that the shocking heart flavors go beyond budget. Apparently Necco couldn't leave well enough alone. Check out the full story for more. I'm stunned. And I gotta say, a little heart broken. Is nothing sacred?

What about you? How do you feel about the change in Necco heart flavor from faintly classic to feisty?

Walnut Honey Wheat Bread

Over a year ago, I got it into my head that it would be nice if I made my own bread. So, I mixed and kneeded and kneeded and baked and ended up with some pretty dismal leaden loaves and a few baguettes that could break a tooth. Not exactly my goal.

Luckily, Ken's Artisan Bakery is right around the corner and offers a great array of amazing breads and baked goods. If you can't have homemade bread, the next best thing is an award winning bakery with excellent bread and a schedule so you can know just when your favorite loaf will still be warm from the oven.

However, as much as I love Ken's breads, it always annoyed me that I couldn't make enjoyable bread in my own kitchen. But then one day on All Things Considered (brought to me by my beloved OPB)I heard an interview with Nancy Baggett, the woman who has changed my bread making and eating habits for the better. In the interview she talked about make pot boules, breads that are cooking in a covered pot resulting in light loaves with crisp crusts and the wonderful aroma of homemade bread filling your kitchen. The secret? Steam. A bit of water put onto the dough as you put it into the covered pan results in a wonderful crust that far exceeded my expectations.

The best part? Its really super easy. And without kneading, it takes nearly no time at all. With just a little planning (the dough rises for 24 hours for the best results) you make your own perfectly delicious homemade bread.
While I was satisfied to stick to the recipe listed in the interview for a while, I slowly modified to my current favorite:

Walnut Honey Wheat Bread

3 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp table salt
3/4 tsp yeast (I prefer fleishmans)
2 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon water
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (hazelnuts work well too!)

Step One: First Rise
Mix all dry ingredients and honey together in a large bowl.
Add the water and mix until everything is moist, scrapping the sides of the bowl.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and pop into the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
See...easy.

Step Two: Second Rise
Remove dough from the fridge and stir in walnuts with a fork. Recover and sit in a warm dry area for 3-4 hours. After that time, spray a rubber spatula with canola oil and use it to fold the dough in on itself.
Recover and allow to rise for another 3-4 hours.

Step Three: Baking
Preheat oven and 6 quart dutch oven to 475 degrees.
Once the oven is heated and a drop of water sizzles when dropped into the dutch oven, scrape the dough into the dutch oven.
Spray the top of the dough with a couple of teaspoons of water and cover immediately.
Return the pot to the oven and bake at 475 for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, remove the lid. If the top of the bread is not a deep brown, drop the temperature of the oven to 425 and return the lidless pot to the oven.
Once the bread is nicely browned, take it out of the oven and remove the loaf from the pot and cool it on a rack.

Once it is cool enough to touch, slather on some butter.

If you find it annoying to carve up a round loaf in order to make sandwiches, I have made this bread in a normal loaf pan with equal success. To get the benefit of the steam treatment, boil a small amount of water in an oven safe saucepan and put it in the oven along with your loaf for the first 15 minutes of baking. Just keep an eye on the top of the bread as it nears the end of baking time and tent the top with some foil if it starts to look a bit too dark.

To preserve the crispness of the crust, I keep the loaf on my cutting board, cut side down on a piece of plastic wrap without wrapping the rest of the bread.

This bread makes excellent toast.

How could I not?

Here's the deal:

For my 32nd birthday at the end of March, I will be running 32 miles of trail in Portland's Forest Park.

Now its official.

I've started this blog to make that statement and to let people who are interested follow along.

Now according to my friend C, there is nothing more boring for a non-runner than hearing someone talk about running. I can kind of see her point. So this blog won't be only about running, it will be about many of the things that make up my life in Portland.

However, because I have precisely one month and twenty one days until I run, there may be a slight focus on that for the first few weeks. I hope you'll stick with me.

In case you don't know this already, I love living in Portland. For those of you who have never been here, visit. Portland is a very active smaller city with allot going on. I've heard that it has the highest number of brew pubs, coffee houses, bookstores and strip clubs per person than any other city in the U.S. Not bad.

It just may be high on the list for miles of running trails per person as well. Runner's World Magazine just voted Portland the Number One Running City in the U.S. I'm so proud! And after all the hours I've spent running miles and miles through Forest Park, along the Willamette River, crossing over many of the city's beautiful bridges and hoofing it through the Portland Marathon last October, I fully understand why.

The St. Johns Bridge - the bridge that motivated me to run the Portland Marathon.