Thursday, July 24, 2008

Weekend Revisited

As the weekend comes to a close, I sit back to assess the things that were NOT accomplished this weekend. Although every moment was spent "doing" something, most of these doings were not relevant to actual existing tasks at hand. Oh well. Food related excursions were exciting; Friday was payday which naturally means how many meals out can I have this weekend before I feel guilty? The answer is.. a lot. Friday night consisted of a lovely indulgent burger, fries and beer mealv at Brewer's Art. This was really the most accessible joint on Friday as the weather was not exactly inviting actiity. The rain was incessant and put a damper on any out of borough excursion; therefore we stuck it out in Mt Vernon as opposed to the original Hamilton Tavern plan. The garlic and rosemary fries at Brewer's can mend any dismal soul but not this weekend; they spent one too many minutes in the fryer and perhaps hung out under a heat lamp for like 30 too many minutes. Oh well, I ate them all anyways. I opted for the veggie burger instead of the regular massive "burger" burger and was not disappointed. It was still very filling but not quite as moist and rich in flavor. Again, I ate it all anyway. Washed it all down with a couple Ressurections; definitely the highlight of the meal. Serves as a great dessert in my opinion :)

Workout on Friday almost quite as intense as the night's outing. The goal was 8x 600 at 5K pace. I somehow knew that was NOT going to happen because I would end u p going out way too fast and be way faster than 5K pace; which inevitably happened. So I modified it slightly and completed 5x600 and 3x400. Recovery was pretty inconsistent due to the numerous bathroom breaks but was generally between 75 seconds and 2 minutes...

10 min warm-up
5x600:
1:55, 1:58, 2:00, 2:01, 1:58
3x400
1:17, 1:14, 1:12
10 min cool down

I couldn't tell you if this was really tailored as a 5K workout, it appears to have been more of a miler workout perhaps? Only because the pace was not even remotely close to my 5K pace. But I'm still learning...

Saturday dining was fairly minimal with a homemade breakfast sandwich post-run; toasted wheat bagel with egg over hard, fresh tomato, cucumber, swiss, and wilted spinach.
The run was ridiculously soggy; rain came down the duration of my hour long run. About 8 miles, not sure...I still need to gmap it. No extraordinary foodie dining to report on Saturday night; again, the rain was non-stop and I went to a party having not eaten dinner so we made an impromptu visit to Pasta Mista in Canton/Brewer's Hill area. I had no idea there was a Pasta Mista there, I was under the impression the one in Towson was the lone location. Anyways, I splurged on two jump slices; some sort of eggplant, pepper duo and a standard veggie slice with broccolini, etc. Pretty standard, did the job and met my acceptable price range.

Took a much needed day off from running today and indulged in a decadent brunch with the sis and Saki in Bethesda at Mon Ami Gabi. I have always liked this place but had not been there for brunch. Saki and I had sort of decided on this locale for brunch out of sheer convenience but out of the Bethesda/Chevy Chase options I think this may have been one of the best. To start, the champagne cart and Bloody Mary bar were a fun spin on the traditional brunch drinks. The bloody mary's were mixed by the patron themself; the vodka is provided straight and can be dressed per the individual's preference at the bloody mary bar full of fixin's ranging from hot sauces, olices, horseradish, celery, etc. Of course each drink will put you back the same price of your actual entree but hey, I guess one is worth it? I settled on a mushroom, asparagus quiche which was fine...a little overcooked and over-spinached in my opinion. I totally forgot there was supposed to be other vegetables in it. "Over-spinaching" seemed to be the term of the day because my sister's three cheese and spinach crepe was the leafiest crepe I have ever seen. There may as well have not even been cheese in it. But I helped her finish it so it all worked out. We dabbled with the regular dinner menu as well ordering a mozzarella and tomato sauce? dip of sorts. We each had about one baguette a piece; no surprise as we are all carb-fiends. haha.