April Heat and Stress

Posted on April 8, 2010 | 11 comments

Good morning. Happy Thursday – I can not wait until the weekend! This has been a week of stress and heat, and it has not been fun.

I’m not going to recap what I’ve eaten over the past two days, mostly because I was too frazzled to photograph much of anything.

On Tuesday night I did manage to work in an 8-mile run before the heat hit us. Thank goodness.  Here are my stats from that run:

Mile 1 – 10:01 (I hit every light on the way to the park)
Mile 2 – 8:06
Mile 3 – 8:17
Mile 4 – 8:17
Mile 5 – 8:10
Mile 6 – 8:02
Mile 7 – 8:20
Mile 8 – 9:22

Total mileage – 8.05 in 1:05:04. Average page 8:34 minute miles

Happily, I only had one 8 mile run again this week, so I was glad to have that out of the way. Why? Because then Wednesday began and it was the day from hell.

First, I woke up late because I completely forgot to set my alarm. Thankfully, Murphy frequently pesters me to get up in the morning and for once I was happy he did. He nudged me to get up, I looked at the clock and flew out of bed and rushed to work.

I’ve been a little stressed lately at work and I won’t get into it, except to say that throughout most of the day yesterday I was a stressed out freak. Thankfully, after a 3:00 meeting, I was more at ease. But for the majority of the day I was a nervous wreck and even started breaking out because of it.

Then I left work and was hit in the face with 89 degree weather. I had a 5 mile run on the training schedule, so there was no backing out of it. Let me tell you – it was a doozy. I decided right from the start to take it slow. I managed well until the last mile, which was all uphill. Here are my stats:

Mile 1 –  8:25
Mile 2 – 8:19
Mile 3 – 8:26
Mile 4 – 8:18
Mile 5 – 8:50

Total mileage – 5.09 miles in 43:05. Average pace – 8:27 minute miles.

Holy hotness! Not only that, but when did it become okay for people to smoke pot out in the open on the East River Promenade? It’s starting to get out of control over there. Usually when I head south toward 63rd street I prep myself for it because there are typically 1-2 groups of teenagers out there smoking, but I hadn’t encountered it heading North yet. Well, last night I did. It is the most unpleasant thing in the world to run by the people smoking cigarettes and cigars, but a plume of pot smoke is the worst! I’m sort of tempted to put in a call to our local precinct and ask them to patrol or something. I’m really tired of having to hold my breath when I’m running.

Well, I was certainly dripping after that one. That is one of the things I was really liking about training for a marathon in the Spring – not having to deal with the summer heat. I think the crazy heat is supposed to dissipate a bit for a while after today though. And I’m pretty sure in NYC we hit a new record high for this time of year.

After my run I showered and then listened to Hubby explain the latest co-op drama going on. He’s the co-op president, so people always seem to run to him when they have a problem. Fun times – fabulous day.

I made us a quick, easy dinner of grilled chicken with broccoli and then as I started cleaning up I noticed that one of my pickle jars must have cracked in the fridge because there was pickle juice EVERYWHERE! It was totally disgusting. I spent a long time cleaning up that mess, while attempting to clean up the dinner mess as well. Good lord, I just needed the day to end!

With the day from hell coming to a close, I decided to turn in early and move on to the next day. Do you think I was able to fall asleep? Nope – layed in bed wide awake for at least an hour and half. Great.

But today is a new day and hopefully a better one. To be safe, I’ve decided to run my 5-mile run on the treadmill at the gym tonight. It’s only going to be around 80 degrees, but I could use an easy, cool run. I’ve got my first 20-miler coming up this Saturday, so I won’t beat myself up over choosing the treadmill for once.

Did you brave the heat yesterday for a run? How do you cope when you have a day from hell?

Looking back, I probably should have enjoyed a big glass of wine before bed, that might have made sleeping a little easier. 😉

Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday…and that I do too!

P.S. Forgot to mention that I finally have some new book reviews up:

Angela’s Ashes
The Help

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Another Book Bites the Dust

Posted on April 6, 2010 | 8 comments

Good morning. I am feeling very sluggish today. It could partially be because our office a gazillion degrees right now. It’s really gross and it makes me sleepy.

Yesterday was hot as well, but felt a bit more tolerable. And with the forecast predicting almost 85 degrees tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll be roasting in the office.

Breakfast yesterday was simple and maybe a little boring. Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with almond milk and a side of light cranberry juice.

Lunch came pretty quickly – I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on an Arnold Sandwich Thin.

Then my afternoon snack were Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean and an unpictured apple.

When I left work it was positively gorgeous outside! I was excited for my after-work run. I came home, changed and headed out for a 5 mile run.

Despite the beautiful weather, my legs felt terribly heavy through the entire run. The promenade was windy, which didn’t help, but I just felt like I was moving really slow. Here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 8:30
Mile 2 – 8:13
Mile 3 – 8:21
Mile 4 – 8:13
Mile 5 – 8:23

Total mileage – 5.03 in 41:54. Averaged 8:20 minute miles.

It wasn’t my slowest run lately, but it just felt really difficult. Have you ever had a run like that – where there’s nothing really wrong, you just can’t seem to move any faster?

After my run I came home and threw together a quick quinoa dinner – quinoa with carrots, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), peas, and corn with some light italian dressing drizzled over top.

It was actually really filling and I only ate about half of it. The rest will be lunch for today.

After dinner I watched a little bit of Dancing with the Stars before Hubby came back from the gym and insisted we turn it on basketball. I’m sorry – I just don’t get into this March madness stuff. Instead, I ended up finishing my current book: Sarah’s Key.

I know – flying through these books. I currently have nothing to read! But my mom has promised me the book Cutting for Stone when I’m up there this weekend, so that’s next on the list. I promise book reviews asap!

Hope your week is going well. Do you have any other good book recommendations to share?

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Cadbury Egg Craving

Posted on April 5, 2010 | 9 comments

Hi all. Good afternoon. Where has the day gone? I didn’t have a chance to blog until my lunch break!

How was everyone’s weekend and Easter?

Mine was very good. The weather in NYC was fabulous, I ran a great race on Saturday and then Hubby and I hit up a local restaurant for a delicious celebratory dinner.

UVA Review

On Saturday, we went to Uva on 2nd Avenue between 77th and 78th, upon the recommendation of one of Bill’s colleagues. We went to celebrate the fact that Hubby recently passed a hugely important test thing at work. Seriously, he was stressing about this thing for months! But he passed and with flying colors (of course I knew he would).

My apologies in advance, there will be no delicious dinner pics, since Hubby gets extremely embarrassed when I snap away in public places. We started off dinner at Uva with a delicious cheese plate with three different selections and we each had a glass of wine. I absolutely LOVE cheese plates. I order one every chance I get when I’m out. I’ve also been known to make a nice little cheese plate as an appetizer when hosting or attending parties. 🙂

Hubby also ordered the baked calamari, which I’d never had before. Have to say it was pretty good and I’m not the biggest calamari fan.

For my entrée, I had the Bigoletti Di Barbabietole – red beet fingerling gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce with baby spinach and yellow grape tomotes. It was DIVINE!!

I also tried a bite of Hubby’s dish which was some kind of ravioli filled with artichoke and something else – his was amazing as well!

Overall, our meal was delicious. It wasn’t exactly inexpensive, since we did order two apps, two entrées and three glasses of wine (of which I had two – hehe). But I think that the price was definitely more worth it than some of the other restaurants in the area we’ve eaten at before.   

I also liked that our server was very knowledgable. I asked her for cheese suggestions and she totally knocked it out of the park.

After dinner, I forced Hubby to stop at CVS while I picked up some half-priced Easter candy. Lent was almost over and my sweets craving was starting to grow.

Which leads me to Sunday, which was a very candy-filled day. I woke up and had a decent breakfast. Oatmeal with mixed frozen fruit blended in and a side of light cranberry juice.

After breakfast we headed to church for Easter mass and then when we got home we went to work cleaning and scrubbing the entire apartment. Seriously, it took hours.

And while we cleaned, I snacked on chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Including my favorite…

Cadbury eggs!

Mmmm so yummy. I ate all four eggs in that carton yesterday. Yes, sickening – I know.  Are you a cadbury egg fan? I think people either love them or hate them. We know how I feel about them – obviously.

I didn’t really eat lunch, since I was snacking on candy all day and cleaning incessantly. So by the time dinner came around, I wanted something über healthy. Hence, my giant salad.

It was so yummy and just what my stomach filled with chocolate wanted. Romaine lettuce, carrots, feta cheese, apple and walnuts with Newman’s Light Italian dressing. I definitely overdid it with the candy.

How about you – did the Easter bunny visit you this weekend and bring you lots of candy? Were you able to use any willpower?

I clearly was not able to abstain. But I do not eat like this everyday, so if I go a little crazy once in a while, I think it’s okay.

That’s all for today folks – I’ve got a 5 mile run on the training plan tonight. Weather.com says it’s gorgeous out – so I can’t wait! I really can’t believe I’m already in week 13 of my 18 week training plan. Scary!! Marathon will be here way too soon.

Have a great day!

9 Comments

Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

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Scotland 10k and 13 Miles Recap

Posted on April 4, 2010 | 8 comments

Happy Easter all! We’re about to head to church right now, but I wanted to do a quick recap of the Scotland 10k Run yesterday and my 13 mile run.

I ate my normal pre-run breakfast – English muffin with peanut butter and banana and a big glass of water. I headed out of the house around 9:15 a.m. to get to the start on the west side around 65th street. Last week’s 15k race was surprisingly calm and uncrowded, so when I got to the start area I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of people there. I found my corral, which was a ways back – I was in the 5,000 corral and it was packed. I was so far from the start that I could barely hear the starting announcements.

The race started and it took me a solid 10 minutes to actually reach the start. From there it became all about trying to get around people and keep up my pace. I had decided that I wanted to try to race for time, so I was getting frustrated by how trapped I felt.

The first mile flew by. I had never run the reverse route of Central Park, so it was kind of hard to gauge where I was. Mile two and three went by quickly, but then came the big hill. While trying to get around other runners I slightly twisted my ankle, but was able to keep going.

At mile 4 I heard my husband calling to me and saw him on the right side of the course waving and cheering. I was so excited that I sped up a bit.

Mile 5 felt okay, but from 5 to 6 I started feeling some pain. The last .2 of this race seemed to take forever! Once we hit the six mile mark we had to go up a slight hill that felt like a mountain. And finally it was all over!

All in all, it was a decent race for me. I felt like I was running pretty hard and was happy with my final time, which was a personal record (but having never run at 10k before, a PR was guaranteed). Here are my stats from the race and then my additional 6 miles afterwards:

Mile 1 – 7:55
Mile 2 – 7:36
Mile 3 – 7:29
Mile 4 – 7:52
Mile 5 – 7:35
Mile 6 – 7:47
Mile 7 – 11:04 (finished the race and stopped for some gatorade)
Mile 8 – 9:51
Mile 9 – 10:15
Mile 10 – 9:25
Mile 11 – 9:10
Mile 12 – 9:28

Total mileage was 12.01 (plus 1 mile jog to the start for 13 miles) in 1:45:38. Average pace was 8:47 minute mile.

I felt okay during the race, but was exhausted afterwards. My last 6 miles after the race were much slower and really tough. My final time for the Scotland 10k was 48:32 and my average pace was 7:49. Yay to a great PR!!

Ok – we’re off to church. We had a great celebratory dinner last night which I’ll post about either later today or tomorrow. For now – everyone have a great Sunday!

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A Bad April Fool’s Joke

Posted on April 2, 2010 | 24 comments

Good morning all – happy Friday! How are you all today? I’m doing okay – dealing with a little work stress, but trying to figure it out.

So confession time – the Hubby and I played a bad April Fool’s joke yesterday. But for the record, it was totally his idea and plan. I may have posted on Facebook last night that I was “due in October and marathon training was over.” 🙂 Oh and the comments came flying in. Again – totally Bill’s idea, I just went along for the ride. But he made me post it on my FB page because it would be more “believable.”

Some people believed it and others called our April Fool’s bluff. So then Hubby downloads a picture of a positive pregnancy test from Google images and posts it on my page! And then I think more people were on the believing end. Our phones were ringing, we were getting text messages – things were getting crazy.

Finally, at about 10 p.m. I couldn’t take it anymore and I let everyone know the jig was up. The thought of going to bed with that big fat lie circling around was stressing me out and I was terrified I would wake up to my mother calling and screaming at me for not telling her first.

So phew – that joke is done and I don’t know if I’ll ever play another April Fool’s prank again. The things my crazy husband gets me in to. He is pretty darn proud of that joke though.

Did you play any April Fool’s jokes yesterday?

My co-worker also almost got me with the one about the Boston Marathon qualifying times being bumped up by 10 minutes. A momentary wave of panic swept my body and I’m pretty sure I started sweating, but then I screamed out “it’s an April Fool’s right?!!” And yes it is, but she was fooled by it!

Breakfast yesterday was some creamy and delicious oatmeal with banana and peanut butter.

Lunch for Thursday was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on an Arnold Sandwich Thin.

Afternoon snacks were unpictured, but they were Chobani with Kashi Go Lean and a small bag of walnuts and raisins.

After work, but before the Facebook fiasco, I went for a 6 mile run on the East River Promenade. It was much windier than I anticipated. Here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 7:35
Mile 2 – 7:56
Mile 3 – 8:23
Mile 4 – 8:03
Mile 5 – 8:21
Mile 6 – 8:36

Total mileage – 6.04 miles in 49:18. Average pace was 8:09 minute mile.

I was running most of that at a good clip, but not too far off from what pace I’d need to run the entire May marathon. That idea scares me a bit. Can I sustain for that long at that pace?

For any Boston Marathon qualifiers out there – how the heck did you do it?!!

After my run, the Hubby concocted our April Fool’s prank and I made myself a yummy dinner of a fried egg with cheese on an Arnold’s Thin with a side salad.

Then for dessert I had an apple with peanut butter.

I certainly had quite the peanut butter-filled day. It played a role in my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m sorry, but I just love me some peanut butter!

And that’s all folks! Tomorrow is the Scotland Run 10k race and it’s supposed to be gorgeous out. Yipee!! And I’m going to try to post a few reviews this weekend as well. Have a great Friday and weekend!

24 Comments

Posted in Holidays, NYRR, Running, Uncategorized

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Breaking in My New Sneaks

Posted on April 1, 2010 | 13 comments

Good morning all – happy Thursday! This week is almost over – hurray. My week is flying by – how about yours?

Wednesday morning’s breakfast was a big bowl of Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with almond milk and a side of cranberry juice.

On Wednesday morning I decided to move my medium 8-mile run up from Thursday night to Wednesday night, so I planned my lunch accordingly – a.k.a. – no salad (after last week’s miserable run).

So lunch yesterday was some leftover pasta with meat sauce. I needed some carbs to fuel my after-work run.

Then my afternoon snacks included a Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal and an apple pie Larabar.

After work I headed home to change for my run. When I trained for my marathon in October 2009, I went through two pairs of sneakers. About halfway through my training I switched to a new pair, but by the time I actually ran the marathon, I felt like they were pretty worn out.

So for this marathon I bought two pairs again (I wear Asics Gel Cumulus 11 – which is an older model and I’m not sure they are making it anymore – sadness) and decided to wait a little bit longer into my training to switch to the new pair. I started wearing them for the first time on Monday.

For all you marathoners out there – do you “run through” your sneakers quickly? I know it might be all in my head that I need to switch, but for some reason it makes me feel like it helps. Like there’s more spring in my step.

I donned my new sneaks and headed out to Central Park. Here are my stats from the run:

Mile 1 – 8:51
Mile 2 – 8:05
Mile 3 – 7:58
mile 4 – 8:18
Mile 5 – 7:58
mile 6 – 8:08
Mile 7 – 8:12
Mile 8 – 8:47

Total mileage – 8.02 miles in 1:06:30. Average pace – 8:17 minute mile

Not too bad, but I definitely felt a little heavy. Part of me wanted to blame it on my new heavy sneaks that haven’t been worn away at all yet, but more likely it’s probably just me. 🙂

After my run I made Hubby and I some BBQ chicken with a side salad for dinner.

And then for dessert I finished off the strawberries. I’m always so afraid that some fruits will go bad before I have a chance to eat them. And I love strawberries so much that I was not about to let that happen.

They look pretty fabulous right? 🙂 I have to be honest and tell you that I’m totally a “berry girl.” The berries are my favorite fruits – blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Seriously – I doubt there is a berry out there that I wouldn’t love.

And then there’s the Hubby that is totally anti-berry! How funny right? What about you – are you a berry lover? I might have a slight obsession.

Tonight will be a 6-mile run and then tomorrow is a rest day because I’m running another race this weekend – The Scotland Run 10k on Saturday in Central Park. The good thing  is that I’ve never run a 10k before, so no matter what I’m going to get a PR! I’m trying to decide how fast I want to run this. I have to run a total of 13 miles on Saturday, which means another 7 miles after finishing the race. I may just go all out! I think I’ll decide the day of, based on how I’m feeling. Anyone else in the city running this race?

Alright all – have a great Thursday – tomorrow’s Friday!!

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The Sun is Trying to Come Out!

Posted on March 31, 2010 | 12 comments

Finally there is a break in the rain! Thank goodness because things were starting to look pretty bleak. And because I’ve been running outside for a few weeks, I don’t like being forced back to the treadmill.

Monday and Tuesday were very busy days for me and my photo documentation was lacking. I managed to get my Tuesday morning breakfast because it was delicious – just the right thing to start your day with on a rainy day. Banana oatmeal with a big glob of peanut butter. Yum!

I don’t have any daytime food photos, but I was quite the snacker yesterday. Mid morning snack was an apple, lunch was a chicken sandwich on an Arnold’s thin with a side of carrots. Then in the afternoon I had a small bag of raisins and walnuts and a peanut butter Larabar. Yes, apparently I was very hungry.

After work I had a brief moment when I debated just going home and resting – for some reason the dreary weather always deters my drive to workout. But I powered through and made it to the gym for a quick 5 miles in 42:42. On Monday night I was also a gym rat and ran 4 miles on the dreadmill. Tonight I’m praying for clear skies and an outdoor run.

After the gym, I braved the blustery rain and made it home. And what I found when I reached the top of the stairs in our hallway was a puddle of water. The roof was leaking right in front of our front door. Lovely. Yet another reason why I hate the rain.

Hubby came home shortly after me. He had just finished a really big review/exam-type thing for work. It sounds like he did great. But he was also exhausted as well. He was being evaluated pretty much from 7:15 a.m. until 3 p.m.! Yikes.

For dinner I was craving veggies. I made a quick stop at the store after the gym and picked up two bags of lettuce for $4. That was a steal in my book. So I made a giant salad for dinner with some leftover pasta, walnuts, raisins and cheddar cheese. I sprinkled some Newman’s Low-fat Sesame Ginger dressing over top. P.S. – that is my all-time favorite Newman’s dressing. Have you ever tried it? Amazing!

And for dessert I had a nice bowl of delicious organic strawberries that were also on sale. So juicy!

After dinner Hubby and I watched The Biggest Loser and then I was in bed and asleep by 10:30 p.m. So tired. I don’t think I moved an inch all night.

Coming Soon (I promise): Angela’s Ashes review, The Help review, and my Galaxy Granola review.

And I started a new book on Monday – Sarah’s Key. Anyone heard of it or read it? It’s another one of my mom’s recommendations. So far so good – only about 25 pages in.

Lastly – I need some advice. When you are working cooperatively on a project and you end up putting in more work/effort than the other person, how do you deal? Do you mention the unbalanced workload? Let it go and just focus on your tasks? And what if the other individual is getting the same, or more credit than you for a project which you’ve been devoting a ton of time to? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Have a happy hump day all! I think some fine weather is in our future.

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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!

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Worst Case Scenario Run

Posted on March 26, 2010 | 14 comments

Happy Friday all! This is going to be a super quick post because I have lots on the agenda today. But I did want to share some details about my awful run and my lessons learned. Part of my lessons learned can be explained by yesterday’s eats.

Breakfast was all good – I had oatmeal with frozen raspberries. Yummy – and a side of cranberry juice.

I had my normal granola bar for a snack around 11:00 a.m. and then the trouble started after that. I was busy with meetings and tons of stuff going on, so I didn’t actually get to eat lunch until after 2:00 p.m. I didn’t have leftovers and hadn’t had time to pack anything that morning, so I went out and grabbed a salad.

It was yummy and all, but in retrospect, maybe not the best pre-run fuel. Shortly thereafter I ate my Chobani yogurt with some granola and then a little later, about half of an apple (both not pictured).

After work I flew out of the office and home so I could try to squeeze in an 8 mile run. The weather report had been precarious all day, but now it was saying that rain would hold off until later that night. I quickly changed and set out – my plan was to try to maintain a pace of about 8:15 – 8:25 throughout the whole run. That did not happen – here are my stats:

Mile 1 – 7:56
Mile 2 – 8:14
Mile 3 – 8:20
Mile 4 – 8:30
Mile 5 – 9:37
.39 – 4:02

Total mileage – 5.39 miles in 46.43. Average pace: 8:40

Yeah, so not exactly 8 miles and not exactly a constant pace. What happened? Well, right around the middle of mile 4 I started getting nauseous, experiencing shooting stomach pains and just generally feeling awful. Then I began burping, and I know this is really gross and TMI, but it smelt and tasted like salad. Clearly, I think the combination of my salad choice and it being so late in the day was wreaking havoc on my tummy.

I trudged along and finished mile 4, but as I moved into mile 5 things just got awful. I was heading south on the East River Promenade, down by about 72 street and the waves of nausea just became unbearable. I really wanted to stick it out and at least run 7 miles, but at one point I visualized myself vomiting on the promenade and made a quick turnaround to head home. I did not want to be “that girl” that puked on the promenade.  

I made it home without any true catastrophes, but my stomach was on fire. A few rolaids, crackers and glasses of water later, I felt slightly better. But I decided dinner needed to be something safe. I made some wheat pasta with sauce and called it a night.  

So that’s my awful run experience. The lessons I’ve learned are:

  • I need to fuel with complex carbs (like rice, bread, pasta, etc.) before a run.
  • Salad is not an optimal pre-run meal for me – especially for runs over 5 miles.
  • I need to eat my lunch around the normal time (1:00 p.m.) and then snack wisely in between lunch and my afterwork run.
  • I should not take my good and great runs for granted! I’ve been having some pretty fabulous runs lately and I haven’t even been appreciating them!
  • A bad run, while torturous at the time, will only make the good runs seem sweeter.

So that’s that. I’m hoping that maybe that will be my only bad run for a while. But who knows – bad runs seems to pop up out of nowhere. With this one, I could clearly define some of the contributing causes, but I’ve certainly had other runs that felt impossible or were just not that great and there wasn’t really anything I could point to as a cause.

All in all, it hurt (physically and mentally) and left me feeling disappointed, but I’m moving on.

What about you – have you ever had a really tough run (either because of a particular factor or for no reason at all)? Were you able to push through it and finish the run, did you have to stop, and what did you do differently next time?

The one thing I did think to myself while the awful run was occurring was: Thank God this is not the morning of the marathon! And then after having just experienced what would probably be my “worst case scenario” for a marathon run – I prayed that my marathon day would be nothing like it!

Have a great Friday all – and a great weekend!

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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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