First meal of 2014, favorites, a 4 miler and a mystery

02. January 2014 · 1 comment · Categories: desserts, labradoodle, recreational fun, running, running gear, sweet treats, Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , ,

I woke up on New Year’s Day and decided I’d have Harry & David’s Moose Munch for breakfast. It just somehow felt like the right choice. I’ve got 364 more days to choose something healthier right?!

moose munch

breakfast of champions…starting the year off right  on my own terms.

After breakfast I waited for this guy to get up…

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We stayed out late on New Year’s Eve. He and his two pals Angus and Lu went a little overboard with the champagne treats.

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please give us more!

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hey! it’s midnight…give us those treats!

This New Years Eve celebration is for the dogs

This New Years Eve celebration is for the dogs

It was a fun night. Humans had a good time too! We put champagne in shot glasses for some reason. #champagneflutesareoverrated

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So finally when the dog woke up, we went for a walk. We saw Bambi!

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Then I left Duncan at home and headed to my aunt’s house for her annual New Year’s Day party. She’s 86 years old now and I didn’t want to skip out on this as I’ve done in the past (it’s mainly her friends). I got to drive a different way than usual so I took a pic of the Verrazano Bridge from a different angle than I usually do. (I have a weird affinity for the Verrazano Bridge if you didn’t know).

photo 1-1

My aunt had lots of fresh daisies in vases on the table.

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Her mom, my grandmother, Dorothy had been given the nickname “Dashing Daisy” from my grandpa. She always had a ton of energy and zipped around. I love the nickname and since I always felt closest to her as far as grandparents went I like to think I carry on her legacy….”Dashing” is nicely covered by my running, and “Daisy”….well, this is my Jeep spare tire cover…

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The sweetest things that my aunt had at the party were the dessert table…

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homemade italian cheesecake, homemade rum cake and a few other pastries that were delish

And this cardboard “resolutions” sign-in board…

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As I said, my aunt is 86 and many of the guests were seniors. Really? One man wrote that he wanted his wife to regain her sight! I hope everyone’s wishes and dreams do come true.

This morning as I was getting ready to go for a run I realized that I couldn’t find my favorite black running hat that I wore just a few days ago…

favorite black hat

favorite black hat

So I grabbed a substitute that I didn’t love but figured I needed to get out the door and didn’t have all day to continue the search.

black hat substitute

black hat substitute but the same vest lol!

There’s just something about favorites—hats, capris, socks, scarves, jeans….Next time I’ll just buy 7 of each of my favorites! (PS: I found my hat….it was in the dog’s toybox and it wasn’t his fault. I was straightening up before my friend was coming over and scooped up all his toys scattered on the floor and the hat must have been on the floor too and they all ended up getting dumped in the toybox. It was funny because initially I blamed the poor dog. Then I remembered.)

I covered 4.35 miles according to my Garmin….but lately mr. watch has been locking its satellite in the wrong spot. I start at my house and finish at my house yet at looking at the maps of my last few runs, clearly it thinks i’m starting a few blocks from my house.

mystery

I have lots of benchmarks along the route. I know it’s .3 miles to get to the main road and it’s exactly 1 mile when I get to the overpass that crosses the highway. Everytime I looked at my watch at these spots they were .06 off. It’s not the end of the world. I mean what’s the difference between 4.35 or 4.41? But I do wish I can fix it. #OCDwithnumbersrunner.

As for my new Brooks Ghost sneakers…..I still am unsure how I feel. It’s only the 2nd time wearing them. They definitely don’t suck, I just was hoping to feel like I had more spring in my step. I kept a 10 min mile pace which after using this training pace calculator, seems to be what my tempo pace should be as I begin marathon training…

pacesSpeaking of marathon training, mine begins next week!!! AHHHH!! I’m so excited and nervous. I hope my goals aren’t to out there. Meanwhile I found out that I won a special VIP package so I’ll get reserved parking and “upscale fare” in the VIP tent before and after the race. Hey, that’ll be my consolation if I don’t reach my PR goal of 4:40.

OK, off to batten down the hatches….we’re expecting a blizzard here in NYC. Hope your year is off to a great start.

Question: How was your New Year’s Eve? What did you do? Anyone eat something crazier than Moose Munch for their first breakfast of 2014?

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NYC Marathon Madness on my mind

16. October 2013 · 3 comments · Categories: labradoodle, running · Tags: , , , , ,

Hello.

I’m starting to think my posts don’t require a salutation anymore. Thoughts?

Before I start to unleash my NYC Marathon madness, I have a whole bunch of randomness to throw at you. Your welcome.

BOTTLE CAPS! We decorated the office for Halloween and my job was to fill this plastic cauldron with lots of candy including my favorite Willy Wonka Bottle Caps!

Crazy for cocoa puffs candy

Crazy for cocoa puffs candy

Willy Wonka = WINNING!

Willy Wonka = WINNING!

Of course I needed to keep the well-being of my coworkers top of mind and so I sampled each type of candy (actually if I’m being honest, 2 of each type. Or maybe it was 3. Don’t judge.) to make sure nothing had been tainted. In the process I made myself sick. Hey! I took one for the team. It’s my mothers fault. She never warned me you could eat too much candy.

BONE: Duncan couldn’t find a safe place to bury his bone this morning. This was what I said goodbye to when I left for work…

photo 1

BOOK: I am not a big book reader but saw Born to Run sitting on the table at my sister in laws house. I asked why she had it. Apparently my niece was required to read it for school. How cool is that? Anyway she said I could take it and so I did. Maybe I’ll dive into this after my races are over.

book

booksmart

OK, now onto my marathon madness mind dump…Today was an exciting day for us NYC Marathon runners…Our race wave, corral and color info was made available to us.

 

REGCARD

This ended up being both good and bad. I was excited to learn I will be running on the upper level of the Verrazano bridge! (When I ran in 2011 I was on the lower level and my Garmin lost satellite.) But I was disappointed to learn I will be in the last wave that doesn’t start until 10:55am! With daylight savings the night before the marathon that means the sun should be setting at about 4:45pm. If I aim to finish in 5ish hours that’s cutting it close to crossing the finish line in the dark.

Now that the peak of my training has passed and I’m easing up the mileage, the madness in my mind has begun to emerge…What shirt will I wear? The one I wore for my first NYC Marathon?

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Or the one I wore for the Philly Marathon?

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What if it’s too warm for long sleeves? What will the weather be like? What time do I really need to get to the start village if I don’t start running until almost 11am? And speaking of that, how on earth will my body feel starting to run a marathon so late? I’ve trained for the last 4 months running super early in the morning. Maybe pinning my sport beans will work better than squishing them in my SpiBelt that I can’t ever unzip easily? AHHH!!!! This is not normal! It’s just a silly little 26.2 mile run with 50,000 other runners. Wait! Yes, this IS normal. It’s totally normal to get a little nuts worrying about it. I should know this by now. Remember, back in this post I discussed my status going from newbie to amateur-plus….

3rd 

Question: Please tell me I’m not alone. Who else starts to get a bit crazed in the weeks leading up to their big race? Any Willy Wonka candy fans? 

 

 

 

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Twenty Terrific Miles—Staten Island Day

14. October 2013 · 2 comments · Categories: running, Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Happy Sunday! This day has flown by!

It started out just like yesterday. It was a bit like Groundhog’s Day…

doodle giving a little attitude for being woken up so early and pre-race coffee requirement being met

doodle giving a little attitude for being woken up so early and pre-race coffee requirement being met

I arrived at the Staten Island Half Marathon race day packet pickup at 6:30am Parked my car and headed over to the start village area. It was DARK and they were still setting up. These banners eventually got hung…

banners waiting to be hung

banners waiting to be hung

Used the flash on my phone to illuminate the “S” box so that the volunteer could locate my bib…

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“S” is for Sweat Out the Small Stuff =)

and then picked up my race tee (I ended up getting 2 on accident….they were stuck together….SCORE!). I made a quick pitstop back to my car to drop the race tees and pin my race number on my pants, grab a bottle of water and then I started out on my pre race miles…

Three miles in I took a path into a park that has a great view of the Verrazano Bridge. (yes I know! I’m obsessed with my overpriced-toll-suspension-bridge. It’s unhealthy.)

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First time I ever used the Kelvin filter with Instagram….

I followed the same route back to my car and managed to get about 6 1/2 pre-race miles. My goal today was to try and keep a pace in the 11 to 11:30 minute mile. I stayed at 11:15 for those pre-race miles. Things were right on target. Met up briefly with my running peeps before we all split up to head to our appropriate corrals.

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love these peeps

I won’t go into boring detail about every mile of the race. It went smooth and I kept my 11:15 pace for the entire half. At one point the leading men were running past us in the opposite direction. I quickly pulled out my camera to snap pics. The 1st place dude was so fast that I didn’t get his pic. But I got a great shot of the 2nd place dude (I looked up his results and he did indeed hold the 2nd place spot…

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As I was entering the final chute to the finish I thought it would be kinda cool to video it. I’ve never done that before. The footage is quite shakey but I was excited that they annouced my name as I finished. And unbeknownst to me my running peeps were on the sidelines and Lisa took a photo of me. When I watched the video I saw that I actually videotaped her! We’re just meant to be.

Here’s the pic she took of me…

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And here’s a still shot from the video where you can see her taking the pic…

videostilland here’s the non-award-winning video…

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20 miles done! And now it’s TAPER TIME!

After I finished I jogged back to the parking lot and did a few laps until I hit the 20 mile mark and then went back to my car (running peeps hopped on the Staten Island Ferry to head back to Manhattan) and stretched for a bit. I knew I’d have a good 40 minutes before the roads would be reopened and all of a sudden I realized I was STARVING! 20 miles and I had probably only eaten about 500 calories…I scraped up a few bucks in my car and went into the ferry terminal to get a nice hot slice of pizza! So good!

YUM!

YUM!

Then kicked back and patiently waited….

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stretching

Finally they let us out and I headed home. My final half time was 2:27 and my final 20 mile time was 3:45 giving me an average pace of 11:15! My A) goal for the NYC Marathon is 5:15 which is a 12 minute pace. I think I’m right on target (which means I probably just jinxed myself).

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I want to give a shout out to Mike who set a shiny new half marathon PR at 1:46! WORD! I was so grateful to him yesterday for pacing me to a 10K PR that this made me happy.

I bought a new pair of earbuds yesterday at Walgreens and decided to give them a test today so I’ll know if they will work for the NYC Marathon.

buds

iHome FIT ear buds get a big thumbs up

They get my seal of approval. I didn’t use the extra hook pieces that go behind the year but they never fell out. The only issue is they are so snug that people were asking me questions and I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I’m going to make sure not to wear both at NYC Marathon. Keeping one ear free should allow me to hear better.

All in all it was a great running weekend. Unfortunately not much else was accomplished. Well I did take the doodle on a walk with his Dogue friends (and my human friend)

packwalk

Duncan and Athena and Zeus A.K.A. the Dogues

and last night I made a quick visit to another friends house where her boxer Chance and the doodle got to have a riveting play date…

boredpupsAnd I also treated myself to a plate of my favorite cookies…

cookieI’ll let you in on a secret. I cried both yesterday and today. Just a brief moment each morning while driving to my race destination where I just got all fuh-klempt. There’s something about the journey of training for marathons that really opens up the emotions. I become overly grateful for everything. So now I’m officially beginning my taper period that will last 3 weeks until marathon day. I’ll try and focus everything that has taken a back seat the last few months. which is basically EVERYTHING!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Question: What is your favorite type of cookie?

 

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Do you remember the time you left your cell in my car?

25. August 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: running, Uncategorized, vacation · Tags: , , , ,

Yesterday morning it was time to say goodbye to Lake Champlain and the beautiful Adirondacks. Donna and I (and the doodle) were on the road by 7:15am. The plan was for me to drive about 4 hours to Rockland County where my friend Sue lives so I could visit with her a bit before driving the last hour home. I was also planning on dropping Donna at a train station right in that town where she could get an express train to Manhattan and then transfer to another train to be home by 2pm (she doesn’t drive so she is used to being dropped at train stations). I got her to the station at 11:33am for the 11:45am train. She got her ticket, and then we just hugged goodbye and talked about how perfect things had worked out. The train pulled in to the station, she got on, and then the doodle and i walked back to the car. I opened the passenger door for Duncan to hop in and that’s when I saw Donna’s cell phone! It was charging in my car on the drive down and in our excitement that she was able to catch the express train neither one of us noticed. So I grabbed the phone and started running back to the station where the train was still actually in the station but the doors were closed. I screamed and ran like they do in the movies….but much to no avail…. the train pulled out…

Later in the afternoon she called me from her ….um….what do they call them?…..oh right! land line. (shiver) and we came up with a plan to get her the phone back.  I had plans to drive in to Manhattan and run with my peeps this morning, so Donna decided she’d take the train from her house to Penn Station and i’d meet her there after my running. So this morning I drove into Manhattan…

Verrazano Bridge sunrise

Verrazano Bridge sunrise

…and put on my SpiBelt with both my cell and Donna’s cell on the belt. I felt like Tim the Toolman Taylor!!! Off I went to meet my peeps. We ran along the west side up to Central Park for a loop and then back down the west side.

some of the female peeps who all have worked or still work at the same place.

some of the female peeps who all have worked or still work at the same place.

we passed some cool looking sculptures like this one:

engaged to the big apple =)

engaged to the big apple =)

and then there were the usual colorful canoes:

photo 1

I had planned on running 10 miles but it was still so early that i ran 3 additional miles, then walked 1 more and still had time to grab some breakfast before Donna’s train arrived. The phone return went off without a hitch. We laughed about it and said goodbye and then I walked another mile back downtown to get to my car and head home.

Speaking of cell phones… I met up with my friend Sue  yesterday (after the train station drop off) and we talked at length about cell phones particularly smart phones and how addictive they are for some. (raising hand! yep. i admit i’m addicted to being connected) then today a friend posted this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINa46HeWg8#t=109

 

Question: How addicted to your smart phone are you? I confess I desperately held my phone up to one corner of the cottage while I was away just to post a pic to instagram!

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