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.

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.

(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.

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.

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.

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:

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!

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!