Three Days to Go!!!!

I'm three days away from running in the Boston Marathon, and I can barely contain my excitement. The funny thing is, I'm not as nervous as I often am so close to a big race. I think the difference is, this time, I KNOW I am going to have a great marathon. (I'm not being cocky, Koach Kelsey told me long ago that it's important to KNOW you're going to achieve your goal.)

I feel like I've done everything right in my training. I've put in more miles than I've ever done before while training for a marathon: 555 since the beginning of the year. I've been diligent about getting in speed work, going to the Armory workouts as least once a week, usually twice, since it started in November. My weekly swim workouts have helped me with my overall fitness, and my weekly computrainer and spinning sessions have readied my quads for the tough hills of Boston.

And during this time, I have gotten faster and faster. At my first Armory workout, I was running my 400s in the 1:30s. Now I'm finishing my workouts with sub-6 minute miles. My Manhattan Half in January was a disappointing 1:42. Two months later, I set a PR in New Jersey of 1:29:28. And that was followed by a 2:15:18 in the Wurtsboro Mountain 30k -- 2 minutes faster than my time in 2008 when I was in great shape (and 23 minutes faster than last year when I was in not-so-great shape).

And to top it off, two weekends ago, I did a Boston "Blue Line Run" -- running the last 20 miles of the Boston Marathon (plus two additional miles) -- where I kept up the whole time with Kelsey, Jerry and Kevin, who are all fast, strong runners. And the last four miles of our run was at about a 6:40 pace! And I felt great!

Boston Blue Line Run

Actual Boston Marathon

So I'm announcing it now, for all the world to hear: I am hoping to get a PR in Boston. A sub-3:09:20 (3:08 has a nice ring to it). I know I can do it even though my PR is from Chicago, which is pancake flat. And even though in Chicago I had the benefit of running with a pace group. And even though I am almost two years older now. My training has been there. I've had the support of my club, my friends and my Koach. And I'm leaner and meaner now than I've ever been in my life. This is going to be a great race, and I'm so excited for it!!!

Me and Paul, sporting our Boston '10 shirts. We'll both be getting new ones this year!

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This might be my lightest since about 7th grade.

7th grade.

This past weekend at the Scotland Run

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We had another meeting of the Front Runners Secret Recipe Exchange Society the other night. Our theme ingredients were eggs and bitter greens. This gave me a chance to showcase some fun and traditional Chinese dishes.

At first, I had wanted to make a trio of Chinese egg-based street food. This would have included tea eggs, salted duck eggs (you take eggs and put them in a saltwater brine for a month and the salt infuses and cures the egg), and 100 year-old eggs with tofu (you take eggs and cover them in ash and lime for a month and the eggs take on the delicious aroma of sulfur and ammonia). But then I thought some of those would be too weird for the group.

I kept the tea eggs, a popular snack item in China that's as ubiquitous on the streets and in 7-Elevens there as the hot dog is in the U.S. I also made two traditional dishes of Northern China: Scrambled Eggs with Tomato, and Preserved Mustard Greens with Soybeans and Tofu Skin. I think they were all pretty popular, although I noticed Chris Stoia didn't touch his tea egg.  >:-(   If he had unpeeled it, he would have seen a pretty, marbled pattern on the egg white. Recipes are below.  Just giving you a hard time, Chris...there was so much food that night.

Preserved Mustard Greens with Edamame and Tofu Skin

This dish is customarily made with the milder “Sher Li Hon” leaf mustard greens,http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/cb_sherz.html; but I like the spicier variety that comes in heads known as “Gai Choy” http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/cb_green.html#gaic

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds mustard greens, chopped
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 cup edamame beans
• Tofu skin, chopped
• Optional: sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar
• Optional: 1 clove garlic

Sprinkle salt over mustard greens and mix well. Let sit 1-2 hours, mixing every 30 minutes. Squeeze the water. Mix with other ingredients. If desired, lightly sauté everything together.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomato

Ingredients:

• One dozen eggs, beaten
• 4 tomatoes, cut into bit-sized pieces
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Ground white pepper
• Ground Sichuan pepper
• 1 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 scallions chopped

Oil the pan and scramble the eggs. Stir the eggs occasionally; you want to end up with pieces of egg that are approximately the same size as the tomatoes you cut. Remove the eggs from pan when almost done.  Oil the pan again, add garlic and tomatoes. Saute for a minute, adding soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper. You don’t want the tomatoes to turn to mush. When almost done, add the scrambled eggs. Mix well. Adjust seasoning and add chopped scallions at the last minute.

Tea Eggs

Ingredients:

• One dozen eggs
• 2-3 black tea teabags
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• Five spice (you can get sachets of the five spices or make your own: cinnamon, fennel seed, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves; five spice powder is OK but not ideal)
• Dried orange peels
• Ginger
• Scallions

In a pot, cover eggs with water. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Remove eggs and crack shell evenly around each egg. Return to water and all other ingredients. Simmer for 2-6 hours. Enjoy hot or cold.