Wrapping up Thanksgiving week

November 27, 2016 by 16 Comments

As I runfessed on Friday, I allowed myself some much needed down time after we got back from Vegas. So this week was about slowly finding some mojo…

Monday: Strength session with Trainer Stacy. Nothing helps to knock the rust off faster than an intense hour working on core, hips and shoulders!

Tuesday: Well, I got a little overambitious with Monday’s workout so a little gentle yoga was needed.

Wednesday: 7 hrs of travel in a car – thank goodness for compression sleeves!

Thursday:  3 easy miles on the hotel treadmill before Thanksgiving festivities.

Friday: 6+ hours of car travel followed by some much needed rolling!

leaf-raking

Saturday: Cardio by way of leaf raking. (If I never see another leaf again I’d be ok with that!)

Sunday:  I laid in bed for a long time listening to the wind whip around the house and debating a run. I opted for a strength workout following the new plan Stacy created for me.

So yeah…finding that mojo was a little slow going. The goal for this upcoming week is simple – get some miles in. I’d really like to up my strength training during this “off season” so Stacy and I worked out a plan that should have me in the gym 3x’s a week. That still leaves 3 days to run and a yoga/rest day – at least that’s the plan.

rp_WeeklyWrap-1-300x300.jpgAs always, I’m linking up with Tricia and Holly for the #WeeklyWrap. Head on over and check out all of the great ladies sharing weekly training, life happenings, motivation and encouragement!

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Filed Under: Weekly Wrap

Runfessions – Thanksgiving edition

November 25, 2016 by 16 Comments

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I’m still on the road hanging with the in-laws, but am taking a short break to join in to share some runfessions with Marcia and others. Come join us and cleanse your sweaty soul!

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Runfession: I took a full week off from running after my Vegas adventure …and I didn’t miss it! I was t-i-r-e-d y’all and my body was clearly craving some down time.

Runfession:  My eating habits have gone way off the rails. I mentioned that there was some “indulging” in Vegas (how could there not be?!), but things have not improved greatly since then. Time to reel it in!

Runfession: Last month I runfessed, or gym-fessed, that I missed the gym crazies…well ask and ye shall receive! They have returned to my gym with a vengeance including the guy who insists on working out in jeans. I’m glad they’re back – they make going to the gym so much more entertaining 😉

Runfession: Over coffee earlier this month I had mentioned my casual desire for a new sports watch. Well now that I’ve started looking it’s turned into a full on obsession! I’ve been stalking product reviews like a champ, and am now dropping less than subtle hints to my husband. I’m keeping my fingers crossed the Forerunner 235 will be mine (…such first world problems, I know!).

Runfession: And speaking of first world problems…I continue to wrestle with local vs. destination races. While I have loved traveling these past 3 months for the Rock ‘n’ Roll races, there is a lot to be said for rolling out of your own bed on race morning, (easier on the wallet too, I might add!). If I want to take advantage of some great “early bird” registration deals on some local races I’ll need to pull the trigger soon, but that means giving up some destination races I’ve been eyeing. What’s a runner to do?!

I’m also joining Rachel from Running on Happy and Lacey & Meranda from Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five link-up! frifive2

So tell me, what do you runfess? Have you started race shopping yet?
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Filed Under: Friday Five, race shopping, Runfessions

My RnR Vegas Recap – #StripAtNight

November 20, 2016 by 24 Comments

Last weekend I was on the road once again for a race weekend – this time it was Vegas! Ah and what a weekend! Meeting Meb, Snoop Dogg in concert, some great food (and cocktails), blogger meet-ups, not one but two races, and running the Vegas strip at night – much fun was had for sure…so without further ado…settle in for my recap.

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(Disclosure: As a member of the Rock’n’Blog team, I received a free race entry for the Remix Challenge. As always, all opinions are mine!)

Both my husband and brother were joining me for this trip. We arrived in Vegas by mid morning, got an early check-in at the hotel and grabbed lunch before heading to the expo. Packet pick-up was a breeze and we were quickly wandering the aisles of over 80 expo vendors. There were a lot of good deals, but we didn’t go too crazy. I couldn’t wait to pick up the awesome #Werunsocial t-shirt I had pre-ordered!

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Yes it glows in the dark!

The highlight of the expo was meeting Meb at the Rock’n’Roll booth! We hadn’t heard the announcement that he was going to be there – I spotted him purely by chance. Meeting Meb was awesome! He was so gracious – we chatted about his book (you can check out my review here) and I did my best to not go totally fan-girl on him. A hug, photo and an autographed bib – yeah my race experience was complete and I hadn’t even toed the line yet!

meb

The rest of the day was spent doing way too much walking taking in the sights of the strip. We capped the day with an amazing dinner at Yardbird Restaurant (definitely worth a visit!).

We took advantage of sleeping in Saturday morning before grabbing brunch and heading up the strip to scout out the 5K location. The race didn’t start until 6 p.m. and the three of us found it a little hard to manage the day and not do too much. The crowds heading up to the race were crazy – we had to let 3 monorails go before we could squeeze our way on one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people lining up for a 5K! People did not self-seed well and there were way too many walkers up front. My brother and I did what we could to run when we could find open space, but in many places the course narrowed and we were just stuck behind a wall of walkers. We certainly weren’t out there to worry about time so we just went with it  – first half of the Remix Challenge done! Off for another great meal – this time at Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar.

post-5k

Sunday morning started with a great brunch at Margaritaville’s roof deck. A perfect spot to watch the closing of the strip and pre-race set up. We hung out and watched football, again trying to lay low and not do too much. I just have to say late day races for me are hard! Finally it was time to head to the race. The guys were doing the 10K so we said our goodbyes at the monorail station and I headed off to hit the Snoop Dogg headliner concert and the We Run Social meet-up.

vegas-blogger-collage There were so many of us for the meet-up we barely all fit in the photo! It was great to meet so many bloggers including Sharon, Kim and Carlee. Snoop Dog played all of his big hits and really had the crowd going.

I was in the Yellow start so I had a fair amount of waiting to do until they called us to the start. The corrals were a hot mess and as I chatted with others waiting to shuffle to the start I reminded myself the goal for this race was simply to have fun – there was no time goal. Running the Vegas Strip was pretty amazing and the energy was great! The only lull was the loop of miles 7 – 9 where we were running through “old Vegas” and some random neighborhoods. You could definitely feel the runner energy drop at this point and I could definitely feel the whirlwind days catching up with me. Luckily we were soon back at the top of the strip and heading towards the finish line.

Final thoughts…

This was one fun race weekend! There is nothing quite like running down the middle of the Vegas Strip at night – definitely one that every runner should experience.

If you do run Vegas, know that this is not the race for a PR. You’ve got to go into it just looking to have fun and enjoy the experience.

If you can tack on an extra day, I would recommend post-race so you can fully celebrate Vegas-style 🙂

The Vegas pre-sale of just $99 for 2017 is on until midnight tonight…just sayin’ 😉

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I’m linking up once again with Holly & Tricia for the Weekly Wrap!

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Filed Under: #MebforMortals, #RocknBlog, #StripAtNight, blogger meet-ups, race report, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap – Prepping for #StripAtNight

November 6, 2016 by 19 Comments

Happy Sunday!

Anyone else feeling inspired after watching NYC Marathon coverage today?! I always have said that if I ever decided to take on a marathon NYC would be on my wish list. As it is, I did decide to throw my hat in for the 2017 NYC Half lottery – fingers crossed for the December drawing!

But, before I get too far ahead of myself…there is still running the #StripAtNight in just a few short days. So how did this week go?

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Monday: Post race rest day.

Tuesday: Strength day – Keeping up with the Turkish get ups, plank series and squats.

Wednesday: 5 miles with 3 at steady state.

Thursday:  3 easy miles.

Friday: 3.2 miles more.

Saturday: Saturdays are usually my long run day. I had 8 on the plan and given the boys’ sports/activities schedule, running in the morning was just not going to be possible. So I pushed the run to later in the afternoon…and then life happened…and the run got pushed to Sunday.

Sunday:  Woke up oddly tired, despite the extra hour thanks to the clocks going back. This run felt surprisingly good despite the tired legs and hilly course – 7.2 miles done!

I’m linking up again with Holly and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap. Join in and share how your week went.

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Filed Under: #StripAtNight, half marathon training, Weekly Wrap

November’s Coffee Date

November 5, 2016 by 16 Comments

It is the first Saturday of the month and time for the Ultimate Coffee Date link-up, hosted by Coco and Deborah!

The Ultimate Coffee Date

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that my proud mama moment from last weekend continued yesterday as I watched my son set a new PR at the league championships and finish his cross country season strong! We’re talking about running a 5 miler together this winter…time for me to work on my speed 😉

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that I’m getting so excited for Vegas! I’ve never been and I know part of the challenge for me will be to not try to run around and see and do “all the things”.

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that I’d really like to get a new sports watch and have no idea which direction to go. I love the look of the Fitbit Blaze, but does it have all of the features I need/want? On the Garmin side, I’ve been eyeing the Forerunner 235 – not as “fashionable” but not bad.

watches

courtesy of specout.com

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that 2017 race planning is underway. Travel vs. staying local?  Which distances…half marathons? 10-milers? 10Ks? Repeat races or new ones? And, how many? So many options  – I love when the year is wide open and full of possibilities!

So what would you tell me over coffee?  Any watch recommendations? Have you started race planning?

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Filed Under: race shopping, Ultimate coffee date

Weekly Wrap – Training and a 5K

October 30, 2016 by 26 Comments

Once again the days are flying by at an alarming rate and October is drawing to a close. As always, I’m joining Holly and Tricia for the #WeeklyWrap link-up. When you’re done here, please visit these two great ladies and all of the other fun bloggers linking up.

Monday: An easy run of 4 miles.

Tuesday: The plan called for 4 miles and I’ve been trying to shift to some late day running to get ready for Vegas. Well, life and family schedules caused me to keep pushing this run later and later and eventually it just didn’t happen. (This is exactly why I’m a morning runner!)

Wednesday: Strength day with Trainer Stacey. Turkish get-ups, deadlifts, bear crawls and lots of core work were all part of the mix.

Thursday:  3-mile tempo intervals. I don’t know where the RC coaches came up with this one! Plan called for two sets of tempo intervals with a 3 min rest, plus warm up and cool down. I’ll just say there was a lot of swearing!

Friday: 4 more easy miles in crazy swirling winds, followed by a much needed sports massage.

Saturday: Just a two mile shakeout run.

Sunday: Canton Fall Classic 5K. I haven’t run a 5K in ages and I forgot just how hard they can be. I also forgot how challenging this course is – mile 2 is just one hill after another. But this is a great local race – it’s always great to see so many of the runners I see out and about every day all running this race. There are also a lot of families running together and it was fun to be out there with my son. He totally smoked me, by the way, but he waited at the finish line and cheered me in (and to be fair, he asked if it was ok before he took off).

Tell me something about your week.

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Filed Under: Canton Fall Classic, half marathon training, Weekly Wrap

Runfessions October 2016

October 28, 2016 by 28 Comments

A quick check of my past posts shows I haven’t runfessed since July – How is that possible?! What are Runfessions you ask? A fun link-up hosted by Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice where she encourages everyone to share their confessions about your runs, swims or gym time…a chance to cleanse your sweaty soul.

So here we go…

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Runfession #1 — While I do rotate my shoes, more often than not I grab my Saucony Zealots ISO – love this shoe! And the miles have been adding up, so I thought I’d buy a new pair. The reviews on the ISO 2 are a bit of a mixed bag – (why do running shoe companies feel the need to mess with a good thing?!) So I’ve taken to scouring the web in search of the originals. I recently scored a new pair at half the price…I’m tempted to buy more and just hoard them away.

Zealots

Runfession #2 — While I am really looking forward to running the #StripatNight in Vegas, my training mojo has gone MIA. The downside of running multiple races over the past couple of months is that I feel like I’ve been following a training plan for a long time…looking forward to just running for a while.

Runfession #3 —  Of course, while I say I’m looking forward to taking a break from training, I’m already starting to map out my 2017 races. (Please tell me I’m not the only one!)

Runfession #4 — I look forward to running Sunday’s 5K with my son, but I confess that I miss the days when I could keep up with him. He’ll be waiting for me at the finish…

Runfession #5 — I miss my gym crazies! In the past I’ve shared stories of some of the more interesting characters/behavior I’ve observed at my gym. Well, of late things have been downright normal…and I must admit I’m bored. Gym crazies definitely help to keep it interesting and pass the time 😉

It's time for #Runfessions! Link up with @teamarcia and share! Share on X

OK so now it’s your turn….what do you run-fess?  Do you hoard shoes?

I’m also joining Rachel from Running on Happy and Lacey & Meranda from Fairytales and Fitness for the new Friday Five link-up! frifive2

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Filed Under: Friday Five, Runfessions, Zealot ISO

Weekly Wrap – Just a little tired

October 23, 2016 by 28 Comments

Happy Sunday all!

I have been enjoying a much needed, and rare, lazy Sunday. This was one of those weeks where I felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It was a week that included feeling less than fabulous, one kid home sick from school, school events, parent teacher conferences, a big work event, and managing the usual shuttling of kids here and there. And, yes there was training mixed in there, too. I am t-i-r-e-d y’all! Today provided a much needed break.

Monday: While I woke up not feeling all that great, I kicked the week off with some early morning miles. – 3 miles done.

early-morning

Moon wasn’t ready to head to bed

Tuesday:  The blech I was feeling on Monday got worse and I couldn’t get my head off the pillow for my run. My oldest was also down and stayed home from school. Missed my tempo run and spent the day on the couch.

Wednesday: Strength day – glutes, hips and abs were the focus.

Thursday: Time to get running again – an easy 5K done.

Friday: With a big event for work planned for Saturday, I opted to get my long run done on Friday instead. I’ve been exploring new fueling options and with double digits on tap it seemed like a good time to try Tailwind Nutrition I had ordered last week. The humidity was back with a vengeance (dew point of 85!), but I got 10 miles in, and I’m happy to say Tailwind agreed with my stomach and my energy level felt pretty good…I’m cautiously optimistic.

recovery

I must say it was kinda of nice having my long run out of the way before the weekend got going. We went to a school performance for my youngest son and then it was a quiet evening on the couch 🙂

Saturday: Ran the 4 miles that was originally on my plan for Friday. My legs felt really heavy and 95% humidity didn’t help. There was a flurry of kids activities and sports to shuttle between and I short-changed my post-run rolling. By halfway through the evening event, my legs were really talking back to me! (Didn’t help that I chose to wear heels – what was I thinking?!)

The upcoming week looks to be equally chaotic, and I know I’ve got to do a better job of being kind to my legs. I’ll be running a local 5K with my son next weekend, which should be a lot of fun!

As always, I’m linking up with Tricia and Holly for the #WeeklyWrap. Head on over and check out all of the great ladies sharing weekly training, life happenings, motivation and encouragement.

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Filed Under: half marathon training, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap – Rest & Recovery

October 16, 2016 by 23 Comments

After last weekend’s race, this week was all about rest and recovery.

Monday and Tuesday were all about rest.

Wednesdays are my usual strength day. Trainer Stacy was out of town so I was left on my own – lots of squats, lunges and abs.

The RC coaches wanted to give me as much down time as possible, so Thursday was yet another rest day. I spent some quality time with a lacrosse ball trying to work out some lingering knots.

By Friday, I was itching to run, and was happy to see 5 miles on the plan. Mid-40’s in the morning is perfect running weather in my book and everything about this run felt good!

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The temps on Saturday were even cooler  – I actually had to dig out a pair of gloves for this run. A hilly 6.25 miles with J. Another good run!

Now the week ahead will be the start of upping the mileage to get ready for Vegas! Since I’ll be running the Remix Challenge (5K on the first night and half marathon on the 2nd), the RC coaches will have me running short runs on Fridays before my Saturday long runs.

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Fridays are usually a rest day, but I think this will be good practice for the Remix. I’m also going to try to shift my runs to later in the day to try to get use to Vegas’ late race start times.

Do you shift the time of your runs to match a race?
Any advice for running back-to-back races?

As always, I’m joining Holly and Tricia once again for the #WeeklyWrap link-up. rp_WeeklyWrap-1-300x300.jpg

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Filed Under: #StripAtNight, Weekly Wrap

RnR Brooklyn Race Recap

October 12, 2016 by 19 Comments

On Saturday I completed my eleventh half marathon, running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon. I took the train into NYC on Friday morning. Packet pick-up was held at the Penn Pavilion which is directly across the street from Penn Station, so grabbing my bib and race shirt was super easy. The space for the expo itself was small and awkwardly configured so after a very quick peak I headed out. It was great to be back in NYC after such a long time and I enjoyed a leisurely walk before grabbing lunch and heading to my hotel to wait for J and the kids, who were driving down after school. Dinner was some very yummy pizza and I did my best to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Sleep was erratic at best, and before I knew it my alarm was going off. I had very little appetite but did my best to force down some food {cue the foreboding music}. J and I walked the little over a mile to the start. The security lines were long, but moving. The same could not be said about the porta potty lines. Finally made my way to the corrals and slipped in where I could. We shuffled along and soon we were off.

brooklyn-sunrise

The first 5 K felt great! I spotted J on the first out and back and was right on pace. That good feeling was short-lived, cause by mile 5 I started to feel off  – a headache was brewing.

As it morphed into a full-blown killer headache, I continued to fuel, and tried to press on, focusing on the bands, high-fiving kids, whatever I could do to distract myself…but I was slowing down. When the 2:30 pacer passed me, I was deflated. Now a new mental battle began, and I’ll tell you the internal dialog was not pretty. I could not believe that my race was being derailed by a  f$^&# headache!

The universe sent me just what I needed around mile 8 in the form of Roz and Carla. Roz, a Half Marathon Maniac in the middle of a half marathon double-header, had been encouraging Carla, who was taking on her very first half. Soon we were a threesome – chatting, sharing fueling tips, and most of all supporting and encouraging each other. It was the pick me up I desperately needed.

As we entered Prospect Park and the final hills, I was really hurting – I told Roz and Carla not to wait for me and that I would do what could to keep up with them. They pushed ahead and I just tried to keep them in my sights. I spotted J and he came out to run with me until I had just about a half mile left. I willed myself to the finish and was finally done.

I quickly found Carla and Roz and there were lots of hugs all around. (I truly love how running bonds people!)

brooklyn-swag

Race swag included a black hoodie for         completing both Philly & Brooklyn!

It was just not my day – this race was not a reflection of my training. So, back to the drawing board I go…

Some final thoughts on the race itself:

  • Overall this was a well organized race, as I’ve come to expect from Rock ‘n’ Roll
  • Bands along the course seemed a little sparse
  • Nice course, especially ending in Prospect Park
  • Post-race food was plentiful
  • Expo was definitely lacking in both layout and vendors
  • Fun medal & race shirt

(Disclosure: As a member of the Rock’n’Blog team, I received a free race entry. As always, all opinions are mine!)

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Filed Under: #RocknBlog, race report, RnR Brooklyn