The Lew Crew

The Lew Crew
You got a long way to go Fat Stuff! Get out there and run!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Big Horn Trail Run 50 Miler, I'm getting scared!

This run is sneaking up on me like a homeless man on a half eaten sandwich. Before I know it I will be scooped out of the trash can, with his back to the street, I will be devoured. I am still pushing hard in my training, but the light at the end of the tunnel comes into focus, and when I think I have a firm grasp it slips through my fingers. This last week I ran 29.98 miles, 7 hours & 39 minutes, and 3,794 feet of elevation gain. Sounds awsome, but I fear it is no where near where I need to be on race day. This week I am going to push hard, and my goal with be to spend 12 hours pounding the trails in a week. I am going to be pooping down both legs on race day, if I know in my mind I can't eaisly handle 12 hours a week. I would feel even better if I could bump up to 14 or 15 hours a week in may. 50 miles, where do I get these crazy ideas. But, the plane tickets are purchased, the hotel is reserved, and my entry fee has been paid. Plus, I have never been one to back down once I started something. All the other goals of no meat, or running barefoot during the race seem insignificant, and above all else I must be prepared to run and finish the race. The following video is a 360 degree pan from the top of the Pu'u Huluhulu vent in Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Lehua Blosoms


Chubby Cheetah's Kitchen, Recipe # 5, Carrot Ginger Soup

In our house we love soups, and this one is a new delicious one I created this morning.

Carrot Ginger Soup

Ingredients-

4    cups water
3    cups carrots
1/2 cup onion
2    tsp ginger
1 to 2 tsp Ghee (or butter)
1/2 tsp sea salt
dash black pepper
dash red Cayenne pepper

First peel and freeze your piece ginger. This makes it easy to grate the ginger later. Bring the water to a boil with the carrots inside, and then lower to a simmer and put a lid on your pot. Once the carrots begin to soften take them off of the stove, place them and the water in a separate bowl, grate in your ginger, and let them cool to room temperature. Return your boiling pot to the stove on a medium heat, add your ghee or butter, add onion, salt, and black and Cayenne pepper. Saute onion until clear. Add the onion to the carrot ginger mix, do not wash the ghee residue out of boiling pot, and put the pot on the side. Add the onion to the carrot mix. Once the carrot mix is room temperature, place in a blender, and puree until smooth. Return to the ghee coated pot, and cook for a half hour at a simmer before serving. It is a spunky healthy soup. Enjoy!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Goverment Shut or Furlough Days

Instead of a government shut down, they should consider it furlough days. That way they could claim that they are saving us money instead of screwing us one more time. Tea party blames the Republicans and the Liberals, the Liberals blame all the conservatives, The Old Guard Conservatives blame the Liberals and wish they could also blame the Tea Party. These people all act more like spoiled rich kid than they do politicians. Everybody wants a showdown, everybody wants to play the blame game, next year we must start campaigning for the Presidential Race again. I think they all need a old fashion ass kicking, and then we we put them in time out. Can't they ever agree that both parties lead up to all these problems, and they have a responsibility to not act so ridiculous. And to the Tea Party, you don't even know who you are, you have all the consistency of rotten yogurt. You run all the way from smart fiscal conservative to crazy ass racist who have attach themselves to your party. How did you let that shit happen? Your young congress members are the one trying to slide in ideological laws into a budget bill, now you've assisted in shutting down the government. But my real question is, with a government shut, will anyone really notice??? LOL!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Chubby Cheetah's Kitchen, Recipe # 4, Ahi in Rich White Orange Sauce

I know this one sounds too rich, but it is not near as rich as it sounds. The flavor of the fish is the predominate thing you taste.

Ingredients-

1 block Ahi Tuna
12 oz. ricotta cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 ripe orange
1 pinch sea salt
1 dab coconut oil to grease bread pan

I use a bread pan because it is small enough to keep the Ahi and sauce in tight quarters. I grease the entire pan down with coconut oil, you could use olive oil also.

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the ricotta cheese, mayo, most of the Parmesan, and salt together.  Cut the orange in half, and squeeze half of the orange into the mixture. Then with a fine cheese-grater,  grater some of the rind into the ricotta mixture, and stir again.

Cut Ahi into 1/2 inch steaks.  Dip each steak into the ricotta mixture until it has a thick coating. Stack the steaks next to each other in a row. Pour any remaining sauce over top. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan over top, and grate a little more orange rind over the top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Then turn the oven down to 300 degrees for 10 more minutes. This dish is awesome. Enjoy!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Vegitarian, Carnivore (part time), Vegitarian

It's good to be King! It is good to make the rules and laws, and break them when you wish. Over two months I have slowly lost 10 pounds. Sounds great, if your not the one pushing these thunder thighs up and  down trails. The cravings I have had for meat didn't break me; it has been my inability to lose enough fat. I am going to allow myself to get protein through a meat source three to five times a week. But, only for a temporary period of three weeks, from March 28th to April 18th. These past months I have been jamming down vegetarian food hand full after hand full trying to get enough protein. I have been getting enough protein, but I have had to consume so many calories to do it that I haven't lost enough of my fat rash. And, that damn fat rash covers my entire body. In my mind every pound I can shed is one less pound to carry. If I carry one less pound for a  mile, that is fifty less pounds over fifty miles. It is going to be much easier to lower my calorie count using a little meat protein, and then I will switch to a good protein shake on the 18th of April. I will also let my calorie count go as high as it needs to at that point. I will cease caring about weight, and only worry about consuming enough to carry me through the miles. For now, I brake the rules, make new rules, until I decide to make or break new rules.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Big Island International Marathon Through Today

All over all the paper work was "No Bandits". I would have loved to have been a legitimate participant, but they only have 300 slots for the Marathon which is ridiculous, and of course it was sold out a long time ago. They don't let any sign up on the pre-race day to fill the slots of dropouts, and we had a ton this year because of the disaster in Japan. A lot of the runners were coming from Japan, and only about half of them made it. It is super impressive that even that many came in the wake of a disaster a week earlier. Anyway, I signed up for the 5K. 4:30 A.M. March 20th, with a shirt covering my running number, I slithered onto the bus for the marathon and half marathon, and waited to get kicked off. A man came onto the bus and announced this bus was for half and full marathoners only, and then he left. Silently I rode up to the starting line. Got off the bus, and started to check out every ones numbers. All the numbers were either 1 to 300, or 700 to 1000. My number was 599. In the seas of people I only saw one other poacher with a 500 number. My head was stirring, and I was wondering how I was going to avoid getting caught. You don't want to get caught poaching a road runner event if there are other road runner events in which you want participate.  When they called for us to the start line I crowded into the center of the pack, and stayed as far away from the video guy as I could. The gun went off, I had done, I was able to start the race. The first half of this course is awesome before the freaky loop around second half of the course.

   It was so peaceful as the sun slowly rose over the ocean, trotting up and down the winding course. One of my biggest goals for the race was not to get swept up in the momentum of every ones pace as they wushed passed me. I held my pace, and let everyone pass. It sounds easy, but it is not. People have been preparing for this day for months, some a year or more. You feel great because it's the beginning of the race, and there is the energy of hundreds of excited people who all feel like Olympians gliding across the pavement during the first few miles. Those first few miles can destroy you for the last 6.2 miles if you over do it. Like a tree with the wind rushing past me, I stood my ground and kept my pace.

  The first 10-1/2 miles went smooth. I passed many of the people who flew by me at the start. Then when I reached downtown Hilo I could see all the race booths event people. I quickly decided to jump a fence, and head up into down town. I called Jaime, and told her to meet me in Kea'au in a couple of hours. I slowly plodded forward until I reached the dump in Kea'au. The girls had been waiting for me, and I had passed my pick up point. The girls came to get me, and we went home and mapped my run. The run only turned out to be 20-1/2 miles, but I was super stoked I kept my pace at the start and I didn't get caught.

  I ran a 16 miler during the next week, and another 6 miles. I ran 42 miles in a week, which was awesome. This week I was only able squeeze in 22 total miles, and that must be the only time my weekly total drops below 40 miles until the week before the Big Horn Trail Run 50 miler. I am going to call my sports guru Pat Lupton this week. He lives in Montana an is an incredible fitness trainer, and he is also a competitive Ultra-Marathon Athlete. I can't wait to get some professional advice.