Um so I've been terrible about posting!

So I have been super busy, work, fall season, winter season and the occassional social event has been taking up all my time.

This Sunday I did the 18 MILE tune-up in Central Park. That is 3 loops of Central Park, 3 Harlem Hills, 3 Cat Hills, 3 west sides, oh and those three half mile flat sections in the park. :) It was a killer. I was super lucky though. I started the race with my friend Kristin, and when she got in front of me, I saw Barb, who walked with me (faster than I run) for a good snipet, then met up with my friend Jeff, who hung out with me until he was kicking my butt, then I ran into Bo (who was awesome enough to come out and run 8-9 miles with me) and then Mike and Aleks joined Bo and I and continued with me to the finish. I have the best training buddies, friends, coaches and teammates around. So awesome to have all those people to distract me while I ran and ran and ran. Rumor has it that those 18 miles are harder than the marathon itself. Not sure if I believe that, but I do hope it is true.

As a little break from training I am taking part in Light the Night on october 1st (with the family) and October 14 (with TNT). Both events are a 2-3 mile walk to raise awareness and money for LLS. My uncle Paul is running the CT event!! How awesome is that. Aliza and her new little sister will be there too! My mom, dad and hopefully my Aunt Susan and cousin Sarah will be participating as well. I am not sure there have been that many Harinstein's in a small space in a long time :) The NY walk is over the Brooklyn Bridge, at sunset (yes awesome!) and Tiny Fey is the spokesperson, so who knows, she lives in NY, she may just show up!.
If anyone is interested in joining let me know!

Oops I fell off the wagon...

So many things have happened since the last time I posted. I had a little ankle issues, which you guys know about if you spend time with me regularly. ]

FIRST BIG NEWS TODAY: Aliza, my inspiration to do all this running...turned THREE today. What a great celebration, particularly becuase she gets to share her third birthday with her baby sister's three week birthday! Jason recently informed me she is getting her porto cath out on September 15th and is starting pre school very shortly.

AS TO MY TRAINING: I've have a number of hill workouts, swims, a few long runs (up to 15 miles now). But the most important new thing to report is that I agreed to be a mentor for Winter Season TNT. I am going to mentor the Disney Marathon and am back and forth about whether I want to run Phoenix or Disney (probably just a half, becuase another full would be THREE full marathons in just over sevens months, and well, that is a heck of a lock of marathoning!) As a mentor, I get assigned a group of participants and help them through the logistics of fundraising and training. Mentors are different than coaches in that I am not teaching them HOW TO RUN, but I am doing the other logistical stuff like making sure they are talking to coaches about their injuries or training problems and helping them come up with good ideas for fundraising!

FUNRAISING: Yes, I have started that again. I shot emails out to a lot of people that expressed interest in giving but never got around to it last cycle, plus someone my computer decided to send to OTHER people as well, but I am sure they will understand. So far we are seeing some great support from family in friends, both in donations and supportive emails!
I am going to hold a "Holy &^#$ I just ran my second marathon and survived!!" party on November 7th after the marathon to help fundraise, and if any of you guys out there have any donations as for as raffle prizes or anything, that would be AWESOME!! Please let me know.

I have to get to a total of $1750 for New York, and about $250 shy of that and then another $2155 for Disney/Phoenix, but it is doable I think. I just need to be creative!!

Bike ride/run/ow!

So today I was sort of lazy. I slept in and justified it becuase I was feeling some strange pain in my outside calf. I iced, stretched and then went out for a bike ride. I meant to ride about 10 miles, but due to the gorgeous day it turned in 25 miles, all of which were nail biting because I almost took out a good number of tourists and idiot in Central Park. Some pieces of advice to any of you visitng Central Park sometime soon...(1) If every other cyclist you see is riding counterclockwise...it might a good idea to do the same; (2) if you can't manage your child, it might not be the best idea to let him loose on West Drive where bikers are going 15-20 miles and hour; (3) DON'T STOP in the middle of the road in Central Park; (4)if you don't speak English, chances are if someone is screaming at you, you should get out of the way.

I really tried to be patient, and to be honest, the lower loop and Harlem Hill was no problem, it was just the mid 72nd to 102nd portion that was dangerous to be on.

Anyway I did my ride, was supposed to meet some people in Sheep's Meadow, that didn't work out so I went home on the ferry....and maybe took some time off...watched some tv, stretched and did soem laundry, and then got a three mile run in.

When I came home my leg started hurting more. I think it is just some mild perenoel tendonitis caused by a strange foot position due to those socks yesterday....figners crossed that I am right. I am taking it easy, skipped boot camp this morning and in lieu of yoga will have dinner with my dad tonight.

Summer Streets

So Saturday was supposed to be an eleven mile run down summer streets and into the park. Summer Streets is this fabulous thing NYC does the first three saturdays in August. They close down Park Avenue and a route into the park (and I think a route from the park to the west side highway) and open it to bikers, walkers, runners, rollerbladers, skateboarders, scooterers and some other contraptions I could not identify. I am pretty sure there was an ATV going along and some weird bike with really long handlbars and lots of random wheels.

We (meaning TNT) started at 52nd street went down to the Brooklyn Bridge (downhill) and back up to 52nd Street (uphill). Isn't it funny how downtown goes downhill !!! Seems appropriate to me. Then past 52nd Street, into the Park and back. I was supposed to do 11.25 miles, but due to an unfortunate sock situation (I bought new socks that didn't mesh well with my orthotics) my feet were slipping around in my shoes and I was getting cramping and doing weird things with my feet to run. I stopped after ten miles. It was a great and fun run though. NYC had water stations, rollerblade rentals, they were giving out free bike helmets and my personal favorite....the dumpster pools...I am seriously thinking about heading out there next Saturday to check one out. They had pools made out of what looked like dumpsters...so creative and fun!!!

After the run, and a shower, we had a Team In Training bonding event at the Boat Basin....great way to end your training day!

Tuesday Night GTS and the Secret Hill

Tonight we did hill repeats near the W 72nd Street Entramce. But after years of running in the park I learned that there was actually a road doing north and coming out on West Drive near 74th Street. How funny! It is one way and sort of hidden, but I have passed it at least twice a week for the last 7 months and never realized it was there. That is what I love about Central Park, no matter how much time I spend in it, I am always discovering new things!

The Mission Moment Tonight was a really terrific one. One of the women who is not only an honored teammate, but a participant in tons of Team in Training Events told us about her fight with Leukemia and three time relapse and how being part of the endurance team helped her fight as her fight got harder and harder, not only what she learned about enduring, but through the friends she made the support she recievd. How AMAZING! It's nice to be reminded why we run, especially before those grueling hill workouts! It definitely gave me goosebumps!

Lots of early mornings!

So this weekend started out with a nice 8 mile run in the park on Saturday followed by my very first Sprint Triathon on Saturday. For those that don't know a Sprint Triathon is a "not quite as long as a normal triathlon" Triathlon. They vary in distances, but this particular one was a 400 meter swim, 13 miles bike ride and 5K run. It was quite an experience.
First, the swim was not a normal one as it was in a pool in single file, with participants starting every ten seconds. I was standing around waiting to start for about an hour, but the swim went relatively well. Next was the 13 mile bikeride, which would not have been complete without a flat tire. Then the run, which may have been my worst 5K ever. My legs (particularly my it bands) did not transition from the bike to the run very well. I have to work on that. But overall it was super fun and I will completely do another one...in fact I am comtemplating one next weekend. (Just working out the logistics).

Then this morning I did Jaz's bootcamp at 6:15. The problem is apparenlty no one from Hoboken actually needs to get into teh city that early. My building shuttled doesn't start running until 6:00, nor do the buses, so I had to walk the mile to the path (someone suggested taking a cab, which I didn't think of at the time, might have to do that on Thursday). The class was awesome. I am expecting to be REALLy sore tomorrow. I am really hoping the class does something for my abs and upper body, which have really been suffering lately. Jaz is AWESOME, a great motivator. So happy Katy Sorkin talked me into taking the class :).

FINALLY!!

Last night I managed to get in a 10/3 brick, which is probably a good thing becuase I am doing the NYRR Sprint Triathlon this weekend. Unfortunately I had to do it on River Road so there was a lot of slow going and stopping. I almost got killed by a bus that was going way to fast, but other than that the ride went well. The tire held up, which to tell you the truth I was a little nervous about. Now the run is the interesting part. I had an AWESOME run, my first sub 30 5K in AGES. I used to pump them out all the time but since my platnars fascia issues I haven't seen one in a while. The irony of it all is I have been training by run/walking, not running, as a means to allow my body to recoup from the knee ordeal. Well yesterday I just felt good so I ran the whole thing and I guess the run/walk is REALLY helping becuase i dropped a minute and thirty seconds off my recent average time.

Now we just need to add that swim for Sunday. :)

Bike tubes, pumps and bricks!

So my plan for Wednesday was to do a 10 mile/3 mile brick but when I got home I realized that there was something wrong with my tire. The top of my presta valve just fell off. On Sunday I was able to fill the tire with a Co2 cartridge and get the cover on fast enough to ride, but little did I know I was supposed to deflate the Co2 the day after, so maybe that is what happened. Anywyay, I have had plenty of flate tires but I have always had chivilrous men around me to help change them. Wendesday I did it myself and what a trip it was. About a half an hour and the need for a shower later (mostly becuase it was the back tire and I had some issues getting the gears back on the rear derailer, but all went well! So proud of myself! But, didn't get my ride in because it got dark and I was planning to meet some people for drinks :(.

Cat Hill, I own you tonight!

Tonight's workout was Hill repeats on the infamous Cat Hill in the Park. Why is it called Cat Hill you ask? Well, there is a cat statue on a rock next to the hill...come on guys New York isn't THAT creative. The hill runs from the boathouse on the East Side to just before Cleopatra's Needle. We did four repeats of the hill and for the first time I wasn't terribly tired afterwards, which is amazing considering I did quite a glutes/leg/abs workout last night and was sore going into tonight's run.

Now here is the interesting query? Does the fact that I wasn't that worn out mean I didn't push myself hard enough or that I didn't do enough mileage or a combination of both?

My knee was bothering me (not hurting just noticeably different) during the downhills. I'll have to keep any eye on that in upcoming weeks. The good news is that the random IT band pain that surfaced this weekend didn't come back. YAY!!!

This past weekend: Queens Half and the Deer!

I just got scolded for not posing my weekend activities. On Friday afternoon I decided I was going to run the Queens Half Marathon. It was 88 degrees and 65% humidity when I left my apartment at 4:45 in the morning. I drove into Manhattan, picked up Kat and Jon and we headed over. Jon was awesome, he followed Kat around on his bike all day. Based on the heat and my training schedule I planned to treat the half like a 9 mile easy training run with a four mile stroll at the end. The plan worked out perfectly, no overheating issues and and I felt great at the end. It was nice to have the water stops set up, I must have gone through four refills of my water bottle during those nine miles. I heard a lot of people had trouble during our regular training runs.

The next day is the more interesting part of my training. I went out for what was supposed to be a 10/3 brick around my parent's house in CT. I was almost done with the bike ride portion and was turning down Evelyn Street (for those of you from Trumbull), was on my way down the hill and all of a sudden a deer came out of the trees. I had no chance of stopping because of the hill so I started trying to steer around him. When I went left, he went left and so on. I ended up literally grazing him as I went by and then he turned and started running with me. Needless to say I was COMPLETELY freaked out. I've seen what those guys do to cars and I am much smaller than a car. I went home and couldn't run I was so shaken up!

So that was my weekend. :)

Signed up for Boot Camp

So everyone has been raving about Jazmine's Boot Camp. The problem. . . it starts at 6:15 am...in the city. I am NOT a morning person during the week. Well, I just broke down and signed up, so for four weeks I will be getting up at the crack of dawn on Mondays and Wednesdays to work on my core and legs to make me a stronger runner.

Yes people, to train for a marathon (and a few triathlons) you need have some core strength. Tonight I did all my core work out at home. Lunges, squats, planks, side planks, 100's...the works. I expect to be in pain tomorrow but I guess i should be doing those every day in preparation for Bootcamp so I don't DIE the first day.

Tomorrow night we are doing our first hill workout...Cat hill, so not too terrible...five hill repeats. Fortunately the heat won't be as bad as it had been :) I need to squeeze some swimming in too because I have a sprint tri this weekend. Plus I need to get to the bike shop to figure out what is going on with my tire.

Well, here it goes!

So I meant to do this while I was training for the San Diego Marathon, but I started and forgot....so here is another go at it.

On June 6, 2010 I ran my first marathon, The San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. It was one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life for many reasons. First and foremost, I did the race with Team in Training, the endurance/fundraising arm of The Luekemia and Lymphoma Society. Together my friends and family raised over $4200 for the cause!!! I have a young cousin and several family friends who are suffering from different forms of Luekemia so it made the experience even more personal. Second, I ran a FREAKING MARATHONG! I had some serious knee issues prior to the race and ran extremely injured. My younger brother stepped up and helped me through the last 7 miles, my coaches were incredible from getting me through the training to race day to being there after I finished. I made some great friends and proved to myself I could achieve almost anything.

When I was a kid I had an extremely athletic father and brother. The only sport I really excelled at was Tae Kwon Do. In fact, my parents let me stop playing soccer because I "didn't like to run!" In high school I couldn't even run the mile in less than 12 minutes. In college things changed a little. I played rugby (which started becuase of a randon act of boredom sitting in the forms) and I fell in love with running. My Rugby coach had us run three miles a day and I just got hooked, even after I stopped rugby becuase of an occipital nerve injury.

I took about four years off (2003-2007) and started again in 2007. And last month I finished my first marathon. I say first because it is definitely the first in a line of many. :)