Training is back

So I am finally back to official training. I gots to be I have the 1/2 in Sept. September 16 to be exact and for those of you who are good at math, that is 27 days away. A little less than a month. GAAAA!  

Just found out who's playing the after....interesting.....

Today I logged the farthest I have all summer, 6 miles.  They actually felt pretty good. I started off going on a 4 mile run, but felt pretty good so added 2 more miles.  At about 2 miles it started to pour, so I ducked into a little area by the Capitol, where the fountain is....when it started to slow I headed back out. It was funny because there were a bunch of us sheltered in there.  The rain actually felt pretty good. There were still a bunch of hardcore runners in the rain. Love it! Plus the rain wasn't cold it was a warm rain. Unfortunately the rather nice day, turned rain, turned humid. 

Came home and stretched while sipping on chocolate milk, a after run/workout favorite.

It's funny too because I just quit the gym today, money back in my account.  Not that I don't love my gym, it's just I haven't gone in forever. I'd rather run outside and do my workout videos inside than travel to the gym. If my gym were cheaper I might stay, but since I went all of like 5 times this summer....meh, no loss on me.  I can still go to classes if I want to and just pay. It ends up still being cheaper if I go to 4 classes a month. 

Now that summer is sadly coming to a close I can run more frequently outside. I gotta say that running in the winter is my fav. I'm a cold lover and I have way more cold weather running clothes.

In another attempt to motivate myself. I have signed up for the MCM 10k which was our first "long" virgin run last year. So to keep traditions up. Plus, I got one of my besties to run and hopefully some of my other girlies will run too.  If you are reading this Jenna and Teresa, here's the website to sign up:-)  Actually anyone in the area reading this sign up!

Now I just have to coax the hubs to get back to running with me.  

What races do you have planned for the fall?

What's your after workout treat?

Back in the Saddle

 

Well, I just signed up for my third 1/2 marathon and my second Rock N' Roll.  It's in Philly(home sweet home) on Sept 16.  Hopefully it won't be this awful heatwave, or the "dog days" of summer. I don't know if I'll survive.

I've started training again. I really haven't run since June 2, well nothing long. I've had a few short runs, but I've been sick for over a week which put a whole damper in the exercise thing.  Prior to that I hurt my knee at step class. Grrrr...so frustrating.  My goal this summer was to hit the gym a lot, but it's hard to do with all this obstacles to overcome. Then the gym lost AC due to our wicked storm we had this past weekend.  I'm so thankful we didn't lose power like so many who did.  Our wires are all underground and because we live on Capitol Hill we rarely lose power.  I couldn't imagine not having AC this last few days of pure evil humidity.  

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 I know how you feel bud!

Today I returned to the gym to begin training.  I've got a lot of work to do in a short time. I have a little over 2 months to get ready and who knows what will happen between now and then.  I've started out slow, can't start pounding away at the ol' body even though I desperately want to.  I would rather run outside, but these temperatures are certainly not optimal conditions in my mind.  

I did some weights at the gym, triceps, biceps, back....then I ran on the treadmill - I ran an easy 2 miles then hopped on the elliptical and did another 30 minutes.  My knee hurts a little I really hope this isn't going to be a continual nuisance. Time to ice.... Tomorrow I'll probably repeat and then up the miles on Sunday.

Afterwards I ran a bunch of errands, Target, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Home Depot.  You'll see what I'm up to, when I'm finished:-)  Don't let the suspense kill you! 

For dinner, because I got home so late I had steamed broccoli with cheddar cheese (steamed in my wonderful tupperware).  I also had these weird little chicken croquettes they remind me of the ones I used to get in Spain, or at a Tapas restaurant.  Someone brought them over for international night and ended up leaving them, WIN for me!  They are yummy and three fill me up plenty though I'm sure I could scarf down more.

Zooma Women's Half Marathon

Hobby of the Day: Running

Race: Zooma Women's Half Marathon in Annapolis, MD

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Goal: Sub 2:19 (which was my last time, for my first ever 1/2)

Problem: Haven't trained as much as I should have...whomp whomp, might come back and bite me

Hoping: That my husband would be at the 10/11 mile marker to finish the race with me, if allowed....

Official Time 2:34 


Feelings: Sad and Disappointed, but pleased that I finished

Smiling before the Race

I am overly disappointed with my time.  I added 15 minutes to my time, instead of subtracting. No PR there.  I would have been happy if I had even taken off a minute.  Like I said, I did not train as regularly as I had before.  Gary wasn't running this race with me so I didn't have a training partner.  It really helped last time when we both trained together.  

Last time we drove the route we were running, but not this time so I didn't really know what to expect.  And.....Holy Hills Batman! I mean I thought that DC had some, and there was one long one, but Annapolis was like hill and then hill and then more hills. Ugh and of course they are right in the middle.  I know what I HAVE to work on now, hills.  


 



I had Gatorade on my refuel belt, but it ended up being too sweet for me and left me just wanting water. Funny thing is that I usually run with Gatorade.  I didn't have any sports beans or gels on me. I thought I would try swedish fish this time. I only was able to get down one, that was an epic fail, the vanilla GU that they handed out worked MUCH better! 




My friend Jenna and I had signed up to do this race and we had matching outfits, even though we both did poorly, at least we looked cute, HA. I would have rather looked gross and run better though.  We started off together, but we each gave the word that if one of us was faster to just go.  I just kept plodding along at my turtle like pace.  It was nice because our husbands weren't watching, so they ended up being at 5 places that we ran by.  Good sports waiting that long in the sun.  Truthfully we couldn't have had better weather.  
In the end I didn't ask Gary to run with me.  Having him cheer me on and support me was Wonderful!!

We ran over several bridges, past the Naval Academy, and then through a park, which was nice and shady, then looped back.  They had plenty of water stations and plenty of port-a-potties. Most of them never even had lines at them.  This race was no where near as big as some of the races I've run.  This one was mostly female. The last like .1 was over grass.  I was not a fan of that.  They really could have made it go over sidewalks/road, but instead I plodded over grass and then up a little hill to the end. I swear that all races end on an uphill, why is that?!

Still smiling after=survived.  

I thought we were going to be getting a medal, but we got a necklace instead. At first I was a little disappointed because I like having that medal, but then I realize, I don't wear it and we don't have room to display them, so the necklace was nice and different touch.  

Snow-balls, great idea! 

Girl Power!

 Barefoot Wine- cheers

So, even though I didn't get my PR, I am proud that I finished to the best of my ability.  My next half probably won't be until Sept. It seems that big races tapper off during the hot summer months and I'm not complaining. I'll look up some shorter ones maybe I can find something good and not too expensive. 
* If you know of anything, let me know!*

Here's for you Daddy!

Hobby of the Day: Running

Sooooo this is Meg and T's first run/race ever.  They have been super nervous. These are some things I heard this weekend:

 "My run is basically a walk."  "What if I pass out?"  "If I fall down, just keep going." 

"I only ran a mile recently."  

However, my ladies did GREAT! We ended up leaving around 8:20 metro tends to run super slow on race days and the metro did not disappoint. We ended up with a 15 minute wait and of course we had a bag to check and didn't know where that was. 

 We were sporting our homemade t's, purple nail polish and purple bows.

Pre-Race: Smiling So far

 All the runners started had already started before we made it up to the line and then we had to dodge all the walkers, dogs, children and strollers.  I will say that many a stroller ran past me.  Gary took off and we never saw him again, until the end. T, Meg and I stayed together in the beginning. T took off maybe a little faster than she should have, could have been the adrenaline.  You do also seem to use a lot more energy dodging around people.  We stayed together for a little over a mile and then we lost Meg.  I felt bad because I was supposed to be pacing them, have NEVER done that before. It's kinda hard to pace two people at the same time when they don't run the same pace.  I ended up sticking with T. At about 2 miles there was a water station, I didn't really need it, but I grabbed a cup, pinched it and drank down a few sips.  Right around the Capital T kind of hit her wall, but she never stopped running.  I kept looking back and asking her if she was ok.  We hit mile 3 and we had .1 left. I told her we were gonna "push" it to the end, sprint it out for the last tenth.  SO proud of her! Once I crossed the line Gary was waiting there for us,  I sprinted back over the railing to go back and find Meg.  She really wasn't all that far behind us.  I found her and we sprinted over the finish line together! 

Still Smiling even After.....

We didn't get timing chips for this race.  Gary ran about a 27 and T and I did around 33/34 and Meg did 37.  This was their first PR which means next time they will do even better.  It means so much to me that they all ran this with me, especially since Gary and T have never met my dad.  I hope I am making him proud!

Then we got some nummies, Pop chips, water, bagels, banana, Dole yogurt/fruit bites and popsicles.  I think we forgot that we had brunch reservations.  We hung out for a little while and then we headed up to The Hamilton for brunch.  

Cheers to our Victory!

Fried Chicken with bacon and sausage gravy on a biscuit

Quiche with asparagus and mushrooms

Breakfast burrito

If you pace, do you run in front of them or behind? Isn't their job to try and keep up with you, or do you push them from behind?

Runamuck!

 Time to get Down and DIRTY!
There's nothing like a little dirty running!

The first lil hill where people already start to walk

This past weekend Gary, his siblings and I ran a 5k dirty run. It wasn't Tough Mudder, that's just a little too intense for this chica. We did runamuck last year with his sister(Jess) and her boyfriend(Chris).  This year his brother(Eric) joined.  Last year, it was nice and warm and apparently hadn't rained a lot so the "water" area that we ran through was just pure mud. Gary lost his shoe because it got sucked off his foot, found it and then kept going, but lost his sock. So....he spent the rest of the race running without a sock. Silly. I got stuck in so deep that I had to be pulled out, by Chris.  You basically had to crawl through the mud because walking was virtually impossible.  I have to say that my arms were so tired after that race. 

 The last obstacle before.......

The MUDPIT

Enter this year, 2012.....turned out to be the best day ever a cold and basically sunless day. YES! We didn't have any cute "outfits." I had been too busy to create anything. We ended up cutting up some t-shirts right before-totally awesome- DO IT.  I promise, if we EVER do it this race again, we will have better looking costumes! Some people are SO creative. Last year there were peeps and bunny peeps and brides and cows. Pretty funny, I still don't really want to be running in anything extra that might slow me down and make it difficult to do the obstacles. Anyway we were supposed to get there earlier since 
they didn't have any pre-packet pickup. Actually it was pretty easy to get all our stuff.  Then we stood around and we were cold. We watched people come over the the last obstacle and jump into the cold watery mud pit.  I saw Mario and Luigi and a bunch of male "wrestlers" complete with the teeny bottoms.....interesting.....lots of self confidence there. 

Siblings!

Trying not to look chilly
They called us for a "warm up" of dancing. Usually we wouldn't participate, well I would have, but the rest of the clan wouldn't. However, because it was so cold- everyone did it!! 


Start time was at 1:30......we were off. There were a few lil hills. After the first one people were walking.  There were several obstacles, crawling through tubes, over fences, under barbed wire, over a rock climbing wall, balance beams, spider webbed bungee cords, stepping through tires, going through hanging tires and of course the water. Last year it was pure mud crawling through on hands and knees. This year we were up to our waists in Warm COLD water.  At one point we had to do a short swim through the water.  Jess, Gary, Eric and I all ended up getting in a bit of a mud fight before the end.  There was no way not to get wet and then we kept running. My hands were freezing by the end. I had wanted to pull my hair up before we hit the mud/water pit, but I couldn't feel my little fingers.

We got clean by showering under some cold showers. Actually I think it was warmer than the lake water.....my lady parts have never been so cold!Jess and I splashed and tackled each other and of course the brothers had themselves some fun.

Winning! 

At least we look like we participated this year!

No Diva here!