Nurse on the Run

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It’s tradition for me to send my dad a picture of whenever I’m at a new ballpark, and last week when I was at Yankee Stadium with fabulous seats (thanks, Jason!), I had to send him a picture.  To which they first said, “Wait, is that Jeter?  He’s right there!”  Why yes, yes he is.  The next thing my dad said was, “People here have been asking what you do since you seem to be having a lot of fun.”

Okay, it may seem like I don’t work sometimes (who goes to a baseball game at 1pm on a Wednesday??), but I promise I get my fair share of work in.  It’s just not your normal 9-5-ish schedule.

That being said, I actually have two weeks off from work due to a nicely finagled schedule, so I really don’t work right now…and I get paid for it!  So really, I have been having a lot of fun.    Let’s catch up on it!

i love me some cupcakes

Thursday was my first official day off from work, so I started it off right…with a run!  My legs still seemed to be dragging a little bit from the four nights that I worked, so I headed out for an easy six.  Totally allowed since I’m tapering!  Legs felt a little dead, but I took it easy and the pace usually surprises me…and it did again!  I guess eight minute miles isn’t so bad!

Thursday, September 22
6.16 miles in 49:40, avg pace of 8:04

Since these two weeks are like a mini vacation, I wanted to take advantage of some of the stuff in the city that I always want to do, but for some reason never schedule.  Urban Girl Squad tweeted that they had spots open for their cupcake class at Butter Lane in the East Village, so I signed up!  I’m pretty sure I have plenty of experience in making cupcakes, but it’s a popular class and would be fun to go to (and meet new people?), so away I went.  I tend to be too quiet to come out with new friends, plus a lot of people go to these events with a friend already, but I still had a great time making delicious (no, really!) cupcakes…and we got to bring some home…win!

Frosting away!

To the NYC ladies…definitely check out Urban Girl Squad, they have tons of fun events!  I went to a beer tasting with them and it was fabulous.

the last workout

I don’t really want to write about this because it might put me into freak out mode, but my marathon (Twin Cities!) is in six days.  That meant that last week I did my last speed workout before the marathon!  Since I think that it’s best to have your last round of speed work involve race pace for the race that you’re running (so your legs KNOW what that pace will be!), I set out for four miles at marathon pace.

Like other times I’ve attempted to do this…major fail.  I really think I just need to head to a track, know what my 200 splits should be and make myself run them.  Maybe next time around, but in the meantime, I still have no idea what marathon pace feels like.  7:25?  What’s that?  How about 7:19?  Or better yet, 7:06?  I wish.  That’s a good way to go out fast and crash…not exactly my race plan!

Anyway, I blame it on the fact that Central Park is kind of hilly, so I try to keep a good pace up the hills, and then the same effort on the down hills actually means I’m going a lot faster.  At least, this is how I’ve rationalized it to myself.  Either way, I shouldn’t run the marathon like this.

Friday, September 23
6.45 miles in 47:48, avg pace of 7:25
Mile splits:  7:18, 7:18, 7:11, 7:06
Oops?

I promise these felt awesome, and I definitely didn’t think the last one was at 7:06.  I have no sense of pace, if you couldn’t tell…

After my workout, I headed to Gracie Mews Diner to have a goodbye brunch with the lovely Christine, who has headed back up to Boston.  I’m going to miss my neighbor, but I can’t wait to hear about her running and life up in Beantown…after she rocks the Chicago Marathon, of course!  We had a typical runner breakfast filled with pancakes (carbs!), eggs, and sausage…plus fabulous conversation about the skinny arm and marathons.  Come back, Christine!

Well…she kind of did.  We faced the rain on Friday night and headed to MXCO, a Mexican restaurant in our beloved Upper East Side for some margaritas and more runner fun.  Shannon, Lindsay, and Christine came out to sample the Mexican delights…which featured cactus!  It was on the menu so we had to try it!

 Gatsby with cactus and a marg!

Verdict?  Cactus doesn’t really taste like anything, but the sauce on top was delicious!

As this was Christine LAST night in NYC (tear!), we sent her off by buying her a “Boston inspired” drink…the bartender had to look it up, but it was a Boston Cream Pie drink…she said it was tasty so we’ll take it!

We’ll miss you!!  But see you soon in NYC, Boston, and DC!

Cactus with Shannon!

Gatsby is a celebrity.

Definitely an awesome Friday with friends. 

onto the weekend!

Saturday was kind of like my perfect day.  Let’s check it out:

My plan was to do an easy four mile run just to shake out the legs…for the record, it’s been a long time since I ran (only…) four miles.  I always think that these runs should go by super quick, but they drag on because I think they should be over so fast!  Plus, it’s humidity city in NYC right now, so I was drenched by the time I reached the end of my block.  Gah.

About a mile away from my apartment, I saw familiar shorts coming toward me and realized it was Betsy!  Hooray!  She was on the East River adding some mileage to her run, so I ran north with her a bit before heading back south to head home…made for a great ending to my four mile run, and I love that I can randomly see my friends out on the streets on a Saturday morning!

Saturday, September 24
4.39 miles in 36:13, avg pace of 8:15

After I showered (and still kept sweating…), I headed over to Fifth Ave to watch the Fifth Ave Mile!  I wanted to run it this year, but I’m way too paranoid and didn’t want to risk somehow injuring myself a week before the marathon…so a spectator I was.  I love watching this race because some people run SO FAST, and I’m super inspired by the 70 year olds who can runs a six minute mile.  I hope to be you one day.

Plus, the elites are pretty cool:

Lead changes in the last 200 meters!

Jenny Simpson won!

Lagat won for the men…he’s such a fan man!

Next year I’ll make my way back down Fifth Ave…everyone in NYC should run it, it’s such a fun race!

You know what’s not fun?  Maryland losing 38-0 against Temple.  I found the game online on the ACC Network, and those are two hours of my life that I will never get back.  At least I like football…but yikes, Terps, yikes.

What made that better?

Balls.

That’s right friends, we had balls on Saturday night.  And made lots of “hee hee, we’re in junior high!” jokes about balls.  It was fabulous.  I’d heard about the Meatball Shop pretty much since the first day I lived in NYC, so when Lindsay suggested we head there for dinner on Saturday night, I was definitely in!  I’ve tried to go there before, but with a two hour wait I never stayed.  We headed there on (what we thought was…) the earlier side (6pm?) and ended up with a 45 minute wait, which was totally worth it since we nabbed an outside table on what turned out to be a pretty fabulous evening despite the multiple threats of rain.

The idea behind the Meatball Shop is pretty simple…multiple different ways to eat meatballs!  You can have them naked, smashed, or on a sandwich.  I went for the slider version, as it allowed you to sample the most options.  “You can’t pick one ball without trying them all!”  Win.  I met up with Lindsay, Kelly, Shannon, and Shannon’s sister, and we spent way too long pouring over the menu before picking our balls for the evening.

My combos!

And in real life…with Gatsby, a beer, and a side of the best carrots I’ve ever had.

I’m pretty sure my favorite was the “special,” which was a buffalo chicken meatball with a bleu cheese sauce…I have a special place in my heart for anything that resembles buffalo chicken, so it definitely hit the spot!

On our bus ride down to the Lower East Side, Kelly told me that not only do they have balls, but they also have ice cream sandwiches.  Where you pick your cookies and ice cream.  Um, died and gone to heaven?  Yes, I think so.

Gatsby shared…he’s so polite.

Ah, definitely worth the wait, especially with such good company.  I definitely recommend the Meatball Shop and let me know if you ever want me to come with you…I’m in for balls anytime. 

sunday funday

Because the best days always include a run, I started off with my last “long” run of this marathon training cycle…a crazy eight miles!!  I know, I know, I should hold myself back more.    Anyway, I headed over to Central Park to try and catch some people who were running the 18 mile tune up run, so I ran the opposite direction of everyone and my miles flew by as I was distracted scanning the crowds for runners I knew!  I missed Lindsay, but I was spotted by Joe and a nurse I work with, so that was cool.  Props to everyone for doing three loops of the park, I was pretty content with just one…

Sunday, September 25
8.2 miles in 1:04:25, avg pace of 7:51

And just like that, I’m in full on taper mode.  Yikes!!  More about that in another post, but the rest of the day was filled with exactly how Sundays should be filled…football!!  I headed to Rosa Mexicano to meet up with Baker and Abbe to watch the Giants/Eagles game…we were shortly joined by Elyssa, who crushed the 1:40 mark on her half on Sunday morning!  Win win win.

You know who did not win win win?  My Bears.  Versus the Packers.  Most painful game in the world to watch…it looked more like a death march than anything else.  Such a sad weekend in land of Susan’s football teams…they need to get it together.  I don’t really want to talk about it.

Elyssa and I did remedy the situation by introducing her to 16 Handles, which she had never been to before…froyo is like dinner, right?  Just agree with me on that one.  All is right with the world now that she has met the glory of froyo.

And then…I went to bed at 10pm.  Because having fun is tiring!

Thanks for reading my novel!  What was the best part of your weekend?  Any NYC recommendations for my staycation this week??