Drunken Veggie Chili

I love to cook and I love to alter other people's recipes, but I rarely come up with anything on my own. This recipe, though? All mine. It actually happened by accident: B had a chili cookoff at work and, procrastinators that we are, we didn't even try to think of a plan until the night before. We threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and it worked like a charm. Chances of that ever working out again: 0%.

Ingredients: 

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1.5 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cans (15oz each) diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp light brown sugar 
• 1 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 cup APA beer (we used Schlafly) 
• 3 cans (15oz each) of beans (we used kidney, pinto, and black beans)
• 2 cups water (plus or minus)
• Optional: shredded mozzarella cheese and Greek yogurt.*

Directions: 

1. Warm olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. 
2. Add onions, garlic, and bell peppers. Let saute until just short of caramelized, about 5 minutes. 
3. Add chili powder and red pepper flakes, let cook for another minute. 
4. Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, salt, pepper, beer, beans, and enough water to reach desired thickness (we used around 2 cups). Bring chili to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes. 
5. Serve with mozzarella and a dollop of Greek yogurt. 
6. Optional: refrigerate overnight to thicken. Reheat next day. Win cookoff. 

We used McCormick Chipotle Chili Pepper instead of regular chili powder. It's amazing and a little spicy. Use regular chili powder or a mixture of the two if you're worried about the heat.

If I'm not crying, gasping, and choking, then it's not hot enough

Full disclosure: I hate beer. Luckily, the alcohol cooks off so the beer just adds a nice deep flavor that is so often missing from vegetarian chili. My first attempt at a meatless chili (from a real recipe, even!) tasted like chewy, barely-spiced beans...not good when you want a warm, comforting bowl of yum.

Do you want a picture of the finished product? Let me answer that question with a question. Have you ever tried to make a bowl of chili look appetizing in a picture taken at 8PM with an iPhone? (Hint: it's impossible)

What's your favorite recipe, vegetarian or otherwise?  I have too many to choose from (I know, that's a cop out)
Do you like spicy foods? YES. I have yet to meet a buffalo wing that is hot enough for me, much less too hot.

*Note that this recipe is vegan if you don't serve it with cheese and yogurt and pick your beer carefully.

New Lab, New Plan

Today I started working in a new lab! First year grad students rotate through several labs over the course of a year before they pick a place to do their thesis work. It's a great way to try out some different things before you commit 5+ years to one group, but it's a bummer to feel like a nomad for 10 months. I had gotten comfortable with the people and protocols in my old lab JUST in time to switch.

Regardless, today was fun and I feel good about my projects for the next few months. I'm in a new, much fancier building that has awesome wooden lockers for the scientists and SHOWERS in the bathrooms! I've been wanting to start swimming or running before work, but it would have been a huge pain to come back to the apartment just to shower and then walk to my lab. Now I can just finish my workout by running right to my building and showering/changing there!

Anyway...now that I'm done geeking out over a shower...
(But really, if you can't get excited about the little things, what else is there?)

I tried to go on an easy recovery run yesterday afternoon, but my calf "injury" was bothering me so I cut it short. One of my goals for my running from here on out is to listen to my body. I have a problem with either being a slave to a training schedule or totally blowing it off. Actually, the two are related - as soon as I miss or modify a scheduled run, I figure the whole thing has gone to hell in a handbasket and my plan spirals out of control. This leads to (a) initial overtraining/injury because I push when I shouldn't and then (b) severe undertraining because I'm either injured or I've given up.

No more.

This time around, I'm going to be smart, i.e. I'm not going to do 7 miles on a strained calf just because that's what my calendar told me to do. I've been an athlete since I was 9, and I need to trust that I know the difference between normal pain and "back off now!" pain. I've also left myself plenty of time to get ready for this marathon, as opposed to the 1.5 months "training" that I've done for both of my half marathons. Hopefully this means that I won't beat myself up for modifying runs because I'll know that I have time to make up the missed miles. I'm going to be serious about my stretching and foam rolling, I'll improve my nutrition, and I'll make sure that I get enough sleep. Come April, I will be ready to kill some miles and eat some hills (well, I'm always ready for hills).

And to lighten the mood, I'll leave you with a picture of Carly, a.k.a. the jello dog.

She sleeps like this all. the. time. 

Do you follow a training plan?
One of my favorite bloggers, Skinny Runner, is a marathon-running beast and she never follows a plan. Color me jealous.

Hermann London Halloween 5K

B's parents are visiting this weekend! His mom was one of the people who first inspired me to get into running competitively, and now B is showing a renewed interest in the sport. We toyed around with the idea of running a race together, and it was a done deal once I found out about a local Halloween run. Racing PLUS a costume contest? We're there.

After several phone calls to both of our parents, we decided to try for the "best group costume" prize and go as a shark, a swimmer, and a surfer/victim. Sharks have always been my favorite animals and this wasn't the first time I dressed as one for Halloween! B's parents stopped by my mom's house to pick up my shark costume from yearrrssss ago, and they schlepped that thing all the way to St. Louis. Meanwhile, we got our "surfboard" (old foam boogie board) ready for the race.

It was actually the first race that B and I ever ran together, so it was pretty special. He's usually my bag holder/jacket giver/man slave before races, and he hasn't competed since high school cross country. It was fun to see him get excited about running again!

Sleepy breakfast time!

We arrived an hour early because we bought our race entries from Living Social (great idea, by the way) and were worried that our registration might have been messed up. It all worked out great, though, and we used the extra time to drive back to our apartment to pick up the boogie board that I had forgotten. Brilliant.

Lots of people LOVED the shark costume. B wore a very realistic bloody T-shirt (thank you, gel food coloring) with goggles and a swim cap, and his mom wore a swim suit with goggles around her neck. We decided to all run together because I couldn't see a thing and the course was open to traffic. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

We ditched the boogie board 5 seconds after this picture was taken.

The course was a lot hillier than we were anticipating, and we lost B's mom early on. I, of course, took each hill as a personal challenge and sprinted up as fast as I could. B stuck with me and was a great guide..."car on your right...pothole...parked car on your left...hey, let's pass this lady!"

The mesh covering my face turned to steel wool sometime during the second mile, so I'm currently sporting a nice red nose. Not gonna lie - running in that thing wasn't a ton of fun. It was hot and I couldn't see, but it was neat to wave at little kids on the course and to pass people who weren't in costume. 

We finished at a 26:16 - not nearly as fast as we could have gone, but we were pretty happy with our times under the circumstances. I heard one guy at the finish line say to his son "Hey, you see that shark? It beat me!" Chomp chomp. 

We didn't win the costume contest, so it was obviously rigged. For what it's worth, the race director's wife came over to us said that we were her favorites! They had hot dogs and chips for the runners, so we hung out for a little while and listened to the band play. This was my first 5K - I gravitate towards the longer races - so it was a nice way to recover from last week's half marathon and have some fun with my family. 

Have you ever raced in a costume? 

Rock n Roll St Louis Recap/Review

After a grumpy 5AM wakeup call, B and I showed up at the race around 6AM for a 7AM start. We found super-close, super-cheap parking and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. I was surprised at how few people were there by 6, but it made it easy to find my corral, grab a bottle of water, and use the bathroom (no lines at the porta potties!).

At about 6:45 I shed my outermost layers, parted ways with B, and made my ways into the 9th corral. It. was. cold. The weather in St Louis has been schizophrenic lately, but I don't think that many of us expected such a frosty morning. The race also began about 10 minutes late, so it was 7:20 by the time my corral crossed the starting line. The announcer counted down for each corral's start, so every 90 seconds we heard "10...9....8... come on, everyone count with me! *dead silence* ...7.....6...." and I wanted to punch her.

The gorgeous view from the start

Not only could I not feel my extremities, but my butt was totally numb for the first mile. Has that ever happened to you? It was awkward.

I hadn't gone on a single run in two weeks, for a total of about 10 miles total in the month before the race. It was probably dumb to even run this race, but I'm a stubborn pig who likes medals. This was originally going to be a PR attempt, but I gave up on that at the starting line and decided just to have fun.

One big complaint: the lack of bands along the course. The ones that were there were good, and I really appreciated their time and effort, but this race didn't "rock" nearly as much as I thought it would. Some "band stations" just had speakers blaring Justin Bieber. Also, the band at mile 5 was playing "Halfway There" by Bon Jovi when I ran by. No one - halfers or marathoners - was even close to "halfway there," so I felt some insult piling on top of the injury that 5 miles will do to undertrained legs (more on that in a later post).

At mile 4 I decided that I was going to go for my original goal of PRing with a sub 2-hr race.

The course support was great, and the volunteers were the best part of this race. They were numerous, they were cheerful, and they were quick to clear empty cups out of the road. There were water/gatorade stations every 1.5 miles or so, and there was a Gu station around mile 7. They had vanilla Gu - my favorite!

At mile 7 the mental struggle started, and I decided that PRing was ridiculous and dumb.

At mile 8, I did some mental math and decided to PR.

At mile 9, I decided that PRing was not going to happen, plus it was ridiculous and dumb,.

At mile 10, I was hell bent on going under 2 hours.

Around mile 11, I saw a sign that said "ONE MILE TO BEER." I was so delirious from my internal PR struggle that I assumed that I missed a few mile markers and was about to come up on the finish. EXCITEMENT. I mean, they couldn't give us beer on the course, right?

Wrong. A local bar was passing out little paper cups of PBR to anyone willing to imbibe on the run. I was so confused that when I got to the next aid station I wasn't sure what was in the cups, so I screamed "WATER?!?!??" at the poor volunteer to confirm that I wasn't about to get a bitter surprise. Also, that last aid station had put water in the Gatorade cups (and vice versa) and my delusional brain couldn't handle the switch.

The grunting and groaning started at mile 12, when I decided to sprint for the finish. I had eaten a Shot Blok right after the last aid station and my stomach was sick of my bull. I had to slow down my painful slog sprint so I wouldn't puke on the side of the course. I dragged my butt across the finish line at 1:58.41, a 7 minute PR that was fueled by stubbornness and vanilla Gu.

The secure zone is my favorite part of races. Where else can I grab free food to my hearts content AND get a medal for my trouble? It was a struggle to hold onto everything until I met B at the gate. My quads starting cramping almost immediately, so we walked a few slow, painful laps around the family reunion area while I ravaged a bagel and whimpered.

The medals were glittery and HEAVY. The ribbon was awkwardly short, but no big. Notice the attractively chipped nail polish. We didn't stick around to hear 3OH!3 play because we knew our dog was probably going nuts at home. I got back to the apartment, showered, ate, and still had time to sit at the window and watch the marathoners go by. At that point, it was better them than me.

Overall, I loved the volunteers and support, but the course was boring with a capital B. Very few spectators, very few hills, and almost no music. It felt more like a 13.1 mile training run with a few thousand of my best friends. However, this is only the second time St Louis has hosted a Rock 'n' Roll race, so I might be tempted to sign up for next year (if I registered early and with a discount code). I think there's some good potential here.

Have you ever ran a Rock 'n' Roll race? 
What did you think?