I'd nearly forgotten!

I was pretty deep into 1/2M training when I started not feeling well! I just read some old posts and realized I'd gotten up to 10miles in November. How sad, that I never got to do anything with those.

I have been relatively hard core in preparation for Issaquah. Getting in a good mix of swim/bike/run and combo workouts.

This weekend was no exception. In fact it was an AMAZING example of how good it feels to fit it all in.

friday: Spent the night with the nephews. They're nuts!
saturday: Checked in with my Mom then met up in Fremont for the Hopscotch Festival and Serious Pie afterwards.
sunday: Top Pot Doughnut Dash, nap, bike ride, laundry and yardwork.


Great weekend, no? I feel like I got to do it all.


The race was good. I need to do a race report on that but it is bedtime.


I need a late summer/early fall 1/2M. Ideas? Speedy thought we should all do the Disney half, which would be SO AWESOME. Not sure I can swing it though.

Hmmm, probably time to make decisions.

You know what he is?

The best!

Just had to post an official my-boyfriend-is-the-smartest- coolest-sweetest-most-awesome report.

My iPhone went kaput last night. Totally dead with hardly a whisper of life. If you know my attachment to my phone or own an iPhone yourself then you understand what a tragedy this is. I was a trooper and made it until lunch today before taking it in to an Apple Genius who was able to restore factory settings. I was thrilled! Just needed to come home and use my last backup to get my settings back and I was in business.

NOT SO FAST

It tried not to restore. So my smart-cool-sweet-most-awesome sweetie got to work. He had to do some serious computer stuff and HOURS later I am syncing my phone again!!!

I am very relieved. I have had to entertain myself for the last 24 hours!

It influenced my workout plan today. I chose to swim rather than run in this gorgeous weather we're having. The swim was so very very hard. I am trying to do the 17 swim workouts that Team In Training gave us to prep for Issaquah. I'm on #4. It is very very hard and I'm slow. I'm not sure but I think swim fitness seems to fall off of a steep and painful cliff, more so than other disciplines.

Swim set was:

300 easy free warm up

4X100 hard, :20 rest between (this sucked and my final 100 was 1:55…BOO!)

4x200 with focus on lengthening my stroke

3X100 mixed cool down (I did breast, back and free)

It was so much harder than it should be.

Man, I'm glad it's Friday!

Run as One race report (running in NYC…and NOT from a mugger)

I almost* completely succeeded in NYC!

 

As reported last, I drove, I parked, I saw Broadway show, I found and registered for a race AND I ran a fun race in NYC's Central Park!

And all within ~23hrs!

 

THE RACE

I had successfully navigated the subway 2X already but decided that for race morning I'd grab a cab and get there stress free. I was really glad to have registered ahead of time since this allowed me to just stuff some cash and an ID and my hotel room key in my bra and head out unfettered (also why I chose a cab since I figured I'd be cold that early in the morning). I hailed a cab and was delivered promptly to the Mother Goose statue at the park. I was nearly an hour early and completely blind to what size race it would be but the line of porta-potties as long as WA-520 helped me guess that it was going to be substantial. The park is big enough to accommodate though and there was lots of room to wander and meet some NYC runners. I happened to sit down next to an adorably nutty speedy woman who was as friendly as she was fast. She told me about the RRNY races and what a good club they were. She places in the top of her AG and is training for her first full.

Soon enough it was time to line up. A note of how speedy people were: The pace waves were by number with the competitive folks being 1-1000…I was number 11011 .

 

When we FINALLY crossed the start line I was ready to run. It was such a beautiful day, and it had been SO long since I'd run one, and I was in Central Park. Pretty cool. I really wanted to try to hit a 10'/mi pace to gauge where I was. I set a virtual partner race for a 40'/ 4mi course. The first mile had a pretty substantial hill but I stayed on pace fine. Mile 2 I got to pull ahead of the virtual partner by a decent margin. Mile 3, SUCKED! It had a hill and I was tired. The race was so well organized and there was a marker and water at each mile. In the first 2 miles I saw a castle, a pyramid, multiple famous people (well, historical ones and in statue form).

The last mile I was tired but so excited to be finishing up my first race in forever. I was still ahead of my virtual partner by a little bit and I really wanted to finish in under 40, as you can see below I failed by a touch. Oh well, It was a great morning.

 

Their post race was equally well organized. I wondered how they would be able to keep from serving bagels and apples to everyone in Central Park; well, they tunneled runners into a closed off field. There were carnival games for kids and lung cancer awareness and a stage and such. But I was hungry and in New York City so I didn't want a race bagel so I headed back to the hotel.

 

*I managed to get a parking ticket in Hell's kitchen when I stopped for lunch, sad

    Indicates especially new yorky things

 

 

Run As One 4M List by Runner Number: 11011 Distance:  4.0 Miles, 6.4 Kilometers Date/Time:  April 11, 2010, 9:00 am Location:  Central Park, NYC Weather:  52 Deg. 47% Hum. Wind 7MPH, Sunny

 

First Name

Sex/ Age

Bib

Team

State

Overall Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Finish Time

Pace/ Mile

AG Time

AG Gender Place

AG %

AMBER

F28

11011

WA

4970

2148

659

40:18

10:04

40:18

2373

47.7 %

 

Amber Takes Manhattan

Reporting from NYC



I have had a very full and exciting day in NY today. Was in my meeting until 1pm and then headed straight to the city. I was pretty much TERRIFIED to drive in the city but decided to just be zen and pay attention and not stress, and it was all good! Got the car parked and out of my hair, checked into my super mod Best Western and went directly to the TKTS booth. I am staying right in the Theater District and my options were endless and all within ~2 blocks. I have always wanted to use TKTS cause you read about it in all the guide books. I couldn't decide between Mamma Mia! and Hair but the ticket guy made the decision for me because the Hair seats were way better and I have never seen it before.

THEN I successfully navigated the subway to go REGISTER FOR A RACE!

I saw a Competitor magazine and by chance there is one tomorrow! It is a 4-mile race at Central Park.

So I'll be running tomorrow. Hopefully I won't die doing 4 miles after so long. But I am here and it seemed a good chance to do one of (last year's) resolutions of racing in another state.

So I'm all set to go tomorrow.

George and John are watching my stuff for me.

My Pre-race dinner may have been a poor choice but was tasty

Eighth Annual Run As One Presented by JPMorgan Chase (4M)

The race shirt:

New York state of mind

I am in Syosset, NY (which coincidentally is where I used to send very large credit card payments) and is right next to Oyster Bay, Long Island (which coincidentally is where Billy Joel references in a song about his alcoholic days). I am thinking about doing a Billy Joel pilgramiage (though they are running us ragged at the conference...like, 9a-11p!).

I have a deep love for grocery stores. I love going somewhere new or foreign and seeing what types of food they have and how they display it and how it's priced. And when I go back to somewhere I like seeing familiar products and regional differences.

I haven't been to a Stop and Shop in over 4 years and I was excited to see some old friends. They have generic brand Lite bread and WOW Chips and lowfat snack cakes. I forgot that the east coast still has really bad for you "healthy" food. :)

I also saw these and had to give them a go. They weren't that yummy but the idea is intruiging.

Oh! I went for a run on tuesday and am thrilled to report that it was pretty good. I could feel that it'd been a month since I ran but i didn't have the severe nausea I'd been dealing with.

Headed to NYC tomorrow afternoon and staying there overnight. Oughtta be interesting.

Adult Boppy

Have you heard of the Boppy? It is a pillow to put your infant in so that they don't have to support their body weight.

In the last week I have come to appreciate my own version of the adult boppy.

It started innocently enough with me using ~5 pillows to hold my tummy and keep pressure on it. But then I realized I could place pillows such that I don't have to hold myself up at all. It's awesome!

I feel SO much better these days and am headed to a conference in NY tomorrow night. I am going to try re-introducing some activity while I'm there (use the hotel elliptical and such) and then when I get back, time to get busy!

I need to post/think about my feelings toward baby-steps in training. How much I dislike them and yet how necessary they may be, how I know when to push and when to listen to my body.

I think that's why I like running/tri, it is a process of figuring those things out.

61 days to Issaquah