Monthly Archives: February 2010

A Fearful 14 Miles

Posted on February 28, 2010 | 11 comments

Don’t worry – the title of this post has nothing to do with anything unsafe happening to me on my run this morning, it just expresses my state of mind during and after my run. I woke up this morning to see the sun shining and the temperature hovering around 37-37 degrees. All signs pointed to me running my 14 miles outside. Thank goodness because the thought of running 14 miles on the treadmill seemed daunting.

I headed out around 9:00 a.m. – I woke up a bit late today. My trek to Central Park wasn’t even so bad – the streets are much clearer and the intersections only have a few big puddles here and there. I made it into Central Park and was thrilled to see the drive completely cleared and filled with runners!

Hooray – I hopped on the drive and began my run. And within a few minutes I noticed that my pace was slower than normal. I thought to myself: “This is fine. I’ve had 9 days off from running. I need to ease back into it and should be taking things slow.”

I’ll let you in on a secret ritual I have: I always tell myself that my speed and pace for every run don’t matter. That way, I feel less pressure and don’t get nerves before my runs. However, although I tell myself this – I always still try to push it a bit to reach my ideal times.

So I told myself the usual and then was very upset when I wasn’t running faster. The marathon is not so far away anymore and I my speed needs to be stronger. I know, I’m a big complainer, but this run just made me very nervous that I can’t actually reach my BQ goal. Anyway – here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 9:31
Mile 2 – 8:33
Mile 3 – 8:56
Mile 4 – 9:13
Mile 5 – 8:59
Mile 6 – 8:37
Mile 7 – 8:48
Mile 8 – 9:03
Mile 9 – 9:11
Mile 10 – 9:09
Mile 11 – 9:05
Mile 12 – 9:06
Mile 13 – 9:10
Mile 14 – 9:55

Total mileage – 14.11 in 2:08:22.

I already know that people are going to tell me that looks like a great run. It didn’t feel like a great run. And if I look back at my recent runs, I’ve been hovering around 8:30-8:45 for most of my mile splits and was feeling great! This run was soo hard and I felt like I was really pushing it and still only hitting about 9 minute miles. I’m just getting nervous. :-/

Now that I’m feeling better, it’s time to start really sticking to my training plan and kicking it in high gear if I want to have ANY chance of qualifying for Boston.

Sorry for the long rant – I think I’m just trying to rationalize my bad run and pump myself up.

Anyway, here are my eats from Saturday:

I made a breakfast cookie yesterday that actually wasn’t that great. I was kind of just making up the ingredient amounts as I went and I should have stuck to the original recipe more closely.

Later in the afternoon I made myself a weird little sandwich – it had beans, grape tomatoes, a slice of cheddar cheese, baby spinach and salsa on an Arnold Thin. It was a little messy, but it hit the spot.

I was very happy when Hubby offered to make venison chili for dinner. I used up some leftover pasta and added it to the chili in prep for my Sunday morning run.

And finally, for dessert I had some walnuts with raisins.

So those were my eats yesterday. Kind of boring, but I never like to try anything too crazy the day before a run.

And I was seriously in bed by 11:00 p.m. last night and didn’t get out of bed until 7:45 a.m. this morning. That was a lot of sleep, but I think I needed it.

Here’s my question to you all – do you ever get nervous that you won’t be able to meet a goal you’ve set for yourself? How do you handle that fear?

11 Comments

Posted in Running, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Busy Bee Me and a Break

Posted on February 26, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning. I promised I would be back, but I’ve been MIA once again. Things have been so busy at work and then I’m so tired at home that I haven’t had much time to blog. Today I am working from home again because NYC got dumped on! I honestly did not think this snow storm would amount to much, but I woke up this morning to see mounds of snow outside. I contemplated heading into work, I even showered, ate breakfast and started gathering my things, but then decided to check with my boss to see if it would be okay to work from home. Thankfully she said yes!

So I’m working from home, but am actually showered this time! I feel so productive. Rather than recap all my eats for the past two days, I’m just going to highlight two that were particularly delightful.

On Wednesday morning I made Oats in a Jar! Oats with banana poured into my almost-empty peanut butter jar.

And now I will shamefully admit that I haven’t run at all this week. Between getting sick and having lots of work to do, I decided that a one week break from my training program might be okay. I am hoping I will return to the treadmill and road will more energy and excitement. But I have a 14 mile run planned for tomorrow and I don’t see that happening. I’m moving it to Sunday – maybe the Central Park road will be cleared by then.

I also wanted to post my Wednesday night dinner, which was pretty good.

This recipe was from Cookinglight.com: Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato-Mushroom Sauce.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and 1/2 cup sauce)

Ingredients

  • 4  teaspoons  olive oil, divided
  • 4  (4-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
  • 2  cups  presliced mushrooms
  • 1/3  cup  finely chopped shallots
  • 3/4  cup  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/4  cup  sun-dried tomato sprinkles (I used sun-dried tomato from a jar – cut up)
  • 1/4  cup  dry white wine
  • 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium. Add 2 teaspoons oil, mushrooms, and shallots; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in broth, tomato sprinkles, and wine; cook for 1 minute. Spoon sauce over chicken; sprinkle with parsley.

A few of the reviews online said it was bland, so I was testing as I was making it and found it was a little bland. So I added more wine then called for, as well as a few spices. I let it cook a little longer as well and I think the sun-dried tomatoes I used really added flavor. It came out pretty well and Hubby gave it a “good.” I also had a nice glass of red wine with my dinner.

So that’s my past few days. I also received an award from Katie at FittoWed, but haven’t had a chance to re-post and spread its joy yet. Hopefully tomorrow. I’ve been such a slacker on my blogging to-do’s. What I hope to get to this weekend:

  • Post and pass along the award from Katie
  • Post a book review of The Historian
  • Post the new book I’m reading…
  • Write a great post about my run on Sunday (which WILL happen no matter what)!

So that’s on my agenda, along with getting our taxes done tonight (if the tax guy doesn’t close because of the snow), cleaning the apartment in a big way, and relaxing a bit. 🙂

What are your weekend plans?

I said to my friend the other day, that I feel like I’ve been a bit of a slacker when it comes to my personal-life “to dos” lately. I’ve been so awesome about checking off my work to-dos that everything else has fallen to the wayside. But I am feeling sooo much better now and am really hoping that taking my short break from running with fill me with renewed enjoyment and motivation to run again.

Do you ever need to take a break from running or exercise to realize just how much you enjoy and miss it?

Have a great weekend all!

5 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Recipes, Running, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

You Can’t Handle the Truth!

Posted on February 24, 2010 | 13 comments

Haha – yes you can. That line from A Few Good Men just kept popping into my head when I was writing my liar post yesterday.

I’ll tell you what my truth was after I recap yesterday’s eats. For breakfast I had oatmeal with banana and peanut butter and a small glass of cranberry juice.

I was so busy at work that I missed my mid-morning snack entirely and just at my lunch early – around 12:15. I had peanut butter and apple butter on an Arnold sandwich thin. Gotta say, the apple butter idea wasn’t too great. It had pretty much soaked into the sandwich thin by the time lunch rolled around. Live and learn. I also had a small bag of carrots as well.

My afternoon flew by, but I squeezed in two snacks. Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal and a small bag of walnuts and raisins.

I skipped the gym and my run again yesterday just to be on the safe side. I am hitting the gym tonight for a 3-4 mile run though. I headed home and Hubby and I cleaned up the apartment a bit after our lazy sick weekend. It was atrocious.

After the cleaning was done I made a quick dinner. We had some leftover cooked pasta that needed to be eaten, so I used most of it up with some Newman’s Sockarooni pasta sauce and a side salad with grape tomatoes and feta cheese.

I’m finally feeling like I have my normal appetite back. Since about Saturday through Monday I haven’t feel very hungry or very excited about food. So strange. I was excited for this hearty meal though and gobbled it up.

Ok – now for time for the truth. My one and only truth from yesterday’s post was:

2. I’ve never had a cavity.

All the rest were lies – all lies! To be fair, some of my “outrageous lies” weren’t so outrageous. It was really hard to think of good lies. Basically, I love reading fiction and tend to avoid biographies at all costs, I absolutely HATE feet (except for baby feet), my husband proposed to me on a beach, I’ve been living in NYC for almost 4 years (not 5 – although it feels like 5 sometimes), I can speak 1 language – English (although I took German all through high school and two years in college), and lastly, I have TERRIBLE vision (I literally can only see the big E on the chart without my contacts).

So that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thanks for all your guesses! I do believe that Jess was the only person who guessed right. 🙂

And thanks for all the support on getting healthy again. Each day seems to be getting a little better. I got momentarily freaked out that maybe it was sinus infection, but I’ve been researching the symptoms and I haven’t been experiencing any of the headaches or facial pressure that typically goes along with a sinus infection. Plus, I’m thinking that even if it is a sinus infection, the antibiotics I’m taking would probably help get rid of that as well.

So that’s that. Can you believe that we’ll be into the month of March next week?! Time to get back into my training mode – the Poconos Marathon will be here before I know it!

Question of the day: What’s your favorite thing about spring?!

13 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

I’m a Terrible Liar

Posted on February 23, 2010 | 17 comments

Good afternoon. Sorry I have been so MIA. I feel so out of the loop, I haven’t been reading blogs or commenting in the past few days and I feel so lost. 🙂 I promise I’ll be back fully soon.

I am slowly coming back to life. Yesterday was a bad day. I came to work with absolutely no voice and clogged ears, so I really felt like I was living in a bubble.

And now I’ll jump into my antibiotic quandary…

I made a tough choice and filled the antibiotic prescription my doctor gave me a few weeks back when I first visited him. I had these same symptoms way back then – February 2nd. It seemed a little odd to me that I was experiencing all the same symptoms all over again and finally came to the conclusion that I quite possibly hadn’t really gotten better since then, my symptoms had just lessened, but never went away fully. This conclusion led to me think that maybe this was a bacterial infection and not simply a viral cold.

I very rarely consider taking or requesting antibiotics – I don’t think they are necessary in most cases and believe that people tend to think they are the easy fix. I don’t want my body to become immune to antibiotics or worse yet sick because of them. So I reluctantly made this decision.

Well, I filled my Z-Pack prescription yesterday afternoon (I ended up leaving work early because I had the chills and was exhausted), took my first dose and went to bed early last night.

And today – I can feel the congestion lessening. My voice is sort of back and my ears and nose are noticeably less clogged. Whether this has to do with the antibiotics or just that the viral infection had run its course, I’m not sure. But I’m going to finish off the rest of the Z-Pack to be on the safe side.  

So what are your thoughts on antibiotics? Do you avoid them for as long as possible, like I do? Or do you take them without any reserve?

My doctor was pretty unsure whether it was a viral or bacterial infection (p.s. – I’m also hunting for a new General Practitioner on the UES if you have any recommendations!), so he gave me the Z-pack prescription just in case my symptoms didn’t go away. I guess I’m just very wary of them.

So since yesterday was such a haze, I didn’t really take many photos. Instead, I’ll use the rest of this post to thank Chelsea for nominating me for the award below, share my requisite lies and one truth, and pass it along to some fellow bloggers:

Since I received this funny little award, I now have to use my creativity and come up with six outrageous lies about myself and one truth. So here we go, let’s see if you can guess the truth:

1. I love reading biographies and non-fiction books.

2. I’ve never had a cavity.

3. I have a strange obsession with feet – I love them.

4. My husband proposed to me on a mountain top.

5. I’ve been living in NYC for 5 years.

6. I can speak 3 languages.

7. I have 20-20 vision.

Can you guess which one is my truth?! P.S. – I am a terrible liar and this was soo hard for me. Now that I’ve listed my lies and one truth, I nominate the following ladies to do the same:

Once nominated, here is what you have to do:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Nominate seven “Creative Writers” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

That’s all for today folks. Stay happy and healthy!

17 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Wasted Weekend and Weather

Posted on February 22, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning all – back to the grind, right? Ugh – I am not feeling well at all, hence the serious lack of posting this weekend. The weekend started out okay – I headed to Brooklyn to visit my friend Katie for some dinner and drinks.

Although, I noticed even before I left work that I felt a little off. I chalked it up to allergies and headed out to BK. We had a very fun night in Williamsburg. We went to the Manhattan Inn for dinner, which is a very small restaurant that is just adorable. Great ambiance. They even have a piano player placed in the center of the room.

They don’t have a menu online, but our/my food went like this: cheese plate (we got the last one available), bread with apple butter, mushroom spring roll things and then as my main meal I had the Vegan Polenta – per the waitress’ recommendation. Everything was amazing. The lighting was really poor, so these are the only pics that are post-worthy.

The food was amazing and we also shared a bottle of wine. After dinner, we headed to a nearby bar called Harefield Road for Katie’s co-worker’s birthday party. We only stayed for one drink because we were both tired and somewhere along the night I lost my voice entirely.

We headed home to bed and I could feel the congestion mounting in my head and chest. I tried to play it off like it was just my allergies, but by Saturday morning I had a feeling it was turning into a real cold.

We awoke on Saturday and my congestion and phlegm (sorry) was in full force. I managed to make it to brunch with Katie before heading home to bed. We went back to Harefield Road because they supposedly have a great brunch for $12. It did not disappoint. We each ordered the french toast, made from Challah bread, along with fresh fruit. Our breakfasts also came with coffee and a mimosa.

Brunch really hit the spot. However, I was unable to drink my mimosa – I was starting to fade fast. I said goodbye to my friend after brunch and trudged home.

I entered our apartment to find my Hubby doing exactly what I wanted to do: laying on the couch and resting. I proceeded to change into sweats and curl up on the couch and cough and blow my nose all day.

We watched as our temperature gauge showed that it was 46 degrees outside, while we both huddled under our blankets indoors. As afternoon turned to evening, I started thinking about my 9-mile run planned for Sunday. I wondered if I could push through the congestion to get it done. I decided it would be game-day decision, based on how I felt.

Hubby and watched the Olympics on Saturday night and I’m pretty sure I was asleep by 9:30-10:00 p.m.

I awoke Sunday morning to the sound of my own wheezing and phlegm rattling. I tried to speak and found I had no voice at all. Or if I managed to get a sound out it sounded like a small elf’s voice. Hubby thought this was hysterical.

So Sunday proceeded much in the same manner as Saturday. I decided that attempting my 9-mile run would be dangerous since I could hardly breathe. I was upset at first, but then decided that it’s probably lucky that this was a low-mileage long run week. If I had to be sick any week, this was probably the best one. I also know that pushing too hard when you’re sick can make you more sick. If my cold was just in my head area I probably would have gone, but it was in my chest as well and that’s what made me nervous.

So I watched in sadness as two 40+ temperature days passed me by without so much as a jog. Hubby and I alternated between watching the Olympics, sleeping, watching t.v. movies and watching Couple Retreat. We were a sad, sad pair.

Although, maybe it’s a good thing that we were both sick at the same time, rather than one person being sick first and then the other following a few days later. The bad side of this was that by Sunday night, it looked like a bomb had gone off in our apartment. It was a complete disaster, but I was too tired and sick to do anything about it. I was in bed again by 10:00 p.m.

Today I feel a little bit better – I still have stuff rattling around in my chest and congestion in my head, but all the sleep this weekend seems like it helped a bit. I am taking one more day off from running – I’m eager to get back into my training plan, but want to be sure I’m ready.

So how bout you all – did you enjoy the weekend?

And how do you cope with a cold? Do you tend to get sick if your significant other or roommate gets sick?

Have a great Monday everyone – hopefully it goes by quickly.

5 Comments

Posted in Restaurants, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Fridays are the Best!

Posted on February 19, 2010 | 6 comments

TGIF all!! Are you excited? I sure am! This was a short week, but a crazy week and I am ready for the weekend. How was your week?

Yesterday was a fairly busy day for me. Breakfast was some plain old Kashi Heart to Heart cereal and juice. I desperately need to invest in some new bowls.

Work was busy and I skipped my mid-morning snack. Lunch was a peanut butter and jelly on an Arnold Sandwhich Thin and carrots.

Afternoon snacks were Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean and a bag-o-grapes.

The grapes were really juicy and yummy. I usually go for green, but these read ones were great.

After work I jetted to the gym for a run. Things started off rough on the treadmill and I contemplated ending my run after 4 miles, but I trudged on and started feeling better. I ended my run feeling great: 6 miles in 50:26. Then I did some ab work and some arm work as well.

I came home from the gym and was happy to remember that we still had more leftovers from our moms – aren’t moms the best?! I heated some up for dinner and added some broccoli again.

Hubby had some leftovers as well and then curled up on the couch feeling less than great.

After dinner I was most definitely craving some sweets, but instead I chewed on some sugar-free gum. How Biggest Loser-ish do I sound? Let me slip in this plug for 5 gum.

So far so good on the not eating sweets goal! Why is it that women always seem to be more drawn to sweets then men are?

So that was pretty much my night. We watched the Olympics, but I was falling asleep after the women’s half pipe, so I went to bed and missed the American guy winning figure skating. Darn.

So what are your plans for the weekend?

I heard on the news today that it’s supposed to be in the 40s this weekend in NYC. I’m super excited! According to my marathon training plan, I only have to run 9 miles this weekend. I almost feel like it’s a shame I didn’t have to run more when we’re going to have such nice weather. However, I don’t want to up my mileage too soon and risk injuring myself, so I’m going to stick to my plan.

I have my 9 mile run planned for Sunday since I’ll be visiting a friend in Brooklyn tonight and staying over for brunch tomorrow morning. I’m excited to explore a new area of New York!

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the warmer weather if you can!

6 Comments

Posted in Running, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

100 Posts, Progress, Kryptonite

Posted on February 18, 2010 | 12 comments

Good morning blogworld! This is my official 100th post – hurray! I’m so proud to have kept this little blog going this long. My Hubby says I have a habit of starting new projects or ideas and then deserting them after a little while. So I’m very happy that I’ve been able to blog on a fairly regular basis for about 4 months.

I thought that my 100th post would be the perfect opportunity to talk about my 2010 goals and how I’ve been progressing.

1. Stop Biting My Nails: Fail. I have possibly curtailed it a bit, but I haven’t been able to stop yet. The cold weather isn’t helping, as it makes my nails brittle and breakable.
2. Become a Real Winter Runner: I think I can say this one has been a success! I’ve run outside just about every weekend since early January and have actually gotten used to the cold temps.  Check out my recent post on the tell-tale signs that I have truly become a real winter runner.
3. Eat Cleaner: So-so on this one. I’ve definitely been incorporating more clean foods into my diet, but there are a few lingering “problem foods” I need to deal with. More on that (and my kryptonite) later in this post.  
4. Read More: I’ve done okay with this. I’ve read Ahab’s Wife, The Weight of Silence and The Historian so far in 2010. I’m currently reading Food Rules and Angela’s Ashes (just started). I guess I’m averaging about 1-2 books a month, which is good, but I used to read much faster. It also depends on the book. 
5. Be Grateful: Fail. I don’t think I’ve been too great so far this year about appreciating what I have. This is definitely something I will work on.
6. Shop Less, Save More: Fail. Need to focus on this.
7. Keep in Touch: Fail. I haven’t been calling people like I claimed I would. I’m just not a phone person. I will make my new goal to call one friend each weekend, as well as my mother, to catch up.
8. Expand My Horizons: Success. So far in 2010 I’ve tried Ethiopian food and Greek food, attended the ballet and a camera class.
9. QT with Hubby: Fail. We’ve been so busy going to weddings, parties and family events that we haven’t spent much QT together. 😦
10. Qualify for Boston! Working on it! I signed up for the Poconos Marathon in May 2010, with hopes of qualify for Boston in 2011. Wish me luck!

Okay – so not as much progress as I would have liked, but also not a total disaster. It’s only February right?!

How are you doing on your 2010 goals?

I’ll do a quick recap of my eats yesterday and explain just where kryptonite fits in. Breakfast was a honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter and banana. And oops a big hole in the middle of one half.

I had a busy agenda yesterday and knew I wouldn’t be able to eat much from about 1:30 p.m. on, so my mid-morning snack was my Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean.

Lunch followed shortly after – Triscuits with Light Laughing Cow cheese and carrots.

I was at a meeting out of the office from 1:30 – 5:00 and then headed straight from there to church for Ash Wednesday.

By the time we got home I was starving. I made a grilled cheese sammy for dinner with some pickles.

And then I gave in to my kryptonite. In all honesty, I did it to myself. Hubby had to stop at Duane Read after church to pick up some cold medicine (he thinks he’s getting sick) and while I was there, I was drawn to these fellas:

Seriously – I can not resist them and I have a problem. I can eat this entire bag in one sitting. Last night I ate half the bag. Oh the guilt and the unbearably icky-feeling stomach! Why can’t I resist these things?

At my old job, my co-worker would buy a container of these and leave them on her desk and I would literally devour them in two days. When we saw Avatar a few weeks ago, I ate entire bag during the movie. I have a problem. The first step is admitting I have a problem.

Now here’s my solution: I am giving up all sweets for Lent. Yes, technically Lent began yesterday and I shouldn’t have eaten these, but at that point I hadn’t decided what I was going to give up yet. Well, after this overeating debacle, I think my choice is clear.  I am taking the rest of this bag, closing it up and putting away until Easter. It’s time to get a grip on my sweet eating.

Now, if you’ve read my blog much over the past 4 months, you must have seen that I love me some dessert. I typically have some form of dessert almost every night after dinner. So what am I going to do? My plan is to make fruit into my new dessert. I’ll be stocking up on strawberries, blueberries, grapes, etc. to take the place of my beloved chocolate and sugary treats.

What else will help me with this sacrifice? 1. Reading Micahel Pollan’s Food Rules, and hopefully his other books in the near future. 2. Remembering that the ingredients in my kryptonite are: Sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, citric acid, tartaric acid, artificial flavors, titanium dioxide, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1. Gag – did I really just enjoy eating tartaric acid and titanium dioxide? 3. Reliving the terrible burning sensation on my tongue after eating too many of these things – seriously, that should be a huge red flag for me right there. Real food shouldn’t strip, burn and desensitize your tongue.  

So that’s the plan man – I’m really hoping I will have the willpower to say no to the Sour Patch Watermelons, chocolate and other sweets that come my way. And maybe by the time Easter rolls around my sweet tooth will have diminished a bit and you won’t always see me capping off a meal with a piece of chocolate or candy. 🙂 Here’s to hoping!

So tell me – what is your kryptonite? Besides sweets in general and Sour Watermelons, mine seem to be nachos, cake and french fries.

P.S. – How awesome was Shaun White last night? He’s the reason I didn’t make it to the gym this morning and have to try to squeeze in 6 miles tonight. I just had to see that Double McTwist – so glad he did it!

12 Comments

Posted in Books, Dessert, Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

Early Morning City Street Running

Posted on February 17, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning – happy Hump Day! It’s 8 a.m. and I am already done with my run for the day – hooray! All my talk of being a “real winter runner” yesterday must have inspired me this morning. I was supposed to go for a 3-4 mile run with a fellow blogger (who shall remain nameless…but you should check out her blog 🙂 ), but she had to bow out of our run. So it was 5:30 a.m., I was awake and semi-dressed for a run and my choices were to: a) go back to bed, b) fly around like a maniac and grab all my stuff for the gym, or c) just go running outside.

I chose option c and did so very warily. I had a conversation with another NYC blogger last week about the potential perils of running on the streets of NYC during the early-morning hours before sunrise. I told her I’d never done it and was too chicken to ever attempt it. Apparently, I lied. I found some sort of courage this morning, or maybe it was just sheer desperation, but I went.

The Verdict: It wasn’t bad at all! (I swear Mom!!) Within the first 5 minutes of hitting the streets I encountered another female runner – with headphones (I was sans headphones and on constant alert). I ran down York Avenue to 61st Street and then started heading West and back up. I hit 79th street while still on 1st and then went all the way over to 5th Avenue and turned around and headed home. I was able to squeeze in just over 4 miles. Here are my stats:

Mile 1 – 8:24
Mile 2 – 8:35
Mile 3 – 9:00
Mile 4 – 9:26
.11 – 1:46
Total mileage: 4.11 in 37:14

Mile 4 was very slow because I waited for two red lights – grrr. Anyway – my entire run was very well-lit, and surprisingly, there were more people out at that hour than I expected. I saw doctors/nurses heading to work in their scrubs, a total of 3 other runners, doormen (one who was very nice and warned me about ice), store owners opening up, and plenty of cars driving around. I didn’t feel at all nervous or in danger. I will definitely entertain the idea of running the streets again in the future (and I always welcome running buddies of course!). But March 14th and Daylight Savings also can’t come soon enough!

If you live in NYC – have you ever run the street before sunrise? Or if you live elsewhere – how safe do you feel during early-morning, pre-sun runs? What precautions do you take?

As promised, I do have photos once again! Here is my recap of yesterday’s eats:

Breakfast was a delicious bowl of oats with banana and peanut butter.

During my lunch break I ran out to Borders and picked up Food Rules by Michael Pollan and a salad. I’m already halfway through the book. A  lot of it is common sense stuff, but I’m still glad I bought it. I used my 33% off coupon (for Borders Rewards members that coupon is good until the 18th), so it was a good deal. Borders also had a Buy One Get One Half Off Section and both of Pollan’s other books: The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food were on the table (I went to the Borders down near Wall Street).  So my lunch looked like this:

Sorry for the blurriness. My afternoon snacks were some Brown Cow Greek Yogurt (decently priced at $1.09 upstate) and an apple.

After work yesterday I headed to the gym. I had a 5-mile run scheduled on my training plan, but I figured since I’d be running the next morning, I would only do 4 miles (plus then no guilt about running for more than 30 minutes). I finished up 4 miles in 32:18 minutes, did some ab work, some arm work and headed home.

Both my mom and Hubby’s mom sent leftovers home with us this weekend, so we are set for a bit when it comes to dinner. I had some of the leftovers (wheat pasta, chicken, tomato sauce) and added in some broccoli to pump up the veggie quotient. I think Pollan’s mantra of “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” was in the back of my mind.

However, that didn’t stop me from having two of these bad boys for dessert.

I headed to bed early last night, but managed to sleep terribly the whole night. I’m sure I will crash later today.

And I totally forgot that today is Ash Wednesday. At least my run is done so I can head to our church after work for the 6 p.m. mass.

And lastly, an interesting health article in the news:

As Girls Become Women, Sports Pay Dividends – I definitely agree that there is a connection between playing high school sports and the level of confidence and/or success a girl (or anyone for that matter) has.  What do you think?

Have a great day all!

5 Comments

Posted in Bloggers, Books, Running, Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

You Know You’re A Winter Runner When…

Posted on February 16, 2010 | 19 comments

Good morning – happy Tuesday all – even though it feels like a Monday to me. I enjoyed my long weekend, but wish I had an extra day of rest. These long weekends always seem to fly by so fast when we use them for travel.

This post will again be photo-less. I realized halfway through the weekend that even if I wanted to take pictures, I left my camera at work. Eeek! So it’s a combination of my laziness and forgetfulness that has led to another photoless post.

I have to say that I was dying for my camera yesterday. After I wrote my quick check-in post I got word from the Hubby that he was going to be out for a while running errands and such, so I had about 2 hours of free time. I decided it would be smart to use that time for a quick run. However, I soon realized that my travel bag with all my running gear was in Hubby’s car. I was frustrated and upset and then I decided that I could probably find some decent running duds in my old clothes still at my parent’s house.

I rummaged around and ended up finding spandex (score!!), a t-shirt and the long-sleeved shirt I received from the Mohawk Hudson Marathon. I also snatched an old L.L.Bean vest from the hallway closet. The only missing elements were a sports bra and a winter hat. I managed to find a somewhat comfortable old regular bra buried in one of my drawers and decided it would have to do. And after much searching, I was only able to find a regular baseball cap. I also grabbed an old regular running watch – I was so sad to be running Garmin-less.

I have to tell you that I looked ridiculous. My hat was bright pink, my long-sleeved shirt was bright orange, my vest was grey and my spandex were black. I looked atrocious, but at least I was able to get my run in!

After completing my 3.3 mile run in 27 minutes (I used mapmyrun.com to track it after), I thought about how desperately I wanted to get that run in (afterall it was a decent day and it was daylight out) and realized that somehow over the past few months I’ve become a legitimate Winter Runner! Here’s how I can tell.

You Know You’re A Winter Runner When…

  • 30 degrees and sunny sounds like a balmy day and perfect for a run.
  • You believe that the invention of women’s winter running hats with the ponytail hole in the back was pure genius.
  • When you hear about a large predicted snow-storm your immediate concern is if it will affect your planned long run, not whether you’ll be able to make it to work or have enough food/reserves to ride it out.
  • You wonder how gross it would be to rewear your warmest running tights/spandex without washing them when a decent running day unexpectedly presents itself and you haven’t done the laundry yet.  
  • You constantly have a raw spot under your nose from your runny-nosed-runs.
  • You feel you’ve finally perfected your light-footed sloshy snow running and scoff at other runners you see slipping and sliding all over the place.
  • And lastly, you’re more excited about Daylight Saving Time beginning in March (a.k.a. setting the clocks ahead – meaning more light earlier in the morning and later at night) than you are about your birthday.

Those are just a few of the tell-tales signs that I can finally count myself among the ranks of the real winter runners. What about you – how can you tell you’re a real winter runner?

That’s all for today folks. I promise a picture-filled post for tomorrow, as well as a book review of The Historian coming soon! All I can say at the moment is that you should definitely put that book on your list. 🙂

Have a great Tuesday!

19 Comments

Posted in Books, Running, Travel, Uncategorized

Tagged ,

A Quick Check-in

Posted on February 15, 2010 | 3 comments

Good morning all. I have been especially MIA this weekend and I apologize. Hubby and I headed upstate and for some reason I was just really craving a blogging break. I didn’t even take any blog pics – I know awful. But it was a good weekend despite my lack of photo-taking.

Friday night we headed upstate a bit late because I got stuck working until 6 p.m. We got to my parent’s house just in time to watch the last 15 minutes of the Olympics opening ceremony. Then I headed to bed because I had a longish run on the agenda for Saturday morning.

Saturday morning I woke up and fueled up with my usual English muffin with peanut butter and banana and then hit the road running at about 9:00 a.m. It was 17 degrees outside. I think that is officially the coldest weather I’ve ever run in. It wasn’t a problem because I layered appropriately and was snug in my running gear. However, the problem occurred at around mile 4 when my Garmin decided to go hay-wire, switch to navigation mode and beap incessantly for the remainder of my 12-mile run. It was obnoxious and I was actually running along yelling at it to shut up – the people driving by probably thought I was insane.

I haven’t uploaded the data from that run yet, but I already know it was a bad one. I was fiddling with the Garmin while running all around upstate and my times we all over the map. I was able to determine that I did finish 12 miles, but that was about it. It did not feel like a great run, but at least I did it, right?

We headed up to Utica in the afternoon and gathered at Bill’s parent’s house for a small birthday party for his father. It was a lot of fun and we finished off the night by watching the Olympics and seeing the U.S. win gold in the women’s moguls – it was awesome!

Inspired by such great athleticism, I forced myself up and out the door for a short run on Sunday morning. It was snowing, but not too bad. I ran 3.18 miles in about 28 minutes and it was tough. The streets were slushy and slippery, so I had to take things slow. I’ve never actually run when it was snowing out before and it was kind of tough. But I got the run done and was extremely happy that I actually ran 5 days this past week and hit my intended mileage!!

Saturday afternoon we visited with Bill’s friend who just had a baby and then had a low-key night. We’re in Albany right now and heading back to NYC in a little bit. We hear that another snow storm is on the way and I am none too pleased about this. I am ready for winter to be over!!

Anyway – we’re heading out soon. Hope you all had a great weekend! I can’t wait to watch more of the Olympics – I’m hooked! How bout you?

3 Comments

Posted in Running, Travel

Tagged