Running News

No new recipes to share this time around (sorry!) But seeing as it has been 3 years since my last “Running News” post, I thought now would be a good time to fill you all in on what’s been happening.

The past few months haven’t gone as well as I had hoped, or planned. My old knee injury flared up and sent me to a doctor a few weeks ago. He suspects it’s a torn meniscus, but my symptoms sound more like patellofemoral syndrome to me.

We will see who wins the “name that injury” contest in September, when I go in for an MRI. This should have been done back in the spring of 2016, but the appointment was canceled due to the chaos of a move.

Oh, and if an old knee injury isn’t bad enough, I just had to add a sprained ankle to the mix in late March / early April.

On the perfectly flat, secure surface of a treadmill, no less 🙄

Despite these injuries, I have stubbornly refused to stop moving (🤔 I wonder if that’s why the ankle has been slow to heal?!) and continued to train for and run a 5km road race on May the 12th. This is my favourite event of the year and one that I had participated in for 5 years in a row, so I wasn’t about to miss out on year no. 6!

Both the ankle and knee held up nicely during the race, and I kept to a snail’s pace of 7 min/km. But oh the heart rate! It was through the roof and I felt like dying by the time I crossed the finish line… 35:35 later (according to my watch).

I am capable of completing a 5K in about 34 minutes on a good day (my personal best was 30:58 during a training run) but as far as races go, this was my fastest time.

So there’s that.

All things considered, I look at these injuries as a mere annoyance. Even though I’m not able to run the distances that I use to (yet!) I realize that mobility is a precious gift that is all too easily taken for granted, so, I count my blessings!

While I wait for the official diagnosis, I will run when I can, walk or cycle when I can’t, and hope I can kick these injuries to the curb before the year is out!

Baked Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

So I am all signed up to run my first race of the year, a 5K, on May 10th. I should be super excited but, alas, I am a bit worried.

I mentioned in a previous post that I injured my right ankle last month, well eventually I had to go to a walk-in clinic to have it examined, then x-rayed the next morning. The diagnoses: Nothing fractured, just a sprain, what a relief! Ah, but in my ignorance I assumed that a sprain was the lesser of two evils, but nooooo, according to the doc, this will take just as long to heal.

Sigh.

On a happier note, I had an awesome birthday that was spread out over two days. Day one was an afternoon spent with a terrific friend, day two was an evening at Boston Pizza with my aunt and grandma. And check out the generous gifts I received from said individuals!

Oh, and there was cake. It would be criminal to forget the cake, especially when it’s one of these!

But hey, shame on me and my bad manners, you came here looking for doughnuts didn’t you? Well, doughnuts you shall have!

And these are just as good as any you will find in a coffee shop. Actually, they are better. WAY better. They are free from preservatives, GMOs, and grease. AND… they utilize whole ingredients that you can actually pronounce!

I’ve made these many times before, only this time I reduced the sugar considerably from the original recipe. The taste and texture were not at all compromised, they are just less sweet. They are still to die for even without adding a glaze or frosting of any kind. In fact, this was the first time that I ever left them naked in all their glory 😀 But if you’re in the mood for unabated sweetness, feel free to use the full amount of sugar and glaze them to your heart’s content!
INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar (reduced from 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (reduced from 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Generously grease a doughnut pan or mini muffin tins. In a small bowl, sift and whisk together the first 5 ingredients; set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg along with the sugars until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the oil, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Spoon the batter (which is thick and very sticky!) into a pastry bag or a plastic bag with one corner snipped off. Carefully pipe the batter into the doughnut tins. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 8-10 minutes. (Mine took roughly 6 minutes, but I used a mini doughnut pan.) Loosen the edges with a rubber spatula and turn doughnuts onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before glazing or frosting.

The recipe yielded 42 minis for me.

**They get added bonus points for freezing exceptionally well!**

These were baked in a mini muffin tin and glazed.