AVDA 5K - Oct 12, 2013

Ugh I can't believe that I am just NOW writing this recap. That's just crazy. But, as the saying goes - better late than never, right?!

I was looking forward to this race for a few of reasons. First, the AVDA 5K was my first ever 5K. Second, this route is a very popular one for 5K's in Delray so I knew it well. Third, other local Alpha Chi's were running it, as were some of my trainers from Slash.

Dan had been working crazy hours so I left the house alone and let him sleep. My dad decided to come so I met him at the race. I then went over and introduced myself to the Alpha Chi's. One was even a cousin of a girl who was in my chapter at Stetson University!

The route is right along A1A which makes for a beautiful sunrise.

I saw 3 of my Slash trainers and it was really nice to know that they were there.

When it came time, I lined up at the start. I am a terrible racer because I always wind up too close to the start and I am definitely not even close to fast enough to be starting there.

I politely allowed myself to be on the right though so people could pass me. The race was both a 5K and a 10K. If you were doing the 10K, you simply did the route twice.  The 5K was just an up & back on A1A.

Of course the trainers took off ahead, but it was really inspiring and pushed me when I'd see them after THEY did the U-Turn and they'd cheer me on.

hey, i'm smiling!

I felt really good the whole time. I went in hoping to get another sub 30 but fell just short. I'm determined once it FINALLY cools down here, I can do it.

Crossing the finish line, I had my dad there & 2 of the trainers were nearby too so I swung over by them to congratulate them on finishing fast. (One guy got 1st place in the 10K in his age group!). They even made a comment to me that I wasn't even winded upon finishing. Must be Slash Fitness. ;)

Official Results:
Time: 30:08 (avg: 9:43/mile)
Overall place: 168 out of 445
Gender place: 78 out of 285
Age group: 7 out of 27

Morning Cult

It's no secret that I'm a morning worker-outter. That feeling of being DONE with my workout by 6:15 is awesome. I feel awake by the time I even get to work. My metabolism gets jump started right at the beginning of the day. What's not to love? (And yes, my body now naturally wakes up at 4:55am. Not sure if I am liking that or not!)

But you know what? I'm not alone in my craziness!

Even when I was doing spinning at LA Fitness at 5:45am, it was always the same group of people at the gym at that hour.

Now, at Slash... it's our own little Morning Cult.

Look at the beautiful new Slash gym!

It's the same group of people each day. These people call me out on days I'm not there... Applaud me for showing up on Friday mornings at 5:30 (those are the hardest days for me to get there)...

Not to mention, it's welcoming to come in and see familiar faces and be able to say hi with a smile at 5:30 in the morning.

I mean we all have to be kind of crazy to be doing this, right? I guess I have to say that I enjoy the company. :)

Hey look at me! Upper left pic in the red killin' those ropes! (pic courtesy of Slash)

Fells Point, Baltimore, MD

I traveled to Baltimore, MD earlier this week for a 3-day Marketing Conference. 

Turns out a lot of the topics covered were very similar to what I went to a couple of years ago, but was still nice to see people that I e-mail with constantly but either have never met in person, or rarely get to see. 

I even got to chat with the Publisher of one of our Argentina Affiliates and also the Publisher of International Living, based in Ireland. Pretty cool, right? Oh, and can't leave out the other guy from another domestic affiliate who told us our product is terrible. Ohhhhhh, I let him know my thoughts on that. ("Why are we making more sales than you guys then?" :)

My hotel was right on the water and I had a gorgeous view of the harbor.

Panoramic pic of the view right outside my window.

I brought 2 pairs of workout clothes, with some wishful thinking. The hotel had a gym but it was locked and I wasn't entirely sure how to get the passcode. (yes, I'm sure I could've asked the front desk.) And the book in the hotel room stated that the gym wasn't even in the hotel, but down the block. So I'm not sure. 

So, instead I decided to venture outside! I had dinner with my cousin on Tuesday evening and she gave me some pointers as to what area was safe. There were so many running paths, sidewalks, along the water, down the old streets, it was so inviting. 

I checked the temp when I woke up Wednesday morning and it was a beautiful 50 degrees. :) Glad I had brought capris and not just running shorts. 

Could this sunrise be any more gorgeous?

I started off running to the right as soon as I exited the hotel... The boardwalk soon turned into a brick sidewalk and wound around the wharf. I was able to see the Under Armour headquarters.. Domino building... so many boats. 

The paths were bustling with runners which made me more motivated, plus it was a Wednesday morning! I can only imagine what it'd be like on a weekend morning. 

I could take in this view during a run any day of the week!

After the number of runners started to dwindle and my nice waterside sidewalk ended, I turned around, headed back towards the hotel but passed it and ran the other way for a little bit. 

I was a little tight for time because I needed to get some work done before the next round of presentations started and I was out of luck for the day... So I could only get in about 1.7 miles. 

But I gotta say... those miles felt GREAT. 50 degrees with very little humidity was exactly what I needed. I wish that I could've gone farther (while also knowing WHERE I was going!)

But still proud of myself for getting out there at all. 

And of course we had to finish up the trip with the Crab Pretzel at BWI. :) 

Cheesy, Crabby, Pretzel-y goodness!

Jeff Annas Firefighter Memorial 5K - Sept 14, 2013

My last few runs on the weekends have been pretty miserable. I blamed the heat (rightfully so.) Then I twinged my back. Then at Slash this past week my ankle bothered me. I still went to Jiu Jitsu Friday afternoon, worrying that I would mess up my back again.

All this, knowing I had a 5K I signed up for.  I thought maybe it'd help me push through the bad runs. And it was for a cause that I love. I love supporting local Firefighters/Rescue Teams. I think if I could, I'd love to work in a fire station. Maybe not AS a first responder firefighter, but the whole thing just intrigues me. I even listen to Fire Rescue radio on scanner radio. :)

Anyway, Dan and I went to a Food Truck Invasion last night in Jupiter, FL. There were about 30 food trucks there, and it was amazing. At this point I had already given up on any hopes of  PR in the Firefighter 5k. "It's too hot anyway."  I told myself. Knowing that I can't perform my best.

I continued to consume a beer and eat a Crabby Cheese Melt. Not exactly the best pre-race dinner, eh?

We arrived at the race site around 6:45 for the 7:30 start time, even though I had already picked up my race packet. I just get really anxious about figuring out parking, starting line, etc. They had a bunch of fire trucks on display... Some firefighters were getting into their gear to RUN the 5K in their full firefighter get-up. (and let me tell you... I was passed by many of them on the course!)

firefighters in full gear ready for the race.

This race had over 1100 runners and I THINK that may be the largest race I've been a part of.

pic of a part of the crowd at the starting line

Getting excited to kick it off

I'm off!

The race was a fast & flat out and back course. The entire way out was in the shade and had some really nice big trees. At the first part of the turnaround, you were running right into the sun but then the road curved a bit and you were protected again by the trees.

I decided to turn off the mile notifications on my Nike Plus app so I wouldn't have any idea what kind of pace I was doing. I did this during my best-ever 5k and figured maybe there's something to it.

I crossed the finish line with the clock saying 30:11. I completely forgot to account for the time it took me to get to the starting line so I didn't realize for a while that my time was actually quicker than that.

Turns out I finished in 30:00.997.

I think if I had realized I was that close to breaking 30 again, I would've sprinted even harder. But I gotta say, for 'mentally giving up' on this race before I even started... I'm pretty proud of this time.

Results:
30:00.997
9:40/mile pace
Overall placement: 519 / 1128
Gender placement: 234 / 680
Age group placement: 29 / 88

Sitting in the "cool chairs" after the race (arms in some ice bags.)

Horrible Bad Awful Runs

This isn't a very inspiring post but just have to write about it...

I forced myself out for a quick run on Friday morning (because I overslept and missed 5:30am Slash which is what I had been planning to do.) and just did 2 miles, but I was miserable for every second of it. Even afterwards my knees, feet and ankles were sore and achy.

I even told my cousin that I regretted even going at all; which is a feeling I've never had before. She scolded me saying I should NEVER say that, and I should be proud of myself for getting out there at all.

Yesterday I went out for another run and knew when I set out that I was only going to do 2 miles because of how I had felt the day before and my body was still aching. When I hit the 1 mile mark, I was surprised my pace was under 10 minutes because I was feeling so sluggish.

But that helped push me through to speed it up even more for the 2nd mile.

I think I know what is causing the sluggish feeling during my runs...

1. heat and humidity (no matter what time i do)
2. dehydration
3. poor dieting the past fewdays

But it made me hesitant to even sign up for the 5K I wanted to do in the beginning of September. If it's still going to be crazy hot.. how am I going to make it 3.1 miles if I'm struggling with my 2 miles?

I'm sure in the next couple of weeks, I'll give in and sign up but... not feelin' it right now.

NL Batting Title?

I haven't done a baseball post in a longggg time and I vowed this blog would be both my working out and baseball. (Get Up, Get Out!)

I'd just like to quickly talk about Chris Johnson. I didn't know him directly but he went to Stetson at the same time I was there. We have quite a few mutual friends. When I heard he was coming to the Braves I was pretty excited. He had to fight to win over the 3rd base position from Juan Francisco. (who has since been traded.)

Dan and I were lucky enough to attend a lot of Spring Training games (as per usual!) and after one of the games Chris was signing baseballs so went over there. As he was signing mine, I said "Go Hatters!" .. he did a double take then smiled and said "That's right!" and another guy who was standing nearby also went to Stetson and was there seeing Chris play.

Anyway, he's been quite the shining star this year. I don't think anyone really expected it. And thanks to my weird loyalty because he was a Stetson student, too, I picked him up in my fantasy team. Boy, has that paid off! I just hope that he can keep up this momentum!

Saturday Morning Jog

I decided I wanted a change of scenery for my run this morning so I drove out to A1A (about 7 miles). However, there were a few factors working against me this morning. But I prevailed.

#1 - Dorian. Yes, as in the weak tropical storm off the coast of Melbourne, FL. I don't do well running in winds (or even a breeze.) I feel like it adds so much more work. Well, Dorian's outer bands are off our coast and there was still a breeze. And I wish I would've taken a picture of the flags I saw along the different points in my run because some times they'd be blowing west, then south, then east. It was kind of neat to see it following along the 'spin'.

#2 - Parking Meter start time. Back in the day I used to come to A1A just about every Saturday and/or Sunday to run. And I know for a fact that the meters didn't kick in until 8am. Well, now they start making you pay at 7am. I got there right at 7am. You know, in some cities, metered parking is free on the weekends! I decided I didn't want to risk it (didn't bring any quarters because I wasn't expecting to pay) so I drove about a half mile west to my office and parked there.

#3 - Intracoastal Bridge. Since I had to park at my work, I now had a (not a monstrous) bridge over the intracoastal to have to go over twice to get to A1A. Thankfully I was never there during its openings, that would've really messed up my rhythm. But let me tell you... Breeze + uphill isn't my fave. However, i did have negative splits in my last mile which is impressive since that bridge was tackled in the 3rd mile.

#4 - Pinched Nerve. Okay, well I'm not entirely sure that that's what it is. But something in my upper back has been bothering me at night the past 3 nights and yesterday during the day it started to kind of affect me. I probably should've listened to the voice in my head (and my trainer... if something hurts, don't force yourself.) and not ran. BUT it didn't bother me at all during the run. We'll see about the aftermath today.

I went 3 miles in 30:40. I probably could've gotten it done quicker but when I got back to the office my Nike Plus app hadn't told me 3 miles yet so I paused to unlock my phone and check to see how far off I was. I had another tenth of a mile so I ran up and down the block to meet my 3 mile mark but I did have to waste a little time stopping to assess the situation.

Despite all this, after my run I had 40 minutes until the first Slash session of the day. I almost stayed for it (it's a block away from my office), and I actually feel really guilty not going. Weird... I know. (but again, probably better until I see how my back feels after the run.)

Song that pushed me during the last bridge: Brian McCann's Walk Up song randomly came onto my playlist and that song always gets me going. Even at Slash. "All I Do is Win"

But you know what else I was thinking about on my run? (wow that animated gif of Mccann is very distracting haha) People who say "Oh I have an "easy 8 mile run today." HOW IS 8 MILES EVER EASY? Ok, I've never trained for a marathon or half marathon (started to train for a half, but once I started getting to about 6 miles I'd get really bad pains in my lower calf/soleus) so I get why at some point maybe 8 miles is easy. But anything over 4 miles to me is just crazy.