As I mentioned in my last post I won’t be ramping up training for my next marathon until January meaning that for the next 7 weeks I will have a huge block of time each Saturday (or Sunday) morning now that I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn for a daunting long run. Having run 17 races this year, and with all the traveling I’ve done, I have definitely let a lot of things fall to the bottom of the priority list. Here are 10 things I plan on conquering:
1. Clean out cabinets and closets: My tupperware runneth over, my clothing runneth over….heck everything runneth over
Timber!
2. Read! I have 2 great books to start reading and I’m 2 issues behind on Runner’s World and Fitness magazines
Reading does a body good
3. Create a plan for cross training and strength training for 2014: Since I HATE to strength train and I tend to let cross training become less important than running I want to focus on these and come up with a surefire way to keep up with this for 2014. Any advice would be appreciated. Right now these have been collecting dust in my living room. #fail
a weighty issue
4. Print and frame some photos: Now that I’ve given MarathonFoto a million dollars, I’ve got all these great photos I’d like to frame.
5. Enjoy some creative outlets! I’m a creative person. A graphic designer by day and I moonlight every now and again as a photographer. It’s great. But it’s always for someone else’s benefit. This time of year I get to work on my annual holiday card. I’ve already got the idea for it. I just need to do a little photo shoot. These are a few of my past cards…
I also might just grab a sketchpad and a go sit in the park and draw. I’m also planning on re-painting all the rooms in my house so there will be a trip to the paint store for sure. AHHHH! I love paint chip cards.
6. Cook and bake! I hardly ever cook but when the weather gets colder I get the urge to make pies and quiches.
Apple crisp!
yummy quiche
7. Plan a hike with the hound! It’s been a while since we did a full fledged hike. Now that the temps have dipped below freezing the ticks and other buggers won’t be an issue.
we hiked to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view. And then Duncan decides to give you all a beautiful view of his butt!
8. Get into the holiday spirit! The season creeps up so fast each year and sometimes I’m just too tired to deal. But I am looking forward to spending a weekend morning sipping peppermint mocha, hanging some twinkly lights and playing my favorite holiday songs. And there WILL be this one organized run. Each year my friends and I go for a very relaxed run through NYC stopping to see the tree at Rockafeller and all the fancy department store windows.
Sally Claus!
SMILE it’s the season!
9. Clean out/organize and back up computers. No picture necessary. This is just a necessary evil!
10. Celebrate! I worked hard this year training for so many races. I don’t have a tally just yet but I’ve logged well over 1,300 miles. There were plenty of nights I went to bed early while everyone else was out partying so I could be up at 5am to run. With Thanksgiving, Chanukah and Christmas coming I am going to enjoy some real celebratory weekend hours. Maybe go for a manicure or meet friends for brunch. Mimosa anyone?
So there you have it! I’ll be very busy during my “off” season.
Question: Do you have any other ideas to add? Especially in helping me find the love for strength and cross training. I’ll make you a quiche!
Bring on the Rain is a song by Jo Dee Messina. Have you ever heard it? It’s a song I always play when I’ve had one of those “small stuff” days.
“Another day has almost come and gone Can’t imagine what else could go wrong Sometimes I’d like to hide away somewhere and lock the door A single battle lost but not the war (’cause) Tomorrow’s another day And I’m thirsty anyway So bring on the rain”
Today started off with a 5am wake up so I could drop my beloved, ahem, 11 year old Jeep to the mechanic by 7am.
isn’t she lovely?
I had been hearing some rattling. Also, the rear swing door wouldn’t open and I had a recall to be completed as well. I caught a bus from there to work and was at my desk at 8:15 (well over an hour early!).
Midday, I got the call from the mechanic with the bad news. It would be a few thousand dollars to repair. From leaking power steering lines and batteries to broken pieces of my exhaust, a serpentine belt and tension rod that needed replacement, and heck, even a stripped lug nut. Oh and the work wouldn’t be done until the next day. Now, I know damn well that life can throw you true curve balls. I watched my husband die as I held his hand when I was just 25. Yes, that’s the stuff that is supposed to make you feel slammed and pounded. But I tend to get rattled (just like my exhaust) with the small stuff. The things that break my routine or cause me to worry about the future. That’s why I firmly believe running is my therapy. It’s one of the only (healthy) ways for me to cope with the small stuff. Of course my timing sucked with this one since I just ran my final race of the year on Saturday….I didn’t run today. I won’t be running for at least another week while I try and rest my hamstrain ( get it? hamstring pain….hamstrain…I should trademark that!). So I’ll just try and keep my mindset in recovery mode and sit on the couch with my dog….
resting our dogs!
and a whole bunch of these…
#peppermintpattytherapy
Now if nothing else could get me to check myself, It’s Veteran’s Day today. I’m so in awe of those who have served (and are currently serving) our country.
And it’s also apparently almost Christmas. I saw Santa at the mall yesterday. Not cool! And those lame commercials are starting to appear.
Question: How do you cope with unexpected “small stuff”? What’s your favorite coping candy?
Hope you have all had as amazing a weekend as I have! I this post is going to be 3 words short of an Epic Novel. Hope I don’t put you to sleep.
It started Friday afternoon at work with a craving for a warm chocolate chip cookie. After A hysterical request on FaceBook for some ideas of where to get one, I remembered that we have this great Farmer’s Market right outside of my office building (for a few more weeks at least) with a booth from Meredith’s Bread in Kingston, NY. Bingo! I bought a package of 4, put them in the microwave for 10 seconds and I was in heaven. I ate all 4 like a mad woman. My boss later told me he was waiting for me to offer him one. Oops! My bad!
Friday continued to get even better. I packed up the car with the doodle, an overnight bag and the running gear I would need for the following day and headed to my brother and sister-in-law’s house. We went (along with my niece) to Smash Burger for dinner. It was my first time! 3 words: I’ll Be Back!! Fried pickles???!!!! Hello!! YUM-to the-MEEEE!!! And then we had some gelato.
Maybe not the best pre-race dinner decisions, but hey, I was just going to be running for fun on Saturday….or so I thought (more on that shortly).
Saturday morning I headed out about 6am to Trenton, NJ. Parked the car at one of the designated lots (so easy) and walked a few short blocks to the starting area by 7:30am. It was cold but sunny and there really wasn’t much wind making it more comfortable than I had anticipated. I didn’t even take my throwaway sweatshirt or gloves and at the last minute swapped out my winter hat for just a baseball cap. Within a few minutes I met up with Jane and her group.
Jane and Sally. Just like the book.
Jane’s great group of friends
Her hubby and some other guys from her running group were running the 10K and the girls were all running the half.
Jane’s goal was to break 2 hours. Mine was to just finish. After finishing the NYC Marathon just 6 days prior, having that groin tweak and a new hamstring tightness that showed up Friday evening (which i noticed somewhere between the cookie and the fried pickles therefore not really caring) I knew I wasn’t prepared to push it. But this is where I prove time and time again that running is so much more about the heart and the mind than it is about the legs. I freaking PR’d!!!!! I mean I KILLED IT!!!
I started out the first few miles just smiling and enjoying the lovely course. I even broke out the iPhone and started snapping pics around mile 4 and continued to snap until about mile 7.
we crossed 2 bridges and covered 2 states—New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
During this time I’d notice my watch splits were all sub 10. But I wasn’t really thinking PR. Just that maybe my watch lost satellite or something and it wasn’t accurate. At mile 7 I looked at the elapsed time, did the math and realized it WAS accurate. Something in my head clicked over to PR land. It was going to be my final race of the year, my 17th race overall, 11th half marathon and how cool that I could possibly PR. And so I started to push. My timing of that decision was pretty crappy because we hit the one large hill of the course right at 7.5! But I pushed and pushed and before you knew it we were back to a nice flat stretch before bringing it home (literally) as we ran the warning track of the Trenton Thunder’s ballpark before finishing at home base.
I saw Jane (who rocked a 1:57 PR and made her goal of breaking 2 hours) in the stadium. She ran along side me, took these cute shots and we exchanged happy words of PRs!
a few yards from the finish line. Loved my new running tights but man my legs are quite “stocky”!!!
My official time was 2:07:54 (a 1:24 PR from the Little Rock Half back in March). And I think the main reason for this amazing time was that I FINALLY got to listen to my perfectly crafted marathon playlist that I didn’t get to listen to last weekend. I’m going to rename it PR-Playlist now!
speed sisters
We waited for the rest of the group to finish, grabbed some water and pretzels (I think soft pretzels should be standard at every race finish!) took a group finish pic and then headed to the after party at a bar near the stadium. We had our first celebratory “warm up” beer and chips here which were included with the race registration before driving a short ways away to a local tavern called the Firkin Tavern for the “main event” beer and meal.
the finishers!
I heart soft pretzels. That is all.
Steak Quesadillas and a Sam Adams! Celebrate good times c’mon!
Jane surprised me with a belated birthday gift! Some bubbly and homemade applesauce! So cool! I LOVE homemade stuff.
One of my favorite things since becoming a runner is meeting so many new friends who have fit right in that I can’t imagine my life not knowing them. Jane is one of those friends. I’m really looking forward to our long run training through the winter and early spring months of 2014 in preparation for the NJ Marathon on April 27th.
Two funny coincidences happened too. The first was that Jane, who was running the half and her husband who was running the 10k (which started about 15 min. later) ended up running together at one point on the course when the routes converged. Soulmates!
The other coincidence is that I took a photo on one of the bridges along the course not realizing the girl in pink was Jane’s friend Isabella who I met after the race was over. When I was showing Jane my photos she realized it was Isabella. How funny!
Hi Isabella! Nice to meet you 2 hours before I met you. LOL!
Runner’s world mentioned in this article that there would be a 5 year old boy running the Trenton Half. I was alarmed at first to be honest. 5 seems a bit young to run that far of a distance. But I was fortunate to watch little Anthony and his mom finish (holding hands until the very last second where she let him finish first) and I have to say I could see for myself that he was a natural. I still don’t think it should become commonplace for 5 year olds to do this but I won’t be so quick to judge next time. Congratulations Anthony for finishing in 2:22 and being the youngest to complete a half. (Not sure that’s official but the announcer said it.)
After an amazing day with my freak PR I headed back to my brother and sister-in-law’s Saturday late afternoon and we all went out for dinner again. This time it was sushi and boy did we have a good laugh-fest. Let’s just say my niece and I were rapping about Japanese food. Come on and rock me with your beef negemaki….then my sister in law joined the fun singing (to the beat of Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby) Rice Rice Baby!! I’m blessed to have the support of my family! If it weren’t for them, Duncan wouldn’t have had anyone to watch him and I would have had to dart home after the race and miss out on the fun at the Firkin Tavern.
And now that my great weekend has come to a close, so has my running season. A season that basically started in the beginning of January and never let up. I’m going to take 6 weeks “off” (with no structured routine at least) and ramp back up after New Years. I will surely find other ways to Sweat Out the Small Stuff so that I stay sane and I’ll surely be blogging as well.
In the meantime I’ll be letting my strained groin and hamstring muscles heal by doing a lot of this for a few days…
Double the doodle. Duncan in front and my furry niece Casey at my feet.
Question: Do you have an “off-season”? What is your favorite meal post-race or hard workout?
I’m waiting on a few photos and will post a longer recap soon but just wanted to share some exciting news….
I set a new PR yesterday just 6 days out from the NYC Marathon.
All I know is that I was happy, relaxed, smiling a ton and every time I looked down at my watch my splits were sub 10. I didn’t even think about the possibility of a PR until mile 7 or 8. And then I worked for it!
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