What I Wore {post 39}

Hello and Happy Wednesday!  It's been a little while since I did some What I Wore posts, but that ends today!  These really run the gamut from a girls' night out to something really casual. 

* Black Strapless Pants Set *

I wore this to a bachelorette party recently.  This outfit is from Victoria's Secret from 1999/2000.  I saw it on a guest at my friend Heather's wedding (though she wore it in blue).  Another bridesmaid said she had the same outfit but in black.  I knew black would be a wise choice, so as soon as I got home, I took out the catalogue (!!) and placed my order.  This was back when online shopping wasn't quite as easy as it is now.  Anyway ... this outfit is perfect for a bachelorette party.  I wore my fun long necklace and large earrings and my Burberry stilettos (purchased on sale years and years ago).   I went with a smokey eye and light lip for makeup and used a flat iron on my hair.  I took a close up of the makeup (and earrings) and also took a side shot of the outfit so you can see that the top is sort of like a tunic (you can't really tell from the front picture).  

* Orange Cardigan & Navy Pants *

I have to wear my flats most of the week these days.  I really do try to limit my heel use to only twice a week, which pains my heart because I love love love my heels.  But I notice a huge difference in how my knees feel if I avoid heels (hint: they don't hurt).  So I often base an outfit around the fact that I have to wear flats.  This was one of those days.  I wore my ankle length navy pants with an orange cardigan and a navy shell.  I wore my persimmon colored bubble necklace from the j.crew factory with it.  

* Short Sleeve Wrap Dress *

This was a new buy!  I found it at the Ann Taylor outlet when I was there with Heather around Presidents' Day Weekend.  It was a new arrival but on sale for 50% off.  I think it was around $45.  I really liked the pattern and fit and thought the belt at the waist was super cute.  The neckline is a little gapey so I pinned it, but I'm going to take to a tailor to have them fix that for me permanently.  

I've heard more than a handful of people warn that when we have a Winter like the one we just had, that we probably won't have much of a Spring to speak of, but instead will have cold to hot overnight.  Dislike.  And sad face.  Here's hoping they are all wrong.  I really love Spring.  

See you swoon,

IMLP Training Recap: Week 20

Happy Monday to everyone!  We finally had some nice weather here.  I really wish I could have ridden outside on Sunday, but it was just not in the cards.  Overall, I am still feeling good.  I notice a definite difference cardio-wise.  My coach told us that anything at the "endurance pace" should be done at a pace where you feel you could go all day long.  My runs and bikes this week were exactly like that.

I'm looking forward to Lake Placid next week!  Hopefully the weather will be good.  Temps up there are all over the place right now but seem to be around 50 degrees. Except this Wednesday when snow is predicted.  Please don't snow when we are up there.

Week 20:

Swam: 57 minutes (2,650 yards)

Biked:  3:36 hours (all on trainer - watch says 48.8 miles)

Ran:  2:58 hours (20.04 miles)

Workouts:

Monday - Rest Day!  Yay! 

Tuesday - long swim

Wednesday - bike with speed intervals + 2 mile shake out run

Thursday - easy brick

Friday - long run at endurance pace

Saturday - endurance pace run

Sunday - long endurance pace bike

Monday was a rest day.  I really needed it after my hard effort at the Philadelphia Love Run half marathon the day before.  My quads were really sore!  I enjoyed every second of my rest day.  I capped it off by using my stick roller on my screaming quads, which is definitely a love/hate exercise.  It hurts so much when I do it, but feels great after.

Tuesday was a long swim, which felt really good and helped loosen up my still kind of tight quads.  This swim workout is one I'm growing to like: 200 yards easy, four sets of 600 yards (150 easy/50 semi-hard and then repeat 3xs), and an easy 50 cool-down.  The 600 yard intervals seem a little daunting, but breaking them up into 200s makes it go pretty fast.  I was really psyched when someone joined my lane and I was lapping her.  Until I realized she was about 50 years older than me.  [still ... I won. #nailedit]

Wednesday and Thursday were bike+run workouts.  Usually, I do my bike and shake out runs in immediate succession kind of like a brick, but on Wednesday I had to drop off the kids at school, so I did the bike early and then took them to school and then did the run after drop-off but before work.  This was the first time I ran since the race and it felt good and I was very fast.  Ditto Thursday's run.  That brick was ah-maz-ing and it helped that it was nice and warm and sunny on the run!  Short sleeves! See?

Oh and ... who wants tickets to the gun show?  I should mention that I also have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.   If you want to go fisticuffs, fine. I've got Jack Johnson and Tom O'Leary ready for ya.

My arms are getting really cut and it's all due to swimming.  I used to do an at-home workout with free weights at least once a week, but I have stopped that because I work out every.single.day and I would much rather enjoy my down time with a beer [currently a rotation of Hop Devil, Dirt Wolf and Stella] on my couch than do more workouts.  Plus, the swimming is making my upper body pretty darn strong.   And beer seems to be a vital carb in my training.  And a vital part of happiness.  And life.

Friday! Friday was a 90 minute run at endurance pace.  I really loved the conditions: cool, kind of damp and overcast.  A little Eeyore-like but it meant I would be perfectly comfortable the entire time.  I wore short sleeves and arm warmers and capris and that was the perfect mix.  I put on my most mellow playlist, settled in and enjoyed a truly comfortable pace.  It felt terrific.

There were two hiccups on this run, though.  First, about 3 miles in, I realized I absolutely needed new sneakers and new inserts. My arches were bothering me, which means it's too late.  I rectified that by purchasing new shoes (Saucony Ride) at lunch. The second hiccup involved an idiot driver.  I was coming to the corner of two roads, which always makes me nervous because drivers - especially in the morning - don't really look both ways when they are at intersections, so I need to look out and assume they don't see me.  In this case, the guy didn't look and didn't see me and cut that corner very close.  I ran out of the way and smacked my left thigh into a guardrail.  I yelled some choice words that may have involved a few body parts, but the guy kept going.  I have a huge bruise on my thigh to show for it.  :(

long run = fuel belt time

Saturday's run was thankfully uneventful.  I had a great run - faster than the day before and it was sunny and warm.  I felt a little perkier, so I went with poppity pop songs that were very happy and covered in glitter.  I wore my new sneaks with new inserts and they were amazing.  Not gonna lie: I don't love the color scheme on my sneakers at all (especially after my old ones which were beautiful and super reflective and neon pink and orange).  But ... I know it will be time to replace these bad boys in early July, so I will at least have sneakers that I love at Ironman.  I also realized it's time once again for speed laces.  I have a pair of hot pink ones which I need to put on my shoes ASAP.  Maybe they'll make me like my new sneakers' colors a bit more.

Sunday:  I had a 2 hour bike ride on the trainer.  All endurance pace.  Not much to say about two hours on the trainer.  It was fine.  I got it in.  It felt good.  I watched HGTV and played on my iPad.  

See you swoon,

Decking the Upstairs Hall

I decided to do a bunch of little projects around the house last weekend on what ended up being a very rainy Saturday (um, and Sunday).  One of them was something I've been meaning to do for awhile but never really happened: decorate the top of the little chest in the upstairs hallway.  Here it is before.

I bought it from Ikea last year and it's multi-functional: it holds beach towels and sunscreen; it breaks up the weird hallway and hides the railing; and it prevents the kids from playing what I dubbed "stairwell Plinko" (like from the Price is Right) where one stands at the top of the steps and drops something down to the other who stands in the bottom floor of the house.  

I always meant to do something with the top and got lazy and didn't.  Until this weekend.  I decided then and there to just do it already.  I grabbed a ton of accessories that I had in the house and was able to use everything I had!  Here's what I did:

The basket next to the table is from Target (from the Nate Berkus line).  I actually bought it months ago and it holds extra blankets.  It also hides children playing hide and go seek.   

As for the top, on the left is a tall white vase from Ikea from years ago; the silver candlestick is from Target from a few years ago; the little topiary is from Target from a few weeks ago (I saw it and loved it and knew I could find a place for it.  The two frames in the middle were clearance buys from Target (Nate Berkus) at $3/each around Christmas.  On the right is a white lantern that my friend Julia used in her wedding and that she gave to her guests at the end of the night.  The faux coral was a buy from Home Goods. 

I'm really happy with this little vignette!  It finally feels like a real space versus just a pass through.  I have to order pictures for the frames, but I am holding off until I do my massive order of all shapes and sizes once I figure out my stairwell gallery.  For these frames, I think black and white pictures of the kids will look great.  

Have a great weekend!

See you swoon,

Race Recap: 2014 Inaugural Philadelphia Love Run Half Marathon

I was really excited to try out the brand new Philadelphia Love Run this year.  I love to run an early season half marathon and in the past few years, I've run Rock & Roll USA (in Washington DC) and Caesar Rodney (in Wilmington DE) (Rodney is the toughest half I have ever done - bar none).   So when a local half popped up, I was very eager to try, since I dropped a mortgage payment on my IMLP registration and another on camp and another on upgrading my bike and another on our trip up there in a few weeks.  So a close to home race with no hotel was a big bonus in my book.  

The big bummer of this race is that one-third of our IMLP team could not race.  Bill and I did, but Amy could not.  She got a sinus infection and had chest congestion.  She wisely sat this one out, but not without some heartache.  That's the thing about running: if it's your soul sport, nothing can take away the sting of not being able to do it.  Even though you know it's the right decision and your rational brain agrees, "yes, sitting this race out is wise, because you have a lot more training to go and you need to get better and it is going to be cold and rainy which is not ideal at all if you are even close to sick," that emotional brain says "screw you and screw everyone.  I hate everyone and I want to run."  Amy showed up and cheered at mile 1 and mile 4 and was there at the finish.  With a Sprite.  That's the kind of friend she is.    

I'm not just saying this: I felt a little anxious about this race.  I know it sounds crazy given all the training that I am doing. But I usually have a very running focused training program for my half and full marathons.  I've been running a lot, but nothing over 10 miles.  Still ... I know my fitness has improved dramatically (or "dramastically" as one Jerry Springer once memorably said), so I felt confident in that regard going into this race.  

Our coach suggested this would be a good test of fitness.  He knows my predilection for going out too fast so he forbade me from doing so. "Races are won or lost in the first mile," he told me.  And I know he is right.  So I decided to force myself to chill the heck out in that first mile.  He told me my race plan was thus:  

mile 1: 8:30 pace. no faster.

mile 2-4: increase to 8:20-8:25

mile 5-7: increase to 8:20

mile 8-finish: do not look at watch.  race person to person.  really race.

Gulp.  OK.  Race day came and it was rain.  Not just spritzing.  Rain.  Hard rain.  I think miles 1-3 it was lightly raining.  Then it stopped from miles 3-10.  At mile 10, the skies opened and it poured buckets.  By the end of the race I had water sloshing around inside my shoes! But I had a mission and was going to PR this race.  Just like Matthew Wilder sang, "ain't nothin gonna break my stride, nobody's gonna slow me down, on no I got to keep on movin".  [you know that song is on my running playlist, right?]   

I did it!  I had a great race and I nabbed a new PR.  My finish time was 1:49:52!  I broke 1:50 and that is a full minute off my prior PR at the 2013 Philly Rock and Roll Half. 

That's an 8:22/mile pace.  I was 77th in my age group of 776 women aged 35-39; 448th among 4971 women and 1075th overall among 7031 runners.  YES!  

Here are my paces:

Mile 1:  8:43

Lookie there.  I managed to control my pace and even ran it slower than my coach suggested.  This is not an easy feat!  I am always so pumped up on adrenaline and excitement during the first mile.  I am very much like those deer that manage to get themselves inside of a store and cannot get out and freak out.  That's exactly what I'm like on mile 1.  Except not at this race.  

I will say: it was raining and there were a ton of people out cheering.  I always tear up when I see spectators.  It's an incredibly selfless thing on a good day in perfect conditions.  But that those people were standing in the rain and cheering on their loved ones?  I got choked up. 

Mile 2: 8:08

Mile 3: 8:21

Mile 4: 8:16

I kind of kept to the race plan. OK, actually, no I didn't.  I picked up the pace in these early miles quite  a bit.  I made myself slow down in the next few miles.  And the hill at mile 6 helped.

Mile 5: 8:25
Mile 6: 8:38
Mile 7: 8:10

Mile 5 I decided to slow myself down a bit, because I knew I had a lot more racing to do.  Mile 6 includes the big hill leading up to the Philly Please Touch Museum (this hill is part of the Philly Marathon course as well).  But hey -- my pace was still 8:38 with that hill. Not too shabby.  Mile 7 was all downhill - literally.  

Mile 8: 8:12
Mile 9: 8:18
Mile 10: 8:12
Mile 11: 8:19

Miles 8 through 11 were my racing miles.  I honestly never race people at races that I do.  I've always focused on myself, my pace, my own best time.  My coach told me to pick people off and not to look at my watch, so that's what I did.  I would focus on someone in front of me and say inside my head "I'm going to pass you" and then would.  I also made it my mission to pass anyone in a costume or a tutu. And I didn't look at my watch except when it beeped with my splits at each mile. 

Mile 12: 8:22

Mile 13: 8:24
Mile 13.1: 8:22

Yah.  Pace slowed here a bit.  I think it was the rain a bit and also at mile 12.5, I really felt the effects of my efforts.  But I knew based on my splits and the overall time that I could definitely beat my 1:50:50 PR and I could also break 1:50.  I was not about to let that slip away, so I made my mean face and pushed hard.  Here are shots Amy took of me finishing.  I'm in the middle in the white hat, red (formerly pink but red at that moment b/c it was soaked) top, white arm-warmers and shoes with neon pink laces.  

Couple of post scripts:

the course:  honestly, the course was not my favorite.  It was a lot of time spent on MLK Drive, and after awhile it was a little boring.  Of the three half marathon courses I've run in Philly, this course was my least favorite.

the gear:  more than pretty much any other race I've run ever, I really struggled with what to wear.  The temps were going to be in the 40s, but it was going to rain the whole time.  So I needed to be warm enough but not overheat.  And chafing would be a huge issue with the rain.  I ended up wearing, what was for me, the perfect combo of clothing:  SOAS arm warmers (made of wicking material so they did not chafe like cotton), Nike tank bra, Under Armor running short sleeved shirt, Nike shorts (made of wicking material), and light weight Balega socks.  I wore a trash bag as a poncho in the corral and that kept me warm and dry until the gun went off.

And there you go!  The next stand alone half marathon I'll do will be in September, where I'll pace my friend Toya on her very first half.  I'm so excited.  From here on out until that point, I'll be doing triathlon.

See you swoon,

IMLP Training Recap: Week 19

Hello Monday.  Hello last day of March.  Come on Spring.  Please. Now.  Thanks.

Week 19 was a bit of a down week with the focus on the Love Run half marathon on Sunday (yesterday).  I'll do a race recap of that separately and later this week.  But I could see my coach eased up on the workouts this week in anticipation of race day.

Amy, Bill and I had a call with our coach this week to go over the plan for the next few months. Obviously we knew that we would be swim-bike-running in increasing amounts, but we wanted to get a handle on what we could really expect.  Our coach told us that these first 19 weeks of training have included a lot of really hard/high intensity workouts and that we would be shifting to longer workouts instead and maybe have just one high intensity workout per week.  The focus going forward would be a weekly(ish) long run during the week (which would max out at 3 hours) and a weekly(ish) long ride on the weekend that would range from 3 hours to a peak of 7 hours.  Yes.  Seven hours.  <-- wow.  We also talked about our plans to head up to Placid in a few weeks with our kids while they're on Spring Break and do a few days of training there.  One thing I was glad to hear was our coach prefers our weekday bike rides still be on the trainer.  It's just much easier to do them inside, vs. bang out a 2 hour bike ride on a Tuesday morning.

Onto the stats.

Week 19:

Swam: 1:48 hours (4,950 yards)

Biked:  2:26 hours (all on trainer - watch says 34.28 miles )

Ran:  2:38 hours (18.77 miles)

Workouts:

Monday - swim

Tuesday - bike with speedwork followed by two mile "shake out run"

Wednesday - swim: distance with speed

Thursday - easy endurance bike

Friday - easy endurance brick

Saturday - 10 minute run <-- not a typo. that says 10 minutes. 

Sunday - RACE! Half Marathon

See - it was a very light load.  My swims were pretty good this week.  They felt good but I noticed I was a little slower than usual in the water.  I'm not getting hung up on that though.  

Tuesday's bike + run was good.  Those bikes that incorporate speedwork are really tough but when they are done I feel great.  The two mile "shake out" run after the challenging bike also felt really good.  Doing all of these bricks and shake out runs is making my running stronger and making me feel really good off the bike.  

Thursday and Friday's endurance workouts were also pretty easy - really not much I can say about those.  50 minutes on the bike, then an hour brick (40 endurance pace bike/20 endurance pace run).

Saturday's 10 minute run was obviously a light warm-up for Sunday's race, which was the focus of the week.

Sunday.  For those of you who live on the East Coast, you know that Sunday we had a lot of rain.  It didn't let up on race day, so for the first time in my now-20 years of running, I raced in the rain.  Not just light drizzle, but full on, soak to the skin, rain.  It was bound to happen at some point and I'm glad it is behind me!  Despite the rain, I pounded out a PR on the course!  Stay tuned for that post on Wednesday.  Here I am before leaving for the race in my hat.  I *hate* my hat, but on a day like today it was necessary.  I think my expression says it all.

Rest day today!  And a well-earned one at that.  

See you swoon,