Food – East Coast Appetite

Summer Running, Volume 3

February 5, 2023Posted in Cooking, Desserts, Food, NYC, Running, TrainingTagged distance running, NYC, Running, SummerStreets, TrainingLeave a comment

Ed Note as of February 2023: Can’t believe I wrote this and never published it. New posts will better explain my whereabouts for the last 6 months.

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August was definitely not the training month I wanted, but I still got some running in. I didn’t make it to the gym for lifting very much, though.

I got to do SummerStreets on its final week, which was so much fun. I missed it last year (and am not sure if it happened in 2020), but this was always a high point of marathon training for me. They close down Park Avenue to car traffic for most of Manhattan and have ‘rest areas’ to refill your water bottle, try Nuun/other drinks, and see the running community. There’s other stuff like workout classes and free bicycle rentals, but I’m just in it for the vibes.

Looking south on Park Avenue from the 90’s

Met up with Gabby who biked from Brooklyn

It’s hot and humid most days (and sunny) and I feel like I still haven’t acclimatized to the heat since I wasn’t running so much of July and August. Maybe it’ll finally work for me in September?

I didn’t travel anywhere in August (and don’t plan to in September) but have a lot of conferences coming up October, November, and December plus a DC trip. Excited to run in some other places since I didn’t get to go far in Oregon.

I had a lot of treats, baked my usual galette (and finally nailed a flaky crust), and had some hot oil pizza (CT pizza is so good). I ordered way too many matcha strawberry bubble teas.

Hot oil pepperoni pizza from Colony Grill – one of the best I’ve found of this kind in the Fairfield County/New Haven area

Weeks 11 and 12 of NYC Half 2022 Training

March 22, 2022March 22, 2022Posted in Desserts, Running, Training, United NYC Half Marathon 2022Tagged distance running, Half Marathon, NYC, NYC Half, nyrr, Running, TrainingLeave a comment

TAPER WEEKS. How pleasant, how boring. Less running, then eventually a decrease in my heavy weight lifting at the gym.

Week 11:

Monday 3/7: Rest from running; back and chest and some arms at the gym. I was doing such a good job keeping track of my gym routine last fall during marathon training but I’ve slipped which is silly since I have a paper planner for my running (and of course Strava and TrainingPeaks/Garmin).

Tuesday 3/8: Last longer workout – 2×25″ steady state intervals with warmup and cooldown and easy in between the two. I did it all on the tread and cut my cooldown short but still got over 8 miles. I was pretty mentally over it. Squat heavy day at the gym. But only squats. Still so sore from Monday.

Wednesday 3/9: Rest day from running and gym.

Thursday 3/10: 5 miles easyish. Finally, finally tried the hot pink Nike Next% that I bought back in fall 2019. I wish I had used them at the Atlanta Half 2020 or the Richmond 8K 2019; if only I had known I wouldn’t race for such a long period of time. They felt amazing, honestly. Every step felt just a little easier and with more response. At the gym, back-focused lifting (but also bench press).

Friday 3/11: Rest. Arms at the gym (skull crushers and tricep kickbacks).

Saturday 3/12: Last long run on the tread for 1 hour, 40 minutes (8.7 miles). I kept it mostly at 5.0-5.2 mph just to keep it truly easy.

Sunday 3/13: Daylight savings right after going out for karaoke for my bachelorette hit me too hard. I skipped my recovery run, took 2 naps, and had McDonald’s for dinner at 5pm.

Total: 22 miles out of a prescribed 25-26.

Week 12: Race week. I got what my friend Carla calls the Taper Lazies (not the Crazies as others have deemed it). I was raring to go but also decided not to even go to the gym, lest I overdo it.

Monday 3/14: Rest day. My first time taking two days off in a row in a long time. Weird!

Pi Day at work on 3/14 – at the bottom is a bibingka pie I made

Tuesday 3/15: 50 minutes easy but I cut it to 44 minutes/4 miles. This was after a long day going to different hospital campuses for work so I was beat, but the weather was so nice and springlike!

Wednesday 3/16: Rest day

Thursday 3/17: Rainy day. Easy 30″ run.

Friday 3/18: Rest. More incredible weather, so took a walk around the arboretum trails with Herbie.

Saturday 3/19: I was supposed to do a super short shakeout (sigh strides at the end) but was heading into the city for packet pickup and a baby shower and knew I would have too much time on my feet anyway.

Sunday 3/20: RACE DAY. Full race report to come. 13.1 miles but my GPS went crazy and said I did 17.

Total: 23 miles out of a prescribed 25 or so.

Rest of November Recovery & Fitness

December 12, 2021December 11, 2021Posted in California, Destinations, Food, Running, TrainingTagged 5K, Disneyland, distance running, Los Angeles, Races, Running, strength training, Training3 Comments

Immediately after the NYCM marathon, I wanted to take off any time needed to truly recover but also wanted to stay consistent with running and look ahead to training for 2022 races. I have a 10K early January that I want to be close to PR shape for (my PR is 53:xx from the amazing Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond).

11/8-11/14:

I did some serious recovery activities: steam room at the gym, low-impact Peloton ride, upper body/arms only weight lifting. It felt good to be active but low-key. I did two short recovery-pace runs this week as well since the weather was pretty nice. Saw my PT/acupuncturist which helped a lot as well.

11/15-11/21:

I actually ran less this week but stepped up the lifting at the gym. Got back to my squats and deadlifts but made a fatal error by trying to get back to my previous 10-rep max weights. Stupid. I was sore for days! Also got my flu and Covid booster shots Wednesday. Upper body lifts back to normal as well. On Sunday, I finally got out there for a ‘longish’ run again as per my 10K training plan: made it 6.9 miles/80 minutes. I was totally DONE and it was dark at the end so I didn’t try to hit 7 miles even.

11/22-11/30:

The real return to consistency. Easy shorter (30~ minute) runs Monday Wednesday Thursday, and a 20 minute treadmill tempo Tuesday (sandwiched between warm up and cool down). I had FOMO from all the Turkey Trot photos Thursday and will definitely try to be back in Brooklyn for it next year.

Totally off exercise Friday because we flew to Los Angeles! Then I had a charity 5K Saturday morning that I used as a fitness check. My Stryd Critical Power updated after which means my training paces will now be a bit quicker. Still not to where I was at March 2020.

Took off Sunday and Monday but went to Disneyland on a last-minute lark Sunday and logged a lot of steps.

We flew back Tuesday and then it was December!

Weeks 13 and 14 of NYC Marathon 2021 Training

October 15, 2021October 14, 2021Posted in Food, New York City Marathon 2021, NYC, nycm, Running, TrainingTagged distance running, marathon, Marathon Training, NYC, NYC Marathon, Running, TrainingLeave a comment

9/27-10/3:

9/27: 3 mile recovery run on the treadmill after a full upper body workout. Definitely still had some soreness from the longer long run Saturday. Not as easy breezy as last weekend’s recovery.

9/28: 3 still-recovery pace miles in Central Park.

Jackie Onassis Reservoir in Central Park

9/29: Woke up feeling blah. Sinus pressure, sleeping in, just not feeling it. Didn’t even go on a walk.

9/30: Not much better! Slept in until 7:15 and had a busy morning at work. Went into the city for dinner and had a lovely meal at Noreetuh in the East Village.

10/1: HOW IS IT OCTOBER. Still blah. Got dressed and ready to run during some errands but speed walked instead.

10/2: Long run day with neighbor friend Dani. Did ok on the first half, but the back half was a struggle. Basically walked the last two of 17 miles (out of a planned 18). I sent Dani on her way to do the last few without me because she was flying up and down the hills and I was spiking my heart rate.

North Stamford Reservoir halfway through the long run

10/3: Rest day. Brunch and boba in the city.

Total:23 miles over 3 runs.

Sunday brunch at Cafe Enrique in Long Island City

10/4-10/10:

10/4: Rest day. Rainy and pretty glum.

10/5: Easy/recovery pace 4 miles in the early evening after heavy squat/deadlift/etc day at the gym.

10/6: Treadmill warm-up, progression run, and cool-down for 3.3 miles in the AM. Acupuncture for my hamstring scar tissue etc in the PM.

10/7: 2 recovery treadmill miles and upper body workout in the gym (skull crushers, rows, French doors).

10/8: Rest day

10/9: Long run day. Goal was 19 miles. Mile 0-8 were a dream, then out of nowhere my heart rate started to spike. I was hitting a nice park where I planned to use the bathroom and refill my water bottle (decided to switch away from my beloved Hydration vest and to my Nathan QuickShot handheld since we won’t be allowed hydration vests during the NYC Marathon). No sign of real bathrooms, just some rough Port-o-Potties. I normally have no qualms using one, especially before or after a race, but these had no TP. I finally found a water fountain and it worked, but was only a dribble. I wasn’t able to get any into my water bottle. Defeated, I shuffled to town (New Canaan) and stopped at Dunkin Donuts after 11 miles. Used the bathroom, got a pumpkin cream cold brew and pumpkin donut, took an urgent call, and took the train back to downtown Stamford. I felt better and ready to run again, but then my whole right leg cramped up. I decided to shuffle home and call it a day at 12 miles. This was technically supposed to be a cutback to 14 miles between 18 (just did 17) and 20, but I was hoping to build confidence about my endurance.

10/10: Rest day. More delicious food in the city with friends.

Total: 21.3 miles over 4 runs. Eek.

Weeks 11 and 12 of NYC Marathon 2021 Training

October 4, 2021October 15, 2021Posted in Food, New York City Marathon 2021, NYC, nycm, Running, TrainingTagged distance running, marathon, Marathon Training, NYC Marathon, nycm, Running, Training2 Comments

I’m finally caught up – with blog posts, not with my training miles. But my long runs are finally where they should be, albeit a few weeks behind. It wasn’t smart to train like this (and have no real cutback weeks) but I did it out of mental and physical necessity. I’m honestly dreaming about a 5K, 10K, or in between PR attempt next year (this November/December is getting tight with race availability coinciding with any potential fitness gains). But for NYCM? Let’s just finish. Ideally before the sun goes down.

9/13-9/19:

9/13: 3 easy miles on the treadmill and lifting at the gym.

9/14: 4 miles running

9/15: 5.4 miles running including some speed pushes.

9/16: Weight lifting and 3 miles

9/17: Rest day. Sichuanese for dinner.

9/18: 14 mile long run with a neighbor/friend who is also training for NYCM. Turns out I need an accountability buddy all along. It was pretty humid so we tackled the hills first, then kept to a flat final 6 miles down by the water with walk breaks sprinkled into the last 3 miles. I used my Salomon Advanced Skin 8 hydration vest and loved it – drank ALL the water and Skratch by the end.

9/19: No running. Went to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibit again at the New York Botanical Garden and did a lot of walking. I felt shockingly good after the long run (since my longest in the 6 weeks prior was 7 or maybe 9 miles. Do not recommend). Going slow really helped as did all my recovery efforts after.

Total: 29.4 miles (of a recommended 36 – my midweek runs and long runs are still a bit behind).

9/20-9/26:

Great weather for lots of walks to the park, both with and without Herbie. Could have done with a few more runs.

9/20: 2.3 easy recovery treadmill miles after some lifting at the gym.

9/21: Longer walk with Herbie. 5.5 mile run with intervals. These felt good! I could mostly do them at my new estimated 10K pace of 9:15-9:20 (my old pace of 8:30, not so much). Recoveries around 10:15 minute miles.

9/22: Rest day – long walk

9/23: 3.3 mile run

9/24: Rest day – longer walk with Herbie.

9/25: 16 miles. The temperature and humidity dropped a lot from the prior week, so we definitely took this one a bit faster. I struggled on the bigger hills going up to the turnaround point (where we had bananas and Gatorade waiting for us). but the back half had a net downhill that was awesome (for morale and for my legs/lungs).

9/26: Rest day. Tried on more wedding dresses in the city. Got great Korean at The Jin in Hell’s Kitchen, had coffee at Rex, then got so many mochi donuts in Nordstrom at Oh Mochi. It was a perfect fall day, weather-wise.

Ddukboki, fried chicken, katsu, paleontology, and bulgogi at The Jin

Total: 27ish out of a prescribed 31 miles

Weeks 9 and 10 of NYC Marathon 2021 Training

October 2, 2021October 2, 2021Posted in Cooking, Destinations, Food, New York City Marathon 2021, nycm, Running, TrainingTagged distance running, marathon, Marathon Training, NYC Marathon, Running, TrainingLeave a comment

Still catching up on these! I had a couple of weeks where my running was off. Physically I was fine, but I just didn’t FEEL like running. Especially the long runs. I think knowing that this marathon won’t be my fastest (and in fact will now definitely be my slowest) made it easy to take my foot off the gas during training. I kept thinking each week that I would turn it around, but then I would catch myself stacking up my Saturday with plans (and sometimes work) then being too tired/busy/annoyed with the rain or heat waves on Sundays. I considered my prior tactic of doing midweek long runs, but wasn’t really feeling those either. I think having the first few weeks of a marathon training cycle be ‘off’ is more normal for me, but this time weeks 6-10 were the hardest.

8/30-9/5:

8/30: Rest day

8/31: AM weight lifting then 7.1 miles along my favorite route in the late afternoon.

9/1: Rest day. My friend Carla visited from Chicago and I just missed the start of the downpours from Hurricane Ida.

9/2: 3 miles around town; flooding impeded one of my typical running routes along the Rippowam River.

Post-Hurricane Ida Flooding of Mill River Park

9/3: AM bench press and Peloton ride at the gym. Then the long drive up to Northern New Hampshire to my friend’s home in the White Mountains.

9/4: 3.2 mile hike up Mount Willard.

Growing puppies and flowers at Sherman Farms

9/6-9/12:

Hmm, not much better in terms of running. In fact, even worse.

9/6 (Labor Day): 3 mile hike to Champney Falls. Pulled out the grill at night and had fun trying to perfect ribeye.

Ribeye, veggies, and pull apart garlic bread

9/7: 5 hour drive back to NYC area from NH. Finally tried the Starbucks pumpkin cream cold brew (TWICE because 5 hour drive). Exhausted regardless after I got home and did not run.

9/8: 4 mile run

9/9: Weight lifting and 4 miles including a 5K time trial. I did it as a progressive run. The 9 minute miles felt good, the 8:30s less so. Didn’t quite make it to the 8:00 zone as I had hoped.

9/10/21: 4 recovery miles

9/11: Tried the Dunkin Donuts pumpkin cream cold brew. Also acceptable and a full $2 cheaper than Starbucks.

9/12: Weight lifting in the morning, then seeing Shang Chi in theaters.

Snack Mix: ddukboki chips, shrimp chips, and Flamin Hots

Did you see any long runs? I didn’t see any long runs. More to come next time.

Rebuilding (not Base Building) Update

March 23, 2021March 23, 2021Posted in Cooking, Food, Running, SnacksTagged Peloton, physical therapy, Running, Snacks, strength trainingLeave a comment

Hello again from my current mileage of roughly 0. I have a physical therapy appointment for an evaluation in April but have seen progress from doing many of my 2019-injury exercises at home and in our building’s gym. I ran Friday the 5th when the temperatures reached into the 60’s and felt amazing. The breeze in my hair! Tank top! So hopefully I get this weak left hip under control and can in fact eye a 5K or 10K this spring/summer then maybe something longer in the fall. I also want to hike more and do more trail running; all the things I listed in my 2021 goals post. I ran again on the 20th as part of an Asian anti-violence solidarity run with some teammates in the city and hit 4 miles. Seems promising?

What else am I doing, if not running? Still on my weekly RowHouse class as well as Sunday morning Zoom Yoga for Runners most weeks. Our gym got two new spin bikes; they’re sadly Echelon Connect and not Peloton, but they’ll do.

My main hobby (other than reading and attempting to watch Oscar and Golden Globe nominated new films) is of course cooking and baking. I have a catch-all Google Sheet for meal planning, but have over the last year added additional sheets to list out my cookbook collection (currently hovering around 65, half digital), pantry/fridge/freezer inventory (which was indispensable at the height of spring 2020 quarantine), new recipes I’ve tried the past year, and my current cookbook project. I’m trying to cook my way through A Common Table, the book from blogger Cynthia of Two Red Bowls. I bought it in 2019 and had already tried about 6 of the recipes but am turning it into a project this year. I’m up to two dozen recipes and use the spreadsheet to better plan it all out.

Made a bunch of potstickers for Lunar New Year

I’m also in a Cookbook Club (as well as two regular book clubs) and while we can no longer meet in person safely, we’re having Zoom meetings. I sadly missed the meeting for Jubilee, which I’ve had for over a year but still haven’t cooked anything from. Up next is Plenty by Yottam Ottolenghi. He’s famous for super long ingredient lists but incredibly well executed food. I checked out his book Simple from the library (but didn’t make anything) then bought his newest, Flavor, late last year. Still haven’t made anything from that. So some of my purposeful organizing is to get myself to cook from my growing collection. The area where I am weakest about all this is actually taking photos of my food. This used to be a thing I would do more regularly (remember all my beautiful food-centric posts from 2019?), but the light situation in our apartment (and the last one) is lacking. And I don’t quite have the commitment to do this with enough regularity to actually get a handheld light for this.

Eating at Ottolenghi’s London restaurant NOPI in 2014

I also signed up for SnackCrate, which ships a box of international snacks to your door from a different country each month. I got the Germany box first, which is mostly chocolate-based. Also doing a snack exchange with folks in other countries (Netherlands first) plus always trying new stuff from Target and H Mart.

Target has so many special/limited edition Oreo flavors

Base Building 2021, Weeks 8 and 9 and 10

March 9, 2021March 17, 2021Posted in Food, Running, Snacks, TrainingTagged Injury Update, Peloton, RowHouse, Running, Training2 Comments

A few down weeks due to bad weather, building gym being closed, and my right hamstring still acting up. I suspected weak hips again (same thing 2 years ago) and saw my physiatrist March 2nd who mostly agreed. So I’m back to my PT exercises and virtual PT and monitoring the situation. Banded side-walks, single leg step-ups/glute bridges/deadlifts, and more. What I could really use is a Multi-Hip machine which my PT gym had but no regular gyms seem to have one. And a wobble board.

During this time, I took a RowHouse class each week, a short run 2/24, several Peloton spin classes, yoga, and one Peloton Strength for Runners class. Plus lots of sprint-stop-walks and hikes with the pup.

I recently read both Win at All Costs by Matt Hart, all about the Nike Oregon Project and doping accusations, as well as Alexi Pappas’ memoir Bravey. I found the latter really inspiring and it was a much more emotional book than I would have thought. I heard her speak back in October 2015 at the Nike Womens Half and since that time, she’s released two movies, ran in the 2016 Olympics 10K, and been through a whole lot.

We have pretty bad lighting in my apartment for food photography, so I sadly have no pictures of our home cooking to share. Just got some sisig from a food truck (it has been a year since I had Filipino food so this was a delight), lots of cold brews, and a brief foray back into junk food and candy to mark the anniversary of my friend Joyce’s passing.

Sisig and garlic fried rice from a Filipino food truck

Snack medley of Flamin’ Hots and gummis for a friend’s online memorial

Hopefully more running or other fitness updates to come as I do my PT exercises and the weather warms up again. I’ve been dreaming of temps in the 50’s and 60’s for months now! Trying to pencil in a late May 5K but we’ll see how the recovery and training goes. The apartment building gym has new treadmills and spin bikes and I’m very excited to get down there and try them out along with my weighted single leg step-ups.

August 2020 Eats & Workouts

September 1, 2020September 1, 2020Posted in ClassPass, Food, Running, Tennis, TrainingTagged ClassPass, NYC, Running, Tennis, Trail Race, Virtual RaceLeave a comment

This has been a month of increased fitness activity overall and a slow return to running after a couple months mostly off. After a late July move, I’ve had access to a few forms of fitness I was lacking: tennis courts, an erg, and a spin bike. I joined Peloton (but do not have one of their bikes) and have loved having it for rides and am starting to explore their strength and HIIT content.

Up to now, I’ve only raced 1 virtual race this year, back in late May, and ran it with a mask on and 2 minutes slower than my 5K PR. I’m hoping to tackle some old PRs this fall either on the track or on a flattish course. I’m thinking 5K and 10K as my softest and some of my oldest PRs (August 2017 for 5K on a hilly course and April 2018 for 10K on a good course but a warm day). I’m also tempted to finally try a trail race; it’s virtual but the course is technically available to run at your own time. I bought some Nike Wildhorse 6’s on a friend’s recommendation and am excited to try them out. Hopefully some virtual race reports to come!

I really miss ClassPass and all of the boutique fitness studios I used to frequent in NYC that have been closed since March. I sort of bopped around to a bunch of them and never took the same classes (or even instructors) enough to fully get into the community vibe that a lot of regulars seem to get, but I still liked the energy. For a couple of years now, I had drafted a post with a list of all my favorite spin, barre, strength, etc studios that I had visited. I really hope they’re all eventually open to reopen safely.

After taking off the hottest months from intense baking and cooking, I’m also back at that as well! A few recent experiments below.

I made pork and kale dumplings and am trying to really nail down my folding technique

acdd4b71-e512-47f4-9056-df109af053f6 — I made a nectarine and blueberry galette (my rustic dough and folding technique sprung some leaks)

New York Botanical Garden is open with timed tickets and so peaceful

May, June, and July Eats and Outdoors

July 28, 2020July 27, 2020Posted in Cooking, Food, RunningTagged NYC1 Comment

My running volume fell off a cliff due to increases in both workload and heat/humidity and I subsequently decided not to do a June virtual race 5K since I would be off from PR pace. I mostly have been running and walking to Central Park and Morningside Park and have gotten into identifying flowers and other plants with the Seek by iNaturalist app (and also asking my horticulturist friend).

Baking hasn’t happened in the hotter weather but I am pleased with the bread and sweets I made prior to real summer.