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Yesterday was day two of working a full day and then taking files home to continue working until the wee hours for this big push to complete a job by tomorrow’s deadline. Needless to say exercise and decent eating habits have become a distant weekend memory…but i took back control of the ship last night (well maybe I took back control of the blow up raft…hey ya gotta start somewhere). The dog and i both needed some forward motion. I leashed him up and we started gingerly walking up the slicy (slushy and icy) road for about a half hour.

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I love when the snow gets to be the same consistency as coffee cake crumble….ya know…like butter and sugar mixed together?! MMMM who knew dirty snow could make my mouth water =)

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my walking buddy

Some areas were unplowed and the powdery cover gave better traction than the slicy spots letting us pick up the pace to a jog which was nice. I was wearing boots and a coat on so I don’t know that I would consider this a true workout but i warmed up enough to get sweaty and mentally i felt a whole lot better.
The dog was in his glory peeing on every telephone pole and digging in snow drifts. he also decided it was a perfect time for a snow facial. Exfoliation anyone?

Our destination was to my car that i had driven to the bus stop in the morning on my way to work. Once we arrived I let the dog jump in the car to warm up while I scraped the windshield (4 minute upper body workout!?)

take your time ma.

take your time ma.

I continued the upper body workout when I got home as I spent 20 minutes in the garage breaking up cardboard boxes and bundling it all up to be recycled. I know the technical term for functional fitness is activities that prepare you for your every day life, but i like to think of it as the reverse…doing everyday life tasks to fulfill a part of your fitness. And the run a million and a half miles to fulfill the remaining fitness quota =) Oh and there were a couple more packages at the door tonight.

First , Duncan’s birthday gift delivery from Petsmart. I opened the box and let him sniff around.

birthday loot

birthday loot

So one of the gifts is a laser light. I thought it’d give him a good indoor workout option for days when we really can’t get outside.

The other cool package was a surprise gift from my sister-in-law. She must read my blog because she got me a running ornament for my tree!!!!!

Running Chick

Running Chick

Tomorrow ill finally get a run in. I’ve been running basically twice a week-Thursdays and one weekend day. It’s quite a different world for me. But in about 3 weeks that will change and ill be back to 4 days a week when I start my NJ Marathon training. Speaking of….on the NJ Marathon Facebook page, they posted a photo and bio of Brian, the pacer for the 4:40 group. That’s my guy! He has quite the marathon resume with 100+ marathons under his belt. I can’t wait to meet him and hope I can hang on to finish in 4:40. (I tried to stay with the 4:45 pacer at the NYC marathon but at mile 16 couldn’t keep up. It was a harder course though, so I still feel confident I can do this.)

Question: Do you have certain everyday tasks that you consider exercise? When I go grocery shopping I don’t use a shopping cart. I take 2 handheld baskets and as they fill up I do bicep curls in the aisles. And then I carry all the bags to my car as well with no shopping cart. It’s one of my favorite ways of sneaking in some upper body strength training.

I won’t dump because this blog isn’t about that. Let’s just say today was craptastic in the crappiest of crappy (we’re talking New York City Marathon 50,000 runners used a porta-potty crappy (That actually just made me giggle). And how dumb I felt tonight when I posted on Facebook about feeling defeated and I get words of encouragement from one friend who’s battling ovarian cancer and another who’d dad was shot and killed this year and found out today the gunman pleaded not guilty. Yeah, my crap isn’t really that crappy.

When I came home from work, there was a package at my door. It was the running ornaments (I mentioned in this post) that I ordered for my tree.

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The sneakers are a little Richard Simmons looking but it’s a cute lil’ ornament. And it gets the point across no?

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This cracks me up. I’ll have to try and re-create the look one day.

So there was the glimmer. And I had a good laugh too watching Duncan shred the paper that the gifts were wrapped in. He even had a couple of pieces stuck to his mouth.

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He goes from playing in white stuff outside to playing with white stuff inside.

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guilty

I’m working on a new section for the blog for 2014 that will have a collection of “Running 101” type posts. I’ll give some tips for outdoor running topics like running surfaces, safety, how to dress for the weather, fueling tips, stretches to help common runner ailments and other things like that. If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like me to feature just leave in the comments below. I’m also planning on a section that will be filled with inspirational mantras for both running and life in general. And I’ll be updating my races page as I’ve already got a handful of 2014 races on the agenda.

Well it’s after midnight….I better catch a few winks. Night all!

Hello December and what I can remember

I always struggle with a post title. But I like that this one rhymes…so that’s that.

Anyhoo…yet another month has passed and here I am to fill ya in on my little life and take a few minutes to reflect.

So get this? I actually ran 2 races in the last 30 days! There was the Fall Flat 5k trail run, the weekend before Thanksgiving, that I do each year to help benefit the nonprofit organization The Greenbelt Conservancy. They’re the organizers of the night hikes I go on as well and also the Cold Feat 10k trail run held in February. It had snowed a couple of days prior to race day and then warmed up and melted leaving things quite muddy.

What?!!!! Snow?!!!! but this weekend is the FALL Flat 5k, not the Winter Flat.

muddy race course

The entire course had to be tweaked to avoid some completely impassable areas but a good chunk of it was still super slick and I walked a lot of it.

I started to notice some aching on the inside of my ankle just before the race and wasn’t about to make things worse by losing my footing. (foreshadowing….i sprained my ankle anyway shortly thereafter because that’s my life).

The ankle pain seemed to be the very beginning of posterior tibial tendonitis. But since i was only running one or two times a week for short runs it wasn’t really bad and I immediately started looking up stretches and other pt exercises. The day after the race it hurt a bit more and then one night while walking Duncan I rolled my foot on a rock that was disguised by leaves. The sprain healed within 5 days and I was feeling much better but each time I run I’m achy for a few days after so I’m going to rest up the rest of the year and try my hardest to start 2019 healthy.

The other race was just about a week ago…another race I’ve done numerous years in a row now…the Big Chill 5k….a charity run where the entry fee is an unwrapped toy $15 or more. Always leaves me speechless when I see the back wall of the Rutgers University gymnasium just filled with toys that will go to kids who might not get a single other gift.

toys galore

this was the 2nd time we’ve ever run together.

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Happy New Year! Are you ready to attack 2017? It’s going to be full of change for me but more on that in another post.

I finished out 2016 with a couple of fun activities.

Night Hike: Last Wednesday I decided to join a local group for a night hike. We hiked over 6 miles and it was really fun. I thought I’d be scared of tripping and falling but our headlamps gave plenty of light and the trails are really well maintained. They meet every week and they also have a group of trail runners out there too. Maybe I’ll get the courage to try the running at some point this year.

Headlamps and smiles

Headlamps and smiles

Holiday City Run: Saturday morning (New Year’s Eve morning) I went into the city to meet some running friends—Lisa, Gary and Mike—for our holiday windows run.

We started here

We started here

We didn’t run past as many department store windows as usual but still stopped to see the tree at Rockafeller Center, Bryant Park and we discovered another really beautiful tree at a random hotel on Madison Ave.

Barneys

Barneys

Saks 5th Ave

Saks 5th Ave

hotel-tree

Bryant Park

Bryant Park

Another shot from Bryant Park

Another shot from Bryant Park

Rockafeller tree and the gang

Rockafeller tree and the gang

I take this  exact shot every year.

I take this exact shot every year.

We made a quick stop into St. Patrick's Cathedral to say a prayer/light a candle

We made a quick stop into St. Patrick’s Cathedral to say a prayer/light a candle

These oversized ornaments are a classic over the years

These oversized ornaments are a classic over the years

We also ran into Times Square as they were preparing for the big New Year’s Eve ball drop shenannigans. There were already people who had gone through security and were “in position” at 9am! This is crazy to me. They basically were going to be spending 15 more hours just standing there until midnight. And no opportunity to exit. No bathrooms. It was really cold. I just think that’s nuts. They did however have bags with snacks. #priorities

All ready for the insanity

All ready for the insanity

Roads closed. You NEVER see Times Square without cars.

Roads closed. You NEVER see Times Square without cars.

New Year’s Eve: I had a quiet evening at Mr. SOTSS’s on New Year’s eve with Duncan, Casey (it was my last night of dog-sitting her) and Chester. I almost didn’t make it until midnight.

Mr. SOTSS, Casey, me, Duncan and Chester....

Mr. SOTSS, Casey, me, Duncan and Chester….

Not at all interested in staying up until the ball drops

Not at all interested in staying up until the ball drops

I leaned over the couch to reach for something on the sofa table and Duncan jumped up to get comfy. He's a riot and a half

I leaned over the couch to reach for something on the sofa table and Duncan jumped up to get comfy. He’s a riot and a half

New Year’s Day: After dropping Casey off, we took Duncan and Chester to our favorite park so they could get some exercise.

Duncan decided to roll around in some sort of animal poo and I had to give him a bath when we got home. I really don’t understand why dogs like to roll in stinky things.

Hey ma! I'm having a blast and I even rolled in something really stinky!

Hey ma! I’m having a blast and I even rolled in something really stinky!

Hoping 2017 is filled with lots of this

Hoping 2017 is filled with lots of this

We also painted Mr. SOTSS’ bathroom. He started remodeling his bathroom 2 years ago. It’s been a slow process because he hardly gets free time but the tiling is all done and now it’s painted.

I volunteered to do all the edging

I volunteered to do all the edging

Classic subway tile and "country house" blue

Classic subway tile and “country house” blue

It’s been really rainy here the last two days. I got some work done while Duncan kept me company. Not much different from 2016 🙂 I finally went to the mall to power-walk just to get my 10,000 steps.

my "office"

my “office”

 

I’m always optimistic at the beginning of a new year. So far I’m on day 2 of trying to drink more water and track my food. I’m not ready to say I’m on a diet but I just want to start being aware of what I’m eating each day.

Are you a resolutions person?

Have you ever hiked at night? I had run at night during my Ragnar Relay events but never hiking on trails before.

Have you ever wanted to or been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve?