“Just” 12 Miles

Weekend! It’s here!

I was so happy to leave work yesterday right at 1:30 pm. I definitely could have stuck around the office all day — there’s always plenty to be done — but I purposely made lunch plans for 2:00 so that I’d have to leave and take advantage of the Summer Friday.

So I packed up my crap, turned off my computer and walked across town for a lunch date with Sam at Pret A Manger.

Sam is so sweet and it was great to finally meet her. We have lots in common, including former homes in New Hampshire (she was born there then moved away when she was young — I was born elsewhere then, at 9 months old, moved to NH) and the whole small-town-girl-moves-to-NYC-to-become-a-magazine-journalist thing.

After lunch I headed uptown for an awesomely productive meeting at JackRabbit. Good things are coming, people. Good things involving a spin class at Flywheel! And T-shirts! And trivia night! Stay tuned.

Speaking of good things on the way…

July 20. It’s going to be amazing.

Naturally my night ended with carbs and frozen yogurt.

I joined a handsome friend for dinner at Bocca East, a new Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. I’ve walked by it a bunch of times and, since it first opened, it’s always packed. Must be good right?

And it was!

The bread basket lasted about 2 seconds before I inhaled it all (with a yummy side of pesto something dip — loved that). Then we had a prosciutto and mozzarella crostini (meh, it was OK) and split two entrees: linguini with bolognese sauce and something that had crab in it, plus a side of delightfully garlicky spinach. Everything was pretty awesome.

“Pretty awesome” and “something with crab.” I should probably be a food critic.

The walk home from dinner happened to take me by 16 Handles.

It would be rude not to stop in and say hello.

And so we did.

And I got to meet Abby! I was so glad she introduced herself. Abby has been incredibly supportive of my Run For The Rabbit efforts. She’s a run coach with Lululemon and gave me one bit of advice last night: Take more rest days!

Fine. I will.

Two blog friends in one day? Plus good food and frozen yogurt? I’d say that’s a great day, don’t you think?

I was in bed around 11 and up nice and early today for a run.

Coach Cane’s plan called for 12 miles.

“Just 12 miles?” I thought when I saw what he wanted.

And then I realized: When did running 12 freakin’ miles become something to scoff at?

Now I’m not saying running 12 miles is easy. It’s not. Some days it feels really dang good and other days it can be the worst thing ever — but running 12 miles at any pace is kind of a big deal.

Marathon training has started to skew the way I see long runs. Now that I’ve tackled — OK, dominated — 15 miles, I know an 18- and 20-miler are on the way. I can’t wait!

So anyway. My point (yes, I have one) is that 12 miles used to be something a huge challenge. Now it’s just a part of my training.

It went well today, too!

I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into today’s run. I didn’t plan my route and I didn’t have a set time I wanted to be out on the road. But my stomach felt good, my legs felt good and my outfit has now sustained an entire week’s worth of sweat.

Seriously, I ran in that top every single day this week. I’m so gross, but I’m also thrilled that I don’t already have to do an entire load of laundry.

Judge me accordingly.

For the first mile my legs felt sleepy. Sometimes they take a little longer to wake up than the rest of my body, which is fine with a 5 am wakeup call.

Once I got to Central Park I decided to do one 5-mile loop of the park. It was nice. They were setting up for today’s New York Road Runners race and I liked seeing all the runners doing warm-up laps.

Then I ran a lap of the Reservoir. That was nice, too.

After the Reservoir, I headed south on the east side so that I could catch the start of the NYRR race. I wanted to see all the speedsters kick it off — it’s been a while since I’ve cheered at a race!

They were so fast!

I was about 9 (I think?) miles in when I stopped to watch and was so excited to see Kelly run by.

I was even more excited that she agreed to stop and cheer with me for a bit so we could finish up our long runs together.

I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to stand by this: Running with friends is way more fun. We powered up Cat Hill at a 7:53 pace…

Oops.

Then we maintained a solid pace as we ran alongside the NYRR runners and scooted over onto the Bridle Path.

Mmmm chest sweat. So hot.

The mileage worked out perfectly, and before I knew it I was back home with 12 miles under my belt.

I’m happy with my splits, too!

Do you want to see more sweat?

I’ll show it to you.

OK so you can’t really see the sweat, but do you see my jazz hand? That’s right, you can still do jazz hands even if you only have one free hand. One jazz hand is always better than no jazz hands.

Do you also want to see a dirty leg? I can show you that.

After my run I did some stretching, some showering and some grocery shopping.

All I crave in the summer is fruit.

And frozen yogurt.

Dang it, I’m obsessed.

Now I’m doing some things and waiting for my family to get here!

Yay! My parents, brother and sister-in-law are on their way to Pennsylvania for the weekend and they’re stopping here on the way.

I’m so excited about semi-last-minute plans. I get to see my whole family!

My mom wants “New York pizza and 16 Handles.”

And my dad probably just wants somewhere to pee. He drinks a lot of coffee on long car rides…

Off to clean the apartment. Or at least hide things and push dirt under rugs.

Have a great weekend, everyone!