100 Mile Challenge! + The Girl and the Goat

I completed the 100 mile challenge!

My first day of the challenge was July 23rd, which made the ending/31st day August 24th. In those 31 days, I ran a total of 100.8 miles.

Here's a graph summing up my weekly runs. It does not completely reflect the 31-day window because the graph's weeks start before the first day and extend after the last day of my running "month." But it's close enough. Huzzah!

I know some (crazy-ass) runners easily get up to 100 miles in a week, but for me, 100 in 31 was sufficiently challenging. Even though my runs took only 30 minutes on average, it took some planning to find that time and to make sure I also had ample time to warm up, cool down, stretch, and shower each day. About once a week I gave myself a break day and would compensate for those lost miles through longer runs on subsequent days.

The results of the 31 days of running? My pace overall became faster, easier, and more enjoyable. My face stopped resembling a beet after every run. My sexy feet blisters metamorphosed into sexier feet callouses. And after everything, I felt pretty darn good about how my legs looked when I put on a dress for my 100-in-31 dinner with the boy, heh.

As I'd mentioned a few posts ago, the celebration dinner took place at The Girl and the Goat. TG&TG is somewhat of a rising star in the Chicago food scene - mention you're going there and chances are some foodie in the vicinity will light up and gasp, "You have to try the pig face!"

It is also our city's most Yelped-about restaurant - and as such, notoriously difficult to get into. The boy made our reservations two and a half months ago. Two and a half months of talking to others who'd been, of poring over the menu, and of dreaming of this evening with vast quantities of drool gathering about us. It was with great trepidation and very high expectations that I stepped into the restaurant, my legs wobbly from a combination of soreness, excitement, and being in high heels (a rarity these days).

For being such a raved-about place, TG&TG was surprisingly down to earth. I immediately felt comfortable, like I had walked into a close friend's home (well, a close friend with really good taste). Wooden table tops, charred walls, high ceilings, solid utensils, and simple decor made it easy to focus on the food and the company. The waitstaff were all incredibly on point. Our waitress was a total badass/sweetheart who had no problem answering our questions about the menu or providing her opinions about the dishes. All with a genuine smile, as if she was truly happy to be engaging in conversation with us restaurant-goers.

She suggested a total of four small plates for us - but we couldn't pick (#firstworldproblem), so we loosened the notches in our belts and set about with five.

First came the grilled baby octopus with guanciale in a lemon-pistachio vinaigrette. The octopus was delightfully chewy, the veggies just the right amount of sour, and the bacon added a surprise salty element that worked with the combination.

Next came pan-fried shishito peppers with a generous heaping of parmesan. Actually, the whole thing was quite a large portion - we found ourselves munching on the soft peppers our entire meal whereas everything else was consumed in linear succession. Despite being perfectly delicious, this was perhaps my least favorite item on the menu, which really speaks to how much I loved everything else.

Our third dish and my and the boy's favorite was the fried goat belly served with buttery lobster, crab, and fennel. With ingredients like that, how could it taste anything but absolutely delicious? I think we scarfed this down in record time. I didn't even stop to take a picture of it on my plate, it was so damn good.

Fourth came my second favorite, the kalbi beef ribs. While the ribs were perfectly sumptuous, it was the corn on the cob that left me at a loss for words. I have never eaten such perfectly cooked corn. And I likely never shall again. Every kernel was an intense, magical mouthgasm of juicy, buttery goodness. I know I'm starting to sound like a crazy corn lady. But truly, there are no other words for how good it was. This dish has forever set the corn bar at now unachievable levels.

And last but not least, the grand finale of pig face. PIG FACE!!! So far all the dishes had surprised us, and this was no exception. I'm not really sure what I expected - a flat piggy face oinking back at me, maybe. What we received was an artfully composed tower of what looked like meat patty, hash browns, and an egg fried to perfection nestled delicately on top.

This dish was about as decadent as it got. With every bite, I could practically feel my body undoing all its hard work and melting into an oozing blob of fatty fat fat. It was a glorious and outrageous journey - I think I came out of it a changed person.

By the time we'd managed our last bite of pig face (let's just take a second and reflect on how this sentence began) I wanted nothing more than to keel over and face plant into a nice, long snooze. But instead we got up and walked around to lighten up a bit.

All in all, 'twas a startlingly satisfying meal and a delightful way to celebrate achieving a personal goal. And in the grand scheme of things, it was not incredibly expensive either - our bill came to just under $100 before tip. We'd each ordered a drink as well.

I think my favorite part was how pleasantly surprised I was by each dish. The composition of flavors and presentation were just plain fun. For being one of the hottest restaurants in town, it wasn't pretentious, it wasn't overpriced, and it didn't take itself too seriously. I mean - how could they? Their piece de resistance is a pig face. I definitely would come back to try the other items on the menu - though I'd definitely be tempted to order the goat belly and the ribs again (that CORN!)

If you're saving up for a nice meal in the city or if you have a friend/family coming to town in a few months who you'd like to impress in a fun, laid-back-but-still-trendy atmosphere, take them to The Girl and the Goat. Just remember to wear stretchy bottoms, take deep breaths between mouthfuls, and enjoy the hell out of it.

Existence updates + 100 mile challenge

The past couple of months have been pretty hectic for ole Granny Rose, but in good ways. Among other things, I have been involved in Away Day 2013 both as a planner and a talent show contestant, transitioning from a Business Analyst role to a Project Manager/Iteration Manager position on my project, embarking on a series of mini-vacation/adventures every other weekend, and moving into the boy's condo - all while still traveling every week and nursing a broken hand, yowza!

The bad news is that my itty corner of the internetz got a bit neglected in all of this excitement. The good news is that much of the dust has settled and I feel mostly normal/inspired to blog again. Away Day is over (thank jebus), my hand is mostly healed, and both moving and role transitioning are going fairly smoothly.

Here's some fun footage from the Away Day talent show. Fast forward to the five minute mark to check out the act that I'm in, "Matrix Ping Pong."

In essence, my "talent" was to go up on stage in front of 500 of my colleagues in a full-body skin suit, crouch down with my face four inches away from somebody's butt, and half-blindly execute a complex series of movements, all while trying not to be seen, heard, or to pass out from the lack of oxygen. Huzzah!

As for the various vacations I've been on... well, they really deserve their own posts, and at least the most recent trip, Mackinac, will get one. So look for that in the near future.

Now that I'm splint-free, I've been really eager to get back into running. So much so that I've been pursuing something called the 100 mile challenge. It's very simple - the challenge is to run 100 miles in a month or any other 31-day time span, which averages out to roughly a 5k every day. What I like about it is that this challenge requires diligence and consistency, two qualities I want to improve in as a runner. 

I'm currently on day two and have exactly seven miles under my belt - so far so good! Both days' runs have been on the hotel treadmill and therefore logged manually on Endomodo. While I prefer running outside, it's just not really feasible here in Dallas in July when the feel temperature easily reaches 100+ F (37+ C) and there's a heat advisory almost every day. 

At the end of the challenge I hope to see some improvement in my 5k time. My best time ever was in the Austin Gorilla run (go figure) with a 23:01 5k, or a 7.5 minute mile average. Right now I'm easing into the routine with a pace around an 8.5 to 9 minute mile. But my goal will be to gradually increase that speed through some interval training and hopefully beat my personal best - and then some (I've got my eye on you, sub-20 5k!). But really in the grand scheme of things, even if I don't go super duper fast, just getting through all 100 miles without breaking any more bones will be something I'll be proud to say I did. 

Oh, and in anticipation of/as a reward for me completing the challenge, the boy has made reservations for two at The Girl and the Goat for the end of August. If that isn't enough motivation to get my ass on at treadmill, then I don't know what is!