running

hit-or-miss

September 23, 2012 by Kristy 10 Comments

A few thoughts on this beautiful Sunday…

Running: hit-or-miss
That accurately describes these past 4 weeks. I’m hot…then cold. Up…then down. I’m not too stressed after last weekend’s PR and the fact that this is supposed to be my downtime. But, I do have 2 races coming up and I want to capitalize on my current speed so it’s back to work tomorrow.

iOS 6 upgrade
Has anyone downloaded the new upgrade? My favorite features are the do not disturb notification and panoramic camera. No more texts waking up this grandma at 9:30PM!

panoramic view of my living room and dining room

Boston 2013 – the way it should be
Even though I’m not running Boston in 2013 doesn’t mean I cannot be *mildly* Boston obsessed. The B.A.A. announced last Friday that registration will re-open tomorrow (!) and will continue until the maximum field size is reached. So everyone that registered over the past 2 weeks will be accepted (and then some)! This is fantastic and the way IT SHOULD BE. What a difference from last year. Congrats to all the runners that were accepted!

Favorite iOS 6 upgrade feature?

Running Boston in 2013?

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:

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?!

Long Live The Queen

June 5, 2012 by Kristy 9 Comments

I’m starting to think we are being stalked by Queen Elizabeth II. That’s right, she is stalking us commoners.

Last May, we were in Ireland and she made an unprecedented visit. Unprecedented as in she never visited Ireland before. And it just so happened to overlap with our trip. It didn’t hinder our sightseeing too much. Some things were closed and we had to take a few detours but, otherwise, no big deal. We even got a glimpse of her going by in her car. Pretty cool.

Giving her best royal wave

Last week we were researching where to go and what to do in London and noticed some things were closed due to the “Queen’s Diamond Jubilee”. Hmmm. Again, we thought no big deal.

Let me put it this way – the Olympics are about to take place in London in a little over 6 weeks and there is no indication of any preparation. The only thing we saw (sadly) was a small, digital countdown to the Olympics near our hotel in Trafalgar Square. That’s it. They are too busy celebrating the Diamond Jubilee. It was a HUGE deal.

They love their Queen, that’s for sure. And while it was cool to take part in the festivities, London was crowded and bridges/sights were closed. Not cool. We spent a mere weekend in London and again it overlapped with a “Queen” event.

We did get to do our run along the Thames though. We had to be a bit creative since bridges were closed and people were camping out along the Thames to watch the flotilla (in honor of…you guessed it, the Queen).

He came out of retirement…

We hit a bunch of pubs at night and came across one called Endurance. Obviously, we had to go in for a beer. It was an odd mix of taxidermy, disco balls, and bad music (Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It”). We stayed for 1 beer.

We did like London and we did have a great time…I just wished we came last weekend (apparently the weather was gorgeous too). It was nice to watch The Royal Family (and by family I mean Will, Kate, and Harry). We only see pictures of them in the US and it was fun to see them interact with the crowd and one another. They are human, imagine that!

Fireworks after the Queen’s concert at Buckingham Palace…

Wise Sayings

May 24, 2012 by Kristy 11 Comments

My Dad is the king of sayings and catch-phrases, especially from commercials. Two of my favorite “Dad” sayings are:

No one ever drowned in sweat – although I did object to this once last summer during a 17-miler in 100 degree temps.

sweaty beast – summer 2011

Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you – god, do I love this one. Something as simple as scoring a great parking spot in a crowded mall during Christmas season (sometimes you get the bear) to having a fantastic training cycle and then a less-than-stellar performance on race day(sometimes the bear gets you).

A few of my other favorites:

What goes around comes around – sometimes the only way I can justify not hurting someone (kidding…kind of), is to repeat this to myself. Mean people get what is theirs eventually.

That which matters the most should never give way to that which matters the least – from the lululemon manifesto (which is full of wise sayings). Sometimes a reminder of perspective is needed.

Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to – also from the lululemon manifesto. We always want what we don’t have. I want Kara Goucher’s legs and speed and, on occasion, straight hair with cute side bangs but it’s not happening. The sooner you appreciate what you have, the better off you will be. I’m learning to appreciate my short, muscular legs for powering me through marathons and any small improvements in speed are celebrated. And my hair…well, 9 months out of the year curly hair is great to have.

If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t – a great lesson for all things in life but I apply this to marathoning more than anything. A great training cycle and great race day weather mean nothing if you don’t believe you can do it. And when I say believe I mean that deep down in-your-gut feeling of “yes, I got this”.

Do what you love and success will follow – if I didn’t believe this I would probably be in the fetal position somewhere crying. I am doing what I love – coaching, albeit part-time – and I repeat this to myself often. Someday, someday…

Got a favorite saying to share?

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.

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:

Beautiful, huh? (via)

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

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.

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

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!).

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.