It’s Time and FOFF Chicken or Tempe Pad Se Eew

It’s time.  Time for The Disney Marathon Weekend.  We’re excited to head South and get into some really warm weather. We don’t care about being acclimated because our events are all about having fun. If we need to walk, we walk.  If we need to stop and take a photo with some characters

we’ll stop for a photo.   It will be fun seeing Disney after being away for so long. 

As for our training, Ted took his plan off of the RunDisney site for half marathon beginners. It worked out great for him.  We’re both 100% sure he’ll have a strong finish in the run.  My training was tough at times.  Sometimes I felt as if I hadn’t really recovered from my September and October marathons.  But I pulled through without injury, only the usual sore hamstring typical of what I suffer during distance training. 

Disney training for me had to be very strategic.  I did get help from McMillan Training since I wasn’t sure how to go from my two marathons last year into training for back to back events (the half on Saturday and full on Sunday), then right into Boston Marathon training in February.  All without suffering burn out.   All without peaking too soon.  All with the plan being Boston as my key race. 

In summary, the plan had me running 5 days a week. 

• Mondays were weight training and long walks with the dogs.
• Tuesday were speed sessions such as Tempo, Tempo Intervals, Fartlek, Steady-State runs.
• Wednesday was an easy day between 30 to 45 minutes.
• Thursday was another easy day from 45 to 60, sometimes 75 minutes.
• Friday, a day off. A simple long walk with the dogs.
• Saturday was a run any where from 60 to 90 minutes and typically I tried to run half of what I was doing on Sunday  e.g 7 miles Saturday and 14 on Sunday.
• Sunday was the long run.  I only got in 1 x 20 miles, 1 x 18 miles, 1 x 16 miles and multiple 14 milers.  Not a very strong long run line up. 

As I said, the Disney races are all about fun and not burning myself out before Boston.  I’m in good shape.  I ran two marathons in the last 5 months. I’m ready. 

Bring on GOOFY!

Bring on the COMFORT FOOD!

Asian comfort food: Pad Se Ew or as Carla Vavala refers to the dish “Pad Se Eew” on page 64 of her book Fusion of Food and Friends.

An easy meal to prepare and it can be made with chicken, pork, beef, or go vegetarian and use Tempe or Tofu.  There’s a lot of flavor in this easy to make, easy to eat dish.

Serves 4

• 1 TBS dark soy sauce or oyster sauce
• 2 TBS low sodium soy sauce
• 1 1/2 TBS sugar
• 1 tsp. chili-garlic sauce
• 1 TBS peanut oil (I didn’t have peanut so I used toasted sesame oil)
• 1 TBS chopped garlic
• 3/4 lb. chicken breast, boneless, skinless and cut into 1” cubes  *Or use 1 pkg tempe cut into bite size pcs. or other protein.
• 1 head fresh broccoli
• 1 lb. fresh flat rice noodles (Thai noodles)  *I used left over spaghetti instead of rice noodles.
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1/4 tsp. sesame seeds
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

In a small sauce pan over medium low heat stir the dark soy sauce and low sodium soy sauce with the sugar and chili garlic sauce. Simmer and stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a wok or large frying pan, heat the oil.  Cook and stir the garlic and chicken (or tempe or other protein) until chicken is no longer pink, juices run clear, approx. 7 minutes. 

Stir in the broccoli and continue to stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Add the noodles and stir until all ingredients are mixed.  Pour on the sauce and stir until all is coated.  Cook until sauce thickens a bit.

Make a hole in the center and add the beaten eggs. Cook then stir to mix with the rest of the ingredients.

Garnish with sesame seeds and pepper flakes when serving.

Not a heavy dish but loaded with good flavors and good ingredients.

Now…what’s your favorite, all time FAVORITE comfort food?

and

Who’s your favorite, all time FAVORITE Disney character?