Monthly Archives: November 2010

Eggland’s Best Blogger Brunch & Happy B-Day Hubby!

So I’m a bit behind on my blogging. I meant to blog about this past Sunday’s Blogger Brunch yesterday, but that just didn’t happen.

But before I get into that, I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!! I miss you and can’t wait to see you soon. I hope you are having a great day.

[source] I wanted to take a Happy Birthday picture with Murphy to send to you, but he’s up at my parent’s house already. But I think this cat accurately captures what Murphy’s attitude would be about taking said photo with me. 🙂

Anyway, after the race on Sunday, I went back home for a quick shower and then headed out to the Gramercy area for a Blogger Brunch hosted by Ashley.

I arrived just a group of local bloggers were heading inside and knew right away that this was going to be a fun brunch. Ashley welcomed us into her home graciously, gave us a little tour (she has a closet any NYC resident would die for) and filled our hands with mimosas. We also got a chance to meet her hubby before he headed out. A special thank you to Bo for letting us ladies take over his apartment for a bit.

After some brief introductions where I met, Rebecca Theodora (we have the same last name – well my maiden name – and think we might somehow be distantly related), MarissaCaronae, Robyn, Ali (yay for these last two Upper East Siders!), Deidre and Amelia, Jocelyn and Shannon for the first time. I also got a chance to catch up with Megan a bit – we’ve previously met at a few blogger outings and I wanted to says congrats to her in person on her great run at the NYC Marathon, we got down to business with some delicious eats!

Eggland’s Best was kind enough to sponsor our brunch to help spread breast cancer awareness. They also provided some helpful handouts with breast-cancer related information. Ashley started off the presentation and then the discussion kept moving right along.

Thank you Eggland’s Best! It was so nice to meet everyone and hear about their blog, what got them involved in blogging and the topics they talk about. I’ve got a whole new list of bloggers to catch up on!

Here’s a group shot of us (photo borrowed from Ali’s blog)

Hopefully this is just the first of many NYC blogger meet-ups! I also hope that some NYC bloggers might want to join my book club when I start it in January. 🙂 A big thanks again to Ashley for hosting!!

Is it vacation time yet? I’m working a full day today (Tuesday) and until 3 p.m. tomorrow. What are your Thanksgiving plans? I’m heading up to Utica for Thanksgiving at the in laws!

Casellula Review and Race to Deliver Recap

Good evening blog world. How was your weekend? Mine was very good and busy. Saturday started off with some much-needed cleaning. But not before I had a decent breakfast. Banana oatmeal with peanut butter and flaxseed meal.

Later in the afternoon I had a light lunch after my cleaning and before heading out for dinner.

I decided not to run on Saturday in order to give myself some extra rest before Sunday’s race.

Around 4:30 I headed to my friends’ apartment in Hell’s Kitchen to meet their two new little kittens. Sorry no pics, but they were absolutely adorable. Then we headed out to dinner in their neighborhood. It took some searching before settling on Casellula, a wine and cheese bar a bit off the beaten tourist path. Hell’s Kitchen definitely has a TON of restaurant choices, but I get a bit frustrated with the really touristy places. This place was located between 9th and 10th Ave. on 52nd  Street. It has a really big wine and cheese list. Two things I love.

We started off sharing the Endive Salad, which had crumbled blue cheese and pear.

It was a very unique taste and I enjoyed it.

Next we moved on to the Chistorras in a Blanket…

These little guys were a wee bit spicy, but delicious nonetheless. After finishing these off, we shared a cheese plate.

We ordered Willow Hill Farm La Fleurie and two other kinds that aren’t shown on their online menu, but were delicious.

And then lastly, we saw another table order something that looked divine. We decided we needed to try it.

My apologies, it is an awful photo of the Ricotta Crostini with Orange Blossom, Honey, Hazelnuts and Lemon. This was so good. I’m very happy we ordered it. It was my favorite by far. Next time around, I would love to try the Mac N’Cheese! All in all, this meal was very good. With three of us sharing three different dishes and a cheese plate with one glass of wine each, it came to about $30 per person – not too bad for tapas actually. However, we did notice that they gave us only 3 portions on each plate, while others seem to get 4-5 portions even though there were only two people. We thought this was a bit unfair to charge us the same price when we were getting less food. What is the standard with Tapas?

Race to Deliver (4 miles) Recap
I headed home early last night because I had to be up pretty early for the 4 mile race in Central Park on Sunday – the Race to Deliver.  I went to bed around 11:00 p.m. and had a tough time falling asleep. Then things got much worse when a bunch of either college kids or young 20-somethings were outside drinking in the backyard area behind our building until 4:30 in the morning! And they were not quiet. There were girls screeching and cackling all night long. I think I was able to sleep through most of it until about 4 a.m. when they got REALLY loud. Finally at 4:30 a.m. I think my first-floor neighbor had had enough. I heard someone come out and scream angrily at these kids. At first one guy tried to yell back and, I don’t know, I guess assert their right to be obnoxiously loud. However, once I heard the mention of police in the conversation, things got significantly quieter very quickly. I was able to go back to bed until about 6:45.

Then I got up and had some oatmeal for breakfast as some pre-race fuel. I jogged over to Central Park a little before 8:00 a.m. and found my corral. This was my very first 4-mile race. For some reason, I thought I’d run one before, but I think it was actually the race I skipped out on in the summer. I was excited to give this new race length a try.

The race began and very quickly we were headed up Cat Hill. Not fun. However, I told myself to stay strong because it was really going to be the only big hill during the whole race. I made my way up the hill a little slower than I wanted, but was happy to have it behind me. It was around 40 degrees outside, which made for a chilly pre-race, but was perfect for racing.

Mile 2 went by in a blur. I felt like I was moving really fast. I decided not check my Garmin until around mile 3 – I just wanted to push hard and see where that took me, regardless of what Garmin said.

I felt really great throughout this whole race. When I finally looked at my Garmin at the 3 mile marker, I was pleased to see it showed around a 7:42 minute mile. I started to push a bit harder as I neared the end.

My official finish time was 30:48. Average pace was 7:42 minute mile. Here are my splits per my Garmin:

Mile 1 – 7:59
Mile 2 – 7:26
Mile 3 – 7:42
Mile 4 – 7:22
.05 – :17

Total mileage – 4.05 miles in 30:48

It was a really great race and I was happy with my time. I’ve got another 4-miler in December that I’m even more excited about now.

After the race, I showered quickly and then headed out for a blogger brunch. More on that in the next post!!

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes – Yes please!

Good afternoon blog world! Happy Friday! I am super excited for the weekend, but it’s going to be a busy one.  What are my plans? Glad you asked!

Tonight will be low-key and I am enjoying that idea. Saturday I plan to run the Central Park loop in the a.m. and then meet up with some long-lost friends for dinner later. But it will be an early night since I have a race on Sunday morning. I’m running the Race to Deliver – 4 miler. Then I’ll be heading to a fun blogger brunch in the early afternoon! Somewhere in there I also need to clean the apartment. Less than fun.

What are your plans for the weekend?!

I had a few notable eats from yesterday that I thought I’d share. I haven’t been posting most of my meals lately. But here’s a few. Yesterday I had blueberry oatmeal. I simply cooked in some frozen blueberries and it was delicious!

 

Last night’s dinner was an easy one. We STILL do not have gas in our apartment building, but I hear whisperings of progress. I maintain my less than optimistic stance. So I made myself a fried egg sammy on the hot plate with a side of strawberries.

Then for dessert I finished up the last pumpkin cupcake that my mother forced on us when we were upstate last weekend. Cream cheese frosting – how divine!!

Here is my momma’s delicious recipe for the cupcakes and frosting.

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes
 
 2 cups flour                                                                
1 cup butter softened
1  (3.4 oz) pckg. instant butterscotch pudding mix         
1 cup white sugar
2 tsps. baking soda                                                     
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbls.  cinnamon                                                        
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. ground ginger                                                   
1  tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. allspice                                                           
1  (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp. ground cloves                                                   
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven  (ohh to have an oven!) 350    Grease or line 24 muffin cups.
 
Cream butter, white and brown sugar with mixer til light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla and pumpkin puree.  Mix all dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture.  Add walnuts.  Bake 350 about 20 minutes.   
 
Cream Cheese Frosting
 
1  8 oz. cream cheese- softened
2 tbls. butter – softened
1  lb. box confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
 
Mix til thoroughly combined and creamy.

Have a great weekend all!

The Trifecta: Restaurant, Book & Movie Reviews

Good afternoon all! I know I promised you a book and restaurant review today and I wanted to get them up earlier, but then I decided to just lump them together with a movie review and make a GIANT post. My apologies in advance for the length. So let’s begin.

Restaurant Review

Nobu
I was admittedly very excited when I learned that Hubby’s co-workers were planning a dinner at Nobu that would include significant others. Score! Besides being excited to see some of his co-workers and their signficant others I’d met before, as well as meeting some new team members, more importantly, I was thrilled to hear we would be gathering at Nobu!!

And so it was that I left work last Thursday and headed to Nobu on 57th. The restaurant is actually a bit hidden and set inside a little covered area.

Once our party arrived, we were escorted upstairs and Bill’s boss promptly spotted Ace from American Idol. For those who know me, I’m awful at spotting celebs, so I truly appreciate when people spot them and point them out to me. Apparently, I am oblivious.

Once we got down to business with the Nobu menu, I turned from oblivious to clueless and overwhelmed. Thankfully, I was with some people in the Nobu-know who guided our table to make the right selections. The downside of that – I’m at a loss to tell you what some of these pictures are. I will do my best…

Pretty sure this was the sashimi salad.


Some sort of mushroom salad that was soo tasty.


Rock Shrimp – Hubby’s favorite and might be mine as well. This was amazing. A must-order if you ever go.


Holy sushi and sashimi selection! All the ones I tried were amazing.

All of the food was soo delicious. I’m sorry I can’t go into more detail – I wish I had paid more attention during the ordering. There were also some other dishes that I didn’t post because  literally had no clue what they were. There wasn’t  a single thing that we ordered that I did not like. However, it was not a cheap meal by any means. That is my word of warning to everyone. Be prepared to spend some dough. And also be prepared to see some of the most pretentious and well-dressed people you’ve ever seen. There were some people there like our table – low-key, fun and laid back. But you could also spot a ton of uptight business folk or freshly bo-toxed glamazons . And I swear to you that just as we were about to leave the Jonas Brothers came in, but they were seated behind a wall and I knew it would be inappropriate to try to scale it. Not that I’m a fan of the JBs – just desperate to actually recognize some celebs from time to time.

Book Review

The Girl Who Played With Fire

By: Stieg Larsson
[photo source]

I’ll assume that if you want to read this book or already bought this book that you’ve read the first book: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. If not, I’d like to kindly ask you to stop right there and go back to the first book. You can not read the second book in this trilogy without reading the first.

That being said, this book does have a completely new story-line, but you need the history to gain the full understanding. It’s so difficult to explain Larsson’s plot line within these books. I’ll leave it at saying that  Lisbeth Salander is back and is working with journalist Mikael Blomkvist again on unraveling some criminal activities and mysteries. However, the relationship between Salander and Blomkvist has changed drastically since we last heard from them, so that adds a twist to the feel and direction of the plot.

General thoughts on this book – it made me immensely nervous right from the beginning. I was terrified for Lisbeth and worried about what would happen to her next. I felt this way a little bit in the first book, but this book intensified those feelings and did so right from the start.

As per Larsson’s first book, it’s a fast-paced, intriguing page turner. I cancelled plans and skipped the gym to go home and read this book. I did not want to put it down. However, toward the end there were a few details and situations here and there that I found to be a bit unbelievable or far-fetched. This disappointed me momentarily, but did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

The end of this book way okay, but nothing entirely amazing. Overall though, if you liked the first Larsson book, I can pretty much guarantee you will enjoy this one as well. But remember – it’s not for the faint of heart, there are some serious thrills and chills in these books.

Movie Review

Get Him to The Greek

We watched this movie last night and I have to be honest and say that it did not live up to my expectations. Perhaps it was because before we popped in the Netflix DVD, we had been watching “The Hangover” on HBO. It’s hard to think anything is as hysterical as that movie. So maybe not such a good pre-movie choice.

Regardless, this movie has its funny moments. Hubby doesn’t really like Russell Brand, but I found him to be amusing and a pretty decent actor. He’s got potential. His character reminded me of the washed up rock star from “Love Actually.” Now that was a great movie.

Anyway – this is a short movie and it’s probably better off that way. You’ll enjoy it if you go in with some realistic expectations and a willingness to forgive some predictability. I did really like that they tied it to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” – now that was another great movie! Somehow, I doubt that I’ll ever say that about this movie though.

That’s all folks!!

November Wedding Fun!

Wow I’ve been busy. This weekend was crazy and hectic and I can’t believe Monday is already over. I’ve been a bad poster lately. I am postponing my Nobu review until tomorrow, when I will also have my recap for The Girl Who Played With Fire. Yup, I finished it already.

Instead, here are some highlights from this weekend and my friend Jess’s wedding!

All the girls! Aren’t we just gorgeous?! 🙂 Hehe

Isn’t Jess’s hair gorgeous?!! She always has fab hair, but it looked extra amazing.


Me and Hubby enjoying the wedding and looking dapper!


I had to use a flash to get this meal. It was yummy. Chicken with veggies and then there was a risotto mushroom type of bake.


I also partook in the Venetian dessert table. And totally forgot to snap a shot of the actual cake, which was chocolate and delicious. But I was in love with the other desserts as well.

Much dancing and silliness ensued with all our friends. The wedding went until 1:00 a.m. and then we headed out and I went right to bed.  Congratulations to Jess and Bob! It was a fantastic wedding and a great time was had by all, I would certainly say.

Despite the late night and partying, I felt pretty good the next morning and decided to get in a run since it was absolutely gorgeous outside. I ran a quick 4+ miles in the sun.

Mile 1 – 8:52
Mile 2 – 8:12
Mile 3 – 8:02
Mile 4 – 8:54
.32 – 2:27

Total – 4.32 in 36:28. Average pace – 8:27 minute miles.

The rest of my day was spent grocery shopping and doing laundry and then heading back to NYC fairly late at night. Hence my feeling a bit frazzled.

So it’s a quick post today, but I promise a more in-depth post tomorrow with two reviews. Brace yourself! Can everyone else believe that Thanksgiving is next week? I can’t. It totally came out of nowhere.

A Busy Saturday Upstate

Good morning – happy Saturday. I’ve got a really great restaurant review coming your way soon, but I can’t spend enough time on it right now to do it justice , so I’m holding off. I’ll just give you one teaser: Nobu.

It’s Saturday morning and I just got back from a great 10 mile run with Lauren. However, I  may have “misguided” her somehow into believing that this run was part of my training plan for the Boston Marathon. When in actuality, this run was part of my pre-training and kind of just for fun. 🙂

Here are the stats from our run…

Mile 1 – 8:48
Mile 2 – 8:50
Mile 3 – 8:44
Mile 4 – 8:54
Mile 5 – 8:44
Mile 6 – 8:34
Mile 7 – 8:35
Mile  8 – 8:23
Mile 9 – 9:38
Mile 10 – 9:00
.14 – 1:08

Total: 10.14 miles in 1:29:17.  Average pace – 8:49 min miles
 
I thought this was an awesome run overall! I felt great and even though it was chilly at the beginning, I quickly warmed up.
 
I’m upstate this weekend for my friend Jess’s wedding tonight at the Century House. Should be awesome!!
 
Time to sign off and run some errands before the wedding festivities tonight! Have a great weekend all!

Tag, You’re It!

So it’s Wednesday night right now and I’m about to sit down to eat this…

Yum to a grilled cheese with apple. Love it! I just got home from work a little bit late and didn’t make it to the gym for a run.  Last night I didn’t make it either, but it wasn’t work stopping me.

Alright, I’ll fess up and tell you what I did last night instead of hitting the gym like I had intended. I got on the subway yesterday evening after work and cracked open my current book: The Girl Who Played with Fire. I proceeded to fly through about 40 pages on the ride home and then promptly got off the subway and beelined it home to read more instead of going to the gym. I know – I am officially a nerd. I then proceeded to eat an entirely unhealthy dinner because I couldn’t tear myself away from the book.

Ok, I’ll tell you what I ate – 1/4 of a bag of tositoes and a few white oreos with milk. Sick I know. They were within reach and did not require putting my book down. Bad healthy living blogger – bad!

I then ignored all the shows on t.v. and buried my nose in my book from about 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. when my eyes began to close against their will.

Just as I thought the book had released its grip on me, I spent the rest of the evening tossing and turning in a fitful unrest. I blame the book for this unrest because, well, it’s kind of disturbing at times and I think I subconsciously brought my fear to sleep with me. But it is certainly a gripping book.

Tonight I did better as far as eating a decent dinner. But…the book is calling my name. Once this dinner is done, all bets may be off and I may find myself curled up in bed reading until 1 a.m. I really hope not because I have some serious plans to get up early tomorrow morning.

Anyway – that’s my big unhealthy confession for yesterday. Now, before I succumb to the call of the book, I’ll answer a few questions that Katie tagged me to respond to…

1. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Back in upstate NY. I know it’s so boring, but I miss our families and upstater friends. I’m hopeful that things might work out so that we can head back that way someday.

2. What has surprised you the most about blogging?
That many times it comes easily, but other times not at all. Some days I can sit down and write a post in 15 minutes and feel extremely pleased with how everything came out. Other times, I’ll sit there for hours and the final post is anything like I had hoped it would be.

3. What food could you not live without?
Oh man, such a tough one. I’m going to go with cereal on this one. I’ve been better about switching things up for breakfast, but I think if someone banned cereal completely I might have a break down.

4. You have a Saturday all to yourself.  How would you spend it?
Get up around 8, go for a nice long run with my friend Lauren. Come home, shower and then eat at the Creperie. Go shopping for a bit and find tons of  amazing size 5 shoes on sale! Have a lovely lunch. Spend the evening with Hubby and friends for a nice dinner and drinks. Bed by 12-1 a.m. I’m sooo boring.

5. What is/was your major in undergrad?
English!

6. Are you in the field that you thought you would be when you were younger?
Not exactly. I thought I’d be a journalist or a novelist. I’m in communications – so it’s not too far off. Maybe there will be a novel someday…

7. How often do you blog?  Why?
A good week, I blog about 5 times a week. I have had some slumps and slower months, but I try for about 4-5 times a week. It also depends if anything interesting is going on.

Now I tag Kelly, Jocelyn, Britt, Ashley, Holly, Megan and Dori to answer these questions if they so choose:

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. Salty or sweet food? You can only pick one.
3. What’s your favorite time of day to workout? (morning, lunch, night, etc.) And why?
4. You have to recommend a favorite book to a friend – what do you suggest?
5. Do you think you’ll be blogging in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years? Why or why not?
6. List 3 of your favorite blogs (I know everyone has many more than 3, but I challenge you to list only 3)?
7. What was your very first job?

So Long Daylight Savings – Back to the Gym

Good afternoon all. Today I’m doing a lunch post since the morning completely got away from me.

I’ll do a short recap of Monday – it was a tough one. For some reason, I was just feeling a little down and frustrated. There are a bunch of things contributing to it, but I don’t really feel like talking about them.

I started off Monday with a breakfast of raspberry oatmeal.

Lunch was leftovers from the pasta the night before. I’ll tell you right now that I did not get up and run on Monday morning or this morning. Why is it soo hard for me?! Unless I am meeting someone for a run, my bed and sleep seem to win over every time. Can someone please sprinkle some magic morning-person dust on me?

During my lunch break yesterday and after work, I read a few Foodbuzz and  NYC Marathon recaps. Love them! I also convinced my friend to participate in the Marathon Monday Mania thing that ING was doing, whereby if you registered for the 2011 Marathon and completed a scavenger hunt item, took a photo of yourself doing it, and posted it to their wall between 12-3 p.m. you had a chance to qualify early for the 2011 NYC Marathon. Did anyone else out there do it?

In true sneaky fashion, they didn’t say how many people would be selected until after 3 p.m. Only 50 people! Alas, my friend was not selected. Bugger.

Not only was I feeling a little down yesterday, but then the crappy weather took it to a whole new level. Sleet/snow already?! I can tell this winter is going to be rough. As such, I figured it was time to face my fear of the dreadmill and head back to the gym for a post-work run.

My gym was pure insanity! Thank goodness I got there a little early, because by the time I was leaving, there were no machines or lockers available! I felt guilty running much more than 30 minutes (the gym limit on a cardio machine), so I pounded out 4 miles in 33:18. And the sweat was flying off of me. For all you runners out there, have you made the end of nice weather trip back to the treadmill yet? I avoided it as long as humanly possible.

We I got home from the gym, I made the lazy man’s dinner…

Yup – that would be grilled chicken (on the Foreman) with a side of corn and peas. Oh and by the way, it’s a poor man’s dinner, but also a stove/ovenless woman’s dinner as well.

Hope you’re all having a great Tuesday!

Spectating at the 2010 NYC Marathon!

Good evening blog world! Hope you all had great weekends. Mine was low-key and then today I jumped on board the marathon mania.  I honestly get so pumped up when I see other people running a marathon. Does anyone else out there experience this? When I first woke up, after a blissful extra hour of sleep, I headed out for a short 3 mile recovery run after Saturday’s longish run. I felt that if people could run 26.2 miles, I could certainly get my butt out of bed to run 3 miles. I also wanted to hit my goal of running five times this week. Done and done! Total mileage for this week was 27.5 miles. I am getting back into training mode!! And I love it. Boston, I will crush you!!

After my run and breakfast, I joined a few friends up on 94/95th street to cheer on the runners. It was such a great day for a marathon! First we spotted the women leaders as we headed north… (how exciting that an American woman runner came in second!! Wahoo!)


Then came the men and I got a shot of Meb fighting it out…


Next “celebrity” I actually noticed was the Chilean miner…


We attempted a photo of myself and Katie, but it did not come out so well…


And lastly, I found this bride particularly amusing…


I tried to head home around 1:30 p.m. and quickly found that I could not cross the street. I didn’t want to walk all the way down to 59th and then back up. So I waited a little bit and then found a way to sneak back over further east. Eek. I’m such a rebel. In all fairness, I did almost land on my head as I climbed over the barrier. Serves me right I guess.

It was such a great race day. And all the bloggers that I knew running it did sooo awesome!! Congrats to all! I even managed to see a few of them. I hope that if I run it next year, it’s a great day just like today. 🙂

After I left the race, the rest of my afternoon was spent cleaning the apartment. I’m going to attempt to run tomorrow morning before work, so I made some nice refreshing pasta for dinner.


Whole wheat penna pasta with plum tomatoes, carrots, cheddar cheese, peas, corn and walnuts with light Italian dressing drizzled over top.  (P.S. – We might have our gas back soon, which means I could be reunited with my dearest oven soon. Knock on wood, crossing my fingers, etc.)

Here’s to hoping I can get my butt out of bed tomorrow. And congrats again to all the NYC Marathon runners!

Credit Card Theft, 9+ Mile Run and Foodbuzz Envy

How’s everyone’s Saturday going? Mine has had some ups and downs so far. My first down: I woke up this morning and received a strange call with a message about my credit card having fraudulent charges. I made sure to call the number on the credit card website back, rather than the number left on the voicemail. You never know if a phone call like that could be a scam. But as I was calling, I also received an email about it.

So a short 5 minutes later, the credit card rep and I had deduced that yes, someone was using my card fraudulently. Only one of the 4-5 charges had actually gone through so far, but a few were pending for a total of more than $6oo. So needless to say, that credit card has been canceled. The phone rep also said that it looks like they got my number through an internet transaction. I immediately thought back to the MegaBus ticket I purchased on Thursday. There were several issues when I put my card number into the online form to purchase the ticket. It kept denying my number and requesting my details again. SKETCHY! So my gut tells me that’s when it happened.

While I give my credit card company soo much credit for catching it early, I also thought something was fishy on Friday afternoon when I checked my pending charges and saw two minor things on there that didn’t look like mine. In fact, I called my card company right then and asked if I could block the charges. The rep told me that day that I needed to wait to see if anything actually went through. So my word of advice is to: CHECK YOUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT AND BANK ACCOUNT BALANCES FREQUENTLY.

And be wary of any website where things seem a little off when you’re trying to make a purchase. Warning signals were blaring while I was buying that ticket, but I brushed them away.

Anyway – all is better now. My card is canceled and I won’t actually be charged for anything they bought.

While dealing with the card drama, I was eating breakfast in preparation for a longish run. On the up side, I brought back a breakfast I haven’t had in a while…

Mmmm oatmeal with banana and peanut butter. Soo delish and just the right fuel for a longish run. I headed out to Central Park and ran the full loop and reservoir Loop. Another up for the day, passing by the NYC Marathon finish and feeling a hint of the exhilaration that all those runners will feel tomorrow! Here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 9:09
Mile 2 – 8:46
Mile 3 – 8:41
Mile 4 – 8:42
Mile 5 –  8:27
Mile 6 – 8:37
Mile 7 – 8:55
Mile 8 – 8:49
Mile 9 – 9:03
.79 – 7:18

Total mileage – 9.79 in 1:26:30. Average page 8:50 minute miles.

I felt pretty good on this run. This is my longest run since the Bay State Half Marathon on October 17. I didn’t check my Garmin at all while I was running, I just ran the pace that felt right.

Big shout out to all the local bloggers I know running the NYC Marathon tomorrow: Megan, Kelly, Ashley and Jocelyn. You guys are going to rock tomorrow!!

When I got back from my run, I downed a G2 Gatorade and some water and then snacked on some peanuts and Chobani yogurt with Kashi cereal.


I got into the habit of eating Chobani after my long runs during my last round of training. It’s packed with protein and isn’t too heavy, which makes it easier to eat right after a run. Sometimes I’m ravenous after a run, but sometimes I’m not.

Another little down, I’m so jealous of all the bloggers at the Foodbuzz Festival right now. I think that next year, I need to be a part of one of these events, either Foodbuzz, Healthy Living Summit, FitBloggin or BlogHer. Any recommendations?!

The rest of my weekend will be pretty low-key. But I am soo pumped to watch the runners tackle the marathon tomorrow! That might just be me next year, since I have two races left to run to complete the NYRR 9+1 program for guaranteed entry to the NYC Marathon in 2011!

So who’s running NYC next year? 🙂 Have a great rest of the weekend!