Some other beginning’s end

It totally feels like the beginnings of spring outside and not the middle of winter – I’m not complaining from a running perspective, but this whole global warming thing is starting to worry me…

BUT, focusing on the positive! 39 degrees and no snow are fantastic long run conditions, and my legs agreed.

I started my favorite Central Park/Riverside Park/Central Park loop right about sunrise, and kept the pace fairly comfortable. I’m trying to increase my long runs a little more gradually than in past marathon training cycles to try to avoid injury and burnout, and this one was supposed to be 13 (following last week’s 12), but I had to get that extra 0.1 in at the end. Yay, solo half marathons?

Refueling – a few sips of yogurt smoothie (scroll down to see if you won the free coupons!)

And sprouted grain cinnamon raisin toast with cream cheese, peanut butter and berries after I showered (so glad I’m not the only one out there that must shower before eating!)

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

And Friday brought the end to my 7+ career in public relations. I still can’t even believe I’m writing this – the time has flown by since I decided to quit my job a few weeks ago to focus on the dietetic internship. I had been trying to prepare myself for The Last Day all week, but had a major sad when I turned over my blackberry (ok this was more of a happy) and key card, said goodbye to my co-workers and headed to the elevators for the last time.

(my sad empty desk. I carried that plant home with me on the subway and got a lot of strange looks…)

Sometimes I wish I would have realized what I wanted to do with my life earlier so I could be there already – ideally, an MS, RD with clinical experience and a specialty (also with a wrinkly bulldog, one bedroom apartment on CPW and man friend , but who’s counting).

But life happens, you know? And I don’t think all of the years spent in PR were a waste – I’ve enhanced my writing skills, grown some balls (yep, balls are needed in the industry), learned how to work with different kinds of people and of course, how to “spin” things. This stuff is useful for any kind of job, and I’m sure it’ll give me an advantage somewhere down the line in my dietetics career.

But for now, it’s all nutrition, all the time, and I’m pretty excited to finally be able to focus all of my efforts on learning to be an RD.

This “new beginning” of mine is already in full swing, involving many hours in the library studying the stuff I’ve come to love so much and will soon(ish) be able to call my job

Question: Long runs – how do you build up during marathon training? I think I overdid it last training cycle and went too long too soon, so this time around I’m going to try to hold my horses a little more.

The winner of the DAHlicious Lassi free coupons is: Meggie!* Email me your address at mealsformiles@gmail.com or we can coordinate a meet-up!

*I used a random number generator to pick the winner