Stay Rad

Back from the run. Let's reheat the coffee and make some brek (That's short for breakfast).

Yesterday, Kara and I noticed on the tail end of our morning (10:00 am) run how hot it is starting to get.  For the most part, during the fall, winter, and spring you can run any time of day outside without the fear of overheating.  As the summer time rolls around, you have to start earlier in the day.  You have to.

Sure enough, later that day (with the temperature exceeding 90 degrees farenheit) it seemed like everywhere we looked we saw people running.  Stupid people running.  Running with sweatpants on.  Running with their big thick-coated dogs.  All of them (people and dogs) looking like they wanted to die.  All of them (just the people here) looking stupid.

“We are not those people,” I told Kara.  “We will never run in that type of heat.  Tomorrow, we run EARLY.”

I woke up this morning at 6:30 am.

The fab four: Mug, Grinder, Beans, and a Coffee Pot

I fed the dog.  I brewed a pot of some tasty Puerto Rican coffee (A special thank you to my sister.  The greatest out-of-the-blue gift I’ve ever been given).  I got dressed.  Walked the dog.  Mixed up some of my electrolyte drink (Gu Brew).  Grabbed Kara.  We got to the trail at 8:15.

The plan for me was to do a mile warm-up, six miles at my tempo pace (~7’30″/mile since I’m training to run a half-marathon at 7 minutes a mile), and a mile cool down.  That’s Eight Miles if you are counting, Eminem.  I felt okay during the warm-up.  When I started my tempo run at mile two, I was doin’ alright.

Then…

The turn-around.

I was 4 miles away from my car, and when I turned to run back toward the starting point, I saw it.  The hot, bright, unforgiving Sun.  It had been at my back during the first half of my run, but now it was going to kick my ass.

My face and chest started to heat up.  I felt beads of sweat run down my forehead, along the side of my nose, under my sunglasses, and now they were pooling up just under my bottom eyelids.  As the ponds of salty water got bigger, they began to drain into and subsequently sting my eyes. What was once a brisk 7’30” per mile pace quickly slowed to a shuffling 11 minute mile.

I was spent, and I still had two miles to go.  Just nearing the end of the run, I caught up to Kara (who was finishing a six-miler).  “How was it?” I asked.

“Hot!”

“We are not the kind of people to run in this kind of heat, Kara.  Tomorrow… tomorrow, we run EARLIER!”

When we got home, I was dog tired… AND HUNGRY.

I still had some left over hamburger meat from the other day, so I figured I’d make my version of a Joe’s Special.  If you’re not from the Bay Area and don’t know what that is, I forgive you.  If you are a local and you don’t know what I am talking about, I will find you and slap you… HARD.

Traditionally, the Joe’s Special is an egg scramble with ground beef and spinach.  Outside of that, you can take any angle that you want.  I didn’t have any spinach on hand, but I did have hella tortillas so…

I threw the ground beef into a hot ass pan. Yes. That is a Rachel Ray omelette pan. It rules. That, and the handle is orange.

I put two taco sized corn tortillas in the toaster and set it to "bagel".

The beef was broken up and given some chopped onions, salt, pepper, and Trader Joe's curry powder. Mucho authentico!

Add egg, and scramble it up. Plate on top of the two interlocking tortillas. Top with half an avocado and 3 tomato slices. Joe's Special? More like Jeff's Rad! Am I right?

Save the leftovers so your wife can have a veggie sandwich later.

I ate this hearty brek while watching Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell” on the DVR.  The movie was okay.  Kind of fun.  I think it paired well with the fluffiness of the eggs.

I think the story would have worked out better for the main character if the title was "Don't Drag Me to Hell". What do you think?

After breakfast, Kara and I set out to do a few errands.  The heat was so draining, that we gave up on them about half way through.  With plenty of time left in the day, we headed over to Guglielmo Winery to use our free tasting coupon.  We spent almost two hours there… Just kicking back and enjoying the day.

Sometimes when it gets too hot, you just have to slow down.

Stay Rad,

Jeff