Hollywood Bowl Celeb Chef Picnic

This past weekend was another crazy one, especially on Saturday.  It felt like Saturday was 3 separate days.  We started off early in the morning with an 8 mile run that took us from our apartment down to right near where I work and then back home.  Here's the route:


View Larger Map

We started a little after 7am and it was already approaching 80 degrees out so it was a warm run.  After we got back and had some time to rest, I started preparing our picnic feast for our trip to the Hollywood Bowl later that night.

Our meal was comprised of 3 recipes from 3 amazing chef's and it made for a fantastic meal. The main course was was Ina Garten's Caesar Club Sandwich. Brothers-in-law/talented chefs Eric & Ryan introduced us to this sandwich a few years ago when we were in town for a visit.  Ever since we've made it for all of our trips to the Hollywood Bowl.

90th Birthday Party and Coming Down A Mountain

It was another busy weekend for us running (pun intended) all over socal.  On Friday we headed down to San Diego to celebrate Carly's grandma's 90th birthday. We all met up at the Stone Brewing World Bistro for a late lunch/early dinner.  There were 14 of us and they gave us a great table outside in the corner that was nicely shaded and semi-private.  It was the perfect setting.  Since the food at Stone is amazing, we knew that we had a great meal ahead of us.  We shared a deep fried mashed potato appetizer and for our entrees I had the Mac n' Beer Cheese and Carly had the Tempeh Shepherd's Pie.

Made with Mike's Stone Smoked Porter & Garlic Beer Cheese and basil, along with Stone Smoked Porter Sausage from San Marcos' T&H Prime Meats & Sausage

Chock full of spiced tempeh, carrots, zucchini, corn and onions, topped with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese.

Good Days and Bad Days

It’s weird how some days the running can be so on and others so off. Well I can happily say this morning was an on day. Clayton and I did our longest run, 12 miles, aside from the actual half marathon. Here is our route. We went down Palms, up Robertson, down Cienega, over to Jefferson and Duquesne (now I know where the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is) and finished by going to Culver to Overland and finally back to Palms. It felt so good I could have kept going, but that’s when you risk injury, when you run longer than what’s laid out in your training schedule.


View Larger Map

Running to the Ocean and Back

Sorry for the 2 week gap in blog posts, August is shaping up to be a crazy month. This past weekend was no exception. We started Saturday with an 11 mile run marking the end of half marathon training week 6. Our route took us from our neighborhood out to Venice beach and and back.


View Larger Map

Having the goal of running all the way to the beach mentally makes the run much more enjoyable because you have a goal in mind. This helped especially on this particular run since we were both feeling a bit sluggish throughout the whole run.