5 For Friday

Good Morning!! My week has flown by since I had two vacation days at the start of it. Has this been a fast or slow one for you? Either way, it's almost the weekend!

1. Tomorrow after we watch the MSU/Illinois game, Woody and I are heading to the Hester Street Fair on the LES. The HSF and Grub Street are teaming up for an all-borough food festival! Just look at this LIST of restaurants and food vendors! It's pretty incredible. Woody already has his stomach set on a smoked meat sandwich from Mile End (fashioned after the ones from Montreal) but I just haven't decided yet and I'm sure it'll take a while when we get there. It's on from 11am - 6pm. We won't make it there till about 3:30 since the game is at noon, so hopefully they won't run out of food before we get there!

2. If you live in NYC you know restaurants now have grades posted on their windows. Well, the Department of Health also has a great site (or scary site, depending on how you look at it) where you can look up your favorite restaurant and find out if they've had any infractions during their last few inspections. Just go to THIS site, type in your restaurant of choice and see how they're doing. By the way, if you see one of those signs that say 'grade pending' that really means that upon first inspection (since the new grading system went into effect) they either received a B or lower and have time to fix the problems before an actual grade is posted or if they are contesting the grade with the tribunal. I don't know about you, but these grades make me think twice. Also, I'm a bit disheartened that they're not grading school and hospital cafeterias, soup kitchens and charitable operations. Shouldn't they be held to the same standards?

3. Last night was the NYRR Young Professionals Committee Fall Fun Run & Happy Hour I mentioned a couple times. The weather was less than ideal for running (dark, chilly and pouring rain) but we still had a good group show up for the run and a few more for the happy hour! We know the turnout would have been better with better weather, but I was thrilled to see such hardcore runners come out to support youth running programs! We handed out goodie bags to those who came. Two of the items we received for the bags were packets of Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter (thank you Justin's) and Gu Energy Gel. Outside PR sent a wide variety of Gu flavors for the bags but the one that caught our eye the most, was this one!

Yep, that's right. "New Flavor"! A few of us passed one around and tried tastes but couldn't figure out what it is! I thought mixed fruit, some thought passionfruit or citrus. I just checked their site and the homepage features "Island Nectar" I have to guess that's what this is, but I'm going to email the great people at Outside PR to find out! Stay tuned!

4. Last night, Woody, April and I had a conversation about hot sauce and hot peppers. I do not like very spicy foods, while Woody loves them. This often means that I make chili and then he pours the hot stuff into his own bowl and leaves the pot alone. Anyway... he mentioned an ARTICLE he read recently in the New York Times about human reaction to hot peppers (or capsaicin, really) and that birds do not have the same 'chemical pain pathway, so they do not suffer at all from capsaicin." Apparently our pain receptors react to capsaicin the same way they respond to actual heat, therefore we actually feel like our mouths are on fire (even though they aren't). It's a pretty interesting article. Obviously, some people's pain receptors are a bit more enhanced than others!

5. Have you noticed the influx of professional chefs in the running world lately? Rocco DiSpirito was at the Fitness 4 Mile race I ran in August and spoke at the starting line. Mark Bittman, who wrote THIS book, writes a BLOG on RunnersWorld.com now and wrote this month's "Athlete's Palate" column and Bobby Flay was featured in the "I'm A Runner" profile at the back of the magazine. I kind of like this trend. Chef's are often known for delicious, yet high calorie meals and I suppose while there's been a rise of celebrity chef's over the past few years, there were bound to be a few standouts who live healthy lifestyles. Glad to see them acknowledging it!

While the DOH would close any restaurant that presents conditions absolutely hazardous to diners health, if you saw a rating of B or below on a restaurant you frequent, would you still eat there?

Good luck to all the runners this weekend!!
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today's workout -
10.25 mile bike
3x12 leg press
3x10 tricep extension
3x20 side jumps
2x30second planks on bosu ball
3x10 hanging reverse crunches
stretching