Tag Archives: NYC

Mid-Week and Mid-Mileage

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 3 comments

Welcome to Wednesday (deep sigh). Hope you are breezing through your week. My week has been busy and moving along pretty quickly. I’ve been enjoying reading some of the Boston Marathon recaps that bloggers have been posting already. Good for them – it just might have taken more than a month to finally post my recap. Oops.

It’s good old Wednesday and that means we’re halfway to the weekend and MAYBE for some, halfway through your training week. Now, if I had actually gotten up this morning to run, I could say that was me. But nope. Tired and slept right through my alarm. So after-work run, here I come. At least it’s not 90 degrees outside today. I still don’t know how the Boston Marathoners did it. Seriously, majorly impressed with any and all finishers.  

So far this week, which is lucky number week 13 of training, I logged an 8-mile run on Monday and 5 miles on Tuesday morning. Yup – you read that right. MORNING. I don’t know how it happened, but it was a beautiful thing. I mean, I really do LOVE running in the morning. It’s not too hot, it’s beautiful, the running areas are pretty clear, and I feel great afterwards. Come one – what’s not to love? Right – not being to drag myself out of bed.  It’s just so darn hard!

Yesterday I managed because I had happy hour plans after work. A few of my old colleagues and I tried a German Biergarten called Loreley on Rivington Street. Being that it was 80 degrees out yesterday and sunny, we obviously wanted some outdoor seating. This place did not disappoint. They have a decent sized back patio space with picnic tables. If you don’t mind possibly sharing your table with a random person or two, then you should be just fine.

(Source)

We had a few beers, snacked on some pretzels, ate a cheese plate (not very good), and a basket of pork meatballs with fries. It started to get a little crowded and loud as it got later, but nothing intolerable. Overall, I would definitely go back to this place. It’s pretty unnoticeable – you would never think to stop in just based on the exterior, but I recommend it!

In other news, I am currently reading “Real Food: What to Eat and Why” after reading a recommendation and I’m really liking it so far. I will definitely try to post a review on this one. Then next on the list is “Fifty Shades of Grey” for book club and I’ve heard a lot of mixed things. Should be interesting.

What are you reading right now? Any great recommendations? I think I am next on the book club list to select a book. Ohh the pressure – help!

 

 

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Week 12: A Needed and Appreciated Cut Back Week

Posted on April 15, 2012 | 3 comments

Week 12 of marathon training in O-VER! We are slowly inching closer to marathon day and I gotta tell ya – this warm weather is making me a little nervous. The Boston Marathon will be run tomorrow in 80 degree temps in the middle of April. What will it be like by the end of May? I am very scared that they will either cancel our race Memorial Day weekend or it will be truly torturous to run in crazy hot temps.

But, there’s no use speculating and getting myself all worked up right now. There are still 6 weeks of training to go with two more tough long 20 mile runs ahead of me.

I’m getting ahead of myself again. This post is a recap of week 12 of training, which was a much needed and appreciated cut back week, as the title says. This week I had 34 miles on my plan and I came in pretty close at 33 miles for the week. Here’s what the week looked like:

Monday: 6 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: rest day (a.k.a. – lazy and tired day)
Thursday: 6 miles
Friday: 4 miles
Saturday: 13 miles

It was a pretty light week, which was super nice considering I was tired and lacking in motivation – as Wednesday clearly showed. I just came home and wanted to nap rather than run. It happens sometimes when you are in the thick of training. At least for me anyway.

But, by Saturday morning I was feeling more motivated and ready for a longish run. My plan called for 12 miles, but I ended up running nearly 13. I was running through Central Park starting around 9:20 a.m. and got caught up in some race going on. It felt weird to be running with the group when I wasn’t really in the race and I kind of just wanted to get away from them and do my own thing. Because of that, I ended up running some of those first miles faster than planned to get away from the other runners. My splits looked like this:

Yeah – it was a much faster run than I expected. But it also felt good to push it a little.

After my longish run, Hubby and I headed out to an afternoon show. At the Colon Cancer run we won tickets to a show and today was the day. We headed to the theater district to see:

It’s a new show that came over from London and I thought it was really good. It was very funny. I’d recommend it. The main character REALLY likes eating and I could totally sympathize with him – especially now during the peak of marathon training. I seem to be devouring everything and have a real sugar addiction.

How serious you ask? Well after the show, I made some homemade “healthified” nachos for dinner, and then proceeded to eat half a bag of hugs and half a box of sweettart hearts. I NEED to stop. Sugar is bad. Sugar is bad. Sugar is bad. I keep telling myself this box/bag of candy will be the last one and I last about 3 days and then go buy another. HELP!!

Anyone have any tips for cutting down on sugar and beating those terrible sugar cravings?

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Spring Changes!

Posted on March 21, 2012 | 6 comments

Hello all – happy spring…err or maybe summer? It’s supposed to hit almost 80 degrees this week. Kind of crazy for March.

But, I will NOT complain about warm weather while in the midst of marathon training. That would be absurd. I will simply say, thank you, thank you, thank you – over and over again.

Before I get into a marathon training update, I’ll explain why I’ve been gone again. There were some major changes in my life. I started a new job a little over two weeks ago – and as you can imagine – that was a pretty big deal. I had been at my last job for almost three years, but an amazing opportunity came along at an organization I REALLY love, and a position that basically rocks. After a lot of hemming and hawing, and talking over the pros and cons with my husband and family, I finally accepted the job and gave my notice.

I’m not exactly what you would call good with change. I like my routines, my schedules, knowing what’s going on, etc. So starting a new job was somewhat stressful and a big adjustment. Hence, the blogging fell to the bottom of the list. But I’ve still been reading and running, so now I’ll try to catch up. Last thing I want to say on the job front is that I’m VERY happy with the decision I made. I know it’s only been a few weeks and I still have a lot of learning to do, but so far this has been a great change! And I want to thank my husband, my friends and my family for all supporting me in making this decision, and listening to me go on and on questioning my choice. It was the right one!

And Now Onto Running
On the running front, things have been progressing. I won’t lie and say that I’ve stuck to my training plan 100%. I’m currently at around 215 miles in week 9 of my training plan. There have only been two weeks where I did NOT reach my weekly mileage goal. The first was due to illness and the second was due to St. Patrick’s day. I just completely messed up my schedule last week and left too much running to happen on the weekend, and then of course I was exhausted. But we had fun!

We hit the parade and then enjoyed a full day out in NYC – so running was kind of forgotten.

But I am trying to get back to the plan this week.  I ran 7 miles on Tuesday and 4 miles this morning. I have a 7 miler planned for tomorrow, 3 miles on Friday, and then a lovely 17 miles on the schedule for Saturday. Of course, it’s supposed to rain this weekend – the only rainy days this week.  I’m hoping the Saturday forecast might be a little wrong and some of the nice Friday weather will hold on until Saturday.

All in all, I am feeling a little bit better running-wise. My legs are finally losing their lead and I am getting back some of my speed. It’s still not feeling easy or as easy as it has been in the past, but I’m hoping I’m getting there. Hubby’s training is also going very well. He is running four days a week and has been following his plan pretty closely too. I’m hoping we’ll both have a great race on May 27!!

How are you enjoying this spring weather? Have you changed jobs in the past year – did it stress you out a lil bit? Who’s running a spring marathon – how is training going?!!

Have a great Wednesday all!

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Fabulous Weekend and Superbowl Win!

Posted on February 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

So yes, I know it’s already mid-week and this post is pretty late, but I’ve been a busy woman the past few days. How it is already the END of Wednesday is truly beyond me.

But anyway, last weekend after my long-ish run, the Hubby and I met up with some of this family who were in town. We checked out their fabulous room at the Waldorf Astoria, then walked to Central Park to check out the iceskating, and finally headed to P.J. Clarke’s for a relaxed quick bite to eat. I had a very delicious turkey burger and the tater tots. If you are ever at P.J. Clarke’s, the tater tots are a must. So good.

After dinner we walked just a few blocks downtown to O’Neill’s, an Irish pub that was having live Irish music playing. I enjoyed a Blue Moon and a Smithwicks, and we all had a really good time.

Here we are, I’m in the pink…

And suddenly it was Sunday and it was the Superbowl! Hubby and I decided we wanted to stay home this year and just have some appetizers and snacks while we watched the game.

We started with a fruit and veggie platter – yum!

And we also snacked on crackers and cheese with pepperoni.

And then for the main event – homemade nachos! I have a serious nacho obsession…

At first I had shrimp cocktail on our menu as well, but the store Hubby went to was all out of shrimp, so we scrapped that plan and we were both worried about having enough food. It was MORE than enough. We feasted.

And then just as suddenly it was Monday (don’t you hate how that happens) and it was back to the grind. And back to training. I was able to squeeze in 3.3 miles on Monday night outside, 5 miles last night outside, and 3 miles on the treadmill tonight at the gym. Somehow, I need to get in 5 miles tomorrow morning, which pretty much means I need to plan a very early morning run – it’s going to be painful. But, knock on wood, I’ve stuck to the training plan almost to the “T” this time around.

What about you – do you TRY to stick to your marathon training plans or really just use them for overall weekly mileage?

I like being able to log my numbers and see them match what was planned…or even exceed it…which is rare. And then again, it feels like every training session is different. Things one is feeling particularly hard – even though I’m managing to stick with it.

One new twist is that I’m going to start adding in Yoga! I got a LivingSocial deal at the Yoga place right down the block, so I hope to take two classes this weekend. I think I’ve taken only one yoga class in my life (more a Pilates gal), so it should be interesting. I will be that girl in the back who is completely lost and falls all over the place. At least I’ll be entertaining. 🙂

What about you? Yoga, pilates, hot yoga – do you take any of these classes? What’s your favorite?

Happy hump day!

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Just My Kind of Weekend

Posted on August 15, 2011 | 12 comments

Welcome to Monday. Admittedly, there is nothing welcoming about it. My only saving grace this week is that it’s a short one for me. We will be heading to Maine on Thursday morning and I could not be more excited!! I am in need of a vacay and this past weekend was so great that I really did not want it to end.

Friday wasn’t at all exciting – we were cleaning and generally wrapping up some business. We called it quits pretty early in preparation for the busy weekend ahead.

On Saturday I managed to squeeze in a 9-mile run in the morning in Central Park.

Look there’s me! The park was super crowded. I was going for an easy run, so I didn’t mind it being a little hard to maneuver. My splits weren’t bad overall…

After my run, I snacked some and then got ready to head to NJ for the Kenny Chesney concert!! Hubby is a huge country fan and I will admit that the music has grown on me. Our first dance song  at our wedding was actually a song by Kenny Chesney called “Me and You.” I was hoping he would play it (sadness he didn’t).

We arrived at the  new Meadowlands Stadium pretty early so we could spend some time relaxing and tailgating beforehand.

There’s us tailgating . Car = proof. The concert actually began around 4:15 and I had no clue how many people were on the lineup.  It was like we got to see four concerts in one! It started with Uncle Kracker at 4:15, then Billy Currington came on and finally Zac Brown Band hit the stage right before Kenny.

The photo above shows where we were sitting. We were pretty close – it was pretty cool. And actually, when Kenny came on later that night, he came out of the big gray thing to the left. A seat came out from the middle of the roof of the gray tent and he flew right above our heads. Apparently, he does some crazy entrance at all his concerts.

There we are cheesing it up! Right after Zac Brown Band finished playing it started raining.  At first, we were worried that it was going to start pouring, but it really only sprinkled for the rest of the night. And right around that time, Kenny started playing!

This is one of our last photos from the night. They seriously played forever. I think Kenny came on at about 8:20 and played until almost 11! The whole concert was really good – I’m glad I’ve given country music a chance. (I know my husband is saying “I told you so” right about now.)

We headed home looking like drowned rats after the concert ended – we were exhausted and crashed almost as soon as we got in the door.

But there’s no rest for the weary when you have a jam-packed weekend in NYC planned. We slept in as much as possible on Sunday, but then headed out for a day of fun at the American Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side. It was a rainy and dreary day – so a museum trip was a no-brainer for us… and about a gazillion other tourists and New Yorkers.

So five years after moving to NYC, I finally made it to this museum. It took a long time, but I think it was worth it. I really enjoyed the hours we spent there…despite the herds of people we had to contend with. And of course, I couldn’t help comparing it to the movie “Night at the Museum.” I felt like a kid doing it, but I couldn’t help it.

I kept waiting for the little miniature model people to come to life and attack me.  Or for a zebra to jump out of the glass box enclosure. Didn’t happen, but it was fun to imagine.

We stayed until they started kicking people out and then headed back out into the rain. The weekend ended with a some laundry, a pathetic dinner (too tired to cook) and True Blood of course.

And now it’s Monday and I’m kind of exhausted. I have a lot to get done before our mini-vacation and it feels like I have hardly any time to do it. Not to mention that I need everyone to do a “no rain dance” for us because I really don’t want my first trip to Maine to be completely dreary and cold. 😦 So dance if you can!!

How was your weekend!? If you live in NYC, what are some of the best “touristy” things you’ve done during your time here? What would you say is a MUST?! 

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Two Posts in One Day – Who Am I?

Posted on July 22, 2011 | 3 comments

Well, I guess getting back into blogging really struck a cord with me, because this will be my second post in one day. It’s either that, or the fact that I don’t have any exciting plans for the night. Ok – so maybe it’s the latter.

Regardless, I am back in the blog world and oh how I’ve missed it. I started catching up on a few of my favorites today: Carrots N’ Cake; A Healthier, Happier Bear; Runners Kitchen, Legally Fit, Meals for Miles and Dori’s Shiny Blog, to name just a few. And then I stumbled upon Run, Lindsay, Run; What Kelly Said; and Nurse on the Run and I remembered exactly why I love blogging so much – so many different, interesting people to connect with and learn about!

But this isn’t what I wanted to post about at all! I wanted post about my first trip to Fairway. Fairway opened this week on the UES and it has been pure mayhem. But as I left work today, I figured I’d stop in to check it out….

…and I fell immediately in love. In love with the mounds of fresh, bulk produce; in love with the endless aisles and rows of health-inspired foods; in love with the very nice people who kept asking if I needed help and plying me with free samples. I could go on, but it might start to get obscene. So you get my point. It was a little healthy haven (well actually, it’s pretty big) right in my neighborhood. I am smitten.

However, I wanted to play hard to get at first. Afterall, it was my first trip. I wasn’t about to walk in there and drop my cash willy nilly. This was just supposed to be a reconnaissance trip. So I quickly and quietly gathered myself together and performed a careful perusal. After a solid 20-minute exploration, I finally left with only a few things…

I am very proud of my controlled purchase of snap peas, a cucumber, pumpkin ravioli and some night-time tea. I could have gone nuts, I could have rolled out of there with armloads. But I maintained my composure.

I know my purchases appear seemingly random, but there is some sanity to these items. I love cucumbers (okay so still kind of weird, but overlook it) and was planning to stop to buy one anyway, who can resist snap peas (come on), I needed some carbs (ravioli) to fuel for a run tomorrow (plus they sounded delish) and I’ve been tossing and turning lately at night and thought a nice soothing tea might help (I apologize Hubby for buying more tea – I will take some of the others to work). You see–deeply thought-out purchases indeed. 🙂

Ok – I’m signing off now to enjoy my ravioli and sooth myself with some tea. Then I’ll end the night with David Sedaris and Me Talk Pretty One Day. I need to find out when he’s doing another book signing in NYC – cuz he is just the cats pajamas. Have a nice Friday all. Maybe I’ll spot some of you more hard-core NYC bloggers/runners in the park tomorrow morning if anyone is as crazy as me!

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Fun and Exhausting Girls Weekend

Posted on August 9, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning all. How can it be Monday already? I’m not ready for it. The weekend seriously flew by. My Friday night was low-key, as Hubby went to the Yankees game with a co-worker. But then Saturday was very busy and fun-filled.

I headed out around 10:00 a.m. to catch a Metro North train to Stamford, CT to meet up with a few of my girlfriends from college. Upon arrival, I met this new little arrival:

That would be little Miss Kendall. She is seriously precious.

The rest of Saturday day was spent grabbing some lunch and walking around an outdoor festival area in Norwalk, CT. It was really cute, fun and was a lovely afternoon.

After the festival, we headed back to my friend’s house to change for dinner and drop off little Kendall with her daddy for a few hours. Then we headed to this cute restaurant called Market in Stamford. We’d had a rather filling Mexican lunch, so I wanted to keep my dinner a little lighter. I ordered the chopped salad which was made up of local greens, jicama (actually not included), corn, apple, basque cheese with a champagne vinaigrette. No picture of my salad, but it was delicious.

Of course, we had to have dessert. We ordered two things, first these mini ice cream cones:

These were so cute and very yummy. But the star of the meal was definitely our second dessert:

This was called Crack Pie “Momofuko” and was described as NYC’s famous gooey, rich pie with coconut gelato. It was AMAZING!! This one was devoured.

And finally, here we are enjoying our nice dinner.


Katie, Kate, Me and Kim.

After dinner, the two Kates and I headed into NYC to watch a band play and proceeded to party well into the night. It got so late that when we hit up a diner at the end of our fun, I may have snoozed a bit – signalling it was time to go home.

Unfortunately, our partying and fun meant that Sunday was pretty much a complete waste of a day. Oh boy – I’m getting old. I managed to rouse myself enough to watch True Blood and then went straight to bed.

And as you may have guessed, on the running front – none was done this weekend. However, I just bought a book on running that I’m hoping will inspire me to get back into it, it’s called “Once a Runner.” Has anyone read it? The reviews on the back say it will make you want to go running – I sure hope so! But first I’ve got to push through “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb. It’s a good book, just long. I’m only about 250 page through the 700-page book.

What did you do this weekend? What were some of the highlights?

Have a good Monday all!

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