I love tennis, soccer, Brooklyn, cooking and baking, dreaming about traveling, photography.

Sometimes I like to pretend I'm really fit, like when I ran a half marathon last year. But mostly I just workout so I can eat more.

  1.  

    My Weekend: Burgers and Lobster Rolls

    I had a pretty great weekend. It was busy, but relaxing, and I got to see a bunch of friends.

    For lunch on Friday I had a burger from Westville.

    Friday night I went with my friend Josy to her coworker’s photography exhibit at the Yes Gallery in Greenpoint. It was a very cool show featuring photography of carniverous plants, plus some of the actual plants.

    Photography:

    Actual plant:

    I thought this one would make a cool wedding bouquet:

    I thought the photos were really gorgeous, the art was reasonably priced (but still out of my price range), and the food (lobster rolls) and wine were delicious.

    After the gallery we headed to dinner at Calexico.

    While waiting for the G train I saw this lovely subway ad:

    Notice anything different?

    Saturday morning started bright and early with my Step and Sculpt class. In a white Mount Holyoke tee shirt in honor of the Laurel Parade. Then a bagel, then lots of catching up on TV shows.

    In the late afternoon my friend Laura and I headed into the city to see Midnight in Paris.

    midnight-in-paris-movie-poster

    It was good. I think if you weren’t familiar with the writers and artists he meets in Paris it might not be as good, but I thought it was enjoyable.

    I also finally figured out Four Square on my phone (it was doing this weird thing where it wouldn’t find any places).

    After the movie we headed to Emack and Bolio’s for ice cream. Low-fat malted cookie dough. Delicious.

    Then we headed to dinner at the Dram Shop. Veggie burger and fries. Fantastic as always.

    Sunday morning started bright and early with a damp, depressing, really hard 3-mile run in Prospect Park.

    After a quick trip back to my apartment it was back up to the park to meet my old roommate Amy and her boyfriend Mike to go to the Prospect Park food truck rally.

    The lines were all very long but we decided to brave one of the longest lines and try out the Red Hook Lobster Pound. Once I got over the fact that I was paying $16 for something from a truck I really enjoyed my Connecticut lobster roll.

    The bread was delicious and buttery and the lobster was so fresh and perfect. As much as it pains me to say it, this was worth the $16 and the 30 minute or so wait on line.

    What comes after lobster? Ice cream sandwiches from Coolhaus! I got the chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter ice cream. Very good. More than worth the $5.

    After a quick walk around Grand Army Plaza it was time for me to hop on the 3 and head up to the Met to meet my friend Maria for the Alexander McQueen exhibit.

    Savage-Beauty-Poster

    I made it to the Upper East Side in record time, but unfortunately the line for the McQueen exhibit was insanely long. They said it was an hour and a half wait but I think we only waited for about 45 minutes. They moved us along quickly.

    And once we got in it was totally worth it. Even though it was PACKED (like you could barely move) the pieces were so interesting. It’s definitely very avant garde, but the stuff was so detailed, so beautiful, and in many cases just freaky. I just wish there it hadn’t been so crowded so I could have spent more time studying the clothes in detail and reading about them, but oh well.

    By the time we finished the McQueen exhibit the Met was closing so it was back on the subway to Williamsburg where we met Maria’s boyfriend Tim for drinks and a little food at Mugs. I had their delicious veggie burger which I highly recommend.

    So if you’re keeping track that 2 lobster rolls and 3 burgers (1 beef, 2 veggie) this weekend. Kind of gross.

    But a great weekend. That’s left me ready to pass out.

  2.  

    Oyster Ponds 5K

    This morning I ran the Oyster Ponds 5K. This was my fourth 5K race, but the first race I ran since I ran a half marathon on April 3, 2010. I can’t believe it’s been more than a year!

    My dad was the one who wanted to run, as I’ve mentioned I haven’t really been running a lot, so I can’t say I was too excited. But the gorgeous scenery driving out to Orient Point certainly helped.

    Nice view driving out to the 5K

    It was a very small, local race that was run out of the elementary school. I like when races have a real location because it means nicer bathrooms!

    School where the race took place

    Here I am before the race. Ready to run! It was very chilly, I kept my long-sleeve shirt on while we waited and even during the race.

    Before the race

    My dad stretching. He was in a much stranger pose when I first went to take the picture.

    This guy with the megaphone was in charge. Overall I thought the race was really well-organized. Granted there weren’t a lot of people (maybe 100-150?), but it was easy to sign in, they had lots of shirt sizes, they were very clear about when and where the race started, they started on time, and the course had mile-markers throughout.

    Plus, afterwards, there was plenty of cold water, orange slices, bananas, and bagels. Cream cheese would have been nice but that’s my only (very minor) complaint. 

    And here’s me after the race. 

    After the race

    I finished in 32:48 which is the slowest 5K I’ve run since I started running again. I didn’t have high expectations going in, but I did expect to beat the times I’ve been running in Prospect Park since the park is pretty hilly and this race course was pretty flat. However, my legs were SO tight that it made the first 2 miles pretty unbearable. I even stopped to stretch during mile 2 they were so tight. By the time I got to 3 miles I felt pretty good. Which is the hard thing about running shorter distances. But I was happy. 

    They did a really nice raffle and awards ceremony at the end. My dad (who finished in 25:12!!!) won 3rd place in the men’s 55-59 division. The old guys are always so fast!

    I sat under this tree stretching for a while.

    And then I won 2nd place (out of 2 people!) in the women’s 25-29 division!

    Overall a really great race and a good experience. And it didn’t rain!

  3.  

    RunKeeper Review

    I’ve moved my Wednesday Workouts to their own page. It makes it easier for me to track what I do and allows me to write this review.

    I started running again. I had stopped about a year ago due to some pretty bad knee pain. Over the last year I’ve ran on and off but because of pain or lack of interest I haven’t been able to get back into it. 

    I’ve used my Garmin 305 to track my mileage, pace, and time for a while, but for some reason it stopped holding a charge. I had heard about the RunKeeper app from That Wife recently and my broken Garmin was the perfect reason to try it out.

    As far as I can tell, and I’ve only used RunKeeper once, it can do many of the things my Garmin does. While I’m running it tracks mileage, time, and pace and I can even set it to do voice cues over my music (you pick a playlist for it to play through your iPod). I set it to update me every mile with my overall time and average pace. 

    Normally I find myself glancing at my Garmin all the time so it was a change for me to run not constantly looking at something. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I kept pretty much exactly a 10:30 pace, which is what I’m currently aiming for, even without looking at the Garmin.

    What I really like about RunKeeper (and my Garmin, but RunKeeper is free!) is looking at the data after a run.

    There are three screens to analyze data, the first one, pictured above, tell you your overall time, average pace, calories burned, and gives you a map of your route with the mileage broken down.

    The second screen has the same info at the top but then breaks down mileage by minute. I don’t find this particularly helpful, but it’s certainly nice. 

    The third screen shows the mileage split which I really enjoy looking at. When I was running a lot I aimed for negative splits, but for now I’m happy with having approximately the same splits and not slowing down at the end. 

    The RunKeeper app also automatically syncs with RunKeeper’s website. Everyone gets a profile, you can check mine out here. There seems to be a really great social networking community there which is something I need to explore more.

    Overall I really, really liked the RunKeeper app and I’m excited to play around with it more. Highly recommend!

  4.  

    Wednesday Workouts

    Sunday
    Plan: Run + 100 Pushups Challenge
    Actual: Ran 3.1 miles (ran 1 miles, walked .25 miles, ran 1.25 miles, walked .25 miles, ran .35 miles) + 100 Pushups Challenge

    Monday
    Plan: Treadmill before class, Body Sculpt class.
    Actual: 20 mins. treadmill (10 running, 10 walking), Body Sculpt class.

    Tuesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class
    Actual: Elliptical 17 mins., Step & Sculpt class, Ab class

    Wednesday
    Plan: Run + 100 Pushups
    Actual: 30 min. elliptical speed workout + 100 Pushups

    Thursday
    Plan: Ellptical
    Actual: Ran 3.1 miles (ran 1.25 miles, walked .25 miles, ran 1.25 miles, walked .25 miles, ran .1 miles)

    Friday
    Plan: 100 Pushups
    Actual:

    Saturday
    Plan: Run
    Actual:

  5.  

    Wednesday Workouts

    Sunday
    Plan: Elliptical 40 mins.
    Actual: Elliptical 40 mins. (5 mins level 8, 10 mins. level 12, 10 mins. level 14, 10 mins. level 16, 5 mins. level 8)

    Monday
    Plan: Treadmill before class, Body Sculpt class.
    Actual: 20 mins. treadmill, Body Sculpt class.

    Tuesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class
    Actual: Elliptical 13 mins, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class

    Wednesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Bootcamp class
    Actual: 30 mins. elliptical speed workout

    Thursday
    Plan: High-incline treadmill 30 mins.
    Actual:

    Friday
    Plan: Rest day.
    Actual:

    Saturday
    Plan: Step & Sculpt class
    Actual:

  6.  

    Wednesday Workouts

    Sunday
    Plan: Elliptical speed 30 mins.
    Actual: Rest day. (My body was exhausted, so happy I didn’t workout.)

    Monday
    Plan: Treadmill before class, Body Sculpt class.
    Actual: HIgh-incline treadmill 8 mins. (subway got me to gym late), Body Sculpt class.

    Tuesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class
    Actual: Stairmaster 15 mins., Step & Sculpt class, Ab class

    Wednesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Bootcamp class
    Actual: 30 min. elliptical speed (I don’t think my body can handle 4 strength classes in a week so I opted out of boot camp tonight).

    Thursday
    Plan: High-incline treadmill 30 mins.
    Actual: Rest day. (I wasn’t feeling so great after allergy testing.)

    Friday
    Plan: Rest day.
    Actual: Elliptical 40 mins.

    Saturday
    Plan: Step & Sculpt class
    Actual: Step & Sculpt class

  7.  

    Wednesday Workouts

    Sunday
    Plan: Elliptical hard 40 mins.
    Actual: Elliptical hard 40 mins.

    Monday
    Plan: Treadmill before class, Body Sculpt class.
    Actual: 18 min. high-include treadmill walk, Body Sculpt class.

    Tuesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class
    Actual: 13 min. stairmill, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class

    Wednesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class, Bootcamp class
    Actual: Rest day.

    Thursday
    Plan: High-incline treadmill 30 mins.
    Actual: Kickboxing class.

    Friday
    Plan: Rest day.
    Actual: Elliptical hard 40 mins.

    Saturday
    Plan: Step & Sculpt class
    Actual: Step & Sculpt class

    (Ed. to add: this was probably the best workout week I’ve had in a long time. Extremely happy.)

  8.  

    Wednesday Workouts

    Little bit of a different format this week…

    Sunday
    Plan: Brisk walk.
    Actual: Rest day.

    Monday
    Plan: 40 min. hard elliptical workout
    Actual: 40 min. hard elliptical workout

    Tuesday
    Plan: Elliptical before class (PM), Step & Sculpt class (PM), Ab class (PM)
    Actual: 10 mins. hard stairmill, Step & Sculpt class, Ab class

    Wednesday
    Plan: Treadmill before class (PM), Bootcamp class (PM)
    Actual: Elliptical 20 mins, Bootcamp class

    Thursday
    Plan: Elliptical speed workout (AM)
    Actual: 40 mins. hard elliptical workout

    Friday
    Plan: Hard elliptical workout (AM)
    Actual:

    Saturday
    Plan: Step & Sculpt class (AM)
    Actual:

  9.  

    A Race For the Hardcore

    A year ago I ran my first race at a distance longer than a 5K.

    CIMG4241

    I ran 10 miles. In 1:38:25. Not too bad.

    I stopped running over the summer when it started bothering my knees. I started up again in the fall, but eventually my knees became a problem again. Recently I’ve been trying to run short distances on the treadmill and while my knees have been stiff, they haven’t been like they were.

    It’s weird to think that I went out and ran 10 miles pretty easily only a year ago. The longest distance I had run up until that point was 8 miles, but I busted out 10 in a time that I am extremely proud of.

    Even though I am not running regularly right now and even though I’ve gained about 8lbs since last year, I overall feel much more fit. When I was training to run the 10-mile race (and a half-marathon) I pretty much only ran and did cross training (elliptical) once or twice a week. For the last few months I’ve incorporated different types of cross training into my workout routine and I’ve added in strength training.

    My hope is that the cross training and strength training will eventually help me to run again. But if that doesn’t happen I’m happy to have found other workouts that I enjoy.

  10.  

    Wednesday Workouts

    Sunday: Rest day.
    Monday: Treadmill workout before class (PM) (Ran 1 mile, walked 1/2 mile), Body Sculpt class (PM)
    Tuesday: Elliptical workout before class (PM), Step & Sculpt class (PM), Ab class (PM)
    Wednesday: 40 min. hard elliptical workout (AM)
    Thursday: 30 min. high-incline dreadmill power walk (AM) (Walked 15 mins/Ran 15 mins (running in 10 and 5 minute intervals))
    Friday: 30 min. elliptical speed workout (AM)
    Saturday: Run/walk (AM)

    (Crossed-out text signifies that I completed the workout as planned. Italics give details or additions.)