Tuesday Recipe: Taco Salad: Whole30 Style

After work, after my run, after baseball registration I whipped up this salad for my tomorrow lunch and dinner. Oh my gosh. It is SO good that I ended up eating it tonight for dinner along with Troy!  He wasn't sure about the purple cabbage but at least gave it a try.  His response "not bad" as he shoveled the last forkful into his mouth!

 I made a ton so I am going to drop off a tupperware for my sister at CrossFit-she brings my nephew to the same building for Taekwondo after my CF class, which is going well. Although last Thursday I learned that i have no skill in learning snatch , clean and clean and press. I suck miserably but practiced all weekend with a piece of PCV pipe because my form is horrible. Hopefully at class tomorrow it isn't as horrible as it was last Thursday.

This is REALLY good:

Brown 2 pounds grass fed beef
Season with 2 T chili powder, 2T garlic powder, 1/2 salsa, 2T cumin, 1 T ground  pepper, 1 T red chili pepper flakes

Mix:
1 head purple cabbage
1 clump green onions
2 mangoes oh my gosh how I love mango
2 cucumber
1 avocado
3 T olive oil
2T balsamic vinegar

Place greens onto plate, pile on beef. Oh yeah!  The cool crisp vegetables and fruit with the warm spicy beef is just wonderful.

Speaking of beef..I found another grass fed beef producer in the area that will DELIVER to me free of charge any Thursday!  Awesome.

My first batch will arrive this Thursday. He also invited me out to his farm to check out the operation. Gotta like that. I don't imagine I will see cows knee high in manure, being fed corn and being dosed with antibiotics because their stomachs can't digest corn.  OK, that's another tangent.

So enjoy the Taco Salad above. You will like.

Base Building: Wrapped Up?

I keep having this thought course through my brain:  I'm starting all over OR I'm experienced, it isn't like I'm starting over.  Two very different thoughts aren't they.  The thought I have depends on my level of confidence at any given time.


My last 100 mile race was Javelina Jundred I believe, in October of 2009.  OK, I had to go to ultrasignup to find out for sure. Yes, Javelina Jundred was my 14th 100 + mile race finish, so it has been quite some time!


Not only has it been a few years since I ran 100 miles but I was totally off any workouts from end of July to end of November this past year. 5 months is a long time. Longest time I've gone without running since I first began this wonderful sport 14 years ago.


Since November I have slowly been building up mileage. During the past 12 weeks I've gone from 0 mile weeks to 65 mile weeks. Today is the first time I hit the 60s. Three weeks ago I hit the first 50. I really had hoped to hit the 50s post Triple D but my feet were totally chewed up from those damn spikes I purchased. Bad bad idea. Man, I remember reading in Marathon! by Galloway when I first began this running adventure: NEVER TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACE DAY.  He speaks the truth. The spikes were a strong reminder!  


I really think I have a decent base now; sure it is only 13 weeks long, but mind and muscle do have memory. I'm hopeful that my body is now strong enough to hit 2 a days, speed and hills. Only time will tell. I feel strong, I haven't had any disc pain at all, no nerve pain. I'm running at least 5 days, usually 6 days a week with 2 CrossFit workouts a week which I have only recently added. 


Today many of my good friends were heading to Welch to run rolling gravel roads -the trails are a mess with the new (only) snow we received mid week. I didn't take part in the fun as it is over 2 hours away, I had a MDRA Coaches Meeting at 100 and I wanted to make breakfast for Tyler, Amanda and Troy before Tyler left to take Amanda to the airport. Priorities, right!  Much to Topaz's disappointment I decided to run on the treadmill. I decided 6-10 AM would work well, everyone would then wake up and I could fry eggs and bacon and whip out some french toast.  For some reason I woke at 4 and had bundles of energy so instead of going back to sleep I chose to start an early run time. After a quick 4 miles through the neighborhood with Topaz at my side I changed clothing and headed downstairs. I downloaded a few movies onto my Kindle yesterday for the event-first time. I had My Run and Spirit of the Marathon all set to occupy me during a long run. 


I had great energy while running, I really enjoyed My Run. A story about a 56 year old man who loses his wife to breast cancer, leaving behind 3 young children. He's not a runner but decides to gain awareness for single parents he is going to run a marathon a day and will run from St Paul to the start of the Olympic games in Atlanta, Georgia. It's amazing and he succeeds. After this movie was done I came up for a refill of water and 1/2 sweet potato, checked to see that everyone was still sleeping, and began to run again. I watched Spirit of the Marathon next. A movie about a group of people training to run Chicago Marathon. Some have never run a marathon, some have, some are elite such as Deena Kastor.  It was very good to watch as well.  When I came back upstairs to eat the other 1/2 sweet potato the kids were awake and moving around. I had 26 miles in so far so paused the movie and the treadmill and made breakfast for them, grabbing a sweatshirt to put on as I was beginning to chill. After everyone ate and I cleaned up I went back down to finish the remaining miles. Somewhere along the line I decided to run 50K as long as I had begun so much earlier than anticipated. As I began to run on my treadmill again I noticed my legs had become tight, my side was aching, my foot was sore. Good grief, suck it up. 5 more miles. I got off and stretched, felt better and finished up the movie and my run.  


I'm so glad I ran a 50K today!  It makes me feel as though I'm ready for the next phase of training. I'll add in hill workouts and speed now and see how I hold up.  If it is too much I'll go back to only endurance building workouts. After Zumbro 100 on April 13 I have 8 weeks before Kettle 100. Plenty of time for a preparation phase.


When I first began running it hurt to get to mile 13, it hurt a great amount as I was training for my first marathon. The past few 50Ks haven't hurt like that first 13 miler. It isn't like I'm starting over :)


I'm now on Day 4 of the kill the sugar plan!  So far so good. I did have headaches Day 1 and 2 but as I was running the other night it went away and hasn't come back.  Good riddance!

Troy's 16th Birthday: Leap Year Day!

February 29th!  Troy finally gets to celebrate a birthday on a birthday and what a birthday it is!  Mother Nature did for Troy what I could not: cancel school!


We received 4-6 heavy wet inches of snow last night. You can imagine the happy dance I did when I came down to run on my treadmill this morning before work, I thought. I turned on the news at saw we had a cancellation. Hurray!


Troy came thundering down the stairs a while later ... no school Mom? Really?  Really Troy!  What a smile!  An amazing Happy Birthday for Troy!


We just finished spending a few hours outside having a snowball  making contest. Somehow everything turns into a competition!  His snowballs are huge, as big as me, and much heavier. Mine as smaller, I ended up making a snowball fort. The snow is heavy and wet, perfect for building.


Topaz even ended up with snowballs!  What an awesome day..and it's only mid day.

I baked Troy a  Chocolate Malt birthday cake with Chocolate Malt Buttercream Frosting. It looked rather plain, but will taste incredible.  I had purchased a bakery cookie yesterday for Troy's "Birthday Eve" treat and placed it upon his cake for some added interest.


On the menu is a first. I'm roasting beef ribs. They have been in the oven since  8 AM, at 200 degrees with a rub and salt, wrapped in foil. I just added sweet potato, brussels and squash to roast as well. Delightful.


I may enjoy a piece of cake today as tomorrow I'm again cutting out the sugar. It has crept back into my diet, I've allowed it and it just takes over.  I find sugar for me is much like alcohol is. All or none.  I held it at bay for a few years but it has totally become out of hand once again. I feel as though I am mourning it already and I recall having the same feelings about booze.


I found that I was giving 101 excuses as to why I wasn't ready to stop eating sugar.  Just as I did when I wanted to quit drinking .. but didn't want to go through the withdrawal detox. It's the same frickin' thing. Sugar is a drug to me now as alcohol and tobacco once was. The problem is, it is more accepted that the later. People tend to think  you are even more of a freak when you give up sugar, wheat, corn syrup, etc.


My love for baking isn't surpassed by my love for sugar. The two go hand in hand. I am no longer going to participate in the Daring Bakers, the Tuesday's with Dorie, the Cake Bakers. It would be like belonging to Wine Club or a Home Brewery Club. Yeah, I don't think so.


This blog has been a great tool to hold myself accountable, I may use it as such again. I'm just not sure how  much I am comfortable sharing here. So many people I know in real life read this now, not just my running friends who I shared with before and am comfortable sharing with again, too many others may make me feel too uncomfortable, at first, maybe not.  Time will tell.


OK and this font is crazy. It is either so tiny I can barely read it or huge like this. What's up with this.

New Trail, Old Friends

Yesterday I woke at 300 AM for a 600 AM run date at Lebanon Hills, in Eagan.  I knew that Maria, Arika and Jim were going to be running. Zac and Todd were too, as well as Travis and Mike, whom I met for the first time yesterday.

My plan was to run for approximately 4 hours, 600 AM- 1000 AM, so that I would be home, showered, fueled and ready to go to my nephew's 100 PM play in Princeton.

When I pulled into the lot at 550 it was still dark, I was glad my headlamp was tucked under my seat and had been since my last night run. I was disappointed that I didn't see any cars in the lot. Maybe I was just earlier that everyone else.

Sure enough!  Within a few minutes cars began to pull into the lot.  Jim began at 4 AM so already had 9 miles in when we were ready to head out. He was running another 9 with us, planning on being back home by 1000 to get his Twins tickets ordered.  Good plan! I would be running two of the 9 mile sections.

We headed off into the dark, upon the snow packed trail. The trail was in very good condition-the snow was compressed tightly, there had been plenty of traffic upon the trails. I was anxious for the sun to rise so that I could see my surroundings. I could tell that we were running along a lake. There were many of them along the trails.

When the sun rose we were running through a pine area. It was just beautiful. The  trails were rolling hills, through areas of pine, oak and a bit of open field.

We didn't see many others out enjoying the trails. I saw one other runner and a man walking with his dog. It was early for most of the population, I suppose.

The park has a visitor center that was open with HEATED bathrooms and water fountains. It was a green building that had a vegetative roof, rain garden and day lighting. There were beaches, snowshoe trail, horse trail, bike trail and ski trail, skating, fishing and kayaking available. Quite the park!

As I was running along the trail system I realized I was sore from wrist to waist. The last CrossFit WOD I did was 100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and 100 squats. That was on Thursday and I was certainly feeling it yesterday!

Our 9 mile loop brought us back to the parking lot where I refilled bottle and grabbed another gel. Jim, Travis, Arika and Todd ended their run and Maria, Zac, Mike and myself headed out for another 9 mile stretch. There were times when I watched the others run up hills as I was slowly trudging up them, wondering what the hell had happened to my level of fitness. Just as I began to mourn the fitness I once had I stopped  myself to  remind me to feel the gratitude for just being out there!  I quickly realized that it wasn't too many months ago that I wasn't sure if I would ever get through the day without pain and I certainly didn't think I was going to be running trail this winter.  Those thoughts kept me in check.

I had an awesome time out there and will be going back to Lebanon Hills.

This afternoon I'm meeting Bonnie and Marie for a late lunch at Ecopolitan then off to Twin City Running Company for Unbreakable movie night.  Boy, two days of socialization in a row. That's not like me but I am looking forward to it.

CrossFit

I have been interested in trying  a CrossFit class for quite some time. I don’t do anything very quickly.  Running is long and slow, weight training is slow and deliberate. I wanted to try the high intensity of CF.

A few of my ultrarunning friends absolutely love CF. They live on the West Coast and CF has been around for ages out there. Many use CF to compliment their running a few times a week. The past few years CF has made its way to MN and boxes are popping up here and there.  The closest one to Big Lake that I could find a few months ago was in Maple Grove. Because I have been driving an hour to go to my favorite CorePower Yoga class, I really didn’t want to drive that far to CF.

A few weeks ago I again did a search for CF in the area and low and behold I got a hit!  A master Taekwondo instructor in the area who has his CF certification was holding classes!  Woohoo! He just began classes last month. Only 20 minutes away!

Yesterday I attended my first CF class. Well, actually, it wasn’t even a class. It was a required introduction to a beginning class.

I was apprehensive. All that I know about CF it that it is bad ass, intense, pull ups and throwing heavy tires around.  I had looked at YouTube videos and different blogs and such. Many in my paleo community practice CF.

Ryan gave me an in-depth introduction to CF. He explained that CF is not a specialized fitness program but an attempt to optimize physical competence in 10 areas: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy.  Oh, is that all?

He explained some CF terminology, the WOD (workout of the day), the scaling back of w/o’s to ability level, etc.

After the introduction and 101 questions that I had it was time for my workout.

The workout was 500 meter row, 50 squats, 40 sit ups, 30 push ups, 20 pull ups; for time.   I didn’t think it seemed too brutal, I was wrong!

My body isn’t used to doing anything fast, this is why I wanted to begin CF. The intensity!  I can run long and slow, I can lift long and slow, but fast..I haven’t been doing fast! I am ready to give my body a wake up call.

I began to row and that was fine, it took me about 3 minutes to finish 500 meters, I unhooked the safety straps from my feet and went to the squat. I was to squat deep, touching my but to the ball each time. No problem but my heart rate was increasing and sweat was beginning to roll. Good stuff.  Onto the sit ups. Oh lord. I normally do ‘crunches’ .. why? I’m not really sure. I quit doing regular sit ups quite some time ago when I began this long session of crunches and have been doing them since. I had to chuckle. I told Ryan “my son is going to be so disappointed that I can’t do normal sit ups!” He told me to extend my arms and use them as leverage. Silly!  I felt like a fool.  Oh well, suck it up and move on. I completed the 40 and went to push ups.

20 were no problem and then they were s l o w and my form was becoming very improper. These were ‘chest to deck’ pushups. Touching my chest to the floor for each pushup. I haven’t done that before. Pretty soon I moved to KNEE pushups.  Yes, truly. Knee pushups!  Good grief.  After 40 I wobbly walked to the pull up bar.  Oh dear. During our intro he asked how many pull ups I could do. I told him about 10 at that point. I didn’t bother telling him I could do many more before this past year and of my injury.  I did 5 during our intro. They must not have been too stellar because he said I could jump off a box and jump up to the bar to do the pull-ups during the workout. 

I jumped up to the bar and was able to get 8 in but after that my arms and back were just kind of done.  I jumped up and muscled out as many as I could. I was panting and spit was coming out of my mouth. Gross!  The last few my form was gone but I was just counting to 20.  At 20 I was beat.  I was panting like a dog. My legs were tired, my arms were tired, my back was tired. I was soaked. Unreal.

I shuffled to my water and towel and realized I was supposed to be completing this for time.  The clock said 10:15.  Sheesh, most intense 10 minute work I’ve ever had.

I can only improve, right?

I loved it!

After I finished up we talked about the class schedule, payment, etc. I decided I’d begin with a few free classes at the beginning level. He feels that I will be able to walk into beginners and be OK. I don’t know about that but I will try it.  I will be going  to class today at 530, after Topaz and I get our Run On.

Instead of leaving with my tail tucked between my legs and my ears down I left with a smile upon my face. I can’t wait to go back today!

Do you CrossFit?  Do you CrossFit and Ultrarun?

Psycho Wyco 50K: Race Report

If a smile is worth a 1000 words, I guess you know what I'm saying here!

With the Ultra Gnarly Bandit series as my 2012 goal and the first 100 in April, I hoped to find a few aided races to take the place of solo long runs on snowy trail.

My friend Maria was heading to Kansas City for the Psycho Wyco 50K so I asked if I could tag along.  Yippee!  She offered me a ride with herself and Doug. Doug was going to run the 10 mile race.

I began to watch the weather forecast. KC was basking in 50-60s. Wow, I couldn’t believe it. Pretty soon the 10 day forecast was showing 20-30, without any snow or ice on the trail. Conditions were looking great.

After dropping Troy off at school on Friday I made my way over to Maria’s. Maria, Doug and son Justin were all aboard and we headed down south.  On the way down Maria told me that the temperatures had really taken a dive. The start temperature was now 6F with a high of 28F.  Brrrr!  I didn’t bring a pair of wind mittens to wear over my gloves  nor did I bring a neck gaiter. Hmm.  Luckily I couldn’t decide between tights or pants so I brought both. I’d be wearing both!  I only packed one thin shirt so I was hoping we were going to get a race shirt at packet pickup so I would have another layer to wear for the cold start.

Our trip to Kansas City was uneventful, thankfully.  Our first stop was packet pickup in Overland Park, KS. We pulled into a running store and collected our wares. Number, nice coffee mug and a technical long sleeve shirt. Yay!  Our number had a timing strip on the back of it. Cool.

I mentioned that I was hoping to find a Godiva nearby. Valentine’s Day was near and I hadn’t made my trip over to Ridgedale. I wasn’t sure we would be home in time on Sunday.  Maria looked up Godiva on her iPhone and before we knew it I was buying chocolate for my Valentine's ! 

Our next stop was the hotel. We were staying only 1 mile from the start!  Awesome.  The Comfort Suites Speedway was very nice. Clean, awesome king bed, very comfy. I was staying by myself and greatly enjoyed the quiet time alone. 

We checked in, got ourselves settled and went to check out the course. It was cold and windy!!  Brrr.  13F with a 40 mph wind and it was 4 PM.  I was worried about being cold.  The trail was frozen solid. There were many horse hoof prints that were very deep. The mud kind of came up in frozen spikes, it would be difficult footing.  Hey, it wasn’t going to be very muddy though.

After looking at the course we headed over to the Legends area. We had a great dinner at Yard House; a sirloin steak salad for me.

Back to the hotel to prepare for the morning run. I was a little bit worried about the cold. I knew my bottle would freeze but could deal with that. My frozen chin and neck I wasn’t so sure about. Maria had a spare pair of mittens that I could put over my gloves. 

With an 800 race start I had plenty of time in the morning to get ready. I brought along my French press,  my coffee grinder and favorite beans. I brewed coffee, ate a sweet potato and a few hard boiled eggs.  I was ready!

We arrived to the race start an hour before start time. The lot was already almost full!  The 50K was a 10 mile loop course so I would be able to come back to the car, hopefully, to remove a second pair of pants. I felt like a frickin’ Michelin man wearing tights and pants.

Someone must have said GO!  We were running across the grass and up onto the trail. The course was made up of many steep hills-some short, some long. Lots of up and downs. I was glad that I hadn’t lifted legs during the week! They were well rested, having only run 15 miles  race week.

The first part of the trail was this spikey bad frozen mud stuff.  Thankfully it was frozen or it would be a shoe sucking mud. It was horrific! There were craters 4-6” deep, it was solid, there was no give,  just perfect for twisting ankles. On the downhill I would stop myself, get control and navigate down slowly. I was here to finish a long training run, this race had nothing to do with racing! 

Even with Maria’s second pair of mittens over my fingers, they were cold. Holding my bottle of now slushy water was not fun.  The nozzle of the bottle was frozen so I would stop and unscrew the top, gulp down the water and spit out the ice.  I couldn’t remember the last time I needed to do this. Probably one of the Northwoods Snowshoe Marathons. It had been a while!

Eventually I came upon a hill to the first aid station. They had an aluminum pan filled with gels, sitting over a 50 gallon drum with a fire inside, trying to thaw out the gels. The poor volunteers, they were SO cold!  At least we were moving and would eventually be warming up. They were just standing around becoming more cold. 

My back and neck were feeling just great. I wasn’t having any pain, no tingling or numbness.  I was keeping a close  eye on it.

The next section was crazy!   I left the aid station, went through the woods, going back and forth every few feet. Lots of sharp corners, steep ups and downs, leaf covered trail. It was beautiful but hard on the knees!  I was surprised when I came up to the same aid station but on the opposite side! I hadn’t realized that AS1 and AS2 were one in the same.

After leaving AS2 there were more steep ups and downs, beautiful deep woods, lots of leaves on the trail and not quite so crater-ish.  The trail seemed to be more sandy with better footing.  I came out onto a grassy area, climbing a dam or something up to a  paved road. There was a train that whizzed by in back of me. I was just so happy.  I was smiling ear to ear, enjoying the pure sunshine, enjoying the warmth on my face. I was looking forward to removing Maria’s mittens and my second pair of pants once I finished this loop. My bottle was still frozen, but I was warming up.

AS3 was on the paved road. The volunteers were having a good time, trying to keep fruit thawed and gels warm. I took a piece of frozen pear, it was good! 

As I ran along I just couldn’t stop smiling. This was fabulous.  I wasn’t in pain, I was enjoying an aided long run, just what I wanted. I had been feeling euphoria since the start but kind of tried to put it on hold, feeling I had much of the race left and I that I had better wait to celebrate this run.

I decided pushing back the euphoria was ridiculous!  I realized it was good to feel euphoric, take it while it is there, breathe it in and enjoy!  The euphoria never left me..it was with me the whole way .

I came into the start/finish at 220 or so. I had hoped to finish each loop in 230 roughly.  Everything was great.  I removed the mittens and a pair of pants. Oh thank goodness!  Nor more Michelin man look. I folded them up and placed them on Jerry’s car for the duration.  I was so darn happy! I didn’t hurt!!

The second loop came and went so quickly. A few people commented to me that they were glad they were only doing the 20 mile race. I thought to myself that I was glad I had another loop to go, I certainly wasn’t ready to be finished yet. I was enjoying each and every step.

My second loop finish was 228, just fine.  Doug was finished with his race and offered me Diet Coke.  YUM!  It tasted great.

As I headed off for my final loop I heard someone jogging near me.  Pretty soon he said “I think I’ll run with you for a while”  “Oh, K” He began to complain about the cold, to complain about the pitted trail, to complain about 101 things. I just didn’t need this. I had been totally loving this run and this guy was totally bugging me.  Pretty soon he began to suck in his snot-constantly. Every few seconds I could hear him suck through his nose, loudly. It was terrible. I mean, come on, blow it out or something. I couldn’t stand it. I was going to gag. I did gag.  Ugh!  Sniff sniff sniff swallow sniff swallow. Ugh.

I began to run a bit faster, I couldn’t take this.  Pretty soon he was out of sight, thank goodness. 

I was having fun again before I knew it. This guy wasn’t going to ruin my day.  My bottle was ice free, I was now able to drink freely without ice chunks. I had no pain. NO PAIN!

I began to run along and think about this run. I thought about all of the times in the past year that I told myself it was OK that I couldn't run, it was OK if I could never run again. It was important for me to live without pain, not to run. I really really believed that, I had to believe that in order to get on to the next day. As I ran along I realized again how much I missed running. It was like losing my best friend, losing a part of me. I am so very glad to have it back. I began to cry, to sob, reliving what I had lost and what is now back. I felt such gratitude to be running again. What a great day, a great race and great volunteers .  I had SO much fun!  I was skipping along the final loop, passing people left and right. What a blast. Really.

I crossed the finish line in 7:30 with a big smile upon my face. I enjoyed each and every minute! I feel like I am back, definitely back to myself ! Life is good !

The Daring Bakers: Basic Scones (Biscuits)

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!


I've been baking biscuits for years. Steve and the boys love them so I make them quite frequently. I've baked them with cream, cheese and chives, fruits, whole grain and herbed.  I don't know that they have ever created much of a challenge so I was kind of disappointed with this months recipe.


I could have tried an exciting new variation of the basic biscuit but, alas, I did not. I was making meatloaf for dinner when I read of the January challenge so whipped up a batch to go with the meal.


Here is the recipe I used:

1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
2 tablespoons (30 gm/1 oz) frozen grated butter (or a combination of lard and butter)
approximately ½ cup (120 ml) cold milk
optional 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
3. Rub the frozen grated butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)
6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

A no frills, basic dough which is very simple to turn into biscuits.  Everyone loved them but again, we were puzzled by the title of Challenge.