Thanksgiving Recap

Well I didn't do a Turkey Trot like I had originally hoped, but I did have a great run with friends that morning at Van Cortlandt Park. I met up with a group of ladies I hadn't seen in a while and did a five mile run. It was right before it got really cold here in NYC. It's crazy, it's like on Black Friday, the weather decided to suddenly say, "hey, it's winter now!" I pulled out the tights, Under Armour, hats, and gloves.
Back track to Wednesday, I had class until 6pm and of course it was crazy at Grand Central so i missed my train, but I did finally get home and immediately started baking pies. My mom and I made Apple pie with sour cream, pecan-pumpkin pie, and crack pie. If you don't know what crack pie is, it's the most amazing pie made at Momofuku Milk Bar in the Village. (There's no crack in it :) butter, eggs, and sugar in an oatmeal cookie crust). After my run, I got back and helped my mom finish the pies and I also made mashed potatoes. I use the Silver Palate recipe which includes butter, sour cream, and cream cheese. It's SO good but I try not to think about what's in it when I actually eat it lol.
Thanksgiving was spent with my nana, (my dad's mom) my two aunts and uncles and that side of the family, and 2/3 of my cousins. There was so much good food. My aunt is the person that made me love brussel sprouts. We had turkey, stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, succotash, spinach salad, glazed carrots, my mashed potatoes, the three pies, and pumpkin beer! It was so so so so good. I definitely overate. My dad and I spent the day before dinner calculating how many calories we had to burn during our run to eat all the pie I was planning on having. Probably, definitely didn't run enough.
After dinner, my dad and I for the first time ever went black friday shopping at Target. This is funny because we are the people that make fun of the people that wait on line at Target for the store to open when any other day of the year you can walk right in. And this year stores were opening at 9 pm on Thanksgiving day! Blasphemy! You can't hold off until tomorrow?? Apparently not. Well my dad and I thought it would be funny to go (my mom did not, she stayed home lol) so we got on line at Target, waited 30 minutes, and then finally got in. It was crazy inside and people were running around getting off-brand televisions. What did I walk out with? Princess Bride dvd for $4, flannel pajama shorts for $10, and disinfecting wipes because my mom called and asked for them. HA! The checkout person probably though we were crazy. But hey, Princess Bride is a great movie!
The rest of my break was spent chilling out and seeing old friends. My three best friends and I met up and did an awesome four mile hike at Bear Mountain. It was hard but awesome! I love that I have friends that suggest athletic activities as a way to hang out.

pies on pies on pies

Back at school today, 3 weeks left until break!

My NEW GARMIN!!!

Wrist model? Call me up Garmin.

What the Garmin Connect page looks like when you upload a run. The places where the pace goes to 36:00 is when I stopped at a red light and didn't know where the pause button was. 

I got my first ever Garmin this past weekend! I feel like I have entered a new level in running awesome-ness. I got the new Garmin Forerunner 10. It's their basic model and pretty much only tracks distance, speed, calories, and time-which is really great for me. A while ago my mom and I bought my dad the Garmin 310 and I thought it was really cool but too big for me and had too many features. Why spend $300 when I'm not going to use half the features? That's why the 10 is really great for me. It is pretty much the size of a regular watch, pink (my favorite color) and is very easy to use. I like being able to track the distance especially because I am trying to run some longer distances. It also lets you plug the watch into the computer and track your runs online. You make an account and then save your runs. You can save them, name them, and even see pictures of your course that you ran. It also saves prs. My first run with it went well. I forgot that you have to wait for the satellites 0_0. I thought it would take forever because I live in the city but turns out it took less than a minute, so that was really great. I ran 4.5 miles at a 9:30 pace. Pretty slow but I just wasn't feeling it. It's funny but ever since coming back from my accident, I sort of just run every run and don't get upset about my speed. It's sort of like, I got out there and ran so why be sad if I wasn't fast? I'm probably a little too chill about my running but whatever, I'm having a good time so who cares?
My run this morning actually went a lot better- I did my version of a tempo run and did 8:30s which was pretty good. I feel like I could go a little faster but my pace slowed a little after 4 miles making my average pace slow down. I was having one of those mornings where I woke up early in anticipation of my run. I feel kinda tired today, lol but I had good new tunes and since I couldn't run on Tuesday, I was dying to get out there.

http://shop.lululemon.com/products/clothes-accessories/women-pants/Runder-Under-Pant?cc=9832&skuId=3476457&catId=women-pants

These are my favorite pants of all time, The Lululemon runner unders. They are kind of pricey but are SO soft and very flattering. I usually do not wear leggings but I have actually been wearing these around as to/from, post workout pants. I confess I have not worked out in them because I always want to wear them as pants. I'm thinking of getting them in black so I can have a pair to run in and a pair to wear around. That way, when one is in the laundry, I still have another pair. Running is an addiction but buying running gear is also an addiction. Sigh, my christmas wish list is mainly gear and comfy clothes to wear after my workouts.
Is anyone doing a Turkey Trot tomorrow? I am definitely running and hopefully a Turkey Trot but idk my mom wants to do one Friday but hello, Black Friday?!?!?! I NEED to get to Target, lol. It's not even that I want anything I just think it's funny to go. Also I can fuel my other addiction, watching tv by buying DVDs on sale. Last year I got all the Friends seasons for $10 each. score!
Well I have class until 6pm tonight and then I'm going home to bake pies for tomorrow!!! I'm so excited. Eating is one of my favorite things so you can bet that I'll be running and then gorging myself. :) Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Philly Weekend

So Friday I drove down to Philly with my dad to watch him run the Philly marathon and to visit my aunt who lives right outside of the city. I am a little strange and enjoy going to races even when I'm not running in them. But the Philly expo is actually awesome and you know me, I love stuff so of course I was tagging along. On Friday we mostly hung out with my aunt and uncle and two (totally adorable) cousins. We watched Breaking Dawn Part I because my aunt had never seen is (gasp!). The next day we watched my cousins go to Circus class (this is a thing?!?!?! Where was I???) and then had a delicious brunch where I had a cheddar, onion, and pepper omelet. Then we went to the expo. Awww yeah :) I came out on top at this one, even though I wasn't actually running (sorry dad). I got a black sparkly Sweaty Band, pink socks, and most importantly, THE NEW GARMIN 10!!! (In pink, of course) I'm taking it out for a spin later today so I'll let you know if I love it or love love it. I was sooo excited as I have wanted one for a while. It was such a fun surprise, thanks daddy-o.
That evening we went to the Olive Garden to carbo load. Two awesome things about this; one, we went at 4:15 pm and there was ALREADY a line to get in. Who are these people? Why do they all want to go to Olive Garden at 4:15? Were they all runners like us? I thought it was funny. The other thing was that I was carbo loading before nothing. Like, I didn't even run this weekend. But just the fact that I was around marathoners means that I get to eat like a marathoner by default. This is very logical reasoning.
After Olive Garden we saw Breaking Dawn Part II which I do not regret at all, in fact I would go so far as to say I really liked it. I read all the books (mostly on the treadmill) and got addicted like most teens and even though I'm mostly over them by now, it was really fun and I wanted to see it through. I actually thought it was really fun. There were very few scenes with people just looking at each other and lots of action. What can I say, I'm a sucker for Vampire romance :)
The race was Sunday. I had originally hoped to see my dad at several mile markers but it turned out to be impossible for me to get into the city that early so I settled for the finish. My dad did awesome, smashing his pr and running 3:45! He finished and was hurting pretty badly so I helped him come back to my Aunt's house where he showered and we all chilled and got pizza.

It was a great weekend all in all. I love seeing my family, watching movies, and running. Oh wait, I didn't run, did I? Haha I love seeing my friends who run, being around runners, and getting myself psyched about hopefully running a marathon myself, someday.

ALSO

I love to start off my Wednesdays with a little motivation. 

Somehow got my butt out of bed for a 9:30 am run before my 12:00 art history lecture. It's a tough life, I know. I did my usual run. I want to name this run as I am really boring and do it practically every day. But it's pretty, flat, and and doesn't have any cars. Perhaps I will call it Rachel's super lazy 5 miler?? Sounds good to me. So far I've run twice this week. I took yesterday off because I raced Saturday, did a long run Sunday (because I'm crazy), and then did 5 miles on Monday. My thighs were screaming up the stairs to my apartment, so I took Tuesday off. Wednesdays I have no excuse because I have class from 12-6 so an AM run is mandatory. Tuesdays and Thursdays are a bit trickier because I have class from 9-5 and it gets dark SO EARLY here now. I have a gym in my apartment that I will obviously have to use when the weather gets worse but for now I'm avoiding it like the plague. When I'm outside I (usually) feel like I can go forever but the treadmill? Forget about it. I bargain with myself the whole way. First it's "just get to 20 mins," Then, "You can make it to 25." Then "Here comes half an hour." I usually quit after 30 mins, it's wimpy, I know.

just out of the oven

After 5 hours of class, I came back and made a PIE! Apple, in case you wondering. Some of my friends and I are having pre Thanksgiving dinner. I'm in charge of pie and stuffing.
Friday I will be driving to Philadelphia to visit some friends, my aunt and uncle, and some friends and watch the Philly Marathon. Yes, I do think that watching people run is a good time. Also, it is a little known fact that Philly has an excellent race expo. Have I mentioned yet that I like running gear? Oh, you didn't know that about me? Well I FREAKING LOVE running gear. Okay.

*** I wrote this on Wednesday and forgot to post last night. Whoops, my bad.***

I love Trader Joe's

Yes, it's true. And lately it's all of the frozen food which appeals to me the most. I really want to eat my way through that store. Today I had the frozen pesto and tomato flatbread. Very good, though semi high in calories for what it was. It tasted good, like a pizza, and didn't look all creepy out of the box like a lot of frozen food so kudos to that.
My meet went pretty well. It was in Delhi, NY. I wasnt particularly fast, but the whole weekend was fun. I like to spend time with other runners my age. It may seem dumb, but I feel like they "get" me. And I can obsess about which pair of sneakers I'm going to wear and no one will judge. HA! 't was my last meet ever on the collegiate level, unless I do the half marathon next year (thinking about it). I didn't think about it that much but looking back, I'm a little sad about it. I run with a cross country club in VanCortlandt but no one there is as close to my age as these ladies. I will definitely continue to run with them and practice with them next year but as we are a junior college, I can only compete for 2 years. I will miss them.
The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. I saw Skyfall and it was really good! As a graphic designer, I always love their opening credits. I don't know how to do motion graphics yet, but whoever does that work is awesome. It's very inspiring. I googled it when I got back and watched it a bunch more times. Sunday I ran twice (cuz I'm crazy) jk, mainly I just wanted to not write my art history paper. I also went out to Hill Country Chicken for Sunday dinner. Their fried mashed potatoes are amazing!!!

Basically, I would just rather eat this all day but...

The pizza in question

All cooked- looks pretty much like the box. Ignore my bizarre plates. 

This week, I'm going to try to up my milage a bit since my season is over so I have a little more flexibility. And you know, calorie save for the massive quantities of food I will be eating.

Sandy

Well I'm back in NYC after a NINE day stint at my parent's house. I left for the weekend and then couldn't get back because Sandy had blown a BOAT on the train tracks. Yup, that happened. School was cancelled all week which was pretty ridiculous. My mom and brother both had school off, as well so it was pretty much flashback to summer vacation. I woke up late, cooked and baked (okay, I guess I still do that) and went to the gym. Can anyone say Bodypump???? Bodypump is probably the thing I miss the most about summer vacation. Towards the end of the week my summer waitressing job even called my as a fluke, seeing if I was home because they had power but so few restaurants did so they needed extra help to cover all the customers they were getting.
Luckily, neither my school nor home lost power. Some trees fell but no one I no was harmed or had their homes harmed. I haven't done much exploring as I live in midtown so there wasn't much damage. By the time I got back, only a few things in my area were closed and all my trains I usually take were up and running. Losing a week of school, however, was pretty nuts. I did work at home but in such a project driven major, a week without critiques and class meeting time is really hard. A lot of my projects had to be simplified by professors to make time. It's going to be crush time until the end of the semester. 0_0 I'll keep thinking about Bodypump...
Back at the ranch...cough, cough, my dorm room, it's getting colder and messier! Uggh why do things get dirty and make me clean them? I'm disgusted how messy 4 20-somethings can be. So I avoided my homework, cleaned, and made some tortellini with olive oil and parmesan cheese. I have so many snacks but so few real food. I need to make a Trader Joe's run, asap. I'm running out of salad mix, frozen veggies, pasta sauce, and yogurt. Also eggs. And milk. I'm trying to hold out until Sunday. I have a meet upstate this weekend so I don't want to buy groceries until I'm here to actually eat them.
No that things are settled, I'll try to blog more, starting with a race recap of Saturday's race :)