I Heart Under Armor

Oh, and by the way... I blew up the UA outlet this weekend.

Did you do any 'back to school' shopping? [that's my story and i'm sticking to it!] It was tax-free weekend in NC, but we were in OH [dummies].

August Goals

It's that time again. Last month I came up with 5 goals, how did I do?

1. LOG 60 miles. Run them. And log them. According to Daily Mile I ran and logged 63 miles. Score 1 for me. [don't be fooled, it goes down quickly from here]
2. Do yoga once a week. At least. Well, I did yoga twice this whole month. Yikes.
3. Spin once a week. I didn't take a single spin class this month, but I did ride my bike once a week. I'm calling this a win.
4. Lose 5 lbs. Um yeah, about that.
5. Go through my closet and donate the stuff I don't use anymore. Cleaned out the closet, haven't made it to Goodwill to drop off yet.

So you win some and you lose some I guess. I'm proud that I hit my mileage though.

So for this month I'm going to knock back to three goals.

1. Log and run 75 miles.
2. Figure out how to make a cool header for the blog.
3. Complete my runs while on vacation at the end of the month.

This month will be a busy one. My training has made the shift from running three times a week to four. We've been out of town the last two weekends and we'll be on vacation during the last part of the month. I just want to concentrate on taking care of my body and putting the miles in.

What are your goals this month?

Lady Distance Classic 10K: Blue Ash, Ohio

We were in the OH this weekend for a wedding and to visit with Brad's parents. I hadn't raced in a while and had a 6 mile LR scheduled for Saturday, so I thought I'd check to see what the racing scene looked like. I found the Lady Distance Classic 5K/10K in Blue Ash which is about 15-20 minutes from where Brad's parents live.

I signed up for the 10K and went into it not expecting a lot [main goal being get the 6 miles done]. It was my first women's only event and it was awesome!

I foam rolled, stretched, and hydrated like it was my job on Friday. We arrived a little later than expected, so Brad's mom picked up my packet from Fleet Feet. We got these super cute lime green Brooks tech shirts:

I layed out my clothes and got in bed early for my 6am wake up call.

Yes I'm charging my Garmin in my gym bag. [I'm what some people might call absent minded, so I have to plan ahead]. I was also way more nervous than usual because Brad and his parents were coming the the race. I've never had "fans" before. Kinda cool, but very nerve-wracking.

We arrived around 630am for a 715am start. I stretched and hit up the porto's.

 Brad was my official race photographer. Here's me walking back from the bathrooms. Niiiice action shot.

 All women event = must have lots of bathrooms

I was amazed at how many women were in this race. There was a 5K and 10K, with running and walking divisions in both. We started promply at 715am.

Can you spot me? Cheesing like a fool. [Easy to do when you're only 2/10ths in] I spent the first two miles trying to make myself slow down. My pace has been way off in races (apparently I think I'm fast when surrounded by other runners) and I've been wearing myself out. I saw the fam around mile 3.

 I'm holding a pack of shot blocks because I'm not smart and didn't realize I had no pockets. They started in my waistband but that lasted about a half a mile before they were sliding into my sweaty capris.

 Best race picture ever. I was really wanting to go left with the 5K'ers.

Running from the POlice.

Saw them again around mile 4.

I took shot blocks and mile 3 and again at mile 5.5ish [water stations]. Part of the course was through a neighborhood around a golf course. Some of the people had set up sprinklers for us to run through (THANK YOU!). There was a good downhill part through mile 5 and then I'll be darned if there wasn't a big @ss mountain hill at 5.5. Rude.

Finally finished with a time of 1:09:21 (11:11 pace). I placed 270th out of 388 10K runners and 27th out of 40 in my age group.

 After the race we went to the festival. We got a lot of free stuff and there were a ton of booths. However the first both was a free bottle of Mr. Clean. Kinda funny. I told Brad it was for him :)

There were massages, PT's doing stretching and injury screenings, all kinds of snacks and food, powerade, flowers, smoothies, and... A DIY SNO CONE STATION. Shut the front door. Don't get me wrong, I love me some fro-yo. But I LOVE tiger's blood sno-cones and I never get them.

Happiest girl in the world. I didn't want to embarrass my inlaws, so I only got one. Apparently double fisting sno-cones is not becoming.

Then we went home to rest up for the wedding. Riley bear was especially tired.

I thought this race was a lot of fun. The atmosphere was great, very 'I am woman hear me roar'. There were a fair amount of spectators and that made it fun as well. I would recommend this race to anyone and would love to run it again.

Oh and I also got a small PR, but a PR none the less.

What did you do this weekend?

I'm pretty sure hell involves a foam roller.

I am sofreakinghappy that I am through with work for the week!!! 14 hours yesterday and 12 today...Way overrated. I made myself pack a gym bag this morning because I knew if I came home  I wouldn't make it back out to run.

I spent a lot of time stretching and foam rolling before my run. Me and the foam roller are not BFFs. It hurts. It makes me look like an idiot sliding around on it/the floor. And oh yeah, IT HURTS. But I'm being OCD about keeping my body injury free... So foam roll I shall.

I did 4 miles on the treadmill with a 1% incline. It got pretty tough at a couple of points, so I allowed myself to slow down but not walk.

I stretched and used the torture device foam roller afterwards too. I really do think it helps though.

We're off to O-H-I-O tomorrow. I'm so excited for the 10k on Saturday [and the Under Armor outlet store]. Brad's excited for Skyline.

Which do you think is the better TM workout or more like running outside:  Running with an incline or running faster?

Are you racing this weekend? Any other cool plans?

**Sorry for the lack of pictures, my camera is being a turd.

Super quick update

I was really nervous this morning because I wanted to get out and see how my leg was. I'm very happy to say that I did 2.5 miles with no pain!

I didn't want to over-do it so I stopped at 2.5 instead of doing the full 5. I'm planning on making up the other 2.5 later this week.

Saturday I'm running a 10K in Ohio (out of town for another wedding) and I wanted to get a 5 miler in before then. But I think it's more mental reasons that I wanted to do the 5 miles. I know my body can do it (if I take care of it) and this is my second 10K, so I've gotta get over these nerves!!

Welcome to Bummersville... Population Me

My body bitch slapped me today... Let me give you a little background information.

This weekend I spent at least 12 hours in a car. I didn't drink enough water. I drank too many beers. I ate at Wendy's twice and McDonalds once. I got 6 hours of sleep Friday night, and 5 hours of sleep Saturday night. I ran 6 miles on Saturday and did not stretch before or after. (PS - my knees KILLED after that run. We went to the mall and ran errands and all I wanted to do was lay down and ice my knees, which I've never had to do before).

What am I thinking? I think I might deserve what my body handed me today.

I set out on for my five miler and was feeling suprisingly good. Then about a half mile in it happened. My left leg seized up from my outer hip all the way down to my knee. I stopped, stretched, walked about a tenth of a mile, and tried again. Same. frickin. thing. This is what my 'repeats' consisted of. All while I tried to reason with myself and not freak out.

I came home, ate a banana (helps with cramping right?), stretched, started hydrating, took a warm bath, lathered up with Flexall, and now I'm waiting. Any ideas or advice? I'm hoping it's just cramps/stiffness due to poor stretching and nutrition. I'm going to get a good night's sleep and try my five tomorrow.

Catch Up!

Friday Brad and I loaded up the car and headed to the Bluegrass State. I made us a new road mix and he did most of the driving (love it when that happens).

So I put my feet up, rocked out to the road mix, and read once we'd listened to the CD all the way through. I started the Sookie Stackhouse books a few weeks ago at the insistence of one of my friends. She pretty much always recommends great books (she introduced me to the Hunger Games) so I gave them a shot. They're pretty good and I'm reading the seventh one now.



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I usually like series books, I like getting to know the characters more than you would in just one book. I also read the Stephanie Plum books and just downloaded the newest one to my Kindle, but I can't quit reading the others long enough to start it.


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 These are great to read while you're running, because they're mindless but fun.

I signed up to run a 5K this weekend in Asheville, but one of our friends from pharmacy school decided to get married this weekend and we wanted to be there for it. It was a really great weekend and it was so nice to see some of our friends.

I may or may not have suggested we all get fro-yo while we caught up.
I did my long run on Saturday and I'm going to do a little recap of that later. It was full of memories!

For now I'm off to get my 5 miler in!