How to: Build a Bookcase

Today’s Workout: 3 Miles on Treadmill at 1.0 incline, 10 minutes elliptical

Health Check: My quads are still a bit sore, and I noticed earlier in the week that my right knee bugged me if I was sitting for too long. My calves feel much better than they did on Monday, and I feel healthy overall!

Week 1! Marathon training! Yay! Not supposed to be the week of a new pain (feel free to skip the next few paragraphs if you want to avoid me talking about my knee, and want to get the incredibly interesting subject of this blog post).

As I just mentioned, my knee was bugging me a tiny bit earlier in the week. If I kept my legs in the same position at my desk for too long, it would hurt once I moved it (the pitfalls of an office job). I’ve never had a knee injury before this, so I found it disconcerting. I think it’s due to a combination of running three days in a row (which I hardly ever do), trying to change my running form, and building a bookcase (more on my carpentry skills in a minute).

I took Wednesday off from any exercise to make sure I gave my body a rest, and I was supposed to do a 5 mile run at MGP today. Instead, I did a 3 mile treadmill run at a very comfortable pace, and 10 minutes on the elliptical to make sure I didn’t hurt my knee any further. I’m planning on making up the other two miles hopefully tomorrow, and get some more cross-training in to strengthen my muscles.

I’m feeling unsettled about modifying my plan so early on in my training schedule, but instead of pushing myself today, I wanted to prevent injury. My incredible logic seems to be working since my knee feels loads better.

But I’m not going to focus on it anymore! I’m going to channel positive energy and get back on track to my training plan. End rant.

After going to Brimfield last weekend, I was inspired to spruce up my apartment a bit. My mom sent me this AWESOME link to “Flea Market Chic” inspirations, and I was thinking up all the ways to decorate my massive 400 sq ft apartment.

So I went back here:

CONTAINER STORE I LOVE YOU

Originally, I was planning on picking up two shelves so I could begin adding a bit more flair to one of my walls, and then I saw a really cool bookcase out of the corner of my eye. My book situation has been pretty dismal since I moved in (last OCTOBER, I might add) – they were all stuffed into old Steve Madden shoe boxes, wasting away. So as it usually happens in the Container Store, I decided that I just had to have it.

Do you see how they make you think you need this?

When I picked it up from the checkout, the cashier was a bit wary to send me on my way with it.

“How are you getting home?” Asked the friendly sales person.

“The subway.” I said matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah?” She said, without concealing her doubt.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I probably should have just waited to pick this up with a car or taken a cab home:

It still remains a mystery how I carried this all the way from 16^th and 6^th to Greenpoint. It was about 40 pounds and in the most awkward box to carry.

But I was determined when I finally made it home, and got to work on building this behemoth.

As a gal living in her first studio apartment, I’ve never really had to assemble furniture before. Basically everything except my couch I inherited stole from my parents, and the only heavy lifting I did for my couch involved me picking up a pen to sign a receipt.

So if you also fall in the novice category for carpentry and heavy lifting, here are some helpful “how-to” reminders for building your first bookcase:

1.      Be in a calm mood

2.      Build it in a cool room (or at least not during a heat wave as I did)

3.      Have a good toolbox

4.      Keep cold beer in your fridge

I began building, and slowly started to realize what a big project it was going to be.

After several f* bombs and water breaks, I managed to almost put the whole thing together. Let me just say that those Lowe’s commercials of happy couples doing projects in their first homes are BIG FAT LIES. 

Show me a couple that can put together a bookcase and not yell at each other, and I will show you a couple on Xanax. It was not fun and I luckily did have cold beer in the fridge to decompress afterwards.

Yuengling can fix anything.

I came home last night determined to put the finishing touches on it, which included drilling a hole into my brick wall. I utilized eHow.com, which explained that all you needed was a drill and safety goggles. I did not have safety goggles, but I did have patience. I surprisingly  did have fun drilling into my first wall, and had a LOT more fun finally putting my dusty books and trinkets on my bookcase.

Look at all my pretty books!
I need more trinkets.

I feel quite accomplished for building this whole thing without my brawny boyfriend (though he offered to help! I think I saved us from a massive fight by doing it alone). I finished with one blister and a sense of independence.

Week 1 – Philadelphia Marathon Training

Today is the day! I started my 18-week training plan for the Philadelphia Marathon today.

Health Check: I feel well-rested and excited. My calves are a little sore since I’ve been trying to change my form and land on my midfoot. My quads are also a bit sore from yesterday’s somewhat hilly run.

Today’s Workout: 4 Miles - Easy

I’ve been building my base for several weeks now, keeping my mileage relatively high so that training wouldn’t come as a shock. Running too much too fast can cause injury – so I’ve been sticking to the 10% rule (increase your mileage by 10% each week. i.e. if you ran 20 miles last week, you can safely run 22 miles this week).

I enjoyed my last few pre-training runs, and have been trying to focus on my form. I had a summer Friday last week (lksjdfl I LOVE SUMMER FRIDAYS!), so I changed it up and did my long run that day so I could enjoy more weekend carousing.

Let me start off by saying that nutrition is probably the most important part of my pre-long-run routine (I would guess this is true for most, but I don’t claim to be an expert on this stuff). I can run a race on little sleep (as I almost always do), I can use music or podcasts to readjust my mental game, and I can promise myself the fruitful rewards of a bagel sandwich and an iced coffee to get me through almost any distance. But there is no way to overcome poor pre-run nutrition.

Thursday night dinner: 4 draft beers + 1 hot dog = uncomfortable long run

I got a little overzealous about having the next day off, so I wasn’t thinking about how those draft beers would feel in 80 degree heat the next morning. I also ate too much right before my run, and didn’t leave enough time between eating and running. As I suffered through the miles, I came up with a Wise Tip of the Day - remove hot dogs from any pre-run meal and you should be good to go.

I ran the first half without music, trying to power through my rumbly tummy and dehydrated muscles. I ran over the Williamsburg Bridge, and I can tell I am getting into slightly better shape since I didn’t feel like collapsing at the end of each incline. I kept my pace easy, and didn’t really look at my watch except to count down the miles to my iced coffee.

*I did in fact run 8 full miles, but my Garmin mistakenly clocked my first mile too quickly. I know my routes well enough to know where the general mile markers are, and I DEFINITELY know that I did not run that first terrible mile at a 7:24 pace.

I spent my day off cleaning, reading, and treating myself to a new pretty dress from Dalaga. As much as I love Summer Fridays, I dislike seeing all of the other people sitting in coffee shops doing absolutely nothing. WHAT do you all do for a living? I DON’T understand this counter-culture in Brooklyn.

Typical.

I went home to Connecticut this past weekend with Keith, and we traveled up to the Brimfield Antique Show with his mom.

We went last year, and I picked up a few great pieces for my apartment (including a rustic red trunk that is supposedly from the 1890s – it now doubles as a coffee table and my nail salon). We each had our responsibilities for the day - Keith was the negotiator and overall strongman, Mrs. Langlais was our go-to decision-maker, and I fulfilled the important role of initiating snack time and pee time.

Probably thinking about my next snack.

We definitely left with fewer items this year, but each purchased a few cool things. I got a set of orange Fiestaware salt & pepper shakers that I’m obsessed with, Keith got a pennant from the 1969 Pasadena Bowl Boston University played in (a rare find considering BU no longer has a football team…), and Mrs. Langlais got a picnic basket. 

Our picnic! Initiated by me.

We picked up some goodies on the way home from antiquing, and had ourselves a perfect summer evening.

Perhaps my finest photography to date.

I did a quick run on Sunday morning to add to my weekly mileage for last week, and I ended it by running the last quarter mile without my shoes on. I wanted to check how my form was, and I ended up kind of liking it! I certainly don’t have that luxury in my neighborhood, which is often littered with erroneous trash from hipsters and bums alike, but I’m hoping to add it into my routine at the track.

Ok back to today’s momentous occasion – the marathon!!!

Truth be told, I am a bit nervous. Before today, I was remembering mostly the negative effects of training – spending countless hours running on Saturday mornings, cutting down on social outings to fit in workouts, FATIGUE, and the overall effect of how marathon training slowly takes over your life. I’m adding two weeks onto my training compared to last year, and I’m often worrying about whether it will be enough, or more likely, too much.

But this morning for some reason, I woke up with a big smile on my face, and remembered all of the AWESOME parts of training – eating in excess without guilt, laying low on Friday nights to carb-load, enjoying lots of time to yourself and with Harry Potter audiobooks, and the overall sense of accomplishment from completing a feat that most people never do. Also, I found out last night that my super-running cousins also signed up for Philly!!!! So many things to look forward to.

I kicked off my training with a 4-Mile run – without my Garmin. I brought my iPod for a little companionship, but also to remind myself to go at an EASY pace. I am following my self-imposed rule from last week to devote one easy run a week without pace-checking technology. I gave my sore legs an easy warm-up mile, and then did the rest at a comfortable pace.

So here’s to 18 weeks of long runs, sore muscles, and pasta. And good luck to everyone who’s also starting to train for fall marathons!!!