Hi friends,
If I haven’t already, I’d like to thank you for subscribing. It means a lot to me. If you know someone out there who likes to run or is running-as-a-hobby curious, I’d love for you to forward this to them.
I’ve been feeling like a worn-down nub lately so this newsletter might be a bit more all over the place than usual. Everything is blah. Even my fun writing!
I’m 11 weeks out from the Boston Marathon and I’ve hit the part of the training cycle where the weekend runs are getting longer, the mid-week workouts are getting harder, and I’m tired and hungry all the time. I ran 16 miles on Sunday and it was just… so cold and boring. I don’t have any profound thoughts or wise words here—I was dreading the run but I did the run and it was neither good nor bad, then I sat on my couch and watched my French spy thriller (The Bureau) the rest of the day. Speaking of, sometimes when I’m doing a hard workout I pretend I’m a spy in a movie montage getting in shape for a mission. Whatever works.
Because I’ve been a nub, I’m spending way too much time on social media. It hasn’t been all bad—the algo has been serving me quite a bit of skiing content. I haven’t gone skiing in about 15 years and the last time I checked I hated it because I’m scared of heights, don’t like feeling out of control, and one time ate a Belgian waffle at the base of the mountain that fueled a debilitating fear of throwing up. Instagram tricked me into thinking I love it though!
Through my Discover feed, I’ve become pretty obsessed with the niche sport of skimo, or ski mountaineering, which is what all of the European trail runners I follow do in the winter. From what I gather, you ski up the mountain with a pair of climbing skins attached to the underside of your skis, and then, I guess, ski down. This guy says it isn’t important how you get down. Do we love or hate the thought of skimo? On the one hand, it seems like a great workout, and some of the best endurance runners in the world come from a skimo background (Kilian Jornet). And if you’re like me and are apprehensive about the downhill aspect of skiing, it could be great. On the other hand, you are skiing up a mountain, which sounds objectively unpleasant.
I haven’t made any baked goods lately but I have been eating pancakes at least three times a week. I made the recipe myself: ¼ cup buckwheat flour, ¼ cup whole wheat flour, 1 egg, ½ cup whole milk, ½ cup water, 1 teaspoon baking powder, blueberries if I have them. The resulting pancakes are incredibly dense and I wouldn’t force them on anyone, but they are a great vehicle for maple syrup and keep me full. I have a lot of matcha powder to use up so if you have any recommendations for matcha baked goods, send them my way.
That’s all for today. See you back here in a little over a week.
Elaheh