Cyclin’ to Truckin’

16 Oct

My marathon training had me scheduled to run 18 miles yesterday. But since I’m on a temporary hiatus from running while I recover from my tendonitis, I instead rode my stationary bike for an hour and a half this morning. As much as I love catching up on my Grey’s Anatomy (I roll the bike into our family room and watch TV while I ride), I am so ready to get back on the road with my running group.

A trip to Target and some other errands behind me later I found myself with my little sister at TheDailyCity.com Food Truck Bazaar held in the Fashion Square Mall parking lot, where two of my other friends also met up with us.

I was saving myself for The Batter Bowl Truck, but my sis convinced me to start with some empanadas from Black Bean Deli’s new truck, La Empanada.

At La Empanada, my sister and I each picked an empanada and split them. These were our choices:

The menu at La Empanada, Black Bean Deli's food truck

I chose the tomato-basil caprese and my sister went more traditional with the picadillo:

The tomato-basil caprese empanada (left) and the picadillo empanada (right)

Afterwards, my sister headed to the Pupusas truck and tried its signature dish, a pupusa.

Finally we headed over to The Batter Bowl:

The Batter Bowl Truck

After debating between the creme brulee and the chocolate peanut butter pie, I settled on the pie. It was rich, but light and I loved the creamy texture and the chocolate cookie crust at the bottom:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie from The Batter Bowl

My friends had the “dessert-chos” which was ginger snap nachos with a light, creamy pumpkin dip. So yummy!

Dessert-chos from The Batter Bowl: Ginger snap "nachos" with pumpkin dip in a nacho container

What a delicious end to the weekend! Have you ever gone to one of the food truck bazaars? If so, which is your favorite truck?

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How I Got Into This Mess

15 Oct

And by ‘this mess’ I mean running.

When I lived in NY, I went to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. My gym was only a block away from my Astoria, Queens apartment so it was really hard to talk myself out of going. I usually spent my time alternating between the bike, the stair climber, the elliptical and the weights. I stayed as far away from the treadmill as possible. To me running was the devil.

But when I moved back to Florida, I lived in Tampa for 10 months and money was tight. Plus my hours at the office were long and the thought of coming home and working out within more walls made me cringe. So I started to walk along Bayshore Blvd. And then I started running ‘until the next light post’ or ‘until I passed those people walking their dog.’

Not long after, I moved back to Orlando and continued setting short term running goals:

  • Run around the block
  • Run around Lake Eola one time
  • Run 2 miles
  • Run 3 miles
  • Run the Turkey Trot 5k

I met a lot of these first goals with the help of my boyfriend Donnie’s support. He would run to Lake Eola (I would drive there) and he would run laps with me. He would tell me to dig deeper and push harder when I needed to hear it (and sometimes when I didn’t care to hear it). And he bought me my first pair of running shoes. Up until that point I had been running in old cross-trainers and had started to feel some pain in my ankles. Without his help, I would’ve given up early on.

Shortly before that first 5k I started to run with some ladies from my job and after running a few 5k’s we started talking about running a longer distance. Our friend Tim, who was also a co-worker, got tired of hearing us ladies talk about it, but never actually do anything about it. So he picked a small half marathon held in Baldwin Park in November 2009 and told us we were training for it. From then on we called him “Coach.”

Running with this group of friends was an incredible motivator. Together we ran, we laughed, we got lost on runs and we commiserated. We dragged ourselves out of bed on weekend mornings, we struggled, we got injured and we learned the importance of listening to our bodies. We encouraged each other and we pushed each other. By the time the half marathon came around, two of our ladies were injured and had to run the 5k instead. But we all showed up that morning ready to run:

Before the Baldwin Park Half. I am the one feeling strong. Donnie is the one tying is shoe. Roxy is waving and Tim is trying not to look nervous. Both Roxy and Tim placed in their age groups!

Donnie, Me, Tim (aka “Coach”), Roxy (all Half Marathon) and our 5k runners Theresa and Amy. Both Donnie and Tim smell like sweaty boys, which is why I’m keeping my distance.

Because we all have different paces and jobs now, we no longer run together. But occasionally you’ll still see us at the finish line cheering on our old running buddies.

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Tendonitis Stinks

15 Oct

Just last month, I got to run 16 miles in New York City with a new friend. Sixteen miles in Central Park, and not a boring mile! It was absolutely amazing, and entertaining and everything I hoped it would be. The subway ride back to my hotel, however, was not quite as enjoyable for my poor legs. Nor was the full day of walking that I ended up doing.

My Route for the 16-miler in NY

And just three weekends ago I ran the Miracle Miles 15k here in Orlando. It was a hot morning and a quick reminder of how harsh Florida running can be in comparison to the cool New York running I had been doing for the past two weeks. I was dehydrated and ran a bit sluggish, but my legs felt fine.

My legs holding up just fine during the 15k

Then two weekends ago I ran/walked 15 miles of Sue’s Candy-Ass 50k Birthday Run. It was a birthday celebration, so of course, there were cupcakes. And red cups. I can neither confirm nor deny what was in those cups, but I’m certain we made Sue proud. It was around mile 11 that I started to feel the pain in my foot.

Me and My Group Leader Emily at Sue's Candy-Ass 50k Birthday Run

The day after the 50k I woke up with a pain in my left foot, just in front of the ankle and towards the top of my foot. After some good ol’ internet research, I self-diagnosed myself with a tibialis anterior tendonitis and have been on running hiatus ever since. And after two weeks of resting, icing and stretching I’m not seeing any improvement.

Right now would probably be a good time to point out that self diagnosis should be frowned upon. I agree. I frown at my own actions often. On Monday I’m calling a foot doctor that my friend recommended and I will have the good doctor confirm (or dispute) my diagnosis and beg them to help me get running again.

When was your training brought to a sudden halt by an injury? How long before you were back on the road? It’s only been two weeks for me, and I’m beyond restless.

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Babies are the New Medal

12 Oct

When I read this story about a woman giving birth after the Chicago Marathon this past Sunday, I had two initial thoughts:

  1. Which was harder: completing the marathon or giving labor?
  2. Whoa… she ran at an 11 or 12 minute mile pace? That’s my pace during long slow runs and I’m just carrying myself!

From the video interview, it looks like running the marathon nearly 39 weeks pregnant was easier than the labor for Amber Miller.

All I know is that the next time I’m running long, if I even think about complaining I’m going to say this to myself: “Push through, Hey. If a pregnant woman can do this, so can you.”

And then I’ll go ahead and eat for two afterwards.

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I’m Jogging!

11 Oct

I think I ran next to this guy once…

A couple of months ago I had to share the track with a gentleman that was training for the circus olympics. Well, that’s unconfirmed. I don’t know what he was training for and there were no visible signs of him actually being a clown (for example, a red nose or giant shoes). But he was on a unicycle, had a golf club and was hitting a ball around the tennis track… right in the middle of our track workout. Surely, he was a clown.

I will admit I was slightly annoyed mainly because he was taking up several lanes and zigging back and forth. But the other part of me was entertained. I had mental bets against myself on how long it would take before he collided with a runner. Or a runner kicked his ball. It made my 800’s go by just a little bit faster.

What’s the most obnoxious thing you’ve had to run around?

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Holy Crap! I’m Blogging. And Training for a Marathon?

11 Oct

If I had a dollar for every time I said I was going to start a blog, I’d probably have enough to buy myself something pretty, like this pretty Anthropologie dress I’ve been oogling. I’ve always put blogging on my ‘to-do tomorrow’ list. It’s right next to ‘try yoga’ and ‘volunteer’ and ‘graduate from cooking 101.’

‘Train for and run a marathon’ is also another of those items on that list. This didn’t used to be on my list. I was perfectly content with just running around Lake Eola. But then four years ago my boyfriend Donnie talked me into a running a 5k. And I ran a few more 5k’s. Then two years ago my friend Tim talked me into running a half marathon. And I ran three half marathons. And then a random stranger on an elevator talked me into running a marathon. So here I am: training for my first marathon and blogging about it. It’s lovely to be here.

Running the 2010 ING Miami Half. I borrowed those shorts. I forgot mine.

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