Race Recap: NYRR Mini 10K

I'm back from NYC!!! It was quite the weekend with 10+ hours spent on a bus with Becky, 6.2 miles run in Central Park, 6+ Cab Rides around NYC, multiple meals out and too many drinks to count. I'm definitely exhausted.  But I did walk away with a new PR in the 10K!  Another 3 second PR but I PR'd nonetheless.  I've only run one 10K before and I think this could be my distance, had I trained.  Yep, this race was the furthest I've run since that little Marathon I ran on April 18th.  Oops.  It was a great race though and I'm glad I came to NYC to run this race with lots of other awesome bloggers...

Ali, Emily, Becky, Tina & Theodora!

 But let's rewind, shall we?  The weekend started in South Station at my favorite place, Cheeseboy. The tag-line for Cheeseboy is "the best things in life are cheese," and I couldn't agree more.  I'm pretty much obsessed with cheese so I was excited we could start the weekend on the right foot : ) From there we took the Bolt Bus down to NYC to stay with Theodora.

We were greeted with wine, cupcakes, Theodora, Ashley and Bailey before heading to Serafina at the Time Hotel for dinner with Ali, Emily and the Rocketship.

I got my pre-race staple: Lobster Ravioli and it was almost as good as my local Italian restaurant.  Yum!!! Becky and I also shared a salad.  We had a blast together with gallons of water and pounds of parm cheese : ) Then we headed back to Theodora's for a restful night of sleep.

Here we are, pretending we are ready to run so early in the AM.

Race morning of the NYRR New York Mini 10K,  my stomach was a mess and I was nervous as hell.  I was not a good time to hang out with before the gun went off but once the race started, I calmed down. My goal was to start slow and progressively get faster.  But we all know that's not how I run.  (I actually did run this way at the National Half- my first mile was 8:45 and my last was 7:43, someday I will negative spilt again. Someday.)
This is how I feel about this race.  It was H-O-T. I probably needed some fuel before the race (I could barely eat) and gatorade during. I had some horrible thoughts during the race.  I thought about quitting, but I tried to dig deep and in the end I was able to sneak out a 3 second PR. 51:44 (8:20 pace)

Liz

F29

1157

MA

USA

819

819

244

0:51:44

0:25:04

08:20

 I know I didn't train for this race, but I know I should be able to run faster and I hope I do at the BAA 10K in two weeks! And here are my paces...

 The first mile I was actually right next to Kelly... I thought about saying hi but since we've never met in person I didn't want to seem like a creeper. So hi Kelly!!! I also kept Ali in my sights for the first 3 miles, but then I lost her...I came through the 5K at 25:04 and felt pretty good until I turned the corner and ran up a hill.  I looked down at my watch at one point and I was close to a 9:30 so I knew I was just trying to hold on.  Once I got down to the last mile, I knew it was almost over. So I did whatever I could to will myself to the finish.  The race counts down... 800 meters to go (the distance I ran in college), then 400 meters to go (my favorite distance) and 200 meters to go.  I was a sprinter but I barely had a sprint left in me.

And here is a picture of the elevation.  I thought for sure Mile 4 was going to show some crazy elevation.  But it didn't so I'm not sure why I was struggling so much at that mile, but I was.

I forgot to mention one thing about this race.  I threw up at the end.  Yep. I did.  I had nothing in me besides water but I exerted myself so much I got sick and I can tell you it's pretty much 100% because of the heat.  Lizzy + humidity= miserable. But don't worry, I'm queen of the puke and rally : ) TMI? Sorry.

I definitely learned some stuff in this race.  

• I learned that I should run more than 4.5 miles before running a 6.2 mile race.  
• I learned that 96% humidity and I don't get along.  
• I learned that I need Gatorade when it's that hot out.  
• But most of all, I learned that running races with friends is the best way to run them : )

And I learned that I will always, always run for CHEESE.

Shout out to Stephanie, who made me this awesome shirt : )

 After the race, we headed to a Blogger Brunch organized by Christy at Whym. I wasn't sure what I was craving so I ordered the special- Smoked Salmon on a Pretzel Bread with Sweet Potato Fries and a Fellini (Pear Puree and Champagne). And I stole some of Becky's Pancakes.  Oh, and we got a side of Bacon.  Besides cheese, I will always always run for bacon.

After the race, Becky and I headed back to Theodora's for some much needed relaxation before a night out on the town.  Stay tuned for my restaurant recap on Ninja!

I had so much fun at the race with my blog friends : )  And I'm so happy I went to NYC : ) Can't wait to go back!

Have you run an NYRR race?  THEY are so well run!  Do you like the 10K distance?

Mikey and Mommy's Birthday Surf & Turf!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY AND MIKEY!

 About a month ago, my mom and brother celebrated their birthdays. Yep, my brother was born on my mom's birthday AND Mother's Day.  What a gift! It took us awhile to celebrate but we finally did on Memorial Day.  And it's taken me this long to post about it!!!

After spending an amazing weekend on the Cape, I cooked up a storm on Monday in honor of two of my favorite peoples special day! On the menu: Corn on the Cob, Salad, Baked Zucchini Fries with Kale Chips, BBQ Steak Tips and Lobster. It was quite the spread!

 Surf and Turf galore. 

 The baked zucchini fries were awesome and I will definitely make them again.  I love finding new ways to use zucchini!  The recipe was inspired from Two Peas & Their Pod.

Baked Zucchini Fries:
Ingredients:
3 Medium Zucchini, sliced into skinny sticks
2 large eggs (or egg whites)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
Seasoning of choice- I used dried basil, cayenne and oregano
salt and pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425.  Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.  In a bowl, whisk eggs.  Then put the breadcrumbs and seasonings in another bowl. Mix well.  Dip the zucchini sticks in the eggs then into the bread crumb mixture.  Place the sticks on a baking sheet.  Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until they are nice and crispy.  

All together, I think I had a little bit of everything. Now that's a full plate.

I also BAKED dessert!  I really wanted to make Carrot Cake and after scouring the blog world, I decided to use Sugar Plum's recipe.  Maybe because Sugar Plum is my favorite word in the world.  The cake was good.  It wasn't great and next time I make Carrot Cake, I will definitely use Lauren's recipe. I think the raisins scared me Lauren, but I'm going for it next time!

 Sugar Plums Frosting tasted a little too cream cheesy to me so I added in about a cup of confectionary sugar.  This is why I don't bake because I like to add things in on the fly and I know you're not supposed to do that.  But I'm much too adventurous to follow a recipe exactly! The cake wasn't as moist (eww I know) as I would have liked. I think I needed oil like Lauren's recipe.  You live and you learn.

But the recipe that was really tasty was Coconut-Lime Berry Cake from Martha Stewart.  Look how gorg these bars are, right?

 And this was a simple recipe.  I like simple recipes that don't tempt me to stray too far.
Coconut-Lime Berry Cake Bars
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperture
1 3/4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
salt
1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of lime zest plus 2 tablespoons of lime juice
3 cups of mixed berries- I used blueberries and blackberries
3 tablespoons of orange juice
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cups of flour, baking powder, salt and coconut.  In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup of sugar on high until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.  With mixer on low add in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and beat until well combined.  Stir in lime zest and juice and then pour batter into a 9by 13 inch baking dish.  In another bowl, toss 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, the berries and OJ. Scatter the berry mixture over the batter. Bake cake until cake is golden at edges about 35 minutes.  

 But the best part of the meal was enjoying it with the rest of my family in Omaha.  Oh Skype, how I love you!

Off to spend time with some of favorite bloggers!!! Happy Friday everyone : )

Do you like to bake? Do you always follow the recipe?

First Love

Once upon a time I considered dinner sauteed spinach with store-bought tomato sauce over pasta.  It was pretty much the only thing I knew how to cook.  And spinach is definitely high up there as one of my favorite green leafy vegetables.  It's taken a back seat in recent years due to my love of kale and arugula but spinach will always be my first love. Before I cooked, I sauteed.  And I loved it.  It's about time I cooked with spinach again.  Spinach, I've missed you...

Recently, I made two delicious, creative and vegetarian spinach dishes that I think you guys will love.

First: Spinach and Mushroom Deep Dish Pizza. 

Swoon.

For months, I've had "deep dish pizza" written in my notebook, but haven't gotten around to making it. I finally did and I'm not sure I will go back to regular pizza again. Aside from it being difficult to get the dough into the cake pan, it was pretty easy to make and delicious to eat : )

Anyway, I knew I wanted to make a deep dish pizza with spinach and mushrooms so I asked Google.  After going through several recipes, I found one that sang out to me: Florentine Deep Dish Pizza from Kentucky Home, adapted from Rachael Ray. It combined my love of mushies (especially Shitakes- those things make any meal AWESOME) and creamed spinach. 

I should also mention that before I cooked and fell in love with all things veggies, I considered Frozen Creamed Spinach from Birds Eye my go-to "cooked" vegetable.  

Eeek.  Now being older and wiser, I know I don't need to microwave that stuff anymore when I can make it just as easily with real ingredients. The ingredients inside this package are a little scary: Spinach, Half and Half (Milk, Cream), Milk, Butter (Cream), Onions, Water, Contains Less than 2% of Food Starch Modified, Salt, Sugar, Corn Oil, Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Dextrose, Spice, Onion Powder.

Florentine Deep Dish Pizza
Inspired by Kentucky Home

Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, sliced

salt and pepper

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup milk (I used whole because I had it)

Freshly grated nutmeg

1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry in a clean kitchen towel

1 pound store-bought pizza dough, halved

1 cup + 1/4 cup of shredded Italian Fontina or Provolone cheese ( I used an Italian Mix)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of the EVOO.  Add the mushrooms and saute until golden brown.  Season them with salt and pepper, then remove to a plate.  Lower the heat to medium-low, then add the butter to the pan and melt.  Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute, then sprinkle the flour into the pan and whisk for a minute.  Whisk in the milk and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add drained defrosted spinach into the mushrooms and sauce.  Remove from the heat. Roll out 1/2 of the store bought pizza dough to form a round that is large enough to cover the bottom and sides of a 9 inch cake pan.  (this was tricky!!) Lay the dough in the pan and use a fork to form the dough on the bottom of the pan. Fill the dough with the mushrooms and spinach mixture and top with Italian Cheeses.  I ended up doing this twice (two layers) and I still had leftover filling (more on that in a minute). Bake in the over for 30-45 minutes until the edges and bottom of crust are golden brown.

Then slice up the pizza and enjoy it with a side salad.  

Creamed spinach in a deep dish pizza?  Yes, please.

With the leftover dough, I made the cutest deep dish mini pizzas in cupcake holders.  But I forgot to take pictures : (  Oops!

Second: Greek Spinach Burgers.

Another recipe with frozen spinach, I made these Greek Spinach Burgers again, originally inspired by Baked Bree.

If you have a leftover bag of herb stuffing mix from Thanksgiving, this is your recipe to use it up!  You mix that with feta cheese, spinach, eggs and seasoning and grill them up and you have a tasty vegetarian burger.  I like to add Store-bought tzatziki sauce on mine as well.

Served with a side salad and sweet potato fries, that's dinner in twenty minutes right there : )

Spinach will always be one of my favorite vegetables.  And frozen spinach is such a time-saver : )

RUNNING:
My first love with running will always be the track.  I'm not able to get to a track nearly as much as I would like due to where I live and work so I do most of my speed on the treadmill. I haven't worked out since my 5K on Saturday and I've been itching to get in a good speed workout.  I'm lucky I was able to break away for a bit today because work has been crazy! It was a good workout, gearing me up for the NYRR New York Mini 10K on Saturday.  Yep, heading to the big city this weekend with Becky to run the race and hang out with lots of blogger friends (as well as besties Debbie and Dana of course : ). 
If you are running the race, let me know, let's meet!


On to the Speed Workout...got this one from my running club and Becky did it yesterday. I had to condense my Warmup and Cool-down since I went at lunch. As always, my goal is to get faster with each interval.

.50 mile warmup- 6.0

1200 (5:53) - 7.5-7.6 (7:53 pace)

400 rest (6.0)

1000 (4:45) - 7.6-7.8 (7:38 pace)

400 rest (6.0)

800 (3:46) 7.8-7.9 (7:34 pace)

400 rest (6.0)

600 (2:47) 8.0-8.2 (7:27 pace)

400 rest (6.0)

400 (1:41) 8.5-9.0 (6:46 pace)

.50 mile cooldown- 

4.50 miles 40:47

That was a toughie!  But I'm glad I did it!  Speed Workouts will always be my favorite part of training.  That and gossipy long runs where you just chat the whole time and the miles just ease by. But speed work brings me back to what made me fall in love with running to begin with: track.

What's your favorite part of training?  

And for my foodies- Do you have a favorite green leafy vegetable?

New PR! Foxboro 5K!

You should end all races with a smile on your face...

There I am sprinting to the finish line of the Foxboro 5K.  I finished in 23:36, 7:37 pace AND a 3 second PR.

Liz C               6 19-29               23:36.0      7:37/M

My previous PR was from 2003 so it's about time I improved on it!  Now I want to run sub 23s or even 22s!! I'm actually enjoying these short distances.  They are over so quick!

Marino Lookout Farm 5K Road Race 2003

MA

5/18/03

9

35

201

23:39

 Big shout out to my friend Erin, who told me about this race.  She lives around the corner and was going to run it but sprained her ankle.  Instead she was my amazing race photographer.  Thanks Erin!!!

Another shout out to Adrienne from Running in Hingham who helped me get this PR.  We ran together most of the race and she told me that I would easily break 24 (which was the goal for today).  She also encouraged me to sprint ahead at the finish which turned out to be pretty smart since I narrowly broke my PR by 3 seconds!  Thanks AR!

Dave and I were originally supposed to run this race together but he took off like a crazy person running a 6:50 first mile.  Now I'm all about going out fast in 5Ks, but that's a little too fast! Don't worry though, I almost caught up to him by the end : )

Overall, I really enjoyed this race and I'm starting to enjoy the 5K distance.  I think I want to get a few more under my belt this summer!

SPLITS:

Mile 1: 7:22 

Mile 2: 7:47 

Mile 3: 7:45 

.11: 6:20

3.11 miles in 23:36 (7:35 pace- Garmin/7:37 pace official)

But the best part about this race was I got to run it with my blog friends!!! 

Oh and this was the first race I ran without any music and it wasn't so bad!  I forgot my ipod at home and I thought it would be the end of the world, but I actually kind of enjoyed it.  

I'll let Corey and Lauren recap their rockstar races but they did go 1 and 3 in the 19-29 age division : )  

Overall, it was such a fun race and I'm glad I got to spend it with some of my favorite runners.

Do you like running races with friends? Every run 2 races in three days?

Why I Run & Corporate Challenge Race Recap

So June 1st was National Running Day, did you hear?  I'm sure you did since there was a plethora of posts about it in the running blog community.  

So why do I run?

Simply, because it keeps me sane.

Because I need it.

Because I can't live without it.

Because it's who I am.

So is it any shock to you that I was one of the Captains for my teams Corporate Challenge?  

When I was asked to became a captain, I knew my first order of business was to get Dri Fit or Technical T's.  I chose to order the same shirts we got for the National Half Marathon. I ordered them from a company in California called ExpertPerformance. Then I had my friend Emily (check out her awesome blog here) design the shirts. And lastly, I sent the shirts up to Embroidme in Chelmsford, MA to get them printed. Don't they look great?

Me with Co-Captain, Kate!

We met in a conference room for gatorade, water and energy bars before heading to the Capital for a team photo.  Check out all those runners.  We had 75 people compete!

 We tried to get some jumping pictures. I'm pretty obsessed with them lately : )

Sorry Kelley, but I have to post this.  It's the world's best photo!!!

Then we headed to the commons and before we knew it, we were off...

I started out with my Kate, one of the other captains, but close to Mile 2, I couldn't keep up.  I was pretty proud of the pace I was maintaining, but it felt REALLY hard.  Truth is, I really struggle running at night.  I prefer to run races in the AM. But I'm getting closer to my goal of racing at 7:30 pace.  Here's my results:

Mile 1: 7:38 Mile 2: 7:33 

Mile 3: 7:54 

.50: 3:53 (7:31 pace)

3.5 miles in 26:56 (7:41 pace)

3rd Women on my team

263rd Woman out of 5240 (not too shabby...)

Oh, PS.  I saw Jess between Mile 2-3 and I screamed out and said hello!  We ran a few steps together... Jess it was good to finally meet you!

After the race we headed to Battery Park Bar and Lounge for some drinks! It was a really really fun night and I love being part of the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. 

Me with my co-captains, Kelley and Kate!

Now I'm off to run another race, the Foxboro 5K with my husband and a bunch of my blogger friends.
Have you run the Corporate Challenge before?
And Why do you Run?

Cape Cod: Memorial Day Weekend

*Today is National Running Day.  I want to talk about my love for running but I'm going to wait until after the Corporate Challenge Race tomorrow night so I can write about running AND a race recap! But, I hope everyone had a lovely running day!*

I love a lot of things in life.  Most notably: my husband, my family and my friends (& running, but I'll talk about that another day).  But I love my friend Stephanie even more than normal because she just bought a Cape house in Brewster, MA.  You can read about how Stephanie's making her house into the perfect beach home here on her new blog! Go check it out!

The Cape is a magical place and I love making the hour and a half trek (with no traffic) down to one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you've never been to the Cape, you need to get there!  It's such a special place in New England!

Dave and I got down to Brewster just as the game was starting.  You know, Game 7 of the NHL Playoffs.  While the boys did some hockey watching, the girls gossiped and cooked.

Luckily, the Bruins won, otherwise the boys would have been pretty cranky.  And for the first time since 1990 the Boston Bruins are in the Stanley Cup Finals!  How cool is that?  Could we live in a better city?

The next morning, we awoke to clouds and fog so the girls headed out for a 3 mile run on the bike path. I did 3 miles of cutdowns at 10 minutes, 8:40 and 8:06.  Felt great.  Then because it was still too cloudy to head to the beach, we decided to do the next best thing: Drink.

Courtney recently went to a Bachelorette that served this punch and it was so good!  Really really sweet but also delicious. I loved it!
Spiked Punch
Ingredients:
1  can frozen cranberry juice concentrate
1 can frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1can frozen limeade concentrate
1 bottle white wine, chilled
1 liter carbonated water, chilled
2 bottles champagne, chilled
1 lemon - sliced, for garnish
1/2 cup fresh mint, garnish
Instructions: Mix together and serve!


And then the sun came out.  So we gathered our stuff and headed to the beach, ocean side.

We played some games, listened to music and attempted to go in the water.  A few hours later we headed home to this little guy...

He definitely missed us...

And the boys got grilling.  On the menu: Steak Tips, Shrimp and Swordfish Kabobs, Avocado Dip, Salad, and Mashed Potatoes.

I had a little bit of everything : ) We hung out a bit more than headed to a local bar for live music.  So local in fact, that we could walk!  The bar was crazy packed and a lot of fun.

I love my High School friends : )

The next day the boys woke up early to golf and us girls headed to the beach.  In the late afternoon most people left but Dave and I decided to stay with Steph and Mike for dinner.  We were all craving friend Clams and decided to go to Cobies.  As we were driving, I noticed the sun was rapidly setting and I knew if we got to the beach quickly we could get some beautiful photos.  And I'm so glad we got to Crosby's beach in time.  I mean check out these photos!

Awww, I love Cape Cod and I love beautiful sunsets.  Nothing makes me happier.  Except maybe this guy....

Oh and being the mature kids we are we decided to have a little fun. Dave was definitely embarrassed by us but we were enjoying ourselves.

As you can probably tell by these photos, Stephanie used to be a dancer and a gymnast.  All that training paid off : )

After our fun, we headed to Cobies for some grub: Clam Chowder, Fried Clams, Salmon Sandwich, Crab Roll and Sweet Potato Fries.

Then Dave and I said our goodbyes and headed home.  It was a wonderful weekend on the Cape with my best friends.  The Cape is really one of the best places on earth and Brewster is quickly my new favorite place.

Have you been to the Cape? What's your favorite place?