Category Archives: Running

5 Moleskinny Miles

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Jessica| 2 Comments

It’s been a gorgeous weekend over here! Yesterday especially.

high-five sun! awesome job!

Perfect weather for taking my long run outside. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and I was happy.

Oh, excuse me, I mean runS.

Yup, I totally made that word plural.

I ended up doing my 5 miles on Saturday, and then doing it again on Sunday.

Because I’m cool like that.

I’m happy to say that they both went great!

I ran to the track, around the track a few times, and then back home.

My neighborhood is pretty hilly, so I got to work on those little devils a little bit which was good.

On Saturday, I ran them in 1 hour, 1 minute and 30 seconds.

I was super happy with this – a 12 minute mile pace with some hills is good for me!

When I get a little bummed about how slow I am right now, I like to remind myself:

When I ran it again today, I shaved 2 minutes off and finished in 59 minutes, 30 seconds.

Woo!

My leggies are feeling pretty sore now, but I’m ok with that. Tomorrow is my rest day.

I’m sure you’re wondering what “moleskinny” is.

Welp, if you were to google that word you would get a bunch of pictures of day planners….what?

In actuality, I’m talking about this:

I googled the problem I was having with the insides of my feet rubbing when I ran, and someone suggested Moleskin.

On Saturday, I put some on and I was good until mile 3, when they apparently moved (I guess because I was sweating a lot).

this gal is weirdly excited about putting on deoderant

I was only slightly uncomfortable for the next two miles, but when I got home and took off my shoes and socks I noticed that I now had nice blisters where the moleskin was.

So today, I applied the moleskin and also used athletic tape to secure it to my feet. This worked a lot better. I’m hoping this will be my permanent solution.

Sure, it’s going to be a pain to do this every time I run.

There is another alternative that was suggested, which was tying my shoes tighter.

I felt the need to put a picture of a little kid tying their shoes because...well...I still tie my shoes like a child. Bunny Ears forever baby. (Shut up, husband)

Unfortunately, I recently stopped tying my shoes so tight because it was making my middle toes go numb (which is extremely uncomfortable).

Oh, me.

Can’t I just be normal?

Holla.

Fuck it – I’ll just keep taping my feet.

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Posted in Half Marathon, Running

I Knew This Would Happen…

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Jessica| Leave a comment

Oh, hi there friends.

Remember me?

It’s been almost two months since I’ve blogged. The holidays were nuts (as expected), and on top of that I was sick for a good three weeks.

You’re probably thinking that the title of this post is referring to the lack of blogging.

Wrong.

Remember how I said that a co-worker and I signed up for the NYC Half Marathon?

Well, we got in.

Don’t get me wrong, I am so excited and grateful that we were chosen (participants are chosen by lottery).

The problem is that I was sick for a few weeks and had not been keeping up with my running.

And now I have two months to go from being able to run 4 miles, to being able to run 13.1 miles.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

While researching the NYC Half, we also found out that around 5 miles of the run is through Central Park, and is extremely hilly.

Double Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Needless to say, I will need to stick to a pretty strict training schedule if I’m going to make the 3-hour time limit.

Hopefully they won’t drive by and scoop me up before I’m able to finish.

And if I do get picked up, I pray the vehicle doesn’t look like this:

Creeptastic.

Anyway – here is this week’s schedule:

W – 3 miles

H – 3 miles

F – 3 miles

S – 5 miles

After freaking out about the hills and googling our faces off, we found a treadmill hill workout. I made the following my 3-miler yesterday:

Hills Brooooooo

Time Speed Incline

0:00-5:00 5 1

5:00-8:00 6.5 1

8:00-13:00 6 3

13:00-15:00 6.5 1

15:00-18:00 6 4

18:00-20:00 6.5 1

20:00-23:00 6 5

23:00-25:00 6.5 1

25:00-28:00 6 3

28:00-30:00 6.5 1

30:00-33:00 6 5

33:00-38:00 5 1

Yes, that says “Hills Broooooo”.

I could tell by looking at this that it would be incredibly difficult, so I decided going in that I would bump a lot of the speeds down to 5′s and 5.5′s.

(Sidenote: can you “bump” a speed down? Or should I be using a different word there? Ehhh, whatever.)

Even doing this, however, I found myself having to walk a bunch of times.

Holy balls.

PS I find it a little disappointing that I googled “balls” and not one actual pair of male balls came up in the first few pages.

Not that I really wanted to see a pair of balls.

Balls are gross.

I’m just surprised at the lack of perverted people out there.

The husband suggested I photoshop a pair of balls with a halo over them (for my holy balls comment).

It’s a great idea.

I’m lazy.

Visualize it yourself.

OK enough ball talk. Back to hill talk.

I’ve decided to incorporate hill intervals into two of my four runs each week leading up to the half. I really hope this helps!

It better help.

Or I’m screwed.

The title of this photo was “Mario Screwed”. Haaaaa.

Welp, I’m going to go google something else now.

I just came back from my 3 mile run today, and the insides of my feet are killing me.

This was supposed to be my nice easy run, and instead it was torturous, and I ended up walking for a full mile.

It hurt so much I honestly didn’t even want to walk. I just wanted to stop.

I swear one day soon I’ll be able to run without any ailments.

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Posted in Half Marathon, Running

Goodbye Couch to 5K

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Jessica| 1 Comment

Wave goodbye, everybody.

As of the end of October, I am officially done with the Couch to 5K program.

You’ve served me well, old friend.

But I’m on to bigger and better things now.

What the ducks said.

I need to go further than 3 miles.

Especially if I’m planning on signing up for the NYC Half in March.

That’s right…a friend from work and I have decided we are going to shoot for the NYC Half in about 5 months.

A. I hope we get in.

B. I hope I can run that far.

I mean, I know I have 5 months, but I’m coming fresh off of a 5K program.

So last week I started a 10K program.

I am going to go straight from that into a Half Marathon schedule.

(Both Hal Higdeon – click on the links above to view them on his website)

Last week, I did:

2.5 miles on Tuesday
2.5 miles (the 4K I ran) on Saturday

I was supposed to do 3 miles on Sunday, but I was tired, and decided to do it the following day.

This week’s plan is:

3 miles on Monday (treadmill – 5.2MPH and a little faster at the end) – Done
2.5 miles on Tuesday (outside with said work friend at a track – averaged a little less than 11-minute miles..so proud!) – Done
2 miles on Thursday
3.5 miles on Sat or Sunday

I’m excited to be starting this new program and to be running longer distances.

But I am also nervous that my body won’t be able to do it.

Very nervous, actually.

Cross your fingers for me!

Why did Betty White come up when I googled “cross your fingers”?

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Posted in 10K, Couch to 5K, Half Marathon, Running

Love That Lose It App

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Jessica| Leave a comment

About two years ago, when I was first running seriously and trying to lose weight for my wedding, I stumbled upon the Lose It App.

At that time, it was only available on the iPhone. And while I did not have one of these, luckily I had an iPod touch that I could use.

It’s basically a calorie counter, that is very user-friendly and easy to use.

I was thinking about it last week, and decided to see if it had come out for the Andriod yet.

And guess what?

It did!

I downloaded it immediately and also signed up for the additional free online system.

Things I love about the Lose It App:

You can copy previous meals, instead of having to add each thing every time. (This is good for me because as you know, I’m a creature of habit when it comes to eating.)
The website and phone app sync automatically, so you can add to either one whenever you want.
The goals portion lets you record your daily weight, and gives you a graph of your weight loss.
Most restaurants/supermarket foods are listed that you can choose from.
If something is not listed, you can create any food you like and enter all nutritional info for that food.

And the #1 thing I love about the Lose It App is….it works!

I’ve been using it to track my food intake and workouts since last Thursday (1 week and 2 days), and I’ve lost 5 lbs so far!

This is very exciting for me, because for the past month I’ve been struggling losing any weight.

It really does help to keep track of everything you are putting into your body.

On another note, I ran the Couch to 5K week 7 yesterday for the third time this week. (Running 25 minutes)

I decided to try it on 5.5 (11 min mile).

I made it all the way up to 20 minutes of running before I really felt light headed and nauseous.

I refused to walk, so I went down to 5.2 (11.5 min mile) for the last 5 minutes.

The final 30 seconds, I put the speed back up to 5.5.

I was proud of myself for finishing, but this one was definitely a struggle.

On Wednesday, I ran at 5.2 and felt really good and really strong.

This time, my focus the whole time was on how hard it was and how tired I was getting.

I’ve decided to set a mini-goal.

Four weeks from now, I am making it a goal of mine to be as comfortable running at 5.5 as I am right now at 5.2.

I think that is a realistic and attainable goal.

I figure one of my runs every week I will push myself at 5.5.

Hopefully soon enough it will get easier, and I will be pushing myself at a 5.7.

No workout for me today…resting my legs for tomorrow – the 4th race of the 30 Before 30.

Speaking of, it’s time to go sign up for a few November runs!

Have a great Saturday

______________________________________________________

Does anyone remember this?! hahahahahaha

My favorite one:

Ding Ding! Here comes the shit-mobile. I've never seen a fire truck that needed to be shaved. I would rather be burned to death than be saved by this hairy piece of shit.

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Posted in 30 Before 30, Couch to 5K, Running, Weight Loss

Playing Catch Up 2

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Jessica| Leave a comment

Meowsers.

Someone needs to slap me on the wrist for not blogging in a week!

Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you like this kinda thing), that means you get another overview post of my week.

I made this recipe that my mom gave me.

Lucky for you it’s simple and extremely delicious!

Un-lucky for you, I totally forgot to take photos.

Whoops!

Spaghetti with Garlic and Basil

1 (16 ounce) package uncooked

spaghetti

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place spaghetti in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.

In a large bowl, toss the spaghetti with the olive oil, butter, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper until evenly coated. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

I made this with some garlic bread, which didn’t come out as good as my mom’s.

It will be better next time! I swear it!

I baked some Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Muffins.

I would love to give you the recipe, however it was a “Recipe in a Jar” that I got when we went pumpkin picking the other weekend.

I thought that the recipe was attached to the side, but unfortunately it was not!

I tried measuring everything in the jar, but it all started sifting together.

Alas.

I ran race #3 of the 30 Before 30.

This one was the 3rd Annual Michael Michelini 5K to Benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The website for their foundation is CancerSucks5K.com.

Love it.

I decided for this race that I was not going to wear my Garmin.

When I wear it, I am constantly checking my pace and time, and I feel that I am either beating myself up for not going fast enough, or going too fast.

This race I just wanted to run.

And it helped. A lot.

A few weeks ago, I was arguing with the husband about the way I run races.

I like to be in the moment, enjoy the scenery, be happy that I am running a race and am able to do so.

He thinks I should just run.

And I hate to say this…but he was right.

Eeeeeeeek!

This past race, I didn’t look around (except for once in a while) to enjoy the scenery.

I just listened to my music, focused on the road down in front of me, and ran.

Double Yellow Line Road

The first time I looked up, I was at the Mile 1 marker – and very surprised to have already gone that far!

I felt extremely strong until around mile 2.5, when my legs started to get a little tired. (Thank you, strength training.)

And I am proud to say that I only took two walking breaks! One at mile 1.5 where the water station was, where I walked for about 2 minutes. And one at around mile 2.5 for about 60 seconds.

The last half mile was a little rough, and I kept fighting the internal battle of “I ran most of the way, I can walk a little more” vs. “C’mon, you only have a half mile to go. Just finish it and then you can walk all you want.”