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Friday, July 26, 2013

9 and feeling so alive

Yesterday I woke up to a doggy that wanted a walk!  It was 6am and I was going to sleep in a bit and do a 2.5mile run, but Clyde was by my bed and I figured I owed him a good walk. The weather was chilly, in a good way, so we went for a couple miles.  I snapped this pic right before we left!

Look at him just eyeing up his leash!

I skipped my run, but hey like I have said before life happens and you have to work around it.  I walked about an hour with him that morning and then walked an additional amount in NYC, took the stairs instead of the escalator (major stairs people) and just put in little exercise here and there.

I am going camping this weekend and leaving super early Saturday morning, so I decided I needed to get my long run in this morning (Friday).  My alarm went off at 5am and thank god, it was still chilly!  I felt great, ran my 9 miles without a hitch and finished running to the bathroom!  There you have it, 9 miles is my marker of when I have to go to the bathroom!  The good news is there are plenty of areas I can stop and I know where they are from last year when my mileage adds up even higher!




Just finished 9.12 miles at 9.36 minute mile pace!

Although I am super tired, I am feeling really good today.  Soreness is at a minimum and the only ache I have is in my heel.  I am going to look into it and see what I can do, but I do not think I can do much.  Have a happy and healthy weekend!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Stats

This morning was a beautiful morning!  There was a nice breeze through my whole run.  Unfortunately, I had all my shorter running pants/shorts in the wash so I had to wear my long black running pants....fail!  Anyway, it wasn't all that bad.  I took a different route this morning.  I hit a big long climbing hill up around 1.5 miles then looped back around and did the stairs up from the bottom to the top of that hill on the way back.  Overall, felt pretty amazing!  I have been using my anti-friction rub which avoids blisters on my feet and even though I need new shoes I haven't had sore feet that much.
It will save your skin from a ton of pain, do yourself a favor and purchase S.T.A.T.!

I took a look at my "achievements" on micoach so far training this year and it makes me happy!  So far I have run:

10:05:22 hours
62.54 miles
8,120 calories burned

Not too shabby if I may say so myself and training has just begun! 

After my run this am, I took Clyde to the dog park and heard two people talking about their training.  It got me excited and I wanted to join in on the discussion, but I chickened out!  Although I have run many races and trained for the marathon last year, I still don't really think I'm qualified to join in with "real runners" you know, people who pace at 8 minutes or faster!  I don't know if I will ever be able to hang in that club, but it was cool to hear them talk about their training schedule.  Even though I run at a 9.5 or 10 minute mile pace, we are doing about the same mileage each week, which totally made me feel legit!

Tomorrow a super quick run, probably 2.5 miles or less.  I have to switch around my long run this weekend and do it early Friday morning (9 miles) and I don't want to push it the day before.

Good news alert!  My "skinny" work pants are starting to feel loose in my upper thigh area!  I haven't been weighing myself really, but my food choices have been pretty great for the most part.  I think some of that has to do with not weighing myself.  See if I see a loss, I usually give myself a "fat" day to gain some back, yeah that doesn't work.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Familiar Pavement

This weekend was filled with a ton of activity, but all good!

Friday started off with an early morning alarm going off at 5:30am.  I ran a quick 4 and some change mileage and then we hit the road for a drive to Spencer, MA.  We visited friends for the weekend and they took us on a surprise tubing trip!  To say it was fun was an understatement!  For about 4 hours we tubed down the Connecticut River with minor rapids, a cooler filled with beer and twisted teas and made a pitt stop to jump off some cliffs!  Below is a picture of us before we hit the river.

  The white bobble looking things was our coolers!

After tubing we got some Mexican, chatting a bit more and went to sleep at our friends home. 

It was an early rise again on Saturday.  Our friends have four children ages 5 and younger.  Yes, you heard that right!  They were up and ready to play around 6am and there wasn't really any point in trying to stall.  I got up immediately and started playing with the kids and tried to give B a couple more hours of sleep.  He was up about 30 minutes later ha!  They were having a BBQ that day, so we helped out where we could, but mostly I just played in the pool with the kids.  B is the godfather of the little girl (she is the only girl out of the bunch) and she is our flower girl in our wedding next month.  Here is a picture of me and my girl Luci at thier BBQ.

Total lovebug!

We left around 4pm and heading home to Hoboken.  Around 7:30 we got home, showered and tried to watch The Bourne Legacy.  It was a fail.  I fell asleep about an hour in.  Oh well, I'll have to catch the ending another time.

Sunday was, you guessed it, another early rise.  I got up around 6am and heading on my long run.  I was excited because on Sunday it did cool off a bit.  The heat wasn't that bad and it showed in my run. 

Kind of fuzzy, but above are my stats for that run.


I felt great, but it was kind of annoying because I had to start my tracker about a minute before I actually started my run.  I ran at around a 10 minute mile pace.  It isn't fast but I'm still starting out and my long runs I need to maintain a slow pace because I am not sure how much energy I will need at the end.  I did start hitting the beginings of the longer paths I took last year.  It was fun and it made me happy to see the same milestones I had surpassed last year.

After the run, I showered, got my oil changed, went to a fun baby shower for my beautiful cousin and headed home to chill the F out! 

Tonight, wedding work followed by an early morning short run! 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

When it's this hot, you don't cool down

I ran my scheduled 4 miles this morning and I think my body is starting to get used to running in the heat.  There was zero breeze by the water and the sun was out in full force, but I didn't feel sick or exhausted.  Another bonus was that the water fountains where on!  Hoboken usually only turns their water fountains on after 7am, so it was a supremely pleasant surprise that they were on when I went for a drink around mile 3 at 6:30ish in the morning!  I dipped my whole face in that water fountain! 

I took a cold shower and just couldn't totally cool down.  I didn't put make up on because my face was still a little clammy and I just knew the walk to work I would only start sweating again.  Below is a picture of me on my way to work, an hour and cold shower after my run!
                                   Yup, still have a completely red face, kind of hard to put make up on!

I literally moved where ever I saw shade.  If one turn had a shadier path, I was on it.  Even though I managed to stay in the shadows of buildings, I was a little sweaty when I got to work.  Ugh, these are the only days I miss my job in NJ where I would just walk to my car, sit in AC, walk out of my car and go into an AC office!  Sweating and blouses are not the best of combinations! 

I tried something different this week, starting Monday, regards to eating.  I tried eating less bread, pasta & rice.  I am still eating a lot.  But in the morning I am going for two fried egg whites and two veggie sausages with a load of hot sauce, see below:


                                                                  Don't playa hate!

I have been eating a lot of salads, but a lot.  I mean I am not really full, and this morning I snuck on the scale and guess what, I lost weight!!!  I mean I know it's a mixture of running as well, but when I was eating toast for breakfast and pasta for dinner it definitely didn't feel as easy.  I mean I really am not feeling deprived or hungry during the day.  Well I'm going to try and continue this eating and let you know if some crazy urge or something comes over me and I binge on two loafs of Country Arnold white bread or something!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Long trip with a sweet ending!

I rented a movie, I Give It A Year, and ran to the buses.  It was a maze of people and smells, but I found the bus to Toms River!  Alas, I made it to the back of the line, which was winding and turning in all directions to keep up with the massive amount of people waiting.  Lucky me, I got onto my bus!  One cute and funny movie later I arrived in Toms River, exhausted, but not a bad ride!  I got back to my grams talked to her and my mom and waited for my brother and nephew to arrive.  Around 8:30 I saw his little head pop out of the car!  It has been a year, but my little silly nephew was here and still...silly!  The energy a happy child brings into a room is electric!  I wish he lived nearby so much!  Here he is in the middle of eating a ton of meatballs and pizza.

A little fuzzy because he was moving around, but look at that smile!

As you can probably tell, his mother is Philippine and man is that a dominant gene!  Such a good looking boy!  After a couple of hours, we were completely zonked and all called it a night.  I woke up at 5:45am and started my morning.  I had to catch a 6:45am bus back to NYC, so I was showered and eating cereal by 6:05am.  To my surprise Gav woke up and gave me a big hug and kiss goodbye!  Not the worst way to start a morning!

Not sure what my plans are for tonight.  We have some wedding planning we have to do, but other than that I am looking forward to a low key night.

Tomorrow am, a medium run (prob 4-5 miles).  My long run is going to be on Sunday this week, 8 miles, so I will be running tomorrow and Friday am!

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

I can blog!

Yay!  No more errors!  Ok, so I have done a lot since my last post, too much to remember, but I did save my 4th of July post that didn't work.  Since then running has been great, I am 100% on schedule with my plan and even though it feels like I am running in a sauna, I get my ass out there and even have taken on the "stevens hills" already (3.5 + hills this am)!  This weekend is 8 miles, I wonder what time I should wake up to do that! 

Tonight I'm heading down to TR and get to see my nephew!!!!  Can't even explain how excited I am!  I will def take a picture and post about it tomorrow.

Below is my post from 4th of July which I saved!

Happy Independence Day weekend America!!!

This long weekend was hot hot HOT!  Wednesday night, B and I had dinner with friends.  It was great to catch up with them, however the place we frequent a lot and had dinner was having a really bad night!  They were out of pretty much everything, they overcooked our pizza and the service was pretty bad.  It is a shame, we loved that place, but probably will not go again for a long time.  We had wine and some after dinner cocktails at another local place, then called it a night around midnight.

Thursday we woke up early, but no early enough.  It was way too hot for me to do a run so we took Clyde on a decent walk and B napped all day.  It was 4th of July and we had plans to go to a friend’s family barbecue and B wanted to “rest up” before the night of bbq started!  I, on the other hand, got really bored.  I worked on some wedding stuff, did a light clean then decided to go for a bike ride.  I was thinking that since I would be moving the “breeze” from movement would be enough to keep me from passing out!  Most of the trails by the water where closed off for the fireworks, but I did get a pretty decent hour bike ride in.  Then when I got home, Clyde decided to show me how patriot he was by posing with his red, white and blue toy!


At the BBQ I made really good food choices…at first.  I had the grilled chicken, the salads and stuck to the low cal foods.  Then, after way too much Twisted Teas, I went nuts.  Deserts, potato salad, hamburger.  Ugh.  That along with the calories of the “teas” really made me feel sluggish and fat the next day.  Friday, B had to do work at his parents and I felt like sh*t.  I dropped him off and went home.  Sat at home doing nothing and ordered some fried food around 2pm.  My stomach was on the fritz and it helped.  Bad cycle.  Drink, eat bad, eat worse to ease stomach pain from drinking.  Yeah, that will not be happening for a long time!  I went to pick B up around 6 and we had a nice grilled dinner with his parents.  I wasn’t feeling 100%, but that dinner at least felt good.

Saturday came and went.  It was 100 degrees literally and just a dead humid heat.  B and I stayed pretty much in our undies on our bed all day.  We met up with friends for a late dinner, but the food choices where all very good.  Sunday was another hot day, but I was babysitting!  My friends where moving so I watched their toddler for a couple hours and it was fun!  He is a very good boy, so it was pretty easy!  He waded in his pool for a bit, but even that was hot! 
 


This morning I woke up and ran.  Even though it was still really hot, I couldn’t put it off anymore.  It wasn’t fun and I didn’t feel great.  I knew it was all because of the heat, but it didn’t matter.  I was bummed with how hard it was.  Tonight B and I are having a super healthy dinner of black bean burgers and veggies then going for a bike ride!  Believe it or not, I’m really hoping for some rain to cool off the heat!

I have a big day ahead for me tomorrow and I can’t wait to get to it!
Also, here is another bonus picture of Clyde meeting a little pittbull puppy, swooooooooooooon!


Wednesday, July 3, 2013

TGIW

It's only Wednesday, but it is a Friday in our office!  We have off tomorrow and Friday and I am so excited!  One of my best girlfriends moved into the suburbs in April and I do not get to see her as much as I had when she lived three blocks down and we are spending 4th of July together!  So excited to hang with her and her fam!

Can I tell you, I felt great today!  I ran 5.5 miles this am and it was awesome!  I used my micoach app to make sure that I didn't start off too fast.  I kept my first two miles within the 9-10 minute mile pace instead of the 8-9 minute mile pace I have been starting off at.  The first mile consisted of working on my breathing and making sure my strides where complete (meaning rolling my feet all the way through and expanding my stride to a comfortable distance).  I put band aids on my feet to avoid blistering, but they weren't the blister bandages I usually purchase, just regular band aids.  Although they work in the beginning, they tend to move so towards the very end I felt the blisters popping up.  I really need to purchase my gear and new sneakers now that I think about it.  Anyway, at mile one I felt great, I knew I could push farther than the 4.5 miles I did on Monday and so I took a quick glance at what time it was and saw I had enough time to add more distance.  It was that simple, one mile in I knew what type of run I was going to have.  Now I have been running for a very long time and this is the second marathon I am training for, so it took many, MANY runs before I was able to identify what my body feels during a run, but once I did I was able to take in the view and coast.  I decided that I should snap a shot and share the view I am so lucky to see each run.


Beautiful, NYC.  That is lower Manhattan, the large building is the Freedom Tower (where the World Trade Towers used to be)  It was hot, but a beautiful morning.

After my run, I took C to the dog park and stretched.  I wore a cotton shirt running and it was a mistake, but I didn't have anything clean that I saw in my groggy state when I woke up at 5:45am.  Cotton just isn't a great material when you sweat.  It is heavy and it can chafe.  I didn't have to worry about chaffing because it just wasn't that long of a run to cause it, but any long runs past 10 miles you have to be in your best running gear.  I'm talking quick dry running shorts (they are undies that are like booty shorts), quick dry shirts and I wear cycling shorts.  I also use a bunch of other gear that I put on my body, which I spoke about last year and will again this year once I enter those longer runs. 

I got ready for work and then at work, I decided to take another picture, this time of my foot!  This puppy is the never ending blister!  This is what I need to get the correct bandages for.  It heals, but new ones just start forming underneath.  The blister bandage that is kind of like another layer of skin I put on works wonders, but if I don't use it, see below!



You have been warned!!!

Also, I'm sorry that my feet are kind of gross looking.  My toenails are painted and cute, but I can't really get pedi's when I'm training (too embarrassed) and the bottoms of my feet kind don't get the attention they deserve!  Also I wear flip flops in the summer and walking around Hoboken/NYC in flip flops = not best idea.

I am hoping we are going to get out of work a little early today, then B and I are hitting up Dozzino's for dinner and getting our Hot Onion pizza on!  The best pizza, seriously that Hot Onion is the best flipping pizza!  I am not sure, but I think I am going to have wine with dinner, I have off tomorrow and I only plan on doing a 2.5 or 3 mile run, so if I have a little too much wine, aight no thang! 

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!  God Bless America!

Monday, July 1, 2013

And training officially begins!

July 1st is here!  My training for the 2013 ING marathon has officially begun!  So here I am, a year later and going for it the second time around.  I ran this weekend, just a quick two miler.  I woke up late and didn't get started until around 8am.  The humidity was really just stifling.  Two miles was all I had in me yesterday morning.  I also did a ton of activity this weekend in general.  My weekend was another glorious one!  Hours of walking and bike riding, two movies and chilling with my two buds Brendan and Clyde!  Clyde really was not interested in the walking part, so after a few attempts at longer walks I took him home and let him relax in the A/C.  Each year he gets worse and worse in the heat.

This morning I was up early in an attempt to beat the humidity, around 5:45am.  I ran, it was ok, but not amazing.  I'm sorry but the first day of training and having it be as humid as it was stunk.  I was all ready to be positive and happy about marathon training, but in the end I did it, about a 9:30 minute mile pace and it was just ok.  I went home, stretched and got to work early.  I ran 4.5 miles this am.  A little longer than what I started out with last year, but I want to pusth myself a little harder than last year.  My goal is to be stronger and more prepared.  Don't get me wrong, I could have run the marathon last year.  I was up to 22 miles and I know I would have run it, but I did hit some hiccups during training.  Mostly towards the end since I was so tired of it all.  I hope to remain focused and strength train a lot more. 

My post run "glow"

I gave myself a pedicure yesterday too, which felt great and my toes look like a pro got to them, however my soft feet gave me a big ole blister this am.  Last year my feet suffered the most, including losing two toe nails!  I am going to put some money into investing the proper socks and preventative bandages to not have them go completely to shit this year.

I have runs scheduled for Wed/Thurs & Sat this week.  Saturday being my long one, with a distance of 6 miles.  I do plan on weight training tomorrow and Sunday.  Let this be my ceremonial "ribbon cutting", and I'm off!