Maria *hearts* cupcakes

After a day of swimming, napping & Olympics watching we headed out to celebrate Kelly's birthday. Tasty fish tacos at Schiller's Liquor Bar provided a good foundation for dessert. And what could be a better way to celebrate a birthday than cupcakes. Right? Right!!!

Now some may call my love for everything cupcake related a bit on the obsessive side but I'm sticking with describing it as a strong & unequivocal love. We were already on the LES and around those parts, sugar Sweet sunshine is the place to go.



Lemon Yummy was the name of my cupcake, what could be better?

Rain turns to gorgeousness

Headed out to our terrace for some stretching & yoga after a recovery run of 6 miles.  The weather did a 180* from just about an hour before...

     
      

Sometimes it's not so bad living in the city.

Do I look any smarter?

Finally broke down and got myself to the eye doctor for an exam and some new specs. It's been way too long and I didn't want to end up looking too uncool in my old Holly Hobbie frames. So check 'em out -- whatcha think?

(Coldplay - Time) + (Bear Naked - Temp) = Just what I needed

Tonight's run was really a filler. I'd switched around the schedule a bit this week to get in that tempo run and while I did have a 14 miler on tap that didn't seem like the best idea looking ahead to Saturday's long run. This LR is more key than others, I want to hit it right on the head, I need to hit it right on the head. 15 miles with 12 at marathon pace. More about that later.

Decided to just run whatever felt right. I left my watch at home, put the iPod on to Coldplay's Viva la Vida album and headed for the park. The temperature had dropped a bit, the sun was on its way out of our Eastern skies and my belly was pleasantly full/not full from a late lunch of Bear Naked's Fruit & Nut granola. It was perfect.

Not too much - not too little - just right.

Arriving up at the reservoir in Central Park, I took a couple laps around - surging when it felt right and backing off when I wanted. I do love the sound of my feet hitting the cinder path, it's so consistent, so rhythmic. And the music fit right in, faster at times and slower at others.

Ended up with about 7.25 miles in ??? time - probably a bit more than an hour but I didn't really notice the time when I left.

Next time you need a pick me up, listen to the beginning of Lovers in Japan ...it's just right.

Back off kitty!

So yesterday ended up being a rest day [from running]. I used the time to do very restless types of things.

• Scrubbing the hell outta the shower and toilet
• Sweeping up what felt like piles of flippin' kitty litter
• Dusting and vacuuming ...love my Dyson!
• Folding laundry that got washed/dried on Monday
• Organizing another couple of big donation bags for Goodwill
• Performing a push-up test, how many can I do before collapsing in on myself

I wound down with some easy yoga and stretching. That is until Dillon entered the picture. The dude loves the yoga mat. I think it's the consistency of the rubber or something; whatever it is when the mat comes out Dillon goes crazy - kitty on crack kind of crazy. He wants to play, he wants to crawl right under your downward dog self, he wants to nip at your outstretched fingers and toes.

Dillon is not zen-like.

Hump Day Recap

Whoa, what a wickedly humid day out. Seems last night's showers brought a friggin' blanket of solid, sticky air. Glad today is a recovery run and not much else.

Thus far this week I've run...

Monday - 6 miles recovery (from the weekend's 20 miler). Got them in Monday evening along the bridle path in CP and around the reservoir. One of my most favorite routes. Pace was nice and relaxed, somewhere around 9:30s

Tuesday - I flipped around the schedule a bit. Pfitzinger called for 14 miles but I missed a key workout last Thursday due to J's b-day dinner outing. So I ran that last night in lieu of the 14 and will see about getting Tuesday's intended workout done on Thursday as a double (likely 10/4 or 9/5). Back to Tuesday:

• 2 miles warm-up - 8:47, 9:17
• 6 miles @tempo (15K/HMP) - 8:14, 7:17, 7:45, 7:46, 7:33, 7:43
• 2 miles cool down - 11:00 (had to walk a cramp out), 9:33

I missed my target pace for every single one of those tempo miles (7:52-7:55) but it was still a solid effort. Obviously my pacing is still awry. Last night's inconsistencies reflected the music I was listening to and the eagerness I had for this particular workout. My route was south along the Hudson down to the World Financial Center and back.

Wednesday - I'd love to get to the pool in addition to getting those 6 recovery miles done but we'll have to see about scoring a lane first.

I = Sucky Blogger

OK, so I'm not the best [yet] at this blogging business. I have lots of minutia in my head and most of it comes up in daily conversations with myself but taking the extra step to type it all out has yet to come to fruition. That will change.

One thing I can post about on a daily basis with relative ease, as I already record it in several other places, is my running. I'm currently training for revenge at the Chicago Marathon. And although the summer is not my most favorite time to run, I'm getting the job done.

Good things about summer running in NYC:

• Enjoying a light breeze on a late evening run along the Hudson River
• Catching the dance of sunlight through the tree canopy that surrounds the reservoir in Central Park
• Long training runs hosted by the NYRR
• Early morning runs across the Brooklyn Bridge ...when it provides the feeling of a high powered A/C unit & before the tourists invade!
  
• Finishing 20 miles before most of the city is awake