Absolut(ly) Fit

Free Night!

2012-01-26T20:04:00.000-05:00

While I am usually saying "Thank goodness it's Thursday" every week, today I have extra reason to be grateful: after a super productive first few days at my new client, I was able to duck out early and catch a 2:30pm flight instead of a 7pm flight - putting me home at 7pm instead of midnight. FREE NIGHT! Glorious.

My plans for the night though? Not so impressive. I initially wanted to try to squeeze in some gym time. I did a weight lifting workout this morning (day 2 of Kara Goucher's cross-training routine), and figured I'd follow it up with some straight up cardio tonight. But before I could even put my gym clothes on, I discovered how ridiculously sore my legs/butt already are from the deadlifts and weighted lunges I did this morning. I'm pretty scared to see what tomorrow morning is going to bring - 24 hours after a workout is usually when I'm at my most sore. Dear Kara, how do you RUN after doing this workout? I am already starting to waddle from the soreness! (Though not going to lie - I LOVE soreness from a good workout. It makes me feel proud and accomplished).

Since I'm really not very hungry tonight and I indulged on a few drinks last night with the team, I'm also going to take a page from Bread is the Devil, and have made today a veggie/protein day. Breakfast = hardboiled egg, piece of salmon, and cottage cheese. Lunch = salad bowl at Chipotle (lettuce, tomato salsa, chicken, veggies, and black beans; no dressing). And for dinner, I'm making a massive bowl of hummus out of a full can of chickpeas, a few tablespoons of some roasted red pepper pesto sauce, and a lot of garlic - and then digging in with some celery and snap peas. It's actually not incredibly low-calorie, given that I'm eating an entire can of chickpeas, but I think the snackiness of it will feel light - which is what I'm craving right now rather than a "real" meal.

Bedtime at 8:45pm? I think so. LOVE IT!

16 hour day... and still going

2012-01-25T21:14:00.002-05:00

Today has been crazy.

To catch my 6am flight out of Charlottesville (tear!), I had to be up at 4:30am. Because I am an absolute nut and I really wanted to do yoga in the morning, that meant waking up at 4am (probably should have been sooner, but I rushed like crazy through my getting ready routine). Upshot? I got up super duper early, but was really proud of myself for getting a workout in. When there's a will, there's a way!

And then, in stream-of-consciousness form:

6am flight from Charlottesville to Atlanta. Dear Delta: why do you not stock decaf? Dear Flight Attendant: I don't believe that you don't have decaf; I do believe that you didn't want to prepare it for me.

Too short 30 minute layover in which I ran smack dab into an empty wheelchair blocking the jetway. Massive bruise already formed on my left ankle. Curse words forming in my brain (though, classily, not spoken).

Trans-terminal sprint to my gate, with no time to stop for real breakfast (vs my 4:30am granola bar). Time to collapse into my seat and settle down to work.

Arrive in Kansas City at 9:30am, having already put in 3 hours of work on both planes. The day is just beginning!

Work. Work. Work. Work. What do you mean, it's 12:40pm and I have a 1pm meeting? I want lunch!

Work. Work. Work. Work. Lunch break! Obviously 2:30pm CT is an appropriate time for lunch after a 4:30am ET breakfast.

Work. Work. Work. Work. 8pm CT. Team dinner in 30 minutes. Praying for a short dinner and bed ASAP. Workout tonight? No way.

...something tells me this project is going to be a "control my weight with diet instead of exercise" gig.

Craving something a bit more eloquently written? Check out my guest post for Ashley's Marathons+Moderation series!

The Purpose of Rest Days

2012-01-24T16:37:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my mom about her half marathon training. It was Wednesday, and she hadn't had a chance to do a training run yet for the week, so she told me she planned to run one of the "weekday" runs on Thursday, the other "weekday" run on Friday, and then the "long weekend" run on Saturday. Sounds like she's sticking with the plan, right?

No, no, no! I realized that when I first set out the training plan, I hadn't mentioned something that has become human nature to me, but is not necessarily common knowledge: the purpose of rest days.

I designed the beginner's half marathon training plan so that you're running three days a week - but not just any three days. I don't tie the runs to specific days of the week, because I of all people know that life gets crazy and sometimes those plans don't work out. However, if you do the runs on consecutive days, you're actually not doing yourself any good - and you'd almost be better off just skipping them! Not intuitive for beginning exercisers, I know. But here's the deal:

When you weight train, run, or do any other kind of athletic activity, what you're doing to your muscles is actually tearing them apart. Not in a bad way - but the strain of the exercise makes tiny microscopic tears in the muscle. After you're done working, your body will work to repair these muscles (that's why it's so crucial to make sure you're getting enough post-workout protein and plenty of sleep). However, your body is pretty smart. "Aha," it says, "she pushed me to do 3 miles and it got me all banged up. I'm going to repair to be stronger than before, so I can do 4 miles! She'll never make me run all that!" (Unfortunately for your body, it underestimates your willpower and how you're going to keep testing its limits by making it do more and more every time you rebuild). This is why by the last week when you're doing a 12 mile run, you can get through the early miles like they're nothing at all - even though in the early weeks, you were struggling to do just 2 miles. Progress!

(My friend Adam would also like me to point out that if you break a bone, it calcifies around the break to be even stronger than before. So really, your best bet for training is to hire Tonya Harding to break your legs on day 1, and then run your race after they've healed. Obviously.)

The problem with this scenario comes when you find someone who's overzealous in their workouts. (Hi, right here!) They erroneously think that if some working out is good, more working out must be better - and so they lift weights / run / whatever every single day of the week… and then get frustrated when they're not seeing any results. In that scenario, they're only tearing the muscles apart, but not giving them a chance to rebuild stronger than before. All that work is leading to no progress whatsoever! This is why rest days are critical to your training plan.

In following the training plan, you should be taking at least one day off in between each run. If you do your long run on Sunday, don't do the first run of the next week on Monday - wait until Tuesday. If you did your last weekday run on a Friday, then your weekend run should be on Sunday, not Saturday. This does require a little bit of extra planning (if you know you can only do your long run on Saturday, you have to make sure that your second weekday run is done by Thursday), but wouldn't you prefer I allow this flexibility than telling you exactly which weekdays you have to do your runs on? It's not that complicated.

The one caveat I'll give to the "every other day" approach is this: for me personally, working out "every other" day often means that "every" day turns into the "other" day. If you think you might be the same way, don't despair! Just because you can't work the same muscles every day doesn't mean that you can't still work out every day. I make it a point to work out every day so that it becomes as habitual as showering (that is to say, I skip it on occasion, but not often and not for more than one pass day). Vary the kind of exercises that you're doing each day, and you're good to go. This weekend's Athleta training run is going to include a talk on cross-training - so I'll talk a lot more about what kind of cross-training you can do then. For now, just remember that if a particular muscle is sore from your workout the day before, find something to do that doesn't strain your already sore muscle.

New project, new me

2012-01-23T13:06:00.001-05:00

On Wednesday, I start a brand new project. Along with the anticipation of new coworkers to meet and new work challenges to face, the week or so leading up to a new project also creates a bit of personal anxiety: how will this project affect my health and fitness?

Long-time readers of the blog know that the traveling lifestyle of a consultant has always been a challenge for me. Monday mornings, I wake up at 4:30am just to shower and get to the airport - I'd have to wake up earlier if I wanted to get a morning workout in. Monday through Wednesday nights can be fraught with long hours, heavy team dinners, and a constant dilemma of whether to work out or get enough sleep. Thursday evenings, I spend my time sandwiched into an airplane seat instead of getting my sweat on - and often don't get home until midnight or later, falling into bed without even taking the time to unpack. With all of these demands on my time, it can be extremely difficult (and sometimes downright impossible) to practice clean eating and get into a workout rhythm.

But just as every project brings new challenges, it also presents new opportunities. The first week of a new project is a great time for me to set expectations with my team and establish what is my norm. As I've grown from being a freshfaced first year analyst into an experienced senior associate, I've learned that confidence is the key to pulling it off. Where once I made it a point to only leave if everyone else started packing up, I now employ tactics like subtly asking "if there are any other tasks I can take back to the hotel for the night" at 7pm... making it clear that while I'm more than willing to work from home, I don't intend to stay at the office till all hours of the night. Making a move toward the hotel also helps to elicit thinking and discussion of all the dependencies/ambiguities right up front - so I get the work done a lot faster without having to stop for those interruptions. And if I get the work done faster, that's time I can put toward sleeping, working out, or maybe even (gasp) some personal time to read, watch TV, or check in with friends/family!

First step: tackling the diet/nutrition front. Yesterday, I finished Heather Bauer's latest book, Bread is the Devil. Despite the totally sensationalistic title, it was actually a really moderate, helpful, and informative book on diet strategy - how do you deal with everyday challenges (she calls them "Diet Devils") that are unique to each individual lifestyle? For me, the most helpful chapter was the one for businesspeople who travel and entertain, because not only did she suggest the healthiest choices for different types of restaurants (e.g., American, French, BBQ, Mexican, Thai, etc), but she offered a "stealth option" for when you want to eat healthy but don't want to make it obvious that you're doing so. Exactly what I need for team dinner situations! I don't know that I'm going to be following the "blueprint" she lays out exactly, but I am going to try to aim for her goal of no "Devil Carbs" and only 1-2 "Angel Carbs" a day, since that mindset will minimize a lot of the things that I think typically derail me from eating healthy on the road.

On the workout front, I stopped strength training in December when I took my holiday break, and have been practicing a "mish-mash" schedule ever since. However, I'm much more likely to stick to a workout plan if it is indeed a plan, so I think it's time that I got back to it. The new goals:

1. Strength training routine three times a week. This was a great schedule for me when I followed Rachel Cosgrove's plan, because it pushed me a bit harder than I otherwise might have done, but was still totally doable. As far as what exercises I'm planning, I'm going to take a cue from Ms. Kara Goucher - who better to give advice on weight training for runners? She put together a two-session-a-week plan that I'll be doing three times a week (alternating which one happens twice weekly) and with three sets of 10 reps for each exercise, with max weight to burn out at 10 reps. I liked that heavy weight approach to Rachel Cosgrove's plan, so I'm sticking with it.

2. Run for 20 miles a week. Back in October, I went for a 10 mile a week goal that I hit pretty successfully, but now that I'm back to marathoning, I think I need to do a little more. I would say I'm probably hitting this now if you factor in time on the elliptical, but to really get into good running shape, I'd like to transition more of those miles to outside and the treadmill. (Of course, whether or not this will really be feasible depends a lot on whether downtown Kansas City turns out to be runnable - there is no way I can steel myself to do 10 miles a week on the treadmill, even if I do the other 10 in New York on the weekend).

3. Finally, I want to make some yoga a part of my routine. Back when I was a freshman at NYU and studying theater, I was required to take a movement class three times a week that began with 45 minutes of yoga - and I was in great shape then. On Saturday, during my few hours in Albany, I took an "Athletic Yoga" class with my mom, and it actually had some of my muscles a bit sore yesterday from the great deep stretching. I've heard that my new project is going to be a bit intense (which means lots of hours hunched over my laptop), so to combat that tension, I want to try to incorporate some yoga a few times a week. I'm not going to get more specific than that with the plan just yet, but perhaps even a sun salutation or two before bed every night? Anyone with favorite routines to share, I'd love to give them a try!

Now, off to create my totally Type A workout tracking spreadsheet...

Cold for the Weekend

2012-01-22T21:05:00.001-05:00

My weekend started out a bit early - after a big night out with my work team to celebrate our product launch, I had to get up Thursday morning at 4:30am to head for the airport. I'm wrapping up my current project with three days this week and two days next week (and diving into my next project next Wednesday - no breaks for me). After two quick flights, I landed in Albany, NY, at 9:30am - in time to catch up with my mom a bit, work from her house in the morning, and then head up to my brother's house in Saratoga before my brothers and I hit the road for Killington, Vermont. Ski slopes, here we come!

The festivities started pretty early - with wings + beer at 4:30pm. While wings aren't normally in my food repertoire, it was a good thing I snagged those before we unpacked at the condo - because while our fridge had plenty of beverages, we were a bit lacking in food.

Note that even the produce drawers are filled with beer...

Pretty much as soon as we filled that fridge up, we set to work emptying it. Several card games of "Asshole" later (in which I reigned as President for three terms - the longest tenure of any of us), we made the ill-fated decision to head for the bars. Ill-fated not so much because anything bad happened (though my brothers did accidentally leave me behind at a bar near the end of the night - shame, shame!), but more because we had all already had plenty to drink and really should have just taken advantage of the opportunity to rest up. Friday night, I paid for that decision...

Friday morning, we all got up at 7am to hit the slopes by 8:30am, which was pretty good considering that the lifts just opened at 8am. I did a quick run on a beginner trail in order to get from the ski rental area to the main lodge where everyone else was gearing up - but unfortunately, that ended up being my best run of the day. As we've all heard by now, the mountains have really been suffering from a lack of snow, and while we had just gotten a storm the night before, most of the fresh powder had blown off the mountain by early afternoon, when I stopped helping to teach my brother Erik's friend (an absolute beginner from South Carolina) and went off on my own. The two runs I got in before lunch were okay, though colder and icier than I would have liked - but after lunch, the snow had been skied off so much that I was terrified of an intermediate trail that I've done many times in the past with no problems. Ever since my mishap in Colorado a few years ago, I get really psyched out by icy conditions, and Friday was no exception. My poor brother Erik, who had spent all morning going slowly with his friend Jon, now spent his last run of the day dealing with me stopping every 20 seconds to try to assess a route down the otherwise easy trail that had enough snow for me to catch an edge. Meanwhile, temps were now in the single digits (I believe the high for the day was 8°F), and all we wanted to do was get the heck off the mountain to warm up. Sorry, Erik!

But that night, I turned into even more of a downer. The beer drinking again started early - around 5pm - but this time, I was ready for bed by like 6pm. Two days of heavy drinking and not enough sleep were really taking their toll, and I was too tired to care how lame I was being by staying in on my last night in Vermont (I had to leave Saturday to get back for my Athleta run on Sunday). In the lamest move ever that even I'm ashamed of, I borrowed my brother Lars' oversize hoodie, picked up a cool can of seltzer, and joined my recently pregnant (YAY! Congrats!) sister-in-law on the couch to veg and gossip. Sexy!

On the plus side, it was great to catch up a bit with Andie, and an 11pm bedtime was glorious :) Not so glorious? Waking up on Saturday morning with a nasty cold and discovering that while there hadn't been good snow on the mountain for me to ski, it was snowing just in time for me to leave and traverse the back roads toward Albany. Yuck! After stopping in Albany to switch to a plane (and then to a train when the storm delayed my flight indefinitely), I arrived home in NYC that night feeling pretty miserable and sick - marking the second weekend night in a row that I chose to rest up and go to bed early.

This morning, I hoped for a full recovery - but while I naturally woke up super early at 7am, I still felt pretty gross. Checking the weather to find out that it was a high of 20°F and a "feels like" of 11°F, I dressed warmly as I set out for Athleta for my 9:30am half marathon training group - and really struggled with my half-mile jog over there. I tried Tweeting a few running friends to see if anyone else might be able to come take over leading the run for me, to no avail... but when I got out there (luckily it was just a short 2 mile run this week), I found that running/coaching actually made me feel better. Go figure! Unfortunately, I wasn't enough better to justify my original plan for the day of an afternoon 4 mile race ending at a bar for football games... but I do think I'm on the mend. I stayed low-key around the house for the rest of the day (cleaning, unpacking from my trip, packing for the new week), and am now headed for yet another early bedtime. Tomorrow, I fly to Charlottesville for the last time, and then it's off to Kansas City on Wednesday night to begin my new project. Excitement is in the air!

Marathon myth: Test your outfit before race day

2012-01-21T21:41:00.001-05:00

In this weekend's marathon, I had the chance to wear a brand new all-Athleta ensemble. I went a little nuts at their semi annual sale a few weeks ago, and at first I picked out the adorable hot pink PR tank and gray Quick Step capris that I'm wearing in my official Athleta profile. However, the more I thought about running in mid-60s temps (glorious!), I realized that I would probably be hot in capris, so I decided to pick up another outfit instead.

When I went shopping again, Athleta's new spring line had just started coming in, so I ended up with pretty much the cutest running outfit I've ever worn: a purple ruffled Swagger skirt and the Pavitra tank, a black Y-back tanktop with an adorable flower paisley design on it. Now, conventional advice is that you shouldn't wear something brand new when you're doing a marathon (26.2 miles can cause a lot of pain if something chafes). While the idea is generally solid, I think this advice should really vary based on the exact item of clothing you're considering. For example, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon wearing a Supergirl costume that I had never before worn to run in - but I used a favorite sports bra and tank top as my base layer underneath. So, starting from the bottom up:

Sneakers - These are pretty important, so I wouldn't wear a new model to a race that I haven't run many miles in before. However, I have frequently worn brand new pairs of sneakers to marathons - as long as they are the same exact model as a tried-and-true pair. Your mileage may vary (pun intended), but I don't get any extra tightness of rubbing from a new pair of sneakers like I do a new pair of heels, so I don't see the need to break them in.

Socks - Also critical to blister avoidance, it's probably not the best idea to wear a new pair of socks to a race. Though on the flip side, new socks tend to be cushier than old socks that have been worn down and gone through the washing machine a few times. For this one, I say fine to wear new socks as long as you put plenty of Vaseline on your feet (prevents blisters) and if you've worn that particular type before (some socks can be hotter than others).

Skirt - I like to wear a running skirt for marathons (though for training, I always wear shorts or pants... go figure). I like that skirts are cute and fun, but the tight biker-style shorts that come under them can create a buffer to prevent thigh chafing (that's right, let's be honest, for most people running 26.2 miles, that is an issue). Assuming you've checked to make sure that there are built in shorts, the worst problem you'll have is shorts that ride up a bit as you run - which isn't a huge deal, so I was going to say that as long as you've tried the skirt on before the race and it's not too big or too small, you're probably fine. But then! On Saturday I tried the aforementioned Athleta swagger skort, and discovered, for the first time in my running career, shorts that don't budge one inch while you're running. I have no idea how they did it, but I am glad I went with a skirt I hadn't worn before!

Sports bra - This is absolutely the most critical part of my workout gear. Seriously, when I used to do the Insanity program, I would sometimes do it barefoot, because I was on my Vibram Five Fingers kick, but as long as I was inside, I didn't need protection from rocks/etc, so I'd do it straight up barefoot. And then because I got so ridiculously sweaty during Insanity, I would often strip down to just my underwear for the workout (sorry, gym peepers, I always did Insanity at home or in my hotel room). But the one item that I always made sure to wear was a good sports bra - because it is not at all comfortable to go without (not to mention it's pretty bad for your girls). I used to just double up on cheap cotton sports bras from Walmart (3 for $10), until I tried a quality Moving Comfort bra... and I haven't looked back since. Did you know that you can finish a marathon without any chest chafing at all? It's a whole new world for me! A sports bra is definitely something to try in training before wearing it for a full marathon - and if you have any chafing, keep looking. A good sports bra is the best!

Tank top - Since I always wear tank tops with built in bras for marathons (a relic of the days when I had to do so because of my cheap sports bra), I'd put this in the same category as a sports bra - try it before you wear it. For my Pavitra top, I only wore it for about a 6 mile run, but that was enough for me to make sure it fit comfortably and didn't have any annoying tags or other scratch points. I really liked the Pavitra top, and got a ton of compliments on it during both my training run in it and at the race. It's a super cute design, is made from a material that does a pretty good job of wicking, and I particularly liked the length - it came down over my hips low enough that there was never any gap of skin showing, even by the end of a run when my top tends to ride up a bit. Only downside is that this top doesn't have any pockets - unlike the PR tank that I also picked up recently. But to be fair - I've never before had a top with pockets, so this is just a bonus feature that I'm looking forward to trying in the future!

Jacket - I didn't wear a jacket for this race, given how warm it was. But when choosing a jacket, I think that is another item that's critical to try before you wear in a marathon. I've found jackets to be extremely prone to annoying features - pockets that are tough to get unzipped, hoods that fall off your head when you're wearing it or that flail around when not on your head, and random tags and front zippers that scratch. Plus, it can be hard to gauge how warm a jacket is going to be until you've actually tried it on a run. You could probably get away with wearing a new jacket during a race, but I just think there are too many things that could go wrong in trying to do that.

So in short? Test your sports bra and your tank top beforehand, use a tried-and-true pair of socks and sneakers (but if they're a brand new pair, as long as you've tried the model before, they're fine), and wear whatever you pick up at the last minute for your skirt. Another marathon myth, debunked!

How to recover from a marathon - in record time

2012-01-18T12:27:00.002-05:00

It's now three days post-marathon, and I am fully recovered. I am still a bit shocked at how fast I was able to run - and was very surprised to find that I wasn't too sore from my efforts, either (though in fairness, this was one of my longer post-marathon recovery periods). Since I've been focusing a lot on beginning runner tactics lately with training plans to complete your first half marathon, I thought today I'd switch it up and talk about something for advanced runners: how to recover from a marathon.

Before you groan about ice baths and the like, let me note that I have actually never taken one. I also rarely get a post-race massage (unless it's free and the line is really short), and I don't take any crazy protein supplements. These are all standard methods I've seen in many articles for post-marathon recovery - and yet, people who follow them tend to look like this the day after the marathon (go watch that video, it's hilarious). Guess what? I did 6 miles on the elliptical the day after my marathon, and in the past, I've done a second marathon the day after the first marathon. The day after my marathons, I don't look like I've done a marathon at all - and it's time for me to share my secrets.

The first mistake people make is in how they choose their race: flat is not fast, and it is terrible for your recovery. Did I just blow your mind with that statement? Let's take a step back and think about it for a minute. When you run a marathon, your legs are going to be going in a pretty static forward and back motion for a very long time. If you are on a flat course, they are going to be going in basically the same exact trajectory for that entire time - and that's what causes your hip flexors to lock up. If they aren't stretching in multiple directions, they're going to get so focused on doing what they need to do (going slightly forward and slightly back) that finishing and then doing anything else is going to be extremely painful. This is the reason that all my PRs have been set on hilly courses - by incorporating uphills and downhills, you're changing the path your leg needs to take (because you'll probably adjust your stride to be longer or shorter), and you're also changing the muscles that you're using to move forward. You'll use your hamstrings more on the uphill, and your quadriceps more on the downhill - giving the opposite muscle a bit of a break in doing so. Furthermore, uphill running causes you to bend at the hip more, which again helps you to avoid the pain of your hip flexors locking up near the end of a race.

During a race, even if you aren't on a hill, try to vary your stride when you start feeling tension and soreness. For example, when I took walk breaks in the last 10 miles or so of the race, I tried to use each walk break as not just a chance to take it easy, but as an opportunity to really stretch out my legs - and especially those darn hip flexors. By lengthening my stride so that it was almost a lunge walk, I worked my legs through a fuller range of motion and stretched out my tight hips. If you are always taking short little steps, your hip flexors are going to tighten to that range of motion; you want to expand it to avoid the "marathoner's shuffle" so common at the end of a race. Don't be afraid to even stop and take a quick stretch break during a race; if a 20 second stretch can help you pick up your pace by 10 seconds per mile (which is very likely), you'll make it up in just 2 miles. Just make sure that you aren't doing your full stretching routine, but paying attention to which muscles are sore, and then doing a stretch or two that is specific to those muscles. If your calves aren't really tight, why are you stretching them mid-race? Save that for after.

So you finished the race (congratulations!) and now you're tired and want to stop. Terrible idea! The absolute best thing you can do post-race is keep moving. However, while a lot of people advise walking after a race, I'd actually suggest the opposite (especially if you walked a lot during the race). Instead, find some kind of movement that keeps your legs going but moves them to a different plane than the one they've been in during the race. Sunday, after hearing Aretha Franklin's "Respect" come over the loudspeaker system, I got up and demonstrated "my dance" (aka the official choreographed dance that we had to do when I worked at Johnny Rockets in high school), and then later when I got back to my condo, I did a little victory dance to "Born This Way." Get your legs moving in a way that they weren't moving when you were running and it will work wonders.

The obvious - stretching - is also important, but before you launch into your usual routine, pause to consider what is sore. My feet are almost always sore after a marathon (and I usually have blisters to treat, too), but I try to notice what feels different than the expected soreness. This race, I noticed that my calves felt kind of tired, but were generally fine - so while I did a quick calf stretch, I didn't worry about it too much. However, my quads were a little tight - and I knew that would only get worse in the next 12-24 hours. Take some time to do stretches for those particular muscles (Google is your friend to find muscle-specific stretches), and also use a foam roller, Stick, or even wine bottle to "roll out" that muscle tension. The sooner you can do this after the race, the better, since that's when your muscles will be warm and pliable. I try to stretch and roll/massage within an hour or two of finishing. If you have a non-slip bathtub/bathmat, the shower is a fabulous place for some of that stretching - the combo of getting to ease your tight muscles and simultaneously wash off the gross salty residue always feels awesome.

Also obvious but very important: drink tons of water to rehydrate and flush out your system, and get lots of sleep - these are the building blocks of allowing your muscles to repair and rebuild. Try for an hour more sleep than whatever your usual "well-rested" night is (e.g., instead of 8 hours, I tried for 9), if possible. 99% of the time, my feet hurt after a marathon… but that completely goes away after just one night of good sleep, and I'm left with just a few areas of muscle soreness (this time, my quads). Pay very close attention to what still hurts the morning after a marathon - those are the muscles you need to stretch a lot now, and strengthen the next time around. (Hopefully by now you've forgotten the pain and have decided that there will be a next marathon!)

You may notice that "eat lots of protein" is conspicuously lacking from this list. This is because if you eat lots of extra protein, you're probably just putting unnecessary calories into your body that it doesn't know what to do with - plus, in extreme circumstances, too much protein can tax your kidneys. Avoid manufactured protein shakes, and just try to incorporate a regular source of protein into each meal. Hopefully, you do this anyway; I just make sure that I don't have any low protein meals for a day or two after the race (e.g., I'd pick an omelet over a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast). A normal amount of protein is plenty for your muscles to recover.

Finally, take all that advice about "doing a reverse taper" and throw it out the window. Am I a bit easier on myself the day after a marathon? Absolutely, but I still get in a good workout. In college, I watched our hockey team hit the stationary bikes as soon as a game was done - it was required by their coaches - and I've incorporated that into my own plan. Stationary biking is a great low-impact way to get your legs moving again. The elliptical is another great option. Do I run the day after a marathon? Not usually, but I've done it on occasion. Some soreness in your day-after-the-marathon workout is to be expected, so don't let that deter you. I just make sure that while I'm going for a similar time workout, my intensity is down a bit and I'm not pushing it like crazy. This week, I biked for 20 minutes (4.5 miles) in the morning and then hit the elliptical for an easy 60 minutes (5.9 miles) while watching the Bachelor in the evening. The next day, I opted for a free weight lifting routine that had me up on my feet, but focusing primarily on my arms rather than my legs (though I did include 10 minutes of the rowing machine). And today, I'm back to normal and am planning to punish my legs for their time off with some crazy squats and deadlifts tonight :)

And as preventative for next time? Run more marathons. Part of the reason my body recovers so quickly after a marathon is that it's very used to the distance. Running a marathon for me has become the equivalent of running 5 miles for other people - it made me sore the first time, but as I did it more and more, my body adapted to that distance and now can recover in record time. When you figure out your training plan, add as many long runs (20 miles or more) as possible. Having your muscles used to working for that long period of time will give them the endurance they need to last you through the race - and will make the day after seem like just another day after your long run.

Power to the She!

2012-01-16T18:06:00.003-05:00

I have been keeping a big secret from all of you for a little while. But today, I am super duper excited to finally reveal what it is!!!

A few months ago, I heard about the free fitness classes offered at Athleta, and I decided to head for the store and give them a try. I headed over for a group run in Central Park, and had a blast meeting new friends and checking out the store. I liked it so much that I went back again a few weeks later - and this time, the store manager approached me. They had heard about my mega marathons, and wanted to encourage me to apply for the Athleta Sponsored Athlete program.

Me, a sponsored athlete? I was pretty surprised by the suggestion. While I've done a lot of marathons (#65 was yesterday!), I'm no Kara Goucher or Shalane Flanagan. I don't run/train as my full-time job - I do marathons to see new places, meet new friends, and have fun. Fitness is something that's very important to me - but it's something that, like everyone else, I sometimes struggle to make time for. I don't make the right food choices all the time, and I skip workouts when I'm busy or just plain tired. In short, I am pretty much everything that I would think some fancy schmancy sponsored athlete would not be.

But as I got to know the Athleta brand, I discovered that they weren't about those things. They support superhuman athletes, yes (just look at the other unbelievable women who are part of the lineup of 2012 sponsored athletes!), but Athleta also believes in the everyday woman who works within her own limitation to get things done. Fortunately for me, they believe in the woman who sometimes sleeps through her morning alarm but then has the extraordinary resolve to squeeze a workout in between a long work day, grocery shopping, errands, and cooking dinner - because that workout is important to her and her goals for living.

Meanwhile, Athleta's clothes, while being high performance (I can definitely attest to that after yesterday's marathon!), are also chic and cute enough that you look great wearing them even when you're not working out. Their stores have incredibly friendly staff who are positive and encouraging no matter what the circumstances (I once saw a staff member consoling a recent widow as if they were best friends), and gorgeous active artwork on the walls that makes you so excited to go hiking, skiing, kayaking, running... or just get out into the world and be active. I've written a lot of posts lately about how I want to stop making my workouts about drudgery at the gym and start making them more about fun activities that just happen to burn calories / build muscle, and that is exactly what Athleta is about.

Athleta's brand slogan this year, "Power to the She," is about "fueling the amazing female force." It's about recognizing and empowering how wonderful we as women are, whether we are superstar athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics, new mothers trying to get back in shape while taking care of their kids, or 20-something running bloggers trying to fit in workouts amidst 80 hour work weeks. I think we can all relate to the "Power to the She" campaign! So I put in my application and hoped for the best, and after multiple rounds of follow up questions and interviews... I was selected to be a 2012 Athleta Sponsored Athlete! I couldn't be more excited.

To live up to my "sponsored athlete" status, I set some aggressive goals for 2012. I decided I wanted to get back into marathons on a regular basis, with a goal of running at least one a month. I was kind of nervous about this goal - what if my time for marathons was over? - but after yesterday's triumph in Bermuda, I want to up that goal to one marathon a week! (Okay, not really). I've realized that long distance running is going to be something that will stick with me forever - it brings me so much pride, positivity, and a sense of accomplishment that nothing else can.

Which brings me to goal #2: I want to help other women (and men) to experience these same feelings. Long distance running may not be for everyone, but I think that everyone can find some form of fitness they can enjoy - especially when combined with friends and fun (like my latest endeavors). Whether it's running a distance you never thought you could run (it was just a few years ago that I made it my goal to run one mile without stopping!), lifting a weight you never thought you could lift, or learning an activity you never thought you'd try (surfing and trapeze, coming up soon!), I believe that fitness challenges can provide an incredible sense of accomplishment that helps your self-esteem and poise in everything you do.

I hope to encourage people to try many different pursuits, but to start the year, I'm focusing on running. Every Sunday morning, I'll be leading a running group from the Athleta Upper West Side store, and we're following the beginner's half marathon training plan I laid out a few weeks ago in preparation for the More Half Marathon in April. I am especially excited that my mom, her best friend, and my kindergarten teacher are creating a satellite training group up in Albany, my hometown, and are coming down to do the race in April! It's going to be a pretty special race for me to have all those wonderful women running with me - and especially to have the women from my childhood who knew me when I was not athletic at all. What a transformation!

My other stated Athleta goals for the year include setting a new personal best time (I'll be talking about this a lot more in the next few weeks - yesterday's marathon was pretty eye opening for me in seeing what I'm capable of achieving!) and running 600 miles over the course of the year. While 600 miles in a year may not sound like a ton to all you running bloggers, for me, it's about getting back to making running part of my everyday life. I spend a lot of time on the elliptical, lifting weights, dancing, and doing all kinds of other cross training, but I really want to make an effort this year to improve my running.

So, the big secret is out! Again, I can't emphasize how much I love the Athleta brand - their clothing, their people, and their values - and I hope that over the course of the year, you'll get to know Athleta and love it as much as I do. Power to the She!

Race Report: Bermuda Marathon

2012-01-15T18:44:00.000-05:00

Here I go again on my own,
Looking down the only road I've ever known
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
But I've made up my mind
I'm not wasting no more time

And with Whitesnake singing background in a very apropos song (especially fortuitous since it was just what happened to play when I hit shuffle on my Droid holding more than 2000 songs), I began the Bermuda Marathon.

Going into the race, I was terrified. To steal a page from my friend Adam, my goals for the race were as follows:
A-level: Finish the marathon under 5:00
B-level: Finish the marathon, period
C-level: Finish the half marathon and don't get injured

I really, really, really did not foresee finishing any faster than that. As I posted last night, I figured I would do the first half somewhere between 2:00 and 2:10 (depending how tough the hills turned out to be), and I knew from past experience (when I did the Staten Island Half Marathon with an injury but just wanted to complete it so I would finish the five borough half marathon chellenge) that walking a half marathon would, at best, net me 3:00. Add the two together, and I'd get a finish time of, at best, 5:00. So I genuinely thought that finishing sub-5 was a pipe dream, given how I hadn't trained for this race at all.

To recap my long-distance training:
-Last full marathon completed in March. No runs longer than a half marathon since then.
-Last half marathon completed in November. No runs longer than 7 miles since then.

So what on earth was I doing attempting a marathon??? I didn't know - I thought I really had no business doing so. Mind over matter, I suppose.

The race started out easily enough, and in a fairly low key way. After waiting in the ferry terminal next to the start (surprisingly nice pre-race accommodations: plenty of seats, shielded from the elements, and literally right next to the start - kudos, organizers!), I headed to the starting line at 7:50am, and took some pictures with my friends.

Before I could post them on Twitter, though, we heard the announcer mumble something into the mic as if he were getting ready to start the announcements. "Um, so, runners..." I started making sure my Garmin was set and getting the Cardiotrainer app loaded on my phone, but ten seconds later, he yelled, "Go!" No National Anthem? (I suppose not in a foreign country that bills their race as an "international marathon.") But no pre-race welcome or announcements? Surprising, but I actually liked it - it meant that the race started right on time (big pet peeve of mine is when races start late).

We took off down Front Street - a nice flat jaunt (for now). At the one mile mark, we came to our first hill - a little baby one that wasn't too steep and probably took only a minute from bottom to top. It felt good to get my heart rate up a little bit, and we were rewarded by an equivalent downhill on the other side. So far, totally fair.

Turning left, the road flattened out, and we ran by all kinds of pretty houses. I was rewarded for my nice pace by a group of runners doing the half marathon who exclaimed that they couldn't believe I was a full marathoner running at their same pace. "For now!" I pointed out, and we all had a laugh. While usually this kind of comment wouldn't come up, there were so many more half marathoners than full marathoners that I think it was just the novelty of my pink bib that made them comment. (Side note: anyone else think it's funny that full marathoners got girly pink bibs, while half marathoners had a more hardcore neon yellow? I'm a pink lover, so I was thrilled... but still surprised).

For the next few miles, the road had some little ups and downs - nothing significant at all, and so minor that it was almost masked by the twists and turns in the winding road we followed. The one straightaway came when we headed through this gorgeous arbor of trees that provided a complete canopy of shade as we ran through (though the clouds were covering the sun pretty well at this point, so that wasn't a huge factor). I wanted to take a picture of this gorgeous archway of greenery, but decided that since I was running now, I'd wait to stop and take a photo until the second half, when I'd likely be walking the whole thing. After all, double loop course means two photo opps for every cool sight!

At mile 4, we hit the first significant hill. I would compare it to running the main Harlem Hill on a counterclockwise loop of Central Park - certainly a challenge, but very possible to finish it without having to take a walk break. I pushed myself hard to make it to the top at a decent clip, reminding myself that I could walk it the second time around - and was rewarded for my trouble with a pretty speedy 9:11 pace for that particular mile (vs 8:30s for the previous three). As a further reward, we had a quarter mile or so flat section once we reached the top... and then a long, glorious downhill with stunning ocean views as the sun began to peek out from amongst the clouds. Woo hoo!

The next few miles had us running along the western edge of beautiful Harrington Sound - and again, I had to remind myself that there would be plenty of time for picture taking on the second lap. At mile 5, I was starting to feel just the tiniest bit tired, and I decided to take a gel there and then every 5 miles afterward, for a total of four gels (compared to my usual strategy of three gels: one at mile 6, one around mile 12/13, and one around mile 18/19). I was glad I did - the Gu Roctane (aka with caffeine) I picked served to pep me up without having to worry about the occasional GI issues that coffee can give me (what can I expect; it's a known laxative). Washed down with some Gatorade, it was a pretty darn delicious treat - and I felt the sugar kick in quickly.

After the hill at mile 4, my pace never quite recovered to the 8:30s I was running beforehand; my times were now in the high 8:50s and low 9:00s. Fortunately, we weren't hitting any real hills to worry about - just some tiny little ups and downs that I enjoyed, since they gave my muscles a chance to work harder on the uphills and then relax and speed up on the downhills. One of these baby hills brought us to Turtle's Head - and I chuckled to think that a few weeks ago, this location was all I knew of Bermuda. Was anyone else a big Bobbsey Twin fan as a kid, and remember how they went to Bermuda and then Flossie took a tumble into the water while they were looking for "Slippery Sam" in a glass bottomed boat? Alternately, anyone else think it's a bit pathetic that I can remember the plotlines of my 1st grade books (early reader here) verbatim? Too bad I can remember that better than I can remember discussions in business meetings less than a week ago :-/

Continuing west on the north side of the island, we started to hit some more rollers (again, none of which were terribly problematic) and a strong ocean breeze - which cooled me down nicely but also made my pace drop just a few more seconds per mile. Fortunately, I was soon to be pepped up: a DJ had set up shop at a roundabout around mile 8.5, and I excitedly switched from a jog to a dance for a few paces, getting totally jazzed up by the music and the crowd in the area. My pace picked up significantly for about a quarter mile, and it was just the boost I needed to push through to mile 9.

On the north side of the island, there were a lot of families sitting on their lawns and porches to watch the race - but only one who seemed to be making a tailgating party out of it. As I ran by and saw their beers and cocktails, I called out to them to save a drink for me on the next lap. Though they assured me they would, I've done this in enough races (Hartford, New Jersey) to know that spectators often think I'm joking about this request. To be clear: I never joke about beer. And especially not when I am running and thirsty and in need of motivation.

The last 5K of the first half had a ton of little rollers - not any bigger than those I had been dealing with before, but now in quicker succession. It was rare to be on a flat surface - we were always going either a little bit up or a little bit down. Looking around, I didn't spy any other marathoners, so I decided to rally the half marathoners around me and encourage them by pointing out that they if they could stay on pace, they could hit a sub-2:00 finish (which is often a big goal). Almost everyone had those obnoxious headphones on where they couldn't hear what I was saying (seriously, when can races start banning all headphones except safe ones like AirDrives? If you can't hear another runner talking to you, your headphones are dangerous and stupid), but I did manage to encourage one woman about my age, who was running sans-Garmin and was pleasantly surprised to hear that she could break 2 hours... but also said she didn't think she could keep the pace. As we came to a hill, I surged past her as she slowed to a walk, and I didn't see her again until the out-and-back near the half marathon finish, where I estimated that she was about 2 minutes behind. But still running! Good for her.

As we came back into the town of Hamilton, my pace picked up just a bit so that I was back to 8:50s. Halfway point, coming up! The course had us turn off to do an annoying little out-and-back when we were about three blocks from the finish line - which also happened to be on a very slight uphill. On the one hand, it was nice to get a chance to see who all was going to finish just before and after you. On the other hand, I hated that we had to turn for a random out-and-back when we were so close... it seemed like they could have designed the course a bit better and put the out-and-back somewhere else in the race (which was only about a tenth of a mile long anyway). No matter - the finish line was coming up, and now I got to cheer on the half marathoners and see their victory sprints as I hit the left side of the road to continue on for on more loop. Looking at my watch as I passed the half marathon finish line, I saw it click over to 2:00:00 just as I passed - a time I was pretty proud of. Right on target so far!

As I kept running, I definitely felt fatigued... but I by no means felt dead and like I would have to walk the whole rest of the way. I decided to run at least as far as that first hill at mile 1 (now mile 14.1), when I could take a walk break heading up it. This goes to my overall pacing strategy - if you want a walk break but know that there is a hill coming up, make yourself hold out for the uphill (when you will probably want to take a walk break anyway). Plus, if the uphill is followed by a downhill, it's the perfect time to transition back to running and feel like it's not that hard!

At the foot of the hill, though, was an older gentleman who I at first thought was a spectator. He called out to me, "you're 51st right now!" How cool, I thought, he must have counted everyone coming around a second time so that he could tell each person their place! But later, at the farthest point of the loop, a woman was making note of each runner's bib number on her clipboard (to prevent cheating/course-cutting) and calling out their place, so I realized that the first guy must have been doing the same thing and I had just missed the clipboard. Neat feature though, to know exactly where you stood in such a small race! I'm sure that someday we'll have some cool GPS feature on all our smartphones that will tell you what place you're in and how far ahead the next person in your category is... but for now, this was a neat way to see where you were. As a result, I only walked half the hill - and then got back to jogging so that I could attempt to overtake the woman ahead of me. Top 50, here I come!

At the top of the hill, I started feeling some sprinkles hit my arms, and I immediately looked up at the sky. Was this going to be the start of a torrential downpour like we had seen yesterday? The sun was still shining, so I hoped it would just be a light and refreshing sun shower, but a few dark clouds loomed on the horizon, so I wasn't sure. Luckily, the rain stopped after just a few minutes, never to return for the entire rest of my stay in Bermuda (i.e., 5 hours). Instead, the sun decided to come out and play - making for some gorgeous photos, some tan lines, and a bit of squinting, since the poor forecast made me decide to skip my sunglasses. Fortunately, it wasn't too bright, so that omission was just a minor inconvenience.

When I came back to that tunnel of greens that had me so enamored on the first loop, I considered stopping for a picture, but decided to keep running. I was surprised that I had been able to continue running for this long, and I didn't want a picture stop to get me out of my rhythm and cause me to lose what I currently had going. Sorry, pretty tree tunnel - I'll have to come back and photograph you next year.

While I had been able to pass competitor #50 back on the downhill of that first mile hill, I had been trailing #49 for quite some time. The twists and turns in the road made it very hard to keep track of her, but whenever I caught a glimpse of her, she was pretty far ahead of me and keeping a good pace. I'm usually pretty good at maintaining pace through the later miles (when most people start slowing down), but I had no idea how I would do today - I expected to peter out and slow down myself. In fact, at mile 15, I was already getting a bit tired - this was the longest distance I had run in about 8 months! But the habits of dozens of marathons die hard, and while my feet were starting to hurt, something in my brain was conditioned to remind me that "15 miles is only 11 from the finish, and 11 miles is not that far." Never mind that even a straight up 11 mile run would be my longest run in two months; somehow, that idea made me feel better, and like I was going to conquer this. And in the short term, I decided I was going to give myself a break and walk that big hill at mile 16 (previously mile 4).

Walking the hill allowed me to catch my breath while still maintaining a pace not too much slower than what I would have been able to run - so I think it was a smart decision. And at the very top, I did as promised and snapped a quick picture of the lush green and pretty steeple in the distance.

Now, for the pleasant downhill and my first second loop glance at the ocean. Despite having just stopped at a water stop and taken another gel, I paused for a quick picture here too, which doesn't even begin to do the scenic views justice.

Spurred by my gel and Gatorade, I continued on - now starting to gain confidence in my abilities. For miles 19 and 20, I ran a 9:55 and 9:45 pace, respectively - a far cry from the 14 minute pace I had anticipated for the entire second half. Perhaps I had set my sights low - maybe it was time to aim for a 4:30 finish? With 6 miles to go and a current time of 3:10, it was certainly possible, even with plenty of slowdown in there.

To keep the pace, I focused on little milestones: how many miles until the dance break that had been at mile 8.5 on the first loop? How many miles till the tailgating party where I hoped there would be a drink waiting for me? How many miles till I had only 5K to go, at which point I'd switch over to my "power songs" playlist instead of the randomness I had been playing to this point? Fortunately, the answer to each of those questions was, not that much further.

First up was the mile 21.5 dance break - and I rocked out to the calypso (yeah, I don't know why that was the music of choice either) songs as best as I could. Sure, my arms were pretty tired at this point (because every part of my body was tired), but a little bit of waving my arms to the beat brought a smile to my face and some renewed energy to my step - definitely worth it. Next, I looked for the tailgating party just a half mile further. Here, however, I was not so handsomely rewarded.

As I suspected, the tailgate party had been shocked that I actually wanted a drink, and they headed for their cooler to grab me a light beer. No thanks! I had my eye on the array of what appeared to be Dark and Stormies (rum + ginger beer), known to be the signature drink of the Bahamas. I asked, "how about that?", pointing to a glass, and one guy said, "YEAH!" while another woman cautioned, "um, it's pretty strong. It's..." But before she could finish her sentence, I had taken a sip. "Vodka and beef consomme." Um, seriously?? How is that possibly an actual drink and not just a way that alcoholics spike their lunches? Gross. I laughed it off gamely, but as I backed away from the picnic table to continue running, my headphone cord got tangled in one of the cracks in the picnic table, and I nearly pulled the entire table down with me. Oops! No harm done to the table (or more importantly, the drinks!), but when I got back on the road, I discovered that my headphones were no longer working. So much for my plan to make my next milestone the time for power songs!

The sun was beginning to heat things up, and the wind was getting stronger, to the point where it was definitely hindering my pace. Come on, wind, back off! Lacking music to motivate me, I focused on my watch, the road in front of me, and a new incredibly aggressive goal: 4:15. I consider anything under 4:15 to be a very successful and fast marathon for me, and it would be a huge coup if I were able to achieve it - and right now, I was on pace to do so. Go, Laura, go!

As I continued on at about a 9:50 pace, I started spying runners in the distance. Look out, #48 and #47, I'm a-coming for you! I tried to encourage each person as I passed them, but I was running low on energy myself, so my "good job, keep it up" was more of an under my breath huff than anything else. Most people seemed to be giving it their best already and just didn't have the energy to push it more - not a situation where cheering can really make a big difference. Meanwhile, the mini rollers were starting to get to me, and I found myself gritting my teeth on the uphills and baring my teeth at volunteers (my attempt at a smile, which I had been keeping up pretty well until this point). Mile 24 was my worst of the race, clocking in at 10:42 as I took an extended walk break out of frustration at missing my music. Bad Laura!

But I brought that back down to 10:17 for the next mile, and at last, mile 25 was upon me. One mile and change to go! I looked at my watch as I passed the 25 mile marker, and saw that I was clocking in at 3:51 - so if I did an even 10:00 pace for the rest, I'd finish in 4:13. I made 4:12 my new reach goal - requiring a 9:30 pace for the next two miles. And then I ran.

Forget 10:00, and forget 9:30... I brought the next mile's pace down to 9:10, and passed runner #46 and #45 along the way. I was now in 45th place, and had moved up six slots since beginning the second loop! I was so proud of myself, especially since my initial plan had been to do the first loop fast and then let everyone pass me as I slowed to a walk in the second half. But no rest for the weary - I had just about 10 minutes left in the race, and I was determined to push it from there. Could I maybe hit 4:11 instead of 4:12? Very possibly. WOW.

For the final full mile, I was in my glorious spot - running strong and sure past the Fairmont Hamilton and getting cheered on by half marathoners walking back along the course to their hotels and homes. I turned into that yucky out-and-back, seeing a few people ahead of me on the "back" section that I knew I had no hope of catching - but now I was racing not against them, but against the clock and myself. Final full mile: 8:57. That's right, I'm back with a vengeance!

I didn't quite have the energy to sprint down the finish chute (grr, now I wish I had tried harder), but I finished looking damn good - waering my gorgeous new Athleta outfit and with my shoulder pulled back and my legs long. No end-of-the-race shuffle for me! I was grinning from ear to ear as I crossed the finish line with 4:12:30 on the clock, and when I looked down at my watch to confirm it after crossing the finish line, I let out a little yip of excitment. Once again, I had far exceeded my expectations of what I was capable of doing. Hooray!!!

After getting my finish photo (how awesome is it that the medal ribbon matched the turquoise color in my shirt??? Yes, I think about these things), some oranges, and water, I took stock. How was I feeling? Answer: on top of the world! My legs weren't any sore than they used to get after finishing a race (back when I was doing marathons regularly), and when I took my sneakers/socks off, I was also shocked to find I didn't have a single blister. Score! Despite not having a ton of time to clean up in my condo before catching my cab to the airport, I was able to squeeze in a little "Born This Way" solo dance party in between my shower and packing. Dancing after a marathon? Um, what other way is there to celebrate??

Of course, there is a downside to the realization that I made a pretty successful marathon comeback today with basically no training. If I could do this well without training, what am I capable of when I really buckle down and prep? I have said that I want to set a new PR in a race this year, but perhaps it's time to upgrade that from "PR in a race" to "PR in the marathon," or break 3:49. Seeing that I was able to hit 4:11 without training, I think it's definitely attainable... but it's scary to think of all the hard work that has to go into reaching my true potential. Time for me to man up and stop wussing out - I was built for long distance, and it's time for me to conquer!

Race stats:
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 4:11:40
Pace: 9:37
Overall place: 46/??
Gender place: 16/51
Age group place: 6/24

Night Before the Race: Bermuda Marathon

2012-01-14T18:54:00.002-05:00

After my post this morning, I headed to the gym for a quick (30 minute) workout. With the marathon coming up tomorrow, I knew I needed to rest my legs, and I also didn't want to go crazy and use up my energy, so I opted for some light arm work - alternating between 10 rows and 10 overhead presses using 5lb dumbbells, and then halfway through, switching to 10 rows and 10 chest presses using 10lb dumbbells. Super light weights for me, but because I did such high reps (didn't count, but you can imagine how many sets I got done in 30 minutes of just those exercises!), I was still able to fatigue. It felt good to break a light sweat, and I think it was the right choice pre-race.

I headed out to the pool area to check out the beach, and when I did, I bumped into a marathoning friend of mine, John. He lives in Vermont with his wife, and they hosted a big group of 50 State Clubbers at their home for a post-Vermont City Marathon barbecue two years ago. Such fun! I couldn't believe I had run into him at my resort (it wouldn't have been nearly as shocking had I seen him at the expo), and he explained to me that his friends owned a condo here and had invited him along. They could not believe the crazy deal I had gotten on my accommmodations, and pointed out that these condos cost several million dollars to own, and usually rent for anywhere from several hundred to a thousand dollars a night. WOW!!!! When I got back to my condo, I checked out some of the ownership materials I found, and it turns out it's pretty elite... to the point where jeans and flip flops are actually not allowed on the premises, and sneakers are only permitted in the fitness room or on the tennis courts. Guess who didn't pack any other shoes?! I walked fast when I was going through the lobby from then on :)

I tried to walk over to the Fairmont Southampton, which was less than a mile away and was supposed to offer a free shuttle to the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, where the expo was. However, upon arriving (just after it had started to rain buckets), I found out that the shuttle only runs three times a day - and I had just missed it. I was a bit annoyed - you would think that the marathon website would make that a little more clear, instead of advertising that the shuttle was available and made it easy to stay at either Fairmont! I sucked it up and took a cab, but was not pleased to have to pay $20. (Fortunately, I could share a cab back with John and his wife, who were going to meet me at the expo later).

Arriving at the hotel, I immediately ran into Bart Yasso in the lobby, chatting with two of my friends from the Albany Running Exchange, who have an event timing business and were the official timers of the race. I said a brief hello and caught up with the group before heading up to the expo. The expo turned out to be super tiny - as in, the smallest expo I have ever seen of races that actually have an expo. There were about 6 booths, but the entire thing was set up in a massive ballroom, so it seemed very odd to have so few booths but such a large setup. Meanwhile, I learned that the 10K was the big race of the weekend (which had been this morning), and that the half marathon and marathon were almost afterthoughts to that main event. According to the list of entrants (the entirety of which ran in the local paper), there were fewer than 40 people planning to run the entire marathon! Looks like it will be a lonely second loop of the course tomorrow.

When John and Marianne arrived, I discovered one big plus of a mostly non-existent expo: there were two masseuses in the back corner who were ready to give free massages, with no line! Sweet. Mine wasn't nearly as hard as I would have liked (my neck/shoulders get super tense after all the computer time I put in!), but it was still very welcome. As a bonus, the rain subsided while we were getting our massages - and now I just have to hope it continues to hold off until tomorrow afternoon. Before heading back to The Reefs, we walked along Front Street, the main shopping district in Hamilton, and the site of the marathon starting line. Less than 24 hours and it would all be over!

We shared a cab back to the Reefs, and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing - watching the 2012 Olympic Marathon trials on TV, cooking (wheatberries and steamed veggies for dinner for me), and enjoying a ginger cider to make me sleepy at the end of the night. Now the question - how will it go tomorrow? I am far more nervous about this race than I have been about any other marathon (except perhaps my first). And after getting a look at the crazy hills in Bermuda, I'm afraid that it's going to be one of the toughest races I've done. Yikes!

Let's be honest - I am woefully unprepared and completely untrained, and it's stupid that I am even attempting this race. I am mad at myself for being so dumb and lazy about long runs. I think my goal is to run the first half and finish around 2:00/2:05 (maybe longer with those awful hills?), and then try to see how much longer I can keep running - but ultimately I'm probably going to end up walking (or, very optimistically, run/walking) the second half. Not the most fun way to do a marathon, but that is entirely my fault. Hopefully, I will learn my lesson and start training in earnest after this - 13 miles of lonely road and a slow pace will be pretty good punishment. I am long overdue for a marathon comeback, but I know it's not going to be tomorrow, and I'm annoyed at myself for not making that happen, but now I just have to look forward. Perhaps February? March? I would really like to PR a race this year, so we'll see when I can make that happen.

Good luck to everyone else running tomorrow!

Wine-delayed Friday post

2012-01-14T08:23:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I posted this poll on Twitter:

Based on those two responses (and assuming that the rest of you had cut out of work early and were already at happy hour), I decided to wait to blog. However, what I failed to mention in that tweet was how exhausted I was, and that the likelihood of me staying up after drinking even two glasses of wine was slim to none. In fact, I went to bed at 8:30pm (which, with the time change, is 7:30pm back in New York), and woke up at 7:30am, for a glorious 11 hours of sleep. It's amazing what being overtired and then knocking yourself out with wine will do! Best part is, I still have half a bottle of wine left over for tonight. Honestly, as long as you make sure you drink plenty of water before and after, I think a few glasses of wine (or a few beers) is the best way to get a good night's sleep the night before a race - it ensures you'll get to bed early, sleep soundly, and not be awake and stressing about your race.

A big part of the reason that I was so overtired was that yesterday I had to again get up at 4:30am to catch a flight. Fortunately, this time it was to the beautiful island of Bermuda! I'm here until Sunday to run the Bermuda Marathon, and it is so stunningly beautiful and amazing, I can't get over it. As a bonus, this trip is a bargain vacation for some pretty stellar accommodations!

First of all, I found a pricing mistake on airfare - $178 (with taxes) roundtrip from NYC. And on my preferred airline, Delta! While I have medium-level status on most of the airlines (United, American, Delta), I have a slight preference for Delta's service. Plus I like their Biscoff cookies :) Because, you know, liking a 25 cent pack of cookies is good enough rationale for picking an airline with which to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on airfare.

When it came to finding an actual place to stay, it was a little bit more tricky. Most places in Bermuda seemed to be fairly expensive (and after arriving here, I see why - they are all gorgeous and super high end), but I managed to find a highly-rated property called The Reefs that was only $99 on Orbitz (despite being $299 everywhere else). I booked it, and then a few weeks later, I got an email from Orbitz - ruh roh. They said that they were sorry, but the hotel was actually undergoing renovations and so they wouldn't be able to accommodate me in my single room or offer me any restaurants/food outlets on site... so to compensate, they were moving me to a 2 bedroom oceanside condo and crediting me $30 a night to use for grocery delivery! WOW!

When one of my former coworkers from when I worked in airline pricing offered me some buddy passes (aka cheap tickets) for friends to come, I tried at the last minute to see if I could get any takers, since I have so much extra space, but everyone was tied up... bummer. And so it is that I have this incredibly gorgeous and massive luxury condo all to myself, for cheap. I swear, I feel like I'm on the set of Revenge or something. For example, here's a shot of the living room:

Last night was spent lounging around in my hot tub (why yes, I do have my own personal hot tub on a balcony overlooking the ocean), drinking wine, and watching The Bachelor (because nothing goes better with this multimillion dollar beach condo than a $10 bottle of Barefoot Muscato and some trashy reality TV). Honestly, though, it was exactly the night that I needed, and I adored every minute of it.

Today: headed to the gym to lift (arms only; saving legs for tomorrow's marathon), then cooking lunch in my gorgeous condo kitchen (dual ovens! Sub zero refrigerator! Wusthof knives! Can I move here?), and heading over to the race expo in the afternoon. It remains to be seen whether I decided to stick around for the official pasta dinner or just head home to cook again (I can't get enough of my condo), but I think either option is a good one... as long as I make time to finish that wine before bed :)

Happy Saturday!

One year later, a whole lot stronger

2012-01-12T21:54:00.002-05:00

Today was an extremely busy and productive day! Unfortunately, in order to accomplish everything and make my flight, I had to be up at 4:30am... yuck! I scurried through an abbreviated morning routine (no workout, shower) in order to catch my 6am flight home... but it was totally worth it in order to have a day in New York to just get things done.

My project's big launch was yesterday, so this week has been pretty intense and low on sleep. Last night, I bailed on the group dinner in favor of getting to bed early... but ended up not getting to bed till 10pm. I suppose that's early enough, but with a 4:30am wakeup call and me short on sleep, I was hoping for more like 8pm! Oh well - hopefully I can catch up on my mini-vacation in Bermuda this weekend (you know, because marathon vacations are so relaxing and restful).

Due to the extreme rain and win, and the fact that I was on my usual teeny turboprop back from Charlottesville, the flight was the most turbulent I have ever experienced (and I fly a lot. One minute things were a little bit bumpy, and the next, things were flying around the cabin (including my laptop, which flew off of my tray table and into the aisle before I could reach for it). The flight attendant urgently asked everyone to hold onto anything thye could or stow it under their seats, but warned us not to get up to retrieve or stow anything - not that I would have tried with all the sharp sudden drops we were making! I still had a book in my hand, but I couldn't concentrate on it - instead choosing to pray that the flight would eventually arrive safely. Scary stuff!

We landed in the middle of a big downpour, but right on time at 7:30am. I headed for the US Airways club to get some work done before picking up my rental car at 9am, which I gratefully used for a quick trip to Ikea before its intended purpose of heading home. By lunchtime, I was proud to say that I had flown home, unpacked, redecorated my living room (except for painting - that will come in two weeks), gone to the library, and hit up the hardware store for a new set of keys. That's more than I usually get done in a whole weekend!

The rest of the afternoon and evening was slightly less frenetic, but I still caught up on work/email, did laundry, and packed. Packing was a pretty big ordeal this week - I had to pack a small suitcase for my Bermuda trip tomorrow, and then since I wouldn't be getting home until about 11pm on Sunday night and would have to be back on a flight to Virginia first thing Monday morning, I opted to pack a separate suitcase for the next week so it would be mostly all ready to go. But since I'm heading straight to a family ski trip in Vermont from my Virginia work week, that meant double duty packing for that bag as well! I really had it covered: beachwear/marathon gear for Bermuda; business casual, workout clothes and party clothes for work in Virginia (we're having our launch party next week, after things calm down); and winter wear / ski gear for Killington next weekend. If I took both of those suitcases with me, I'd pretty much be set for any destination!

I had intended to get in a really intense workout yesterday as well, but didn't end up having time to squeeze it in. However, my best friend has recently decided to get serious about fitness (at least for the next day or two until he gets distracted and gives up, though I've tried many times in the past to get him to stick with it), and I had agreed to go workout with him and put him through his paces, personal trainer-style. I had originally thought we'd hit the weight room and I'd give him some free weight routines to try, but decided instead to have him do the Insanity Fit Test. I knew it would be really hard, but I thought that perhaps doing something so numbers-oriented and focused would motivate him to stick with a workout routine (and give him a wakeup call!).

I hadn't done Insanity since last summer, and I thought I'd be crazy out of shape and not able to do any of it. However, I surprised myself - while I didn't do quite as many reps of each exercise as I would have liked, I recovered fairly easily from each one - especially compared to Mat, as he collapsed onto the floor and begged me to pause the video while a pool of sweat collected around him. (To his credit, one of the breaks we took was when he insisted on Swiffer mopping the floor in between... so he has made the commitment to keeping his apartment clean).

I felt pretty good about my numbers - they weren't as high as when I ended Insanity in June (except for power jumps, which I beat all previous numbers - score!), but they were nowhere near as dismal when I first tried the program last spring (except for pushup jacks - oops). Given that I haven't done the program in 7 months, I think that speaks to my overall fitness being stronger, rather than it just being specialization of certain exercises. Woo hoo! Check it out:

I ended the brief workout feeling pretty proud of myself - and surprisingly not nearly as sweaty as I used to get from all these Insanity shenanigans. Perhaps it's time to give it another go? It could be a lot of fun to do it with Mat and motivate each other when we just don't feel like "pressing play"!

I'm a work in progress - and proud of it

2012-01-11T19:05:00.003-05:00

Remember how I said I might make one of my fitness goals for the year going back to doing 100 pushups? Emphasis on "might" right there, because that hasn't happened yet. I'm definitely still a work in progress.

But yesterday, while getting ready in the morning, I decided to kind-of-sort-of give it a go. I got about 2 (full body) pushups into my first set of 10 and realized there was no way I was going to make it all the way to the end of the set. So I adjusted - now I would do 20 sets of 5 instead of 10 sets of 10. Then I got tired of counting and opted to do 10 sets of 5 full body pushups in the morning, and then 5 sets of 10 pushups from my knees in the evening (those were supposed to be full body pushups too, but I was tired and sore so I went easy).

Totally fine.

My chest is still sore today from the workout I did do (and way more sore than it would have been had I skipped the pushups entirely since I couldn't do them up to my very high standard). I am proud because I know that I'm working on getting stronger - and strength gains don't come overnight. Sure, it's disappointing to find that I can't knock out the 100 pushups in a few minutes like I could when I ended the Insanity program last summer... but it's also to be expected, since I haven't been doing many pushups lately. In fact, I haven't been doing much strength training at all since Christmas, since most of my friend-and-fitness activities have focused on cardio. Oops. (All right, everyone, who's up for a weight lifting meetup? Laura, those kettlebells beckon!)

Point is, we're now 11 days into the New Year, and I'm betting that at least a few people may be starting to get discouraged with their New Year's resolutions. But you don't have to be perfect! It's nearly impossible to change something big (you did make challenging resolutions, right?) in just 11 days! While I think a lot of diet books write a lot of nonsense, I really love one thing I learned from the Beck Diet Solution when I read it a few years ago: that you have to train your "resistance muscles." When referring to eating, it meant that you have to train yourself to turn down food when you weren't hungry, and that every time you said "no" it got a little easier for the next time. It was the challenges and the mistakes that made you stronger - not being able to do it perfectly right from the beginning.

For a perfectionist like me, this idea of baby steps toward a goal was very helpful - and exactly what I'm striving toward with my nowhere-near-perfect pushup routine as it currently stands. If you've gone after something like my "work back up to 100 pushups a day," remember that it doesn't mean do 100 pushups on the very first day. I am going to be thrilled if I can fire off 100 pushups on a whim by the time fall comes around (and keep that strength till the end of the year), and I will count that as an absolute success - even if it wasn't really my MO in January, or even the springtime in general.

And as for my "do a marathon a month" resolution (which was an actual resolution and not a kind-of-sort-of-maybe resolution), I'm sticking to that... but I'm assuming that my first month's marathon (Bermuda, this weekend!) is pretty much going to suck. That's okay - I'm expecting to not have a fast time, and it's totally my own fault for not really training before January kicked in. But hey, that means I can only get faster from there - and you'd better believe I'm going to be putting in some serious miles as the year goes on. Long run to a mac and cheese takedown? Here we come!

No more pounding it out at the gym

2012-01-10T21:19:00.002-05:00

This morning, while catching up on one of my favorite blogs' links edition (thanks, Greatist!), I found a really excellent article that pretty much sums up my feelings exactly: The Benefits of Exercising Together, by Dr. John Mandrola.

I love the "pillar" Dr. Mandrola describes: "make daily exercise feel as normal as eating and sleeping." That kind of habitual activity is exactly what I'm striving for, and I think it's the most natural way to live. Do I work out every day? No, but on days when I haven't at least gotten my heart rate up (whether through a workout or something more accidental like taking the stairs up to my apartment instead of the elevator), I feel a little guilty. Last year, I made it one of my New Year's resolutions to floss daily - until by the end of the year, I wasn't obsessed with flossing, but I felt a little bit weird going to bed without doing it (for example, the night I ran out of floss and had forgotten to get more). Did it keep me up all night or really trouble me? Heck, no, but I liked that it had become such a part of my routine that I missed it.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how to make exercise fun. It has started to dawn on me just how much exercise it takes to maintain a fairly healthy body (let alone lose the vanity pounds I am currently stuck with), and it can be kind of eye opening to realize that my metabolism is slowing and I will probably have to keep up a good exercise routine forever. But on the flip side, there are so many fun ways to be active that don't feel like working out at all - things like hiking, Zumba, ballet, and even running marathons are so much fun that I would do them even if they didn't burn any calories. Pretty much any workout that I do with friends fits into that category of "fun and doesn't feel like I'm exercising," so it's almost guaranteed to be a winner.

I still can't get over what a blast I had this weekend in combining my fitness time with my social time, and that's opened my eyes to a new model for proceeding (gosh, you can tell I'm mired in work tonight based on my language). While my weekdays may still find me stuck in the hotel gym, weight lifting and hitting the bike/elliptical/treadmill, my weekends are now going to be devoted to combining friends + fitness + fun in new ways. No more pounding it out at the gym; it's time to do more stuff that doesn't feel like exercise. After all, according to the article (seriously, did you go read it yet? It's awesome!), working out with friends gives me motivation, friendship, healthy competition, and the energy to go farther/harder/faster. Quadruple bonus!

I'm out of town for the Bermuda Marathon this weekend, but save the dates for the following, and email me if you're interested in joining the fun:

Sunday 1/22, afternoon: Williamsburg Bridge Run followed by bowling + beer

Monday 1/23, evening: Zumba followed by The Bachelor + wine (because really, the show's just not as good without it)

Thursday 1/26 and Friday 1/27, morning: Bootcamp followed by Bagels on the Upper East Side

Sunday 1/29, afternoon: Brooklyn Bridge Run followed by the Macaroni & Cheese Takedown at the Bell House NY

More ideas welcome!

Running (and dancing and eating and drinking) with friends

2012-01-09T10:55:00.005-05:00

When I laid out my plans for the weekend on Thursday, I didn't fully intend to accomplish all of them. That was a lot of workouts schedule for just one two day weekend! However, I ended up doing all but one, and had a ball in the process. Viva la busy lifestyle!

I woke up on Saturday surprisingly sore - presumably from the bootcamp I attended with Katelyn on Friday morning. When I caught up with her later in the weekend, we both agreed that we thought we had wussed out and given up far too early on the workout for it to get results - but my aching muscles on Saturday morning told me otherwise. Fortunately, I wasn't too sore, and I knew that my weekend was mostly going to consist of cardio training anyway.

The next surprise of the morning came when I jogged over to Athleta Upper West Side for a "barre" class that I was taking with my friend Lauren. We hadn't read much beyond the title of the class, and even there we had been remiss in not noticing that the full title was actually "classical ballet barre." Expecting one of the trendy barre classes like those at Physique 57, what we actually got was the barre portion of a regular ballet class - and I was thrilled. I am really serious about getting back into dance classes, and this was great to ease back in with a beginner barre that was challenging but low pressure. The instructor looked every inch the part of a graceful former dancer, from her lean figure to her elegant chignon. However, the one thing that really stood out to me was her dark rose blush and jet black eyeliner - when I realized that so many of my ballet teachers have applied their makeup in a similar style. There was something oddly familiar and comforting about being taught by someone who felt like she had been my instructor for years, and the feeling was compounded by the fact that the music we were dancing to was the same exact piano accompaniment that many of my teachers used growing up (Lauren asked the instructor about it and learned that it was a popular ballet music CD for which each track was named by the exercise that was meant to be danced to it).

After class and a quick stop at Housing Works for Lauren to drop off some donations (eek, I totally need to do the same sometime soon), we headed across the park and toward 43rd and 1st, for the start of AbbeLew's Whiskeython. With 7 runners participating, Lauren and I got bibs #4 and #5 (when have I ever gotten a bib that low? So cool!), and prepped by nervously trying to get a sense of the (unmarked) route. Neither of us had ever run on the East Side bike path before, but we were assured that all we'd have to do was head down 1st Ave, turn at 34th Street, and turn one more time at FDR - from which point it would be smooth sailing till the finish 5 miles later at Water Street and Wall Street near the South Street Seaport. The start of the race was amusingly low key - we waited for a pedestrian to walk by, but then when Abbe's back was turned, a cyclist started coming from the other direction, only to find six runners coming right at him! You have to love a race that starts with laughter :)

I enjoyed running along the East Side, though the constant traffic presence made it not as nice as running along the West Side (where the highway is broken up by pretty parks and piers). I chose not to look at my phone for the entire run, so I had no idea what kind of pace I was keeping or how much more I had to go, but there was some wind coming off the East River and I felt incredibly sluggish, so I estimated I was running about a 10 minute pace or so. When I got to the finish (thanks to a chance sighting of two other runners who were waiting to cross the traffic light), I was shocked to learn that my time had been a fast 40:55! While I had apparently run the course a bit short at 4.7 miles, that was still an 8:43 average pace - much faster than I had anticipated, and an "aha" moment when I realized why I had felt so tired. I was running at a good clip! My favorite part of the race was probably the tunnel we formed with our arms, through which each finisher ran. Most unique finish I've experienced!

The race concluded with a fabulous brunch at Fraunces Tavern, a historic downtown establishment where Washington and his troops used to quaff drinks back in the day, and we hastened to follow in his footsteps and enjoy some tasty beers with our food. As a bonus, the waitstaff seated us in a private fancy room where we had the "chef's table" overlooking the kitchen - presumably because they were trying to keep our sweaty runner selves away from the other patrons, but it worked out great for us! However, I had underestimated how long it would take us to get to the restaurant, order, and get our food, so at 12:55pm, I decided to skip my planned 1:30pm Kangoo class in favor of hanging out with friends a bit longer, and was so glad I did. That's the beauty of making lots of tentative workout plans - you can skip a few and not feel the slightest bit guilty!

Besides, I still had another workout on tap for the day - Kundalini yoga with the Greatist team. I was pretty tired when I stopped home to pick up my yoga mat and wondering how I was going to get through the intensity of a Kundalini class, but all of the meditation and singing (yes, there was singing) actually blissed me out and had me leaving feeling even better and more well-rested than I had gone in. Awesome! The studio we went to, Reflections Yoga, was only about a mile from my apartment, too, which made for a nice jog on the way there (thanks to running late) and a pleasant walk home on the way back. I'd definitely consider going again to get that feeling of Zen.

My busy day concluded with a wine and cheese house party out in New Jersey - my first time taking the PATH train across the river to Hoboken. I had a lot of fun (though may have indulged on a little too much cheese/crackers/dessert), and crawled into bed at midnight completely pleased with how my day had gone. On to day 2!

Sunday morning started with some catchup with my best friend at 8:30am at our favorite neighborhood breakfast spot, Le Pain Quotidien. I love their steel cut oatmeal, especially with a generous spoon of praline or chocolate nut butter to turn it into a decadent treat, and the oatmeal provides exactly the right dose of slow-burning carbs to fill me up and fuel me for the day. From there, it was back up to Athleta Upper West Side to lead the week 1 long run of my half-marathon training group (see last night's post for a full recap, and come join the fun!)

After our 1.5 mile jaunt to Central Park, I stuck around the store to do a little shopping for something cute to wear to next week's Bermuda Marathon, and fell in love with a cute purple ruffled skirt and black tank with a purple-blue-white-green paisley design - sold! I am going to look so chic next week, and I'm excited :) I headed home to drop off my stuff, but opted to test out the tank top for my next run of the day, to make sure it didn't chafe or otherwise cause problems while running.

My final workout of the weekend was my long-awaited Courons à la Cassoulet, and it ended up completely exceeding even my high expectations. Beginning from the 72nd Street transverse in Central Park, Laura, Katelyn, Jocelyn and I retraced the route from the Whiskeython to head down 1st Avenue, over to the East River, and then down and over to the East Village for the 4th Annual Cassoulet Cookoff at Jimmy's No 43. Other patrons remarked on our running outfits, impressed that we had opted to combine fitness and food, but we were too busy downing yummy bowls of cassoulet to worry about our perhaps-sweaty-and-disheveled appearance. And hey, we even flirted a bit with the hot Austrian chefs who made by far the best cassoulet of the day - and took home the grand prize (that's right, we called it in advance).

The afternoon was topped off with one of my favorite beers, Brooklyn Brewery's Concoction, which I got to introduce the other girls to for the first time, and we all got along famously. I can't wait for the next event! Stay tuned for more :)

Beginner's Half Marathon Training Plan - Week 1

2012-01-08T21:22:00.003-05:00

While last week was the official kickoff of the Athleta half marathon training program that I'm leading, it was a bit quiet last week due to it being New Year's Day - we had a small group of four. This week, however, about a dozen women showed up for the seminar and run, and I started to realize just how popular it was going to become! I also got some requests from people who don't live in NYC to share the training plan, and that gave me an idea - why not post the plan as well as some highlights from the seminar here on the blog, so people near and far can participate? Whether you're planning to run the More Half Marathon with us in April (note: registration opens tomorrow!) or a different race entirely, I'd love for you to follow along and share your own training stories.

Today's seminar was really more of an intro to the training plan, and focused on the benefits of running. I introduced myself and told my story, most notably emphasizing that my mantra is to run relaxed and not stress over training plans. I believe that the surest way to avoid injury is to be flexible in your training plan - if you listen to your body, it usually tells you what it needs. So before I even post the distances for this training plan, I want to emphasize that the first rule is to ignore the training plan when you need to. In particular, if you miss a run, don't double up to try to make up for it - just go with the flow and stay on schedule for your next run.

This beginner training plan is designed so that there are three runs every week - two shorter runs during the week (almost always 4 miles or less, so you don't have to stress about making a lot of time on a weekday), and one long run on weekends. I'll be leading a long run of the appropriate from the Athleta Upper West Side store on Sunday mornings (and will be organizing brunches and other fun post-run gatherings once we start increasing the distance a bit), but feel free to do your long run anytime during the weekend that makes sense for your schedule. The long run is really the most important on the schedule (which is why it's scheduled for a weekend, when you hopefully have a bit more time) - if there's one thing to prioritize, it's that. The weekday runs are a bit more relaxed - if you miss it, it's really not the end of the world at all.

The training plan was also designed so that total mileage doesn't ever go up drastically (the biggest jump in total weekly mileage is week 13, when it goes from 17 miles to 20 miles - or one extra mile for each run). Meanwhile, the long run increases steadily by 1/4 mile in weeks 3-4, 1/2 mile in week 5, and then by 1 mile for all subsequent weeks. The idea is that you'll never have to do more than about an extra 10 minutes from what you did the last week - totally doable, right? Everyone who showed up today thought so, and I hope you agree :) So here is your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Today was the end of week 1 (with the week starting on Monday January 2nd), and we did a "long" run of 1.5 miles. That means sometime between now and Friday, you should aim for another 1.5 mile run and then a 1 mile run. If you don't have a GPS/Garmin/etc, you can measure distance using the handy and free Gmap Pedometer - or just play it super casual and run for about 11 minutes per mile (so this week, doing runs of 17 minutes and 11 minutes, respectively). However, I would note that for an absolute beginner, this plan is distance-based, meaning that the time it takes you to do a run is much less relevant than the actual distance covered. This plan is designed to help a beginner finish a marathon (rather than achieve a specific time goal), and so walk, jog, or sprint, the distance that you cover in each workout is really the most important thing. Take any walk breaks you need along the way to pace yourself and finish the prescribed distance for each workout!

While on our run today, our group discussed whether to run with music (I adore it, but make sure your headphones are a style that lets you hear everything around you - I like AirDrives, though they can be a bit pricey; for a cheaper though not quite as great model, check out the 2XL Groove Hangers by Skullcandy), and how to stretch after a workout to prevent injuries (ladies, our hip flexors and IT bands are especially prone to injury - I really like this hip flexor stretch and its variants as well as a foam roller/rolling pin/wine bottle to knead your thighs post-workout).

I also shared with the group my secret weapon - whenever I'm on a training run and am within about 100 yards from my front door/other end point, I always sprint that last little bit. It helps you to gauge how much you really had left in the tank (and perhaps adjust your next run accordingly), and also prepares you for that last minute push to the finish line you'll want to do in a race. (Bonus: it makes you look awesome and super strong in front of the spectators at the finish line, and often helps you "chick" some unsuspecting guy).

Next week, I'll be off running the Bermuda Marathon, but a long run will still go on from the Upper West Side store - and the week's seminar will be on "what to wear" while running. I'll do a post later in the week with my thoughts, but let me just say that running technology has come a long way, and there is a lot of fantastic stuff out there. More to come!

I'd love to hear any of your thoughts/questions on the training plan, the benefits of running, or topics you'd like to have us cover in the future. Comments welcome!

Fabulously Fit Friday

2012-01-06T18:01:00.003-05:00

Today has gone mostly as planned. Woke up at 6am and headed over to Central Park, where I met Katelyn, and we jogged across the park and down 86th Street to Athleta UES. We were taking a "cardio conditioning" class, and for reasons unbeknownst to us, we were told to bring a yoga mat. In case you were wondering how much a yoga mat weighs, it is approximately 50 pounds (not the 5 pounds that I would have guessed). At least, that was my assumption given that it made me run as slowly as if I had gone on a bender, danced on a bar all night long, passed out in an alley for a scant hour, and then tried to run. (Note: I did not drink last night and I went to bed at 10pm, so that was not at all the problem).

Besides the surprise of our yoga mats being so heavy, we were also surprised to see just how many people were out on 86th Street at 6:45am. On the Upper West Side, I see very few people when I go running in the morning - and I love feeling like the city is all mine and that I have the streets to myself. (Some Sunday mornings, this peace and quiet lasts until 9am, and it's pretty awesome). Not so on the Upper East! 86th Street was thronging with people, and we actually had to dodge pedestrians in order to get to 3rd Avenue for the class. Despite the fact that I was unintentionally swinging my yoga mat like a baseball bat, we made it to Athleta in one piece and without maiming anyone along the way. 2.5 miles = complete!

Once at Athleta, we grabbed some Hint water and then prepared for the class. Billed alternately as "Fat Blasting Cardio" or the friendlier "Fitness with Spencer", the class was a cardio bootcamp in which we warmed up with 2 minutes of burpees with a pushup in the middle. Yes, that was just the warmup! Katelyn and I were pretty surprised by the intensity level, and both of us were pretty wiped out from the warmup alone. The class ended up being tons of squat jumps, lunge jumps, pushups, core work, and burpees - and I was not so hot in my attempt to get through it all. Luckily, everyone got confused when it came time for some muy thai roundhouse kicks... and our peppy instructor lost momentum. Time for a cooldown! Katelyn and I thought the class must have run totally short, but a glance at my cell phone showed us that we had done 45 minutes. Not bad at all!

On the jog home, my yoga mat somehow felt a lot lighter... so maybe my slowness before was from just waking up? Or perhaps all those burpees made regular running feel easy! I booked it at a 9 minute pace to get home, and ended up with enough time to get in a quick 15 minute cycling session before heading to work. I was pretty pleased with that, especially since my crazy work schedule today didn't allow me to get in the Zumba toning class I had wanted to do at lunch. No biggie - my weekend is full of workouts, so a skipped one here and there is totally fine. (I will actually be shocked if I get through everything I have planned - check back on Monday to see how I do!)

Now - time to crank out the remainder of my work and call it a day. I'd like to get in some treadmill time, since the gym I use just got a Woodway, and then head off to dinner/drinks with my friend Meg at a new Korean beer bar in her neighborhood. Let the refueling begin!

Final reminder: if you want to come to the Courons à la Cassoulet on Sunday, or any of the other fun workouts I posted yesterday (update: tossing in a Kangoo class tomorrow afternoon between the run and yoga), drop me an email - I'd love more fitness friends!

TGIT

2012-01-05T17:22:00.002-05:00

TGIT? Nope, not a typo. Thank Goodness It's Thursday! My consulting buddy Adam and I often joke about Thursdays being the "consultant's Friday," because in the crazy world of consulting, we travel to our clients on Monday morning and return home on Thursday evening. While Friday doesn't quite become a three day weekend, we have the choice of working from our local office or from home on Fridays - and unless there's an event or other reason to go into the office, I usually choose the latter.

On Fridays, it's expected that we'll spend some of our time supporting the client, but a lot of time doing training, working on firm "extracurriculars" (writing white papers, assisting with proposals, etc), and networking. And given that we're away Monday-Thursday, we're encouraged to schedule any doctor's appointments or the like on Fridays, and aren't discouraged from taking some breaks during the day to accomplish personal things like that. All of this means that Fridays tend to be a pretty light day for me - which is a pretty great way to ease into the weekend.

As a result, my Thursday afternoon airport jaunts tend to become the bridge between "work" and "real life" (okay, so perhaps my work-life balance is a bit more segregated than most). But they're the time when I stop thinking about the stress of work, and start thinking more about life... and I am looking forward to a pretty great weekend. Some may think I'm talking about catching up on that sleep debt I mentioned yesterday, but I actually have few plans for that - my weekend is going to be too full of workouts, wining, and dining!

Tomorrow morning, I'll be up and at 'em by 6am to meet up with Katelyn for a run in Central Park, followed by a free 7am session of "Fat Blasting Cardio" over at the Athleta store on the Upper East Side. From there, I'll run 2.5 miles back to my neighborhood to meet a friend for breakfast... and then my day begins (ha, because I won't have done enough already). Time for work! But as if 2 hours of exercise wasn't enough, I'd like to sneak in a Zumba toning class around lunchtime (work permitting), and then after work, "cuddle up" with a good book while on the stationary bike (because why read in bed when you can read while pedaling?) before heading out to meet my friend Meg for dinner at a new beer bar in her neighborhood.

My Saturday will be along a similar vein (minus the work). Beginning with a 2.5 mile run back over to Athleta UES, I've signed up for a Bellydance Salsa class from 9am-10am, and am then meeting my friend Lauren for coffee. We'll need the caffeine, because at 11am, we're running in Abbe's Inaugural Whiskeython, a 5 mile race where the winner receives a bottle of whiskey. Whiskey isn't really my thing at all, but I don't have any delusions of winning - I just want to make it to the bar afterward to meet everyone for brunch and perhaps a celebratory mimosa :) Post-brunch, it's not time to rest just yet - at 4pm, I'm joining the awesome team at Greatist for their "ring in the new year" event: a yoga class. Excellent! I have a feeling they may hear some snoring coming from me by the time we get to corpse pose, though... and a nap may be just what I need to get ready for a friend's wine tasting party that evening. It may be an early night for me! But even if it is, that's fine with me - because Sunday is another big running day for me.

At 9:30am, I'm kicking off Athleta's half-marathon training program with a seminar on the benefits of running (at their Upper West Side location), followed by a 1.5 mile run in Central Park. I'll do a longer post explaining the program next week, but for now, suffice to say that if you live in NYC and have never done long distance running, now's your chance - come train with me and a wonderful group of women as we prep for the 2012 More Half Marathon in April! We'll be meeting every weekend to do a "long run" on Sundays (though we're starting at a manageable distance and will only gradually work our way up to the big stuff).

For those of you that are already accustomed to running a longer distance, not to worry - I have one of those going on Sunday too. As I mentioned earlier in the week, I'm organizing a 5.5 mile courons à la cassoulet (run to the cassoulet) on Sunday, starting at 12pm in Central Park and finishing at Jimmy's No 43 in the East Village, which is sponsoring their 4th annual cassoulet cookoff. Recovery food and beer will abound, and after this intense weekend, I am sure to need it!

So... are my plans crazy? This is probably more working out than I've ever squeezed into a weekend since I was running two marathons in a weekend and eating a whole pizza by myself the night in between. But what can I say - I love to eat and drink and I love to run, so it's a good thing those activities help to balance each other! I'm psyched about my busy weekend doing all my favorite things :)

Working out in the digital world

2012-01-04T22:39:00.005-05:00

Today, instead of posting about Absolut fitness, I want to talk about App-solute fitness. (Sorry, I thought that pun was way too funny not to use - I know I'm a huge dork). Lately, it's come to my attention that there are a lot of great and really cool ways to use my phone - but when I say a lot, I do mean a lot of cool apps. Just when I think I have everything I could ever need, they come out something new that totally changes my daily life... and I start to wonder what's going to be the next big thing. What app is going to totally transfer my health and fitness? There are a lot of possibilities.

For example, I recently discovered Sleepbot. Available for Android and iPhone (though it's currently in beta), you hit a button when you're going to sleep and then hit the button again when you wake up - and it logs exactly how many hours of sleep you got (including a time delay if you know it always takes you, let's say, 10 minutes to fall asleep). It records that, and then puts together neat graphs and logs that are perfect for a Type A person like me. My favorite part? If you enter how many hours of sleep you want to get per night, it will keep track of your "sleep debt" and let you know cumulatively how far you're off. After spending all last week without using an alarm clock and learning that I like a nice round 8 hours of sleep to feel great, I've put that as my goal - and am so far 3:13 short. That's what you get when my project go live is next week! I'm looking forward to catching up this weekend (when I'm not busy running and eating - don't forget to let me know if you're in NYC and able to come to my courons à la cassoulet!).

Speaking of the workout front, there are a few apps I use for that as well. Way back when Android phones first came out and there weren't too many apps for them (yup, I was a proud owner of the original Droid), I got the Cardiotrainer app. At first, I used it primarily as a Garmin backup - it uses the GPS function on your phone to track your run and map wherever you go. Over time, I ended up forgetting to charge my Garmin (or forgetting my Garmin charger entirely!), so this became my primary tool for measuring how far I ran and at what pace. Boo for spending $450 on a now-fairly-useless watch; yay for being able to do everything on one device! My favorite features on here are the auto post to Facebook/Twitter (it's optional, but I definitely have it set for accountability), and the ability to have it auto play a playlist when you start a workout - no more fiddling with getting multiple things started. Cardiotrainer also allows you to log non-running workouts (e.g., elliptical, biking, treadmill, weightlifting) and provides estimated calories burned for those based on the time, distance, and perceived level of effort you enter. I've been logging all my workouts on here for a while now, and it's been pretty neat to see all the calorie burns adding up! Lifetime total so far: 74,759 calories! That's over 21 pounds!

Recently, though, my friend Melanie encouraged me to use Fitocracy, a game-like website where you get points for your workout based on some crazy algorithm of how tough it is (it takes into account things like exercise type, duration, perceived level of effort, distance, pounds lifted, etc). I really love the idea behind it - to compete against and get motivated by your friends - but the logging is kind of a pain when it comes to something like weightlifting, because you have to put each type of exercise in separately. When I do workouts of all different exercises, it's a pain to have to remember each one, the weight for each rep, and how many reps I did (though at least my routines are usually consistent with three sets of ten reps). But if I don't, there's no way to log something in like "45 minutes of weight lifting." Furthermore, a lot of exercises just aren't in there at all (hi, squat jumps! I still love you!), and there's no way to enter a custom entry - because Fitocracy is focused on the game, and they don't want you to cheat and give yourself a ton of points for a made up exercise. But it's annoying when I don't care about the points and just want to log my darn workout!

However, trying Fitocracy made me see that there is a lot more out there than just Cardiotrainer - and in fact, new websites like EarndIt (which gives you gift card rewards for working out!) and Gympact (which makes you bet cash on your workouts and get paid if you do them) have shown me that there are a lot of innovative and cool things out there. EarndIt actually syncs with another app that I've heard good things about and been meaning to try - Runkeeper (aka the VHS to my Betamax Cardiotrainer), which is super popular among all my running friends.

But with so many workout apps out there, it's hard to know what to pick - so I'd love some advice! My phone is pretty new and has enough space, but I'd love to pare down and use one app for all my workout needs. What are your favorites? Anything comprehensive, innovative, or just plain awesome?

2012 New Year's Resolutions!

2012-01-03T16:53:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned on Sunday, there are a few goals I set for 2011 (and reached!) that I am going to keep for 2012. There are a few goals I made that I didn't reach (womp womp) - and some of those I'm going to keep... but there are others I'm giving up on because they just aren't that important to me. And then I have a few brand new goals that I've dreamed up to work on that whole "if you aren't who you want to be, fix it" thing!

My list isn't quite as long as last year (or at least it wasn't when I first started writing this post - and then it just grew so now it's 8 whole resolutions!), but all the goals I'm setting are ones that are important to me, and really live up to that mantra of be who you want to be, as well as my quote from yesterday about choosing to do what's important.

Starting small, there are two major changes I want to make on a daily basis:

The first is one you've probably already noticed, given that it's the third day in a row I'm getting a post out here: I want to make blogging part of my daily routine. I really enjoy blogging - putting my thoughts and opinions out there and hearing feedback from a lot of different perspectives. Lately, I've sometimes been discouraged from posting by not having a topic, or by feeling like I should talk about one topic, but not wanting to write about it that day. No more! I wasn't ready to write about my New Year's resolutions on Sunday, so I blogged about what I did want to write about, and stopped worrying about what I should be doing - and I realized that this is really what I should have been doing when I didn't feel like writing a full race report, for example, and just stopped writing because I felt stuck on that task. I think with that and some other changes in my mentality, I can get back to blogging on a more regular basis.

Another daily task that I want to commit to is reconnecting with old friends. There are so many articles showing that Facebook and other social media can make us even more lonely because we start substituting online contact for human contact. Personally, I've noticed that I see status updates from old friends, so I kind of know what's going on with them - but we don't actually talk! Not good. And since I don't browse Facebook much, there are plenty of people whose status updates I don't even see, so I am really clueless. For 2012, I am committing to sending a personal email every day to someone that I haven't talked to in a long time - updating them on what's new in my life, inquiring about theirs, and (if they live locally), suggesting we make plans to catch up. I am really excited about this one!

Right now, I'd also like to add getting back to doing 100 pushups a day (seriously, it's not that bad when you do it in sets of 10 and spread it out over 10 minutes of doing other stuff), but I don't see this as one that I'll want to keep up for the entire year. It's just not that important to me in the long-term, so I'll do it for now but am not going to worry about keeping it up forever. Being honest here!

Next, some medium-sized goals that I'm going to kind-of/sort-of measure monthly:

This break, I took two classes at Broadway Dance (yup, the studio featured in Center Stage, one of the best movies ever). On Monday, I took a musical theater class, and then on Tuesday, I opted for ballet. Most people from this blog just know me as a runner, but from when I was 4 to when I was 22, I never ran (except for the dreaded gym class mile), but took ballet pretty seriously - taking upwards of 10 classes a week by the time I was in middle school. I loved ballet with a passion, and wanted to be a professional ballet dancer until puberty intervened and I discovered I was gifted with boobs instead of a lean and flat dancer's physique (and that no amount of classes, exercising, or diets could change that). Going back to ballet class was weird - I definitely felt like the fat girl in the class, but I chalk part of that up to not knowing what the latest is in dancewear to hold your girls in. I went through puberty fairly late, and also didn't completely "fill in" until midway through college, so I hadn't dealt with this problem before - surely there must be a solution? (Readers, please fill me in). But while I may not have felt as graceful, lithe, and (let's admit it) smug as when I was the teeny slim star of the class at the age of 10, I still loved it now, and was surprised at how it all came back to me. In fact, at a Zumba toning class later in the week, the Zumba teacher asked me at the end if I had been a ballet dancer! I was very flattered :) Now, this past year I made a goal of going to one dance/yoga class a month, but I realized that going once a month isn't even what I'm really after. The updated version for this year: get back into dancing on a regular basis. I want to go to a class where I know the teacher and the other students, because it's my "thing." So I don't have to go every week, but I have to go enough for "everyone to know my name." That's measurable, right?

Even if you think that last one is a bit nebulous, my other monthly goal is pretty darn measurable and black/white: to run a marathon a month. After a year of mostly taking a break from marathon running, I'm ready to get back into it - and I want to run at least one marathon a month this year. I know that the first one is going to be grueling, given how I haven't really done a long run in a while, but hopefully I'll get back in the groove soon and it will be smooth sailing from them on.

Finally, I have four big old goals that are going to take me all year to complete (but are going to be awesome when I do):

Hit a total of 400 unique beers on Untappd. Logging 200 uniques was a late addition to my goals for 2011 when I realized how close I was going to come (I was at 189 the week before New Year's), so this year I want to double my total.. and also try to do it more in the form of tastings instead of full pours :)

Read 100 books. I just barely hit this mark last year, but I think 100 books was just the right amount to keep me reading but not stress me out. There are so many great books out there, and I'm excited to keep working my way through them!

Instead of the typical goal to lose weight, my goal is to keep my "traveling weight" hovering around where it is now. I've come to accept the fact that when I'm on the road, my weight is always going to be significantly higher than when I'm home and can cook healthy food... so I'm going to stop fighting reality and learn to accept that. I won't allow myself to gain weight, but for my own sanity, I'm going to cut myself a break on trying to lose the vanity pounds, and just chalk them up as a job hazard. For the perks I get of traveling all over the world and doing interesting work, I'll take it!

And finally, as I talked about yesterday, I want to develop a group of like-minded fitness friends this year - both to help me incorporate more fitness into my everyday life, and to potentially meet more "soulmate" friends. I've been lucky enough to meet a few of those over the years - friends who just get me and my thoughts, where I don't need to explain yourself, and we just click. Creating a niche group of people who have the same goals and ideas of fun as me should be a great way to find more of that type of friend, and I'm excited about the possibilities!

So that's it - my small, medium, and big goals for the year, and all of them very important to me. We'll see if that breeds success!

Courons à la Cassoulet!

2012-01-02T18:17:00.003-05:00

I know I should be posting my New Year's resolutions today, but I am still just so undecided! One thing that I learned about last year were that the resolutions I didn't keep were those that weren't that important to me. Remember:

(Thanks to Jocelyn for providing a great picture that displays one of my favorite quotes)

When I looked back on my goals from last year, the ones I didn't accomplish had a common theme - they were goals that became less important to me as the year went on. To set myself up for success this year, I'm still thinking about my goals for 2012 to make sure that they're ones that will stick... so give me a few days to settle, k? However, I'll give you a sneak preview of one thing I know for sure I have on tap for 2012.

Back when I started this blog (wow, more than four years ago now!), I called it Absolut(ly) Fit. I chose that title because I believed that fitness shouldn't be about giving up everything bad for you - but about balancing a healthy lifestyle with having fun. I do eat tons of fruits/veggies and other healthy foods (I actually love things like brussel sprouts and spinach smoothies), but when it comes to things like craft beer and ice cream, I'm not going to say no! I just try to balance my consumption of those yummy things with some good workouts that make me earn the right to eat not-so-healthy things.

However, I've started realizing that hanging out with my friends has come to mean primarily eating/drinking unhealthy things... and then I have to burn it off on my own. While I love a solo run along the river or some quality time with a book and a stationary bike, some group fitness events I've done have given me the idea that maybe it doesn't have to be like that all the time. A lot of my friends are concerned about their health/fitness too, so why are we keeping it all so separate? I want to give us all another option: a group of friends who get together to combine the fitness with the fun.

I have a lot of ideas for how to make this happen, so I'm still working out the logistics. But for now, I thought I'd just throw an event up on here on the blog, and invite any and all NYC dwellers to come along for the ride. Ready? Okay.

The Fitness: 5.5 mile run
The Fun: 4th Annual Cassoulet Cookoff
The Venue: Jimmy's Number 43, an awesome craft beer bar in the East Village
When: Sunday, January 8; run at 12pm, feast at 1pm
Where: Start at the 72nd Street Transverse in Central Park

Email me at laura at 50by25 dot com if you're interested in coming, and I'll send more details.

Rested, rebuilt, and ready to go!

2012-01-01T09:26:00.002-05:00

A lot of people say they don't like resolutions, and make the point that you don't have to wait for a random day of the year to start changing. I agree to some extent - anytime is the right time to make a change - BUT I also love that New Year's is a time of year that reminds you to take some time out of your busy every day life to reflect. Who am I and what have I accomplished? Is that who I want to be and what I set out to do? If not, what can I do to change that?

Most of the blog posts I've seen that take some time to look back on 2011 share a similar tone: the year was awesome and the best ever. But honestly, for me, 2011 wasn't a super exciting year for me. I broke the world record in 2010 by finishing all my marathons - and in 2011, I stopped running as many, because I had gotten kind of burnt out (61 marathons in 2.5 years will do that to you). I got a new job in 2010, and 2011 just found me sticking with it and enjoying my work. I broke up with my last serious boyfriend in 2010, and I didn't really find anyone I was excited about dating for more than a few weeks in 2011.

But you know what? That's all just fine with me. It wasn't a bad year; it just wasn't a momentous year, and any athlete knows that to be your best, you need periods of rest and rebuilding mixed in with the PR attempts. 2011 got me pumped and primed for a fabulous 2012, and I have some big things brewing!

Later this afternoon, I'm off to a New Year's brunch with my girlfriends, where we're opening our "book of resolutions" we made last year to see how we stack up. I kept an electronic sticky note of my nine resolutions (yes, I dream big) on my computer desktop, so opening the book isn't going to be a surprise - but since I'm still working on my resolutions for this year, I thought I'd spend the morning looking back, the afternoon looking forward, and then I'll write about my new goals tomorrow. So here we go!

Given how much I sit hunched over my laptop, I wanted to work on improving my posture - and I said I'd take a dance or yoga class at least once a month. I definitely took more than a dozen dance/yoga classes in 2011, but it wasn't on a regular basis. However, I posted in early December about making this a bigger focus for the last month of the year, and I spent the last week taking a ton of dance classes (thank you, Broadway Dance, for offering a great Groupon deal that inspired me to come back to dance and remember why I loved ballet for 18 years... I'll be back to it more!). My posture isn't quite as exemplary as it used to be when I was dancing all the time, but I think it's better than it was at the beginning of the year, so I'll call this a win.

I also had a kind of nebulous goal to work on my fitness, which I quantified in different ways in different places. I still haven't done a single unassisted pullup, but I don't really care about that as a measure of fitness anymore. Let's be real - I live on the 19th floor of a high rise; I don't think being able to do a pullup is going to help me break into my apartment when I lock myself out (which I did twice this weekend because I am that awesome). I also set a goal of doing a 5 minute plank, but then I found so many better ways to work my core (hi, Insanity and its never ending burpee/pushup combos) that I haven't done a timed plank in months. So much for those goals! But I spent the year trying a lot of different fitness routines (Insanity, Rachel Cosgrove's Female Body Breakthrough) - and classes (Kangoo, Zumba, and just this week some dance classes at Broadway Dance) - and managed to close out the year not having gained a pound. Given how much I travel (according to Foursquare, this is the first week in 24 weeks that I haven't been on a plane) and get stuck eating most of my meals in restaurants, that's enough of a health/fitness accomplishment for me.

I wanted to read 100 books this year, and I did! Okay, so maybe I finished the last 30 pages of my 100th book this morning, but since I read the other 361 pages in 2011, that's where I'm counting it. I got to read a lot of really awesome books, and thanks to GoodReads, I was able to track them all and share recommendations with friends. I'm definitely keeping this goal for next year - great success!

Goal #4 was another one that I rocked: to get some culture and visit at least four new countries this year. True to my overachieving nature, I killed on that one - visiting six new countries (Bahamas, Switzerland, France, St. Maarten, Japan, and Peru) and two new continents (Asia and South America). I really had a great time exploring the world, and I think travel has helped me grow so much as a person - definitely a big part of the whole how-I-spent-2011-gearing-up-to-be-great.

Up next: stop swearing. Oops. I didn't try for this one at all (despite it staring me in the face on my list on a daily basis). On a positive note, while I didn't become the kind of person who says cute phrases like "oopsie daisies" or "oh, fudge" when something goes wrong, I'm a lot less concerned about it than I was a year ago - so I think I have improved at least to a point where it's not as noticeable to me.

However, my next goal, to floss daily, more than makes up for this one. I really got in the flossing habit, to the point where I felt a little bit uncomfortable the night when I used up my floss and had to go without. While on vacation this week, I hit the dentist for my regular checkup, and it went perfectly. He even complimented my flossing, noting that my gums were in great shape and he could tell! Hooray. Big win there, especially since it's become so natural to me that I don't even think about it anymore - and can use that brain space for something better.

I didn't spend all year going to bed early and "making up the difference if I don't get at least seven hours of sleep on a night, with no exceptions." Too much life to live! But this last week when I've been on vacation and have been able to go to bed whenever and wake up whenever, my body has settled into a comfy routine of 8 hours of sleep, and I feel great - so I ended the year on an upswing. While I didn't do that incredibly anal "make it up with no exceptions" thing (did I seriously write that?), I've gotten better at listening to my body and learning how much sleep it needs. I've also started putting myself first in that regard - doing things like calling it an early night when I'm tired even if my friends/coworkers are pressuring me to stay out. I may make a self-deprecating joke about being elderly when I decide to hit the hay at 9pm, but at least I've grown up enough to just go to bed and not care what people think. I'm proud of that.

On a similar note, I also didn't spend all year checking in to see if I had "put myself out there at least once each week", but this was another one where I care a lot less about the goal than I once did - and I see that as a sign of growth. I went to a lot of events and met a lot of new people, but am still single - and I'm fine with that. Sometimes I wish I had a partner-in-crime to do everything with, but my (male) best friend has been a great fill in for things like being my company holiday party date, and I've also grown a lot by doing things on my own. Traveling to Peru for a weeklong vacation by myself, and thoroughly enjoying myself the whole time? Yes, I am a strong and independent woman! I could never have done that a year ago, and I'm so glad that I did.

Finally, a goal to keep working on: cleaning out my room, redecorating my living room, and streamlining my possessions. I did a bit of this and of course could always do more, so let's just make this ongoing instead of a point in time goal. I read a great post on materialism/minimalism this morning that has provided a lot of food for thought, and with two days left in my vacation, hopefully it will inspire me to keep paring down to those meaningful possessions. In a small NYC apartment, it's quality over quantity!

Overall, some wins and some draws - but I don't think I had any true losses in 2011. For such a long list, I'm pretty pleased with that, and feeling ready and excited to take on 2012. Happy New Year!

My non-traditional Christmas

2011-12-26T19:05:00.000-05:00

My father is from Poland, and Polish tradition dictates that the Christmas Eve feast (called "Wigelia") is a much bigger deal than Christmas itself. I remember, as a kid, going to the house of one of my Dad's Polish friends and being forced to sit through an hours-long dinner as the adults celebrated with toasts and chatter - to me, totally boring. When I still believed in Santa, I would also get upset with my parents for not making sure that I was home at midnight - because wouldn't Santa skip our house if I wasn't in bed and asleep when he came? Unlike my friends, who went to bed early so that Christmas morning would come faster, I got stuck staying up till the wee hours (or sleeping in the guest bedroom until the party ended) and then heading home exhausted. We still put the cookies and milk out on the mantel for Santa (and some carrots for the reindeer, animal-lover I was), but it just wasn't the same.

Saturday night, I had another totally non-traditional Christmas Eve... but this time, I was the grownup who stayed up all night celebrating with friends. My friend Susan is an amazing chef (she won the Cookie Takedown last week with her chocolate salted caramallard cookies), and she put forth a proposal that I just couldn't turn down: a traditional Jewish Christmas! Opening her home to her friends and their families and friends (so generous!), she cooked a Chinese feast from scratch, and we hung out and watched The Maccabeats Jewish a cappella group. As an extra bonus, Susan's husband Braden is a fellow craft beer lover, and he pulled out some really rare and incredible stuff for us to try. My friend Meg and I also brought some yummy bottles ourselves, and I ended up getting to try nine different beers - hooray for sharing with friends and therefore being able to go for small servings! One December goal I hadn't written about on the blog yet is to get to 200 unique beers tried by the end of the year (as recorded on Untappd), and thanks to Christmas Eve, I'm now only two away! Totally achievable.

Sunday morning dawned bright and early, and my Christmas festivities kicked off with something else that has become de rigeur for me, but probably isn't in most people's plans for Christmas morning: with a race! Ever since the Holiday Marathon series started with last year's Thanksgiving Marathon, my mom and I have gotten used to heading up to the Bronx whenever it's a holiday. This time, though, there had been a snafu with getting a permit for Van Cortlandt Park, so the race was being held at Tibbets Brook Park. I found the new venue to be much prettier and a lot easier than VCP (the "trail" was paved, so I didn't have to worry about tripping and falling), but I thought it was kind of crappy that a "New York" race would be held somewhere without access to public transportation, so no real New Yorkers could get to it. (That said, I bumped into the amazing Lam after the race, and he told me he had run the 15 miles to get there from his apartment! Now that's dedication). I was really grateful that my mom was willing to drive me up there and hang out while I ran - only 6.7 miles instead of the full or half marathons, and I was speedier than usual (8:15 average pace), but still! I thought of getting the opportunity to run the race as a pretty nice Christmas present all on its own :)

We spent the rest of the day back at my apartment putting the tree up (oops, better late than never), feasting on a traditional pig roast, opening presents, and then cuddling up in bed to fall asleep watching "The Help." Not terribly exciting to report back on, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day and was thrilled to spend such a peaceful Christmas getting quality time in with my mom.

Today, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the morning, and then my mom took me to Ikea to pick out one of my Christmas presents: chairs for my (foldable New York style) dining room table and a new mirror for my bedroom! It may be only a week away from the New Year, but it is time for me to get cracking on my resolution to clean out and redecorate my apartment. Luckily I have a week of vacation in which to do it :)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone!

Bet you didn't know about THESE "traditional" holiday activities

2011-12-24T08:04:00.002-05:00

"Free at last, free at last, thank the Lord I'm free at last!" Okay, so maybe work wasn't quite that bad yesterday, but I am still pretty thrilled that I'm done and don't have to work for TEN DAYS. Incredible. My plans for the period mostly involve working out and drinking, which, let's be honest, are two of the best ways to spend a vacation.

Speaking of working out and drinking, let's talk about the family gathering I attended last night. There have been so many articles with tips on how to avoid weight gain at holiday parties that it's pretty much all been said before. Eat before you go, scan the whole buffet before you eat anything, take small bites and don't go back for seconds, etc, etc. I really thought I would have nothing new to say on this matter... UNTIL! I discovered the family party trick that really will help you lose weight and stay in shape.

Turns out, my Aunt Kathy is a certified Zumba instructor. (I didn't know this before going to said family gathering, I swear). When this fact came out, we plugged in the iPod, cranked up the speakers, and soon all the women were in the kitchen shaking it to "Spice Up Your Life." (We go old-school in this family). Oh, yes, my family holiday party turned into a Zumba-thon where all the women were all stripping off our Christmas sweaters to get down to our tank tops and SWEAT. Before long, we were out of breath after following Aunt Kathy for nearly an hour doing routine after routine (and sometimes making them up as we went along). It went on for so long that my sister-in-law remarked to me that she had lost her buzz from the Christmas beers we had been drinking before the dance craze took over. ("Tragedy!", I told her - "Go hydrate with another!").

Sadly, we could not get the guys to participate, aside from taking embarrassing photos that are sure to show up on my Facebook wall in the near future. But they're the ones who really missed out, because post-Zumba, we kept things segregated and pulled out the nail polish and trying out the latest in "crackle polish". The guys spent the time watching some Chipmunks movie on TV and discussing football - I think we got the better part of that deal.

Today - I head back to NYC with my mom, and then we're going over to my friend Susan's tonight for "a Jewish Christmas." Susan is an amazing chef - she won the people's choice in the Cookie Takedown last week with her chocolate salted cara-mal-lard (duck fat caramel) cookies. And for her Jewish friends and Christmas orphans, she's offered to show us how it's done with a (homemade from scratch!) Chinese food feast and movies. I can't wait! (I've also heard rumors that my friend Meg is bringing her "Who Wants to Be a Broadway Star" board game, to which I responded by offering to bring plenty of Christmas beer so that there are no inhibitions when we're required to belt out "You Can't Stop the Beat" when challenged to name the closing song from Hairspray, or similar challenges).

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

A different kind of holiday stress

2011-12-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine asked a few weeks ago if we were feeling the holiday stress, and my response was that I rarely get stressed about the holidays. I'm not the kind of person who gets all their shopping done months ahead of time, by any means. However, I have a very small family to buy presents for, and my friends and I don't typically exchange gifts, so it's not very difficult to order a few things online here and there and then be done. Hooray for Amazon Prime and free two day shipping!

No, what stresses me out about the holidays is trying to take time off work. I'm very lucky in that my company gives us the entire week between Christmas and New Year's off (well, they ask us to take off the entire week, and in exchange, we use two of our vacation days... two days for five days is not a bad deal!). However, preparing to take an entire week off work can be very stressful. Sometimes I think it would be easier not to take any time off than to deal with all the contingency plans and trying to teach other people to do my duties while I'm out.

I faced this problem just a month ago, when I went to Peru, but at least then I was leaving Thanksgiving week, which meant it was really only two normal work days off (and the rest were all holidays for everyone else too). One thing I usually do when I'm on vacation is check my work email once a day - if I can see what's going on, I'm less worried about what I'm going to have to come back to. Plus, it's just so much easier to sort through my emails once a day rather than come home to several hundred and have to go through them all at once!

But this Christmas, I'm taking a cue from Aron, who announced a few days ago that she's taking a social media sabbatical for the holiday. Her post pointed out something that many of us take for granted: it's so easy to get caught up in the online world and forget about the real world. Think about how much time you waste checking Twitter, checking Facebook, checking Google Reader. I'd argue that it isn't quite a "waste" of time (personally, it makes me feel more connected to get to read about what other people go through in their daily lives), but at the same time, it's not going out and actually living.

But while I can talk a good game about this, let's be honest - I'm not brave enough to actually give up my social media addiction. I also don't think that's what's causes me stress - I find blogs/Twitter/etc to be a good forum for de-stressing and relaxing at the end of the night. I think Twitter has actually helped me approach the blogging world in a more relaxed manner - where I used to stress about how many unread blog posts there were in my Google Reader at the end of the day, the jump-in/jump-out nature of Twitter has helped me to see blogs as less of a to-do list and more of just something to entertain myself with when I have time to kill and have an electronic device with me. (I get tons of blog reading done while standing in line at a sandwich shop waiting for them to make my lunch, for example).

This holiday break, though, I am going to try to disconnect from work a bit more. It will be tough, especially since my client has a big product launch coming up in a couple weeks, but I think if I can take the week to completely forget about work instead of stressing about my neverending to do list, I'll come out more relaxed and stronger on the other side. work has been really getting me down lately - to the point where I've broken down in tears when on the phone with families about little things, because I had already hit the end of my rope with work happenings. Not good!

For me, fun is "getting things done". I'm Type A and I've accepted that about myself. So I'm not going to get rid of my personal to do lists (ahem, redecorate the living room and clean out my closet), or stop working out. In fact, I always use my holiday break as a chance to get in more workouts and eat better - it helps to revive me from the daily grind of restaurant meals and not enough time. But I'm going to spend this break focusing on what matters to me, rather than constantly dealing with the demands other people place on me. It's time I started doing that more in my daily life anyway, so maybe this break will get the habit started in a good way.

But before I can start doing that, I still have one more uber-stressful day of work to get through. Just have to remind myself that it's like the last mile in a marathon - not that much fun, but the finish line is straight ahead. Final mile, here I come!

Fending off the flu

2011-12-21T21:53:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately, this morning I learned that even the holy trinity of dance-party-sweat does not heal all wounds. Specifically, it does not magically make you well when you pick up a cold from some nastiness on a plane (I'm guessing). Midday yesterday, I started feeling that tickle in the back of my throat. You know the one I mean... that not-very-painful-but-gives-you-a-huge-sense-of-dread-because-you-know-it's-the-precursor-to-a-nasty-cold-or-maybe-something-even-worse. UGH. The worst.

I dosed up on some seafood soup with a side of steamed chicken and broccoli (because when your only dinner option is Japanese takeout, that's the closest you can come to mom's chicken soup), but alas, my throat was even more inflamed this morning. Darn it! Somehow, though, I made it through the day - thanks in large part to half a bag of cherry Luden's cough drops (Soothing? Check. Sugary fake cherry flavor that means you might as well be eating Starburst? Also check). But when I got back to my hotel tonight, I realized that rather than going to bed, I wanted to work out. Now, we've all read those articles and their warnings to keep us from being psychotic exercise addicts: if your symptom are above the neck, you're fine; if they're below the neck, you're not. But what if your current symptoms are IN your neck, and nowhere else yet? What then?

(Side note: I posed this question to my friend Adam, except I started off the conversation with, "You know what I hate? That stupid above the neck/below the neck thing. How am I supposed to know which it is?" It only belatedly occurred to me that my lack of clarification might have meant he thought I was a teenager trying to figure out which base was which. Oops.)

Regardless of what the experts say you should do, my personal mantra for being sick is: if you want to work out, you should. Chances are if you're feeling up to it, it's probably not going to do you any harm - and could even help get your energy levels up and flush the toxins out of your body (maybe? I'm no doctor). Adam advised me to keep my workout short, though - so instead of the hour of cardio I had planned, I did 30 minutes. And let me tell you, it felt great! Hooray for sweat.

But when I got back up to my room, I was still curious whether I had done the right thing. If you're someone who pushes themselves in workouts, how do you even know if you "want" to work out? Let me tell you, when it comes to that painful moment when you're gasping for breath after doing sets of three burpees/one tuck jump (though I am proud to say that I can do ten sets and finish in 1:19 before collapsing - beat that!), I do NOT want to work out! If you're working out right, chances are, you're going to be pushing yourself beyond a point that's comfortable - so it can be hard to evaluate whether you're doing the right thing or if you're exacerbating any illness. Plus, I know myself, and this could lead to a slippery slope, where the slightest bit of laziness in the gym turns into me "resting" because I'm "sick."

Lucky for me, one of my favorite health and fitness websites, Greatist, recently wrote an article on this very topic. And just for those people like me who are apparently too slow to pick up on this otherwise, they clarify: above the neck symptoms include "runny nose or sore throat." Ding ding ding! Furthermore, they go through all the studies and expert opinions about whether it helps or hurts, and conclude that it's probably a good thing to help your immune system - but to err on the side of caution, and either cut your workout shorter than usual, or go at a lower intensity. Turns out that crowdsourcing my decision to Adam was just the way to go!

And with that, I can settle in to my meal of Afghani chicken kabobs, spinach, and cubed pumpkin (tons of vitamins A and C there!), read for a bit, and head to bed. Time to try sleeping it off!

Dance Party Weekend

2011-12-20T19:21:00.003-05:00

I kicked off the weekend with my company holiday party on Friday night. It was held at the Edison Ballroom in midtown, which turned out to be a pretty swanky spot! It was decorated to the nines and full of uniformed staff handing out hors d'oeuvres and drinks from silver trees - not too shabby at all.

Not having a "real" date and yet knowing from past company parties that it's always impossible to find anyone I know (our holiday parties have more than 1,000 attendees), I decided to bring my best friend to keep me company. He works in financial services and their company isn't allowed to have holiday parties (or any parties, really), and since he just got a big promotion, I thought it would be fun for him to get to celebrate :) My instincts turned out to be right - I could barely find any of my coworker friend's, so instead, Mat and I just enjoyed some drinks and then headed out to the dance floor. Because really, what could be more appropriate behavior at a company holiday party than screaming along to "Raise Your Glass" as you fist pump and disco lights sweep the dance floor?

The next morning, though, when Mat and I reconvened for coffee... oooh boy. While I am usually pretty good at recovering from nights like that, I definitely needed my coffee + carbs (thank you, Starbucks multigrain bagel) to feel human again. However, once I had that, there was no stopping me! We headed back to Mat's apartment to finish our coffee where we wouldn't get accosted by crazed holiday shoppers on Super Saturday (or was it?), and decided to add a soundtrack to our gossipy catch up... in the form of YouTube videos. And when we threw on Jake Coco and Alex G's incredible cover of "Jet Lag", we couldn't help but belt along. And that, of course, led to... DANCE PARTY! Beyond the various covers, our taste also ran to Lady Gaga, Glee, and even some Michael Jackson, with me bouncing around the room like a banshee.

But the dance party was not over yet! I had been invited to check out the opening day of Pedal NYC, a new boutique fitness studio in my neighborhood. When I got there, I found a small lobby with a friendly clerk waiting to check me in and sign the requisite waiver, and I was then ushered into... DANCE PARTY PART TWO. Okay, so maybe not quite, but the spinning room had the shades drawn and great music pumping. While I couldn't quite dance while spinning like a maniac (seriously, you guys, the sweat was flying off me and I was getting mighty concerned about the co-owner of the studio who was taking opening day pics), I did manage to bob my head around like crazy as I gritted my teeth and powered up the "hills". Because, you know, sweaty intense Laura wasn't crazy enough without the extra dancing.

The class was incredibly awesome. I rarely do spinning (I think the last time was at Club H, when I classily tweeted about probably not being able to have sex for years), but the instructor, Ray, was very patient with helping me set up the bike (big improvement from other classes where they've just left me to struggle), and I loved the electronic monitor on the bike that told me exactly how fast I was going. To tailor the class to everyone's abilities, Ray told us what range our RPMs should be in at different points, and we just adjusted the resistance accordingly until we could hit that. I found it so much easier to understand than the "make it medium-easy now... now make it a little tougher." What does that even mean? As a numbers girl, I loved knowing exactly what I was shooting for - and then sweating my butt off to get it. Pedal, I will be back!

It was a good thing I had done all that spinning, though, because that night, I may have drank more than just a few cups of eggnog at my friend Pam's holiday party. While the theme was ugly sweaters, I didn't have one of those, so instead, took a cue from Theodora and picked up a set of antlers at Ricky's - especially ugly in the fact that they had electronic LED lights that I could light up when I was feeling particularly festive. Pam's party started at 8pm, so my original gameplan was to head home by 11pm or so to rest up for a group run in the morning. That did not so much happen.

Arriving home at 2am, I realized that if I wanted to make the 8am group run I had planned at JackRabbit, I'd only get 5 hours of sleep. Nope! I have gotten ~~old enough~~ smart enough to know that too little sleep doesn't work for me these days, so I canceled my 7am wakeup call and instead set my alarm for 8:30am - meaning, I would skip the run and instead just head for Zumba at Athleta at 9:30am. Still more ambitious than most 2am party people, right?

Well, apparently my subconscious is even more ambitious than the rest of me - because I woke up at 7:15am, exhausted but somehow wide awake. I considered just staying in bed, but realized that I was going to be tired and yucky-feeling for a certain period of time (read: till noon) no matter what. Might as well go feel crappy while I run!

It was only after I made this decision and had already gotten fully up (face washed, teeth brushed) that I looked at the weather report and discovered it was 19 degrees out. NINETEEN DEGREES. (Yes, Fahrenheit). It figured that winter would sneak up on me the one day I was actually getting myself to go for a run outdoors instead of hitting the gym! But there was no turning back now, so I dutifully layered on some tights, windpants (normally overkill, but we were planning to hit the windy West Side Highway/Hudson River for our route), and a few layers on top.

I made it the first mile to JackRabbit without freezing, but the temptation was great to call it quits after that! Good thing there were other people in the group to make me feel self-conscious about quitting, especially when our leader took us up to the north part of Central Park for hill repeats. I didn't look at the time on my watch as I went, but I felt awfully slow and out of shape, and certainly not up to chatting as we hit the long uphill. But later, looking at my times, I discovered I had been keeping an 8:50-9:05 pace throughout the entire 8 miles - even with the hills! Once I realized how much I had been pushing the pace, I felt a lot better about how yucky I felt doing it. Obviously there was a good reason for that, and it wasn't just that I sucked! Hooray :)

But before my exercise was done for the weekend, it was time for one last dance party: Zumba at Athleta! I was totally wiped out from my long(ish) run, and I'm sure everyone else in the class was thrilled to have such a sweaty/stinky person there, but I didn't care - Ellie is an awesome instructor, and those workouts always pump me up. Dance party, indeed!

All in all, a pretty stellar weekend, and I think I've hit on my new equation for life. Forget time-money-quality as the be-all, end-all; I've got you covered with my holiday trinity:

Bam. Perfect holiday weekend.

Planning my weekend warrior workouts

2011-12-15T20:20:00.005-05:00

When the cabin door of the airplane shuts and the flight attendant makes the usual announcement to turn off all portable electronic devices, I have to admit, I don't always adhere right away. I know that she's going to make a few other announcements and do a few other checks before she heads down to aisle to check for seatbelts and electronic compliance. So maybe I keep catching up on email and blogs for just a few more minutes.

But then I shut down, and out comes the notepad and whatever book I'm currently reading (tonight: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil). Usually, I make a to do list for the flight (finish X spreadsheet, finish Y spreadsheet, clean out inbox, etc) as well as a to do list for my Friday (coffee with neighborhood friend, work for 2 hours, doctor's appointment, back to work, etc). Today, however, I pretty much had all that under control before I even got on the plane. What I didn't have planned out just yet, though, was my weekend workouts.

As someone who really enjoys getting sweaty (though I don't claim to be sweatastic or sweatalicious like Emily) in my free time, a big part of my weekend planning is how I'm going to get my workouts in. While some people look at vacations and weekends as times to take a break from working out, for me, those are the times when I can really focus on workouts and know that they're not going to get interrupted by other demands. Of course, workouts don't come first on my weekends - but they definitely play a pretty big role.

This weekend also happens to be when just about every holiday event I'm attending is scheduled. Tomorrow night is my company holiday party and my friend Tom's holiday party after, Saturday is my friend Susan's birthday beer bar crawl and also my friend Pam's ugly sweater party, and Sunday I am going to support Susan (who is an awesome baker and food blogger) in a holiday cookie baking competition. (And yes, by "support" that really just means drink lots of spiked egg nog, eat all 30 creations of the competitors, and then vote for hers no matter what). Point? Tons of holiday food and beverages are going into my tummy, and if I'm going to be able to stomach all of them, I need to build up quite an appetite first. So instead of making my usual to do list, tonight's "no electronic devices" time became my exercise planning time. Gotta fit it in somehow!

I'm kicking off tomorrow with some heavy weight lifting at a friend's gym, potentially followed by some cardio if I get done early enough. Then while I'll be working from home tomorrow, I plan to wear some running tights and a hoodie - so that I can jog to my various errands, allowing me to get them done in a fraction of the time and get a little workout (in fairness, I do mean little, since they're all less than 1/2 mile apart).

On Saturday morning, there is a bootcamp class going on at a new gym that's opening right in my neighborhood! I am pretty excited about the upcoming opening of Pedal NYC, but until they officially open, they are offering free bootcamps at 11:30am on Saturday mornings! I'm a little concerned about what this bootcamp may entail, particularly since I'm probably going to be experiencing crazy DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) from my weight lifting on Friday. I've never done any kind of bootcamp before, so hopefully it's not so tough and bootcamp-like that I look like an idiot! However, 11:30am is a bit late on a Saturday for me to get going with my workout - so despite my concerns about the intensity, I'm thinking I'll kick off the day with some treadmill/elliptical time as I finally watch the Biggest Loser finale. As long as I eat a solid breakfast in between those activities, I should have enough energy for both - but I will also definitely work up a thirst for some beer in the afternoon :)

As for Sunday, I learned just before boarding the plane that JackRabbit UWS is offering a group run starting at 8am, and heading out for 8 miles along the Hudson River Greenway. I love doing that route in the morning, and it will be especially fun to do it with a group and get to meet new people. Even better, JackRabbit UWS (the ending destination) is just two blocks from Athleta UWS - which means I should make it over just in time for Sunday morning Zumba! I've been going to this free class for a few weeks now, and love how much energy the awesome instructor, Ellie, brings to the class. Plus, there is no better way to put a smile on your face than by jumping and twirling to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way!" It gets me giddy every time, and I usually jog home from the class with it replaying on my Droid - what a fun and empowering song!

I'm getting excited just thinking about all the fun and different workouts I have coming up... but also wondering if I can convince any friends to tag along. Any NYC-area readers interested in joining my Weekend Warrior extravaganza? Or just coming for the cookie eating is fine too ;)

Resetting the fuel tank

2011-12-14T21:31:00.002-05:00

(Alternate title: "How to shrink your stomach in two weeks," except I didn't want to sound like an infomercial).

For years, I have been a "volume" eater. My favorite healthy foods are those that are super low in calories so that I can eat them in mass quantity without having to worry about overindulging. For example, one night when I was particularly ravenous, I came home and made a three quart pot of veggie soup (made by basically just chopping tons of veggies, adding water and spices, and simmering for a while). That might sound totally healthy, but not when you consider that I then proceeded to eat the entire pot of soup (directly from the pot, using a trivet to keep it from burning me, because I am classy like that). The whole thing was extremely low in calories, but I felt stuffed, so it felt like a great way to indulge without being unhealthy.

Then when I was in Peru, I didn't eat a lot. I purposely packed tons of protein bars and a few packets of homemade oatmeal in my suitcase, planning to mostly eat these for breakfast and some lunches - both to save on costs and also to eat a bit more lightly while I was on vacation. As it turned out, the resort where I spent most of my trip had incredibly expensive food, and while there was cheap food in the adjacent town, there were several evenings where I was a bit concerned about walking over there in the dark (as a solo woman and a foreigner who didn't speak the language, at that). Most days I was in Paracas, I ended up eating oatmeal for breakfast, going to the town for lunch, and then having a protein bar or two for dinner. Probably not the calories I'd need to sustain myself for regular life, but given that I was primarily lying around reading and sunning myself, it was adequate.

Coming home from Peru, I got food poisoning - and then I ate even less. For a few days, I pretty much ate nothing but crackers for every meal. When the food poisoning started to subside, I still kept my portions fairly small (compared to my usual) and relatively high in carbs (totally not my norm). My body and brain started getting used to the idea that small portions were enough, and when the food poisoning was gone, I found that I was craving much smaller portions of things than I once used to. In fact, after making a massive spaghetti squash saute that ordinarily I would have wolfed done - I got full halfway through my plate and decided to save the rest as leftovers. That never happens to me - I am a clean plate clubber for life, and if you put food in front of me, I'm going to eat it! This was so new for me, and it's been amazing.

I look back on that time when I ate an entire pot of veggie soup, and I realize that it was pretty darn silly - and maybe even bordering on eating disordered behavior. I wasn't eating a whole pot of soup because it was the most delicious soup ever; I was making it artificially low in calories by refusing to add beans/meat/etc so that I could proceed to stuff my face. What a terrible motivation to eat a meal! Since finally being able to make the transition to smaller meals, I've become a lot more careless about what I eat, in that I'm not scouring labels for nutrition facts. When you eat smaller portions, you don't have to worry as much about whether you're eating a high cal sandwich or a low cal sandwich; in a reasonable serving size, there isn't going to be much difference between the two.

Of course, I haven't completely renounced my "see food" (I see food, I eat it) diet yet. We had our client holiday party last night, and I definitely ate more than I should have (passed hors d'oeuvres always give me trouble because I can't see all the food I'm eating at once, and I don't realize how many little bites I'm eating that dd up). But today, I recognized that, let it go, and then resumed my now-normal sized portions afterward - without feeling deprived at all. When my old roommate dropped about 10 pounds by simply changing her takeout lunch to soup and a roll, I thought she was crazy - wasn't she starving all day with that little food? But now I'm on that other side, and I happily ate my Senagalese peanut chicken soup for lunch with a piece of baguette - and felt totally sated afterward. I've started recognizing more when I'm hungry and need fuel (aka, my stomach is growling), vs when I just want to munch - but the times when I just want to munch are becoming fewer and farther between, instead of the habitual noshing throughout the day. I haven't weighed myself in a bit, but I just feel so much better than before - and that's way more important to me than any number on a scale.

The interesting thing will be to see how this affects my long distance running. So far, the effect to my workouts has been negligible, but we'll see what I feel like eating before and after a marathon when it comes time for that. I'm also curious to see if this lasts, now that I'm back to the team dinner environment, and especially with lots of holiday parties coming up. Only time will tell!

Weekend warrior gets some war wounds

2011-12-05T21:35:00.002-05:00

My Friday morning started off healthy and wonderful - with a 4.5 mile jog by the river. I felt a bit slow as I ran, but didn't worry about it, since I wasn't trying to achieve a certain pace - just trying to shake out my legs a little bit and break a sweat. However, thanks to the accountability of posting my runs to Twitter/Facebook, my buddy Adam later pointed out my pace - around an 8:45 average. I hadn't even noticed that, and was very excited that 8:45 seems to be my new "so comfy it feels slow" pace. Years ago, when I first started running, I couldn't break out of the 9:30 zone (even trying tricks like running to music with a faster beat in an attempt to help me pick it up); it was exciting to find that my norm now is so much faster.

I had a very busy day packed with appointments and meetings (including one very exciting meeting that I can say more about in a few weeks). When 7pm hit and I was done with work, I had no interest in happy hour or going out - for once. All I wanted was a quiet night, so I had made tentative plans with my best friend to hang out and catch up on episodes of The Office. However, he decided to go to bed super early, so I was flying solo. While I had already done a 4.5 mile run in the morning, I decided I was actually really in the mood to lift weights. (Boy, just a year ago, that sentence would never have come out of my mouth). So I headed over to the gym and did some hardcore weightlifting for 45 minutes, and then headed home to make a healthy spaghetti squash dinner.

While I considered having pasta to carb up a bit for all the crazy activities I was going to do the next day, the spaghetti squash in my fridge was calling to me. Seriously, how do I not make spaghetti squash for every meal? It is so delicious! This time, I made it with onions, zucchini, tomatoes, ground turkey breast, and some Italian herbs/spices: oregano, basil, black pepper, and tons of garlic. As I added all the veggies to my saute pan, I started seeing the volume getting bigger and bigger - and while I realized that it was going to be pretty darn low in calories, I also realized it was going to be huge. So I did something I usually don't do (but probably should more often): left half on my plate and ended up freezing it for later. My stint on crackers after food poisoning has gotten me used to not eating as much volume and still feeling satisfied, and I was really pleased that even when I knew I could eat a lot (low calorie meal + hard workout right beforehand), I figured out my limits. That's huge progress from me on the eating front, and I'm thrilled!

But Saturday was no day to skimp on calories - I began the day with a fabulous and energizing free Zumba class at Athleta Upper West Side, where due to the relatively early start time of 8:30am, I found myself one of only two students in the class. (That 8:30am start was no problem for me, Ms. Super Cool I-Went-To-Bed-At-9:30-PM-On-A-Friday-Night). Personal attention, woo hoo! I have to say, I am totally obsessed with the Zumba dance to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way", which mostly involves lost of jumping and spinning and other fun stuff - it puts me in a fabulous mood for the rest of the day.

The activity for the day was not nearly over yet though! At noon, I lined up with a group of runners at Madison Square Park for the third edition of "Will Run for Beer" Claire's epic beer runs.

In case you don't remember the last time I posted about this, here's how it works: start at a predefined park. Run to first bar. Drink. Run to second bar. Drink more. Etc. While the last edition featured 6 bars, this winter tour covered only 4... plus a post-run bar in case we weren't drunk enough already. Not to worry, though - what I lacked in utter drunkenness I made up for in drama and stupidity when I tripped over a pothole on the way to the last bar, fell flat on my face as a city bus approached (and briefly wondered if I was going to get run over), and skinned my hands and knees pretty badly. OUCH!

Of course, falling on the way didn't stop me from inhaling a burger and shake at Shake Shack at our last official stop. Believe it or not, I had never had Shake Shack before (a sin, I know) - but while I found the Hopskotch shake (hot caramel sauce, chocolate toffee and Valrhona chocolate chunks) superb, I found the burger just okay. Next time, shakes only! We ended the night at Rattle N Hum (my favorite beer bar in the citY), where I alternated trying not to fall asleep (beer + running = tiring!) with wearing out my phone's battery dramatically texting my friends about my war wounds.

Unfortunately, while I may have been dramatic about them on Saturday, by Sunday, it seemed fully justified. I realized that your knees are a pretty terrible place to get hurt, because they are constantly having to bend when you stand up, walk, etc - so the scabs are constantly having to stretch and whatnot. Ouch again! As such, I skipped the morning group run I had planned for the day, and then got my workout in the form of an awesome Greatist Gractivity, which I was lucky enough to get an invite to join. Too fun! (More on this tomorrow).

Overall - a pretty darn active weekend! Hopefully that momentum will stick with me as I get back to the old grind of traveling, long hours, and team dinners...

Hitting the 25 mile mark of the year

2011-12-01T21:25:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, a friend sent me an article about New Year's resolutions that I found rather odd. I know that it's now December - though it's hard to believe that 2011 has passed so quickly! Reaching the twelfth and final month of the year always seems to trigger various retrospectives and "best of the year" lists, which I see as a good thing. After all, how can you improve if you don't periodically reflect on your progress and achievements? But this article wasn't the usual reminder to start thinking about New Year's resolutions; rather, it was the somewhat strange suggestion to "give your New Year's Resolutions a 30 day trial run in December" before committing to them as your resolutions for the coming year.

As longtime readers know, I absolutely love New Year's resolutions - and usually put together a whole list of them. (Update to come later in December for me, but I've actually done a pretty good job sticking to most of my list of nine!). However, I hate the idea that New Year's Day is the only time you can vow to improve your life. Why not today? Why not tomorrow? Why do people insist on waiting for an arbitary date before making the changes they want to see in their life? And what happens if, let's say, you get food poisoning on New Year's Day, the day your diet and exercise plan is supposed to start? Do you wait a whole year to restart your goal?

I am nothing if not anal and Type A, so I understand the appeal of waiting for the beginning of a certain period. On Mondays, we try to make this the week we stick to our diet; at the beginning of the month, we try to make this the month we hit our running distance goals every week. But these periodic "starts," to me, are reasonable - they are close enough together that you aren't procrastinating your goals away just waiting for the right day to start them.

I have been reflecting on my New Year's resolutions by keeping them in an electronic sticky note on my desktop - where they stare me in the face whenever I am on my computer. I know that I have really gone above and beyond for some of my New Year's resolutions well (instead of visiting just four new countries this year, I visited five new countries and two new continents), while others took a backseat (I think my posture has actually gotten worse this year, and I don't think I've taken a dance or yoga class every month). But just because the year is ending doesn't mean that it's time for me to let my old goals slide for a whole month until I make new ones.

Take a look back at your New Year's resolution(s) from 2011. Is there anything you didn't accomplish but still think is a good goal? Let's spend December making every effort to call 2011 a success. Think of it as mile 25 of a marathon - it would be easy to conclude that whether you run your last mile in 8 minutes or 12 minutes is inconsequential at this point, since you've already logged 25 miles behind you and that four minutes is just a tiny percentage of your overall time. But if you've ever run a marathon, you know that logic doesn't fly; when it comes to the last mile, that's when we give it everything we've got and push right up to the finish line to do the best you can. I think it's time we did the same thing with our resolutions.

While I have a few goals that I didn't quite reach this year, I'm going to pick one as my focus for December: my posture. Lately I feel like I have been slouching more than ever - probably in part due to the fact that the offices where I've been working on my laptop don't have great ergonomic setups (vs my old airline job where I had my own desk and desktop computer and could adjust the chair, keyboard, monitor height, etc). But since I can't change my environment, I need to work on changing things I can control - like thinking about my posture more during the day and correcting it when I notice it's off, taking dance/yoga classes to help me get into proper alignment, and incorporating some stretches and strength training moves that help me keep my shoulder pulled back.

To get me off to a jumpstart, one of my favorite blogs, Greatist, recently put out an ultimate guide to good posture. Since Greatist is totally awesome about creating cool infographics and encouraging you to share them on your blog, I'll post it right here for you all to see:

I've already taken the test halfway down the infographic, and found out that my posture isn't horrible... but isn't stellar either. It's time to work through the rest of the chart, as well as doing some of my own research into exercises to help get me aligned! Of course, any tips you can offer would be much appreciated as well.

So there's my December goal - what's yours? Let's work together to end the year with a strong sprint to that finish line!

Getting back into a routine

2011-11-30T18:29:00.002-05:00

This has been a strange week for me. Theodora wrote an interesting post last night about the importance of finding a routine - but this week, my routine has been way more disrupted than usual.

First, there was the food poisoning. while in November I was pretty much getting a workout in every day (sometimes two or three in a day, if I opted to do multiple shorter ones instead of one big weight lifting or cardio session), that all fell apart on Wednesday when I went down for the count. Though it felt totally bizarre to not do anything, I actually stayed workout-free until Sunday, when I decided to try easing back into exercise by heading to the gym that night for a light cardio session. While I usually hit the elliptical when I'm at the gym for cardio (if I'm going to run, I prefer to do it outside), for some reason, I felt compelled to give the treadmill a try. I don't know if it was just that my body was missing its usual exercise, but it felt fantastic! Of course, I only did 2 miles, but still - while I often get a runner's high outside, I think this was the first time I've run on a treadmill and it didn't totally suck... I'll take what I can get.

But on Monday, instead of my usual 90 minute flight to Charlottesville (the late 8:30am departure of which often allows me to get in a workout in the morning before I go), this week I was headed on a 3 hour trip to Dallas. As Foursquare reminded me when I checked in at DFW Airport, it had been more than 4 months since I'd been in Dallas! Wow. Since it was my first day back from a week's vacation, I had a ton of stuff to catch up on, but the unfamiliar environment (my client's office had changed a lot since the last time I was here) threw me for a bit of a loop, and it took longer than I anticipated to get up to speed - particularly since a lot of the key constituents I needed to work with were still in Virginia. I went through the day just feeling slightly confused and overwhelmed - and of course, a wee bit sick to my stomach. At least the bathroom here is much nicer than the one at the Charlottesville office! ;)

While in Dallas, I had a ton of colleagues and friends in the area that I was going to try to catch up with during the week - making it a far cry from my usual keep-to-myself-and-try-to-eat-healthy-and-work-out-lots-when-it's-not-a-team-dinner-night routine that I've becomed accustomed to during my work week in Charlottesville. Still feeling the effects of the food poisoning and needing to stay simple and high carb, I arranged to meet up with a colleague on Monday night at Panera - figuring that it would be a shorter meal, and that I'd have more control over what goes into a sandwich than I would at a real restaurant. I had a great time catching up, but by 8pm I was wiped out, and my colleague graciously told me to go home and go to bed. The last few months in Virginia have spoiled me when it comes to travel, and I had forgotten how exhausting Monday nights are! I drove back to my hotel intending to do just that - fall into bed. But feeling guilty that I hadn't worked out at all, I instead crept down to the gym, and again knocked out 2 miles on the treadmill. Not a great workout (I only averaged a 10 minute pace, since I was alternating running for 2-2.5 minutes with walking for 30-60 seconds). However, it was proof that even when you're exhausted, you can still get a little workout in - and that was good enough for me.

Tuesday, though, I killed it with a great weight lifting workout. With December fast approching, I'm starting to look back at my new year's resolutions for 2011 and see how I've been doing - and weight lifting is one area where I really feel like I've come a long way. When I started Rachel Cosgrove's program over Christmas break last year, I kept a spreadsheet of how much weight and how many sets I had done of each exercise - and it's incredible to look back and see how far I've come in just a year's time. Tuesday's workout, for example was:

A - Plank on Swiss Ball (3 sets x 60 seconds each)
A - Upper-Body Core Stability Russian Twist (3 sets x 10 reps, holding a 10 pound dumbbell)
B - Deadlift (3 sets x 10 reps, 70 pounds of weight)
B - Military Press (3 sets x 10 reps, 20 pounds each hand)
C - Forward and Backward Step-Over (3 sets x 10 reps, 6 inch step)
C - Incline Dumbbell Bench Press (3 sets x 10 reps, 20 pounds each hand)
D - Single-Leg SHELC (3 sets x 10 reps... KILLER with one leg)
D - One-Point Dumbbell Row (3 sets x 10 reps, 30 pound dumbbell)
Finisher: Squat Thrust and Tuck Jump (3-1, 6-2, 9-3, 12-4) - I did it in 2:37, a 22 second improvement over my attempt last week

Do I rock, or what? I especially love comparing the exercises that I did in a more beginner form at the beginning of the year - like a three point dumbbell row (one hand and two feet on the floor, vs right now where I'm doing it with just one foot on the floor and everything else not holding anything) that I used to do with a 10 pound weight, or a bent knee deadlift that I used to do with 18 pounds.

However, all that lifting comes with a price - that being that I was absolutely exhausted and crazy sore this morning. I had been afraid that being sick was going to pull me out of the exercise routine I've been faithfully keeping up for November, and sure enough, here it was day three and I didn't feel like working out. While I usually love repetitive cardio to ease my muscles after I've worked out hard, I was inexplicably exhausted this morning - and knew that I would be having a long team dinner tonight. I decided that instead of going and pounding away on the treadmill or elliptical for forty minutes, I'd opt for a quick FOUR minute Tabata routine in my hotel room instead. Choosing "Heisman jumps" (a great ab toning cardio move I picked up from my stint of Insanity this summer) and football runs with shadowboxing as my torture devices of choice, I pounded through eight intervals of 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off and called it done.

So tonight - team dinner. I know that my measly four minutes of intervals is not even going to come close to burning off the heavy meal we're probably going to have, but at least I can go into it knowing that I listened to what my body wanted - but still pushed it a bit. Tomorrow I fly back to NYC, and then I should be in Virginia for the rest of the year, so hopefully I can get back to my regularly scheduled program then.

How do you stay on track when your routine gets disrupted?

How I Lost 7 Pounds On Thanksgiving Day

2011-11-29T23:40:00.002-05:00

When I left off with my travel tale, things were wonderful. However, on Tuesday, I started having some GI problems during the day. I didn't think much about it while I was lying by the pool, but when I went to dinner that night, I started having some major stomachaches. I had planned for my last night to be a special dinner at the upscale Italian restaurant at the hotel - and it turned out to be a good thing that I wasn't going far from home. By the end of the meal, my stomach was killing me, so I was glad I didn't have far to walk to get back to my room and be able to lie in bed. Unfortunately, I did not sleep well at all that night - having to get up multiple times to hit the bathroom. Despite basically having nothing left in me, by morning, I felt awful.

Since it didn't really matter whether I laid in bed or laid by the pool, I chose the pool to take advantage of my last day in the Peruvian sun. Despite trying to settle my stomach with a ginger ale, by 11am, I decided I really needed to be closer to a bathroom, and headed back to my room. Amidst the stomachaches and bathroom runs, I managed to pack up my stuff and get prepped for the long journey that lay ahead. I figured the best thing for me was just to get home - no matter how difficult the trip might be.

While the bus I took was incredibly luxurious (plush leather seats that reclined almost to lie-flats? Yes, please!), I couldn't really enjoy it because of the sickness that had set in. Not only was I shivering with chills and just trying to sleep it off when I was in my seat, but I also spent about half of the 5 hour bus ride in the not-so-comfy bus bathroom, praying for my stomach to settle down. My absence and awful appearance did not go unnoticed - half the bus asked me if I was okay or needed anything, but all I could do was shake my head miserably and try to sleep if I could.

From the bus station, I took a cab to the airport, and once through security, promptly headed to the lounge so I could get online and update my mom on my progress home. The nice thing about flying home to arrive on Thanksgiving Day was that my mom would be coming for the holiday and could pick me up at the airport. I wanted nothing more than for her to be there to make me feel better and not alone! Alas, the wifi in the lounge was pretty weak, and while I was able to get her a message that I had made it as far as Lima Airport, I kept getting cut off when I tried to chat with her. Knowing that I would see her in just a few hours, though, I didn't worry too much, and just dozed as I waited for my flight.

The flight itself was the worst I had ever taken - not because of any discomfort of the seats or poor service, but because I was so deathly ill. I didn't know if you were allowed to reenter the US as sick as I was, so I tried not to make a big deal about how sick I was in front of the flight attendants, but it was hard to hide the fact that a seatbelt would have been of more use to me in the bathroom than it was in my own seat!

Finally, I arrived back in New York, and I was never happier to see my mom than after making it through customs and heading out into the arrivals hall. My mom had brought me some Zico coconut water that I fortunately had in my fridge, and I sipped it gratefully. I was so happy to be back in the US, where I didn't have to be as careful about what I ate or drank - I figured a day or two of rest and safe food/drink would probably clear it up.

While I was thankful for American food and water, I was not thankful for how my Thanksgiving got ruined. Recognizing that I was in no shape to cook, I called off my plans for the traditional feast (feeling horribly guilty in leaving a friend with no Thanksgiving plans, though I later learned he was able to find a cheap last minute plane ticket and surprise his family!). Meanwhile, my mom stocked me up on Pepto Bismol, coconut water, Gatorade, and crackers - you know, all the classic comestibles of a Thanksgiving feast. We spent the day lying in bed watching TV (though I refused to watch my DVR copy of the parade) until I dozed off around 6pm - the last part probably not being too different than what many tryptophan-drugged Americans were doing.

I woke up on Black Friday feeling just like the rest of the country - with a stomachache. But while most people get that from eating too much turkey/stuffing/pie and also tend to feel heavy and bloated, I woke up feeling light and float-y. Stepping on the scale, I soon learned the reason why - I had lost 7 pounds in the last day, and my face looked sunken and gaunt. Looking in the mirror, I couldn't even see the tan I had gotten in Peru - I just looked white as a sheet! This was not the kind of weight loss you want, despite the fact that I was now at the weight I've been striving to achieve for months. It did provide an interesting glimpse into my goal weight, though, and getting to see it in such close proximity to my current weight gave me some new perspective - in that I honestly didn't look that much different from my usual self. I realize that the water weight I lost from being dehydrated is different than fat loss from eating right and exercising, but somehow it eased the pressure of weight loss to realize that I wasn't that far from where I wanted to be. While I've never suffered from an eating disorder, sometimes I get a bit more worked up than I should about what I do or don't eat or how much I exercise. Seeing that a few pounds are just that - a few pounds, and not a huge deal - was in some ways a better de-stressor for my vacation than having eaten perfectly and exercised perfectly and actually lost a pound or two. Maybe this was what I needed to lighten up on myself a little bit.

It was good that I got this "my diet doesn't matter" perspective, because it's now Tuesday night, and I've been on a high-carb-low-protein-minimal-fruits-and-veggies diet pretty much ever since. I spent all day Friday working my way through various boxes of crackers (by getting different flavors and textures, it was almost like having a choice of what food to eat). By Saturday, I had branched out into English muffins and banana bread, but an unfortunate morning of bathroom encounters after starting to return to normal eating on Sunday has left me leery of straying from the all-carb-all-the-time extravaganza I'm having. On that plan, aside from some extra bathroom trips, I'm mostly functioning normally, and was even able to get in a pretty awesome workout this morning! See that, salmonella? You can't stop me! (Note: I have no idea if I have salmonella or some other kind of food poisoning, since I can think of any number of things I ate/drank in Peru that might be responsible for my gastrointestinal rebellion. I haven't been to a doctor yet, but plan to go if things aren't completely cleared up by the end of the week).

On the Thanksgiving front, I am still totally bummed out that I didn't get to celebrate my favorite holiday. I mean, this is the one that I have an entire Excel workbook devoted to! (One sheet lists recipes and which dish they go into, another lists the timing of when to make them, a third is an ingredients master/shopping list, and the fourth is my list of what serving dish/utensils go with which item - you laugh, but last year when my brother and his wife surprised me 30 minutes before dinner (you know, that time when most cooks are going crazy trying to get everything done), I politely welcomed them and then let them know that in 1.5 minutes I needed to start making the gravy. So there!). Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday, and there is no way I am going 24 months in between the Thanksgiving-only dishes of lemon sage turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and caramel pumpkin gingersnap cheesecake! I've decided to either do the same menu for Christmas, if I can get enough family members to come for that, or else invite a group of friends over for a Friendsgiving celebration at a totally random time of year (February?). Either way, the Thanksgiving weight gain will be coming my way in the next few months - and I can't wait!

And hey, that gives me extra time to refine my spreadsheets.

Blissing out in Peruvian paradise

2011-11-27T23:21:00.000-05:00

After my night out in Pisco, I immediately went to bed when I got home - and did not set any kind of alarm for the next morning. Bliss! This is my favorite part of vacation. Despite this, I still woke up at 7am (probably because I had gone to bed at like 10pm). All the better to get a jump on my workout for the day before the sun really came out!

While it was perfectly light out when I woke up, Paracas seemed to always be foggy in the morning - so much that every day I thought it was going to be cloudy and terrible, but then the sun would magically come through around noon and all the clouds would disappear, making it the perfect vacation day. The cloudy mornings were great for working out, and I considered going for a run, but the resort was probably only about a quarter mile wide, so that would be a lot of back and forth to get any kind of distance in.

At the gym, I discovered that while they didn't have any dumbbells or free weights over 5 kilos (11 pounds, aka pretty useless for my super strong Rachel Cosgrove muscles), they did have tons of bottled water, free for the taking. Since I was trying to be careful about not drinking the tap water, and since the resort was charging ridiculous prices for bottled water (despite the fact that off-resort I could get a 3 liter bottle for the equivalent of 80 cents), this was a godsend. With the front desk at the gym being staffed 24 hours, though, this meant I had to go do at least a half-assed little workout to get free water anytime I was thirsty. Motivation!

After 45 minutes of an attempted weight lifting workout (which did not go so well due to the aforementioned lack of heavy weights), I gave up for the morning. Time to hit the pool! Armed with several magazines and a book, I alternated between the lounge chairs (for sun) and the daybeds (for shade) - wanting to get a little bit of a tan but not be too dumb about sun damage.

Around 1pm, I roused myself to go find food. Venturing back over to the little fishing town of Paracas, I chose the restaurant that was the most crowded (reasoning that if all the locals were there, it was probably a good pick) and perused the menu. It was basically all seafood, but what ecxited me the most was ceviche. Healthy and light, right? However, having heard that many of the restaurants in Paracas were known for their homemade lemonade, I checked out the beverage list and decided to get a "jarra de limonada." Seeing that the price was only about a dollar, I figured it would be served in a quaint little Mason Jar. Um, wrong. Apparently "jarra" is Spanish for "big-ass two gallon pitcher." Who knew? But the juice was delicious, and since the ceviche did indeed turn out to be incredibly light (though a very large portion for the $5 I spent), I finished it all. Hey, if lemonade was my big vacation splurge, I was okay with that :)

After lunch, I headed back to the pool to lie around and read the afternoon away, and then did some sunset yoga in the garden by the bay. By dinnertime, I still wasn't too hungry (and also was feeling a bit lazy about the 5 minute walk back over to the village restaurant district), so I just had a protein bar and hit the hay at 9pm. I was thrilled with my day, but couldn't help but laugh at how most women my age would be partying while on vacation, whereas I had resorted to an elderly schedule :)

I spent Tuesday much the same as Monday, except that my morning workout was kayaking on the bay. The kayaks had pedals in them (like a paddle boat) and my legs got a pretty intense workout in the time I was out there; not what I was expecting, but very welcome nonetheless! For lunch on Tuesday, I opted for a gorgeous cioppino - this time, with bottled water instead of the "jarra di limonada" :)

While my day was blissful, things started to go awry in paradise that night. Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion to my trip and the reason I had to cancel Thanksgiving!

Touring Pisco - Day 2 in Peru

2011-11-26T17:45:00.004-05:00

After a gorgeous ride through the desert and along the Peruvian coast (in which I alternately looked out the window and furiously typed my last blog post), I arrived at the gorgeous 5 star Hotel Paracas. It's ranked in Starwood's "Luxury Collection" and is on Condé Nast Traveler's "Hot List," so I knew I was in for a really special stay.

Sure enough, we pulled into a gated circular drive and I was greeted by multiple staff - all of whom knew my name, and also offered "felicitationes!" on my promotion at work. I was then led to my gorgeous villa a few hundred feet from Paracas Bay and beautiful views of the perfectly manicured lawns and gardens (perfect for sunset yoga, as I later discovered). Incredible! I had never before stayed in such luxury, and I thanked my stars for the "every three stays gets you a free resort night" promo that Starwood ran this spring that made this all possible.

That night, instead of eating at the overpriced-and-nice-but-seemingly-not-all-that-special restaurant on site, I took a 5 minute walk down the beach to reach the tiny fishing town of Paracas. It stood in sharp contrast to the perfectly groomed resort - it was more a tangle of older buildings that had clearly seen better days, but were known for their excellent seafood brought in fresh from the bay. Wandering the lone thoroughfare, I found many tour guides offering to book me on trips to the Ballestas Islands and the Paracas Natural Reserve (the two main attractions in Paracas). But what did I choose? The tour that went wine and cocktail tasting to the town of Pisco :)

No one else had signed up for the tour that evening, so it was just me and my guide, Cesar, taking a "collectivo" taxi. While it was a regular sedan, it reminded me of a NYC bus in that it just travels along one set route (a straight line from Paracas to San Andres to Pisco) and picks up anyone who flags it down along the way until it is full, and then drops people off anywhere on the route they have chosen. Cesar asked me if I would mind if we stopped by his family's home in San Andres so he could get a sweatshirt, and I agreed - this was a chance for me to see how the natives lived.

While he grabbed his jacket, I hung out in the town square. The square in San Andres was quaint, but it was clearly even more rundown than the tourist-centered town of Paracas. Cesar said as much - that tourists didn't typically stay in San Andres, as the hotels/hostels were all in either Paracas or Pisco, but that the workers mostly lived in San Andres. Looking around, there were plenty of bodegas and other shops, but no real restaurants. Back in 2007, a major (8.0 on the Richter scale) earthquake had struck the town of Pisco, only a few miles away from San Andres, and while the area was being rebuilt slowly, it was the ritzy tourist areas that had started to recover the most, while the natives often still lived in squalor. I was glad I had gotten to see at least a glimpse of "the real Peru" - as sad as it was.

Hailing another collectivo, we headed to Pisco itself - and arrived in the midst of a huge crowd of people. Apparently there was a large school parade about to pass through, and the restaurant where we were going to have dinner was right in the middle of it! I got to enjoy some great marching bands and some surprisingly slutty dancing from 10 year old girls as I ate my yummy "pollo a la brasa." Pollo a la brasa is a very tradition Peruvian dish, typically served as a plate of freshly roasted chicken (fresh as in, I ordered it and they put a chicken on the spit!), basic salad, and some really delicious thick-cut steak fries. I had a difficult time cutting into it, and Cesar kept telling me that it was meant to be eaten with the fingers instead of a knife and fork, but I figured he was playing a game of "trick the tourist into eating like an idiot" so I wouldn't do it. When I got home and looked it up on Wikipedia, I discovered that it IS traditionally eaten with your hands! Oh well.

After dinner, we headed for Taberna de Don Jaime - a tiny tavern that's known for its artisanal wine and piscos. We started with tastes of some dessert wines, which I completely mistook for the pisco tasting. "Pisco tastes like really sweet and incredibly delicious port!" I exclaimed, as Cesar struggled to fully grasp my meaning.

It wasn't until we were upstairs in the second bar area and being served a pitcher of an actual pisco sour that I comprehended that what I had tasted was actually wine and not pisco. I also quickly learned that I did not like pisco at all! It reminded me of a cross between peppermint schnapps and triple sec - not too yummy.

However, it was very strong, and so I bailed after just the one shared pitcher of pisco sour - alone in a foreign country and not even in my own hotel's town was not the place to get drunk. But before I left, I just had to buy a bottle of my favorite dessert wine that I had sampled - delicious!

And with that, I hailed a collectivo home and called it a night - not even tempted by the gorgeous platter of chocolates and pastries the staff had put in my room as a welcome gift. The main tour parts of my vacation were done; tomorrow, it was time to lie around, relax, and treat my vacation as a spa trip to get healthy, physically and mentally!

Buenos dias para Peru!

2011-11-20T16:02:00.010-05:00

The last week was crazy for me, trying to wrap up all my outstanding work before vacation (I was still frantically trying to get last emails out while my plane was sitting on the tarmac as I was off to vacation) - which is why I didn't blog about how psyched I was about my vacation. But here I am, having the time of my life - in PERU!

So yeah, remember that new year's resolution to visit four new countries this year? I pretty much killed that one. In order: The Bahamas, Switzerland, France, St. Maarten, Japan, and now Peru. Six new countries, plus two new continents (Asia and South America), plus visits to Mexico, Denmark, Belgium, and Poland (though I've been to each of them before). It's been a busy year for me travel-wise!

This particular adventure kicked off at lunchtime on Friday, when I headed for the BoltBus that would take me from NYC to DC, where my flight was. (I had originally planned to leave from my client in Charlottesville, VA for DC on Thursday night, but I ended up needing to attend a meeting in New Jersey on Thursday, so I had to get myself from NYC to DC for the flight). The bus was leaving from Port Authority, which is about a mile from my apartment, and I planned to take a cab instead of the subway, so I thought leaving at 1pm would give me plenty of time before my 1:30pm bus... until I discovered that Midtown West was completely gridlocked. My driver was nice enough to agree with me that it would probably be faster for me to walk than stay in the cab, so my vacation kicked off with a half mile jog down 9th Avenue, suitcase in tow. I got to my gate in Port Authority at 1:29 and was the last one on the bus! I was just thanking my lucky stars that I had swapped out my regular briefcase-style laptop bag for a backpack, or I never would have made it.

The stress continued when I checked my GPS partway through the bus ride and saw tons of traffic ahead. I had put 3 hours in between my bus trip and my flight, which I thought would be more than sufficient... but I thought wrong. Chatting online with my friend Meg, though, she wisely pointed out that there was no point in worrying; the bus was going to get there whenever it got there, and there was nothing I could do either way. As it turned out, the bus driver took multiple alternate routes, so despite all the Friday rush hour traffic, we arrived only 25 minutes late! Not bad at all.

The next delay came when I got to the airport. Our first officer had apparently stood up too quickly in the cockpit ... and given himself a concussion. Furthermore, since DCA isn't a base for American Airlines, they were having trouble finding a spare FO and had no idea when we'd get to leave. WHAT?! Again, I had a four hour connection in Miami that should have been more than sufficient - but not with an indefinite delay! This time, though, I went with the flow. Realizing that American Airlines would compensate me heavily if I didn't get to Peru until the following evening, I simply thought about what steps would be involved in changing my bus ticket and hotel reservations if it came to that - and then stopped fretting. Again, I was rewarded for my patience - the flight did eventually go out, and I landed with 20 minutes to dash to my gate. Used to this sprinting-with-suitcase by now, it was no problemo - though I did arrive at my flight pretty sweaty. No matter; sleepy time for me on this overnight flight.

Arriving at 7am on Saturday morning, I was just in time for the final leg of my journey at 8:30am - taking a bus from Lima to Ica. Now, I had always considered the Bolt Bus to be pretty nice (at least compared to a Greyhound or other regular bus), but it was nothing like the luxury of Peruvian bus travel! I had signed up for the first row of the double decker bus, which gave me stunning views of the Peruvian countryside whenever I wasn't reading or watching the onboard movie. Unlike American buses where the only staff is the driver, the Peruvian bus had two stewardesses on board who served us sandwiches and drinks - gratis. The 5 hour bus ride went by very quickly, and wasn't burdensome at all. And the price for this service? $12. I paid for my no-frills ticket from NYC to DC!

It turned out that just about everything in Peru was dirt cheap. Arriving in Ica, I took a 15 minute cab ride to the little oasis of Huacachina - for $1. My 3 star hotel in Huacachina was bare bones, but clean and simple - for just $28. And when I went to get lunch, I got this delicious "tropical salad" (fried chicken with fruits and veggies) and sparkling water - for $4. Man, I could live here forever! :)

After lunch and some lounging by the pool, it was 4pm - and time for my sunset desert tour. I joined other tourists (most of whom seemed to be Peruvian - apparently this is the hot spot for those in the know) in piling into a dune buggy, and then our driver took off. Gunning the engine, he took us up and down the sand dunes as we all screamed at the top of our lungs - this was like being on a rollercoaster with no track! My stomach dropped a few times on the steep dips, and I was definitely glad I was securely belted in when we'd go careening left or right to turn up or down another dune. So much fun!

But the real adventure came when we stopped out in the middle of nowhere to try our hand at sandboarding (similar to snowboarding, but on dunes).

The challenge is that when you get to the bottom, there are no man-made lifts to take you back up - you have to walk! If you've ever walked on a beach in loose sand, you know it's pretty tough; now imagine doing that but uphill, on a slope that's more like a mountain! I was breathing pretty heavily every time I'd make the ascent, and I ended up being relieved that I hadn't signed up for the ascent of Cerro Blanco (the largest sand dune in the world)! Luckily, we had the buggy to take us back up every few times and drive us to a new location.

While the walk up the dunes sounds tough, being at the top was no picnic either - these were pretty steep and scary! I tried doing it like the pros and standing up on my board (though only on a really small hill), but for the most part, I laid flat on my stomach and road it down like a sled. It was still terrifying! Check out this view from the top of one of the dunes (and my fellow sandboarders wayyyyyy down below - there are three in the pic, if you can spot the tiny dots):

I made it through the sandboarding in one piece, and with another twisting and turning ride, we headed back to Huacachina. The oasis looked pretty awesome from the top:

Next step was to get the sand off me - NOT an easy proposition. To give you an idea of how sandy I got, each time I would get to the top of a dune, I would take my sneakers off to dump all the sand out, because my shoes got SO filled with sand that there wasn't room for my feet and they felt super tight and painful! I definitely left sand all over the floor of the shower, and I have a feeling that I'm also bringing plenty more sand home with me.

After a long day of traveling, I was pretty wiped out, so rather than check out the Huacachian nightlife (my sand buggy driver told me there was a pretty cool "discotheque", haha!), I settled for a grilled veggie sandwich and a massive beer - $6. And then headed to bed super early at 8pm! Don't judge; I had a long travel day :)

It was glorious to wake up without any kind of alarm, but I did that at 7:15am. After breakfast at the hotel (included with the $28 price of the room), I spent an hour lying around the pool reading a magazine. I may have brought just a wee bit of leisure reading to catch up on this trip...

Why yes, that IS eight books and fifteen magazines. And I already finished three of the books and am afraid I didn't bring enough reading material!

After finishing my first magazine by the pool, I considered going to the food festival I heard was going on in Ica... but decided that I wasn't that hungry, and relaxing was more important. So I headed off for a massage. Given that I was at a resort town (ooh, oasis in the Peruvian desert - fancy!), you may be picturing some kind of super luxury spa massage. Um, nope, definitely not the case. The room was pretty bare bones (though perfectly comfortable), but for the dirt cheap price (um, $12 for an hour?! Awesome!), I wasn't complaining.

This massage was not for the squeamish, though. The masseuse had instructed me to remove all my clothes and lie on the table, but after a questionable experience with my first Thai massage, I've learned to keep my undies on when I think things might get a bit questionable. In this case, I wasn't at all worried for my safety; more just didn't want to deal with the awkwardness of declining a happy ending. I had worried about that once before and not had a problem... but this time, I actually think I may have been made an offer...

The massage started with something that was a bit odd (though not at all sensual and probably not inappropriate): Cesar put his hand on my (completely covered by underwear and a towel) crotch and used that as a lever to shake my whole body while he then used his other hand to press on various points (tummy, clavicle, forehead) as he shook. Odd, and probably a bit personal for some people, but it felt pretty clinical and I chalked it up to cultural differences. However, later when it came time for some inner thigh massage, Cesar was not shy at all, making me second guess the whole shaking thing. Yikes! The massage ended with Cesar kissing me lightly on the forehead, telling me that my time was done, but that he was happy to "keep going." Combined with the kiss, I knew what that meant, and hastily told him that I was all set! He didn't seem offended, and I was soon left to put my clothes on, pay him, and skedaddle. The massage had turned out to be 75 minutes - and as always, I was stunned by the price - it cost just $12! Man, at that price, I kind of wished I were staying in Huacachina so I could start every day with a massage.

But now I was headed out of Huacachina and off to Paracas. I was glad I had such a nice time in Huacachina, but judging by the air conditioned car service from the fancy hotel where I'd spend the rest of my week, I had a feeling things were about to be a lot different for the rest of my trip...

Race Report: Richmond Half Marathon

2011-11-14T15:55:00.005-05:00

I didn't talk about this race a lot in advance, because to be honest, I wasn't feeling too confident about it. I haven't really run that much lately, and while I was really proud of my first place finish in last week's race - let's be honest, that was because all the good runners were skipping it to run the real New York City Marathon :) I was very proud of my time in that race, but part of me also thought it might have been a fluke. Maybe my clock got screwed up in the woods, or maybe I just happened to have a superhuman day. But today, I proved that last week was no accident - I PRed by 6 minutes in the Richmond Half Marathon!

It's been forever since I ran a half marathon, and I felt a twinge of envy at the expo yesterday, watching thousands of runners get their bibs for the full, while I sheepishly took my bib for the half. I don't have any problem with shorter distance races - in fact, I love them! - but something just didn't feel right about running the half when the full was a completely viable option. Right up until the week of the race, I hadn't decided whether to do the half or attempt the full - particularly given that I haven't run over 13.1 miles in about 6 months, which made it seem silly for me to attempt a full marathon. But what clinched it was getting invited to be a coach for the Urban Girl Squad running group at Athleta. I jumped at the opportunity to be part of such a great organization, but with the first run scheduled for Sunday, I decided I had better not take my chances with the full marathon.

Before the race, I started thinking that maybe if I was only going to do the half, I should shoot for a time goal. I do feel like my running has gotten faster lately, and it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to test that. My friend Adam is a running coach, so I asked him to take a look at my recent times on my 3 mile runs and let me know what he thought was doable. Could I shoot for 1:55? 1:50 even? Unfortunately for me, he gently squashed my dreams by pointing out that while I had been running a 9:05 pace on some hills for three miles, someone who could run a half marathon in 1:50 (8:23 pace) would consider a 9:05 pace for 3 miles to be a super easy run for their recovery days - and that I should have barely broken a sweat doing it (um, not the case). He suggested that an aggressive goal would be to try for 1:55, but that 2:00 might be more realistic. I accepted that - I really hadn't trained for this race at all - but really wanted to do 2:00 or less.

while my pace was uncertain, I had planned for a while to do either the full or the half (note: "planned" does not equal "trained" in my book) just to complete it, and I was psyched to also get a chance to stay in Richmond and catch up with a good friend. Lindsey and I have known each other since we were six years old, when what started as a ballet class rivalry blossomed into a great friendship. Oddly enough, both Lindsey and I turned from ballet to running, and so it was that she was planning to run the Richmond Half! I was psyched about getting to do a race with my old friend... until she suffered a stress fracture a few weeks ago and was barred from participating! She graciously offered me her bib and encouraged me to come stay with her anyway - so Friday night found me "carb loading" with Lindsey, her roommate, and my favorite meal of cioppino, great bread, and a few tasty beers :)

Despite the fact that daylight savings has been over for more than a week now (and I have been extolling the virtues ever since), I am still not used to the time change. At least, I will assume that's the reason I was yawning and ready for bed at 8pm on Friday night - but at least I had the excuse of the race the next morning to make me seem a little less lame. Sure enough, I cozied up in bed around 9:30pm to read - and barely made it 10 minutes before I couldn't keep my eyes open. Time to rest up for the race!

Further proof that I have not yet adjusted to the end of daylight savings came when I woke up. As long as I am well-rested, I tend to wake up naturally a few minutes before my alarm. (I'm not going to pretend to be Sarah Bernhardt or anything, and I certainly still use an alarm clock, but I generally feel pretty confident that if I need to get up at 7am and for some reason my alarm hasn't gone off, I'll probably wake up on my own anyway.) This morning, I needed to get up at 6am in order to be out the door for the race by 6:45am - but I found myself waking up wide awake at 5am, and spending the last hour of my planned sleep dozing. See, my brain's alarm clock is still on standard time! Hopefully I can "reset" it soon.

Fortunately, I still felt great when I woke up. In fact, I felt better than great - I felt fantastic and ready to run! I went through my morning routine, and chowed down on my new favorite travel breakfast. Lately I've gotten in the habit of making ziplocks of oatmeal each week, so that I know even if I can't find a healthy restaurant, I can at least get one healthy meal a day. In each bag, I put 1/3 cup oats, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 scoop protein powder, a small handful of dried goji berries, a big shake of cinnamon powder, and a few butterscotch chips. when I add hot water (thank you, hotel coffee maker... or in this case, Lindsey's microwave) and let it sit for a few minutes, I get an awesome healthy and hearty breakfast, with a few swirls of butterscotch for sweetness once I allow the chips to melt. So tasty!

Having had my breakfast and not needing any coffee (woo hoo, I've kicked the habit!), I hopped in the car and headed for the start. Despite my having a car and not wanting her to get up at an early hour (especially since she wasn't running), Lindsey kindly insisted on driving me to the race - perhaps because of my demonstrated incompetence in getting there last time (I got lost twice and missed the entire race in 2009). This time, I proved that two years older does not necessarily mean two years wiser, when I got down to the car and then had to immediately run back up to the guest room because I had left my bib/timing chip sitting on the futon (at least we hadn't already started driving when I realized my mistake). Lindsey dropped me off a few blocks away from the race start (ah, the convenience of having a driver instead of parking lightyears away), and I scurried through the chilly Richmond streets with all the other runners.

Upon feeling how cold it was (and I was just wearing my race clothes, choosing not to deal with the hassle of a drop bag), I promptly started looking around for someplace indoors to hang out before the race. As I neared the start, I saw the Hilton Garden Inn looming ahead, its lobby teeming with runners. Perfect! As a non-guest, I didn't use the bathrooms or otherwise take any of their facilities, but it was nice to have a lobby to wait in for a bit so I wouldn't have to freeze my buns off at the starting line for quite so long.

With about 15 minutes to go, I headed for the start, arriving just in time for the national anthem. While everyone was assigned to a specific corral and the gatekeepers on the sides of each corral were extremely strict, it seemed that the race organizers were also having people enter from the starting line and then make their way back to their assigned corral - so really, you could stop anywhere. I saw many people in the A corral who, by body shape, did not seem to me to be in shape to run a sub-3:15 marathon, which made me really frustrated with the system. Why seed people at all if you're going to let people start anywhere, with inexperienced runners clogging up the road for everyone behind? Meanwhile, I tried my best to get back to my assigned corral, but couldn't get any further than the third corral back - CA - because of the crowds. I didn't stress too much though - while my bib put me in the group aiming for a 2:15-2:30 half marathon, I was hoping to run sub-2, or exactly the recommended pace for the CA corral.

One thing I will commend the Richmond organizers for: instead of using the corrals just to separate groups but having everyone start together, they took an approach that is not usually all that common: having a separate start for each corral. The starts were only two minutes apart, so it didn't require people in the back to have to wait forever, but it was nice to get your own personalized start and be able to run as soon as you crossed the start mats. Each start was accompanied by a great pump-you-up song too. As I heard the corrals in front of me get their starts, I actually got tears in my eyes. It had been so long since I've been at the start of a big race like this, and when I thought of my friends who weren't able to run that day (Lindsey, Katie), I just felt so lucky to be there and be able to run. "Kick it" (the lyrics of the song they were playing) was exactly what I was about to do!

I inched up to the start with mounting anticipation, and when the starting gun went off, I took off with it. Dodging my way around other runners in my corral who were starting at a more conservative (okay, fine, much smarter pace), I found myself in the front of the pack, leading the way with a huge grin on my face. I was running! In a race! On a gorgeous day for running! And right then and there, I knew what I had been thinking all morning but was too afraid to really allow myself to consciously admit: I was going to set a PR today.

With the sounds of the start music fading as I ran further, I turned on the music on my phone. The first song up ended up being the first song I had listened to in my very first marathon: Carrie Underwood's "Crazy Dreams", and I marveled at how appropriate it was. The lyrics: "Hello you long shots, dark horse runners... thank god even crazy dreams come true." Every time I listen to that song, I get so jazzed up. I was never supposed to be a runner. I'm a musical theater kid who hated gym class! But somewhere along the way, that changed, and now I've accomplished a pretty crazy dream that most people don't even believe when I tell them about it. AND I LOVE IT!

In order to achieve a PR time, I needed to break 1:57. I hadn't made a pace bracelet for this race, but I had memorized the average split times I needed for each mile: 8:23 if I wanted to finish in 1:50, 8:46 if I wanted to finish in 1:55, and 9:09 to break 2:00. When I was back at home checking out these paces, I made up a little rhyme that I chanted to myself. It went something like this:

Yup, I am a huge musical theater nerd. Told you so.

My first mile flew by in 7:59, thanks to my speedy sprint, but then I settled into doing about 8:30 until mile 7. In the course of these miles, we ran through an industrial area, through a residential suburban area, and then turned into a park at mile 6 to loop around a pond. While the course didn't have any major hills to write home about, the park was a little bit up and down throughout - with me easing up on the pace going up the hills, and then "falling" down the hill and allowing myself to fly past the other runners on the downhills. The up and down nature enabled me to do this pretty easily, since I never had to worry about getting out of control when I let myself fly - something I've gotten scared about on courses with long steep downhills. Instead, I got to just enjoy it! I hit the 10K split in 53:02, and shortly after, the halfway point right around 55 minutes. That meant I had done the first half on pace to run a 1:50 - but could I keep it up?

Mile 8 brought us out of the park and on our longest hill of the course - which was over in about a minute. We headed out of the park we were in and into another, where I was dismayed to find that they gave out Gu only about 3 feet before a water station. When will race organizers learn to put the Gatorade before the water (also a problem in this race) and put the Gu a tenth of a mile or so before the drinks, so that you have time to eat your Gu/drink your Gatorade and then get water to wash it down? I've never understood why even well-organized races don't even follow those principles.

On the plus side of the drink situation, we ran into the hashers around mile 9 - stationed just after a regular water/Gatorade station. Knowing that they usually don't have good quality beers at these stations, I was planning to pass - but then when my Gatorade wasn't enough for me and I was getting wiped out, I grabbed a cup of beer from a hasher anyway. I guess the look on my face must have been one of dazed exhaustion where they thought I didn't know what I was grabbing, because that brought a pack of hashers down upon me: "No, it's beer! Not water! Beer! Water is back there!" I laughed and gulped it down, telling them it was just what I needed. Thanks, guys!

We headed through some more neighborhoods, some with a gentle uphill, and then came out to a main road again. I started getting really tired in this area, and called my mom for support. Since I can't always have my friends/family at a race, my mom has learned that if I call her during a race and don't say anything when she answers, it means I am wiped out and looking for her to support me from afar - which she does by cheering just as if she was standing alongside the course. "You are amazing, bunny!" (Yeah, she calls me bunny...) "You can do it! Keep going! I am so proud of you!" Let me tell you, when she can't be there in person, getting her calls and texts of encouragement is the next best thing to help push me to do my best :)

After I gasped out a "thank you" to her and got off the phone, I hit mile 10 - 1:26:24 on my watch. Only a 5K to go! I got jazzed up by the idea that I was so close, particularly since I knew for sure at this point I was going to PR. Even if I did 10 minute miles from here on out (which I was NOT going to do), I would still squeak in just under my old PR. Now the question was - how much could I push the pace to make a PR that would be hard to break in the future?

The next mile was rough, despite the appearance of an aid station that was Alice in Wonderland themed (volunteers dressed in fun costumes, signs with quirky sayings reminiscent of things Alice would have seen along the way, etc). I chuckled at the aid station, but on the inside, I was dying. This mile was brutal, and I couldn't figure out why! Later, when I looked at my splits on Cardiotrainer, I discovered the answer: because I had done it about 25 seconds faster than all the previous miles! I wasn't wiped out; I was just pushing a little bit harder. The end was in sight!

We came to another uphill around mile 11, and found the aid station at the bottom of the hill. Just where I like it! I took a cup of Gatorade and walked up the hill, combining the drink break with a chance to rest on the uphill. A volunteer came up to me and asked if I was okay (I guess I looked worse than I thought!), and encouraged me to keep going, pointing out that the end was only 2 miles away. I knew that, but thanked him anyway for the encouragement, and took off a second later. Only about 15 more minutes and I would be done, and with a shiny new PR to boot! I was pumped.

In the last two miles, as I pushed the pace more and more, I found myself passing everyone around me - so much that I ended up staying to the far left and even veering a bit outside the cones designed to keep us on the right side of the road (though as far as I could tell, that was more for the 8K participants to avoid the marathoners than for any traffic). This is why I love the last few miles of a race - I am typically used to the distance enough to keep going strong, so even if I'm not speeding up, I'm passing people who have hit their breaking point and are slowing down. But to me, that feels like flying! I got a few calls of "nice pace, girl!" as I went by, and murmured a few "good job, you can do it!"s of my own. When we came to the last mile, I shouted out, "come on guys, one more mile - 10 minutes and we are DONE!" I guess part of me can't help being a cheerleading pacer even when I'm running by myself :)

There was a pair of runners in front of me who were talking strategy: "when we hit the turn, that's when we'll push it to the end." Seizing on an opportunity to get advice from someone who knew the course, I queried, "after the turn, is it downhill from there?" "Oh, YEAH!" they replied. Woo hoo! My favorite kind of finish. Before getting to that turn though, we came upon one final aid station: a group of women playing "Jump On It". I wasn't about to sacrifice my team so much as to do the whole hip-shaking dance, but I waved my arms in the air to show how I appreciated their music, and they cheered me on.

We took the final left turn, and the runners ahead of me had been right: pure downhill as far as I could see. Yippee! I zoomed down the side, a huge grin on my face, just as one of my favorite finishing songs of all time came on (Rascal Flatts - "Where You Are"). With a gigantic grin on my face, I flew down that hill to the bottom. Usually I hate when the race flattens out right before the finish line, because the transition from downhill to flat usually makes you feel exhausted, but this time, I was so pumped I didn't even notice. Sprinting across the finish line with a clock time under 2 hours (which I have never yet done, due to only ever having done a sub-2 half marathon by chip time), I threw my arms over my head in a victory V and immediately burst into tears - even forgetting to stop my watch for a bit. I had done it! I had come back into the racing scene, and I had come back strong, breaking my old PR by over 6 minutes (or 27 seconds per mile). I couldn't believe that it brought me to tears (something I hadn't done even when I finished my 50 states), but I felt so proud of myself and so accomplished that I couldn't even help it. And I wasn't even all that sore/tired! How do you like THEM apples, Adam? (Yes, I may have texted that to him from the finish line).

Despite PRing, my running for the weekend was not over yet! Stay tuned for my Sunday...

Race stats:
Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 1:51:36
Pace/mile: 8:30
Overall place: 1366/6236
Gender place: 486/3820
Age group place: 103/741

Becoming an everyday runner

2011-11-09T16:13:00.002-05:00

I always hear about people running X miles per day every day, and it's something that's hard for me to fathom. I have never been an everyday runner. Even when I was training for my very first marathon (arguably the most disciplined I ever was about running), I would run a few days per week. This is not to say I didn't work out every day - but I wouldn't necessarily go running. But now, I am starting to think that's the key to enjoying my workouts and still following a daily routine. I know that all the experts (hi, Rachel Cosgrove!) say that steady state cardio is bad for losing weight, because your body gets used to it and then it's not challenging. But somehow, in my mind, that only applies to things like mindlessly circling your feet on the elliptical, or pounding away on a nasty treadmill - two activities that I admittedly halfass sometimes. But really running - exploring the neighborhood, seeing the scenery, or just actually going to get somewhere - how can there be anything bad for you about that?

I've been thinking about this for a while now, but my work schedule has made it tough to change things up and give everyday running a try. Tuesday through Thursday, I start work at 8am (meaning I have to be back in my hotel room and getting showered/dressed by 7:15am, right about when it starts to get light out), and I get out of work anytime between 6:30pm and 8pm. If it's 6:30pm, that's usually because we're headed straight to a team dinner, with time to do little more than drop our bags off at the hotel on our way (and sometimes not even that). And once it hits 7pm, it's dark again and I'm a bit afraid to run.

I'm not normally such a scaredy cat. In New York, I wouldn't hesitate to run in the dark. As bizarre as that may sound, it's my city, and I know it well. Plus, something about it being "the city that never sleeps" has always made me confident being out after dark. I mean, in Charlottesville, if you're out at 6am, you're the only one for miles; in New York, you're basically never on the street alone, no matter what time it is. Something about safety in numbers makes me feel better.

But at last, daylight savings has begun, and finally it is light enough out to run in the morning. Therefore, yesterday instead of heading down to the hotel gym, I headed out for a nice little 3.5 mile jaunt up to the University of Virginia (and I do mean up - some long hills in there!), across to the next major road, and back. Over the course of my run, I realized that I am less of a wussy runner than I think I am. When I first left my hotel dressed in a long sleeved tech shirt and shorts, I found a runner just coming back in from her run - dressed in tights, a turtleneck, a hat, and gloves. "Pretty chilly out there!" she called to me, but I just laughed it off.

Until 2 minutes later, when I got stuck at the traffic light on the corner, freezing my tushy off. Who knew that in Charlottesville, the walk signs don't change unless you've pressed the button to request a crossing? It took me five freezing minutes of waiting before I figured out that little secret. From then on, I was running not just to maintain the perfectly warm body temperature I had when I left, but to warm up and get back to the temperature. I toughed it out, though, and in the end, I don't think my outfit was a terrible choice. The only part of me that got really really cold was... well, I think I phrased it pretty succinctly on Twitter:

Despite the temporary crotch paralysis, it was a pretty glorious run - and reminded me that I want to get out there and start doing it more often. It still might be a long shot for me to turn into one of those every day runners, but it could also be something to work toward. I do love my weight lifting, and would probably try to keep that up 2-3 days a week, but I could certainly do that in the evening if I wanted to spend every morning running.

IF. A big if. I'm not there yet.

Race Report: Halloween Half Marathon

2011-11-08T10:42:00.004-05:00

I've done it. I've figured out the elusive secret that no other running blog will tell you: how to win a half marathon (even if you're not that fast). Yup, that's right. YOU GUYS! I actually WON a half marathon! (Sorry, I'm pretty excited).

You may remember last weekend, when New York got hit with a freak snowstorm, and as usual, people panicked. Not because this storm was supposed to be of especially great magnitude, but because usually we don't get snow in October (as it turned out, this is the most snow New York has gotten in October in the entire recorded history of weather). Was it awful? Was it terrible? Well, it put a bit of a damper my Halloween bar crawl scavenger hunt, so that kind of sucked. Luckily, my down coat protected my awesome German beer girl costume, my maroon Wellies only added to the stylishness of the ensemble.

The day after this lovely blizzard, though, was supposed to be the date of the Halloween Marathon/Half Marathon/10K. Slated to start at 9am, I woke up at 7am feeling fairly sick to my stomach thanks to eating half a bowl of raw cookie dough when I came home the night before (but it was Halloweeeeeeeeen... I'm supposed to be allowed to get a sugar high!). When I checked my email, though, I rejoiced: the race had been pushed back to noon to give volunteers time to clean up the trails for the race.

After some coffee and a bagel to fuel what I hoped would be an epic 13.1 miles, I hopped on the 1 train uptown. Due to some delays with train traffic and my own poor planning, I got to Van Cortlandt Park about 5 minutes after the race was supposed to start. Expecting to see hordes of people already running, I saw basically no one. When I got to the starting line, an organizer confirmed that the race had actually been canceled - the Parks department had pulled the permit because conditions were too dangerous to allow runners on the trails, and the race would be rescheduled for the following weekend.

Since I had trekked all the way up there and brought my Supergirl costume to boot, I joined the dozen or so people who were bravely doing a few 1.5 mile loops around the sports fields.

I thought optimistically I'd do four loops (6 miles), but my sneakers were soaked through halfway through the first lap due to the slush and snow. (Note that that pic was taken in the few hundred feet where the trail was cleared, but the rest was ALL snow and slush). I bailed after just 5k. Whatever, I was still more "super" than all those wusses who hadn't even shown up! Before I left, the race director said he loved my costume, and that I probably would have won the costume contest if the whole event hadn't been canceled. As a consolation prize, he encouraged me to take a few candy apples that were supposed to be half marathon prizes... don't mind if I do!

All week I excitedly planned for the rescheduled race. My track record with the Van Cortlandt Park races has been poor - historically, I've always done half the distance I originally set out to run. But this Saturday, it was on - I was going to run the half marathon distance in preparation for the Richmond Half Marathon the following weekend. Plus, it was New York City Marathon weekend - what better way to kick off the festivities than by running?

Well, if you're one of the lucky 45,000 who are running the New York City Marathon, there are actually a lot better ways to kick off the festivities. Like going to the expo and eating as much free food as you can handle. Or, you know, resting. In hindsight, it was obvious, but it wasn't until I arrived at the start of the makeup race that I realized that none of the good runners were there and the numbers were in my favor. Anyone who was anyone was running the New York City Marathon, and not this super-fun-but-maybe-not-such-a-big-sponsored-deal race in the Bronx. Instead of being insanely jealous (okay, or maybe in addition to being insanely jealous), I was going to use these missing runners to my advantage.

It was a perfect day for running, and I was quite comfortable in my leggings, royal blue Humpy's Marathon long sleeved tech tee (where I PRed!), and Supergirl costume over the top. I wore my gloves for the first lap, but ditched them after that - it was just perfect weather. The only thing marring the day was the fact that some of the trails were still not cleaned up - so we were only doing the second (and more difficult/hilly) half of the typical 6.55 mile loop, and to run a half marathon, I'd now have to run it four times instead of the usual two. But hey - while wearing a Supergirl costume, I could just fly through, right?

The start had about 100 runners, and I bumped into Frank at the start. He snapped a great pic of me, Emmy, and Lucimar all dressed up. Festive race!

After the first loop, I was not too happy. It was fun and all, but now I had to do that long, winding, hilly trail three more times? I have always believed that the mental aspects of running a marathon are a much bigger obstacle to overcome than the physical, and four loops of the same tree-filled course (whose beauty I couldn't even really admire since I had to focus on the ground in front of me and not tripping and breaking something) did not appeal. But I was not going to give up today. I had done that too many times in the past with this course, and today was my day to make it happen. I felt good (albeit a bit full from too many potatoes at the diner I went to for breakfast with New Guy), the weather was perfect, and I even had a working playlist of great music to pick me up along the way. (I may have taken the lyrics "The best thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain" a bit too literally on lap 2).

As a reward for my troubles, I promised myself that after the second lap, I could have a little Gu pick me up. Unfortunately, I got so distracted by watching the middle school and high school kids arriving for their cross country championships on the playfields that I eagerly drank my water, but forgot to take my Gu. Halfway through this third loop, though, I started feeling tired. Man, these hills were tough! And I wanted my darn Gu! Another 3.3 miles till I could get back to it - totally my own fault for not wanting to wear my dorky fuel belt on top of my costume.

When I got back to my bag after lap #3, I made sure to go for my Gu stash first, even before I had water. Ha ha, I thought, I am not being tricked again! But the joke was on me when I reached into my fuel belt and found two packs of Roctane - a type of Gu that's made with double caffeine for an extra energy boost. Yikes! Having noticed an increase in my coffee intake over the last month or so, I had gone cold turkey on coffee on Thursday, and didn't want to ruin my "rehab" with caffeine-laced Gu. Pondering my options, though, it was either that or do the last lap running on fumes, so I downed the Roctane and headed back out to complete the final 3.3.

Knowing that it was the final lap made it that much easier to get through, and checking my watch, I set the goal for myself of finishing in 2:10. That might sound like a pretty easy/relaxed pace, but on this technical trail, the conventional wisdom for the course was that you should subtract 10 minutes for each loop to get what you'd run in another marathon. I didn't know quite how this translated to the revised course where we ran the second (and more difficult) half twice, though - should I subtract 10 minutes per loop? Five? I'd guess somewhere in between - so a 2:10 would put me around a 1:40 regular half marathon. Insane! I was definitely sweating and working hard, but that would still be a huge accomplishment if I could swing it.

I turned out of the woods and onto the track around the parade grounds, knowing that I was going to be cutting it pretty darn close. Lucky for me, a great end-of-the-race song came on: "Four Minutes" by Madonna/Justin Timberlake. As a matter of fact, I only had about four minutes to go in the race - perfect! I love using the lyrics to remind me how close I am - "only got 4 minutes to save the world!" - and give my final burst of energy. I tried to crank up the pace a bit, but waited until the last few hundred feet to really sprint. 2:10 finish, here I come!

Flying across the finish line (thank you, Supergirl cape!), I actually finished in 2:09:50. Woo hoo! When I told the organizers of the race, they even seemed a bit impressed - pointing out that 2:10 on this course was the equivalent of at least 1:50 somewhere else. And better still, when I went to log my time, I discovered that I had the fastest women's time of anyone in the race! I WON THE HALF MARATHON!!!

Now, I could go enjoy spectating the NYC Marathon without having to be jealous of everyone running :) Time to celebrate all the runners - happy marathon weekend and congratulations to all!

No gym membership? No problem.

2011-11-02T19:37:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, I posted asking for advice on whether to cancel my gym membership. Since I travel four days/week (and have access to a hotel gym then), it seemed wasteful to pay $80/month for the 12 days/month that I'm in town - especially when I don't always hit the gym when I'm home. I took the plunge and quit, and I have never been happier. Turns out there are tons of free fitness options in the city!

My first source for finding the free stuff was Allie over at Fitness Class Fanatic. In addition to posting great reviews of various fitness classes, she ends every post with a roundup of the latest fitness deals - which includes some free classes. She's posted some great offers from Equinox and Reebok Sports Club, which are some pretty classy places to get a free workout! She also pulls together the various Groupon-like deals, saving me from reading through my spam folder to see the good stuff. Woo hoo!

My next source was also blog-related. I had heard about "Urban Girl Squad" on a few different blogs, including reading Susan's take on an awesome cupcake making class at Butter Lane. Googling around, I discovered that Urban Girl Squad is basically a networking group that puts on cool events for New York women in their 20s and 30s. When I signed up for their mailing list, I immediately saw an event that appealed - Urban Girl Squad Running Group with Athleta. I went on my first UGS run in early October, and had a blast.

While at the Athleta store, I noticed that they also had a whole calendar of free classes in store - which led me to a Zumba class the next weekend. So fun! Working out in the Athleta store was awesome - surrounded by cute clothes and pictures of healthy-looking models wearing them in active and inspiring settings (hiking in a canyon, yoga on a mountaintop, cool!), and with a friendly staff who not only welcomed me to the class, but remembered my name and said hello when I came in. That's way better than a stupid gym membership with surly attendants who give me dirty looks when I interrupt their Facebooking by requiring them to scan me in at the entrance, and then practically roll their eyes out of their sockets when I meekly ask for a towel. (On the contrary, the staff at Athleta keeps offering me Luna bars and Hint water to fuel my workout).

So last weekend, after hiking all day Saturday, what better way to rest on Sunday... than by running 4.5 miles roundtrip to/from Athleta to do a zumba class there with Susan? (It may sound sarcastic but this was actually shaping up to be my ideal weekend). I ran over at a pretty brisk pace, stopping across the street to deposit a check in my bank's ATMs (running to do errands always makes me feel doubly productive). When I arrived, I said hello to the staff and then set up shop (aka dumped my running jacket and cell phone) in the back corner by the sports bras.

Susan arrived and I gave her a nice sweaty-hugged greeting, and shortly after that, our instructor bounced in to lead us in a fun class. The bonus of doing a class in the underwear department of Athleta instead of in a fitness studio is there are no mirrors. Susan and I joked beforehand about how neither of us wanted the other to see our bad dancing, but I am actually usually pretty good at Zumba - except that day. For some reason, I was the most uncoordinated dancer ever. I was glad I was in the back and Susan couldn't see me - though on her blog, she posted that she felt bad for ME! I chuckled when I read that.

Later in the week, I headed back to Athleta - but this time on the Upper West Side. They had partnered with Zeel to offer a whole week of free fitness classes, and I was able to sneak in a pilates-style bootcamp kind of class before I headed to work on Friday. The class was incredibly small - only six of us - so we got plenty of personal attention and my muscles were burning by the end. Can't beat that for a free class!

There are two kind of ironic things about all these free classes (and free races, like the one coming up in the Bronx this Saturday - anyone coming?). The first is that I think I'm getting better workouts than when I had access to a gym - something about a "one time" free class just makes me more motivated to go than for a class where I already paid the monthly membership fee and now have nothing to lose by not showing up (after all, I can just go to the same class offered the next day).

The other thing is, I've bought plenty of Groupons for things like dance classes and kettlebell classes... and have yet to use any of them. In addition to those free classes, I've been hiking twice, jogging to do errands a bunch of times, and now Bryant Park has opened with free skating, so I'll probably start heading there a lot too. There are so many fun ways to be active without going to a traditional gym, and I'm starting to like those options a lot better. I don't want to be stuck going to a gym for the rest of my life; I'd rather find ways to incorporate high activity into the things I love to do. (Besides, there's always Athleta when I need that traditional gym class.)

Has anyone else tried the gym-free route to health? What are your favorite suggestions for non-workout ways to be active?

Catch Up: Adventures in Hiking

2011-10-31T13:49:00.005-04:00

It's been almost two weeks since I last posted! Last Monday morning, I started writing my usual weekend recap - but then with my busy week, it got totally stalled. Part of me feels like I should apologize for the lack of updates, but the other part of me is proud that I've been living instead of blogging. Sometimes I read blogs that seem like the activities they do are purely to have something to write about on their blog - and I hate those blogs and stop reading them immediately (note that those are not any of the blogs that are in my reading list on the sidebar). So, in the spirit of looking on the bright side, I'll call my little gap just another thing that makes me honest and who I am :)

Last weekend was another jam-packed weekend warrior session for me! I had originally considered a trip to Boston to watch Cute New Guy (row with the other alumni from his college rowing team in the "Head of the Charles" competition, but when that fell through, I had a completely free Saturday until a birthday dinner for one of my friends. What to do, what to do... be active! Go hiking!

My friend Alex and I signed up for a trip with Outdoor Bound to go hiking at Schunemunk Mountain. While my last hiking excursion had been more of a nature walk, this one promised a moderate difficulty level, so I figured it should get my heart beating fast and blood pumping. As it turned out, it did and then some besides!

The night before, I headed out to go buy some hiking boots so I'd be even more prepared than the last time around. Yeah, yeah, so you're supposed to break them in before you actually go hiking - but what better way to break them in than to actually hike in them? Besides, my feet are pretty tough (true story: I have run marathons in brand new sneakers with no problems). I planned to slather Aquaphor all over my feet beforehand, and also pack a pair of sneakers in my backpack to change into when my feet inevitably did get sore from the hiking boots. (Aha - I finally figured out what to fill my backpack with!)

Our meeting time on Saturday was later than with the last hiking trip I had done. And even better than that - it was at a Starbucks. Genius! I got there extra early to buy an everything bagel and make some "protein coffee" (coffee + unflavored whey protein powder - perfect for when I'm somewhere that only has carby breakfast options that won't fill me up without a protein component). The number of people wearing hiking boots and carrying backpacks grew and grew, until finally I broke the ice and introduced myself to some of the people around me. Clearly we were all going to the same place!

On the drive to the base of the mountain, I further broke the ice by diving right into a description for Alex of Cute New Guy and our first few dates. What better way to introduce yourself to strangers than to share the details of your current love life? (I kept it totally G-rated and also tried to keep my voice down, but there's only so private you can be in a 14 passenger van). The drive went by quickly and we soon arrived at a parking lot next to a meadow. Shedding my warm up fleece sweatpants (but putting them into my trusty pink backpack just in case), we trekked off through the nettles and tall grasses. Woo, nature!

And for extra excitement: a giant wasps' nest to point the way. I steered clear!

When we started actually hiking up the mountain, I realized that this hiking trip was going to be very different than my last one. We were going up and up, and we were going fast! While my last trip had been more of a nature walk, this was definitely a hike. There were a few rocky sections where I needed to use my hands to pull myself up - which wasn't difficult, but just took more energy than I had to do both that and talk. I was working up a really strong sweat and I was pumped - what a great way to get a long and challenging workout in without being stuck in a gym. I will admit, though, the top couldn't come soon enough... I wanted my yummy lunch! Unable to wait for lunch I ended up having a mini Larabar on one particular overlook as I enjoyed a sweeping view of the Hudson Valley. I couldn't believe how high up we were!

But that wasn't the top just yet - we were still only at about 900 feet of elevation. When we finally summited, our guide told us that we had hiked up about 1600 feet of elevation. Woo! We arrived at the "monoliths" - some flat rock formations atop which we were supposed to perch to eat our lunch. I'm not going to lie - I was a wee bit freaked out by those rocks. The edges of the mountain we had previously been on didn't scare me, in part because there was tons of vegetation to make it feel like we were just on some kind of big hill. But on the monoliths, they were flat as... well, rocks. They were slanted and some were mossy/lichen covered - but there were no other plants or vegetation to provide a gripping surface. I couldn't help feeling like one slip and I'd be sliding all the way down them and then going over the edge and falling down into whatever awaited below. To complete the picture, there were even two vulture perched on a rock across the way - just waiting for fresh meat!

I was relieved when our guide Ben announced that we'd eat lunch down off the monoliths - on this crisp fall day, it was just too windy to comfortably eat up top. Even down below, it was a bit brisk, and I ended up pulling my fleece pants back on and throwing all my extra layers on top. I happily ate my chickpea salad for lunch, but found myself still wanting more. This had been more strenuous/calorie-burning than I thought! I ended up eating a PowerBar for some extra energy - though I hoped the descent would be faster and easier than the ascent.

As it turned out, the descent was pretty darn hairy. We headed down a very steep and technical section where we had to grab skinny trees and do a few 2-3 foot jumps in order to make our way down. Ben explained that we were going from the top of one ridge down into a valley, and then up to the top of another - which we'd then follow almost back to where we started, and then completely descend to get back down to the van. As we headed down the trail, we got into a discussion of what would happen if someone got injured. We were on a pretty narrow and remote trail, and I for one was wondering how on earth you could help someone who got stuck in such a place. Ben said that this was why it was good we were in a group - he would leave all of us together with the injured person, then he would head back up to the monoliths and down the way we had originally come. Because it was less technical than the way we were going, he said he could actually run back to the van (!) in order to get help, and would probably be back with a ranger or other emergency personnel within an hour. Wow! I fervently hoped we wouldn't have to see that plan in action though.

At the bottom of the valley, we found a swampland where the trail should have been. This seemed to be a regular occurrence, as there were thick sticks laid across the trail to create kind of a raised surface to walk on. However, there were not enough sticks to create an actual path, and the ones that were there were not necessarily all that steady. And so commenced a balancing act of jumping from stick to stick and rolling around at the top trying to stay upright. I envied the one uber-prepared and experienced member of our group who had brought trekking poles with her, which gave her an extra source of support. As for me? I fell into the muck a few times, soaking my sneakers through (darn, I missed my waterproof hiking boots, which I had swapped out for my sneakers during lunch). Not terribly comfortable anymore!

We continued up to the next ridge and then all along the top, seeing some gorgeous views in the other direction as we circled back around to where we had started. Arriving at another overlook, we stopped for pictures and I dutifully took a few of what was a lovely late afternoon panorama. But then the break went on... and on... and I just wanted to get going! We weren't working up nearly as much of a sweat heading down instead of up, and the day was cooling off besides. Guess I should've packed more layers!

The temperature, however, soon became the least of my worries. We got to a stream crossing where we needed to step from rock to rock to make it safely across. We had already been through several of them, and I loved them - it always reminded me of Oregon Trail and "fording the stream," though in actuality I was always the risk averse player who chose to "caulk the wagon and float it."

This time, though disaster struck - Alex slipped on a mossy rock and went down, landing face first on the rock. I had been right in front of her, and turned around to her cry to see her sitting in the stream with blood everywhere. Yikes! Though it had been a very short fall, she had bit through her lip when she landed, and since there is a large supply of blood to the head, it just kept gushing out like crazy. Ben gave her a waterbottle to try to rinse her mouth out, but after she drank from it, there was blood pouring down the sides of the bottle, and it looked like something out of a horror film!

Other than the mouth injury and now being pretty wet, Alex was okay, so she bravely chose to just keep going. Fearing that she might need stitches, we wanted to get to an emergency room as soon as possible, so we hastened along the trail at a much faster clip than before. It still took us almost another hour to get back to the van, and then we had an hour's drive to get back to NYC (by then, the bleeding had gone down, and Alex preferred to go to a hospital at home than one in Westchester). I accompanied her to the ER, but she insisted that I not stay - which I reluctantly agreed to only because her cousin had met us and promised to take care of her.

Though I continued on with my night (going to a friend's birthday dinner at a German bierhaus), I was worried until I heard from Alex that she hadn't needed stitches and would soon recover. What a scare! While I had gone on the hike thinking that maybe this would be the last time I'd go hiking with a guide and that perhaps next time I'd organize friends to go on our own, seeing how one little slip can cause a whole mess of trouble was scary. Ben hadn't really done anything that my friends and I wouldn't have thought to do on our own, but in a real emergency, I clearly saw the huge value in having someone experienced and trained to deal with these kinds of situations. I think I will stick with a guide for a while longer :) But yes, there will be a next time for hiking - can't scare me away that easily!

Race Report: Grand Rapids Half Marathon

2011-10-19T15:57:00.003-04:00

This weekend, I went to a wedding. I also ran a half marathon. How did I fit two big events into one short weekend? Easy - it was a running wedding!

After a few days of training in Chicago, I flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday afternoon. After a quick stop at the grandmother of the bride's home, we headed over to the park where the wedding ceremony would take place. While having a running wedding already puts her at the top of my "awesome brides" list, I want to specifically call out another reason my friend Che is the complete opposite of a bridezilla: after about 5 minutes of the rehearsal, Che said, "That's enough. I'm hungry and it's cold out here. Let's just go eat dinner." Um, AMAZING!

So we headed to a delicious Italian restaurant and chowed down on salad, pasta, and peach cobbler. I reminded myself that it is all too easy to gain weight when you're running long distance if you overcompensate for the extra calories that you are burning, but that didn't stop me from eating about four full plates of ziti. After all, nothing prepares you better for a half marathon than bingeing and indigestion. But I couldn't help it - it was all delicious! Time for that well-loved phrase: "my diet starts Monday."

The bride and I headed back to our hotel room downtown for one last night of single girl fun... but given how tired we both were, that turned into basically just jumping up and down on the bed for 10 seconds, and then falling into it and falling asleep. No squeeing with girlish glee, even. Tragic!

We got up at 6am to head back to the park, knowing that all the roads to get there were part of the course and therefore would start closing at 7am. However, it took us a bit longer than we thought to get ready, and we found ourselves driving away from the hotel at 7:01. Sure enough, we got stopped by cops just one block from the hotel, telling us that the roads were closed and we couldn't go any further. Fortunately for us, we had the best excuse ever: "But we have the bride!" Those magic words opened up all the roads to our car, making it easy to get to the park without a hitch.

But when we arrived, I was reminded how much I am longing for daylight savings. Despite being 7:30am, it was still pitch black out! We had a lot to do in terms of set up to get ready for the wedding, but the pavilion wasn't lit. Until the sun came up, we relied on the headlights of the golf carts that we would later be using to shuttle guests to and from the pavilion.

In addition to the dark, it was cold out there! I had bought a pair of fleece sweatpants the night before, realizing that I had totally underpacked for Michigan fall, but on top I just had my tank top, a very thin running jacket, and my pink bridesmaid's t-shirt. Brr! One of the bridesmaids, Jonelle, said she didn't have an extra sweatshirt, but offered me a sweater that she said was in the bag in her car. Taking her keys, I grabbed the first duffel bag I could find in the backseat and pulled out... a pink sweatshirt. Score! I figured she must have forgotten that she had packed that as well, and pulled it on. 10 minutes later, the maid of honor Nichole was giving me funny looks - and I realized that she too had left a bag in Jonelle's car, and I had totally stolen her sweatshirt from her carefully packed bag! Oops :)

To repent of my thieving ways, I assisted with more setup: helping Che to place signs all along the path from the parking lot to the pavilion.

While that particular sign was pretty straightforward, Che and Nichole had gotten pretty funny and creative with their sign making, so the signs said things like: "If you think this is far, wait till you see how long the bride has to run to catch the groom!" Very cute :)

Before we knew it, it was wedding time! I snagged a bagel from the buffet and headed over to the pavilion from which we were going to make our entrance. And what sort of entrance might that be? Well, most bridesmaids have to practice and practice that whole "step-touch-step-touch" in time to Pachelbel's Canon, down what feels like an endless aisle. As I mentioned, Che wasn't one for rehearsing, and I didn't need much of a rehearsal anyway for what I was supposed to do: jog from our waiting place to the pavilion! What a fun and appropriate way to get to the altar. I led the way, with Jonelle and Nichole right behind.

When the ceremony began, it soon became clear that just as the altar approach was non-traditional, the ceremony itself would be pretty distinctive too. For example, the officiant had the bride and groom share a "unity bagel," whose circular shape represented how their love would be never ending. I later found out that Che herself had come up with that idea, but I guess she hadn't thought through how she and Steve were going to chew and swallow a massive bagel before getting to the part where they said their vows. We ended up laughing hysterically as she tossed the remains of the bagel to Nichole to hide so the ceremony could continue.

While the officiant had included a lot of running language in his hopes for the new couple (e.g., "marriage is something that requires dedication, practice, and a lot of hard work as you run hand in hand toward a shared goal"), it was never cheesy at all - it was actually quite beautiful. And the vows were very traditional - of course resulting in a few tears being brought to my eyes. While I usually bring tissues to weddings for exactly the reason that I am a total sap, I hadn't thought to stuff any in my pockets (or my fuel belt) for this one. No matter - I did what runners always do and used my shirt sleeve to dab my eyes :)

After the kiss is usually when everyone breathes a sigh of relief. When the ceremony has come to an end, there's nothing left to worry about, and you just get to go party, right? Not in this case! We still had about 14 miles to run (1 mile to the 13.1 halfway point chipmat, where the race director was going to start timing the wedding party), and I was terrified. I would be running with the bride, groom, and a few other members of the wedding party, and all of us were incredibly undertrained (oddly enough, all of us had the same distance for our long run - 8 miles). Would we make it? I was pretty concerned. But there was no time to worry about it now, as we took off down the road toward the finish line and the reception, far, far away.

(Stay tuned for part 2!)

Comforting without food

2011-10-12T18:43:00.000-04:00

Man, I am in a funk.

I don't know if it's because I had a stressful morning at work before I had to fly out (conferences in Chicago for the rest of the week). It could also be because I wasted time on the flight watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy, and Meredith has really become a drag in the last few seasons. Either way, I am just in a bit of a not-so-good mood... and instead of keeping it to myself, I'm going to blog about it.

The toughest part for me about getting into a bad mood is not cheering myself up with unhealthy comfort food. Let's be real - when you're feeling crappy, I don't care how healthfully you normally eat - it's hard not to reach for some cookies or ice cream. I try to mitigate this by not keeping those treats around - but even though I had eaten lunch a mere 10 minutes before, the chocolate almond protein bars in my laptop bag were pretty tempting. However, I keep those to tide me over when I have to delay meals due to a busy schedule or plane delay - not to snack on in addition to my regular meal. Given that I was headed to a conference where the kickoff event was a banquet, which I knew would likely be followed by a long night of drinking, there was no way I needed that.

So how do you deal with a bad mood when food is not the answer? A few options:

-Get productive. Since you're already in a bad mood, maybe it's a good time to knock out that work task you've been procrastinating because you know it's going to suck. Now you can feel all bitchy and snarky about it without having to spoil a good mood doing so! Plus, getting it done may lift your spirits

-Work out. It doesn't take a positive attitude in order to go for a run or hit the elliptical. Besides the endorphins you'll get from exercising, you'll also feel productive that you got active! (And if you do end up indulging on those cookies later, you won't feel so bad).

-Call/email/IM a friend. First, try a close friend - they're sure to know the right way to cheer you up. If you can't reach any or if that doesn't work, try just making small talk with an acquaintance. Even if someone isn't actively trying to boost your spirits, I find that just making contact can be a mood boost. And if you can't find even an acquaintance who's online or answering their phone, try reconnecting with someone you haven't talked to in a long time. You'd be surprised how far a random "I was thinking about you and how we haven't caught up in so long" can go - and chances are, they'll write back with something totally mood-boosting about how they were excited to hear from you.

-Read blogs. There is bound to be someone in your Google Reader with happy news to share, and if you're anything like me, you can get all caught up in the excitement and forget that it's not happening to you. Instant happiness! (Though this goes the other way too - if I read that something bad happened to someone else, it can make me feel down as I empathize with the other person).

-Watch TV or read a book. Just make sure that, like the blogs, whatever you read is uplifting and fun.

And when all else fails, just suck it up and try to get through the rest of the day, reminding yourself that things always seem a thousand times better in the morning!

Breaking the Routine

2011-10-11T14:32:00.002-04:00

When I'm on the road, it can be hard to find healthy food. I end up finding one or two dishes at various local restaurants that are at last somewhat comparable to my home cooked meals, and then getting those all the time. The predictability is key - different restaurants do different preparations that can make a seemingly healthy dish terrible for you. Take, for example, my usual breakfast spot in Charlottesville - Cafe Cubano. My first time there, I made the mistake of ordering an egg white omelet with veggies but no cheese. Unfortunately, the plate that arrived to me was so slick with grease that it made me think they had poached the egg in oil instead of cooking it on a flat top! I've since learned that the way to get eggs there is over medium with extra napkins, and then I blot all the excess oil. Not as yummy as a veggie omelet, but I'll make do - particularly when this is my daily breakfast instead of a once-in-a-while meal.

But I didn't realize how into my routine I was until I went to pick up lunch today at the local cheap Chinese restaurant. I ordered online, waited about 15 minutes, and then headed over, only to be greeted by a worried hostess. "You no want shrimp today? You want chicken?" Oops. It seems I may have ordered steamed veggies and shrimp so many times that when today I ordered chicken, the restaurant panicked and thought I had entered my order wrong.

It got me thinking about the other routines in my life. I go back and forth between whether I'm someone who likes routine or variety. Sometimes I'm comforted by routines - I like the predictability of them, especially since I can be a bit of a control freak at times. But then I get bored with always doing the same thing over and over, and I end up booking flights to Europe to mix things up. I start being unpredictable for a while until I start craving some stability... and then I go back to my comfy routine (or perhaps a new one).

It's similar with my workouts. When I explain how I got started running, one thing that always surprises people is that I didn't follow a training plan. If you read back through my blog archives, you can see in real time how I ran when I felt like it. I wasn't necessarily planning to do a marathon; I just kept trying to run further and further and see how far I could push myself. Honestly, I think that was the key for me in not getting injured - I didn't have to push myself because I didn't have a specific plan in mind. I ran when I felt like it, and when I didn't feel like it, it's probably because my body instinctively knew it wasn't a good idea - and I took a rest day.

With the Insanity program that I tried this summer, there was a very specific schedule that I was supposed to follow - and honestly, it got annoying. What if I didn't feel like doing a particular workout that day? What if I had a marathon the next day but was scheduled for a Fit Test? Being a perfectionist and a rule follower, I had trouble breaking the schedule. And when I did deviate, I found it that much harder to get back into the game.

I'm now going through kind of the same thing with the Rachel Cosgrove workouts. On the plus side, hers are only every other day - so it's easier to suck it up and do it even when you don't feel like it. The scheduling aspect makes it seem more like an appointment that you can't skip, instead of something I can put off anytime I'm feeling lazy. Following a set plan is what helps me stick with it, and I like that - even if it's not a daily routine.

But then I find myself kind of sabotaging my own fitness on the in between days. There are days in between her workouts that I really, really want to lift weights. I have the time, I have the energy, and I just want to do it - but I know that if I go all out with some rowing, for example, I'll be sorry the next day when it's time to do my scheduled workout and my muscles are too sore. What it comes down to is that your muscles only grow by tearing them down and then allowing them to build back up. If you don't give them that rest day, they won't rebuild, and you've basically wasted your workout. Not good! But I struggle with the idea of vegging out on my off days. Going to the gym every day makes it like brushing my teeth or showering; every other day breaks that routine. I've always loved that saying, "if I work out every other day, every day becomes the other day." So true!

I guess, like everything else in my life, it's a case of finding a balance. I do workout every day (even though Rachel Cosgrove tells me not to), but I try to find things on the in between days that won't mess up the hard lifting I have planned as my regular workout. Above all, fitness needs to be fun for you to stick with it - so I just try to make sure that I'm doing what I want to and not letting some silly plan get in my way!

Best. Weekend. Ever.

2011-10-10T18:13:00.003-04:00

I may have just had the Best. Weekend. Ever.

It started with a pretty sucky Friday. I was scheduled for training that I really didn't have time for, given how busy things have been at my client. But it was mandatory, so nothing I could do but go, and then do some work over the weekend to make up for it. It turned out to be pretty much the most remedial training ever - we "learned" Excel functions like sumif and vlookup (okay, seriously? Is there a person who works with Excel and doesn't know how to do those like reciting the alphabet?), and I spent the entire day wanting to snarkily ask the instructor if he could help me with some advanced array formulae that were giving me trouble in my work. My snarky mood did not bode well for the fact that I had a first date scheduled for after work - it was a guy I was pretty excited about (at least, as excited as I ever let myself get when it's someone from an online dating site), and here I was unable to stop myself from making sarcastic wisecracks at every turn.

I texted back and forth with him a bit that afternoon, warning him about my attitude. But when we finally met up (at the awesome Cellar Bar at Bryant Park), he opened by giving me a huge hug in greeting, and we immediately started talking like we had known each other for years. My bad mood evaporated instantly, and the rest of the night and the weekend just got better and better as it went along.

On Saturday morning, I had to get up fairly early for a hiking trip I had signed up for. Going into the weekend, I had been emailing the organizers (Brooklyn Outfitters pretty much nonstop, trying to get understand exactly what I should wear. (For someone who has never been hiking before, "just wear layers and you'll be fine" wasn't nearly specific enough; it finally took my friend Lauren, an experienced guide herself, to calm me down by telling me to wear yoga pants, a running tank, a t-shirt, and a light jacket. Thanks, Lauren!). I needed to leave my apartment by 7am on Saturday morning, and thanks to the long and great date as well as perhaps more than a few glasses of wine, I hadn't packed at all before going to bed the night before. I found myself wearing what Lauren had suggested, but staring at my mostly empty backpack and wondering what I should put into it besides the recommended 2.5 liters of water. I settled for a sweatshirt and sweatpants, despite the fact that the forecast called for unusually warm temps in the high 70s. The rest of my backpack remained empty, and I spent the cab ride over to the pickup point worried that I was woefully unprepared.

As it turned out - I needn't have worried at all. My outfit was pretty in line with what other people were wearing... except for one girl in my van who had on Converse sneakers, skinny jeans, a trendy sweater top, and carried a clutch purse. We made friends in the van, and I ended up offering her my sweats to wear instead of her original outfit - turning me into the most well-prepared person on the trip. Score one for me!

After an hour van ride out of the city (fueled by a whole wheat everything bagel and veggie tofu spread from Bagelsmith in Brooklyn - yum!), we arrived at Bear Mountain, and proceeded to traipse around the trails. The very first few minutes of the trek were a fairly steep uphill, and I found myself wondering if I was going to be sucking wind and sweating the whole time, but it quickly leveled out and became more of a nature walk than a hike. So peaceful and beautiful!

Being the only person bold enough to go on the trip by myself, I flitted from group to group making friends, so that by the end of the day, I had racked up numbers from a ton of cool women that I wanted to hang out with again. (It was a co-ed trip, but only two guys came along... something my best friend regretted not doing himself when I told him how in his favor the ratio was). According to our guide, we covered 5.2 miles in about two hours - not bad for a "workout" that felt incredibly relaxing and not like working out at all!

From hiking, we proceed to Wilkins Farm for apple picking - and more importantly, cider donut eating. I used to love the cider donuts we would get at Indian Ladder Farms when I was a kid, but I had never had the donuts fresh out of the fryer like they were at Wilkins. They were so incredibly delicious, I couldn't believe it. I'm so used to donuts being kind of cake-like all throughout, but when you get them hot and fresh, they end up being crispy on the outside from the fryer, but doughy and soft on the inside. SO GOOD. I may have eaten three of them by myself... but you know, all that hiking made it nutritionally necessary to do so.

And of course, you can't go hiking and apple picking all day without keeping hydrated, so post-apple picking, we stopped at a gallery to admire the art and drink wine. All the different groups merged into one as we lounged around the couches sipping our drinks and discussing anything and everything, and it was just so relaxing and enjoyable to chat with so many different people from all different backgrounds (some super-conservative corporate types, some hipsters, some hippies, etc). We piled back into the van to head home, wiped out from the day's events, but just feeling blissfully wonderful.

But my Saturday didn't end there! The van dropped me off in a neighborhood that's a little tricky for me to get home from (requires two subway transfers), and I decided that rather than deal with all that, I'd just "hike" home across Manhattan. Add another 2.5 miles to the distance counter for the day! Once home, I quickly showered and got ready to go out, then headed to a friend's apartment for a wine tasting and a game of "who can eat the highest percentage of their weight in cheese." (Okay, so I may have been the only participant in that one, but pretty much picture me going all Kobayashi on the cheese platter, particularly the brick of sheep's-milk-with-truffles-and-herbs).

I woke up on Sunday morning feeling not-so-hot from all that wine and cheese, but fortunately, I already had a plan to rectify things - a 3 mile run over to Athleta Upper East Side, followed by a free Zumba class (because obviously those two activites would negate all the dietary damage I did the night before). I started getting dressed to go, but was distracted by my roommate pulling a chocolate pudding pie she had made for her boyfriend out of the oven and asking me to come taste test. Hmm, don't mind if I do! :)

I headed out for the run with renewed energy, and found it be a glorious day for a run. While the day later warmed up to be in the 80s, the morning was still cool enough to be a perfectly pleasant run, and I surprised myself by getting a runner's high just one mile in (usually that happens for me more around miles 8-10, and with the short distance of my recent runs, I hadn't experienced it in a while). The result was me jogging through Central Park with a huge dopey grin on my face, smiling and yelling out "good morning" to anyone who was foolish enough to make eye contact. Woo hoo, Sundays!

I arrived at Athleta already sweaty, but in a great mood and totally ready to dance. I had been to Athleta only once before - as a meeting spot for that group run last weekend - but I was thrilled that they were offering free fitness clases like this one. The Zumba class was held right in the store, with the staff clearing away racks of clothes to make a dance floor for all of us, and providing as much Hint water and Luna bars as we wanted - all free. I hadn't paid much attention to the design of the stores before, but as I danced, I looked around and was really impressed with what I saw. Besides the really cute clothes everywhere, I loved that everywhere there were huge photographs of women being active - skiing, swimming, hiking, or doing yoga on a mountaintop. I found the entire atmosphere to be really empowering and mood-boosting, and while at first I missed having mirrors to watch my own dancing, I soon loved that I could just rock out with my dance moves and not feel at all self-conscious when I knew my booty shaking was nowhere near as sexy as the instructor's :) By the time we danced to "Born this Way," I was back to having an exercise high and grinning like a madwoman. woo hoo!

I was pretty wiped after dance class and walked the 3 miles back home instead of running as I had planned. It was really relaxing to stroll through the park and chat with my mom on the phone as we caught up! As for the rest of my Sunday, mostly consumed with packing for the next two weeks (I'm going from client to training to wedding to client before I go home again!), watching the football games at a bar, and then enjoying my "last supper" at one of my favorite restaurants, Kefi, before going to bed early. I love the peacefulness of Sunday nights, especially after such a full and wonderful weekend!

Weekend Part 2: Running, Drinking, and Cooking

2011-10-07T14:09:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a week it has been! You know things are busy when you're just writing the second half of your weekend recap... and it's already the new weekend.

So - when I left off, I was bitching about that stupid bouncer who told me I was too ugly to get into his club. Great end to my Saturday night, right? I headed to bed around 1:30am and wished I could just sleep all day... but I had signed up for a 10am running group through Urban Girl Squad, and it met all the way on the East side! I counted on 30 minutes to run there, and 30 minutes to get ready, since all I planned on doing was washing my face, brushing my teeth, and throwing on some running clothes. I don't know about you, but I don't shower before a race/run/etc - I'm just going to get all sweaty soon anyway, so what's the point? It's never stopped me from picking up cute guys in all my sweaty glory... perhaps because my sweat, unlike all of yours, is like sweet flowery perfume! (Riiiiight.)

Much to my surprise, I ended up waking around 7:45am and feeling fairly refreshed. Huh? I was confused, but went with it - this now solved my dilemma of when to squeeze in housework and packing for the week. The time flew by, but I felt super productive by the time I pulled on my gym clothes and sneakers and headed out.

It was a gorgeous fall day - crisp and fresh but not too brisk or cold. I was perfectly comfortable in my shorts and light long sleeved jacket. On the way over to the Athleta store, I was reminded of how nice it is to run to get somewhere, instead of always running in circles just to end up back where you started. Despite the fact that I was averaging a zippy 8 minute pace, I realized as I checked the time that I was going to just barely squeak in on time. This was a longer run than I thought! When I approached the store, I saw that there was an HSBC right across the street (and I was carrying a check to deposit for whenever I saw one), but it was 9:59am so no time then. Hopefully the bank would still accept my sweaty check after the run :)

At the store, a gaggle of women were waiting around for the run to start and making conversation with each other. I was far from the last one to arrive - but I seemed to be the only one who had arrived without any stuff to check, meaning I was also the only one who had been silly enough to go for a run beforehand! While I thought the distance to the store would only be around 2 miles, it turned out to be 2.8 - meaning that I would already be running close to 6 miles just to get to and from the run! The description of the run had indicated that the beginner group would be doing 1-2 miles at a 12+ minute pace, the intermediate group would do 3-4 miles at a 10-11 minute pace, and the advanced group would do 5-6 miles at a 9 minute pace. So... where did I fit in? I didn't know. Given the length of my "commute" to and from the run, I wanted to do a short distance, but I wanted to do it fast. Ah, the problem with group runs :)

I say that totally tongue-in-cheek though. In truth, this was one of the best group runs I'd ever done! When we arrived at Athleta, they had breakfast waiting for us: bananas, yogurt, granola, juice, coffee, etc. Sweet! I had a tangerine as a light snack, not wanting to eat too much before I ran. I chatted with a few of the women, and by the time we walked over to Central Park to begin our run, I was already making new friends. Hooray for the friendliness of runners!

At the park, the coaches introduced themselves, and tried to break up the groups. When the advanced coach announced that she was going to do 8 minute miles, and how many of us were in for that, one other girl and I did the awkward look-around-to-see-who-else-is-raising-their-hands-as-you-sheepishly-raise-yours, and giggled as we caught sight of each other doing the same thing. "Okay," the coach said, "how about if we make it 9 minute miles? Any more takers?" I was happy to go a bit slower anyway, and pleased when we ended up with a nice group of half a dozen women. And we were off!

Our leader took us into the park and along some of the trails, noting that the main loop was pretty crowded that day. I was psyched - I usually only run on the loop and around the reservoir when I'm at the park, so it was neat to have someone take me around some of the back trails! (Note to self: go on these more often). In the first few minutes of the run, our coach mentioned that she was running the Hartford Marathon in a few weeks and was really nervous about it. I told her I had run it twice, and we got to talking about the course, the incredible post-race food, etc... and then she asked me the question. The killer question. "So how many marathons have you run?"

I always struggle with that one. I'm proud of my accomplishment, yes, but I also don't want to come off as bragging. I really ought to come up with a better way to accept the praise and answer the question, because now I can recite the awkward conversation that always ensues: "Um, I think 65." (I seriously can never remember the number - I counted my states like crazy but never really cared about my total marathon count, and they were always different because I duplicated states). "65 MARATHON?!" "Um, yeah..." and then an explanation.

In this case, I had even more reason to be embarrassed: our coach promptly turned around and yelled to the group, "hey everyone, guess what? We have a world record runner here today!" As everyone looked to me for an explanation, I was initially a bit shy, but soon warmed up as I recounted some of my more memorable marathons. Meanwhile, we were keeping a pretty steady 9 minute pace on the hills - making me totally out of breath! By the end of the run, I was in the back of our group with some other tired runners, and feeling no shame at all for being back there. If there's one thing I learned about running, it's that it doesn't matter where you are in the pack, as long as you have some good people around you! I had a ball chatting with the other women in the group.

Our group was the last to arrive back at the designated meeting point for the beginner and intermediate group, but when I pressed the stop button on my Cardiotrainer, I was impressed to find that we had run 5.1 miles at a 9:19 pace. That meant I did 8 miles total - my longest run since May! Sweaty and proud, we went through a stretching routine and then walked back to Athleta, chatting all along the way. Once back at the store, the staff handed us goody bags with Luna Bars, Hint water, and cute Athleta headbands - fabulous! Count me in for more of these group runs :)

I had planned to run back, but I was so wiped out and it was such a beautiful day that I decided to just walk. I originally had a date planned to go watch football at a bar, but my date had an emergency come up and had to cancel - total bummer! Lucky for me, my best friend was ready to fill in the gaps. After a shower and salad, I met up with him to head to Amsterdam Ale House for a pint - I deserved it after my long run that morning! Man, I forgot how rewarding it can feel to run for beer :)

One pint turned into two, and after all that running, they hit me harder than I was expecting... so by the time I got home, I was a bit "in my cups." I planned to make something for dinner and also make some lentils to pack as a healthy lunch for Monday morning, but before I did so, I hopped onto the computer and tipsily IMed my friend Adam to tell him about my run. Upon finding that I was about to drunkenly cook, he egged me on and convinced me to make a video of it.

I ended up making a cooking show pretty similar to My Drunk Kitchen. The few people I sent the video to seemed to get a laugh out of it, and I'm torn. It was a ton of fun for me to make and ended up being a great feel-good ending to my weekend, but it was definitely pretty silly and self-indulgent. Plus, not sure that's something I want floating around the interwebs to haunt me! Now considering whether to make more, or stick with just the blog (which I'm not doing so well updating anyway).

Happy Friday (already)!

Weekend Part 1: Behind the Scenes of the New York City Wine & Food Festival

2011-10-03T12:50:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, I had committed to volunteering for the Food Bank... by assisting with their biggest fundraising event of the year, the New York City Food & Wine Festival! Two years ago, I volunteered at the Burger Bash - a Friday night event where chefs from all over the country came and put out their best burgers in an effort to win the popular vote and be crowned best burger. Longtime readers will remember that it didn't end so well for me then. While I was lucky enough to have a burger made and personally served to me by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, I wound up getting food poisoning from something at the event and going home early to be sick... the night before running the Hartford Marathon. Oops! But I pulled out a successful finish nonetheless.

This year, I was disappointed not to get assigned a volunteer role at one of the food events. Instead, I was bummed to discover that I was going to be working at the bok signings at the park, across from the Grand Tasting. So tantalizingly close, and yet I knew that the access I'd be granted for the book signing wouldn't help me at all with getting into the Grand Tasting. When I received my assignment, I considered canceling my volunteer slot altogether, but my friend Meg convinced me to just go and make the best of it, rightly pointing out that the volunteer work wasn't about stuffing my face, but helping the Food Bank. I grudgingly admitted that she was right :)

When I arrived for my assignment, a large group had gathered. I was surprised - how many volunteers did they need helping out at a book signing? Turned out they needed volunteers to greet people, volunteers to manage the line, volunteers to take people's names and put them on stickies to give to the celebrities so they'd know how to spell the names in the autograph, and... volunteers to hang out with the celebrity chefs and escort them to and from their cooking demos. Ooh, pick me! My hand shot up in the air along with one other girl's, and we were given the roles of celebrity handlers. Cool!!! Over the course of the day, I got to meet/escort Alton Brown, Alex Guarnaschelli, Rocco DiSpirito, Aarti Sequeira, Melissa d'Arabbian, Jeff Mauro, Debi Mazar, Gabrielle Corcos, Pat and Gina Neely, and Andrew Zimmern.

We were given all access passes and taken across the street to the pier, where the Grand Tasting and cooking demos were being held. We had our choice of stages, and I chose the smaller venue of the North Stage, which had fewer big names BUT all the winners of The Next Food Network Star, which is one of the few shows on the Food Network that I watch regularly. I was going to get to meet Aarti, Melissa, and Jeff! Cool.

I quickly fell into a cadence that was a lot of fun. The star(s) and their entourage would arrive, and I would show them around the backstage area and get them whatever drinks they needed. The "backstage area" was actually a garage that had been kitted out with some Ikea couches/chairs, and a walk in cooler and food prep area to get everything set for the demos. But in addition to the little sitting area, the organizers had also brought in a trailer with bathroom, dressing/makeup area, and snacks - all the comforts of Hollywood :) When the star(s) went on for their demo and their entourage headed out into the crowd, I now had 45 minutes of free time until they'd be back. While I could have watched their demo, I preferred to duck out to the Grand Tasting to sample all the treats!

I was surprised to see just how many wines there were to taste. I knew it was called the Wine & Food Festival, but I would put the ratio at just one food station for every five wine/alcohol stations - crazy amounts of drinking! I didn't drink at all, because I had a job to do, but with all that alcohol, I was surprised to see the crowd as well-behaved as it was. There were definitely some glazed looks and crazy eyes, but no one seemed to be stumbling or sick. Classy crowd!

Me on the other hand? Not so classy. I flitted from booth to booth, sampling as much as I could... and nearly making myself sick in the process. By my third round of hitting the Grand Tasting, I think I had managed to try every food in the place (no small feat)! Unfortunately, this came at the expense of my comfort - my stomach ached from all the rich foods, and I longed to lie down and take a nap while my body digested. (No rest for the weary, though - I settled for sitting down to read a book backstage while waiting for the celebs to finish their demos). Furthermore, while it was neat to try such variety, but as I thought about the foods I had indulged on, I realized that there weren't really any standouts. Everything was (obviously) mass prepared, but nothing was truly distinctive or memorable. Pity! I think a smaller event would have probably had higher quality/more unique food, but it was still neat to experience the signature event of the festival.

Besides experiencing the Grand Tasting, I also got a real insider's look at the lives of celebrity chefs and how their demos worked. I was most excited to meet Aarti Sequeira of Next Food Network Star, as I loved watching her on the reality show and even tuned into a few episodes of her cooking show, Aarti Parti. She always seemed to convey a lot of food knowledge, but in a down to earth and nice way - like you were cooking with your best friend. Aarti also writes a blog with that same unpretentious tone, and I was relieved to find that she was just that sweet in real life. Furthermore, her husband Brendan turned out to be one of the warmest, nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. While most of the stars' entourages said hello to me and were cordial, Brendan went out of his way to make everyone feel special. On meeting him, I put my hand out for him to shake... and he instead pulled me into a big bear hug by means of introduction! That warmth pervaded all our interactions, and instead of doing his own thing and remaining aloof, Brendan went out of his way to make small talk with all of the staff and get to know them. (I suspect that Aarti would have done the same thing if she hadn't been so busy preparing for her demo; as it was, she was still incredibly nice). When it started raining and we were having trouble getting enough umbrellas to bring Aarti, Melissa D'Arrabian, and Jeff Mauro over to their book signing, Jeff gallantly suggested that he didn't mind going without an umbrella so that the women could stay dry, and Aarti said she too wasn't picky since "it's right across the street, anyway." I loved that the three of them were reasonable, normal people!

While all of the stars that I worked with were polite and nice, there was one who was just a bit divalicious - though in a way that I thought was hysterical, not obnoxious. This particular star was very nice and normal for most of our interactions (though I didn't know much about him/her beforehand so I had no pre-conceived notions of what s/he would be like). S/he brought the largest entourage of the day, but they seemed happy to just hang out and drink wine while watching the demo - no special demands or anything like that. The arrival and demo went off without a hitch, and the rain even stopped so I didn't have to worry about getting enough umbrellas for everyone. However, about ten minutes before we needed to go across the street for the book signing, the star said a few words that sent everyone into a tizzy: "Why do we have to walk? Can't we get a car over here?"

People, in case I wasn't clear on this before: the book signing was across the street. Those familiar with the venue know that it is across the four lane West Side Highway, but there are stop lights and crosswalks all over that, and crowds of people were traipsing back and forth all day. We scrambled and managed to find an SUV to take the star across, but the trip was hilarious: get in SUV on west side of street, SUV drives down a block in order to turn around and come back, and then door opens to drop them off on the east side of the street. Perhaps this star should take some lessons from Aarti, Melissa, and Jeff!

By the end of the night, I was wiped out... though after an Illy espresso, I was back on my game. A "dance party" at my friend's apartment helped ease the sickly feelings of gluttony, and we headed out for a friend's birthday party in the meatpacking district. After a few cocktails, my best friend got a call from an ex who now lives in Morocco but was back in town for the week, so we traipsed off to meet her at a club... which turned out to be the biggest mistake of the night (yup, bigger than stuffing myself).

I am not a club girl, in large part because I hate the pretentiousness that goes along with that whole scene. I much prefer to kick back at a dive bar where you can hang out with your friends sans judgment. Unfortunately for me, tonight was pretty much the most judgmental night I've ever had out. After being on my feet all day long, I opted to wear flip flops to traipse around, and then carry a pair of stilettos in my purse to put on before going into a bar. However, when I tried to slip them on a few feet away from the door of the club, the bouncer called me trashy for doing so, and insisted I get away from his door (shades of that stupid etiquette class my company sponsored where they said it would be "horrible" to put your heels on at your desk in case an executive saw you on the elevator without them). We subsequently weren't allowed into the club - the bouncer saying it was because they were closed, but me looking around and realizing that I was the only woman in tight jeans and heels as opposed to a tight 6 inch mini (guess I missed that memo). I was also a good 20 pounds heavier than any of the other women, and that's 20 net pounds after you factor in the fact that they all had an additional 10 pounds of makeup on me. In short - really not my scene.

My friend's ex (already inside) had a table with bottle service, and she came out to ask the bouncer to let us in... but he continued to refuse. While my friend tried to argue with the bouncer, I slunk away into a corner, knowing that I was the reason we couldn't get in, and feeling pretty crappy about it. It's funny - an entire day of dealing with celebrities, and no one put me down, but one bouncer thinks he can get all power trippy and put me down. Unfortunately, I let it get to me, and headed home feeling pretty darn miserable until I finally fell asleep.

On the bright side, I had a fabulous experience on Sunday morning, meeting some new friends at Urban Girl Squad's running club. Stay tuned for my weekend, part 2!

Follow Up: Nutrition Trickery

2011-09-30T16:45:00.002-04:00

Wow! When I quickly posted my little rant yesterday about my scuffin surprise, I had no idea what a controversy it would generate. It's taken all day for me to get around to it, but I have lots of things to say:

For everyone asking if I heard back from Kath, I haven't yet. If I do, I'll let you know, but I probably won't post her response verbatim - I'd be unhappy if someone posted one of my emails on their blog! I'll just give you the gist, if I hear back. As far as all the Kath haters and lovers go, I'm not really either one. I like her blog enough to keep it in my reader, but I don't feel that strongly one way or the other about her. She's just another woman like the rest of us, trying to figure out how to stay healthy and live her best life. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we get it wrong, but I think it's great that we can all express our opinions and learn from each other.

But the main thing I want to talk about is the intent of my post and how it came off. Jessica made a really great point when she said, "the obsession over ONE item when you are an active person isn't healthy. One scone won't kill you, and it won't make you fat." She went on to talk about how scary it was that I talked about the "detox process," and it was then that I realized my post got it ALL wrong.

First of all - my comments about "detoxing" at lunch were meant to be tongue in cheek. Did I eat a light lunch? Yes, because I was still really full from that scone. Do I actually think I needed to "detox" from eating one pastry? Ha, absolutely not. If I "detoxed" every time I ate something that wasn't perfect nutritionally, I'd be "detoxing" every day! I definitely shouldn't have used that word, as I realize it has some strong connotations, particularly among those who do have eating disorders.

Second - did I eat healthy all day? Nah. I felt a thousand times better after lunch (had a bowl of soup), when my system felt a bit more balanced, and I pretty much went back to normal after that. (Including more than a few glasses of wine later that night, for which I feel no shame at all!). While I certainly indulge in my share of unhealthy food (for examples, see: the loaded nachos I scarfed down all by myself at the bar last weekend), I generally pay for it not in pounds, but in feeling out of it and gross afterward - kind of a food hangover. I won't go all zen and Intuitive Eating and say that I feel better when I'm eating all the right foods, because I haven't yet noticed a difference between eating totally healthy and eating just... you know... normally. But I DO notice a difference when I eat something incredibly fatty/sugary in large quantity, as happened with this silly scuffin. It makes me feel sluggish and bloated and icky - which is not a fun way to be. I completely agree that you have to listen to your body in terms of what to eat... and for what it's worth, I should have done that yesterday and stopped when I was partway through that scuffin and already pretty satisfied. However, like many people, I have a problem stopping myself when something tastes so darn good! :) Something to work on.

As far as knowing that a big scone couldn't be healthy? Absolutely that was my fault. As far as I could tell, there weren't any nutrition pamphlets at the bakery (though I didn't actively look for them), nor were there caloric labels on the items like we have in NYC. I learned a few years ago that counting calories doesn't work for me (I'm too much of a numbers girl and it makes me eat by the numbers instead of listening to my body - which may help me lose weight, but doesn't help me feel good). Anyway - the point is well taken that it's on me to realize that a big scone probably isn't healthy. I intended the post to be more about how even someone who's pretty knowledgeable about recipes and nutrition stats could misjudge the healthiness of a product. And all just because I was duped by the notorious "health halo" around Great Harvest! Gah, I'm mad at myself for that silly mistake. For what it's worth, I had never heard of Great Harvest before Kath (there's never been one anywhere I've lived/worked), so I wasn't entirely clear that it was a franchise where the owners don't get to make recipes for or pick any of their own products.

Anyway! Hopefully that's all cleared up, but feel free to post any more comments. Sometimes I don't really think about what I post before I post it, and in this case, I was focused so much on making sure I didn't disparage Kath that I lost sight of the bigger picture - that I had gone on and on about a single pastry that was pretty minor in the scheme of things! Time to focus on more important things - like my weekend plans. New York Food & Wine Festival, here I come!

Nutrition trickery

2011-09-29T11:51:00.005-04:00

In the last 36 hours, I've worked out HARD. Tuesday night, I went for that 4.8 mile hill run. Wednesday morning, I did an intense 45 minutes of heavy strength training. I posted yesterday about how exhausted and hungry I was after all that... so much that I wanted to crawl under my desk and take a nap. But I pushed on, and actually managed to get done with work early - 6pm! This is pretty much unheard of for me when I'm on the road, and I finally faced what other people always ask me about my job: what to do at night when you don't know anyone in town.

But oddly enough, I had a ton of extra energy, so I decided to go for a run. After all, yesterday I wrote about listening to your body and eating when it's hungry, so why not working out when your body is telling you it extra energy to burn? I was at first a little worried that I was overdoing it, having already covered about 5 miles and a ton of weightlifting in the previous 24 hours, but I decided to just go with it and take it easy. I ended up covering 3.1 miles (2 outside, 1.1 on the treadmill) before calling it a night and flopping into bed. Lights out at 9:30pm - my body needed its recovery sleep!

This morning, I decided to finally venture over to Great Harvest, the bakery owned/run by Kath at Kath Eats Real Food. I always enjoy the mouthwatering food pictures on her blog, and since she's a registered dietician, she's very concerned with the health and nutrients of what she eats. I've been wanting to check out her bakery for a while, and have seen many posts about "scuffins." Named for a cross between a scone and a muffin, they are supposed to be full of all kinds of healthy and good for you ingredients, and I was very excited to give them a try. Having gotten more comfortable with running around Charlottesville, I decided that today was the day!

I did a quick 1/2 mile loop around my hotel to tack on some mileage and kill time (Great Harvest doesn't open until 7am), and then headed down the road toward the bakery. It was pretty foggy out and still not entirely bright (I cannot WAIT for daylight savings to make morning running easier!), so I was glad that there was a sidewalk all along the way and that I didn't have to run in the road. Before I knew it, I had arrived, and climbed the short hill to go into the bakery.

The woman behind the counter looked a bit surprised by my sweaty and disheveled appearance (apparently people in Charlottesville don't combine running with treats, as all of us 16 Handles lovers do), but welcomed me warmly. I explained that it was my first time at Great Harvest, but that I was interested in the scuffins I had heard about. She was already in the process of cutting up samples, and offered me a generous bite. OMG, delicious! I promptly ordered "one of THOSE, please!" (whole wheat cinnamon chip scuffin), paid for it, and then drank a cup of water as I browsed the rest of the store. There were lots of yummy-looking jars of nut butter (butter toffee flavor? Awesome!) and some granola mixes. But it was getting late, and I had to get on with my morning, so with my bag o' scuffin in hand, I headed back to finish the last mile of my run and get ready to chow down. Is there anything better than the last mile of a run when you're carrying a tasty treat in hand

When I got back to my hotel, I hopped into the shower as fast as possible - while I was eager to eat, I figured that way I could sit and enjoy my scuffin afterward as my hair was drying. To go along with my scuffin, I mixed my usual mug of protein coffee (regular coffee + skim milk + scoop of flavorless whey protein powder), and then settled in with the scone. I couldn't believe how big it was (about the size of my hand if I spread all the fingers wide)! This would be a totally amazing breakfast if it was healthy.

But the more I ate of the scuffin, the more I doubted its healthy claims. Granted, I don't have a huge sweet tooth, but this was incredibly sweet - I suppose it was enjoyably so, but that combined with the bits of cream cheese swirl made me baffled as to how this could possibly be healthy. It tasted like a dessert pastry! Even though I knew it was made of whole grain flour, I couldn't believe that it had enough redeeming qualities (other than the deliciously dessert-like taste) to make up for the tons of sugar (honey? agave?) I knew must be in there.

I had already tried looking up the nutrition stats on the Great Harvest Charlottesville website with no success - they were only posted for the breads, but not the muffins or scuffins. But since Kath is a nutritionist, I figured she'd be happy to tell me what was in the scuffin and allay my fears. I dashed off an email telling her how much I enjoyed the scuffin and couldn't wait to come back to Great Harvest, and also requested nutrition stats. I kept it positive, emphasizing that it was so good I couldn't believe it was healthy (true story).

By the time I got to work though, I was even more concerned than before. While I didn't quite feel sick to my stomach, I definitely felt incredibly full - like I had eaten a huge piece of cheesecake instead of a healthy scone. When I make scones at home, they tend to have around 150 calories or so, but this was at least 3 times the size of my little scones, so I figured it had to be at least 500 calories. Maybe even 600? I didn't know. Getting impatient, I started Googling around the web to see if I could find any nutrition details about this supposedly healthy scuffin.

And then I hit paydirt. While the Great Harvest Charlottesville website doesn't include nutrition stats for anything except bread, I found stats on the franchise owner's page for the pastries. They referred to the items as scones instead of scuffins, but the flavors all lined up, so I think they are the same thing. And what I found?

Holy wow. The scuffin I ate, first of all, was not made with the fresh ground 100% whole wheat flour that Great Harvest puts signs all over their store touting... but enriched white flour. Aka, the same nutritionally worthless crap that Wonderbread is made from. Furthermore, while Great Harvest purports to be all healthy, they commit the misleading marketing sin of making a serving size half a scone. Now, I know this was a pretty massive scone, but I still would never have thought of it as two servings. From a portion perspective, yes, it's big enough to feed two people, but from an aesthetic perspective, it wouldn't occur to me to split it in two. It's like a cupcake - when I go to Magnolia's or Crumbs and get a big cupcake, I try to split it with a friend to be calorie conscious. But in doing so, I would expect that to mean I'm eating half a serving, because ordinarily you would expect one cupcake for one person. I'd be upset if they tried to tell me that a serving was an arbitrary half a cupcake - that's just a company trying to fudge the numbers and not allow you to see that what you're eating is really terrible for you. So once I doubled the nutrition stats to account for the fact that I apparently pigged out on two servings, I found that I had eaten 700 calories, 32g fat, 46g sugar (that's 1/4 cup!), and basically no fiber (2g). And this is healthy... how?

It's not the end of the world. All that fat and sugar really filled me up, to the point where it's lunchtime and I'm still not the slightest bit hungry. And I did run 2 miles to get there, so that puts me pretty close to the amount I'd have eaten in a normal breakfast if I hadn't worked out. I'll eventually have a light lunch of steamed veggies and chicken breast, to start the detox process, and everything will be fine; it just goes to show that I ought to trust my eyes and taste buds instead of accepting something as healthy just because of a manufacturer's claim.

But really? If health-conscious me could be tricked by this, what about all the people who aren't so nutrition-savvy? Who see a company like Great Harvest and all its talk about whole grains and health, and think that the things they make are good for you? That worries me. Companies today are so quick to jump on the bandwagon of making health claims, since it's in vogue for people to watch what they eat, and we lap those health claims right up. It's only when you educate yourself to really delve into the numbers (and when those numbers are readily available) that you can test those claims and see if they're true or false. It kills me that companies distort those numbers and try to prevent you from seeing what's going on - because they know that we wouldn't eat something like that as often if we knew that it was a treat and a "sometimes food" instead of a healthy breakfast.

Lesson learned.

First World Problems

2011-09-28T12:30:00.006-04:00

For those of you who aren't (un)lucky enough to be on my IM list and constantly getting random links and quotes that I think are funny, you probably don't know about two of my favorite humor websites. The first is called White Whine, and the second is actually a Twitter feed called First World Life. Both sites share kvetches and complaints that, when you really think about them, are only problems in our own spoiled first world minds... though I must admit, sometimes I've read a quote and realized that I once thought the same thing! A few funny examples:

Funny stuff, no? But speaking of first world problems...

Last night, I got out of work super early (6pm!) and needed to get a workout in. Since it was still light out and I've been meaning to go for a run in Charlottesville somewhere other than the 1/2 mile downtown mall I've explored to death, I threw on my gym clothes and sneakers and headed out in the opposite direction - toward UVA. I didn't have any planned route, but I've always had a great sense of orientation in terms of being able to take a lot of turns and still know the general direction of my starting point; as a little non-jock kid, who would have thought I would put that to use with running?

But run I did, and about a mile in, I hit "The Corner," an intersection right by UVA where lots of cheap restaurants and bars are located. I was about a mile into my run at this point, and I thought about turning back and going exactly the way I came, but instead, I kept exploring. Wanting to really get a good workout, I pretty much just picked the most uphill route every time I came to an intersection. The brutal combo of those hills, the surprisingly summer-like heat, and the heavy humidity in the air all made me sweat profusely - to the point where I noticed people giving me scared looks as I ran by. Ha! Love it. I arrived back at my hotel 4.7 miles later (way longer than the 2 mile run I had planned!) and in only 42 minutes - meaning I had kept up a 9:04 average pace. I couldn't believe I had gone that fast with Triple H Hell combo (heat, hills, humidity) - that's normally my flat and fast pace! I am definitely getting faster.

I headed home, had a pita sandwich for dinner (I used to wonder why I was less hungry after running, but a recent study found that exercise actually curbs appetite), and was sound asleep by 10pm. Early, but necessary, since I had to be up at 6am to do my Rachel Cosgrove weight lifting workout.

Despite getting a good 8 hours of sleep, I woke up and was exhausted. I got dressed and started going through my warmup, but I just felt so weak and tired. I was planning to have some Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal for breakfast, but I ended up scarfing it down mid-warmup for some extra energy. I got through my warmup and even my intense weight lifting (I'm now doing single arm single arm deadlifts with 40 pounds!), but I was just so pooped that it was hard to continue. When I got back up to my room and headed for the showers, it was then that I experienced an unfamiliar feeling: my stomach growled, and I was hungry.

It got me thinking - when was the last time I let myself get really hungry? I often get "mmm that dinner smells good", or "I'm bored and eating would give me something to do," or even "well, it's 12pm and everyone else is going for lunch so I will tell myself I am hungry too." But when was the last time I felt out of it, tired, and even a bit woozy because I hadn't eaten? It was a strange feeling, but one that I should probably experiment with feeling more often.

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to start starving myself! Food is important for workouts, and if anything, this was a wakeup call that showed me how I can't perform at my best if I don't adequately fuel up for the intense level of activity I'm starting to hit. But I think it's good to feel actually hungry every now and again - it reminds you of what food is supposed to be for, and forces you to stop using it as an activity or reward. And after I kicked my butt in last night's and this morning's workout and got so hungry that my stomach was growling and I felt dizzy? Well, that leads me to my own first world problem:

"Man, I am working out so hard lately, I have to take the time to eat two breakfasts just to keep lifting as heavy!"

A nice problem to have :)

Getting treated like a health queen

2011-09-27T16:36:00.001-04:00

Last night I walked into my room to discover an awesome surprise. My hotel, the Omni, left me a bevy of incredible treats to make me feel like a rockstar!

-A yoga mat, towel, and water.
-A gym bag filled with more towels, another bottle of water, some 3 pound dumbbells (okay, so those are kind of worthless to super strong me, but it was the thought that counted!), and some resistance bands.
-A card from my concierge welcoming me back to the hotel, and listing out the bootcamp class schedule at the nearest gym
-A pack of "Hail Merry" spiced vanilla almonds (really well-portion controlled: only 130 calories for the whole pack)
-And finally: a plate with three chocolate covered strawberries (okay, so maybe this wasn't quite as healthy as the other stuff, but a chocolate covered strawberry is still way better than the usual chocolate covered chocolates most hotels give).
Seriously, how awesome is my hotel?!

Well, for all my complaints about being staying fit while being on the road, it seems that I've finally hit on a place that's getting it right. Not only did the Omni provide me all that stuff to help me, but I also found out today that they recently released a "wellness report." Omni conducted a study of business travelers to find out what their challenges are when it comes to staying healthy on the road. Looks like I'm not alone in this one! Check out some of the results:

DIET – More than a half (56%) of participants admit to indulging in various food or beverages when traveling for business and slightly regretting it – particularly women (71%) more than men (50%). More than half would like more low-fat options on hotel restaurant menus (also 56%), and about one in ten are looking for specialized dietary needs such as dairy (12%) or gluten-free (13%) choices.

IN-ROOM CHOICES – The basics matter. Results found business travelers wishing for healthier in-room options, with seven in ten respondents wanting healthy snacks or fresh fruit to eat on-the-go (73%) and free bottled water (70%) in their room. Again, women were more likely than men to emphasize health with healthy snacks or fresh fruit to their in-room "wish list" (83% versus 70%).

FITNESS – Omni's Wellness Report also found that travelers have good intentions when it comes to workouts – and many follow through. While nearly one-third (32%) embark on a trip with workout gear but never find the time or energy, 39% find themselves fitting in extra workouts because they have extra time. While more than two in five (45%) describe their on-the-road workout at the hotel fitness center as sufficient, 26% wished their hotel could help with nearby yoga or spinning studios. Eight percent said their on-the-road fitness centered on a "thumb workout" with their Smartphone.

Pretty much my list exactly!

Diet: When I'm traveling, unhealthy food is everywhere, and in general I find it really hard to control myself when there is delicious food right in front of me (ahem, chocolate covered strawberries). I do find it interesting that 71% of women say they regret these indulgences but only 50% of men do... I would bet that's more of a function of women's guilt complexes kicking in than that they're actually indulging more.

Choices: As I've posted in the past about dealing with restaurant menus, a little planning goes a long way. But on the flip side, that only works if there are some healthy options on the menu anyway. Props to the Omni for trying to make sure there are some good things to choose from, though I do wish they wouldn't cite the outdated low-fat craze (even if that is what respondents asked for). I want low-calorie all natural whole foods, please!

Fitness: I think the hardest thing about traveling is that you can't really get into a routine. At home, I love taking group fitness classes, but that's not possible on the road. Instead, I rely on various solo workouts, but those are only effective if I have the right equipment at my disposal. (Otherwise, I have to improvise with MacGyvered workouts lifting the lamps and coffee tables in my room).

Luckily, when it comes to getting healthy on the road, it seems like Omni is on the right track! This week and last, I've been getting in some killer Rachel Cosgrove weight lifting workouts with the set of free weights in the Omni gym, and I've also been doing a pretty good job ordering healthy food for dinner. While I was at first mourning the fact that I'm usually a Starwood girl when I got assigned to this project, Omni has really stepped up to the plate, and I now think it's a blessing in disguise.

My new goal? From my friend Brittny's weight loss pledge that I signed today: "I pledge to never see my highest weight on a scale ever again."

Now, to make it happen...

The Five Minute Restaurant Diet

2011-09-20T16:46:00.003-04:00

In case you couldn't tell by my dearth of posts, I've been a bit busy lately. Unfortunately, I've also been packing on the pounds - which means I need a quick solution. Introducing: the five minute diet.

It all started with the fact that my company rules allow me to submit only one charge on my credit card for dinner. I can't get a sandwich at one place, frozen yogurt at another place, etc... at least not without incurring some wrath from our audit department. But then it occurred to me that I could use this rule to my healthy advantage - to limit my decisionmaking.

Option 1 - Takeout
Instead of going to a sit-down restaurant, where the waiters are going to be continually trying to upsell me on appetizers, drinks, and dessert, I usually get takeout - which means I place my order all in one shot. Then I pick it up and don't have a chance after eating some of it to order more food just because "mmm that was good, I am having fun, I want some more yummy treats!" Instead of constantly being faced with new possibilities, I order my food, take it back to my hotel room (which doesn't have any other food options in it), and my decisionmaking time is cut down to the five minutes in which I'm looking at the menu and placing the order. As a result, my willpower only needs to last for five minutes. I can manage five minutes!

Option 2 - Controlled Eat-In Dining
On the other hand, what if takeout isn't an option? If you know you're going out to dinner somewhere, make sure you look at the menu beforehand. Most restaurants have their menus online, and not only will it help you to be realistic about what you're going to eat later (and maybe eat a lighter lunch in preparation), but it can also help you avoid making a rash decision later. I typically pick out the healthiest dish or two on the menu in each category (appetizer, entree, dessert), and then commit that list to memory.

When the menus are passed around, I ignore 95% of the menu, and just look at the descriptions for my preselected options. For example, for my appetizer, I'm now deciding between shrimp cocktail and salad with dressing on the side - neither of which is a bad option. I still get a choice, so I don't feel deprived; but my choice is now limited to only the healthiest options. Repeating this process for my entree, I've done the legwork up front, and now only need to maintain my willpower for the five minutes it takes to go around the table and order. After that, as long as you can avoid the bread basket and don't swap dishes with your dining companions, you're probably fine.

That does leave out one thing - dessert. Typically, you don't order dessert in the initial round of ordering, but it's an ancillary order made after you eat the rest of your meal. Many diet books will tell you to skip dessert, but sometimes (especially in a business setting), it's just not socially acceptable to skip a course when all of your dining companions are ordering. But when faced with a dessert menu with tons of calorific options, what's a girl to do?

Answer: drink your dessert. Normally I am not a fan of drinking my calories (because let's face it, eggs and toast is WAY more satisfying than a few glasses of orange juice). But when it comes to a 150 calorie glass of dessert wine compared to a 750 calorie mini cheesecake... wine wins! (Oh, how I love those last two words). So now you're down to deciding on your dessert wine - and the choices here really come down to personal preference. You've gotten your sweet treat but avoided the massive calories of a traditional dessert - cheers!

Plans? Who needs them!

2011-09-19T07:50:00.003-04:00

Lately, I feel like I've finally struck a good balance between planning and not planning. I used to be totally uptight and scheduled about my plans - I started to panic if I didn't have every minute of every weekend accounted for by Tuesday. Forget the two day Rule for a date; if someone didn't make plans with me a week in advance, they were out of luck. As you can imagine, this led to me missing out on seeing a lot of my more spontaneous friends. I had already filled in the gaps in plans with various chores and errands, and I was loath to change them just because of some friend who didn't have it as together as me.

Then a few weeks ago, along came a weekend where, try as I might, I couldn't find anything to do on Saturday during the day. All my friends were busy and I couldn't find any events in New York City that I really wanted to attend. In the past, this gap in plans (12 hours without anything to do, oh noes!) would have been cause for me to plan a trip to visit friends or family outside of the city. But this time, I decided to just roll with it and see where the day took me. As it turned out, a friend who hadn't been able to commit to something before called me up, and we met for brunch. And then, while walking home from a glorious afternoon basking in the sun in Hudson River Park, I ran into a college friend whom I hadn't seen in five years. I ended up filling out my day quite nicely - even though I didn't have any plans to begin with.

Since then, I've now embraced the concept of not planning. It hasn't been quite as easy a transition as that; I've found that I'm not totally comfortable with having an entire weekend without anything lined up. But as long as I have some options for things I could attend if I really needed something to do and a Project Runway marathon isn't cutting it, and as long as I have something lined up for Sunday night - I'm good to go.

So this weekend? I had happy hour plans for Friday night, and then nothing planned for the first of the weekend until dinner on Sunday night. As it turned out, my best friend and I had a bit too much to drink on Friday, which meant that I was very grateful I didn't have anywhere to be on Saturday. Well, other than the bar from the night before.

Besides my run, I mostly spent Saturday lying around - necessary with my level of energy. By Saturday night, I was still wiped out, but I got a text from a friend wanting to get dinner, so I spent the perfect low-key night grabbing my favorite flatbread pizza and then stopping by a wine bar for one glass of wine before crashing into bed. I woke up on Sunday a lot more well-rested than the day before, and after my usual weekend coffee klatch with my best friend, I actually had quite a busy day ahead.

The Upper West Side JCC was having an open house with free classes all day, so I shuttled back and forth between there and my apartment (1 mile away - not a bad walk/jog for four trips). At 11am, I attended a knife skills culinary class that got me chopping and brunoising like a pro. After class, I headed home to do laundry and practice my knife skills by cutting all kinds of delicious veggies into a healthy French stew. (Easy and delicious recipe: celery, carrot, turnip, leek, Napa cabbage. Cut finely, simmer in water for about 20 minutes, then salt/pepper to taste. I microplane grated fresh parmesan on top for extra richness).

After soup and laundry, it was back to the JCC I went, this time for a Zumba class. Despite the fact that I had just done laundry and all my favorite gym clothes were clean, I wore an outfit that was decidedly unflattering, emphasizing my stomach/butt and making me look about 20 pounds heavier than I really am. I rationalized that I didn't care - I was going to work out at a not-very-sexy gym with mostly older people and no cute guys, so why did it matter?

Oh, I'll tell you why it mattered. It mattered a lot when the instructor told us that this class, we were going to be learning a routine in the first half of class, then going out and performing it flash-mob style on the street. Yikes! So much for my looks not mattering, now that I was going to be performing for a live audience of... everyone in my neighborhood. Putting my embarrassment aside, I did the dance and had a blast - even garnering compliments from some of my nervous fellow classmates, who told me they were following me because I was a good dancer. Woo hoo! I rock. I even flashed an ear-to-ear grin at the hop-on-hop-off bus that got stuck at a red light next to our performance, leading to all the tourists snapping photos of us dancing. Helloooooooooooo, Iowa!

The rest of my night was the usual - packing, cleaning, last minute errands, and Sunday night dinner with my friend Alex. And after a blissful night's sleep on some freshly laundered sheets and my new heavier fall comforter, I woke up ready to start the week with a bang. Ah - the perfect weekend :)

Wherever the wind may blow

2011-09-16T17:02:00.003-04:00

My roommate apologetically sent me an email yesterday letting me know that the only time Ikea could deliver her new bed was at 7:30am this morning. She felt guilty about the early hour, and promised to try to be quiet. My reaction? No, make lots of noise - that will get my lazy butt out of bed and give me time to go for a nice run before I need to start my day! After all, when life gives you limes, make a mojito, right? :)

I ended up waking up at 6:50am (thank you, body clock, you are far better than any annoying beeping alarm clock), and getting out the door by 7:15. I considered doing the same 4 mile distance I did last week (over to Central Park, around the loop, and then home), but decided I didn't want to commit to that long of a distance. Instead, I instinctively turned west to the Hudson River and headed up along the bike path.

I know I have posted this before, but there is just something so magical about running along a body of water in the early morning. In New York, I run along the Hudson River. In Boston, I ran along the Charles River. In the Bahamas, I ran along the ocean for an entire marathon. And last winter, on a cruise, I ran a half marathon on the deck of the ship while it was sailing in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Seriously, you guys, if you want to experience a feeling of utter peace, run along some water and just clear your mind! There is nothing like staring out at the waves and getting into a state of zen relaxation where you can just think.

Today, on my run, I thought about all kinds of stuff. I thought about how everyone else was wearing pants and long sleeved shirts, and maybe I shouldn't have worn a tank top and shorts... but come to think of it, I wasn't too cold. Fall may be here, but as long as I don't have goosebumps, I'm going to pretend it's summer for another week or two. (At least during the day, when there are not delicious fall beverages like pumpkin beer to partake in).

I thought about the recent study that confirms that return trips feel shorter than initial trips, because people expect the initial trip to be faster than it really was (making the trip back seem shorter when they are happily surprised that it wasn't as bad as the first time there). I tried to figure out if I felt like the outbound or the return was longer on my run, and couldn't really tell. I guess the return seemed kind of shorter, but I think that was more because I was rocking out to some old school Ace of Base when I put my playlist on shuffle (yes, neighbors, that was indeed "Don't Turn Around" you heard me singing in the shower when I got home).

Finally, I thought about the fact that today is the kickoff for New York City Craft Beer Week, and how excited I am to try all kinds of amazing concoctions. My celebrations kick off with my friend Matt's birthday tonight, being held at one of my favorite pubs in NYC - BXL Cafe. (Matt is a big beer expert who is well known around the NYC craft beer scene, so I should have expected he'd choose someplace awesome). Mussels? Belgian fries? Beer? Oh boy... maybe I had better run a few more miles.

I ended my run covering 4.5 miles - far longer than I thought I would go. But I felt great! I didn't end my run because I was tired or sore, but just because it was time to go home. And honestly? I like that kind of running. Where you don't run to hit a certain mile mark ("ugh, I have to do my 16 mile long run if I'm going to be ready for this marathon!"), and you don't run a specific path ("ugh, I have to go all the way around Central Park three times before I can go home). Instead, you just lace up your sneakers and head out, quite literally, wherever the wind blows you. Even better if you can do it on a weekend with no time constraints - just stuff a $20 bill in your sports bra in case you go longer than you thought and need to buy water/Gatorade along the way. Or if you get too far from home and decide to cab it back instead of running - I certainly don't judge.

Going whichever way the wind blows is something that doesn't come naturally to me. I'm a hyper planner (though recently trying to relax on that a bit), and it occurs to me that maybe it's time I started doing that more - and I mean even beyond the world of running. How much time do we really allow ourselves to be unscheduled and unplugged? We put so much pressure on ourselves to be everywhere and do everything, but what about just letting life happen and taking advantage of whatever neat opportunities come our way?

Somehow I come back to this same topic every time I go for a run by the water. But maybe that's because it's one worth thinking about.

Monday morning blues

2011-09-12T13:12:00.002-04:00

While catching up on my Google Reader this morning, I came across a really timely article from Kristine over at My Consulting Life: 9 Signs it's Time for a Change. When I read her list, all I could think was yes, yes, yes, and yes... which is not good. Recently, I've been getting stomachaches and nausea every Sunday night at the idea of returning to work on Monday - not good. While I don't want to get into my problems at work on this blog (I draw the line there for oversharing), I thought I would talk about some coping strategies for anyone else dealing with Monday morning blues (or worse, the Sunday night stress when you know that Monday morning is just around the corner).

1. Get a handle on your to do list. Before I leave work on Friday, I make a list of exactly where I left off on each thing I'm working on, which then serves as my to do list on Monday morning. It makes it easier not to constantly think about the work awaiting you if you know that it's already neatly recorded and ready for you to tackle it.

2. Prepare in advance. For me, Monday mornings are when I fly out to my client site, and packing is always a chore. I often put off packing the whole weekend long, and then Sunday night at 11pm, when I want to go to bed, I'm forced to run around trying to scramble up all the items I need, clean up at home, and finish any remaining items on my weekend to do list. Stressful! Now, I start thinking about packing for the upcoming week as soon as I get home on Thursday - for example, leaving my suitcase open in my bedroom so I can continually toss things in all weekend. If it gets to Sunday and I still haven't taken the time to pack all my clothes, I do it before I do anything else for the day. That way, the stress of packing isn't hanging over my head with everything else that I do that day, cutting my weekend short because I'm already stressed about Monday.

3. No, really, prepare in advance. Figure out what little things you can prepare in advance that will make your Monday morning go more smoothly. For example, while I've always picked out my Monday outfit on Sunday night (at the same time that I pack all my other clothes for the week), now I've started doing any necessary ironing on Sunday as well, plus laying out every accessory/undergarment in advance. Sure, it's not that much effort to reach into my underwear drawer and grab what I need... but it makes me feel really ready and together if I have that all laid out in advance, too.

4. Plan one last hurrah. No matter how unstructured and lazy the rest of my weekend is, I try to always line something fun up for Sunday night. Last night, I went to dinner with a girlfriend. The week before, I went to a nearby friend's apartment after dinner and played computer games with him until 10pm. Other times, I'll enlist my roommate to watch a favorite Sunday night show. Either way, make sure that you have something good lined up for Sunday night - and if possible, try to have it go as late as possible (i.e., right up until you go to bed). Of course, for this to work, you need to make sure you're packed and ready to go - see items 2 and 3.

5. Treat yourself. Find something to look forward to on Monday - whether it's a special homemade breakfast smoothie before you head out to work (I like this one because it's my last non-restaurant meal until I get home on Thursday night), a phone call to catch up and gossip with a friend (I do this in the taxi on my way from the airport to the client, but you can also just plan to sneak away from your desk for 5 minutes in the afternoon), or a plan to cut off work at a certain hour and indulge in some takeout and trashy reality TV instead of a team dinner (hooray for Bachelor Pad + sushi).

How do you deal with the Sunday night / Monday morning blues?

Glimpsing the future of America

2011-09-09T16:28:00.003-04:00

This morning, I woke up late after a night of pumpkin beer (fall is my favorite beer season of the year!). As with yesterday, I figured every little bit of running helps, so I tucked my credit card into my pocket, ran a quick loop up and then back down the beautiful Hudson River, and then finished at the grocery store near my apartment. 1.5 miles in 12:39... I will just pretend like I am purposely doing short distances for "speedwork."

I have several grocery stores in my neighborhood, but opted to go to the "cheap" one since I just needed a few items. This particular grocery store is always extremely cramped and crowded - not like the sparkling clean new grocery store that recently opened in the nearby Trump Towers - and the quality of the packaged goods is fairly low. You won't find any jarred roasted red peppers, fancy olives, cage-free organic eggs, or gluten-free pasta (hmm, apparently I am craving spaghetti carbonara) at this grocery store! But, as I said, the prices are generally much lower than anywhere else, and the quality of the produce/meats are fine, which is all I usually shop for anyway.

Like many neighborhoods in New York, there is a low-income housing development in my area. The people who live in the projects tend to go to that cheap grocery store I described above, and I'd say about 50% of the time I go shopping there, the person in front of me is paying with food stamps. I often get a bit bothered by what I see the person buying with their food stamps, but today really took the cake.

Because food stamps only cover certain things, the guy in front of me needed to split what he wanted into two separate purchases: one to pay for with foodstamps, and one to pay for with money. The two purchases? He bought cheap toilet paper with his own money, and then he used food stamps to purchase two cans of Pringles and three packs of gum. I was flabbergasted to see this. I couldn't believe that toilet paper was not covered, but crappy junk food was. Now, I realize that toilet paper is not food, but I certainly consider it much more of a necessity than chips and gum.

This is why I support programs like Jamie Oliver's now-defunct Food Revolution. Our country is getting obese at alarming rates, and I would argue that in addition to portion size, a large part of it is all the tasty yummy junk food that people indulge in. What happened to chips as a treat that you sometimes indulged in, instead of the regular TV-watching fare? What happened to gum as something to chew when you have unexpectedly bad breath, instead of something to smack on all day long? These, to me, are not necessities in anyone's diet.

It's a very fine line between letting people make their own food decisions and not allowing them to use food stamps for things like gum and chips. Somehow the idea that the government would not pay for toilet paper but would provide junk food really bothered me. But then, who am I to tell people what to buy? Marion Nestle recently wrote a very thought-provoking post about the ethical dilemma of what to give homeless people when they ask you for food/money. Should you give them a coupon for a McDonald's hamburger if you wouldn't eat a McDonald's hamburger yourself? If you give them money, do you have the right to dictate what they spend it on?

I don't think there are any easy answers to this problem, but I hope we continue to refine our systems and encourage people to make the right choices.

Stress relief, two miles ahead!

2011-09-08T19:34:00.002-04:00

I've been having a rough time at work this week - but that's neither here nor there. However, after a particularly hard time last night, I didn't get to the gym at all, and also didn't get to bed until midnight (late for me when I try to get up at 6am to go to the gym). I woke up to my (intentionally-delayed) alarm at 6:30am and was in a fog. There was no way I was going to the gym, let alone for the Rachel Cosgrove weight lifting routine I had wanted to do. It took me a while to get up and going, and when I did, my legs were actually still a little sore from Tuesday night's workout - clearly a sign to take it easy and be lazy.

I contemplated just messing around on the internet with the 15 or so minutes of extra time I now had, but then I thought about how I didn't meet my goal for the first week of "Improve Yourself" month. I realized that at the very least, I could go down and knock out a mile on the treadmill. Every mile counts, right? I grabbed my phone with its downloaded video of this week's "Bachelor Pad", and told myself that even if I just walked one mile in 15 minutes, it would count as a mile, gosh darn it.

As you probably expected from this story (and the many times I've told similar ones), I got on the treadmill and changed course. Some combination of boredom and not wanting to be shown up by the 60 year old jogging on the next treadmill over got me to crank up the pace until I was doing an 8 minute mile (yes, at a 1.0 incline so it was a "legit" pace like running outside). I kept it up until the end of that first mile I had promised myself I would do, then slowed to a walk for a minute. Hey, I had already done another tenth of a mile - why not kick it up one more time and knock out a second mile? So I did. End result: 2.16 miles in 18:23. Not bad, especially considering I wasn't going to do anything at all!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: every little bit counts. I was lucky enough to be staying in a hotel, with a gym/treadmill just a few floors away. But no matter where you are, it's rarely more than just a minute or two to get outside and go for a run. Add a few minutes to throw on your running clothes and sneakers (I like to optimistically line them up before I go to bed), and you can always get at least a mile in - arriving back in your bedroom in about the same time it would have taken you to hit the snooze button twice.

In case you need more proof, a recent study of Taiwan found that people who exercised just 15 minutes a day cut their risk of death by 14% and extended their life expectancy by three years (compared to those who didn't do any exercise). And every additional 15 minutes of exercise reduced the risk of death by another 4%. (Unfortunately, this study didn't specify an upper limit, though I don't think you automatically live to be 150 if you work out six hours a day). Self Magazine recently did an insightful post on how much exercise you really need, and I found it noteworthy that 15 minutes a day is all it takes to stay in shape. Of course you have to work out significantly more if you're trying to lose weight (45-60 minutes), but just a short 15 minutes is all it takes to reap the healthy benefits. Sold!

For me, my morning run turned out to be my saving grace of the day. When things started to hit the fan at work, somehow my run made me feel better. It felt great to know that I had gotten one thing right in my day. As an added bonus, the "on the healthy track" mood I get in after working out in the morning also made me crave healthy foods for breakfast and lunch, and also helped me say no to the temptation of the mini Snickers bars and barrel of pretzels my coworkers keep around. (Okay, so I may be going out for beers tonight - nobody's perfect.) But hey - those are other things I did right today! When criticism is flying at you from all sides, you have to celebrate the small victories.

God, I missed running. But I'm back!

Running vs Weight Lifting

2011-09-07T11:29:00.003-04:00

Several of my girlfriends declared September to be "Improve Yourself Month." Each of us picked a certain goal for the month, and we're checking in on a weekly basis to get support. My goal for the month was, of course, workout-oriented: to run at least 10 miles each week.

It's funny how little 10 miles a week is, compared to when I was doing a marathon every weekend in peak season. I reasoned that it still feels like an easy run for me to bang out 4-5 miles, so if I just do that two or three times a week, I'm covered. I also have made the mental distinction that while I can count miles on the treadmill, I will not count elliptical miles - for this challenge, we are talking pure running.

Unfortunately, so far things are not quite going according to plan. Last week I started off strong, running 2.1 miles on Wednesday and 1.9 miles on Thursday. I figured that was perfect - I was planning on heading up to Van Cortlandt Park for the Labor Day Marathon, where I planned to run the 10K, bringing me to a nice 10.1 miles for the week. However, weekend partying and sleeplessness ensued, and when I went to bed on Sunday night, I decided not to set my alarm - if I woke up in time to get to the 9am start, I'd go; if not, I'd write it off. It was really about a 50/50 shot, given that I usually wake up around 7am or so, but on Monday, I slept till 8:30am. So much for the race!

I could have easily made up for it by running on my own either Monday or Tuesday. But last night, after getting back from work around 8:30pm, I decided to forgo the running and lift weights instead. Running (at least at the comfortable 9 minute or so pace that I do) just doesn't feel like as much of a workout as lifting weights, mostly because I don't get sore after running but I really feel it after lifting weights. And after all, no pain, no gain, right? And isn't building muscle (to burn more calories) better than just burning calories?

Well, this is where it gets interesting. A recent study concluded that aerobic exercise is better than resistance training if you want to lose belly fat. For this study, they had one group run 12 miles/week, and the other do three sets of 8-12 reps three times a week. By my count, that's about 108 minutes of running (at a 9 minute pace) compared to 45 minutes of weight lifting (assuming 5 minutes per set). The researchers found that the running burning 67% more calories than resistance training... but the runners worked out more than twice as long. Of course they're going to burn more calories if they're working out twice as long! For now, I'll stick with the conventional wisdom proven by many, many scientists: aerobic exercise burns calories, while weight lifting burns calories and builds muscle that burns more calories.

Unfortunately, that still doesn't get me out of my "Improve Yourself" month goal. Back to pounding the pavement today... but more weight lifting tomorrow. Because ultimately, it's not about "what burns the most calories"; it's about what gets you moving.

No physical labor on Labor Day?

2011-09-06T13:31:00.001-04:00

I found it ironic that for the Labor Day holiday, the day that I had free to actually toil away at the gym all day if I wanted to... the gym was closed. Well, not closed, but all classes canceled - which for my purposes was basically the same thing.

I'll admit that part of my frustration came from the fact that I had purchased a one month membership to a fancy schmancy gym through a group buying site and this was the last weekend of my membership. I wasn't going to heckle the gym about closing for Hurricane Irene, but I sure as heck was annoyed that while they would keep the gym open, they canceled all the classes that made going to the gym fun. I usually can't go to any of the Monday classes, being off on assignments in Charlottesville or Dallas, and I was excited about the chance to try some of the classes that didn't appear anywhere else on the schedule. Unfortunately for my plan, there were no classes being held on Labor Day.

While some people choose to take holidays as days of rest, for me, vacations are exactly when I want to catch up on all the workouts I don't have time to squeeze into my busy life. When I start considering vacation destinations, one of the first things I do is figure out how I'm going to fit exercise/being active into my plans. It used to be easy - my vacations were planned around marathon destinations. But now that I'm taking a break from marathoning, that doesn't work.

Instead, I look for places where I can go hiking or horseback riding in between sips of daiquiris on the beach. I plan ski trips where I can guzzle beer and chow down on hearty comfort food after a tiring day on the slopes. Some may call it eating disordered, but I don't enjoy a vacation nearly as much when I know I'm going to get home 10 pounds heavier than when I left. That's not relaxing to me; in fact, that's stressful.

I think we should attempt to live every day in a balanced way. Do I skip workouts some weekdays when I'm swamped? Of course. And do I skip workouts some vacation days/weekends when there are other things I decide I'd rather do? You bet. But when I'm on vacation, it often affords me the opportunity to squeeze in activities that I wouldn't otherwise get to try. I still would count my experience last year running a half marathon on the deck of my cruise ship at sunrise as one of the coolest and most beautiful places I've ever run.

One of my favorite blogs, Greatist, recently did a great post on how whether vacation makes us happier. The studies they cited noted that planning the trip is often more enjoyable than actually going on the trip, and that "while to-be vacationers might have a higher level of happiness before their trip compared to those staying at home, there was little difference in happiness levels between the two groups after the vacation." However, what I'd like to see is a study that shows how people who exercised on their vacation felt at the end, vs how people who laed around felt. Call me Type A, but I like being productive (even on vacation), and all those exercise endorphins just feel great!