Training for the Vancouver New Year's Fat Ass 50 Run

It is official. I am committed to tackle the full 50km on at the Vancouver New Year's Day 50 Run. Pat is in and Rhonda and Cheryl have expressed interest in joining us slow pokes. As Rhonda put it, "a 50K on New Year's Day would be an excellent way to spent the day....as in, I'm never in a hurry to finish and don't mind extending the time in an activity I love."

Time to begin the training. We started today with a jaunt into Stanley Park along the trails the New Year's Day Fat Ass 50 follows. Setting out from the Aquatic Centre at the Burrard Street Bridge on a beautiful sunny morning we followed the seawall west to Stanley Park. English Bay sparkled in the early sun rays smooth as a mirror. The forecast was for heavy rain and wind again, but it never materialized - seems to be a thread in my blog ;-).

Chatting away, we ran almost to Siwash Rock, before realizing we missed the turn into the trails. We hooked up with the proper route only to miss another turn. So much for Pat leading the way! No harm done, however, and the little detour rewarded us with the sight of two Bald Eagles perching on an ancient, albeit dead, giant cedar tree.

From Prospect Point the trails led downhill, eventually circling Beaver Lake where lots of Mallard Ducks were basking in the morning sun. Winding towards the ocean along Beaver Creek and Ravine Trail we smelled the salty air over Burrard Inlet. The last few km before our planned turnaround point at Brockton Oval (the start location on New Year's Day) seem to take forever, but at least we didn't get lost again...

Luckily, the return route appeared shorter, maybe because we stayed on the trails, maybe because a horde of interval runners pulled us along.

Pat and I (Achilles tendon permitting) are hoping to do all three upcoming CFA events: Go Home 20, M&M's Fun Run and Pure Satisfaction. Training runs on weekends with no events will focus on sections of the New Year's Day 50 course. If you are running turtle pace, why not join us? For those of you wanting to get to know the route, but training at a faster pace, the course description is posted year round.

See you on the trails.

Jesper Olsen finishes his World Run

For the past few days news of Jesper finishing his World Run have dominated the ultra running news and various forums.

I have followed Jesper's progress ever since receiving an email from his friend in Australia, Phil Essam, asking to support Jesper on his way through Canada.

At first, his note ended up at the bottom of my inbox. I was thinking, how am I supposed to help this guy. He is probably a bit strange. I have a family, a job and very little free time to begin with...I am not able to drop everything when he runs into town.

Luckily, some friends had also picked up news about Jesper running around the world and approaching Vancouver on his way north from Los Angeles. More emails arrived in my inbox and I started to read about Jesper's mission. Still thinking, he would probably be not a very social guy...traveling via strange mode of transport around the world, I spread the word about his run, his schedule and request for support along the way.

I was relieved, that local friends around Karl Jensen and John Little got very busy planning to pick him up (running) at the border, host him, feed him, entertain. Kevin Thompson, the only guy I know personally who ran across Canada (he also attempted to row across - but that's another story), offered his expertise in developing a route that would see Jesper run safely across this great country. We all had heard about the difficult time Jesper had running north through the US. That's when my motherly instincts took over and I suggested to organize a potluck dinner at our house on the weekend of Jesper's arrival.

About 30 folks from the local running community came to the potluck. I was still expecting a slightly loopy guest of honour. And then Jesper arrived: shy, unassuming, humble, thoughtful... and not having a clue what a potluck was. For the first hour or so, he hid behind a plate of food, surrounded by the new friends who had accompanied him into town. The rest of us had a good time, but all were wondering... who is this guy, what is he doing, why is he running around the world? My husband Ean finally managed to get Jesper out of the corner he was hiding in and somehow got him to talk about his adventure. Maybe he told him that a potluck always had a guest speaker.

My apologies for ever thinking Jesper might be a bit crazy. Everybody who met him that evening and during his time on the road probably agrees that Jesper is a very normal kind of guy - well if you consider running around the world as normal.

The evening was over way to fast. We all were spellbound by his stories of the road, his adventures, difficulties, his motivations and his quiet personality.

Ever since, I have followed Jesper's reports and photos on his website at www.worldrun.org. Despite fatigue, equipment problems (Jesper pushed his few belongings in a baby jogger, recorded his run with a cell phone camera and a GPS device) and at times lacking support and human contact, he remained positive and upbeat in his daily reports.

Jesper arrived back at his starting point in London, at the Greenwich Mean Time meridian, on October 23, almost one year and 10 month after he set out to run around the world on Jan. 1, 2004.

To say "Congratulations" almost sounds lame...Here's to Jesper!

Article about Jesper's Run in the New York Times

NYTimes article on Jesper's World Run - Run Around World Tries a Man's Soles By IRA BERKOW Published: October 25, 2005

Getting My Behind Off The Couch

Listening to the torrential rains the night before Wendy's Get Your Fat Ass Off The Couch Run was not encouraging. I was trying to get excited about running for 3 hours soaking wet, cold and miserable. In principle, I like running in the rain, feeling the rain drops on my face, jumping through the puddles and getting all nice and warm in the shower afterward. But this particular morning, I felt tired and not up to dealing with the additional challenge of the elements.

Alas, I was signed-up and I knew Pat would be in front of my house to car pool to the start at 7:45. The sky looked promising when we headed east on the highway to meet the other runners at the Ron Andrews Rec Centre and by the time we got out of the car to greet Wendy, it had stopped raining. The temperature were in the mid-teens. It felt like warm air was pushing the rain clouds away. Most runners at the start line sported way too much clothes for the dry skies and rising temperatures. As soon as we were heading up the road on Berkely to the trailhead, I pulled off my rain gear. Short sleeves and tights were just fine for me.

There were 19 Club Fat Ass members looping up and down the trails on lower Seymour Mountain. I broke my pattern of being the involuntary sweep and joined the group around Craig Moore, Gilles Barbereau, Caroline Lepard, Ryan Reilly and Karl Jensen. Figuring I could always fall back to my usual group should the pace catch-up to me, I played guide, preventing the "fast" guys from taking short cuts ;-) This was my 3rd time running Wendy's course and I didn't need to consult the directions, which made us save a few minutes.

Our chitter chatter kept us running at a good pace - for me anyway. Thankfully, the guys like to walk the uphills...giving me a breather. Conversation hopped from bold mushroom hunters (did you know that there are old mushroom hunter, bold mushroom hunters, but not very many bold,old mushroom hunters), to the Double (now Vancouver 100), to the Western States 100 Endurance Run (Gilles is eyeing this one and was getting loads of advise and info from both Karl, a seasoned 100 mile runner, and Craig, of "Double" fame) and back to The Double. Did I hear anybody say The Triple?

The trails were beautifull. Sunlight illuminating squeeky clean, bight yellow maple leafs among the evergreen rain forest.

By the time I had rescued the guys from a serious shortcut up the powerline my legs were tired and I had trouble hanging on. A beautifully winding trail following up a ridgeline and then down to huge mud puddles revived me. Unfortunately, the rest of the gang smelled the barn as well and as soon as we hit the pavement Karl and I were rather unceremoniusly left in the dust. So much for playing guide...

In the end my time was 26 minutes faster than last year. I am quite sore and happy today. Thanks, gang!

Is Running In Your Genes?

How many running families do you know? I can think of quite a few in my neck of woods and I'd like to bet so do you. Coincidence, lifestyle, genetics?
This question occurred to me when Club Fat Ass member Tim Wiens sent some photos from his recent finish at the Okanagan Marathon. I looked at the pictures and although the guy on the photo looked familiar, I didn't think it was Tim. The second photo he sent showed two guys and I felt slightly confused. I did of course not read the accompanying text that explained that both Tim and his brother Stan completed the marathon. They finished 3 minutes from each other. I don't know there running history, only that it wasn't there first marathon.

I come from a running family. When I grew up, we would spend every weekend at another 10km, Half Marathon or longer races. As a young teenager I crewed for both my mum and dad at the famous 100km of Biel in Switzerland. Although inspired by their accomplishments, I would be an off and on runner, depending on my teenage mood and hormone level. Come to think about it, same applies to my sister. I don't think we ever ran together when we grew up. One of us always was running, the other wasn't. 30 years later we both run, our husbands do, my nephew does (he is 12 years old) and my children love to run.

I know similar stories. Take the extended Pace family... let's see if I get this right: Melissa and partner run, brother Glenn does 100 Milers, mother is an exceptional runner. Geoff Palmer, winner of the 2005 Silvertip 50 Trail Race, has running parents. Read Geoff's blog to find out who is the faster marathon runner, dad or him? Wendy Montgomery, host of tomorrow's "Wendy's Get Your Fat Ass Off The Couch" comes from an athletic family. Her mom is an incredible age group runner, sister Carol has competed for Canada in the Olympics and Wendy's daughter Olivia won last year's Edgemont Mile (Olivia is a competitive swimmer). And the list goes on.

What makes these families run? Is it nature or nurture. Do you come from a running background? Tell me your story.

What's Cooking - Thanksgiving Dinner

We don't have family in town and usually invite an assortment of friends for holiday feasting. This Canadian Thanksgiving there were 16 assembled in my kitchen, including 4 school aged children and one toddler.

Holiday eating habits for active folks have definitely changed over the years...maybe it is our advancing age(gasp) that makes that overstuffed holiday feeling less attractive each year.

To reflect this, eat well, but healthy and not feel like a turkey myself afterwards the menu included a pear, Gorgonzola and prosciutto appetizer prepared by Pat, a green salad with mango, red peppers, dried cranberries and walnuts, a couscous salad, marinated grilled vegetables, curried squash, a honey orange glazed ham, cranberry bread and Gabi's lemon meringue pie with ice cream.

Before the vegans/vegetarians chime in...you can omit the ham and still enjoy a balanced meal.

Preparation for all the different dishes took a while, however, there was no last minute rushing around and everybody was able to relax before dinner was served.

Green Salad with Mango
This is my own creation. I love it for the color combination.

Ingredients:

• 1 head green salad (romaine, red leaf, green, baby greens or mixed); best with greens fresh from my garden, but alas, it is October and my winter crop is not quite ready
• 1 green mango, cut into thin, narrow slices (get a mango that is hard and not ripe, the one you would usually not buy). Green mango has a tart taste and is easy to slice;
• 1-2 red peppers, thinly sliced into long strips
• handful of nuts or seeds (sunflower, pumpkin or walnuts work well
• salad burnett, chives or spring onions, chopped

Dressing:

• olive oil
• juice (to reflect my dinner theme I used cranberry juice)
• splash of soy sauce
• splash of sesame oil

Cut/tear lettuce and wash and drain well. Top with red pepper and mango slices. You can get creative and arrange the reds in the center and the mango around the edge. Sprinkle with chopped herbs. Add nuts and dressing just before serving. Toss.

Couscous Salad with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts

This will become a new standby. Easy to prepare, pleasing on the eye and healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts or pecans
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
• 1/4 cup shredded fresh basil or mint leaves

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 3 gloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Toast the nuts in a pan at 180C (350F) for about 7-10 min. Let cool.

Place couscous, cranberries and turmeric in large bowl. Pour in boiling water, stir, cover, fluff after 10 minutes, cover again and let cool down.

When cool, stir in walnuts, cucumbers and basil.

Combine the dressing ingredients and add to couscous mixture just before serving.

Curried Acorn SquashPeeling acorn squash is hard work and when preparing the squash I decided (prematurely) that I wouldn't try this recipe again. Looking at the yellow pile of squash, I knew that I definitely would not make this again...what with presentation...? At dinner time, my big pile of squash was devoured in no time flat and everybody raved about it.
Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds acorn squash (2 medium sized squash)
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened shredded dried coconut

Peel and seed squash (maybe baking it for a few minutes in the oven would help?). Cut into 1.5cm squares.Cook onion in oil until just softened. Add mustard seeds and cook over moderate heat, stirring until they begin to pop (20 seconds).

Add garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, salt and brown sugar and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add squash, stirring to coat well with spices. Add water.

Boil mixture over moderate high heat, stirring frequently for about 10minutes. Add coconut and salt to taste and cook until squash is tender and liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes.

Cranberry Orange Glazed Ham

No, this is not vegan or vegetarian friendly. Nor is it intended to be. All guests were warned ahead of time that there will be pork...Nobody complained!

Canadian Thanksgiving fare is traditionally turkey. We love traditions, but turkey in our house is a Christmas tradition and given that we just polished of the frozen remnants of last years turkey, we opted for ham.

Ingredients:

• 1 smoked, fully cooked ham
• whole cloves
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups cranberry cocktail
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Garnishes

• fresh cranberries and orange slices (ok, I admit, I forgot to add this. Stewart and Ean did such a good job with serving...

Stud ham with whole gloves. Place in large roasting pan. I also added lots of garlic gloves and nugget potatoes. Add 3/4 cup of cranberry juice. Bake covered at 180C (350F) for 1 h.

Combine brown sugar, 3/4 cup cranberry juice and next 5 ingredients in a saucepan, mixing well. Bring to a boil and cook 1 minute.

Coat exposed part of ham with sugar-cranberry mixture. Bake 30 more minutes, basting with ham juices twice. Garnish with oranges and cranberries.

Cranberry Bread

I originally planned corn bread, but came across this recipe and decided that

since the common thread in all the dishes was cranberries, I'll give it a try. I doubled the original recipe and made two loafs, which was a good thing, because almost all got eaten. Next time I'll double the recipe, but use 3 pans to avoid the mushy parts in the middle (despite upping the baking time).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnut crumbs
• 125g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar (less is fine too)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Grease a loaf pan. Toast nut on a baking sheet until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Leave oven on.

In large bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg. Beat 1 minute. Gradually beat in juice, add flour, baking powder, orange zest and salt. Mix until just blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread into loaf pans.

Bake until loaf is golden (about 50-55min). Let cool slightly, then remove loaf from pan and let cool on wire rack.

What's Cooking - Fueled by Oats

I am a lousy cookie baker. Cookies end up either burned or to soft, crumbly and ugly looking. I blame it on the uneven heat in my oven...

My kids and my husband, of course, love cookies, no matter what shape. And I try coming up with fool proof recipes and this one is pretty close. I have made it several times and even experimented with different ingredients...yummy!

Ingredients:

• 250g margarine or butter
• 500g regular oat flakes
• 200g sugar (I used 100 with no ill effects)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50g flower
• vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract)

Melt the butter, add oats, let cool. In another bowl beat eggs, sugar, baking powder, flour and vanilla sugar. Add the oat mixture. Mix well. Place tbsp sized dollops of dough onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 20 min at 180C.

What's Cooking - Eggplant

Here is an easy way (you notice the focus is on easy in my kitchen) to pep up your standby spaghetti dish. My children are no big fans of pasta, but they love the eggplants bake with cheese. Again, this is really a non-recipe. I don't think you can do much wrong apart from under cooking, so start prep early and then relax.

Ingredients (for two baking pans)

• 2 eggplants (I buy the long thin Chinese kind, they fit better on my pans)
• grated cheese
• olive oil
• spices
• pasta sauce (optional)

Grease the pans with olive oil. Cut the eggplant in 1cm thick slices and arrange eggplants on the greased pans. Top each eggplant with a dollop of tomato sauce (optional). I bet instead of tomato sauce, tomato slices would taste yummy as well. Alas, husband does not eat tomatoes. Sprinkle each eggplant slice with grated cheese and spices. Bake in oven at 200C for 60min or until crisp. Serve with spaghetti and pasta sauce.

Around the World in 30 Minutes

After the morning fog had lifted it looked like a prefect day for a run in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, a meeting and a pile of outstanding work, made me miss getting out first thing...which usually means I won't run at all.

Not today. Time to get back into a regular running and exercise rhythm. Early afternoon, I changed into my running gear and headed out the door. Guilt of the home office worker and threatening rain clouds looming overhead.

Both guilt and clouds had dissipated by the time I huffed and puffed up Mosquito Creek Trail. The sun on my face I marvelled at the blazing fall colours, illuminating the maple trees along the path. In the end it was only a 30 min escape from sitting at the desk, but it felt as liberating as travelling around the world - well almost!

What's Cooking - Marinated, Grilled Vegetables

Tonight we are having pork satays and grilled vegetables. Husband is doing the satay. I already marinaded pork cubes in orange juice and peanut butter. Up to him to turn the BBQ on and cook'em.

The grilled vegetable recipe is originally from my sisters kitchen. It's an easy, yummy way to prepare vegetables. The dish can be eaten hot as side dish, or prepared ahead and eaten cold as an appetizer. All amounts are approximate (sorry, not much measuring happening in my kitchen) and you can change the ratio of vegetables or the marinating ingredients:

Ingredients:

• 2 zucchini
• 3 red peppers
• 2 green peppers
• 1 bulb garlic
• 2 onions
• hot peppers (optional)
• mushrooms
• olive oil
• orange juice
• soy sauce
• spices

Cut vegetables into chunky bits. Don't make the mistake to dice them, like I did when I was helping my sister prepare dinner... Drizzle some olive oil into deep baking dish, add vegetables, drizzle with oil, soy sauce, juice and spices. Bake at 150-180C for 60 min.

What's Cooking

Planning the family dinner menu can be challenging , frustrating, joyful, relaxing, harried...

The "what's cooking tonight" blogs will deal with nutrition in our fast food world and document what my family is eating....or not. Sometimes it will be junk, other time gourmet, catering to the under 10 crowd in the house, our home stay student's preferences, or our need for comfort foods. I will serve family classics, old family recipes, whim of the moment creations - yummy or yucky, holiday food, elaborate dinner party menus and Kraft Dinner.

See for yourself.

Saturday Morning Run

I can't remember how many years Pat and I have been running together on Saturday mornings. It probably started with a marathon clinic after my son Erik was born 7 years ago.

The clinic day and time didn't fit our schedules. Pat attends mass Sunday mornings and I would like to have my run done and over with by 10:00am to be able to spend the day with my family. The clinic was Sunday morning at 9:00am... needless to say, after the 18 week clinic and finishing the marathon (Pat's first and my first AC - after children) we started meeting on our own terms, usually Saturday morning, as early as possible, depending on the daylight hours, the distance we were training for and our general energy level.
Locations vary. First we'd alternate between Stanley Park, Pacific Spirit Park, Southland and the beaches. Eventually, my family moved to the North Vancouver and now it seems we almost exclusively run on the rugged trails of the North Shore mountains.

Pat and I are slow runners. We have done a number of marathons and a few ultras, but we are end of the pack slowpokes taking in the scenery, stopping to look at a woodpecker, an owl, wildflowers, the rushing waters below a canyon bridge, helping lost hikers, collecting trash...you get the picture. Our runs are relaxing, no stress, no pressure. If one of us has a bad day, the other sticks with her and adjust the pace. We are however religious in keeping our planned runs. If we plan a run, you can count on us being there. Torrential rains, snow, ice, no sleep - it doesn't matter. We are committed!

Over the years, I invited other slowpokes along. Often, they join us a few times, sometimes folks express the desire to run with us, but in the end other commitments get in the way and it is just Pat and I again.

Today, was an exceptional day. I had invited a new Club Fat Ass member, who felt she hadn't trained enough to come out to our events. I also had mentioned time, distance and start location to my neighbour and another friend. It is always an open invitation to join Pat and me on our slow, peaceful runs and today 5 of us showed up to do the Night Run course. Definitely a record in numbers.

The morning dawned misty and moist, but the forecasted rain never materialized. The trails in Capilano Canyon were magical, fog hanging between the trees, rays of sunlight fighting their way through the canopy of the rain forest, coloured leaves floating down to the forest floor. The air smelled earthy and fresh.

The Night Run course is my favoured run, both for its distance and terrain. From my house it cuts west through residential neighborhoods and green ways to hook up with Capilano Park. Capilano Canyon always changes. Today, the water from the heavy rain we had a couple of days ago, was rushing over the rocks, making it difficult for the spawning salmon to fight their way up river. The trails parallels the canyon for a few kilometers, undulating, but steadily loosing altitude and eventually descending to the river bank. Down here the water flows quieter, slower. The river is wide and will empty into Burrard Inlet just a couple of km further south. My route, however, veers eastward, hooks up with another trail system and eventually follows Mosquito Creek north back to my house. A perfect loop for a perfect run and for perfect company on the trails today. I hope Pat, Michelle, Gabi and Louise enjoyed it as much as I did.

Want to join us? The invitation is always open.