Bread of the Dead

Bones in the bread

I've always loved the traditions, artwork and customs associated with Mexico's "Day of the Dead", and a few months ago I stumbled across this Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead) recipe from the Wild Yeast blog. I bookmarked it and decided to make it on Halloween.

Don't even think about it Mr Pumpkin Head

It took most of the day to make as there are three separate ferments and rises. I measured by weight, and it was a little wet (which caused my skull and bones decor to flatten out a bit too much) but it turned out great. It was delicious, with a subtle hint of citrus. Everyone set about it and pulled it apart.

I'm glad I got these pictures before the wolves descended.

The rum-infused apple crumble I made last night (and in which I partook of seconds) certainly had an effect because I slept through my alarm this morning. So no Double Danish run for me (good thing my White Rock training plan doesn't start until tomorrow). I did a single with Steve instead, and enjoyed a great start to my Sunday.

Which continued when Dylan fell asleep on the sofa with me this afternoon. We'd been trying to put him down for a nap all day, but whenever we did he just yelled and screamed. Eventually I got him to cuddle up to me and he just nodded off. It's been a while since he's done that, and these are truly the moments you live for as a dad.

I took full advantage of them, as you can see - that is a very contented smile.

A very happy daddy

This evening we took the boys trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. I swear they got enough candy to have them both climbing the walls for weeks!!!


Afterward, we all sat outside to hand out goodies to the other trick-or-treaters (and there were a lot of them this year) while raiding our own supplies. Both boys dug right in and enjoyed themselves.

At one point, we looked around and Dylan had partially escaped from his costume. The look he gave us was priceless, and resulted in the best photo of the night.


After we retired inside, Nancy got Dylan off to bed while I read Gavin one of the Halloween stories we'd picked up at the library this afternoon. After I'd confiscated the candy he'd hidden in his bed, we finally had a chance to sit down and enjoy a nice glass of port.

Happy Halloween everyone.

No Cactii Here

This time last year I was in the middle of the Cactus Rose 100 mile race. I must admit to a certain smugness when I was driving downtown for my run this morning and realized this year's race was about to start - I'm glad I'm not running it this year.

One of the things I missed last year was the chance to go trick or treating with my boys, and I'm going to make up for it this year. We always sit outside with our cauldron of candy (and sometimes a glass of wine) and I think Gavin enjoys handing out just as much as collecting.

Behold this year's costumes (and please note that Gavin has laid claim to my Frankenthon socks!!!!!).


Friday night we went to Hootenanny at Gavin's school. They had all kinds of games, a haunted house, and were celebrating the 134th birthday of the school. I had volunteered for a stint on the kindergarten "duck pond" stall, and then we wandered around partaking of all the fun. It was really cool to see Gavin interact with all his friends.

And I swear that kid knows everyone in the school.

At one point his principal (she was dressed as Mr Potato Head) came over to congratulate us on Gavin winning "Student of the Week" honors. Apparently he'd had a big presentation in morning assembly.

Of course he hadn't told us anything!!!!


This morning was probably the first really cold day of the season. It was 45F when Clea and I started running, and it was wonderful. We did 4 miles before meeting up with the Scooby gang for the rest of the run.

Big thanks to Clea for interrupting her Frankenthon recovery to meet me early for extra miles as I get ready for White Rock.

And my aim from now until White Rock is to do almost every run at or below an 8 minute mile pace. Frank is in the same place as me, so we fell in together and just took off. I don't think we ran a single mile slower than 8:00, and finished up our run averaging 7:50/mile (including stops at various intersections).

I have put together a training plan for White Rock - it includes long runs, midweek runs (getting my lazy butt out of bed), cycling, weights, tabata and yoga. I have posted it on the refrigerator so I can cross off each workout as I do it, and/or be reminded of how much I'm slacking every time I go to get a beer.

Makes me a lot more accountable somehow.

Nancy's Aunt and cousin are visiting this weekend to give us a break from her dad. I have to say, they don't put up with any of his nonsense and really laid the law down to him about his attitude. They also made him do more things for himself instead of his demanding to be served.

Of course, he's mad at all of us for that. But hey, he's mad at us most of the time anyway.

So we were actually able to go on a very rare family outing this afternoon, and we took the boys to the pumpkin hunt at Evergreen farms. We got to ride the wagon into the Christmas tree fields to hunt for pumpkins, played with the pumpkin launcher, the maze, the fishing pond and any number of other activities.

Here we are riding in the wagon.


We bought a nice large pumpkin home to carve (I am working away on it at the beginning of this post). I thought it turned out really well, but I'll post the photographic evidence tomorrow and let you decide.

Tonight I made some really good apple crumble (with rum) for dessert. It went down a treat, and should at least ensure everyone sleeps well :-)

Danish run planned for the morning.

Dreaming of White Rocks

These dreams go on when I close my eyes

- Heart

I've had some really weird running-related dreams recently - straight out of the twilight zone. In them, I keep finding myself at the start line of some random race decked out in running shirt, shorts and my work shoes and socks. Confused and feeling like an idiot (and a none too fashionable one at that), I am running around in circles asking if anyone knows where my running shoes are. Then the gun goes off, we all take off and I realize I don't even know what race or distance I'm doing.

And everyone's running really fast.

So I'm pushing hard to keep up and asking if anyone knows what race this is. For some reason all the runners are faceless, but they keep laughing at me and telling me to just read my bib. I look down and it says "The Race of Life - distance unknown".

Then it all melts away and I find myself sitting alone on top of a mountain in a blizzard, shivering and waiting to pace a mysterious runner I know will never come.

Strange, huh?


I've been feeling a little restless since Frankenthon. I'm nursing a sore hip and a niggling pain in the ball of my foot, so I haven't been doing much except yoga.

On the other hand, I know I've been running well in the last month or so, and am not entirely happy with myself for taking my foot off the gas on that last loop at the weekend. I know a sub-4 hour marathon is good, but I also know I have a faster marathon in me. So this morning I signed up for the Dallas White Rock marathon.

Nancy and the boys can't go with me because of her dad. So I'm going to drive up on the Saturday, stay the night, run the race and drive home.

And I'm excited. It's a big city marathon with lots of crowd support, and I've heard nothing but good things about it. So what better chance to really push the boat out and go for it from the start.

I very rarely publicly state my race goals in advance, but I would love to finish another marathon in the 3:30s.

And maybe, just maybe, if I have a really good day, somewhere in the 3:20s.

And if I blow up, it will still be good practice for running on tired legs at Rocky.

Going Loopy at Frankenthon

There are certain universal truths that are held to be self evident - that Superman does not like kryptonite, that vampires are allergic to sunlight, and that I do not run well in humidity.

So of course, after several weeks of wonderfully cool mornings the forecast for race morning was warm and humid. There is a lovely old British word which completely sums up situations such as these. It's the same word I recommended to Clea when she found out that Boston sold out earlier this week.

It is simply this - bugger.

But there's no point in worrying about things you can't change, so Saturday morning found me at Brushy Creek, bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to run the second annual Frankenthon marathon.

The course is 3 loops of the park, consisting of a series of out-and-backs run on a mixture of concrete and trail. The organization and Halloween-themed swag are excellent. With lots of wonderful volunteers and plenty of post-run good eats, this is a great small race.

After saying hello to a few friends we were off.

Clea and I had to hit 8:30 averages to meet her 3:45 BQ goal - this seemed real easy over the last few weeks of nice weather, and sure enough the first loop was gone before we knew it. Between chatting and running, we built a 1 minute cushion which we increased to 2 minutes by the end of the second loop.

But the humidity got me on the last loop. We were hoping to run the whole race together, but I realized around mile 19 that I was struggling while Clea was still running strongly. I didn't want to hold her up so I told her to go on. I cut my pace way back and coasted the last few miles, eventually crossing the finish line in 3:56:43.

And I am more than happy with that.

After spending some time with Clea, Mike, Jasper and Meredith (and partaking of the delicious post-race pizza) I set off around the lake to try and find Cheri who was still out there running.

Back at Rocky Raccoon in February I should have offered to pace her when Derek dropped, and I've always regretted not doing so. I found her at mile 23 and we had a great chance to catch up while we ran the last few miles together.

They even remembered me at the final aid station as the first (and only) runner who had come through and accepted their offer of a beer.

Bonus miles with Cheri

This was another fun race, and I ran it in pretty much the same time as I did last year. It was also the first time I've actually run a marathon with anyone. It was fun - I loved being able to chat the miles away, and it was an interesting contrast to my usual style.

You see, Clea is kind of like the running terminator - you set her in motion and she just keeps on going. Tough and determined, she gave me an object lesson in how to pace a marathon. Her second loop was 5 seconds faster than the first and 15 seconds slower than the last. Negative split - check, consistent pace - check, hitting your goal - she knocked it out of the park and finished in 3:42, winning her age group for good measure. Yeah, this girl is a walking textbook on how to run a marathon.

By contrast, my usual method is to go out fast and try like hell to hold on for as long as I can. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't, but I can rarely resist the urge to go for it.

I just hope I can channel the same level of focus and determination Clea had for my goal race at Rocky.

I'll Call it Carb Loading

I ran 8 miles this morning at a very pleasing 7:30 pace, so when I got home I decided to reward myself with a breakfast burrito - maple smoked bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese and lots of guacamole wrapped in a huge tortilla. It was delicious.

So delicious I made myself another.

I love "carb loading"!!!

Big Green and Running Mean

Green power - Gavin Hulk debuts for Halloween 2010

Another busy day that started super early - a 4am alarm call saw me meeting Clea down at Town Lake for our last long run before next week's Frankenthon marathon. 12 miles was on the cards - it was a deliciously chilly morning and the miles just kept ticking over. We met up with Steve and Meghan at mile 4, and ran a Jefferson loop with them which took us up to 12.

I'd always had it in my head that I was going to go for more, so when we got back to the rock I said farewell to Clea and carried on with Steve and Meghan to do a Town Lake loop out to IH-35. Steve and Meghan dropped off about 2 miles into the loop, but I had my sights set on 20 so I said my goodbyes and kept going. I accelerated and dropped my pace into the 7s, easing into the rhythm of the run and just enjoying my own company and the beautiful morning.

I got back to the rock at 19 miles, so I carried on going up Veterans and along Lake Austin to Exposition before turning around and finally hitting my 20 mile goal.

I averaged in the 8:20s and managed the whole run on 20oz of water and two pieces of toast I had before I left the house - amazing the difference the weather makes. The 2:49 I ran was about 10-20 minutes faster than I intend to run the first 20 miles of the Rocky Raccoon 100, so it was a good early indication that I'm heading in the right direction.

I'm looking forward to the marathon next week. My goal is to help Clea run a Boston Qualifying 3:45, and other than that just use it as a long training run. I ran it last year and it was a fun race, with a great race shirt and yummy pizza afterward.

But back to today. I got home and still had a bunch of energy to burn so I grabbed the mower and mowed the grass back and front, then headed up to the attic and pulled out our Halloween decorations.

Gavin with "Marcus the Carcus"

We had a lot of fun putting them up. We strung up a series of bones, pumpkins, witches, Vampires and other monsters.

I love Halloween.

I also found some silicon muffin molds I bought in the post-Halloween sales last year and stashed away. I'm currently working my way through the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (the best baking book I've ever used), so I rustled up some wholewheat banana, walnut and chocolate chip muffins.

I think they turned out quite well. What do you think?


This afternoon we went shopping for Halloween costumes. We're still searching out one for Dylan, but Gavin chose to be the Hulk this year. I think he likes it.

I also took the opportunity to pick up a new pair of jeans. Since I've been mixing up all this running and cross training, none of my old ones fit any more!!!