Dear William (52 months)

Dear William,

Today you are 52 months old!

What a month it has been.

We had Thanksgiving, and we kept with Ragfield Family Tradition by not having any tradition.  We got the heck out of town and went somewhere raw and desolate and beautiful.

 

We found you a playground: 

You loved it.

 

You loved running in the mountains:

 

So did your dad:

 

You hiked with Mommy, but you weren't feeling very well.  Maybe it was the altitude.

 

You were very cross during the hike, and with only about a half mile left to go, you decided to lay down on the trail and take a nap.  It was rough, but I can only assume that brighter days are ahead.

 

After we made it back home, we got a Christmas tree:

It may just be our best tree yet.

You have your own little tree for your room.

You are very excited about the Christmas decorations.  You have been wearing a Santa hat for days.

 

We got some snow this month!  They were predicting the Storm of the Century, but it only amounted to about an inch and  a half.  You and I took out the brand new sled your daddy got you and made the best of it.  We had so much fun.  Even with just a little bit of snow, we could go flying down the hill in the park!

 

 

 When you are not sledding, you are still very interested in planes.

Donuts too:

One day, you woke up wearing mis-matched pajamas and convinced your dad to make chocolate chip pancakes with you.

William, we have had quite a month.  Big changes are in store for us soon.  It's going to be great.

Love always,

Mama

You're A Vegan, What Do You Eat? (Spinach Salad and Sriracha Dressing Edition)

I don't actually eat much salad, which is surprising to most non-vegans, because I think they think that salad is all we eat.

So even though it's untrue to character, I've been on a real salad kick lately.  Spinach salad, to be exact.  

It all began when our family went on an Oh My God What Are We Doing With Our Lives road trip and found ourselves walking into a restaurant called Mad Greens, at a somewhat undisclosed location in Northern Colorado:

 

For a place named Mad Greens, this restaurant didn't have a whole heck of a lot of vegan options on the menu.  I was road weary and didn't know what to do, but the helpful college boy behind the counter suggested the Ernest Hemingway salad (Spinach, Cucumbers, Mandarin Orange slices, Red Onions, Toasted Almonds), with the addition of grilled mushrooms, and a spicy Sriracha dressing. 

You had me at "Sriracha," college boy.

He suggested that I taste a spoonful of the dressing before he put it on my salad, just to make sure I liked it.  I did.

Rob had run up and down a mountain that morning, so he wanted the big salad.
And here is said mountain.

The Mad Greens people made our salads in giant stainless steel bowls.  My salad probably had the equivalent of one of those family size bags of pre-washed baby spinach that you can buy at the grocery store.  But I ate the whole thing.  It was delicious.  And you know how when you've been on the road, sitting in the car a lot, and not eating so healthy, you just want something nutritious?  This hit the spot.

I have been reminiscing about that salad ever since, but unfortunately, we're nearly a thousand miles away from the nearest Mad Greens.  

The salad itself seemed like it would be pretty easy to recreate, it was the Sriracha dressing that I didn't know how to make.  A quick Google search revealed that most Sriracha salad dressing recipes contain… mayonnaise.

Surely, surely, that nice college boy would not have mislead me about the Sriracha dressing at Mad Greens.  He said it was vegan.  And if you happen to know that it is not vegan, please don't tell me.  There's nothing I can do about it now, and frankly, I would rather not know.

After a little bit of trial and error, I think I've created a pretty fantastic vegan Sriracha dressing of my own:

• 2 tablespoons of Veganaise (or your other favorite vegan mayo substitute)
• 2 teaspoons (more or less to taste) of Sriracha
• Approximately 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder (in the version I made today, I used smoked garlic powder)
• A couple of good shakes of Balsamic Vinegar
• A pinch or two of sugar.

Whisk it until all lumps are gone.  That probably makes enough to thoroughly cover about 2-3 salads, but if you are like me, you will have to physically restrain yourself from just drinking it out of the bowl.

 

And the end product: perfection.  Note the red onions.  This is no small victory.  Only 4-1/2 years since hyperemesis, and I can finally (most of the time) tolerate them again.

Huzzah.

Thanks for reading.

You're A Vegan, What Do You Eat? (Roasted Vegetable Edition)

I've been on a real Roasted Vegetable kick lately-- I guess it's the arrival of winter.  Somehow I just want clean, simple foods.  Warm and nutritious.  

Mainly, I've been roasting green things, such as broccoli and asparagus.  After washing and cutting up the vegetables, I toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and lemon juice.  Then I arrange them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes.  I will warn you though, that a little bit of roasted broccoli goes a long way.  Maybe it is just because I still have somewhat of a hyperemetic aversion to most green vegetables (a difficult and sad situation, especially since I am vegan), but I find myself regretting it if I eat more than a couple pieces of roasted broccoli.  At least in roasted form, though, I can eat a little of it.  That is more than I can say for raw or steamed.    

 

 

Still in the mood for roasted vegetables, this evening I tried to recreate the amazingly delicious dish I made for Thanksgiving last year.  I took onion, celery, leeks, carrots, brussel's sprouts, and potatoes and tossed them with a mix of olive oil, melted Earth Balance, salt/pepper, and garlic and onion powder.  I roasted them at 425 (the smoke alarm goes off if I set the oven for any higher than that) for about 55 minutes.  I also made a package of Whole Foods Vegan Stuffing, and I made my own gravy from this recipe.

Vegan comfort food at its finest.  Well, sort of.  The gravy was pretty good, but I thought the stuffing and vegetables were rather lackluster.  The vegetables seemed to hold more promise than the stuffing.  If I were to do this again (which I probably will), I would eliminate the celery (even though I recall that being pretty good at Thanksgiving last year) and leeks.  I think it also needed a whole lot more of the Earth Balance baste, with a lot more garlic powder added to it.  And a splash of liquid smoke too (I had forgotten I'd added that last year).

As for the rest of the family, Rob really enjoyed the meal (he did not think the packaged stuffing was bland), but Will wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.  Which is how he is with most foods.  It is frustrating.

Still, it was a good meal to have for the coldest day of the season so far.  I think it was only about 11 degrees when I ran this morning (I felt like I had brain freeze on my forehead this morning when running into the wind even though, yes, I was wearing a hat), and the high might have been around 20.  Cold day, but for the most part, we stayed warm.

Thanks for reading.

Dear William (51 months)

Dear William,

Today you are 51 months old!  We have had a busy month, full of fun.

Early on in the month, your daddy was out of town for a week-long business trip.  It was just you and mommy.  

We went shoe shopping. (Believe it or not, we found these, never worn, at the U-City Goodwill).  

We went to Grant's Farm:  

They had a carousel: 

You helped me navigate:

You liked the elephants.  This one was named Bud.  I'm sure he would be happier in the wild, where he belongs, than in St. Louis.

 

 

When Daddy came home, it was time for his birthday!

 

That same weekend, you had another birthday party for one of your friends at school.  The party was at a place called The Myseum, which is located in a horrible suburb that consists of miles and miles of vapid strip malls and traffic.  Once we got there, you had a lot of fun running around.  You played paleontology with your buddy Sam.

 

After the birthday party, we went to Castlewood State Park for a hike.  You decided to turn it into an impromptu trail run.  You are freakishly good at running downhill on rocky, rooty single-track switchback.  You made me so proud. 

 

On the way home, you were very tired.

You threw up at school on the day before Halloween, so you had to stay at home the next day and miss the party.  I felt so bad for you.  I took the day off work to take care of you.  We made baby donuts to cheer you up.

 

In the afternoon you got all dressed up in your costume and we took a walk around the neighborhood:

 

That evening, you were so excited about Trick or Treating.

But right before it was time to go, you said you didn't feel good and you needed to lie down.  You went to the couch and slept for 2 hours.  (This is very much unlike you).  You slept through Halloween, you poor sweet dear.  At about 8pm, you woke up, rubbed your eyes and said, "Is it time to go trick or treating?"

I didn't want you to miss the whole thing, so we went outside and I said we could go to a few neighbors' houses who still had their porch lights on.  But as soon as we began to walk down the sidewalk, you started crying.  I'm not sure why.  You said you didn't want to go trick or treating anymore.  I said, how about you just trick or treat at one place: our house.  You could ring the doorbell and surprise daddy.  You giggled and thought that would be great fun.  It was.

After you were feeling better, we made some spooky treats.  You helped me, but of course you refused to eat any.  That's too bad, they were really good.

Aside from Halloween, you did other fun activities this month, such as play Legos with Daddy:

 

You made a placemat at school.

 

You enjoy classroom activities, such as learning about the calendar:

 

You enjoy that somewhat new and horribly crappy Disney movie Planes.  You have convinced us and your grandparents to buy you almost all of the planes featured in the movie.

 

You also love that totally weird and confusing music video What Does the Fox Say.  I have told you that what the fox says is not a mystery.  We have known all along the secret of the fox: On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur.  L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

 

It's been a busy month, and we are all tired by this point.  Last weekend, mommy was too tired to cook, so daddy took us out to lunch:

 

Daddy did a bike race, and it was a long day.  You requested to take a nap in the grass (holding one of your planes, of course).

 

Even though we were all tired, we took a little hike at Lone Elk Park afterwards.  It is very important to me that you get to know the woods, the wilderness.  I don't like that you are growing up inside a city, where there are so many buildings and cars.  We need to cherish these beautiful moments in the forest as much as we can.

 

 

William, it has been an amazing month with you.  Every day is a gift, and it just keeps getting better and better.

Love always, 

Mama

St. Louis Track Club 1/2

On November 3rd, I ran the St. Louis Track Club Half Marathon.  I decided to make an event out of it by running over to the start line, then running back home after I finished.  It would be about 17 miles total.  Piece of cake.

It was cold in the morning (I think around 36 degrees) and would raise to the high 40's by the end.  This presented a wardrobe dilemma.  I would need to wear warmer clothes while running over there (and waiting around at the start line), but I knew I would get to hot if I kept the outer layers on during the race. I decided to wear capris, a singlet, a thin long sleeve shirt, my Buff headband as an ear-warmer, and a pair of SmartWool gloves.  It was a good choice.

There were over 800 participants in the half marathon, and they had signs at the start line to help you line up by your projected pace.  I think this helped a lot to eliminate congestion.  I had this sort of vague idea that I wanted to run about 8:00 minute miles, but I had no idea if that was really feasible.  It has been years since I've run a half marathon, and the more I get into ultras, I have very little sense of what I am capable of over short distances on the road.  I think at when I was 22 or 23, I ran a half marathon in something like 1:42.  I figured for this one I'd end up running around 1:48, and that would probably make me feel old and slow, but whatever.  Life goes on.

It was weird to be at the start line of a road race.  For most of the people around me, this race was a big deal-- something they'd been training for and not just entered on a whim, and for many of them it would be the farthest they'd ever run in their life.  I felt out of place in my New Balance Minimus WT 1010 trail shoes and Farmdale 30-Mile Trail Run shirt.  There was a different kind of nervous energy here than at the start line of an ultra.  People were getting ready to run fast.  I wondered if I could do that anymore. 

Photo credit: Tykanoya. http://tykanoya.smugmug.com/Sports/St-Louis-Track-Club-12-Maratho/12-Marathon-2013/i-PmsRth6/A

Almost before I knew it, we were off.  I'd been worried that the start would feel congested with that many runners, but it went very smoothly.  I'd lined up at a good place.  I slipped by some runners, and others slipped by me, but overall, there was very little jockeying for space.  I felt like I was on my pace almost immediately.

The first mile was a slight uphill, I think, and within a few minutes I began to worry that I'd started out too fast.  I was having trouble getting enough air, I was heel-striking instead of forefoot-striking, and my quads felt like complete jelly.  This is the way I feel (or so I recall, as it has been a while) during a 5K, and it is not the way you want to feel 2 minutes into a half marathon.  

I kept my cool and ran.  I got to the first mile at 7:48.  Decent.  Not too fast, not too slow.  Probably right where I wanted to be.  The problem was: it felt hard to go at that pace, and this did not bode well.  But what could I do?  I decided to just see how long I could keep this up.

 

Rob and Will had walked over to the Wash-U campus, and I saw them shortly after mile 2 (which I'd hit at 7:35).  That, and a long downhill must have bolstered me, because I did mile 3 in 7:15.

Holy shit, this was bad. I did two 10K's over the summer, and I did not run a mile that fast in either of those.  This time I had more than twice as far to go, and I was running faster than my 10K pace.  Things were bound to explode.

Mile 4 was 7:23 in Forest Park.  My legs stopped feeling shaky and I thought, well, there is less than 10 miles left.  Maybe I can pull this off without falling apart.  But then there were hills and miles 5 and 6 were 7:36 and 8:05, respectively.  I told myself to get it together-- I didn't want to finish this thing by slogging 10 minute miles for the last half.  I did the best I could, alternating some faster and slower miles depending on the configuration of the hills.

By this point, I was feeling too hot to keep running comfortably.  I decided I needed to take off my long sleeve shirt and run in just my singlet.  This seemed weird because every other runner I had seen was dressed in complete winter gear.  Hats, gloves, tights, jackets.  Meanwhile, I was burning up.  I managed to whip off my shirt and tie it around my waist while only dropping to an 8:00 mile.  I picked it back up to 7:29 for the next.

It occurred to me that the way back to the finish had a very long (but gradual) uphill for about a mile or so right around campus.  I've run this route hundreds if not thousands of times before and know that this hill is exhausting even when you haven't been going faster than your 10K pace for over 10 miles.  I could only hope it didn't ruin me.

I survived the hill, with a pair of 8:05 and 8:09 miles.  This hurt like hell.  The wheels were beyond falling off.  I was losing my freaking mind. Will and Rob were on campus again, and even though I saw them, I could not talk to or even acknowledge them.  I was digging deep, putting myself into a world of hurt-- completely different than the hurt I've become accustomed to in ultras.  I threw my wadded up (and no longer needed) gloves onto the ground for Rob and Will to pick up and tried to keep going as fast as I can.

Several people passed me in the last mile, and I powered through downtown Clayton hell-bent on beating the clock. I felt completely out of my mind, but estatic when I crossed the finish line in 1:41:34. Even though I'd slowed a bit during the latter miles, this was without a doubt, the fastest half marathon I had ever run.

I ate some orange slices and just basked in that for a while.

I had left every ounce of myself out on the course and there was nothing left in the tank for me to run home on. So I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, and eventually I made it there.

Mass was letting out at the Catholic church just a block away from our house about the same time that I arrived. I saw one of our neighbors walk out of the church and into the parking lot, get into his car, and drive home. A block away. Less than a quarter mile.

I had just covered 17 miles on foot, including the fastest 1/2 marathon of my life, and our neighbor was driving one freaking block to church. I started to cry. When I got home, I told Rob about it, about how I can no longer stand to live in a place where people think it is okay to drive when your destination is one block away.

"But it is probably the same everywhere in the US," I lamented. "Where can we go where people don't drive when it is completely unnecessary?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe Amsterdam."

Thanks for reading.

What I learned from this race:

Road races are very different than trail ultras, but that doesn't make either of them "bad." I listen to several ultra running or trail running podcasts, and I can't stand it when the podcasters berate the shit out of road runners (which they do all the time). I grew into this "sport" as a road runner, and I will never leave the roads completely behind. That being said, I do not really feel comfortable in the road racing scene anymore. This was an extremely well organized race, but there was really nothing enjoyable about it, except crossing the finish line. It was an all-out, balls-to-the-walls effort for over an hour and forty minutes. That is really freaking intense, in an entirely different way than when you are pacing yourself to cover 30 or 50 miles. I definitely like the trails and the longer distances better, but I also think it is important to throw in events like these at least every once and a while. It helps to remind you why you run.

Mile 1: 7.48
Mile 2: 7.35
Mile 3: 7.13
Mile 4: 7.23
Mile 5: 7.36
Mile 6: 8.05
Mile 7: 7.28
Mile 8:  8.00
Mile 9: 7.29
Mile 10: 7.47
Mile 11: 8.05
Mile 12: 8.09
Mile 13: 7.58
Total: 1:41:34