Yesterday, I ran in the Great Race 10k and set a new record! Sidenote: is it a PR if you’ve never raced that distance before? I’ve run 5-milers, half-marathons and marathons, but I’ve never rank in a 10k or 5k, until yesterday. Either way, it’s still a new record.

My friend Jen and I headed downtown to park the car and waited in a long line for the bus to the start. Like Abby, I had a lot of the same complaints about the race. The $2 shuttle fee was collected by a random guy with a plastic bag. It was so sketch and we weren’t even 100% sure we didn’t give our money to someone not even affiliated with the race that we actually took a cell phone picture of the guy in case they didn’t let us on the bus. Great Race, please make sure all your volunteers wear some sort of identifying t-shirt or badge next year.

Finally, we got to the start and really needed to use the facilities. Unfortunately, the line for the porta-pottys was long-long-long, so we decided to use the wooded area in the cemetery across the street to take care of business. We weren’t the only ones, but seriously there should have been more at the start line for a race with 7,000 people.

And for the race, I didn’t even have a goal time. My last five mile race was a good year or two ago and my best time was around 55 minutes. While waiting for the start, I said I want to finish in 1:10. Well folks, I finished in 1:04! After three years of off and on running, I’m finally starting to understand how to get faster. Because really, when you go from not being a runner to a runner, there are only two speeds: running and not running.

I was feeling a little down and out about my training and starting to have some serious doubts about being ready for the marathon, but this race totally revitalized me.

We planned to run 14-miles post race so we could get in a 20-miler. Uhh, that did not happen. We should have done our 20 on Saturday and then the 10k on Sunday. That was our first mistake. Our second mistake was leaving downtown to head to the trail where we usually run. Traveling took a good 30 minutes and we realized we are so bored with the scenery there. We should have just kept running downtown. We got about six miles in, three of which were walking since I was so tuckered out.

This weekend is the Hershey Half Marathon and I’m hoping to set a new half PR while I am there. The half is my favorite distance, so I’m excited for this mini road trip and chocolate!

Where do I even begin to describe BlogHer? Overwhelming-crazy-fun-inspiring. Here’s the short and sweet recap in photos. I wish I had more photos, but I left New York with a promise to myself to get more comfortable with my camera and take more photos. I was going to link to everyone I met in this recap, but it would take me days to do that and this post would never get published.

The fun kicked off on Thursday night with the Schick Intuition Plus K.I.S.S & Tell party featuring a performance by Gavin DeGraw.

Gavin, call me, okay?

I also got to see one of my favorite people from RIT, Chris. Chris jetted off to North Carolina the next day, so we didn’t get to hang out much. Sadface.

On Saturday, I got to meet Tamera Barney from Real Housewives of the OC. She was nice and super skinny in person. The OC season does not start up again until the new year thanks to the DC and Beverly Hills versions of the show. I also saw Bruce Jenner walking down the street and the first words out of my mouth were, “That’s Kim Kardashian’s stepdad.” Clearly, I watch too much reality tv.

Saturday night was all about the parties. Things started off with a 20-something bloggers happy hour and then moved on to parties involving unicorn cake, dancing, drinks and cheeseburgers.

Photo from Katelin

It was so weird to be at a conference and not working aka running around like a crazy person for 12 hours for clients like I’m used to doing at conferences for work. I was lucky to volunteer and got a free pass to the conference in exchange, so I’m grateful to the organization for that. The downside of this is that I didn’t get to go to all the sessions I wanted to see due to my volunteer duties, but will be reading the recaps and listening to the podcasts.

I had a great time, but for me I didn’t really feel completely comfortable at the conference until mid-day Saturday. It was a bit overwhelming with over 2,000 attendees, countless sponsors/swag, a variety of events and multiple floors.  I’m shy and reserved (people who know me in real life are scratching their heads right now) when around strangers even if they are super nice and welcoming. It definitely took me a while to warm up and combined with my slight cold and a new brand of contacts I was wearing –  I didn’t feel 100% like myself at first. But, I did come away inspired and wanting to do more with this little blog of mine to work my creative muscles. I learned a lot and had a ton of fun with the people I met. I think Round 2 would be less overwhelming since I know what to expect. I need to recover from this one first before I can think about next year.

I’m sad I didn’t see as much of New York as I wanted to and see more of my NYC friends, but I’ll be back in November!

After my ankle issues last week, I decided it was time to finally get new shoes. I realized I ran my last marathon in them and was WAY overdue.

I decided to not go with my usual Nike brand (I have brought the same pair of shoe four times in a row!) and decided to switch it up with Saucony, the ProGrid Guide 3 to be exact.

The shoe is good for an over pronator like me and I decided to get inserts for my low arches. I ran four miles on Saturday and they made a huge difference and I am kicking myself for waiting so long to get new ones. Since my training has been such a mess lately, I have until the end of April to work my way up to ten miles and will be okay for the race. I know I can do it. I feel so much better about the half now.

And on my run, I got pooped on by a bird, then came back to the house to find I was locked out and then had to wait 30 mins because I couldn’t get in and then had ten minutes to get ready to meet my Realtor. Way to start the day!

Found a place I kinda liked, but I’m still wavering. Going to think about it some more, but you can’t wait too long these days. So, if its meant to be, it’ll all work out.

Today I did some volunteer work and then celebrated my grandmother’s birthday. I made the cake below from scratch. Tomorrow is her birthday, but a lady never shares her age. Happy Birthday Grandma!

P.S. Anyone catch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on tv tonight? I think its a show that has some promise, but I’m not sure if he’s going to be able to accomplish his goals. Of course kids are going to choose pizza over chicken and rice. And you don’t mess with the lunch ladies.

We woke up to a record snowfall this morning! I believe it was about 21 inches and ranks in the top five record snowfalls for the area. Crazy stuff. Needless to say, I haven’t really left the house since I got home from work (yes, work!) yesterday. I took some pictures this morning and earlier this evening of all the snow.

So, lots of things have happened since my last post and I’ll write a longer update soon. Hope everyone is staying warm and safe!

Since my last run, I’ve kicked up the training a bit and this week marks the first “official” week of training for the half. On Saturday, I went to a running seminar put on by the folks that are sponsoring the marathon and learned new tips/tricks, especially as it relates to nutrition and mental training. Here’s a tidbit of what I learned…

I usually don’t have a problem eating before I run, but I am really bad with drinking enough water before I run. Its recommended that you drink 20 oz. of fluid before you exercise. And when you are drinking before/during/after your run, you should take gulps over sips. The reasoning behind this is that it enhances absorption and will also be voided by the body quicker.

When I run, I usually lose salt since I end up with salty residue on my skin. So, I need to make sure that I am getting enough salt. Recommendations they mentioned include eating pickles and pretzels (pretzels with peanut butter are my fav snack right now too) and adding salt to a sports drink. Sometimes when I run I make sure to have salt packets and use those as needed. This usually is only a concern for me during the humid, summer months. But, I’m going to keep a close eye on my salt intake to make sure it is not an issue.

After exercise, I sometimes find it hard to eat, but I really need to make sure that I eat something small within 15 minutes of exercise to speed up recovery.

And the toughest part of running for me is the mental part. Sometimes I psych myself out and don’t even try. This is something I want to get better at and I am going to work on training my negative thoughts. I am not going to give pain any of mental energy – that just gives it more energy. Instead, I am going to change the negatives into positives, ie, “bring on the pain, I can handle it.” I also tend to over think runs, so I am going to do my best to stay in the present and to simplify the runs – its just a series of lefts, rights, left, right. Easier said than done, but I really want to conquer this! If you have any mental tips, I’d love to hear them.

On Sunday, I also got my long run of three miles in. Kinda sad when you think of three miles as a long run, but I’ll be racking up the miles again shortly. I left the Garmin at home, which was both a positive and a negative. The good thing was I couldn’t beat myself up mentally for my slow pace because I didn’t know what my pace was exactly. And that was the bad thing as well. Its probably better I left it at home since the trail we ran on was icy and snowy – it was pretty hard to get any traction and I was more concerned about not falling and aggravating the pain in my glutes (which has mostly gone away, yay!) than running fast. Speed workouts come back into play this week too and I’ll share my training schedule as well.

Disclaimer: I am not a health or fitness professional and I am only sharing information that I have come across. My blog is based on my experiences and opinions, which may or may not work for you.

I finally got my pretty, fast, new computer! I love it. Still trying to figure out how everything works (like the mouse!), but it is a million times better than the old one. And speaking of the old one, it decided to turn on in the store. Figures! I’m going to reformat it and craigslist it this week. I’m so glad I did not lose all my data – they were able to transfer everything over. Smart, techy people – what do I do to back up my stuff? Advice appreciated!

So excited to step up my blogging and job hunting game now that I have a working computer. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend so far, I’m off to watch “17 Again” with my sister.

On Sundays, with coffee in hand, I love reading

Modern Love

PostSecret

(preferably in bed with my laptop and lots of blankets)

Getting a long run in

Watching lots of football

Eating dinner with my dad and lamenting over our football picks (5-5 so far this weekend)

And finishing up the weekend with some drama

Source

My perfect Sunday.

Oh weekend, where did you go? You were certainly fun, but short. And now I am too tired to come up with a creative blog post title.

Friday started off with a little Halloween fun. I wore an old vintage dress of my mom’s and went as “Disco Girl.” I wore this once in high school, but can’t locate my photo album with the pic, so I was very surprised and happy it still fit! I did not win the costume contest, but lost to the Clintons. Next year! The picture quality is kinda crappy since the settings on my camera were messed up.

On Saturday, some friends and I volunteered at packet pick-up for the race we were running in on Saturday. It was fun, but we were outside in a tent in the rainy weather for four hours handing out the t-shirts and other goodies to the runners. Somehow, we managed to stay dry so it really wasn’t that bad.

After volunteering, we went for a late lunch and then my stomach just did not agree with me after I ate. It lingered for a while so I decided to stay in for the night and hope for the best. I handed out candy to the trick or treaters, who were adorable! We had a mini block party as our street was blocked off to cars, so after the trick or treating was over, the neighbors brought out their fire pits and wine.

Today was race day and it was COLD, but warmed up quickly. Considering I have not seriously ran or trained these past few months, I set a goal to keep up with the 2:30 half-marathon pace team. And somehow, I did it! Man, was I happy I didn’t have to run another 6.5 miles after I finished my portion of the race. But, I’ll admit I was kinda bummed I didn’t get to run through the finish line. My relay partner Jen did an amazing job as well and set a new personal distance record! I’m happy that I got my running mojo back and I’m looking forward to keeping it. : )

And for some crazy reason, I decided to sign up for NaBloPoMo. Here’s to posting for the next month. Should be fun!

On Friday before I started feeling the effects of the sickness that is going around, I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins. My mom has a bag of dried blueberries she is trying to use up from Costco – they taste way too sweet and fake alone, but when baked in muffins they don’t taste as bad.

I used Alton Brown’s recipe (posted below) and they turned out decent. This is only the second or third time I’ve used cake flour and I like how it makes the batter light and fluffy. They have pancake tops and are a little dry, but I may have added too much flour. Next time, I’ll probably use whole what flour instead, but I’m not sure what will happen to the texture.

Somehow on Saturday I managed to get in a 3-mile run and then proceeded to be lazy for the rest of the weekend. I think I have nipped this not a cold, not the flu thing in the bud and hope I’m feeling more like myself this week.

Got any blueberry recipes? Got about 3 cups to use up and don’t want to make something blueberry-intense like a blueberry buckle.

Alton Brown’s Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
12 1/2 ounces cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Heavy pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup yogurt
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Vegetable spray, for the muffin tins

Directions
Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients reserving 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients and toss with the blueberries. Stir mixture for a count of 10. Add 1 cup blueberries to mixture and stir 3 more times. Reserve the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Using a #20 ice cream scoop, add the mixture to greased muffin pans. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of berries on top of muffins and press down lightly. Place into the oven and increase the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Remove from oven and turn out, upside down on tea towel to cool completely. Serve immediately or store in airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

This post is a little scatter brained since that’s how I’m feeling at the moment…Anyhow, this weekend, two of my favorite people visited me in Boston, my old college roommates Jen and Erin. We kicked off the night with some sangria (recipe to come) on my deck before heading to the North End for an improv show.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at my favorite breakfast place in Brookline before heading to a Boston brewery for a tour. It was a gorgeous day, so we continued our drinking at an outdoor bar with a “Guppy Bowl.” We did some shopping and then took naps, because we are too old to be drinking in the middle of the day without naps. After our quick refresh, we went out for pizza and ice cream in the South End.

Today we decided to do something educational and toured the childhood home of JFK. I’ve always walked by this street, so it was nice to see a little slice of history in the neighborhood and think about how the family walked on the same streets I do today. The house was restored to look like it was when Jack was born. I saw some of the same details that were in all of the houses/apartments I lived in here in Boston and wish someone took better care of them. The woodwork, the staircases, the paneling. All of which are painted over and battered in the apartments I’ve lived in. I’d love to buy an old house and restore it to its former glory someday. And, I’ve even been looking at places to buy online. I’m hoping to buy once I get settled in back in Pittsburgh.

This week is my last week of work. Its very surreal. My replacement starts on Tuesday, so it will be odd teaching someone else how to do my job. I’ve been bookmarking a bunch of jobs to apply for and am ready to finally throw myself into the job hunt. Packing is another story. I did pack two boxes of books today. Once work finishes this week I think I’ll settle into a nice routine of sleeping, working out, packing and applying for jobs.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and is ready to face the week!