Random Thursday (Music Edition)

I came across this youtube video, “Every Billboard Hot 100 #1 Singe of the 90s” ( *** ), that has clips of all of the Number #1 Billboard songs during the 90s. This post will show the screenshots of the songs that were number one during my birthday, June 25th.

Here goes.

I wasn’t too much of an NKOTB fan . . . I was more into New Edition.

I do not really remember this song.

Back when she could sing well.

This was the jam. Every dance, backyard bbq, random fuckshit event played this song. 

Major jam although I hated the lead singer’s ass voice. Actually, I was quite annoyed with this song. I think a new radio station was becoming established in Southeastern Va but the station had a rotation of like 20 songs and I quickly got tired of this song.

 

I do not remember this song AT ALL. 

Everyone I knew JAMMED on this one. 

Sad moment in rap. 

Wow! This song spent 13 weeks at #1!!! Briteny Spear’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time” spent only three weeks at #1. Oh random, one of my friends and I sing “The Boy Is Mine” at this random karaoke bar. Typically, I do the Monica part. I definitely was more “Team Monica” during the 90s. 

God this video was on every five minutes during Summer ’99. I prefer “Waiting for Tonight”.

I cannot say that I’m disappointed with too many of the songs that were number one during my birthday from 1990 to 1999. 

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“Training” Recap

Hmmmm, it’s hard to write a recap, considering that I’m not really training for anything. Maybe, I need to say that I’m training to lose some freaking weight. 

Honestly, last week was a bit of a haze. I believe that I did four runs, including NYRR’s Run as One 4M race. I guess that my “training” runs last week were not that memorable.

Oh wait, I lie. 

Last week, I had to attend a conference at the Education Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. You know, the company that administers the SAT, the GRE, AP exams, etc. Quiet as it’s kept, I did not really get that much out of the conference. One morning, I decided to skip the breakfast session and do a three mile run on ETS’ campus. Since there really is not anything out there, the run was quite pleasant. I mean, it was kind of weird running and breathing clean air and not hearing a whole bunch of city noises. The campus even had a couple of trails that I wondered off on. I wish that I had got up earlier in the morning (or skipped the second session) so I could explore the trails a little more. Oh, this reminds me that I need to send my travel receipts for my reimbursement. 

Seriously, where is EVERYTHING?

Kind of funny, but sad story.

I spent pretty much $30 bucks on cigarettes. Cigarette prices in NJ are substantially cheaper than in NYC. Rather than buying a pack in NYC, I figure that I would “save” 8-9 bucks and buy a pack in Jersey. Unfortunately, there were some train delays, and I was running late for the conference. No biggie, I’ll just buy a pack in the conference center or someplace nearby. Get to ETS’ campus, attend the morning and afternoon sessions, ask the front desk clerk where I can buy smokes (assuming there was a gas station nearby). She tells me that I would have to drive into town to buy cigarettes. Yeah, I don’t have a car (I took an Uber from the train station). Basically, I had to request an Uber to drive me into town ($9.50), buy the cigarettes ($7), then take another Uber back to the damn conference center (surge pricing, $13). Yup, $29.50 for smokes. Another annoying thing. Since I was in town, I decided to get sushi for lunch. Mainly because there was a Chinese & Japanese restaurant across the street from the 7/11 where I bought my cigarettes. Goddamnit, the waiter tells me that the restaurant doesn’t serve sushi on Tuesdays because the sushi guy doesn’t work on Tuesdays. You mean to tell me that the sushi guy cannot teach anyone how to make a freaking tuna roll?!!! Well, my Kung Pao Chicken wasn’t that bad. Actually, I may get sushi on the way home. 

Kung Pao Chicken

Also, my damn fortune cookie did not come with a fortune. 

Ha! randomly searching for these pictures in iPhoto, I came across my some notes from one of the sessions. I don’t know if my handwriting has gotten worse or stayed the same since undergrad. As long as I can read it, right?

The first line says “Mitigating Sigma Panel”

The second line says “Blacks may view tests as a reflection of negative stereotypes.”

Wow! I went off on a HUGE tangent.

During one of my crosstraining workouts, I really did not feel like listening to music so I decided to listen to a podcast from the Marathon Training Academy. I randomly selected the podcast about “Finding the Joy in Running”. This episode was right up my alley because I have been pretty nonchalant about running. Running the Run as One 4M race kind of changed that sentiment. The episode provided some reasons why one may fall out of “love” with running and tips to overcome this feeling. 

• Systems vs Goals: One will not see the results of maintaining a system compared to completing a goal. For example, directly seeing the results of cleaning a room over keeping it constantly clean. 
• Run fun races. Actually, I have never been too much of a fan of themed races (e.g. costume races). It takes me too much work just to get my regular running clothes together and make it to the start of a race on time. You mean, I gotta put together a costume?! No gracias. Well, I could be down for a race that involves beer. 
• Join a running group. I’ve completed the first step (back in Jan.), now I just have to run with the running groups.
• Switch up the types of runs/race (e.g. road races vs trail races). 
• Hire a coach. Nope, I’m too cheap. 
• Sign up for a destination race – maybe a full or half-marathon somewhere in Europe, probably Espana. 

There were a few more things, but the ones listed are the ones that I remember. Maybe I will listen to the podcast again during my bike ride to the gym home. 

Happy running (or whatever), y’all. 

Race Report: Run as One (4M)

Date: April 20, 2019; 8:30

Distance: 4M

Place: Central Park

Weather: 62 F; 100% Humidity with rain

Finishers: 6,108 total (3,245 men / 2,863 women)

Office time / pace: 37:49 / 9:28 min/mi

This race’s major sponsor’s, the Thomas G. Labrecque Foundation, main goal is two raise awareness for lung cancer. 

BTW, how cute were the bibs for this race?

It was a struggle getting to this race. One thing that most may not know about me is that I hate running in extreme heat and in the rain. “Extreme” can mean anything above 75 F. 😉 I really debated running this race; but by 8:05am, I finally decided that I would go through with the race. . . keep in mind that the race started at 8:30 am. I pretty much had to “speed ride” from Harlem to the start, about 3 miles. According to Strava, I started my bike journey at 8:21 am. Fortunately, NYRR races have stagged starts. By the time I arrived to Central Park (~8:45 am) many of the runners had not started the race. 

 

Since I would like to get faster at some point in my life, I wanted to employ a strategy of sprints and recovery during the race. The plan was a general easy jog (Mile 1 and 2); fartleks (Mile 3); recovery for 0.5 mi and full “sprint” for 0.5 mi (Mile 4). Yeah, none of that crap happened. Well, I did fartlek during Mile 3. By the time, I arrived at the start, I was kind of pooped because riding a Citibike to the start (there were a few inclines in my route). Also, between my leg work out on Thursday and Citibike’s big ass seats, my ass was pretty sore. I do not have too much to complain about this race or my performance because this was my first race in a month and I recently started running again. I did notice that I was a bit winded on some of Central Park hills but I think the humidity had a bit to do with that (or maybe the cigarettes are finally catching up to me, no pun) Also, with my recent runs, I have not really been pushing myself that much. Hopefully, that will change starting this week. 

 

One of the worst things happened to me during this race. No, not an injury, but my freaking headphones died. This probably was the first time that I’ve ever run a race without any music. Well . . . I had music for the first quarter mile It was a very weird experience; however, I definitely prefer listening to music. I was getting quite annoyed hearing people huffing and puffing down my damn back. 

It was quite nice to actually race, and I’m glad that I decided to run in the rain. Oh, after the race, I had planned to do a recovery run home. I only made it 1 mile in the recovery run before saying fuck it and hopping on a Citibike. 

A couple of questions:

1. Where the hell was the Gatorade after the race? 
2. Why don’t walkers move to the outer edges of the racing pack?
3. For Strava users: Why does the time change when you record a run as a race rather than as a workout?

I’m looking forward to my next race: Japan 4M; May 12. Let’s see if there can be an improvement in time in a few weeks. 

Food Pic of the Week

Brought to you by Bait and Hook ( *** ). For our Sunday Funday, the husband and I hit up this spot, which is in the E. Village. I’ve passed this place plenty of times, but it always was super pack and loud as hell. Folks know that I love seafood. Also, the restaurant has happy hour EVERYDAMNDAY!!!! The happy hour includes $5-6 well drinks/beer and various food items like $1 oysters, $3 fish tacos, and some other stuff. 

Half dozen oysters – my fav

Kung Pao Calamari

Normally, I do not like too many adaptations to calamari, but this dish was amazing. I wish that we ordered two. 

Happy Good Friday, y’all

Random Thursday

Question edition.

I’m thinking of a quick summer getaway, where should I go? Unfortunately, the hubby can’t leave the US. Maybe another Philly trip? T

Which NYRR races should I register for? I still need to register for 5 more races.

Why can’t I bring myself to run with one of my running groups?

How/when did I gain so much weight? 😉 A couple of my suits are kind of tight.

(Not a question) I’m really excited to run my first race since March. It feels like it has been such a long time since the NYC Half.

Is this summer going to be super hot?

I’m becoming bored with gin, what should be my new go to liquor? Tequila?

Where have I been? Trail running is kinda fun.

Monday Training Update

Although I am not actually training for anything, I guess that I can provide some updates of what I have been up to. 

I tried to do a 7-day running streak. Unfortunately, I only ran 5 days in a row, rather than the full seven days. 😦 I did not run the two last days because I had to work late a couple of times this week and I could not wake up early. It’s the thought that counts, right?

I will say that I actually enjoyed these easy runs (~3 miles). It was quite nice just to run (or in my case, jog) just for the sake of getting out there. Plus, the weather has been lovely over the past few days. Also, it was helpful that I did not use a GPS tracker on these runs. Well, I used Strava,  but I did not really pay attention to any pacing information. As a side note: a few weeks ago, I cracked the screen of my Apple Watch, and it does not work very well. I’m on the fence between purchasing another one or not. Maybe I’ll get another one when I start actually training for stuff and running races. I think my first race of the season is this Sunday (or is it on Saturday?).

Going forward for the near future, I think that I’m going to alternate between weeks of 3 runs/week and doing 7-day streaks. We’ll see how this will play out. 

Over the past week, I have been hitting the gym and I even attended my first Zumba class in God knows how long. Why do I manage to stand behind the most struggling dancer in the entire class? It never fails.

        

It was nice to see my old “acquaintances” and my old hater fans in Zumba. 😉

Oh, wait. Since today is/was the Boston Marathon, I saw this article ( *** ) from the Washington Post about cheating in marathons in my Facebook feed. I still do not understand why people feel the need to cheat to gain entrance in this marathon. I guess that running the Boston Marathon is an honor, but how is it an honor if you cheated to get in? And, is it really THAT big of a deal?

Food Pic of the Week

Still trying to get back into my blogging groove. 

Tomino Taberna Gallega

192 Grand Street, NY, NY 

Actually, I do not have any food pics for this week so I guess that I will go back to last week. The bf husband and I hit up Tomino Taberna Gallega for some northern Spanish bites. Honestly, this place can do no wrong in my book. The food (according to the husband and his crew of Spaniards) is pretty authentic and reasonably priced. Plus, they have a wonderful happy hour and make delicious gin cocktails. It’s funny that everyone says how popular gin is in Spain but I could not find a decent gin cocktail the two times that I visited. Oh, I remember. They do not really do gin n soda over there; it’s all about gin and tonic. Try ordering agua con gas (soda water) over there, and they’ll look at you like you have 10 heads. 

It’s not a Spanish excursion without a Spanish tortilla. BTW, I love the runny egg tortillas. 

Although this was a gin and tonic, the tonic water was not super sweet and not taste like musty water. 

I wanted to post a pic of the cod empanadas with an AMAZING carrot puree, but WordPress is being picky. With my mind constantly in the gutter, I love messing with the pronunciation of the Spanish word for carrot. It’s zanahoria, but I screw with the husband by saying zanaHORIA with extra emphasis on the (w)horia . . . even though you are not supposed to pronounce the “h” or hache in Spanish. 

Random recommendation: If you are visiting this place, try to commute from West to East. Going East to West, you will hit a couple of smelly fish markets on the way. The few times that I’ve been here, I had to wait a couple of minutes for my appetite to return.