Jen is Green

Race Goals

Jen — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:05:31 +0000

Tonight I’m running the Workforce Team Challenge with my office team!

Every year I say I’m not going to do it again (its usually hot and super crowded), but every year I get sucked in. I’m pretty excited though.

This is the third time running this 3.5 mile race in Albany. The first year, 2010, I ran it in 33:30. The next year I ran it in 30:12. I’m aiming for under 30 this year! I’m hoping I can keep a steady pace for 3.5 miles but it is so hard when the race is so crowded (10,000 runners!).

For the first time in three years I’m not running the Freihofer’s Run for Women. I figured since the Workforce Challenge is almost the same course, I would skip it. It was my first 5K so I’m sentimental about it, but I just didn’t have it in my budget to spend $40 on a 5K when there are some other new races I want to run.

Instead, on Sunday I’m running a 15K, a new race in Cohoes, New York. Heather and Alicia are joining me and I’m pretty excited for that too! I don’t really have a goal time for this race except finish under 1:30. Since my 15K PR was during chilly November I know I might not be as fast on Sunday. We’ll see.

After that, no races until September. Will I last without a race that long? I might have to try to find some cheaper local races to run!

Saratoga Springs Food Tour

Jen — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:33 +0000

Recently I was invited to attend the Saratoga Springs Food Tour, in Saratoga!

From the website:

Our cultural walking tour pairs delicious food with tales of Saratoga Springs history. This 2.5 hour tour is suitable for all age groups and fitness levels. We start with a leisurely stroll through Saratoga’s famous farmer’s market before walking to taste some of Broadway’s finest treats. Along the way you will learn about the culture, history and architecture of one of New York State’s most interesting cities.

Saturday Chris and I drove up to do the tour–it was a beautiful day and we were very excited!

We met at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market where Joe, to the tour guide, gave us each a bottle of Saratoga water so we’d stay hydrated on our tour. Very important!

Our first stop on the tour was the So Lively Tapenade booth at the farmer’s market.

We sampled the home made chips and the tapenade.

There were two flavors, the original tapenade and roasted red pepper. Both were delicious!

We also got a baggie of chips to enjoy.

AND I bet you didn’t know, the first potato chip created was made in Saratoga Springs…

The next stop was the cheese and yogurt booth! Heck yes.

Argyle Cheese Farm had some of the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted! We got a sample of the maple greek yogurt. It was so rich and creamy. They make their yogurt with only a few ingredients, milk and cultures, so it is all natural and healthy.

In a blind taste test, their yogurt was voted the best greek yogurt against some of the popular New York-made yogurt brands out there. As we know, New York seems to be the capital of greek yogurt.

I would love to get my hands on some of their yogurt again!

We hit a few more vendors at the market, and then we got a little history lesson on the water of Saratoga Springs, which was what made Saratoga famous in the first place.

I had no idea there were actual springs you could drink from scattered all throughout the city.

The water is coming directly from the ground, pretty neat! I sampled a little bit, it was like bubbly sulfur water–haha.

Our next stop on the tour was the Olde Bryan Inn.

We sat on the patio and enjoyed an appetizer, mine was a roasted red pepper bruchetta. It was delicious.

We learned all about the history of the Inn–so fascinating.

Next up:

This was one of the coolest stores I’ve been in! The Saratoga Olive Oil Co–where you can sample SO MANY different types of olive oil and different flavors of balsamic.

One of my favorites — the Thai lemongrass mint balsamic. I also really loved the mango!

This olive oil was a favorite, too.

Next we went to Saratoga Salsa and Spice shop.

We got to sample some realllly good salsas, like the autumn salsa and the cranberry salsa! My favorites.

Chris and a few other brave souls tried some of the more spicier ones–like the Scorpion Salsa…craziness. The scorpion pepper is the world’s hottest pepper…

Chris liked it enough to buy a jar…he’s crazy.

And last but not least–my favorite portion the tour. Dessert!

Eugene makes the gelato right here and it all looked so amazing! I sampled a few and ended up going with the sea salt and caramel combined with the rocky road.

An awesome end to such a fun (and filling) tour!!! I want to thank Joe for inviting me and Chris to the Saratoga Food Tour ! He was a great tour guide. It was so much fun and we learned a lot. I would highly recommend this tour if you want to explore Saratoga Springs on a nice day, or if you have guests visiting and you want to something fun in the Capital Region. Check out the details on Saratoga Springs Food Tours Website.

I ended up meeting Alicia after the tour! She took us on another mini tour of Congress Park!

It was SUCH a gorgeous day out.

We really enjoyed our time in Saratoga!

Happy Mother’s Day

Jen — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:15:29 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day to my awesome mom! Love you so much, mom.

This morning we had a delicious brunch at Jake Moon. I got the buckwheat pancakes filled with bananas & pecans.

Pop Up Gallery at the Drawing Room

Jen — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:42:43 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I went to my cousin Liz’ art gallery! She is renting a space in Albany to show off her lovely artwork and photographs, as well as some of her handmade accessories.

Her studio, The Drawing Room, is located at 306 Hudson Avenue. Here are the studio hours:

Tuesday – Friday: 1pm – 7pm

Saturday – 11am – 3pm

Weekly Show on Saturday – 4pm – 7pm

If you live in the area make sure you stop by to Liz’ gallery and see her beautiful photographs!

A few of her original paintings (and a large wooden shoe she is going to paint soon)

Beautiful handmade jewelry and wallets

Upcoming Events

Previous Posts about Artsy Liz

How You Make a Book

Saturday Brunch and a Book Signing

A Cupcake at Dozen

Jen — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:56:46 +0000

This is the last post about my trip to Pittsburgh, I swear!

Play catch up:

I just want to mention one last thing: a delicious cupcake I had on Saturday the day before the race.

Chris and I took a walk to Dozen Bakery in Oakland. It was a very small shop, with no place to sit. Kind of sad since I wanted to sit down & enjoy my cupcake!

Anyway, I got the Elvis, a banana cupcake with chocolate buttercream filling & peanut butter frosting. Yessss.

It was a tasty cupcake! Normally I don’t go for banana flavored things, but I figured I’d give it a shot! The cake was a little dry but the filling kind of made up for that. I love my cupcakes to have TONS of frosting (the more buttercream, the better, in my opinion.) I also loved the peanut butter…I just wished there was more frosting! Overall, a win, I think.

Post-Race Adult Milkshakes

Jen — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:57:26 +0000

After our half marathon on Sunday, Chris, his parents and I went to BRGR, a restaurant in Pittsburgh for our post-race lunch!

At least I changed before we went to lunch!

Anyway, I had heard about the spiked shakes at BRGR and was thinking about how a cold milk shake would taste great after such a grueling race. I ordered the salted pretzel caramel milkshake, which was spiked with rum.

I think it kept me full for two days. But it was so worth it!

My lunch was the santa fe hippie burger–falafel on a bun. It was good, but the milkshake was so filling I only ate half and didn’t really get to really enjoy the burger. I had the leftovers for dinner.

It was a great ending to a great time in Pittsburgh.

After having some time to think about the race, I’ve decided that it doesn’t really make much sense for me to be that upset about it. I still finished, which most people can’t do.

The PR I’ve been chasing for almost two years happened on a cool fall day on a flat course. It was my first half marathon. I think those conditions have to be recreated for me to do something like that again. I KNOW I have it in me to run a sub 2:04 half marathon, I know it!

The Pittsburgh half marathon was still great in its own away. I still earned this. And there will be more to come.

2012 Pittsburgh Half Marathon

Jen — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:19:41 +0000

I’m just going to start off and say now that this race didn’t go as planned.

Chris and I got up early this morning and his dad drove us to the starting line at 6:15am this morning. The race started at 7:30. It was a bit chilly (59 degrees) so I was thinking that the weather would be nice for running a half today!

The gun went off and there were 25,000 runners so we took our sweet time to get to the starting line!

Chris and I separated early since he had a goal too, which was to finish under 2 hours. My goal was to come in under 2:04.

The first few miles went by quick and I was feeling great! I hit the 10K mark right on schedule for a PR–with a 9:23 average pace.

It was after that things started to get worse! My pace dropped to 10:00/miles. There were hills. The sun was really bright and it felt about 80 degrees, when in reality it was only probably 70 something. I forgot my sunglasses, too so that was a little bit uncomfortable. I just felt so hot.

Miles 7-11 were pretty bad. I might even go as far and say they were some of the worst miles of my racing history. They were Boilermaker-esque bad (a few of you will understand this). I stopped at every water station for gatorade because I just felt so thirsty. I was pretty stumped because I felt like I had hydrated pretty well yesterday, but I just couldn’t get enough to drink. I tried to choke down a chocolate Gu at mile 8.5 but I could only eat half of it…for the first time in my life chocolate tasted disgusting.

Miles 11 -13 were pretty good, however…they were mostly downhill, which was nice. We got some really good views of the city, too. Overall, the race was very well organized. The spectators were GREAT. I just wish things had turned out a little bit better.

The last bridge (we crossed five)

I finished the race in 2:10:48–faster than last year, but six minutes away of my goal.

At least I got my Eat’n Park cookie

I feel like every race I go out to set a PR at, I end up starting well but burning out by the end. I find it hard to believe I’m starting too fast because my pace in the beginning felt really good and it was my target pace, and my base pace for all my training runs. I’m not sure what to do here.

This is my last half marathon for a while…I don’t have any plans for another until September, which by then I’ll be deep in marathon training, so my goals probably shouldn’t consist of setting half marathon PRs.

Anyway, Chris finished the race in under two hours–1:53, to be exact. What a rock star! I’m so proud of him! He did so amazing.

Well, I’m glad I got run a race with Chris. And there’s always next year, Pittsburgh.

Church Brew Works

Jen — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:00:14 +0000

Friday for lunch Chris took me to one of Pittsburgh’s breweries, the Church Brew Works! It is an old church that is now a brewery.

On the inside…

I got one of the special draft beers, a herbal wheat beer. It was really tasty! It had a very citrusy flavor, I really liked it.

Chris and I also split the one of the specials: the broccoli and pesto pierogies! Getting pierogies in Pittsburgh is a must.

For lunch I got the vegetarian polenta with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms in a goat cheese sauce. It was delicious! I’ve only had polenta a handful of times, but I really like it so I should eat more of it!

Another fantastic lunch in Pittsburgh! I swear the food at the restaurants in Pittsburgh is always so good.

After our lunch it was time to head to the Marathon Race Expo.

It was as huge as ever! I think Pittsburgh has the biggest race expo I’ve been to yet.

The shirts are pretty sweet, too!

Well, today has been pretty relaxing so far. We took a trip to Trader Joe’s and now we’re getting ready for lunch! We’re making pizzas for dinner, which are a perfect pre-race meal. Tomorrow we’ll be running the 13.1 through Pittsburgh!

{Check out last year’s Pittsburgh Half Marathon Race Re-Cap}

I signed up for runner tracking so if you follow me on twitter, it will be tweeting my race splits live, which is pretty exciting!

See you at the finish line!

A Delicious Vegetarian Lunch

Jen — Sat, 05 May 2012 12:40:36 +0000

Well, where to begin? First off, happy weekend! The past few days have been busy and fun!

Thursday morning where I left off Chris and I had gone for a run. We ended up going to lunch at a place called Quiet Storm in Pittsburgh. Chelsea on twitter had recommended it to me.

Quiet Storm is vegetarian/vegan place and everything on the menu looked so good. It was so hard for me to choose!

Eventually, I picked the apple panini which came with seitan, apple butter and cheddar cheese on a delicious bread. I loved this sandwich. I really want to try to recreate it at home because I loved it so much.

After lunch we decided to go on an expedition to…IKEA! I had never been to one before so Chris took me to Pittsburgh’s huge store. It was amazing!!

I ended up getting a few things for the apartment: a wine rack, a lamp, and some lightbulbs…and Chris got a bookshelf. It was awesome because they were all really cheap!

Anyway, after Ikea we went for a walk near Chris’ parents house and got some froyo which was much needed, since it was almost 90 degrees Thursday! I tried the tarte mango for the first time and decided its going to be my favorite type of froyo from now on…so good.

After our adventures, we had a low key evening at Chris’ parents house Thursday night with dinner and catching up on some TV shows…so far its been an awesome mini vacation!

My 27th Birthday Roadtrip

Jen — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:39:37 +0000

Yesterday was my 27th Birthday! Holy crap. I spent the most of the day (eight hours) in the car, driving to Pittsburgh with Chris. It actually wasn’t that bad! It went by fairly quick.

Pretty, no?

Anyway, we got in town at around 5:30 and decided to go for a walk around Chris’ parents neighborhood to stretch our legs. We ended up stopping at a place for a birthday treat! The Cake and Cookie Spot had just opened recently and they had cute little cake shots! It was something I’ve never seen before so Chris and I got three to share.

Chris got Oreo, I got the peanut butter cup, and we shared the chocolate birthday cake. They were so cute! I loved that they had layers of frosting. Such a good idea.

Happy birthday to me!

We made it back to the house with time to change before heading to dinner with Chris’ parents at Salt of the Earth. I loved this unique restaurant the last time we came to Pittsburgh so I chose it for my birthday dinner!

I started with a glass of Riesling, of course.

Since I wasn’t starving, I didn’t get an appetizer, but chose the tofu as my main meal. It was served with a carrot purree, fava beans and asparagus. Delicious and unique! The flavors went really well together.

Chris got the rhubarb for dessert–it was so interesting! He let me share a few bites! The rhubarb was served with basil ice cream (so weird but good!), white chocolate mousse and shortbread cookies. At first I was skeptical but the flavors actually worked well together!

All in all, it was a great end to my 27th birthday!

This morning Chris and I decided to get a run in, but unfortunatley it is steamy here in Pittsburgh. The temp was probably around 75 degrees with 70% humidity, not pleasant for a run! We went to Shenley Park Oval, an community track for people to run and walk on in Shenley Park.

It was a great place to run! But SO. HOT.

Tomorrow we might try some of the trails. I want to get one more run in before the half marathon on Sunday!

I’m off for now–we have some fun Pittsburgh adventures planned today!