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.

A Week of Concerts

So Thursday night post rehearsal, I took to the streets of Manhattan to hit up a concert a friend of mine was doing at Lincoln Center. (I can't believe I get to say that! Congratulations Esteli!)

Now since I'm a cheapskate and the night was young, I actually ended up walking all the way from 72nd on the UES to 66th on the UWS. If that doesn't sound far, it isn't - if you cross through the park that is; but of course I'm a weenie and would never cross the park at night, so I had to go the roundabout way. Which wasn't too bad because, well, New York is beautiful.

Plus there's always somebody about, so the city always feels alive. Not that I would know, because usually, this would be my bedtime. Oops, grandma alert! So yes, it was quite a miracle that I even made it to the concert, let alone lasted the whole hour.

The concert was AMAZEBALLS. My friend Esteli is in an up and coming ensemble called Roomful of Teeth. They do some really amazing things with sound, so I would definitely recommend a listen (although it is a little out there, so be prepared!).



But that wasn't the end of it! Friday night was spent crossing off another item off my New York To-Do List (I really should publish that baby at some point, shouldn't I?) - watching a symphony at Fisher Hall. I was actually really excited, because A) it was a chance to dress up, duh and B) Emmanuel Ax was playing and he's really, really good.

Beautiful atrium and hall at Lincoln Center.

 Except that the concert itself wasn't so stellar due to some sound issues the orchestra seemed to be having. Like, oh, playing way louder than the pianist and not keeping in tempo. After 15 years of playing piano (quite seriously, I might add), the little things really stick out and I get to be that annoying person that loudly whispers, I can't believe they just DID that. Thankfully my friend E is a music major and shared my pain. They did fix that problem ... in the second half, when dear Manny wasn't even playing. So there's that. But at least I got to test out a new outfit, which is always a win in my book. What isn't a win is that my friend E convinced me that we should take all the photos on her phone - aka they shall never again see the light of day because it will take her a decade a year to upload them. So look for an outfit post from me in October 2013.

Rrrrrrunning

I'm a lazy butt who hates uploading pictures from her camera onto her laptop, which means that obviously no posts can be written, which means she's a bad bad blogger.

But lo, what post yonder appears? It is a post about running, and running is awesome.

No seriously. I'm finally getting back in the groove after not running the entire summer, and while it's often not pretty, it is getting a bit better. Usually, the getting-better happens after the 3rd mile, which is quite a problem on those short 2-3 mile runs that keep happening (mainly because I don't feel like fracturing my legs again).

Tuesday - as usual, I ran my 3.5 miles in Central Park and of course I ran by the Reservoir, because I'm apparently incapable of running anywhere else.

Old photo, but who wouldn't want to see the beautiful reservoir ONE MORE TIME?!?!

I was going to run again on Thursday, but then I acted like a clumsy fool and slammed my foot into my door frame, resulting in a very purple and swollen toe that refused to fit into a shoe. Any shoe. Walking to work was fuuuuuuun.

So that meant that Saturday, I really HAD to run. I finally got my shit together around 5pm (whoops, what happened to the whole day?) and headed out.

New York, why are you so pretty all the time?

Basically, I headed down the drive, which sucks up until 96th or something and then rocks all the way to 65th because it's all downhill. I love downhills, not gonna lie. I would take downhills over uphills anyday (who wouldn't?) but then again, I realized that the old adage is true.

What goes down, must come up.

Or something like that.

So the whole backside of the loop was all uphill. Which was just grrrrreeat.

• 6 miles at 9:45ish pace

But hey, I have this super sweet secret for dealing with the parts of running that aren't so awesome. Wanna hear wanna hear wanna hear?

I know you do. Well, here goes. You just visualize yourself ... winning a marathon. No seriously. Like running in front of the crowd, epic sprint to the finish, break the course record type of deal. Just on replay for the duration of the run.

Sorry for the defacing, Salina

Totally does the trick. Before you know it, your run's over and you've won the Boston, New York and Chicago Marathons. Twice.