Christmas Adventures

Ok, as promised, here’s a run down of the rest of my Christmas adventures.

MUPPETS! My mom and I went to see the Muppet movie. It was wonderful and so much fun. I love the Muppets!

EPIC SHOPPING! What would Christmas be without lots of shopping? I got that covered. Thanks to Megan and Andrea, we literally spent hours at the mall and Target. Our epic shopping trip also included the Muppets. I found the last DVD of the Muppet Christmas Carol. Megan was sad.

RUBY’S! Apparently I really like going to Ruby’s. Megan, Andrea and I took a shopping break for lunch at Ruby’s. (Later we went back to Andrea’s, played games, and took silly pictures.)

The next day I met up with Danielle and we went the Ruby’s in Huntington Beach. Not only did I get to see Danielle (YAY!) it was a perfectly beautiful day to be on the beach.

EPIC NUTCRACKER WATCHING! Ok, this might not sound epic, but trust me. It was. Ovation has a Nutcracker marathon on Christmas eve and all day Christmas. My mom and I watched four different productions of the Nutcracker. It was really fun to compare the different productions. I now consider myself a Nutcracker connoisseur. My favorites were the traditional Royal Ballet production and a production from Australia called Nutcracker: The Story of Clara.

It should also be noted that I drove on the 405 without injuring myself or others. Hurray!

The next adventure….NEW YEAR’S!!!

Good Riddance

At the end of every year, we celebrate Good Riddance Day in Times Square. You can shred, smash and shed all your bad memories from that year.

I think the picture speaks for itself.

You can't always get what you want...

I will post more about my epic Christmas adventures later, but first, a little story.

Last year my company gave us all gift cards to the cafeteria for Christmas. Sure, it's not some big Christmas bonus, but at least it's useful. I was really looking forward to my cafeteria card and all the tasty cafeteria sandwiches I was going to order. When I got back to work today, I found out that we all got umbrellas instead of cafeteria cards. I was kinda bummed.

When I left work, it started to drizzle. By the time I got out of the subway, it was pouring and I was pretty happy to have that umbrella.

Make what this what you will, but it seemed like there was some moral here.

So far, in Cali...

Here's a brief run down of what I've been up to in California:

-Visited family in the desert then out in El Centro. We even made a pit stop at Salvation Mountain to look at all the pretty colors.

-Eaten LOTS of Mexican food

-Gone to LOTS of yoga. There's a new studio in town with a great deal for new students, so I've gone to yoga every day. I've done yoga with weights and an Iyengar class. I even did my first ever headstand!

-Did some work (boring)

-And finally (this is what I'm most proud of) I watched the entire final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was pretty awesome.

Tomorrow I get to see my friends and I think we're going to do some last minute shopping!

You may have noticed I haven't been posting as much. Well I'm back in California for the holidays. Pretty much just hanging out with Opie.

Once I get the wireless set up here I'll post more.

Pilates Bootcamp

Since I had taken a sneak peek at this class, I knew what I was expecting, but somehow I thought I would be better at it. Turns out, I’m not. Things like jumping into and out of plank were really hard for me, and there were a lot of things that required a whole lot of coordination, like bicycling your arms while jogging up and down from this bench. I’m surprised I didn’t fall flat on my face. It was overall a good workout, and it worked more than just the core, which some people might enjoy, but I don’t really think this class is for me. My whole body is definitely a little sore today, but not really as bad as I expected. I like classes that focus more on form and how to do things, but this (being a bootcamp and all) was more about just doing it, even if it sounds totally absurd and you’re not even sure how you could possibly do that. If I want to run around in circles while someone yells at me, I can just go run with Coach Ramon. For now I think I’ll stick to regular pilates.

But, hey, at least I didn’t die. So that’s good.

Pilates Ouch

I mentioned that I was going to try out a pilates class on Saturday, to work off some of those holiday indulgences. I’ve done mat pilates before, but this time I tried a tower class. This tower looks kind of like a torture device, and at times it feels like one. Everything we did was pretty straight-forward, like pushing the straps with our arms or legs, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. My tummy prefers to be flabby and unengaged. It doesn’t really want to do ANY work. But considering how important the core is, I guess I should at least attempt to have some strength in my tummy.

So the first class was pretty good. I’m still sore and yoga on Sunday was a bit tough. Tonight I go back for my second, and honestly, I’m scared. The package I bought included 4 classes. Since their schedule was filling up, I reserved all my classes, just sort of based on what would fit with my schedule. I have one more class tonight and then two after Christmas. I got to the studio early on Saturday and saw some of the previous class. It’s not at all what I expected. They were jumping up and down, running in place, bicycling the air with weights in their hands, jumping in and out of plank, all while a little excited man pranced around. None of these sound like things I enjoy and the girls in the class sounded like they were going to cry. I looked at the schedule to see what this torture was and lo and behold, it’s the class I signed up for tonight.

I don’t think this is going to be pretty. Here's to hoping I make it through in one piece.

Holiday Indulgences

Well it's that time of the year again- time for holiday over indulgences. I think all I've done since Thanksgiving is eat too much bad food, drink too much, and have a few too many chocolates. Sometimes I do them all at the same time! Like last week's office party that ended with shots and Karaoke. Or the Kate Spade event last night that included champagne and probably the best invention EVER- cheesecake lollipops! Basically cheesecake on a stick. (My inner piggy rejoices!) Or the gift swap with my friends tonight. I anticipate much over indulging. My dinner will likely consist of chips and dip and mixed drinks. Dinner of champions! Is it good for me? No. Will it kill me? No. Sure, I feel a little extra flabby, but who doesn't this time of year? I just have to make sure this stops once the holidays are over.

Lunchtime Wanderings: Rockefeller Center

It's been kind of rainy and icky out, so I figured I could make my way over to Rockefeller Center on my lunch break without too much tourist traffic. It wasn't bad, except that I walked 5 or 6 blocks with people who got excited every time they saw a pigeon on the sidewalk. Really, people? Pigeons excite you?

Anywhoo, on to something more festive

A giant Christmas tree! Now I will admit, it's still a large and impressive tree, and it smells really piney, but didn't it used to be bigger? Is even Rockefeller Center making cut backs in this economy?

This was across from Rock center. I guess they're not making cutbacks. This is a mighty large plug that would have a mighty large power bill.

Look What I Made!

Look what I made!

The quiche has become my new sandwich. I started making them a few months ago, just because they sound fancy. But now they've become my new lunch time staple. They're super easy to make and I usually have all the ingredients laying around. All you need is:
4 or 5 eggs
1 cup of milk
Pie crust(I usually make mine, but you can use store bought too)
Cheese!
Filling- usually whatever combo of veggies and/or meats you have lying around.

Cook it at 350 for about 40 to 45 minutes and viola! You have a fancy sounding meal. I take slices to work for lunch with some salad, but you can eat it for breakfast or dinner too.

In other news, I bought one of those Groupon type things for pilates. I almost forgot about it and it expires soon, so looks like I'm going to pilates this week! I've done pilates before, but only on the mat. I've never used the machines. I can just imagine myself somehow getting all twisted up in the machine, or breaking it. Something not good like that. I'll report back later.

In the meantime, enjoy your fancy quiche!

Patatas Bravas

I wanted to do something a little bit exciting for breakfast today. We had some leftover potatoes, so I decided to make patatas bravas. They're a classic Spanish tapa that I had all the time when I was in Barcelona. They're basically fried potatoes with a spicy sauce.

First I fried up the potatoes in olive oil

Then made a sauce with garlic, onion, paprika, salt, pepper, mayo and hot sauce. We were supposed to add ketchup but turns out, I don't have any. We made do without.

I must say, it was pretty darn tasty.

Lunchtime Wanderings

The following is a collection of photos from things I've found while walking around on my lunch break:

1. Gaga's Workshop- I figured I would see what all the hype was about.

It was pretty cool, but everything was super expensive. Does a special Lady Gaga box of four cookies really need to be $40? I think not.


2. This explains itself...

BTW, I really need this.


3. Dylan's Candy Bar- A pop up store opened in Times Square, right across from my office. This is exactly what I need right now. Access to even more chocolate.

I want to eat both of these. And then I saw...

FUDGE! This is dangerous. I almost bought half the store out of curiosity.

As you can tell, any real attempt at healthy eating is pretty much tossed aside until Jan 1st. I'd much rather stuff myself sick with cookies and chocolates. After all, isn't that what the holidays are all about?

Sweatin' Out the Turkey

Last I left you, I was on my way to a yoga class in Alexandria on Friday. I always love to go to yoga after Thanksgiving and sweat out all the turkey. It's my own little tradition. By now, I've been to a few other Bikram studios, but I gotta say I love my studio in Harlem. One thing I love about Harlem is we're all so comfortable with each other. We have people of all shapes and sizes wearing their skimpy little outfits (it IS hot after all) and no one bats an eye. When I visit other studios, that's not the case. The only people in their skimpy little outfits are the women with perfect tans and perfect abs and everyone else is pretty covered. I even noticed that when I was in Spain, which I thought was very strange. It made me feel like such an outsider. The class in Alexandria was good and I definitely needed it, but it wasn't like home.

The rest of the weekend was spent eating more food (gotta finish off those leftovers!) and hanging out with Josh's family. We even walked around old town Alexandria, which is just the cutest place ever. We headed back to New York on Saturday and I finished my weekend with (what else?) a visit to Bikram Yoga Harlem. It's good to be home.

Turkey coma

Thanksgiving dinner yesterday was pretty darn good. Our favorite part of the meal was Bob.

We bought him at Whole Foods!
(Just to clarify, that was a joke. We just ate turkey and potatoes and stuffing, like normal people.)

Now I'm off to yoga to sweat out the turkey and gravy. I bet you the hot room will smell like Thanksgiving all over again!

Making cookies! Making cookies! Cookie time!

(Name that tune, and you win a BIG HUG!!!)

PS I took this picture on my snazzy new iPhone. Nice, huh?

I realized that sometimes when I'm done with yoga, I smell like a wet dog. If you've ever had to smell me post-yoga, I'm very sorry.

That is all.

A Blonde Moment

Last night, I had a total blonde moment. I attempted to steam some vegetables, which I've done about a million times before, but this time the vegetables just weren't cooking. The stove was on. It was hot. Things were steaming. But the vegetables weren't cooking. Then it started smoking and I realized, I forgot to add water. That's like the number one (and only) component to steaming vegetables. I did this to my pot.

I must say that's an epic fail.

I’m sorry. I’ve been a little absent. Work has been all consuming and I’ve taken on a part time at home project, which leaves me very little time for blogging. I did have enough time to host an awesome wine party. Unfortunately there are very few pictures of the spread, mostly because it was consumed rather quickly. My personal favorites were the Thyme Gougeres that I got from Bon Appetit. They were like grown up, fancy cheese balls. Again, no pictures because they went straight from the oven to people’s mouths. You can find the recipe here. The recipe called for Gruyere, but that was one expensive cheese. I used Fontina and parmesan instead and they were light, airy and delightful. I highly recommend giving these a try at your next party.

In other news, I’ve been sticking with my less meat thing and I must say I’ve been enjoying it. It’s kind of fun to find new meatless recipes. This week was really the first time I’ve had much meat. I had meat three days in a row and I do feel different. My tummy is all gurgly and heavy. I think I’m going to give the meat a break for a while…at least until Thanksgiving.

*Swoon*

Ok. Allow me to talk about something that has nothing to do with ANYTHING for just a minute.

Yesterday, I was coming back from lunch and HE was coming out of the elevator.

Source

Unfortunately, he was wearing a shirt. At least it was a nice tight one.

The whole thing was like a movie where everything started moving in slow motion as he emerged from the elevator and walked past me. He’s GINORMOUS and it’s literally all muscle. My heart was pounding, I think I had my mouth wide open and was possibly drooling a little. He stood in the lobby to make a phone call and I think he saw me staring at him because he went to hide in the corner. I’m not one to drool over celebrities on TV, but he’s certainly impressive in person. I’ve seen and met my fair share of celebrities, but as New Yorkers, we like to pretend like we could care less. For the most part, they're just people like us. I've never had reaction like this before. Sure he's just a person, but he's a BEAUTIFUL person. If I wasn’t at work, I don’t know that I would have been able to contain myself. I'm sorry Josh, but if I ever get the chance, I WILL make out with him.

Needless to say, it made my day.

Marathon Weekend!

What a busy marathon weekend. I’m exhausted, and I didn’t even run! It started off Friday night with the DetermiNation Pasta Party. This is the chance to congratulate the athletes, listen to some amazing and inspirational stories, and carbo load! These events always remind why I’m so thankful to be involved in such a great organization. There are so many amazing and inspiring people out there.

Saturday was a quick run in Central Park. I’ve been looking forward to this all week. Not only was it the first time I’ve run in…a long time…but the energy in Central Park the day before the marathon is ELECTRIC. All the out of town runners are out there running in the park, taking pictures of the finish line, chatting excitedly. Everyone had to touch the Fred Lebow statue for good luck. I still can’t believe that it was just a year ago that I was one of them, so excited and nervous. I kept getting choked up just being there. I ran with the team and talked to several of the runners about the marathon. For many of them it was their first ever marathon. I think the NYC marathon is a great first ever marathon because the support is AMAZING. I told them about my experience and tried to allay some of their nerves.

Then, marathon Sunday. I must admit I was thankful that I didn’t have to get up at 4am, but when I watched the coverage on TV, I really wanted to be sitting in Staten Island with everyone, chatting nervously, huddling together to stay warm, listening to iPods to get pumped up. I remember almost every minute of the wait. It felt like it lasted forever.

I, of course, volunteered to get out there and cheer. I chose one of the most difficult parts of the race for me- the Bronx. The runners get to the Bronx at mile 20. This is about the time that you hit “the Wall.” Your body can typically store enough energy to carry you the first 20 miles. For those that started too fast, didn’t hydrate well, didn’t refuel with GUs, this is the time they feel it. I wanted to be there to get them through it. And I honestly must have been one of those people because nothing looked familiar to me at all. They were all sorts of turns in the course that I don’t remember.

Cheering was amazing. Mile 20 is an incredible place to be. There were people that literally fell down, were limping, or were cramping so much they had to sit. But they pulled themselves together and kept going. That’s what the marathon is about. I stayed out there all day. They were tearing down the barricades and the aid stations, but we were still there. It was these people at the end that were the most appreciative. When everyone else had left, we were there to cheer them on like the rockstars they are. It felt really good to help push them on. Some of the people that had been walking started to jog again with our encouragement.

I have to thank my awesome (and LOUD) friends for coming out there with me and staying. You really helped make this an awesome experience for so many runners. I think our signs helped too. They got quite a few chuckles. It’s not easy to make someone laugh after running 20 miles.

These are the highlights:

He Man anyone?

Even though I really wanted to be out there with the runners, I’m glad I took the year off. Now, I’m totally ready to embark on this journey again. I can’t wait for Chicago 2012.

Congrats to all you NYC 2011 Marathoners out there! YOU DID IT!!!

Party in the Bronx!

Ok. This may prove to the whole world that I'm the biggest dork ever, but I'm getting really excited about my cheer station for the marathon on Sunday. We have costumes. I'm making signs. It's going to be EPIC. And super fun. And super inspiring. And everyone should come party with DetermiNation at mile 20. They don't call it the boogie down Bronx for nothing.

Seriously though, if you're around come party with me. I'll probably be there from 10:30ish to 4:30ish. And BE LOOUUUUDDDD!!!!

This Sunday is the New York City Marathon and even though I’m not running, I’m still super excited. I can't believe it was a year ago that I was carb loading and FREAKING OUT about the idea of running 26 consecutive miles. But now that I've done it, it seems like it's always been that way. Sometimes when I’m doing my laundry, walking down the street, riding the subway, I randomly remember “Holy crap. I ran a marathon.” I remember that I survived the disgusting port-a-potty and that I kept going even though I really wanted to quit at mile 22. I never thought I would ever run a marathon, but still, a year later, I’m amazed and proud that I actually did it and it puts a huge smile on my face.
 
To all you marathoners out there, good luck. It may suck at times, but I hope you’ll remember it fondly.

To all you non-marathoners, I'm leading a cheer station at mile 20, aka The Wall. We're dressing as super heroes. It will be epic. Come cheer with me at 138th and Morris Ave in the Bronx. I'll be there probably until around 4.

Hallo-Weekend Recap

On Thursday I carved a pumpkin.

On Friday I went to a party. I'm a valley girl, MiMi is a gladiator and Willa was Pinky, from Pinky and the brain. We look pretty awesome if you ask me.

Saturday Josh moved in...AND IT SNOWED! Like really REALLY snowed. I hid inside all day.

On Sunday, kids in Halloween costumes were throwing snowballs at each other. It would have been adorable if it wasn't so bizarre.


CORRECTION: Willa is The Brain, because the woman is always the brain :)

Tonight is my last night of freedom. My roommate moved out two weeks ago and I've been enjoying having the place all to myself. I've done exciting things like cook in my underpants and carving pumpkins in the living room. Yea, I'm pretty wild.

But tomorrow, bright and early, Josh is moving in. Yikes! Wish me luck!

It's 3pm and I'm lacking any motivation to do anything. I just want to take a nap. So in order to divert myself for a few minutes I scanned some of the pictures I got from my visit home. These are my favorite.

My grandma looks sassy in this one. She said she was wearing a red dress.

This is my grandpa, all the way to the left. I don't really know what this picture is of, so I'm going to make up a story. I think this story will involve lots of martinis, or something classy like that. It's fun to think of your grandparents being young, going out and getting drunk.

This has been my diversion for the day. Now, back to work.

An exciting weekend!

Something amazing happened on Saturday. I went to not just any restaurant, but my favorite restaurant, and was literally unable to finish half the food on my plate. This has never ever ever happened as long as I can remember. Josh was pretty happy. He got to eat lots of my fish without hearing my complain about leaving enough for me.

Oh and Amy and Chung had a baby. I guess that's pretty amazing too :)

Saturday was so exciting I had to follow it up with an equally exciting Sunday. On Sunday, I cleaned my whole apartment, hung new curtains, went to yoga, sewed up the holes in my sweater and did lots of cooking! I'm actually having fun cooking without meat, so I made a vegetable pot pie, a carrot curry soup (courtesy of Andrea) and some whole wheat pumpkin walnut bread. I get lots of leftovers this week!

Consider my mind BLOWN

Whoah. The farmers' market just totally blew my mind.

I was enjoying walking around, sniffing all the flowers and looking at the pretty vegetables. The air smelled like hot apple cider. Then I see something that looks like this:

I ran to it. What the heck is that? This my friends, is a brussel sprout stalk. It looked kind of like a tree trunk with bulbs on it. I asked the farmer, "Is this how Brussel sprouts grow?" He looked at me like I was the craziest person ever. But yes. This is how they grow.

Totally blew my mind.

Cookie Monster

Going to Grandma's house is great, but going to Grandma's house usually means FOOD. Lots of lots of food. And lots of foods I normally wouldn't eat, like cookies, candies and danishes. I was literally eating to the point of nausea. I know it's not good for me, but Grandma can't eat all the food by herself! She filled that candy jar for us! Now that I'm back at home and trying to get my eating back to normal, I'm going through some serious cookie withdrawals. I just want cookies, lots of lots of cookies. All I can think about are cookies. I'm trying to let the craving pass, but I know if I say, "I'll have cookies just this once" then tomorrow will roll around and I'll end up getting cookies again. Why are cookies so darn addictive? (Seriously, if anyone knows, I'd love to hear it.) Argh. Does anyone have any ideas on how to quell the cookie monster?

Weekend with the family

I’m finally back from the weekend with my family. I don’t think I ever realized how beautiful the ranch is. I got there late on Thursday and woke up early on Friday (this wasn’t my choice). The morning was so cool and beautiful and fresh so I went for a walk. I didn’t bring my tennis shoes, so I just went out in my PJs and my crappy shoes, and went for a walk. It felt so good, that I wanted to run. So in my crappy Payless shoes and my PJs, I started running. This was the first time I’ve run in weeks if not months. It felt so good. It was so beautiful. Then I started feeling bad. I started crying. I didn’t want to be home for a funeral. I didn’t want everyone to be sad. I shouldn’t be out enjoying myself when everyone was sad. It’s funny how running makes all these things come up. Just moving one foot in front of the other over and over brings out so much emotion.

The rest of the weekend involved a lot of food, some crying, and lots of family. We all ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine (the house is in a vineyard after all) and looked at some really old pictures of my family. My grandma looks like an actress from Madmen in some of them, and my Pop Pop looks so different, but always with a big smile. I loved looking at all the old pictures and I could have seriously sat there for hours. Some of them were pictures of my great grandparents as children. There was even one where everyone was wearing pioneer type garb. I took some of these pictures, and I’m going to try to scan them and maybe post a few on here. I don’t think I ever realized how much I like my family. Each and every one of them are really cool people. Even though Pop Pop isn’t here any more and that makes everyone sad, he left behind a really awesome family. I think that’s something to be happy about.

That and all the wine ☺

A Day at the Farm

Saturday was a rare occurrence for city folk like me. I went to a farm. Metro North has this one-day pass that includes train ticket and a shuttle around the Millbrook area. Our first stop of the day, was the farm. It was pretty cool, especially considering my recent interest in where my food comes from. We started with a cheese tasting, all made from milk from the cows and goats on the farm. We even saw part of the cheese making process where they were heating the milk in large vats. We ate our cheese and some pumpkin ice cream (that's a healthy breakfast, right?) and then we looked around at all the animals. The chickens were beautiful. The goats tried to eat everything. And I was in love with this baby cow.

He has giant brown eyes like a Disney princess. It was a really happy farm.

Next stop was the village of Millbrook for lunch and shopping. I got these really cool soup bowls. Set of two for just $2.

I say that’s a successful get.

After lunch we went apple picking. It wasn’t exactly fall weather, and it had warmed up to about 80 degrees. It was still nice, but definitely a little warm for climbing up hills and trees to get the best apples. I have SO MANY APPLES. I’ve already baked apple bread and made some apple carrot soup. I’d have to eat two apples a day before if I wanted to get rid of them before they go bad. I think I’ll make more apple bread and freeze it. Can’t waste any apples. I worked hard picking them!

Last stop before we headed home was a wine tasting at Clinton vineyards. The owner was this lovely old lady who you can tell gets sloshed every night. She was a hoot. And the wine was pretty darn tasty. I always thought that when a wine describes itself as having a scent of apples, that they some how added apples. Nope. It’s all the grapes. Different years can taste very different. Who woulda think?

We finished here with a glass of wine and a nice relaxing view.

There’s really nothing more you could ask for.

I’ll write about my apple picking tomorrow. But first, this is my Grandma and Pop Pop.

Pop Pop was always like a big teddy bear. When I was a kid I remember I would go visit in the summers. Sometimes Pop Pop would take me and my brother out on his golf cart and he would let us stand in the back, where I’m pretty sure only golf bags are supposed to ride. I would pretend that I was riding on a parade float and waving at my invisible yet adoring crowd. He was usually pretty careful with only the occasional speed bump, but the speed bumps were the most fun part. That’s what I remember most about my Pop Pop. Last night, he passed away from cancer. I think I can safely say that I hate cancer. Cancer has taken too many people from my family. It has taken too many from too many families.

This time next year, I plan on running the Chicago marathon and, as usual, I plan on running with the American Cancer Society’s charity team, DetermiNation. But this time, I’ll run and raise money in memory of my Pop Pop. It’s time to tell cancer to suck it.

Did you know...?

Today I went to the Union Square farmers' market and learned all about the stinkbug! I didn't go there looking to learn about the stinkbug, I just wanted an apple. So when I went to buy the apple, the farmer explained to me why they're covered in a powder. It's all because of the stinkbug. The only thing that the stinkbug doesn't like is this clay dust, so they spray it on their apples. But don't worry. It's all organic. I learned other fun things like stinkbugs have brown spots on their heads, beaks like a bird and they came from China in 1998.

I also learned how to make braised kale with raisons, although that was a totally different conversation.

On the menu this week: Carrot apple soup (with some hopefully awesome apples I'll get tomorrow when we go apple picking) and something with spaghetti squash. Should be interesting.

I feel like a bad Lisa. I had all these ideas of things I was going to write about this week, but I've been SO BUSY at work. Usually I have time on my lunch to write a new post or upload some pictures, but no. I'm too busy. Busy with what, you might ask. This has been a typical exchange over the last few days:

"Lisa, we need you to create 10 new designs for us by tomorrow morning."
"I'm sorry. That's physically impossible. Anyway I can have more time?"
"Nope. This goes live tomorrow."
"Pretty please?"
"Nope."
Urgh.

Repeat this multiple times a day.

Maybe I'll write about something interesting some day soon. But for now, I'll be tearing my hair out.

A quick update

I’ve been super busy the last week. WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO?!? Here’s a quick update for all of you wondering what I’ve been up to:

• My farmers’ market adventures continue! This week I bought parsnips and made a parsnip apple soup. I don’t think I’ve ever had a parsnip before, but guess what? They’re delightful!
• This weekend I had a dream about running. My hamstrings have been feeling really good lately (thanks to all that yoga and body rolling!) and I think I want to run. I will make a brief foray into running before it gets too crazy cold. I want to run with my DetermiNation teammates just once before the NYC Marathon!
• More good news: Josh is going to move in with me! (I’ll give you a moment to pick your jaws off the floor…Ok. Ready?) We just figured it was about damn time. It’s a little scary but also kind of exciting. I’m sure I’ll have lots to say about that in the coming months.
• Unfortunately a bit of bad news. My grandpa is very sick. I’d like to ask everyone to think good thoughts for my PopPop. He's a pretty cool PopPop.

Now back to work...Is it Friday yet?

Bikram Yoga Lisa

This week, this has been making the rounds on the interwebs.
 
Click Here
 
And you wanna know the sad thing? Multiple friends posted this on my facebook wall. That’s what I’m known for. I’m the crazy one that does Bikram Yoga.
 
Of all the things to be known for, I think I’m pretty ok with that one. 

Radishes Anyone?

This weekend included another trip to the farmer’s market. I mentioned before that the farmer’s market is my favorite lunch time errand. I would like to add to that. I also like it a whole lot more when it’s a lunch time errand. When I go on Saturday’s, it feels more like a chore, rather than a nice break from the day. And there are so many people there. I still got some good stuff.

I stocked up on sweet potatoes and radishes. They’re pretty huh?

Now I must admit, I’d never in my life purchased either of these. Sweet potatoes were easy. Anything you can do with a regular potato, you can do with a sweet potato. But the radish was different. I wasn’t even exactly sure what a radish tasted like. But they were so darn pretty and at only $1 a bunch, I couldn’t help trying them. I think Josh described it best. They’re kind of like biting into a garden. Some people say they might taste “healthy.” Either way, I bought them and now I’m trying to find interesting ways to use them. Adding them to my salad was easy, but I also added them to my grilled cheese sandwich for a little extra crunch and I must say. It wasn’t bad. But then again, anything covered in cheese is good in my book.

So, how about it? Does anyone have any interesting radish uses?

Ch-ch-changes

I don’t usually talk about food here. Obviously, food and fitness go together as part of a healthy lifestyle, but there are a lot of blogs out there that talk about food and fitness. Like A LOT. I didn’t want to be white noise. And honestly, I always felt like I don’t really know that much about food and nutrition. If you want to know the truth, I didn’t really WANT to know. I thought if I learned more about food in this country, how it’s produced, what’s in it, etc, that I might not want it any more. But recently my curiosity got the best of me. Well, I guess it was really the Kindle daily deal that got my attention. They recently had Food Inc on sale for just $1.99. Food Inc is a book based on the documentary that talks about the food industry in America and what we as consumers can do about it. There was nothing too disturbing, but some of it definitely made me feel less than comfortable about the foods I’ve been putting into my body. So I’ve been making some changes.

1. Eat less meat. I started doing this during the summer, just because lots of meat was leaving me feeling heavy and slow. Not something you want as a runner. I’ve been having lots of fun exploring new kinds of protein.


2. Go to the farmer’s market more for locally grown, in season produce. This has become my favorite lunchtime errand. Compare the farmer’s market to the grocery store and they’re totally opposite experiences. The farmer’s market is such a happy place. The air is getting crisp and wandering around looking at everything is actually fun. There are beautiful fresh flowers and food everywhere. I don’t know what the hell I would do with a radish, all I know is they’re so freaking pretty I want one. I want lots of them. And everyone looks so happy. Compare that to the grocery store where you have long lines, rude cashiers and screaming kids, and it’s night and day. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do when winter rolls around, and there’s nothing to harvest, but right now, I’m really loving this change.

I’m not going to call myself an expert on the food industry and I’m definitely not going to preach to anyone about why exactly I’m making these changes. You can always find out for yourself. But I know for me, I feel a lot better about how I’m spending my money and what I’m consuming. I still don’t think I know a whole lot about nutrition itself. Maybe Kindle will help me out with another awesome and informative daily deal.

Roll with it - UPDATE

Did I mention that body rolling your legs is also a really good arm and ab workout? After basically holding myself up on my arms while balancing on two bouncy balls, I’m still sore. Two days later. Who woulda thunk?

Roll with it

If you’re a runner, I’m sure you’re very well acquainted with the dreaded foam roller. I got news for you. There’s a better option out there. During last year’s marathon training, I had all sorts of aches and pains and somehow found myself at a body rolling class. Body rolling is exactly how it sounds- you roll your body on these little bouncy balls to help release and lengthen your tight muscles.

Image source

It doesn’t hurt nearly as much as the foam roller and, at least in my opinion, the results are a whole lot better. It’s like giving yourself a massage.

Well I had forgotten all about the wonderfulness that is body rolling until I got an email from my favorite body roller/yoga teacher/acupuncturist. She was holding a workshop for runners and it was all about the legs. That sounds like exactly what I needed. After 2 hours of rolling around on these little bouncy balls, my legs felt completely relaxed and longer. It was amazing. Intense body rolling also makes me feel a little high, so that’s a very pleasant side effect. Now I have a new tool to make this hamstring 100%. I know that if I want to increase my flexibility and work out all the kinks in my legs, I need to body roll more. Note to my friends: If you come over to my apartment, you’ll probably find me sitting on some bouncy balls. It might be weird, but you’ve been forewarned.

Ok people. I know I’ve been kind of bad with keeping up with my blog. I’m just having a crisis in motivation lately. The weather’s getting cooler, the NYC marathon is approaching and everyone is out running. Everyone except me. And I’m kind of jealous. My hamstring feels a lot better, and I suppose I could try to go for a run, but I’m really afraid of hurting myself badly and not being benched for longer. So I’m just going to sit on the sidelines and watch and cheer everyone on. Whenever I see someone run by, especially if I can tell they’re on a long run, I silently cheer them on in my head. Would I sound crazy if I started actually cheering for random runners?

The good news is, with my hamstring feeling better, I’m enjoying yoga more. Even my yoga wasn’t making me as happy with a lame hamstring. I felt like I couldn't do anything but my flexibility is increasing and I don’t feel like I hate yoga. I’ve had many teachers tell me I look angry in class, so I’m trying really hard to look like I’m enjoying it. So far, I think it’s working. I guess it’s all a work in progress.

What a Chicken- Update!

As Seen On My Run: Update

Remember when I said I found this lost chicken?

Well turns out the chicken is not lost. She lives there. And she belongs to a very nice little old lady. Now, when I make the trek to the grocery store, I always make sure to stop and talk to the chicken. It's kind of cool. We live in a city. How many of us get to watch chickens scratch around and peck at things? And as far as chickens go, I think she's a very pretty chicken.

In other news, I went to a New York Sports Club to ask them about personal training. I went to them first, because you can buy a 30 day pass. I still don't really like gyms, and I don't want to buy an actual membership anywhere. Especially because in the city, most of them are around $70 or $80 a month. The personal trainer seemed really cool, but the manager did exactly what I thought he would: he tried to sell me on way more than I actually needed. I don't want to get a pack of 20 classes, Mr Manager. I just want to try out 3 or 4.

I think I'll keep looking for now.

So blah

Sorry I’ve been a little absent lately. I’ve been in a bit of a funk. I never realized how much running kept me motivated. Since I’ve stopped running, I feel so blah. Sometimes I feel like if I’m not constantly moving forward, I’m floundering. What is running if not simply moving forward? Running gave me goals. Something to always strive and work towards. Now that I’ve stepped away from that, it feels like I’m goal-less. What am I working towards? I’ve always kept the Chicago marathon in the back of my mind, which I fully intend on doing in 2012, but it’s too far away. I need something to work on now. I’ll have to find another challenge to take on while I’m letting this hamstring do its thing. I wish it would hurry up already. I’m tired of sitting around like a bump on a log. Not only do I feel blah. I feel like I look more blah. There’s more squish where I swear there used to be muscles. So here’s my immediate plan:

1. Start swimming again. I’m not the best swimmer. I can swim, but I’ve never really understood the breathing while doing strokes. I’m sure there’s a YouTube video or something on that.
2. Find a personal trainer. At least if I’m working on weights, maybe some of the squish can be replaced my muscles again.

Of course, I’m not sure if I should do any of these while the hamstring is still healing, or if I should wait. It doesn’t really hurt any more, more like something is off. A constant ache and stiffness. It only hurts if I move it really quickly in any weird, jerky movements. Any thoughts? Am I ok to do something more than just yoga?

Here’s all the other news:

I went to the eye doctor. There was nothing wrong. This guy tried to sell me on laser surgery. So now I wasted my time (and money) on doctor’s appointments that I didn’t even need. Argh.

Summer is now over. I ended the summer with some Dinosaur BBQ, swimming, drinking, oysters and lobster mac and cheese at Mermaid Oyster Bar (YUM!) and more drinking. Maybe that’s the real reason I feel so flabby lately.

I have an eye appointment with the cornea specialist this morning. I'm a little nervous. Both of the last doctors told me there were "unusual changes." I'm going to be positive and hope that those changes are something cool. Maybe X-ray vision? Ot shooting laser beams from my eyes? That would sure help when I try to navigate Times Square during rush hour. Slow people, beware!

Making Friends

I think distance running is like a secret club. You don’t realize how many people are doing it until you’re immersed in it. Now I find marathoners and half-marathoners EVERYWHERE. This is why I love wearing my race tshirts when I go out to do errands. I always happen to meet another runner.

Last night I went to the grocery store since I was already getting awfully bored of eating my non perishables. I was wearing my Queens half shirt (which on a sidenote ALWAYS smells like fried food, no matter how many times I wash it) and I met this older lady. She asked me if I was a marathoner, and I said, Yes. I am. It’s still weird saying I’m a marathoner. Sometimes I have to think before I answer. She told me she runs them too and that she usually runs all the halfs each year. She was planning her next marathon for her upcoming 60th birthday. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty badass. Running is hard on the body and hard mentally. I can’t imagine I could still physically keep doing this at 60. I guess I have something to aspire to.

When I meet people like her, it makes me feel guilty that I’m sidelined. I feel like I should be out there running. And now that summer’s nearing an end and the weather is WONDERFUL, I really miss it. I want to get up early and run. Crazy, huh? But I guess I’ll do the responsible thing and let it rest. I know it’s better in the long term.

Stupid hamstring.

Post Irene Check In

Ok. I’ve been checked out for a while. This whole hurricane thing kind of freaked me out a little. I’m happy to say that at least in my neighborhood, there was no noticeable damage. A few small tree branches fell, the Dunkin Donuts almost ran out of coffee, and I have serious cabin fever, but other than that, we’re all ok.

One of the upsides to Irene and being stuck inside for three days was it gave my hamstring some time to rest. It’s hard to rest your hamstrings since I kind of use them everyday for walking. Even though it’s feeling a lot better, I’m going to lay off the running for a while. My friend actually gave me a REALLY good idea. Since I seem to keep getting the same aches, pains and injuries over and over, I’m thinking I really need to do some strength training to address some muscle weakness and imbalance. But how the heck do I even do that? I don’t know the first thing about strength training. Enter Andrea, who reminded me that there are wonderful people out there called personal trainers whose job is to teach you how to weight train properly. Now, I don’t have a ton of money, so I’m going to wait until I find some sort of special or coupon (I know they have lots on sites like LifeBooker). If anyone sees anything good for New York City, let me know. I’m looking to get buff!

What a chicken!

As Seen On My Run

Found: This chicken

Found in Riverside Park near 137th St. Answers to the name "Here chicken, chicken!" If you or someone you know is missing a chicken, go get him, before some hungry person does.

Ok so I wasn't running. I'm still out with a hamstring injury. I was actually walking back from the grocery store with all my non-perishables. With all the hurricane prepping and the stress of the grocery store, I needed something to lighten the mood. This chicken helped.

Curse you hamstrings!

I think it’s official. I pulled my hamstring, so I'm going to be out for a while, and I'm definitely not going to run Grete's Gallop. I was really looking forward to those waffles, too. It’s nothing extreme, but again, the goal of this year has always been to get stronger and run better, so I can do the Chicago marathon in 2012. I don’t want to push it now and do something REALLY bad. I’ve had problems with my hamstrings when I was marathon training last year, so I think this has proven that this is a major weakness for me, which I suppose is a good thing to know before marathon training next year. So what’s the plan now for running Lisa? I plan to get stronger and more flexible. This means lots more yoga, some strength training (which means I may ACTUALLY have to go to the gym), and I’ll probably throw in some swimming for good measure. I know that a lot of injuries are caused by muscle imbalance so I’m going to have to work on the leg as a whole, not just my hamstrings. I think this might actually require some sort of workout plan, which I’m not good at. I’m more of a willy nilly kind of exerciser. I'm not sure how to even come up with a plan. What are your favorite leg exercises?

I'm not sure how long I'll take a break from running. I don’t usually run in the winter because of my asthma, but my friend gave me some advice on how to warm up my lungs before running outside which might help, so hopefully I can do a little bit of running before the end of the year. Maybe some small races. Don’t worry, friends. Running Lisa will run again soon!

It’s been almost 2 weeks since Josh has been out of town. Here’s a list of fun and exciting things I did while he was gone.

I got up early on the weekends to do things. Exciting things like running, yoga and grocery shopping.

Last Saturday I got up early for a run, rode bikes at Summer Streets, hung out with MiMi and went to the pool. The best part? I didn’t shower or put on makeup all day.

I hosted a super awesome girls’ night which may have involved watching Disney movies and singing all the songs. If I tell you more, I’ll have to kill you.

I didn’t shave my legs for almost 2 weeks.

I ate lots of peanuts. LOTS

While all of these things were super awesome, I’m kind of glad he’ll be back tomorrow. How can you not miss this face?

Things are looking up...sort of

A lot has happened in the last 24 hours. Here’s a quick run down of all the good and the bad:

Good- No more heartburn! How? Chewing gum and eating pickles. Yes. Pickles. It has something to do with the vinegar.

Bad- I went to the ophthalmologist. He said there were some “unsual” changes to my cornea and now I have to see a cornea specialist. He says cornea specialist, I hear “really expensive doctor visit.” I’m also not allowed to wear any contact lenses for at least a month, so that sucks. I don’t know what he thinks is wrong, but I’m thinking it’s not going to be something good.

Good- I gave in and bought glasses. They’re really weird to get used to. I feel like the floor isn’t where I’m expecting it to be. But at least I can see.

Good and Bad- We had a surprise party for my friend Liesse. She’s moving to Belgium soon. We’re going to miss her, but it was a fun party (she was really surprised!) and it’s nice to have friends around the world. It gives me a reason to travel.

Stop trying to seduce me, Liesse.

Good- Even though I was a little disoriented with the new glasses, I got up for a run this morning.

Bad- I didn’t make it very far in my run. My hamstrings have been bothering me. Not painful, just weird in a way that makes me worry. The balls of my feet feel like rocks. I ran about 2 miles and then decided to stop. The point of this year was to take some time away from serious running to focus on getting stronger and running smarter. The goal has always been Chicago 2012. I don't want to go and get hurt now. If it doesn’t start to feel better soon, I may have to cancel Grete’s Gallop. We’ll see.

Good- When I stopped running, I found a farmer’s market. I always run with money in case of emergency. These beautiful cherries were staring at me, begging to be eaten. I considered that an emergency. I bought my cherries and had a nice leisurely stroll home.

Good- Tonight is our first annual Mammary Fest. Basically, it’s a girls’ night. If I tell you any more, I’ll have to kill you.

On Fire

I rescheduled my run last night because I was feeling “blah.” I would like to amend “blah” to “on fire” and not in a good way. Out of nowhere, I have crazy bad heartburn. Like, REALLY bad. For the last two weeks. Almost non stop. It’s left me pretty much not wanting to do anything. Yoga helps (I think it’s all the twisting) but when yoga is over, I’m on fire again. And then I feel guilty for skipping my runs, but who wants to run when your chest feels like it's on fire?

I hate taking over the counter antacid stuff because, in the long run, it makes me feel worse. I’m not sure what brought this on. My diet hasn’t changed. Sure I’ve been a little stressed, but not heartburn day and night stressed. I did look up some natural remedies, and everyone suggested chewing gum. The saliva keeps the acid at bay and, so far, it works. Unfortunately, I hate chewing gum because it makes my jaw hurt. (I’m a TOTAL mess.) Now I need some Tylenol because my jaw hurts. If anyone else has any good cures for heartburn, PLEASE SHARE!!!

I did manage to drag myself out of bed and go for a run, but I felt heavy and slow and I didn’t want to push myself. I even walked. I never walk on my morning runs. Add this to my eye problem that has left me unable to wear my contacts and the sore jaw from gum chewing, and you have a blind, on fire, unhappy Lisa.

Blah

I haven't been much of a runner lately. Or a blogger for that matter. I've been busy and stressed. My stomach has been a mess lately. I'm having a problem with my eye and can't wear my contacts, so I can't see. I'm basically a hot mess. And I just don't feel like running. I planned to go for a run this evening. I was even planning a nice long run because I've been stressed and it would be great to clear my head. But now that I'm here, I just don't feel like it. I'd rather curl up with my book.

I promise, I'll run soon. I'll even get up tomorrow morning and do it. I just frankly don't want to do it now.

Biking Lisa

Well folks, the boyfriend is out of town, and you know what my first thought was? Now I can get up early on the weekend and do stuff instead of sleeping in and cuddling! Sick, I know. So with the BF gone, I got up early on Saturday to partake in more Summer Streets goodness. I met with my DetermiNation team at our usual spot and joined them for a run. They were all running much longer, so the plan was to run about 4 miles, then rent a bike from Summer Streets so I could enjoy the course without having to run the whole thing. A genius idea!

My run was ok. I’ve been really stiff lately so I was looking forward to getting on a bike and using some different muscles for a change. Good news is I did get to use some different muscles: my standing around and waiting muscles. Many of you may not know that there are all sorts of free things at Summer Streets, including free bike rentals, so I expected there to be a line. When I got in the line, the guy told us it would be about a 30 minute wait. I was fine with that, since MiMi was with me and we had PLENTY to talk about ;) But over an hour later, we were still waiting. Now it was the principle of the thing. After an hour and a half of waiting, we finally had our bikes. (Word to the wise, if you want to rent a bike, get there at 7am when they open. Or rent rollerblades. There was no line for that.)

Yea, I look pretty awesome.

We only had the bikes for an hour, so we didn’t get as far as I wanted, but it was still pretty fun. It was a beautiful day, Park Ave is pretty, and MiMi and I sampled lots of free food and goodies along the way. The rest of my day consisted of playing with puppies (!!!), reading the New Yorker by the pool, and eating almost anything with a peanut in it. Why peanuts? Josh is allergic and I'm not allowed to eat them around him, so I’m trying to get my fill while he's away. He’ll be gone for over a week. I think that’s enough time to get all peanutted out.

Poor Kitty

My run this morning was pretty unremarkable. I was still sore from my Wednesday night run, so I set out for a nice, easy, short run. The weather was great and despite being stiff, it felt pretty good. Until I got to the end of my run.

As Seen On My Run: Poor Kitty

At the end of my run, I found a kitty. This one looked like Speedy, except it was older and had a red collar on, so it clearly belonged to someone. I approached the sleeping kitty, but it wasn't sleeping. There were no signs of trauma, but this cat was clearly dead. In the 15 minutes since I passed this spot, this cat walked to this spot and died. I was taken aback and finished with my run and stretches, but it was half-hearted. I kept thinking about the poor kitty. The thing that gets me is that this cat was someone's pet. Some kid or little old lady is probably out there looking for it. So for them, I want to say a few words for the kitty:

Dear Kitty, I hope you had a long and wonderful life, full of balls of string, cat treats, and lots of love. I hope there are lots of head scratches and cans of tuna in kitty heaven.

Here's to hoping the rest of my Friday is better.

Been...So...Busy...

I’ve been so busy this week I’ve barely had time to think let alone run, but I was really thankful for my run last night.

Yesterday I was crazy busy and work and super stressed. (A quick side note: I hate the term ASAP. Not everything can always be done ASAP. What does ASAP even mean? It’s too non-specific, too overused and it needs to DIE. Don’t ever say ASAP to me ever. Anywho…) When I got home last night, I was so happy that the weather was nice and I had been planning on going for a run. Nothing erases the stress of a busy work day like a good run. I put on running shoes, slapped in my head phones and headed out.

After a long hard day, I always start off thinking about all the stresses of the day, but somewhere along the way, it stops. You listen to the music. You concentrate on your breathing or your running form, and everything else goes away. I ran through Morningside Park, said “hello” to all the turtles in the pond, and ran home. I even finished with some cross training exercises and lots of good stretching.

By the time I got back to my apartment, I was relaxed and happy. Funny how a good run will do that to you. Now, back to the grind…

The Miracle

Yesterday was a truly miraculous day. Ok so there was no running involved but things like this help me keep running.

Yesterday I went shopping for jeans, a usually treacherous ordeal for any woman. But here's where the miracle happened. Every pair of jeans I tried on looked AH-MAZING. Expensive, cheap, skinny, cropped, it didn't matter. They all fit like a booty-lifting glove. It was a huge self-esteem booster. I attribute my awesome legs and booty to all that running and yoga. Now that I've realized my full fabulous potential, I have to keep looking and feeling fabulous.

Tonight, yoga. Tomorrow, a run!

Summer Streets!

This weekend’s run sucked and was awesome at the same time. I took the week off after the Queens Half (I figured I had the right to!) and Saturday was my first day back. I met up with my DetermiNation teammates for an injury prevention clinic, a fundraising clinic, and a run. But this wasn’t just any run. This was the first Summer Streets of the year. So what’s Summer Streets? It’s one of those things that only New Yorkers would think is an excellent idea. For 3 Saturdays in August, the city shuts down Park Ave from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge for runners, bikers, roller bladers, or anyone that wants to get out there and enjoy the traffic-free streets. It’s surprisingly pretty exciting to run down the middle of the street, so I started my run feeling pretty great. I got about 20 minutes into the run when my stomach started doing all sorts of flips. I would normally run through it, but this was almost unbearable, so I started to head back early. And I walked. Walking on my runs makes me feel like a failure. But walking gave me a chance to better check out what Summer Streets has to offer.

I knew most of my teammates would be running for another 40 minutes or so, so I took my time getting back to Hope Lodge and I’m glad I did. Summer Streets has more to offer than I thought. Free bike or skate repair, water and aid stations for anyone that needs it, free bike and skate rentals, and a ton of free food and coupons. I could have had a whole meal if I wanted. They had juices, smoothies, sorbet, fiber bars, cheeses, even a farmer that showed everyone how to milk a cow and make butter, something us New Yorkers rarely see. So I took my time and took in all there was to see and it was pretty fun. I did manage to squeeze in a little more running, but it still wasn’t pleasant. I’ve decided that next week I’m going to go back and rent a bike. My DetermiNation teammates are scheduled to run the Brooklyn Bridge next week, which is a much longer run than I want to do. So I think I might rent a bike and ride along with them. Who’s with me?

Will run for waffles

The best thing about every run are the PICTURES! Here is my "Best of the Queens Half Montage"

My favorite thing about these pictures is you can tell that I'm actually running. Usually, they catch me with both my feet on the ground and I look very stationary. Not this time. I outsmarted them by ACTUALLY running. Who woulda thought?

In other news, I haven't run since the race on Saturday. I always find myself in a post-race funk. Like, now what? Why keep running now? So I've decided I'm going to sign up for another one. I know ROBYN, I said I was going to take it easy this year. I still will. I just like having a goal and a reason to go run with my friends. I'm going to sign up for Grete's Gallop on Oct 1. It's in Central Park, it starts at 9am (a gloriously late start for a race) and I hear they have waffles at the end. Sure, I could BUY waffles. They'll just taste so much better after running 13 miles.

A little song about running

I forgot to share with you my song I made up post-race. Here it is (set to the tune of "I Feel Pretty" from Westside Story):

I feel happy
Oh so happy
I feel happy and snappy and bright
And it's crappy for anyone who isn't me tonight

This song can be attributed to spending too much time with Josh (who has a song for EVERYTHING) and for the post-run delirium.

I revised the song yesterday to better reflect my current feelings:

I feel stiff
Oh so stiff
It's as if I've been running all day
And I wish, all this pain would just go away

That's what I get for my PR. I guess no pain, no glory. *Sigh*

Queens Half Recap: Queens-0, Lisa-1

I’m sure you’re all wondering how the race went. Well I’ll cut to the best part: I totally kicked Queens’ butt! Guess that cupcake/pasta/beer method worked! Here’s how it all went down:

I woke up at 5am (with the new hat in tow) and took a cab with some other runners out to Queens. I got there around 6 and met up with my friends in the really long port-a-potty lines. We lined up at the start line for the 7am start. I always get excited right before the start of a race, but I was trying to keep it in check. It was already warm and I wasn’t expecting to perform that well. Around 7:15, we were off!

I ran the first mile in about 10:40 and I was already getting a little discouraged. The next mile was about 10:15. This was a little better, but it still wasn’t fast enough if I wanted to meet my goal time. At mile 6, I was still behind my goal time. I told myself to relax, and whatever happened would happen. Then something magical happened. As soon as I relaxed, I started going faster. Mile 6 to 7 was my fastest mile. When I reached mile 7, I realized I was on track to set a personal record (PR). I checked and rechecked my watch to make sure. I was magically a few seconds under my goal time. Now that the PR seemed like a possibility, I wanted to give myself a little wiggle room. So I continued on, remembering to relax and have fun. That seemed to be the key

I started feeling the heaviness in my legs around mile 9. I was still ahead of my goal time, and by now I was about a minute or two ahead, so I figured I could take a walking break at the next water station. I was also pretty tired of accidentally pouring Gatorade up my nose. Running and drinking isn’t that easy, so a walk break seemed like a good idea. After my little break, I felt renewed and kept going.

At this point in the race I was passing a lot of people. I just have a cheap watch from K-mart so it doesn’t give me my pace per mile. I have to do the math at each mile to figure it out. Since I was getting tired, I didn’t want to do math. I figured if I just kept passing people, I was probably running about the right pace.

By the time I reached mile 12, I knew I had it. I had 14 minutes to reach the finish line and still have a PR. I started to tear up, then hyperventilate. Just breathe and keep it together, Lisa! Can’t lose it now! The last mile had the most spectator support and was a lot of fun. I pushed myself to the end and finished in 2:07:33, two and a half minutes ahead of my previous best. I felt pretty freaking awesome.

At the end, I found my friend Carolann (she PR’d too!) and we decided to go play in the unisphere fountain.

Source
This was the best part of the whole morning. I jumped in in my sports bra and splashed around. It felt like I was a kid at a water park. It was so cold and wonderful. The water was up to my ankles and soaked my feet. We were playing in the fountain and saw our friend Robyn coming around the corner and we cheered her on from the fountain. It was a really good way to celebrate a great race.

All in all, this was a better race than I expected. It wasn’t as hot as I was planning for and there were tons of misting stations (basically GIANT hoses) to cool us off. The course didn’t have great spectator support, but I actually really like the park and the course wasn’t bad. But that’s not what I was so happy with this race. I didn’t get a PR because the weather was good or the course was nice. It happened because I ran a really smart race. I knew when to push myself, how much to push myself, when to just breathe, and when to take a break. It was still hard and there were times when I couldn’t breathe or when things were hurting or even once when I thought I might throw up. But I was able to push through it. So basically, I kicked butt. Take that Queens!

The rest of the day, I indulged myself and relaxed. I ate a GIANT cheeseburger (yum) and A LOT of drinks. Drinks are more effective after running. Next was a nap, followed by S’Mac for some decadent mac and cheese (more yum) and even MORE drinks. Someone even bought me some flowers.

What more could a girl ask for?