The Pseudolife.

2 months...

2011-06-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, 2 months since I posted. Strange, but sometimes life happens. It's been a rough couple months but I have been running with some consistency at least and hopefully it will pay off. I've been trying to find a 5k to race that fits into my schedule to test my fitness but things seem to come up every weekend and I haven't had the opportunity yet.
I have started my marathon training more or less and have some long runs coming up. I'm sort of wishing I had more time to train, increase mileage and gain speed but I'll just have to do my best. October seems far away right now but the summer flies by and there just aren't that many weeks.
I have a few speed workouts on my watch I'd like to upload soon if only for my own sake. It's nice to have a record to gauge my progress against. I still need to do more tempo runs and actually run a few races but other than that running is going okay.

Just the numbers.

2011-04-19T17:52:00.000-07:00

Here are my intervals from last Tuesday and this Tuesday.
The only other run I did was a slow 3.5ish run Sunday. The weather was crap and I was just sort of down and not feeling it all week. I did do my core workout Wednesday but Thursday-Saturday were a big FAIL. I also didn't eat the best which generally brings my mood down and my weight up. However, I haven't weighed myself in a while. If I see weight gain on the scale it translates to slower running in my head so I try and avoid the scale before a race.

From last Tuesday:
5 1/4 intervals with 1/4 recoveries - 4.5 miles total.
1:25
1:31
1:33
1:31
1:27

From this Tuesday:
2 1/2 intervals + 3 1/4 intervals with 1/4 recoveries - a bit over 4 miles total
3:10
1:31
1:33
1:34
3:30 (I was really stuggling in the middle of this interval - should have picked it up more)
It was raining the whole run tonight. In fact its been raining most of the week.

My running goals for the rest of this week are to
1) Do a tempo run
2) Do a run over 6 miles.
This needs to happen so hold me accountable!! I'm pressed for time because I'm going home for Easter this weekend. Do you guys celebrate/have plans? I still hunt Easter eggs even though I'm 30 because I'm mature like that.

Skunk Recap

2011-04-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

Sunday I ran the Skunk Cabbage Classic. I guess it is named for the Skunk Cabbages along the course - only somehow I missed them. God knows there was nothing else to look at so I'm not sure how - maybe because I don't have the slightest idea what a skunk cabbage looks like but no matter. There was a pretty sweet pheasant farm we passed twice...but I digress. The race was pretty small but it seemed like there were some fast runners there. There was a 10k as well as the half and that started 15 minutes beforehand. The race started late - 10:15 so there was plenty of time for me to eat breakfast (pb, banana, honey on a sandwich thin) and have coffee, find the start and get registered without waking up insanely early. Before you get bored, my finsh time was 1:48:27, pace 8:17. So I made my sub 1:50 goal! Okay, I realize it may not look that impressive to some of you, and may look great to others, but this was a pretty good run for me. I hadn't done a lot of distance lately and this is almost 7 minutes faster than my previous half-marathon PR which was 1:55 and change. Granted, I've only actually run 2 halfers - not counting the 2 halves of the full I did, but still a significant improvement. And, I faxed in my time to Chicago so hopefully I'll get into a corral for the Chicago marathon. I think it will make me feel better just because the race is going to be so giant that even though there would be 4000 people in my corral that is better than not being in one.

This is one of the hardest races I've done - I think partly because of the distance and while the hills weren't anything major - they did wear me down after a while. I think the other reason was because they didn't allow ipods as the roads weren't closed for the race. That was a long freakin' time for me to run on my own with no music - and the race was out in the country so there was nothing to look at. It was mind-bogglingly boring and hard to stay in it mentally. But I kept going and got through it at my goal pace. I'd love to get this pace closer to 8s for a half in the fall - and I think I could run faster on a flatter course but all in all I'm very happy with the run.

I also kept my splits pretty even - it was nice not to go out too fast and see really slow splits at the end of the race. I think the gradual uphill start helped - mile 4 was actually my slowest mile of the race and I think I ran the first and second halves in almost exactly the same time. I took a couple clif shot blocks and some gatorade, starting right before mile 7 which I think helped too. Although, I still need to perfect my eating/drinking while running technique. I wanted one more clif shot instead of the gatorade but didn't get a water so, oh well. Whatever.

The other good news is I'm recovering a lot faster than I did from the hilly 10 last weekend. I ran 4.5 today with 5 quarter intervals and felt pretty good. I'll have to get my splits from that up but I'm tired so for now here is what Garmin had to say about my race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78568965 That's it, I'm out!

1/2 is tomorrow - wish me luck!

2011-04-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow is the big day. In a couple minutes I'm going to have to stop reading blogs and get packed up for our mini trip to Ithaca, NY for the Skunk Cabbage Classic. Ithaca is only an hour or so from here but we decided to leisurely drive out today and spend the night there. The race actually starts late tomorrow - 10:15 so I could have driven out on my own but this sounded more fun. The race is the Skunk Cabbage Half Marathon: http://www.halfmarathons.net/usa_half_marathons_new_york_skunk_cabbage_classic_half_marathon.html That elevation profile is making me tired just looking at it. I've said it on here before but my goal is to break 1:50. I'm not as prepared as I should be but it seems like I should be able to do this. I'm worried about the challenging course, or if it is a windy day - but I'm just going to try my best and stay positive! I know a lot of it is mental.

After the race we are planning to meet my parents here for brunch - the menu looks like it will almost be worth the pain of running the race: http://www.carriagehousecafe.com/

Recovery...

2011-04-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Today I ran a couple miles and then did most of my core workout. It was so nice outside I had to run a little but honestly I could still feel Saturday's run in my legs. Obviously the biggest problem is I don't run enough mileage consistently but does anyone have any tips for a faster recovery?

I try to eat protein after hard workouts and I have been wearing my compression socks. I am REALLY bad about icing, I really only do it if something is hurting. And by hurting I don't mean sore, I mean when it feels like something is off, sometimes my hip or knee will bug me and I'll ice it just to ward off injury. I should probably make it a point to ice after long runs...

I'm really long overdo for some blog updates and pictures so I apologize for that and will try and work on it. I'm still new to this and haven't really had a lot of time. Actually, I just spend my time reading other blogs instead of beautifying mine. haha.
GO UCONN!!

It's on!

2011-04-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm still sick but I did manage to get in my 10 miler yesterday morning. I'm going to try and link to the garmin data - check out the hills: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/76949805

I've been having some trouble with my garmin finding satellites - I think I ran about .6 miles before my garmin connected - it does not like getting up early! I actually think the buildings "downtown" at the beginning of the run got in the way when I first turned it on. So, I think my run was just about 10 miles even though the Garmin has 9.32. Time was 1:18:34 (8:26 pace). The run felt hard although I didn't really feel like I was going that fast - so I was pleasantly surprised with my time being as good as it was. Like I said - my goal for the race would be sub-80 but I'm sick and certainly was having problems pushing it, and I was chatting for part of the run and stopped at a water stop so I still think that is a reasonable goal.

How do you guys deal with water stops? I typically do NOT like stopping completely but got trapped behind people yesterday and had to.

Also notable, I did not use my ipod at all. I tend to depend on my ipod for runs but this one seemed fine without it, I had it with me and just never ended up using it! I know I should get used to running without it but sometimes I need that extra push. Do you run with music?

So - based on my performance yesterday, I think I'm going to try and do that half next weekend. I just need to focus on sub 1:50 and not try and go out too hard. I feel like I should be able to do this, I think I could have done another 3 or so miles yesterday at the same pace if they were flat miles. Hopefully I'm not completely off base there!

In other news, the Yankees ( I love AJ Burnett and am ready for him to have another great year) AND UConn both won yesterday. An amazing sports day for me! I'm a Syracuse fan but since they are out I am cheering on the Big East all the way! I also really admire Kemba Walker and would love to see lead the Huskies to a championship! We had friends over yesterday for the game and it was really fun. We're trying to entertain more - and I think we also need more "couple" friends to hang out with. We all really clicked yesterday and it was a fun vibe. We did chili and pulled pork so no stress about dinner cause everything could just stay in the crockpot and be ready whenever. Lots of food and good times :) Now I'm just trying to take it easy today - maybe work a little and get over this cold. I'm planning on a speed workout Tuesday and maybe 2 other runs, somewhat easy this week and then the race is next Sunday!

the goat

2011-03-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, I got sidelined with a cold this week - serves me right for complaining huh? But before that - I did get in a decent tempo type workout with some hill action on Saturday morning.

There's actually a pretty awesome 10 mile race here May 1st - The Mountain Goat Run. I ran it a couple years ago and have been wanting to do it again since but it conflicts with the time we have been taking vacation. I'd love to do it this year, but since I am certainly not a competitive runner by any means I do try to keep running in perspective and figure the time is more important to spend with my husband. Although, fair is fair and next year I think we should go a week earlier or later so I can run my race! Anyway - here is the elevation profile for the course:

Piece of cake right? haha. There are two killer hills...the last one after mile 6 really gets you. Lucky for me they have training runs for this race so I get the fun of running the course even without being able to do the race.

This coming weekend I plan to do the whole thing for my long run, but last Saturday I just did the first half, 45:15 for the 5.66 miles (8:00 avg pace which was my goal!) and my splits were:

7:55, 8:37, 8:19, 7:45, 7:34, 7:42 (last .66)

I was very happy with this run and my negative split times. That is something I need to work on. Again, clearly I really struggled with my pace on the hill. My goal for the race would be to break 80 minutes and this run felt hard so I don't think I'm there yet. Then I got sick and didn't run or workout until today when I just ran an easy 3. Oops.

I am going to be in so much trouble if I do that half next week. haha. The plan right now is to run 10 or 11 Saturday morning and if it goes okay do the half I originally planned on next weekend. Yes, I am horribly prepared and haven't run long much at all...yet somehow I still think I can pull a sub-1:50? Hopefully I'm not setting myself up for disappointment, but if nothing else it will help me gauge my actual fitness vs. where I'd like to be at this point!

blah week

2011-03-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

So, I'm having a very lackluster training week. I'm blaming it on the return of winter! Seriously, more snow? More cold? And next week doesn't look a lot better. sigh.

Anyway, I did do some intervals with the group Tuesday - the group in general is faster than me so I was feeling like they sucked but they may have been my fastest of the year
1/4 - 1:27/1:28 (evidentally I haven't mastered the art of the Garmin yet!)
1/4 - 1:29
1/4 - 1:33ish?
1/2 - 3:24
4 miles total. So, whatever. I felt like I should have done another int, for some reason I have it in my head that doing less than 5 intervals isn't really helping much...thoughts?

Did my strength training Wednesday and then just ran a couple miles yesterday. Nothing at all last weekend. So I should have tons of energy for my run tomorrow. I really don't feel like getting up early in the cold but we're busy later in the day so I'm going to do an early group run with a big hill. Probably about 6 miles, but if I can find a group that is running my pace I'll do 10.

Time is running out if I'm going to do a half next month so I'll need to get a 10+ run in soon.
I need some training tips for getting my 5k down to a 7:00 pace this year. And by mid-June I have a big goal for a sub 25 minute 3.5 miler.

Boring Entry...

2011-03-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

Workouts this week went sort of like
4 mile run last Saturday
2.75ish Monday (2 miles fast - under 7:30 pace)
6.5 Tuesday (2 miles on own 4.5 with group)
Strength workout Wednesday
4 miles Thursday with intervals
.5 mile 3:10
.25 - 1:30
.25 - 1:31
.25 - 1:40 (getting tired, more into wind)
.5 - 3:36 (wtf? I forgot it was an interval after the first .25 haha)

Going away again this weekend so it's going to be hard to get some more miles in but we'll see what I can do. Go BIG EAST!!

more for the core

2011-03-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a tough week of workouts for me and unless you like reading detailed stuff this will probably be a boring post. Actually, this is more like a workout journal than a blog so far...
I probably should have taken a "before" photo to post huh?
Sunday I started my core strength routine. I did
10 Burpees - See Katie's blog here for a demo if you don't know what a burpee is: http://bikinirun.blogspot.com/2011/01/burpee-contest-and-demo.html
I just recently found her blog and have been loving it. Very motivating!
Bowflex - chest press, fly, tricep extensions
dips, squats
reverse lunges with weights
elevated planks
elevated side planks
pilates ab series + teasers

I was SORE on Monday after this on top of the effort from Saturday's race. But I STILL did my long run because I'm hard core like that. Plus my long run is only 10 miles at this point. I did 10.08 in 1:25:44. 8:30 average. However, that was my moving time - it actually took me longer than this to make it home because I had some stomach issues. I don't usually have problems when I run but I had to stop twice on my route to use the bathroom. Luckily there was a convenience store/gas station and one in the park on my way otherwise I'm not sure what I would have done...called my husband to pick me up and cried until he got there I guess. After the first 5 miles the stomach issues went away and the run got better until mile 10 which was tough. Mile 8 was my fastest at 8:11 which I'm happy about. I mean I want my pace faster than this but I'm happy that I was able to keep it consistent. I think my only mile over 9:00 pace was because I had to weight for a light during mile 5.

Tuesday I took off because I was really sore.

Wednesday I did intervals again however the girl I ran with and I were both sore so we only did 4 1/4s. I know that's pretty lame and it almost doesn't count but the point is I did them and logged 4 more miles for the week in the process.
Splits: 1:29, 1:35, 1:30, 1:35.
Okay, a little better. And my legs hurt. I know I should have done at least one more but at least one of them is under 1:30. That's improvement.

I don't remember the reps from Sunday but I did basically the same workout as above again today (Thursday) with the following:
12 burpees (legs less sore but these still kill me - the jump up gets me)
2x12 bench press 50lbs (yep, I'm a wuss)
2x10 fly 20lb
2x10 tricep extension 20 lb
20 dips - this was tough, I keep my feet elevated on a stool
20 squats (100 lbs)
2 sets of 12 reps reverse lunges with 10 lb weights
10 elevated planks, 5 elevated side planks each side
pilates ab series + teasers
chest pullups with bar - 4 with legs straight, 6 with bent legs.
It takes me about 25-30 minutes for the whole she-bang.
Okay, it took me three tries to get to this point without my computer locking up on me so I'm posting now! Tomorrow is Friday!!

race recap

2011-03-05T19:29:00.001-08:00

So this morning I ran the Tipperary Hill Shamrock run. Why do I continue to torture myself by signing up for races with "hill" and "mountain" in the name?
haha. The race was great, very well organized, no issues parking, a little over 2000 participants, good crowd support, plenty of water, and G2 (Jeter Juice!).
The weather, not so great. Rainy although it had slowed to a drizzle and then stopped for most of the time I was running but more troublesome - extremely windy! And somehow they planned it so all the uphills would be into the wind!!

Anyway, onto the numbers.

My net time was 30:44, 7:41 pace
I don't really care about age group/place results - you know unless I win something which is almost never. haha

My Garmin splits show how lopsided the course was in terms of elevation - first mile almost entirely downhill and miles 2.5-3.5 almost entirely uphill!

Garmin said:
4.00 miles
30:28 mins
mile 1 - 6:43 (?!)
mile 2 - 7:28
mile 3 - 8:22
mile 4 - 7:55

I think my garmin mapped out 4.05 miles hence the time discrepancy which is really pretty accurate. I had to take some wide corners due to crowding so there would be a difference there. Also, I still haven't mastered the art of stopping my garmin when I cross the line. I accidentally restarted it twice, and then again on the drive home (that was my fastest split) so I didn't get my garmin pace.

Anyway, my splits look very uneven - way worse than they are. The first mile felt ridiculously easy but I did try to push it to have a time buffer. The second mile felt harder as there was some uphill so that must have been when my legs got to work. The third mile I completely fell off pace, the final hill killed me - the slight rolling hills had taken more of a toll than I thought and I was winded. My abs really felt it too, I've done a bit of hill work, actually I haven't really been training again for long but still, I was disappointed in this effort. Since the first half of the course had been relatively easy I was hoping to have more left at that point. I think running into the wind might have made a difference here as well. The final mile is a little more uphill and then around a loop to the finish. I had anticipated that I could pick it up again and finish pretty strong! The problem was, I had very little left! I think more of this mile was uphill than I realized because I did try to push it on the flatter areas but it was still tough to get under 8 min/mile pace.

So overall, I'm okay with my time. I mean, it's the first race of the year, I've only done 3 interval sessions and while I've been running conistently and more miles the past couple months - I wasn't really doing much consistently all fall/winter. So given that this was a hilly course and the weather was tough - rainy/windy I'm okay with it.

I am disappointed I couldn't hold it together better for the hill at the end. I thought I could still keep the pace down to 8:30s for the hard part of the hill and I clearly did not. I also had a hard time recovering at all after the hill and just wanted to be done at that point.

So I have quite a bit of work to do but its a start. I really want to get my 5k pace down to 7:00 min/miles. It won't be easy but I'm going to work at it.
I also think I need to start working on my core and doing some exercises there. I haven't done any weight training at all and know its lacking. I'm going to do a more detailed post on some of my planned training and goals soon!

Next up, a couple of longer races! I need to get a long run in soon, tomorrow if I feel okay otherwise I'll have to be good with my time Monday to fit it in.

nerves

2011-03-03T05:05:00.000-08:00

So, I am ridiculously nervous for this 4 mile race I'm doing Saturday. I haven't raced since last June and I've never done a 4-miler. I think I'd feel better if it was flatter, or if I felt more prepared but its still kind of early in the year for up here - a balmy 8 degrees outside today I believe.

Anyway, I never quite got my long run in last weekend, I did a little over 5, although there was some difficult rolling hills. Tuesday I did a pretty fast tempo-ish 4 with the girls at lunch and that's it. I wanted to go yesterday but the wind was ridiculous and today its freezing so I'm actually thinking I might not run again until the race. That's probably way more rest than I need and I originally only planned on taking 2 days off but in the grand scheme of things it's probably not goign to make a huge difference in my race time. What MAY make a difference is if I can't stop eating, haha. I'm a terrible stress eater and have been overdoing it a bit lately. Time to rein it in. Okay, I'm going to try and update again later with some talk about goals but I have to get this day started now!

workouts

2011-02-25T04:04:00.000-08:00

So...running this week. Tuesday I did 4 at a decent clip but I didn't wear my watch so I don't have stats for the run.
Thursday – intervals! I recruited my relatively new running friend (she’s actually much faster than me so the interval workout was good – we still had company but we could both get a good workout in too).

My times:
800 - 3:13
400 - 1:34
400 - 1:36
400 - 1:36
400 - 1:36

So I was a little bit slow with the 1/4s but very consistent which is good at least.
We did a bit over a mile warm up and cool down and 1/4 mile recoveries so it was a little over 5 miles for the run. Not bad.
Then I ate delicious thai food and we went out to dinner with friends so not the best eating day. I may have went to town on my remaining converstaion hearts too.
I actually really need to work on my eating because my stomach has been bothering quite a bit lately and I'm guessing it is diet/acid reflux related.

Better short than nothing.

2011-02-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

We ended up going to one of our couple friend's for dinner yesterday and it turned into a very late night! It's basically my husband's best friend since he has known since they were kids and his wife that I just adore and get along great with. They just had a baby last year so I got to play with him before his bedtime. We brought a bottle of wine and they served up some delicious shrimp scampi (I justified this as carbo-loading for my long run today - that didn't actually happen afterall but I'll get to that later). A couple more bottles of wine and a mini cream puff and eclair later it was well after 1am by the time we left. It was fun times even if it was hard getting up this morning.
So I put off running as long as I could and I was having trouble deciding what route to run all week. I originally was going to do a step back and just do a 6-7 miler but then I was all but settled on doing 10. In the end, a dying ipod battery and the need to practice hills won out and I ended up doing about a 6 mile loop with some hills thrown in there.

It worked out well though since essentially it was a 5 mile tempo run (7:53 overall pace) with about a .5 mile warmup and cool down.
Mile splits were 8:14, 7:39, 7:34, 7:42, 8:13.

So the first mile was slow, even after the warmup which I'm slighly concerned about. The 3 fastest miles were the ones with the hills but I think the downhill counteracts the uphill on the course I ran so my overall pace ends up faster. It was HARD going back up the hill but I got through it. The course for the race I'll be running in a couple weeks has more gradual hills so that's good but I think it has a lot less downhills which is bad for me.
Overall I'm very happy with this run. It's nice to see the 3 miles sub-8, I really wasn't motivated on my way out the door, it was nice and sunny out and although only in the 20s it felt really comfortable to run in. So, overall very positive!

Heat Wave!

2011-02-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

What a warm and beautiful day. It was in the fifties here today. In Central New York. On February 18th! Craziness. Unfortunately, it’s not going to last but I’ll still take it after months of runs in the 20s, teens, and single digits. I knew it was supposed to get colder and windy later on so I headed out for an early run at lunch...in a t-shirt and shorts! Woo-hoo!

My goal was to do some intervals and this proved more challenging than I anticipated due to a pretty strong wind (it's bringing back the cold weather - boo). I decided I better go for it anyway as I knew I’d feel bad if I didn’t get some speed work in.

I did intervals as follows - halves and quarters with 1/4 mile recoveries in between, and then an additional 400 after my run back to work.
800 - 3:30
400 - 1:38
400 - 1:31
800 - 3:29
400 - 1:36
It was a little over a mile warm-up and cool down so about 4.5 miles altogether.

The first ½ and ¼ were into the wind which made them extremely difficult for me. I really wanted to stop during the first half mile and almost ditched the whole effort, but I knew I’d feel like crap about it if I did. So, even though I’m not happy with my times – I’d prefer about 10 seconds off each interval (particularly the 800s) I’m still happy with my effort and that I completed my intended run. Besides, every little bit helps! And I got to eat candy when I was done!
Tomorrow is supposed to be super windy so I might not be running at all, and hopefully Sunday I'll make it out for a longish run again. Glad it's Friday even if it is getting cold again :)

Sick

2011-02-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

So, weird random sickness struck this afternoon. My stomach has been feeling a little off for a couple days now and this morning it was slightly worse. I still went to work and met up with the girls for a lunchtime run but shortly after that I barely made it through a meeting and had to go home sick. I'm feeling somewhat better but still a little off. Hopefully this will be gone in the morning.
Anyway, back to the run. Due to feeling craptastic I decided not to wear my watch. I thought we'd be going slower but the other girls are both faster than me and the first couple of miles were definitely faster than I would have done on my own. So, overall I mapped it out to be about 4.85 miles which I'm happy with from a distance standpoint. I haven't run since Sunday when I did my long run and my legs were feeling good. I don't know the pace, I'm guessing it was under 8:30 overall. Like I said, the other girls didn't seem as challenged by the run as I did but it may have been due to my sickness as well.
I'm still hoping to be able to run tomorrow and I'd also still like to get an interval workout in this week but I'm not sure if it will happen. Depends on how I'm feeling. I definitely don't want to miss another day but maybe it would be better for me to go easy tomorrow and try for a speed workout Friday. We'll see.

Back!

2011-02-13T17:15:00.001-08:00

I decided to blog a bit again - because...well, because why not?
I like to talk about how I'm feeling and what I'm eating and how much I'm running and why and a lot of people in my real life probably get bored hearing about it so maybe whoever finds the old blog-a-roo will be more interested. Or maybe it will be motivating to someone?

Anyhoo - I've been trying to get back into doing more runs again. I kinda fell off the radar last year - I had my awesome (for me it was awesome) 10k, followed it up with a bit more disappointing 5k in May - but still decent (22:26), and a 5k trail run that was VERY tough for me - I don't remember my time right now but it was over an 8:00 min pace. Shortly after that I started missing runs and my training got a little lack luster. I managed a 26:00 min 3.5 race in June and haven't run since!

I did move and oh yeah, get married though. So anyhow - even though its been one of the worst winters I can remember as far as snow/cold and I don't have access to a treadmill I've actually been running more consistently since January than I have in a year!
I'm starting to do longer runs on the weekends and get out at least two other times a week. However, I'm still really lacking in the old speedwork department. I know I need to incorporate some serious speed sooner rather than later.
The last 3 weekends my long runs have looked like this: 8.8 miles - about a mile through a couple inches snow so more like a trail run 9:07(?) pace, 7.55 miles 8:06 pace, today - 9.3 miles 8:26 pace. I was hoping to stay under 8:23 for my run today but overall I feel okay with it. I really didn't feel like going, the first few miles were into the wind and there were some hills. I have been trying to get a little extra hill work in because the next two races I'm planning on are both going to be very hilly. A 4 miler at the beginning of March - not much time left to prepare for that one so I'm just going to try and keep it under 8s (32 minutes) and a very hilly 10 miler in May, which again my goal for will be to keep it under 8s.
And...I signed up for the Chicago marathon - not until October 9th, but I am hoping to rock it!

2010-04-22T18:44:00.001-07:00

Okay. I know I haven't been updating regularly but craziness has ensued over here lately. I'm probably the least spontaneous person ever. I don't make quick decisions. I can't make a decision to save my life. But somehow I just bought a house 3 days after seeing it? What is going on? We went to an open house Sunday and signed the contract Tuesday. They called back an hour later to say our offer was accepted. It was crazy. So much to do. I'm sad to be leaving this house we are in now. I love it. It's so unique and cute. :( Why do I get so attached to things? Our new house will be great too. And its big - the reason for moving so we can start a family there. Home is wherever you are with the people you love, not the house you live in after all.
Anyhoo, obviously we haven't closed yet so lots could go wrong but fingers crossed everything works out for the best here.
That said, my workouts have been kinda blah and uninspired lately. I feel like I haven't been doing much even though I think I've run about every other day. An easy run yesterday (Wednesday), about 4 miles at a decent clip Monday, just not inspired. Today I just mowed the lawn. I missed speed night to meet with the realtor and should really get a long run in this weekend but I'm supposed to be on the road as well so we'll see. So busy, it seems like everyone wants a piece of us lately. And totally broke now as well :( My half-ironman dreams maybe over as I'm not sure how much money I'll have for a road bike after all this. Oh well. Pretty excited too. I'm trying to stay positive. Eating has been inconsistent too...I've been snacking entirely too much due to stress.

week recap

2010-04-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, lets recap here...
Tuesday I skipped intervals since I was still pretty sore from the boot camp. I ran a little over 5 miles at a little over 8:10 pace. The last 3 miles were in the 7:50s...the first 2 I ran with a friend so we were chatting.

Yesterday I pretty much took off but went for a long walk at lunch - maybe 2 miles? And then a 1.5 mile walk after dinner with the boy.

Today I attempted speedwork again but we couldn't use the high school track - they had a game going on :) so we ran at Beaver Lake a nice county park nearby. It is a trail - not paved, they actually do x-country skiing in the winter and some areas are wooden planks over marshier areas. It is very pretty and there are a few different trail options. We did the biggest loop around the lake which was a little over 3 miles and then a shorter trail for a little over 5 miles total. We ran "pick-ups" where we picked up the pace for a minute and a half at a time. We only did 5 of the pick-ups and it was still tough. I think the soft ground was hard to get used to running on. It was a little hilly but not too bad. Tomorrow I might attempt longer intervals again. My left knee is hurting a little but other than that my body seems to be finally recovering.

I ate a lot today and I'm still hungry. Not cool. I'm trying to keep in good shape for summer and any upcoming races I want to do.
There is a lot going on that's sort of up in the air right now. I need to make some plans and book some things but I can't really do it until I see how things play out next week. Hopefully I'm stressing for no reason! Everything should be okay but you never know.

I wandered lonely as a cloud...

2010-04-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

So, like I said we did some yardwork yesterday. Cut down all the old landscaping and made room for the flowers that are already starting to come up...daffodils!! Very pretty. Today G did some more yardwork but I felt the need to subject myself to some punishment for not running as planned yesterday and went to get my booty kicked at a boot camp workout. My cubemate at work has been telling me about this for a while, one of the personal trainers at his gym runs it on Sundays. It was tough, but actually, I held up pretty well...the squats and lunges were killer towards the end. It lasted about an hour and 35 mintues...maybe a bit longer so it was definitely a lengthy workout. And lots of pushups, I'm not sure I can do one push up with completely correct form but I do the best I can.

Some more daffodil pictures:

And then we made this pizza for dinner. Clearly I need to work on aligning my photos better. It was just a bought crust but we put, sauce +garlic + italian seasoning and then red pepper, onion, spinach, mushrooms, kalamata olives, mozzarella and a little bit of goat cheese - mostly on my side :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Great day!

2010-04-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty good day today.

I feel a little bad for wussing out on my run this morning. I only did the 10 mile course and skipped the extra hill parts. I really don't like not running what I planned to run but on the bright side I still got up at 6:40 to run on a Saturday so...baby steps.

My legs were sore and still having weird pain in my calves. When I bend them, like sitting indian style for instance they just hurt really bad. Feels like something is squeezing them tight and cutting off circulation. Weird. Anyway, I got through it okay.

Went to lunch with the boy and had a great salad and some of his sandwich. Then some yardwork, watched some of the Masters and then tried a new place for dinner! I had a delicious filet and he had bbq salmon. It was a fun outing, felt like a "date" night. I'm actually going back to it now. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Finally Friday!!

2010-04-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was 85 degrees here and today it's snowing! Crazy. Just some flakes here and there but a huge temperature drop. Unfortunately it got really windy yesterday just as I was planning to run so I only made it a little over a mile before stopping, doing some dips and abs and calling it a day. I've still been having some weird pain in my left leg behind the knee and the top of the foot so I didn't see the point in pushing it when I have a pretty long run planned for tomorrow and would like to get out Sunday as well.

Tomorrow morning I am doing a training run for the mountain goat - even though it looks like I'm going to miss the race after all. The race is a hilly 10 miler but tomorrow we are actually planning to add some additional hill distance and run about 11 miles total. I did the same thing 2 weeks ago, and did the full course the week before that at the training runs so it should be okay. Just hope my leg pain issues clear up.

I was also looking at this race: http://www.active.com/running/lake-george-ny/prospect-mountain-road-race-2010

It says, "5.67 mile mountain run to the top of Prospect Mountain with 1,601 feet of elevation gain"...
would this be insane? I've been doing some hills on my mountain goat training runs but I think the elevation gain is closer to 565 feet, and I've only done a hill workout once. haha. Sounds like this is more like a climb.
Anyone have experince with running a climb like this? Since it's not exactly local (its near my Mom's and I'm anticipating being home for Mother's Day) I don't really have a way of running the route beforehand.

Egg-cellent!

2010-04-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

<----- Check out that fine handiwork!

There is an artist in our family, although clearly it's not me. Actually my Mom is an artist and my sister Elizabeth is as well so I'm surrounded by talented people!

(note massive amounts of candy in background)

We did have a great time with the eggs though.

I'm taking a rest day - my left knee is bothering me. It feels hyper-extended or something. The pain is behind the knee, not the kneecap but behind my actual leg? Feels sort of like a cramp, I don't know what it is, I just hope it goes away tomorrow.

Yesterday was intervals. 4 miles total, 1 mile warm up then 6x400m intervals. The intervals were between 1:27 and 1:33. The first was 1:27 and the last was 1:28 though, so pretty consistent pace. I don't know that I was quite recovered from my race as they were all pretty painful.

I'm taking a rest day from cooking too and had thai takeout for dinner. Panang Curry. This isn't actually mine but it looked a lot like this. Only in styrofoam. haha.

Beautiful Weather!!

2010-04-05T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone had a nice Easter!
We had a great weekend, beautiful weather and a lot of friend and family time. I got to see most of my family except for one of my sisters who had to work so that was a bit of a bummer but other than that it was really fun.

The Fort-to-Fort race Saturday morning went great. I was nervous about being recovered enough and ready to run but I was fine. It was a fast and flat course and great weather - sunny and almost 70! So warm for April here. Anyway, like I said it was a 10k and it was an out and back. Slightly downhill at the beginning so of course I went out fast...7:18 pace for the first mile. I didn't keep that pace up but I was able to hold on pretty well though - even after the turn around when there was a slight head wind on the way back. I barely noticed the incline at the end since I've been doing so many long hilly runs. I ended up with a time of 46:49 - about a 7:33 pace I think, well under my goal of finishing under 48 minutes!! I was so happy. I wasn't sure I was capable of running that fast/strong in a race. This was my first 10K and I really liked the distance. I had been trading places with another girl back and forth and she passed me right at the end to finish a second ahead of me. I finished 3rd overall for females and 1st in my age group!! Woo-hoo!! My first time with a first place win and first overall place finish ever. It's nice to see that the hard training/speed workouts I've been doing paid off. Also nice to see I can be this fast without running a million miles a week. haha, now to pick it up a little and be a little more consistent with the training.

I've been celebrating by eating way too much chocolate!! I should work on that!!

Race Day!!

2010-04-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't been updating my blog. It's not that I'm too lazy really, it's more that I don't think anyone is reading it. If you have read it at all post a comment and I'll start updating more frequently again!! haha.

Now, onto more exciting news. I'm doing a race this morning!! That's why I'm wide awake on a Saturday at 6:30am.
I'm doing my first 10K. I've done longer, I've done shorter but never this distance. Fingers crossed it goes okay and I run well!
And Happy Easter everyone!!

Goat cheese!!

2010-03-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

Ah, let's see. Highlight of dinner right here:

Baby Beet and Goat Cheese salad with walnuts, spring mix, snap peas, onions and pomegranate craisins.

Just had it with a little balsamic and olive oil. Delicious. I bought these baby beets steamed and ready to serve in the produce section. I've never actually prepared beets at home myself but it's definitely on my to-do list.

Best goat cheese ever, Lively Run - from the Lively Run Goat Dairy in Interlaken, NY.

Bonus pic: Some of the awesome pottery and Raku Meerkat I got in South Africa!

No workout today. I seem to have tweaked my knee somehow. Maybe runner's knee? Maybe I did it trying to channel my inner yogi Tuesday night? Either way I went from Yogi to Boo Boo. Tuesday night. I did 45 mins bike trainer, then some strength training moves (push-ups, dips, yoga positions, abs) for about an hour.

Yesterday I did speed work which probably made me knee worse - started to really bother me after a walk yesterday. About 5 miles total distance, 2 800s, 3 400s and 1 more 800 with 400 recoveries in between. I forgot my watch AGAIN so no time stats. Bummer. Oh well. It was awesome to use the outdoor track since it's been so beautiful outside. It's also a 1/4 mile track vs. the 1/8 mile indoor one we were using for our speed workouts.

I'll probably take tomorrow off as well to nurse my knee and then planning a long and hilly (but most likely slower) run Saturday morning. Hopefully my knee is okay. If anyone has any tips on dealing with it let me know!

Nice run

2010-03-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

It is starting to get nice outside!!

Workout was a 7.1 mile run (7:55) average pace. Woo-hoo. Good for me. Actually, might be slightly faster than that, I forgot to turn my watch off again. :) 7 miles in 55:22. I'm pretty happy with that.

Ideally I would have done 8 miles but only had time for 7 because I had to get to the skating rink for class. Also did some abs when I got home but not too thorough about it.

Had pork tenderloin, asparagus and grilled squash for dinner.

#1 Seed

2010-03-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Woo-hoo!! Syracuse gets a #1 seed in the tourney! And great showing by all the big east teams. Feel a little bad for the teams that got left out and should have gotten in (cough cough, ahem Virginia Tech, cough cough) but we've been there too.

Anyway, been a little crazy with the updates again since my Mom has been in town.

Yesterday did 3.69 (windy and crunched for time) with some hill repeats. I did a .15 hill 3 times + another hill. I should work on improving that but it was good enough for yesterday. Still trying to fit a long run in my schedule (8-9 miles) this week. We'll see if I manage. Not too eventful in the food area this weekend. I'll try and focus more on getting things going on the blog this week!!

quick post

2010-03-10T18:09:00.001-08:00

Dinner = chicken + salad, not to be confused with chicken salad.
Workout was a mixed bag, 1 mile walk with the boy, then bowflex 15-20 mins, pilates ab work + some push ups, followed by 15 mins easy on the bike trainer.
Really going to make an effort to do my speedwork tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day but I know I'll be disappointed if I don't fit it in.

Hopefully have a more interesting post up soon.

Behind!

2010-03-09T16:58:00.001-08:00

Okay, sorry I got behind. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to spend last week in South Africa!! Let me just say running is extremely difficult at an altitude of more than 5000 feet! But who cares when you get to see:

More pictures to come!!

Anyhoo, I got back Saturday, started Sunday with an early 6.2 mile run (8:10 average pace) and dinner Sunday was this:

Lemon, Mushroom and Leek Risotto with Grilled Scallops. I made the risotto and G grilled the scallops and plated it came out looking like this! My first risotto, I'm proud. :)

Yesterday was 10-15 strength training with the bowflex, followed by 30 mins on the bike trainer and another 10-15 abs and yoga moves. It ended up being a hard workout.

Today was a 4 mile run at lunch that was supposed to be easy but ended up being pretty fast...maybe just under 8 min/mile. Hey! That's fast for me :)

Possibly speed work tomorrow if we can get on a track, otherwise I'll postpone it a day for more recovery.

So, I'll try and get more about my trip up here, but wanted to at least check in for now!

Snow!

2010-02-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

We are getting a lot of snow today so unfortunately I wasn't able to run outside, and I didn't work out at all actually! How odd. I had to work a little late and then I ran over to the mall to find some things for my trip.

I ended up getting some black yoga pants from Aerie to wear on the plane, a couple dressy tops from Express and a couple pairs of pants from The Loft. It was a little more than I would have liked to spend but most pieces were on pretty big sales and I had a coupon for Express.

Last night we went to dining week here:

http://www.lemongrasscny.com/

And, no I didn't actually order this although it looks delicious. I just wanted to give you an idea of what a good job they do with presentations there. There were a lot of interesting dishes I wanted to try, but I stuck with a very safe choice off of the specials menu, the Green Curry chicken. It was very good and quite spicy.

Tonight I got home late and made a quick egg salad with a Thomas' mixed berry english muffin. I'm obsessed with them!

speed workout

2010-02-23T19:23:00.000-08:00

Last speed workout before next Thursday's race (leaving Saturday!)...

1x800m int
6x400m int with 400m recovery in between fast intervals.
about a mile warmup and cool down so between 5 and 5.5 total.
I forgot my watch but from one of the other girls I think most the 400m were between 1:28 and1:32ish? I know there was a 1:29 and a 1:28 I was happy about! Not sure about the 800m...

Had a bit of a side cramp warming up again. Odd. I thought it might be from G2 (Jeter Juice as I refer to it) so I ate a clif bar and 1/2 of one of these pre-run:

I had the tropical punch flavor which I like because it tastes good. Yeah, so I'm bad about the artificially sweetened beverages. I'm kind of a diet soda junkie too.

Made a quick spinach salad with a hard boiled egg, a couple strawberries, feta and balsamic and had a berry english muffin with it when I got home.

Monday Monday

2010-02-22T18:11:00.001-08:00

Workout today: A little bit of bowflexing (10 mins mostly chest/arms) followed by 40 mins bike and then some abs and planks on the floor.

Last night's dinner:

Roasted Garlic Cous Cous with Mushrooms, Spinach and Feta

Pan Seared Sea Bass with Kalamata Olive Tapenade

It came out pretty good. Not the best looker (the tapenade tastes a ton better than it looks!) It seems like Sunday's are the only time I have to make something cool for dinner. I need some quick week night ideas!! We try and eat pretty healthy during the week and we both have pretty simple tastes as far as preparation goes. I'm not really one for a lot of rich sauces or antyhing. I really like fresh food simply prepared so this was a complex meal for me.

Anyway, I can't take a focused picture to save my life so I don't have one of it plated.
Tonight we just baked some lightly marinated chicken breasts, steamed asparagus and leftover cous cous...which is good hot or cold!!

Tomorrow will be a long day with my last speed workout before the big race (next Thursday -March 4th)!

weekend...minus the work part.

2010-02-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

Had to go into work yesterday but it went well so not a bad weekend.
This is the last weekend before I leave for Africa!!

I really wasn't feeling the whole workout thing yesterday and knew I needed to run so I dragged myself to the park. It was windy so I told myself I could turn around after a mile as long as I tried to run fast. I did mile 1 in 7:36 (into the wind) and mile 2 in 7:18. So 7:54 overall. I have run 2 miles faster than that so I'm hoping running into the wind slowed me down.

Today I ran and didn't take my watch but I mapped it out using
www.mapmyrun.com and It said 4.58 miles. This was an awesome run. I didn't bring my watch so wasn't worried about time and it just felt really good. Maybe the last 1/4 mle was tough because I was pushing it but overall it felt awesome. Based on ipod timing (Where I add up the lengths of all the songs that played while I was running) it was 36:54. Which I think is just over an 8 min/mile pace? I'm mostly happy about how good it felt though. I don't know if its just that its getting towards the end of winter and I'm tired of running in the cold weather or what but I've been sort of unmotivated.

Going to make a fun dinner tonight so I'll try and post a pic.

sleepy

2010-02-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

So tired today. Spent the night visiting with my sisters and only got 2.5-3 hours of sleep oh well.

I mentioned in my first post I used to be a skater. I have to say how disappointed I am with the results of the Olympics last night. I'm a fan of Evan Lysacek, I like his skating and think he has great technique (minus the step up into his axel) and he looks great out there...long clean lines. However, I don't think he won the olympics. Not even close. And don't even get me started on Johnny Weird ending up 6th! Jeremy Abbott was my favorite on the US men's team but he lost it by messing up in the short. I think Evgeny Plushenko's difficulty put him way above everyone else. What happened to all the quads? Kurt Browning was landing clean quads in competition over 20 years ago!! Evan didn't even do a triple axel-triple toe combination. I think skating is a sport because of the tricks, jumps and spins, but mostly the jumps. When they changed the scoring system they lost that. I guess some people are happy with it this way and this is what they want skating to be but I am vehemently oppose it! I don't think its a sport anymore when you lose the emphasis on the difficulty. You make it a dance. Which is fine and entertaining but it shouldn't be called a sport and it shouldn't be an olympic event if that is the case. With enough practice anyone could do the footwork and transition moves but not everyone is capable of doing quads. When you look at what Shaun White does and the advancements in that sport (snow boarding) even though its relatively new it's so innovative and exciting, how can you compare that with this watered down skating we are seeing? And White goes for the hardest tricks even though he doesn't need to because he's a true competitor and he wants to set a standard for the future not just settle for a gold medal. I'm not sure who would want to keep watching skating if this is the way it is headed in the future. I'm a skater myself and am not interested in watching anymore.

Finally!

2010-02-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

Ugh, long day at work but good overall.
I ate decent, and fit in a workout.
I walked at lunchtime (We have long hallways at lunch) and then when I got home I did 30 minutes on the bike trainer followed by 10 minutes of lifting and another 5 or so of ab work. It hurt.

Then...we went here:
http://www.bcrestaurant.com/dinner.html

It is dining week downtown so they had 3 courses for $25.
We had a bottle of wine, Ravenswood Cab (meh, drinkable but not exceptional)
and I had ceasar salad with calamari and rainbow trout with beet/walnut/couscous.
Also had bittersweet chocolate torte but most of mine is in the fridge now (I was full).
Long day tomorrow so I'm headed to bed soon. Night!!

Speedwork...

2010-02-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

So tired. Since when did my speedwork night become my long run night too? haha. I really need to pick it up again with the longer runs after this 3.5 race I have coming up.

Okay, we did about 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cool down with
800m = 3:08
600m = 2:21
400m = 1:31
400m = 1:33
600m = 2:25
800m = 3:26 (Totally died on this last one, the girl I was running with smoked me...luckily I was too tired to be embarassed.) I think we did 600 recovery between the 8s and 6s and 400 recovery between the 4s and 6s. So, I'm guessing a little over 5 or 5.5 miles altogether?

Either way, glad I went. Not the best day of eating but I did a little better. Nothing noteworthy, although I am having a couple of bites of dark chocolate with dried raspberries in it from the bar I got for Valentine's day and a small glass of zinfandel right now.

teaser

2010-02-15T18:12:00.001-08:00

So...I know I'm sort of not keeping up with the times here, but I haven't exactly got around to trying Yoga yet. I want to, I do...and I think I'd like it okay it's just that I don't know any of the poses so I can't do podcasts or anything and ideally I'd like to go to an actual class to get started. And, going to a class means fitting it in my schedule which I'm not ready to commit to yet. So, in lieu of Yoga, I kick it old school with my Winsor Pilates maximum burn dvd.

I haven't done this in a while (and by a while I mean like a year) but I wanted a rest day from cardio and something less strenuous since I need to do a speed workout tomorrow and wanted fresh legs. Now that I've done the pilates and remember how much it hurts I think I made a bad decision but oh well. The running time is abotu 50 minutes long. But, I'll be honest, it's a little slow moving for me. I mean not the exercises themselves but there's still some downtime in the transistions. Not bad though. And it hurts. If I did this more regularly I might be better at it but there are still a couple moves I really struggle with. I do the ab series pretty regularly so I have gotten a lot better at the "teaser" moves but I had sort of forgotten about the whole elephant walk push up thing near the end. Anyway, it's a decent strength workout and its definitely beneficial in terms of flexibility, etc. My abs and muscles always feel it, making it probably a bad choice to do tonight but a good choice overall.

Today was pretty uneventful honestly.

Dinner was salmon, asparagus and couscous but the rest of the day wasn't so great food wise. Meaning I didn't make the best choices. So I'll work on that tomorrow!

Night all!

Some cheese with that wine?

2010-02-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

My sister and her boyfriend came up to visit this weekend!

First...I had to get her up early...

Then we went winetasting!!

Ravines (probably my favorite of the day)

Fox Run

We started at the top west of Seneca Lake at Fox Run and then went to Rooster Hill (another favorite!), McGregor and Ravines. We got off to a late start but still tasted some quality wines! I think we came home with about half a case. The finger lakes are known for their Rieslings which I love. I'm not a fan of Oaky whites or overly sweet wines and the finger lakes Rieslings are a much dryer style than the traditional German ones which are much more honeyed. The ones produced her are dry and crisp!!

It was a fun day capped off with a late...late...late dinner. Someone forgot it was Valentine's day weekend and places would be packed.

Sunday, started the day out bright and early (well 7:30 is very early for a Sunday after drinking wine all day) with a 4 mile run. I didn't time it, the beginning was sluggish but the end was much faster. Met friends for breakfast and then we had to go to this Daytona 500 party. I'm not a NASCAR person. I played with the kids all day. Ate way too much though and have to do damage control the rest of the week. boo. Celebrated Valentine's again when we got home after some Olympic viewing ;) GO USA!! I love the Olympics!!

We don't buy no drinks at the bar...

2010-02-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

we pop Champagne 'cause we got that dough...

Hello lovely peeps.

My blog has no pictures yet because I need a new memory card for the camera. It is currently filled with video and it seems much easier to get a replacement then delete and upload everything off the old one. So, apologies but hey no ones reading this yet anyway right? So you can admire my lovely header picture for now. I took it, isn't it great? haha j/k but I do love it.

So I can't write much now. Currently waiting for my sister and her boyfriend to arrive who are visiting us for the weekend!! So excited!! Just had some chili G made for me and sipping some champagne for a pre-Valentine's day celebration while we have some alone time. Sooo good. He also hand-dipped us some strawberries for dessert. Really sweet.

Anyhoo, after I got home from work and teaching skating I did my bike trainer for 40 minutes plus a few minutes warm-up and then did some pilates ab work on the floor for maybe 10 more minutes.

I was going to skate instead of biking tonight but I didn't have enough time to change into skating appropriate clothes. I can teach in jeans but it's difficult to actually skate in them. haha.

Got my greyhound on.

2010-02-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Soooo...usually I'm pretty good at kicking my own ass during workouts and I actually really like running on my own, but every once in a while you really want to feel like you got hit by a bus and for those times its good to train with other people. Particularly other people that are way faster runners than you. Well, faster at least.

I got to the track tonight and couldn't run a lap without stopping. Disaster. I was having weird side stitch issues on my left side. I tried this for like 3 laps and had to walk halfway through each one. Then I stretched some, walked around, tried to breathe deeper...I think its leftover weirdness from my stomach bug last week. Anyway, luckily I was able to finish warming up the last few laps with the other 2 girls I ran with and recover in time to do a nice interval workout:

1x800m - 3:11
1x600m - 2:21
4x400m - 1:33, 1:35, 1:33, 1:33

I'm really not sure how long our recoveries were, 400 for the quarters but maybe 600 for the other distances...I don't really pay attention. Probably ran between 4.5 and 5 miles overall. I started out all gung ho and disappointed we weren't doing all half intervals and by the end I'm the one that gets my ass kicked. haha, it's so obvious I need to work on endurance and negative splits!!

Anyhoo, I'm showered just had a slice of deli turkey, 4 carrots and a couple olives for a post run snack. Random right? Someone needs to go food shopping. (It's me).

Good Morning!

2010-02-11T03:38:00.000-08:00

I have a busy day ahead of me today! Work til 6, and then I'm going to try and make a meeting and then I have to do a speed workout from 7:30-8:30 tonight. Why am I waiting until so late to run you may ask? It's because it snows here...a lot! I still brave the elements and run outside most of the time (I don't have a gym membership right now) but it makes it difficult to do interval work on slippery roads. So once a week we can use the university track to run on so I'm headed there to do them indoors. Probably some combo of 400, 600 and 800s with a mile warmup and some recovery time in there. I'll post what I do later or tomorrow.

Last night I was late getting home from work and had plans to watch the SU game so I didn't get my bike trainer workout in first. Which meant I had to come home and do it at 9:30pm! Not the best planning. I just took it easy and did 1/2 an hour and then some pilates and strength work on the floor for about 10 minutes. I was still pretty sore from earlier in the week.

Today I have to go to a retirement luncheon and pizza and wings are on the menu. They're not in my plan to eat right now so hopefully I can successfully navigate the situation. Maybe there will be cake though??? hmmm.

Have a great day!

First Post

2010-02-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay I guess I'm sort of late hopping on the blog-wagon but I figured what the heck? I spend a reasonable amount of time online anyway, so here goes...my first entry.

I guess I haven't really decided the direction I want this little blog to go in yet or how dedicated I'm going to be to updating but I'll try and be pretty consistent with keeping it up to date.

I guess to get you started here is some info on me.

I'm 29 yrs old, female and I live in Central New York with my fiance (got engaged this past Christmas eve) after years and years and oh yeah did I mention years of dating. Seriously, almost 8 of them. :)

I like to run. A lot. And I like to talk about running a lot. The good news is I like to listen to other people talk about running too so feel free to share your stats/accomplishments with me. I find it really motivating and interesting to see how different people approach their workouts. I'm still sort of new to running and until about 5 years ago I hadn't run a mile. But now I have run a marathon (Philly in 2008) and am contemplating another one this fall.

I work as a software engineer. A lot of sitting at my job.

I teach figure skating on the side. Right now just group classes more basic skills but I'd love to get into it more if I have time. I skated myself through college.

I'd love to do a triathalon this year! Ideally a half-ironman!

I like to cook and am sort of a foodie so I'll be focusing on that a bit on here as well.

I love wine and live near the Finger Lakes Region of New York State so I am fortunate enough to get to go wine tasting quite frequently.

I love music, but am not really into movies or tv. But I LOVE sports. In particular The Yankees and College Basketball (Syracuse!). I try and read but honestly don't have too much time for that.