BREAKING NEWS!

Breaking news! I'm a huge doofus. I packed all my stuff for the Queens half and went to Josh's place downtown. It's much easier to get to Queens at 6am from his apartment. I was having a nice relaxing evening when I realized out of nowhere I forgot my hat. Normally, it might not matter, but I know for a fact that a large part of this course does not have a lot of shade. I don't want to fry on my run.

So it's 8:30 and I'm running around like a maniac trying to find a hat. I remember there's an Adidas store on Houston and I run over there. That store sucks. It's not actually for anyone that participates in sports. It's for people that want to look like they do. So no hats.

I call Josh so he can help me figure out where to find a store. All the running stores I can think of close at 8. He finally found a Sports Authority on 6th Ave and I headed over there as quickly as I could. I ran into the store frantically asking if they had hats. And yes, they did. Lots of hats. The lady was really nice and tried to show me all the different kinds, but I didn't care. I just wanted to buy a stupid hat and go home. The hat was acquired, and now I'm safely back home. I hope this hat is worth it.

Pasta, Cupcakes and Beer (Oh My!)

It seems this week that my carbs of choice have been beer, pasta, and cupcakes. We’ll see if this was effective Saturday morning at 7am. I did go for a quick run this morning. This was my taper week, so I haven’t run all week. It’s supposed to make you feel like a caged animal so you have tons of energy for the race. My run this morning was nice and easy, just to loosen my legs a little, and it felt pretty good. Maybe the cupcake/beer/pasta method is working!

The Queens half is officially tomorrow. For those of you that are not familiar with Queens, I’ll be running here.

This is Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The site of the 1939 and 1965 World’s Fairs. Near Mets Stadium and the US Open. Most of you will recognize it as where they filmed Men In Black. The whole thing has a weird Jetsons vibe. The course looks like really complicated footwork instructions for a dance. Turn left. Turn right. Go straight. Go around. Hop on one foot. It should be…interesting. I know that I can physically do the distance, and for once, I’m not worried about that. I’m worried that I’ll get lost. Or that, with the predicted high of a nice, balmy 91 degrees, I’ll be super slow. I was hoping to beat my last time, but with the heat and all the confusing turns, I’m not expecting that. I’ve only done one previous half marathon, so this race will either be a new PR, or the worst I’ve ever done. I guess I have to be ok if it’s my worst but hope for the best.

Either way, I’ll post a race recap later this weekend. Wish me luck!

Carbs!

The Queens half marathon is now less than a week away. This brings me to my favorite part of the training- CARB LOADING. Ah yes. Carbs. A runner’s best friend. My usual strategy is to eat any carb that crosses my path, until I’m about to burst. Turns out, that’s actually not the right way to do it. So I’m going to attempt to do this the right way for once. This means that about 70% of my calories should come from carbs, not that I should consume more calories. I will also cut down on my fats and eat only lean proteins. I’m also trying to cut down sugar, mostly because it gives me an upset tummy, and to avoid beans and broccoli, for… obvious reasons. This sounds a whole lot less fun than just eating any carb in sight.

So that pretty much leaves me with beer.

Beer is totally a carb.

Rookie Mistake

It’s been hot. REALLY HOT. So I’ve been talking a lot about staying hydrated. Guess I need to take my own advice.

Friday was a high of 103 and Saturday a high of 99 (plus humidity), so Sunday’s high of 91 felt downright pleasant. I ran my usual Sunday errands, followed by my usual Sunday Bikram Yoga class. This class, however, did not feel very usual. After about 5 or 10 minutes, I was dizzy. SUPER dizzy. That’s when it occurred to me that while I was out running those Sunday errands, and while I was out on Saturday evening, I hadn’t really been paying attention to how much water I was drinking. I drank some, but definitely not enough. That's not a mistake I usually make. The class became a huge struggle. I did a whole lot of sitting.

So let this be a lesson to you, boys and girls. Even if it’s a little cooler, it’s STILL hot out. Keep drinking that water. And don’t forget about electrolytes!

A Hot Mess

Yesterday it was too hot to run, but somehow not to go to Bikram yoga. It was hot, but I survived. When I got home, I hydrated, ate cold foods (yay frozen grapes!), and hydrated some more.

The Queens half marathon is next Saturday (WHAT?) so this week was my down week. I was happy that my Saturday morning run was only 5 miles because it’s still crazy balls hot out. I drank a nice cold smoothie for breakfast, downed some water, and headed out. Yep. Still hot.

I met up with my DetermiNation group in Central Park for our regular Saturday morning runs. The coaches were all at a triathalon and I was somehow the unofficial leader of the run. We told everyone to go slow and drink more water than you think you need. I was honestly expecting the worst, like kill-me-now heat, but the run wasn’t that bad. There was a NYRR event so we “borrowed” some of their Gatorade, water and misting stations. Misting stations are THE BEST. I finished 5 miles in an awesome 58 minutes.

It was good to have my run done, but I think the heat is making people a little crazy. That brings me to my next As Seen On My Run.

As Seen On My Run: A Hot Mess

In all fairness, the following did not happen during my run. I was on the subway on the way home. There were some teenaged boys, a teenage girl, and an older lady in the same car with me. Out of nowhere the old lady started yelling at one of the boys “Don’t you fucking touch her! Don’t fucking talk to her! That’s my granddaughter!” She pulled the girl and they moved a few seats away. This upset the boy. He was curing and yelling “Can’t even pay someone a compliment. She’s beautiful. She has a beautiful face. Get off my fucking back. I don’t want people telling me what to do. She’s beautiful.”

He basically yelled variations of the above for at about 10 minutes. I blame the heat. It's clearly making New Yorkers crazier than usual.

I’m going to eat some more frozen grapes and stay cool.

Crazy balls hot

If you live anywhere in the US, you probably realize it’s hot. Not just hot. Crazy balls hot. Since I only ran once this week for all of twenty minutes, I wanted to get in another run this morning. I woke up at 6:30am and the guy on the radio was saying it’s dangerously hot and that we should not run outside. I took that as a sign and went back to bed for an hour.

It’s crazy balls hot, but I’m still thinking of going to Bikram. I guess that makes me a hypocrite. Or maybe just lazy. How is it too hot for 30 minutes of running, but not too hot for 90 minutes of hot yoga? Somehow it isn’t. I feel like when I do yoga later in the day I actually have time to hydrate (and rehydrate) so that makes it OK. It’s all about hydration and I have a plan.

For the first time, I measured how much water my little metal water bottle actually holds. It can hold about a half a liter. On hot days when I plan on exercising I need to drink at least 4 liters of water. So that’s 8 water bottles full. It’s about 10am and I just finished my first water bottle of the day. Only 7 more left.

Let's all stay hydrated!

Speedy

On today’s run, I almost came home with a kitty. About two minutes into my run, there was a cat just sitting by the basketball courts staring at all the birds in the trees. He was all black with yellow eyes and looked like he was maybe 6 to 9 months old. I called him a few times, and he started coming towards me, but always got distracted by a bird or a leaf blowing in the wind. Then he ran behind a bush and started attacking something. He was super duper cute. Now that I’ve seen him there, I’ll probably always look for him when I run by. I even thought about getting one of those pouches of cat food so I could carry that in my fuel strap when I go on morning runs, just in case I see him. Would that be a bit much?

Since this isn’t a blog about how I’m future a crazy cat lady, let’s talk about running. I gave up on rescuing the kitty (for now) and actually did some running. I decided maybe I should try some speed work. I’m not very good at following complicated workout instructions, so I kept it simple and sprinted between light posts. I sprinted for two light posts and recovered for one. I hate speed workouts and even at 7am it was still crazy hot, so I just did sprints for about 20 minutes. I feel like I should have done more, but damn it’s hot. Plus I kinda wanted to go back and look for the kitty.

PS I've just decided the cat's name is Speedy! (I know. I'm a dork)