Fitting it all In

This weekend I received a card in the mail.

A card not just FROM my little sister, Squigs, but MADE by her:

she so craaaafty

I’m not really sure where the motivation for this card came from. But I’m sure glad it came. Because on March 4th, I will be running up to the Top of the Rock.[Shameless plug: feel free to donate to a good cause!]

When I signed up for this event, I just thought it’d be fun and something different to do, but no more work than a NYRR 4-miler or 10k in the park.

Then this weekend, I was on a bright red bus, directly under 30 Rockefeller Plaza and breaking my neck as I looked up to try to see the top of said rock. My neck hurt. And then my legs started to hurt just THINKING about how grueling getting up all of those stairwells will be. Oops.

So I need to start training for that.

And I need to start re-focusing on training for the National Half Marathon that will take place a few weeks later in DC.

Sure, I’ve been loosely following a training plan created by Hal, but with bachelorette parties and work events taking over my calendar, I’ve managed to completely let those 400′s that I love so much fall off the to-do list. Funny how when I was having severe foot issues (oh, I’m sure you remember me talking about them…EVERY day for 4 weeks straight) I was doing far more speed work, and now when I’m back in the great outdoors and running pain-free (/knocking on wood every time that thought crosses my mind) it’s problematic getting my butt back to the dreadmill.

I don’t have a whole lot of good runs to keep up Squigs (minus those 400s I let escape, an 11-miler in the snow a few weeks ago and a happily paced 5-miler Sunday. And fine, the 6ish miles I ran yesterday can be considered good since I ran them BEFORE seeing an apartment BEFORE working a 12+ hour day)…but I plan to change that. STAT.

Tonight was supposed to be another late night at work. Annnnd I just found out my presence is not actually needed. Wootwoot! So here’s hoping I can get back to the ol’ treadmill and pick up the pace again!

A verrry happpppy Tuesday to ya!

City of Bling

Sometime over the weekend, in what I’m sure was some booze-infused daze, I realized that I completely forgot about the blogworld on Friday. I’m pretty sure I didn’t send a single tweet–140 characters, 37 characters or otherwise. Had I tweeted, I probably would have only used 4 characters and typed a four letter word with lots of symbols like $%#@!

Friday. was. nuts.

Not only were things at work absolute chaos, I had many a bridesmaid-party-cohort traversing the city (final fling in the city of bling was our theme for the weekend)–all from out of town and all relying on my advice when it came to what to see and what to do. When the girls arrived on Thursday night I put MapMyRun to good use, and printed out maps of the city with all the walking trails clearly lined, and in very OCD-manner drew out their route with a sharpie and lots of little arrows and exclamations like “Turtle Pond!,” “You want the C train DOWNTOWN!,” “This is where you are having lunch at 1pm. Be there!”

Hopefully I did not scare them with my overuse of exclamations. And hopefully, they had fun snaking through the city via the command of my little treasure map. Their treasure at the end was frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity III followed closely by a pop-in to Dillon’s Candy Bar. All this while I was pulling my hair out at work. I wasn’t jealous at all.

The treasure map led them through lots of good touristy hot spots like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Plaza, 5 Avenue and Times Square. It worked out pretty well that they arrived in my neighborhood just as I was finishing up for the day (and by that I mean they took cover from Friday’s crazy winds in a TD bank while waiting for me, because I was of course held up much later than the 6:00 meet-up time I promised them). From there, I insisted on popping into a nearby bar for a very much-needed happy hour drink.

And that, my friends, was the beginning of the end for me and my liver this weekend.

Friday night wasn’t too crazy. But it was crazy fun. We picked up some necessities at Ricky’s (you know, R-rated boxes of pasta, inappropriate straws, whistles!–yes, that’s right and all kinds of other pink-tinted things that come with throwing a bachelorette party). We went home and made our fun-shaped noodles, along with some salad and served bread on the side. It was a perfect pre-race meal, only–sadly enough–I had no race plans on the agenda this weekend (though some awesome girls I know had pulled together a mac-n-cheese fun run that I missed). No, this carb-heavy meal was fuel for a Friday night of music, girl talk and lingerie gifting.

After the bride-to-be passed out in the middle of the living room with her white and pink Bride baseball cap pulled over her eyes and her inflatable friend* we called it a night and got to bed at a decent hour.

*No, we did not buy her a blow up doll! that is gross. we bought her a blow up something else. that I cannot disclose on here. I guess I could, because I’m sure you’re not reading this blog to your children each night…even though it would help them sleep I’m sure. But this is a classy blog people. Read on, you’ll see.

I had every intention of waking up Saturday morning and trying to sneak out for a run, but a long week of sleeplessness nixed that pretty quickly. And besides, there were tours to be given.

First stop on the tour was one of the best brunch places this city has to offer–Calle Ocho. It gets the vote of best because it has good food. But more importantly, because it serves unlimited sangria (8 flavors!) with said food. That made it a must for a bachelorette weekend.

From there we boarded one of the big, double-decker red buses that JD and I giggle at every time we see tourists scooting by on them Turns out though, very much like the Circle Line Cruises, they aren’t bad. And definitely a quick and comfortable way to give out-of-towners a good overview of the city. And while they of course hit the hot spots like the Empire State Building, Radio City, etc…they also give a lot of good history while cruising through random side streets in the Meatpacking District, Chinatown and Murray Hill.

The girls got another chance for an Empire State Building later Saturday night, when we made our first post-dinner stop of the evening at 230 Fifth. My friend took me here many, many years ago when I was visiting the city and I was in awe by the up-close-and-personal look at my favorite NYC building this rooftop bar provided. The fuzzy red robes and heat lamps only added to the swank.

how can you NOT love this view?!

The only problem with 230 is the fact that it does consider itself swanky. So much so that drinks come in at $14 a pop. So we gave our toast, snapped some shots of us in our cloaks and then hopped in a cab to the West Village where cheaper drinks (far, far too many of them), free shots (being in a bridal party is good when you get free booze. bad when you have no willpower to say no to it bar after bar after bar) and lots and lots of dancing awaited us. And dancing my face off with one of my oldest, bestest friends, with all of her oldest and bestest friends (whom I’m now in love with myself) in celebration of the fact that she’s found the perfect match for her was awesome in every, single, way.

Was it awesome that I do not even want to disclose the time we arrived home? Not as much, but it’s all good. Because sometimes dancing is more important than sleeping. And vodka is a better beverage choice than water or nuun (just go with me on that one)

I’m usually the girl who falls asleep at the bar at 11. Yet somehow, after a week of insomnia, managed to help close down the bar with the rest of the bachelorettes. And as if lack of sleep and large amounts of alcohol consumption are not unhealthy enough for you…I also help annihilate a ridiculous amount of pizza once home. Epic fail for this marathonwiner.

It did make me happy, however, to know that after such a bender of a weekend (and after yet another meal at good ol’ Tom’s followed by putting my oldest and newest best friend on a bus to LGA) I was able to knock out a few miles around central park. Unfortunately, it really was just a FEW miles (5 or so, to be exact) due to time restrictions (oh yes, I had to work last night. Let me tell you how happy I was about that. And I won’t even get into the fact that I’m also working tonight, and tomorrow night…etc etc GRR), but they were a great 5 miles.

Why? Why you may ask? Because the JD ran most of them with me. I get to run with him now and then, when both of our schedules allow for a morning run, but usually he peels off a little ways in to keep the distance a bit shorter than my 6-mile loop around the bridle path and reservoir. Yesterday I got his company for the entire bridle path loop and the walk home from the park . After a hectic work week last week immediately followed by an epic weekend of bachelorette debauchery, there hadn’t been a whole lot of JD and Katie time, so I was super happy to squeeze this run in before going into the office last night.I was also happy when I noticed that we were keeping a pretty steady 8:30 pace for the entirety of the run–same run that I set out on letting the JD know I was going to take it slow.

8:30 isn’t fast. But it isn’t slow.

Excited by yesterday’s pace I planned to wake up and knock out some 400′s this morning. But since work kept me up til after midnight, and I was fielding more work calls this morning at 7 a.m., I decided it wasn’t the best day for speedwork. I’m just happy to have squeezed a run in at all though, seeing as how I needed to be at work early AND managed to go look at an apartment with the JD. The high from that workout will hopefully carry me through yet another crazy day, as I don’t anticipate getting home until around midnight tonight. Blurg!

And now I’ve written a book. Apologies.

Happy Monday to you! And a happy recovery week to me–there will be NO booze in my immediate future, and hopefully lots of sleep, water and fast runs in its place.

Sleepless in NYC

I’ve had trouble sleeping on and off for a few years now. I’ve mentioned it at yearly check ups, and doctors have always asked me if I thought maybe it was stress robbing me of my zzz’s at night. I’ve always been able to say that no, I’m probably one of the least stressed people I’ve ever met, and that can 100% not be the cause of my restlessness when the sun goes down.

Until now.

A lot of my recent anxiety is over fitting in all of the good fun I am having/plan to have this week/this weekend. Last night, my cousin was in town from Georgia and we had plans to meet up for dinner in Eataly. Tonight, we’ve got plans to meet the rest of the NY fam out on Long Island for a beer/food pairing/tasting. Again–it’s going to be a great time and my overzealous appetite is looking forward to it.

Then tomorrow, oh tomorrow friends from all over the country start trickling in to the Big Apple for one of my very best friends’ bachelorette party–hosted by, yours truly.

These are all events that will inevitably involve lots of laughter, good food, good drinks and great fun.

They all also happen to be occurring at a point where my living and working situation are hitting the fan a wee little bit.

Work has been insane these past few weeks, and all of the insanity is due to a couple of monumental events scheduled for next week–to be fair, many started this week, I’m working one such event Sunday night and then shit really starts to happen come Monday night into Tuesday morning and into the rest of my winter .

On top of all that nonsense, the JD and I are desperately searching for our next apartment. Things had been looking pretty great about a week or so ago, but in the last couple of days we’ve been hitting a lot of dead ends. And I’m really worried about what that means.

So my guess is…that the reason I didn’t sleep on Sunday night, and my sleep was patchy on Monday night, and last night sleep was not even an option…all comes down to stress. Fitting it all in makes me stress. Worrying about every one of my weekend visitors (not even just this weekend…the rents are in town next weekend! and I’m working 2 events!) having an epic good time makes me stress. Wondering where I’m going to be sleeping a month from now makes me stress. Figuring out when I’m going to get all of my training runs in makes me stress. I am, I think for the first time in my life, officially stressed. And is shows in my sleeping patterns. Or lack there of.

To be fair, that last little factoid isn’t entirely true. Regardless of the fact that last night I was too busy wondering what bar I’m going to let bf have her last fling before the ring at Saturday night (as always, opinions are warmly welcome) or which work deadlines I needed to meet today and if I’m going to catch the train out to LI that I want to get any shut-eye, I still got up and ran this morning.

It wasn’t a fast run. It was probably more like the opposite of fast (not helped, I’m sure, by the yummy wine consumed at Eataly last night…by the way…GO if you haven’t. you will thank me). But I knocked out my 6.15 miles along the bridle path and reservoir and somehow felt far better prepared for another crazy day at the office followed by another long night.And I’ll likely do the same tomorrow…whether I sleep tonight or not. Because running is what keeps me going.

 

Rolling in the Deep

Now that I’m finally back to running pain-free, all I can think about is running.

Yesterday morning I really wanted to bang out a long-ish run, but a severe lack of sleep the night before (probably due to stress….induced by a crazy work schedule, looking for a new apartment, entertaining great gals for a bachelorette this weekend all on top of having every evening this week booked and trying to squeeze in workouts…) had me pushing the snooze button until the last possible moment.

Instead, I hit up the not-so-new NYSC nearest my new office. When I first walked in I groaned to myself, thinking it was far too old of a facility to be any good and that there were far too many people inside of it to leave room on a machine for me. I was wrong on all accounts.

Yes, this particular club was a little older than the one I usually frequent, but it still has a cycle studio (whose 6:30 class was filled last night. sad face) and a plethora of cardio machines. I was able to knock out a good hour on the ellip, 20 minutes on the spin bike and even landed a spot on the mat for stretching and free weights (pretty sure that’s the first time that’s happened since the resolutionists returned). It was a quality workout, but I got home late and was still pooped from the night before, so I ate a quick dinner and called in an early night. And by that…I mean I laid in bed and watched yet another episode of Glee.

I realize I’m very late jumping on the “trendy for teens but most adults secretly enjoy it too” bandwagon when it comes to things like this amazing show and Katy Perry’s amazing song (what? you didn’t hear that I’m recently in love with “Firework”?). In fact, plenty of people made fun of me for wanting to listen to it on repeat before going out on Saturday night, and I’m sure I turned some heads when it later started playing at the bar and I started jumping and screaming and clicking my boot-clad heels.

This morning I finally (FINALLY!) avoided pushing the snooze button at the lovely hour of 6 a.m. and got geared up for a run–a little TOO geared up. Somehow, those insane, not-anything-like-the-weekend-or-normal-winter-weather temps in the 50s were already out in full force at 6:30. And I was dressed pretty much identically to Saturdays snowy day run. Oops.

With an unusual amount of sweating for a late January morning, I managed to bang out a solid 8.25 miles (full loop of the park and yet another impromptu romp up Harlem Hill! Who am I?) before getting back, showering and getting my butt out the door.

The motivation behind the 6 a.m. wake-up call was I had plans to meet a guy for an apartment viewing at 9:00. I oh-so-proud of my already productive morning arrived at 8:52. And when he still hadn’t arrived at 9:15 I called it quits and skidaddled to work. Blurg.

It turns out, my apartment hunt is much like my job hunting had been (and continues to be)– I find lots of great prospects, get all kinds of excited, and then get dropped or ignored at the last minute (yeah, homedude from last Thursday has YET to respond to any of my inquiries this week). We technically have the whole month of February to continue the search, but how many leases start on February 4th or 11th? My guess is few. And I’m getting worried.

So the apartment hunt being like the job hunt leads me back to this morning’s stellar run. I realized, as I was huffing my way up Cat Hill and counting down the minutes until I was through Harlem that the only thing I’ve been really, truly passionate about in a very long time, is running. I’d love to think that I have millions of interests and talents that can help me land a great career, but when I really start to think about it, I don’t. If I really, really wanted to be a writer or an editor…wouldn’t I spend more of my free time (wait, what is that?) writing page after page of my stunning debut novel or slaving over freelance copyediting jobs that pay with a pat on the back to try to get my name out there? Probably. But instead, the only thing I want to do in my free time is put on my sneaks and go. I don’t have a book under my belt. But I do have a marathon under my belt.

As I hunt for apartments I’ve been so torn about my New York world…and whether or not I belong here. I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of my big move to the big city, and I’ve had three jobs…zero career success. I have however, discovered an amazing community of runners and checked off one of the biggest boxes a to-do list could ever have, only to add a similar one right back into the queue. Oh yeah, after a few weeks of puzzlement, I finally have gotten this peace of mind:

thats right. i'm IN.

Sometimes I feel like “okay, I gave the city a shot, now I should move on and go figure out my career.” Then I think about my running (likely while out on a run) and how its been affected by being here and think there’s no shot in hell that I will ever leave this awesome place. So looks like I’ve got to hold out a little longer…cross my fingers that we DO find an apartment and once settled in there, I’ll come across the right career to settle into as well.

Now, somehow I’ve been in this city for almost a year and have YET to experience the heaven-for-your-tastebuds pleasure that is Eataly, so I’m to meet my cousin (in town from Hotlanta) there and fill my tum with goodness.

Have a very happy Tuesday all!

 

- Have you found your dream job yet? If so, shed some wisdom. STAT!

- You’ve got 45 minutes to let me know what I MUST try in Eataly. Ready…go!

Sand vs. Snow

A little more than a month ago I was lounging on the beautiful beaches of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and getting my daily sweat on via short, barefoot runs in the sweltering hot sand. It was heaven. It may also have been somewhat of a contributing factor to the horrible on-and-off foot pains I started experiencing for four weeks after…but thats neither here nor there.

After an awesome spin class on Friday night–well, it was awesome that I was able to get back in the saddle, but the actual instructor never showed up. A fellow NYSC employee manned up to serve as a sub, and he did a great job considering I’m pretty sure he’d never officially taught a cycle class in his life, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. After the 45 minutes of spinning, sweating and wrapping things up with some stretching I headed over to the elliptical for a cool-down. I had forgotten the headphones that I’ve come to love for this activity, so wasn’t really feeling it and didn’t plan to stick around too long.

For those of you who have ever run with me (and maybe I’ve even mentioned it here on the blog), I have what a doctor has told me is exercise-induced asthma. For who-knows-what sciencey reason behind it, every time I workout, I suddenly have little hacking coughs interspersed in my cardio activity–usually just very quick, little hiccups of a cough that people often (I don’t know how) mistake for a sneeze. I can’t even begin to tell you how many people have blessed me while on the ellip or even running around Central Park.

Well on Friday night, about 15 minutes into my little leg on the ellip, one of these noises escaped me. And rather than give me the usual ”gesundheit” and get on with his own workout, my neighbor turned to me and said “If you’re sick you’re really not doing any of us any favors.”

Oh, really, buddy? I thought if I was ill the best way to spend my time was wiping my germs all over cardio machines and breathing as heavily as possible on all of the handlebars and buttons they have to offer. Only I didn’t say that to him. Instead I said, “Actually. I have asthma. But thanks for the tip.”

Please note: I’ve never used an inhaler of any kind of said “asthma”, because it really only is an issue when I’m working out, and even then, it’s more just annoying/embarrassing to have to say thanks to the 845320 people who bless me for my fake sneezing than being an actual problem for me. But neighborman immediately flushed and tried to make small talk about how damp this particular club is due to the pool. Nice try, buddy. Nice try. Point of this little rant? Just that the audacity of some people can really blow my mind sometimes. If I was sidled up next to someone exercising who I thought had the flu, I still wouldn’t jump to any conclusions…I’d just move to a different machine and/or use LOTS of extra sanitizer and soap after the workout.

Okay. Rant over.

Any who, back to my original point. The cycle sesh on Friday was SO good, that I was easily able to forget about my mini altercation, went home on an endorphin high and immediately started mapping out a route for a long run on Saturday morning.

When the alarm went off early Saturday a.m. I looked out the window, saw the gusts of flurries and pushed snooze.

Only I didn’t snooze for too long. And when I finally got up, the Twitter world was abuzz with people announcing the postponement of their long runs until Sunday morning. I knew I couldn’t run Sunday, with a day full of family-time, so I made the decision to pony up and run. I told the JD, my twitter friends and anyone else who would listen that I’d just go out, see how I felt in the snow, and run whatever was comfortable.

In my head though, I knew I was doing at least 10. I wouldn’t allow for a mile less, because I’ve been in severe need of the encouragement of a good long run.

The JD joined me for the first mile or so, and I was going SLOW. I was scared of Foot having a hissy fit of some sort, and terrified of falling and injuring some other body part heavily depended upon by runners.

Once the JD turned around towards home and I made it into Central Park though, I’d found my stride. And I told myself that running on the snow really wasn’t TOO different from running on sand–both require a little shift in how the body is carried and some extra attention paid to where the foot falls, but overall, it wasn’t terribly hard to do. And even though there were tons of NYers out with their sleds and toboggans, there was an eerie/inviting silence.

bethesda fountain in the wonderful white world of winter

My plan was to do two of the relatively easier 4-mile loops in the middle of the park. I entered at 96th street and made my way south, where I crossed over at the 72nd street transverse and got a lovely glimpse of Bethesda fountain. From there, I headed north up the east side. This part of the run became significantly more difficult as those serene flurries had turned into pellets of not-nice ice. Running up Cat Hill, facing the wind with the sting of those bullets was not the most fun I’ve ever had, but they subsided once I reached the reservoir. Feeling empowered by that more difficult part of the journey, I decided to bypass the 102nd street driveway and climb some hills in Harlem. And that’s exactly what I did.

oh central park. you are so pretty when blanketed in white.

By the time I came out of those monstrous hills and made my way back down to the west side for loop #2, those amazing NYC workers had already come through with the plows and cleared most of the roads in the park. I did the original 4-mile loop I had planned and then jogged the mile home, ending at a little more than 11 miles. The best part of it all? Foot was 100% pain-free (and still is today–though I’m knocking on wood even as I type this)!

Saturday night the JD’s sister came into town and we cooked up a delicious dinner, then headed down to the W. 80s for some bar fun

When we woke up Sunday morning we got ready for the rest of the JD’s family to arrive for brunch. After a delicious meal at Le Monde, we went back for some football action [note: I am NOT a football fan. Or at least wasn't, until PavementRunner and NYCRunningMama made it interesting last night]  at the apartment, and packed up a few non-essentials for his parents to store in their basement until after a move. Mission clear some space in the living room for this weekends bachelorette party: complete. Yay.

As it turns out, Sunday turned out to be a day dedicated to eating, because shortly after the JD’s family headed out, we headed south to meet my family (aunt, uncle and cousin from Queens) at Gabriela’s for din. SO glad we did, because it turns out, Gabriela’s is the BEST Mexican I’ve found in my year in New York. Impressive, no?

And shock of all shocks, the weekend/evening ended with watching more football [read: I paid attention to the score of the Giants/49ers game solely to see if I’d have a required number of miles on the queue this morning thanks to the  NFC Championship Challenge. The Gmen won, but only by 3 points–aka, 3 miles for those who bet on the 49ers taking the game. Hopefully, they win by much more come Feb. 5th to make things that much more exciting in the running community

Today is a crazy first day in the new office, followed by a trip to a new NYSC location. Fingers crossed that there’s not too heavy of an after-work crowd!

Have a veryyyy Happy Monday, kids!

- What audacious acts frustrate you?

- What wintry fun did you have this weekend?

Moving Day!

No sillies, I did not find an apartment yet. I DID look at a few lovely ones last night though, just waiting on the very nice man who showed us one particularly awesome place to email/text/call me back and say a. landlord approves of my cat and b. the place is ours. That would be swell. But the man who was oh-so-nice last night has not been quite the same today. Aka, I’m getting toward stalker status and he’s straight up ignoring me. Sad face. I want that place!

But anywho. Today WAS moving day at work. We are moving from a teeny, tiny, probably (no, definitely) over-the-fire-marshall’s-safe-number-of-occupants crowded space to a gorgeous new building! Last night we had a little staff christening party at the new space, today its all boxes and grunt work, and on Monday, for the first time since starting here I will have my very own sparkling new cube.

And BECAUSE we spent a good hour or two toasting to the new office last night, and then I met the JD to look at apartments/grab drinks in what would HOPEFULLY one day soon be our new neighborhood, I opted to skip this morning’s run in order to sleep in. But then I couldn’t sleep and the morning was a big, fat waste. Not cool.

What IS cool though is I’ll be hightailing it out of here early tonight to make it to the 6:00 spin class (why NYSC feels the need to cancel the 7:00 one on Fridays is beyond me), and I’m stoked because I haven’t been to a spin class (at least in its entirety…Foot forced me to quit last Thursday’s 15 minutes in) in well over a week. And I misssss it. I’ve just never taken one on a Friday night, so I’m intrigued to see what this new instructor has in store–music wise and sweat-wise.

I realize I’m rambling about absolutely nothing important, and its 4:00 on a Friday so essentially noone is around to read these ramblings anyway. I’ll wrap it up and wish you all a very happy (possibly snow-filled?) weekend!

Have fun kids!

No Such Thing as Routine

This morning I had every intention of shaking up my run by a) waking up an hour earlier so I could run further and b) doing said run along the Hudson River, since about 2 out of my last 842390 morning jogs have been outside of Central Park (or in reality, anywhere other than the Bridle path and reservoir).

But when my alarm went off at 6 I was still sleepy. And went it went off again at 6:30 I was just itching to see how my crazy dream ended (Squigs, if you’re reading…we were students at Hogwarts. it was AWESOME. and I pushed snooze but now can’t recall much more than that). At 7, I finally dragggged myself up and ignored the fact that I had stupidly looked at the weather before going to bed last night (note: it was supposed to be below 20 degrees when I laced up).

So unfortunately, the windy bank of the Hudson River on a freezing cold morning did NOT appeal to me, and I found myself heading over to the usual jaunt. I realize my 6.something mile runs multiple times a week have probably grown painfully boring for you to hear about, but it occurred to me today that no matter how similar my “routine” becomes, each run is different, and in so many ways.

Just between today and yesterday, there were a great many differences. Yesterday I ran with my Garmin (the fact that I haven’t fully figured out how to use it is besides the point) and today I did not. Yesterday I saw a lot of people out and about, many crazies even in shorts. Today there were far fewer people, a lot more dogs and noone silly enough to let their legs go bare. Yesterday I spent a lot of time racing myself…once I finally realized that my watch was showing pace and lap times. Today, I did not.

Today I was far less focused on the fact that I was finally back outdoors (woohoo! though not really woohoo, because Foot still hurts and that makes me angry, but that’s an entirely different story) and far more focused on appreciating having a few minutes of free time…a lot of minutes of “me” time. And it was used wisely. I thought up lots of smart ways to get a head start on packing for our move out of the apartment/making space for the many lovely ladies staying with me for a bachelorette partay next weekend (suggestions are as always welcome), I re-fell in love with the city (apartment hunting has been stressing me out), thought about my list of priorities at the office today and how I’d knock them all out (shockingly, I think I’m moving along that list rather well) and overall just had some detox from an otherwise anxiety-filled couple of weeks.

Yes, I was physically lazy over the weekend, but my mind was all twisted up and freaking out over work, apartment hunting, missing my fam and a whole other slew of things…top on the list very possibly the fear that my Foot will never heal and I’d never run again. But as is often the case…that last one motivated me to sign up for an awesome “race”, which got me re-pumped over all things sweatastic and which got me out the door (and onto a stair machine for the first time ever. Terrifying people, terrifying). Loop closed. Lesson learned: running is therapeutic, both physically and mentally. And I don’t really know where I’d be without it.

…probably staggering around the city like a crazy person, rotating between fits of laughter, ear-piercing screams, and crying to myself.

Thank goodness for my Asics! And my oh-so-boring routine.

Have a very happy Thursday kids!

Pumped Up Kicks

I feel like I could find a million ways to connect this Foster the People song to a blog post about running. The chorus alone talks about shoes, and running and running fast (the faster than a bullet part we’ll pretend to ignore). But the single only reason it was chosen for today’s post was because I haven’t blogged since Friday. And today is Wednesday. That’ a lot of days off and a lot of catching up to do. And I will catch you all up via a very quick and easy bulleted list (because I’m just as busy today as I was yesterday, and don’t have time for much more than a list).

My Weekend:

- I did not run my 10ish miles with CityRunningTours. I did not meet up with Katherine and Kristine for a nice long run. I did not run at all. I spent three very bleak days going to the gym and sticking strictly to the elliptical. It was boring, it was flat. But I did it for Foot.

- I did discover that the workout on the ellip is far more exciting/sweat provoking when done to music (yes, shock of all shocks, aside from Spin class I basically NEVER work out with tunage. Or…never worked out. Might be doing more of that now).

- Specifically, to Katy Perry’s song Firework. If you’d never seen the video, you were missing out on a big chunk of happiness. But I will fix all that now:

- I did not have the ever-busy, super perfect New York weekend that I had a few weeks ago. Instead, I spent a lot of time playing a very addictive word game on the JD’s iPad, learning that I love, love LOVE the show Glee, watching terrible vampire movies (NEVER watch Fright Night. It’s 2 hours of your life you will never get back and you will be very, very sad about the loss of those 2 hours) and eating. A lot.

- I did a lot of that eating at the JD’s aunt and uncles house on Saturday. But I also did a lot of that eating in our own apartment. And eating my own cooking. Instead of running and spending more monotonous minutes on the boring elliptical, I dedicated a good chunk of my Monday off work to cooking this, baking this, and eating the latter until I couldn’t move. Seriously. I’ve eaten way more cookie bars over the last few days than any single person should eat in a lifetime. It’s kinda gross.

- I saw a lot of awesome New York apartments. The hunt has started for the JD and I in finding our next NYC location, though no winner was picked this weekend–half sad face/half relief. Thoughts from current Big Apple dwellers are warmly welcome. Bring em on!

Yesterday:

- Was such a crap day. I felt so slothly and gross after a weekend of little running, lots of eating, and a “rest day” on Monday. I also felt like a crucial head cold was coming on all day long. It hurt to keep my eyes open. So I went home to rest them/let them watch Glee for a little cheering up…

- And then good things happened. After a lazy hour or two of watching Glee in the comfort of my PJs and bed at the odd-hour of 5:00…I dragged myself up. And ate some soup. And while I ate flipped through the mail and stumbled upon this:

apparently i'm a sucker for direct mail. because i was signed up within 2 minutes of reading this.

You may remember that I (however anxiously) had signed up for the NYRR “race” up the Empire State Building. Not sure I ever brought you fine readers up to speed on that, but I didn’t get chosen in the lottery. I was a wee bit relieved because I think stairs are pretty freaking intimidating. But I was disappointed because it was a fun, and very new challenge.

So when I saw that there was a similar “race” up 30 Rock, that was not only FAR cheaper but was for a REALLY, GREAT cause…I signed up immediately.

- After slurping up my soup, shoveling in a few more pretzel chocolate chip cookie bars and clicking submit on my registration for the MS Climb to the Top, I realized that being sick/continuing my weekend laziness was not the greatest way to train for a very intimidating stair climb (read: 60 stories..I don’t even know what that equates to on a running route, but I can tell you that after the very few times when I climbed 12 stories in my old office building, I couldn’t walk for days afterwards…so…what does that tell you?). So I took some Echinacea, pounded some water and put on my gym clothes.

- I nailed my elliptical routine from the weekend but decided to spice things up a bit afterwards, by doing my own “cycle class” on the bike, using the photoshopped biker on screen as my instructor. Turns out, it’s just as great as a sweat as going to the studio (sans a super peppy instructor and motivation created by cycling alongside lots of bad-ass sweat monsters). I only went for 20 minutes instead of the usual 45 because it was late and I’m a sissy. But I’m glad I discovered there are other options when the resolutioners fill up class.

- I also attempted the stair climbing machine for the first time in my life…just to see what it was like.

- I think I will stick to my apartment buildings staircase to “train” for this climb. The stair climbing machine is scary and dangerous and I almost re-hurt Foot about 423423 times in 5 minutes (though I did get in a good sweat).

Today:

- Apparently I showed up to work with a GIGANTIC hole in the back shoulder/pit part of my sweater. Not cool..

- But more importantly…I RAN. For the first time in a week (technically less than that because I ran three sissy miles on the dreadmill last Thursday, but this was my first nice, quasi-long outdoor run since LAST WEDNESDAY)!

- It was glorious. I was underdressed and slow and my foot probably isn’t anywhere near healed, but it was awesome.

- I am back. I am ready to run some real miles this weekend. And I’m pumped to climb to the top of 30 Rock.

Anyone wanna join?

Have a happppy Wednesday! Holy crap, this week is flying!

Oh, and just because it made me giggle. Here’s a good read for you, courtesy of Jocelyn (who posted it courtesy of Bull Runner).

Consistency

Consistency is important in so many parts of life: a sleep/diet/workout/insert other word routine, company branding, public transportation, and apparently, blogging.

I’ve been posting soooo late in the day every day this week. It started out at a 3:00 in the afternoon post and slowly worked its way up to 4:30. So I figure I should end the week on a strong note by going up at the lovely hour at 5:30 p.m. If I had written this at 10 a.m. this morning you likely would have been shocked and the schedule you had set for your day would have been thrown completely off-kilter. So you’re welcome dear readers (the four of you out there that read this with any regularity) for the consistency.

I had mentioned yesterday that even though I had an awesome run on Wednesday morning, complete with hills and little surges, I woke up wanting to amputate my own foot yesterday. Common sense told me I’d regret that decision later, so I stayed away from sharp objects and suffered through the work day, taking time outs to change the bag of ice resting on said foot. This has happened a few times over the past few weeks, but the pain usually subsides enough by the end of the day so that a trip to the gym is bearable, welcome even. But that was not the case last night.

After doing a very easy-going tempo run on the dreadmill (turns out, I really only tolerate/appreciate the machines when 400 sprints are involved), I tried to saddle up for spin class. Well, I did try to, I physically went into the cycle studio, adjusted the bike for a bueno ride and started peddling. But Foot wasn’t having it. For the first time, I think EVER in my workout/fitness history (at least from what I can remember) I had to dismount and give up…a mere 15 minutes into the sweat sesh. I was NOT happy. But I knew “powering” through such consistent pain (see? consistency again) was definitely not going to help me in the grand scheme of things. I ducked out of the studio like a bad puppy, tail between the knees and instead settled in for a cool off on the elliptical–the king of low impact.

I wore the sneaks to work today…oh man, forgot to announce it with prettty pics, but I got new kicks! They are pretty. And they are NOT a size up like my running shoes are (which is what I had been wearing to the gym and what I mused to be part of the foot problem). And I love them. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of them to share with you and by the time I do they’ll probably not be so pretty. But any who, wore them to the office today and things are feeling much better in my shoes today. However, I’ve got a training run with City Running Tours bright and early tomorrow morning, and I think by the end of the day will have banged out a good 10 miles. So I want to keeeeep the feet feeling good. Tonight’s workout (if one even happens) will again consist only of easy peasy ellipticalling.

Gym? On a Friday night? Yes, that’s right. I’m 80 years old. But when my options were to check out the 90s cover band the Bayside Tigers (!!!) who weren’t even STARTING their show until 11:30 p.m. (booo) OR get a light workout in and good nights sleep before tomorrow’s run, the answer was obvious. Maybe I’m not a boring old lady. Maybe I’m just a real runner. I’m hoping its the latter.

Any who, low key events tonight, but it’s followed by a three-day weekend with lots of fun stuff on the agenda

Have a great one kids!

Only Thursday?

I have absolutely no idea how it’s still only Thursday. What a whirlwind week it’s been! Everrrrry single day has had something slated for both pre-work and post-work hours, so there’s little time left for doing things like catching up on emails/life, sleeping, eating (that’s not true…I ALWAYS make time for that), relaxing or any number of things.

Yesterday, the day that I was so busy I had to put up a holiday-themed post from the lovely Meggie at the last-minute. What was I so busy doing? Well, I was up bright and early for an awesome run around the Bridle Path, the reservoir (you know, the usual) AND the hill in my hood that I used to tack on to the end of runs when I was feeling especially super-heroish and awesome.

I had toyed with the idea for the first 6.5 miles or so of my run, not sure if I should push my foot or not, but I wanted to know that I was capable of running half the distance (or more) of a half marathon. Because I’m seriously considering a completely impromptu trip to Bermuda this weekend to run a half there. Crazy? Yes. Crazy cool? You bet.

I made it up the hill and through 7.5 (ish–haven’t had a free second to map it out…) miles pain-free and with my Garmin on my wrist for the first time ever. Well, again, I’m fibbing. I wore it to SundayFunDayRunDay [read: Courons à la Cassoulet] in hopes that one of my new runner friends would be able to teach me how to use it, only to arrive in Central Park to the tune of a beeping, dying battery. Oops.

But it worked yesterday! Again…I think (haven’t had a free second to plug in and see how it registers on the computer, and not even sure what buttons I pushed to get it going, but we’ll see what happens). And the hill run went so good! And I made it into work riding a lovely runners high, complemented by a new outfit. That was hot pink. And made me feel fun and flashy.

The work day FLEW by because I was SO crazed with mounds of emails and edits and all sorts of crazy things, and I snuck out justttt in time to meet my aunt at Penn Station. I recently discovered that not only did she not know what “pad thai” is, but that she’d never had thai food. After I picked my jaw up off the floor and immediately started making plans to remedy that. We thought we may go up to my favorite neighborhood place, Sura, but thought we’d stick around midtown so she wasn’t too far away from trains when the clock struck midnight and she’d turn into a pumpkin she wanted to go home and catch some zzz’s. So we ventured to the distant land of 10th ave., hoping to catch Wondee Siam’s awesome “2 for 1″ cocktail hour, only to discover that that oh-so-special special only exists at Wondee Siam “I” on the UWS…not the lonely III in Hell’s Kitchen. But we stuck around anyway, paid full price for some delicious wine and went to town introducing my aunt the joys of pad thai.

Dinner was delish, and we grabbed another drink on the way back to Penn. By the time I got home, it was bedtime again! Story of my life…or at least story of my week.

I woke up far earlier than I intended and thought that was a-okay, because I could get a run in and free up my evening for laundry and other things, like letting my cat know I’m alive and washing the dishes from the chili I made on Tuesday…

Only my foot said no. Said no in a big, loud “you’re not running this morning and I’d like to prevent you from running in Bermuda as well” sort of way. So I went back to sleep. Sigh.

And I’ve been too swamped at work to test out how the foot is feeling about any real sort of movement…Sad, I know. But we’ll have a little pep talk and see if Foot is feeling up for at least a quick spin class later tonight.

Everyone keeps telling me it’s time to see a doctor. Three weeks of on and off pain (some days rainbows and butterflies and others throbbing, screaming, pounding “I hate you” hurting)? Yes, I know I need to see a doctor. But due to having turned 26 in August (and getting kicked off Obamacare) and having started this job in November…I’m not at the poopy 3-month mark that grants me a shiny new insurance card. So looks like its more whining to you fine people, hoisting it up in bags of ice while stuck in the cube and crossing my fingers that this is just an ongoing, very cruel joke being played on me by Foot, and it will soon come to an end.

Happy Happy Thursdayyyy friends!

Have a great rest of the day/evening