It's Taper Time Bitches!

And just like that, 11 weeks of hardcore training has finished, and I've rolled into taper week (as of 45 mins ago). I feel AWESOME, and I know Blondie does too. We've registered and run (walk/run) several half marathons, and normally we stop training about 4 weeks into our training. But thanks to Mr Pooh coming in for this, everytime we've started to talk ourselves out of it, we've talked ourselves right back into it. I just can't imagine Mr Pooh getting here, and then us being like "Oh well, we got bored training".

So this week was again, low key. Someone from my old team was in town for a few days, so it was good getting to see that person. I had an early meeting with them on Monday, and it kind of evolved into where my career is going (my boss was involved also). My role has changed dramatically since I started in it - and I'm not sure I like where it's at now (being responsible for projects where everyone is located 3000 miles away but me).

On Tuesday, my core group from work, me and Blondie hit up Koreatown for dinner. We were celebrating - someone from my core group got a HUGE promotion and we wanted to do it up in style. We ate SO MUCH FOOD, and then this restaurant also had sparkling sake. Oh. Em. Gee. People. I heart sake with a passion, but then to make it sparkling! We had a great time that night, hanging out outside of the office and just generally being rowdy and noisy.

On Wednesday I was offered a new role at my company - within the same division, same office, etc. I would have a new boss and would be offically within the business side of things as opposed to technical side of things. I have a lot to think about - I don't want to jump in because it's an out from my current job, but at the same time, I don't want to stick in my current job permanently either. Luckily I have time - it's not a decision I have to make v soon.

Friday morning Blondie texted me early at the office. It was supposed to pour rain on Saturday all day so he suggested a bar night on Friday with a long run on Sunday instead (no rain forecasted). I agreed, and I needed it. I bolted about 45 mins early, and we hit up our local bar for several drinks. Afterwards, we agreed some brownies were in order so we headed up to the grocery to get necessary ingredients. While the brownies were baking, we got into a bottle of wine, and that's all I remember for the night.

Yesterday afternoon I finally had a brownie, and then spent the next 8 hours alternately passed out, or eating. Literally it was all I did. But I guess it was a good thing as we headed out today for our final long run (10 miles) and we both rocked it out. Blondie is in major pain right now, I feel fine/good. I've managed to convince him that a beer for lunch to celebrate the end of training is in order - so we are about 3 secs from either hitting up the bar or hitting up our taco bodega.

This was week 11 of training, leaving only taper week left! Last Sunday I did 60 minutes on the precor, followed by my P90x stretching DVD on Monday (needed), with a 5 mile run on Tues, 3 mile hill work on Wed, 5 mile run on Thurs (10:45 min miles!), rest day on Friday, 60 minutes on the precor yesterday, and 10 miles today (11:33 min miles!) This week I could feel everything clink together - my runs have been as fast as they've ever been, and I even set the resistance on the precor to above what I normally do (level 5 and 9 - went to level 6 and 10 - alternate every 2 mintes) - I managed to push the pedals at those levels for an hour, but also way faster than I normally go.

I have taper week this week - so some stretching tomorrow, followed by 4 miles on Tues, 3 miles on Wed, 2 miles on Thurs and that's it! Mr Pooh arrives on Wed, and I have Thurs and Fri off of work to poke around the city with him and Blondie. I'm so excited!

Okay, off for food (and a beer). Happy Easter! Eat a Cadbury Creme Egg for me!
--K

The Worst Week

Last week turned into one of the worst weeks ever in terms of work. Everyday that I was at the office (all 5 of them), I got news about my program that was worse than the day before. None of this is my fault or anyone on my team's fault, but still, to have something go wrong (catastrophically wrong) every single day of the week was awful.

Blondie made fun of me and quoted some Office Space: "So if every single day is worse than the day before, then we're seeing you on your worst day? That's messed up". I won't give details, but let me say that our launch date will have to be moved by several months.

In other work news, my coworker from the west coast was in town for the week. It's always good seeing him. We shared my office, and having someone on the ground from the west coast is always extremely helpful.

On Tuesday night, Blondie and I headed to our bar for our usual Tues Night Out event. I got into the scotch which was bad news, and we made our bartender play Tosh.0 reruns all evening. I took my frustrations from work out by drinking heavily, and so was loud-laughing my way through Tosh.0 which I'm sure was so thrilling for the other patrons of the bar.

On Thursday night, my coworker and I and one of his friends went to see a new Broadway play - this one was Sister Act and it's still in previews. It was a musical, and it was *hysterical*. This play wasn't on my list, and when he mentioned it, I was hesitant because it didn't sound so great to me (I didn't really like the movie either). But I did agree to go b/c I needed to get out of my head about work. It was a beautiful evening, so I walked over to Broadway from my office - it was really nice getting out and enjoying the weather. Again, the play was hysterical - it was so funny, and the music was something I could bounce along to.

The highlight of the play though had to be the GIANT statue of the virgin Mary, done over like a disco ball - it even twirled like a disco ball. I was like "oh holy shit" which made my coworker laugh his ass off. After the play, my coworker and friend walked me back through Times Square and we split off there so they could go home and I could go home.

Friday I went out for lunch, and when I got back to work, I thought "f this. This has been the worst week for work, I'm leaving early". I bolted about an hour early, bought a bunch of lottery tickets (I figured my luck had been so good this week - cue sarcasm - might as well see what would happen) and met Blondie at our bar again. We don't normally do the Friday night scene, but I'm glad we did this time - I sucked down way too many beers, but it finally got me to stop thinking about what had happened this week.

Yesterday we got up, and it was cold, cloudy and windy outside - and the rain was supposed to start around 2 pm ish. Blondie was hungover so he was going to wait until Sunday or Monday to do his long run, so I decided to wait too. But then at 10 am, my friends texted and invited us over to watch the Sabres v Flyers game last night, and I knew that had the potential to be a shit-show evening, so I decided to go out yesterday and do my 10 miles anyway.

I started out without any expectations, due to my shitty 8 and 9 mile runs the previous 2 weeks - and I rocked it out. I stopped at mile 5 for 20-30 secs - it was more of a mental thing that I needed as I felt pretty good. Then I stopped at mile 6.8 as that's where the only working water fountain on the course is. I ate an energy goo and refilled my water bottle - so probably stopped for 1 minute. I ran the rest of the time - I got in at 1 hour, 59 mins, with an average pace of 11:59 min miles.

Afterwards, I came back and crashed on the floor for the afternoon - the rain started in earnest, and we watched it out our windows for awhile. We started over to our friends' house around 4 pm, and had a blast. We kept it low-key - after our binge on Friday night, it was a needed non-rager. We got home around 9:15 pm. The storm had turned into a thunder storm by this point, and it was nice to hear it.

Today I have 60 mins of cross-training I have to do, but am going to wait a bit before I head down to the gym. Blondie might do his 10 miles today, or he might wait until Monday - he's trying to decide. It's gorgeous outside right now - the rain blew through overnight and the sun is out - it's supposed to be in the 60's today also. We've talked about going over to Brooklyn for brunch, and we both need to do so light clothes shopping (underwear, rain boots).

This was week 10 of training (2 more weeks to go!) - last Sunday I did 50 mins on the Precor, followed by level 2 30 day shred on Monday, 5 miles on the treadmill on Tues and Thurs (my Thurs runs were at 10:59 min mile - which is super speedy for me), 10 miles outside on Saturday, and rest days on Wed (not planned) and Friday (planned).

I've also sent my list of shit to do to Mr Pooh, who will be arriving in 1.5 weeks to run the half with us and more importantly, hang out with us.

And finally, a shout out to Mrs Pooh who has started a plan of running many 5Ks - she finished her first of the season yesterday in a really good time! Congratulations Mrs Pooh!

--K

April Showers

Last Saturday we went out and did our 8 mile run. I had a hard time with it - ran the 1st 4 miles, and ran/walk the 2nd 4 miles, and had an overall avg pace of 12:26 min/miles. I chalked it up to being uber sick, and having almost no fuel in my system. After our run, we putzed around for a bit, before deciding to head out to buy our groceries instead of ordering in - omg, like for the first time in 2 months.

It was so nice being back at the farmer's market - I love being able to pick out my own produce, and then they had OKRA. I bought a ginormous bag of it, big enough that even Blondie said - "Do you realize how much okra you have here?" The whole point is we had such good food that week - we get tired of eating out all the time, and it was so nice to be able to cook our own food for the most part.

Sunday we hit up the gym early and then didn't do crap the rest of the day. The weather here has been awful - it's been warmer, but I swear, every other minute it's about to rain. Last Sunday was like that.

The work week itself went fairly fast - it was nice. Tuesday night, we were lying in bed around 9:30 pm ish (yes, we are old), and Blondie said "you know our bar serves chicken wings right?" and with that, I was out of bed getting dressed. We hit up our bar and had 2 drinks and split an order of wings - it was nice getting to see everyone and visit, and the drinks gave me a really good sleep that night. They were also my first drinks since getting sick - they didn't sit too well on my stomach, but I managed to muscle through ;)

Friday I received not-good news about my program - it was unexpected, and it pissed me off. But it did derail me also - took the wind out of my sails. I came home and vented forever to Blondie - my rant went from my program at work to my working out to eating to .... on and on and on. Poor Blondie!

Yesterday we went out for 9 miles. I had a hard time again, which is scaring the hell out of me. I stopped my watch everytime I stopped - so I didn't walk any of this run, but I also didn't run it without stopping. With stopping my watch (I think I stopped about 8 times for 10-20 secs at a time), I got 11:48 min/pace for the 9 miles. Our course is out and back along the Hudson, and we ended up in Harlem because of how far we ran. It's kind of neat to think your legs can take you from Hells Kitchen to Harlem and back.

After our run, we were supposed to meet friends at Brooklyn Flea, but we begged off - there was no way my legs were going to take me through a flea market at that point. We ordered our groceries in this week (yes, even though last week was awesome at the farmer's market, we ordered in again due to exhaustion), and then Blondie mentioned street tacos for lunch. We went for a very very slow walk up to the bodega, and we each got a beer and 3 tacos. Afterwards, we went to Pinkberry for some yogurt (YUM), before we then caught the train down to FiDi to meet up with the Brooklyn Flea friends for drinks. The FiDi has this whole section of cobblestone streets that are pedestrian/restaurant only, and it was beautiful. We are going to take Mr Pooh there when he comes to town.

After drinks in FiDi, we headed over to Greenwich Village for pizza for dinner. Blondie *loved* the pizza, whereas I just thought it was okay (I thought it was burnt, which automatically means Blondie will love it). We got home around 9 pm, and I was in bed by 9:45 pm.

Today I have to get down to the gym to do something (it's supposed to be a rest day for me, but after the crappy 9 miles yday, I'm headed down anyway) and then our groceries are here. True to form, it looks like it's about to pour outside right now (oh yay), so I don't think we'll do anything else today.

This was week 9 of training - I did 50 mins of Precor last Sunday, followed by level 1 of 30 day shred on Monday, 5 miles (in 57 mins without stopping on treadmill) on both Tues and Thurs, 3 miles hill run on Wed, rest day on Friday, and 9 miles yesterday. I'm excited, but I'm also nervous b/c I've had 2 bad long runs in a row. I tried eating cereal and milk before the 9 miles yesterday and I don't think the milk set right in my stomach, so I won't be doing that again.

Only 3 more weeks of training (and the 3rd week is actually a taper week) so really only 2 more weeks of hard training to go!

--K

The Shit Show, from west to east

So 2 weeks ago, I took off bright and early to go back to SF for work for the week. I decided I would try forgoing my typical bag of gummy bears at the airport, and instead, bought a piece of fruit for the flight. The flight took off on time, but due to craptacular weather throughout the US, we landed 45 minutes late. I started watching the moving map over Colorado, and if you want to know how to make a 7.5 hour flight seem longer, the answer is keep your eyes on the map. I thought we'd never get there. On top of the that, the fruit did nothing to alleviate my hunger, and I was pissed off I didn't get my gummies.

Okay, so wah wah wah, we land and I go to my hotel and decide to get in my cross training for the week - so headed down to the gym and did a 50 minute fast walk on the treadmill holding weights for part of the time. Afterwards, I was ravenously hungry - enough so I thought I was going to pass out - so I headed out and grabbed a bagel loaded with veggies and some lox.

KT picked me up after that, it was SO GOOD to see her. We headed out to Daly City and went Target/mall shopping. We just enjoyed getting to hang out and get caught up on what was going on in each other's lives. After shopping, we stopped for dinner and drinks, before heading back to the city for margaritas. She dropped an exhausted me off that night, and I hit the sack.

It was a typical week in terms of not sleeping well, serious stomach problems, and non-stop drinking. I went out with CChu and TDawg on Monday for drinks and dinner, followed by drinks on Tuesday with a ton of people before going to dinner with some coworkers, followed by 2 going away parties on Wednesday (one for my BFF from work - sad face), followed by a sloppy NCAA game night watching with Ms HK. I hadn't see Ms HK in forever, and had a total blast that night. Work was work that week - nothing much special going on, which was good because I was feeling awful. Everytime I go back to SF, I have so much fun seeing everyone but my body revolts.

On Friday, I caught a flight back to NY - and the flight went really fast - yay for tailwinds! ;) I got to the apartment late night on Friday, ate some beans and rice, and then downed 2 scotches to pump my energy up. Slick and Funk-ster arrived an hour after I got home! We all immediately slammed a beer before heading to our local pub to watch the b-ball games and drink some more.

Saturday, I headed out for a 4-mile taper run, before we all went for lunch - we hit the bar and I had a salad and cup of chili (and beers), and it was tasty goodness. After the bar, we hit up the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's a HUGE spage, I can't even describe how big this place is. We saw 4 exhibits, a fraction of what they have, and were there almost 3 hours. You could literally spend a week in this place, all-day, and not have seem everything. The exhibits we picked to see were: "Ancient Egypt", "Arms and Armour", "1920's Photography", and "Musical Instruments".

After the Met, we hit up a surf bar in our hood, before going home to get ready to go for Egyptian food in the Meatpacking District! We had a late reservation - and by then, we were starving. We had some awesome food and got to watch a great belly dancer (no match for Funk-ster though). Afterwards, we hit up another bar for some beers before Funk-ster's urge to dance overtook us all. We hit up the closest dance club, and had a blast, before heading home around 3 am for the night.

Sunday, we took it easy. Hahahhahaha. Slick's cousin and his woman came over from Brooklyn for brunch, and then a "quick beer" afterwards turned into 6 hours of solid drinking, and cheering on UK to victory. We went for Peruvian for dinner, and then it was home for bed.

Monday, I had the day off - Funk-ster and I went to the gym and I did my 50 mins of cross training on the Precor and lifted weights. Afterwards, we went for a slice of pizza before taking the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island (which made it for me all boroughs that I've been in now). We had a quick beer in a pub over there, before heading back to the UWS. We dropped Funk-ster at Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library for a couple of hours, while the rest of us stopped in for oysters and beer at a local pub. She joined us later for a beverage before we walked back to our hood and had Indian food for dinner. Afterwards, we stopped for crepes and soft serve before hitting up our local bar again.

Tuesday, I wasn't feeling so hot, so I called in sick. The 4 of us went for breakfast before we said goodbye to them for their trip back home. I literally slept most of the day after that, and still felt weird when I went to bed on Tuesday night. I woke up Wednesday and knew what the problem was - stomach flu. I spent the next 7 hours expelling from both ends, most of the times simultaneously. It was awful. The only upside is I gained no weight from the 4 days of debauchery due to this.

Thursday I woke up and still felt not good, but dumb ass me decided to try to run - I had no fuel in my body whatsoever, managed to get 1.92 miles, and then declared it over. I made it into work, but kept the door to my office shut/locked most of the day. Yesterday I finally felt better, and finally felt hungry, so I had a salad and soup for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner. Today we're about to go on an 8-mile run. I'm a little nervous b/c my training was completely screwed up this week due to the visit from friends and the sickness. I'm hoping to rock it out, and actually am looking forward to this run (unlike most that I dread).

So, the week in SF was week 7 of training - that week I did 50 minutes cross training (hill program walking on treadmill) on Sunday, 25 mins of Precor and weights on Monday, 4.5 miles running on Tuesday, 3 miles hill work on Wednesday, 4.5 miles on Thursday, took Friday as a rest day to fly back, and then 4 mile taper run on Saturday.

Week 8 of training had me taking Sunday as a rest day (not planned), 50 minutes cross training on the precor on Monday, Tues and Wed as rest days (sick), 1.92 miles on Thurs (supposed to be 4.5), and rest day on Friday (still trying to recover). This was a shit week. However, it's my only shit week, and as long as I can finish my workout today, I'll feel okay about it. I'm still feeling confident about the half, and now that I feel completely recovered, I'll be back working out full-force starting today.

Hope everyone is doing well, and GO CATS GO!

--K