Welcome Back Spring

Welcome back Spring. You have been very much missed. There were times when I thought I may never see you again. Hopefully the lion of March is gone and the lamb is here to stay.

It was very nice to have a warm, sunny day today following the hurricane-like weather over the weekend. I took advantage of it and went for a my 3 mile run in the park. It was a really clear night, so I snapped this picture of the city. If only my iPhone had zoom!

In order to add a little boost to my training, I created a training schedule and printed it out. I will plaster it to my cubicle wall, refrigerator, bathroom mirror, and anywhere else necessary as a constant reminder that laziness is not okay. Since I'm running 4 days a week, I've added in variations of strength training for the remaining 3 days: arms, legs, and abs. I've rotated these around so that it doesn't become monotonous. This way not only will I be running the marathon, but I will hopefully have some very fine arms, legs, and abs.

Back to my run in the park- I remembered to slow down my pace and managed to run the whole thing without stopping. Part of it might have been out of fear that Megan was going to run up behind me and start yelling. :) With my slow pace, I did get passed quite a bit tonight, but you know what? I'm not trying to be Meb. I'm just trying to finish the race without dying. (For those of you that don't know...Meb won the 2009 NY Marathon).

Happy running!

Worst. Run. Ever.

Today it rained. Actually, today the heavens opened up and released the motherload of all torrential downpours on the city. This wouldn't necessarily have mattered so much except that my friend Megan is in town. We had made plans to go for a run in Central Park, and apparently where she's from, rain doesn't seem to be a big deal to run in. I, on the other hand, did not agree. I don't have running clothes for rain. I have cotton, which for those of you that don't know, tends to absorb water. Oh, and it was cold, so I wore a tobogan, but not a really great running tobogan. No, it was a super water absorbant one.

Once dressed, we set out for the park. About 3 blocks into it I wanted to die/cry. That is when the yelling first began. I was instructed to run through the pain/tears/rain/wind and that it would get better once we got to the park. She was partially right. The wind wasn't quite so bad, but I still wasn't too pumped about the whole situation. I did learn something though. I guess when I've been training, I try to run at too fast a pace and then get tired and have to walk. Walking was not an option this time...at all, even after I pointed out that the Seattle marathon is a walk/run marathon. This is where the yelling continued. I was given a very motivating speech and I'd like to say that it kicked my butt into gear, but I'd be lying. While on the surface, everything that Megan was saying made sense, like, 'work through the pain',' you're mind is thinking too much', 'you're coming up with too many excuses', etc etc. However, I'm used to just running with me, myself, and I, and the 3 of us usually think that we can't do it, so it's kindof difficult to just change that mindset.

In the end, I was really glad that we did it. I was soaked and tired, but very proud of myself. Now I know where I stand with my training and I need to get my butt into gear if I want to survive across the finish line. I even went and bought some better running gear in case I find myself in a rain storm again.



(I did cut a deal with Megan that if I finished, I got to put her picture up, so in a way, I win!)
If you're reading this Megs, I love ya, and hopefully you won't get a chance to yell at me in June!

Road ID

I think companies should pay me money to endorse their products. I'd be the best endorser ever, like a race car driver with Tide plastered all over my car. Until then, I guess I'll just do it for free.

Here's a runner's product that I love and helps to keep me nice and safe on my runs. It's called a Road ID (www.roadID.com). It's a great bracelet thing that you engrave with your name, phone number, emergency contact and an optional motivation phrase. Mine says La Bella Vita = a beautiful life. I sometimes look down at the phrase during my runs to remind myself why I'm torturing myself. I suggest you come up with something really motivational like, You can do it! or Never give up! or something similarly as encouraging. It might even help to wear it all the time so that on days when you can't remove yourself from the couch you'll feel guilty every time you look at your wrist. See, great endorsement.

So rest assured mom, if anything were to happen to me, the cops would know who to call (just kidding).

Peas and Cupcakes

Look at this great ice pack that I found at CVS! It's called Peas and has little gel things inside of that are supposed to mimic a bag of peas. Great idea! It even has a velcro band on it so you can put it on your knee. I think I love it.

Now on to another topic. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I'm a vegetarian and part-time vegan (I don't drink milk and try not to eat regular cheese often). Anyways, I have a dream of someday breaking away from corporate America and owning my own vegan cupcake bakery. I've been testing out some of my own new recipes, but I need new ideas for flavors. It can be anything, even something like peanut butter and jelly. I'm just looking for suggestions of new types that I could try.

Anyways, if you have any ideas, add them. I'd appreciate it! Who knows, maybe someday I'll be the next Martha Stewart...minus the jail time.

Have a great night and happy running.

My Poor Knee

I'm sitting here with my foot propped up and a frozen bag of green beans on my knee as I write this. Apparently somewhere along the way yesterday during my run, I hurt my IT band. Coincidentally, Chapter 3 of my training book, The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer talks about the most common injuries. According to the book, this type of injury could be due to leg length discrepancies. The only leg discrepancy that I have is that my legs are super short!

I seem to hurt my knee a lot when I run...and my back. I'm pretty sure it's my body protesting. It would much rather be playing the obstacle course on Wii Fit Plus instead of out running. But that's crazy, because it's finally gorgeous out here! 60 degrees! I can't believe 2 weeks ago we had a record snowfall and now it's practically spring.

Tonight I will keep the beans on my knee but maybe sneak in a little bit of strength training for the upper body. I wore short sleeves today to work and my oh my did my arms look wimpy. Time for a few push ups!

I'm praying for another nice day/night tomorrow because this is perfect running weather!

Claustrophobic Clothes

It is such a gorgeous day here today. Finally! A perfect day to do my long run (6 miles) in the park.

I've been using my iPhone with the Nike + app lately instead of my iPod (it's SO much better), but I don't have an armband for it yet, so I have to wear tops with zipper pockets. When I went to get dressed for my run, I realized that all of my running fleeces were dirty. I dug through a pile of non-athletic jackets and found a black zip up fleece with pockets. I felt really frumpy in it, but Ryan assured me that I didn't look stupid, so I took his word for it.
I think there's a reason that some types of fleece are deemed 'athletic'. This one was not. After only a few minutes in it, I was already getting hot.

I got to the park, fleece and all, and started my run on the loop that is about 2 miles around the bottom portion of the park. There sure were a lot of interesting people out today. Nice weather does that. I actually got passed by what appeared to be an at least 80 year old man.
I really have my work cut out for me.

As a person who has lived in this crazy city for 2 years, nothing really surprises me. Until today. I saw 2 men, overweight, without their shirts on, running barefoot on the loop. How does that not hurt? And who sets out for a nice jog and thinks, today I will wear no shirt and no shoes? Gotta love this city.

Back to the fleece...I'm now a couple of miles into my run when I can't bear the heat anymore from the fleece and decide to take it off. I try to unzip it, but it's stuck. So I try to get it unstuck by zipping it up and then down. No go. Now it's just zipped up almost all the way, like a stupid turtleneck! I can't get the stupid thing off! I think I've mentioned in the past that I get claustrophobic easily. This applies to clothes too. I rarely ever wear jackets/coats that zip. I prefer buttons. Buttons don't get stuck. So here I am, running in the middle of all of these people, hot as hades in my non athletic fleece, feeling a panic attack coming on because I'm stuck. Ok, don't panic, I think. It's no big deal. It's just a fleece and it's not hurting you. You aren't going to die from being stuck in it. I'll just finish the loop and head home.

So I did, and as soon as I got into the apartment, I proceeded to try to pull the stupid fleece over my head. Nope. My head was too big for the opening. Panic was setting in.
I start yelling for Ryan to come help and bring a pair of scissors, begging him to cut me out of it. Luckily for me, Ryan is a more rational thinker and manages to get the zipper and me unstuck from the fleece.

After all of that unpleasant chaos, I only got 4 miles in. I will do my remaining 2 later...without that fleece on!

Rave and Rant

I ran an extra 10 blocks today. Well, 11 if you count the one that I had to run back to the apartment. Never ask Ryan what the weather is like. He lies. He said it felt good, aka semi-warm for the winter, so I headed out with bare ears. Big mistake. It took me a half block out to realize that if I kept going I was risking an ear infection, so I ran back and grabbed my toboggan. For all of you Indiana people, a toboggan is a hat, not a sled :).

I have a rave and a rant for the night. My rave is that I feel like running at night in the city allows me to explore parts of it that I might not normally go. I ran a total of 62 blocks tonight uptown. I discovered lots of stores and restaurants that are outside of our 'neighborhood', but still close enough that we could/should walk to. Like another location of our favorite bagels, H&H. And another Barnes and Noble. I would live in Barnes and Noble if they'd let me and I always love finding new locations to browse through.

My rant has to do with people on bikes. More specifically, delivery men on bikes. Now I've definitely had my share of food delivered to me because I was too lazy to go out, so I appreciate what they do. However, I am finding it increasingly hard to not push them over when they ride on the sidewalk (which they aren't supposed to do) or almost run over me when I have a walk sign. During tonight's run, I think I almost go hit 5 different times. I don't know how it is in other big cities, but this is one of my biggest pet peeves here. Well, them and the annoying rickshaw guys. Try running in the park without being hit by one of them!

Ok, that's all for tonight. All in all, a good 4 mile run. Tomorrow's my running day off and then a long run on Saturday. It's going to be a busy weekend! Lots of wedding stuff to get done. Yay!