Running and Rye

Man, it's been a week since I posted anything. I haven't even been around to all the blogs to even read them. Ugh.

So, I got back to work, and guess what? They want me to actually *work*. That is totally cutting into my blogging time.

In the same vein is that work is cutting into my running time. When I was off of work, I could go running in the morning (yeah, right), the early afternoon, the evening.. whatever I felt like. Now, when I get home, if there's time, I'm not beat, and the stars align, I might be able to get a run in.

On Sunday I got out for a run at least.. It was actually my first one in a whole week. Killer week. I had a stretch goal of doing 7 miles, but I hoped for 5. I wound up settling for 4.25, because shizz was just hurting. Left ITB was bothering me (note to self: foam roll more often. Of course 'more often' implies I'm actually doing it at all.. errrr). My right foot was bothering me. I just decided to shut it down a little early.

I think I need to get on the bike a bit more (all of you tri-people are inspiring), and do that to maintain some level of fitness for now, with a couple of runs a week. (Well, that's the goal, at least. Gotta have goals)


It is Tuesday, so I'm here with a new entry for Alky Tuesday...



This is Saranac's Rye Pilsener. (Yes, I know that's not a Pilsner glass.. I didn't feel like digging for one in the cabinet. Sadly, yes, I do have pretty much every glass type for different types of drinks)

I vaguely remember reading about a rye beer on someone's blog, but my 2 minute attempt to locate such a post came up empty. I had never had such a creation, and there was a pair of these in the Saranac summer sampler pack. (The same sampler pack that has the lemony Summer Ale that I previously covered. Oh, and yes, *that* was a beer that Mrs. Raul actually took to).

Speaking of Mrs. Raul, she was going to the grocery store yesterday.. before leaving, she asked me "Are there any beers you need?".

Brought a tear to my eye, let me tell you.


Oh, and speaking of the grocery store.. In the area I live in, there really isn't much. We just got a Sonic, and we're finally getting a Best Buy in October, just to show you what little is going on. There's one specialty beer store, but it's not terribly convenient to get to. However, the local Wegman's grocery store redid their insides, and they opened up a specialty beer section. They had always done pretty good by me before, carrying Brooklyn, Ithaca, and some other non-mass produced beers. Now though? I'm like a kid in a candy store there. But, that's where I get most of my beer.


Anyway, back from the two tangents.. I'm typically not much of a pilsner beer guy. They're just "ok" in my book. I honestly just chalk it up to the fact that I haven't had many good ones, and I really haven't spent the time to find some I like.

This one had a bit of a bread-like smell.. nice golden color, with lots of small carbonation bubbles. The taste was slightly spicy, and it really was quite tasty for a pilsner.

I think the description on the bottle sums it up quite well: "Rye malt adds dimension to what otherwise is a relatively simple brew." It's a basic beer with some additional flavor.

Certainly not my favorite beer, but quite pleasant out of a sampler pack. I'd have it again if offered it. It's a limited release, for those that are going to hunt it down.

I'm going to have to locate some more rye beers, just to try them out. Alas, we're coming into my favorite beer season, that of the Octoberfests and Pumpkin ales... the quest will probably be sidelined.

So, that's it for now. You know what to do.. keep on rockin'.

Gingerly

It's Tuesday! Alcohol Tuesday, everyone! Now that I'm back, I can get back on it. (I did feel bad not doing my Tuesday postings.. honest, I did)


Today's entry is Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Brew.


A certain someone said I should review wine while he's away, and I debated humoring him. I think instead, I'll wait until he gets back. Just for fun.

So this beer.. talk about a flavor bonanza! It's malty. It's slightly hoppy. It's got ginger. There's a lot going on with it.

The ginger flavor is certainly pronounced, and it's a slightly sweet beer. It's a really cloudy beer, and there's a decent amount of sediment (presumably ginger) in the bottom of the bottle.

It's a beer I could have one of once in a while, but I'm certainly not going to tie one on with this beer. I think it would accompany certain foods quite well, though. If I was having some sushi (vegetable-only sushi for me, though), it would be fine. Maybe some other Japanese-style food with ginger, as well. Just to drink, it's a beer that is slow going.

It's an interesting flavor, but certainly a specialized one. Definitely isn't an every day sort of brew. Sold by the single bottle, that's the way to go if you're going to try it.


Keep on rockin'!

Green Flash

Last night was another run in the rain. We've been having rain for the past few days, and there's no sign of it letting up. At least it wasn't too hot out, and the predicted thunderstorms never materialized.

Somehow, I decided to run last night's run on the faster side. Even including my walk break, the first mile was sub-8. Made me reflect on the fact that before I started running, I ran a sub-8 mile once in my life. Now, I'm walking part of the mile, and still wound up there.

The beginning speed wound up sapping the life out of my legs for the last half mile. I still wound up with 3 miles in, at least. I know I shouldn't be running fast while rebuilding my base, but I figure once won't hurt me (as long as I truly do keep it to a very limited once-in-a-while).

Lovin' the Galloway method still. I'm still lacking some calf power, as I feel like I need to walk after running a mile or so, just to take a break. That works out for me, at least. I wonder if that feeling will go away, and I'll have to force myself to take breaks, or what. We'll see.


I've been lacking a bit of my blogging mojo lately. Blah. Thankfully, I've got a product review coming up (sponsored, even!), maybe some books to talk about, and some new CDs I bought. (I know, CDs. So last decade.)

Today's Alcohol Tuesday entry is Green Flash Brewing's Trippel Belgian Style Ale.




Hailing from the San Diego area, this is a bottle-conditioned Belgian style ale. At a sporty 9.7% ABV, it's got a bit more kick than the average bottle of beer.

They call it a "fiery, golden brew", and I certainly agree with that in regards to color. A decent amount of carbonation, and a moderate head when pouring.

Sipping it fresh out of the fridge yields a high alcohol taste.. not something you really want from a beer. A lot of the trippels have that taste, but it's undesirable (in my opinion, at least). As it warms, the scent and taste of some fruit and spice comes out. It has a slight orange smell, according to Mrs. Raul.


.. Side note.. What is it with the sense of smell in pregnant women? Holy cow. One day, she was picking me up at home. I had a couple of beers in the last hour, but nothing too serious. I had just sat in the car, not even shut the door, and she says "You've been drinking, haven't you?". I mean, wow.

(She doesn't pick up on vodka & tonic, I've found. I only discovered this for the sake of science and experimentation, of course.)

OK. end of side note..


It's a good, but not great beer. I did like it more as the evening went on, due to the different flavors being released as it was warmer. Unfortunately, I do like pulling a beer out of the fridge and starting the consumption right away.

Of course, with a big bottle like this, you're obligated to finish it in one sitting.. I mean, you can't just recork it or anything. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

All in all, glad I tried it, probably won't pick this one up again, however. I'm not opposed to trying the other beers from Green Flash, though.

As always, keep on rockin'..

Lemony

I was reading an article about sponsored blogging. Here I am, just hoping for free beer and the like, and people are getting cash and trips to Hawaii. I need to set my sights higher.

Last night, I ran 3.5 miles. I listened to a little bit of the Runner's Round Table podcast during the run. All in all, an uneventful run, but they can't all be exciting.

I tried something a bit different for today's Alky Tuesday entry..

I give you..



This is Saranac's Summer Brew. The beer is a lighter beer, with a light yellow color. The description of it is "a refreshing blend of lemonade and lager".

With a description like that, I figured, I'll give it a shot. Plus some guy at the grocery store was talking about it. Not that I should take beer thoughts from a random stranger.

Yeah, well, it's lemony. Damn lemony. Sweet lemony. Sweet, too. But 'sweet' not as in "Oh, an extra day off? Sweet!". No, sweet as in sugary sweet.

Truthfully, after the first couple of tastes, all you get is a sweet taste.

This may be a good beer for a non beer drinker. Once mini-Raul arrives, I've saved a bottle of this for Mrs. Raul. She'll be a good litmus test for this hypothesis.

It's an interesting taste, but not really to my tastes. It really doesn't taste much like beer at all.

I see it's in their 12 pack sampler.. That would be the way I'd recommend it. A 6 pack was an awful lot.


That's all.. looks to be a nice day today, so if I can find some food for my wife, and she's agreeable, I might try to go to a ballgame tonight..

Keep on rockin', everyone!

Running, thoughts on Galloway, Guinness

Running over the weekend went very well. I did two 3 mile runs, with no discomfort (apart from my calves, which are just plain out of shape now). The only interesting thing I saw was a policeman who had pulled over an old lady for presumably speeding.. (I'm familiar with the stretch and know my time will come, given that I speed through there twice a day).

The problem with that was that it's right in front of a known large abandoned property. I sometimes cut through there for my runs, but recently some "No Trespassing" and "Posted" signs had gone up. With the law right there, I figured I shouldn't risk it, even though the odds of him leaving his vehicle were low.

The Galloway thing seems to be working for me. I spent some time on his page and poking around various forums on the Interwebs, and my main problem with his plan is my own mental hangup.

I had always told myself, "If I run a marathon, I'm going to run the whole thing". Now, I read about his plans, and I'd be walking in it. That's purely a mental block on my part. There's no shame in walking part of a marathon, and who's to say I'd be able to run one myself? It's not just the marathon, it's races in general. I'm sure I could go through a 5K doing 100% running with little or no ill effects, but what about a 10K? According to him, that would be a no-no.

But, maybe I'll continue with his plan. I'm going to start including my walk time in my mileage calculation and see what my pace really is. I'll keep track of total distance covered, and see where I am.


And, without further ado, here's today's Alcohol Tuesday entry. It's beer, but I'll try to include a couple of tidbits for you non-beer drinkers. (And maybe I'll grab some wine for next week.. )

Today's entry is Guinness, the 250th anniversary edition.

First interesting tidbit for non beer drinkers: in 1759, the man, Arthur Guinness, signed a lease for the brewery. The interesting part? He signed it for 9,000 years. Not only that, the annual fee is £45. That's a man with some vision.



The above pic shows two glasses, one a good pour, the other, well, not so much.

The astute Guinness drinker will now say.. "What? You're not drinking it from the bottle?"

Indeed not. This was the first thing that I noticed was different in the 250th anniversary edition. There is no rocket widget in the bottle.

Second tidbit for non Guinness drinkers.. The bottles and cans typically have a 'widget' inside of them (a rocket widget for the bottles, a ball for the cans). This is so that when you drink from the bottle, you get a consistency similar to a draft pulled for you at a bar.

The beer itself had more carbonation than the standard Guinness. I'm not sure, but maybe the nitrogen aspect of the carbonation was removed (also explaining why the widget disappeared).

Compared to a standard Guinness, this was a little more malty. Also, disappointingly, the somewhat smoky flavor that exists in regular Guinness was not really present in the anniversary edition.

Change the carbonation, add the malt, and remove the smoke, and you've got yourself a stout which is OK, but not great.

The anniversary edition will run you about 10 bucks for a 6 pack of bottles.

My take on it is this. I'm glad I tried it, but I'll go back to the regular Guinness. (The 250th edition will only be around 6 months or so, anyway)

Ah, if only I was as knowledgeable about something more useful than alcohol. Oh well. :)

Keep on rockin!

Alky Tuesday

I'd talk about running, but I didn't run last night. I did a little foam rolling and some leg exercises, but that was it. There was a nice lunchtime walk mixed in during the day, so we'll call it a day of cross training.

I should also remind every one that tomorrow (Wednesday) is National Running Day. I don't think my area has an organized run, so I'm just going to hit the pavement on my own. Just make sure you get out there for a mile or two at least.


So, with nothing else athletic to say, I turn to today's Alcohol Tuesday entry..

This one comes from a recommendation from of Sun Runner. (I do keep track of all of the drinks recommended, and get to them all eventually).



She proposed I give 'Arrogant Bastard' a shot, from Stone Brewing. With a name like that, sure, why not?

Not only do they have an interesting web site name, the aptly named www.arrograntbastard.com, they have an interesting and amusing label on the bottle.

Here's the text of it:

• This is an aggressive beer. You probably won't like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory -- maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it's made in a little brewery, or on e that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beer will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this.
  

I found it amusing, at least.

So, the beer itself? It's a darker colored amber beer, with a light to moderate amount of carbonation. I think it's classified as an American Ale, but is truly the epitome of what microbrews are about. A smell of it yields a decent hop smell, but the taste of it has a underlying malt taste mixed with the hops. The malts really cut the intensity of the hops, and yield a pleasant taste overall.

The beer is very smooth, and packs a decent punch at 7.2% ABV. There are a lot of complexities to this one, and I'm willing to be a student and study it for rounds to come.

This is actually my second bottle of it. I tried it a few weeks ago, and really liked it. This one makes the rotation.

Keep on rockin'!

Lack of running, AT

Thank you all for the support regarding yesterday's post. It's something the family will work through, one day at a time.

I haven't been running for a week. None. Zip. Zero. My knee has been cranky. I'm totally bummed. I did go to Dick's yesterday and picked up a knee strap yesterday, though. I've got a bit of a chest cold today, but I think I'm going to put my strap on (hey now!), and give it a shot.

My running buddy is coming back in town for the weekend, so I'm hoping to be able to grind through a couple of runs with her. Hopefully the strap works.

While at Dick's, I ran into an old friend of mine, who was asking me about how far I ran. I was telling him that I'm sidelined after 2 miles, and he was incredulous at that. I guess I forget that I never used to be able to run 2 miles, and take that for granted any more. It's a good bit of perspective for myself.

So, no run stats for today, maybe some for tomorrow..

Today's Alky Tuesday entry is this:



Lagunitas IPA. It's no secret, I like IPAs. I do like the hops found in IPAs.
So, what do I think of this one? It pours a decent amber color, with a moderate amount of fine carbonation. The smell is a classic IPA smell, and is very well balanced.

When drinking it, however, I found it rather... flat. The initial taste was really kind of tasteless. A classy person might call it 'muted'. With the great smell, my mouth was confused. Where's the hops? Where's the slight pine taste? After sitting in the mouth a little bit, the taste starts to come out, but it was a bit dry.

This is a beer I'd drink if served, but probably wouldn't seek out.

Alright all.. tomorrow is LW, hopefully a report about strap running, and whatever else I can think of. Got some movie and TV thoughts cookin'.. Keep on rockin!

Running, finger shoes, AT

Last night, I set my Garmin on the windowsill, let it find the satellites, and promptly went out for a run without it. So, it was a run a little under 2.5 miles, pretty uneventful. I'd call it a light hill workout.


My brother in law sent me two articles over the last few days. Both deal with these 'finger shoe' things.



First up is the guy that wrote the 'Four Hour Workweek'. He claims that running barefoot or with these shoes is better than running in sneakers. The basic idea is that your foot arch is designed to handle and return energy properly, and by using sneakers, you're hindering that.

Similarly, this article talks about sneakers and says they're a big honkin' waste of moola. It goes on to say that no sneaker has been shown to prevent injury, etc etc.

What do you guys think? I've heard that running barefoot or with a minimum shoe is the way to go, but that's just from various articles or nuggets on the Internet.. hardly a reliable source.

Honestly, if there was a closer place to try on a pair of Vibram shoes, I think I might give it a shot. Yes, I'm that crazy. My feet are so wide though, I just hesitate to order something like that sight-unseen.

I think having a minimal shoe like these VFFs would be ideal, because you're pretty much running barefoot, but if you step on something that might cut you, etc, you can skate by (hopefully) uninjured.


And now.... in my effort to "theme it up" (read: make sure I have content on Tuesdays), I give you.... AT! Also known as "Alcohol Tuesday". Perhaps you had something tasty over the weekend. Perhaps you can't imagine why Friday is so far off. Feel free to join me in celebrating Tuesday!

The first entry for AT is for Denise, who I left out of my shoutouts before traveling. Sorry girl!

When I previously discussed Chimay, I had sampled the red label and the white label. I figured, "That seems like a decent assortment."
Well, she went and asked if I had tried the blue label.

Well.. no, I hadn't. So, I went and picked up a bottle.



Daaamn. That is, without a doubt, the best variety of the 3. Chimay makes Belgian style beers. (I'm learning to appreciate the good ones more and more. Yeah, I may need extra study time on them.. all for the sake of research)

The blue label is marked the "Grand Reserve". It packs a decent punch, being 9% ABV, and pours a nice dark color. It's got some nice malt and caramel sort of flavor. The beer is incredibly smooth, and it leaves you wanting more. Certainly not a hoppy beer. This rolls to the other end of that spectrum.

The other two Chimay varieties were good, but wouldn't make a standard rotation in my fridge. This one will.

My bro G correctly noted that the big problem with Chimays is that getting a bottle is going to set you back a bit. Yea.. one of these is going to rock your wallet about $10.

A very good beer if you want to try a Belgian style.


Alright everyone.. keep on rockin!

Long weekend!

Well, I did make it back from my trip. Thoughts from the road are as follows:

I got an EZ pass for the trip. Not that I really needed it, but I thought it would be fun and cool. It was.

I know my wife doesn't want to hear this, but I really had a blast. I fought the trip tooth and nail before I went. Once I got there, I really didn't want to leave. I could go out and do my own thing at night, and that was that. No real schedule after work, so I could just go work out at the hotel, and then go out and about.

Plus, I wound up sleeping diagonally in the bed, so that was pretty cool too. And no one stole the sheets. :)

And that's the end of my trip report..


So, Saturday was a 4 miler in absolutely beautiful weather. Sunday was a 3.5 hill run, with weather that was slightly not as good, but it was still pretty awesome. My ITB felt pretty good, which is really nice. I'm going to try to keep upping the quantity of runs I do for a while, and then work on lengthening one of them.

I've got to say, having nicer weather to run in is just so awesome. I love it.


Monday was a self-prescribed day off. A couple of us from work went up to Cooperstown for the day. Here's a photo montage..

This is outside of the baseball hall of fame, our main destination for the day:


This is a shot of some of the plaques in the hall of fame:


My wife views this room with the plaques (the actual hall) as her own personal hell. It is analogous to me being confined in 'Jo-Ann Fabrics'. She was absolutely thrilled that I found people to go with, so she never has to step foot in here again. (Now, I think that's a bit extreme, but what can you do?)

This is where we went for lunch, a place called 'The Pit':



After the hall of fame, we went to Brewery Ommegang. This is their building:


After an informative tour, we sampled all of their beers, plus a couple of special ones. The 'Hennepin' was my favorite, until they got to this 'cave-aged Abbey Ale', which is a bottle of their 'Abbey Ale', which had been stuck in a cave for 11 months. I'm thinking of telling my wife I need to dig a cave. That beer was phenomenal.

The ending note of the beer sampling was this:



It was a special beer, not ever bottled, made for the inauguration. They dubbed it 'Obamagang'. I thought that was pretty funny.


Today, I'm back to the grind. Keep on rockin', everyone!

Workin' it.

Well, work has still been kicking the shizzz out of me lately. I swear, I'll get back to blogging on a regular basis.

Maybe I'll even get back to running on a regular basis, too. LOL.
I did go out for a 3.5 miler, a big ass hill run yesterday. ITB felt good, calves & hammys, not so much. They said "What the hell are you doing?". But, all was said and done, reasonably successfully.

Just a side note on that run.. Eating Denny's, oh, say, 45 minutes prior.. not a good idea. No puking occurred, but it was not the most pleasant feeling. (Why Denny's? I totally blame the Runner's Lounge podcast from a few weeks ago where they were making fun of the Denny's free breakfast giveaway. I was just like "Damn, I haven't been there in years!")

I'm also going to pick up running with my iPod again. I've been having motivational issues, so I'm hoping some kickazz tunes will help me out there.


So, with work beating me silly, what else would a raging alcoholic quasi-responsible adult do? Drink!

(Yes, I know. My body is a temple. A temple for what, I have absolutely no idea. Between the alcohol and Denny's, my fate is decided).

I really do applaud all of you for drinking the green smoothies and such. I'm just not that kind of guy. :)

So.. the drinks.. You are about to see something rarely seen from me. A lackluster beer.

Before you laugh, I said I had to try this once. For those that know me, I'll try anything once. You never know until you try, after all.

So, beer #1..



Budweiser American Ale. No link love here, either.

I'll start out by saying "meh".

That's over.. I'm glad I tried it. For those unfamiliar, it's Bud's way of busting into the 'micro brew' realm. They realize some people like finer beers, so they're trying to accommodate.

I give them props for trying. And, it is better than a standard Budweiser. A little maltier, I'd say. Still, it's a Bud. Not that there's anything wrong with it. It works for them. Just not as much for me.

So, if you're going to try a micro-brew or a craft brew for the first time, don't go here.


Beer #2, I give much higher ratings to. It is Druid Fluid by Middle Ages Brewing (Syracuse). This is a barleywine style ale, and I like it much better than the Monster Ale I had of the same style.



You couldn't taste the overwhelming alcohol taste, like you could in the Monster Ale. That being said, it still packs a nice hearty punch. It's got a pleasant amber color with some good malt flavor to it.. Not overpowering, by any means, though. I really liked this one.

More beers to come, folks. Many more have been tried, just need to get them posted.

Keep on rockin'!

Running and Chimays

I got out for a 3 miler last night. Opted to do this one at around an 8:30 pace, which is a little faster than my standard running speed that I can settle into easily. Due to exhaustion and my lack of running lately As a precautionary measure, I stopped and stretched at not only the halfway mark, but the 3/4 mark. Still, got it done. Knee feels OK today. This 3 mile cap may be the way to go for now. (I am SO jonesin' for going on a long run.. this just kills me!). I was supposed to do W2D3 of the pushup challenege last night. I'll do that tonight soon. LOL


On to the Chimay..



Chimay beers are Belgian style beers. They're made by Trappist monks, and that's as authentic as you can get.
For full disclosure, I'm not big into Belgians.. But, I can differentiate good from bad, don't get me wrong.

Most of my favorite Belgian beer comes from Ommegang, one place I'm going to have to visit in the near future. (It's not that far from me, I really have no good excuse why I haven't gone.) The glass I'm showing here is actually an Ommegang glass. hehe


I've heard good things about Chimay, so I thought I'd give them a go. Both of these came in a "big" bottle, so it was a good excuse to drink more sample the beers as they warmed up.

The Premiere Ale (red bottle) was the first one I had one night. Had a bit of a nutty flavor, I thought. Also had some yeast mixed in, which I really like. I know not everyone likes the extra "character" of having yeast in their beer, but I do. (So take that!)

The Cinq Cents (white bottle) was one I had last week. It was drier and far more hoppy than the other. Not IPA hoppy, mind you, but there were hops in it. It was a more golden color, and also had some yeast in it (I thought the red had more yeast, though)

Both of these beers are premium. There's a lot of character and tastes in them that I just don't have the palette depth to figure out. Both are incredibly smooth, and good tasting. For Belgians, they're top grade (even better than some of Ommegang's). Probably not good beers for the beginner, though.

I think I preferred the spiciness and hops of the Cinq Cents. Of course, those beers seem to match up well with me in the springtime, where as the other may match up well in the late fall and early winter.

Would I drink them again? Of course. They're delicious. (There's very little I wouldn't drink, sadly). I'll even recommend them, for someone looking for a Belgian. They probably won't make the standard rotation, though, just due to my preferences.

Keep on rockin', everyone! Happy April Fool's Day, too!!

Reasonably Successful

I managed to get 2 runs in this weekend. Since my training plan has been shot due to sickness 2 weeks ago, and ITB issues last week, I played it relatively safe.

Saturday I went out and did 3.5 miles on the indoor track. Pretty uneventful. I felt good, but decided to call it a day, just so I didn't aggravate my IT band. No problems, so that was good. So yeah, it wasn't the 18 that was on my old schedule. Not by a long shot.

Sunday, I decided to run outside. In driving around, I said "Wow.. it seems pretty nice out. I'll run outside".

Yeah, well, I neglected to account for the fact that the car shields you from the wind.

I made it about .1 miles from the homestead and realized, it was going to be a damn cold run. As a result of my poor preparedness for the cold, I ran 8:30 miles, just so I could be done faster. I ran about 4 miles, with a couple of walk breaks to stretch the ol IT band out. It didn't feel stellar, but it wasn't painful, either.

Today, I feel a bit creaky, so I'm taking the day off.. I was going to bike, but I think it's best just to rest and do some leg exercises & stretching.

My game plan this week is to do moderate runs of around 4 miles this week 3 or 4 times, and see how I feel for the weekend, and hopefully do something longer. We'll see...

By the way, thanks for all who commented on my previous post. Your ideas weren't totally unexpected, but they were encouraging.

On Friday, I had some of Brooklyn Brewery's Monster Ale, which is a barley wine style beer. Holy crap. Talk about packing a punch. It's listed as being 10.3% alcohol, and you sure know it when you taste it. I'm not too familiar with barley wine beers, so I can't really compare it well. Gives me something to "research".

So, another question for the runners who listen to some sort of audio while running.. what podcasts do you listen to (if any)? I listen to Phedippidations, Podruner, and the Runner's Loungecast. Of course, I'll listen to various albums and such as well.. typically something like Breaking Benjamin or Linkin Park.. How about you? Just curious..

Keep on rockin', everyone!

Fat Tuesday

After my nice off day on Monday, what better thing to do than.....

Take the next day off, of course! It was Harpoon night at one of the local watering holes, and some brewery reps were there serving up samples of the beer.

Reading yesterday's comments, I see that the large majority of you aren't beer drinkers, so I'll try to go light on the commentary here. :)
BTW, yes, I love a good cocktail.. My "go to" drinks are gin & tonic or vodka & tonics. Single malt scotches, too. Shots are good, as well. I'm pretty much open to most things, though.

Oh, and Denise, a good brown is the Ithaca Nut Brown. I really like that one.

Anyway, from Harpoon, I had their seasonal 'Celtic Ale', and their "100 barrel series" 'Catamount Maple Wheat'. The Celtic Ale was a red ale style beer. I'm not too big of a fan, but it seemed like a good red. The Maple Wheat beer certainly had the wheat flavor, but I didn't get much maple out of it.. Probably just as well. Neither were "oh, I want that again" beers, but that's my own preferences showing there. I'd mark the Celtic ale pretty good for red drinkers, at least.

I also had RailBender Ale from Erie Brewing. This was a caramely style ale, and was 'ok'. Never had it before, so it was good to try, at least.

I also had a Misery IPA. It started out quite bitter, but was better as it warmed up. I believe Misery is also by Erie Brewing, but I don't see it on their web site.

Lastly, I had Yellow Snow IPA from Rogue. That was the clear winner of the night. Easy to drink, good character right from the tap.

So, lots of beers I hadn't had before, good times. My wife gave me the "you stink like old beer" routine when I got home, but oh well. It was all fresh when consumed, at least... :)


Back to running, I'm going to give it a shot tonight. If it stays warm out, I'll probably run outside.. if it cools off, I'm heading to the track at the gym. Since my plan has been shot to shit, I'm not exactly sure how far I'm going to go tonight. I'll probably stop at 5, provided I can make it that far.

Here's hoping the foam rolling the last few days has helped....

Keep on rockin!

Ruination

Last night, I took a night off. No rolling, no stretching. Just a night off. Even better, it was really a night of self-pampering. After work, I went and met my steel-thumbed massage therapist, and had a very very relaxing hour on the table.

When I got home, I pulled this out of the fridge:


It's Stone Ruination IPA. Someone here at work (who has beer opinions that I trust) recommended this to me. He suggested pulling it out of the fridge for about an hour before drinking. (Failure to do so may leave you with more of a bitter taste than you expect)

My opinion of this was that... it's wonderful. It pours a nice gold color, with very fine carbonation bubbles. There is a moderate head when poured, but it goes away fairly quickly.

The smell is quite hoppy. Definitely hoppy. The taste has a decent amount of bitterness, as well. However, with the beer slightly warmer than fridge temperatures, you get some other tastes with it.. I'd like to say some pine taste in there. Other reviews mention some citrus taste in there. I didn't get those, but I'm still a bit congested from my cold last week.

Excellent beer (provided you like IPAs and hoppy beers).. it was $4.99 for a big bottle (~22oz).


Today, I got back to the foam rolling this morning, and plan to do more tonight.. whoo-boy!

Long hills

Monday night was a night of doing 'long' hill repeats.. The plan was for 400-600 yards, 3-4 times.

The hill I ran the week before thankfully is a good half mile longer, so to get to a long hill, I just keep running up. And up.

Blah.

So, the start & stopping points netted out to a .29 mile hill length I was running. Elevation looked like this:



My goal was to not blow up the hill the first time up, so that I had some gas in the tank at the end.

Splits wound up being a 9:38/mi pace, a 9:40, ending on a 9:20.

Overall run was 4.11 miles in 40:20 (9:48 pace).

Glad that's over though. :)

Tuesday was an easy 4 miler, which was around and around the indoor track. The guy I met at the gym a few weeks ago looking to run a marathon next year was there, though, so I did my 4 miles with him. He invited me to a 4 mile run a couple of towns over on St. Patty's Day weekend.. I guess a bunch of folks from the gym will be there, all wearing yellow shirts. Sounds good to me.. I just need to figure out how to adjust my plan, because I have a 20 miler that day.. Hrms.

Oh, and the girl that witnessed my incident at the gym was there last night too.. I got some sort of look from her. I'm sure it was one of awe and admiration.


Before I sign off, a couple of beverage reviews...

First up is Peet's house blend coffee.


(I previously tried their Major Dickason's blend.)

Both blends were a hookup from my brother in law (thanks man!). He's on the quest to find the ultimate cup of coffee. Given the quantities I consume, I'm certain I can't have the ultimate cup half a dozen times a day or whatever, so I settle for less. :)

I liked the house blend, but not as much as the Major Dickason's.. The house blend was not bitter, which was a very good thing. You can make a nice and strong cup of coffee, and not have that awful bitterness. It also was very fresh.. The beans were listed as having been roasted the week before I got the bag. I think the house blend was a little lighter bodied than the Major D's blend. Still, a very good coffee. (Peet's, I'm willing to do whatever for free coffee :) )

The other beverage entry for today is this:



This is Wells Banana Bread Beer. I love trying new things. I saw a bottle of banana bread beer in the store, and I said "Self, you've never had banana bread flavored beer. Give it a shot"

So.. my impression.. It had a distinct smell of banana bread. Absolutely. The carbonation was pretty light, but the beer had a nice rich color. Tasting it, you could definitely taste the banana bread. It had a fairly dry taste to it, and I see from the website that it's along the lines of a bitter ale, which certainly fits.

It's something I could drink a bottle of, but wouldn't want to have them all night long. An interesting experience, though.

I gave the bottle to my wife to smell the scent of the bananas and such. She was quite unimpressed, to say the least.

Keep on rockin'.

Beer collection, plus scotch

I've been lax on posting up the new (to me) beers that I've tried recently.

I had a Roxy Rolles from Magic Hat. There was a picture of it, but it magically (har har) disappeared from my phone. I may have taken it from my wife's phone, but she deleted it, not knowing the significance of having research photos. I've got to say, this was fabulous. It was a wintery style of beer in the base, but it was far hoppier than you would expect in a winter beer. Almost an IPA amount of hops. This was my favorite beer from Magic Hat (even better than #9 on draft). A splendid beer.

I also had Winter Warmer from Harpoon. This was a very spicy winter ale. The first one I had, I was so-so on it, but it really grows on you. Certainly, not hoppy, but a good mix of spices. They claim it has a pumpkin pie flavor, but I'll beg to differ on that. You can certainly sense the cinnamon, though. I bet it would be good on draft.

I also went to Outback the other night (first time in a couple of years!) and had two beers from Coopers Brewery. First up was the Premium Lager. Not a bad beer. A little malty compared to what I was expecting, but tolerable. I think I prefer Foster's, though. Well, no. I know I prefer it.

The second Coopers beer I had was the Sparkling Ale. This had a lot of sediment in the beer (which I do like). The taste.. well.. not so good. This was a definite "glad I had it once, but that's about it for me" beer. Can't put my finger on it, why I didn't care for it too much.

Lastly, for the scotch lovers among you, I finally got around to trying Laphroaig scotch. (Pronounced: "La-froyg"). I had the basic 10 year old single malt, and it was amazing. I think I liked it better than the Lagavulin I previously tried. (The problem with trying these things 6 months apart is it's so damn hard to really compare). The Laphroaig was very smokey, and gentle going down. Not as smooth as the Oban I had tried, but it certainly didn't burn or feel rough at all. This is a great scotch if you like the smokey Islay style.

That's all for now.. Saturday is the winter beer tasting festival up in Syracuse, so I'll be hitting that, weather permitting. So, hopefully more tasting notes to come..

Treadmill & new beer

I went to the gym and banged out 4.21 miles on the treadmill over 40 minutes. Averaged 6.2/6.3 per mile until the last mile, where I kept knocking the pace up every tenth of a mile. All in all, not too bad.

I felt a little bad while there.. there was a woman who got on the treadmill next to me.. I saw that she had some intricate ink on her back/shoulders/arm.. I'm hoping she didn't think I was a lecherous man.. I was just trying to see what her tattoos were of. Oh well.

I did my hip adduction/abduction machine while there, too. Of course, as par for the course, the grunter was there working out in the weight room. You know, the guy that tries to lift more than he should and is grunting after every rep. Seems that some incarnation of him always is there in the weight room.

That was it.. short workout.

Afterward, I went to my brother-in-law's place and tried out Yuengling's Porter. Not a bad porter at all. Dark chocolate flavors with some malt taste, but not really heavy. It complemented the pile of wings we had very well.

New beers from the weekend

My brother in law was kind enough to hook me up this weekend. I spent a good amount of time there, just hanging out, and he did me a solid.

First up was Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale. Sorry for the bad pic.

It's labeled as a brown ale.. I'm going to say it's much closer to a stout or porter. There's a lot of similar flavor to a Guinness, but it's not as dark. There's a lot of malt & molasses flavor. It's got a decent kick, too, at 7.2% ABV.

Turns out there's a whoop of calories per beer there. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't have it every time.



The other beer I was hooked up with from him was the 60 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head. This was an excellent hoppy IPA. I like the 90 minute version slightly better, but 60 minute was quite good. This beer had a citrus scent too it, but you'd have a hard time picking it out from the hop smell and taste.

My wife had me smell a few things this weekend (candles and such). My sniffer just isn't very good. Many scents seemed familiar, but I just couldn't nail them down. Sigh. I probably won't ever be able to be an expert beer reviewer as a result.



Last beer I tried was something I picked up at the grocery store. This was Post Road Pumpkin Ale. Post Road is part of the Brooklyn brewery, which produces some really good beer. It's late to the Pumpkin Roundup, but I figured.. "why not?" :)

The Post Road is similar to the Saranac pumpkin. Interesting flavor, and a decent head to it. The color is a bit more orange, and the finish is a bit nicer. I really enjoyed this beer.

Cleaning out my phone pix

I've had a bunch of pictures on my phone that I didn't post directly here, mainly due to wanting to add weblinks and such. I think this is the last of them.

While out and about, we stopped at Moe's to eat. While there, I saw this:



It's a Negra Modelo dark beer. Never had one. Hmm.. Why not? For the research, of course!

It's OK. Something different, but not terribly exciting. It started out OK, and midway through my nachos (pictured), the taste sort of soured. The taste came back near the end of the meal, but.. eh. Reminded me of a Michelob Dark I had 14-15 years ago at Busch Gardens. Alas, that was quite a while ago, so I'm going on vague recollections there. Very vague.

It's a darker beer, not a lot of carbonation. But, not very potent/strong like dark beers often are. Had a bit of a sweet taste to it, even.

Something different, probably won't bother with it again, though.

Speaking of beer, I'm hoping to head up to Cooperstown and hit one or two breweries up there, in addition to the baseball Hall Of Fame. A similar trip to what Viper just went on, I believe.

I was giving some thought to cutting back on the whole alcohol consumption thing. Not quitting, because that just wouldn't work. Not at all. But, come December, I've got a good long sabbatical amount of time off of work. I figure, with that stress out of life for a bit, it may be a good opportunity to ease up. Factor in the extra time that I'll have to be exercising, maybe I can wean down some.

Honestly, if I stopped drinking, I'd lose mad weight. Not that I need to lose a lot, but it's my thing which puts it on.. Not the dessert. Not the fried foods. I keep all of that in balance. Just the booze. Sigh.

Jury is out. We'll see.

Pumpkin roundup

This is probably my last photo of pumpkin beer for the season. I saw that Smuttynose Brewing had a pumpkin, but my fridge runneth over in beer currently.

So, this is the Saranac Pumpkin Ale. It's got a pleasant brown color to it, and is medium to full bodied. I didn't find the carbonation overwhelming. Smelling it and tasting it led to a sense of vanilla, mixed in with the pumpkin. Very well balanced.

I also had some Shipyard Brewery Pumpkinhead Ale the other day. That reminded me of a Coors light waved near a pumpkin. Really. Didn't do much for me at all- pumpkin taste was pretty weak & the beer was pretty weak.

I think my favorite pumpkin beer was the Southern Tier Pumking. Again, not one you could do a case of in a night, but a very very interesting tasting experience.

As far as Octoberfest beers go, I really liked the Harpoon. Probably my favorite there.