Bright Lights, Big City

I'm not sure how it happened, but the weekend got away from me again. 

One of my cousins was in town for a wedding, so we got to have lunch with him and his super sweet 11 month old. We realized it had been over 6 years since the last time we saw each other. 

Time is crazy. 

On Saturday we took the train down to the city to go to a baby shower for one of Tom's friends. Sometimes I forget how close we live to NYC, I don't have a reason to go there very often.

The party had a pretty great view, and way too much champagne.

I'm always impressed by how bright Times Square is.

Buddy was glad that we came home. He's always pretty sure we're gone forever. 

I managed to drag myself out for a few miles this afternoon, and, by some sweet miracle, Yoga Camp was only 15 minutes today. I wasn't really up for anything super intense.

My training plan is a mess this week. I pretty much didn't follow it at all, and my mileage was lower than I would like. I could come up with plenty of excuses, but I just didn't make it a priority this week. On the bright side, I did make it to the mat for all of my Yoga Camp days.

There's always next week.

Marathon Training Week 11

Oh, hey! I have been very busy spending all my time hanging out with Tiny this week. We picked her up at the airport on Wednesday, and I've barely touched my computer since she got here. There has been a nice balance of relaxing and visiting at the house, and playing tourist around the area and down in NYC.

I managed to have a pretty successful week of running (I did skip one run) and finally hit that notorious distance of 20 miles.

Monday: Cross Training. Monday feels like such a long time ago, but my training log insists that I did an hour of yoga on Monday.

Tuesday: 5 miles. It was super humid out, but I was much less sore from my (short) long run than I was last week, which was nice. 5 miles @ 9:41

Wednesday: 8 miles. I woke up early to get this run in before work. It was cooler, but still humid out. I had a serious negative split and came up a little short on mileage because I was running out of time and had to book it back to the house. 7.46 miles @ 9:23

Thursday: 5 miles. I was very busy visiting with Tiny, and it was also ridiculously hot out, so Thursday ended up being a rest day. And an eat saltwater taffy day, because Tiny brought some from Oregon.

Friday: Rest Day. Squeezed in Thursday's 5 miler on Friday. I didn't write any notes about this run in my training log, so apparently it was pretty uneventful! We also did a little hiking around on our property. 5.03 miles @ 8:52

Saturday: 5 miles. This run didn't happen. We took the train down to the city to take Tiny to some touristy places. We had lunch at Katz's deli, rode the Staten Island Ferry so she could see the Statue of Liberty, and made a quick stop at Central Park. We walked all over the place, and were pretty much on our feet all day. Totally what you're supposed to do the day before a long run, right?

Sunday: 20 miles. I turned my alarm off in my sleep. I never even heard it. I woke up to the coffee maker beeping. It was still mostly dark out, and it was actually almost cold. I managed to get out the door at 7 and began chipping away at the miles. I mentally broke it into two 10 milers: 10 miles out, 10 miles back.

I actually felt pretty good for most of my run. I was better about taking in fuel than I have been, and had my audiobook (The Pillars of the Earth) to entertain me. The last couple of miles were a little warmer than I would have liked, since I started a bit later than usual, but I did it! And holy cow, the elevation!

20 miles @ 10:29!

Miles this week: 37.5

Not this year

Those of you that follow running news probably already know that the lottery for the NYC marathon opened up this week.

Up until a few days ago, I was planning to throw my name in and see what happened. But I got to thinking about how much money it would cost to run NYC (it's a $255 registration fee), and it even costs a little bit to put your name in the lottery ($11). There are a lot of other options nearby when it comes to marathons, and most of them are at least half the price of NYC. So at least for this year, I'm ok not sitting around in the cold for hours and hours before the race, and running with a completely scary number of people and paying an obscene amount of money for the privilege to do so.

So I'm still on the lookout for a fall marathon to sign up for - I've got time.

Friday was a slow day for me. I spent some quality time with my ice pack and watched a cute movie - The Other Woman.

I spent the evening babysitting and making some money. I didn't get home until almost 12:30.

I still don't know what this stuff was, but thankfully, it wasn't real nail polish.

A 3 year old with real nail polish would be terrifying. This stuff just wiped right off, which is good, because she painted half her foot with it.

My ankle is still sore, but it's definitely feeling better. I skipped running with the group this morning, which bummed me out, but it was the smart thing to do. I may attempt a little dvd workout action today (and obviously stop if it hurts). We'll see.

For now, I'm off to find some food.

I hope your weekend is off to a good start!

Did any of you enter the NYC Marathon lottery?

Snow and some race research

It tried to snow here this morning. It was really pretty, but it stuck to my car and that's pretty much it.

Like my dead tomato plant stick? I should probably pull that out or something...

Tom laughed at me because I wore my coat to the basement for my run this afternoon. It was cold down there!

It's possible I tweaked my problem ankle when I fell yesterday, because for the first time, I could feel it when I was running today. Not bad, but the fact that I could feel it at all isn't the best news. I did an easy 2 miles and called it good.

I completely forgot that I had Tiger Balm in the medicine cabinet. I put some on my ankle, maybe that will help a bit.

I've been doing a little race research, trying to find some races I want to do next year. Right now I'm looking at 3 half marathons (I don't like racing every weekend - I like having a race every few months), and...a marathon?!? It's a distinct possibility.

I'm planning on putting my name in for the NYC marathon in January when the lottery opens up (Jan 15th) because I think it would be a crazy/awesome first marathon (crowd support alone), so we'll see how that goes. I'm also looking at a couple in Pennsylvania and one up in central NY as options if I don't get NYC.

Rainy day in NYC

We finally got our act together and did some of the things we have been talking about doing. It's about time too, because Mom is leaving tomorrow night. 

Yesterday we went to the Captain Lawrence brewery for a few samples.

We also got a couple of growlers filled to go with our dinner.

This morning we convinced Mom that she couldn't come all the way from Alaska and not go into NYC, and took the train into the city.

She liked the train ride.

We had lunch at Lombardi's.

 And Tom taught Mom how to correctly eat NY pizza (for those not in the know - fold it!).

We stopped by the 9/11 Memorial, which is beautiful and extremely sad at the same time.

And checked out One World Trade, which disappeared into the clouds.

Our last stop was the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park. They just opened this week, so we had perfect timing!

We had fun looking through the shops, and I got the waffle I was thinking about all day. If you go to the Holiday Shops, look for the Wafels & Dinges cart and get a Liège waffle. Tom and I get ours plain, but they have all kinds of toppings you can get too. 

So good!

After the waffle Holiday Shops, we walked back to Grand Central for the train home.

As a continuation of our super healthy eats for the day, dinner is going to be Chinese takeout. What? We're on vacation or something. ;)

Have you been to NYC? Do you like big cities?