November 21, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Favorite Fall Food

Every Friday, three DC area bloggers Mary at Mar On the Run, Cynthia at You Signed Up For What?! and Courtney from Eat Pray Run, DC to host the Friday Five linkup. Anyone can join with their own Friday Five post (yes, it must be a Friday Five!!) They encourage you to visit other blogs on the linkup, comment, share and engage!

This week’s theme is Favorite Fall Food

1. Apple Pie – especially when it is homemade with local apples (warm with vanilla ice cream is the best)

Recipe

2. Sweet Potatoes

Recipe

3. Pumpkin anything

this is pumpkin chili

Recipe

4. Butternut Squash Soup

Recipe

5. Cider Donuts – right from the oven

Happy Running! What are your favorite fall foods?

November 14, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Cold Weather Running Tips

This week, the theme is Cold Weather Running Tips.

It’s starting to get cold. (In fact, there was a dusting of snow on the ground when I got up today.) I know it’s going to get worse. So there are decisions to be made:

that’s a fake smile. I hate cold weather!

1. Run in the morning. It is may be colder in the morning but it is lighter outside. I try to drag myself out of bed and run in my neighborhood before I go to work. You will definitely wake up when there’s a chill in the air.

there are lights in the park this time of year

2. If you run in the evening, run where there is light. That being said, it is warmer after work but it is already dark when I leave. So I always run where there are lights. That’s means that my neighborhood, the bike trails and the rail trail are OUT 😦 I don’t have a head lamp and even if I did, I prefer to run where there are street lights. So I choose to run near work or in the town where I live when I run after work.

iPad & water are my 2 necessities on the mill.

3. When conditions are bad, use the treadmill. When it is raining, snowing or too icy, I run on the treadmill (even though I hate it.) I use the one at work or at my “free” gym.

4. Invest in winter running clothes.

Layers are important – coolmax breathable shirt, fleece vest, windbreaker (I try to wear light, bright colors in the evening)
Tights (I usually wear a skirt or shorts over them – I am self-conscious about my thighs & I feel warmer)
Gloves (I wear cheap light ones until it gets very cold, then I wear thermal ones.)
Smartwool socks
Hat or headband

HMRRC 7K

HMRRC 15K - January

You don’t have to spend a lot of money. I buy most of mine at Target.

5. Wear YakTrax if there is snow on the ground. You won’t slip or slide.

they really work on the snow.

No matter what the weather, you still have to go out there and RUN!

Happy Running! Any other tips for running in the colder weather?

October 31, 2014 by Darlene

Five Foto Friday x3

I decided to bring back Foto Friday because I want to share just SOME of the statues that I saw last weekend in Trenton, NJ at Grounds for Sculpture. Seward Johnson is the sculptor of most of them and bases many of his works on French Impressionist paintings. (My favorite as a former French teacher.)

: Confrontational Vulnerability (based on Manet’s Olympia)

: joining this man reading

: Sailing the Seine (based on Manet’s Argenteuil)

: Were You Invited? (based on Renoir’s The Luncheon of the Boating Party)

: Forever Marilyn – I saw her when I was in Palm Springs last year

: my friends Andrea and her husband Steve at a lakeside table

: Return Visit (Lincoln)

: Unconditional Surrender

: If it were time (based on Monet’s Terrace at Sainte-Adresse)

: Dejeuner Deja Vu (based on Manet’s Dejeuner sur l’herbe)

: there were many peacocks around

: the Nature of Obsession (based on Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring)

: God Bless America (based on Grant Wood’s American Gothic)

: Daydream (based on Matisse’s Dance)

: Crossing Paths (me feeling small)

Happy Halloween!

This week’s theme is Halloween, of course!

Happy Running! Have a nice weekend! Believe it or not, I do not have a race! Do you?

October 24, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Reasons to race

This week, the theme is Five Reasons to Race.

running even while on a tennis vacation in Fla.

1. Racing keeps me running. I know that I cannot slack off. If I do, then the race will be painful (physically and mentally).

before the start of a half marathon

2. I usually run alone and when I run a race, I see and meet other runners. So much more enjoyable.

my first 5k under 30 min after being injured

3. I am competitive so when I run a race, I don’t stop and walk as much and I run faster.

smiling even though running with a stress fracture

4. I only get that runner’s high when I cross a finish line in a race.

got to see Palm Springs. CA and my friend Mary

5. Racing gives me the excuse to see new places and visit old friends.

Speaking of races, 2 days until…

Bib#: 1697

Happy Running! Why do you race?

October 17, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Favorite Fitness Tunes

This week, the theme is Five Favorite Fitness Tunes!

Ok, I just picked ones that motivate me to RUN:

Stronger by Brittney Spears
Don’t Stop by the The Rolling Stones
Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
Best Day of My Life by the American Authors
Run Run Run by Michelle Lewis

and if you haven’t, watch this video:

Addicted to Running

Happy Running! What is your favorite running song?

October 10, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Favorite fuel/foods

This week, the theme is Five Favorite Fuel/Foods for Fitness/Running/Training

1. Oatmeal or Cream of Wheat

This is what I eat for breakfast before every race. Sometimes I make instant and sometimes I make the real stuff. My favorite flavor is maple or brown sugar cinnamon.

2. Protein Bars

If I run after work, I usually eat one of these before I run. My favorites are Balance bar (yogurt honey peanut) and Kind (vanilla blueberry).

3. Energy Gels

I love salted caramel and peanut butter. Now there are 2 new ones – chocolate peanut butter & root beer!!

I usually take one GU before a race and every 4 miles during a long run or race. I have never had any stomach issues with GU,

4. H20

Just plain water…nothing added. And usually from the tap.

5. Chocolate milk

Not fuel but refuel.

For some reason, after a race, this is the only thing I can eat/drink right away. It doesn’t upset my stomach.

Happy Running! What are you favorite fuel/foods for fitness/running/training?

October 3, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Fitness Inspirations

This week, the theme is Five Fitness Inspirations

1. Healthy + Clothes = 🙂

Being active (running and playing tennis and occasionally yoga) makes me feel healthy, helps keep a healthy weight and as a result, I can wear whatever I want.

I am over 60 and I want to be able to wear the same outfits as a 20 year old (except for maybe a bikini).

2. Healthy enough to run

Every time I don’t feel like going out for a run, I remember when I was injured and couldn’t run…

and know that someday I won’t be able to anymore.

3. Effort=Reward

I think I run half marathons because running doesn’t come easy to me. It is hard. I struggle on every long run.

Every half marathon that I finish still leaves me in awe. I can’t believe that I actually have run 13.1 miles.

4. Harriette Thompson

Harriette Thompson ran her first marathon at age 76. Now she’s 91 and still running marathons despite having had cancer, etc.

I’m not sure that I will ever run a marathon but I hope to continue running for a long time …hopefully still when I’m in my 90s.

5. John Anthony

This is John Anthony. He is my 10 year old running buddy. I was paired with him last November though the IRUN4 program.

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John Anthony has several rare genetic diseases – a skin biopsy showed he has SCAD which is an inborn error of metabolism. a metabolic disorder. His current geneticist thinks he also has glycogen storage disease type O and two of his specialists thinks he has Mitochrondrial disease (Mito).

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He is in and out of the hospital and sick so often. He cannot go to school, often is too weak to walk and cannot do the things we all take for granted.

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When I get them, I send him my race shirts. He is wearing one is all the pictures on this page. Inspite of it all, he is smiling 🙂

Happy Running! What are your favorite fitness inspirations ?

September 26, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Five favorite fall activities

This week, the theme is My Five Favorite Fall Activities

I love fall especially living in the Northeast.

So here they are my five:

1. Running

I love running when the temps are cool and the leaves have turned colors. These are some of my favorite places to run…

the rail trail

in Washington Park

along the Schroon River

on the bike trails

along Lake George

2. Eating & drinking anything pumpkin

Yup, I love pumpkin everything…

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No, I didn’t buy them but I was tempted

3. Racing

Racing in the cooler temps is the best! Even better is a race in a scenic locale…here are just a few that I have signed up for…

Apple Run 5K

Great Pumpkin Challenge 10k

Stockade-athon 15K

4. Going to farm activities

There are several around here but Ellms Family farm is my favorite. I always take my mentee and her sons. We go on rides, do corn mazes, pick pumpkins, pet the animals, eat cider donuts…so much fun!

5. Hiking

I don’t hike a lot but I do enjoy it and plan to do more this year. These are some places that I go…

Thatcher Park

Five Rivers

Prospect Mountain

Peebles State Park

I haven’t done this hike in Lake George in a few years…hope to do it again.

view from Buck Mountain

Happy Running! What are your favorite fall activities?

September 19, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: My five favorite races

This week, the theme is My Five Favorite _____________________

Of course, I filled in the blank with races….

You know that I love to race and I have run A LOT of RACES so it is hard for me to pick just FIVE.

Just to be interesting, I will pick 5 different distances.

Here they are:

1. Freihofer’s Run for Women (5k) – it is ALL women (more than 4000)– all ages, all sizes, veterans, newbies, elites, walkers. When I ran it the first year that I started running (2008), it made feel like a “real” runner. Finishing it after suffering a serious injury (2012) helped me believe that I could be a runner again. And then in 2013, completing it with a broken foot showed me how strong (or maybe stubborn) I was.

2012 – in newspaper

2010 – in the newspaper

2014 – Troy Record

I love the downhill finish of this race and I also enjoy running through Washington Park in Albany, NY where I run often after work.

It is convenient since I can park at work and walk to the race to avoid the traffic and confusion. There is an expo the day before where you get free Freihofers cookies and a loaf of bread.

2. Spring Runoff (10K) – This 10K takes place in the spring and it a good way to kick start your racing season. It is run along the Hudson River and on the bike path that I go to often for my long runs.

The evening before, there is a free pasta dinner where I met two awesome ladies.

The course is fairly flat and is my currrent 10K PR.

3. Stockade-athon (15k) – This race is the oldest 15k in the country. It takes place in the fall so the foliage is pretty and you run around Central Park and through the oldest parts of the city of Schenectady, NY.

It is a popular local race for me so you run into a lot of familiar faces. The end of the race features food such as pizza, hot soup and cozy fireplaces.

4. Adirondack Distance Run (10 miler) – There aren’t many 10 mile races around and this is a great one. It has a point-to-point course that starts in the village of Lake George, NY and ends in Bolton Landing. It takes place in early summer so it is not too hot or humid yet.

The course is rolling hills but you don’t mind since you are running along Lake George the whole way.

the end of the race

This is the route that I drive each weekend to go on our boat.

Since our marina is next door to the beach, I can have friends cheering for me at the finish line.

5. Naples News Half Marathon (13.1) – This race is special because it was my first half marathon. It was also held in one my favorite vacation spots. I go there every year with my tennis friends. The race was held on my wedding anniversary and my hubby was there waiting at the finish line. Plus if you live in the NE, January in Florida is a great getaway.

The course is beautiful with many views of the Gulf.

At one point, a priest blessed runners with holy water.

I don’t plan to repeat any of my half marathon races but maybe someday I will run this one again.

Happy Running! What are your 5 favorite races? Have you run any of the above?

September 12, 2014 by Darlene

Friday Five: Blogs to love

This week, the theme is Blogs to Love.

This is a tough one. My morning routine is to open BlogLovin’ on my iPad and to read running blogs. It is so hard to just pick FIVE but know that even if your blog is not listed here, I still enjoy catching up on your running life.

1. Shut Up and Run.

suar

Beth’s blog always makes me laugh. She is open and honest and discusses EVERYTHING related to her running. She is also an incredible athlete who completes in Ironman competitions and runs faster than women half her age. You should definitely subscribe to her blog if you don’t already.

2. My Journey to Fit.

I enjoy Shelly’s candid approach to running and staying fit. She is also a knitter so I love seeing her latest projects. I can identify as an older runner with her training and desire to have more speed.

3. Age Groups Rock.

agr

We are the same age, so I can relate to Andrea and the things that she discusses on her blog. I have also met her and have really enjoyed running several races with her. Believe it or not, at age 60, she started competing in triathlons. She is inspiring!

4. We Run Disney

Pam, who is also my age, and her daughter write this blog. Obviously they love Disney races but they also run other races. In fact, they just ran in Ireland. So I follow their racing with envy. Even though, Pam is over 60, she is still running marathons and has BQed!!

5. Ali on the Run.

aotr

Although Ali is young, she has endured incredible setbacks due to having Crohn’s disease. However, her attitude is amazing and she keeps rebounding. If I am not feeling well, I think about the pain that she has suffered through and I go out and run. I also LOVE her pictures of New York City!

Happy Running! Which blogs do you love to read?