I gave that Goat a Smackdown!

Okay, I'm back to my happy post-race self, and I have a great reason to be, I got a smoking PR in my race!

This race is a perfect example of having a plan, and executing it to success.  I ran the Mountain Goat 10 miler last year, on a day that was very hot and humid, weather that Syracuse was not ready for.  I had a tough race mentally, and I really debated on running it again, but by the time April came around, I was ready to redeem myself. 

My work started over the winter, I was stuck at a 10 minute mile pace, but between the speed work I did on my treadmill, and at Saturday morning training runs around hilly parts of the city, I managed to knock it down to between a 9:15 - 9:30 pace.  I ran the Shamrock Run 4 miler, where I got a one minute PR.  That's all I needed to feel great mentally, so I was ready to take on the Goat again.

The night before the race I ate smart, a bit of salad, along with one of my favorite pastas, made with artichokes, feta, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, and a bit of chicken.  Race day, I had my standard pre-run breakfast of coffee, toast with peanut butter, and a banana.  I guzzled some nuun, and water, and was ready to go!

My plan was to follow what I did on my last long 9:33 mile run.  Not not take in too much water the first five miles, have a gel at mile six, stay strong on all the hills, and go all out the last two miles.  I debated about what to wear, I wanted to wear not only my compression socks, but my shorts as well, my hamstring has healed, but I've been giving it a workout, so to be safe I wanted to wear the shorts.

Sunday was beautiful, cloudy, but it warmed up quickly to the low sixties.  I rode to the race with Norine, Heather, and Manal, and then we met up with our friends Natalie and Debbie.  My sis in law Jeannine was sorely missed, she had done all the training with us, but had a prior commitment race day, so it was a bummer that she couldn't run.

I kept running into friends, and chatted the time away on porta potty lines, and I got a final pep talk from my friend Kelly.  I was a little worried that my clothing choices were going to be too warm, I topped my black shorts with my Run EMZ shirt, a look that I knew the Black Knight would approve of.

I was so ready to get moving.  My plan was to stay around a 9:30 pace, and try and go as quickly as I could on the hills.  I had a water bottle with me, since they ran out of water last year and I wanted to be sure to have some on hand.  No ipod, but I had a chocolate mint GU.  Which I have to say, I love GU, I started using it last summer while marathon training, and it has never given me issues.  The folks at GU were kind enough to send me a bunch of flavors last fall, when I told them I couldn't find chocolate mint in my local stores, and it's now my favorite flavor.

Anyway.  The race started, and I immediately lost everyone, but I wasn't surprised.  We hit the first group of hills about a mile and a half in, I sailed right up, up, up, and over.  Another nice stretch, it was perfect weather for a run, and warm enough that I started sipping from my water long before I planned to.  At mile five, hammy surprisingly got a little tight, and I knew killer hilly Colvin Street was coming up, so I stopped at the side for maybe 15 seconds to stretch it, then got moving again.  Sucked down my GU, put my head down, and tackled the monster....it was one of those "am I running or walking?" situations. After I got through that, I came to mile seven, the point last year where I had my mental meltdown.  I was determined to get through it, but it was hard for me again, it was so quiet, I tried chatting with some runners, but everyone was too focused to talk. 

One last hill around mile 8, and it was a doozy, a short climb, but very steep.  I looked at G-unit, it read 1:19, I knew at this point I was going to get a PR, even if I slowed down, so I did, and walked to the top.  The rest of the course was smooth sailing, I knew the worst was behind me, but I was tired.  Then I realized I was running behind the basketball runner, this guy runs the race while dribbling a basketball, and has been doing it for the past 21 years!

I turned the corner and saw the finish line, I've said it before, but I hate knowing the finish line is in sight, it's that whole it's so close yet so far kind of thing. I looked for Mike and the kids, but didn't see them, but I did hear someone call my name, and it was Kelly, jumping up and down.  She later told me I looked really strong, which compared to last year, is Huge.

When I saw the time clock, and looked back down at G-Unit, I knew I had pulled off over an EIGHT minute PR, my official time was 1:40:25.  WHOO HOO!

Redemption is sweet.

Caught up with everyone, had some beers.....then, Heather (my Biggest Loser competitor), who pulled off a 5 minute PR, found out she got a silver medal, for completing the course in under 1:20!!!

You Go Girl!

I'm in a great place mentally.  My plan now is to take it easy this week, then I need to start my triathlon training, for my Sprint on August 8.  Then I'll take another short break, before I start training.....for the NYC Marathon!

Can you see my happy dance?

: )

Finally.

I was all set to write my race recap, until I turned on the television. 

And now I'm sitting here, very emotional over the news that Osama Bin Laden is finally gone from the earth.

Living in NY during the days and years after 9/11, and seeing so much pain, I hope that the families of those who were lost that day, and those of the more than 6,000 US and Allied service members killed since 9/11, can find some peace.  

April Showers Bring May Races

There is still something in the air.  Everyone I know keeps having annoying things happen to them.  Last week I took the kids to the movies to see Hop, which was cute, but while we were in the theater someone broke into my Jeep and stole the DVD player and some of E's favorite flicks.  I hid the player under the seat, and I could have sworn I locked it, but we were running late, and maybe in my rush to buy tickets I didn't hit the lock button on my keys hard enough.  We've also had some nasty thunderstorms, and Wednesday night I saw that the basement ceiling was leaking, right above the treadmill! The carpet was soaked underneath, I have yet to plug it back in to see if it's okay or not.

But on the other hand, I've had some funny Molly moments.  Like when a guy at a recent training run asked me what time it was, and I told him it was 9:30, a.m..  You know, in case he thought it was nighttime.  Another morning I came downstairs after my shower, with just my bra and jeans on, since the shirt I wanted to wear was in the dryer.  I went by my desk and saw I had an email, so I stopped to read it, forgetting that my desk chair is in front of the window.  When I was done, I stood up, and the door bell rang.  So I'm sure the National Grid Dude enjoyed the view while he had it.

Sunday May 1st is Race Day, and I'm ready.  But the weather is going to be exactly the way I hoped it wouldn't be, with a low of 48 and a high of 74.  Just like last year, it will go from winter to summer over night, and since the race starts late, at 10:15, I'm sure it's going to be warm.  I ran six miles on Wednesday, and it was in the seventies, and it was a hard run, I was a sweaty mess when I was finished, I'm obviously still conditioned for winter temps. This morning I did a quick 3 that went great, probably because it was 50 degrees and cloudy.  But whatever the case, I'm ready to tackle 10 miles of hills, and I'm hoping for a decent PR. 

Now onto other important matters.....I woke up this morning at 5:45 and turned on the television.  I timed it perfectly, Kate was just leaving her hotel for the Royal Wedding.  I thought she looked perfect.  Granted, there is a lot of tragedy and despair going on in the world right now, but when you have a moment to escape into a true fairytale of happiness, I say go for it. 

Have a lovely weekend, and good luck to everyone racing.

: )

W.I.N. (weigh in wednesday)

This is what I look like this morning: 

I haven't showered yet, or put my contacts in since I'm going for a run this morning, but most of the time, it's a basic shirt, jeans or my favorite sweats. 

I weighed myself this morning, no change from last week, I'm surprised I haven't gained.  My activity level went down drastically, I've neglected my food diary, and I've had chocolate every day since Easter.  This is typical me, I have a couple of weeks of good behavior, then I start to slack off.  I've got to get back on track, especially since I have my 10 mile race on Sunday.

But on a positive note, I saw my friend Kelly the other day, and she said she could tell I've lost weight.  It's always nice when you hear something like that, especially from a friend because you know they're telling the truth.  And on Easter, I wore a pair of dress pants from my pre-baby days, which gave me another boost.

Here is the factoid for this week, from the May issue of InStyle Magazine:

"If you down too much liquid with meals, it dilutes your gastric juices, slowing digestion and causing bloating.  Wait 30 minutes after eating to imbibe."

Hope the scale was good to you this week!

Monday Procrastinating

I seriously considered crawling back into bed this morning after getting the kids off to school.  I even waited to have coffee so that I could fall right back to sleep.  But then I looked at my pigsty of a house, the laundry alone is going to take all morning, and it looks like Easter threw up all over my kitchen, so I realized I couldn't pull it off.

So instead, I read blogs for an hour. : )


I received some fun things in the mail recently, like this from Miss Zippy:

Not sure if you can see the un-eaten waffle on a plate in the background, and crumbs and legos on the table. Told you my kitchen is a pigsty. Anyway, I won the cool water bottle because I have an ugly running shirt, between the grey color and font, it looks circa 1974.

I also received a canvas from Megan at Easy Canvas Prints.  I'm really happy with how it came out, I went to their site, and uploaded one of my favorite photos of Luke and Eliza when they were little. My friend James Bass The Photographer took it, and I used it for a Christmas card. The whole process was easy, and took five minutes.  They turned the photo into a 16" x 20" color canvas, and it was cool how the image wraps around the edges of the canvas.  So far I have it hanging over the fireplace in the family room, which some of you may remember from the Great Television Debate.

Even my mantle is messy, with Littlest Pet Shop toys hanging from the nails that we use to hang Christmas Stockings.  And I don't know why that Post-It Note is hanging there.

Another shot:

This is how my kids look now, all cleaned up for Easter Sunday.  Although I forgot to buy them dress shoes this year.  And Luke doesn't go anywhere without a Lego in his hand.

Not happy with the quality of photos in this post, but you'll be happy to know I picked out my new camera and I'm buying it this afternoon. 

I'm going to try and run three miles tomorrow, my foot is feeling much better, so I'm going to take it for a test drive.  I'm feeling rather sloth-ish, so I'm taking Frank for a long walk after I post this.  He's been a P.I.A since I got back from my sister Meagen's house, he's into everything, I think he's pissed off that we left him for a few days. 

Some of you guys asked how my sister Ali is doing, she's much better, I got to spend time with her last week.  Thank you for asking : )

Is anyone else looking forward to William & Kate's Royal Wedding on Friday?! I'll admit it, I can't wait, mostly to see what her dress looks like.  I have the DVR set to record it, but if I "happen" to wake up at 4 a.m. Friday, I'm going to turn on the television.  I got up for Princesses Diana's wedding, so we'll see what happens.

My Mega Giveaway to benefit The Children's Tumor Foundation is coming together nicely, there are some great things in it, I'm hoping to post it next week.

Okay, enough wasting time.

Happy Monday : )

If it's not PF, it's the hamstring. Or the foot.

I have a confession to make, I haven't run since last Saturday. 

When I was walking Frank last week, I stepped off the edge of the path in a weird way, and did something to my right foot.  I iced it that night, and if felt okay during my long run Saturday, which was the last one I planned on doing on the Mountain Goat race course. 

Friday night Mike got home early, the kids were out playing, and we had a quiet minute alone, so he had a beer and I had a glass of wine.  Which turned into another glass of wine while I was cooking. Then one more with dinner. I got into bed early, but I woke up during the night to Mike's snoring, and I was awake for a couple of hours. When the alarm went off I seriously considered turning it off and skipping the run, but my friend Norine was picking me up, so I had to go.

I was tired when we were in the car, but perked up when we got to the start, nothing like running a non-race with 800 other people.  We got a lecture about following the rules of the road, and the fact that ipod's aren't allowed.  The roads are not closed for these runs, and I guess some people are acting like they are, so it's been causing a huge problem for the city. 

So we're off running, and my foot felt okay, it behaved on all the challenging stretches of hills, and I ended up with 9.33 miles in 1:31.  Iced it after I got home, and it was all good.

But now almost a week later, my foot is kind of bugging me.  I'm sure the two 4 hour drives I did this week didn't help anything, but I'm a little scared to run.  I was going to do six today, but now I might just rest another day or two.  Why is it that things flare up a week before a race?!?!  Seriously, why?

At any rate, I'm looking forward to the weekend.  Now that Lent is almost over and I can have chocolate again, I'm making my friend Jennifer's salted caramel brownies for Easter Sunday.  We've got an Easter Party for the kids, then an evening of dyeing eggs, and putting Peeps in the microwave. Have you ever done that? It's hilarious.

Happy Easter.

Feather Head

I got home just a little while ago after spending a few days at my sister's house in Westchester.......I wanted to get a quick post in since it's Weigh In Wednesday! 


But first, as per many requests, here is a photo of the feather extensions I have in my hair:

I took this photo while I was in the car with the kids, waiting for it to stop raining, which made my hair a bit frizzy.  There is one thin dark red one, and two thin black and white ones....if I tuck them behind my ear, you can't really see them, I think they're funky : )

On to the weigh in results.....this week I dropped the pound I gained the week prior, I really upped my efforts, so I'm glad that the scale moved in the right direction.  Although the other night at my sister's house, I had a scoop of ice cream, and my brother in law joked that he was going to take a picture of me cheating on my diet and post it to my blog.  I'm back to a total loss of five pounds, with just a few more weeks to drop another five, so we'll see what happens.

In honor of Easter, here are the calorie counts* of some of our favorite Easter treats:

5 Peeps = 150 cal
25 jellybeans = 150 cal
1 Cadbury Creme Egg = 170 cal
1 large 7 ouce chocolate bunnt = 1050 calories

GHA!!

I hope everyone had a successful week, now I'm off to catch up on everyone's blogs!!!


*souce: About.com