Pre-race pasta? No, it's all about the MEAT.

A pre-race pasta dinner is a religious tradition in the running community. Supposedly, it is the most effective means of carbo-loading before a big race. However, in high school, I soon discovered I ran much better the day after eating a gigantic steak with a side of mashed potatoes. It makes much more sense now that I have been diagnosed with Celiac, but I still make it a point to eat piles of meat before race day.


So, when I was faced with a Sunday race this past weekend, I went all out on Saturday night with the meat. Grilled T-bone steak and pan-seared shrimp with homemade seasoning. I topped it off with cilantro-enhanced jasmine rice and a pile of fresh spinach for a delicious meal. However, I might have been a bit stuffed for the race on Sunday.


The race itself went fairly well. It was a full-blown marathon relay, with five people completing separate legs to cover the full distance. I had anchor responsibilities, so I got to play the waiting game before trying to blast off a fast 5k. A few things I (re-)discovered during my portion of the race:

1. I am a racer, not a pacer. I need to learn how to run fast by myself.
2. If you are passing a lot of people who are running much slower than you, you will feel much faster than you actually are. Pick it up.
3. A 5k race should not ever feel like a tempo run. Pick it up.
4. Finally, pick it up.

I finished slower than I wanted to, but I had a nice kick. I think I will need to do a few more road races before I get used to 5k racing again.

In elite running news, Laalou took the men's Fifth Avenue Mile with an incredibly fast finish, and Rowbury took the women's title in an extremely exciting race. I somehow managed to get home from my own race in time to catch these two races. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch the Berlin marathon, which surprisingly ended in a sprinting race. Check out the video below.



That's all for now. Until next time - have fun.

The Sky Is Falling! Facebook is Down!

Or at least Facebook was down when I started writing this blog!

So it has been a few days since I last wrote an entry. I know, this is unacceptable. However, I have been quite busy with work related items. I finally got a good draft of my dissertation proposal abstract complete. I finished a paper which my advisor and a few Italian collaborators have been working on. I sat through many meetings and did not sleep through them. And I finished some final computations which are are the direct result of the work of a particular Russian whose mugshot appears below. A Russian, in fact, who apparently once said, "Every mathematician believes he is ahead over all others. The reason why they don't say this in public is because they are intelligent people." Zing.


In other news, I am in love. That's right. Grease called me by name and told me, "Today is the day you will go to Five Guys." And I did. And it was delicious. And I am fiercely in love. For those of you who do not know, you can get an amazing gluten-free meal of burger and fries at Five Guys by requesting "no bun". At the restaurants I have been to, you can even get them to use a new spatula, gloves, etc. by mentioning a wheat allergy. And trust me - it is worth it. The burgers and especially the fries are delicious. Greasy deliciousness. However - I wouldn't eat there often. Apparently their standard double patty burger packs a whopping 800 calories. But sometimes love calls you by name, and you have to answer.

Anyways, I suppose I will throw some pictures up of other things I have been cooking lately. The first item of note - fried rice with peas, green onions, cilantro, eggs, and low-fat ham complete with gluten-free soy sauce (I use Eden Organic). I used only a touch of olive oil during cooking and a small tad of soy sauce to keep the fried rice as healthy as possible. Of course, one could always up the oil and soy sauce for maximum taste.


The second item - gluten-free mac and cheese. I used Ancient Harvest quinoa noodles, low-fat cheddar cheese, rice flour, paprika, and skim milk to make the dish. It was much healthier than your standard mac and cheese, but unfortunately a bit less creamy and wholesome. But that is what you get with skim milk. Either way, it was still a delicious dish to have at the end of the day.

You know you are getting back in shape when...

Your metabolism is skyrocketing. Easy runs are truly feeling easy again. Your legs begin to feel like springs after a few days off. You are finally getting back in shape. This is the position I am in, and I am very happy about it.

This morning, I had a breakfast before my morning run and a second breakfast AFTER the run and still felt hungry! My metabolism is seriously getting out of control, and, if I am not careful, my food budget will surely get out of control too. With the increased metabolism, I have been very careful to make sure I eat a lot of home-cooked meals and snacks. It is cheaper and healthier. So today, after breakfasts #1 and #2, I made myself a helping of BBQ red potatoes. The recipe is super straightforward - wash and slice up 2 red potatoes, "boil" them in a little water plus a dash of extra virgin olive oil for 10 minutes in a skillet, drain the water, and then "fry" them for about 4 minutes with the slightest of extra virgin olive oil. I usually add a dash of salt, some pepper, and a bit of chili pepper between the boiling and frying stages. Finally, serve with your favorite gluten-free BBQ sauce (I now use Stubb's as it has recently been made gluten-free!). Its a delicious treat for the super voracious.


In running related news, the Fifth Avenue Mile is really stacked this year. On the men's side: Bernard Lagat, Leonel Manzano, Nick Willis, Andy Baddeley, and Alan Webb. On the women's side: Shannon Rowbury, Sara Hall, Carmen Douma-Hussar, Molly Huddle, and Kalkidan Gezahegn. I am not entirely sure who I should cheer for either race. I should cheer on Leo as he is the hometown (Austin) favorite, but I am really excited about Webb's comeback (and, for what its worth, my roommate is going to his wedding). As for the women, I am a huge Rowbury fan, but I grew up seeing Molly Huddle race in the many of the same high school invitationals as me. In any case, I am super excited about the mile, and I am hoping some records fall. It would be about time - the men's record was set during the first Fifth Avenue Mile 30 years ago.

Finally, I just wanted to mention one article. As a preface, let me talk about a particular running website I spend a fair amount of time on - Letsrun. Now Letsrun is a fantastic place to get news about the running scene, focusing more on the elite side of things than magazines such as Runner's World. I have really appreciated that over the years. However, what Letsrun is really known for is its message board, where college athletes and assistant coaches often make race predictions, shit talk, and generally troll about. Now, I will be honest - a large number of the posts on the board are complete shit. However, there are a few fantastic threads to read through, especially with elite coaches such as Renato Canova regularly visiting and posting. I have never posted on the boards, but I am a frequent lurker. Well, apparently someone over at Running Times finally got fed up and wrote a response article to all the bashing. Letsrun is never explicitly mentioned by name, but it is incredibly obvious who the target of the article is. When I first saw the response article, I was highly amused. Someone had finally called out the Letsrun boards on some place other than the boards themselves. However, the article was unfortunately ill-placed - Running Times is not the correct medium for such a rant. I believe most Running Times readers have never even heard of Letsrun. To make matters worse, I honestly can't think of another place to put such a rant besides Letsrun itself - and I don't think that would accomplish anything at all. Just some random thoughts.

So, why am I blogging anyway?

"Dammit Jim, I'm a mathematician, not a blogger."


I originally started this blog with two purposes. The first was to get me to think and talk about things other than mathematics and my career, which can become all-consuming while pursuing a PhD. This has been largely successful. I have begun spending more time following the running scene, which has always been a favorite hobby of mine. I have started to seriously cook for the first time in my life, which is especially important since I have learned I am Celiac. I am also getting excited about potentially doing movie and music reviews. The second purpose behind starting a blog was to try to communicate my own career to the non-scientific. Science folk (mathematicians, doctors, engineerings, physicists, etc.) often have an enormously difficult time explaining (a) what their job is and (b) why it is important in the first place. I honestly feel this is a bad thing. The scientific community must communicate with the general public, and they must do it in an effective manner. They shouldn't talk over the public's head. They shouldn't look down. They shouldn't turn their heads. They should spend the time and effort to explain exactly what they do and why people should care. This is especially important for those in academia as it is often the public's tax dollars funding their work. That is why I am going to start a series of posts on mathematical topics related to my own work that will be accessible to the general public. The first of these series will be on emergence and chaos theory. Emergence refers to the way that complex systems and patterns can arise from a large number of simple interactions - snowflakes are a prime example of this, with the interaction of ice droplets resulting in fantastically beautiful patterns. Chaos theory, on the other hand, generally refers to the unpredictable behavior of particular deterministic systems, such as the weather. I am excited (and a little intimidated, frankly) to talk about these topics in future weeks.

Sunday Adventures

This post was originally supposed to be written last night. But then I had a Skype date with Sarah and, more importantly, alcohol was involved, and the rest is history.


I ran my first road race since April yesterday. It was the aptly named "Got Guts 5k", Austin's only race dedicated to promoting Celiac awareness. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about being a Celiac running in a Celiac race. Anyways, I show up, and the race is shaping up to being a page right out of Stuff White People Like. Awareness fliers everywhere, everyone in their special (and expensive) running gear, free celiac screenings, and even a gluten-free food fair (in other words, a specialized farmer's market). And even better - they were filming an episode of an extra yuppie cable TV show at the race. So - keep your eyes open. I may just be on television in the near future. Continuing on, the race course was quite fantastic. Though the race was advertised as a "road race", the actual course was cross country style. There was mud and grass and huge hills. It was fantastic. As the eventual race leader, I even got to follow an off-road truck. And as the race winner (yay!), I got an extra huge coffee mugs with the question "Got Guts?" strewn across it. Win win situation. The gluten-free food fair afterward was fairly interesting and fun, but I am starting to tire of all the "gluten-free" substitutes such as gluten-free pizza, gluten-free pastries, etc. They never taste as good as the real thing, and they are vastly more unhealthy. I honestly enjoy something that is naturally gluten-free more, such as a pair of green chile enchiladas. Maybe that is just me though.



On Saturday, with all the football action going on, I started to salivate at the thought of chicken wings. With a race on Sunday, I decided to postpone any cooking until yesterday evening, when I made my first attempt at gluten-free (and honestly, any kind of) baked buffalo wings. The base recipe can be found here, but I substituted the all-purpose flour with white rice flour to ensure a gluten-free feast and used Smart Balance instead of standard butter (I also found out Frank's Red Hot is gluten-free!). The resulting chicken wings were absolutely delicious, and I recommend them to anyone, Celiac or not.



Finally, I tried one of Crispin's Artisanal Reserve ciders for the first time last night. Now, since I went gluten-free back in April, I have desperately missed quality beer. Seriously, what I wouldn't do to have a glass of Chimay. Gluten-free beer has completely failed at filling any void. GF beer just doesn't cut it. I have not traditionally been a cider kind-of-guy, not being a fan of sweet drinks. However, the "artisan cider" and "cider over ice" concepts have very much interested me. Anyway, I picked up Crispin's "Honey Cider" at HEB last night and had it over a glass of ice. And let me say - I'm a convert. The cider was absolutely crisp and delicious. You could not even taste the alcohol (even though it was 6.5%!). It tasted more like a dessert wine than a beer per se, but if you are willing to try new things with an open mind, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. I know I was.

The "Inside-Out Omelette" (i.e., John clears out his fridge)

Everyone knows the routine. You open up the refrigerator, and you realize that half the crap in it is expired and the other half is about to go bad. Then you make that fateful decision - try to combine the remaining useful food items into something delicious. Sometimes this works wonderfully. Other times, not so much.

Either way, I ran into this dilemma this morning. So there I was, tossing out some bell pepper remains that had gone bad when I came across the avocado and the eggs. Eureka, a California omelette. A bit more searching, and I come across a tomato and some green onions. Alright, we're getting somewhere. And then finally, the moment arrives. Cilantro. Time to get creative.

Now I had too many fillers and entirely too few eggs. In any case, I decided to press on, and I dubbed the result the "Inside-Out Omelette."

Onto the ingredients and recipe. All you need is a dash of milk, 4 eggs, 5-6 green onion bulbs and greens, 1 small tomato, 1 small avocado, 1/8-1/4 cup or so of shredded cheddar cheese, and a handful of chopped up cilantro. To make the new and improved "Inside-Out Omelette", proceed as you would with a usual omelette. Before doing anything, chop up the green onions, tomato, and avocado. Then, stir up the eggs in a bowl with the milk until it bubbles. In the meantime, heat up a buttered-up frying pan on medium heat. Then, pour the eggs in the pan and wait until the edge of the egg is hard. Once that happens, chuck the green onions, tomato, avocado, cheese, and cilantro onto the egg. The egg might collapse a bit under its own weight. Let it happen. Let it be ugly just this once. After a minute, "flip" the omelette. Undoubtedly, this will fail completely. However, just try to flip the chunks that remain. Cook for another minute and you're done. Super simple. Super delicious.

I believe the key ingredients of this delicious monstrosity to be the avocado and the cilantro. The avocado gives the creamy goodness, while the cilantro gives the delightful kick. I believe the cilantro is what pushed this variant of the California omelette to the realm of "definitely do this again soon."

Anyways, make sure to enjoy this with a bowl of red grapes, a glass of OJ, and a cup of espresso. Why, you ask? Why not, I respond. And naturally, good luck on finishing the omelette. It is pretty f'ing huge.


P.S. The grapes aren't molding. They are just glowing. They are that good. Or maybe, just maybe, the camera's flash had something to do with it.

Grapes + Espresso

Last night, I had an urge. An urge, I tell you. An urge to combine the sugary sweetness of red grapes with the bittersweet flavors of espresso. And I have to tell you, the combination was wonderful. I didn't expect it to be. Indeed, those I have told of this experience have not believed me. But it really was enlightening.

And yes, I just may be crazy.

Tropical Storm + Running = Wet and Wild Fun

Tropical storm Hermine (seriously, what is up with that name?) finally headed inland last night, and Austin is getting hammered today. Of course, that makes for ideal running weather. As a result of the weather, my morning 1-2 mile shake-out run quickly became a 4-5 mile progressive run. My tempo tonight will surely suffer, but there is no reason not to take advantage of this weather.

In other running news, the US 20K championships were held yesterday in New Haven, Connecticut. Sean Quigley and Lewy Boulet took the men's and women's titles respectively (congratulations to them), but I was especially excited to learn that Stephanie Rothstein, the second-place finisher in the women's race, was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and claimed that the move to a gluten-free diet was key to her recent running success. Since I went gluten-free this spring, I have had a very difficult time adjusting. I have had issues with iron, fatigue, and having enough energy for my runs. I thought that I might have to take it a bit easier on the running side, which I am not really mentally prepared to do. However, after finding out that a number of elite athletes (including Rothstein, Amy Yoder, and Austin's Desiree Ficker) have actually become better with the new diet, I am pretty hopeful that things will get better. And they actually have in recent months.

Blanka Vlasic takes the title of "photo of the week" (or month) with this glorious shot after claiming the world's best women's high jump this past Sunday. She even had the chance to do it in our home country in front of a friendly crowd. Needless to say, she was excited.


Finally, I have taken part in a few conversations with fellow runners over the following question: if Jim Ryun was a miler today instead of 40 years ago, would he dominate the competition? He remains the only person to run sub-4 in a high-school only competition, and he did it virtually on his own. Check out the video here. It's nothing short of incredible, as is the quality of that ancient video.

A Gluten-Free Anniversary Feast!

Today is my fiancee and I's "official anniversary", so I decided to prepare a bit of a feast. The menu: gluten-free chicken enchilada casserole, a gluten-free chocolate cupcake from Whole Foods, and Redbridge, a gluten-free beer. The recipe for the casserole is a slight variation of one found in the Gluten-Free Everyday Cookbook, a wonderful gift Sarah gave me for my birthday this year. The ingredients are simple and can be purchased for around 10 dollars, and it leaves a whole lot of leftovers. As Sarah is in Williamsburg for graduate school (she made a chicken and rice dish for our anniversary, out in Virginia), I should have enough food for myself for the next two days from this casserole =P. I am not much of a cook, so I am pretty proud that I have become quite proficient at making this particular dish. Here are some fun pictures from the feast.

Pre-preparation:















Ready to cook:















Futurama, the entertainment provided during baking:















The finished product, with cupcake and Redbridge:















It turned out to be delicious as always, and I find it to be even better as leftovers. It is too bad that Sarah is not here tonight, but I plan on preparing this dish for her when I see her in October =).

To celebrate our anniversary tonight, we are renting "Zombieland" in our respective locations and viewing it "long-distance style", with Skype chat armed and ready. This will be our first "long-distance date night", so I am quite excited about it. After all, but who could pass up zombies on a such a romantic occasion?

To conclude, I will leave y'all with a lovely song Sarah posted on my Facebook wall. It has been in my head ever since (a good thing), so I figure it appropriate to put it right. I miss Sarah quite a bit but this song brings a smile to my face in her absence.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home [2009]