Thankful Tuesday

Inspired by Ali’s Thankful Thursday, we’re going to call this a Thankful Tuesday post. It’s easy to get caught up in the craziness of life and forget just how many amazing things we have each day even when life isn’t perfect and things are insane.

I am so thankful for my family. Even though my immediate family lives down in Savannah still I have a great relationship with them which allows me to pick up the phone at any hour and know they’ll be there. Over the past year I’ve called them crying, elated, stressed, or just to chat. In fact last week, on Saturday night I even called them tipsy and spent 30 minutes screaming into the phone to them while drinking champagne and putting on makeup. This weekend I get to see my brother Ryan on a rare brother and sister trip to my family’s home in Vermont.

We have no firm plans for the weekend but I’m going to do my best to squeeze my long run in on Friday so that the rest of the weekend can be spent with him and without having to think about it. We haven’t seen each other for a few months so I’m excited to catch up with him in person! He’s not the biggest phone person so catching up from 1,200 miles away isn’t always very fun.  In addition to the rest of my extended family, including my in-laws, I’m so pleased to have Meg in New York City. It’s been a fun treat this summer and I’m sure the fun will only continue.

I am thankful for Bo. I think our relationship is evolving to a new level now that we’re both experiencing the highs and lows of training for a marathon. This is Bo’s 3rd attempt at training for the New York City Marathon but this year 3rd time is a charm! He completed a strong 16.5 mile run on Saturday, including multiple bridges, and has suffered through 3 ice baths thus far. I secretly think he’ll have no problem breaking 4:30 during the marathon, especially since has no problem pushing his body through pain both mental and physical. I really think that the next 6 weeks will be the most fun for each of us as we both peak in training but I will burst for joy when I snap a picture of him with his marathon bib at the expo. Running a marathon was always something on our individual bucket lists and while he has been an amazing cheerleaders the past 2 years I can’t wait for him to share the experience. Now if only we didn’t have to sit on Staten Island until 10:55 on race day.

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I am thankful for my career. Just over seven years ago, I accepted a full time position at Procter & Gamble after a wonderful summer internship, during which time I also met my best friend Amy. In the years since graduation I’ve progressed in my career and learned a great deal. I love that a career at P&G has allowed me to gain experience on a multitude of customers and brands while living in first Philadelphia and then New York City. Last week, I found out that I was chosen for a new role in our company, Vice President E-Commerce Leader for North America. While many different things collided in order to make this promotion possible, I am still amazed, humbled, and thrilled for the opportunity. There are many people who have taught me so much in the past seven years that I can’t begin to thank each and every one of them. There are people in the company who believe in me and I can’t wait to take on this new challenge, which was made possible in part due to my passion for blogging and the social media community. 

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I am thankful for this blog. I never imagined this would become more than just a place for my friends and family to see what I was doing up “in the big city” and to record my marathon training goals and thoughts. Since then it has become so much more. While it takes on average an hour per day, or 7-10 hours per week, it has brought me so much joy and fulfillment over the past few years. On really long days, like yesterday, when I think I have no energy to blog at 9pm, a dear reader unknowingly brightens my evening with a sweet note. It is this warm feeling, or the one I get when a random reader waves as I run through the city, that makes me continue each day. I always laugh, and look twice, pinching in disbelief when someone like Well+Good or Glamour Magazine reaches out to me for quotes or interviews. I’m just a girl from Georgia trying to make my way in New York city while balancing the role of wife, co-worker, friend, daughter, blogger, and marathon trainer. I was so surprised to see on Twitter that our Glamour slideshow went up today.Talking about morning workouts is near and dear to my heart, as Theodora and others know, since it’s the one constant in our life and a special ritual each day that Bo and I share together.

How to Convince Yourself to Work Out When You So Don’t Want To Health & Fitness: glamour.com.

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There are so many other things that I’m thankful for but for now these are the ones for which I’m smiling most about today.

So go for it, what are you thankful for today?

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Workshops, Yoga, and Giveaways!

Wow. It’s 9:55pm and I’ve been staring at the computer screen for way too long today! We have a huge customer meeting tomorrow and therefore I didn’t get home until 8:45 tonight. As soon as I walked through the door I headed to the kitchen since I was starving. I’m proud to say that I took the time to whip up a healthy but satisfying salad while catching up with Bo.  I am so thankful Meg and I headed up to Costco yesterday because now our pantry and refrigerator are both bursting with healthy food!

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This post is a mish mash of things that have been on my mind over the past couple of days. Hopefully you’ll find the information helpful! I’ve organized it so that if you’re not a local New Yorker, you only have to read 1-3 since 4 is New York centric.

I’ve started using the Notepad ap on my iPhone to keep track of blog ideas and thoughts and in just two days it’s already making a huge difference. Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything between work life, personal life and blog life. Having 3 different notes going of to do lists in there makes me feel far more organized!

Thanks to this organizational method, I am finally remembering to share some tidbits of interest to share with you all!

1) WordPress Blog Workshops: Cory, the awesome guy behind Zesty Blog Consulting and my blog’s redesign, has finally put together a WordPress Workshop series! If you’re a blogger using WordPress or interested in getting started, this is a no brainer! A blogger himself, Cory is great at making the most complicated updates super easy! During October he is going to host both a beginner and advanced WordPress series which both sound amazing! See below for more details:

Starting mid-October, I’m offering a four-week class at
two levels of training (basics and advanced)in an easy
web-based format. We’ll use live interactive audio and
video and include live question and answer time so you’re
sure to get the technical support you need.
You’ll learn all the basics from managing pages, using
plugins, and working with media to adding links and
customizing widgets. In the advanced class we dive
deeper into integrating social media, ads management
and customizing your theme.

If you use the discount code  WORKSHOP you can get all 4 of the classes for just $97, less than $25 per class! Email me or leave a comment if you decide to join as I too will be participating in the workshops!

2) Almond Breeze Giveaway Winner Round #2: Congratulations to Taylor of The Lifting Revolution who is the winner of the Almond Breeze giveaway I hosted last month. The previous winner never responded to emails or tweets and therefore I chose another winner today.

3) Marathons+Moderation Guest posts for November-January: I’m thrilled to say that I’ve lined up an awesome array of runners for the series through late October. Now I’m looking for people interested in sharing their marathon stories on the blog during the November to January time period. Since the holidays get busy, I’m more than happy to accept them early and file them until your assigned spot as well. If you’re interested, please leave a comment and I’ll send you an email with details!

4) Yoga Around NYC: In preparation for the New York City Marathon and peak training season, I thought I’d share some of the complimentary and/or low cost yoga options taking place around this city this month. While these aren’t necessarily all focused on runners, any relaxing yoga is a great way to keep the body limber.

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JackRabbit Union Square offers free yoga at 8:30am on September 22nd, led by instructors from YogaWorks.

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Lululemon West Broadway &75th: Every Saturday at 9am the store offers a free hour of yoga! This month the series is led by instructors from Pure Yoga!

Lululemon Lincoln Center: Every Sunday at 9:30am the store offers a free hour of yoga! This month the series is led by instructors from SLT Yoga!

Lululemon East 66th: The store offers FREE yoga practice called Sun(day) Salutations at 10am each Sunday!

Lululemon Union Square: Every Sunday at 10am the store offers a free hour of yoga! This month the series is led by instructors from Ishta Yoga.

Lululemon Madison Avenue Store: On September 19th 4 of the store’s yoga ambassadors will lead an inspiring Candlelight Yoga class to benefit Butterflies Child Rights. The class is complimentary but Lululemon will donate $10 for each person who attends!

Lululemon SoHo: This store offers a TON of yoga options each week, including Sunday evening yoga at 7:30pm.

Yoga Works NYC: Going the distance: Yoga for Marathon Training
Wednesdays 7:30-8:45am, October 3 – November 7, 2012  $25 Single Class, $100 Series

This series will focus on the runner’s body and will explore how yoga can be used as a cross-training tool for any long distance running program. To register call 212.769.9642

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18 Miles of Bliss

On Friday night, I wrote a post about running solo in preparation for 18 miles Saturday morning. While I wasn’t necessarily excited about spending the morning by myself I knew that it would a run that would make me stronger mentally.

But about 15 minutes later, my phone vibrated.

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To my surprise, the organizer of our work run club, Marcial, wanted to join me for a few miles. I eagerly said yes but warned him that the pace would be slower than our mid-week runs and that I may not be too talkative. He happily agreed and was even willing to meet me on our front step at 6:45am!

I woke at 5:40, an hour before the run, and quickly made and ate breakfast before doing anything else so that I’d have time to digest the peanut butter and banana toast. Next, I filled my Camelbak with plain water, instead of NUUN, and made sure that I put my 3 GU’s in the zipper pocket so we wouldn’t have a replay of last week’s fueling mistake.  While I love NUUN, Gia suggested trying water this week to see if my body reacts better as she has experienced and heard of others experiencing sensitivity when pairing NUUN with Shot Blocks or GU type products.

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Having this hour of quiet to myself really helped put me in a good mood and spirit for the run. I spent some time stretching and foam rolling, I sent a few early morning Twitter messages to other runners who were up early for races and long runs, had plenty of time to use the bathroom, and had time to just focus. It was a nice change from the normal rush around the house in the morning, even though it did mean waking up earlier.

As I was walking out the door Marcial texted me saying he had no water or fuel. Even though he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to make it since his furthest run prior to Saturday was 8 miles, I knew he’d still want at least a little something. I dashed inside and grabbed a water bottle and an extra bag of Sport Beans from our fuel box.

By 7 we were off and running through the cool, Fall air. Saturday morning truly felt like Fall in Manhattan. The air was crisp and when we were in the shade of the East River Path it was actually cold. I asked Marcial if he was fine just going with the path I mapped the night prior, 18 miles along the East River Path, South to the tip of Manhattan, north along the West Side Highway, then turning on 59th to head across the city and into Central Park for a few laps of the lower loop. He smiled ear to ear in eager excitement. That’s when I realized just how much fun this run would be.

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I spent the next 3 hours laughing with Marcial as I showed him Manhattan from my favorite vantage point, running on two feet. We literally were able to watch the city wake up during our run. Some of the highlights included the amazing cloud formation above Queens, elderly Asians doing a cardio workout to MC Hammer in South Street Seaport, watching eager tourists line up for the Staten Island Ferry, fitness instructors setting up their gear for a day worth of workouts on the Hudson River piers, laughing at how much dogs really do look like their owners, and bandit running part of the NYRR Fitness 4 miler by accident, and then finally pushing our tired legs up Cat Hill at the 16 mile point.

While we ran I answered all his questions about running and smiled at things I hadn’t wondered in so long, like what is that pack runners keep sucking on as they run by us (GU). In addition, we had the fun chance to see a few blog readers out on the path which really made this city seem tiny. It was such a nice surprise to have a few wave or say hello as they passed by, especially the rock star who pushed up the 59th street hill with us and joined in our grunts and agony before smiling and telling us about her 20 mile run she was finishing in preparation for Chicago! (GOOD LUCK!!)IMG_4725

Every mile past 8 was a new personal distance record for Marcia and it was so great to see his smile each time I’d tell him another mile had past. In the end, he lasted 16.5 miles! The key to him lasting was his enthusiasm and our pace. His normal pace is closer to a 9 minute mile so running around a 10:15-10:30 pace seemed easier over the long run.

This was exactly the run I needed to have this week in order to move into the second half of marathon training strong. Our pace was pretty steady, hovering around 10:30 almost the entire time, my new fueling strategies worked wonderfully, my body felt strong through the last mile, and mentally I felt the strongest ever.

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48 days out from the marathon I couldn’t be happier with my training to date and the results that are starting to show. Below are the splits from yesterday and I can’t be happier. Nothing under 10 and nothing over 10:47.

Mile 1 10:07
Mile 2 10:34
Mile 3 10:39
Mile 4:10:47
Mile 5: 10:50
Mile 6: 10:45
Mile 7:10:34
Mile 8: 10:26
Mile 9: 10:26
Mile 10: 10:25
Mile 11: 10:40
Mile 12: 10:38
Mile 13:10:25
Mile 14: 10:40
Mile 15:10:13
Mile 16:10:38
Mile 17:10:38
Mile 18: 10:06

When you consider that a 10:52 pace is a 4:45 marathon I’m starting to think my goal just may be achievable this year if I continue to be smart. This is definitely an exciting feeling!

How was your weekend? Any great weekend races or workouts?

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