This run brought to you by the letter A

for Alcohol. The rest of today is brought to you by the letter C. For coffee.

Not T for tempo.  Although this week’s went significantly better than last week’s. I think it had to do with the fact that yesterday at work I had a real craving for a flatbread-esque pizza.  Luckily the girl I share an office with (and who I’ve been, like living with lately!) agreed with me and we went to her place after work to make and eat pizza.  And I may or may have had my first sip of alcohol in the form of beer with the pizza.  Nothing beats the taste of a cold beer with a pizza.  Here’s a picture just so you don’t think that all I do is bake and eat cookies and pies.

It was really easy to make too.  We took tortilla wraps and toasted them in the oven for 5 minutes.  Then we added a spicy basil pasta sauce and some broccoli, spinach and tomatos that were seasoned with basil.  Then we sprinkled grated mozzarella cheese on top and placed back in the oven for 10 minutes or whenever the cheese had melted.  Since I love flatbread pizzas this was awesome.  The beer was good too,  I texted my friend who joined us too what kind of beer was a good pizza beer and he suggested I pick up Shock Top wheat.  It was delicious.  Dare I say that I may be becoming a beer person?

Before digging into the pizza, however, we did make a rum vanilla pudding pie.  Rather than be *completely* lazy we decided to make the graham cracker crust ourselves.  We also added a healthy dose of my good friend Morgan

and I just want to point out the bananas in the background. Picture of health.

So I was running on pizza, beer and vanilla rum pie this morning.  With a lack of sleep as I didn’t get back to my place until 0100. Oops. But it was worth it because we watched Salt.  Amazing! Total BAMF and I absolutely loved it.  Thanks to Lacey for writing about it and making me pause at the Redbox last night 🙂

Surprisingly the run didn’t go as bad as I would have thought and went a little something like this

• Warmup
• “Tempo”: 5.6 miles @ 7:36 pace (2.2 miles @ 7:52, 2.2 @ 7:26, 1.2 @ 7:26)
• Warm down
• 1.6 miles @ 8:26 pace

Overall I got in 15.2 miles at an 8:33 pace.  Not too shabby.  Again the tempo is in quotes because it really wasn’t an actual tempo.  But I’m getting there!

After seeing the first 2.2 miles be so slow I muttered some cuss words.  Like more than a few. So I decided to try and maintain the effort for the rest of my planned “tempo” route and then, because we’re supposed to be getting 12″+ of snow tonight and I don’t know what my LR will look like later this week, make it into a makeshift long run because I knew that my paces were NOT fast enough to be tempo.  Faster than last week (where my average for 4.4 miles was 7:44ish) but not the 6:50-7:05 that a tempo should target for me. So I think that the ebb and flow of pace today was good for a LR.

Of course those goal paces are based on my current marathon PR and I’m not sure I want to attack Boston as an overall PR race.  I say that right now and I’m not really feeling all gung-ho.  I’m pretty sure it’ll pass though. I definitely will commit to gunning for a course PR (and a sub3:30 because that’s what I was targeting last year) and the pace I was at today is below that MP and it was a bit hard of a pace but nothing dreadful.  It was actually a bit enjoyable by the end.  So I’m optimistic that Boston will be good to me.

In any case I had a really good hard LR this morning.  Just in time to go out and buy booze and ride out this “extreme storm” that we’re supposed to be getting tonight.  We’ve already been called out of work for Wednesday. Hizzzzoller.

Guest Post: Mary and Christina’s Pizza

(First check out the giveaways from Shelby and Marcia)

Hello again from afar! As I’m writing this before I go I can’t really say 100% that I’m having fun but I’m going to anyway because I know I will be:  I’M HAVING SO MUCH FUN. Vacation is something I need to do more often. Yay

Anyway I have another guest post for you.  From the lovely ladies at Sisters Running the Kitchen: Mary and Christina.  They’re such awesome cooks, chefs, runners, bloggers and just good people 🙂 So check them out.  And I’m so glad they agreed to do a post for me because, as the title of their blog suggests, they do a lot of cooking.  I keep saying I’m going to but I never do.  It’s very exciting that I get to feature them!

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Pizza night at our house is always a big hit. Instead of ordering pizza, our family likes to make our own. Ever since we can remember our parents have always enjoyed making pizza at home. More recently, we have made a few changes to the way we prepare our pizza and we are coming very close to perfecting it. When we make it at home, we make a variety of kinds to satisfy everyones taste buds. They typically include Plain, Veggie (Broccoli, Spinach, Mushrooms), Sausage, and Pepperoni. Our most recent experimentation included something a bit different this time. We created a pizza with Fig, Caramelized Onion, Ricotta and Gorgonzola with a Balsamic Reduction. This combination turned out so delicious. We found that the various layers of flavors complemented each other very well. This recipe will definitely be in the rotation for our next pizza night.

Ingredients

• Red Onion, caramelized
• Dried or Fresh Figs, sliced
• Gorgonzola Cheese, crumbled
• Ricotta Cheese
• Balsamic Reduction (directions below)
• Pizza Dough

Directions

• Prepare the pizza dough and shape and roll out to desired thickness.
• Spread the Ricotta Cheese on the top of the dough.
• Add the sliced Figs and Caramelized Onions. Click here for directions on how to caramelize onions.
• Add a hefty drizzle of the Balsamic Reduction on top of the pizza.
• Place pizza on preheated pizza stone on the highest temperature possible on grill or in oven.
• About half way to three quarters of the way through cooking, add the crumbled gorgonzola cheese to top of pizza.
• Cook until crust is browned on top and bottom of pizza.

**To make Balsamic Reduction, simply place about a 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar in a pot. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer on medium heat until liquid is significantly reduced and becoming thicker. Add a pinch of brown sugar. Liquid will thicken up after taken off heat and allowed to cool.

Prior to going on grill.

Do you make any unique pizza combinations or do you have any good ideas for pizza toppings?