Today’s run: 3.75 miles, 51.01. Saturday’s run: 1.75miles, 20min. Friday’s run: 3.79 miles, 38:32 minutes. YT: 443.4. Today’s was a treadmill run at the Hollywood Crunch. I did intervals, from sprinting all the way down to walking. It’s been a nonstop weekend of work meetings and catch ups with LA friends. Not much for sleep.  

Love These Chairs @ the Standard

 I chose hanging with friends over quality runs this weekend, a working weekend in LA. It’s just the way I’m wired.  

I bought myself a City of Angels mug to take back to NY. Sweet, sweet Los Angeles. It’s been fun staying in Hollywood, experiencing LA in a new way — shuttling between a hotel on the Sunset Strip and my boss’ place up the hill.  

So glad I got a run in today after skipping yesterday and having a very light run Saturday. Still on track despite the whirlwind weekend.

Today’s run: 5.15m, 57:03 min. We ran at 10:30 a.m. down the Bethany highway on one of the hottest days of the year. I drank too much water at the halfway point and felt like throwing up most of the last mile. Feeling very hardcore.

If I hadn’t been running with one of my beach companions, I probably would have quit this run at 4 miles or so. Hurrah for peer pressure.

After the run we went for a swim in our full running outfits. It was glorious.

Today’s run: 3.6 miles, 43 minutes. My first run starting from the new place took me up Rivington, through the Baruch Housing complex, into East River park, up Catherine Slip, and down Bowery. This run was a little slow because the route had me stopped at quite a few red lights. But I worked it with leg extensions and side bends. All in a day’s run, people.

Tip for today: Look for solutions in unusual places. Today due to my new location I did something I never thought to do, by accident – I ran down Rivington without detouring over closer to Houston and discovered….. I can run through the Baruch housing project!!

You wouldn’t think discovering that you can run through the projects would be a life improvement, but in fact, it is. Is allows me to bypass the bane of my run, the ugly, smelly, sunlit stretch of Houston directly before the East River. Instead I ran through the shady, tree-lined sidewalks of Baruch, smiling at welfare mothers and their adorable children and nodding at the elderly in wheelchairs.

Hurrah! And I love my new apt!

Today’s run: 3.5 miles, xx minutes. I actually only ran 1.5 this morning; 90 degree heat, no air, and the noises of a new city block made for a sleepless night. The other two miles I logged this weekend but didn’t have time to blog it. For today’s run I took Rivington into Chinatown, to the Manhattan Bridge entrance then back down Bowery. Many smells, much activity. But I enjoy dodging pedestrians.

I signed my name on the dotted line and am now an official renter in the borough of Manhattan. (When I signed up for electricity, “What borough?” was the first question she asked, with a strong accent that I’m not local enough yet to identify.)

Some “before” pics of the new apartment. “After” shots may take a while because it’s hard to unpack when you don’t really have furniture yet. All I have is the bed, which is held together with three screws and a wooden peg. The first time I sat on it, the mattress fell through to the floor. No joke.

Today’s run: 2.95m, 32:35. Not a bad run considering I hardly slept last night.

I’ve missed the past several days of running. Thanks to problems with my sublet so unbelievable they’re almost hilarious, I’ve been couch surfing. All weekend I wasn’t sure where my next shower was coming from. Therefore, running in the steamy New York heat didn’t feel like such a good idea, especially when I had big problems to solve. More on all this later. I have an application into a new apt!

Today’s run: 4 miles, 43:48 minutes. YT: 395.61.

The first mile of this run, my body felt BORN to run – which is rarely ever the case when I’ve just started moving. I congratulated myself on having found a truly magical night-before-run tonic: OJ mixed with beer.

Think of the article I’ll write for Runner’s World!, I thought. Think of the pitch I’ll make to Bud for it’s next big campaign! THINK OF ALL THE RACES YET TO BE WON!

Then mile 2 hit and I felt suddenly sluggish and crampy. Ah well.

PS: Workmen update. After falling out of my bed half-naked this morning before remembering they were there (someone hit my buzzer at 7 a.m.; thank you), and then photographing them with my Iphone and staring at them as much as possible, one of them finally got the bright idea to do me a solid and cover the windows with trashbags. My privacy is restored!

Today’s run: 1.41 miles, 17 minutes.

I quit my run 1/3 of the way in this morning – low energy and didn’t feel so hot. Hoped to get back and try again tonight. I didn’t. Moving got the best of me today.

Today’s run: 4.48 miles, 49:10. Proud of myself for making this run happen. My legs felt like lead during mile one.

I put “speedwork” in quotes because it’s certainly all relative – my fast is most runners’ slow!

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this interval workout from my Runner’s World training program today and recommend you give it a try. I adapted it slightly to convert meters to miles:

1 mile warmup
.75 m at Race Pace (RP)
.5 m x 2 RP
.1 m x 4 RP
.1 m x 4 Speed pace

Between each interval, jog half the interval to recover.

My RP was 10 minute miles, and my speed pace was 9 minute miles. Although my recovery distances were longer than they should have been, I was happy with how much I pushed myself on this run to keep up my pace on the intervals.

Curious to see whether I’ll be sore tomorrow.

Today’s run: 5.62 miles, 1:03:32 minutes. Moist and gray. My old friend pink sweatsuit lady was out doing her kundalini isometrics. It’s like I never left.

Today’s run: 5.04, 55:31 minutes. My first run after 5 days of being  sick; three days of dizzy fever followed by 2 days of ultra-congestion; textbook case of me stomping on my immune system and paying for it. It was a good one – in LA sunshine – down the Venice Boardwalk and through Santa Monica.

Being back in LA is a little bit like the aftermath of really incredible sex after a long dry spell. I feel like I’ve dropped back into the womb. Familiar, sunny environs allow me to settle into my head and autopilot myself through space.