Random Friday Post: I Scream for Ice Cream!

Normally I'm not a huge ice cream person. I never buy it at the grocery store (seriously, it's been at least two years since my freezer saw a pint of Ben & Jerry's) and I rarely go out for ice cream. That doesn't mean I dislike it--I'm not a communist after all--I just don't usually crave it. Well, I found a place that may change all of that. Let's just consider this post a PSA for all of you who haven't found this the paradisaical epicenter of ice cream joy that is Ample Hills Creamery.

This A+MAZING ice cream parlor is in Prospect Heights, just blocks from Grand Army Plaza where I often begin and end my weekend long runs. There are a lot of things to love about this place: they use local ingredients; they make everything in house (right down to the peppermint patties and cookies in their ice cream); and they serve all their treats in compostable containers.  

Alright, I hear you saying, those are all things that help restore karmic balance to the universe, but we're talking ice cream here. What makes this place so special?Do they lace their ice cream with opiates?

Salted Crack Caramel

Here's my three-word answer: salted. crack. caramel. Seriously, that's one of their flavors. It's a salted butter caramel ice cream laced with "crack cookies," buttery chocolate-covered Saltines. Eating it is like finding religion: Thou shalt not worship other ice creams!

In addition to the SCC (my abbrev, not theirs), there are plenty of other awesome flavors. Ones I've tried and enjoyed? Stout and Pretzels--a Guinness-chocolate ice cream with chunks of chocolate covered pretzels stirred in. Ooey Gooey Butter Cake--a super-rich vanilla creme dripping with pieces of St. Louis Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.Oh, and their Father's Day special that I tried last week, Daddy's Sundae. It's Maker's Mark bourbon vanilla bean ice cream with homemade fudge brownie pieces and swirls of their homemade salted fudge caramel.

If you're not drooling you're either a vegan, you hate puppies, or you just finished a Vermonster and simply can't stomach the thought of more ice cream right now. I can't recommend this place highly enough! And here's how this post ties into running: with all that full fat goodness you're gonna need to log some serious miles after a visit because I guarantee you'll be ordering more than one scoop.

Random Friday Post: Ugly Race Pics!

One of my favorite parts of Friday is the Runner's Digest that Runner's World posts. They usually link to some crazy running stories: an article on an older-than-Boston-race where instead of t-shirts runners get pie; a piece on how the first Olympic marathon gold medalist drank brandy during the race; and one about the Ukrainian who won the "Glorious North Korea Marathon."

In addition to making sure that readers don't miss out on these important stories, they also link to new running websites. Today, they introduced me to a new site that is so awesome, I had to share it: Seriously Ugly Race Pics. Any of you who have ever run a race know that race photographers have a knack for taking photos at the worst possible moment. Trying to find an attractive race photo is like trying to find the Loch Ness monster (okay, so finding a nice running picture is a little easier now that America has been introduced to "Ridiculously Photogenic Runner Guy").

While bad photos abound, however, some are truly awful. Thankfully, the girls behind Seriously Ugly Race Pics have made it their mission to ensure that rather than go to waste, those truly terrible photos bring some joy into our hearts. I suggest you check out the site, but in the meantime, here are two of my favorites:

Random Friday Post: Race Signs

For anyone who has ever run a marathon or other big, you know you can usually expect to see plenty of fun spectator signs along the way. Many are specific to a particular runner, like "Go Dad!" or "Fred, you got this!" But there are plenty of awesome generic signs that can inspire every runner, or at least provide a good mid-race chuckle.

Too bad in the middle of a race our memories don't always work that well and we quickly forget some of the best signs. Well, the creative genius behind Jogging Jeans (which I've blogged about before) has created a relatively new site to capture some of the best race signs. Oddly enough, it's called Best Race Signs. I highly recommend checking the site out, but here a couple of my favorites:

I've seen "Don't Poop Your Pants" quite a few times, but I've never seen one this, um, family friendly before.

I never get tired of seeing signs about beer during a marathon since at that point I've usually been beer-free for about three weeks and am really looking forward to a cold one.

P.S. I'm going to be cheering at the New York Road Runners' Mini 10k, an women-only race, in a few weeks. Let me know if you have any great ideas for a mildly offensive/hilarious sign.

Random Friday Post: Crazy Cheese!

I never said this blog was only going to be about running, but if you thought that would be the case, allow me to disabuse you. I am a three dimensional person (most of the time) and there is more to me than my love of distance running (most of the time). Today, I want to talk about one of those other loves: cheese. [Note, however, that if you read all the way to the end of this post you are a brave soul I promise to tie this whole thing back into running.]

I'm not going to go into some culinary diatribe on the ways in which unpasteurized Italian blue has changed my life, or tell you that each time I indulge in St. André I feel I like I should immediately go to confession. No, I want to talk about a particularly eccentric cheesemonger here in New York.

One of my favorite grocery stores here in New York is West Side Market. Each of their three locations has prepared food (for that post-run refueling), plenty of Powerade (for that post-run rehydration), and a good beer selection (for that post-run dehydration). But only one location, the 14th St store, has "The Doctor," a rock 'n' roll cheesemonger whose real name is Peter Daniels.

What makes him such a rockin' duke of dairy? Well, it could be the classic rock he sings along to while slicing and packaging cheese. It could be the fact that he dresses more like a roadie than a counter clerk. But the real reason is the awesome labels he puts on his cheese. Check out a few great examples and that promised running tie-in after the jump.

In the Misty Morning

Today was one of those days (one of many, actually) where my run makes me think about just how luck I am to live in New York. I have a half-marathon this weekend and while it's not a goal race, I am planning on racing it. That means I've given myself a slight break on this week's mileage so today I had 9 miles on tap.

Usually, 9 miles is short enough that I'll do a run around home before heading for work, but it also happens to be exactly 9.1 from my apartment to my office--you see where this is going. I ran to work again today. The funny thing is, when I lived in DC I never ran to work, and there, given the lumbering bus I had to take, running would have been faster! Anyway, running to work is now something I'm trying to do at least once or twice a week as I've said in earlier posts.

Today's run, though, was special. Did I run a new route? No. Almost every inch I covered today I also ran on Tuesday. Did my legs feel refreshed and ready to run to the ends of the earth at whatever pace I told them to? No. Then why was this run special? Because of the mist.

You might call the mist fog and it did make me think of the almost-magic fog that shrouds New York Harbor in Mark Helprin's 1983 ode to New York, Winter's Tale. I'm sticking with mist, though, because that's what it felt like.

Parts of downtown faded into nothing and the Statue of Liberty looked like an unkowable Oceanid from Greek mythology. Okay, now I sound like I'm on something. The point is, New York City is always changing. Usually when people say this they're referring to the cycle of demolition and construction or the ebb and flow of immigrants. Today, I realized that it's much more basic than that. No two days offer the same city so you have to enjoy each one as it's presented to you.

A Rest Day Trek Across the Harbor

Because I've switched this week's training schedule around for next week's race, I had a rest day yesterday. It's very rare for me to take a rest day on the weekend so I figured I would take advantage of the extra time by heading someplace distant--STATEN ISLAND!

Yes, you read correctly. I actually chose to go to Staten Island. This is hardly the first time I've visited the forgotten borough (I had my birthday dinner at Denino's Pizzeria and Tavern, an island institution), but I haven't been in several months. Since the last several weekends I have visited all four other boroughs, I figured it was time to mix things up.

I picked my destination (more on that soon) and headed to South Ferry. Just to give you an idea of how distant Staten Island is, it takes roughly 30 minutes on the express train to get to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal from Harlem. Then you have to take a 25 minute ferry ride.

Assuming everything runs smoothly and you have no waiting time, you're looking at an hour to get to St George. Taking into account that this is the real world and things never run smoothly, you're looking at 75 to 90 minutes.

The Staten Island Ferry trip is always relatively pleasant. Because the boat passes the Statue of Liberty and offers great views of New York Harbor and the downtown skyline, it's usually pretty packed with tourists looking for free photo ops. I snapped a couple photos but mostly contented myself with the book I had brought.

If only you could run over this bridge year-round...

When I arrived in St George I had no problem finding the bus I wanted. The great thing about the DOT-MTA relationship is that they have the Staten Island buses timed to the ferry schedule so you usually wait no more than 5 minutes. Even better, this was a brand new bus, much fancier than anything I ever ride in Manhattan.

My destination was less than two miles from the ferry so in a matter of minutes I was back off the bus. Time from my door to my destination? 1 hour, 45 minutes. I can visit all four other boroughs in the same amount of time--now you see why I don't get to Staten Island all that often.

Anyway, now that you are about to pee yourself wondering about my secret destination, it's after the jump.

Random Friday Post: Jogging in Jeans

I haven't had a day off of running in 11 days and it's Friday so I'm taking a rest day. Just because I'm not running, though, doesn't mean there needs to be radio silence here in blogland. I thought I would devote today's post to one of the most fun running related sites out there: Jogging in Jeans

We've all been out for a run or at the gym and seen someone who looked out of place. Last week I saw a man going for a run on the west side in slacks and oxfords. It doesn't sound comfortable to me, but he didn't seem to mind. Even stranger, though, is the whole sub-culture of folks who regularly run in denim. What's that, you say? You're unfamiliar with this amazing phenomenon? We'll fear not because the folks at Jogging in Jeans have you covered.

Some of the runners in these photos seem to be in on the joke (i.e., they wearing their jeans as a costume, not as their regular running outfit). But there are plenty of others who appear to don their jeans as naturally as the rest of us don our moisture-wicking-technical-don't-put-me-in-the-dryer-shorts.

I don't mean for this post to be a total throw-away: I have a point, sort of. I am a technical fabric convert. You won't see me running in cotton, but I have no problem with people who do. This whole idea that there are correct clothes to wear for a run seems to be a relatively recent development. I say run in whatever feels comfortable to you.

What this comes down to is one of my favorite things about running: there really is no special equipment necessary. Anyone can give it a go and anyone can have fun doing it.

Happy Friday!

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Note: All photos in this post are from joggingjeans.com