D & I ran our second 10k wahoo! yesterday on Treasure Island, the small island that connects the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge to the San Francisco side.  Our race packets were available Thursday, so we walked down to Sports Basement in the Presidio to pick them up… such a pretty evening!

On Friday we started fueling at lunchtime with a trip to Plant Cafe… mmm kombucha.  D doesn’t understand how I can touch the stuff.  I don’t know, I just find it weirdly good, you know?

I ordered my usual, the California Plant Burger topped with avocado & white cheddar cheese, served on sprouted wheat bread with grilled onion, house made tomato chutney & vegan aioli.  The Plant Burger is really cool… it’s made with beets (hence the pink color), bulgar wheat, lentils, and mushrooms and is utterly delicious.  D ordered a roasted turkey sandwich which you can somewhat see in the background of the kombucha shot.  Plant Cafe really is a wonderful spot… you could order anything on their menu and know that the ingredients are top notch, and that you’re going to get a fabulously yummy, healthy meal.

Friday night we had planned for a carb-heavy meal in preparation for our race the next morning.  I picked up some chicken sausage at the Ferry Building after Bar Method, and then when I got home I cooked the sausage and made a quick tomato sauce in the vitamix… I blitzed tomatoes, sauteed onions, basil, olive oil, salt & pepper and then cooked it over a low heat to reduce slightly.  Once it was thick and creamy, I added back in the chicken sausage and tossed with rigatoni, cooked perfectly al dente.  So happy because sometimes I get busy and let the pasta go too long in the boiling water!  A dusting of pecorino on top and some garlic bread served on the side and dinner was ready.  Carb loading may be the best part of training!

Good morning SF!

Saturday morning we woke up at the bright young hour of 5am so we could get ready and pick up our zipcar by 5:30 and zip on over to Treasure Island for our 7am start.

So, this is probably our fault for signing up for a 10k race when the main event was a triathlon, but really the race wasn’t that cool.  In addition to the regular triathlon and sprint triathlon they held a 5k and a 10k, but we had no idea there’d be so few runners participating… there were only about 100 people total running total!  And the course consisted of a boring three loops of a flat road with no views.  A bit disappointing after our awesome first 10k across the Golden Gate bridge.

This was about exciting as it got.

I didn’t take any other pics because really there wasn’t anything to see!

Post race – happy to be done!  And tired.

It definitely felt easier this time to run 6.2 miles which was a nice feeling!

Training is working!!

Recovery ice-cream?!  Yes please!  Who cares that it’s 8:15 am?

And freebee coconut water and pop chips, salt & pepper flavor of course!

chitter chatter, can you hear their teeth?

We walked over to watch some of the waves of swimmers take off… hats off to anyone willing to strip down and jump into that water, it must have been soooooo cold.

And then we headed back to the city…

not that pretty of a day, but it was early yet.

After dropping off the zipcar, we stumbled upon a donut shop and figured, why not, we just ran over 6 miles!  I can’t even remember the last time I had a donut, but a classic glazed sounded like it would hit the spot for breakfast.

I thought it would be perfect with a large cup of tea, but I took one bite and it was nasty and artificial tasting.  Gross.

So I ended up chucking the donut and eating a big bowl of fruit salad instead…

yum!

Later on we snacked on some prosciutto & cantaloupe (from our Farm Fresh to You box) and baked kettle chips – we wanted to save our appetites for our fun dinner planned for later.

And we sipped on a delicious 2005 Turley Napa Valley Zinfandel that my parents had given us.  That’s Wild Target in the background… a totally silly British movie that was perfect considering we were both exhausted and only half paying attention.

Dinner time!  We booked an early bird ressie at A16, figuring we’d be okay with an early night considering our early wake-up.

some olives to nibble on while browsing the menu

yummy bread with fruity olive oil

We decided on two appetizers…

burrata with olive oil, sea salt & crostini

And then the prosciutto tasting with two different prosciuttos:

 La Quercia Berkshire and Prosciutto di Parma

We both agreed that the La Quercia was the best… it had a drier texture and more flavor.  I’ve had it before… Cheese Plus, our specialty corner store, usually has it at their meat counter.  You should check out their website… La Quercia is a family owned company based in Iowa, and their prosciutto is one of the best I’ve tasted.

This wine was delicious… Capichera, a 2005 red wine from Sardinia.  D explained to the sommelier what kind of reds we normally liked, and then the sommelier asked if he could surprise us with one of his favorites and tell us about it when he brought it over.  Props to the sommelier…  this was an awesome choice!

And then we ordered a couple of pizzas…

the salsiccia 

fennel sausage, gypsy peppers, mozzarella, ricotta, grana, garlic, chilies, olive oil

and a classic margherita

tomato, mozzarella, grana padano, basil, olive oil 

We purposely saved room for dessert… their chocolate budino tart is to die for. It’s sprinkled with olive oil and sea salt, and has a crunchy base and a creamy moose filling… omg, it’s the perfect combination on so many levels!

As it was early yet, on our walk home we stopped by Café des Amis for an aprés dinner drink… Rudy, the bartender, is great craic and there’s a really fun nighttime atmosphere.  I think after my exam in omg, slightly less than two weeks I want to head there for a burger and some bubbly… 

I love their door handles!

Compared to our jam packed Saturday, today was fairly uneventful… I hit up Bar Method in the morning (it felt good to stretch after yesterday) and then went into the office to study for a while.  Since the office does not make for fun photos I’ll show you pretty gladiolus instead.  Fresh flowers make me happy.

So does an easy dinner – taco night… I shredded a roast chicken that D picked up at Whole Foods, cooked some onions and then combined both with organic taco seasoning… so good.  Wrap up in a tortilla with the regular fixings… salsa, cheat’s guacamole, lettuce, shredded cheese, and greek yogurt.  Well, I guess the greek yogurt isn’t so regular… but it works.

Hope you all had a great weekend!