Monday 11/21: I went to a Yelp Elite Event at a local Bareburger location and ate my weight in burgers, fries, milkshakes, and the tastiest brussels sprouts I’ve ever had.

Tuesday: 11/22 Week 1 of 10-week indoor track speedwork. I haven’t been in an indoor track since grad school (yo Dodge Fitness Center) and definitely hadn’t been doing interval work there. We had a 10-minute warmup, then 6 repeats of 400s with 200m jog in between. I foolishly did not bring my own water bottle with me, so I did a lot of abrupt halting for water breaks in between the repeats. My splits ranged from 1:50 to a solid 1:51-1:52 for most of them, then maybe 1:49 for the final one.

Wednesday 11/23: Jerk chicken with rice and beans and cabbage takeout from JJ’s Jamaican in Prospect Lefferts Garden. Carb loading, you know.

Thursday 11/24: PPTC Turkey Trot. This was actually my first time running the race, as I moved to Brooklyn in fall 2014 but it sold out early then, and I volunteered last year while injured. I was shooting for a PR to help round out my racing season and I got one with 44:36, or 8:50 mile average! My 5-mile PR was 46:51, so I was really hoping to run this at a little less than 9-minute pace to get 45 or under. I guess I’m now hoping to run a 10K at that pace as well either in a few weeks or in general.

I got into the start area on the late side because I was waiting with a friend who was waiting for her bf to bring her bib. By the time Brittany and I squeezed in, people were already off. We did a lot of bobbing and weaving past people walking in the first half mile, then she took off. The sub-9:00 pace felt fine, though I found myself wishing I had warmed up.

By the time I got my breathing under control after Zoo Hill, I was feeling good. A runner next to me on the 4th mile looked at my long-sleeve and shorts combo and said “I’m really jealous of your attire right now” because she had on full tights plus at least two layers on top. What can I say, I got my ‘winter’ running knowledge from Carla.

I grabbed my medal and some water, told every team member I saw that I had PR’ed, then waited for my friend to finish before we got some brunch. I then went to Long Island for a real (not my family) Thanksgiving and was glad I had started the day with a run.

  

Friday: Food highlights included soba at Cocoron, Ice & Vice ice cream for dessert, then going back to Emily for pizza. Exercise highlights were limited to dancing the night away at Friends and Lovers.

Saturday: I did not leave my apartment, but I did bake Funfetti cookies and host book club.

Sunday 11/27: “Long Run” day which since I’m not really training for anything, was only 5.5 miles. I might try to take them up to 6-8 soon so that spring half marathon training isn’t too much of a burden. I should have gone slower after my warmup mile uphill, but ran a clockwise loop of the park and kept my downhill and flat miles just under 10 min/mile.

Then I baked the fruity pebbles version of the Momofuku Milk Bar Cornflake cookies. 

Total mileage: 13.7 miles or so,  not including cooldown or between-400s during speedwork.