How to: Bake a Pie and War Stories from the NYC Subway

Today’s Workout: 6 Mile Pace Run

Health Check: I felt pretty wiped at the end of my run today – my quads and knees were definitely tired. Going to make sure to do an easy cross-train workout tomorrow to recover.

I wanted to take it easy this week, since I feel like I’ve been eating and drinking out a lot recently. I picked a good time to do it, since there are so many great Olympic sports stored on my DVR.

I saw a recipe on Shape.com that caught my eye for (relatively) healthy pies. I had nothing to do on Tuesday night, so why not bake a pie?

I edited the recipe a bit, because there was no way I was going to use an “almond” dough for my pie crusts. So if you want the original (and healthier) version, click here. Otherwise, here’s what I did:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Pillsbury crusts (found in the refrigerated section)
• 4 cups (4 large/6 medium) sliced peaches, thawed if frozen, peeled if desired
• 2 cups (2 large/3 medium) unpeeled, sliced plums
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons sugar (for top crust)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons unsalted butter

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 350°. In a bowl, toss peaches and plums with granulated sugar, juice, cinnamon and salt; add to pie pan with first crust; dot with butter. Cut second crust into 3/4-inch-wide strips. Carefully weave strips over filling, forming a lattice. Trim overhanging dough to 1 inch; roll overhang back on itself, pinching at 1/2-inch intervals, to form a crimped edge. Sprinkle extra sugar over pie. Bake until fruit bubbles and crust is golden, 65 minutes. Eat up.

My masterpiece!
It remained whole for about 5 minutes.

The Shape.com version says that it’s only 359 calories per slice – so if you add on my Pillsbury crusts, my heavy hand with the sugar added to the top crust, and my affinity for cutting large pieces of pie, it is probably nothing close to that number.

Either way, it was a fun thing to do on a Tuesday night, and I had something to eat while I watched the skinny and buff Olympians do their thing.

mmm.

It has been a strange week of commuting. The L train has been delayed almost every single day, and I’ve seen major rage fests happening all around me. There are two sets of stairs on my transfer from the G to the L train, and when both G trains arrive at the same time, there is always congestion to get to the stairs. Depending on my mood, I will either wait in line, or cut a little bit in front of people (if you've never done that, you're a saint. And you probably don't get to places very fast). But on Tuesday morning, there was a particularly crowded line, so I waited my turn. A girl cut in front of the guy right before me, and he gave her the super aggressive double-middle-finger to the back of her head.

It wasn’t even 8:30AM yet, and this guy was already raging. Actually, my first thought was, how many people have given me the double-middle-finger because of my sometimes aggressive commuting tactics? Probably more than one.

I get where that guy is coming from - while I have never done that myself, I've mentally done it many, many times. Commuting during rush hour on the NYC subways is war - and when somebody accidentally bumps into you or cuts you off, it has grounds to make you irate.

For some reason this week, I didn't feel angry. All the delayed trains and crowded cars didn't bug me for once, and I just tuned into my iPod or magazine and tuned everyone else out.  Perhaps in the world of karma I was rewarded for not cutting anyone off, since I somehow got a free drink at Starbucks today. How awesome is that?

This has been a good week for running – I’ve been getting every run in, and added a mile to two of them to make up for skipping some runs the last few weeks. I’ve been cautiously wondering whether I lost some of my speed that I had during half-marathon training, since most of my runs have been in the 9:00-10:00 mile range. But this morning’s run changed all that.

I set out to do a run at Marathon Goal Pace, which for me is about 9:00. I ran over to the Wburg Bridge, and I was amazed I could run that behemoth and actually split under 9:00. I did a mini fist pump when I saw those paces.

I am crazy excited abou this weekend's long run. Do you know why? IT’S SUMMER STREETS!!!!!

If you’re not familiar, it’s one of the best events that NYC puts on to encourage healthy lifestyles. They close down Park Avenue for a 7-mile stretch, so you can run, bike, or roller blade your way through the streets that are normally buzzing with cabs. The word on the street is they also have workout classes and rock climbing walls.

I will have an awesome running buddy to enjoy it with.

Keith and me! Sweaty in VT.

On that note, Happy Thursday to everyone!