A lotta random

I have to say, last week flew by! I can’t believe it’s the weekend.  I am working tomorrow, so I have a lot I would like to knock off the to-do list tomorrow.  Blogging was one of the more fun things, so that was moved to the top section of the list

This post is kind of mishmash of different things that didn’t really fit into one theme.

Let’s start with something fun, Skinny Girl Margaritas. A few weeks ago, I received an email about Bethenny Frankel doing a signing of her new Skinny Girl Margarita at Astor Wines.  I happen to work a few blocks from there and it came with a free t-shirt, so I was sold.  Unfortunately, I had a few meetings I couldn’t miss at the 4PM start time.  So I enlisted Margarita Liz to help me out.  Actually she volunteered, even though she doesn’t give a hoot about Bethenny, she is just that awesome.  It ended up that my meeting ended a little early, and I rushed over just a little after 4.  There was Liz, 5th in line, with Skinny Girl Margarita in hand.  I love her.  I traded places, so she could get back to work and continued to wait wondering why we weren’t being let inside.  It was cold out!      

Apparently, Bethenny was running late, but they finally let us inside to wait.  We had to chat it up with the liquor guy. I was probably the only NYC person in the room, everyone else was from Alabama or somewhere and couldn’t stop talking about their hotels in Times Square and how much walking they had done that day.  God bless, that was me not too long ago.  Anyways, while I have not drank tequila in years, I am not sure I intend to ever again, the ingredients in the Skinnygirl Margarita could not be more natural: blue agave clear tequila and agave nectar. Oh, and it only cost like $13.

Anyways, Bethenny rushed in and Alex McCord stopped by to offer some support.  Let me just say, my mouth dropped to the floor when I say these women in person.  Skinny doesn’t begin to describe them.  They are SO RIDICULOUSLY THIN. I mean model thin and then some.  Bethenny’s waist is maybe 20 inches.  Just an observation, and no judgment, power to them.  But man, TV does add pounds.

Bethenny was exactly the same as she is on the show. Funny, sarcastic, perfectionist.  Not only that she was extremely personable and intelligent.  In just the few minutes she interacted with each person, she took the time to grab a common thread and make you feel like she was happy to meet you and appreciated your support.  I happened to mention that I grew in Saratoga, where she also spent a lot of time, and she asked me about 3 or 4 restaurants and how I ended up in the city.  The t-shirt is really cute and super soft, but I can’t imagine wearing a shirt that says skinny girl, maybe to bed.

I actually didn’t look at my bottle until days later, but somehow she even caught my name, which I thought was pretty incredible. In any case, it was an eventful way to spend my lunch hour.

New Scenes

So I tend to go to my favorite places over and over.  But this week, I actually tried some good new city bars and restaurants.  8th Street Wine Cellar. Cute, affordable, not too loud or crowded.  It would actually be great for a first date because it is on the romantic, intimate side, but not too sexy, there is a hint of masculinity.  The menu has a lot of good options, and the food was good, but not great. I had the butternut squash and goat cheese brushetta and the beet and goat cheese salad.  While Bar Jamon, which has the best beet salad in existence, is still my fav wine bar, 8th Street is a good alternative, if your not ready for super intimate.

Next up, Paladar.  A cuban place in the lower east side.  It was more spacious, than my typically cuban go-to Cafe Habana. The menu was very good and the food clean, light, spicy and delicious—I had a butternut squash and walnut salad and two tiny swordfish tacos with avocado and mango salad.  The portions were modest, which was actually nice, so you could try a few things without feeling stuffed. I am not a huge cuban fan, but definitely fun once in a while.

Finally, I ended the night at Sunita. It was shockingly empty for such a sexy little space.  I typically don’t drink martinis, but I was convinced that I had to try one. So I debated between a ginger, lime, lychee and vodka martini and a passionfruit martini and went with the passionfruit.  I also had a sip of the signature passion fruit jalapeño vodka martini. It was good, but I am not sure I would want a full glass of it! 

While we are talking city, I am kind of in love with these MUJI city in a bag kits!  So cute!

Injury update:

I had my final appointment with Dr. MetzDreamy yesterday—high fives and all.  He cleared my to run the marthon and told me it would rock my world and I would love every second.  In fact, his only concern was my lack of enthusiasm.  I am pretty sure he would run the NYC marathon every day if he could.  I guess, I need to accept that a lot of runners deal with pain and discomfort, and it is not going to kill me.  His confidence and enthusiasm was definitely beneficial.  He also suggested I get not only a pedicure (lol) , but also a MELT treatment next door to help ease the plantar’s fascilitas, but I just didn’t have the money to drop.  The appointments, bandages, insoles, etc. have been expensive, so I am going to see if I can get a golf and tennis ball to help roll the tissue out a bit.  I am nervous and sad that all the weird pain I have been feeling might take away from the experience.  But I am not looking back now, I have the option of deferring until 10/28, but I am going to hope “the course is with me.”

Tapering Update:

So my actually running schedule called for a 10-K today or 6.2 miles, which is weird since almost everyone else does 13 miles two weeks out.  I did an easy 4.3 miles over the 59th Street Bridge and down to Grand Central this morning.  I saw at least 100 Nike Town runners on the bridge, preparing for race day.  I plan to do the 10K tonight on the treadmill and push myself a bit more toward faster pacing.  I was hoping to get to a hot vinyasa class at the Yoga Room today, but I am probably going to just do a little online class to loosen up a bit.  Just couldn’t get it together for the 130 class, on the bright side, I have done laundry, sheets and pulled all my sundresses out of the closet to make room for sweaters, so I haven’t been completely unproductive, especially considering I had a glass of wine and a martini last night . 

CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK!

Have the best marathon ever CHANDRA!  We love you! And don’t forget to partake in some shenanigans along the way!

Marathon Tips to Get You to the Finish Line—Part 2

No, more like this

Part 2 of the Jack Rabbit Sports interview focused on Injury Prevention and Treatment while training. Yeah, I was pretty interested in this section!

The first thing I learned–and which I found quite interesting–were the definitions of walking, jogging and running! LOL.

• Walking is considered 2-3 MPH (15-20 min/miles)
• Jogging is considered 5-9 MPH (7-14 min/miles)
• Running is considered 10PMH (6 min/miles) or faster

I guess I am the little jogger that could. 

The most common injuries include: knee (34%) including IT Band syndrome, Postermedial Tibia (13%), Achilles Tendon (11%), Plantar Fascia (7%), Stress Fractures (6%) and everything else (29%)

The most common causes of injuries are called the “Terrible Too’s”  Don’t let this be you!

• Too Much
• Too Soon
• Too Fast
• Too Little Rest

Other things that contribute to getting or avoiding injury include:

• running surface
  • concrete-highest chock
  • asphalt-consider the slope and levelness of the torad
  • grass-unstable
  • sand-unstable
  • packed dirt-good
  • tracks
  • treadmill-good for injuries because it is much less impact than concrete
• shoes
• strength (it is proven that runners who include strength workouts in their training have less chance of injury)
• stretching (the jury is out on the effectiveness of stretching, but it sure makes your next run easier)
• structure-this is what you were born with

How to Get Back on Track

The good news all of the coaches, drs and PTs I have spoken with do not tell runners not to run or exercise when injured.  This is because they know runners won’t listen But seriously, for many injuries a doctor will not tell you not to run, they will help you modify your training. Here are a few steps to recovery:

• Rest (they didn’t mention it, but I would say ice too, and depending on the type of injury, compression and elevation, also anti-inflammatory medicine is helpful, but it is dangerous to run on ibuprofen.  8-hour Tylenol is highly recommended for runners)
• Compromise by reducing mileage, frequency, pace.  For example, instead of running 6 miles in one day, divide it into two runs
• cross train (a good spinning class is worth about 6 miles)
• stretch
• physical therapy
• my addition: a good/optimistic attitude and a great blogging community

The importance of Footwear (what girl doesn’t love foot wear?)

• Gait analysis is important-make sure your running store has it!
• 70% of people are overpronators
  • just because you have flat feet doesn’t necessarily mean you overpronate or need lots of arch support
• If using custom orthotics, use a neutral shoe, probably 1/2 size larger.
• Replace shoes every 400ish miles.
  • 75,000 miles divided by body weight is a more exact measurement of shoe life
• Shoes have a 2 year shelf life
• Get fitted for size every 12 months-feet change and grow
  • make sure to have 1/4 to 3/8 inch of space from longest toe

Here are some of the stretches he suggested:

Well, it is a gorgeous day out! I guess I am glad I am up early.  I started my day with a Polly’s Yoga for Runners video. I am going to hit the gym for an easy elliptical workout and then maybe a full yoga class.  I really don’t want to pay for a class, but I might spring for it or just do my Core Fusion or NYC Ballet Workout DVDs.  There is a free sunset yoga class from The Yoga Room on the piers tonight, but my staff is coming over for team development, so I will have to miss it.  Somehow even though it is right outside my door, I have never been able to take advantage of any of the free classes! Oh well, I am excited to have them over!

The Diagnosis

 

Hi everyone, I am so glad to be blogging tonight.  I guess after a long day and week, it’s like therapy.  I should try and rally to go to a bday party tonight, but after waking up early to get to an eight o’clock xray, then dr. appointment, then work, then happy hour, then home, well spending some time at that last destination sounds like some kind of wonderful.  Plus I have a half marathon tomorrow morning.  Edit: my fabulous roomstars just got home, so I am off to play, will finish tomorrow.  Poor darlings, it’s alumni day weekend, so they have had a long couple weeks and a long weekend ahead.

Before I launch into that…***non-runners take heart*** I am sure you are probably bored to tears lately, as I all I seem to blog about it running, but Monday my friends, I will do a whole post that doesn’t once mention the r word!  I will announce three non-running workout reviews coming up and I will talk about this great music site I found.

Okay, back to running for a post or two.  I still have the rest of my maximizing your last month before marathon series!

So as mention, I have been having a lot of pain in my foot and ankle.  I have been resting a lot, running only a few times a week, icing and taking way to much ibuprofen. But things haven’t gotten much better. 

So after two fairly unhelpful sessions with the sports medicine doctor at the NYU medical center, I decided to go to Dr. Metzl.  I met Dr. Metzl at a running clinic last weekend, and I was impressed right away.  He was named one of NYMag’s best sport medicine and running injuries doctors three years in a row and he is a 25 time marathoner and 4 time iron man.

I was thrilled to get an appointment and a referral in a week’s time.  So at 8 am I was supposed to be in his office for xray and my appointment was at 9.  I totally forgot how far over East end ave is.  OMG it is like the end of the earth!  So after jog/walking at least a mile from lex to the office, I was no longer sleepy. 

I got my xray, only briefly freaking out when she asked me to remove a toe ring that I have had on since I was 11.  I was like, that will not be happening this morning, I would need some serious strength to open it up! 

I got called into the dr’s office, and let me just say, I have a wee bit of a crush on him.  He is kind of my Dr. MetzDreamy.  And I really hope he doesn’t Google himself too often. What can I say? I am a sucker for a runner, particularly one with 7 years of advanced education under their belt.

Anyways, he came in full of life and totally enthusiastic in a way I just could not be so early in the morning.  Have you ever met someone so full of energy and effervescent that you suddenly felt really boring? That was what it was like.

So after some small talk, I mentioned I met him at the ING Cafe clinic, and he was like I remember you!  You were in the front left, wearing the boots and you asked about your foot!  (Bingo.)  I was like, I want to help her.  (Opportunity granted!)  I will say that it is funny that he mentioned my hound’s-tooth banana republic goulashes because I was a hot mess that day—more so than the runners who had just finished a rainy 18 miles.  I mean I’m a hot mess most days, it’s kind of my look,  I do it well, but that day in particular, I even out-disheveled myself.  The boots were the only tiny thread of put togetherness that could possibly be complimented in that scenario. 

Anyways, in like 5 seconds, actually 4 hops on my left foot, Dr. Metzl said that my arch was totally collapsing causing tendonitis and maybe some PF and most off my pain.  I have high arches, so I was surprised to learn I pronated so much—and only on one side.

So I (semi-reluctantly) left the doctor’s office and headed straight to Super Runners Shop as directed.  I arrived and there was a store employee washing the door window, I waved and smiled widely.  He gave me a hand motion and mouthed that the were not open.  Which, based on the scenario, was pretty obvious. However, I played dumb and made a please take pity on me face.  He bent down, unlocked the door, opened it like 1 inch, and said, “15 minutes until we open.”  I was like, “I totally understand, but I just need one quick thing, i have a note from my doctor,” which I did and held out as proof, “ please I am already late for work.”  He considered this for a moment, and still through the 2 inch space said, “you know what you need?”  I said yes, handed him the sheet with the item.  He said, “let me see if we have it in your size.”  He then closed the door, locked it and disappeared.  I waited.  He returned, unlocked the door, let me in and let me purchase my new Superfeet!  I thanked him a bunch of times.  It was pretty nice, since as someone who has worked in retail, you really don’t want to do it one minute longer than necessary. 

So I tried them on when I got to work.  OMG, my left foot felt amazing.  Like a massage with every step.  but my right foot felt like I had half a tennis ball under my foot.  I guess they will take some breaking in.  I dropped off my anti-inflammatory prescription on my lunch hour. I guess I am on the path to less painful running.

Lessons learned: there is too much of a google-thing.

I learned you really have to be careful with too much googling and self-diagnosis.  I got pretty obsessed with trying to figure out my problem and absolutely everything seemed to indicate stress fracture, tendonitis never once came up when I searched my symptoms.  This was problematic in a few ways.  One, I tried to treat it incorrectly assuming RICE was the way to heal a stress fracture, when in fact, tendonitis and plantars fasciitis require a different plan of attack. 

Secondly, it was unnecessarily psychologically stressful.  I have not been the most enjoyable person to be around lately. I have been stressed, impatient, unamused, not my normal self.  Part of that is because I had a lot of the causes and risk factors associated with stress fractures.  I added mileage pretty quickly and I have very low bone density and osteopenia.  I also suffered with anorexia for a little over three years in high school and as a result, had amenorrhea for four years until I finally restarted my period with birth control.  Fortunately, now I have zero issues having my monthly friend visit naturally.  However, I definitely started to beat myself up and get stressed about something I rarely even think about as it is something so in my past—and gratefully so, it just drudged up a time I only want to forget.  While I can’t totally deny that I might somewhere along the line have a few repercussions from that time, and I am very lucky to have escaped the mental hell and most of the physical issues as well, I didn’t put in all the mental work of recovering and gaining about 40 pounds to have this haunting me almost 10 years later.  While I have never thought my blog was a forum for eating disorder discussion, I do hope to one day find a place to write about recovery since I was so confused about it at the time and I feel I can offer some insight into at least my own journey.  Just briefly I will say it had almost nothing to do with therapy, blood testing, nutritionist visits, two hospitalizations…actually the second one was useful in that it allowed me get to a someone stable weight range, but recovering was something that I had to do for myself.  Three things really made that happen, leaving a toxic environment and going to college with a clean slate, admitting that I wanted more from my life as I was miserable in every possible capacity and had already lost several years of my life that I could never get back including countless friends, and finally, committing myself to a goal greater than being thin.  I realized that if I was lucky enough to have grandchildren, I didn’t want to tell them the only thing I accomplished was being skinny.  And all the energy I was wasting (hours upon hours a day) could be used toward something much less selfish and more rewarding.  Okay, end of that discussion.

The good and the bad

The good is that I know what my injuries are and that they are not injuries that will keep me from running the marathon!

The bad is that I don’t have very much time to adjust to the orthotics, and that I am a little behind on my training, so I will go  into the marathon knowing that I can not overdo it with visions of glory.  The other bad things is that tendinitis, collapsed arches and plantars fasciitis are chronic, which means that I will have to deal with treatment for a very long time, perhaps forever.

Sorry for no pictures, I will be back later for a Grete’s Half Marathon recap!

Answers to Running Questions

I typically email people back when they ask questions, and also try to remember to put my response in the comments if it will help others.  But I know I sometimes miss questions, so here are a few great ones that I have received a few times.  Topics: pain, injury, music, preparation the week of a race. 

 

Ouch!  My knee hurts when I run.  Do you have any tips for easing the pain and avoiding injury?

 

I have been lucky to have avoided any real injuries throughout my running experience.  This is probably due to the fact that I never over train; I typically run 3-4 times a week. I also don’t push myself to the edge for more than a short distance.

 

However, I occasionally will get a sharp knee pain right between the joints and, also occasionally, mild ankle pain.  While these are rare, I have found two things to nip the problem in the bud immediately: buying new shoes and stretching.

 

These are the four stretches I have found to be incredibly helpful for nixing pain asap.  I recommend stretching before and after.

 

1. The IT stretch where you cross your left leg behind your right and then reach over your head to the right with your left arm, hold at least 10 seconds and reverse.

 

1. The cross-legged toe touch-especially and oddly good for knee pain.

 

1. Runners lunge- lunge forward, knee at 90 degree, back leg extended, raise arms over head.

 

1. One Leg Squat Cross- cross leg over your knee at 90 degree angle, so your ankle is on your opposite knee and you lower into a squat.

Many runners that experience knee pain or have “bad knees” wear a Jumper’s Knee Strap-Patella Support.  They are only $8, a great investment. I bought one the first time I ever had knee pain, wore it once and never needed it again.  Still a worthwhile purchase.

 

*forgot to add an important one!  New shoes!  Whenever, I start feeling slight pain, it is almost always around the time I need new shoes! Replacing shoes frequently is incredibly important.  I really need to get better about wearing running shoes only for running.  It is my worst running mistake!

 

Do you have any advice for the week prior to a big race, half or full marathon?

 

My marathon coach (and the coach over thousands of successful first time marathons each year) gave me some great advice for week before and race day preparation (Sunday race):

 

 

• Wednesday do not run. If you must do something stretch….nothing else, no lifting, no yoga, no cross training, nothing. You want to conserve the energy, prevent sweating (dehydration) and make your body/mind hungry for exercise/miles.
• Thursday go for a 30 minutes easy run.
• Saturday run 20 minutes and stretch 20 mins stretching
• Starting yesterday concentrate in nutrition and hydration, especially hydration.   Drink plenty of liquids, you can/should add a sports drink per day, or add a little extra salt to your meals (this guarantees that you have a good level of electrolytes so you retain the liquids) just don’t over the hydrating.  If you have to go the bathroom every 30 minutes you are overdoing it,  if so stop hydrating for a while and resume later on.
• 60-65% of your calories should come from carbohydrates.   Remember it is not about eating more, it is about making sure most calories come from carbs, eat normal size meals. This is by far the most common nutrition advice offered by experts.
• Sunday morning you should be done with breakfast by 5:00 am (at most you can have something very light at 5:30 am).   What to have for breakfast?  Don’t try anything new, just have your usual breakfast, it should include some kind of carbs (PBJ sandwich, cereal, bagel, banana,etc. are good choices) and YES coffee is allowed ! (just keep it to one cup!)
• Continue to hydrate up to 5:30 am. After that make sure you get rid of the excess of fluids (aka   go to the bathroom as often as you can).  5-10 mins before the start have your last 6-8 oz of liquids (bring a cup/bottle of water to start line).
• Before your leave your house, ‘force’ yourself to go to the bathroom (nothing better that being in the comfort of your own house to take care of business.
• The first thing you’ll do when you meet us will be going to the bathroom, lines are going to be huge. Do not wait to the last minute to go the line.
• It’s common to have strange twitches, if your left knee usually hurts, your right knee will hurt. Suddenly your right eyelash will start cramping, it’s nerves, relax.

 

How do you find new work out music to keep your playlist fresh? 

 

I find music all over the place. I obsessive check the music section of itunes for best of store, essentials and any other cool things I see.

 

I also like to use MTV Video picks and VH1 morning jumpstart for ideas.

 

Gossip Girl and the Hills/City have great music, so check out their websites to see what great new bands are being featured in each episode.

 

z100 playlists will give you the top 40 mix.

 

Fitness Magazine has a plethora of great playlists  to suit any and every taste!

 

You can check out my sidebar (which needs to be updated) and music and playlist tags for some of my favorites.

 

I look at other bloggers playlists and I ask you guys for ideas.  That is how I found out about Girl Talk. Best.workout.music.ever.

Running thoughts through my mind

For a few months I have been going back and forth about whether I want to run the More Half Marathon on April 26th.  It would mean winter training, which is really not my cup of tea.  I also find when I have pressure to run, I enjoy it less. I am also seriously worried about getting injured before NYC.

However, after getting excited about my friend Jess’s first half marathon this weekend, I decided to sign up.  Registration is only $20 bucks and includes a year subscription to Fitness Magazine, can’t beat that with a stick. (I have never used that phrase in my life, weird.)

Anyways, I am going to try to follow the Runner’s World Run Less Run Faster 3 plus 2 plan.  However, after reviewing it, it is far too intense for me at this point.  So I am going to use the 10K plan and just extend a couple of the long runs, in all honesty, the 10k plan would be enough milage on its own.

So week 1 looks like this:

Speed workout:

10-20 minute warm up, 8x 400 m w/ 400 m recovery intervals, 10 minute cool down

Tempo Workout:

1 mile warmup up, 3 miles at short tempo pace, 1 mile cool down

Long run workout:

6 miles at long tempo pace

So that is the 3 part of the plan, plus 2 cross-training workouts with intensity and purpose.

I will probably do some strength and yoga too if I have time.

In addtion to my core strength vinyasa, I did the Fitnessista lower body workout (fabulous-thanks Gina!) and about 20 minutes jogging on the treadmill.

Plus a decent amount of stretching.  My friend injured her ankle twice while running and she has found that stretching it very well before and after has made a huge difference in recovery and running strength. 

So I am really being careful to stretch the IT band out before and after running.

All right, I am going to finish watching the Grammys, so far so great!  Simon Baker looked hot, Coldplay was fun, and Carrie Underwood–girl crush!