Spring is in the Air!

Good morning all. Sorry I have been MIA, but the past few days have been crazy busy with work, St. Paddy’s Day fun and marathon training.

I started Wednesday off with a nice 4.5 mile run with Liz. The last time I ran in the morning we watched as the sun rose around 6:15. This time there was no sun on the horizon – it was a dark morning. Our splits were:

Mile 1 – 9:09
Mile 2 – 8:53
Mile 3 – 9:09
Mile 4 – 9:33
.53 – 4:31

Total mileage – 4.53 in 41:17 

When I woke up to head out for our run my hip was feeling very tight. But as we got moving it started to actually feel a little bit better. I think my body was not prepared for my super fast run on Tuesday night.

I’m not going to post all my eats for the past two days because there were a lot and I didn’t get a chance to photograph many of them.  I did take a few St. Paddy’s day pics though!

Here is me out in my green gear, trying to drink a Guinness.

I say trying because I only drank about 1/3 of it. I poured the rest into Bill’s beer. I really wanted to drink a glass of wine when we went out, but literally, not a soul in the bar had a wine and I knew I’d feel like a fool ordering one.

We went to three bars on St. Paddy’s day because we were searching for food. Yup – while everyone else was focused on drinking, Hubby and I each had our minds on food (Hubby also has his mind on Guinness though). At the second bar we went to, they were serving corned beef sandwiches, which was what Hubby wanted. But I wanted no part of that.

After he finished his gross-looking sammy, we left that bar in search of some nachos for me to snack on. We finally found The Back Page on 3rd Ave, which was serving food. I ordered a giant plate of nachos.

P.S. – these had WAY too much crap on them. We literally had to dig to find the chips. I still like making my own nachos better than I like most restaurant/bar nachos.

Hubby munched on some nachos as well, and enjoyed a few more pints of Guinness.

So much so that he had a Guinness “stach.”

He’s a little silly…

We stayed out with the crazy St. Paddy’s day partiers until about 9 p.m. – I know we’re so old! All in all, I had 1/3 of a Guinness and 1 Bud Light at the Back Page and then we called it quits. I took one “self portrait” before we headed out.

Thursday was a normal day with some normal eats. I was soo busy at work with a big project we are trying to wrap up. I may be a little scarce towards the end of next week as we launch the project and I devote about 4 hours of Wed, Thurs and Friday to it. Eek!

But anyway – after work yesterday I had another 8 mile run on my marathon training plan. Seriously – Hal Higdon is trying to kill me. I used his intermediate plan as a basis for my plan, but moved some of the runs around a little. And boy did these mid-week 8 milers sneak up on me. I still felt a twinge in my hip (p.s. – thanks for the stretching suggestions!), so I wanted to take my run slow. I had mixed success with that:

Mile 1 – 8:32
Mile 2 – 8:14
Mile 3 – 8:26
Mile 4 – 7:46
Mile 5 – 9:00
Mile 6 – 8:32
Mile 7 – 8:45
Mile 8 – 8:52

Total Mileage – 8 miles in 1:08:14

Ok – so I know about half of those splits aren’t taking it easy. And then yes, I know mile 4 is pretty ridiculous, but there was a reason. I ran on the East River Promenade and headed north to about 115 St. As I turned around and headed back, a big group of high school (I assume) boys trotted down one of the ramps and were basically running right beside me. Umm hello – awkward. Especially when I didn’t have headphones on and could clearly hear them talking about me. And then when they began making little yelps and noises, I decided it was time to pull ahead and get the heck out of there. Hence my speedy 7:46 pace. 

And Mom, before you read this and freak out, there were many other people around that area running, biking, etc., so I wasn’t in any danger, just kind of uncomfortable.  

Have you ever had a weird, scary or uncomfortable running experience? How did you handle it?

After my run I felt pretty good – the hip felt okay, but I was tired. Hubby and I did enjoy a nice steak last night with some broccoli on the side, but I forgot to upload the picture. I also had a banana with peanut butter for dessert. Then I headed to bed at about 10:15 and slept like a rock.

I also wanted to post that I finished Angela’s Ashes on St. Patrick’s Day – how appropriate right?! I hope to have a review coming soon, but I also feel like everyone has already read the book. All the same, I like to record my thoughts on it.

My next book is the The Help. I started reading it on the subway yesterday and last night before bed. It’s definitely very different and it was hard to get the dialect at first, but now it’s flowing.

I am definitely looking forward to the weekend and the nice weather we’re supposed to have in the city. I think it’s supposed to reach 72 degrees out tomorrow! Have a great weekend all and get outside if you can!