First day in The City

Saturday was my first official full day in New York City. Since it was snowing as I wrote in my Saturday's post we stayed in most of the day with my friend Lada. Since we were flatmates the whole summer of 2009 and only have seen each other for few times since then, we have lot of caching up to do :) When Lada left for work I went for my easy after travel recovery jog on a treadmill (thank God for the in house gyms!). WARNING: From now on this might get little too girly for the guys, so continue reading only at your own risk!

Back to The CITY

Vacation started! Two weeks off, I am so excited. I know not everyone dreams of running a marathon while having vacation, but I am loving it. And two weeks in my second favorite city in the world - New York City, here I am. In order to fasten the time zone switch I did not go to bed on Thursday night and was packing and getting everything ready all the night instead of sleeping. My flight was at noon and I started sleeping before the plane even took off :) Then some bad catering, more sleep and here I was in the JFK, shortly slowly moving through the Friday traffic towards Manhattan.

Three Things Grateful Thursday

OK, OK, if you have been reading this blog for some time, you know I am kind of crazy. But who isn't? It is already Friday here in Europe, but still Thursday in the USA. And as I am flying to the NEW YORK CITY on Friday, I am already on US time, so this is valid Three Things Thursday post :)

1. I am grateful for my physiotherapist. She is the best and once again! And for the last time before the marathon she released the tension in my left foot that was building up as a result of the left calf thingy. I think that after the 10 miler on Friday an more than 14 miles on Sunday, I am ready to go :)


2. I am EXTREMELY grateful for the support of all my friends, those I have known for almost eternity and those who I just met or maybe met only in the virtual blogging word. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your words of encouragement and for your help with my fundraising for the Team Hole in the Wall. And thank YOU for the great companion (photo above) to come with me to the NYC and cheer me up.


3. I am grateful for the two weeks of holiday that just started. YAYYYY!!!!! New York City, get ready Barborka is coming back to The City :) I am so excited. Used to live in NYC in the summer of 2009 and cannot wait to go to all of "my" places and meet the great friends.

Don't forget to check out 

the Zensah Compression Leg Sleeves Giveway!!!

Help me help the kids! - Zensah Giveaway

As you might know, I am running the NYC marathon on November 6, 2011 (starting in the wave at 10:10 am). I am not only running it to finish the 26.2 miles distance for the first time in my life. Through running these miles I also have the opportunity to be part of the Team Hole in the Wall. I am trying to do my best to help the kids and you can help me help them :) Read on to get to know how and how you can have a chance to win one of the three pairs of Zensah compression leg sleeves.

Two weeks to go - The last long run

Once again I am shouting out loud I am back on track! Warning: do not apply this unless supervised by a professional coach with proper understanding of your current situation. The NYC marathon is exactly two weeks from now, so today was my last chance for a long run. As you know first my right ankle was troubling me in August and then the left calf / shin in September. I managed to get back to running exactly ten days ago. And since that moment, I have been running every other day, combined with cross training (mainly swimming and strength training with The Coach). I started with an easy 3 miler (5 km) and increased the distance with every run, also increased pace for some of the runs. Even though I included a crazy cross training workout two weeks ago in order to simulate a really long run, nothing can compare to a real long run.

19 km (11.81 miles) run was planned for me today, but since that's not even half the distance I am racing in exactly two weeks from now, while running I decided to go even further. I did 14.4 miles (23 km) and felt great - given the fact that I ran 10 miler (16 km) on Friday and swam 1.4 km (1,531 yards) yesterday, I was quite happy with the final 9:03 min/mile pace (5:37 min/km). When I started working with The Coach, we both hoped for totally different long run distance achieved in the final stages of my training (certainly over 20 miles), but the body did not like our plan. I needed to increase the distance from the original plan in order to support my head in believing that I can do this. With all the hard work and the cross training, cardio and strength training, I will be there, two weeks from now, 5 NYC neighborhoods, 26.2 miles!

Check out my Zensah giveway!  

As said above - don't try this unless supervised by professional coach.
Don't forget that I have been cross training at least 5 days a week all the time!

Necessary Pink Marathon Equipment

As I am getting back to the running routines, still with lot of cross training in order to get my left calf / shin back to normal, time has come to plan for the NYC marathon. Getting ready involves lot of pink stuff - pink French manicure for my toes being one of them :) I know they will be hidden in the compression socks in my running shoes. But I will know they are there, hot pink crazy punk toe nails that will help me keep going and rock the race!

Weekend workout: ran 4.4 miles on Saturday at 8:27 min/mile pace - very happy with that run, I can still feel the left calf, but it's getting better and better each day even with me running on it every other day. Sauna for recovery and relax today. Good night and good luck, happy running everyone! :)

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Please help me help the kids! I'm running the NYC marathon to support the Team Hole in the Wall

Running Again!

No extra words needed, my first run since September 26. I can't explain how excited I was to run again, even though it was just 5 km / 3 miles ... I can still feel and am totally aware of the left calf/shin area, but I can run with normal stride and no extreme pain! I went for the run based on consultation with my physiotherapist, iced the leg straight after and put the great healing cream on it just after. We'll see how it feels in the evening. Thank you for your support, positive vibes are flowing in :)

Summary of September Training

September. Big month for my NYC marathon training (please, help me help the kids!). Or at least that is what I thought, until my left calf/shin decided to think otherwise. My body decided the opposite and me dealing with the mood swings afterwards result in posting the recap this late ... After sorting out the problems with my right ankle back in August, I was even more eager to add the mileage and intensity for the workouts. The intensity increase was only approved by the results from Vienna Women's Run (7.5 km at 7:17 min/mile = 4:32 min/km). Unfortunately yet again I did not listen to my body properly :( The result = I am in full triathlon training in orded to get ready for a marathon. Yes, I am one crazy hot pink runner and officially approved Badasstinista!

Swim - Bike - Row & Sauna

Even though I am not back to running yet, I am more than happy with this weekend's workout. I feel almost like trying to run again, but I do not want to rush it since The Race is exactly in four weeks. And stating this makes me little bit crazy. I need to get in some hard and some really long workouts to be ready for the long effort of the 26.2 miles (oh my God!). With still no running, one has to be creative in order to stay sane with the cross training. Basically everything is said with the post title.

Skiing & Boating mini-vacation

My dearest readers, I am alive and reporting back to duty. I want to be honest with you, because I value you highly, this autumn thing is getting to me. Which would be OK, if my A race of the season was not approaching with mile steps. I do not know if you guessed, but I really have trouble posting when I am not on my positive wave. With winter and rain and less sunshine I might get more in those moods, so I promise to work on myself to be ready to post and not push you guys in my crazy mood swings. Being now on my improvement list, let's get back to the important things. What was I up to last week?