April 2020 – The Pete Post

Things I Like 4/17/2020

A Holy Week Amid a National Tribulation

I get the Wall Street Journal delivered every Saturday. Reading the paper, one of my old man hobbies. There’s something extremely enjoyable about reading the newspaper. The feel, the smell, everything about it is awesome. I really enjoy the crossword puzzles too.

I enjoyed this piece, it ties together what is currently going on in the world with Holy Week and Easter. I don’t have much to add, it was just a feel-good article for me.

Smittens Carrot Cake

I have continued to try new baking recipes. I enjoy cooking, but I can’t get to the grocery store for ingredients right now. For Easter, I decided to bake my first carrot cake. I couldn’t have asked for it to come out any better. The ends also got caramelized and made then a little crunch, which was awesome. The most difficult part of this recipe was grating the carrots. It was a pretty good rotator cuff workout though. My shoulders can definitely use that.

I decided not to make the Maple frosting and went with a traditional cream cheese frosting. For the frosting, I went with the recipe from Joy of Baking.

Disney +

I don’t usually watch movies or TV shows. I watch some sports, but I just find my time better spent doing other things. Now with some extra time on my hands and looking for a good way to spend time with my girlfriend, we took to watching movies on Disney+.

We set a goal to watch all of the classic Disney animated movies. We are both 90’s kids so watching these movies is so nostalgic and brings back memories. So far we have watched Hercules, Aladdin, Lilo & Stitch, and Wreck-it Ralph (this isn’t a classic but still really good).

Watching movies on Disney+ has been a great way to relax. I haven’t been in the mood to watch or read anything serious. Along with that, the older Disney movies are great. They have great stories and great characters. I always have to point out the things in the movies made before the 2000’s that would offend 1/4 of the US now.

Beer of the Week: Port City Golden Export Lager

Port City, located in Alexandria, VA, has a lager series going where they release a lager every 4-8 weeks. Each lager they release differs from the others, and they seem to be brewed based on the season that it will be released. More info about the lager series can be found here, but this is what they have to say about the Export Lager:

ABV: 5.8%

Based on the blonde export lagers invented in late-19th century Germany, our Golden Export Lager balances a subtly sweet, toasty malt character with spicy, floral hops. Slightly stronger than the related Helles and Pilsner styles, Golden Export still aims to refresh.

I enjoyed this beer a lot. It’s a pretty refreshing beer while still having some alcohol going on. It also has some spice that reminds me of a Marzen, a beer meant for the fall. I feel its perfect for early spring, where some days it’s warm and some days it’s cold, and it tends to rain a lot. I called it the “perfect deer hunting beer”

Full Day of Eating #1

Food

I think it will be fun and useful to show a full day of what I eat. The day that I recorded this, I had an 8-mile easy run and a bunch of bodyweight exercises to do. For reference, I am 24, 6′ 190lbs.

I don’t track my calories, and I don’t follow any special diet. I think tracking calories is good when trying to lose weight, but when just looking to maintain, tracking can be overwhelming. I also feel that tracking leads people away from choosing high-quality food, and leads them towards lower quality food that they can fit into their macros.

I am a big fan of what the guys over at Renaissance Periodization are doing. I took a lot of what they do and made it work for me. I just think of my meals as X amount of protein from a lean source, Y amount of carbs, and potentially some extra fat added in.

7 AM – Breakfast

I wake up between 5:30 and 7:00 depending on the day. I have breakfast as soon as I wake up. I keep breakfast high protein with moderate carbs and fats. This morning I had 4 egg whites + 1 egg scrambled with mushrooms, peppers, spinach and a little bit of shredded cheese. I also had a Dave’s killer English muffin with butter and raspberry jam. These English muffins are incredible and so is the jam. The jam is from Trader Joe’s and tastes like the filling for a good NY jelly donut. I don’t think NY is known for its jelly donuts, but when I go back to NY I always go to my hometown bakery that makes amazing jelly donuts.

10 AM – Snack

I have a smaller meal between breakfast and lunch. I will either have a protein bar or whey protein mixed with almond milk and something on the side, either fruit, oatmeal, or some toast. Today, I actually had none of those, and had two Greek yogurts from Aldi.

snack_1

1 PM – Lunch

For lunch today I had 0.5lbs of 96/4 ground beef with some cheese on top. Along with that I had two small sweet potatoes and some sauteed spinach. This is a pretty typical lunch for me. I usually either have chicken or beef, a carb source, and some vegetables. I try to get in at least 50g of carbs because this is my last meal before I train. Yeah, it doesn’t look that pretty but I was trying to work while eating.

lunch_1

530 PM – Dinner

For dinner today I had 0.5lbs of hangar steak, white rice with vegetables, and some roasted broccoli and cauliflower. This rice is what I call “Vertical Rice”. Anyone who knows about Stan Efferding’s Vertical Diet will understand it . It is white rice cooked in chicken stock, with peppers, carrots, and spinach. I just throw it all in the rice cooker and let it rip. It is extremely good. I will sometimes throw Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning on top. If you know about Tony Chachere’s you know.

Like lunch, this is a pretty typical dinner for me. Chicken, beef, or fish, a carb source, and vegetables or a salad. I also had a beer with dinner today. The beer that I had today was New Realm Hazy Like A Fox. This is a NE IPA brewed in Atlanta, GA.

dinner_1

8 PM – Snack

I will have one more meal before I go to bed. I try to get a slow-digesting protein with some carbs and a little fat. Tonight I had around two servings of cottage cheese and a banana.

Snacking throughout the Day

I usually snack during the day, especially now that I am working from home. This helps me get extra calories in when I am still hungry between meals. Some snacks I keep around: carrots, blueberries, raspberries, rice cakes, tortilla chips, or something that I made during the week like bread or banana bread.

Things I Like 4/10/2020

Uncategorized

I am going to publish an article every Friday about some things that I came across from the previous week. This is inspired by the Ben Shapiro Show where he has a segment of things he likes and things he hates. So without further ado:

King Arthur No-Knead White Bread

With the COVID-19 shelter-in-place still in effect, I have been cooking a lot. I figured I would try my hand at making bread. This was my first time making bread and it came out amazing. I have been using it with for sandwiches, toast with eggs, or just with butter and jam.

For someone who never made bread before it was super simple. All that was needed (kneaded?) was all-purpose flour, yeast, salt, and water. I cold fermented this one for 24 hours, which is what they recommend, although you can do less if you are in a rush, and up to 7 days. The loaf that I am baking this weekend will cold ferment for 4 days. They said that it will have more of a sourdough taste if it sits longer.

Sandbag Training

With my gym being closed for a month, I decided I needed to get weights for my apartment. All the kettlebells, dumbbells, plates, and even pullup bars are sold out.

I ordered a large canvas seabag from Amazon. I also got three 0.5 cu ft bags of pea gravel, contractor bags, and duct tape from Home Depot. Altogether I spent $40, $20 at each store.

Three 0.5 cu ft bags of pea gravel is about 150lbs. I divided the pea gravel up into different garbage bags by weight. Two 50lbs garbage bags, 25lb bag, two 10lb bags. I then wrapped the bags in duct tape to reinforce them. I can now put the bags I want into the sea bag. This allows me to adjust the weight based on the exercise I am doing.

The sandbag is no barbell but I can still have a solid workout with it

Trikos Team Dog

I adopted a dog last week and I am learning more effective ways to train him. I came across former Navy Seal Mike Ritland on Youtube. That then led me to his site teamdog.pet. I paid $6.50 for the month. It is usually $12.99 but I was easily able to get a 50% off coupon online.

So far the videos have taught me a ton. Everything from training, to nutrition, and so on. It is a bit overwhelming because it seems like you need to make a complete lifestyle change with your dog, but just need to take it slow.

It is great for puppies, newly adopted dogs, and even an older dog.

Beer of the Week: Von Trapp Helles Lager

vontrapp

Von Trapp is a brewery in Vermont, with a focus on Austrian lagers. Their Helles lager is a crisp, clean beer, with some interesting flavor and a little hop aroma. I called it a really good party beer. It’s a crushable, light beer with really good flavor.

The New Shoes Trap

Running

When you find a good pair of running shoes, you know it. That’s how I felt with my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 18. Before that, I wore the New Balance 860v7. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. I would run with them and feel good, but I felt like I was constantly having minor injuries in my ankle and foot.

I bought the Brooks Adrenalines in October of 2018. I knew these were the right shoes for me. There was something different about the way they felt. I still run in them almost every day. At the time they were the newest shoe in the Brooks Andrenaline series, so I paid full price (~$120) for them. I definitely got every penny out of them. I put over 1000 miles on these shoes. I know most recommend replacing after 300-500 miles, but I couldn’t find the pair I liked.

I started looking for new shoes in the summer (July 2019), when they had around 500 miles on them, but no other shoe cut it for me. I tried the Brooks GTS Andrenaline 19, but I didn’t love them. They were also going for $120, and I didn’t want to spend that again. I tried some other shoes (Asics, Saucony, New Balance) but didn’t love any of them. I am really picky about my shoes because I have had a bunch of lower leg injuries from football. I then thought about buying another pair of 18’s but I couldn’t find them anywhere. Most of the new models come out at the beginning of the year, so by July the 19’s were everywhere and there were no 18’s left.

The running shoe industry is cyclical, they produce a new shoe every year, slap a new number on it and some, mostly useless features and then charge $100-200 for it. Yes, some of the upgrades tend to be real improvements but most of the time it isn’t much.

The Nike Vaporfly 4% is a counterexample, they changed the market. It was a new shoe with new features. I can see someone going out to buy them, but most of the time the new features aren’t anything special. Brooks has now released the Andrenaline GTS 20, and it seems pretty similar to the 19. Screen Shot 2020-04-01 at 6.38.36 AM

They both have a 12mm drop and they have the same support rails. They were able to shave off a measly 11.3g from the shoe. They market this as an “improved upper to reduce weight”. I am not here to rip on Brooks because I really like their shoes. I am just using them as an example for the whole shoe industry. The new models tend to be nothing special.

Buy the Previous Year Model

My new way to go about buying running shoes is when the new model comes out, I just buy the model from the previous year. It always goes on sale. I just ordered my Brooks Andrenaline GTS 19 for $69 with free two-day shipping (yeah I know two-day shipping is the norm now).

Doing so still allows me to get new shoes with “new” technology, I am just a year behind. This doesn’t worry me too much because I don’t expect my shoes to make a huge difference in my performance. Along with that, I don’t expect the technology to change much from year to year. Of course, some shoes will have improvements but most of the time the improvements aren’t groundbreaking.

The other perk of always being a year behind on the shoe models is that you get to hear what other people have to say. At the end of the day you have to like the shoe, but getting feedback on the shoe is great. Other runners can still tell you about the durability of the shoe and things of that nature

Focus on Running

At the end of the day, the shoe isn’t going to make a huge difference. As long as it fits well and feels good it will work. That’s why I think it is more important to find the shoe model that works and sticking with it. Occasionally you will see these shoe models change over time and no longer work for the runner or the runner will change and no longer like the model.

When Brooks came out with the Adrenaline 19’s, they removed the stability post and added support rails. I know some runners who loved the previous models of the Andrenalines but don’t like the rail, so they don’t wear them anymore. In that case, its time to find a new model to stick with.

I think many runners, and athletes in all sports get too hung up on how they look and what they are wearing. That doesn’t mean you have to wear old ratty clothes when you are running but focus more on training, nutrition, and recovery, and less on the gear. Find what works for you and stick with it. There’s always new stuff on the market that seems interesting to try, but it’s probably not going to help performance.

I’m not saying you have to buy cheap stuff. Just find what works and stick with it. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. For example, when it comes to shorts, I wear the Lulu Lemon 4″ Surge Shorts. They are expensive, but they work for me, and I have no desire to try other shorts out.

Runners need stuff that is comfortable and functional. Once you have that you are set. Then maybe spend that money that was going to new gear on a coach, or a training book. At the end of the day, the gear is going to eventually break down and need to be replaced. I find it more beneficial to invest in yourself rather than spending on gear.