Lovin' Life! :):)

As I sit here updating my blog, I'm at an incredibly beautiful house in Southampton enjoying some delicious coffee and sitting on the patio looking at the gorgeous property. If I had one wish it would be to have my handsome loves here with me and I know they would LOVE to be running around with Caroline's dog Bomber. The beach, which they love, is also only about 200 meters away. Howard Stern lives next door so I'm hoping I see him out running or something, haha :) I'm very grateful to be here relaxing, eating exquisite food and just looking at all the beautiful houses while I stroll on the beach...I'm lovin' life right now ;)

Yesterday I raced the Bronx Half Marathon and it went pretty well. I realized before the race that the last time I ran 13 miles was back in April!!, and that was for the More Fitness Women's Half Marathon in Central Park. The night before the race I only slept about 2 hours (seriously) because I had to be up at 3:45 to catch the bus and then the subway to get from Queens where I was staying, up to the Bronx. I went to bed pretty late and then kept thinking of things I needed to look up on my computer or little worries in general. Race morning I woke up, got everything together with mom and Samantha and then we headed out with all of our stuff (we brought our bags for the Hamptons with us to the race, lol). I got my coffee from Dunkin and we made it to the race safe and sound with about 30 minutes for me to warm up, etc.

I started the race running high 5:40's and then slowed to low 5:50's and then according to my Garmin averaged 5:57 pace for 13.25 miles (course must've been a bit long or I didn't run the tangents perfectly:) ). My body never got into extreme oxygen debt and I felt like I was doing a comfortably hard tempo run, so my final time of 1:18:47 was fine. Not fantastic but fine for my first 13 miler :) I didn't know the course record was 1:18:27 though, so of course my competitive self got annoyed that I was close and could've pushed harder to try and get it, haha

Overall though, I couldn't believe the support from the crowd, volunteers, police officers, and other runners!! during the race. I really enjoyed being able to see thousands of fellow racers going the opposite direction and they were cheering and saying such encouraging things to me. It was very nice and I couldn't have run up some of the hills as fast as I did without them screaming. The course had a ton of long gradual uphills so it was a pretty challenging race; perfect for getting ready for the NYC marathon!

Anyway, training has been going well and last week I hit a little over 60 miles. This week I'll run around 65-67, with a 5k race in Harlem on Saturday. I'm looking forward to something short and fast! I have done my core and strength routine a couple times since getting to NY last Wed, so my goal is to keep it up and do it at least 3 times per week. If I can do that I'll be happy.

I cannot believe the marathon is only 12 weeks away!! It's going to be here before I know it and it seems like just yesterday my countdown said 16 weeks. It's time to seriously get down to business and make bigger sacrifices. I haven't had an alcoholic drink since Cabo and I've decided that I won't drink again until after the marathon...so hmmm around noon on November 7th..Mimosas, Margaritas, Beer...Bring it on!! haha :) I've always believed that runners and athletes can definitely have balance in their life, in moderation of course and it won't hurt to have a drink every now and then. For me though, with this marathon, I want my training and everything going into it to be harder. I want more suffering, more sweat, more tears and more sacrifices than ever before. When I look back on my training even as far as high school and my best seasons in college, the times I sacrificed the most and took things up a few notches, I had breakthroughs; plain and simple. It didn't lead to injuries or burnout because my coaches trained me smart. I've also never gotten a major injury while training myself because I've taken everything I learned from them and some other things I've read in books and applied it to my training to see what works.

I have to admit, my hardest thing to battle is my eating habits. I love sweets, pastries, cookies, ice cream and anything that tastes so yummy and isn't the greatest for a serious athlete trying to get lean! LOL...so right NOW is the time to get stricter with myself and stop allowing myself to eat it. My goal from here until the marathon is to cut it out cold-turkey. I did this in my junior year of high school track...no sweets (except fat free hard candy), no chips, no cookies, no ice cream, etc. and had an amazing breakthrough season running 10:40 for the 2 mile, 4:53 mile and 2:11 800....However this time I'm going to cut out ALL sweets, chips, junk food, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat healthy and I do a great job of not BUYING the junk food, because if it's in the house and I look at it everyday, it's very hard to resist. As long as I don't buy it I'm ok; it's not like I sit at home at night and want to go drive to buy ice cream. I know you can change your cravings for things and mine is to change my body's craving for sugar and some of the fatty fried foods I like :) THIS is going to be my biggest sacrifice for the marathon...No more gigantic Crumbs Bakery cupcakes for me while I am in NYC! :)...:(

Pic- from the race yesterday off the NYRR website...my mom took some but I don't have my camera cord with me in NYC :(

Quote for today: "To get what you've never had you must do what you've never done"