Monthly Archives: July 2013

July 29, 2013 · 1:46 am

Week 2

Mon 7/22 – rest

Tues 7/23 – 4 mi / 37 min
An I don’t want to but I’ll do it because I have to run turned into a great tempo run.
80F and less humid than its been (so only 60% or so)
The lower temp and humidity really helped me keep the pace up (as did the rapidly approaching darkness from procrastinating too long + my irrational fear of the dark…but never mind…)
Ran hard and felt good…both a pleasant surprise and a small miracle.

Wed 7/24 – cross – 10 mi bike / a while
Went biking with one of my new friends out on some country roads just north of town. It was a very pretty ride and relaxing while also being a nice opportunity to get the muscles warmed up and moving.
Mid 70s (P.S where the hell did the summer go?!?!) and less humid.

Thurs 7/25 – 7.5 mi / 1:09 min

Very good. Didn’t feel like a real speed work out when I started (…a long crappy day at work…as hard as that is to imagine…), but got going and was in a grove within the first mile and felt like pushing it. Right leg tightened up a bit at the end, but overall felt very good – lungs and legs. The rolling hills were fun and the right amount of work.

Much lower temp (69F) and cloudy felt great (still 77% humidity)

Took 206 out of town for 3.5 and then turned around and came back. Not what I had planned to do, but I got the miles in and really, it wouldn’t be true to form for me to get a new route right the first time. The route was pretty and there was enough of a shoulder most of the way. But, there were enough areas where it narrowed and was also swerving and hilly that I don’t think I should make this a regular route.

Fri 7/26 – rest

Sat 7/27 – 11 mi (first 5.5 mi / 53 min, second 5.5 mi / who knows and who cares because I was too busy talking with friends 🙂

Had an awesome Saturday planned with friends so in anticipation of the aftermath on Sunday, I got my long run in on Saturday. I did the first 5.5 solo, out and back from town and then did the second half with my awesome MN-relocated-to-the-east-coast running crew: Drs. Hills and Dr. Sami. We ran and blabbered and sweat our asses off and had a great time.

It felt damn warm: ~80F and sunny.

Overall felt very good. The first half was faster and the second half was a lot of yappy fun. A great way to spend Saturday morning.

Dr. Sami, Dr. T, Drs. Hills and Dr. Mazar (who didn’t participate in the run with us but provided the awesome family BBQ that was the occasion for our gathering in the first place)

Sun 7/28 – rest + foam roll

(Please see Saturday post, will get the miles in on Monday.)
Total mileage =22.5 mi

Not bad. It would’ve been nice to get the 5 miler in on Sunday, but c’est la vie. The week’s runs all felt good and I got in a bonus bike ride and a kick ass Saturday. Week 2 was a winner 🙂

Threads – running, skirts, shorty socks and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s for the trails AND the Wave Elixer 6s) for the roads

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Week 1

Things got a little switched up for the first week of training to accommodate work (read: to accommodate a massive dumbass/rookie mistake made by muah at work) and Master David’s wedding on Saturday (yyyeeeaaahhh). Got the mileage in w/reasonably spaced (kinda) rest days, in wicked hot and humid NJ weather and all is feeling pretty good so far. I’ll take it.

Mon 7/15 – 3.64 mi / 32:20 min
93F hear index
The run was hot and humid and sweaty and hard and felt great.
P.S. I got bit/stung by a firefly! Who the eff does that?

Tues 7/16 – 7.02 mi / 1:08:40 min
95F and 55% humidity

2 x 4 oz ~~wretched~~ running belt bottles of water (not enough)
A 9:47 pace would be acceptable considering my current state for a first 7 miler of the season. Not a land/speed record, but not bad. However, considering that I may have been running on the surface of the sun, I am thrilled. Lets see how thrilled I (namely ankles, knees, hips, caves and quads…yeah…that’s all…) feel tomorrow.
The lungs felt good and the legs held on too. Will have to either cut the nails or start wrapping my toes though. Taking off ones socks should not be that exciting/unpredictable.
P.S. Never mind (and never mention again) the number of uncharacteristic OMG I have to stop RIGHT NOW and just stand here in the shade for 30 sec or else I will drop dead this instant pauses that were taken…

Wed 7/17 – rest
.
Thurs 7/18 – rest
.
Fri 7/19 – 5.4 mi / 51 min
85F but felt like mid 90s by 6 am. Awesome. Absolutely slick with saline before I made it out of my apartment compound, but there was something about just accepting my slimy fate and focusing on enjoying the rest of the run that worked surprisingly well. An exhausting but great way to start the morning!

Sat 7/20 – wedding reception dancing (that counts for at least 10 miles in my book)
.
Sun 7/21 – rest
.
Total mileage = 16 mi

So not exactly the ~30 mile Week 1 that I had hoped for. But, also not too bad for a) how damn hot it has been and for b) the fact that we had David’s wedding at which to earn the badge of “trouble makers…”

For next week, there is absolutely no reason that the long run won’t happen and the food log will be maintained through out the weekend
Note: due to an excessive amount of scotch throwing itself into my mouth (this was very talented scotch) on both Friday and Saturday night (talented and persistent), the food log was unfortunately impossible this weekend

Threads – running, skirts, shorty socks and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s for the trails AND the Wave Elixer 6s) for the roads

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July 21, 2013 · 11:20 pm

July 15, 2013 · 5:24 pm

My email tells me I’m running the Philadelphia Marathon…

So last night (after a much needed fire was lit under my ass by Dr. Sami) I pulled the trigger and registered for the Philadelphia Marathon (at full price…oops…) The marathon is on Sunday, November 17 so if you’re good at math (hell, even if you aren’t good at math you should be able to handle this one) that puts me 18 weeks out exactly. So, hello first day of (~~being pissed off about not being able to justify dinners of beer and cheese curds~~) my next marathon training cycle!

Yikes.

I have to say, I am super excited about this marathon. Of course, I’m stoked to be doing it with my partner in running crime, Dr. Annebelle.

Dr. Annebelle and I at #1 in Chicago

This will actually be our first non-Chicago marathon that we’ve run together. (Full disclosure, I am a bit sad about not doing Chicago again this year. But apparently you can’t do everything…) Also, a number of other grad school + running club buddies are joining in for the fun this year! Drs. Sami, Alex, Ian, Corrie, and MtJK to be exact (and hopefully Drs. Mazar and LizzyBeth and maybe Cousin TC too!!) As if this all isn’t awesome enough, Philly is only an hour from “home” (I’m still not sure how I feel about this, but never mind…)! It’s going to be a fantastic ~~train wreck of a~~ weekend of ~~drinking~~ running!!

My training plan for the 2012 Chicago Marathon went extremely well — i.e. a very comfortable (relative definition) 4:13 PR

#2 @ Chicago in the coolest of headbands (and w/4:13 PR)

Now I think this was largely due to:

Running 4 days a week rather than 5 (yet still keeping my weekly mileage up)
Dr. Jenny, my genius, god-send chiropractor
Self deprivation of aforementioned calcium rich dinner options
Luck

So, the plan is to shoot for something similar.

For starters, here is the tentative training plan for the next lovely 18 weeks:

week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun	Weekly miles
1	–	4	–	7	–	5	10	26
2	–	4	–	7	–	5	11	27
3	–	4	–	8	–	6	8	26
4	–	4	–	8	–	6	13	31
5	–	4	–	9	–	7	14	34
6	–	4	–	9	–	7	10	30
7	–	5	–	10	–	8	16	39
8	–	5	–	10	–	8	17	40
9	–	5	–	11	–	–	13	29
10	–	5	–	11	–	9	19	44
11	–	6	–	12	–	10	20	48
12	–	6	–	8	–	6	12	32
13	–	6	–	12	–	10	20	48
14	–	6	–	8	–	6	12	32
15	–	6	–	12	–	10	20	48
16	–	6	–	10	–	4	12	32
17	–	5	–	8	–	4	8	25
18	–	4	–	6	–	2	MARATHON!!	38

Of course this will change here and there to accommodate for the rest of life. But overall, this is the plan.
Next, it’s high time I find a new chiropractor in the Princeton area. That being said … HELP!! Does anyone know of a good chiropractor in the Princeton area?
So to keep myself on track to maintaining a relatively training friendly diet (via the threat of public humiliation and sheer laziness), I’m now keeping a public food log on MapMyRun. Good luck to me and enjoy (and partake) in the beautiful opportunity of public mockery.
Lastly, the fingers and toes are all crossed (when not pipetting or running) and the evil eyes are all strategically positioned.

With that being said, I’m off to go get in my first, 4 mile, training run of the season (have to shift everything up this first week of training to free up the weekend for Master David’s big wedding weekend).

P.S. Dr. Trot told me that she is going to try and switch things up just a bit. Rather than including daily workout posts, she is going to do weekly training summaries. Putting things into a broader context will hopefully be an improvement and, what the hell can I say, I’m ~~a bit~~ lazy!

Does anyone know of a good chiropractor in the Princeton area? (I’m serious.)

Is anyone just starting a training cycle for a race? New? Old? Marathon? Otherwise?

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Tagged as Friends, Marathon, Philadelphia Marathon, Running, Training

July 13, 2013 · 9:54 pm

Institute Woods adventure

For those of you who haven’t been to Princeton to experience this yourself, let me tell you that there is nothing quite like spending your morning trotting along the paths of the beautiful Institute Woods…

…feeling like Einstein (or as close to feeling like Einstein as I’ll ever be) until BAM!!

Until some stupid, very non-Einstein-like stone bites you in the foot causing you to eat shit in absolutely royal fashion – flying head over tea kettle and rolling down the, what used to be beautiful but now just seems to be crazy muddy, running trail.

Thanks to my childhood I am still very good at falling. After extracting myself from the slimy mess I was in, it was clear that (most importantly) there were no eye witnesses and no harm was done aside from soiling my pretty white running skirt (why the hell would anyone ~~buy~~ sell a white running skirt anyway?!?!). The Garmin was caked in muck and I had a few very minor scratches, but no permanent physical damage.

(Note: these pictures really do not do justice to the mess that I was. Second note: yes, my feet really are that small; no, it isn’t an artifact of the angle at which the picture was taken.)

However, after that, I really couldn’t quite reestablish that mental comparison between Einstein and myself.

I wonder how many times Einstein ate shit in his woods. I wonder if Einstein knew how to fall. I wonder what happened to his hair-do if he did fall.

And that’s the kind of crap that was running though my head as I finished up the run and headed back to the car. Like I said, there isn’t anything quite like it. Sigh…

7/13/13

4.1 miles

42 min

Trail run through the Institute Woods.

My new friend Beth told me about this place last weekend during our hike on Saturday. She is quite knowledgeable when it comes to all things related to Princeton biking and running/hiking. And she was awesome enough to send me a map to the trail starting points for the Institute Woods and a map of the best way to bike to school across scary Route 1 (this is a second mission for the weekend so stay tuned).

(P.S. If she keeps this up she’s going to be hearing from/seeing me way more than she ever hoped to!)

So, for the IW, I chose the most idiot-proof approach (for justification of this decision see above) for this first exploration and started just off of Mercer Rd. Thank you Beth!! 🙂

Warm and humid (80s x2) but it was shaded and very pleasant. There were too many mosquitoes in some parts thanks to the big mud pools spanning the width of the trail (awesome work flash floods of central NJ), but they certainly weren’t everywhere. The trail was well kept and a very reasonable running surface for anyone with half a brain and coordination enough to put one foot in front of the other… The scenery was super pleasant and there were many winding trails to follow. I stuck to doing a bunch of out-and-back routes as to not get stuck in an infinite loop. Not that the events of the day suggest that I would do that sort of thing…

Threads: Nike tank, Nike running skirt and shorty socks.

Treads: Mizuno Wave Creation 11

Has anyone had a run with exciting or unpredictable surprises?

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July 10, 2013 · 11:25 am

Time point trot

Work has been too damn busy 😦 I have to figure out how to get some good runs in that aren’t just squeaked in between time points. In the mean time…

7/10/13

3.4 miles

33 min

Warm and humid (80s and 80s) but it felt good. My very strange lungs seem to like he humidity and my legs like this route. I’ll take it.

Threads: Nike tank, Nike running skirt and shorty socks.

Treads: Mizuno Wave Creation 11

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July 9, 2013 · 8:53 pm

I knew what I was in for

As I headed out the door for my run (during my final round w/the autoclave for the day…which always makes me happier than it should…never mind) I could hear the thunder approaching could see the low grey clouds swirling and could smell rain in the air. Even I knew what was about to happen. And sure enough, less than 5 min later, on display in the center of town on Nassau St., I was absolutely soaked to the bone. To. The. Bone.

7/9/13

3.4 miles

31 min

Warming (low 80s), humid (read pouring rain, like can’t-see-my-feet-to-even-attempt-avoiding-the-puddles kind of “humidity”) and fun.

The rain was actually awesome, a bit of excitement and a welcome switch from the same-old…

Threads: Champion tank and skirt & ~~stupid cotton~~ shorty socks

Treads: Mizuno Wave Creation 11

Any exciting runs had by ya’ll recently? Any fun weather runs?

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July 7, 2013 · 11:30 am

Teal tables, Pinto and Big Gay Ice Cream (edited to include a visible table pic)

Per usual, the big plan was to go for a nice, relaxed Sunday run. Get up early and get it out of the way. Well, “early” turned into 9:30 and 94F w/a heat index of 101F. W.H.A.T?? Just to further quantify that temperature for you, 95-100 F and 80% humidity appears to be at or above the upper limit of what a particular 2001 Volkwagen Beetle’s indicator components can handle. Stay tuned for complaints on Wednesday. (In related news, while NJ drivers don’t find the need to indicate their turns, the sure do seem to expect other people to indicate theirs!!)

So, instead of going for anything even remotely resembling a run, I took on the important (and much over due) task of finding some bedroom furniture. As luck would have it, I was as skilled at finding wicked cute table + mad sale as I was at ditching my run like a bad habit. Oh happy day!

As if this little teal treasure isn’t enough to make one’s day, I had Sunday night plans for dinner with friends in The City! (Note: in case you are not from NY, NJ or CT, “The City” ~~apparently~~ obviously refers to NYC.) This was going to be my first trip in since living with Dr. Annabelle in CT. Man! Time flies!

Any-who, against my better judgement Dr. Sami, Alex and I drove in to meet our friend Miss M, at Pinto on Christopher St and 7th Ave South. Per Miss M’s suggestion, we prayed to St. Theresa for an available parking space “near” the restaurant (Definition: near < back across the Hudson).

My. God. Now I feel as if I’m about to tell you that we saw a ghost, but we totally did! Not only did we find an available parking spot, but we we could a free available parking spot, within 4 blocks of Pinto! Incredible!

Pinto turned out to be an adorable little (think <30 seats) Thai restaurant and bar. The staff was efficient yet we never felt rushed and courteous and attentive but not smothering. My first excellent decision of the night was a glass of white wine and the stuffed tofu appetizer…

My second great decision of he night was the pumpkin curry…

I was a little hesitant considering the heat and humidity of the day, but it was perfect. There was just the right amount of spice, the peanut sauce was rich in flavor but light, the tofu was light and fluffy, the pumpkin and squash were burst of flavor and the cucumber were cool refreshing complements to the rest. It was perfect.

Rumor has it that the green curry and lamb massaman were damn good too. In the end though, the crab fried rice in young coconut just had to go and steal show…

What is it about eating out of something besides a bowl or plate that makes food so much more fun tasty?

As my top quality photographs demonstrate, the one thing that could be improved was the lighting. Again, the ambiance was great, but it was just a bit dark for my taste.

On the way back to the car we just had to end the night with a stop off at The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop.

A ice cream cup with rainbow sprinkles seemed like the only right way to go…

All in all, it was a fabulous way to end the weekend. Although, it sure did make me miss city life. It made me soooooooo miss city life…

Anyone out there with a favorite restaurant or ice cream shop in their favorite city?

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Tagged as Food, Friends, NYC, Restaurants

July 6, 2013 · 7:18 pm

Baldpate Mountain and Cafe 44

Dr. Trot went on adventure today!

As the ass crack of dawn…while it was still only 85F…a few new-found “friends”, guilted into this role by Jamie via Patrick I presume (thank you Jamie and Patrick :-), escaped from the death grips of Princeton and drove ~20 miles to Baldpate Mountain for hiking! The thickly wooded “mountain” was really nice. There were over 12 miles of marked (and, importantly, largely shaded) natural trails for hiking and horseback riding.

Baldpate mountain

There were a few creeks, ponds and old ruins to check out along the trails. I totally wish I would’ve brought a camera to snap a few pictures. 😦 We came upon an abandoned farm at the end of the white trail with collapsing remains of the house, 4 or 5 farm buildings + well/milk storage thing next to a little pond. Cool 🙂 We hiked around 5 miles (this might be way off as I am stupid and forgot my GPS watch in the car :-/) in a little over 2 hours. I’d definitely like to come back to either re-hike the same trails as today or check out some of those that we didn’t get to.

I’m not sure if we were supposed to pay, but we didn’t.

Driving home hunger set in and because Princeton has awesome face-feeding opportunities, we decided to check out Cafe 44. YUMMY!! I’m not sure if it was because I was knocking on the door of hangry by the time my food arrived (by our own doing…we arrived ~2 pm after trucking through the woods for over 2 hours…the service was plenty fast) but it was delicious! I had a fresh mozzarella and veggie sausage omelette (I should have added some veggies) with potatoes, toast and coffee. Again, there are sadly no pictures. Shame on me. I guess that just means I am obligated to a make a second trip. 🙂

Hope everyone has had a nice Saturday!

Does anyone have favorite hiking trials in their area or ~~more importantly~~ in my area?

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Tagged as Food, Friends, Hiking, Restaurants

July 5, 2013 · 10:06 pm

Firey Friday Trot

A great way to end a blah day is with a quick (relative definition) trot from which you come out feeling like you’ve worked hard but gotten what you were working for.

7/5/13

3.7 miles

33 min

87F and humid (sun was mostly down already 🙂

Also, I now understand why NJ thinks it can get away without street lights on any of its roads….

FIREFLIES!!!

And lots of them!

Fireflies were everywhere! They were in the grass, the bushes, the trees, the flowers and along the trail. I couldn’t help but run into them they were so thick! They were actually quite pretty, lighting up and dimming out as I trotted along. I’ll definitely have to bring a camera with at some point. I wonder if I’ll be able to take a picture of them…

Also, why are they even here actually (and not in MN for example)? What is a good environment for a firefly?

Threads: Danskin tank from a million years ago, new ruffled skirt that does not ride up!!! 😀 (and for which I need to find a link) and shorty socks.

Treads: Mizuno Wave Creation 11

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July 4, 2013 · 9:40 pm

(Ugly) Celebratory 4th of July Trot

Happy 4th of July! Why not go run 7 miles in the sun, at 86F and 150% humidity w/o a water bottle? I’ll spare you the list of reasons as we all have better things to do with our lives…

7/4/13

7 miles

71 minutes

86 F, humid and sunny and HOT

While the tow path is a lovely route along the canal, would it be soooooo unreasonable to purify and bubble up a little H2O for a dehydrated runner?!?! It boggles my mind that there isn’t a single measly water fountain along the entire length of the canal (yes, of course this is a very rational generalization based on the 7 miles I’ve run of the +50 mile trail). Thanks for asking 🙂 Anyway, it looks like the wretched water belt might be making a comeback. God help us all.

Threads: Reebok Women’s core ribbed tank, pretty pink ruffled running skirt (still gotta find the link) and shorty socks.

Treads: Mizuno Wave Creation 11