Tres bebidas Jueves (or 3 Drink Thursday)

In honor of one of my most favorite of all alcohol-related holidays, and my very favorite alcohol (tequila), here are tres muy delicioso recipes for your drinking pleasure! 

Recipe #1: The Mexican Martini

I first tried this when I was in Austin, TX last year for work.  Though I was a bit hesitant about this blending of ingredients, to my surprise and delight, it was one of the tastiest combinations I've ever come across.  If you enjoy a salty beverage (or a dirty martini) this is a great drink for you!  It is one of my favorite drinks of all time, when it is made correctly.  Unfortunately, a quick google search for recipes produced a LOT of incorrect (not as yummy or strong) recipes. If there's a recipe that calls for sprite or sweet-and-sour mix or similar, it's wrong.  Use this one instead:

Ingredients:

Coarse salt (for glass rims)

2 1/2 oz. Clear Tequila (the drink looks prettier with clear rather than gold.)
3/4 oz. Grand Marnier or Cointreau

1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz. Olive Brine from Jar (i like mine extra dirty, so I sometimes add a bit more.)
2-3 Olives (for an extra Mexican kick, use jalapeno-stuffed olives, but normal cocktail olives are fine.)

Lime wedge, to garnish glass  

Directions:

Salt the rim of a chilled martini glass. Skewer two to three olives & place in glass. In a shaker 1/2 filled with ice, then add tequila, cointreau, lime juice and brine. Shake. Pour liquid ingredients into the glass and Voila! (or the Spanish equivalent to "voila.")

 

Recipe #2: A Beer Margarita

I tend to be a bit of a margarita "purist."  I like a lot of tequila, salt, some lime juice and very little else.  But I will occasionally mix it up, especially to partake in a good "Beer Margarita."  These are fantastic for summer because they are very refreshing, and you can make a large quantity of them inexpensively. (cheap cervesas + cheap tequlia = delicious drinks on a budget)  ;)  This recipe does not call for any water or sprite, although, you might want to add a little to cut the limeade concentrate.  I like my drinks on the stronger side, but if you're serving it at a party, a little more filler will help to keep your guests from becoming instantly intoxicated.  

 

Ingredients:

Coarse salt (for glass rims)

2 12 oz cans or 16 oz bottles of your favorite beer, chilled

1 12 oz can of frozen concentrate limeade, thawed

1/2 cup chilled tequila

Ice cubes

Lime wedges for garnish

Directions:

Salt the rims of four chilled margarita glasses. Combine beer, limeade, and tequila in a pitcher and blend well. Fill prepared glasses with ice, then with margarita mixture. Garnish with remaining lime wedges. Serve immediately.

Clearly a classy drink. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe #3: Skinnygirl White Sangria

Bethenny Frankel is well-known for "creating" and mass-marketing her "Skinnygirl Margarita."  If you haven't her bottled version of the stuff, I highly recommend it.  Though nothing can beat the real thing, it tastes a little bit like Gatorade....and goes down a little too easily.   But aside from her signature margarita, Bethenny has also come up with an interesting recipe for sangria.  Her recipe calls for Prosecco.  But, I'm not the biggest fan of the bubbly, so I substitute an inexpensive bottle of chardonnay...or three as the recipe dictates. White zinfandel might also be a yummy substitution and might also add some color, but I haven't tried that....yet!

 

 Ingredients:

8 peaches, pitted and sliced

4 white plums, pitted and sliced

1 pound green grapes, cut in half

3 bottles Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine)

One 12-ounce can Fresca or diet lemon/lime soda

One 12-ounce can club soda

Directions:  Combine all ingredients. Chill for at least one hour.  Serve over ice. (Couldn't be easier, right?) 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....all of these recipes are making me very excited for cocktail hour! and summer....how far away is Memorial Day again??

Ummm....apparently I'm running 16+ miles in 3 days....

What??

When did this happen!?    

Oh, right.....I signed up for the half-marathon (and was then talked into signing up for a post-half 5K) two or three months ago, when I was running and strength training much more regularly in preparation for the National Marathon, and I thought I would be in excellent shape by May 7.  In fact, I remember thinking to myself that, since this particular half-marathon course is so flat, it might even be a prime occasion to a new PR--possibly even a sub-2 hour PR!

Well, it's May 3/4th (depending on when I am able to finish this post) and I am very far from the lean, mean running machine I had envisioned months ago.  In fact, I'm feeling like a weak blubbery pile of goo with creaky knees. I am not feeling confident about this endeavor one little bit. 

A few of my friends have reminded me that only a little over a month ago, I ran the marathon, so I should be okay.  But, aside from the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, a month ago today, my longest runs have been about 4 miles.  And my strength training has been almost non-existent.  I haven't quite figured out why....I thought for a while that my body was taking an unusual amount of time to adjust to daylight savings time, but I'm not really sure. I think it is a combination of things that have been taking up bits of my "energy pie," leaving little to no energy left for working out.  I've been feverishly applying for jobs and interviewing--both internally and externally--which is an extremely time-consuming and mentally draining.  I have also been on the prowl for a new apartment, as I am moving out of my condo in June.  Obviously though, where I move will be directly impacted by how my many job interviews pan out, so I have been hesitant to commit to a new residence quite yet.  Also, I've been online dating for over a month now, another time-consuming yet sedentary adventure.  And, although most of my dates thus far have been one-and-done, they still require not being a sweaty gross post-workout mess (except for that one post-marathon date. ;)) Also, most all of them tend to require alcohol consumption, which has been excessive lately too.   

Anyway, the upshot of this is that a.) I'm VERY nervous about this race.  b.) I am going to go slower than I would like to....hopefully I will surprise myself rather than embarrass myself, but I honestly do not have high expectations.   My expectation for this race went from "New-PR-Awesomeness" to "Just-finish," which is a really low bar and I haate having my expectations there.  It is my own fault for not training properly enough to achieve my goals, but it's still frustrating.  I'm frustrated with myself.

I must however "just finish" though because, if I don't, not only will I not get this race's very big-and-fabulous medal, but I will also miss out on the very big-and-fabulous "Maryland Double" medal I'll receive (earn) this fall after I complete the Baltimore Marathon.  I am planning on this year being my last year for the Baltimore Marathon, at least for a while, so if I miss the opportunity for the Double this year, it might be several years before I'll try again. 

Furthermore, I have almost no incentive to complete the 5K.  I believe it's dubbed the "Mid-Day 5K" because it starts at noon or 12:30pm.  I actually did not do this math until last night:  If the half starts at 7:30am, even if I go horribly slowly, I'll still be finished by 10am.  Then I have to "wait" (not drink too much) until noon for the 5K.  There is a strong possibility that I will not be participating.  Especially since I am very likely to be celebrating with Eggs Benedict and libations immediately following the Half, should I finish.  We'll see....maybe a surge of motivation will strike me at just the right moment, but the post-half-midday-5K might get taken off the table...

Motivation:

Race Report: My Pretend 5K in NYC

Last weekend I ran and blogged about running my first "Virtual 5K."  This weekend, I ran what I've decided must have been a "Pretend 5K," as in, not quite a 5K at all. 

The official title of this race was the "EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women," and, now that I just revisited the website, I'm noticing that the course map does indeed say the race is a distance of "approximately 5K."  Approximately is the key word here, because this race was definitely not a 5K distance.  At the most, it was 2.5 miles.  Also, I would be hard-pressed to call it a "race."  It was more of a leisurely 2+ mile stroll with some brief moments of jogging thrown in whenever possible.

This was the first time I had ever participated in a run/walk event, and also the first time I'd ever done a strictly charity "race" event.  (Although admittedly, I'm not 100% sure how that line is drawn.  I know a lot of major marathons and half marathons donate a significant portion of their earnings to a charity, but that's not the main focus of the event.  Also, if one is interested in raising money for charity, there are ample "teams" that help runners fundraise,  but this event was clearly a different affair.)  Fundraisiers far outweighed runners and individuals.  I'm sure of this because every group who had a name got a sign with their name on it, my favorite of which was the "Dairy Heirs," although I'm not sure what that has to do exactly with women's health.... :)

A close girlfriend of mine lives in Brooklyn and has said for years that I should come up to NYC to run this race with her.  She has run it in past years and said it is always a good time because the course goers through Times Square and Central Park, and also there were lots of celebrities.  And there was confetti at the start. Win-win-win. It sounded like fun, not to mention a fantastic and convenient excuse to head to NYC for the weekend, so this year I finally registered for it.  And, it WAS really fun!  It was a nice, if very brief and crowded, event.  And, besides the race, it felt great to get away for a weekend, since last week was a hectic tangle of stress and emotional turmoil (mostly job-related, but getting away was warranted, just the same.)

Although I had left my downtown DC office at 3:00pm in order to catch the 3:30pm bus out of the city, I did not get into NYC until almost 10pm.  It took me another 20 minutes or so to get into Brooklyn, so I had only had time for a quick glass of wine and a shower before crashing into bed. ( I had been at a work-function late on Thursday evening and had to be up early for the Royal Wedding on Friday, so I was exhausted!)

At 7:00am, my girlfriend, her roommate and I all headed downtown to the start.  We met two more girls down there, one of whom was a close friend from college who I hadn't seen in years!  It was fantastic to see her.  Foolishly, I packed my workout clothes as if it was July rather than April.  I was very excited about my new nike tee shirt, so I think I was hoping for much better weather.  The sky was overcast, there was a brisk wind, and the temperature was only about 50 degrees.  I ended up having to wear my race-day tee over my cute shirt and I was still shivering like crazy....I don't know what I was thinking--I didn't even pack a long sleeve t-shirt!

The start line was fun--right in Times Square, which always inspires a tremendous and distinct energy. And the celebs did turn out as promised to kick off the race--Jessica Biel, Keysha Cole and Jimmy Falon were all there.  Also, as promised was plenty of confetti at the start of the race---definitely a plus!

 

Anyway, as I mentioned, I had a hunch that I wasn't going to be doing a lot of running when the man in front of me was wearing jeans and a sports jacket.  (There were actually a lot of participants in jeans.)  But I didn't mind too much.  Aside from the fact that I wanted to run/move fast to warm up my chilly  and poorly-dressed body, I was content to move with the crowd for the most part and enjoy the scenery. 

We finished the race in 36 minutes, a feat I was surprised by considering we had walked the first half of the race--very slowly.  One of my girlfriends commented that she was surprised that her last "mile" took only six minutes, and we all concurred that the race could not possibly have been a 5K distance. 

Nonetheless, we all got pretty nice gold medals for finishing.  (They are actually nice and not chintzy, although they say "Toyota" on one side....sponsors gotta get paid too.)

I'm the dummy who wore shorts. Chilly!

Medals! For a Not-quite-5K! who knew?

We putzed about in Central Park for a little bit, collecting freebees from various sponsors.  The sun had come out of the overcast sky and, although it was still pretty cold and breezy, it was turning from a gray morning to a lovely day! 

we then headed to brunch.  Fortunately for me, I was able to coordinate with Laura, who writes Absolut(ly)Fit and lives in NYC to come join us for brunch.  I was excited--1.) because I am a big fan of her blog, and 2.) because this was the first blog-related person I was ever going to meet.  Ever!
A bit unfortunately, when I had invited Laura, I had thought it was just going to be my one girlfriend and I heading to brunch, but it turned out to be our larger group of friends--none of whom knew I actually wrote a blog until about two minutes before we left the park.  So, Laura and I didn't get as much one-on-one time as I was hoping and I didn't get to pick her brain about blogging or running too much.  Also, I felt a little bad overwhelming her with a group of five strangers for brunch.  But, she seemed right at home with everyone and handled the strange situation with tremendous aplomb. (Sorry, Laura!) 

The rest of the weekend was a wonderful--if very unhealthy--time shopping, eating and catching up with old friends.  I got to see two friends from my sorority that I hardly ever get to see, and I was happy to know that we can easily catch up where we leave off, even if we haven't spoken for months.  I also got to see "Harry Potter: The Exhibition,"  which even if you're not a diehard Harry Potter fan is very impressive!

I had a great weekend.  I don't think I would "run" this race again anytime soon, but I still had a good time participating.  It actually made me even more eager to run the ING-NYC Marathon in the fall.  I will be entering the lottery for 2012.  Cross your fingers I can get in on my first try!