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half training through the holidays

December 30, 2012 by justgathering

This title is appropriate because I’m both training for a half and half training. The past two weeks have been filled with plane rides, car trips, company holiday parties, family dinners, and making it work. I’ve also been struggling with some IT band issues (not fun), so I canned a couple of runs.

Here’s what week four of training looked like:

Line 1 = planned training. Line 2 = actual training. I know. That’s a lot of rest days. But I was able to do Saturday’s run in Prospect Park, so I was a happy camper.

Week five was better:

3 miles turned into 2 miles because of the good old IT band. I detest giving up midway through a run, but it had to be done. Wednesday and Friday, I stuck to the treadmill, partly to give my knees a break but mostly because Illinois was covered in a thick sheet of black ice the whole time I was home.

Which brings me to today’s run, 10 miles with Megan. Thanks to sleet yesterday and overnight temps in the twenties, the city was pretty icy too.

We crossed into Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge, and the patches of ice made it, honestly, treacherous. Once we hit the West Side Highway, things got worse; the ice was so thick that we had to turn back. We came back over the Manhattan Bridge, thinking it might be a little safer, but it was still slick.

Our 10 miles were very slow and careful, clocking in around 1:36—definitely not my goal race pace. But the run flew by since we had a lot of catching up to do after three months apart. And it ended with a big group brunch at Hill Cafe, making it nothing short of a fantastic Brooklyn Sunday morning.

I got Hoppin’ John… let’s get this New Year’s party started!

Category run. | Tags: Brooklyn,half marathon training,running | 3 Comments
just made: easy date bars

December 17, 2012 by justgathering

I ate a lot of borscht this week.

Golden beets, cabbage, and carrots: pretty much my ideal December meal. With perhaps a dollop of yogurt or a smattering of chickpeas.

And for dessert? Date bars. All week. I’ve still got some in the freezer in case I go into date bar withdrawal.

I used this recipe and (for once) I didn’t change a thing.

A crust of almonds, oats, dates, and coconut oil, with a tiny bit of salt, all processed into a coarse, sticky meal…

Pressed firmly into a pan…

And covered with pureed dates.

Plus a bit more of the crust mixture as topping. Simple, no?

Satisfyingly so.

It rained a lot this week—a ton for Phoenix, actually. I went on a fresh-from-rain run earlier this week and loved it.

For this morning’s long run, I fueled with protein pancakes. I made these with an egg, banana instead of oil, and half whole wheat flour, half hemp protein powder. I definitely felt like they powered me through my eight miles.

Because of the lingering side effects of the rain, I had to take quite a few detours on my run today.

But I still managed to get in 8 miles in 1:16:14.

Here’s what this week’s training looked like:

I adjusted as needed, but I think I got the most important run taken care of. And, awesomely, I felt at the end like I could’ve run for a few more miles at least. This is a very good sign, and it might mean I need to push my pace a little more next time. Or maybe it was just the protein pancakes. And all those dates.

I’m flying all over the country for the upcoming holidays and will be hitting up New York, Philly, and Chicago over the next two weeks. Anyone doing anything particularly fun? I’m open to suggestions in any/all of those cities!

Category eat., run. | Tags: date bars,half marathon training,running | 1 Comment

week in review: exploratory running… and eating

August 21, 2011 by justgathering

We got back from Chicago a week ago, but I have yet to settle back into my routine when it comes to running. I was all over the place this week, mostly because I had several opportunities to run with great people. In fact, I didn’t look at my training plan once in the last seven days, choosing instead to give myself up to running when and with whom I wanted to… and fueling it all with the summer foods I know I’m going to miss the most.

One of the highlights of my week: running with Steff, Sara, Ashley, Leslie, and Sofia. We met up to do a group run put on by Athleta on Wednesday, but it was a bit disorganized so we ended up heading off on our own for a few miles around Central Park. Seeing these ladies all in one place was a total midweek treat.

My favorite run this week: 3 easy miles around Central Park on Friday morning, alone and sans headphones. Yes, I love running with friends and I almost always use solo runs to catch up on my podcasts, but Friday I just needed it to be me and the park. And my breathing. And the sunrise. Perfect.

This weekend’s long run was sort of broken into two parts. I set out with a friend for 9 miles along the Hudson on Saturday, but her knees were hurting around 6.5, so we walked the rest.

I figure I’m about as ready as I’m going to be for the Bronx Half at this point. No use in stressing about my training now. I’ve got a whole lot of great runs under my belt, and I’m just going to give it the best I’ve got next week.

Plus, I wasn’t about to head out for another few miles right away because we had plans that involved (a) food and (b) beer.

Yes, Smorgasburg. I have been looking forward to this pretty much all summer. Daniel and I made the food tent rounds with a group of friends, some old and some new.

We started with a vegetarian papusa filled with beans, cheese, and jalapenos and topped with pickled onions and cabbage, salsa, more jalapenos, and sour cream. This was excellent. Mighty heavy, but excellent.

We followed that up with a pretty delicious falafel filled with tabbouleh and some sort of tomato jam or chutney. Also quite good.

But what I couldn’t stop thinking about was a giant ice cream sandwich. I sampled a bite of one of these when our friends got one a few weeks ago at the Brooklyn Flea, but this time I wanted at least half of one to myself.

I say half because these things are huge. Two gigantic oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies with fudge and about an inch and a half of vanilla ice cream. Insane.

Of course, a lunch like that required beers afterward. To aid in digestion, you know. We wound up first at a German beer hall in Williamsburg where I had a wheat beer bigger than my head. Then we went to d.b.a. in the East Village (the site of our first date!), where I had the Goose Island Summer. Both good, though not favorites.

This morning I did another 4 miles with another friend — part recovery run, part attempt to get my weekend mileage up. We gave ourselves the mission of exploring un-run paths in the park, which turned out to be a really fun task and something I’m going to do more often, rather than sticking to the same old loops.

Looking back now, my training was better this week than most, despite the fact that I wasn’t thinking about it and just running when I felt like it. Here’s how my runs measure up to what I’d planned:

3 miles + Strength	4 miles speed	Strength	XT	3 miles tempo	9 miles	Rest/Yoga	19 miles
4 miles tempo	4 miles speed	3.5 miles easy	Rest	3 miles easy + 1 hour power Yoga	6.5 miles	4 miles easy	25 miles

Yeah, apparently I suck at getting in that strength training. Gotta do that. But even so, I’m pretty proud of my miles this week.

Post-run, my Sunday turned into one big sugar rush and involved a whole lot of this:

Oh yes. More on that tomorrow. Mwah ha ha.

Category run., write. | Tags: beers,dba,drinking,falafel,half marathon training,ice cream sandwich,lunching,papusa,running with friends,smorgasburg,snacking,training | 5 Comments

On Running Long Enough

August 14, 2011 by justgathering
This weekend’s long run was supposed to be 12 miles.

Sometimes scheduled runs don’t go as planned. With all the traveling and weddings this summer has involved, I’m actually surprised that this is the first long run hiccup I’ve had.

I managed 10.25 miles in 1:34:30 for a 9:13 average mile. I ran along the Chicago lakefront, which was hot and sunny and almost completely flat.

This run felt surprisingly good most of the way, but I didn’t hit 12 for a few reasons. One was that this was our vacation day. This trip to Chicago was a working trip for both me and Daniel, so every minute I was running on the weekend sort of felt like I was stealing our one day to actually see the city together. So when I found myself back at our friends’ apartment having not reached my full 12 miles, I bagged the rest of the run in favor of some fun in Chicago.

With two weeks til the Bronx Half Marathon, this was supposed to be my longest run. Am I worried that I didn’t get that last 1.75 in? No. Here’s why:
1. The night before this run involved a ton of super cheesy Mexican food and Tecate-n-hot sauce cocktails. And perhaps a cup of water for the whole day.
2. The night before this run I slept roughly six hours on a pull-out couch, waking up pretty much twice an hour.
3. My breakfast before this run consisted of a hamburger bun, plain.
4. My mid-run fuel was two prunes, roughly 40 calories. Not enough.
I figure, if I can keep up a 9:13 pace for over 10 miles when I’m tired, sore, dehydrated, and have not been treating my tummy nicely, then I can definitely pull out 13.1 when I’m rested, watered, and properly fueled. No regrets.

Once I got cleaned up, we set out to do some fun Chicago things. We started with lunch at a lovely Armenian restaurant called Sayat Nova. (This was a Yelp find. Love it when the Yelp app comes through for me.)

Beers were had.

We split a mezza platter of hummus, babaganoush, and cucumbers in yogurt and dill.

Followed by a vegetarian entree that included rice, salad, spinach spanakopita, and plaki (white beans stewed in tomatoes).

With a side of tabbouleh.

This is my favorite kind of food. I would surely request it as my last meal. Or much needed replenishment after a long, hot run.

After lunch, we hopped on Chicago’s First Lady for the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s seriously cool boat tour.



I’ve been on this tour once before, along with a few walking tours put on by the Architecture Foundation, and I have never been disappointed. Their volunteer docents are extremely knowledgable, and I’m always impressed at how much information they can pack into an hour and a half. Plus, the view from the Chicago River is the best.



Could not recommend this tour more highly, especially if you’re interested in 20th century schools of design (or literature or music, for that matter). Daniel freaking loved it.



Between work and weddings, we managed to sneak in a few other fun Chicago things this week.

We tried to see a night game with my dad at Wrigley Field on Monday, but it got rained out.

We were pretty bummed to miss out on this, but then (hooray!) my dad drove us in for the rescheduled afternoon game on Thursday.

The weather was spectacular, our seats were the best I’ve ever had, and the Cubs won. Could not have been a more perfect game.

Anyway, here’s how my last two weeks of training measure up to what I’d planned.

Intended:

Actual:

Should I have so many rest days in there? Nope. I would have liked to do a lot more running and cross-training. But traveling, especially when you’re staying with friends, requires flexibility. Thankfully, now it’s back to New York and to routine and normalcy.

So here’s my question for you seasoned (or not) runners out there: do you rigidly stick to your training plan when traveling, or do you go with the flow and trust that your best is good enough?
Category run., write. | Tags: Architecture Foundation,Armenian food,baseball,beer,Chicago,Cubs,drinking,half marathon training,Lakefront,long run,lunching,training | 11 Comments

Weekly Training Retrospect: Taking it Easy

July 31, 2011 by justgathering

The theme of my weekend has definitely been taking it easy.

I did a bootcamp on Thursday night, which left me (immediately) dirty and (longterm) sore.

I now know that I am incapable of scaling up the walls of rock in Central Park, no matter how many times I hurl my body at them. And that girly pushups are not okay in a bootcamp setting.

I followed up this little adventure by volunteering at the Queens Half Marathon on Saturday, a feat that required getting up at 3:45 in the morning to trek to Flushing Meadows. Making the underground transfer at 42nd Street, I finally identified with whoever put these signs on the ceiling beams.

Volunteering was a fantastic experience though. Yes, it was an early morning and a hot day, but it was incredibly inspiring to watch hundreds upon hundreds of people cross the finish line. And to give them a bagel and say congratulations. Bravo to all who ran it. You guys rock.

I was pretty much a zombie for the rest of the day yesterday and spent a lot of time lounging on a picnic blanket in Central Park, but after 10 hours of sleep last night I was ready to rock a run this morning. My training plan called for 6 miles, although I felt I could do more. But in the spirit of taking it easy for the weekend, I stuck to the plan.

Mile 1 — 8:49

Mile 2 — 8:34

Mile 3 — 8:50

Mile 4 — 9:08

Mile 5 — 8:41

Mile 6 — 8:37

All 6 in 52:39, an average 8:46 mile. Not bad! I think the two rest days and extra sleep really helped.

Post-run, Daniel and I met our friends John and Tasha at the Brooklyn Flea, where I could not pass up a chocolate-dipped frozen banana with crushed almonds and sea salt. Yes, it tasted as good as it sounds.

A few hours meandering around the market in the hot sun and I am beat. Good thing we have movie tickets for tonight. And a thermos full of beer. Mwah ha ha.

So how’d my half marathon training go for this week?

3 miles + Strength	4 miles speed	Strength	XT	4 miles tempo	6 miles	Rest/Yoga	17 miles
Rest day	3 miles speed workout	3 miles – 26:40	3 miles – 27:08 + Bootcamp	Rest	Rest	6 miles – 52:39	15 miles

I didn’t pack in quite as many miles as I’d hoped, and I definitely should have done a better job of spacing out my rest days. I took Monday off because we’d just returned from Philly and I needed sleep, and I ran Thursday instead of Friday because my friends from my building were running that day and I wanted to join in. I had grand plans to run after volunteering yesterday, but my body and mind were so tired that there was no way I could run on 4 hours of sleep. So it is what it is. I’m not too concerned about it. They were all good runs, and sleep, friends, and frozen bananas are way more important than being rigid about a table I made in Microsoft Word.

Word.

Off to continue taking it easy in an air conditioned movie theater. Happy end of the weekend, friends.

Category run., write. | Tags: bootcamp,Brooklyn Flea,Central Park,desserting,frozen banana,half marathon training,Queens Half,snacking,training,volunteering | 1 Comment

11 Mile Weekend

July 17, 2011 by justgathering

Yesterday’s long run: 7 miles.

Today’s recovery run: 4 miles.

Seen on yesterday’s run along the West Side Highway:

There’s plenty of art along the Hudson River, but I found this piece so completely arresting that I had to stop and take some pictures. It’s called River Gazers, and it’s by Elizabeth Allison.

My 7 miles went well. This was my longest run since February, and I’ve been being very cautious and listening to every ache and pain in my body. The second something feels wrong, I’ll back off, but for now training is going well. My splits:

Mile 1 — 9:06

Mile 2 — 8:57

Mile 3 — 9:34

Mile 4 — 9:13

Mile 5 — 9:17

Mile 6 — 9:10

Mile 7 — 9:12

I finished in 1:04:29 for an average pace of 9:13. I’ll take it.

Best way to refuel: a cookie from a kid. My running buddy neighbor across the hall made cookies and her son shared them with us. Chocolate chips, oats, cranberries, and walnuts — this was a serious cookie. Daniel and I shared it while walking the dogs, and then I met my new friend Courtney for a green power smoothie at Peacefood Cafe.

Also a good way to refuel. We walked and talked for awhile, mostly about running and good food and things that make us happy. Great afternoon.

I was going to take the day off running today, but friends from my building were running so I decided that a recovery run wouldn’t do me any harm. In fact, I figured it might help me recover not only from yesterday’s long run but also from last night’s festivities. Friends of mine were in town from Illinois, so a few too many beers and a 2 am bedtime meant I woke up at 7:30 feeling not so hot. What better way to start the day than sweating out the toxins, right? Right.

We ran 4 miles in 38:51, taking turns pushing my young cookie-sharing friend in the jogging stroller — again, that is a serious workout. There is no possible way I have any alcohol left in my system because I was sweating buckets.

And now? Feeling fabulous. I don’t go out and go crazy very often, but when I do, I swear by an early run the next morning. Hangovers, I will pound you into the pavement.

So how did I do on my training this week? Well, here’s what I scheduled for myself:

And here’s what I actually did:

I ran a little more than I’d planned, and I also did absolutely no strength training, cross training, or yoga. Whoops.

What can I say? It’s summer. Instead of strength training, Wednesday night brought me to the High Line for a beer and a long walk in the sunshine.

It was windy and perfect.

Daniel and I meandered through the entire park, people watching and talking.

Traffic theater.

I feel so lucky to live in a city with so much green space.

Thursday night I was supposed to do yoga with Leslie, but the class we picked ended up being a misprint on the schedule. So of course we found someplace with outdoor seating to have drinks instead.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: beer is a great pre-fun fuel.

So, Wednesday and Thursday were a wash training-wise, but it was totally worth it. Summer evenings spent outdoors with awesome people and beers? Fine by me.

(That said, this week I’m going to try to get in at least one decent strength workout. Might have to get up early to do so, but that just means more free nights to have fun.)

So what’s the consensus? Anyone else out there fuel runs with beer? Anyone recover from a little too much beer by running? And anyone have a great beer recommendation for me?

Signing off so I can go make pancakes and walk my puppies, but I’ve got food pics from this weekend to share mighty soon… Happy Sunday, friends.

Category run., write. | Tags: beer,desserting,drinking,green smoothie,half marathon training,High Line,long run,snacking,training | 6 Comments

Just Ran: The Weekend Long Run

July 10, 2011 by justgathering

Yesterday’s run was the first long run in my new half marathon training plan. 6 miles isn’t that long compared to the ten- and twelve-milers that are coming, so there wasn’t much mental build up. I rolled out of bed, laced up, and took off.

But first, I had a pretty great dinner the night before.

Key #1 to a good Saturday morning run: quality carbs on Friday night.

Homemade bean and mushroom burger on a whole wheat bun. Beans, whole grains, and veggies are good carb sources. When I run first thing in the morning, I don’t usually eat first, so I try to make sure that my meal from the night before is full of good fuel.

Plus a side of cauliflower and sweet potatoes, roasted with cumin and nutritional yeast. More good carbs and lots of vitamins.

And beer to drink, which totally counts as quality carbs, as long as you don’t have too much. One is my magic number. In this case, it was Wolaver’s Wildflower Wheat, a summer favorite.

Now back to the run. As I was strapping on my Garmin, I thought about where to run. I didn’t want to run in the park, since I always run there.

Key #2 to a good Saturday run: choose a route you don’t run during the week.

I decided to retrace the route that Daniel, Steff, and I had biked on Thursday. I had never run north along the Hudson before, so this was a new and stimulating little exploration for me.

Once I got to the river, I got the George Washington Bridge in my sights and ran toward it.

The path was pleasant, although I didn’t make it quite as far as the scenic forest we rode through earlier in the week.

Blue skies and views of NJ.

As I got nearer to the bridge, I came across Riverbank State Park, where Steff and I did a speed workout on the track in the spring.

I turned around before reaching the bridge. I’ll save that for a longer long run as my training progresses. But the six miles flew by, thanks to my still pretty unfamiliar route and some great listening material.

Key #3 to a good Saturday run: look forward to your listening.

Whether you prefer the soundtrack of your natural surroundings or you like to create personal running playlists, a long run requires that you engage your senses and mind if you want to keep from getting bored. If I’m on a music kick, I’ll download a few brand new songs before each long run. Most of the time, though, I listen to podcasts while I run. Each podcast is full of brand new information and keeps my mind stimulated. I’m going to do a post soon and list some of my favorites, but on this run I was listening to Jillian Michaels talking about healthy living. Talk about motivating.

With a big downhill at the start and a big uphill at the very end, this run absolutely flew by. 6 miles in 55:23, and my splits looked like this:

Mile 1 — 9:28

Mile 2 — 9:11

Mile 3 — 9:16

Mile 4 — 9:12

Mile 5 — 8:56

Mile 6 — 9:18

Another thing that flew by? The first week of my half marathon training. How did it go?

This is what I scheduled for myself:

And here’s what I actually did:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
4 miles	5 miles tempo	Strength with free weights (planks, pushups, lunges with bicep curls, tricep extensions, chest flies)	11 mile bike ride	3 miles easy	6 miles	Rest and potential bike ride…	18 miles

Not too shabby. I surpassed my mileage goals, but I’m not doing as much strength as I’d like, so I know what I need to work on this week. Nice.

Now, for a relaxing Sunday afternoon and perhaps a bike ride… toward ice cream, of course. Love summer.

Category run., write. | Tags: bean burgers,beer,carbs,drinking,George Washington Bridge,half marathon training,Hudson River,long run,podcasts,running routes,supping,sweet potatoes,training,veggie burgers,weekend running | 5 Comments