Happy Thanksgiving and updates!

Hello! It’s been a little while I blogged so here is a quick update from my end —

img_6248I ran the Race to Deliver 4 Miler in Central Park with my friend, Toni last weekend. It was nice to run in Central Park again and the fall trees looked amazing. I really miss running in Central Park. I also really miss running in races.

I have also been experimenting with different running and cross training schedules as I have been building my Los Angeles marathon training plan. Training starts tomorrow – 16 weeks to go! Ahh! More to come on my training strategy as I finalize the details. I enjoyed an early morning 5:45AM spin class at Prime Cycle last week. I miss spin classes and how bad I am at them! But it’s definitely a great workout. I also attended a couple of Wet Barre (Cardio!) classes. Planks, burpees, and mountain climbers, how I love to hate you. And in attempting to break into the routine of running in the morning, I ran on the treadmill a couple of mornings and did a hill workout with the Elysianettes running group one day. I am hoping to attend a couple of runs a week with the group. This coming week will certainly be an experiment with getting up early consistently to get the workouts in and I will be sure to update you on how it all goes.

img_6271This year I started Black Friday shopping even earlier. I love going to the stores on Black Friday but didn’t make it out. However, I did start shopping since the Monday before the holiday – I love me a good sale. My favorites this year include Gap’s 50% off, Athleta’s 20%, J. Crew’s 40%, Madewell’s 25%, Nordstrom’s 20% off sale, Brooks free socks and sale on the Launch 3 and Amazon’s select sale items. Many of these sales end tonight, so hurry and take advantage!

img_6281And finally, we had a great Thanksgiving. We enjoyed an amazing holiday weekend with family and friends and a lot of yummy food. For Thanksgiving dinner, my contribution was stuffing (Josh’s family recipe), cranberry sauce, and apple dumpling cake. And if you wanted to try the recipes, I half the amount of sugar used in both. There is a lot to be thankful for this year and it was fun celebrating Charlotte’s first Thanksgiving. I know there will be even more fun to come in future years.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and weekend! 

NYC Marathon Weekend

img_6183It’s 51 weeks until next year’s NYC Marathon! With my cancelled entry for this year, hopefully I will be toeing the start line on November 5, 2017.

img_6179It was weird to not be carb loading on Saturday night at the team pasta dinner. Instead we went out to an early birthday dinner at Halifax and ate a lot of seafood (a must try if you’re in Hoboken). Even though I was not running the race, we still participated in the festivities. For the last 8 years, there was only one year that I was not out spectating or running the race and it was because of a wedding. This year I ran the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K and on marathon Sunday, Josh, Charlotte and I went out to cheer on all the runners. Before we went out to the city, it was fun to watch the pre-race coverage and the elites finish their face. It was awesome to watch Molly Huddle finish in 3rd place in her marathon debut!

img_6195Josh and Charlotte spectated for a bit right before mile 26 on Central Park South and I went up to 130th and 5th Avenue, around mile 21.5, to meet up with a friend and run the last 4 or so miles with one of my cousins. Before he arrived, I was able to cheer on a couple of friends and another cousin (I have a big family and many runners in it!). The weather was gorgeous albeit maybe a bit too sunny for the runners but great weather for the spectators.

I had coached my cousin on his first marathon and was glad that I was able to help pace him for some of the hardest miles of the race — 5th Avenue hill and the last couple of miles through Central Park. It was extremely exciting to hear the roar of the crowds and amazing support for all the runners.

The NYC Marathon is an experience for runners and spectators and not to be missed if you are local or coming into the area on the first Sunday of November! Congratulations to all the runners again on an amazing accomplishment!