Grosseto's Bio Half-Marathon 2011

This morning, on a sunny Sunday,  I ran  the Grosseto's  "Bio Half-Marthon". It was really  well organised: four refreshment points, running path flat enough, good loot and a lot of food after the race (cakes, bananas, pizza, bread with bacon and cheese, tea, orange juice and some healthy drinks).

I enjoyed the 21 km race although the weather was hot (considering that it's Autumn here in Central Italy! :) ). Moreover, from the 8th km until the finish line I had foot pain. Anyway, we ( Stefano and  I ) thought the Grosseto's 21 km race as long run related to the Florence's Marathon training: in this perspective, this morning we ran it as training.

So I ran at an average pace of about 5 min./km.: my time taken was 01:46:07. After I had run the race I put ice on my injuried foot and now I feel a bit better

In the 1st photo I'm with the blue outfit. The 2nd photo shows the finish line.

The finish line

As requested by some blogger friends, I write the recipe of the Baklava, a sweet Turkish cake with walnuts and honey.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. phyllo pastry sheets
1/2 lb. walnuts, chopped fine (Be careful do not make them powder but small chunks)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
150 gr. butter or as in my case margarine, melted (but we didn't use it, we used olive oil)
¼ cup corn oil
For the syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
Peels of half a lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
Then we followed the instructions posted on Katerina's blog:

http://culinaryflavors.blogspot.com/2010/10/sourotos-baklavas-familys-baklava.html

The site mentioned shows a Greece's recipe. On the contrary, the ingredients which I've just written  above are referred to orginal Turkish recipe of Baklava.
At the beginning, before we had mixed  the walnuts with sugar and cinnamon  until everything is incorporated, we added 2 tbsp honey too. We added  honey when we made the syrup too.

You can be sure that Baklava is useful as pre-race breakfast :) This morning I had had it before I ran the race and yesterday, the night before the race, I had a small piece of strudel (you can see it in the photo). Obviously, we made it. 

I hope all you blogger friends will have a nice week!



Marathon training, 23 km

View of Valmontone's park



On this sunny Sunday I ran 23 km long run related to Stefano's  marathon training and the average pace was about 05:50 min./km. The weather was hot enough and I had rehydration problems although we had drunk three times along the track. It isn't easy to drink enough water before the run at 07:00 a.m.!   

I got energy for that long run from a Turkish cake with walnuts and honey which  I had the night before :) We made this cake (It's name is Baklava) and you can see it in the photo below.

Baklava, Turkish recipe

The photo below was taken last Sunday, on September, 11st and it shows my daughters Laura and Simona with their friends on the Valmontone's roller coaster, which is situated 40 km South of Rome. Laura is the first from right with the black shirt and Simona is the first from right with the white shirt.



My daughters with their friends on the roller coaster

 They're 14 and today, September, 18th is their birthday. I'm happy for that!

Rehydration

I'm trying to do a long run once a week and this afternoon I ran 19 kilometres. The time taken was 1 hour and  42 mins.

The photo posted shows the starting line of the 6 km race which I ran last Sunday. You can see my  hidden head only :) I'm the fourth from right.

The weather is hot here in Central Italy although the Summer is going to an end and I sometimes don't drink enough water before and after running. Of course, I try to hydrate before a workout but I think I should also drink before sitting down to eat.

At first, drinking before meals helps to hydrate my body. Then, It helps me to lose weight: I simply eat less because my stomach feels full :) It's true! I've tried it and it works. Moreover, we hydrate our running body :) How much water should  we drink before meals? A glass or two of water, I think. Or a cup of tea. Do you drink before a meal?

Nice weekend to all my blogger friends!