Spent the weekend in the city with Kerri, one of my best friends this weekend. We didn’t do anything crazy, just relaxed and spent time with each other, catching up and walking around the city, getting our steps in and it was honestly so nice and probably what I’ve been needing to de-stress. I’ve been needing a break to just…be.

We had a quick lunch at Maman and then walked all around Central Park, stopping to take pics at all the cute, instagrammable spots, before meeting up for dinner with another friend, and then walked all the way back down to our hotel in Times Square. It’s funny, I used to shop all the time in Times Square back in college, but now I don’t really go there much. It’s still chaotic and touristy but I still find it fun when I get a chance to walk through. We picked up some late night snacks at Target before calling it a night. I wanted to get to bed a little earlier because the United Half marathon was the next morning and I wanted to get up to cheer a runner friend. I really never had any interest in NYC races (again, the NYC Marathon was not my idea but a bad choice of being friends with terrible influencs lol)but I might try out for the United Half lottery next year to run it with Kerri. A half is definitely doable and running through Times Square would definitely make for a fun Instagram worthy pic.

After the race, we booked it down to the World Trade Center for yoga at the top of the observatory! We got there 30 minutes early, as instructed, which was perfect to have enough time to check in and take cute pics before the class started. The way to the top felt like a Disney ride with similar mood music, scents and an elevator ride show. The class was great; it was easy to do but still a little challenging. I've been enjoying low impact workouts these past months while taking care a break from running, and it's been helping with my core balance and mobility, as well as my endurance when it comes to holding certain poses and pulsing out Pilates moves. The instructor was very zen and encouraging, and I didn’t realize til the end that she was the one singing all through class. I thought it was just part of the music playing. Her voice was so calm and soothing. An additional perk to this experience is you get access to the observatory deck after the class to continue taking in the views, and a $10 credit to use towards the cafe.

We walked over to Chinatown after yoga and had lunch at Sen Saigon, a new vegan Vietnamese restaurant. I had the summer rolls, spring rolls and the pho and they were all so good! The pho was pretty spot on and the tofu was 😘👌. We grabbed ice cream after at Urban Dessert lab and I forgot how good and creamy oat milk soft serve is even though I had this last year. Then I mad dashed it back to the hotel to catch the train in time to get home for the night.

It’s funny because we didn’t do anything crazy but when I got home around 6, my body crashed and I fell asleep on my living room floor next to my bunny because I was just so exhausted. It was definitely a lot of walking this weekend though because I’m stubborn about taking the subway as minimally as I possibly can. I’d rather just walk everywhere if possible, and we got our steps in both days. And what’s even better, although both days were rest days, I still got my steps in and it didn’t hinder any running progress. My runs this week so far have gone great with both interval speed workouts turning out amazing pace PRs for me for one minute intervals. I really hope I can work on this further and make those one minute paces turn into one mile paces. That’s another thing this weekend helped reinforce. I’m ready to get back into running. NYC marathon training had me burned out and the past 4 month break has been really nice and just what the doctor ordered. I’m ready to jump back in and this time I’m really determined to run with intention instead of just lacing up my shoes and running out the door. We’re going to go in with a plan, we’re going to celebrate all the baby wins and progress, and most of all, I want to have fun with this training session. I’m going to warm up and cool down, and practice more yoga to work on my mobility and flexibility to avoid injury. I’m learning you truly have to slow down in order to speed up! Here’s to finally getting excited about 2024!