It’s certainly not Christmas, or even my birthday, but I figured if anyone feels like buying me a present, I would at least make it easy for them. These are some running things that I have been eyeballing lately and hopefully sooner, rather than later I can take the plunge on a few of them. These things will make me faster, right?
What are some of your favorite running items?
I’ve been trying to post more than once a week, but time is flying! I got back late last night from wonderful weekend in New Hampshire. The husband and I drove up Friday night, arrived around midnight, in bed by 1 and up 7 hours later. I kind of refuse to have my hair cut in New York, it’ s so dang expensive! And because of this, I haven’t had my hair cut since before the wedding. I went to my usual salon and had my good friend Christina cut it for me. We gossiped for a good hour before heading out to my sister in law’s graduation, which was about an hour away.
It was a beautiful day, which made all of the driving a bit easier. After the graduation, we re-grouped back at my sister’s place before heading over to the graduation party! I drank some beer and ate some good food. This also ended up being a late night, but I managed a solid 8 hours of sleep before heading off on a run with my sister.
Running in NH (or anywhere in New England) is such a nice relief from NYC. My sister has been doing a ton of Crossfit, and is in amazing shape! She’s lost over 50 pounds and she looked like a new woman when I saw her this past weekend. I am so proud of her and I can tell she is so happy! These 5 miles were the highlight of my weekend. We ran on a paved trail through the woods in Hollis, NH and it was beautiful! This was the first time my sister and I actually ran WITH EACH OTHER and it was great! We’ve gone on runs together before, but since Kerri is now a rockstar, she has no problem running fast! I ended the run literally wanting to scream “I love running!”
Also, I find this soda machine hilarious! So random in the middle of the trail…
Derek and I celebrated a late mother’s day with our moms on Sunday and brought them out to lunch at the Purple Finch and it was delicious! Thought I had a picture, but apparently I was too hungry to even think about it. I got a portabella and cheese sub with onions and peppers and sweet potato dots, basically a cheesesteak minus the steak. The sweet potato dots came with maple syrup and they were sooooo good! Yum, I wish I had more right now.
After showing off our wedding pictures to both of our families and making and making a pit stop at Target, we were on the road back to NYC around 8:30 last night. 3 trips to unload my car and a beer or 2 later, I was in bed by 1:30 and easily slept until 8 this morning.
It was surely a productive, short, busy, intense weekend, but it was great! I am definitely looking forward to spending my upcoming 3 day weekend relaxing (and running).
I signed up for this a couple weeks ago and the first one is this Wednesday. I’m excited to have a reason to not only run in Prospect Park more often, but also to bust out some speedwork on a more regular basis.
I was able to score some pretty awesome/cheap running clothes from Target yesterday! I hit up the clearance rack and there were so many good options. I bought all 3 of these for less than $30.
The brighter and more obnoxious, the better.
I’ve also been looking for a good gym bag and I found this at Target as well.
Before this gets any longer, let me mention that I have some awesome giveaways coming up soon. There will be 2 this week, so keep your eyes peeled!
First, I want to tell you all how much I have been loving my Nike Free TR Fit Winter running shoes! I was mainly looking to buy a new pair of sneakers so that I wouldn’t have to wear my running shoes to the gym all the time while I was cross training. I came upon these and decided they were perfect because they were neutral shoes (which means I could run in them) and they were on sale!
I’ve had them for 2 months now and I can’t get them off my feet. I haven’t run much in them, maybe 15 miles total, but they are great shoes for the gym, for running, or just for daily wear. They feel so good on my feet. The longest I’ve run in them has been 5 miles, so nothing crazy. I would love to run longer distances in them, but right now is not the time. They are minimal shoes, so they would definitely take some easing into.
Anyway, this is spontaneous, Nike has nothing to do with it, I honestly just wanted to express my love for these shoes and now I know why everyone has them.
I’ve been mentally preparing myself all week for my 2nd half marathon of the week. It will be my 6th one ever and I’m really hoping to make it count. Right now the weather isn’t looking so good for Saturday, but part of me thinks it will be better for the race. It’s currently going to be a high of 56 and a 30% chance of rain. I’m just hoping if it rains, that it will be later in the day. Also, I hope it’s a bit chilly, it will be refreshing after last weekend’s race.
But, what happens if I don’t PR? Yes, I will be upset, but I’m not going to cry or let it ruin my day or my life. I will just take it as a sign that I need to work a little bit harder. And at least I will have another medal 
Plus, I am also running the More/Fitness Women’s Half Marathon in 3 weeks, so I will have that. Although, that race doesn’t seem very promising for a PR, it’s 2 loops of Central Park and the hills there are not very nice.
I’m trying so hard to PR right now because I KNOW I have it in me. My body and my mind feel so ready to crush my 2 year old existing PR or 1:58:31.
It’s going to be a crazy month of racing with 2 half marathons in 1 week, followed by a 15K the following week and then another half marathon 2 weeks after that. I’m getting tired just thinking about it all. After that, it’s going to be time to take a bit of a break from long distances and time to focus on strength training. I’m not running any long races until August and by that time I will be in the midst of NYC Marathon training.
I’m off to the gym and the grocery store wearing my new Rock ‘N’ Roll USA Half shirt!
My new running clothes came in the mail yesterday! I didn’t get to try them out until tonight though, I forgot them at work yesterday. Anyway, I ordered a size medium in both the top and the shorts, but I think I could’ve gotten away with a small for both of them, they are a bit big.
I bought these from Old Navy:
I read a couple of reviews and I figured medium was the right size, but apparently not. I mean, they aren’t TOO big, they are just a bit loose and on one hand, I suppose it’s kind of nice to finally have some loose fitting clothing. The shirt doesn’t hug my body, so I can appreciate the fact that you can’t see every line or roll in my stomach. Also, the shorts are loose, but again, it’s nice to not have them squeezing me, but i can barely feel them there.
Either way, I am happy with these! They fit well enough, I’m not going to return them, I did already wear them anyway, so it’s too late. I’m thinking this is what I will wear for the race next weekend! Just gotta get some arm sleeves now.
In other news, I’m getting sick. Ugh, again. I feel like this is the 4th time in like 3 months, seriously dude, wtf! I’m fighting it off with lots of Emergen-C, but there’s only so much I can do. If it comes on full fledge, let’s be glad I still have more than a week and a half before my race. Please come and go quickly, cold.
Anyway, I ran an awesome 4 miles at the gym tonight and now I am drinking my liquid dinner.
What happened? Maybe it’s NYC or maybe it’s my lack of money, but I definitely don’t enjoy shopping as much as I used to. I still love, love, love new clothes, but the act of walking around for hours getting lost in stores full of models is a huge turn off.
This was not me today.
I spent my time after work tonight shopping for the perfect Wedding Shower Dress. I don’t know how many stores I went into, but I tried H & M, Anthropologie, Filene’s Basement, Zara, Urban Outfitters, Gap and even more that I can’t remember. Guess what I found? NOTHING.
After every store, I was getting more and more frustrated. I found many things that I liked, but they were all over $100! I swear there is no middle ground. I know there are cheaper stores out there, like Forever 21 and Strawberry, but those stores are exactly that….cheap. The clothing is not good quality, period. I could buy something from there, whether it’s $20 or $80 and it would still fall apart after one wear. I am trying very hard to stay away from those types of stores.
So yeah, there is either super cheap or expensive like $150 for a dress and honestly I cannot afford that right now…or ever, probably.
The qualities I am looking for in the perfect dress:
Is that too much to ask for? For $60 or less or even $80? Apparently.
I also, all of a sudden have this complex with shopping. I feel super self-conscious and out of place. I mean, I’m not the most feminine person; I fall during half marathons and scar up my legs (yes, I have scars) and I would much rather wear work out clothes any day, but I don’t think I have no fashion sense at all. I usually don’t care what people think, but for some reason, I feel like everyone is judging me when I’m shopping alone.
I knew I should’ve just bought a dress online, but at this point it’s too late. The shower is in 4 days and I have nothing to wear.
Rant over.
I plan on going to Macy’s tomorrow. Hopefully I can find something good there!
Know of any good dress stores that aren’t a trillion dollars too expensive?
Okay, so Derek’s real birthday was on Tuesday the 19th, but this weekend we are celebrating with lots of beer and an epic Mortal Kombat tournament. We kicked it off today with a trip to Shake Shack for dinner and a beer at Rattle N Hum.
Derek’s friend (and best man), Joe came down for the weekend to help celebrate.
Before Shake Shack, I passed some time shopping at City Sports. I picked up a new pair of running shorts and some socks.
I of course made Derek a delicious birthday cake. I made this Monday night so we could eat it on Tuesday night. Derek isn’t a huge fan of cake in general, but he sure does love Tiramisu.
I made a Tiramisu cake, using this recipe.
I made this cake once before, probably about 3 years ago and it was DEVOURED! Derek wanted to make sure he got more than one piece this year so I made it before our party, so there would be plenty of time to eat it before our guests came over.
The new Mortal Kombat came out on Derek’s birthday and he was psyched to play it! A bunch of friends are coming over tomorrow to play and compete in a violent bloody battle. I also bought Derek tickets to the American Craft Beer Festival, which is on June 4th. We go to this every year with Kerri and Scott, it’s basically tradition now. I am very much looking forward to it!
I am also planning on running 11 miles tomorrow, unless it’s pouring out, we shall see.
I also HIGHLY RECOMMEND making this cake at some point, it’s ahhhmaaazing!
I spent all day Saturday making sure I was properly fueled and rested. I drank a ton of water to keep hydrated and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a Leng Thai. This was a new restaurant for us and I must say, it surely impressed us all. I got the Cee Yew, which was highly recommended by many Yelpers. On our way home, we stopped for some ice cream from Cold Stone, I got mint ice cream mixed with Oreo cookies. It was good, but it wasn’t as good as coffee ice cream mixed with Oreos!
This was one of my best races yet! I forgot what it was like to run an amazing race. My focus, my speed, and my playlist is what made this race so awesome. This was the first time I listened to music during a race. It’s also nice to have a friend there racing with you! I’m so glad Adriana loves to run as many races as I do, she finished in 1:15, that’s an average of 8 minute miles! I told you she was speedy.
Here are my stats:
Official Chip Time: 1:24:39
Garmin Stats
Time: 1:24:39
Distance: 9.35 Miles
Splits
.35 2:55 (8:20 pace)
After the race, Mali, Derek, Dave and I went to Lenny’s to grab some lunch, where I got what I always get. A grilled cheese on a hero with tomatoes and sprouts. It was delicious, but I was hungry again 2 hours later.
After Lenny’s we went to B&H to grab a couple things for Dave and then headed over to Timberland to use our ahhhmaaaazing 55% off coupon, given to us by the lovely Erin who works at Timberland. I bought a pair of these shoes and I love them! I want the other pair in white now 
More Magazine Women’s Half Marathon this weekend! Not trying to PR, but hoping for another fantastic race!
Snowman Trooper Faux Winter Bomber Hat
So, I know I haven’t blogged in more than a week, but it was nice to have some time off to catch up on everything else. A lot of exciting things have happened over the past few days and it’s been a pretty great week.
I finished working on a play called ‘Green Eyes’ which was an unreleased Tennessee Williams play that was put into production along with several of his other unreleased pieces. The plays were put on by the company Target Margin and they were held at ‘The Bushwick Starr’ in Brooklyn. I’m not sure how many different shows there were, but they were all around 30 minutes each and every show did real well.
I did the makeup effects for my show, which consisted of scratches and bruises on a woman after a night of sexual escapades. ‘Green Eyes’ sold out every single night and it was a huge success. I wasn’t even able to get any tickets for my friends! It was a little disappointing because the show was really good and quite intense. It starred Erin Markey and Matthew Coyle and their chemistry on stage was fantastic. I was proud to be working on this show and I had a great time with everyone involved.
And I also bought three pairs of smart wool socks of course! They are still buy two get one free so how could I resist! I am determined to turn my whole sock collection into smart wool socks. Let me tell you though, that rain coat protected me amazingly well yesterday in the monsoon that was NYC! I had no umbrella because I left it at someone’s house last week so this is the only thing I had on to keep me dry. Yeah, my legs go wet, but this coat kept my upper half completely dry, it was great timing to purchase this coat.
I have a meeting on Thursday night with Eugenia to discuss the end of my internship and the position of head editor for the IRLF site!!!! I’m really excited
I am currently blogging through Ecto for the first time, I’ve decided I need a program like this because it makes blogging sooo much easier. I am using the free trial right now but if everything continues to go well then it is definitely worth the investment.
See ya’ll later with my review of Ethiopian food!
It is 9:50 pm and I am exhausted and so ready for bed! We had a pizza party at work today because it was somebody’s birthday, apparently there are always pizza parties and everyone’s birthday gets celebrated. The pizza was excellent though and I really enjoyed it. It was from a place called Patsy’s Pizzeria and it was different than any other pizza I’ve ever had. I had a slice of the sausage and a mushroom. I also talked some more to the ‘runners’ at work and it makes me so excited to have running friends that I work with. We were discussing training schedules and indoor and outdoor running. It was good time, I am excited to run a race with them sometime soon.
After work I set out to Filene’s Basement to find a yoga mat, but I didn’t have much luck. There were some there, but I wasn’t interested in any of them. I want one that is a pretty color! I did however find this awesome dress that I am in love with, but did not buy because I shouldn’t spend any money. But, I tried it on and admired it for many many minutes. I was considering buying it for a long time, but in the end I knew I should save my money : (
Isn’t this dress amazing? I love it and I need it. It was $60 though so I really couldn’t justify the purchase. I definitely would’ve bought it if it was only like $20, ha!
Excuse my awkward smile…maybe I will stumble up this dress another day, but for now it will have to wait : (
After that I came home and did some intense strength training for about 45 minutes, it felt great! I feel like I haven’t gotten a good ST workout in in a long time.
PS. I started The Time Traveler’s Wife today, it’s really confusing, but I already love it!
******DON’T FORGET TO DONATE TO MY TEAM IN TRAINING FUND******
