I was just going over my flight itinerary with my sister in law so she could make sure she was available to get me to and from the airport and watch the doodlebug while I’m in San Francisco for marathon weekend and while I had my calendar out I counted the days….36 left!

Color_Logo_TSFM

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’ll be running either a half marathon or a full having practically no training. (I’ll basically have 3 weeks of training and 1 week of taper!) Here’s the plan I pulled out of my ass head that will start on 7/1 (plus i’ll be biking for the rest of June and “running” the Queens 10k tomorrow):

Week 1:     Tues – 3 miles easy • Thursday-5 miles tempo • Saturday-8 miles easy • Sunday – bike
Week 2:     Tues – 4 miles easy • Thursday – 6 miles tempo • Saturday 10 miles easy • Sunday -bike
Week 3:     Tues – 3 miles easy • Thursday 7 miles tempo • Saturday 12 miles easy • Sunday – bike
Week 4:     Tues – 3 miles easy • Thursday 3 miles easy • Friday – shakeout run • Sunday –  MARATHON!

This should be plenty to get me through an easy paced half…..and if i’m crazy enough to stick with the full I’ll let you know how that goes. =)

Yesterday I attended the International Franchise Expo here in New York City at the Javits Center (where the NYC Marathon expo is held) The ad agency I work for does their print advertising and on-site materials, so our team decided to take a field trip there and check it out.

getting ready to check it out

getting ready to check it out

I'm holding the show directory for which I designed the cover. Yeah I'm a total nerd!

I’m holding the show directory—I designed the cover. Yeah I’m a total nerd!

I often dream about just opening a Dunkin Donuts somewhere. There were hundreds of franchises exhibiting but we were on a mission to check out all the food franchise exhibitors first! We started with llaollao the BEST frozen yogurt I’ve ever had.

seriously delicious

seriously delicious

I approve!

I approve!

the mango sauce!

I had the mango sauce and my life is changed forever!

llaollao

llaollao — the fastest growing european franchise in the fro yo market

Then we checked out House of Cupcakes. The couple that started this franchise were the season 2 winners of the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars.

cupcake1

sampled the merchandise

sampled the merchandise

There were beverage franchises too…

sodapop1 sodapop2This definitely gave me food for thought. (ha! get it?!) Do I want to be my own boss? Do I want to buy a franchise? Hmmmm!

my wonderful coworkers!

my wonderful coworkers!

This morning Duncan and I went down to participate in the Walk to Defeat ALS. The team I joined to help support is a family very dear to me.

#defeatALS #findacure

#defeatALS #findacure

The team raised a total of $1,700, more than double their goal. It’s quite the reality-check when your friend tells you his mom was just diagnosed with ALS. It makes me really think twice about crying a river over some tendonitis. Life is so unpredictable and our days are not guaranteed. Someone once told me (or maybe I read it somewhere) that we are all terminal…..we are all going to die some day but we don’t know when. That’s why it’s so important to make the most of each day we have. I take these moments to remind myself of that.

After the walk I headed straight to my brother’s house for a family get together to celebrate a bunch of stuff. The only important thing you need to know is that I had 2 of these cupcakes made by a friend of my sister-in-laws

Irish Car Bombs!

Irish Car Bombs!

In addition to some booze in the batter there was a hidden nugget of chocolate ganáche in the center….to die for!

Well it’s getting late and i’ve got my alarm set for half past the cows ass (or 4:30am) since I’m running that 10K in Queens tomorrow. There will be some pickup of running peeps in Brooklyn at 6:30am and then we’ll head to the start. Race starts at 8am. But again, I’m just so excited to run with my peeps and allow my legs to enjoy a few more “preview” running miles!

Hope you’re having a super Saturday night (or Sunday if you’re in a different hemisphere =)

I meant to get this post up yesterday but started to watch that movie One Fine Day (George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer) and that was that. Anyhoo, hope everyone had an enjoyable Father’s Day or just Sunday or whatever you chose to celebrate yesterday. I didn’t do the Father’s Day thing today. My parents are out of town so we’re going to celebrate next weekend. It’s going to be a hodge podge celebration as we’ll also be celebrating my nephew’s 16th birthday and my niece’s graduation from middle school!

I had originally been planning a 30ish mile bike ride in NJ yesterday morning at a new (to me) route in Sandy Hook, New Jersey which is about a half hour-ish away from me, but after such a busy day on Saturday with the race and the picnic and some big brown puppy dog eyes staring at me longingly at 6am when my alarm went off, I scratched that plan opted to stay in bed a bit longer with the pooch. The guilt of going to Central Park (A.K.A. “Dog Mecca”) not once, but twice on Saturday without him continued, so I decided to start the day taking the pooch on a li’l outting to relieve myself of some of that guilt. (He’s got me wrapped around his little paw).

Where ya gonna take me?

So where ya gonna take me this morning?

I started our Sunday Funday at one of my favorite hiking/walking spots by ocean. I love the open meadows and how they catch the early morning sunlight. And the honeysuckles are just everywhere meaning every single inhale is filled with the most fragrant perfection!

sundayfunday

 

Doodlebug

Doodlebug

In case you were curious...

In case you were curious…

morning selfie

morning selfie…sunglasses to hide the puffy morning eyes.

 

The doodle was pooped when we got back. So while I did some paper work in my office he passed out.

pooped

And then I did some blogging while he supervised (although he kept falling asleep on the job)

blogging

 

I tried to change my cell phone data plan online but was only partially successful. I could feel myself getting irritated as the prompts on their website took me for a loop and kept bringing back to the wrong page. GRRR!

That was it! I needed to go get a good sweaty workout….and so at 5pm I loaded the bike and drove to the beach.

eveningbike

I sat for a few minutes by the marina and just enjoyed the sun glistening on the water and the smell of those honeysuckles again!

It’s fairly flat so I kept it in high gear and pedaled the entire time. No coasting! My legs are definitely feeling the burn.

So how was your weekend? Did you do anything for Father’s Day? Run any races? BBQ? Anyone have a planned vacation coming up? My trip to San Francisco is in 6 weeks!!!!

 

 

Yesterday marks exactly 1 year since my first ever blog post. So Happy Blogaversary to me!

blogaversary

 

My 2nd ever post was my recap of last year’s Oakley Mini 10k.

This year was quite a different story to tell. The night before I laid out my gear…

gear setup

gear setup

It’s felt like forever since I did that! I was giddy! Alarm went off at 4:50am and I got ready and had a little breakfast. Duncan’s lucky streak ran out and he finally had to endure an early morning rise due to my running habit.

5:30am unhappy doodle

5:30am unhappy doodle

I got my ankle secure with some KT tape and my slip on ankle brace.

kttape

locked and loaded

locked-and-loaded

broke out the new kicks too!

I was on the road before 6am

vz bridge

my favorite bridge

 

I headed to Lisa’s house in Brooklyn, parked the car and then we hopped on the subway and met up with Karen along the way. We got to the start at the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park about 40 minutes before the start and eventually connected with a few more gals…

Lisa and Cindy

Lisa and Cindy

Lisa and Karen

Lisa and Karen

Lisa and me

Lisa and me

I didn’t really have a plan. Really I wanted to follow doctors orders of not running for 2 more weeks so when I crossed the starting line I was having a little anxiety….

The thought bubble above my head with my inner thoughts went something like this “What if i set myself back? What if i make it worse? What if I don’t finish before the cutoff? Crap I forgot to start my watch! I’m hungry. I can’t possibly walk the entire thing. I wish I brought music. Am I getting a blister already?”

I initially started out running SLOW. It was just as crowded as last year but I wasn’t pushing to weave in and out. So there’s a silver lining =). I finally locked in satellite and got my watch going about 1/4 mile in. My pace was right about 12:00. I shuffled along and stopped to walk every now and then just to check in and feel how the foot was doing.

mile 4 ish

mile 4 ish

This was my slowest 10K time ever…..but I crossed the finish line with only the discomfort of a blister! (Wearing new sneakers on a humid day) My tendonitis did not present a problem.

time-basno

last year I was about 15 minutes faster and my current 10K PR is about 21 minutes faster =)

 

completed-miniI cried a little and just felt very emotional at so many points from driving to Lisa’s in the morning to different points during the race. The entire “high” of running, races, running friends, etc had returned and I was reminded of how much it all means to me. With each mile, each medal, each starting line and each finish line, I fill my “happiness tank” I come home knowing I’ve done my body good, I’ve done my soul good and I’ve created memories to stay with me forever. Injuries are humbling. And climbing back up makes those lows of limping for days worth it.

Injuries need to be treated with the utmost care so you can heal and ensure that you wall always be able to run for life!

Injuries need to be treated with the utmost care so you can heal and ensure that you wall always be able to run for life!

Too much sappiness for you? Sorry! =) After heading home, I showered, ate and took the dog to the park for a bit. I knew I had plans to return back to Central Park for my friend Gary’s birthday picnic and only had a couple of hours from the time I got home from the race until the time i’d have to head back into the city. Duncan was happy to strut his favorite route doing the usual sniffin’ and squirrel hunting.

afternoonwalk

Before I knew it the time had come for me to get back on the road for the picnic. I made a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for a box of munchkins and this time took the bus to Manhattan.

munchkinsLiving in Staten Island is great but the commuting times to and from Manhattan really suck. I spent over 7 hours yesterday either in a car, on a subway or on a bus.

But it was all worth it! The picnic was fun! Gary got some gifts that I was really jealous of.

Larger than life size Mike n Ikes and Twizzlers

Larger than life size Mike n Ikes and Twizzlers

We all dined on cheese, crackers, fruit, wine and sweets. Perfection!

beverages

my classy wine glass and cup holder

my classy wine glass and cup holder

fruitcheese

birthdayboy

timer camera countdown selfie 3-2-1…

cpark-picnic-selfie

hi

runnin-peeps-picnic

Mike, Lisa and Elizabeth (running peeps).

One last goofy pic before we packed it up and headed home.

photo

 

 

 

 

 

Hello there.

This morning I took Duncan to the vet. He had a few routine shots that he was due for but the real reason was that I felt a growth on his cheek and upon inspection I thought it looked serious. Well how embarrased was I when I expressed my deepest concern to the vet thinking he’d tell me he thought it might be cancerous and he says: “Sally, it’s a wart! Your boy has a wart. He’s 5 1/2 which is basically like a 40 something year old middle aged man. He’s fine. Leave it be.” I felt like an idiot! But a very happy idiot.

It's just a wart ma!

It’s just a wart ma!

We made a quick pitstop at the pet store and stocked up on the necessities….food, cookies, bones and poop bags…and then when we cam home I fought the jungle in my garage to get the bike out for a ride.

Welcome to the Jungle. We've got fun and games.

Welcome to the Jungle. We’ve got fun and games. (and boxes and shovels and broken vacuums)

Kinda sad. I remember exactly one year ago cleaning out the garage and making it workout-friendly.

pre-jungle

pre-jungle!

I was a little pressed for time today so I only got 6.2 miles in.

10kride

 

 

Then it was time for a little bulk shopping at Sam’s Club. I focused on all my favorite P’s.

photo 1Popcorn, Peppermint Patties and Produce!

And while we’re talking about the letter P….this was my Perfect Park…

photo 3I have no idea why I parked like that. For a minute I thought maybe the car wasn’t in park and rolled forward. But no, I just misjudged a bit. =)

Well, I’m off to go strength train a bit. Catch ya later!

So what are your favorite arm moves? Weights? Resistance bands? Kettle bells? I’m going to do some tricep dips on my stairs and some planks and push-ups and then who knows.