I want a blog that is more about my interests and every day life. The support I’ve gotten here has been amazing and I hope you follow me over to my new blog:

Run, Shop, Travel

I will be posting about my trip to Las Vegas trip and Las Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon over there so you’ll have to come over if you want to see how I did

I am not deleting this blog, I think there are some great posts and information so you can always come back and visit the archives!

Thursday- 15 min treadmill intervals; 25 min total body strength training

Friday- 10 min stepmill; 20 min elliptical

Hi all! I am back from Las Vegas and will be writing a few posts over the next couple days with recaps of the trip, and of course the half marathon! It was a great time! Stay tuned!

My best friend from college, Alaina, who has visited me in the city a few times and who ran the World Trade Center Run to Remember 5k with me back in September, is coming along to Vegas later this week to run the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Half Marathon next Sunday!

It’s no secret (just look at my “work it out” posts for the past couple weeks) that I have not been keeping up with my running as much since my 2nd half marathon back in October. I haven’t done more than about 6.5 miles at once since then.

That is OK though. This race is going to be run for fun. We have no time goal, we just want to finish. I think we’re going to use the run/walk method to keep up our strength for the last few miles of the race where I burned out last month.

The two of us have a lot to celebrate and that is what this race is about. We’ve gone from college girls who bonded over greasy chinese food and calzones (DP Dough how I miss thee!) to losing 8o+ lbs EACH and running a HALF MARATHON together! I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else!

I started out the day with a 3.3 mile run down 1st Avenue and back up 2nd Avenue. As I expected, my Garmin didn’t want to cooperate with all the big buildings so I just used it for the timer and finished just under 35 minutes. After a shower and breakfast I headed out to start my day!

I feel so blessed to live right in NYC…I’ve gotten to do some pretty cool things in the almost year I have been here and I started off Thanksgiving morning with a trip to watch some of the Macy’s Parade!

The route was over on the west side so I walked across town and spent an hour watching floats and balloons go by at 48th St. and 7th Ave. I only had my cellphone but I got some cool pics:

After watching some of the parade, I took the train up to CT. and relaxed for a few hours while dinner was cooking.

We did something a little unusual…chicken instead of turkey! We didn’t need a big bird with just 4 of us and we all prefer chicken to turkey so we figured why not? The rest of dinner was traditional – mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, green beans, cranberry sauce. Except for the cranberry sauce (canned…my favorite…not joking!), all the recipes were from Cooks Illustrated and came out fabulous! My parents did a great job cooking.

While I only had one plate of food, it was overflowing and afterwards I needed a quick cat nap to recover. My family watched a cute movie, 500 Days of Summer and ate dessert a short time later. My mom made pumpkin cheesecake bars and I contributed Maple Pecan Bites.Yum.

After heading to bed early, I woke up at 4:30AM unable to go back to sleep. The rest of my family was up by 6:15 or so and my mom and I headed to the mall shortly after 7.

Now if you know me, I do not like crowds much and  can get a little anxious…but this year I really wanted to do a little Black Friday shopping…for myself! I had good luck at Express, NY&Co, Victoria’s Secret, and Ann Taylor. I was done by 9:30. Tons of stores were having everything 40, 50, 60% off and I couldn’t pass it up! It really wasn’t too crowded and I ended the morning a happy camper. Now it’s time to shop for everyone else!

Monday 11/15- 10 min elliptical; 30 min total body strength training

Tuesday 11/16- 40 min spin class

Tuesday 11/23- 25 min treadmill intervals (2.4 miles) + 5 min cool down (0.30 miles); 30 min total body strength training

Wednesday 11/24- 30 min elliptical; 90 min slow flow yoga class

Thursday 11/25- 3.3 mile run (34:45)

Friday 11/26- 15 min abs/upper body strength training

My routine change is going OK. I worked out in the afternoon/evening this week on Wednesday and today. I did strength training on my lunch hour Tuesday. The work gym is pretty OK for that. My current sleeping habits are to go to bed pretty early (since I am used to waking up early) so I think it is going to take some time to change that!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I am heading back to the city soon. While waiting to go to the train station I just went and did a quick abs/upper body routine. It’s better than nothing, which is what I probably would have done today if not for being motivated to quickly do that! Tomorrow I should do a run (last long-ish one before the Vegas half next week) but I might hit the gym for spin instead…we shall see!

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner- but I am going to become a night exerciser!

It is a huge change to my routine but I think it is just what I need.

In order to get to work on time in the mornings I take a train just after 8 AM. Now I will be able to sleep until 7 and make it in time.

My gym has a fair amount of late classes so most weeks I should be able to make it home in time to catch a 7:15PM spin class once or twice a week. They also have a good weekend class schedule so I can always catch it (or yoga!) then. I really need to try and work out at least one day on the weekends. I’ve been slacking with that!

I have also let strength training slip a lot lately and sometimes feel overwhelmed trying to get it in along with cardio so I want to bring some workout clothes with me to work a couple days a week and do weights for 30 minutes on my lunch hour at the gym in my office building.

In a nutshell, here is my plan:

M-F: 30-60 minutes of cardio 4 of the days at night

Tu/Th: 30 min strength training at lunch

Sat or Sun: 45 min of cardio + yoga class

It’s ambitious but I think it is just what I need to shake up my routine. It will get me out of the house at night when I am susceptible to sabotaging myself!

My issue however, is, that no matter how long I give myself to cool down, by the time I leave the gym, I am sweating again and it is to the point where I am putting my coat on over my tank top and commuting that way – not putting on my shirt for work until I get there because I don’t want to ruin it.

It’s not even just my underarms (actually that area isn’t a big problem) – I can feel the sweat running down the back of my neck, my back, under my chest, my face etc.

I prefer my hair down but I’ve been putting it up more to get it off my neck. I am not even wearing makeup much anymore because I am wiping my face so much. I just feel so gross when I finally make it to the train and sit down. It doesn’t help that Grand Central is like a sauna for the 7 or so minutes I am walking through there.

I’ve tried cooling down longer, drying my hair less, getting dressed before drying my hair (usually do it after) and it’s not making much of a difference.

I don’t know what to do. Any ideas?

My college friend Alaina (who was here in September and ran the Run to Remember 5k on Governor’s Island with me!) is back for a visit so we spent the afternoon shopping before grabbing some dinner and drinks. When I go out to eat, I almost always want Thai, Indian, Chinese etc because these are hard to cook yourself but last night I was craving something else…BBQ! Unfortunately I didn’t make a reservation anywhere (the 2 places I would have only had like 5:30PM or 10:ooPM available!) so we took a chance on Dallas BBQ at their East Village location. We didn’t have much of a wait and it hit the spot.

Then we walked over to the Flatiron Lounge which is one of my favorite bars in the city. It’s got a little bit of a speakeasy feel, but it’s really about handcrafted and classic cocktails. I was amused be 3 girls who tried to order tequila shots and got denied. It’s not that kind of place. I had 2 drinks – a Beijing Peach and an English Breeze. Both were fruity but not super sweet and delicious!

We ended up walking home (about 35 blocks!) and were asleep by 2. We had leisurely start to the morning and fueled with a bagel thin and reduced fat cream cheese before heading out for a run in Central Park.

As I said, the weather was perfect and we were just fine in crops and tank tops. We did a 10k – here are our splits:

Mile 1: 11:28

Mile 2: 10:52

Mile 3: 12:01 <– walking break (Alaina got a side stitch!)

Mile 4: 11:10 <– walking break (I got a side stitch!)

Mile 5: 11:14

Mile 6: 10:59

Mile 6-6.2: 10:10

The Vegas half is less than a month away! We discussed our strategy for the race which I’ll post about soon!

Overall a great weekend. We’re about to head out again for a little lunch and more shopping!

Wednesday- 25 min treadmill intervals (2.20 miles); 10 min dumbells

Thursday- 45 min spin class (12.50 miles)

I am happy with everything this week except that I need to start working out 5-6 days a week again. Over the past month or two my workouts have slipped to 3-4 days a week and it isn’t enough (for me personally). I know I can do better; I’ve done better! This weekend my friend who is running the Las Vegas half with me next month is visiting and we plan to do a run on Sunday morning!

Also figured I’d check in on my 10% goal. I am down 2.2 lbs over the last week and a half so just under 15 to go!

(if you want to see my opinions on all the different brands I’ve tried, you can check out this post.)

The other day I was trying to figure out what to do with some canned pumpkin I had opened and decided to try something different with it. Usually I use it for sweet things (mixed into yogurt or oatmeal) but this time I decided to go savory and make pumpkin pasta sauce!

Here’s what I did:

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup chicken stock

8 oz can no salt added tomato sauce

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup 1% milk

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Heat oil + garlic in a pot and after 2-3 minutes add the remaining ingredients, stir occasionally until heated through. Serve over pasta and enjoy!

Another super easy and yummy meal!