DetermiNation KickOff!

OMG Are you ready? Fall season for DetermiNation officially kicks off TONIGHT!!! I admit, I’ve been a little lazy the last week or 2, but this should really help to get me off my butt. Tonight we get to meet the rest of the 2012 Fall Team, all the coaches, mentors, and old friends! 

Go DNation! 

Family Weekend

That was kind of a whirlwind weekend. My mom and my brother got here Friday night, and they left this morning. Apparently I’m really bad at taking pictures, so we don’t have any photographic proof that they were here, but they were. Saturday we went to the Cloisters. I love the Cloisters. The collection is pretty awesome, and I love the park surrounding the Cloisters. We saw lots of groundhogs for some reason. They were pretty much everywhere. Then we went to St John the Divine. It’s a HUGE church. Like so big you can’t see the ceiling. To keep along the theme of big things, we went to Dinosaur BBQ. Our appetizer was tiny and unsatisfying, but that’s ok because our dinner was HUGE. We got a family style sample, and split it. SO. MUCH. FOOD. We went home and pretty much immediately went to sleep. 


I almost wasn’t hungry for brunch the next morning, but I managed ☺ Then Kevin went off to explore by himself and Mom and I wanted to check out the World Trade Center memorial. That was also huge. Much bigger than I even expected. Is it just me or is it weird for people to be posing and smiling for pictures in front of a memorial? Then we headed to Slane for some drinks and then back home to make a dent in those leftovers. All in all, a pretty good weekend, but I think I need another weekend to recover from my weekend ☺


Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

OMG MY MOM WILL BE HERE SOOOOOOOOOON

That is all.

(PS Don't forget to donate! http://main.acsevents.org/goto/runninglisa)

Memorial Day

The weekend isn’t even over, and we’ve already seen and eaten so much! On Saturday Josh and I went to the NY Botanical Garden. Not only did we see lots of pretty flowers and forests, we saw lots of animals! There was a bunny, chipmunks, woodpeckers, blue jays, toads- even a wild turkey! Trust me, a wild turkey running at me was pretty much the last thing I expected to see.

 When we got home we made a fancy pants cold salmon dish with avocado sauce that I found in Bon Appétit magazine. I didn’t realize that the recipe was for 4 servings, so we ended up with lots of extra sauce and salad.

To remedy this problem, Sunday we made some quinoa patties with avocado sauce and some left over salad, along with a side of avocado fries. These fries were DELICIOUS!!! They needed some kind of sauce, but we couldn’t figure out what. Something with some kind of ZING. 

In other news, despite having a lazy week last week, my training is kicking into gear. Today I ran my longest run this season, almost 5 miles. I think I’m doing pretty well. I have a problem with racing strangers. If someone is in front of me, I do my best to try to pass them, but I guess whatever keeps me motivated.

With my training kicking off, I’m also kicking off my fundraising in a big way. DetermiNation is having a contest for the biggest fundraiser this week. The person that raises the most before June 4^th will win a 7 night stay for 2 at an Interval International Resort anywhere in the world. So this week, before June 4^th, my goal is to raise $1000. I know that’s a lofty goal, but I think with everyone’s help, we can do it. And  (if I win) I might even bring one of my very generous donating friends with me.  Let’s start this fundraising off right! You know you'll donate to me eventually, so just do it now by clicking here. 

Everyone have a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Lazy Lisa

I have been a big lazy bum this week. I've only run once this week. The weather hasn't exactly been cooperating, but that's still no excuse. I have the DetermiNation kick off on Tuesday, which officially starts the training season, so that should provide me with some motivation. Hopefully after the nice long weekend, I'll come back next week ready to kick some running butt.

Everyone have a happy and safe memorial day!

A More Personal Post

Ok. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’m going to post something about a very personal lady problem I’ve been having. If you don’t want to read about this, I suggest you watch this video of kittens reading the news instead.

Ok. Now it’s just us. So basically, I had a yeast infection that wouldn’t go away. I won’t go into all the details, but needless to say, I was very uncomfortable for quite a while. I had gone to the doctor several times and they loaded me up with creams and pills to no avail. So I started looking at more natural methods. The good news is I found something that worked! (What would we ever do without the internet?) Apple cider vinegar is a godsend and basically a home remedy for just about anything. (Seriously, look it up.) My vinegar baths (I smelled like salad!) were able to get rid of the symptoms, but the bigger problem was that I didn’t want the infection to come back- EVER. After more internet research, I found the “anti candida” diet. You can look that up too, but I’ll sum it up for you- lots of green vegetables and plain yogurt, and not a whole lot else. The point was to starve the yeast of anything it finds tasty, which unfortunately is also most of the things I find tasty. It’s pretty much the most boring diet ever, but I was determined to get rid of this thing once and for all. I stuck to most of the diet most of the time (weekends are hard) and I’m pretty sure it helped and I feel almost as good as new.

So what’s the point of this story? Well I learned a few things about myself that I wanted to share.

1. I have more willpower than I give myself credit for. It was surprisingly easy to give up things like bread and cheese that had become almost staples of my diet. A little less easy to give up sugar, but most of the time I’m ok. When faced with, say, a cookie, I would think, I could either eat this cookie and feel good for a few minutes, or I could skip the cookie and avoid the itching. When faced with those options, you find you have more strength and willpower than you ever imagined.

2. I think the most important thing I’ve taken away from this experience is I’ve started to look at the food I eat a little differently. I’m usually pretty healthy, but this has made me look at food as not just something you eat because you’re hungry. The food you eat can also act as medicine. It’s meant to nourish every part of you. Food is fuel. So now instead of thinking of taste first and health second, I’ve been approaching eating from the viewpoint of finding the best thing possible I could put into my body. And believe it or not, I’ve found ways to make this incredibly boring diet actually taste good too. I gotta say, I kinda like it. I feel so clean and light- and way less itchy too!

I'm a Green Machine

Thursday night I went to an info session for DetermiNation. We didn’t have a huge turn out (just 3 people), but it was great. Coach Ramon was talking about the experience you would have when you joined the team, and it made me think about my marathon. It made me really nostalgic. I’m so proud to be a part of this group, and I’m happy I get to train with them again this summer.

While I was at Jack Rabbit, I picked up some new shoes and let me tell you they are AWESOME!!!! As a runner, we’re supposed to pick the shoes that feel the best, regardless of what they look like. You’re not trying to be cute when you run 26 miles. So normally, I’m stuck with whatever they have. This time, I actually had options, so I chose these bad boys.

I feel like a running machine in these. I like to think I’m a Green Machine. Maybe it will make training more fun. And they even match my new running pants! But despite the new shoes, I was really lacking motivation to run yesterday. Josh had to literally push me out the door. I'm so glad he did! Yesterday was the PERFECT day for a run! And the new shoes felt pretty good too:) I'm slowly inching up my mileage, so I'm sure I'll have some fun and agonizing running tales to tell soon.