Category Archives: Books

Excellent 18 Miles & Race Recap

Posted on March 29, 2010 | 18 comments

Good morning all. Sorry for my brief hiatus, but this weekend was pretty busy and tiring. But good at the same time! How was your weekend? I have minimal photos to share from the weekend – apparently snapping pics was not my priority.

Friday night was low-key – the Hubby and I ordered pizza and watched Inglourious Basterds. Gotta say – not a fan of this movie. Has anyone else seen it – did you like it? Maybe I just didn’t get it, but I wasn’t impressed.

Saturday was busy with laundry and cleaning and then visiting with my old boss, who just had a baby. The baby, Julia, was the cutest thing ever. She is a little peanut.

Saturday night I made a nice pre-race dinner of chicken with rice.

I ate a big mound of rice. One of my fastest runs lately was fueled by rice, rather than pasta – so I figured I’d give it another shot. What carb do you prefer to fuel with?

Sunday morning I was up early – about 8:00 a.m., but the Colon Cancer 15k Challenge wasn’t scheduled to start until 11:15 – holy late! I am used to my long runs always starting at 8 a.m., so it was hard for me to sit around and wait. I tried to make sure I didn’t eat too early. I had my usual English muffin with peanut butter and banana, two big glasses of water and a granola bar. Finally around 10:30 a.m., I headed out to meet Liz and Katherine for a slow jog over to the start.  

We worked our way over to main area, hit up the bathrooms quickly (no lines!) and then headed to our corrals. Katherine was placed into a faster corral, one ahead of Liz and me, so she came back into ours. We talked times and tried to figure out how fast we wanted to run, but that all went out the window once the race started.

Our first mile was at a very manageable and reasonable pace, but after that things started to really pick up. Liz and I managed to stick together throughout the whole race, which is always a difficult thing. Around mile 5-6, I realized that we were still running pretty fast, with no signs of slowing. So I decided to just go with it – even though I knew my long run afterwards might be a bit painful.

We ran two of the 5-mile loops in Central Park, cutting off the very top north portion of the outerloop – a.k.a – the section with the ginormous unbearable hill. I was happy to avoid that area, but we still had to run the East Side hill (from about 72-79) twice. Not fun.

Once we entered the finish area and I saw on my Garmin that I was somewhat close to beating my PR, I pushed it full speed ahead and flew through the finish. Alas, I was a few seconds off. My PR (from the 2009 Boilermaker) was 1:17:03. My final time for this race was 1:17:15. Oh so very close! Still – I had no intention of running that fast, so I’m very happy with that time. 

After the race, I grabbed a quick drink, celebrated a bit with Liz  and then headed out to finish up the last 9 miles of my long run. And surprisingly, I felt okay. I had planned to head south from the 72nd Transverse on the East side, but decided to go north instead. Just after I made it up the huge hill at the very top of the loop it started raining. But nothing was going to deter me from finishing my 18 mile run. If I could run a fast race and keep running, then I could certainly deal with the rain.

One of the nicest things about running the rest of the 9 miles after the race was that they were just starting to clear off the water stations on the West side when I came around again, so I was able to grab a drink as I reached about mile 13-14. Very helpful.

And I did it! I managed to finish my 18 mile run after running a 15k and almost PR-ing, contending with the rain, and pushing through exhaustion.  Here are my stats from my Garmin for the whole shebang:

Mile 1 – 8:53
Mile 2 – 8:01
Mile 3 – 8:23
Mile 4 – 8:18
Mile 5 – 8:06
Mile 6 – 8:22
Mile 7 – 8:06
Mile 8 – 8:29
Mile 9 – 8:02
Mile 10 – 11:20 (finished the race, stopped for water)
Mile 11 – 8:52
Mile 12 – 9:00
Mile 13 – 9:19
Mile 14 – 9:01
Mile 15 – 8:41
Mile 16 – 9:05
Mile 17 – 8:29
Mile 18 – 9:34

Total mileage – 18 miles in 2:38:13. Average pace – 8:47

I got home just as the rain started coming down harder. I did a LOT of stretching right after and used my marathon stick. Okay – I have yet to mention my marathon stick, but I bought it awhile ago. I have a foam roller, but I bought the wrong size (too fat), so then as I was searching the web for a smaller foam roller, I stumbled upon the marathon stick.

The Stick has a website with a bunch of different stick options, but I went with the marathon stick because it’s smaller, easier to handle and I’m very petite.

According to the website, the stick provides the following benefits:

Prevent & Predict Muscle Injuries
Dramatically improve strength, flexibility and endurance
Rapidly prepare muscles for physical activity
Disperse the effects of lactic acid following activity
Accelerate muscle recovery

I use it primarily after running for “Enhanced Lactic Acid Removal.” From the site: During exercise, lactic acid can build to critical levels where optimal performance is sacrificed, Intracell Technology expedites the discharge of lactic acid from your muscles and encourages its conversion into glucose by the liver. Intracell Technology appears to be very promising in the arena of enhanced sport performance. Look for more research along these lines in the future.

Has anyone else heard of or use any of “the sticks”?

I also like it because I can roll my legs while sitting or standing. I don’t need to have space to lie on the floor, like I need with the foam roller.

After I stretched, used my marathon stick a bit and showered, I took a mini nap. When I woke up, Hubby started dinner. As my marathon training has gotten more intense, with longer runs during the week and weekend, I have been lucky that Hubby has been cooking dinner more often. Thanks Hubs!! He made a pasta dish with a meat sauce (using venison meat).

It was yummy and filled me right up. After dinner I immediately grabbed The Help to read. I had been reading it on and off all weekend and finished it last night right before I went to bed. I totally agree with everyone who has commented on this book – it was really great. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. But now I’m way behind on my reviews. Now I have to post reviews for both Angela’s Ashes and The Help! However, you know whenever I read a book that fast it’s a good one.

So – all in all – a great weekend! I wasn’t able to pace myself like I wanted for the race. Like others, it seems that if I’m running a race, my inclination is to race it rather than maintain a reasonable pace for training. But thankfully, I’m not hurting too bad today (knock on wood).

How was your weekend?!!

P.S. – I can’t believe that I’ve already run my 18 mile run! I have a bit of a decline in mileage this weekend (13 miles) and then next weekend is my first 20-miler! How did it come up so fast?!!

You can check out my training so far here. Have a great day all!

18 Comments

Posted in Books, NYRR, Races, Running, Uncategorized

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Finding and Keeping the Perfect Pace

Posted on March 25, 2010 | 10 comments

Good morning – how are you on this fine Thursday? I have been a crazy person over the past two days. I’m going to skip Tuesday’s food recap altogether because it was pretty boring. I did squeeze in a decent 5-mile run after work on Tuesday night though, despite the looming rain. It was only drizzling, so I figured why not give it a shot. Running under rain sprinkles was actually surprisingly refreshing. Here were my stats from Tuesday:

Mile 1 – 8:16
Mile 2 – 7:53
Mile 3 – 8:14
Mile 4 – 7:55
Mile 5 – 8:11

Total mileage – 5 miles in 40:33

I was pretty happy with that run and my speed. My average speed overall was 8:06. If only I could keep that up for my marathon in May!

So that brings me to yesterday (Wednesday). For breakfast, I made some delicious oats in a jar with a side of light cranberry juice.

For lunch yesterday I ate at noon! That is unheard of for me – the earliest lunch ever. The reason being that I was teaching a training around 1:00 p.m. and had to travel and then set-up. So at noon I heated up some leftover stew and ate a Chobani yogurt with granola.

The training went pretty well. I have another one scheduled for Friday and that class is much bigger, so I’m more nervous about that one.

After the class I was able to come back to the office for a bit and snacked on a banana to fuel my post-work run. I’ve had to change my training schedule around a little this week, so I did my 8-mile run last night instead of a 5 miler. I didn’t feel like going to Central Park for some reason, so I ran it all on the East River promenade. Here are my stats:

Mile 1 – 9:49 (I located satellites from inside my apartment, so Garmin was a bit confused at first. It didn’t clock my first mile correctly.)
Mile 2 – 7:27 (yay for me – my first sub 7:30 minute mile since high school!)
Mile 3 – 8:32
Mile 4 – 7:40
Mile 5 – 8:58
Mile 6 – 8:19
Mile 7 – 8:37
Mile 8 – 8:18

Total mileage – 8 miles in 1:07:45. Average pace 8:27

I did two mile reps in this run, purposely trying to run at a faster speed (mile 2 and mile 4). Then from mile 6 on, I wanted to try to keep my pace around 8:20 (what I would likely need to run during the marathon in May to qualify for Boston). Obviously, that was tougher than I thought. I think I’ll use one of my upcoming “medium” runs in the near future to test my pace maintenance again and I will not run two mile reps before. I’d really like to be able to control my speed and be able to naturally feel how fast I should be going.

What about you? Are you able to tell about how fast you are running without the help of Garmin or other gadgets? Have you ever tried to maintain a certain speed? Did it work?

I’ve been thinking about strategies for the marathon a lot recently and how I’ll need to focus on staying around a certain pace, so as not to burn myself out. It sounds simple, but this run proves that it’s not going to be so easy. I’m also contemplating buying or creating a pace chart – I’ve been toying with the one on marathonguide.com.  Of course, my Garmin is wonderful, but the pace chart would just be an added back-up to help me see where I should be without having to do any math while run (I’m not too great at math to begin with).

Have you ever used a pace chart?

After my run I didn’t feel like really making anything – this has been a theme for me lately. So my dinner ended up being a black bean burger with a side of veggies with hummus and two pickles.

Instead of dipping the celery in hummus, I spread some peanut butter on it. Yum! And I needed the protein after that run. I also snacked on half of an unpictured Apple Pie Larabar right after my run and then finished the other half for dessert after dinner.

After dinner I tried to watch American Idol, but I ended up choosing to read more of my new book The Help instead. I am really liking it and I’m flying through it. I may be done with it before I get a chance to write a review of Angela’s Ashes!

Ok – that’s all folks. Have a great Thursday – moving closer to the weekend!

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Posted in Books, Running, Uncategorized

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Where Did All the Food Go?

Posted on March 11, 2010 | 24 comments

Good Morning all! We’ve made it to Thursday – doesn’t it feel great? Although I am a bit sad that the rainy weather is moving in. This sunshine and warm air has been positively blissful!

More bliss – getting in a nice 4.5+ run with Katherine and Liz this morning! The temperature gauge claimed it was 47 degrees outside when I left the house, but it sure didn’t feel that warm. However, it was great to see so many other runners out in Central Park – it made it feel like Spring is finally here.

I’ll just do a quick recap of yesterday (Wednesday). I did not run in the morning, so I was up a little bit late and had some Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with blueberries for breakfast.

My morning went by really fast. All of  a sudden it was lunch (don’t you love that?) and I broke into my very ripe banana and PB&J on an Arnold Thin.

Little messy, lots of yum.

Afternoon snacks were: Yoplait yogurt with Galaxy Granola (we’re all out of Chobani) and an Apple Pie Larabar.

Human Garbage Disposals
Hubby and I went shopping last week (on Tuesday) when we were out in Staten Island getting our taxes done. It was a big load of food, to say the least. I said to him as we were going through the check-out that it looks like we’re feeding a family of four. We had soo much food. And the thought of carrying it up four flights of stairs frankly scared me. I tried to insist we put some things back. We didn’t.

It seemed ridiculous to me then. But now – I can’t seem to find any food in the house! We’re almost out of fruit, the only veggies we have are frozen, no Chobani, etc., etc. I told him last night that with the way things disappear, I feel like we must eat an incredible amount. And maybe we actually do, the food just happens to be healthy and so we don’t gain weight.

But this only serves to validate the fact that if you want to eat healthy, it’s going to cost you. A person goes through healthy, fresh foods so much faster than processed and packaged foods. I can understand why someone would buy canned goods, and pre-packaged meals and items – they will last them so much longer. I think one of the key goals in fighting the obesity epidemic has got to be to somehow make fresh, healthier foods more affordable and accessible to low-income individuals.

Sorry for that little rant. It just always boggles my mind how much food the Hubby and I go through alone – we are human garbage disposals it seems.

How often do you go grocery shopping? Do you ever feel you run out of food too quickly? Do you buy in bulk to make fewer trips or go as needed?

Anyhow – onto yesterday’s post-work activities. I headed to the gym and knocked out 5 miles in 43 minutes on the treadmill.

Then I headed home and ate a quick leftovers dinner. My Tomato Tortellini Spinach Soup leftovers had absorbed most of the liquid (note this if you decide to make it – add more broth – definitely 6 cups). I decided to eat it anyway and sprinkled on a bit of shredded cheese. It was yummy and very filling. The tortellini were especially flavorful from absorbing the liquid. I also threw a few sun-dried tomatoes on there as well.

After dinner I relaxed and watched Superbad on t.v. for a bit and then headed in to bed to read Angela’s Ashes around 9:00 p.m. I literally laughed out loud at one part and I just have to share:

Frankie is talking about how clean and nice it was in the hospital: “I lie in bed and think of the hospital where the white sheets were changed every day and there wasn’t a sign of a flea. There was a lavatory where you could sit and read your book till someone asked if you were dead.”

I don’t know why this cracks me up s0 much, but it does. The last line and his tone is just hysterical. This is his tone throughout the book. I’m just past page 200 and there’s about 360 pages in the book. Yes, it’s sad in many respects to read about the poverty they endure, but Frankie’s narration is  just great. You can’t help laughing despite the terrible conditions and things that happen to this family. So far I really like it – hopefully a book review to come soon.

Have you read Angela’s Ashes – did you like it?

That’s all for Thursdays – have a good one!

24 Comments

Posted in Books, Running, Uncategorized

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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!

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Posted in Books, Dessert, Uncategorized

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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!

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Posted in Bloggers, Books, Running, Uncategorized

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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!

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Posted in Books, Running, Travel, Uncategorized

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Avoid Noshing till Nausea

Posted on February 5, 2010 | 5 comments

Happy Friday everyone!! Who else is soo happy?! And who else is dreading the thought of snow this weekend? I have an 11 mile run planned for tomorrow morning and I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that. It may have to be postponed until Sunday morning depending on the weather.

How was everyone’s Thursday? Mine was pretty good – it started out with a nice breakfast of a honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter and banana and a side of light cranberry juice with orange juice.

Then yesterday afternoon was very snack-filled. I don’t know why I was so hungry, but it started off with me snacking on my granola bar at 10:30, following by an early lunch at 12:30 of a salad with romaine lettuce, carrots, cheddar cheese, chickpeas, peas and artichoke hearts. I apologize – I left my camera at home today, so I can’t upload my pictures from yesterday.

After lunch from about 1:00 – 4:30 I proceeded to eat: a big bag of blueberries, two Lindt Lindor Dark Chocolate Truffles, a small bag of walnuts and raisins and a Larabar.

I know – that is a lot of afternoon snacking. I just could  not stop. Do you ever have days when you seem to be constantly hungry? Yesterday was out of control and then when I headed to the gym after work I felt super full.

The gym was dead, so I managed to work in my required 6-mile run in 52:34. I was happy with that, considering I had quite a full belly.

Before my afternoon of noshing, I had texted Hubby to ask him to take out two frozen burger patties for dinner. I decided to give him the meat he so dearly loves and claims he needs. But as I approached home, I felt less thrilled by the idea of a big burger sitting in my tummy.

When I walked into the apartment, I finally realized just how excited Hubby was for his meat — he had stopped and picked up a tomato (to slice and put on his burger), a large bun (since I don’t eat my burger with a bun we don’t keep buns in the apt. regularly) and a new jar of small pickles for sandwiches or burgers. Clearly, he was preparing for full enjoyment of this meal. I had to laugh. 🙂

And so we cooked up some burgers and had a nice side salad to go along with it. As you can see, mine is sans bun – it ends up being just too much food for my tummy with a bun. And lord knows my tummy was at its limit already.

Please note how delicious these pickles look! Good job on the pickles Hubby. He got “bread and butter” which I like, but never think to buy.

Mmmm those pickles hit the spot. I seriously think that I love or could love any kind of pickle. They are just soo good. What about you – do you like bread and butter or are you more of a dill person? I will eat whatever kind of pickle you send my way!

And for dessert I had a handful of these:

I know – a lot of food for one day. So today is going to be a bit leaner. Well… breakfast didn’t really start out that way, but that’s tomorrow’s post.

So what are your plans for the weekend? As I mentioned, I need to run a nice 11-miler, per my training plan. I seem to have a slight problem with my training plan… I can’t seem to run 5 days a week. So far, all I’ve been managing is 4 days. I had lofty dreams of getting up this morning to run a quick 3 miles outside –  in the dark. But then the alarm went off and it was pitch black and I snoozed instead. By then it was too late to even attempt the gym. And I’ve got a work happy hour to attend tonight, so I can’t sneak it in later. Argh!

For my first marathon, I only ran 4 days a week and that worked. But with my new goal of trying to BQ, I feel I need to be running more.

And advice? If you’ve followed a training plan – how do you ensure you meet your weekly mileage, run the full amount of days, etc.? Or do you not let it bother you if you don’t stick to the plan?

Other than trying to work in an 11-mile run somewhere around the forecasted snow this weekend, I plan to read these:

Oh yeah – I’ve got some magazines to catch up on! Apparently, people know me pretty darn well. I received Runner’s World as a gift from my cousin and cousin-in-law this Christmas (thanks Linda and Chris). Linda loves running marathons and tried to get me to run one for years by talking about what a great experience it was and sending me a gift subscription to Runner’s World every year. Well – I’m not sure if it was the magazine, her recaps or my own desire that finally got me to run one…maybe all of it combined.

And my Aunt and Uncle got me a gift subscription to Fitness this Christmas too (thanks Aunt Pat and Uncle Pete)!  Apparently, I make my interests pretty well-known to everyone. 🙂

Lastly, I signed up for Cooking Light one day in the fall when I found a one-year subscription deal for only $5 (a steal)!

Oh my – I’ve got some serious reading to do! Not to mention that I’m about 100 pages away from finishing The Historian and I literally can not put it down . You guys are going to want to put this one on your list for sure…and move it right to the top. I also think I heard that it’s being made into a movie, so you’ve got to read it before it comes out!

Other than that, I plan to clean, hang with Hubby and hopefully finally go see Avatar. I kn0w – yes, we are the last people in the country to see it.

What are your weekend plans! Whatever you’ve got planned – enjoy it and travel safely through the snow, if it’s headed your way.

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Veggie and Cookie Cravings

Posted on February 3, 2010 | 6 comments

Good morning – Happy Hump Day! Hope everyone had a good Tuesday. My day was pretty good – I started off with a nice breakfast of oatmeal with banana and peanut butter, along with a side of light cranberry juice. A very filling breakfast.

It was such a filling breakfast that I didn’t even have a mid-morning snack – so unlike me. But lunch was filling enough as well, I had leftover chicken and spinach bulgur from the night before. This meal was very hearty.

Afternoon snacks were Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal (aren’t you so sick of this snack – maybe I will switch it up on Thursday) and an apple.

After work, I headed to the gym to try to squeeze in as much of a run as possible. I ran a decent 4 miles in 33:26 and then was going to stop, but saw that there were one or two treadmills opens, so I ran another mile for a total of 5 miles in 42:30. Then I noticed people waiting so I hopped off and did some ab work. I slacked on doing free-weight arm exercises, but oh well.

So far, this week I am doing okay with my marathon training. Here is a link to access my training plan through Google Docs. I like using this program because I can update it from anywhere. Here’s a brief snapshot of my progress so far:

I can’t wait until it starts getting warmer and light outside later so I can do my longer week workouts outside — running 8 miles on the treadmill would not be fun.

After the gym, I was craving veggies in a really weird way, so I came home and made a giant salad for dinner with Mediterranean lettuce, carrots, goat cheese, raisins, and walnuts. I drizzled Newman’s Light Balsamic Vinaigrette over top.

It was delicious and hit the spot, but then I was craving some dessert (very much like me). I decided to try to make Tina’s 3-Minute Oatmeal Raisin Cookie into a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. I followed her original recipe, but added peanut butter, swapped out raisins for chocolate chips, used protein powder in place of flour, left out the cinnamon, used Truvia instead of brown sugar and voila!

The addition of the peanut butter made it a little gooey in places, but I was okay with that. I also doubled the original recipe, which produced a GIANT cookie  – totally unnecessary. Somehow, I managed to eat it all, but wouldn’t double it again in the future. Here was my final recipe:

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/4 cup liquid egg whites
  • 1 packet of Truvia 
  • 2 tsp protein powder (thanks Hubby)
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp peanut butter

    • Thanks again to Tina for this great recipe and congrats to her on her two-year blog birthday!

    Lastly, here are a few health headlines that caught my eye:

    Slimmer Doesn’t Always Mean Fitter – I am still trying to determine what my “best” weight is for running. Hopefully I can figure it out by May – just in time for the marathon! How about you – have you PRed or run better when you were either heavier or lighter – how did you find your ideal running weight?

    Rules Worth Following, for Everyone’s Sake – I am buying Michael Pollan’s new book  Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, published in December 2009. I really want to read his other books:  In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but I think Food Rules has moved to the top of my list. This NY Times article gives a great overview of the book’s main ideas, as well as some general info/facts about healthy eating.  Have you read any of  Pollan’s books? Will you be checking this one out?

    Have a great Wednesday everyone. I’ve got some exciting plans tonight: I’m going to the ballet with Katie and trying some authentic Greek food beforehand!  I’m super excited! See you tomorrow.

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    Saturday: Bachelorette and 9-Mile Run

    Posted on January 16, 2010 | 4 comments

    Good morning – happy Saturday! This going to be a quick post because I’m heading out to a bachelorette party for my friend Kelly at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut soon. I’m very excited!! It’s going to be such a blast.

    I just got back from a 9+ run with Katherine in Central Park and despite the balmy 42 degree weather, it felt a little chilly while running. My nose was running so terribly. Here is our breakdown of the run:

    Mile 1 – 9:56 (on our way to CP)
    Mile 2 – 8:46
    Mile 3 – 8:59
    Mile 4 – 9:03
    Mile 5 – 8:52
    Mile 6 – 8:52
    Mile 7 – 9:13
    Mile 8 – 9:10
    Mile 9 – 11:17 (on our way back from CP through the streets)
    .21 – 9:57
    Total of 9.21 miles in 1:26:18

    This is actually more than my Marathon Training Plan called for for today – so that’s good – I’m right on track. Here’s yesterday’s recap:

    For breakfast yesterday I had Kashi Autumn Harvest with almond milk and a side of cranberry and orange juice mixed.

    Lunch was leftovers of Thursday night’s dinner and it was just as good.

    My afternoon snacks were Chobani pineapple yogurt (my fave!) with granola.

    And a handful of walnuts and raisins.

    After work on Friday night I headed to the gym because my training plan called for a 5-mile “pace” run – meaning run it at the pace you would want to run at the marathon (for me that means to BQ). With my first marathon I usually took the night before a long run as a rest day, a light workout or cross training day. I decided to try and follow this new Higdon plan, but chose to run 4 miles instead of 5.

    4 miles in 32:51

    That was a pretty fast pace for me, averaging about 8:12 per mile, which is actually faster than what I would need in the marathon to qualify for Boston, but I was feeling good so I went with it. I must admit that running hard the night before a “long” run does not seem to work for me. I think I’m going to need to tweak Hal Higdon’s plan a bit to meet the needs of my body. I need more of a light, short run the night before a long run. I may move the “pace” runs toward the middle of the week.

    If you’ve trained for any kind of race using a training plan developed by someone else, have you tweaked or changed it at all – how and why? Did it work out better for you?

    After that I did some core work and some arm exercises with a 5-pound weight and headed home.

    I decided to use up the remaining spinach gnocchi for dinner, since the package said to use within three days. They did not disappoint the second time around! Yum!

    After dinner I also ate a handful of un-pictured chocolate morsels – they’ve been my obsession this week. Then I headed into read for a bit before bedtime (which was super early). I am totally into The Historian at this point and I’m only about 80 pages in, but I’m loving it!

    That’s all for now folks – time to pack and get myself into party mode!! Have a great weekend everyone! 🙂

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    Marathon Decision, Book Review…FRIDAY!

    Posted on January 15, 2010 | 8 comments

    Good morning all!  Happy Friday!!

    So it’s time to announce my big Marathon Decision for 2010. Here it is:

    I’ve decided to run the Pocono Mountain Run for Red Marathon on Sunday, May 16, 2010. I made my decision based on several factors and I thank everyone so much for all the feedback and suggestions yesterday. I tried to take everything into account. Here is why I’ve decided to run it:

    • I’ve got two half marathon races in the next few months and I plan to add a few more road races to the list, so I think this will help increase my speed and endurance.
    • I don’t enjoy training and doing long runs in the peak heat of summer (July and August), so hopefully I’ll feel great during my longs runs in March and April.
    • If I don’t qualify for Boston this May, I would still have time to try in the fall of 2010.   
    • We’re planning a trip to Ireland in the fall and I know that it would put a hitch in my fall training. I definitely wouldn’t have enough time to run while in Ireland since we’ll be on the go and sightseeing the entire time.
    • I feel confident that I can increase my speed significantly in the 18 weeks I have for training and have already outlined a training plan.

    So there’s my reasoning, now here’s my training plan – I’ve already started!

    View my Poconos Marathon Plan in PDF version – I know the image above it pretty terrible. I’m also going to be incorporating some hills, tempo runs and mile reps in the training runs outlined above – I just haven’t decided exactly where yet. I should note that I used Hal Higdon’s Intermediate Marathon Plan as a guide for my training plan.

    I feel very relieved that my decision has been made and my training has started! No turning back now. Thanks again for sharing your opinions and thoughts!

    And I welcome any suggestions, tips, hints for running faster that anyone has to offer! Do you have any advice to share with me?

    Book Review

    Finally, before I get into my eats, I have to let you know that I posted my book review for The Weight of Silence. Check it out! Now on to eats:

    Yesterday’s breakfast was a honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter on one side and almond butter on the other, topped with banana. And of course, a side of light cranberry juice.

    Lunch was some leftover spinach gnocchi – yummy yum – and some carrots.

    My late afternoon snack was some black cherry Stonyfield yogurt with granola.

    Dinner was kind of a mish mash. I cooked 4 baby red potatoes in olive oil and lemon juice for a bit, then added chopped up green pepper, onion and garlic and some butter. While that cooked, I microwaved three veggie sausage links. Then I added them to the mix when everything was just about ready. It was soo good – the lemon really gave it a kick.

    Dessert was a few of these again…

    After dinner I watched the new episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” and I have to say, I’m just not as into it as I used to be. I did watch part of the cross-over episode to “Private Practice”, but then I gave up and read more of my new book instead:

    My friend Katie recommended this book , The Historian, after I finished the Twilight series and was on a vampire kick. However, I didn’t get around to reading it until now. And so far I am loving it. I was so into it on the train ride home last night that I almost missed my stop.

    I’m so excited for this weekened! I’ve got my friend Kelly’s bachelorette party tomorrow at Foxwoods Casino in CT and I can’t wait! Do you have any fun plans for this weekend? I’m also going to work in 2 runs hopefully – the weather is supposed to pretty warm!

    Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend all!

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