ashleyd /

Oatmeal Smiles and Restorative Yoga

This has been one of those weeks when I can look back on the week’s craziness and smile. Did I take a conference call from the office on Thursday that didn’t end until 9:45pm? Sure! But, I also practiced my intuitive eating, balance, and helped a few co-workers along the way.

Life is about the little things sometimes, including a small reward at the bottom of my breakfast mug. What? You don’t have a smile painted at the bottom of your oatmeal mug?

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Thursday night in between conference calls I headed to Central Park for a mind clearing run. The weather was perfect and the 45 minutes of peace during the evening dusk was a great way to calm myself before this weekend’s race, conquer a few hills one last time, and review race strategies.

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Last night instead of staying for an evening of drinking at my work happy hour, I stopped in to say a quick hello and then headed downtown for another Friday night of yoga at Laughing Lotus. It was Annie’s first time teaching the Lounging Lotus class but you would have never known! She led the packed class through restorative poses while reminding us each how important this form of yoga is for our mind and body health. The class required us to use 6 blankets, 2 bolsters a strap, and 3 scented eye masks which were used to cover our eyes and weigh down our hands. These props allowed us to move into comfortable, relaxing poses and stay in them for 5-10 minutes without putting stress on our body. It was a very new practice to me as other than child’s pose I had never practiced any of these poses which included supported child’s pose, supported bound bridge pose, reclining bound angle, and supported back bend pose.

(below images are examples of the poses, compliments of www.maurayoga.wordpress.com)

Today, Bo and I both slept in before he spent the morning working and I headed uptown to volunteer with the New York Junior League before working my way back downtown running errands along the way. I had to fight through drunk St. Patrick’s Day revelers to get to the NYC Half Expo but once inside was able to quickly by a few new Sparkly Soul bands and grab my packet.

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Next stop was the grocery store to ensure we had ingredients for a pasta dinner and breakfast before the race. We’re both too exhausted to do anything fancy but instead are settling for pasta, sauce, chicken sausage, and lots of parmesan cheese. Around 1:30 I found myself craving macaroni and cheese in an odd way. Normally I would forget about it or go home and try to create a healthier form of macaroni and cheese. But, in keeping with this month’s Intuitive Eating Challenge, I followed my hunger to Beecher’s Cheese and bought the smallest portion. Two bites were all I needed but now I have a delicious post race treat waiting for me in the refrigerator!

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Last but not least, I went for an easy shake out run around Gramercy and Union Square this evening in the snowy mix. 2013-03-16 17.46.49

I kept my pace slow other than a few striders that I mixed in and returned home for more time on the foam roller. I’m so glad this nasty wintery mix is getting out of the weather’s system tonight instead of tomorrow morning. While I’m sure I could manage running 13.1 miles in snow and rain I’d rather enjoy a brisk, cool overcast morning run instead!  My goal is to spend 30 minutes on the foam roller by the end of the evening focusing on multiple different areas but especially my calves and hamstrings.

Last but not least, a huge congratulations to all those people who rocked out the RNR DC Half today! I know that Theodora and Anne both threw down huge PRs while Elisabeth and Emily both ran their first half marathons today and finished smiling! Hopefully their good energy spreads to me tomorrow!

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ashleyd /

Central Park in the Fall

While the rest of the city was hunkering down, trying to prepare for what Hurricane Sandy may or may not deliver over the next 48 hours, Bo and I spent our morning up in Central Park.

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After a relaxing evening and 10 hours of sleep, we both woke up refreshed and ready to conquer our Sunday.  Our to do list was shorter than normal thanks to keeping up with house work during the week.

  • Buy Epsom salts for a few baths this week to relax the muscles.
  • Take a long walk to loosen out the muscles while Bo runs his 8 miles in Central Park.
  • Hit the bodega or grocery store for some last minute supplies (water, crackers, soup, tea, meat, fruit, and lots of vegetables)
  • Laundry
  • Start working on marathon playlist
  • Work on New York City marathon tips post
  • stretch
  • Post the rest of my too large Lululemon gear on eBay

Everything on this list has been done except my marathon tips post. It’s weird, every time I start typing I wish that I could just start talking to someone. When people ask me questions about the marathon in person I light up and feel as if I could go on for hours. I love helping them and putting them at ease. But, when I start to type my mind goes to the fact that I’m not necessarily a “fast” runner or anyone who will Boston Qualify anytime soon. What makes me think I’m qualified to give other people tips and suggestions about the marathon that I’ve now run two times and have yet to break 5 hours?

Thanks to an inspirational running friend, Leticia, she helped me realize that this is still an amazing accomplishment.

.01% of the population ran a marathon last year. You are among an elite group of individuals regardless of your pace.

So now that I’ve finished everything else on my to do list for today, I’m going to curl up on the couch next to Bo and Meg for the rest of the evening, sipping tea, enjoying my compression socks, and write my heart out so that my New York City Marathon experiences can help others.

Until tomorrow morning, when my post will go live, enjoy the scenes from today’s hour long walk through Central Park. I really hope that Sandy doesn’t rob marathon runners of enjoying the vibrant colors as they run the last 3 miles of the marathon through Central Park.

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A New Path

Yesterday was one of those days when I wanted to do anything but run. After the Uplift workout on Tuesday night my legs were pretty sore, I had evening plans that I didn’t want to rush to make, I have a lot on my mind, and work has been pretty crazy this week.

But, knowing that the rest of my work running group was waiting for me helped motivate me to tie on my shoes and get out the door. I knew that once we started running I’d be happier and in a better mood.

Unfortunately, around five minutes in I still wasn’t in a great mood. I was just bored with our routine in general. Since I had my Garmin I suddenly realized that we didn’t have to stick to our normal path. We could run ANYWHERE in Central Park. This thought suddenly provided me with the greatest sense of excitement and freedom. I could show the group new areas in Central Park they’ve never experienced.

After our normal mile route to the Central Park entrance we diverged from habit. For the next hour we did nothing like normal.

 

  • The group wanted to challenge themselves so they stuck with me for the entire 7 miles instead of only doing 4-5 miles like normal.
  • We were only on the main Central Park loop for maybe 2 miles total.
  • We ran against traffic on the reservoir for a new perspective.
  • We spent a mile on the Bridle Path.
  • We talked about growing up as a NYC child having Central Park as your playground while running around the softball fields, The Lake and Turtle Pond.

This 70 minute run, while painful at times on tired legs, was like a breath of fresh air. Sometimes all you need to do is shake it up a bit and turn down a new path in order to bring the fun back to something that has quickly become habit.

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