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NYCM Training Week 5: Savor the City

Wow, 89 days from now I’ll be heading to bed in preparation for the New York City marathon! While 89 days sounds short when I say it, at least in my head I know that it’s over 12 weeks away!

Last week’s 26 miles weren’t necessarily done in normal fashion but I finished the week feeling stronger than I have in a while! Reflecting on the workout schedule I posted last Monday night leaves me smiling:

Monday: 5 miles in Central Park+Pure Barre blogger class

Tuesday: cross training

Wednesday: 5 4 miles

Thursday: yoga/stretching +2 miles

Friday: 14 mile long run 12.5 mile run +Physique 57 blogger class

Saturday: 4 miles

Sunday: 2 miles

While I didn’t get the miles in the exact order, I woke up super early Friday morning to get a quality long run in even though the morning’s humidity left me soaking wet within a few miles. I was out late both Friday and Saturday night and was therefore thankful that I front loaded my week’s miles.

Looking forward to this week, my goal is to savor my last full week of training in the city for six weeks. Running in New York City can be an amazing energizing experience if you plan things correctly. Tonight, thanks to my office running club, we enjoyed one of my favorite runs in the city: Queensborough Bridge. The 5 mile run wasn’t always easy due to the incline but sharing this experience with two runners who had never experienced it was magical! I was able to share my bridge defeat with them that I experience during last year’s marathon and find inspiration in their excitement. In addition, they are such supporters that we’ve decided to run the bridge more often to help prepare me for the marathon.

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This week’s long run will allow me to finally enjoy the NYC Summer Streets program as I conquer Park Avenue with other NYC runners. The route, which runs from 72nd street down to the Brooklyn Bridge will be a perfect way to log miles without the normal traffic interference!

This week’s schedule will take me to 29 miles, just short of the 30 mile hurdle which I’ll conquer next week. In addition to enjoying my first personal training session with Lauren who is back from maternity leave, I want to squeeze in at least one yoga session to keep things balanced and loose.

Monday: 5 miles (Queensborough Bridge)

Tuesday: personal training+foam rolling

Wednesday: yoga+weights

Thursday: 6 miles

Friday: 4 miles

Saturday: 14 miles

Sunday: Rest

If I’m lucky, I’ll also enjoy a massage sometime this week. I can’t decide whether to schedule it before my long run, midweek, or as a long run reward.

Question: What is your favorite way to reward yourself after a great week of workouts?

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ashleyd /

BlogHer ‘12

This weekend I spent my time between two places: an air conditioned hotel and Mexican restaurants. My BlogHer weekend started with a wonderful workout with Fitfluential friends at Physique 57 thanks to Well+Good NYC followed by a four hour long dinner with fellow bloggers at Agave. It was hands down the best part of the entire weekend and conference. I swear I learn more from my peers than I could ever learn in a conference alone. I loved getting to know Gina and Erika, new to me area bloggers, who were just as beautiful as their blogs!

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This weekend inspired me to think about how I want to take this blog to the next level. How do I want to meet my readers needs better than I have for the past few months. While my work schedule has been a bit crazy lately, that’s no reason to lose sight of my passion and all this blog has done for me over the past few years. The sessions I experienced on the Professional Track at BlogHer left me with a lot of information to think about and process. For now, the only thing I’d say you can expect can be summed up in one nice, clean bullet point:

  • In order to improve interaction with my readers, I will be more focused on comment response, Twitter and Instagram interaction, and sharing information via Facebook. 

Thanks to the ladies of Fitfluential and this weekend’s Video session, I thought that sharing my BlogHer thoughts via video would be more fun than a long, detailed post. I’m learning my way through video editing so they can only get better from here.

If you have specific BlogHer questions about the network or conference, feel free to email me or leave a comment!

Question: If you could hear from any living female during a keynote speech, who would it be? Why?

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Key to A Good Night’s Sleep

Wake up at 4:15 for a 14 mile run 12.5 mile run through the streets of New York City just as the city is going to sleep and waking up at the same time, depending the neighborhood. IMG_3782 IMG_3783 Get ready for a customer meeting in 25 minutes flat, all while your body refuses to stop sweating thanks to the August humidity. Don’t forget to dash to grab a protein filled breakfast since protein oats just won’t do the job after a run like that.

IMG_3784Hop on the subway to finally see an event you helped plan come to fruition and say your lucky prayers for amazing brands, friends, resources, and bloggers!  IMG_3798 Spend an hour laughing and making faces with 15 other bloggers as we’re inspired to hold each move a little bit higher, a little bit longer, and use a little bit heavier weights since the co-founder, Tanya Becker, is teaching the class.

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Use some extra calories laughing since she and the other ladies are absolutely hilarious and you can’t help but smile through the burn even though your thighs hate you for doing this after a long morning run.

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Walk 1.5 miles through downtown to the West Village where chips, guacamole, cheese, and margaritas are waiting for us at Agave.

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Spend four hours hanging out with amazing new and old friends alike talking about everything from vibrators (yes they are being given out at #Blogher12) to relationships and things we’ve each experienced during our years of blogging. fosim.jpg

Walk a very long mile home at midnight sticky from the evening’s sweat and exhausted from the day.

Crawl into bed, forgetting to brush your teeth or even remove your makeup, wishing that you could sleep more than just seven hours.

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