Week 9, Day One

I know I start every week saying this, but can you believe we are nine weeks into our training!? This weekend I had an awesome time visiting my friend Janet in CT for some wonderful wine tasting and I even managed to run 4.5 miles Saturday morning. We went to 5 vineyards and I ended up only bringing back 4 bottles of wine with me, which I feel is an accomplishment. On the train ride home I complained to my friend Emily for at least a half hour about how I was suppose to run 8 miles but didn't feel like it and blah blah blah. Bless her heart for not punching me in the face. Anyway, when we walked off the train into NYC, the weather was almost 50 degrees and sunny, I had to run. After laying on my wonderful couch for 2 hours and spending time with my bf I feel like I haven't seen in a month, I ate a skinny cow and went. Note: Never eat a skinny cow and then go running, worst idea ever. Anyway, I made it all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge and back without stopping and felt amazing. Yeah my knees felt like they were about to break and I wanted to throw up my skinny cow, but I did it!

So now Holly and I are less than 3 weeks away from the race. We only have 2 more weeks of hardcore training and then the last week is mostly resting and light cardio. I need to start working on going to bed early and waking up early, the complete opposite of what I do now so I'm sure that's going to be interesting considering the race is at 7:30 in the morning and that's an hour earlier than I wake up for work.

Today is a stretch day and then Holly and I will be going for a 5 mile run outside tomorrow. It's getting closer!!

Week 8, Day 4

So Holly and I are making our way through the week with little motivation. I blame it on the long weekend. We skipped our tuesday workout and ran 3 miles yesterday at the gym. Today is 4.5 miles and it's looking less and less likely to happen. Any encouraging words would be awesome. Holly leaves for a ski trip tonight and tomorrow I leave for a wonderful weekend of wine tasting. So while Holly is being active, I'll be wasted and too hungover to workout. We have already declared that we need another motivational meeting Sunday night. We're both waiting until Monday to do our 8 mile run together which will really show where we are physically.

Wish us luck because we are seriously hitting a wall. I also want to apologize for this weak blog post, I've only eaten chocolate today and I'm starting to crash.

Week 8, Day 2

So I'm sure you are all dying to know how Holly and I did on our run together. Holly came and visited me at my parents house in the great state of New Jersey for the weekend so we could run together on Saturday. When the weather man says that it's going to be windy you normally think to yourself, that shouldn't be a big deal, it'll be like 20 MPH winds max. Nope, not saturday, we were running against 60 MPH winds at times during our 7.5 mile run. I took the lead on our run because I knew the area and at one point Holly literally blew past me because of the wind. Long story short we only ran 7 miles but it felt like we ran 20 because of the wind. But we do have an awesome story from the run....

Holly and I were running down a back road and we saw that a car had driven right into a telephone poll head on, probably from the wind. We stopped to make sure the girl in the car was ok but a few people were already with her so we kept running. On the way back there we police men blocking off the road in both directions because the telephone poll looked like it might fall. The policeman told us that we couldn't run past the accident and had to turn around and go around (at least 5 additional miles back to my house). Our faces looked so defeated. We had both reached a point where we wanted to just stop and go home from all the running and the wind. I think the man saw the desperation in our faces and offered to drive us to the other side of the accident. Thank God! Then the best thought ever passed both our minds at the exact same time, we are about ride in the back of a police car for the first time!!! After all the excitement of the 100 yard ride we got out and ran the mile and a half back to my house.

So even though the run was awful and I think we're feeling a little less motivated right now because it seriously took a lot out of us, we do have an awesome story to tell.

Week 7, Day 3

Since I've been a slacker the past 2 days, I'm feeling pretty rested! It's almost nice to walk up stairs without feeling like someone is stabbing me in my knees. But today is a very exciting day, Holly and I will be running outside together for the FIRST time. Can you believe we haven't actually ran together yet?? Now this starts to make me a little nervous. What if she runs a lot faster than me? What if I need to stop and she doesn't? Should we listen to music or talk the whole time? Soooo much to think about. On the bright side, I'm so distracted by being nervous I'm forgetting that we're running 4.5 miles.

For those of you not in the tristate area, the temperature is suppose to reach 60 at some point today, so I'm sure there will be a ton of runners out. Which brings me to another point, whose going to set the pace? The slowest person (me)? The fastest person (Holly)? This run will set the tone for runs to come and the half marathon. Theres a lot of pressure for this to work out. I feel like I'm going on a date.

Anyway, wish me luck. Hopefully she'll be gentle the first time and let me take the lead. My hands are getting sweaty already!

Week 7, Day 2

I can't believe we're 7 weeks into this training. I'm not going to lie, I'm truly shocked we made it this far. We have 33 days until the half marathon and after this weekend I have a feeling those days are going to start flying by.

Like I told you in the last post, I ran on Monday because I was doing something after work yesterday, drinking. I went to happy hour with a friend and can I please tell you how awesome it felt to leave work and not go to the gym. It was AMAZING! I didn't even feel that guilty because I had ran the day before. I'm sure most of you are making fun of us because we're freaking out over running 13.1 miles and it's not even a full marathon, but that's really far. We have been training almost every day for the last 7 weeks and when I took yesterday off, I saw the light. And let me tell you, the light at the end of the tunnel looks really good. It's a world of working out 3 days a week, running 2-3 miles and being able to have a fulfilling social life. I can't wait!!

But for now I'll dream at work of having a life filled with happy hours, workout free days, and not thinking about running a half marathon. I will once again be missing our workout today for a work meeting so I'm being a huge slacker this week. The run tomorrow should be interesting but at least it'll be outside is 54 degree weather!

Happy Day After Valentine's Day!!!

Now, as most of you were either celebrating Valentine's Day or hating it in a dark room eating everything you saw, I was looking forward to today. The day after Valentine's Day is one of the best holidays there is. It comes in at a close second to the day after Halloween. This day, this magical day, is when you can walk into any drug store in the great country of America and all of the candy from Valentine's Day is at least 50% off! They are practically giving it away, shelves and shelves of candy.

I'd like to invite people to share the amazing candy deals they see or indulge in on our blog. I know no one will but as anyone who knows me can tell you, I love a good deal, even if I'm just hearing about it. So pleeease do it!

To talk about our training really quickly, because I have things tonight and tomorrow night I did my 4.5 mile run yesterday. That also may have had something to do with me asking my BF for a cake for Valentine's Day and knowing I was going to gain 5 pounds in one night. Holly will be doing her run today and will hopefully do a post tomorrow.

Happy Day After Valentine's Day Everyone!!!!

Week 6, Day 2

I can't believe we are 6 weeks in and have less than 6 weeks to go in our training. I think I can speak for Holly when I say we are a mixture of nervous and excited for the half marathon at this point. I'm not going to lie, this weather is killing us. The treadmill is getting pretty old and there are only so many episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond a person can watch while running until they break down. We just want to get outside! Thank god it's 15 degrees right now, thanks mother nature. While I'm running few thoughts run through my head, but they all seem to be the same:

- How much longer?
- Why am I doing this?
- If I stop running and get thrown off the treadmill can I quit?
- How much does it hurt to break your ankle because I don't think that can heal in time for the race?
- How many times does Ray have to be a horrible husband to Debra before she leaves him?
- This sucks

So as you can see my PMA (positive mental attitude) is really flowing while I'm running. I hope everyone is praying for an early spring and for us to make it through training!

6 Miles Done!

Sunday marked a momentous occasion. Holly and I ran 6 miles! I haven't run that far in almost 10 years, that's just sad. For those of you who don't live in the NYC, yesterday and today have been right around 40 degrees and after the winter we've been having it feels like it's 60 degrees outside. So Sunday was the perfect day for a long run while the snow that has been ruining every ones lives melted. The down side to melting snow is not just that it looks ugly but that it creates HUGE puddles on flat surfaces like a running path. I felt like I was in a video game running along the path trying to avoid puddles, except instead of loosing a life when I stepped in a puddle, my shoes and socks got soaked. It's the worst feeling ever.

The bad thing is, when I get excited that I just ran 6 miles its not because I just did something that I wasn't able to do a month ago or that we're one step closer to getting ready for the half marathon, it's that now I have just over 600 more calories I can eat today b/c I just burned them. And considering yesterday was the super bowl, 600 extra calories to eat was very easy to find. So I stuffed my face like everyone else at a super bowl party but for the first time I had no guilt about doing it. This is the first positive thing to come out of training! I'm sure at some point there will be a lot more positives, but I'll take what I can get.

Today is a lift and stretch day, so there shouldn't be too much complaining tomorrow.

Week 5, Day 4

I'd like to start this post off by saying that I'm no prude. I've been changing in locker rooms with girls since 7th grade, which is why I know what happened in Boom Fitness last night was not ok. For a little background, normally when I'm done working out I like to leave as soon as possible to go home and die on my couch. I keep my stuff in the front of the locker room (in an unlocked locker which Holly thinks is horrible) because I change at work so I can spend the least amount of time at Boom. So I basically throw my stuff in the locker and go.

After my 4 miler yesterday I was exhausted and just wanted to go home. When I walked in the locker room after my run I turned the corner and there was a naked women right in front of my locker. I have no problem with people changing in the locker room, obviously, that's what it's there for. But I feel like there is an understanding among women that I don't want to see what you have under your towel and you most likely don't want to see what I have. The locker room is full of women of all sizes and shapes so everyone tends to go about their business and then leave. It's not like how guys picture a locker room with hot skinny women walking around naked doing each others hair talking about boys and making out with each other.

It's also an understanding that if you're going to get naked in the locker room, you at least change in an aisle instead of the entrance. But this annoying lady proceeded to change very slowly and positioned herself in a way that I couldn't get to my locker. So I had to ask her to move because apparently being naked makes her very distracted and she didn't see me standing there. After about 30 seconds of pure awkwardness I quickly put on my coat even though my body was 300 degrees from running and got out of there.

This is what Holly and I have to deal with while we're training for the longest run of our lives!!

Week 5, Day 3

We are half way through week 5 and feeling good. Yesterday was a quick 2 mile workout and an attempt at an abs session. As I've told everyone in the past we normally work out on the treadmills on the left side of Boom. Apparently everyone in the world reads our blog and has made the left side the most popular place in Boom Fitness because we were forced to work out on the dreaded right side yesterday. The right side is more exposed to the public because that's where all the skinny girls on the ellipticals go, hence why we don't like it. So we sucked it up and ran our 2 miles (which actually felt kinda hard) on the right side of the gym along with all the skinny people. I'd like to say we fit in, but I think it may be too soon.

Holly might kill me for saying this, but to say that we're awful at ab exercises is an understatement. We went on two machines and then left because there was a kick boxing session getting to close to us, AKA the exercises were too hard and we could only get 2 sets in. The fact that we made an attempt to do them though made me feel good. The gym session ended on a positive note and we are now looking forward (I want to throw up thinking about it) to our 4 mile run and lifting today.

Week 5, Day 1, Part 2

So yesterday after our workout Holly and I had a motivation meeting. We both had tough workout weeks last week and needed to re energize. So we went to Starbucks across from Boom Fitness to talk. After waiting in line for what felt like 20 minutes while a woman fumbled around with change to pay for her coffee, Holly and I ordered. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who walks into Starbucks and gets a water and Holly might be the only person who orders her latte extra hot (but I don't know anything about the coffee world, so that might be normal). After we get our drinks we sit down and start to strategize on how we are going to get this done.

I don't want to say what we talked about while at our super inspiring meeting but I can say that Holly and I are back on track, excited to get this done, and ready to go all out training for the half marathon. Tonight's workout is 4 miles and I just could not be more excited to run it! (that might have been a little sarcastic, but I'm trying.)