Magnificent

Mammoth Vacation

One week in Mammoth is never enough. I remained happily busy the entire time with various activities including running, hiking, fishing, biking, paying guitar, reading, eating, and warding off mosquitoes… billions of ravenous blood-thirsty mosquitoes.

Twin Lakes - a view from The Bottomless Pit

My favorite aspect of running in Mammoth is that everyone is doing it. With dozens of high school teams scurrying about the town and trails, inspiration as well as competition can be found everywhere. During most of my runs I was accompanied by my best friend and nearly sister, Jenn, aka the crazy-vegan-minimalist-marathon runner. Oh yes, it doesn’t get much more raw than that! After the trials she faced during the week (tripping on a run, crashing on her bike, nearly passing out on our long run) I’m so proud to hear that she got 6^th place overall in the Crater Lake Marathon on Saturday!

On a couple of nights, we visited with our high school team at the apartments they were staying in for their training camp. It’s hard to believe that I started there, that seven years later I was coming back to inspire the kids to be great runners. My high school coach asked me, Jenn, and my brother Nic to host a question and answer session for the team regarding running after high school. I’m not one who enjoys public speaking sort of activities (in fact, I dread them), so I was reluctant to verbalize my knowledge. As I sat down in front of the high schoolers, the nerves that tingled my twitching smile, provoked my clammy hands, and flushed my face red were flooding through my body and mind as fifty young eyeballs were cast upon me. Every pair of eyes surveyed me with a different gaze, and behind each gaze was a unique mind and mission. Some eyes were glazed over with a screen that splintered my words into tiny particles that dissipated into Z’s through a sleepy serene mind. Other eyes gaped wide open exposing a crouching receiver waiting open-handed to snatch the words that flew in and neatly sort them into the brain's bank. And then there were the eyes hiding confidently behind a foolproof veneer through which no words perforated and the only collection of information gained was from observations tied to self-commentary. Most of the questions came from the same handful of kids. 

The question that slapped me in the face and is still throbbing a week later was this: “What would you be doing right now if you weren’t running?” This inquiry was almost too overwhelming, like the last block placed clumsily on top of the Jenga tower of my composure as a runner. The pieces came crumbling down for an instant as I thought, “well shit, I’d be… backpacking, traveling, mountain biking, doing yoga, eating raw, adventuring, watching every sunrise, starting a food blog, racing triathlons, pulling straight A’s, barefoot running, meditating at the peak of a mountain, starting a band, rock climbing, kayaking… STOP!!!” After a mad wave of adrenaline, I shook my head, rewinding the clumsy placement of that detrimental Jenga block, and took a deep breath. I placed the block back on top carefully so that the tower showed no sway what-so-ever, and thought to myself, “I am a runner because I love what I do. The challenge, the camaraderie, the positive lifestyle, the grunt followed by the reward: it makes me who I am. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

But really? Really? Did you really just ask that question? A competitive runner lives for running. I call it the Running Disorder: every decision and action made is set in motion only after one asks her/himself, “how would this affect my running?” We live to run, and if we didn’t have it, we’d be a bit lost.

I decided that I wouldn’t think about what I would be doing right now if I wasn’t running, because it’s like a pointless “what if” question. It doesn’t really matter, because I’m not doing it. I’m competing collegiately and building character. I’m exercising my work ethic to its max and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Yes, all because I chose to be a runner, I am a success.

The day after I got home from Mammoth, a sad day indeed, I did a mile repeat workout that knocked me off my feet, literally, for two days. Hip pain is one thing I won’t test my boundaries on, so when I was feeling a stab in my hip, I laid myself down for the next two days to let it recover. I’ve had too many bad experiences with running through injuries and they never lead to anything right: IT band syndrome, stress fracture, torn plantar fascia, and a quad strain, to name a few. The recent decision to rest was one of the best I’ve made because I was back and running on Tuesday with no pain at all. If an injury is ever in question, it’s always smarter to rest rather than working through it. It could save your season.

But it wasn’t an easy decision to take a couple days off running, especially after reading in Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul by Deepak Chopra that “one research study found… if college athletes in the peak of fitness are put flat on their backs in a hospital bed and not allowed to get up, within two weeks, their muscles lose ten years of training.”
 ...TEN YEARS!!??!! Yikes! Frightening, eh?

So I’m back in Santa Barbara now, training with my girls, and it’s the best feeling ever. It’s so much easier and more gratifying to train at your optimal level when surrounded by your team. In Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald, I read that in a study, runners “performed 21 percent better in a maximal exercise test when they competed against other subjects of similar ability than when they did the same test alone.” Racing season starts in a couple weeks, but first we have a time trial and get to welcome about a dozen new freshmen girls into the program.

On a very last note, my family went to a Chinese restaurant a few days ago and my grandma’s fortune cookie stated, “You are a classic.” So fitting! Mine vaguely read, “People are waiting for cues from you.” Hmmm... I'll toss that one around my mind for a bit.

Rainbow Falls

What am I listening to right now? Astral Weeks by Van Morrison 

Homemade Granola

I’m setting off on a family vacation to Mammoth Lakes tomorrow, so yesterday I ventured to Barnes & Noble to purchase a couple of books for the long car ride and the hours of waiting for a fish to bite while my line is in the lake. The two books I bought were Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul by Deepak Chopra, and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan. The latter of which got me thinking about my ever-changing relationship with food… 

Michael Pollan’s book inspired me to reflect on my family’s eating habits and how they have changed over the years. Up until college, I didn’t have much concern for the type of food I ate, the proportion, or whether I sprucely polished off every unit of the food pyramid daily. I ate what I was fed, and on weeknights when my mom worked late, it wasn’t uncommon for me to help my dad prepare (aka, unwrap, arrange on a pan, slide into the oven, and wait for the beep) a batch of frozen Costco taquitos, corndogs, personal pizzas, or chicken nuggets. I actually remember being quite fond of the frozen chimichangas a lot more than my mom’s homemade ones, but always knew better than to voice it. Slowly, our world turned upside down, and the dawning of a new health conscious era brought salad to the table everyday. Lean protein, hearty grains, and even more vegetables are a nightly necessity these days, and every meal is diligently prepared, usually following a recipe from Cooking Light Magazine. Our freezer consists of vegetables and meat, and there are no premade meals to be found. I guess you could say cooking is a hobby my mom loves. We barely go out to eat, so dinner every night of the week is homemade, often from scratch, and always delicious and healthy.

Even though as a child, my mom predicted I’d never be domestic (it’s just the feeling she got), I have proved her very wrong. I love cooking, especially baking. I think it’s because I have a passion for building things from raw materials – cooking, baking, crafting homemade cards, weaving bracelets, the list goes on! One of my favorite foods to bake is granola. I hate how store bought granola is often loaded with sugars of various names which are only familiar to me from taking years of chemistry classes. So, I make my granola with good ol’ honey and maple syrup. I enjoy being able to choose the combination of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit to sprinkle in! I baked my latest batch to take camping with us, and it's a hit:

Ashley’s August Granola

Ingredients:

            3 cups old-fashioned oats

            1 cup raw sunflower seeds

            1 cup ground flax meal

            ¾ cup sliced raw almonds

            ¾ cup chopped pecans

            ¼ cup maple syrup

            ¼ cup honey

            ½ cup canola oil

            1 teaspoon vanilla extract

            1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

            ½ cup shredded coconut

            1 cup Trader Joes Triple Fruit Treat (dried fruit)

            Cooking spray

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°
2.  In a large bowl, mix oats, seeds, flax, and nuts.
3.  In a small saucepan, combine oil, honey, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon. Heat over the stove until it starts to bubble a bit, stirring carefully.
4.  Pour the hot liquid mixture into the oat mixture and stir to coat.
5.  Prepare an oven pan by covering it with aluminum foil and coating it with cooking spray. Then, pour the granola onto it and spread it evenly.
6.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 350°, stirring every 10 minutes. Before the last 10 minute interval, stir the shredded coconut into the mixture. Please do not overcook it. Watch it carefully, I find that it takes a bit less than 30 minutes.
7.  After the granola bakes for 25-30 minutes, take it out of the oven and transfer into a large bowl. Immediately add the dried fruit and toss to combine. Let cool completely. It may seem soft, but don’t worry, it hardens as it cools.

And there you have it, your own homemade granola. You can mix and match if you don’t like certain nuts or seeds. Some suggestions are walnuts, cashews, pepitas, or sesame seeds. Also, there are so many different dried fruit you can try in it too, including raisins, dates, apples, or apricots. The freedom is yours! Enjoy!


What am I listening to right now? Hey by The Pixies

A Tribute

Dear Dad,
I admire the methodical manner in which you pare your oranges. I will carry on the art in your name.
Love, Ash

What am I listening to now? The Trapeze Swinger by Iron & Wine