Rock N' Roll Philly Half

Well, I just completed my 3rd half marathon.  Surprisingly it wasn't my worst time, considering.  My first was this past March and it was another Rock n' Roll 1/2 here in DC.  The hubs and I did pretty good training wise. It's also always helpful to have someone who runs with you.  I was really surprised with my time especially since we had some hills.  I think it was 2:19, no world record that's for sure.

In June I ran the Zooma Women's 1/2 and trained, but again not as well as I probably could have.  I ended up getting something like 2:35 or something along those lines.  There were a lot more hills than I had expected.

This last one was also a Rock n' Roll 1/2 and with summer's here being so hot and humid it made it difficult to run outside.  I have also quit the gym because I feel that it is a waste of money and if I want to take a class or go once in awhile it's cheaper to do it that way than to pay a monthly membership.  I only ran up to 7 miles while training for this 1/2 which is no where near what I wanted to get to.  My goal was to get to 10, maybe 11.  Thankfully we had BEAUTIFUL weather AND Philly is quite flat, HUGE blessing!

I didn't run with water this time just with my GU and iphone.  I did stop at every water station though.  I found that putting GU in my pocket makes it easier for me to take them because it warms them up and makes them a little easier to swallow.  They handed me an orange GU at around mile 9.  That was NOT good.  I have to stick to the chocolate and vanilla ones.  

 High School Friend, Abby, actually I've known her since 3rd grade! That's what like 22 years?!

 On your mark, get set....and major traffic jam

 Barefoot Runner

 Loving the run under bridges and along side the water.

Originally we planned on staying with my mother outside of Philly and then traveling in real early Sunday morning.  Thankfully Gary decided that staying in Philly in a hotel would be better for both of our sanities. We ended up staying at the Hilton Garden down on Arch and 11th right across the street from the convention center where packet pick up was and right next to Reading Market. There was also the added bonus of the Wawa right across the street.  It was prime location in my mind.  I also found a cheap manicure place right around the corner.  I got a $25 OPI gel manicure, usually in DC it costs $40. 

You could choose the comfort of your mattress....wish ours did that.

I didn't end up with the worst time in the world.  I got 2:26.  Next year I will definitely train harder.  I'm hoping that for the one in March next year I'll be much more ready, especially since I know the hubs will be running it with me.  

It was fun because I knew a few friends running it, all of whom are faster than I, but we didn't stick together.  My one friend from HS and I started together and ran a mile and then I told her just to go. This was also a special run because my mother was able to come with one of her best friends.  She's never seen me run and I thought it would be neat for her to experience a 1/2 marathon and all the participants.  

I felt good for the majority of my run.  I didn't hit a major wall until about mile 11. And...thankfully my feet didn't fall asleep as badly as they sometimes do.  It was really gorgeous running there along the river. 

A Break in the Weather

Well, for the last few days we've had a "break" in the temperatures here.  

Of course this week the temperatures aren't supposed to be too pleasant.  It's quite deceiving really it looks sunny and nice out. I see the breeze blowing and then bang! As soon as the pup and I walk out the door, humidity.  Heat=good. Humidity=bad.  Belle doesn't like it at all. Seems like she might die every time we come home. Poor baby. 

Logged a measly 3 miles yesterday. The morning started off well, it had rained during the night, the shade felt good, but the sun wasn't too friendly.  It's always hard, there are just some good days and some bad days and yesterday was a bad day.  Hopefully today will be better.


We've been watching the Tour de France a lot.  And by a lot I mean EVERY day! We tape it and then fast forward through commercials and "slow" parts.  Thank goodness for DVR, otherwise 3+ hours of our life would be used up.  Like any professional athlete, I am always amazed! The fact that they ride 100+ miles every day, my body would just shut down I'm sure.  But, it's what they do, they have trained for it and know what to expect.  It's not the first race they've ridden that's for sure.  They typically ride about 40 mph on flat road and downhill CRAZY! But even professionals have bad days.  The commentators talk about how so-and-so has been yo-yoing with their performances from day to day. What runs through my head is, "if that's them doing "bad," than what's good?!

 

[source]

Do you ever forget to breath? It's kind of a weird question. I've talked about it with my students when we talk about natural habits.  I ask them if they have to remind themselves to breath. Obviously you know the response.  However, when I'm doing physically draining activities I often think about pushing through. I want to finish and sometimes, just sometimes I forget to breath. Jillian Michaels is always reminding me on the videos. But if I'm doing a lot of burpees, or sit ups or planks sometimes I am concentrating so hard that I do forget to breath and then when I finish I'm left winded and slightly lightheaded.  

[source]

Flipped through the TV this afternoon and so the Ironman Triathlon (2011) was on, unfortunately it was just the last 10 minutes. It was at like hour 16 or something crazy and the oldest woman(76) made it before midnight. For those of you unfamiliar a triathlon is three events, swimming, biking and running.  An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike  ride and 26.2 run (marathon).  This is not on my bucket list. Maybe a 26.2 someday and maybe a tri, but not the Ironman, not to mention I am AWFUL at swimming....if I could doggy paddle the majority of it I might survive.  However, 100's of people flailing around in the water is a little scary to me.  Since I'm not a strong swimmer I tend to panic if I get too tired.  But.....maybe someday.......

The Day After.....a few days later

Waking up was P-A-I-N-F-U-L the day after the race! I had been still for so long poor muscles....ugh. Perhaps I didn't stretch as well as I should have after the race.  I probably should have iced....grrr.. regretting that now.

People become very religious with their running habits, both before, after and during.  Trust me, when I find something that works I will stick to it.  It's interesting, the morning that we were walking to the half we were passing people who were running/warming up. They were fairly far away from the stadium.  Now I know that I know warm ups are important to get your muscles ready. Usually when Gary and I run, we start off and then we stop to stretch, then continue on our way.  I thought, there is no way I'm going to do some warm up running before I commit to 2 plus hours of running. Was that my bad? Plus there wasn't a whole lot of area to warm up or stretch and once we were in our corals, forget it! So I did a few stretches and then well we ran...surprisingly I didn't feel awful, perhaps it was the adrenaline, the pure excitement, the desire to beat the person in front of me, who knows.  I am very thankful that I did well. 

I had bought the whole Gatorade Series, 01 prime, 02 perform, 03 recover, sadly they don't have a ton of flavors. We love the blue Gatorade. I know blue isn't a flavor. I also like the riptide rush, which is purple.  The Prime came in berry flavored and is full of Carbs and +B Vitamins to be drunk right before exercise. The perform comes in more flavors and should be consumed during exercise, not a problem since I had a hydration belt.  I chose the low calorie glacier freeze one full of electrolytes and carbs. Then I got the Recover, flavor mixed berry, not to be confused with just berry.  Again, full of electrolytes and carbs- protein to rebuild.  However, come race morning, I was little nervous to do the prime because I hadn't before, so I consumed a pack of powerbar energy blasts in raspberry flavor. If you know me, you know I love my gummies. It just seems that when I have to force myself to consume something, it just doesn't seem as good, but these weren't bad and they didn't hurt me- huge plus! 

PowerBar Energy Blasts gel filled chews are a great choice for use before or during moderate and high-intensity exercise. They're formulated with PowerBar® C2MAX dual source energy blend, a 2:1 glucose to fructose blend found to deliver 20–50% more energy to muscles than glucose alone and improve endurance performance by 8%.*

Fueling up right can make a big impact on how you feel and perform, no matter what you’re tackling. During activities lasting more than 1 hour, have 1–3 pieces every 10 minutes. You can also have a packet of Energy Blasts gel filled chews 30–60 minutes before exercise to top off energy stores. (Six Energy Blasts gel filled chews are the energy equivalent of one PowerBar® Energy Gel.)

PowerBar Energy Blasts gel filled chews — key features:

• Great tasting energy chews with a refreshing liquid gel center
• Provide more energy to muscles with C2MAX
• Packed in a convenient resealable pouch
• No preservatives or artificial flavors

*Currell K, Jeukendrup A. Superior endurance performance with ingestion of multiple transportable carbohydrates. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2008;40:275–281.

Nutrition Facts

Serving size 1 pouch (9 pieces)

Calories 190
Calories from fat 0
* Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Amount/Serving	% DV*
Total Fat 0g	0%
Sodium 60mg	3%

Amount/Serving	% DV*
Total Carb 45g	15%
Sugars 36g
Protein 3g

• Vitamin C 10% •

Ingredients

C2 MAX ENERGY BLEND (SUGAR, GLUCOSE SYRUP FROM WHEAT, INVERT SUGAR), WATER, GELATIN, 2% OR LESS OF: RASPBERRY PUREE, RASPBERRY JUICE CONCENTRATE, SODIUM ASCORBATE (VITAMIN C), CITRIC ACID, TARTARIC ACID, MALIC ACID, SODIUM CITRATE, GLYCERIN, CARRAGEENAN, LOCUST BEAN GUM, NATURAL FLAVORS, SORBITOL, COCONUT AND/OR PALM KERNEL OIL, CARNAUBA WAX, BLACK CARROT JUICE COLOR.
MADE ON EQUIPMENT THAT ALSO PROCESSES MILK.  [source]

  

Many people love the GU. They have many different products from gels, to gummies to powders for your drinks.   Lots of CHOMP flavors, but I purchased the strawberry ones with caffeine for that extra little boost.  In the end I ended up with one pocket of CHOMPs and one pocket of Jelly Belly Watermelon Sports beans (with caffeine).  So many people had the gels, they were in pockets, on their running belts, etc. I think it could be a texture thing for me, but I have trouble with those, but to each their own. You find what works for you.  They are a lot easier to "get down" than gummies because you have to chew chew chew and swallow and gummies do tend to make me salivate more. I also like shotblocks- strawberry flavored of course.

I also noticed that they were handing out salt packets before the run....they also had them at one of the water stations.  Obviously I am new to this so I looked it up. Apparently they help with cramping on long runs, specifically in the leg area. Since you sweat a lot more, especially during long runs in warm weather you need to replenish your electrolytes/salt- makes sense.....Some people do salt tablets instead, or you can do a salt shot....

• Just empty a salt packet (from McDonald's or other fast food place) onto your hand.
• Lick the salt off your hand.
• Drink some water immediately after.
• If you're doing a run longer than 2 hours, you may want to take another one halfway through your run/race.[source]

How do your survive after? I stretch and rehydrate, sometimes nap. After the RNR I drank a bottle of water and had a thing of chocolate milk, courtesy of Refuel with Chocolate Milk.  That's one of those things that I started to do after exercise. YUM! A lot of times I also ice, although I seemed to forget this time- whoops.

What's your favorite energy of choice while running?

Do you take salt packets before/during a long/warm run?

What's your after?