80/20, week 4

A lot more has happened than just 80/20 training. But I'll start with that.

I've kept up with the zones as they were defined by my first test, but I find it increasingly hard to achieve the heart rates specified without going faster than the associated speed zones. There's no doubt that I'm running faster than before; almost every workout has another fastest time for this or that distance, and even my runs to work with a backpack have been in the 5:10-5:30/km range. Not particularly fast, perhaps, but faster than I was, by a solid 9 percent. Anyway, my new watch has been treating me well, and I've been reading a great deal about the endurance diet advocated by Matt Fitzgerald. Interesting stuff.

This weekend was VERY productive. Saturday was a work day, with a dinner at the Bronwyn. Sunday, I got up early and cooked quinoa (1 cup of white in 2 cups water with a chicken maggi cube), 3 large sweet potatoes, and a batch of zucchini ratatouille according to the recipe in "Recipes for Adventure II", except I steamed the ratatouille in order to avoid the use of oil. The sweet potatoes were peeled and cubed, and everything was dehydrated in preparation for making "Inca stew". I also dried some of the lime/cilantro brown ride I had made earlier in the week, as an experiment. Sara and I went for a run, got a present for a mutual friend, (finally) bought 2 11-pound bags of blue diamond cat food (which do both fit into the bucket I ordered, with the gamma lid), and went to a Greek food festival. When we got back, I steamed a coupld large potatoes for 15 minutes, let them cool, peeled them, grated them, and steamed some diced onions. Whew.

Monday, I lined a couple small rectangular pyrex dishes  with parchment paper, and poured into each a mix of 2 eggs, 85g grated potato, 55g steamed onion, and a dash each of salt, pepper, and mustand powder. They were then baked at 375F for 30 minutes, and immediately turned out to cool. I made 4 such rectangles, then cubed them up and dehydrated them at 145F. Sara and I made pasta e fagioli, except we used smoked turkey legs instead of any pork. It was a good way to use a lot of the vegetables we got in our farm share. Anyway, it turned out great, and we also went for another run together.

All told, I've got a fair bit more dried food, and certainly some new things to try. There was a lot of good food this weekend, and I'm looking forward to more to come.