• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Run The Long Road Coaching

personalized coaching for distance runners

  • Philosophy
  • Services
    • Policies
  • Shop
  • Success Stories
  • FAQs
  • Meet Kristy
  • Contact
  • FaceBook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

kauai

Back to Reality

June 11, 2012 by Kristy 12 Comments

All good things must come to an end.  This is true of vacation-palooza.  Kauai, London, and Paris were all amazing in their  own way.  Kauai was active, scenic, and refreshing.  London and Paris were about exploring, strolling, and marveling.

But now it’s back to normal life and checking back into it.

My body seemed to be revolting a bit on Sunday.  Too many nights of drinking made my stomach churn.  Too little water during the day (coupled with numerous beers at night) made my head ache from dehydration.  I feel squishy too.

I’m making a conscious effort to eat better this week and stay away from this:

425px-Speculoos_Pasta_van_Lotus
Evil (via)

Matt went to the grocery store in Paris to pick up wheat bread and PB so we could have a cheap and easy breakfast each morning.  He came back with Speculoos; it was the only “PB” available other than Nutella.  Oh my god was is delicious.  We killed the entire jar in 4 days, mostly because of my compulsive need to eat spoonful after spoonful.  Turns out this is available at Trader Joe’s (thanks to Jen for this finding)!  I’m trying my best to not make a pit stop at TJ’s and pick up a few jars.

On Sunday I’m making a return to barre to take care of the squishy side effects of vacation-palooza.  My last barre class was a few weeks before Boston and I miss it so much.  Squishiness be gone!

I do feel really good about where my running is at the moment.  I’m hoping to hit the mid-40s mileage-wise this week – nothing fast, just running whatever pace I want for that day.

Have you ever tried Speculoos or TJ’s Cookie Butter?  It rivals PB & Co.’s White Chocolate Wonderful, which I affectionately refer to as crack.  What would we do without PB or specialty butters?!

Friday Thoughts

June 1, 2012 by Kristy 13 Comments

Bonjour!  Just practicing.

Speaking of French, after 2 years of high school French and 3 semesters of college French, I can’t speak a lick of it.  I can read some but once it leaves my mouth, it’s horribly butchered and completely wrong.  The side of your brain (right?) that helps with foreign language learning is also the same side that prevents me from drawing a decent stick figure.  But if you need me to explain the intricacies of the kidney to you, I’m your girl.

The past 2 weeks of running have been great!  Quality runs, decent long runs, and…fun.  Not worrying about pace and not hitting the track every week is freeing.

Since Boston, I’ve been kind of checked out of reality.  Pretty easy to do with Boston, Kauai, and now London/Paris back-to-back.  I must say the life of a gypsy (that’s what my co-worker called me yesterday) is sweet!

I have 2 runs planned while we are in London and Paris.  I wish I could do more but our itinerary is jam packed.  In London, walking along the Thames was on our list so we decided to make an early morning run out of it.  Notice I said “we”?  Matt agreed to join me and come out of his early retirement from running!  In Paris, I plan on doing a solo run along the Seine while Matt goes to the French Open with his nephew.  Fun, fun, fun!

Would your (non-running) significant other agree to go on a vacation run with you?  Matt was technically a runner at one point and did a few HMs and a marathon but he hated every second of it.  So he retired. 

Are you fluent in another language?  If so, I’m impressed.  That’s definitely not in the cards for me!

Monday in Numbers

May 21, 2012 by Kristy 13 Comments

10:  the hours of sleep I got last night.  We took a red eye flight home from Kauai and the dude next to me was very lax in minding his personal space (I was sitting in the middle).  I normally sleep fine on a plane but every time I nodded off I felt a strange arm or leg mosey over into my limited personal space.  Eww.  I was practically in Matt’s lap by the time we landed.

236:  number of unread emails when I returned to work today.  I was pleasantly surprised!

0:  number of miles ran this morning.  It was raining when I woke up.  Normally I run in the rain but it gets tricky when it’s an “in the office” day (M, W, Th).  If my hair is soaking wet, I’ll need to wash it which adds a significant amount of time to my morning routine.  Silly?  Yes…but I get up in just the right amount of time to run, shower, and throw my hair into a ponytail.

14:  number of miles hiked in Kauai.  I already wrote about our 6-mile hike along the Kalalau Trail and on Friday we did an 8-mile hike along the Pihea Trail to the Alaka’i Swamp Trail.  It was muddy and steep at parts but more than half the trail had a boardwalk to make things easier.

DSCN2882

DSCN2846

DSCN2852

At the turnaround point (mile 4) you are supposed to be treated to a wonderful view of Kilohana Lookout for your efforts…weather pending.  Key words right there.  This is what we were supposed to see:

DSC02110_Kilohana_Lookout_and_Hanalei_Bay
Beautiful, huh? (via)

Instead a cloud rolled in exactly when we got there and we saw this:

DSCN2864
Not kidding.  We were literally stuck in a cloud.

Oh well, you win some you lose some.  We knew there was a possibility of a cloud rolling in and blocking the view; it was a great hike otherwise.  We did meet a very friendly rat who begged for food!

Kauai Running: North Shore vs. South Shore

May 17, 2012 by Kristy 13 Comments

I love to run on vacation.  No expectations, no pressure…just run to offset dessert calories.  Or, in my case, beer calories.  It’s a great way to explore a city or a town.  I’ve managed easy 3-milers in the very early AM (before it gets ungodly hot) for the past 3 days.

We split our time in Kauai between the North Shore and South Shore.  We stayed in Princeville (at the Westin – highly recommend it) for the NS and at Poipu Beach (Sheraton – also very nice) for the SS.

The NS is definitely more scenic with views of the ocean and Na Pali Coast.  The Na Pali Coast is like the Golden Gate Bridge to me – I will never get sick of staring at it.

NS_2

NS_1

The SS is nice too but no mountain views.  However, it is significantly cooler with a nice ocean breeze.

SS_3

SS_2

The best thing about running in a beach town is you can step right outside your hotel and follow the other runners – no need to do any research.  For cities, I definitely do my homework.  I don’t want to end up in a shady area (suggestions for running in Paris/London are welcome!).

SS_1

Do you run on vacation?  I love the change of scenery.  My favorite place to run is still San Fran.  I haven’t found any place that can beat it. 

Na Pali Hike

May 14, 2012 by Kristy 12 Comments

Greetings from Kauai!

This will be short and sweet as I have some Miller Lite drinking to do poolside!

Today Matt and I hiked some of the Na’Pali Coast.  I say some since it’s a 11-mile hike one way along some pretty narrow cliffs with great, big drops.  I’m terrified (repeat, terrified) of heights and did my research ahead of time – these cliffs were no joke.  Our plan was to go out maybe 3 miles (so we wouldn’t reach the cliffs; they come in around mile 6) and turnaround and get in a decent 6-mile hike.

That’s exactly what we did and it was spectacular, gorgeous, and amazing.

DSCN2549
Warning signs at the very beginning…

DSCN2552

DSCN2566
One mile down…

DSCN2586

DSCN2590

DSCN2606
Lunch near a waterfall…

DSCN2607

The hike was tough coming back since we had to go mostly uphill.  My feet hurt from all the uneven footing, although I must brag I didn’t fall once.  I’m a total klutz when running and have scars to prove it.  It was so worth it.  The camera can’t even begin to capture how beautiful the views were.

Vacation-palooza

May 9, 2012 by Kristy 16 Comments

What a week.

The whole 9-to-5 thing got really busy (bad) and coaching got busy (very good).

Enter vacation-palooza.  Next week kicks off the first of 2 vacations we have lined up:  Kauai then Paris/London.  Considering they are 2 weeks apart makes for a fun and stressful month.

My running shoes will be in tow for both vacations but I’m not stressing about getting in the miles.  We’ll be on our feet most days anyway hiking around Kauai and exploring Paris/London on foot.

That’s all I got, folks – short and sweet today!  I may post from Kauai or unplug from blogging.  We’ll see.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

© 2023 · Developed by JX2 Development.