Chubby Cheeta's Kitchen Recipes, # 2, Chia Sports Drink

I drank the Chia Sports Drink during my 12 mile trail run and I am barely sore. I drank only water on my 8 mile run six days earlier and I could hardly walk almost until the 12 mile run. I found the idea of a Chia drink while reading about the Tarahumara.

Ingredients- 

Chia-  3 or 4 tablespoons

Maca- 3 or four tablespoons

Hemp Protein Powder- 1 large scoop

Hawaiian Sea Salt- 2 fat pinches

Agave Syrup- 3 tablespoons

Water- 6 to 8 cups

First bring your 6 to 8 cups of water and the 2 fat pinches of sea salt to a boil, vary the amount water to change the thickness or flavor. Remove the water mix from the heat, stir all ingredients, set pot on a cooling rack until the mixture is room temperature.  Pour room temperature mix into a blender, and either pulse or put on slowest setting, and lightly blend.

 You will have the urge to blend it in the blender say 1/2 way cooled, or 3/4 cooled. Well, if your mix is anywhere near the top of the blender, then steam will build in the blender very rapidly, and spit hot shit all over you, burning you, and make a mess in the kitchen. And, if you a really smart kid, like me, then you'll try in twenty minutes when it's still not cool enough, and reburn and mess your shit up again.

Pour into jars or  a pitcher. I save some jars so can split it up for different workouts.

It is earhty yet sweet spice drink. It the only thing I did different between the two runs. I drank four ounces after four miles, 8 ounces after mile 8, finishing the last 4 ounces after mile 12, and wishing I had more, because I famished at that point. A.D.D. Idea. A squeeze of lime might be nice. I think I am going to try some lime. I hope you enjoy. 

The Sore Leg Bathroom Waddle

After the Kilauea Iki 8 mile run, on VD day Feb. 14th 2011, it seemed as if I was OK. I hurt, but for the first time at this distance, my feet seemed worse than my legs. I had more than one sore toe. Not from the  shoes as much as it was the sheer number of steps on uneven terrain.

 Upon finishing my first loop, I stopped to call the girls, and I saw that it was noon, the first loop took over 1-1/2 hours, and I had to meet My wife at 1:00 so she can pass the baby off to me, switch the Prius for the Jeep, and get down the hill to Hilo and get to work at 2:15 PM.

I knew if I was going to make 8 miles I was going to have to haul ass on fatigued legs. I scrambled back out onto the trail. I reversed directions, and descended by Thurston Lava Tube. I flew like a lion through the first steep descent, but I started to fatigue going through the bottom of the crater. The initial ascent is a super steep trail slash rock stairs. As I ran peering up at the ascent, I jammed the ball of my right foot on a lava rock, straining the  muscle, and almost rolling my ankle. I started to try to run the ascent, and immediately fell back into a walk. I walked quickly until I got into the shade. I stopped removed my hydro pack and Micheal Jordan sweat band to allow my body temperature drop. Once my body temp lowered; I consume a couple of small mouth fulls of water not wanting to over do it. I continued. Getting up those steps is like doing lunges, my quads were shaking like jello, but I pushed through, made it to the top, and then was able to start a slow sliding jog. I knew I was running out of time, and had to get to the parking lot. The rest of the is ascent is very gradual, and I was able to run/walk it at a pace faster than my body wanted. I made it to the parking lot just before to girls arrived. I finished the trail 8 miles in 2-1/2 hours. My feet were really stinging, my legs were numb and had an occasional shooting pain, but I thought they just might be OK.

Wrong! I woke up needing to take a leak, and my legs were stiff as boards, and when I put my feet to the floor someone shoved a hot nail in my calves. Whimpering I teetered side to side like I had two wooden legs, and electric shocks ran up to my ass. My legs were like this for the next three nights. I skipped my short runs, and my paddle boarding.

Thursday morning I drizzled out of bed at 6 AM, and hobbled down the hall to draw a hot epsom salt bath. I soaked, and then got up to make coffee and make a breakfast burrito. Then I rubbed my legs down hard with the red Tiger Balm. Please, heal me firery balm! The girls got up, and the Girls and I went to Hilo Bay. There were small waves. I was still in tons of calf pain. I paddle over in the waves. I couldn't take off on a damn wave. I would get all wobbly the moment before dropping in, I would try to contain the fire in my legs, and splash I would kook out and Huli (fall) off my board. My friend Big L. and I swapped boards in the water. His board is a little wider and more stable. And, He is actually a good surfer and can ride my board. I still couldn't catch waves, until I started kneeling and paddling for the waves. I never could get enough blood into the muscles to wash, even if temporary, away the soreness. We swapped boards back. Big L. caught the next wave in to shore. I tried a couple of times, and resigned to paddle across the bay, and over to where the girls were playing on the beach.

Friday, I did stations, I jumped rope, did push ups, sit-ups, pull ups, and ran in place. My calves were still super sore, and I wanted to try for 16 miles the next day. I talked to my wife, who is sometimes very wise, Hey, I said, "Sometimes", suggested I push the run to Sunday. I agreed, in fact I was a little scared of even doing Sunday's run...

Chubby Cheeta's Kitchen Recipes, # 1, Quinoa and Pumpkin Lunch

I made two separate dishes. A savory & sweet quinoa, and a baked pumpkin.

Sweet & Savory Quinoa

Ingredients-

3 small or 2 medium size tomatoes
1/4 cup bell pepper
1 whole mango
dash celery salt
pinch sea salt
3/4 cup quinoa
1-3/4 cup water

Bring water, sea salt, and celery salt to a boil. Slowly stir in quinoa, cover with a lid and put on low heat for 12 minutes. While quinoa is simmering, chop tomato into chunks, bell pepper into fine slices, and the mango into chunks. When the 12 minute simmer is up stir in vegetables and mango, cover, and turn heat off. It will be slightly warm when pumpkin is done.

Baked pumpkin-

Ingredients-

1 pumpkin cut in half, you may use smaller pieces if it is a larger type of pumpkin
Black pepper
Sage
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut pumpkin in half, and put deep cuts in the pumpkin almost all the way to the skin. Rub the pumpkin with olive oil, and then sprinkle evenly with black pepper, and lightly with the sage. bake on a cookie sheet for 1 hour.

Enjoy this meal full of fiber, protein, minerals, vitamins, and good carbs.

Chubby Cheetah Kitchen Invitation

As part of this whole twisted experiment I am going to compose a Vegetarian cookbook. I am pretty handy around the kitchen, and to keep my self from splitting at the seams from meat withdrawals I have got inventive in the kitchen. Plus the level of nutrition and calories ha have to be present to pull off long distance runs. I also found with a lot recipes with health food are only trying to sell you there cookbook, and a lot of them are like 15 chia recipes. I am not going to pay 15.00 for a ten or fifteen recipe cook book. Kiss my white flabby ass! Anyways, any post that says Chubby Cheetah's Kitchen from now on will be a recipe for vegetarian food.

Baby's Fever

I missed my short run yesterday, and my paddle boarding session today. My Baby had a high fever 102.3, and maybe higher. Nothing is scarier than having a sick child, and yet nothing cause deep bonding like staying just out of the dream realm and cuddling your baby all night.  My wife and I barely got any sleep, because our baby would wake up up in a screaming cry at least every twenty-five minutes, and she would either need to be nursed back to sleep by my wife or I would rock her and sang. It funny how alot of times what ever is causing you to lose sleep pisses you off, but not when it's your baby you are more than happy to lose that same sleep.

Volcano National Park

View from Kilauea Iki, and Halema'mau'u is steaming in the back ground. I ran a super hard eight miles yesterday. I did the Kilauea Iki Loop twice. After the first loop, I paused in the parking lot, and this huge plume of ash and smoke came billowing out of Halema'mau'u, which is the home of Pele. I got great footage of it, and peoples  reaction on my other video camera. There is a lava lake in that crater, and when I first moved here I remember someone telling me it was a mile or two down. Now, I read in the paper last Thursday that the lake of lave is 240 feet down, and there were over a dozen earthquakes last week, the biggest being 3.8.  So when these plumes came, which happened twice I was wondering if I should run down into the bottom of the crater again. But, what the hell! If Tutu Pele wants to take you, she can do it at will. So, I finished one more loop. I had to stop my run four miles short; I wanted to do at least one more loop, but my feet were killing me. Also, when I jumped over a crevice I came down super hard on a sharp piece of lava rock in the arch of my right foot. My foot still hurts pretty bad today. Well worth all the pain to see Big Mama's show of force.

Grocery Freak Out!

My baby girl and I were both going through the cabinets. She was tossing things on the floor, and I was searching for something to fill the tobacco void. I couldn't find anything to satisfy my needs, and we decided to run to the health food store before Mama got home from work. You know, just to grab a few things for a vegetarian curry. So, we go to the store, next thing you know we are wandering the store sharing an open unpaid for bag of cheese poofs, and finding all sorts of wonderful delicious things. $ 85.00  later I still didn't have everything I needed for the curry, and I only had one bag of groceries. Damn heath food stores. Hmm, I will go to the Kea'au farmers market, a great place to get cheap fresh vegetables. Shit! I gave my last eleven dollars to my wife, and they only accept cash at the farmers market. I can just run by KTA, it is more expensive, but they have very nice produce. I'll just grab a couple of veggies, maybe a cheese pizza for tomorrow. Right! As my cravings grew deeper and deeper my cart got fuller and fuller. To add to the drama we are having a bit of a tight month. I spent $ 160.00 at KTA. I now have spent $ 240.00 on groceries. When I got home my wife almost flipped out, but she is so cool that she swallowed her anger, and we had a long talk. I had one other freak out, but I am saving that one for my video chronicle. I am heading up to Volcano National Park for a long run today, and will report back soon.