<p>Cals 1809
Fat 107 g
Carbs 101 g
Fiber 23 g
Protein 114 g
Sugars 18 g</p>
<p>53% fat
25% protein
22% carbs</p>
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<p>Fantastic dinner tonight. I turned the third meal of flank steak into fajitas (hold the tortilla) with a vidalia onion, a red bell pepper, a couple anaheim chiles, some canned chipotle chile, and some roasted corn/black bean salsa, sprinkled with a little cheese and browned under the broiler. I usually make it with left over chicken breast… </p>
<p>It took me a couple of tries to stop missing the tortilla, but now I don’t even notice. That’s a hundred calories of refined carbs that were doing nothing for me. The great thing about being a guy… I just stick the skillet under the broiler to melt the cheese and then eat it right out of the skillet! Just like they would serve it at a fern bar…</p>
It’s early evening, but being out here on the west coast, by the time I get back even night owls on the east coast may be asleep. Thanks for the support. 
Who needs a tortilla when you’re having steak?
Knock em dead, Deborah! Can’t wait to hear about it.
Ohiopublic- I don’t think the Intuitions are quite light enough for racing flats. I like the Brooks T5 and T7 racers. My daughter likes Saucony Kinvara for 5 and 10K.
<p>OK, I think I’ve got my next hike picked out. Now I just need to settle on a day. This is a super-popular area in [Franconia</a> Notch State Park](<a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps), so weekends may be a zoo.</p>
<p>It’s a fairly moderate 5.4 mile loop that climbs along a Cascade Brook Trail with a whole bunch of waterfalls and cascades:</p>
<p>[Log</a> across the cascades on way to Lonesome Lake, White Mountains, NH](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/ladyichor/2923218352/in/photostream/lightbox/]Log”>Log across the cascades on way to Lonesome Lake, White Mou… | Flickr)</p>
<p>[Cascade</a> on Basin Trail to Lonesome Lake, White Mountains, NH](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/ladyichor/2922367537/in/photostream/lightbox/]Cascade”>Cascade on Basin Trail to Lonesome Lake, White Mountains, … | Flickr)</p>
<p>[Rocky</a> Glen Falls at Cascade Brook Trail to Lonesome Lake, White Mountains, NH](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/ladyichor/2923219188/in/photostream/lightbox/]Rocky”>Rocky Glen Falls at Cascade Brook Trail to Lonesome Lake, … | Flickr)</p>
<p>[View</a> from Cascade Trail to Lonesome Lake, White Mountains, NH](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/ladyichor/2923219894/in/photostream/lightbox/]View”>View from Cascade Trail to Lonesome Lake, White Mountains,… | Flickr)</p>
<p>It reaches Lonesome Lake:</p>
<p>[Lonesome</a> Lake, White Mountains, NH](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/ladyichor/2923220446/in/photostream/lightbox/]Lonesome”>Lonesome Lake, White Mountains, NH | Jenn Hollis | Flickr)</p>
<p>And, then loops back down a steep wooded trail to a final 1.5 mile flat trail along the Pemi River to the car. Enough elevation and distance to get a little workout, but not quite as strenuous as the mountain climbs. Cascade Brook sounds gorgeous.</p>
<p>Those pictures are gorgeous! Looks like a great hike.</p>
<p>Hope all went well Deborah! :)</p>
<p>Going to buy D2 some Superfeet inserts at the local running store today to see if they help with the heel pain. Then I am headed to the Lake for the weekend. Will try some kayaking, walking and biking for my weekend exercise. Wish me luck!</p>
<p>NMinn- I would recommend the raspberry SuperFeet (for women). She may just have some tendonitis in the heel. I hope so.</p>
<p>Daughter and I are going to do the difficult 11.2 mile hilly loop in the park in the morning. I suggested that we do it in reverse, since the reverse is the 2nd loop of the Monkey Marathon and it will prepare me a little for that pain. That means a mile climb to start out, which is killer, but we get to go DOWN some of the hills that normally we have to climb on the normal counter-clockwise loop. She is heading to Florida (into the storm) for a personal retreat for a week. She finishes her children’s hospital chaplaincy today and starts being priest-in-charge at a small church next Sunday!</p>
<p>In other news- I continue to fear biking. WildChild got hit by a car pulling out right into him in Phila the other night. He’s fine- and more importantly to him- so is his expensive tri bike. Some scrapes on his elbow. Worst casualty was his iPhone, which was either run over or taken in the aftermath of the accident. He’s more worried about that than the fact that he is going to be killed riding his bike in Philadelphia. </p>
<p>Husband had a tire blowout on his 60 mile bike ride yesterday (on the way home) and damage was greater than just putting in a new tube. A passing truck gave him some electrical tape to patch it together and he made it home. Just give me my running shoes…</p>
<p>MOWC, Sorry to hear about the bike incidents but really glad your son is okay! Scary!</p>
<p>iDad, the Cascade Brook Trail looks just lovely. </p>
<p>NMinn, have fun kayaking. :)</p>
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<p>I’m really learning a lot about hills these days and how much harder they are compared to flat running. I find that going downhill after a long uphill is slower than just doing a downhill coming off flats. It might be the additional stress on the calf or upper leg muscles or the body just used to a slower pace but for me, it isn’t the same thing.</p>
<p>One of these days I’m going to try running up Heartbreak Hill. My mother lives about a mile from the start of the hill on Commonwealth Avenue and I’ve driven up the hill many, many times. I’ve seen lots of people run down the hill. Not so many running up the hill. Commonwealth Avenue in Newton is a great place for running. It’s two sets of lanes, one set for both directions and the other set is sometimes one-way, sometimes two-way but it usually has less traffic. The sets of lanes is divided by a large, grassy median which you can run on too.</p>
<p>Heartbreak Hill is not all that terrible by itself. It’s a problem because of where it comes in the Boston Marathon and because your legs are trashed from the gradual downgrade up to that point. I know I’ve said this before, but back in the 80s when I was training for Boston my coach had me do downhill intervals. This was NOT easy to do in Dallas, and I had to drive north along the interstate to a deserted stretch of service road that had a long downhill grade. I would run down and walk back up about 10 times. It didn’t help and I never had a particularly good Boston Marathon! :)</p>
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<p>From the perspective of a marathon runner, probably not. But from the perspective of someone not used to running a lot of hills, it’s probably pretty challenging. One of my sisters from the SF is in town this week so I’ll be over there at least one day in the next week so I should pack my stuff and at least run a mile of it. I could do a five mile rectangle of Washington, Commonwealth, Chestnut and Beacon.</p>
<p>Yeah- keep in mind that my view of hills changed a lot when I moved from Dallas to middle Tennessee. In Dallas we would have complained about slopes that we consider a “flat” course here in TN. When DFW opened a new runway in the mid-90s there was a race on the runway before it opened. (WildChild actually set a state record at it for 5K in his age group). The big draw was “flat and fast”, as you can imagine. Well, it had this tiny little rise where the runway crossed a road on sort of a bridge. We all had a FIT about the hill we weren’t warned about!</p>
<p>I did a little more reading and the heartbreak hill elevation is only 88 vertical feet. I’m doing more than that in the hills around my office. So I guess that I can just stick to what’s local.</p>
<p>Moving to Newton would be nice - it is a great city for running, bicycling, and tennis.</p>
<p>When we did a practice run on the course last weekend I was pleased to see it’s actually flatter than the trail where I normally run, which is pretty flat to begin with. My main concerns are finding parking, how to negotiate my way around a big group of runners (can’t imagine running in a group of 5,000 like you did, BC – mind boggling!), the paws, and The Unknown. But I actually slept last night and am pretty excited.</p>
Deborah- Make sure you don’t start too far in the back. You certainly don’t want to be in the very front, but you don’t want to sift through walkers and strollers, either. It’s perfectly fine to ask people lining up what pace they expect to run so you roughly know where you should be. Good luck!
<p>Parking is a headache in big cities unless the organizers provide some kind of accomadation. A big group to go through is a pain, you may have to zig and zag.</p>
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<p>One thing that I’ve found really, really useful is the GPS watch and HRM. I only started using the GPS watch a few weeks ago and the HRM this week. I thought that they were on the geeky side and that they would be a pain to use but I did manage to learn how to use the GPS watch (even after using the manual for a different model) and the HRM is surprisingly comfortable (I thought that the strap would be a nuisance). I really like the mapping capabilities and that I can plan new routes from the old routes by discovering roads and trails on the computer off my existing routes.</p>
<p>On heart-rate - it appears that I run fairly comfortably between 160 and 170 BPM so I’m guessing that my max is around 185-190. I’m generally not inclined to try that except on the track. Maybe this weekend.</p>
I would agree with that. The BERRY is the women’s version of the men’s ORANGE, which is what I use in running shoes, hiking boots, or anything else where the factory insole can be removed and replaced. The BERRY or the ORANGE replaces the factory insole and shouldn’t change the fit of the shoe very much. It has dense foam cushioning under the forefoot that will hold up much better than any factory insoles I’ve ever seen (except the LL BEAN duck boot insoles).
For a shoe without a removable insole or where the fit is tight, I use the BLUE version. Similar arch support, but thinner cushioning – and a material that compresses over time like the standard insole in running shoes.
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<p>Many lifetimes ago, I lived in Newton and not coincidentally, I was in the best shape of my life. Its a fantastic place to run. Sounds like your Heartbreak Hill run is starting down by the Newton fire station. Heartbreak Hill is actually a series of hills that starts by the firehouse and ends at Boston College. I used to run that 11 mile Comm. Ave/Washington St/ Beacon St. loop all the time. The firefighters were always great about letting us stop there for a bathroom and water break.</p>
<p>BCEagle- I bet your max is over 200 if you are comfortable at 160-170. My aerobic training zone is 136-148 (and I wouldn’t say I’m always comfortable) and my max is 185.</p>
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<p>Passing people (while running or hiking) is not a problem with which I am familiar…</p>
<p>88 feet of elevation gain is a pretty good hill for running or fast walking. The big hill that I left 90 pounds of blubber on at the old state park route was 100 feet over half a mile, but with two steep sections.</p>
<p>Doing my running intervals to a heart rate instead of a time or distance has really changed my attitude towards hills. Now, I really don’t care if the running interval is uphill or downhill. If it’s uphill, the interval will be shorter and slower. If it’s downhill, it’ll be longer and faster. No question that uphill is a lot harder, but downhill is hell on the legs from the constant braking forces.</p>
<p>I’m starting to get the hang of looking at contour lines on a topo map and intuitively knowing whether my butt is about to get kicked.</p>
<p>Looking at the Garmin TOPO maps, it appears that from the lowest point to the highest Heartbreak Hill rises 100 feet in the span of about 3/4 mile. That’s enough to get your heart rate up, I would think. It would certainly get me panting!</p>