Bites of Nassau Food Tour

I'll have to give my husband credit, he found this food tour online. He told me that all the reviews said it was the best thing to do in Nassau. It didn't take much convincing to decide it was the thing to do on one of our vacation days. The kids even decided they would rather do it than go snorkeling Their comment - "You can snorkel anywhere. We'll try Bahamian food!"

So here's how it turned out. The tour was hosted by TRU Bahamian Food Tours.

First stop was Bahamian Cookin'. It is a hole in the wall restaurant that served wonderful Bahamian food. We learned that conch is the only reliable local source of protein. 90% of the conch from the Bahamas is exported. The Bahamian people are not food self-sufficient yet. The population would starve in about 2 weeks if something happened to their ports.

We tried conch fritters and baked macaroni and cheese. These conch fritters actually had conch ground up in the batter (with a food processor) along with chunks of conch for an extra "conchy" taste. Bahamian macaroni and cheese is typically firm enough to cut into squares and uses eggs to hold it together.

Baked macaroni and cheese and conch fritters

 

Next stop was the Pepper Pot Grill and Juice Bar. Again, a little hole in the wall restaurant with great food. Great Jamaican food. We learned that the original aboriginal population in the Bahamas were all wiped out by disease 25 years after Europeans arrived so there are no real "Bahamians" left. All the people of the Bahamas are descendants of primarily Southern US colonies and Bristish colonists and their slaves. The Bahamas were populated by other islanders too like the Jamaicans so "Bahamian" food is actually a mix of cultures.

 

We had a great "fruit punch" that was a mix of fresh squeezed tropical fruits. It was my older daughter's favorite tasting on the tour.

 

Fruit Punch

 

We also had Jamaican jerk chicken, plantains, and rice and peas. What they call "rice and peas" is what I call red beans and rice. I really learned to like plantains on this trip.

 

 

 

Next stop, Graycliff Chocolatier. Graycliff is actually a famous hotel that has a restaurant, cigar factory and, most recently, a chocolatier. Their chocolates were pieces of art. We got to try the White Chocolate Key Lime chocolates and the Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel chocolates.

 







One of the men in our tour group was admiring his artfully painted dark chocolate when it jumped out of his hand and onto the floor. The group let out a collective gasp. Then my older daughter cried out, "I'll eat it!" Our tour host graciously purchased another piece of chocolate for the poor man.

Isabelle, this photo's for you!

 

Next stop, Van Breugel's Bistro and Bar. This is a restaurant run by a Dutch chef who was trained as a saucier and has Thai influences. We tried coconut curry conch chowder.

 



We the went to Pure Caribbean which is a store that sells spices, tea as well as local art. We tried the very berry lemon tea which got drank before I got a photo op! We also sampled various Caribbean spice rubs and sauces. My younger daughter bought a small painting and my husband bought some tea.

Next we went to Athena Café and Bar. This is a Greek restaurant. The Greeks settled the Bahamas to harvest the sponge beds. They traded the boats they came to the island on for land as they came at a time when many of the original settlers wanted to go back to Europe. The sponges eventually died from a terrible blight but many of the families stayed to form the Greek Bahamian population.

We had a Greek salad and pita bread that was also wonderful.

Our final stop was the  Tortuga Rum Cake Company. This too is a Jamaican company that has spread it's stores to many islands of the Caribbean. We went to the only on-site cakery in the Bahamas. The rum cakes also got snapped up before a photo op. They were delicious.

Tour now over, we browsed the store and bought some coconut rum fudge, made by the same company. I think this was the only disappointment of the day. We opened it up back at our hotel room and it was simply inedible!. I know, inedible chocolate. Hard to believe. It was rock hard and bitter with blooms everywhere. We threw it away!

OK, looks like another beautiful fall Sunday. I'm off to run a 5K that I swore I'd never run again. I'll recap tomorrow. Enjoy your day!

Perspective

Funny how your perspective can change...

Monday I did my last double digit run before my marathon, a 12 miler. In the Spring, 12 would have been a "long run." Monday I realized it was "long" but not "that long." I chugged through it and wondered if I had done enough long runs to get me through this marathon.

Tuesday was a rest day. We got up at 3:30 am to catch a 6 am flight. On the flip side, we were in Nassau by noon.

This is the bridge that connects Paradise Island (where our resort was located) to the city of Nassau. I decided I was going to run it while we were here.

View from our hotel room

Wednesday I set my alarm for 6 am so I could get a run in before swimming with the dolphins at 9 am. 6 am dawned pitch black and I decided I didn't want to run around a foreign country in the dark, plus, I was still tired from the day before. We barely made it to the dolphins by 9. I decided I got enough "cross-training" in by climbing the steps up the fake Mayan pyramid to the water slides the rest of the day.

Thursday I set the alarm for 7 am. It was dawn. Everyone else was asleep but I decided "I'm going to do this," and hopped out of bed. We were scheduled to do a 3 hour walking food tour of Nassau at 11:30 am so I knew that if I didn't run in the morning I wouldn't feel like it in the evening. I turned on the Garmin and headed for the Paradise Island Bridge.

This is what the bridge looks like from another perspective - ground level vs. 5 floors up in a hotel room. I also thought it was further away but found it was less than a mile from where I started and I had only gone a little over a mile by the time I crossed it. I had 5 miles planned so I ran back over and started going up the road past the entrance to our hotel. I then found myself at the entrance to one of the wings to our hotel. The sun was up and it was HOT! I could feel the cool breezes coming from the entry. I was really tempted to just duck inside and be done but I still had over a mile to go. I ended up running through the resort to the beach side and running the length of the resort on the walkway by the beach. That completed 5 miles.

So proud of myself that I got my butt out of bed!

Later, after our food tour, we were in downtown Nassau and I asked our guide how far we were from the Paradise Island bridge. I had my whole family with me and we had been walking for over 3 hours so I had no intention of making them walk back, but I was just curious. Well, he hemmed and hawed that it was "far" and that we could get a taxi or a water taxi, etc. I finally got across to him that we really weren't going to walk back but I just wanted to know the distance. Then he says "really far... it will take you at least 30 minutes... maybe 2 miles away..."

More tomorrow about our food tour. That's a post in itself!

Friday was our travel day home. I had originally planned to run on Wednesday and Thursday but since I blew off Wednesday I set my alarm again for 7 am on Friday. Surprisingly, I got up before my alarm. I ran across the bridge and back and ran by the beach again. Got 4 miles in. Then it was a quick shower, change into a swimsuit , hit the pools and water slides again until checkout at 11 am. Took a taxi to town and had lunch at Bahamian Cookin' - it had been our first stop on the food tour the day before and the food was fabulous.

You really can get a whole lot more done if you can pry your butt out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people! Try as I might, I really like to sleep in the mornings.

Our plane landed in Indy at midnight and we got home at 1 am. I set the alarm for 7:30 am as I had an 8 miler planned for today. 7:30 am - it's dark, pouring rain, and freezing inside our house. No way this chickadee's getting out of bed to run outside. I considered going to the fitness center but the bed won out. I stayed in bed until I had to take my daughter to cheer. After that, the usual kid's Saturday took over - football game til 1 pm then off to Carmel for "Nutcracker" rehearsal. Got back after 4 pm.

Finally got my run in after that. On the plus side, the rain had cleared and it was a beautiful fall day. I pretty much ran on auto-pilot. Again, an 8 miler would have been one of my longer runs in the Spring. Today I just jogged along and thought about everything else - things to do when I got back home, groceries to get, what my heels might feel like when I get home... Like I said, pretty much on auto-pilot. I got to a stop sign to stop for cars and realized I only had a mile and a half to go.

So, here's how my run week ended up...

Sunday - 5 miles
Monday - 12 miles
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 5 miles
Friday - 4 miles
Saturday - 8 miles

34 miles total. Exactly what the training plan prescribed except that I didn't do any speedwork. I figured running over the bridge counts for something though!

Cheerfund Challenge 15K

Before talking about my run, I'd like to congratulate my friend John who ran his first 50 mile ultra yesterday. He smashed his goal of 10 hours by running 9:02. He was also drawn for one of the holy grails of Ultra running, the Western States 100, and ran under the 50 mile qualifying of 11 hours. He's running a 100-miler next June!

My day yesterday was not quite so smashing. My run was OK. Not fabulous but not disappointingly bad either. I was tired (I know, what else is new?), I couldn't sleep the night before and woke up at 4:30 am - not due to race anxiety or anything, I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.

Oh, I did have one major panic moment the night before though... I was charging my Garmin. I went back to check to see if it was done charging and the whole watch screen was blank, still attached to the charger. I couldn't get the watch to turn on. I messed with the charger, checked all the connections, still NOTHING. I thought it was dead. How was I going to pace myself without my Garmin? It was 11 pm on Friday and the Garmin website told me customer support left at 5 pm. In desperation I switched chargers and plugged the Garmin in with my husband's cell phone charger. The watch screen immediately lit up, fully charged. I have no idea what happened but I was just thankful it was working again.

So the race is called the "Challenge" because the 15K runners and the 15K relay teams start at the same time and see if one runner can beat a relay team, or vice versa. My personal goal was to try and run an 8:20 pace. So...

Mile 1 - 8:19
Mile 2 - 8:20
Mile 3 - 8:10, yup, gonna pay for that later
Mile 4 - 8:18
Mile 5 - 8:15
Mile 6 - 8:38, stopped for water and couldn't get restarted
Mile 7 - 8:34
Mile 8 - 8:48
Mile 9 - 9:19
last 0.3 - 2:53

Official time - 1:19:33
Average pace - 8:32

I came totally unglued at the 8 mile mark. I actually had third place overall within my sights. I was less than 50 yards behind third place when I stopped for water at about 5.5 miles. I was still trying to catch her through mile 7. Then I got passed by 2 more runners at the 8 mile mark. One was a relay runner but the other was a 15K runner in my age group. I ran out of steam after that and just couldn't get my legs to move any faster. I ended up 5th overall in the women's race, 2nd in the 40-49 age group; 44 seconds behind 1st in my age group and 1:26 behind 3rd overall. The woman that won third overall averaged an 8:22 pace. I did manage to run faster than 2 of the 8 relay teams.

I think I ran as hard as I could have on that day. My legs were still tired from running 20 three days before. I think I was still physically tired from staying up 36 hours plus the day before. I've come to the conclusion that I might not be fast enough on marathon day to run 3:55. I'm worried about my endurance. All I can hope for is that I will run better when I am well rested.

This is how the week ended up looking...

Sunday - rest
Monday - 5 miles
Tuesday - 10 miles
Wednesday - 20 miles
Thursday - 5 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - 10 miles

So 50 miles for the week.

I ran 5 today. I was going to try a pace run and ran the first mile in 8:33 but my legs felt like wood after that. I ended up slowing down and will do my pace run later this week.

It's Like Childbirth

WARNING: Long reminiscent post...

Me and distance races. I swear it's like childbirth. I spend months with some discomfort. Then there is some type of pain involved in the race and I say that I don't want to do this again. Then, at some point, I feel good about the accomplishment and I want to do it again. Sometimes it's right after I finish. Sometimes it takes a couple days or weeks or months... but I always decide to do it again. I forget about the pain and discomfort and decide to do it again.

So... yesterday I signed up for the 2014 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. I want to break 1:50. I realized that my 1:53:00 at the Mill Race Half is technically an official time PR for me. I still think I probably ran a faster half in 1987 but there was no such thing as timing chips back then so your "official" time was whatever gun time you ran.

FLASHING BACK: I ran 1:56:43 in 1987. I was a senior in high school. I ran my first Mini-Marathon in 1984. That is the only race where I have ever "hit the wall." I had never run further than a 10K but thought that breaking 2:00 would be no big deal. The race used to start at Monument Circle downtown and end on the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Race started at 9 am so by the time you hit the shade less 2.5 mile oval of asphalt, it was 11 am with nothing but sun over your head. I remember having way over 10 minutes to run that last mile and I could barely stand up. The sun was bright, the track seemed to be tilting sideways, and if it hadn't been for all the people around me, I didn't even know which way to run. In retrospect, I probably had heat exhaustion in addition to hitting the wall. Anyways, after that experience, I was always fearful of "the wall" and always ran with some reserve.

So back to 1987. The Mini used to be on the last Friday of May before the Indy 500 (unlike the first Saturday in May like it is now). I qualified for the high school track sectionals in the 3200 m. Sectionals was on Tuesday. I had an English term paper due that day too. I was (OK I still am) the queen of cram. I didn't get around to starting that paper until Monday night and pulled an all-nighter to turn it in. By race time Tuesday afternoon I was trashed. Each school gets to put 2 runners in the Sectional race and the 3200 is started off an arc with the highest seeded runners on the inside. I was not a fast runner but my friend who was running was the #2 seed overall. Well, Coach pulled her out of the race, moving me into her #2 seed spot. Not good. I got boxed in with the really fast people at the start and went through 800 m in 2:50 - way too fast for me. I was a 13:30-ish 3200 m runner, NOT a 12:00-ish runner. So, I crashed and ended up running the slowest time of my life, finishing dead last, sobbing through the last half mile, knowing this was the last high school race of my career.

Friday, I missed school to run the Mini. There were no corrals back then and I started way up on the steps of Monument Circle. I think it took me several minutes to get to the starting line. I was wearing a regular digital watch so I could keep some idea of my time. The course used to go 30 blocks straight up Meridian Street. All the office workers would be out on the sidewalk cheering and all the TV and radio stations along Meridian would be blasting "Gonna Fly Now." You turned west on 30th to Martin Luther King Blvd and went up a gradual uphill slope up to 38th Street. The 5 mile mark was at 38th Street. The father of one of my friends used to be the timer calling out times at the 5 mile mark for years. I remember running over walkers up to this point and also realizing I was running a 7:30 pace at 5 miles and my brain screaming at me to slow down because I was going to hit the wall. You then went west on 38th Street to White River Parkway, went down the ramp there and past the Veledrome. At some point you ended up on a mulch path next to the canal. I remember running on the path with people (spectators) screaming at me that there was "a Cathedral girl" in front of me. (I think the Indianapolis running community was MUCH smaller then and we all knew each other.) I went to Chatard. Cathedral HS is one of my high school's major rivals. Finally, I ended up at the track. Then, on the backstretch of the track with only a mile, mile and a half to go, I saw the Cathedral girl. Not any Cathedral girl either. She was the City champion and record holder in the mile at the time. She was dying. I still had some reserve. I passed her. Redemption.

Several weeks later, the Mini people mailed  you a results booklet and finisher's certificate. I got that plus this...

I placed 3rd in the 16-19 age group. Back then, the only medals the race gave out were to the overall winners and the top 3 in each age group. I was hooked. I hadn't even trained for the Mini that year, having just ended my track season. I really felt I had run closer to 1:50 or less. I had visions of smashing that time in years to come. I just had to train for a longer distance. That would be easy. I was going to college. Gone were the pressures of high school. I could run whenever I wanted.

Yeah right (sarcasm)...

What followed were years of entering and not training. Sometimes not running at all for a year between races. Then I'd feel crappy, swear I was done, then do it all over again.

NOW TO INTERJECT ANOTHER STORY...  Apparently I'm not the only one. One of my best friends from college decided in 1994 that he wanted to run a half-marathon. Sure, run with me... we got some runs in together and it was fun. I actually got more than 3 weeks of training in... then came race day. I believe his exact words after the race were, "F*** this sh**! I'm not doing this again!" Well, then he did it again the next year. But then life happens and he stopped running for awhile.

Several years ago I got invited out to his house for his 40th birthday for the most surreal week of my life. His wife had several of his best friends come out and spend the week with him. By then he was an orthopedic surgeon living in a mansion-like house in Napa. We had private winery tours by limo, we had private dinners with famous chefs, we drank $1000 bottles of wine signed by Robert Mondavi (who I think is dead). Surreal is the only way I can describe it. So, what do you get for the man who has everything for his 40th birthday? I got him a Chicago Marathon entry. He's my bud. I'll admit, it was a throw down of sorts. We're both competitive. I knew he couldn't pass it up. So, we ran Chicago together the next year just to finish. Then he decided to do it again and got me an entry for my birthday. We met to do it again the next year. By then, he was serious. He was putting in heavy mileage. He was already signed up for 2 more marathons. He was going for 4:00. I told him to go for it while I did a sightseeing run through Chicago.

Things didn't go as planned for him. He got a stress fracture in his hip and barely finished the race. Couldn't walk at all after the race. He had to pull out of his other marathons. I thought he was done with running. Then he texts me last December - "just did a 50K." He had hit the trails. Then he signed up for a 50 miler this spring. Got another stress fracture. Had to pull out. Healed and started running again. Tomorrow he is running the Dick Collins Firetrails 50. His first attempt at a 50 miler. So after cursing at the finish line in 1994, he is now an Ultra runner. I hope his wife doesn't hate me for re-introducing running into his life as I know what a time suck it can be, but then again, he's the type of guy that gets up at 4 am to get his run in... unlike moi, who actually overslept and missed a 1 pm lunch date once!

NOW BACK TO CHILDBIRTH... So do I have a screw loose or what? My left leg is killing me and I can't put any weight on my heels but I've signed myself up for yet another Mini Marathon. But my brain is telling me, "You just ran 1:53 in the middle of a crappy training week with no taper. Think of what you can do if you make the Mini a goal race!" I want to run 1:50 to run my fastest time ever - period. No ghost of what I think my real time was in 1987. Your vO2 max and muscle mass start declining at age 40. I'll be 45 next month. If I'm going to compete against time and my 18 year old self, I figure I'd better get it done soon! I promise to let my legs heal after the Monumental but a 1:50 half is my "next thing."

If you made it through this post, excuse my ramblings. I've been up for 36 hours straight. Hoping to sleep well tonight for my 15K in the morning!

Dutch Apple Pie

I have an overabundance of apples in my house right now. I was in the fall mood the other day and bought some Granny Smiths to make a pie. Then my in-laws gave me some of their apples... then my neighbor gave me some of his apples... and now my kitchen is over-run with apples! Plus, since I am working tonight and my husband is out of town, I figured I should have supper ready for them before I leave. Supper is my younger daughter's favorite venison stew. Dessert will be Dutch Apple Pie. This is the same pie that took second place at the State Fair. This is a super easy pie. So here it is...

DUTCH APPLE PIE

 

crust

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

 

filling

7 cups sliced apples

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons flour

 

topping

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

 

First, move your oven rack down to it's lowest setting and preheat to 425 degrees.

 

Prep your pie pan. I always use a foil pan because that's what I compete with. Poke holes in the bottom of the pan with a fork. This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy.

 

 

Next, mix all your crust ingredients in a bowl, then dump it into the pie pan.

 

 

Use your hands and pat the dough into the pie pan. Put it in the freezer to firm up a bit after that.

 

Next, mix all your filling ingredients in a large bowl. I usually use Granny Smith apples but you can use a variety if you like.

 

 

 Use your hands. Make sure all your apple slices get coated, then layer the slices into your pie crust.

 

 

Now mix all your crust ingredients in a bowl. It will be crumbly.

 

 

Use your hands again and crumble it evenly over the top of your pie. Make sure you have plenty of topping at the edges of the pie as this will keep it from bubbling over.

 

 

Now put the whole thing in a paper bag and staple it shut. The bag will help set the top crust and keep it from burning.

 

 

Then, look at the oven and curse really loud if you've accidentally preheated the wrong oven like I did!

 

 

I have a double oven. The top oven is too short to bake this pie in. So.... preheat the bottom oven and spend that time cleaning up all the crap that you didn't realize was spattered all over your oven controls until you took a photo of it.

 

 

Now that the correct oven is heated, place the paper bag in your oven. Make sure the bag does not touch any of the sides of heating element. This is important. You bag will catch on fire if it does. Trust me. It happened to a girl I work with. She took pictures...

 

Bag properly placed in oven

 

Now shut the door, set your timer for an hour, and go run 5 miles.

 

Just kidding! Do something for an hour. I went and got my 5 mile run in while this was baking. I got back with time left on the timer and my house was not in flames. Yeah!

 

Take your bag out of the oven and cut it open. Remove your pie and put it on a rack to cool.

 



 

So, supper's all ready and now I'm going to try and relax a bit before I go into work tonight.

 

What's your favorite kind of pie?

 

Ever set anything on fire inside your oven? I set a "to-go" container on fire once. It was an aluminum container with a cardboard top and the top caught on fire.



Just Did It

Well, I peeled myself off the couch yesterday and ran 10 miles. Then I "slept" for 12 hours. "Slept" meaning I kept waking up because my left leg hurt but I was too sleepy to do anything about it, then I got up at 7 am to take kid #1 to the end of the driveway for the bus, then again at 8 am to take kid #2 to school. Then I went back to bed and stayed there til 10:30 am.

I then decided I was going to do my 20-miler today. You are suppose to practice your fueling and pre-race prep, etc. before your long runs. Today, I was fueled on a banana, multiple cups of coffee, chicken noodle soup, Sudafed (the real behind the pharmacy counter legal speed), Motrin, Robitussin DM, and Afrin nasal spray. Pretty much took the medicine cabinet before I headed out. My husband always freaks out when I take multiple meds all at once but, trust me, they all have different active ingredients. I would have definitely failed an athletic drug test today though.

So... I cruised through 12 miles - probably high on meds and caffeine. I could feel my quads getting tired at 14. I got REALLY tired at 16. 18 and 19 were hard because I got to stop for water and Powerade at the end of my driveway after 17 and had a real hard time getting going again. I just powered through mile 20 knowing I DID IT!

I kept telling myself that this was the last "hard" thing I had to do this week. I ran 35 miles in 3 days. I'm hoping to get an easy 5 miler in tomorrow. I have to work the night shift tomorrow night. I've pretty much given up on trying to "pre-sleep" for a night shift so I'll be pulling an all-nighter on Thursday. Friday is my running "rest" day. I bought new bedroom furniture for my older daughter and that is supposed to be delivered sometime Friday so I don't know how much "rest" I'll get. Basically, I am hoping to be home by 7:30 am, then I have to move the existing queen matress/boxspring and bed frame plus a desk out of the room so the delivery people can set up the new furniture when they arrive. I'm hoping the delivery people come in the afternoon so I can sleep for a couple hours.

I am doing my last long tempo run on Saturday - running a 15K (9.3 miles) that's part of the Indiana Crossroads series in Columbus. I am really going to try and focus on my pace. The race actually has a 5K and 15K relay going on at the same time. The 5K runners do one loop of the course. The 15K relay runners will trade off runners every loop while the 15K runners do 3 loops of the course. Obviously the 5K and relay runners are going to be running a much faster pace so I'm working on not getting wrapped up in everyone else's pace and just trying to run my own race.

What's everyone else up to this week?

Indecision

Ughh... I can't stand it! I'm sick. It started out as a little tickle in my throat and some tiredness last week. I went from working the 6:30 am shift to the overnight shift for a couple nights so I thought my sleep was all screwed up again. However.... now I'm coughing and my head alternates from being totally stopped up to running like a faucet and all I want to do is curl up in bed but I can't relax because I have a million things to do.

It's absolutely freaking gorgeous outside. Perfect fall weather. I am suppose to run 10 miles today, then 20 tomorrow. I don't have a fever. I ran 5 yesterday and felt better after I ran but it was an effort to get out of the house.

Everyday it seems like more and more of an effort to get my run in. I think I'm getting pretty burned out on it. I like to run but the longer runs have really turned into a big time suck. I keep thinking this is my last "big" week of running before my taper. This time next week, I'll be sitting by a pool in the Bahamas on Fall Break with my family.

I know that how I run on November 2nd depends on the training I put in NOW. No such thing as cramming or pulling an all-nighter for this run. I honestly don't know if I've put in enough training for this. I also don't know if I want to put in this much training again if I don't make my goal time. Some days I really believe I can pull it off but some days I just want to give up and lay on the couch all day.

I need some motivation!