Someone has been lazy about updating their blog, and now it's time for some updates!

It's been a month since I have updated this blog, and I wish that I had a decent excuse...but it was probably more laziness on my part than anything else. Well, either way, a lot of exciting things have happened, and are coming up, so it's time to update!


Corporate Challenge
To give a mini recap, I ran corporate challenge with team HSS. I clearly don't know how to execute a shorter race, but my time went from a 31:18 to a 28:21. Even though I was not one of the top 6 women to represent HSS on either the women's or mixed teams, I was very happy with my overall time improvement. 


Sadly, it was time for me to move on. Although I enjoyed working at HSS for three years, I got an amazing opportunity at New York - Presbyterian that I just could not pass up. My last day was on July 6th, and I took this week off to get some important R&R. 

Treadmill Achievement

I have always been terrible on the treadmill, and haven't been able to run for more than a few miles without going completely insane. However, last Friday was a turning point. I had to pick up my friend from Port Authority, but I had time to go to the nearest NYSC beforehand. I don't know whether it was out of sheer determination, or whether having a couple of happy hour drinks played a role, but I managed to stay on the treadmill for 50 minutes without stopping once, and completed five miles. Yay!

Coney Island Fireworks

This past Friday, I wanted to run after work, so I messaged my friend Wallis and asked her what her plans were. I didn't expect her to say "running to Coney Island after doing 6 miles on my own first", but I decided to get on board. It was my last day of work, and I needed something to distract me from that after the day was over. 

After taking the subway to Brooklyn, I met Wallis at her place and we ran about a mile uphill to Prospect Park. After that, we ran about a loop and a half. I am clearly spoiled by Central Park's numerous bathrooms - let's just leave it at that. I was physically and emotionally drained from the day, and wasn't inclined to continue to Coney Island. However, the sheer enthusiasm of the Prospect Park Track Club inspired me to keep going, so on I went. 

The group resolved to stay together for the first mile, then naturally split up depending on pace. Thankfully, Wallis and I ended up not too far behind a clump of people, and as it got later, it got cooler and it became a more pleasant run. Unfortunately, it also got darker. After crossing over to the other side of the street to grab waters at a bodega, we were on the bike path side of Ocean Parkway, and while there was room to run, the path wasn't as smooth. During the last full mile, I tripped over the curb and completely scraped my arm on the sidewalk. Thankfully, both legs were fine, and after a minute of freaking out, I got up and finished the run, which was about 12 miles and change. 

I felt shaky for a while, but after cleaning up thanks to the help of Wallis and the local firemen who lent us their supplies, we walked over and got some drinks and watched the fireworks, which were an amazing experience. I'm considering going this Friday night, but we'll see. 

Almost Time for....
...marathon training! This is my last week of not having to formally follow a schedule. I've been trying to keep my mileage at a certain level, and succeeded. Here is what my monthly mileage for 2012 looks like so far...

That's an average of 31.20 miles per week from January - June 2012. My average mileage over the past year, from July 2011 - June 2012 was 30.4 miles per week. While I know that it's not the ideal base mileage for marathon training, I will do my best to train and get a decent marathon despite this. 

I am very excited about beginning marathon training, and I will share my plan later this week. Less than 17 weeks left until NYCM 2012!