Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Wine Country

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. I'm not sure where the time goes! I have had a fabulous week and the fun continues for another 2 weeks anyway. Thursday morning I got up early and went for my 17 mile long run. Ironically I maintained the exact same pace (8:39) that I ran my 16 mile run in just 5 days earlier. After my run, I snuck in my ice bath and a quick breakfast and then was off to catch my flight to CA. A friend of mine, who I haven't seen in a year, was on my flight! Since it was open seating we sat across the aisle so we could catch up. Once I hooked up with my parents in CA we grabbed the rental car and headed up to the valley. We stopped at a couple of wineries on the way to Calistoga, our final destination. I haven't been to the Napa Valley in about 3 years and a lot has changed since then. Most of the wineries (even high end!) are making Rose now which was non-existent 3 years ago. We did taste some, and it wasn't my favorite. I used to be into reds, but now living in the desert, there's nothing better than a nice crisp white. After we checked into the Euro Inn, a wonderful little inn on a quiet street in Calistoga, we went to dinner at Go Fish which came highly recommended. My dad (who loves food as much as I do) has a habit of telling the waiter to bring him "whatever the chef recommends" when we visit a nice restaurant. (Note: this doesn't really work in chain restaurants.) Inevitably, my dad always gets the best meal and usually it's not on the menu. We shared a lobster roll and a bottle of wine with dinner.

Friday morning, we took our time in the morning. My mom and I walked about 3 1/2 miles, through town and part of the way up the Oat Mine Trail. We stopped for coffee at the Calistoga Roastery on our way back through. After breakfast, we visited a couple of wineries before we checked into CasaLana for our cooking class at 2 pm. There were about 9 students total in the class. The chef was wonderful. She had a great sense of humor and passion for teaching. She talked for about an hour about cooking methods and food theory. Then we went into the kitchen to begin preparing dinner for 12. My mom, and several others, joined us for meals but didn't take the cooking class. Each of us was assigned a dish to oversee and then we all worked together to get things chopped, mixed, prepared. I was in charge of the Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup, which meant that after the ingredients were prepared I combined them, cooked them, pureed them, seasoned them. I had the final say in how the dish was going taste. The dinner was wonderful and we all learned a lot. I was eager to get back to the Inn and take a nice whirlpool bath before bed.

Saturday I went for a run. It was so beautiful to see the mist rising above the fields while the sun was coming up. Since the wineries don't open till after 10 am, there was no one on the roads at 630 am. Mom and I walked downtown for coffee again, then we buzzed down to St. Helena to check out the Spice Islands Marketplace at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. The CIA is amazing! It makes my local culinary institute look tiny. It was very intimidating. I would have loved to stay and explore, but we had to be in class by 11 am. For brunch we made a fresh beet salad with citrus vinaigrette which was fabulous. I have always wanted to try beets but was afraid to try. When you don't know how to prepare something (like artichokes for example) it can be intimidating, but the beets were so easy! I will keep that in mind next time I walk past something in the produce aisle. We also made a frittata, some flatbread pizzas, and an apple gallette with cinnamon ice cream for dessert. And of course it was all served with wine. Hey, when in Rome...

I was sad to see our weekend end. We really had a great time and I love to cook with my dad. We are hoping to sign up for a 5 day boot camp where they really delve into food theory and spend less time following recipes, more time experimenting with ingredients. On Sunday morning, I caught at 7:30 flight back to Phoenix and drove down to Tempe Lake to get my tempo run in while the Open Water Swim was going on. Afterwards I had a fairly relaxing day at home.

So the last few days, I've been running and working and getting set to go to Tulsa this weekend. I think I've not been eating enough cause I'm starting to feel tired more and yesterday, for the first time this training cycle, I felt wiped out after my run. I did 8 miles with 6 hill repeats built in the middle. I have noticed that I'm not eating all the time anymore (like I did while IM training) and I often notice that feel famished, which again doesn't happen when you're eating all the time. Yesterday, I drank an ensure after my run, but then I got busy and didn't remember to eat until about 2 pm when I was driving home from running errands. I was shaky and thought I was going to pass out. Thankfully I had a cliff bar in my bag which held me over till lunch. But then I didn't again until dinner and I was starving again. And after dinner, my stomach was growling again within 30 minutes so I had to eat again. I need to take better care of my nutrition cause as my mileage increases I'm going to need it!

Anyway, I know this has been really long. Thanks for reading. I'll post some pics from my trip for you to enjoy!

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