Panera is Evil

Had meetings all morning at work, and the host of said meetings brought the office lunch since the meetings cut right into our lunch hour (which is a whole other story, that I disagree with!) Lunch was a Panera nightmare! Bread, sweets, gooey fatty foods, that had the hidden healthy stuff within it! Either way bc Panera is a) way too expensive b) far from where I live & c) not very WW friendly, I hardly if ever eat it. And to top it off the conference room is located in the basement with no cellular service, so I couldn’t even look up PP values for anything! (Only WW friendly peeps will get this!)
So I chose what looked the least harmful. I had half an Italian combo sandwich, side salad of lettuce, and a pickle. Well, thank god my instincts told me to hold off on the kettle chips included with the sandwich because that lunch cost me 17 PP! That’s more than half of my daily allowed value!

I thought about that sandwich the entire time I worked out tonight at the gym! But it’s tracked, and there are NO meetings with lunch tomorrow! :)

Panera is Evil, that is all.

Finding my Mojo

This past weekend has me feeling like I’m in such a rut, it’s so hard to get out of. I’ve made horrible food choices, binging to the point where I’m sick, and I don’t care. And I slacked on my workouts since last Wednesday. I don’t understand why I don’t have the same drive anymore. I feel unfocused and like mentally it’s all to much to deal with. My only goal this week is to try harder, to get better, and hopefully see some results.
Here’s to trying yet again, and never giving up.

Fingers crossed.

Shmooze & Booze

Marketing party for work today. Lots of alcohol and good food. I’m sold! Hahaha, not really bored out of my mind and I’d rather be home, watching trashy television!

Today is a New Day

On Saturday, May 17th, I ran in the Brooklyn Half Marathon. It was my 9th half, and only my second time running Brooklyn. The course is pretty amazing, starting from the Brooklyn Museum, to Prospect Park, and then down Ocean Parkway to a finish, on the boardwalk of Coney Island. It’s pretty spectacular, the spectators are awesome, and the energy of Brooklyn pride can be felt all over! 

I went into this race, telling myself to only have fun, and that I wasn’t going for a new personal best. I ran the NYC Half in March, and the women’s half last month in Central Park, and all the training was beginning to take a mental toll on me. My mind needs a running break every once in awhile! 

I started out easy, and I felt great, I was really excited to get to the finish! By the time I hit the 5k mark, I was 31:34 in, and that was about a minute ahead of my pace for the NYC Half, which I PR’d in. So I felt great, and kept pushing on in to Prospect Park. The park was the hardest part, it had all the elevation for the entire course, so I slowed down a bit but was still on pace to finish with a PR. Once I hit 7 miles, I thought I was on my way to a new PR! 

But then around mile 9, I started feeling my quads tightening up, so I took a few breaks to walk it out, but was determined to get my PR. I stopped at a few water stations, alternating between, water and gatorade, but the pain in my legs just wouldn’t let up. I went from a 10:30 pace, quickly to an 11:35 pace, and slowly felt myself being defeated, by the pain in my quads. I pushed through mile 10 and 11, and let go of my PR, and decided then I just wanted to finish strong. Mile 12 the cramps became excruciating and terribly uncomfortable, but the boardwalk was just ahead of us, and there was no stopping me! Then with 800 meters to go, it was just pure pain. I had to stop, I thought if I didn’t stop, my legs were going to give out, and I’d just collapse. I walked through the pain, and I knew it could be seen on my face, because the spectators helped push me through it! Their cheering, and kind words of support made me force a smile and run the last few hundred meters! 

I felt so many emotions once I crossed the finish line. I first felt disappointed because I lost the chance to PR when I was so close! Then of course I felt pain! But when I looked at my time of 2:26:24, I realized that it wasn’t my worst half time. It was a minute better than my half last month, and I overcame the defeat my body felt! I was suddenly so proud of myself, because I chose to continue, and not give up! And sometimes that’s the hardest thing to be able to do! After trying to figure out what went wrong, and talking to a nurse, I’m most certain I took in too much potassium, I don’t usually drink gatorade, but because it was a warm day, I wanted to stay hydrated, and with that on top of my fuel packs, and the banana I had before the race, the potassium was too much at once and caused the cramps! Go figure! 

So today I walk away from this half, proud as ever, because I could’ve easily gave up and walked to the finish, completely defeated, but I ran with a smile on my face, and got half number 9 under my belt! 

Til July 1st, my goal is to stay on track, and on point with Weight Watchers, stick to short runs, focus on cross training, and strength training, so we’re ready to take on marathon training! 

Today is a new day! :) 

Queens 10k

Last week, New York was hot as balls. Plain and simple. It was sticky, hot, disgusting, gross, you name it, NY was feeling the heat!! But...on Sunday July 21st, the heat wave finally broke!! And thank God it did! I was dreading this race for about two weeks, simply because I had run it last year when it was 95 degrees and boiling! Also, because of the awful heat wave, I hadn't had any runs longer than 3 miles for about two weeks. I get really anxious, nervous, and sometimes panicky before a race if I feel like I'm not ready. I didn't feel like I wasn't ready but I felt defeated because I thought that I would most likely struggle through this run.

 

I was totally wrong! First the day turned out to be gorgeous! It was a nice 77 degrees, and there was even a breeze in the air, it was perfect! First two miles I started out really strong, and finished them in less than 20 mins!! Flushing Meadow Park is where the race took place, and the course is flat, so its great for some speed! But like always I knew I started out kind of fast, so I slowed down a bit but still kept a pretty decent pace throughout. My brother also ran this race with me, and it was pretty awesome to do the whole thing with him. He's more athletic than I am so I was slightly intimidated, but he turned out to be a great partner, and a great motivator, every time I felt like I was struggling, he pushed me to go a little harder.

 

Once we passed the first 5k, it got tough! I started to feel hot, but my brother was awesome for water breaks, he would tell me to keep running, he would grab us water, and catch up to me, it kept the tempo up for both of us. I was really proud to be running with him. And once we passed the 5 mile mark, I was ready to finish, and on my way to the finish, I saw The Awesome Mom! She's such an incredible woman, she runs, she rides, she works out to Insanity, all the while being a mother to three beautiful children, she amazes me, and is an inspiration to me and so many other people, I was so happy to see her again! And we have the same race schedule coming up too!

 

And then out of nowhere I felt like I was going to vomit. It happens, but I breathed through it, and kept moving. My brother said lets finish this strong, and that we did! We came in at 1:09:13! I couldn't have been more proud with that time! I beat my time from last year by more than 4 minutes! We didn't get medals this year but we got some pretty awesome tech tees!

And now I have a small minor break from my races. Next one is Aug 24th, and after that the last two races in the 5 Borough Series! But my next race qualifies me for the 2014 ING Marathon!! The excitement!!!

So til next time, keep the laces tight, and hit the pavement!!

MLB All Star 5k

So for anyone living under a rock, this week in Queens, NY, at Citifield, the home of the NY Mets, it was All Star week. To kick off baseball's midsummer classic, NYRR and the MLB hosted the All Star 5k, in Prospect Park. The best thing about this race was that 100% of the money paid for registration, was donated to the Sandy Relief foundation! 

This was also the second race that my boyfriend was doing with me, and his parents are in town visiting, so they came along for the race as well. My boyfriend and his dad are huge baseball fan's and a few retired players were to be in attendance, so they were excited. 

The day was humid, and overcast, but it wasn't really hot at all. Before the race started, a young 11 year old girl sang the National Anthem, and she was clearly nervous, and messed up a few times. And since runners are so awesome, we all helped her out and sang the song with her, it was a really beautiful moment, gave me goosebumps!

Once the race started, I was ready to finish! The humidity in NY in July, always sucks! And on Saturday it was not being friendly! I started out at my usual pace, around 10:30, and soon I was feeling exhausted. I needed to take a few breaks, grab some water to drink, and pour on my head!  But I finished in 33:34, with a decent pace of 10:50 per mile, I was proud of that for sure!

After the race, there were awards, and raffles to be given out. The awards were presented by the former players in attendance. Just so happened that John Franco, former NY Mets pitcher was there, and he is my father in law's favorite player! We were right near the stage and my boyfriend got his attention and asked for a picture, and he was nice enough to say yes! We were all so happy, and elated that he took a picture with us, it was such a awesome moment for all of us. Then Tony La Russa, former manager for the St. Louis Cardinals was there too, and he took a picture with pops, and signed our bibs! We felt like the cool kids in class! 

We didn't win any of the raffle prizes, but we were happy enough to have gotten pictures with Franco and La Russa. But then out of nowhere, John Franco comes back on stage, and leaned over to my father in law, and took the hat off his head and gave it to him! He told him, " Now your on my team, Team Franco, you'll always be my teammate!" OMG, we were so shocked, happy, excited, and everything in between! It was the best experience we've had at a race. And for my boyfriend it was his proudest moment with his dad. It was touching, and we felt so blessed and lucky to have been there. Thank you John Franco!

Camping Fun!

Ok, so I've been trying my hardest to keep up with the blog, but its the summer!! Ain't nobody got time for that!! But, I'm trying my best anyway! 

So I went camping on July 5th, in the Andes Mountains, with my family, and it was wonderful! To get away from the city, is so refreshing! The change in scenery, people, and no electronics at all, is something I think everyone should go for every once in awhile! 

It was my boyfriend's sons', first time camping, and he is an Xbox junkie, so this was huge for him, 3 days in the wild, no cell phones, no video games, no nothing! So to kill the time we played some playground games! We played volleyball, basketball, football, soccer, went swimming, and even played some board games! I was hoping to get a run in, because the view was amazing, but with all the other games we were playing, I know I got in plenty of activity!

The best thing was that for three days, we actually talked to each other, and really bonded! I mean usually the three of us are sitting around the television, or one of us is using a cell phone, or tablet, and my little guy is always on the Xbox! We had such a great time, and it sucked that we had to leave, but I can't wait to do it again! Roughing it for three days, totally worth it!! 

Try it, you'll be surprised at how much fun it can be! And it's also a lot of work, from setting up tents, chopping wood, cooking, and cleaning, and walking all over the place, my boyfriend and I both lost a pound! As soon as we got home though, we were so pooped! I needed another vacation from that trip, but it was back to work Monday unfortunately! Always too good to be true right?!?