Marathon Training Week 11

Another week down, another 100+ mile month. This is the first time I’ve ever done this much mileage two months in a row. I’ve never had more than one 100+ mile month in a year prior to this year. I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to do this high mileage while avoiding any major injuries. I’ve had a few days of some soreness in my right knee and also left calf, but overall nothing that doesn’t go away after a day of rest. So I’m pretty happy with how my training is going thus far.

Now for the not so great news. My longest run (20 miles) was set for this past Friday. Of course Friday was the one day we were supposed to get rain for most of the day. I also altered my plan during the early part of the week and ran Tues-Wed instead of Mon-Wed. Seemed to work out okay.

Here’s a summary of last week’s running.

( ) = # of miles on my plan

Tuesday – 2.5 (3)

Wednesday – 4.5 (9)

Friday – 16.07 (20)

Saturday – 3.2 (4)

Sunday – 3.0 (3) – treadmill, walking.

Weekly Total – 29.27 miles (39)

I woke up on Friday and wasn’t really feeling all that motivated. The weather wasn’t helping matters that much. Normally I’ve been starting my long runs around 9 am so that takes me anywhere to 12 or 1 pm usually for anything over 16 miles. The morning started kinda hazy with a very fine mist sprinkles while I was having breakfast and coffee. I continued to kinda of mozy around and get myself psyched up to go on my long run. I stepped out of the door around 9:30 into some light rain but with some decent winds that were quite chilling.

Luckily for me I have a loop in my neighborhood that is almost exactly 1 mile (slightly over 1 mile) from my house. With the way the weather was, I decided I’d just run this 1 mile loop for as long as I could so that I had somewhere to take shelter if the rain got really bad. I also like it because that means I have bathroom access (not just at my house but there’s a park about 1/2 mile into the loop as well). The only downside with loop running is that it can get boring and you want a new view of things. I made it to 3 miles and then took off on another path to do 2.5 additional miles. My tummy had not been feeling the greatest before I started running and I ended up having to make a pit stop at the house. Soon I started to bargain with myself. I told myself I could stay out in the cold rain for 10 miles and then do the last 10 miles on the treadmill. I also didn’t want to spend too much time on the dreadmill because it too can also be boring for too long.

I knew it was also good for me to be out in the rain because it is a possibility for my race in about 6 weeks. I need to learn to run in different types of temperature and weather. This year has been especially wet in California so who knows if it may be raining on race day.

I ended up making it to 8.75 miles out in the rain when I called it quits (had to make another pit stop) and switched over to the treadmill. I started my run there and soon realized I’d rather be out in the rain. I made it about 3.25 miles on the treadmill and then decided to go out into the rain again (the rain was heavier than it was during my first 8 miles). I pushed and persevered and hit 4 miles (I had told myself that 4 miles was my minimum up to the 8 miles to complete the 20 miles). I had recently read that one theory for marathon long run training is not to exceed 3 hours because beyond that the benefits do not outweigh the risks (i.e. injury). So that’s where I came up with 4 miles minimum on my 3rd leg to have a final of 16 miles.

So the end result was just a tad over 16 miles. I’m happy with it, especially given my lack of motivation and the rain.

No pictures on my runs this week with the rains.

Sunday morning I woke up with a lot of sneezing and a constantly dripping right nose. I do have pretty bad allergies in the springtime but this felt more like maybe I was getting sick. Even though I thought maybe I was getting sick I still wanted to get some miles in. So I compromised with myself and did 3 miles of walking on the treadmill (~3.5 mph so I still broke a sweat).

Overall I’m still happy with my training thus far and hope to keep it up and be ready for the race in Big Sur.

We also went to a pizza joint we used to go to a lot (Hot Italian). Since I’ve been making pizza myself we haven’t gone in awhile. I do like their cocktails though, and Saturday was decently warm so I had a Negroni.

-StewsCat

Marathon Training Week 9

Week 9 had some highs and a lot of lows. As you’ll see below, I ended up only doing 2 runs the entire week. For my scheduled Tuesday and Thursday runs I can blame work for not getting them in. Normally I get off work around 6 but due to various circumstances on both those days I had to stay late and was just too tired to get a run in when I got home. I’m not sweating it too much.

The high of the week was actually hitting the 18 mile distance and feeling somewhat okay afterwards. I keep telling myself that for the actual race I’ll be doing an additional 8.2 miles so I better feel “okay” after an 18-miler.

Here’s a summary of last week’s running.

( ) = # of miles on my plan

Tuesday – 0.00 (3)

Thursday – 0.00 (8) – in reality, 8 miles was a bit ambitious considering 18 the following day.

Friday – 18 (18)

Saturday – 4.05 (5)

Sunday – 0.00 (4)

Weekly Total – 22.05 miles (37)

My long run was taken along the American River Trail again. This time I went further and traversed the bridge past William Pond Park. I ran over this bridge when I did the Run The Parkway Half. There were tons of Canadian Geese out. They were just all over the place.

It is amazing how quickly the water level drops after no rain for a few weeks. Not sure when we’re going to get more rain but I feel like we need some more over the next 1-2 months to feel okay with being out of the drought.

My last run I ran past this tree with these bright vibrant yellow flowers. Now, 2 weeks later the flowers are still there but they appear so much more dull.

So I crossed the bridge and explored some new territory. I stopped at a bathroom/water fountain area that was cool but a bit isolated. I pictured a horror movie where I was being chased by some masked villain. Luckily this was only about a 1/4 mile detour.

Even though my 18 miler was slower than my 16 miler, I think it is good progress. It is amazing how I slowed so much on the 18 miler even though for the 16 miler, I had put in some tough fast hill miles the night before the 16 miler. Strange how the body works.

Sunday I woke up in a funk and just wasn’t feeling it (it = life).

So rather than get a run in that may have helped my mood, I went out to dinner for some cocktails and pizza. I had the notion of doing a few night miles after dinner but when I ordered that second cocktail, I knew that running was out of the question. I also had a baking fail. I decided to make some bread but was too cocky and didn’t check the temperature of the bread when I finished and of course the center of the loaf wasn’t cooked. It was just gummy paste. Fail. But at least the cocktail and pizza look delish!

*Three types of pepperoni!! And prosciutto with arugula*

-StewsCat

Sourdough pizza dough

This is a bit out-of-order. After returning back from Portland a few weekends ago, I had July 4th off from work and decided to make some pizza for the holiday. I also had to feed my sourdough starter so figured I’d make sourdough pizza dough with the discard. I used the below recipe:

Sourdough starter – 80 g (~50% hydration)
AP flour – 350 g
Water – 230 g
Salt – 8 g
Yeast – 2 g

I mixed all the ingredients (above), let it sit for 40 minutes to auto-lyse and then kneaded it for about 15 minutes (slap and fold). I put it in a large mixing bowl and let it bulk ferment for about 50 minutes. It was fairly warm in the kitchen/house so I didn’t have to let it rise as long. I then did 3 stretch and folds separated by 30 minutes. After this I divided the dough into 2 (these ended up being larger balls than I typically work with in the past) and put them individual bowls to proof.

As can be seen above, the dough rose greatly. Since I was making pizza, I wasn’t as concerned if it went slightly over since I was flattening the dough out anyway to make the pizza. I topped the dough with some homemade tomato sauce (I just use canned San Marzano Whole tomatoes that I crush and heat with some basil and garlic), mozzarella, and mushrooms/prosciutto.

Overall I got some good rise in the crust and it did have a slight sourdough taste to it.

I may have to try incorporating more sourdough starter to see if I can’t get more of the sourdough taste to it.

-StewsCat

Sourdough wheat sandwich bread

Quick bread update. I decided to use more of my sourdough starter to make this week’s 50% whole wheat sandwich bread. This week I essentially used the same recipe as last week’s but with the addition of the sourdough.

Recipe:

80g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
300g 100% whole wheat flour
255g bread flour
145g rice milk
260g water
18g salt
35g honey
1/4 c. vegetable oil
5g yeast (cut down the yeast to see if the starter has some oomph to create rise)

I combined all the above ingredients into one giant slurry and let it auto-lyse for 30 minutes. I am always amazed how the dough goes from a ragged mess to a cohesive and firm dough.

After mixing

After slap & fold kneading

After bulk fermentation

I did the slap & fold kneading for 15 minutes. Each time I do this, I get better and better at sensing/feeling the dough coming together and becoming less sticky. The first time I did this, I had no idea how long I was supposed to knead for and ended up doing the slap & fold for almost an hour.

After I finished the slap & folds, I put the dough in a clean bowl and let it bulk ferment for an hour. As seen above, the dough really formed up very nicely. Following bulk fermentation, I dumped the dough out on my lightly floured countertop and performed a stretch and fold (envelope style) and placed the dough back in the bowl for 20 minutes. Once more I did a stretch and fold followed by the initial shaping. This involved de-gassing the dough and creating a square shape. I then folded the dough down from the top to the middle of the dough and pressed this down. Subsequently I pulled the dough once more to me and pressed down to seal it (essentially creating a log shape). I then bench rested the dough for 5 minutes and then re-shaped into loaf shape. The dough was then placed in a well-greased (butter) 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.

I allowed the dough to proof for about 45 minutes (the kitchen was warm because I was also making pizza). As with last week, the dough had risen really well. I did the finger poke test and noted the dough was well proofed.

The bread went into a 425 F oven with water spraying. I let it bake at this temperature for 10 minutes. I dropped the oven to 375 F and baked the bread for another 25 minutes. By this time, the top of the loaf was a nice dark brown color and the internal temp 187.7 F. I read that enriched bread (which this is) is done between 185-190 F and you can let it go until 205 F if you want a really crunchy crust. This time I decided to remove it a littler earlier to see what kind of difference it would make (last week’s was around 195 F).

After slicing, I noted that the bread was just slightly underdone. If you look at the cross-sectional view of the crumb, you’ll notice at the bottom part of the bread, the crumb is a bit collapsed and not well-aerated like the rest of the bread. Next time I’ll probably try to get it closer to 190 F internal temperature.

This bread turned out good, still a little weaker than I’d like for a sandwich bread. I wonder if I toasted it before making my sandwich if it would hold up a little better. The wife said that it is softer than last week’s effort.

In other news, we were able to top our pizza with some homegrown arugula. We decided to try some lettuces this year in our raised vegetable beds. This was a first and out of the 4, the arugula is the only one that grew well. There was a different lettuce that initially grew well then one day was all gone. I am suspicious the local wild turkey came over and chomped it all away.

-StewsCat

100% Whole wheat bread

Since I’m starting to feel more comfortable with bread making, I decided I should try my hand at making something that is a little healthier. We had switched from buying bread to me making tortillas for wraps for our lunches (less dense, less calories). Somewhere along the way I started to get interested in making bread and I want to try to keep this new hobby as healthy as possible. I most definitely will not stop making other white breads and such, just thought I should try to do some healthy breads.

Poolish

100% Whole wheat bread – 240 g
Water – 240 g
Instant yeast – 2 g

Remaining formula

100% Whole wheat bread – 480 g
Water – 480 g
Olive oil – 50 g
Honey – 75 g
Instant yeast – 3 g
Salt – 3 tsp

I must have done something wrong with my conversions because this created an almost 100% hydration dough. And it all just went downhill from there.

After sitting overnight

The poolish came out fine as above. However, I then mixed up the poolish and the above remaining ingredients. As I was doing this, I was thinking to myself that this hydration was a bit high. I let the dough do its normal rest and then did the stretch and fold method for 3 minutes, then let it rest. I repeated the stretch and fold method at 25 minute intervals but the dough just did not seem to be coming together, it remained a very moist and weak structure.

I finally gave up on it developing any sort of strength and form. I elected to throw it into my breadpan and see what would happen. As expected, it didn’t turn out great. There was no good proofing and oven spring and it came out as an inedible brick.

Moist mess in the bread pan

Brick bread

Dense and not good flavoring

The above happened on Saturday. I worked Sunday and so to make myself feel better I whipped up a quick white bread boule (I did add a little whole wheat flour into it).

This bread had the following formula:

Poolish

170 g bread flour
170 g water
1/4 tsp (2g) instant yeast

Remaining mixture

100 g bread flour + 30 g whole wheat flour
180 g water
10 g salt
3 g instant yeast

I mixed the poolish (overnight in fridge) with the remaining mixture and then let it sit for 30 minutes to allow some autlyse (let the flour absorb all the water). I then followed the Richard Bertinet slap and fold. I feel like I’m getting a better hold of this kneading method as the dough started to form up and come together after only about 10-12 minutes of kneading. I formed it into a ball and then let it bulk ferment for about 1.5 hours. It’s been warm here and the bread probably didn’t need to ferment that long but I also needed to fit my long run in so I let it go a little longer. I did 2 stretch and folds with 10 minutes between them. By now the dough had developed good gluten and structure. I was able to form the dough into a nice boule and did the drag method on the counter to create a nicely tensioned top portion of dough. I then placed it into a well floured cloth in a bowl to let it proof. After about 1 hour of proofing, I tossed it into my pre-heated dutch oven (450 F) and covered it. I let it cook for 20 minutes covered then removed the lid and turned the heat to 425 F and let it go another 20 minutes. By then it had a nice brown crust and I checked its internal temp (~195F).

Overall I’m happy that I seem to have the basics down. Now I just need to work some more on the whole wheat stuff. I think that tweaking the hydration level will probably allow me to create a better product next time. I should have paid attention that I was creating an essentially 100% hydration dough.

For dinner I also did pizza and I’m getting better at developing pizza dough that isn’t too loose. I think one problem I’ve been having in the past is that I let the dough go way past what it should (over-proofing). Before I had just been blindly following someone’s recommendation on the Jim Lahey No-knead but now I actually am listening more to the dough.

-StewsCat

StewsCat

Running, baking, cooking, drinking

Tag: Pizza

Marathon Training Week 11

Marathon Training Week 9

Sourdough pizza dough

Sourdough wheat sandwich bread

100% Whole wheat bread