Guess what I did today?!

I RAN! I freakin ran! Without pain! And it was awesome!

I took 11 full days off of running after my last 20 mile run, which caused some pain in my left foot.  I went to the doctor on Monday, and she said she thought it was tendinitis.  So I've been RICE-ing my foot constantly since then.  Finally, yesterday I was walking without pain, so today I finally decided to get out there and try running.

Was I nervous? YES! Was I excited? Yes, but mostly just nervous. I was prepared to turn around after half a block if my foot hurt. I wore different shoes. I re-tied them like 10 times. I wore inserts in them.  I didn't listen to music so I could listen to my body.  (But I did take my Garmin. I'm addicted. Although I didn't look at it much, and didn't adjust my pace based on what it said.)  I ran easy, and I didn't run long, but it was glorious anyway! It was so nice to be back in Central Park, to run along the reservoir and to chick some dudes! I just enjoyed it, and tried not to freak out about every tight muscle or little ache (fortunately there were none in my foot) that I felt along the way.

Taking the last week and a half off of running has given me a chance to rethink running, the Philly marathon and my training.  I definitely need to adjust my plan now since I'm two weeks behind.  And think I'll take out a 20 mile run and/or add another (shorter) long run in before I do 20 miles next time.  I need to find different shoes, or have a pair to alternate my PureCadences with.  I definitely need to keep incorporating cross-training into my plan (which I haven't done in several weeks...eek!) and I just need to focus on getting to the starting line healthy, instead of focusing on a time.  I have been running comfortably, without pushing myself to my max, but mentally I need to focus on being healthy and strong, and hopefully my goal time (still unsure!) will come with that.

I ran today because I wanted to, not because a training plan told me to.  That's the best kind of a run.

Being Smart, For Once

I haven't run since Saturday.  It's Thursday now.  The last time I took this many days off from running was after the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May, when I forced myself to take a week off.  Not because I was injured, needed to, or necessarily wanted to, but because I thought I should so I wouldn't get injured.

On Saturday, I ran 20 miles.  This was my longest run yet.  I felt great (physically) during the whole run.  When I was done, I stretched, took a cold bath, put on my compression socks, ate some food and took a nap.  It wasn't until I woke up from my nap and started walking that my left foot/ankle started hurting.  I didn't think much of it, since I had just run for 3 hours.  But later that night, it was feeling worse.  On Sunday, it felt slightly better and I was hopeful that with rest, I could run Monday.  Monday came and went, and I didn't lace up my shoes or put on my running clothes.  The same went for Tuesday and Wednesday.  This is unheard of for me.  I'm the one that will go out for a run even when I'm pretty confident that sometimes I shouldn't.  Fortunately, I've been lucky up to this point.  But, with lots of people around me getting injured during marathon training, I decided that for once, I was going to play it safe.  I planned to try running this morning.  I slept instead.  When I woke up, my foot/ankle felt worse than yesterday.  Then I got ready for work, and it was feeling much better.  MAKE UP YOUR MIND!  I'm going away this weekend (again!) and decided that I'm only going to bring my running stuff with me so I can ride the hotel bike, or possibly do the elliptical (if everything feels okay), but I will not be hitting the streets for a run.

This is a cut back week for me anyway, so I don't really feel like I'm getting behind on my training.  But also, after my 20 mile run on Saturday, I really haven't WANTED to run.  I think I needed a break mentally, so perhaps my foot/ankle hurting is a blessing in disguise.  As long as it doesn't last too long.

If everything is feeling better by next week, I'll readjust my schedule and make next week my cut back week, so I don't have any super long runs on the books. I do still have 13 weeks of marathon training left to get through....    

I'm trying to stay positive, RICE my foot/ankle, take it easy and not freak out.  Check back next week.  If I haven't run in over a week, all bets are off!  Watch out! :)

How's your training going?  What are you doing to stay injury-free?  What are your favorite cross training classes, that I should be doing?

Thank you for 20 miles, Mom!

I get nervous before every long run. Not nervous, like butterflies in my stomach, but nervous that I'm going to get injured, or nervous that I won't have the mental strength to finish my run.  Yesterday, I had 20 miles on the schedule, for the first time ever.  When I run in Central Park I know where each mile is, I know how to pace myself and I know where the hills are.  I was in upstate NY visiting family all week, far away from NYC, with my longest run ever on the schedule.  This made me even more nervous than usual.  Not to mention that it would be the first long run I've done alone since my horrible 14 mile run a few weeks ago.  My mom lives 6 miles from the "big town" so I planned to run there and back, and knew I'd have to tack on some miles to the beginning and end of my run to get it to 20.

My mom is the cutest.  When I told her I was going to run 20 miles there, she asked if she could follow along in the car.  Since that MIGHT hold up traffic, I told her no.  However, knowing my mom, I knew that she'd still appear on my run.  I told her my route since I wasn't taking my cell phone and set out for a 3 hour jaunt.  About 4 miles in, I saw her car pass by me slowly.  She was waving and smiling and I was happy to see her! I had my own personal cheerleader and my own photographer for the day!

I promise I wasn't picking my nose!  Annd glad to know what it looks like 

when I have a bunch of Honey Stingers in my back pocket...

My mom appeared a few more times between miles 6-14. It became like a game to see if I could guess when/where she'd appear!  Then finally, she'd drive by me slowly and wave, probably took some more pictures, and I'd smile, say hi and keep trucking (instead of getting in her car and having her take me home, which I did think about a few times!) I ran up mountain hill after mountain hill and down little dips.  It definitely felt like I was running up way more than down! Central Park has NOTHING on upstate NY!

Around mile 15, I started to crash mentally.  It was hot and humid and there was no shade to be found. I told myself just to get to mile 16.  Then once I did that, just make it to 17, then 18. I actually even told myself I could stop completely when I got to 18 if I wanted.  I was that desperate.

When I got just past 17, I saw another huge hill looming in the distance. I wanted to cry. I told myself just to get to the top of that hill then I could take a break. Then I saw my mom. She was standing outside her car with a spray bottle! AMAZING! She sprayed me until I was almost completely soaked! After that, getting to the top of that hill didn't seem so bad! I made it over the hill and down the other side, but think I had already completely dried off, and was so tired mentally. Then there was my mom again, ready with the spray bottle in hand! After she doused me again, I took off (okay, slowly ran off at this point) for miles 19 and 20. I hadn't planned this part of my run out, and since I was only a half mile or so from home, it made it so mentally hard to keep running instead of going home. I didn't even care about getting to 20 miles at this point. But with only one mile to go, I saw my mom again, and she sprayed me yet again! My last mile was my slowest (except for the first mile when my GPS couldn't find signal), and by far the hardest mile I've run in a long time.  I may have thrown out a few swear words along the way for all the neighbors to hear....

BUT!...I made it to 20!  I definitely can't say that I did this all on my own.  If it wasn't for my mom, I can almost guarantee that I would have stopped and walked after mile 18. So, THANK YOU for getting me to 20, mom!!!

Here are my splits in case you want to see how much I crashed at the end!

Now that this run is over (and I don't have to run hills for 14 miles again), I'm happy with how it went.  I was REALLY skeptical going into it, didn't sleep well the night before, and really wasn't sure that I had the mental capacity to make it to 20.  It's by far the longest run I've done on my own, and was actually quite pleasant until mile 15!  I'm hoping that Philly will seem really easy after this- flat, crowds, other runners, and my mom, boyfriend, dad, sister and brother-in-law will all be my personal cheerleaders and photographers!

Crazy observation from this run- I only saw 1 other runner the entire time I was out there! SO unlike NYC!

How's your training going?  How do you keep yourself from breaking down mentally during long runs?  PLEASE TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!!!

The Lite (and Delicious!) Choice!

I was contacted recently by the Social Media Manager for The Lite Choice to see if I'd be interested in trying their product and writing a blog review in return.  Who doesn't love trying different types of ice cream?!  Of course I was up for it and thanks for asking!

Fro-Yo (specifically 16 Handles) has become VERY popular recently.  Everywhere you go, you see someone carrying a 16 Handles cup.  But, has anyone ever JUST gotten the Fro-Yo?  Is it good?  I wouldn't know, because I always pile all of those high calorie treats on top!  I'm glad to know that I now have a healthy alternative (that isn't even fro-yo!) in my neighborhood!  I will definitely think twice next time before I say I want to go to 16 Handles....

On Saturday, I went to The Lite Choice on Broadway, between 95th and 96th streets, which happens to be very close to my apartment.  I went at 1pm, and had only had breakfast to eat, but should have gone with a completely empty stomach.  When I first arrived and was waiting, I was impressed by how clean the store was, the Scoopables (hard ice cream) and how many other options there were.  

Not only did they have both soft serve and hard ice cream (6 flavors of each every day that rotate throughout the week), but also protein shakes, 80+ flavors of soft serve that you can have made on the spot (if your favorite flavor isn't featured that day), smoothies and hot chocolate.  Sold!

And best of all, it's all organic, natural, gluten free, low calorie and low fat!  And no corn syrup.  Recently I've started reading the ingredients for certain products.  EVERYTHING has corn syrup. Except The Lite Choice! 

Everything comes at a price. They did

put me to work serving my own ice 

cream since I told them I'd been to 

16 Handles...

Maybe I found a new career path.  I 

look like a natural.

They might be healthy, but they also

know how to have fun. And the way

to a woman's heart. And wallet.

(But I think they said it was fat free??)

One of the MANY samples that I was given to try!

Their peanut butter products are made from 

pure peanuts (or almonds) from these nifty machines.

No additives.

Oh, you want to know what I tried?  And I thought you just wanted to look at my awesome photography skills. 

I was given the royal treatment by the manager and owner of the store.  They were so friendly and told me a bit about the company, then we began trying the products. SO MANY THINGS TO TRY!  I tried taking notes, but was being handed delicious sample after delicious sample, so I know I left some things out.  You'll just have to go try those products on your own!

Here's the summary of the notes I was able to take, in between stuffing my face:

Peanut butter soft serve (really descriptive....I didn't write anything down about it, but I do remember it being really good!)

Scoopables:

Mint

Peanut butter- natural.  Chunks of peanuts in it

Coffee- really strong, tastes natural (I'm not a huge coffee fan, but for those of you out there that are- go try this!)

Strawberry- really flavorful, with chunks of real strawberries!

Muscle power- was made with milk, almonds, whey protein powder, a full banana, French Vanilla soft serve.  I think they said this has 28g of protein in it.  It was good, with a nutty/banana taste.  Would definitely get it again, and would be great after a long run.  Should have done that yesterday.....

I tried SO many other products!- fresh almond butter with French vanilla (I think) soft serve and hot fudge, the coffee freeze, banana Any Flavor Anytime Soft Serve.....others I can't remember after I was in a food coma....  But everything that I tried was really flavorful and natural tasting.

AND everything was so good that I didn't even have any toppings (except a little hot fudge). But they do have them if you want them too!

As I said the other day, I'm not a food blogger, so if you're not already drooling over the natural and flavorful options they have there (understandable- I warned you that I don't know how to write about food!) go try them yourself at one of their many locations.  Maybe I'll see you there!  They got me hooked!

They even mailed me my own hat!

If I had been wearing that while scooping

they definitely would have hired me! :)

Have you been to The Lite Choice?  What's your favorite flavor/product?  If you haven't been, why are you still reading?!  Go try something awesome there!

Week 4 marathon training and 16 mile run!

Week 4 of marathon training is now complete! Here's a summary of my runs this week:

Monday- Easy 4 miles, pace 8:51

Wednesday- I was supposed to do the Al Goldstein 5k, but had a little too much fun with a friend Tuesday night, so did a short run on my own instead. 3.3 miles, 8:26 pace

Thursday- Tempo run with Ashley- 2 mile WU, 5 miles around 8:00/pace, 0.6 CD- 7.6 miles, average pace 8:22.  

Saturday- short, easy run- 2.2 miles, 9:33 pace

Sunday- LONG run- 16 miles, 8:58 pace with Carla and Sara.  We met at the start of my run and ran up the West Side to the George Washington bridge.  Let's just say it was complicated to find the entrance onto the bridge.....but once we did, we ran across it to NJ and back.  It was pretty cool!  Here's a picture that Sara took:

We ran back down the west side together for a while, then Sara split off, then Carla (after she finished her 20!).  I still had 5.5 miles to go to get in my 16 so I ended up running down to 100th street, over to Central Park, and around the reservoir 1.5 times.  I wanted to give my legs something nice to run on after streets for 10+ miles.  I think they were happy with me not making them run hills.  

I tried to pick up the pace for miles 12 and 13 to at/near marathon goal pace (still haven't completely decided what that is yet!).  I would have liked to have been able to keep up MGP longer, but since I had never run over 14 miles before, and that was a disaster, I didn't want to bonk before I reached 16 today! Next time! 

This run felt MUCH better than 14- I'm sure it had something a lot to do with running with other people, so thanks for running with me, Carla and Sara!

Here are my (negative!) splits:

I've been wearing my compression socks all afternoon (for the first time after a long run) and took a nap  and my legs are feeling pretty good!  Bring on 18 next weekend!  Who wants to join me?!

How's training going?  Have you run across the George Washington bridge?  Do you have a better way to get onto the bike/walking path than we did?!

Not a Food Blog, but here's a recipe!

I am definitely not a food blogger.  And I don't intend to become one.  So please keep sharing your recipes because you probably won't find many here!  Not that I don't cook, but because I don't think I know how to make food sound interesting, flowery, or very enjoyable!  But, I just found and made an awesome, SUPER easy salad/meal that I wanted to share!  It may not sound that great from my post, but take my word for it! Go make it!

Warm New Potato and Lentil Salad

3/8 cup lentils

1 lb new potatoes (I used Yukon- same thing? Dunno, but the Yukon's were good!)

6 scallions (I used 3- seemed to be enough)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (oops just saw this- I used Red Wine vinegar, which was also really good! When I make it again, I think I'll use red wine vinegar again)

Salt and pepper

Bring a large pan of water to a boil.  Rinse the lentils, then cook for 20 minutes or until tender (I cooked them for 25 minutes).  Drain and rinse, then put to the side.

Meanwhile, steam or boil (I boiled) the potatoes until they are soft all the way through.  Drain and halve.

Chop the scallions, and add potatoes, lentils and scallions together.

This is where I got creative to make it even better!  (Ooh, maybe I do have a future as a food blogger!)  I chopped and mixed in fresh basil.  If you're vegan, you can stop there.  But if you're a vegetarian or carnivore, try adding some gorgonzola cheese (if you are one of those people that like moldy cheese. Like me) to the top.

I didn't decide to post this recipe until after I ate, but here's what's left (not much).

SO good!  I paired it with some cucumbers that have been marinating (can I use that word if they're only marinating in one ingredient?) in white vinegar and salt and pepper.  A great snack for the summer!

Have any favorite, super easy, go-to recipes?  This is now one for me!

Tempo Run, Run Fast for Fun and Heart Rate!

Yesterday, I did my first tempo run in what feels like way too long with Ashley.  Recently, I've run a few 5ks and a 10k races, so have used those for my weekly speed work, rather than alternating between mile repeats, tempo runs, etc.  Racing and doing a tempo run are very different.  When I'm racing, I'm giving it everything I have and am pushing myself to the limit.  We ran our tempo run (7.6 miles for me, with 5 miles of tempo), around 8 min/mile, which felt great!  We were pushing ourselves, but I never reached the point of I-really-want-to-stop-every-step like I often always do in races.  I had forgotten what it was like to run faster, but without completely burning yourself out!  Also, I'm not sure that I've ever run a tempo run with someone else before.  It made it so much more fun! All day yesterday, I kept thinking back to this run and loving it!  


I like to run fast.  (Who doesn't?!)  But I also don't necessarily like it to feel on-the-verge-of-too-fast.  In other words, I like to be able to sustain my pace without feeling like I'm going to crash.  I've had a few people ask me recently how to get faster.  Sorry to say, but the ONLY way to make a significant improvement is to practice running faster- i.e. interval repeats and/or tempo runs.  If you're not already incorporating speed work into your weekly runs, I encourage YOU to go try a tempo run.  Warm up for a mile or two, then try pushing the pace for 1-2 miles to start, then cool down for another mile or two.  You don't have to run at a 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 min/mile pace.  Just whatever is fast for YOU! And not all-out sprinting either.  Just a pace that is faster than normal, but where you would be able to still carry on some sort of conversation.  (Maybe try 30 seconds faster per mile and see how that feels.) Then be proud of yourself for running faster, and have FUN running fast!  There's something about doing a tempo run (at the right pace for you) that makes you feel like you could keep it up all day!  Enjoy it, and enjoy getting faster in return!


In addition to an awesome tempo run yesterday, I wore my heart rate monitor for the first time ever!  My boyfriend got me my Garmin for my birthday last September (boy does he know how to win my heart!  This pastry that he just brought home for me doesn't hurt either....) 

Drool.....  Oh wait, are we still talking about running?  Okay, back to my Garmin... it came with a heart rate monitor.  I immediately said "well, I'll probably never wear this" and put it in a box.  The last few weeks seem to be all about heart rates.  First I read Dorothy's post on heart rates (she is SUCH an inspiration, btw), then saw this video of a day in the life of Meb Keflezighi while marathon training. 

Okay, let's not compare ourselves to him because he's just out of this world, and I can almost guarantee that my resting heart rate will never be 37, like his.  Then Ashley posted about using her heart rate monitor.  She mentioned to me that she was going all the way back to NJ just to get her Garmin so she could use her heart rate monitor.  Since all I had to do was walk to my bedroom and pull mine out of the box I put it in nearly a year ago, I decided to test it out.  After 10 jumping jacks, my heart rate was already 25 bpm higher than Meb's after a 12 mile tempo run.  Oh wait...did I say not to compare ourselves to him? Hmm...


Anyway, yesterday morning, after rolling out of bed at 6:15am (the earliest I've EVER gotten up to go for a run! Yay!) I was curious enough about my heart rate that I decided to test it out on my tempo run.  


I calculated my max heart rate to be between 191-198, based on these two different ways to calculate it:
#1: Subtract your age from the number 220 (for men) or from 226 (for women).   For me, 226-28=198

#2: Subtract half of your age from the number 205. For me, 205-14=191

Here are the results:

(The first dramatic dip is when I met Ashley, and the other two are from stopping for water) The average of 161 puts me at about 75-80% of my max heart rate (but does incorporate my warm up and cool down).  I know VERY little about heart rate monitors, where your heart rate should be, etc. but I've read that 80-85% of your max heart rate is a good starting place for tempo runs, so I was just about right on with that!  I'll continue to use it and will continue to update as I learn more/gain more experience with it!

Here are the splits from this run:

It took us a while to get into the tempo portion of the run during mile 3, but once we got there, we stuck to our pace pretty well!


Can't wait for my next tempo run!  I'll definitely be sure to get back into incorporating these into my training.  And hopefully running them with friends to keep them fun!


Do you do tempo runs?  Do you like them?  Do you wear a heart rate monitor?  Do you have a good site with lots of information about it that you want to share with me?!