NOLA Celeb sighting

Oh yea, Spike Lee was on our flight from New Orleans to New York.  Looks just like he does on TV.

New Orleans weekend

I went to New Orleans for the first time this weekend!  It was really great!  One place of of my list of places to go.  I went to run the Rock n Roll Mardi Gras Half Marathon with my friend Marissa (she ran the full!), her brother, sister-in-law and some other friends.

The trip did not get off to the best of starts - anyone in the NYC area will remember there was a blizzard that left about 16" of snow on Thursday and Friday.  My flight was scheduled to leave on Saturday morning...but of course if got cancelled Friday afternoon.  After some dealing with Delta, I was able to get on a different flight that eventually got me to NOLA (via Atlanta).  Unfortunately, this meant I missed the race expo, but was still able to get my race number on Sunday morning.  It did mean however, I missed all the race gear to buy!  We all know I love my race gear, so this was probably a good thing. 

The race was Sunday morning and went really well!  I set a half marathon PR - 1:51:22 (an 8:30 per mile pace!).  I was very pleased with it!  Marissa also set a PR in her marathon - 4:12:00.  Great job Marissa!  The course was really nice - for someone who has never been to New Orleans, I thought it gave me a great overview of the city.  We ran down St. Charles Ave (and there were still beads everywhere from the actual Mardi Gras).  We also ran through some of the French Quarter and City Park.  It was very pretty and very flat.  Some races call themselves "flat" and definitely aren't, but this one was definitely flat. 

We had some great food while there - lots of gumbo, po' boys, oysters, shrimp, etc.  It was all very delicious!  I also had some beignots from Cafe du Monde.  The line was semi long, but worth it in my opinion.  They were just as good as I imagined (and made for some pretty delicious hangover food on Monday morning).

Sunday night (after a delicious dinner at Bacco), Marissa, Landon and I went to Bourbon St.  It was crazy!  I still can't get over that there are no open container laws (yep, everyone just drinks in the open and in the street).  Being a first timer in NOLA, Marissa insisted I had to have a Hurrican from Pat O'Briens and a Hand Granade.  They were both pretty dangerous, but delicious. 

Overall, a great time!  Can't wait to go back in May for Marissa and Landon's wedding!

Currently reading...

So I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't getting anywhere with Fever Pitch.  Despite liking soccer, I just can't get into it.  So instead, I started reading, "A Year in the World" by Frances Mayes.  She also wrote "Under the Tuscan Sun".  While I haven't read that yet, the movie is one of my absolute favorites!  Which is probably why I haven't read the book - don't want it to ruin my love of the movie (yes, it works in reverse). 

I am about 2/3rds of the way into A Year in the World and so far, I am enjoying it.  It took a little to get into, but now that I have I am loving it.  It's all about trips that Mayes and her husband are taking around the world.  Where they stayed, what they ate, who they visited, why they went there.  It's pretty interesting and has totally added some places to my (ever growing) list of places to visit.

Hope for Haiti Now

I bought the Hope for Haiti Now album on iTunes (the performances from the telecast) last week.  Not only does all the money go to a great cause, but it's actually a great album.  If you have some time/cash, you should definitely download it.

New discovery

So I just discovered (courtesy of my friend Anne), that you can borrow CD's from the library for free (at least here in New York).  This is very exciting to me.  I love music, but can not afford to buy everything I want.  This way, I can borrrow them for free, import them to my iTunes and return them.  All for zero dollars. 

It's the little things in life.

I. want. one.

Why does Apple always make the coolest stuff?

www.apple.com/ipad

It looks awesome.  I totally want one.  And, in all honesty, it's not that expensive (compared to how expensive it could be).  I've been wanting a Kindle/Nook for a while, so maybe I'll just wait a couple of months 'til Apple works out the kinks and then get this one.

Currently reading...

I enjoy reading, I really do.  Right now, I'm in the middle of "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby (yes, the book the movie "Fever Pitch" starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore is based off of; and in the book it's about soccer, not baseball.  Anyways, off topic...).  I started it in November.  I'm enjoying it, I am, but while I enjoy reading, I find that something always seems to distract me.  Right now, it's the first 5 seasons of LOST, which I am trying to re-watch before the premier on Feb. 2nd.  I've seen them all before, but re-watching them has been fascinating.  I'm on season 5, so I'm pretty confident I'll be finished by next Tuesday.

Then, I can go back to reading my book.

really bad blogger...

So, it's kind of ironic that in my last post, I commented that I was a bad blogger and hadn't posted in a while.  Well...now it's been almost 1.5 years since I posted.  Whoops.  Rather then re-hash what has happened in the last 1.5 years, I'm just going to start fresh.  New Year, New Blog.

So, in that spirit, this blog will no longer be about running and training for a marathon, but about everything.  Running is a given, but also about random thoughts, travel, food, celeb sightings, things going on in the city, daily adventures...basically whatever comes into my mind. 

Enjoy!

So its been a while....

Yea, so I'm a bad blogger. And apparently people actually read this (I'm serious - who knew?). And I'm sorry to the people who I told I would update this a while ago. Clearly, I did not. Oops. So to make up for that, this will be a longer then usual post (I'll try to re-cap what I can from the last 2 weeks).

The official pictures from the Philly Tri are up! Check them out at the link below:

http://www.asiorders.com/view_event.asp?EVENTID=32064

My bib number was 629. There are some pictures that are not me (not sure how they ended up in there), but the rest look pretty good.

I did my first long ride over the GW Bridge on the 28th. Meet the team in the park and then headed up. We rode over the bridge and along 9W to Piermont and back. Did a total of 48 miles, my longest ride to date. I felt good during the ride, but I am sooo not a fan of riding over the GW. I've run over it before and was fine with that, but riding over it was whole different experience. I kept having visions of me falling of the bridge. But, I took it slow and made it out and back. And hopefully the next time I do it, it won't be so terrifying.

That Sunday (6/29), I did a long run with the team, which went well despite it being ungodly hot out. I also went for a short, easy swim.

Monday's are rapidly becoming one of my favorite days of the week since they tend to be recovery days. I did some stretching and used the foam roller (I am still pretty inflexible/tight despite all my efforts).

Tuesday was our speed workout. We did a tempo run that mimicked the course of the NYC Triathlon (which is next weekend). I'm not doing the tri this year because of a family wedding, but it is good practice since I am planning on doing it next year.

The rest of the week I did strength training, 2 rides, a brick, and lots of swimming. I felt like I was becoming a fish by the end of the week. I also did a long-ish run on Sunday morning. As it was the 4th, I was able to be lazy and catch up on my sleep (well, some of the days I did). Monday (7/7) was another recovery day.

This week has been a lower volume week, but the intensity has definitely been higher. Tuesday night I did a 30-minute time trial. Wednesday I did a strength workout. Thursday morning I did a ride in the park. I had a really good ride - felt really comfortable and strong on the bike. I can finally feel the strength workout paying off - Harlem Hill was easier to do then usual.

Today I am doing a time trial in the pool, tomorrow one on the bike and Sunday another running time trial.

Another Philly pic

Here's another pic from the Terrier Team dinner at Philly:



Me, Shannon, Jen and Robert (Terrier Head Coach)