Friday, April 29, 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hot

It was yesterday, and is supposed to be again today, in the mid 80s here in upstate NY. And it is h.u.m.i.d.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the warm weather after this miserable winter. However, I do not handle the transition to hot/humid well. Once it's here for a while, I will just maintain a state of sweaty discomfort. But the first few hot days of the year I am not good. Imagine having wicked bad PMS and taking too much nyquil (sorry males, I cannot think of another adequate comparison). Getting myself out of bed this morning was comparable to tearing up a sidewalk with a crowbar, alone. I was also dreaming about snow :-[


Today's workout was hill repeats. I picked a monster hill, down by the state capitol. I ran roughly a mile warm up, and did 3 repeats of the hill. Holy killer! That hill is BIG, and it was just so muggy out! But I did it! Next week, 4 repeats! i'm on it! 


Also - my garmin registered my "best pace" at 5:03. uh, yea right.


Yesterday I had a great 4 mile tempo run. Got that pace down to 10:05. Totally rocking those tempos. I was really glad to have a strong run yesterday after sunday's long run hell. 




In other good news - I won a giveaway! yay! Jess @ Blonde Ponytail was giving away BIC Bands and I won! I'm so excited to try it out. I never win things. Perhaps this stroke of luck will continue to finding a job?? :)

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Bad Run

Sunday's 10 miler sucked. There really isn't another way to put it.

I started out pretty strong. I've been working to keep my long run pace a bit more consistent, since i generally start out too fast for 2-3 miles then slow down considerably. So I popped "Jar of Hearts" on the ipod, a nice slow, BEAUTIFUL, ballad, and kept that first mile slow -albeit a little too slow. After that I picked it up and tried to keep the miles under 11:20, since that's about my goal or better for the half. I front loaded some hills to keep up the challenge. Around mile 3 I really had to go to the bathroom. Luckily, I was doing some loops, and by mile 4.25 I was back at my apt for a quick break. I sucked down some chocolate gu and headed back out.


Now, since stopping home wasn't on my original route, I had to do some modifying on the fly. Since i was feeling so strong, I decided to run the "manning hills" again. Why not? I did, I was fine. Until the 10k mark. I was done. SUPER dehydrated, my water bottle was almost empty. I started taking walk breaks (except where some creeptastic looking teenage gangstas started yelling at me - then i kept running). At mile 8 i was passing my attorney friend's apartment, my water was gone. I thought about stopping. No, I told myself, finish this run. Walk breaks were more frequent. I was fantasizing about water. It was bad. I struggled through the rest of my hills and stopped my garmin when I hit mile 10 - 2hours 4 minutes, and a mile and a half from my apartment. I was SO frustrated. Everything hurt, i was SO thirsty, my whole face was salt. Miserable, miserable, miserable.

I thought about just laying in someone's yard until they called the cops (or ambulance) - free ride home? Or hitch hike - "please just give me a ride to the end of this road" so so so miserable. Finally, i got to my back steps. I was audibly moaning as i chucked my stupid, empty water bottle at the door and threw my self down to take off my shoes. I wanted to cry, I tried to cry. No tears. As i sat there, OBVIOUSLY DISTRAUGHT, my freakazoid neighbors descend upon me. Now, I don't really talk to my neighbors - I've lived their for a year, and they don't know my name. "CAN WE HAVE SOME OF YOUR PERENNIALS?!?!?!?"

uh what? i can't think straight. wtf is a perennial?

THE TUPLIPS?!?!? do you mind if we take a few, you and your roommate don't really seem to be into gardening (dead plants, weeds, and last year's fall leaves are everywhere. What could possibly have given them the idea we don't garden?)

Me - take all the freaking flowers you want. I need water, or an ER! I was so frustrated.

5 liters of water and 2 liters of Gatorade later I finally peed. AWFUL!

Lessons learned:
1. Getting laid off is not a reason to eat like crap for an ENTIRE week. Stop it, Jennifer.

2. Drink more water and less beer, idiot.

3. Get a good night's sleep before a long run. I slept a total of 4 hours, mostly in 20 minute spurts. I was exhausted and still am, as I write this a full 26 hours after the run/1.5mile cool down from hell ended.

4. There's always next weekend. 10 miles - I will defeat you!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Earth, what a concept

Happy Earth Day y'all!

I've done zero earth friendly things so far today :( I figure it's made up for by the exteme guilt I would feel as a child every earth day and try to plant trees from "helicopters" (from maple trees) in my back yard, and at 6 years old I'd haul a garbage bag down the road to clean up the beer cans and fast food wrappers our white trash neighbors left all over the neighborhood. I did coast all the way home from the gym this morning, instead of driving like an ass, like I usually do. but that had more to do with my gas light being on. Say la vee.

I did a 4 mile tempo run today average pace 10:09! yay!. yesterday I did pushups. Um hi, those are hard. I'm actually sore today - I didn't even do that many :-[ 

I have been trying to pay more attention to stretching and foam rolling because for some reason i've really fallen off that wagon - which seems like a stupid move. get it together girl, get it together.

This weekend is a big one folks. Double digits. Oh yea, that's right - my first 10 miler. I'm looking forward to it actually. It should go ok, i've nearly plotted out a route, but i was doing it on mapmyrun.com and every once in a while i accidentally hit that little hand thing in the middle and i go from nearly sidewalk view to world view. Anyway, when it happened the second time I decided to call it quits and try again another day. ;)

Job search update - had a phone interview on wednesday for a job i think would be really really cool. Fingers crossed.

Finally, this usually isn't my MO but I figure considering the circumstances some positive energy could possibly be really helpful. for those of you that pray, please keep my coworker in your prayers, her twin brother passed away yesterday unexpectedly. Her family has had to deal with a really unfair amount of hardship the past few years. My heart just aches for them. If you don't pray, positive energy and thoughts sent her way will do!

Thanks :)

Monday, April 18, 2011

race photos!

I found a few race photos from Saturday!

Here's me dying, and nat running with me to the finish. She's a doll carrying my water and ipod. love.


Checking my garmin after registering what the race clock was saying


Realizing I just PR'd the crap out of this race :)


Sorry my legs are transparent. I'm part casper.

Marathon Monday!

One awesome thing about getting laid off was that I, guilt free, followed the Boston Marthon obsessively on twitter from my work computer. And discussed the unfolding events, in normal voice, with my co-worker over the cube wall. Everyone feels insanely bad at work about this situation and pretty much lets me do what I want. For example, I came to work an hour + late today - for a good reason, to be revealed shortly.

I'm still slightly reveling in my awesome PR from saturday. Official race results are up and my "official" time is 1:06 even. :) 7:48 PR. FANTASTIC.

Reflections on this race - i really had a boost in my "ability to race" confidence. After the 5 miler last month I did not think I really had any concept of how to race. How to pace, push myself,  be agressive (be-E agressive). I'll admit, the garmin really did help. I really don't have a "feel" for pacing, so having the garmin really does help me out. This was also a small race so I 1. went out way to fast, 2. didn't have too much of a pack to compete with. I passed 2 people in the last .4 miles. so that was pretty awesome. I also took a page out of the book of sweat and fist pumped the guy that shouted at mile 3.5 that the rest of the course was flat. He and his buddy responded with super loud whooping.

Anyway, after the runners high wore off, the reality of my situation started to set in. So Q and I drank beer. We watched "The Other Guys" parts of which were filmed right here in Albany. We decided to make a game of it and "drink" any time you saw something from Albany. well - the police station scenes looked like a boring office, so that must obviously be a state building (sarcasm) drink. Blatantly obvious NYC landmarks (empire state building, GW bridge, times square), got shouts of ALBANY, drink. And then, some chase scense really were albany! DRINK DRINK!

Needless to say, I didn't do my long run sunday. It wasn't as if we were wasted or went over board. But i was tired. my legs were lead.  Also, the reality was hitting hard. I cried a bunch. I'm scared, i'm not gonna lie. I found a bunch of jobs to apply for (yay) but still. There are a LOT of people looking for jobs, with more qualifications than I. It's a scary prospect. So i spent the whole day in bed. reasonable. ugh.

However, this morning I woke up and knew I HAD to run. So i grabbed a gu and went to the gym and determined I would just keep running until I was confident I could go to work without busting into tears. 8.34 miles later, I went home and emailed my boss that I was going to be late. I wore compression socks and sneakers to work. No one cared. So no biggie.

Bad news is - i did not wear my normal long run clothes and now have more chafing that i ever want to have again. ugh. I applied for a few jobs today. And have more cover letters to write tomorrow. Hopefully resolution soon.

In the mean time:

running > reality

Saturday, April 16, 2011

St. Peter's Keys 10k - Saratoga Springs, NY - race recap!

TAKE THAT UNEMPLOYMENT! HA!

I can't possibly wait to tell you that I PR'd the crap out of this race!!!!

My old 10k time was 1:13:48.

Today's goal was definetly to go under 1:10. And the real goal was to get under 1:07.

1:06:15!!! (unofficial garmin time, not chip timed - official stats should be on the internetz tomorrow)

Omg so awesome! the course was beautiful! it was in saratoga state park. The first part was a few hills through some pretty scenery, and then the second part was mostly flat through the golf course. I've never really been to the park up there before, so it was a nice way to get to see it! There were two water stops - three would've been nice, but its ok. And we got a bright yellow shirt! "all good runners go to heaven" haha. religion isn't really my jam, but i'll still wear it. I didn't know st. peter was heaven's bouncer - i just thought it was a local hospital, which, incidentally, had nothing to do with this race.

Caitlin was a doll and came out in the freezing to cheer on Natalie and I (nat's unofficial time 57:30, speedy!)

I did go out waaaay too fast. but it was ok. i was still able to kick it up after mile 5, and sprint it out to the finish - after handing my ipod off to nat - sometimes i just don't want to hear about the newboyz backseat driving when i'm trying to pound out a sweet-ass PR.

Anyway! I'm off to write some coverletters! And perhaps a Sam Adams since my roomie was sweet enough to buy me a bunch of "layoff" beers. This one's for YOU, Bostoners! Good luck on monday :) :)

Friday, April 15, 2011

Bad News

Well, first the good news.
Work out today: upper body and core – lifted weights for 45 mins. 3 back exercises, 3 chest, 2 abs, 2 tricep, one bicep and one shoulder (I ran out of time toward the end). Tomorrow is RACE DAY so I didn’t do any cardio. I’m really ready to PR tomorrow, and despite what follows, I’m confident I still will.
After awesome workout, I had an awesome hair day! I took a myspace-eque picture of it.
good hair day!
GO YANKS!
So all was well and good. I went to work. Remember how I said my job was “on hold” (here)? Welllll, my job isn’t on hold anymore. My position has been terminated Sad smile
DAMN ECONOMY! STUPID NYS BUDGET. I am laid off effective April 30.
what.
a.
bummer.
My one coworker who has the same title as me was also axed. I’m upset, obvi, but not devastated, yet. It wasn’t *totally* unexpected. But it still sucks. I’ve been looking for a job for a while, so hopefully something will crop up soon.
After being delivered the news by my boss (who got all teary-eyed, poor guy) my coworker was nice enough to donate this to me:
apple pb
Apple and Dark Chocolate Dreams! I’ve never had the dark chocolate dreams, but she knew I’d been wanting to try it. SO YUMMY.
After that was over, and we’d calmed down enough to make some poor jokes. My boss said we could ditch work for the rest of the day so we went to lunch, for 3 hours.
We started with these:
margaritas
Margaritas baby.
Followed by
lunch
MMMMM Pulled pork bbq burrito and chips/salsa! YUM
I’ve been better with dinner – last night’s left overs. I DO have a race to PR tomorrow.

So that’s what I’m looking forward to – racing tomorrow, and the elusive next job.

Wish me luck folks, I’m gonna need it.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

OHMY! Two Posts in One Day!!!

I just made one of my most delicious dinners and I thought you’d all like to partake in the deliciousness. I wish I could Willy Wonka this ish to you and you could eat it right now!

Tonight I made Greek Meatballs and roasted veg. I’ll give you a sketch of the recipe because I kind of made this one up.

Roasted veg: I use chopped red bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash and button mushrooms. Toss them in some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. NOTE – you may need a bit more olive oil if you choose not to use mushrooms because they cook down a lot and create some liquid. A good measure is to do just enough olive oil until all the veggies (after tossing) have a little sheen to the,.

veggies

Yes, that is a 13x9 inch pan. yes I’m still single. I do not particularly enjoy cooking for just one person EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. So I make a butt-load so I have scads of leftovers.

Bake these suckers at 425 for 10-15 minutes, stir, and bake for another 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them , you don’t want them over done – but if they are still a bit too crispy to your taste, throw ‘em back in the ovester.

The meatballs. I use a pound of ground turkey, two beaten eggs, some bread crumbs, one package defrosted and drained chopped spinach, crumbled feta (maybe half the pack) and salt /pepper to taste.

Get your hands dirty and mix that mess up. put on a baking sheet ( a quick spray of PAM is recommended).

 

meatballs

These are uncooked in this picture. I also know you all LOVE the quality of my camera. Listen, cameras/picture taking isn’t really my thing. My digi cam isn’t really working (likely problem – needs new batteries) and of course, my blackberry has the shittiest camera any phone has known this century.

Cook these lil suckers at 425 for 10 minutes, flip and 10 more. I put too much of something in this time and they were a bit softer than I generally like them – maybe too few bread crumbs? or not enough wringing out of the spinach?

Anyway – finish product:

dinner done

I went a little semi-homemade with Sandra I am the NYS governor’s girlfriend and know enough to stay out of politics Lee, or whatever her name is, and used store bought tzatziki sauce (hahah, figuring out how to spell THAT was fun).

It was delish! however, I ate way too fast and have a bit of a belly ache. Nothing a Sam Adams Noble Pils can’t solve I’m sure. Ahhhh, spring. I freaking heart you!

Now, back to watching the Yankee’s (finally just scored!) Not sure what Hughes’s problem is this season. Get it together kid – any major league team can only afford ONE AJ Burnett.

Hills for me and a hug for hungryrunnergirl

So I ran my first hill workout this morning.

Every time I say "hills" the song "bills bills bills" by destiny's child pops into my head. "I'm gonna run these hillllls, gonna run up and down these hillllls. if you do too then maybe we can chillllll.." Yea, corny, I know. 

The workout was 4 miles total - half mile warm up and cool down. There's this stretch of road (starts exactly a half mile from my apartment, perf) that is seriously hilly. Its about .75-.8 miles long. I ran it 4 times. I wanted to die. I did have to stop to walk a few times but I will say - i NEVER walked UP the hill. badass baby. Ha, yea right. I couldn't even eat breakfast  before leaving work because my stomach was not pleased. so classy. Now, I'm SUPER hungry and stuffing my face with an egg and cheese sandwich from the place next door.

Now, it's not that i've never run hills before - there's always some hills on every outdoor run. However. this WHOLE RUN was hills. Which is what made it different than other runs. But it's needed. Lake Placid is IN THE MOUNTAINS. So, hill training is a must!

This weekend I've got a 10k race on saturday in Saratoga. I'm ready to PR it. Sick.

Sunday - 15k long run. I'm running a 5k loop 3x. My attorney friend just signed up for a 5k in two weeks (more for networking opportunities than anything else). He has professed a pure hatred for running. I've invited him to come run a loop with me sunday morning - maybe I can change his mind. I figure, if he can jump rope for a half hour (boxing is his workout of choice) he can certainly run 3 miles. Maybe I can get him to see the (running) light!

Finally, since I am a self professed cat-lady (i only have one cat, relax. I just happen to volunteer at the animal shelter, and shun any relationship that may interfere with my kittie love- whatev).  I am posting a perfect kitten snuggle from my Dinah-girl. This picture was actually taken a while ago, but this is how my precious acts when I'm feeling down. Dedicating this one to Janae! Kitten hugs!


Monday, April 11, 2011

Long Run recap - a day late

Um so sorry I didn't update yesterday with the long run recap. I was just too tired. I attempted to be productive for a while (went to the drug store, pulled out articles to work on master's thesis #2, did not read any, whoops).  Usually after long runs I "treat" myself to Starbucks. It's not so much an "I can have all these calories because I just burned off a day's worth" as an, ok you just ran a bajillion miles, go ahead and spend too much money on a cup of coffee. I get my coffee black, with sugar-free caramel and 2 splenda. So yea, minimal calories. I did NOT do this yesterday, and therefore did NOT get anything of significance done after my run.



Now, on to the good stuff. The run:

9 miles
Average pace: 11:25

BOOM - on pace for a 2:30 finish


Also - this is the first week I've hit 20 miles/week ever in my life. :D

I felt, surprisingly, really good during/after the run. I pre-made a post run snack of frozen berries and greek yogurt to eat immediately after, foam rolled, iced ankles, and put on compression socks all within an hour of the run (yes, and showered). That was probably the reason I am NOT REALLY SORE AT ALL today! :) YES!!

The run was great. The weather was perfect. Warm, sunny, only a little wind. The new hand held water bottle was "awesomesauce" as all the cool bloggers say ;) Besides having water when I needed it, there was the mental relaxation of not worrying about 1. dehydration 2. my ridiculous mucus build up problem that I have when running. Ew. Sorry guys. It's a bit better when it's not cold out. But I've become a very lady-like (not) spitting PRO. hahah.

The run itself was awesome - a few unexpected hills on a new route. But all the better as Lake Placid is HILLY. I hit the 10K mark about 6 minutes below my current PR - on a slow long run - so I'm ready to kill that race in Saratoga this weekend. WOO! I tried out sports beans on the run (they rock) I think I only took in about 7 of them, but they still helped. I did not feel like dying at the end of my run. And even though I got to my apartment at 8.95 miles, I actually had the mental/physical stamina to keep going for that last .05. Which is not that far, however, it made me feel good to actually be doing it.

Could I have kept going yesterday for another 4.1 miles? Um, yes! I CAN DO THIS. I'm getting excited for this race. I can run a half marathon, and then rightfully define myself as a "runner" right along with "cat-lady" YAY!

Update on weird shin/calf pain - apparently the remedy was 9 miles. Zero pain yesterday or today. yay!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

NEW GEAR!!

Well Bloggy Peeps, it’s been a busy busy week!

After my tempo run, this week, I did 400s with negative spilts (woo!). Then on Friday, with my new garmin in hand, I did a three miler outside. So fun! having the garmin totally made me run my tail off. I kept looking down thinking “I can go faster than this!” Which. in the end, just made me want to die. haha

Anyway, with the tax return, I went a little gear shopping nuts. I got a few things, all of which I’m excited to use with tomorrow’s long run/recovery.

Garmin

My new garmin. It’s so cool. I love all the cool junk I can do with it.

water bottle 1

My new Amphipod handheld! It’s a 12oz water bottle with a strap and pocket on the back. Its really light and its got a cool design so you don’t really have to grip the bottle.

water bottle 2

Here’s the pocket. It’s big enough to hold my ipod and some gu! so cool!

recovery socks

COMPRESSION SOCKS! woo! I went with “the recovery sock” these are their breast cancer donation model. I’ve been wearing them most of the afternoon due to a strange pain in my left shin/side calf area. I’m not entirely sure it’s running related. It’s tender to the touch – I probably whacked it on something. Not surprising.

running socks

Compression Running socks. Also from “the recovery sock” these came in a “package” with the compression socks. I’m really excited to wear them on tomorrow’s long run!

 

Well folks. I’m off to cuddle with my Dinah-kitten and watch a movie while I finish up my laundry. I’ll be back tomorrow with a long run recap!

GOODNIGHT BLOGGER-LAND!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Tempo Runs and Data

This morning's work out was a tempo run. Last week's tempo run was kind of a fail. I went to hard too soon. I'm still trying to figure out what tempo is the right tempo etc. McMillan is definetly helping with that.

I did a half mile warm up at 10:54 pace
3 miles at 10:09
1 mile t 10:00 (threw in an incline in the last quarter mile. boom)
Average Pace 4.5 miles: 10:13

It was an AWESOME run. just a few short weeks ago, it seems, 4.5 miles was "long run" territory. Now i'm banging it out before work on a tuesday. SO cool. It was a great run that put me in a great mood the rest of the day - the perfect kind.

I attended a MS Access training class the second half of the work day today. umm, i'm a geek. I loved it. If I could go back and get a second bachelors (two bachelors' to match my nearly two masters? why not?) I would TOTALLY get it in Information Science. The ability to manage, manipulate and analyze data using technology was not emphasized enough during my undergrad years. Even as a history major/masters, knowing now to use databases would've been AWESOME. I'm creating one (from scratch!) for a project for work (that I initiated!). I'm so stoked about it I might wear my glasses to work tomorrow, and tape the nose bridge with masking tape for effect :)

Speaking of data. DUN DUN DUN. my taxes were deposited early and I ordered my Garmin and it's shipped! it'll be here thursday! YES!!! I've got 9 miles on the schedule for sunday, it's going to be so awesome to have all that information on the back of my wrist!

And, to boot, I signed up for the 10k on the 16th today too. I'm pretty sure i could've held today's tempo pace for 6.2. So here's to hoping I set an awesome PR in two weeks!


YAY! hope everyone had a great Tuesday! On to hump day!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

cheerleading

Today's run was 8.5 miles.  1:36:13. 11:19 average pace.

Last week I didn't run a "long" run because I did a 5 mile race. so a little part of me was nervous going into this one. And I was trying out fuel for the first time. Last night I mapped out 2 4.25 mile loops, so that I could swing back by my apt for water and Gu Chomps.

Breaking up the run into loops was def an advantage: I'm almost home! I'm almost home, again! yay! haha.

At mile 2-ish I ran past Natalie's house. YAY! she met me outside in her fuzzy slippers to cheer me on. The whole route was peppered with hills. Which is the plan from here on out - have you seen the elevation profile for Lake Placid? I don't think they understand the concept of "flat." So, yikes.

Anyway, this whole run I just KNEW I could do it. Even during miles 6.5 - 8 when i was running into a headwind the whole time. I was (out loud) chanting "You got this, you totally got this." And I did "get it." WOO! Mental positivity definitely makes the run! The Gu helped too, the chomps were a bit annoying to chew while running. But, I could def notice a difference using it, as opposed to not.

I came home and tried out Jess's starfish pose for a good 10 minutes. I wasn't sure I'd get up again. A few more stretches and some ice and then I was a shivering mess and had to get in the shower. I hit up starbucks after "resting" and then got some work done. And am continuing to rest and lament the Yankees first loss of the season (boo hoo!)

Foam rolling coming up shortly, for like the next 100 hours. And damn my ankles hurt! I think I need to look into some arch support inserts. And perhaps a bit more practice of barefoot balance.

As a reward for my longest run of my life, Q and I are getting Asian cuisine tonight! YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! can't wait. :)