Ann's Running Commentary

By Ann Brennan

I love being a mom. I loved the early days when all I wanted to do was hold them, watching every expression on their faces, turning their hands this way and that in complete and utter awe that they were mine. I loved teaching them to ride a bike, read and swim. And even now as I prepare to ship my oldest off to West Point in just two short months I love watching him grow into the man who will have a family of his own some day.

I love my children with all of my heart or as Zane says, “all the way to the moon and around all the planets, including Pluto and back to Earth and around all the houses.” But children grow up. I have known from the minute each of them was born that there would come a day when I would have to let them go. Even as they lay in my arms, sound asleep I cried at the very thought I would one day have to drop them off at college.

So, I did the only thing I could do. I prepared for the inevitable. I prepared by not letting my life completely revolve around theirs. I prepared by teaching them a sense of independence and by showing them that I am, whether they wanted to admit it or not, an independent person as well.

When they were younger, I taught them this by allowing them to have their quiet time, instead of a naptime, on the other side of the room from my treadmill. They could choose what they wanted to play as long as they did it quietly and didn’t disturb mommy’s running time. As they grew older they began to see the training schedule taped to the refrigerator and they came to understand that the days marked as long runs were mommy’s days. This was a great lesson for them.

But, it was a better lesson for me. By taking the me-time, by prioritizing my run in their lives I taught them that it was alright to give and I taught myself that it was alright to take.

The greatest moment of clarity came to me during the JFK 50-miler. Blaise and Megan were five and three years old, respectively. My husband was in the middle of his second year of law school and my life was a whirlwind of activity. But that day, as I was making my way down the towpath and runners on every side of me complained about how tired they were, I was filled with joy. I couldn’t believe my luck – thirteen hours without screaming, fighting children, thirteen hours all by myself doing something just for me.

Over the years I have moved from marathons to triathlons. I have become a fitness writer, making my running even more of a focus in my life but what I have really done is to become my own person.

Yes, I am Blaise, Megan and Zane’s mom. Yes, I am a wife, editor and writer. But I am also the runner and triathlete. By giving myself the gift of running and in turn the gift of time, I have given myself the gift of independence and I have given myself the ability to let my children become the people they were meant to be.

Everybody knows that I love running but after reading Mark Lyon’s piece on becoming the accidental runner, I am curious, what would you do if you couldn’t run anymore?

by Ann Brennan

There is a lot of head shaking around me these days. My kids shake their heads when I head to bed at nine because I am so tired after a big training day. My in-laws shake their heads at the idea that I would willingly jump into a jellyfish infested body of water and swim over two miles while being thrashed about by 1500 other swimmers. My husband shakes his head at the ever-growing pile of laundry, left there because it was either my long run or laundry and the long run won out. And even my running friends shake their heads as I explain that I gave up booze as part of the training regime.

“It’s just a race,” their shaking heads say, “Why put yourself through all of this? What do you have to gain?”

And I get it. I have raced for twenty years. Although, I do use the term race loosely. I have run in road races for twenty years. I have completed everything from one-mile track runs to a fifty miler. I have even completed a handful of triathlons but I don’t really race and even now, as I prepare for the Beach to Battleship Ironman Distance triathlon, I know that I won’t be racing anybody but myself.

But I will be racing myself because this race is more than just another race. For me, this race has been a journey. A journey that started thirty years ago, when, as a thirteen year old I sat on the arm of my father’s Lazy-boy and watched Julie Moss crawl across the finish line of the Hawaiian Ironman.

I was not a particularly athletic or graceful girl. I had played softball but only half-heartedly and only for one season. I roller-skated every weekend but only because there was music and friends and, truth be told, a snack bar. And although I was a cheerleader I freely admit that I wasn’t that kind of cheerleader. I wasn’t particularly fit. I couldn’t complete astounding gymnastic feats. The only thing I had going for me was that I was vertically challenged and was not afraid to be on the top of any pyramid.

Even so, I watched Julie Moss crawl across that finish line and I knew I had to do that. I had to complete an Ironman. Deciding was the first step on my journey. It took ten years before I took the next step and had I not just married the love of my life and realized the danger being obese really was, I might not have taken it then. But I did. Actually, we did. Together we ran our first mile, signed up for our first race and began training in the brutal North Carolina summer.

Since that time every step I have taken has brought me closer to my goal destination. Over twenty years I have learned to love running, biking and swimming. I have embraced my inner child as I zoomed down a hill at breakneck speed on my bike, picked off the runners in front of me one by one to edge just a little closer to the middle of the pack and even learned to enjoy being in the midst of a pack of anxiety crazed swimmers in the open water.

But the closer I get to the final destination, the more important the goal has become to me. It isn’t just another race. It is the culmination of years of hope, training, and frustrations.

This ironman represents more than any race has before. If I can take that little seed of hope that was planted when I was thirteen years old and carry it through to the finish line at Beach to Battleship it says something about me. Whether it says something to anybody else isn’t the point. It says something to me. It says that I can. I can push through. I can keep going. It may have taken thirty years but I can follow through.

I love Pinole and I love sharing this recipe. It took me quite a bit of time to find the specifics. Even with the couple of recipes I found online, I still had to change a few parts and get it just right.

I originally heard about Pinole in “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. He mentions that the Taraumara Indians who run hundreds of miles in the Copper Canyons of Mexico actually use Pinole like we use Gels or Gu here in America. So I decided to give it a try. If it’s that good for them and it’s completely natural and you can control what you put in it, why not give it a try?

Ingredients:
1 Cup of Cornmeal (toasted dry on the stove for about 5 minutes)
2 Tbsp. Chia Seeds
4 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
2 Tsp. Cinnamon
2 Eggs
4 Tbsp. Agave Nectar or Honey
Note: There are many other things to add and try. This is just my base Pinole. I have had success with adding peanut butter, chocolate chips, or even protein power. The extra stuff is up to your imagination.
Procedure:
1. Mix the dry ingredients; toasted cornmeal, chia seeds, brown sugar and cinnamon.
2. Add the eggs and sweetener. It will make a pasty substance, similar to a brownie but I still find it is best to mix by hand.
3. Place the mixture into a 12in x 12in greased. You can use either Pam or butter. Spread the Pinole evenly and place in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
4. Let it sit for about ten minutes before placing in the freezer for ten minutes. For me the freezer seems to help the Pinole stick together before I cut it into squares.
There may be a few crumbles but it is nothing compared to the first time, when I made it with water. I generally eat a piece for my afternoon snack. But it also works great for energy during a run. Give it a try and let me know how it works out. Also let me know any crazy ingredient ideas.

Alex Bridgeforth is a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army. He is addicted to running and has created Addicted to Running, a running blog.

It started at mile 12 of a 13-mile run. A cramp in my thigh, a Charlie horse for lack of a better word. I stopped running, stretched and walked the rest of the way home. Over the following weeks the pain moved, finally settling in my knee.

When I described the pain to Coach Jeff, I told him it was a weakness. Although there was pain, I refused to describe it as an injury. It was not excruciating. It woke me up at night but even then it wasn’t horrible. Mostly it was just a weakness, a true lack of strength.

But what I forgot, what I always forget when it comes to injury is that physical weakness is quickly followed by mental weakness. I kept trying to run but each run was worse than the one before. Eventually, I just had to stop. I put the kibosh on my spring marathon and went into healing mode. But it was too late. My head had taken a beating.

During the time I was struggling with the injury, I had belittled myself. I had begun to think of myself as a poser. I had thought, “Athlete? Really?” And I had taken it all to heart.

I was still putting in my bike and swim workouts but only half-heartedly. And worse than that I had stopped living the life that I have for the past ten years or so. I stopped eating properly, I stopped getting enough sleep, and in many ways I ran in circles beating myself up and putting myself down.

Finally, I started physical therapy and in the process met Laura. She listened. When I said there was a weakness she probed. Was there a weakness before the pain? Had I noticed anything different in my running form? Were their other times I noticed differences in how my leg was working mechanically?

Together we realized that yes, for over a year this injury had been in the making. Because of another injury I had stopped doing any strength work for my legs. As the muscles atrophied, my hip began to drop and my knee began to fall in with each step, but especially during long runs when I was most tired.

For three weeks now I have been religiously following the program Laura has set up for me. It takes a huge amount of time and effort each day but slowly I have felt the strength come back into my legs and with it I have noticed my mental strength improving. I am beating myself up a little less each day but more than that I am feeling more confident.

It is easy to forget as runners that we are more than what our bodies can do. It is easy to wrap our mental strength around our physical goals. I can’t say that it won’t happen again, that I won’t let the next injury get me down, but I do hope that I will remember this. I hope I will remember that an injury is just an injury. I can either wallow in the self-pity of being out of the game or I can work towards getting back into the game.

Today, I am running a mile, my second mile this week. It isn’t a lot but it is a beginning. It is a step in the right direction, both physically and mentally and now I know it is just the first of many steps.

By Chef David Buchanan of Chef’s Resources

The classic Cobb Salad has bacon, avocado, tomato, diced egg, chicken and bleu cheese. This Pacific Northwest variation replaces the avocado and chicken with smoked salmon and Dungeness crab. I also “up-scaled” it a bit by using apple-smoked bacon and deviled quail eggs. And the addition of Kalamata olives and Oregon bleu cheese put this over the top for an elegant yet simple dinner salad.

Wine suggestion: 2010 Barrage Cellars Riesling (!) Yakima, WA
Ingredients:
3 Oz Spring Mix Lettuce
3 Oz Hard-Smoked Salmon, hand-broken chunks
2 Each Hard Boiled Quail Deviled Egg
1 Oz Apple Smoked Bacon, julienne
2 Oz Dungeness Crab Meat
1 Oz Kalamata Olives, halved
2 Oz Oregon Bleu Cheese, crumbled
3 Oz Vine-ripe Tomato, julienne
1 Oz Fried Onion Strings
2 Oz House Ranch Dressing
Procedure:
1) Cook the bacon to desired doneness. Cool to room temperature and cut into long, thin strips. Reserve.
2) You can substitute the quail eggs with regular eggs. Either way, make your favorite deviled egg recipe and fill the eggs. Reserve.
3) Cut the tomato into long strips. Reserve.
4) For the onion straws, thin slice sweet onions. Lightly dust in flour with a pinch of salt. Carefully fry in a tall-sided pot with 3” of oil (such as peanut or canola oil). Be sure the oil is hot before adding the onions. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider and let cool on paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Do not let the oil smoke! If it starts to smoke turn it off immediately.
5) To assemble: place the lettuce in a large bowl. Arrange the toppings in strips as follows:
a. Bleu Cheese – white – salty
b. Tomato – red
c. Kalamata – black – salty
d. Crab – white
e. Onion – beige
f. Salmon – red – salty
g. Egg – white
h. Bacon – brown – salty

Notes: for a lower sodium version substitute the Kalamata olives with diced avocado. The fried onion is there to add some “crunch” but can be replaced with croutons if you wish. I brine and smoke my own sockeye salmon (perhaps another recipe to share in the future!), but you can find hard smoked salmon in many grocery stores.

You can also follow David and Chef Resources on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/ChefsResources