Thankful Things Thursday: On Being Tired But Perky

I’m so sleepy.

Turns out, averaging 5 hours of sleep a night will catch up with you.

But who cares that I’m tired? I mean really. A former boss once shared an article with me called “No One Cares How Tired You Are.” So true. Everyone is tired all the time. Welcome to adulthood.

With that semi-rant out of the way (that I brought on myself — stupid Ali), let’s get on with the show.

Today is Thursday. More specifically, today is Thankful Things Thursday, during which we take some time to reflect on the lovely things in life that we’re grateful for, including but certainly not limited to puppies, good food and fantastic Celine Dion montages on YouTube.

SHE IS SO TALENTED

Oh yeah. That’s my girl. Isn’t she delightful?

Without further ado, here we go: thankful time!

I’m thankful that the $13 I accidentally spent on lunch yesterday at Whole Foods was worth it. They had all my favorite foods at the hot bar, and before I knew it “a little piece of bok choy” and “a few scoops of spinach noodles” clocked in at a whopping $12 + tax. My bad. But delicious? Oh you bet it was.

I’m thankful for belt loops. Such a good idea. Nice job, fashion people. You were smart about this one. Because after said $13 lunch, I had to loosen my belt so my stomach could expand and I could breathe. Without belt loops I may have died. So many people die every year from too-tight-belts I’m sure, and I’m so glad I was not one of them yesterday. I am wearing a similar belt today, and I look forward to loosening it later.

This is me today. I am feeling happy.

(I feel a little drunk today. I think it’s really sleep deprivation, but maybe someone spiked my…granola bar?)

I’m thankful for the best spinning class ever. Matt Pestorius. He teaches at Crunch. Go take his class. (And if you’re not a member, you can be: One of the prizes for next week’s JackRabbit event is a 3-month Crunch membership!) Matt is the best person ever. I hadn’t been able to make it to his class in more than a month, and yesterday we were reunited and it felt so good. And also my new friend came and took class, too, which was great. He did a good job. We had a sweating contest and I’m embarrassed to admit that I lost.

I’m thankful for dinners with friends. Last night I joined my wonderful friend Danielle for dinner at Cask. The wine was delicious, the food was good (holy truffle mac & cheese) and it was so nice to catch up after way too long. She’s moving to my neighborhood and I am pumped.

I’m thankful for sleeping like a rock. I passed out hard last night and was shocked when my alarm went off at 5 am. I didn’t actually make it out of bed until a bit after 5:30 though. Oops.

I’m thankful my morning run is over and behind me. Um yeah, because it kind of sucked. First of all, my workout clothes are all filthy gross. I’ll pretty much wear anything, but these clothes are nasty and unwearable. Tonight is laundry night for sure. But OK, reason 1 the run was bad: I wasn’t wearing something comfortable. My pants bugged me the whole time I was running.

Second reason: Coach Cane had me on the Bridle Path, and after last night’s rain massacre, it was gross and messy.

Oh good. Puddle jumping.

The plan for today was two laps of the extended Bridle Path (2.5 miles): first lap at my marathon goal pace, second lap at my half marathon goal pace.

Did that happen? Not so much.

OK not really at all.

Meh. A little bit, I guess.

My first lap was good. I started off way too fast and by the time my slow-and-steady watch caught up to me it let me know I was banging out a 7:30 pace. My bad. Actually, not my bad — Garmin’s bad. How rude. I slowed down and stuck with an 8:30, but my legs were heavy and my stomach felt like it had little rocks bouncing around in it.

Little rocks = truffle mac & cheese.

By the time I got to the second lap of the path, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold down an 8-minute mile. I tried, really I did. But I’m pretty sure the hardcore spin class last night plus the lack of sleep brought me down.

Lesson learned.

Sleep more. Go hard less. Don’t be an a-hole. Run a marathon.

I’m thankful the scenery was nice. Yeah, I wasn’t so speedy today. But the sunrise was nice. So…success? Sure.

This is the sun coming up over the Reservoir. Lovely, isn't it?

See? Isn’t that nice.

I’m thankful for huge dogs!!! Puppies are the best, but lately whenever I’m running on the Bridle Path in the morning I see this massive Saint Bernard and he is the coolest. Today I creeped out hard and took a picture of him.

It's blurry but you get the point I'm sure. His paws are the size of my FACE.

That dog is like a horse. I love big dogs and tall people.

I’m thankful for my neighborhood. When I first moved to the Upper East Side, I was pissed. I didn’t want to live there. It seemed far away and inconvenient. But now I couldn’t be happier. My street is quiet, there are tons of restaurants and bars, I’m close to both Central Park and the East River and I have lots of friends living nearby. Plus, this guy is my neighbor, and he’s one handsome devil:

Hello Mr. Guggenheim!

I’m thankful for Summer Streets! For three consecutive Saturdays in August, NYC shuts down Park Avenue to cars and opens it up for runners, walkers, cyclists and people who are awesome. I run Summer Streets every year and it’s always a blast. The miles fly by because the people watching is so fun. Crunch hosts gym classes on the street and all the way from 72nd Street to Brooklyn Bridge there activities going on. Last year they even had dumpster pools along the route!

Weird? Yes. Crazy cool? Also yes.

If you’re in NYC, I recommend getting out there this weekend. I’ll be out running!

I’m thankful for an evening off. Tonight I have a hot date with Fairway, my building’s laundry room and a bunch of Lysol wipes. Productivity, here I come.

I’m thankful for nice people.

I’m thankful for water. It’s delicious and I pound it all day long.

I’m thankful I’ll be seeing and meeting so many people next Thursday! August 11 at JackRabbit Sports on the Upper East Side. More details to come. But it’ll be fun. We will drink and play trivia and you can win prizes and buy T-shirts.

I’m thankful for meeting deadlines. Yeah this is pretty rare for me. But this month I met most of my deadlines. Ka-pow that’s a good feeling!

I’m thankful I’m going to run a marathon. Oh it’s going down. It’s happening. September 24th will be the best day ever. I can’t wait to get through those 26.2 miles and have my friends and family waiting for me at the finish line.

I’m thankful I’m going to D.C. next weekend. I love NYC but I can’t wait to get away for a few days. I want to run around the monuments. I hope I can find a good tour guide.

There’s my list to get you started.

NOW YOU GO: Tell me what you’re thankful for today!

Ali

Ali

26 Responses

  1. Every single time I read you blog, I suddenly have the desire to move to NYC. Mostly because I want to run in Central Park and be near cool workout places and to have running friends! 🙂

  2. I love that you creeped a photo of the big furry St. Bernard! I’m thankful I don’t have to work tomorrow, my momma’s coming to town and for people like you, who make me smile on a daily basis 🙂

  3. I’m thankful for thankful thursday posts – always make me giggle.
    I’m thankful I just finished a big presentation in Denver and tomorrow morning I hope another flight to San Diego for a kiss ass wedding weekend with friends!!
    And I’m thankful I sucked up a dreadful 7-mile treadmill at my hotel’s crappy gym this morning – everything about it sucked but I’m thankful I did it so I’ll meet my mileage goal for the week!!
    I’m thankful that a glass of chardonnay is in my immediate future.

  4. Love Summer Streets! Thankful I will get to do one of my long runs (8 miles? is that even long…ohhh taper!) on the 13th during it. Thankful my trip to Europe is coming up! Thankful for the easy run and relaxing evening I have planned…

    ps truffle mac and cheese sounds SO GOOD!

  5. I’m thankful for the Upper East Side AND Summer Streets too! I completely forgot about those. I’ll see ya out there Saturday 🙂

    Oh and…wait for it: I’m thankful for the season premiere of Jersey Shore. Yeah, I said it.

  6. Your Thankful Thursdays are my favorite blog post of the whole week 🙂

    And this line:

    “I’m thankful for an evening off. Tonight I have a hot date with Fairway, my building’s laundry room and a bunch of Lysol wipes. Productivity, here I come.”

    made me love you about 19x more 🙂

  7. Hey there, I’ve been lurking for a while. I really like your blog, you’re too funny and I like your honesty! Truffle mac & cheese sounds amazing. Truffle anything with cheese sounds amazing.
    I’m thankful that the temperatures dropped and I can be comfortable running outside tonight!

  8. “Sleep more. Go hard less. Don’t be an a-hole. Run a marathon.” hahaha you crack me up.. that’s totally my mantra these days too, though the marathon may be a little extreme for my currently sore knee.

    Let me know if you want to have a meet-up in DC! I live here too. 🙂

  9. I like your neighborhood!

    I’m thankful that I’m FINALLY on day shift (i’m a nurse) for the next couple of days and I’m also thankful that my bff from college is coming to spend a few days with me next week. I Havent seen her in a couple of YEARS, yes. YEARS. 🙂

  10. OMG – that Celine montage is freaking hilarious. I seriously laughed out loud multiple times. All the parents + all the children = freaking everybody! You are good, she is awesome, she wins! 🙂

    I am thankful for:
    That YouTube clip and the laugh it gave me.
    A good run with friends this morning
    Air conditioning – I live in Dalllas, TX – 40+ days of 100+ degrees = HOT
    Our company summer outing this afternoon which involves tea and facials. FUN!

  11. I am thankful too for Celine.

    The sound of your heat beating…made it clear suddenly (naa naa naa) the feeling that I can’t go on….IS LIGHT YEARS AWAY…

    singing the power of love at work totally normal.

  12. I’m thankful that this morning was a running rest day. I slept like the DEAD last night. My body clearly needed it!! And I’m thankful that tomorrow is my last long run before the half, weee!!

  13. I have been waiting for summer streets since last years summer streets! So glad its (almost here!)

    this week I’m feeling super thankful! 🙂
    -I’m thankful for mornings that start with a run. I may crash @ 3, but there is no greater way to start the day.
    -I’m thankful for nice and cute ER doctors- if you’re going to be stuck there, its nice to have some pleasant eye candy to distract you! (Ofcourse it would be even nicer to not be meeting them IN the ER…but we’ll take what we can get!)
    -I’m thankful for eyeliner that lasts literally all day and night.
    -I’m thankful for buttercream frosting
    -I’m thankful that my parents came to visit this weekend
    -I’m thankful for thoughtful people
    -I’m thankful for positive changes made within a year

  14. Hahaha best line of this whole post:
    “Sleep more. Go hard less. Don’t be an a-hole. Run a marathon.”
    I literally LOL’d on the “Go hard less. Don’t be an a-hole.” (That’s what she said)
    And I’m thankful for checking out Summer Streets this weekend too!!

  15. I am thankful that as of yesterday I finally have a job!! And not just any job- this job I am excited about!! I have been out of work since November and it is so nice to finally think I will have a place to go to a few times a week (it is part-time). Very very thankful!!

    Other than that I am thankful that I found out about the free haircuts in the city- it had been over eighteen months since I had a haircut and my hair had inches of dead/split/ugly ends!!

    I am thankful that I had an amazing yoga class on Tuesday and hope to repeat that.

    I am thankful I get to see my little brother on Saturday!!! He has been away on cruise for his semester at sea for school for over six weeks and I haven’t actually seen him in about eight weeks since our schedules did not align much before he left!! He is awesomesauce and majorly inspiring and just awesome!!!

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about ali

I’m the creator of the Ali on the Run blog and the host of the Ali on the Run Show podcast. I’m also a freelance writer and editor, a race announcer, a runner and marathoner, a mom, and a huge fan of Peanut M&Ms, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (way better than the first one!), and reliving my glory days as a competition dancer in the early 2000s. I’m really happy you’re here.
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