Tag Archives: Workout

July 12, 2014 · 5:33 pm

Hamptons Marathon Training – Week 6

Sunday 6/22
200 very hungover, but very worth it, miles back to Princeton.

Monday 6/23
rest

Tuesday 6/24
4 miles — with the not-so-simple-goal of surviving them per the glutenous weekend

Wednesday 6/25
rest

Thursday 6/26
7 miles — not super fast but feeling much better today 🙂

aaannnddd…Kitty City construction…

…for and ungrateful Princess Pheona 😦

Friday 6/27
rest

Saturday 6/28
rest

Total: 11 miles
sssoooo…yeah.
11 whole miles for the 6th week of marathon training. While there is really no good excuse for this…I do have a VERY VERY good excuse for this. I am currently not going to elaborate however. You can look forward to this at a later date 🙂

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July 7, 2014 · 9:29 pm

Hamptons Marathon Training – Week 5

Consider this your first of two ridiculously delayed Hamptons Marathon training updates. The first order of business is for Dr. Trot to wrap her little brain around how life so often gets so totally out of control?!?!
I suppose the answer to that question isn’t all that difficult, eh? It starts with the fact that Mon-Fri are packed with more “normal” work than a reasonable human being can handle and then Sat-Sun are packed with more “postdoc” work than a reasonable human blablabla…. And then you try to squeeze a few miles in here and there, and then a few more, and then god-forbid you have a friend or two, and then the rest of your life starts screaming at you… Summer times is best/worst for this. Work is exciting, but way to GD much, running is lovely but time consuming and oh my poor, neglected, yes still so understanding friends…

Sunday 6/15
A warm afternoon 6 mi @ 8:37/mi
It felt good to turn the legs over and was a pleasant recovery from Saturday’s rough long run.

Monday 6/16
rest

Tuesday 6/17
Another warm ~ 4 mi @ 8:19/mi
I was practically moving at the speed of light today! Happy Tuesday!

Wednesday 6/18
6 mi @ a comfy, non-Garmin-Day pace

Thursday 6/19
rest
(rest = drive up to CT for Dr. Annebelle’s wedding weekend! 😀

Friday 6/20
4 lovely morning miles in CT with the bride-to-be @ who cares min/mi
+ a mad dash first around the hotel room, and then back and forth between cars, around the house, up and down the street and then up and down and through the ditch in search of a purse, a wallet, two credit cards and a driver’s license who apparently do not prefer traveling via Beetle-rooftop.
In the end, Dr. Trot: 1, sissy (yet important…as is ironically so often the case…but never mind…) plastic cards: 0. 🙂

I got-em back!

Saturday 6/21
rest
rest = brunch, hair and make-up done, catered lunch, etc…

A very fancy Dr. T

rest = rest today…until the party started And then rest = WEDDING!! 😀,

pictures, more great food, ~~doube~~ triple dessert, a lot of whiskey, singing, dancing, dancing, dancing, and dancing…

~~rest~~ fueling and cross training day 🙂

Total: 20 miles
Not a particularly great milage week but a damn good life week so I’ll take it. It’s not every weekend that you get to celebrate one of your favorite partners in crime tying the knot with one of her favorite partners in crime on an absolutely beautiful day (looking absolutely beautiful herself…of course)

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June 12, 2014 · 7:28 pm

Hamptons Marathon Training – Week 4

Sunday 6/8
rest/recovery (never mind from what 😉

Monday 6/9
5 after work miles in light rain 🙂

warm evening, light drizzle and high humidity

At the risk of sounding totally nuts, this was fantastic! The smells were great, the sweat glands were going and the rain felt super refreshing. Not a run I’d recommend prior to being seen out in public afterwards, but it was fun 🙂

Tuesday 6/10
4 after work miles

warm and humid

Not the best run of the last few weeks, but also not the worst (thank god). It’ll definitely be nice to have a rest day tomorrow!

Wednesday 6/11

rest — this was good, the legs were starting to feel a bit fatigued

+ The Bachelorette 🙂

Thursday 6/12
6 after work miles — soooooooo did not feel like going out today. Work has been exhausting lately and I (brainlessly) effed up the one experiment I was doing today. So, by 7 pm I was feeling like I may as well just stayed in bed and was in a serious hurry to get back there and forget that the day ever happened.

Thank goodness I didn’t let myself actually do this! Instead, I suited up in fresh (Shocking! I know!) flashy purple running attire, my favorite purple compression socks, mapped a new route and headed out the door. It’s amazing what a little variety can do for your mood out on the trail and even more amazing what a few miles can do for you mood once you’re safe and sound (and stinking to high heaven) back home! I felt sooooooo much better after these 6 measly miles. Even after many years of running I’m still amazed what difference a few miles can make. I think the take home message is that next time things start going wrong I ought to immediately abandon ship and hit the trail! Right?

Friday 6/13
rest day

Saturday 6/14

11 ugly, warm, humid, morning miles to work and back

I’m not sure what the hell happened this morning but the hours from 7-9 were brutal! You know how you start off and things just don’t quite feel right, your legs are heavy and things don’t want to synchronize and you just think to yourself “stick it out…it’ll get better…give it a half a mile…it’ll get better…give it another half a mile…it’ll get better…” Well, I was doing this until it was more like “give it another half a mile and it will be over!” Things just did not want to cooperate. I was stiff and a little sore (the muscles AND some joints AND…I really don’t want to admit this…the shins) and heavy feeling. BOOOOO 😦

By the end, by all of 9 am, I was sooooo warm! I had sweat completely through everything I was wearing! When I checked the temp and humidity I was SHOCKED to see that it was only 72F and 70% humidity. I was absolutely convinced that there should be an extra 1 out in front of both of those numbers. I guess the one nice part about this was that the perceived heat and humidity also translated into (perceived if nothing else) that fresh, warm summer smell that you get of dirt and grass and flowers etc… shortly after a rain (it is always not long “after a rain” here…) This was the first run of the season in a real summer smelling morning (shame on me, I know…) and that part actually did bring a smile to my face (in between many a scowl and without causing my language – colored to match my most fantastic outfit (see below) – to miss so much as one beat).

Which actually allows me to transition ~~nicely~~ into my saving grace of the day. What kept me moving (besides my 10:30 date with Miss K…but never mind) was my genious decision to debut this year’s CEMS Marathon Team’s uniform! 🙂 I’m actually being totally serious here. There is something about wearing a brand new outfit that makes anything just a little bit more bearable. (There is also something about being dressed like a highlighter box explosion while running through your small town that motivates you not to stop and ask someone for a ride home.)

Sweaty highlighters love popsickles too.

A second saving grace was knowing I had (however freezer-burned it may have been) a lime-sickle waiting for me back home if I survived to claim it. SO SO GOOD.

Total: 25 miles

This week was kinda rough. Work was tiring and running was a bit of a chore 😦 Not good. Not to be repeated next week. Next weekend is already my first long run cutback which I (unfortunatley) feel that I need. This means that I need to be doing a better job of hydrating and fueling and resting. That will be the mission for this week. Get the miles in feeling GOOD and make use of the cutback so the following weeks will be a building of QUALITY higher milage.

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May 27, 2014 · 9:37 pm

Hamptons Marathon Training – Week 1

Sunday 5/18
4 mi

Monday 5/19
nada

Unless you count snuggling with Penelope...which I suppose I do.

Tuesday 5/20
3 morning miles — cool outside and very nice
pushups and crunches — damn lucky to have made it in there

Wednesday 5/21
Crazy work day 1/3 for the week

Thursday 5/22
Crazy work day 2/3 for the week
5 evening miles — warm and humid but nice

Friday 5/23
Crazy work day 3/3 for the week + The Bachelorette viewing in the evening (no judging…)

Saturday 5/24
5 pre-bachelorette party (mismatched and rushed and slightly lost for a mile or so) miles

Proof of survival.

And then a big night of
mischief making…

Plotting over bottles of Don.

eating…

Before...

...and after.

and drinking…

and singing and dancing…

(of which there is conveniently no photographic evidence)

and fireworks!!

Safety first...

yay Dr. AnneBelle 🙂

(And of course recovery breakfast at Penn station…

Y.U.M. 🙂

Total: 17 miles
Not such a high milage week, but that’s the way Week #1 should be. The miles felt good and the off days did too. 😉 As the temps and miles ramp up hopefully all will keep feeling this way!

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January 16, 2014 · 7:35 am

The off-season workout schedule. FINALLY!

So there hasn’t been anything running-workout related on here lately simply because there haven’t been many runs 😦 First it was crazy F32 writing time, then it was persister metabolism review writing time and then it was getting sick in royal fashion over the holidays time. (note: time = insanity)

Since the start of the new year I have had a small handful of good runs:
1. 6 mi – nothing special about them, other than it being nice to get them in
2. 6 mi just after it snowed – a great total body workout, dare I say even better than trail running
3. 5 mi – partially on nice salted streets, partially baahaa-ing along the uncleared tow-path, a good work out beyond it just being good to be out
4. 4 mi – nothing special aside from the fact that I think I really am on the road to recovery now 🙂 knock on wood…

Soooo…with these under our belt and me (maybe prematurely) feeling like I’m ready to get back in the swing of things. I (uncharacteristically) made good use of my downtime and have drafted a training plan for the next few months that cuts back on the long run but includes a couple of speed days during the week, a run in my evil Vibrams and core strength training! Finally!

The initial plan is going to be roughly as follows:

M: rest
T: track
W: up to 3 mi Vibrams run
Th: ~4-5 mi tempo run
F: rest
Sa: long run (easy 8-12 mi)
Su: recovery run (easy 4-5 mi)

Track: I’m planing to rotate 4 interval workouts (short, mid, long and mixed), 1/wk, in the schedule. They will start off as:

Short = 6 x 400m
Middle = 4 x 800m
Long = 3 x 2000m
Mixed = 1 x 1600, 1000, 600, 200

Given that I don’t drop dead right there on the track from any of the above, I’ll continue and up the repeats as possible (max 1/distance) the next month. Each track workout will begin with a warm up jog to the track and a cool down jog back ~~home~~ to work (lets be honest)

The current state of affairs under my desk.

Keeping the workout short but productive is the main goal. Working/strengthening different muscle groups will be great for getting a jump start on training in the spring. After a month we’ll evaluate how things have gone and adjust as necessary.

Vibrams: so I got these ~~crazy~~ probably great, barefoot running shoes like 4 yrs ago and haven’t quite mastered using them yet. (Dr. Trot really is a genius you know.) So far I have managed to over-run my calves to the point of not being able to walk properly for a week or run for a month, broken one toe and given myself generally too-sore-to-make-sense calves when I use them on any sort of a regular basis. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too heavy or I run funny (I run on grass or on trails in these things, definitely NOT on the sidewalk or the road) but I’m going to get to the bottom of it, slowly. Starting with as little as 1 or 1.5 miles and working my way slowly up to 3. At that point, however long that may take, I’ll reevaluate.

Tempo: Given that I’m not going to be putting in soooo many miles, I may as well get used running some of those miles faster, on tired legs. That’s what this tempo run (and its placement in the week) is hopefully going to do for me. Again, after a month or so I’ll reevaluate.

ALSO, I will be FINALLY incorporating much overdue strength training into each work outs! I want to focus on the “core muscles” (abs, back, obliques) and stretching out my old lady hip that is always tightening up on me. Hopefully, these guys will do the trick for me:

1. Kneeling hip-flexor stretch
2. Superman
3. Metronome
4. Crunches
5. Plank (+lift)
6. Side plank (+lift)
7. Supine plank
8. Pushups

In short I’ll be going through these 8 ~~pains in my core~~ little treasures (x2) after the Vibrams run, the long run and the recovery run (3x per week) and doing abs and pushups only on the other 4 days of the week (rest days included). More details on each of the 8 treasures will be posted soon.

Alrighty, I think/hope (for my sake and yours) that’s everything that I wanted to share for now. I’ll keep you posted on how we’re doing so wish the good doctor some luck! Again, this is with both of our best interests in mind…

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November 28, 2013 · 11:08 am

Week 18 + 1

Mon 11/18 – walking normally but allowing stairwell descents to be a bit of a spectator sport

Prying myself out of bed was not the easiest or prettiest this morning. Thankfully nothing really hurts but the quads are strung high as an assistant professor at an Ivy League institution (but let’s save that for another day). My sweet new shirt and chauffeur hat (Thank you Drs. Hill!! 🙂 from the weekend did ease the pain a bit though. Or, maybe it was the vat of Ben-Gay that I bathed in…hmmm… In related news, my office mates love me.

Overall things are just fine. I do find the following to be helpful for speeding up recovery the first few days after a marathon, today included…

1. Make a point to keep moving to help loosen things up and prevent stiffness from setting in. Get up and move around at least every 30 min or so if you’re shackled to a desk by chains masquerading as an NIH proposal (or any other detestable pile of papers)
2. Carefully rub out sore muscles (+\- Ben-Gay as your office mates and housemates sense of humor allows) and ice swollen parts.
3. Ideally after #2, carefully stretch out the legs, arms, back and whatever other parts are being egocentric. Apply more ice as appropriate. With any luck you’ll see yourself making progress here over the course of the day.
4. Drink lots of water and snack on fruits, veggies and whole grains as hungry. I always find myself feeling dehydrated and hungry when I wake up the morning after (imagine that 😉 Taking in lots of fluids and healthy, easily converted to energy, fuel seems to alleviate some of the problems.

Tues 11/19 – walking and stairs

See yesterday’s post above (minus the outfit…In an uncharacteristic series of moves I showered and changed clothes on a day with no running)

Wed 11/20 – rest

I’m feeling just about back to normal today (loose definition of “normal”of course) aside from the growing F32 pain in my ass…

Thurs 11/21 – writing like a mad scientist

Please refer the latter part of Wed’s post (i.e. last 4 words). Thank you Dr. B.

Fri 11/22 – writing x-(

See former part of Thursday’s post (i.e. first 7 words and 1 number). Dr. B, you have successfully climbed to the top of my list. Congrats.

Sat 11/23 – 6 mi 🙂

Not my prettiest 6 miles, that’s for sure, but it was great to peel my ass off of my desk chair and get the legs turned over. I felt a little heavy overall but no big pains or tight spots 🙂 The lungs started their protest only a few miles in, but in their defense they are less than a week off of a pretty respectable fight and it has gotten chilly (45F) and drier. I’ll need to stay tuned into these changes as I form my winter/maintenance/building plan.

And of course, more writing…

Sun 11/24 – F32

Total mileage = 6 mi

I’m very happy with my recovery. No injuries, not any real soreness as of Wed and a run that was (quite frankly) not much worse than many 6 milers I’ve run this season.

Ok, so what next?

Well, between now and Dec. 8th there won’t be a whole hell of a lot of time for anything besides writing this ~~lovely~~ wretched F32 NIH postdoctoral fellowship application that I keep referring to. I have queue of items for which I need to write posts and said fellowship has taken a number. (Hopefully I’ll get to it before I’m back here complaining about not getting it.) In short an “F32” is a funding opportunity offered by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to postdoctoral researchers in the early stages of their career. The “F” stands for fellowship (contrary to any rational line of deductive reasoning which leads to another, much more appropriate, f-type word) and the “32” is beyond my (admittedly lame) imagination. Anyway, the NIH presents this opportunity as a ~~nearly~~ incomprehensible mountain of “directions” with more feedback loops than a process control Ph.D. thesis. The desperate postdoc and their advisor then, to the best of their combined abilities…and multiple terminal degrees…draft, wrangle, compile and submit the ~100 documents by the deadline of that funding cycle. Deadline for this funding cycle = December 8th. When Dr. Trot was informed (by an advisor that shall remain unidentified of course) that she would be applying for this = November 18th. Aforementioned anonymous advisor has made himself very unpopular…and Dr. Trot a very ~~ornery~~ busy girl.

So this is the immediate next. This is also a warning that I will continue to be scarce until late in the day on December 9th or early in the day on December 10. (It just depends upon how long the hangover lasts…getting old is rough!)

Other near future nexts:

1. Thanksgiving in CA! 🙂 Feast cooking + wine county touring 5 days = AWESOME
2. Queen Penny moves to NJ! Since Dr. M will be traveling back to the homeland in December, QP will be coming back to Nj with me for a vacation with her best friend Princess Pheona. They are excited.
3. Pottery class. (No, no that was not left field…)
4. The new winter training plan that will aim to build my core strength, speed and endurance while shedding some of the in-build Insulation that I brought with me from MN. Ouch. Hopefully also a 3:xx spring marathon as well. Patrick…

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November 15, 2013 · 4:42 pm

Week 18 part 1

The marathon training season is over!! 😮

This is always a time of mixed feelings for me. On one hand, I’m one step shy of being on my knees thanking god that I don’t have to juggle the rest of my life around my ~~stupid~~ training runs. On the other hand, I already know that a ~~very effed up~~ part of me will miss the non-negotiable hour (or two or three) x4 days a week that are mine to be outside and physically active. Never mind that I’m also totally stoked about the upcoming race weekend and already think about what crazy plans to make next. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, right?

For the next 48 hours, let’s just try to enjoy the present…

Register to track your favorite runners in the Gore-Tex Philadelphia Marathon

The four easy steps to make this happen are-

Click on the link above
Register as directed with an email address, username and password
Search for all of your favorite runners by last name
Select if you want to be alerted by text message, email, Facebook (or some other form of social media that I’m too old and/or nerdy to understand) as your favorite runners kick ass on Sunday

Once you do this, you should promptly (t<0.068 seconds) receive a confirmation message that you’re all set to go.

Fun fact: avoiding the cell phone’s “silent” setting on Sunday will help facilitate timely updates.

If you are so lucky as to be in the Philadelphia area on Sunday, come join in the fun by cheering us on and enjoying all that the after party has to offer. In particular, keep your eyes peeled for the very stylish Team CEMS…

1/4 Team CEMS

Monday 11/11 – rest

Tues 11/12 – 4 mi

It’s chilly (30 F) out!! And someone wasn’t smart enough to pack appropriate attire to comfortably battle said chill. What an idiot. Although, this does lead to quick 4 mile runs…

Wed 11/13 – rest

Thurs 11/14 – 8 mi

So it’s still chilly (30 F) out but the aforementioned “someone” has learned from her mistake and dug out the right clothes for non-NJ summer running (see Tuesday 11/12…contrary to popular belief this does happen once in a while…). Threads: Insulated and “compression” Champion tights and long-sleeved shirt, awesome Arc’teryx Solano jacket

The cool weather running clothes have made their debut in NJ…

…on the tow path…

Thus, this someone froze her ass off significantly less than she did on Tuesday and logged a more modestly paced and beautiful final run of this training season!

…along the canal…

…and lake Carnagie.

Fri 11/15 – rest

Rest = transition from excited to super excited for Sunday + spend the day ~~working hard~~ perfecting my playlist for Sunday + packing and repacking 593x what I will actually need on Sunday after ~~ditching out of work early~~ leaving work at a reasonable time + anxiously waiting for Dr. Annebelle and Mike to arrive and for the weekend festivities to begin!

Total mileage = 12 mi

I’m very excited to be writing this two days before the marathon with no real irritating aches and pains much less any moderate to serious injuries. KNOCK ON WOOD! While the training schedule has been the victim of neglect over the past few weeks, I’m feeling health and ready to run. The 3x +19 mile training runs all went well enough so getting through the later stages of Sunday will largely be a mental exercise I think. Given the way my ~~wicked long, irritating, unpredictable~~ demanding work schedule has required serious logistical gymnastics in order to get my runs in, I feel I’m prepared to deal with this end-of-the-run stress better than ever before. That’s at least some consolation, right? I guess we’ll see on Sunday!

Now of course my overall goal is for my stylish self and friends to have a wonderful run. Following that, my more quantitative goals for the day are as follows:

Negative splits
PR (sub-4:10 if all goes smoothly or sub-4 if, as I get going, I feel like I could the run of my life, get greedy and am able to hold on to it)

The course is relatively flat, the fans are fun and weather is supposed to be very nice (50s F), so I think all of these are totally doable. It will just depend on what the day (and my legs and the soft tissue that I store between my ears) brings.

Happy Marathon Weekend!!

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November 13, 2013 · 9:26 am

Week 17

Mon 11/4 – rest

Rest? But I’m spending the day in heals?!!?

And hanging out with my awesome former groupmates: (Dr. T), Patrick and Dr. Dan.

And Patrick (again) and my new department mates: Jamie (or Patrick again…who the hell knows at this point) and Mikhail.

Jamie and Patrick again?!?! Or Jamie and Jamie? Or Patrick and Patrick?

Tues 11/5 – a lot of standing and talk rehearsing in heals

Audience for said talk rehearsals: beautiful, patient, roses in the hotel room. 🙂

I’m not sure what in the hell this is quite frankly, but I thought it was a most appropriate final AICHE photo

Wed 11/6 – 2 hrs standing at a poster session in heals again…

…and a modest dinner in SF

…with Dr. M…

…and fresh spring rolls…

…and tofu pad thai…

…and thai fried rice.

Thurs 10/3 – rest

Rest = all I could do to keep it together through the work day after my red-eye back last night

Fri 10/4 – rest

See Thursday’s note

Sat 10/5 – 7ish mi

Today was much better! I slept in and actually felt like a normal human being for the first time in a while. It’s gotten a bit chilly (and windy) and the 7 miles were harder than they should have been this morning, but all things considered it wasn’t too bad.

Sun 10/6 – 8ish

Today was even better! 🙂 It was day 2 of sleeping in and cranking out a relatively solid 8 miles. It felt better than yesterday which is a nice bonus.

t-minus one week to marathon time!! 😀

Total mileage = 15 mi

Yikes!! Bad girl!

Q: Who runs 15 miles a week during the marathon training season?

A: ~~An injured person.~~ A perfectly healthy Dr. Trot.

I have no good excuses for this aside from laziness. (Note: laziness is a very good excuse…not a very satisfying one, but it’s completely honest and explains everything.) If there has been any harm done it’ll become evident in the later half of the “race” on Sunday. Hopefully my ~~subbornness~~ mental strength will get me though however. One way or another, we’ll find out soon!

Threads – tanks or tees (+/- arm warmers), running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)

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November 9, 2013 · 4:28 pm

Week 16

Mon 10/28 – rest

Thank you.

Tues 10/29 – 6ish mi

A lovely early morning in lab lit the fire under my ass to get the run done early. The cooler weather is nice, but it does necessitate a bit more though to go into dressing and a bit more time to get the stiff joints and tight muscles all warmed up. That, and I’m old. 😦 Now I’m probably the only one saying this, and I will probably eat my words later, but it’s nice that the winters here are still rather damp. I can feel even this very modest drop in humidity (coupled with the cooler temps) through out my lungs. MN, how did I ever survive you?!

Wed 10/30 – rest

Thurs 10/31 – 8ish mi

There is something very satisfying about bailing out of work from 8-9:30 am to get my run in during daylight hours. Although I felt like I was working harder than I really should’ve had to, it was a beautiful morning, I didn’t get lost and I finished the run all toast warm in my ruffled skirt and tank top. Once again, my complaints are unwarrented…I suppose…

Fri 11/1 – rest

Off to AICHE for the annual (oversized) national chemical engineering conference! (And some serious mischief-making around San Francisco of course.) For example…

…early on the first evening of the conference…

…and a bit later in the evening. (Don’t worry, we were all seeing double at this point.)

Dr. Maroof and Queen Penny were absolutely gracious hosts for the two days that I spent in Berkeley before heading into DT SF for the conference. They made me a most fantastic dinner for me when I arrived on Friday night.

Making

dinner.

They also gave me a most totally perfect belated birthday gift – a purple marathon Camelbak!

My super sweet new purple marathon Camelbak (and me on the side)

What a great way to start off my pre-conference weekend! I could get used to CA!!

Sat 11/2 – cross – 20 mi biking – HILLS!!

On Saturday morning we got up and turned dinner left overs into an awesome brunch of south Asian seasoned rice + beans and shrimp + potato + cauliflower + cheese quesadillas. We might be kinda into weird fusion foods. Maybe.

Fusion Brunch

Then, we got all suited up

Us…all suited up…

…and a close-up of my new glorious compression socks from Aki. Happy Birthday to my feet!!

and took out the bikes (thank you Noem for lending yours to me, it was awesome!!) for a leisurely 10 mile ride along the north coast of the bay,

bike trail + SF Bay

and then a grueling 10 mile battle up to the top of Berkeley, to Tilden Park

Tilden Park

and then back home.

20131102_151254

The climb up was honestly the most challenging and treacherous bike climb I think I have ever done. The perpetual gradual incline wore you down while the wicked steep sections totally blew out your quads in no time. And then the switchbacks. Ahhh yes, the switchbacks (at this point, why not?). They made everything super precarious, just to ensure you were actually being challenged.

Also, once we ~~conveniently~~ arrived at the farthest point from home in our route, we had an unfortunate spat between Dr. M’s ankle and his bike pedal clip. (Apparently frantically trying to clip in before you roll backwards down the damn hill is not the safest.)

Booboo!

Luckily there were some EMTs in the area (originally called to help with “a dog that was having a problem in the lake…” WTF?!?!…) who helped us bandage things well enough to get home. Thank god it was 5 miles DOWN the mountain to get back.

So (of course) this was not the most ideal Saturday workout to do two weeks out from marathon weekend, but who is going to pass up on a day long SF Bay Area biking expedition? The only people who come to mind are total idiots and professional athletes. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t find myself fitting well into either category.

Sun 10/6 – 10 + 3 = 13ish

I started the day with a beautiful early morning run along the bay, taking the same route that we biked yesterday.

Good morning San Francisco and SF Bay!

In case you’re interested, there is a positive correlation between ones amount of Facebook posting while running and the likelihood of appearing to be still drunk from the previous night. I may (or may not) have been ~~both~~ one of those…

After getting back from these first 10 miles it was time to dash off to SF for the first day of the conference. In contrast to Drs. S & M, my talk was not until Tuesday afternoon, so I did the only rational thing upon arriving at the hotel – I dashed out the door for 3 more miles through Golden Gate Park and then a 3 mile walk home. (I sadly don’t think I get to count these last three towards my daily mileage though…)

Total mileage = 27 mi

So obviously this mileage is quite low, even for the beginning of the pre-race taper. On the bright side, was able to take advantage of the northern Bay Area and get a beautiful, and extremely challenging, bike ride in (yes, I am telling myself that this counts for something) as well as my long run for the week (albeit only 12 miles and broken into 2 segments, but never mind…) On an even brighter side is that there are only two more weeks until the marathon!! (Ok, fine, there is really only one more week now that I’ve finally gotten this damn thing written x-(

Threads – tanks or tees (+/- arm warmers), running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)

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Filed under Food & Restaurant, Marathons, Travel, Trotting, Work out

Tagged as Biking, California, Food, Friends, Running, Travel, Workout

October 31, 2013 · 8:30 pm

Week 15

Mon 10/21 – rest

Tues 10/22 – 6ish mi / fast enough

Out the door after work before the sun went down. Nothing special, I’ll take it.

Wed 10/23 – cross: flag football Princeton IM league championships

We won!! 😀 So I somehow managed to be roped into playing flag football again tonight. I figured what the hell, it’s the last game of the season, why not? It was cold (50F…god, I’m becoming a sissy…) and there were extra girls so I wasn’t on the field the whole time. I can’t say I caught a single pass or did a whole hell of a lot on defense to be perfectly honest, but we won! 🙂 And I came away with a lovely bright orange Princeton Tigers Champion t-shirt. That’s what this is all for anyway, right?

Thurs 10/24 – 12 mi / fast enough

I’m 30, I’ve been wearing a bra for 20 years (or something like that) and yet somehow I still manage to forget to pack the damn thing when I’m loading all of the other running essentials into my bag in the morning. Really? This is like packing half a shoe! What is wrong with me? Anyway, I needed to get the run in and I needed to learn a lesson, so after work I set off for the 6 mile run home to change and then run back. So, only half of the run was totally out of control (this is really all that I could have taken of this) and although I finished cold (again, it’s like 50F…I need to stop using the c word) and in the dark, at least it got done. I was actually feeling pretty good at the end, which was a nice consolation prize (this may or may not have had something to do with the packages of fruit snacks that I gobbled down while I was at home…)

Fri 10/25 – rest

Rest = off to NYC for my 30th birthday party!! 🙂

Sat 10/26 – rest

Rest = participating in my 30th birthday party!! 🙂

So I’m just going to start by putting it out there that I was VERY BAD this weekend.

a) I did not run today. None. Zero. Zilch. I did spend the morning walking to and across the Brooklyn Bridge though.

We do look our best freezing cold and in 50 mph (at least) winds.

b) I threw my 30th birthday party dinner at Cacio e Pepe that began with having my fill of the most delicious Italian cibo (this includes homemade tonnarelli tossed in pecorino and served out of a cheese wheel…

tonnarelli tossed in pecorino and served out of a cheese wheel

…as well as the best pumpkin ravioli you’ll EVER eat). For a full review, be patient, there will be/may be one on here soon(ish).

everyone

c) 4 words: Hooka Bar Bottle Service.

Here are a few more words (and photos to replace more words — as they are generally far more ~~embarrassing and incriminating~~ consise and illustrative than just the words) to take you through the next parts of the evening…

What’s a birthday party without fire works in the bar?!?!

Drs. AnneBelle, T and Sami

I know I know … for shame!

But, who can say no to smoke rings for all?

certainly not Dr. T and Dr. Dragon

But also super fun…

Drs. Trott, Akihiro Yoshida and AnneBelle

Drs. Louboutin

Drs. KaAnne

…and not something I’ll do again…or at least not for a very long time…

…ahem…

d) And then there were beers and dancing…

…with the real troopers who were still left.

e) And closing out the night by scarfing red velvet cupcakes (thank you Samia!!)

The perfect 3 am snack – red velvet (cup)cakes

Sun 10/27 – 7 mi through Central Park 🙂

This morning Team CEMS drug their asses out of bed and climbed into our team uniform for a run around Central Park.

(Part of) Team CEMS!!

It was fantastic 🙂 It was calm and cool out and I had the best running company ever. 🙂 Of course it wasn’t the long run that I was supposed to do, and I might pay dearly for this in 3 weeks, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

After the run it was off to brunch at Friedman’s. The wait was a bit long (>30 min for 5 hungary people) but the food and coffee were perfect. I had the Southern Breakfast which was…

…two eggs , housemade biscuit, cheddar grits and fried green tomatoes.

Full disclosure is that my food was actually just ok. After sampling everyone elses’ food though, I feel qualified to testify that overall, the food was fantastic. Per usual, there will be a review…someday…

Total mileage = 25 mi

Not what I needed for the last high mileage week. But, you know what? I also needed a sweet 30th birthday party (yes people, this was a need, not a want) and even I know that at some point we have to make choices. I know/think/hope/know that I made the right choice on this one 🙂 (Ask me about this on the afternoon of Nov 17th…on second though, maybe not…)

Threads – tanks and tees, running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)