Santa Doesn't Give Breaks- Training Update

Because Santa doesn’t give breaks or abs the holidays are no time to slack. With the ING Miami Half Marathon quickly approaching, it was time for me to get serious. According to Hal I was suppose to run 8 miles this week. However due to time restraints and holiday train schedules we had to spilt it up. As such on Xmas morning, my good friend and I did an easy 5 miles in Veterans Park while my Mother tagged along and went for a walk. It was nice to return here for a run, since I did some of my first long runs ever in this park with my good friend Darius! The three of us ended our work out with a light sprint up a large but short hill. It was awesome, Mom crushed it!

During this run I took a sports endurance gel to see the affect it would have on my body. I tried VEGA’s Raspberry Gel. It was a little too sweet for me, but I appreciate the fact that it is completely derived from whole plant foods. The main ingredient is dates, which help provide near instant energy and claims to be the only gel on the market with coconut oil, providing a non-carbohydrate form of energy.

I only took half on the first run, on the second run I enjoyed the flavor much more.

This run was truly a day of firsts, as I also wore my new Lululemon base layer. A holiday gift, the shirt was great. Lightweight yet warm, I couldn’t ask for more in a base layer.  

 Ali and I sporting our grey Lululemon baselayers (the blurry photo is a trademark of my mom!)

The next morning I woke up early and did my usual workout. In sets of 30 and 25, I did 250 push ups, 200 crunches, held a plank for 1 minute, did 20 pull ups and then did some light stretching. After a big bowl of quinoa (There he goes again. Always talking about quinoa) tomato and avocado, I tossed on my running cloths and was off. A bit warmer, I ran to the park and then did the same route I followed the day before. 

Running at a greatly increased pace, I did 7.1 miles in less than an hour. It was a beautiful morning for a run and I realized how lucky I was to have grown up so close to such a nice park. With the exception of some duck and goose poop on the trails I had the park mostly to myself! Perhaps the best thing was that when I got home there was a brand new foam roller just waiting to be used and after the 5 miles consecutive long runs, my IT band really needed to be loosened!

After a needed rest day, I returned to Brooklyn and did another long run. This one was an 8.5 mile run. Starting outside my apartment in Brooklyn Heights and running to Prospect Park, doing a loop and then returning maintaining less than a 8-minute pace. This marks the longest run I've done since I started having leg pains back in August. With no pain, the run was amazing.

This is the last post of 2011. In just a few days I leave for Nepal to go trekking with my good friend Brian. 

So now the holidays are over. Get off the couch and go do something you enjoy! 

Until next time, happy New Year!

ps- feel free to comment below on how you stayed active during the holidays.