Not Running Related, Not Even Zumba Related

So, I caved and have become one of those moms. What moms you ask? The moms we all see on facebook posting the exploits of their child's Elf On The Shelf. I am a little ashamed of myself because I have become the mom that I would have made fun of when B was a baby. Now, every night I find myself scrambling to remember to move the damn thing, or setting up what ever prank. It's been fun, I won't lie, but I am ready for that damn elf to take it's little peppermint loving a** back to where it came from. Here are some of Buddy's exploits.

She started out innocently enough.

Messing up a craft was still pretty tame.

Then she did this...

I think she was hitting the elf wine when she decided to hang from our decorations

 

Looking pretty pleased with herself

This one made B super angry, apparently this was going too far. It wasn't the undies, it was the fact that Buddy was in her room.

Zumbatomic Training

On Sunday, I attended Zumbatomic training. What is Zumbatomic you ask? Well, it's a specially designed Zumba program for kids. Being a mom, of course, I was interested in this because it's a great way to get kids into Zumba but in an age appropriate way. The training was with ZES (Zumba Education Specialist) Marcie Gill, she was an incredible instructor. This training was a ton of fun and I cannot wait to start teaching this program. What's not to love?! It's a great way to get kids moving and making it feel like a little party, plus it's not a huge commitment like most kids activities tend to be. The possibilities with it are awesome because they go above and beyond just having classes for the kids at a gym or community center.

Not only did I get licensed to teach this program, but I got to meet, network, and make friends with some awesome Zumba instructors from the Atlanta area and a few from Alabama. Getting this opportunity, just solidified in my mind that I have to find a way to make it to Convention this year. Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE ZUMBA?

Giveaway Winners and Dancing On The Treadmill

So, my two winners according to random.org are Michel from Baby Weight My Fat Ass and Trish from Begin Again and Again and Again.... Send me an e-mail at runchunky@gmail.com by Friday Dec. 9th to claim your prize.

Wednesday, Friday's and Saturday's runs were on the treadmill. I had my music right for all of these runs, all different playlists that I had tweaked for each run. Well, I may or may not have jammed out a little on the treadmill, it helps because I have a bit of a hard time with the treadmill. I have been known to dance during a race or an outdoor run but never a full on dance on the tready. Imagine my excitement when I saw these videos....





It would be my luck that I would probably bust my butt trying these at the gym, I'd be the youtube video that goes viral of the fat chick who wipes out. Plus, I'm not sure Coach Lesley would approve.

Aside from the treadmill dancing, I've been enjoying the scaled back running schedule. I needed a little breathing room. I'm back to training twice a week with Amy, and even hitting up a few Zumba classes as a student which is refreshing for a change. It gives me ideas for my classes and helps me become a better instructor, plus it's just plain ol' fun for me. I've also been working on a Toys For Tots Zumba event, so if you are in the Atlanta area and are looking for something to do this Friday night, please join me for  a fun party for a great cause. https://www.facebook.com/events/239482192784635/

Hippie Runner Belt Review and Giveaway

A while back, I purchased a Hippie Runner Belt for myself because I needed a different option for a race belt then what I had been running with. The belt is really neat because it has two pockets, one smaller than the other. The larger pocket is large enough to fit my phone or camera and I use the smaller pocket for my ipod nano, with all of this the belt manages not to bounce.  I wore this belt exclusively through the marathon training and during all of my races this fall, and I have been very happy with it. I love the loops for the energy gels, they are secure and easily accessible. Not only has this belt proven to be great for running, but I had forgotten my mic belt for my Zumba class but thankfully I had this belt in my car, and it turned out to be perfect for my mic pack. 

The wonderful people over at Hippie Runner sent me some of their awesome headbands and two belts to giveaway to you, my awesome readers. So, there will be two winners, each will win a belt and two headbands. 

* Hippie Runner provided me with the headbands and belts to give away, my opinions are my own.

Contest ends 12/5 @ 11:59

Mandatory Entries (leave a separate comment for each)


1. Like Hippie Runner on Facebook and let them know Lucy from Run Chunky Run sent you.
2. Follow my blog through google friend connect

Optional Entries (leave a separate comment for each)


3. Follow me on twitter @LucyATL
4. Share this giveaway on twitter, FB etc...
5. Make a donation to my coach's fundraising efforts here, you can read more about it here.
6. Tell me about something special that your family does to celebrate Christmas.

Three Things Thursday

1. I've been busy working on a Zumba event to benefit Toys For Tots. This is the first time I am putting together my own Zumba event, it's very exciting.

2. This time next week, I'll be resting up after half marathon #5. I think I will have earned my thanksgiving meal. I'll also be getting ready for the real race... Black Friday shopping. I may be a nut job, but I love the insanity of it all.

3. Ok, so I was thinking of compiling a list of "you know you're a runner when..". Help me out, and give me your "you know you're a runner when" ideas.

Face Plants, Grocery Store Trips, and Black Balling

Can you believe that most of the above happened during yesterday's run?! I had my dear friend Christina join me for this one. The way it was planned out that I had to run the middle 3 miles of this 7 mile run straight, without my intervals. I walked the first bit, reset the garmin and off we went, it was going well until the "incident". I am going to be honest with you, I think that Christina may in some form or fashion been responsible for the face plant I managed to do going down a hill, I think she stuck a tree root or a foot in my way.... she's tricky like that. Anyways, I managed to take a nasty fall. The best part of it was that the first words out of my mouth were "gotta pause the garmin". Thank goodness that I was wearing the trial pair of contacts that the eye doctor gave me because I would have probably damaged or broke my glasses. I got some scrapes and road rash, and my knees are SWOLLEN, and they hurt. After this, the run turned into a walk with bouts of slow running, my knees were just not going to cooperate. Not to mention that my hips and glutes were sore, I'm pretty sure it my body's way of punishing me for not going to ART Tuesday. Plus, it was just par for the course because it seems that every time that Christina and I run, I'm hurt and/or sore. I know Christina is worried about being black balled as a running partner, but lucky for her she's safe for now.

Wait, yesterday's adventures get better. When Christina realized we were getting close to the supermarket, she asked to stop and get something because her stomach was unsettled. This pit stop ended up being the funniest part of the day, we went in picked up 2 bananas and Christina picked up a bag of rolls. She hauled her bag of buns the 3.5 miles we had left to cover. She was quite the sight.

Tough Decisions, Insanity and General Badassery

With Rock N Roll Savannah this weekend, I think it's high time that I let you all know what's going on with this race. So, after the 18 mile long run a few weeks ago, I made a very difficult decision to drop down to the half marathon. I had a multitude of reasons, but mostly because the joy of running had sort of been sucked right out of me, and everything in my life was suffering with the training. I was crying almost every long run, and dreading them as well, it was not a good place. I still have some mixed feelings about dropping down but ultimately, I am doing what I feel is best for me and my health. I have some friends coming to run the full in Savannah as well, and I feel bad and feel like I have let them down. They have tried talking me into staying with the full, and I have been tempted but I have to stick to my guns on this one. Now, don't think that I have given up on those 26.2 dreams, I have just postponed them a little. The new plan is to run my first full in Tulsa for the Route 66 Marathon, I was inspired by Kelly and my coach Lesley. I'm just postponing the ultimate act of badassery until I feel that the world can handle all of this awesome badassness that is me.

Now on to the insanity, this is all half marathon related. After this weekend, I am going to be eligible to to join Half Fanatics, and I think I might... we'll see. So, I have run three half marathons this year thus far and plan on finishing out the year with three more. I have already signed up for half marathon #5 on Thanksgiving morning. The one that I would like to sign up for as my 6th is Zooma Atlanta, the only thing keeping me from signing up is that this race is two days after Thanksgiving. So, 6 half marathons may not seem like much to some runners but in my books it's pretty darn badass, and adds more medals to the collection.

North Face Endurance Challenge Atlanta 5K Race Report

This was my very first trail race, and when I set out to Pine Mountain, GA that morning, I was nervous.  I had done a few short run at a local hiking trail, but I knew this race would be different. I got to Callaway Gardens to park and catch the shuttle over to F.D. Roosevelt State Park at some ridiculously early time that morning, and ended up on a bit of a wild goose chase to find the correct parking lot. It wasn't such a big deal for me because the 5K people were the last to go, but I felt bad for the half marathoners and 10Kers that were in the same situation. I got the right lot, jumped on the very luxurious yellow limousine (aka the school bus), and enjoyed the heated bus and quiet ride to the start/finish area. Guess what I realized as soon as the bus started moving, I realized that I left my Garmin in my car sitting on the passenger seat... way to go superstar. As I got off the bus, and I was approached by none other than runblondie26 (if you have a minute, check out her blog, she's AWESOME), mind you, we'd never met each other before she recognized me from twitter. I'm sure that's what all the big celebs feel like, I am sure that the sneaky paparazzi was hiding in the bushes just waiting to take our pictures too.

While, I was waiting for my race to go, I decided that I just HAD to take my picture in front of the North Face Challenge logo thing. Well, this would prove to be a mistake because it would cause the one and only injury from the day. After the picture below was taken, I managed to smash my shin into the stage and it left a sizable bruise, and it bruised my pride a little too. 

While waiting, I also got to see a friend of mine (who also happens to be a Zumba instructor) and hung out with her and her friends before the start. Most of them were doing the 10K, so I got to see them start and cheer them on. Guess who happened to be there to give each wave of races a pep talk? None other than the Ultra Marathon Man, Dean Karnazes. 

You can almost spot him, he's in the blue shirt with the white visor.

After Dean's pep talk, we were off. Right after we started, I started to freak out just a little because I didn't have the garmin on. It turns out that not having the garmin was probably for the best because I am pretty sure that I would have cried if I had seen the pace and the distance. I am pretty sure that at least the first half mile was all uphill, it was deceiving too because just as soon as I thought that it would start leveling out and/or start descending, it didn't, we just kept climbing. It was so steep that there was no way that I could even run up it, trust me, I tried. The course had been marked 4 out of 5 in difficulty and technicality, and they weren't lying. The other thing that I had to keep track of was the actual course, it was marked out with purple ribbon for the 5K. So, there was one point where I had just gotten caught up in my music and was just going with it, then I realized I wasn't sure if I was still on the right path, I had to take a minute to gather myself and look for the markers. Then, I realized I had quite the difficult path ahead, check out the pictures.

These were the markers, the purple was in there somewhere.

Found the markers again and on my way again... score!

Had to get around this...

Not sure if you can get a sense of how narrow this was and how severe the drop off is.

I kept on, and then I heard it, it was the DJ at the start/finish, and it was such a sweet sound. Little did I know when I heard the music, that it was going to be a bit of a tease because I still had a little bit further to go. I saw that I was getting close to the road, and then I got to cross the road and the finish line was right there, but it wasn't going to be that easy, instead of the straight shot to the finish, I had to go back into the woods. This was quite possibly the toughest race I've ever run, yup, you read that right. Mentally, I was doing wonderfully; physically, this race was demanding. Am I stupid enough to do this race again next year? Yes, yes, I am.

So, guess who I got to meet after the race?! Dean Karnazes! This would normally been super awesome except for the fact that I got a little star struck and acted like a dork when I actually met him. At least, I got my picture taken with him.

Peachtree City Classic Women's 5K 2011 Race Report

Alright, it's time to clear out the backlog of race reports. I've had a lot of races, and the reports have been piling up. 

This race marked my first race in my second year of racing, and I decided to treat it like a training run. I ran this race last October and it didn't go so well, this year was a completely different story. This was the most fun I had in a long time. 

I got to see Sarah and Shannon before the race, although it was only briefly because I had to get to the start, they were doing the 15k and they started after I did. Why didn't I do the 15k? Two reasons, first of all, I am too slow for what their time cut off was. Secondly, I had another race the following day and I wanted to save something for the following day. 

I ran this one on my own and kept it easy, didn't race it, just enjoyed. Everything came together for a perfect morning. First things first, the weather was perfect for running, it was in the 50's with enough chill in the air to wake you up. Funny little side note, I suck at the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversions, I understand weather in Celsius except when it comes to running, I know how to dress based on the Fahrenheit temperature. I'm so weird. Back to the race, I was wearing my new favorite shirt from One More Mile which seems to make me feel better about being slow. I wanted to wear my new Racing It Off tee but I have a problem... I realized after I ordered it, that I don't have a white sports bra which sucks if you want to wear a white shirt. Back to the race, the music was right, I was feeling great and the miles seemed to fly by. During the race, I just thought back to the disaster of the 2010 race where I cried, and was so caught up in all the bad things. What a difference a year makes. 

After the race, I stuck around because I wanted to watch my friends finish their 15K race. It was so cool to see my friends finish and getting the chance to cheer them on. All around an awesome way to spend a morning.

13.1 Atlanta Race Report

First and foremost, I am sorry that it has taken me this long to write this report. Alright, the best way to tackle this one is to break it down into three parts. The good, the bad, and the ugly, but perhaps not in that particular order.

The Bad

So, this race was not a PR, it wasn't even close. I was doing well, and I was on track for a PR for the first half, then I fell apart. This race was also on one of the highest mileage weeks I had eve had, so that didn't help the situation either. I let my mind take over and all of a sudden, I was feeling every pain and discomfort in my body but amplified. Don't forget, I am the mayor of Crazy Town, and CRAZY is how I roll. I made hills into mountains, and let all of this get the best of me. All I could think about was the marathon, and it wasn't pretty. Plus, I felt like I was letting Danielle down during her first half. Oh, did I forget to mention that I didn't charge my camera and I forgot to put an sd card in it. That might make me the worst professional photographer ever... not winning.


The Ugly


The ugly in this race was kept to a minimum. The worst of it was having an upset stomach, but it wasn't the worst I've ever had. I don't think I was paying attention to what I was drinking with the gels which more than likely caused the problem.


The Good


The miles really seemed to fly by, especially the first 9. When I wasn't letting the crazy take control, I was actually having a pretty darn good time. We were joking, chatting and being silly. Danielle and I made a new friend with a pretty darn awesome chick who was running her 2nd half. We dubbed ourselves the Booty Brigade and were silly and stupid. This race reminded me that running doesn't always suck. I sort of get irritated by the fast people who were going the opposite way who were saying things like "looking great", "you're doing so well", and my personal un-fave "you're almost there" (I always want to say "look skinny fast b*tch, you and I both know my fat ass is not almost there"). So, I decided to turn it around and start yelling things at the fast people like and a few of them seemed amused because I got in touch with my inner Drill Sergeant when I was yelling at them. By far, the best part was crossing the line with Danielle and Melissa, it was just an awesome moment.

The Pics

Danielle and I before the start

Four miles in! (thank heaven for the phone)

Waddling along

Half marathon #2 is DONE

The best part was the celebratory cupcake.

BOOYAH!

So, I haven't written my 13.1 Atlanta race report because I had conflicting feelings about the race but after tonight's run, I've decided that as soon as I get back to Atlanta, I'll get it posted. In case you didn't know, Patrick and I brought B to South Georgia to the Okefenokee swamp. Plus, I wanted to see some gators, and did I ever see some gators today. On a side note, I am slightly disappointed that I didn't get to wrestle a gator, maybe I watched one too many episodes of Swamp People. I guess, gator wrasslin' is best left to the professionals.

Tonight's run, in one word was INCREDIBLE. After today's long car trip and swamp exploring, imagine my surprise when my legs felt great. I got to the hotel after dinner, got my gear on, left Patrick and B watching the UGA game in our room and I got to it. I got on the tread and started it on a 15:00 pace, started flipping through the channels and found Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 on tv. SCORE!! The time on treadmill flew by and I even sped up and held a pace that I felt I could be proud of and before I knew it, my run was over. My legs felt great and I couldn't believe how great I felt. After beating myself up this week, about my runs and marathon training, this was just what I needed.

The site of the AWESOME run.

Marathon Training Week 21 In Review and Weight Issues

Guess where I went during last week's training? Remember, that place I visit every once in a while... yup, you got it, Crazy Town.

Photo Source

During last Monday's long run, I once again claimed my spot as the mayor of Crazy Town. My mental state was absolutely awful, I was darn mess. I was doubting myself and my ability to finish the marathon and I was wondering if I was making the biggest mistake of my life. This crazy train, went on for most of the run and it swear it made me feel super sluggish. Then at around mile 12, my stomach went on strike, I was going to explode from every end. I ended up slowing down for the last four, it felt like a death march. I ended up getting sick later in the day, after I got home and when Patrick got home, he told me that his stomach had been unsettled all day too, so it may have been a little stomach bug. 

Did I mention that my ipod broke during this run? Well, the screen is separated from the casing, it's a mess. I can use it on the ipod docks for my Zumba classes but I am scared to run with it because I think it might shock me. Look... 

Wednesday, I had speedwork and it was a tough one because I was just not motivated and I just wanted to be at home sleeping. I trudged through this one, but I was pretty happy because I had a movie on my phone which helped pass the time. The only issue is that our gym treadmills have a one hour time limit, so after an hour the treadmill automatically switches to a cool down, so I have to get creative because this run was 8 miles and I'm slow. So, I did my warm up, stopped the treadmill, and restarted it and did the speedwork, after that was done I had to restart the treadmill again to cool down. A lot of work, but I have to be creative. 

Friday, I had 3 on the schedule but I was only able to finish 2. It was an incredibly busy day and that was all I had time for because I had to squeeze it in. Nothing to write home about. 

Now, for the weighty issues. I have been so embarrassed and ashamed about this but I have gained weight, and not just a little weight... a whole lot and it's time to own up to it. I've gained 15 pounds, and I am not proud or happy about it. That being said, I am not going to let this hold me back and I am already working on coming back from this. I'm back to journalling my food, and making smart and clean choices. This isn't going to stop my weight loss journey which had sort of stalled out, it's bump in the proverbial road and I am going to come back from this stronger. 

With the marathon around the corner and the weight thing, it's time to put the nose to the grind stone and get to work. It's crunch time! 

Next post, is the 13.1 Atlanta race report... stay tuned. 

13.1 Atlanta - DONE

Half marathon #2 is done and in the books. Will post a full report asap.

Three Things Thursday

1. I have half marathon #2 on Sunday. I'm keep oscillating between being extremely nervous and excited. I've managed to freak myself out a few times but ultimately I know it's going to be a great race. Not looking for a PR, just looking for a spinning medal. Yup, 13.1 Atlanta has a spinning medal.

2. I was looking at my calendar for October, and I am a busy girl. I have a few photo shoots, one of them being on Sunday in the late afternoon after the race in fact. I have races lined up for 3 weekends in October, I might drop the Run Like Hell 5K if it feels like it's just too much, although I am really looking forward to doing this race with my dear friend Brooke. We were planning on super awesome co-ordinating costumes, we both want to win the costume contest.

3. This group teaches another type of dance fitness, and when I grow up, I'd like to be able to move like them. 

Back In Business!

I'm no longer feeling like death...SCORE!!! You know what that means? I'm back in business, and back on track with training. Monday was the first longer run since I got sick, I had 8 miles on the schedule. I had K join me for this run. It was slow and it was tough but I was pretty jazzed about being out at it again.

Then Wednesday, I had 14 miles. I was so worried about this one because it had been so long since I had covered that kind of mileage. I'll be honest, it was TOUGH. As always, the first 4-5 miles are hard for me, I usually get into a good groove between miles 5-10 and this was the case with this run as well. Last long run, I resorted to some silly mind games to get through. The funny thing about this run was that there were some shirtless dudes running and little did they know, they pulled me along for a while. Is there anyway, these guys want to slow down their pace a little and come with me to my next races? Maybe I should ask. I got the miles done, and on the way home, I stopped at a gas station and picked up two bags of ice. Oh yeah, I took an ice bath, and I liked it. I've done this before and I might be a freak of nature but I like the ice baths, yes, you read that right. Getting in that tub is tough but those 10 minutes in the ice bath are sort of glorious.

As for Friday and Saturday's runs... they were a struggle. Friday, I was dragging after having taught my class. Saturday, I was just thinking about everything except the run and my head just wasn't in it. The funny thing about not having my head in the run is that, later that afternoon I went to pick up my race number for 13.1 Atlanta next Sunday. Yup, I'm back to racing too and October is going to be a busy race month for this girl. See, I'm back in business!!!

The Fun and Not So Fun Runs

It's been ages since I've updated the blog. First, I went out of the country, then I got sick, which I am almost positive is because of the flight. Of course, I couldn't just get a cold, nope, not me, I ended up with mild bronchitis. It's been trying both physically and mentally, and I had quite the epic pity party for myself. No worries, because now, I am very slowly but surely starting to feel better and no more pity parties. I even managed a little run yesterday, nothing too epic but it's better than nothing, the lungs were still not feeling 100% but at least I didn't feel like total death. Hoping to be feeling 100% ASAP.

I've got a picture laden post from the trip to Nicaragua that I will share with you all tomorrow. We all had a fabulous time and I am glad that we all got to go and everyone enjoyed the trip. I was so worried about B and Patrick because it was their first visit, but I had nothing to worry about at all. 

Here is the post I wrote and never posted before I left...

Fun and Not So Fun Runs

Monday August 29th was long run, and it was another mileage PR and it was also probably one of the most difficult runs I've every done both physically and mentally. 

Miles 1-5 - K joined me for the first 5. It was nice to have company to get things started, and to make it better, the weather could almost be classified as nice. 

Miles 5-10 (aka- The Rockstar Miles) - These five seemed to fly by. I took a completely different course than I am used to and it kept the run fun and interesting. The path I took, had me passing one of the golf courses in town and it all looked so serene it made me consider giving golf a shot again, then I realized that I had only ever tried golfing once before and it was a disaster. Hey, at least the view was very pretty. 

These rockstar miles happened to be some of the most entertaining. How, you ask? Well, I'll tell you, I was playing some down and dirty tricks. I added a Lucy spin to some of the tricks that are mentioned in Jeff Galloway's Mental Training book. One of them involves you pretending to sort of lasso the person in front of you with a rubber band and have them pull you. I had no one in front of me, so I got creative and pretended that there was someone in front of me. Now, I couldn't leave it at just that, I had to pretend that the person in front of me happened to be some sort of gorgeous male model, who loved to run, and happened to be shirtless. Don't judge, it's what helped me rock out those miles, and for the record, I was laughing to myself as I was imagining this scenario. I used some other tricks I'd read about but the rubber band lasso thing with the shirtless dude was by far the funniest. 

Miles 11-16 (aka the Anti Rockstar miles) - THEY SUCKED! Did you get that? I cried, I questioned myself about why I even wanted to do the marathon. I was hating everything and everyone. I was so glad when it was over but I was a total bitch the rest of the day. 

The next day, my dear friend Christina joined me for a recovery run. It started as a run, until my leg and knee started bothering me. So we ran the first mile, and walked the second but the company was so awesome that it didn't even matter. She's one of my dearest friends, so when I asked her to go to Starbucks afterwards, she obliged. That was the best part of the entire day!

Then there was redemption run, it was 7 miles and I did have my leg and knee bother me a little but it didn't stop me. SUCCESS! I had some good music going, a pace goal, and things to get done that kept me motivated and moving. Sadly, no shirtless guys to play mind tricks on myself, so I had to resort to focusing on all that other stuff. In all seriousness, it felt good to run and not feel defeated by the legs and knee pain.

Homeward Bound

I'm on a plane on my way home from a weekend trip to Nicaragua. I have a post about last week's training, and an another about my trip. I had fun but I am glad to be heading home.

Hitting The Trails

I posted about doing my first trail run here, and I am sure you were wondering why I would do that. Well, the wonderful people from The North Face Endurance Challenge contacted me and gave me the opportunity to participate in their race that's coming to the Atlanta area in October. I'll be honest with you, it definitely out of my comfort zone, but like I tell B all the time... "How do you know if you'll like something unless you try it?"So, here we go, I'm trying it and getting ready for The North Face Endurance Challenge 5k, I chose the 5K because this is my first trail race and I did not want to over do it for the first race. So, stay tuned to hear all about my new adventures in trail running.

Check out this video about the race.

Want to join me? Just click on the picture below and come join the fun, it's going to be an incredible race. You're not in the Atlanta area? Well, you can always come to Atlanta and join me, or check out any of the other races they have going on around the country.

I Don't Hate Running

So, I've decided that it was the anger talking yesterday when I said that I hate running. I actually love it, I know, I think I am some sort of masochist. Someone was talking about running before my Zumba class this evening and I perked right up, and I could have sat there and chatted with her if I didn't have a class to teach. I realized right then and there that I really do love running, and my ranting and complaining yesterday was mostly due to the fact that I was a Bitchy McBitcherson yesterday.

So, since everyone is in bed and I have a run in the morning, I decided to make a new playlist. I went to jog.fm and looked for some inspiration. The funny thing is that I had all of these songs in my collection, I just needed to have my mind jogged a little (no pun intended). Check out what I came up with, it's pop-tastic, old, new and in between.

Do you have a pump up song? If so, what is it?

The Good, The Bad, & The Badass

The Good 

Friday, I finished my very first trail run. I'll have to be honest with you, I didn't think that I would enjoy it at all, but I had a blast. I thought it would be the perfect place to test out my country music playlist, ok, it was just a lot of Taylor Swift and some Dixie Chicks (don't judge, I don't care about their politic views, I just liked their music). Anyways, check out the run in pictures.

Love that this is right here in PTC, it was conveniently located on the way home
from my Friday morning Zumba class.  

 Overly dramatic reaction - "Oh my goodness, I can't believe I'm actually going to do this."

Here we go...

Came across this, it was so serene

Trotting along trying not to trip and fall flat on my face. 

One mile down, and I haven't broken anything.

When I saw this, I knew I was almost done.

Who was rocking out to some T-Swizzie and finishing up her
first trail run? This girl! 

The Bad

Last Week's Speedwork - I had a bad workout and I couldn't do the workout as it had been set out for me. I was having trouble keeping the pace and it was an all around mess. I got the miles in but it was not at the assigned speeds.

The Badass

Monday was my very first run over 13.1 miles, I finished 14 miles and I didn't die. That being said, I had a few moments where I thought that I was going to drop, the heat and humidity were killer. K, whom I hadn't run with in a very long time joined me today for the first 11 of the run. I'll be honest with you, it was weird to have someone run with me again, I have been on my own for most of my runs this training cycle that I guess I'd forgotten what it was like to have someone with me. I enjoyed having some company but it also threw me off a little because K talks a lot, and sometimes the conversation wasn't always too motivating. Don't get me wrong, I love to chat during a run but yesterday just didn't feel right with K and the conversation was sometimes a little irritating. OK, I will admit that I was being a little unreasonable about the conversation thing, but this was after all an important run for me and I wanted it to be just right. Plus, I was in a bit of a mood when we started, so just add something else to the stink pile.

The weather during the run was pretty miserable, it was hot and humid, but I kept trying to remind myself that it will eventually cool down and not all my long runs are going to be this hot and sticky. I was sweating like a pig, and smelled like a garbage can after the first 3 miles, I still had 11 more to go, and I can only imagine the scent that the people we passed got to experience. As the run went on, I just got stinkier and sweatier. Oh yeah, and guess what I had again... CHAFING. I rushed through the chafe cream application and I learned a hard lesson about it. I will never again rush through the application process...OUCH. Also, I think it's time for different shorts, by the end of yesterday's run, they were irritating me. So, during the run I also had the hanging skin on my arm irritate and slap me a few times, it was like my own personal portable cheering section. Then, there were the knees and hips, they were definitely talking to me a few times during the run. Alright, let's cut to the chase, everything and everyone was irritating me, I was a crabby bitch.

Speaking of crabby, I may have blurted out some less than stellar things like....
- This is so stupid, why am I doing this?
- I hate running
- Why the f- did I sign up for a stupid effing marathon?
- Why is it so f-ing hot?
- This is the stupidest thing I've ever done.

Obviously, it was the heat and general irritation talking because 14 miles is pretty bad ass even if it wasn't pretty to get it done. I did have to walk a little more than I would have liked but I covered the miles and that's still pretty bad ass. You know what else is bad ass? ICE BATHS! I did the whole ice bath thing after the run, and it was an experience like none other. I set the timer, put on a sweater and plopped myself in the tub. Oh buddy, it was something else, but I think it was worth the discomfort.