Everything Looks Good the Night Before and Stewed Rhubarb with Honey

When I look at my planned workout for the next morning, and it’s something challenging or a little different, I get excited and look forward to it.  The thought doesn’t occur how tough it might be.  EVERYTHING seems possible the night before, right?!

Thursday was a day for interval training, something different as I progress from base marathon phase to pre-marathon phase workouts.

The workout was to be 6 to 8 times 2 minute intervals with 1 minute recovery.  I thought “I can do 8, but I’ll go easy and settle on 7 x 2 minutes at about a 5K pace”.   It all sounds soooooo good the night before, doesn’t it?!

Thursday morning rolls around and after a 2 1/2 mile warm up, I’m ready for the first interval.  It didn’t feel as good as planned.  I had 6 more left.  By the 4th interval I wondered why I hadn’t settled on doing 6.  At the end of the 5th interval, I thought I should quit, but didn’t.  NOPE! I wrote down 7 x 2 minutes and that’s just what I would do. There was nothing easy about it.

The reason the workout was so tough was, not just because intervals are typically challenging but because I didn’t stick to my planned pace. It should have been about a 7:30 pace, but this is how it broke down:
7:18, 6:57, 6:53, 7:28, 6:53, 7:25, and 7:23.

Next time interval training rolls around, I’m setting the Garmin so I can see my pace. There is no gain by running paces faster than you should.

Ah! More Rhubarb.  Remember the Rhubarb Cottage Pie? Well this is the next Rhubarb recipe and my all time favorite.  I use the stewed rhubarb to top my oats in the morning. Love it!

This “stew” of fresh rhubarb, honey, dried fruit (raisins or other) offers a multitude of options for enjoying the tart-sweet flavor.  Serve it over ice cream, warm or cold.  Serve it mixed with wild or brown rice.  Mix it with couscous.  How about topping your oatmeal with a little in the morning?

You can even use it as a topping for a main course such as grilled fish, chicken or steak.

What I like best about this recipe is that I initially made the mistake of adding the rest of my ingredients into the cooked rhubarb BEFORE discarding 1/2 the water.  It was too “soupy”.  After thinking about what I had done, it actually seemed like the right thing to do since after cooling the “stew” I would remove all rhubarb and fruit with a slotted spoon leaving most of the sugary liquid while still enjoying the sweetened flavor of the stew due to infusing the sugars before discarding.  When serving this dish, sweetness and other flavors can easily be modified according to taste.  A fortunate mistake

Easy and freezable so you can store it for one month without worry.

• 6 cups chopped rhubarb
• 4 cups water
• 2 cups raisins or other dried fruit (I used just a few Craisins and black currents)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup clover honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Add rhubarb to a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes or until rhubarb is soft (depends on the size you cut it). Stir occasionally.

Remove from the heat and add the sugar, honey, raisins (or other fruit), and cinnamon. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool about 2 hours then scoop out of the liquid with a slotted spoon.  Store in clean, freezable containers.  Use either heated or cool.

I think I finally like rhubarb.