Getting Your Zzz’s; Plus: a Minor Relapse

Don’t fret. It’s not as bad as it sounds. I’ve only had a major relapse in scaling back my cupcake-eating, which won’t help the current state of my unraveling running shape.

But they were tasty ones—gingerbread, hot chocolate and half-baked cookie dough cupcakes from Main Street Cupcakes.

I’m willing to throw in the excuse I just picked up from Nigella Lawson: it’s not good for you, but it’s the holidays. And if that’s not reason enough to binge on cupcakes, I don’t know what is. She’s a fairly successful woman, and I think I should listen to her.

My training, however, came to a grinding halt on Sept. 29 the second I crossed the Akron Half finish line. No cool-down run, hardly any post-race stretching. Just a sudden stop, some x-rays and plenty of whining.

Lucky for me, I had two triathlons and all of the major road races for the season under my belt, and I was headed into my first off season. It’s picked up here and there in the past couple weeks, but I’m trying hard to balance recovery time with cardiovascular/strength maintenance while not falling too far off the meager progress I made with my diet.

The cupcakes are pretty difficult to kick and probably won’t help my body recover from the season. But sleep will!

We all know that sleep is like a magic pill—it enables our bodies to regenerate and recover from on- and off-season workouts—and getting eight hours of it on a regular basis keeps hormones at ideal levels and clears your brain. Do you remember the last time you got some kick-butt sleep? A Stanford study found that extra sleep helped the basketball team run faster, sink more shots and play with greater energy. Duh, right? But how much sleep did you get last night? The night before?

Sleep isn’t something most people put at the top of their priority list, but it’s the one thing that can make a huge difference. So, this public service announcement—reminding you to get your sleep this off season—will help you recover better, bounce back faster and pretty much live longer (Jim knows his sleep; read his "Read It and Sleep"). What’s not to love about that?

Let’s just say I’ve been loving it. A lot. Neil and I hit the racquetball courts again on Tuesday with Jeff for an hour of cutthroat. It wasn't too intense, but a swell time. We cooled down with an 8:30/mile pace half mile (what a cool down!) and a brief walk—all of which felt all right on me! Then I did some brief bricking: three sets of 5-minute stationary cycling/half-mile run at the track.

I cycled pretty hard (no races on Tuesday) and maintained an upper reach 175 HR across the pedaling and running, which I did at about 9:00/mile pace. It was a little faster than I had hoped, but my leg held up as if I had no reason to slow. Progress? If I don't overdo it.

It’s been months since I pulled off anything close to that kind of workout. And lucky for me, I wasn’t sore at all. I did, however, come home last night and pass out on the couch to the tune of Friends re-runs on TBS. Talk about 45 minutes of pleasant napping power.

Then I did again this evening. Same time, same place. Only today I had lunch at Bronte (where I had a delicious vegetarian chili over green rice I’d like to remake in my kitchen) with Betsy and Dan before scarfing down all the cupcakes. But I guess all that eating and book-shopping takes plenty of muscle too. Recovery (and sleep) is essential.

Back from a Good Run in NYC

After a lovely trip to New York, I’m back in NEOhio for the foreseeable future. Neil has a vacation freeze and I have a thesis to develop and write. We’ll be going back to New York in early August, but I’ll be hitting the roads for the rest of the summer in this neck of the country.

My computerless home life and the NYC trip have kept me blog-free for several days, but I’ve been itching to report on my New York running experience. We flew in on Friday, and walked about ten miles each day through Sunday. And we even set the land-speed record for making it from the Upper Eastside to the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge (less than 1.5 hours) by subway and foot.

But that Sunday wasn’t all about running through crowds and angering Neil by jumping on the wrong trains. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always admired the people I saw jogging through Central Park. Until recently, however, I couldn’t have run more than a quarter mile, so I could never be one of them. And until this past weekend, I never realized how many people there actually were!

I started my run at Mariel’s apartment on E. 85th and ran to the park. I wound through the paths and roads until I jogged smack into the AIDS walk where thousands of people were waiting to begin. So, I ran along the south edge of the park and then meandered through You’ve-Got-Mail-ville on the Upper Westside and through Riverside Park.

And by the time I wound back across the Westside, through the park and around the Eastside, I had run 10.15 miles like it was nothing. It’s incredible what good scenery can do for a run!

Plus, it was a fairly even run—between 8:15 and 8:25/mile across all ten—that didn’t exactly start off too peachy. Alongside being tired from the two days of vacation-pace living (well, my vacation pace; poor Neil must love it!), I had been going to bed late and waiting up early, which is my forte, for at least a week. And then my knee started aching before I even hit two miles. So, as usual, I figured I would run a few miles and head back.

The worst that could happen, I reasoned, was that I’d have to start walking or stop to rest. In Central Park. But seeing all of the people (and wanting so badly to be one of them) helped me warm up my creakedy knee, get my legs going and skip gingerly through my run.

And that run was just being a warm-up for our race across the city to get a picture of a fish on the Brooklyn Bridge (Long story short: I won the ‘fish award’ again this month at work and thought it would be cute to take a photo with the fish in a distinctly NY place… but we didn’t really go anywhere distinctly NY the whole weekend. So as time ran out, we dashed across the city to take a photo of the most New Yorky thing there is: the Brooklyn Bridge. And let’s just say, it’s not empty on a Sunday afternoon. But boy did we run long and fast! I think Neil is ready to start his distance training…).

Once my home computer is kicking again, I’ll share photos from Portland and New York… including photos from my cupcake journey. So far, Hudson: 1, New York: 0. Out of all the NYC cupcakes I’ve eaten over the years, most have been fantastic and almost all have looked beautiful. But I cannot tell a lie: the frosting at Main Street Cupcakes has to be the best. Ever. We even hit up Magnolia Bakery, but their immaculate-looking lil’ cakes just didn’t quite beat the MSC.

Granted, I’ve only had one Main Street visit (and 3.5 cupcakes), but I’ll be returning this week to do some follow-up research. It’s the least I can do.

If I Can Make it There, I'll Make it Anywhere

Good luck to everyone who will be running the Cleveland Marathon (half, full and 10K varieties) -- it looks like you might get a whiff of good weather. Won't that be the first time this season (knock on wood)?

I, on the other hand, will be in New York, where we will be reliving the last several days of rainy and cold weather. But it's still New York. And I'm really excited to celebrate Betsy and Dan's engagement and to see Mariel in her element.

It's almost midnight and while I haven't quite packed, I did get out for a 4-mile run this evening after work. I ran it a little faster than I had intended (~7:40/mile), but I swear I'm still coming down from my car rage! It was also colder than usual (it had to be in the 40s with the wind that ate at me for half my run), so I couldn't help but get kicking fast!

Starting next week, however, I would like to get back to midday runs and, perhaps, cycling in the evenings. And I suppose I should return to that little thing called swimming too. You know if has been too long since you've been swimming when you have to use the search function on your blog to find your last workout in the pool.

Despite the rain, I'm bringing my running shoes and crossing my fingers for a convenient break in the weather. Not only should I have more time to get in a jog this weekend (and enough cupcakes for incentive) than I did in Portland, I'm far more familiar with Manhattan than the great Northwest. But I won't expect the runner-driver relationship to be any better than it is here in little Stow, Ohio.

Speaking of this little part of Ohio, I visited a new cupcake shop in Hudson yesterday called Main Street Cupcakes. I was pessimistic (as always) about what caliber of cupcakes Hudson could possibly have to offer.

Well, let's just say that I'm a believer. There will be more details to follow, but when I'm in New York, I'm going to search long and hard for frosting that tops Main Street's. And it will be a tough task. But, you know, someone has to do it!