It’s been awhile …

Well, after many a nostalgic read-through of this blog, I’ve decided to make it a point to actually post here. Because yes, my Tumblr is the place for all things spur of the moment (and man, oh man, is it just ever so convenient to post straight from my phone instead of laboriously downloading all of the photos onto my laptop), but the real memories were on this blog. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back and fill in the missing pieces and days on here (I might for my Europe trips though, just to have a record for posterity), but in terms of moving on, I think I’ll start with today.

Today was one of those wonderfully normal days. A Sunday, and as all Sundays are, it was full of that vibrant joy that comes with trying to seize all of the weekends of summer by the balls, and the bittersweet anxiety of finishing the weekend with, goddammit, something to show for it.

Well, here’s what I have to show.

 

I’m a water baby. And so, it pains me terribly to be in Manhattan during the glorious days of summer, when my choices for immersing myself in a body of water are:

• a) 100$+ a month fancy club with tiny pool
• b) 200$+ a month fancy club with somewhat larger pool
• c) completely free public pool where children pee to their heart’s content
• d) completely free … Hudson

Anyone who has ever been to New York will have remarked that the Hudson is not exactly the clear and pure. In fact, an article recently described a study that found that the sewage treatment plants at 125th Street were leaking some madly infectious bacteria that, were you to ingest it or were it to come in contact with blood, would pretty much cause you to drop dead.

So you can see my dilemma.

But this weekend, my predilection for all things free and water-related led me to the Downtown Boathouse’s free kayaking program. This outpost of the Downtown Boathouse was, ironically, uptown – by 72nd Street. And you get what you pay for. That is, a couple of volunteers who take your signed waivers (the usual – death, etc, etc not the fault of anyone but your stupid self; although they didn’t mention flesh eating bacteria so  … hmm); a rusted row of lockers and … the docks. So come fully changed or be prepared to entertain your fellow river-path users (of which there are a ton) with your in-the-process-of-changing bod.

But my friend Victor and I managed swimmingly. Or … well enough that we didn’t need to swim. Our eye-smarting boating gear must have endeared us to the spirit of the Hudson, because we managed to not capsize ourselves and had a quite wonderful day. Also a hell of a workout, and for some unknowable reason, my hip flexors hurt the most. Arms (aka the body parts that do the work) – just fine. But legs (aka the body parts that relax and do nothing) – throwing a fit.

Well, as if that weren’t enough, we then traipsed up to 114th for brunch. Now brunch is the mainstay of any true New Yorker. You pretty much get evicted if you don’t like brunch. Luckily, I fit right in and would eat brunch for every meal of the day if I could. Speaking of …. further planning required.

Victor introduced me to Community, which I CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T KNOW WAS THIS AMAZING, because I walk past it everyday. SO MUCH WASTED TIME.

The only thing to say – it was MOUTH.GASMIC. The menu was great -  so many choices that I was pretty much on the fence between, oh, everything. But the waiter recommended the Brunch Special – 7 Grain Waffle with Blueberries and Lemon Creme Fraiche. And boy, was he right. I was pretty much making love to this waffle in front of the entire restaurant, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Look at it! I mean, LOOK AT IT. The waffle was crunchy on the outside, yet soft on the inside. The blueberries had been lightly cooked, so their juices were extra sweet. The heavy cream wasn’t some weak-ass Starbucks whipped cream – it was real heavy cream, like the kind you have with biscuits in Britain. And the lemony sauce was some orgasmic combination of lemon and butter and altogether it was nothing short of sublime.

I’m pretty much dreaming about it right now.

Sweet dreams to me.

(Seriously).

Long Run Saturday

• 7.5 miles in 1:13:33

Took an ice bath, am now lounging in bed incapable of doing anything remotely productive. I think the combination of upping the distance, running in the heat and the BLAZING sun in Central Park (note to self: do not run in Central Park if it's over 60F - you will die), well it's all just turned me into a limp noodle. Oooh, maybe in celebration of irony, I will make myself pasta for dinner.

This has been a post.

Track Party Thursday

You know what the worst thing is?

(Well, besides injury, death, so-close-yet-not-BQ times and PWs?)

Finding out the track you were running on is short. UGH.

So I dragged my ass out of bed (even though I didn't want to), and got to sprinting (even though I REALLY didn't want to). And it's hard. I officially hate 800s. Mostly, I think it's too early for them, so I think for the sake of my sanity, I'll stick to 400s until I build up some sort of track endurance. But anyways, there I am dragging my ass and huffing and puffing and I'm seeing 3:10's and 3:20's on my Garmin and I'm like,   ok, this might be worth it.

Except then I look after, and each lap is only 0.42. 0.42. Instead of 0.5. And that feeling? It's the WORST.

So I had to recalculate. Turns out I did a much less respectable 3:40, 3:53 and 4:00 (for each actual 800). <-- There's that 4hr marathon I've been promised. But gathering from how I felt running that 800 675 meters, I doubt that's happening any time soon.

Bah humbug.

Also, please send me your favorite track workouts (that do no include 800s, or at least not in great quantity)? So far, I've just been picking random distances with random reps, but I've yet to hit the sweet spot of hard work x satisfaction.

Spectacular Saturday

Saturday is my relax-from-life day. I sleep in (well, not so much today due to crazy people DRAGGING SHEETS OF METAL outside my window at 8am). I pretend to work. Instead, I slow peruse things online and do homey things.

Oh, and I run. Saturdays rock.

It was just the most glorious day for running ever. The sun was out, the sky was blue, the air was a little bit chilly (so you didn't get heatstroke in the sun) and life was wonderful.

I mean, doesn't all that greenery just make you SO happy? No, just me? Ah well ...

I did the big-ish loop of Central Park (although I skipped out on running the Harlem Hills and just ran around the reservoir on the way back). I definitely thing the track training will help with improving pace - in fact, I was already feeling it :) (That may be just in my head, but hey, if it helps, I'm thinking it.) I still have a problem getting all warmed up, so I typically don't get into the zone until around 3 miles, ie. the turnaround at Columbus Circle. I just can't keep my breathing even on the uphills, and the downhills are not that relaxing either. So that's something I'll be working on. Like for longer run days, maybe I'll do a couple of sprints in Riverside Park, which is fairly flat, before hitting Central Park. Thankfully, I'm not there yet.

• 6.76 miles in 1:03 - so 9:30 pace, feeling GREAT
• (except for the fact that every guy running passed me. With ease. GAH. Also, I think the ratio of men to women was 10:1 ... gals, where are you guys? Are you more early-morning people? Sunday people? Non-Central Park people? Where do I find you?)

I'll leave you with my ugly mug (I was pretty runner's-high-ing it at this point and I think I was grinning at every single person whom I ran past, but in retrospect, all they probably saw was a weird grimacing girl).

Also, another picture of the reservoir. I should just call my blog the Reservoir Appreciation Blog, because clearly, that's all I do. But it's just sooooo pretty!

Track Party Thursday

It's baaaaaack. It's been only, what, like a year? Yes, I've brought back Speedwork Thursdays. Mainly because I'm tired of being slow, and somehow in my head, it's easier to run in 400m segments than continuously.

Obviously, once I actually got to the track and had to start running, I dearly wished I could go at an easy 10 minute mile pace instead of this stupid sprinting business, but by then it was too late. Stubborn Anna to the rescue - she wouldn't let me quit ahead of time.

I ran up on the Great Hill and it was really nice and sunny and happy and wonderful up there. Also, it was full of dogs. I guess this is the token dog-walking-and-throwing-dog-balls-and-having-dog-chats spot. I just wish all this dog-socialization didn't happen right on the track ... I had some crazy tangents in my laps.

• 6x400m at 7:18ish pace (ended up being around 1:30 per lap) with 400m very VERY slow jogging in between

By the end, I had a metallicky taste in my mouth and my head hurt like it was hit with a hammer, so I didn't even get the runner's high. Boo. Also, maybe I should've waited to get over that cold. And why would you put a track on a hill? I guess I'm just not ready for all that altitude training.

(I'm just whining here ... of course Track Party Thursdays will be back. As long as my running-in-the-rain and track-party-in-the-cold-wind shenanigans don't land me with pneumonia.)

Because Sometimes, You Just Need a Break

I spent the entire day staring at code today. It only picked up around 5pm, which still left me with 8 hours of just plain old frustrated computer coding beforehand. So I was sooooooo ready for a break by the time evening rolled around.

Thankfully, my friend E is always up for a cafe date. (I should make it a series, really.)

The place was called Jacques Torres cafe on Amsterdam and 73rd (or at least I think that's where it is ... I've been feeling a little loopy lately what with the illness and the staring-at-code-till-my-eyes-bleed). The place is so cute! Seriously, if you're feeling in a chocolate-y mood (and seriously, when wouldn't you be?), you should go here.

I had a classic hot chocolate (coerced by E - but I loved it!). I don't usually have hot chocolate, because I prefer to consume all of my calories in solid form as much as possible, but when somebody peer pressures me, I'm pretty much always likely to cave. Especially to something that basically tasted like melted chocolate having a giant party in my mouth.

I mean, the chocolate ... oh, mah, gawd.

 Oh yea, and there was some nice conversation with E as well ;) It's always great to have someone to just chit chat and do girly stuff with. And speaking of girly ...

Well, we just had to step into Century 21 for a tiny bit of shopping. It didn't hurt that the first floor was devoted to bags, scarves, hats and fur vests. All of my loves all in one space!

 

 

Yea, I may have devolved a bit in the end. E kept her cool but I kind of lost it amongst all the crazy coloured hats. I clearly have a career in modelling in the future ... oh wait, that would be E. I will just be the crazy girl in the bloopers. Ah well, those are the ones that people like best anyways :)

I'm rrrrunning in the rain ... and I am sort of happy again

I actually managed to wake up really easily today, and was all ready to get the run out of the way. So I didn't really check the weather this morning ... and it doesn't help that my windows face a wall.

Guess who was in for a surprise?

 That would be me.

Because by the time I got my slightly-sick-and-not-over-these-sniffles self up to Central Park, I realized that it was actually raining pretty significantly and that this was really stupid in terms of my health. But, as everyone knows, I'm like the most stubborn person alive. Or EVER. So obviously, there was no way I was turning home. Besides, I was already wet by that point, so the whole not-getting-sick bit was probably a lost cause by then.

I did however naturally speed up because ... well ... the raindrops wouldn't fall on me as much if I just ran faster than them! Brilliant! I'm clearly a genius in the morning ...

It did however translate to a stellar run, where I'm proud to report that I managed to log 8:XX miles for the first time since last fall! (Aka the last time I was training consistently; actually following your training plan WORKS, what a concept!).

• 3.41 miles in 29:39, an 8:42 pace

I LOOOOOOOVE running right now. We'll see if this runner's high can last though ... I think if I develop pneumonia, it might put a damper on things.