Jess Runs

Wordless Wednesday: Haircut Edition

2012-05-30T07:29:00.000-04:00

Well it was long overdue. After wearing my hair like this for the last several weeks

I can finally go back to wearing it down again.

I realized at the pool this morning it's a bit too short to all fit back into a ponytail, so I'll be rockin' pigtails during most of my workouts until it gets just a tad longer.

Training Guilt

2012-05-29T07:40:00.000-04:00

When people ask me what I blog about I tell them pretty much what you'd expect: running, health, fitness, triathlon training, etc.

But I tend to say, "I also write about trying to find balance between my life and my training."

I won't lie, lately I've sucked at the balance part.

I feel like for the past several months, I've been gung ho training at the expense of the rest of my life.

These days, I live out of my gym bag, constantly smell like chlorine and/or sweat, and haven't put one ounce of energy into my appearance or my hair in weeks. (and I wonder why I'm still single...)

I knew it was really bad when I got an email from my mom not that long ago telling me that maybe I should tone it down on the training front and focus a little more on my social life.

So I decided Memorial Day Weekend was the perfect time to do that.

My social calendar was packed to the brim this weekend. Between nights out with friends, days at the beach and BBQs, I put way more emphasis on the social part of my life than on my training.

Look, my gym bag even went with me to the beach

And last night, I felt guilty as hell about it.

I fit in a run and an open water swim this weekend, but it was less than what the plan called for and I tossed and turned all night thinking about all those workouts I didn't do plus how unhealthy I'd eaten all weekend and how I was just destroying all my previous hard work and training.

Don't even get me started on how stressed out I am about my friend's wedding this weekend. It's out of town. I have to travel and I will miss a boatload of my training because of it. That's obviously not the attitude I want to have about my friend's wedding.

Man at this point, I just can't wait until the Philadelphia triathlon is over so my training plan can go away and I can stop feeling guilty about choosing my friends over my workouts.

Endorphins Are the Best!

2012-05-24T08:02:00.001-04:00

Guys, I am in an awesomely, freakin' fantastic mood this morning.

Even though it was hot and disgustingly humid on my run, I was so excited to be up and running in the morning again. I love early morning workouts more than anything, but I really struggle in the winter to drag my butt out of bed when it's cold and miserable out. So in the winter, I tend to favor evening workouts.

But it's practically summer and that means morning workouts are back and I am pumped! (What 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls don't sound fun to you?)

Early morning running in San Diego last summer

I was so tan!

I knocked out just under 4 miles this morning per my training plan, and boy am I feeling the endorphins.

I was in such a good mood that when I got back home, I might have held a private dance party in my dining room while I was chugging water. Sorry I did not capture this in pictures for you, instead I will leave you with this picture of me and my friends dancing to the Cupid Shuffle in college. My dance moves are just as awesome now as they were back then!

The good times continued on my commute. First, a train was literally pulling into the station as I got there, so I was able to get right on and get to work early. And second, my iPod was cranking some amazing country tunes.

And of course, I have softball to look forward to tonight and then a nice long Memorial Day weekend, that I plan to make as epic as possible with some awesome workouts, a day at the beach and other summer fun!

Me and Jon at softball

Is there anyway I could just get a shot of endorphins every morning as soon as I wake up? Because I'm pretty sure life would be a million times more awesome if I could always be on this kind of epic runner's high.

How Much Does A Triathlon Cost?

2012-05-22T07:22:00.000-04:00

I've gotten a couple of questions from people about how much triathlons cost, so I thought I'd take the time to spell out just how much I've spent on this sport since I got into it last November.

For some background, I was starting basically from scratch. I've run for years, but I've never done much more than that, so I had a lot of very high initial start-up costs in terms of gear and equipment. Most of the things I bought, I will be able to use over and over again in future races, so that made me feel a little bit better about spending the money.

By nature I am an extremely frugal person. There's nothing I hate more than wasting money on unnecessary things, so I promise this list isn't full of splurge items for fun, but rather gear and equipment that I felt was necessary to get me through my training and races successfully.

Ready for the list? With costs? (I'm kind of afraid to see this all totaled up in one place!)

Here we go!

Registrations:

Sprint Tri Registration: $119
Oly Tri Registration: $211

Total: $330

Biking:

Bike: $668
Helmet: $20
Bike Pump: $38
Bike Shorts: $35 (They were on 50% off sale!)
Bike Tune Up and Pedals Upgrade: $52

Total: $813

Swimming:

Pool Membership: $191
Wetsuit: $75
Open Water Swim Clinic: $43

Total: $309

Other Miscellaneous Costs:

Tri Shorts: $70
GU/Fuel: $14
Hotel for Philly Tri: $80

Total: $164

Grand Total Spent on my First Tri Season: $1,616

Like I said, it's expensive, but many of these costs are one-time investments. I'm not going to need to go out and buy another bike any time soon. Same with the wetsuit. Other than paying entry fees, my next triathlon season, should be significantly cheaper than this one.

If all this seems overwhelming and way, way too expensive, Katy actually wrote a great post about how to do a triathlon for less than $10. While I don't think everything on her list is totally feasible (I live where it's cold, early season tris require wetsuits), it might give you some ideas as to where you could trim costs.

But even with cost savings, triathlons are by nature expensive sports, especially if you're looking to be competitive. If I hadn't gotten a promotion at work last year, there's almost no way I could have afforded to lay down this kind of money on a new sport. If you're looking to get into triathlons, you should be aware that there are some big costs that can go along with them.

For those of you who regularly compete in triathlons, how do you keep your costs down?

Tri Training Weeks 13 and 14

2012-05-21T07:48:00.001-04:00

In the excitement of completing my first tri last week, I completely forgot to recap the week leading up to the race. I figured the easiest thing to do would just be to recap the last two weeks together.

Week 13:

Week 13 was sort of a taper week for my first triathlon. Not that I know the first thing about tapering for a tri, so the week ended up being a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of week. Plus with a day trip to NYC in the mix, I was doing my best just to get as many workouts as possible in.

Monday: Strength training

Emily and I had to switch things up and do our weekly lunch time strength workout out on Monday since I wasn't going to be in the office on Thursday.

Tuesday: Brick - 60 minute bike, 20 minute run

Last brick before the race!

Wednesday: FitBlogNYC

Photo by Steven Meyer

Between waking up at 3:30 a.m. and not getting home until 9:30 p.m., there was just no time for workouts. Oh well, it happens.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Rest

Saturday: RACE!

It was awesome!

Sunday: 60 minutes of bike drills

The day after I finished my sprint, I was so worried about how I would fuel on the bike, so Coach Zach taught me how to ride one handed so I can get to my water bottle and GU. It was frustrating just doing drills to pick up what seemed like such a basic skill. After 20 minutes of riding I was starting to get the hang out it. And by the end of the ride, I could successfully pull the water bottle out of the cage, take a drink and put it away. I have to go pretty slow when I do it, but whatever, at least I got the hang of it.

Week 14:

The week after the race should have been a just a regular training week where I could hit the workouts hard. However, that wasn't the case. Between the start of softball season and a weekend out of town for a work trip, I ended up having a meltdown on Friday about how I was completely failing at my training. Coach Zach talked me off the ledge and assured me that I wasn't missing any of my key workouts and that I still had plenty of time training left before the Philadelphia triathlon. I still feel like I lost some valuable training time last week, but there's not much I can do about it now, but move forward and keep kicking butt.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 4.5 mile run with Evan and the zombies.

Hands down the most fun workout of the week. It wasn't a super serious run, and it was with friends. It was the way all workouts should be.

Wednesday: Softball

I love softball more than anything. It's my favorite part of the week in the summer, but it does eat up my entire Wednesday night and leaves me exhausted on Thursdays. I would never give up softball for anything in the world, so I just need to find a way to make it work with my training.

Thursday: Unplanned rest.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 60 minute run

I was in Philly for a conference for work this weekend, so I had to wake up super duper early to get my run in Saturday before the start of the conference. Luckily, I woke up to absolutely gorgeous weather in Philly and had one of the best runs I've had in ages. I did 6.5ish miles in an hour along Kelly Drive.

One of the famous boathouses

I love running along Kelly Drive, it's mostly flat, right along the water and full of other runners and bikers. I ran while listening to the zombie app and just let my legs move at whatever pace was comfortable for them. It was one of those perfect runs that makes me fall totally in love with running and especially early morning runs.

Sunday: 90 minute bike

As soon as I got off the train in DC, I headed out on my bike to get in my last training session for the week. I met Coach Zach along Beach Drive, and I could immediately tell the ride was going to suck. My legs were dead weight. I felt like I was spinning and spinning and just not getting anywhere. I was seeing my pace on my Garmin and couldn't believe I was moving so slow for how hard I felt like I was working. Near the one-hour mark, I was at the turn to head back home and ready to throw in the towel. Coach was having none of it though. He told me he'd throw a rock at my helmet unless I finished the workout. (Nice guy, that coach.) I finished out the workout and was so, so glad to be done.

There are just about four weeks until my Olympic distance triath. I'm confident that I can do all the distances on their own, but I'm a little bit nervous about stringing them all together. Good thing I still have a few more weeks to figure that all out!

Five For Friday

2012-05-18T07:21:00.001-04:00

I'm borrowing Katy's Five For Friday theme to quickly bring you up to speed on what's been going on this week.

Life and Training:

1. Softball started on Wednesday. After months of being in hibernation, I finally got to bust out my glove in a friendly match. My batting was so-so. I think I went 1-3 with an RBI. My pitching, however was pretty solid. Through five innings, I only allowed one earned run. We won the game by a solid margin, which was a nice confidence boost heading in to the regular season.

2. As much as I am beyond thrilled that softball season is here, it's throwing a slight kink in my training schedule. When I had originally made my training plan, softball was slated to be on Thursdays. Our games got bumped to Wednesdays though and I'm still trying to adapt my schedule to make it work. This week of training has been rocky at best as I try to adapt.

3. I'm heading to Philly this weekend to attend a social media conference for work. I'm really looking forward to meeting lots of fun people and learning lots of good stuff, and I think I've even managed to figure out a way to squeeze in all my workouts while I'm gone.

4. With only four more weeks until my Olympic tri in Philly, I'm getting nervous about how much I'm having to adapt my training plan to fit around other things going on in my life. It absolutely kills me that I will not be able to get a bike ride or swim in this weekend because of my conference. I need all the time in the saddle that I can get, and I'm freaking out a little bit that I'm loosing a weekend to ride.

5. Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner, which means lots of outdoor pools in the area will be opening. I think it would be fun to hit up some of them for some of my swim workouts. It'd be a nice change of pace to swim outside in the sun rather than in a stuffy indoor pool. I'll be keeping my eyes open for opportunities to get in as many swims as possible in outside pools.

In Pictures:

Yea, those race numbers still aren't going anywhere

My friend Ryan with his very, ummm special, Caps hat.

My pre-triathlon treat!

Birds in train stations, totally normal right?

Georgetown, Duke and UVA? Really dude?

That's all I've got for today! Happy Friday!

Run! It's the Zombie Apocalypse

2012-05-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

Last night I met up with my friend Evan for a run around DC. I'm fairly certain we looked absolutely ridiculous on this run for a two reasons.

First, I was wearing my totally awesome Under Armour Terps running shirt that I am completely obsessed with.

And Evan was wearing a pair of blue Duke shorts. Ew. Terps and Blue Devils don't get along, and we definitely got a few strange looks as we were running down the street.

The second reason we looked absolutely ridiculous is because we were running from zombies.

(Source)

Yes, you read that right...zombies.

Evan downloaded the Zombies, Run app on to his phone, and we listened to it while we were running.

The premise of the app is that there was a crash of some sorts, and now zombies are roaming free. As a runner, you are tasked with accomplishing missions to help keep the few remaining people alive.

I was cracking up listening to the narrator talk in a thick accent about what we needed to do to protect ourselves from the zombie apocalypse. It was our job to pick up things like batteries, food, ammo and other stuff necessary for survival and bring them back to the bunker.

The app, though ridiculously overpriced ($8 for an app...really?!?!), made our run a lot of fun.

There were times when we had to sprint because the zombies were chasing us and trying to steal our supplies. Evan is freakin' fast and would take off at some ridiculous pace. When he realized I wasn't keeping up with him, he'd look over his shoulder and yell, "Ruuuunnnnn!"

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happens in all the zombie movies right before the slow person gets her brains eaten.

(Source)

To Evan's credit, he didn't totally leave me to fend off the zombies myself, but my slow pace wasn't helping us.

Apparently in a zombie apocalypse, you don't want me on your team. Or maybe you do because I'll be the slow one who gets picked off so you survive.

Either way, I was zombie dinner a lot last night and caused us to lose a lot of the supplies we'd picked up.

The other part of the app that was pretty cool is that when the narrator wasn't telling you a story or explaining a mission, he'd play you some music from your iTunes library to pump you up. So while on our supply-finding missions, we got to listen a solid mix of country tunes and a Katy Perry song.

The app also tracked our pace and distance. Each of the zombie sprints was about a minute long, and thanks to the fabulous humidity, I was gassed after each of them. It definitely made for a killer workout and a fun way to sneak in some speed work.

The app also has some more game-play features for when you're not running. You can use all those supplies you collected to help care for sick people in the small civilization trying to stay alive, you can provide soldiers with ammo to fend off the zombies or you can fortify your buildings.

We had a blast playing with this app, and I'm actually kicking around the idea of downloading it myself, even though I don't have a single non-free app on my phone.

Luckily Evan and I were able to knock out about 4.5 miles before the real zombie apocalypse started in DC.

Or maybe it was just thunderstorms rolling through, but zombie apocalypse just sounds more fun.

(Special thanks to @newmediajim for the awesome shot of clouds rolling in over the White House.)

Zombies, Run gets a solid 4 out of 5 in my book. The docked point is because of the price.

Have you ever tried this app or any others like it?

FitBlogNYC: An Epic Day in the City

2012-05-15T07:27:00.000-04:00

So now that my first triathlon is behind me, I have a million fun things to catch you up on from last week.

We'll start first with FitBlogNYC.

Remember last Wednesday when I said I was on a train at some ungodly hour of the morning heading to New York?

So ungodly early that it was this dark through many of the stops

Well, I was going to spend the day at a fun "Meet and Tweet" event sponsored by Fitness Magazine. I got the opportunity to attend through FitFluential (disclaimer, I paid for my own train ticket).

I arrived in NYC just after 8 a.m. for the start of the day's fun.

The event was a chance to hang out with some of my favorite bloggers and to learn about a variety of health topics from guest speakers and staff at Fitness Magazine.

Miz, Kelly, Julie and Tina on their panel

Photo by Steven Meyer

I had a blast catching up with some of my favorite blog ladies, like Ashley, Theodora and Gia, who I had seen last after the Rock N Roll USA marathon in March.

Bloggers doing what we do best: Taking pictures and tweeting

Photo by Steven Meyer

I also got to meet tons of other bloggers in person, like Ali, who is just as sweet in person as she is on her blog. It's always nice to be able to put a face to a blog name/Twitter handle.

Photo by Steven Meyer

The day was full of informative panels, socializing and hanging out with fun people like Mia Hamm.

Could I be cheesin' anymore hardcore?

Oh and swag. The day was also full of lots and lots of swag.

Upon arriving we were giving name tags and small swag bag with a "passport" inside.

We had a chance to mingle with the event sponsors and get stamps on our passports, which earned us an even bigger swag bag at the end of the event.

I am still sorting through all the swag I got, but one thing I've used already is the awesome pair of Oakley sunglasses that we got.

The sunglasses were from the performance line -- meaning they were made for fitness with sweat resistant grips around the nose and by the ears to prevent them from sliding, but they are also functional enough to be worn as every day sunglasses.

Learning about the shades

Photo by Steven Meyer

As someone who has just recently taken up biking for triathlons, I had no appropriate sunglasses to wear. I would literally wear my big beach sunglasses under my bike helmet. It looked really goofy.

So in my tri on Saturday I used the Oakley glasses and they were 100% amazing. They didn't slide once on the run or the bike and they did a great job of keeping the sun from blinding me.

Oh and they looked super cute too.

A huge thanks to Oakley for hooking all the FitBlogNYC attendees up with these amazing sunglasses!

My day in NYC was a long one. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. to catch my train and didn't get back home until close to 9:30 p.m., but it was so worth it. I love events like this that bring bloggers together for an excuse to hang out and learn something in the process.

Photo by Steven Meyer

Thanks to Fitness Magazine and FitFluential for a fun-filled day!

Oh and thanks for the man-candy too.

Photo by Steven Meyer

TriRock Annapolis Race Recap

2012-05-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Well I did it! I survived my very first triathlon!

Zach and I headed out to Annapolis Friday evening for TriRock Annapolis packet pick-up and to scope out the course. We got a glimpse of where the swim would start and end. We did a quick walk through of the transition area and found the bike out and run out areas before heading to our friend's place for the evening.

Our friend Mike graciously let us crash at his apartment in Annapolis so we wouldn't have to drive all the way from DC on race morning. After grabbing dinner, asking Zach a million questions about race logistics, and putting Garmin on the charger, I promptly passed out on the sofa.

Being the night before a race, I didn't sleep great, but I slept better than I thought I would and when the alarm went off, I dragged myself out of bed to begin race prep.

Pre-Race:

We got to the race start with a decent amount of time to spare.

There was quite a line to get into the transition area, but it moved along as volunteers checked people's bike tags and numbers.

Line to get into transition

My spot in transition was steps away from the swim finish, on an end row, making it super easy to remember where my stuff was during the race.

After I got my bike racked and laid out all my gear, I was able to spend a few minutes chatting with my Aunt Marybeth and my cousin Laura who came out to watch me in the race. They had made a fantastic sign and I was so thrilled to have them there!

After that, the waiting game began.

I was in wave 12, the second-to-last wave to go and with seven minutes in between waves, I had a long time until my start. Luckily the race let people in waves 9-13 stay in transition until the other waves had gone to help alleviate congestion at the start.

This might be my favorite picture from the race.

I'm just pulling my hair back into a ponytail, but I look like I'm about to have a panic attack/meltdown

So I hung out and chatted with some of the other girls whose bikes were racked next to mine. I found out most people were as nervous as I was since this was their first race too. That was definitely a comforting fact. Talking with them passed the time and soon enough, our wave was lining up to start the swim. (P.S. Hi ladies if any of you are reading today!!!)

Swim: 11:39:34

The swim was an in-water start, so everyone jumped off the docks and into the water before swimming over to the start buoys.

When I first hit the water I was cold, but I dunked my head in right away to try to get acclimated. I waded over to the start, trying to keep my heart rate low. I wasn't sure where I should start on the swim. I didn't want to start right at the front, but I was trying to get to one of the sides so I'd at least have room to move when we went. Unfortunately, I never made it and ended up in the middle of the pack as the swim started.

Immediately I realized I should have started at the front of the pack. I was definitely one of the stronger swimmers in our group, and I was having a really, really hard time getting around the people in front of me. I eventually found some open water and settled into a really nice groove. My heart rate was surprisingly low compared to my other open water swims and I was just cruising along. The swim was hands down my favorite leg of the course.

As I made the last turn I started catching up to people from the wave in front of me.

Catching up to the blue caps

Now remember, there were seven minutes between waves, so those people were definitely having a rough go of it in the water. I had to slow up quite a few times to get around people toward the end, which was frustrating. The one other frustrating part is that there were only four ladders to get out of the water and of course all of them were being used when I finished. So I had to wait a few seconds before I could get out of the water.

T1: 3:13.7

I came running out of the water at a pretty good clip. Ripped off my cap and googles and unzipped my wetsuit. I got the wetsuit off pretty quickly, and went to work drying off my feet and getting into my shoes.

I probably wasted too much time fiddling with Garmin, but then with lots of cheers from Laura and Marybeth I was off and running to bike out.

Bike: 55:06.99

The start of the bike was a little rocky. I was trying to go quickly and I had a hard time getting my feet into the toe clips and actually getting going. After a frustrating couple of minutes, I was situated on the bike. I was trying to control my breathing and just relax through the start of the bike.

This was definitely the leg I was most worried about and I wanted to enjoy it while still pushing.

The course was shaped like a lollipop. You rode out, did two loops and then rode back in. Of course, in those two loops there were some monster hills.

I tried to crank hard on the uphills without burning myself out and then fly on the downhills. I was doing an OK job, passing lots of people on the uphills, but then getting passed a decent amount on the downhills.

I tried not to worry about the number of times I was being passed. I know the bike is where I have the most room for improvement, and on a hilly course, I knew I wasn't going to rock it. I wish I hadn't messed up my Garmin multisport function because I would have loved to see the comparison in my times on the climbs versus my times on the downhills. I'm not sure what I did, but all I have is my average speed being 13.1 mph.

As I headed back to bike dismount, I could hear Laura and Marybeth cheering super loudly for me.

I stopped just before the dismount line and sprinted into T2.

T2: 1:26.33

I had a bit of a ways to run through transition to get back to where my spot was and I had to dodge a few people who had already finished the race.

I tossed my bike into the rack, unclipped my helmet, grabbed my water bottle and race number and took off.

Apparently I was so in the zone I didn't even see Zach standing super close to me taking these pictures.

Run: 27:54.8

Oh I was so happy to be on the run because it meant the race was almost over. Yes my legs felt like complete and utter crap, but I knew that feeling would wear off eventually.

I passed my aunt and cousin again and then a little while later saw my friends Tracy and Marianne. It was so nice having so many people out there cheering for me. Each cheer gave me a little boost of energy.

The run course started on an uphill, and though my legs were tired, I was passing people left and right. I spotted Heidi right at the top of the hill. She was out being an awesome spectator! Minutes later I spotted my other friend Brooke. One of the perks of local races is that you randomly see a lot of your friends spectating.

My legs continued to feel like hell for a decent part of the run. Plus at this point I was tired, and it was hot out. There wasn't a ton of shade on the course so I felt like I was baking. I was sipping plenty of Gatorade and was so glad I decided to carry it with me on the run.

But even though I felt crappy I was still passing people, which made me feel good.

When I hit the downhill at the end of the course, I knew I had the race in the bag. I let things go and just flew down the hill. I rode that momentum around the last turn and straight into the finish.

Final Time: 1:39:21

Thoughts:

In the last two days I have had so many mixed emotions about the race that I'm not sure how to process them all.

When I first crossed the finish line, I told Zach that I had a decent time, but I didn't think triathlons were for me. I enjoyed the experience but felt meh about the whole thing. In fact, I said I'd rather run a marathon because it's more fun, and all the logistics surrounding triathlons are super stressful compared to a road race. (I cannot be held accountable for what I say immediately after finishing a race.)

But then I saw my results. I beat my goal time of 1:40 and found out I placed 7th out of all beginner women ages 25-34. That's not too shabby.

And then I started thinking about all the ways I could have improved or done better.

Like not wasting time in transition fiddling with Garmin

And then I realized that I actually did have a fun time during the whole experience (and for some reason realllly loved the swim), and that I actually wanted to take the time to get better.

And so yes, I do see more triathlons in my future, starting with the Philadelphia Olympic Distance Tri in June.

A huge thank you to my cousin and aunt for coming out, cheering and taking a million pictures. And a big thank you to Tracy, Marianne and all my other friends I saw on the course. Seeing you guys made the race so much more fun.

Tracy, me, Marianne

Probably the biggest thank you of all goes to my training partner/coach Zach, who pretty much taught me everything I know about biking and talked me down from many panic attacks throughout training.

I don't think I could have picked a better tri for my first one. TriRock Annapolis was beginner friendly and just a ton of fun from start to finish.

Tomorrow's the Big Day

2012-05-11T07:12:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is my first triathlon ever and I am straight up scared as hell. But also kind of excited.

TriRock Annapolis posted the waves the other day, and I found out I'm in wave 12. That's the second to last wave, and it's full of women ages 25-34 who are also beginners.

Oh heyyyy Annapolis docks

This is both comforting and terrifying.

Comforting in the fact that other people will probably be just as scared and inexperienced as I am.

Terrifying in the fact that there's seven minutes between waves, and all my friends will probably be half way done before I even get in the water. That's a looong time for anyone to be waiting around for me to finish, which makes me feel even more pressure to finish fast.

I kind of feel like I could puke.

I'm more scared to do this triathlon than I was to run my first marathon six years ago. Running is easy, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other. That's not really the case in a triathlon.

Running makes me happy!

My stomach is in knots, I'm questioning my training and seriously wondering if there's more I could have done. More swims, more bikes, more bricks. I feel so unprepared.

The race is a 500 meter swim, a 12 mile bike and a 5K run.

Deep down I know I can tackle each of these distances by themselves.

My longest swim was 3,000+ yards in the pool. My longest bike was 25.5 miles. My longest run has been 26.2 miles.

Longest bike ever

Putting them all together makes me nervous.

My open water swims have been rocky at best. My bikes have been so slow. And what if I get a flat?

I've done everything I could to prepare. I've trained well. I've read the race guide and the rules about 15 times. I've packed my transition bag and checked and triple checked to make sure I have everything I need.

There's not really much more I can do now but wait and do my best tomorrow.

My plan of attack is: Strong on the swim, Survive the bike, Crush the run.

Hopefully cross the finish line with a goofy smile on my face

Wish me luck.

A Ridiculously Comprehensive Triathlon Checklist

2012-05-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Meet and Tweet event at Fitness Magazine was amazing and I'll be back with a full recap later.

(Source)

Blogger girls at lunch

For right now, the biggest thing on my mind is Saturday's triathlon.

I'm trying to be super organized and make sure I have everything ready to go when it comes to gear and transitions.

To help me with that, my training buddy Zach put together a ridiculously comprehensive list of things I should remember for each part of the race. I thought I'd share because it's actually really well thought out and organized and it is helping me make sense of things.

Bike racking/Transition Setup:

(Source)

Rack your bike with the front wheel facing outward. During T2, rack your bike front-wheel first. Transition areas get crowded, and not having to turn your bike around saves time.
Check the air in your tires. Inflate them if needed.
Put your [brightly-colored and easy to spot] transition mat on your dominant side. I went to Walmart and bought $3 worth of very obnoxious neon yellow felt. You can see it from space.
Rack your bike in the proper gear to pedal when starting at the "bike mount" line.
I put some baby powder in my shoes and a little Body Glide on the outer edges of my shoes (since I won't be wearing socks)(Note from Jess: I will be wearing socks).
Make sure everything that needs to go with you on the bike is attached to the bike (water bottles in cages, nutrition stored, co2/Vittoria/tire levers/spare tube/patches in bag, helmet and sunglasses on handlebars, race belt looped over seat).
Put your gloves/shoes/socks/beloved Garmin at the edge of your mat.
Everything you need for the run (shoes, nutrition, water bottle, hat) and anything else you might need should be neatly laid out on your mat.
Put an open bottle of water on your mat. You'll use it later on to rinse off your feet.
At least once, start at the entrance of T1 and walk/jog to your bike. Make sure you know how many rows you pass before you get to your row, and how far in your bike is. I usually think of it as rows and columns.
Grab your goggles, wetsuit, and swim cap. Take everything else out of transition.

Pre-Race:

Safety pin your chip strap. This way it can't be ripped off during any swim contact.
Put your goggles on before your swim cap. Again, less chance you'll lose them if someone kicks you.
If you're putting on sunscreen, do it after you've been body marked.
Leave ample time to get into the wetsuit, but don't change so early that you're taking it off again to go to the bathroom.
TriSlide spray is a lifesaver when it comes to reducing chafing and making the wetsuit easier to get on and off.

Swim to bike (T-1):

Unzip the back of your wetsuit while running into transition.
Before pulling your arms out, take off your swim cap and goggles. While you're pulling your arm through, let them go. They'll store themselves nicely in your wetsuit sleeve.
First things first: lose the wetsuit (don't worry about folding it, but make sure it's contained in your area).
Sunglasses, then helmet. (Having the sunglasses under the helmet straps means you don't have to take them off when removing the helmet off in T-2).
Race belt/bib (different races have different rules. Some don't require you to wear your race bib on the bike).
Rinse your feet using the open water bottle you stashed while racking. You want to get rid of anything your wet feet picked up during the run into transition.
Socks/Shoes/Gloves/Garmin (In a short race, some people don't bother with socks or bike gloves. It can take a while to get dry socks on wet feet. If you're using clipless pedals, you can save time by having the shoes clipped/rubber banded in position on the bike.)
Make sure everything is contained within your transition area.
Grab your bike and run to "Bike Out."
Get on your bike only after having passed the "mount" line.

Bike to run:

Make sure you're off your bike before crossing the "dismount" line.
Run back to your area, and re-rack your bike.
Take off your helmet/gloves (if you wore them), put on your hat/visor (if you wear one).
Grab your water bottle or Fuelbelt and any nutrition you're taking during the run.
Run to "Run Out."

So what's missing from this list? Anything? Ahhhhh I can't believe my tri is in two days!!!

NYC Bound for Fitness Magazine Event

2012-05-09T05:22:00.000-04:00

Good morning friends!

I'm currently on my way to the Big Apple for a blogger event at Fitness Magazine! I'm super excited to catch up with some of my favorite bloggers and spend a day hanging out with some of the magazine's editors.

Traveling always stresses me out, and I never sleep well the night before, so I had absolutely no problem waking up when my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. In fact, I was actually wide awake at 2 a.m. (This means I will crash hard on the way back to DC tonight!)

View out my train window at our first stop

I've decided that 3:30 in the morning is far too early to wake up unless I'm headed to a race, but I managed to make my way down to Union Station in order to catch my 4:48 a.m. train.

I had an especially chatty cab driver this morning who told me I should call him sometime when I was getting out of the cab. That was only mildly awkward.

Other than that, my travel plans went off without a hitch this morning.

Have I mentioned before that I am obsessed with the train and think it's by far the best way to travel?

Amtrak trains have a quiet car where people can't talk. This is brilliant. No screaming babies. No obnoxious people on cell phones. Just peace and quiet. In fact that train conductor totally laid the smack down on some guy who was talking on his phone in the car this morning. It was fantastic.
Free wi-fi, which is currently bringing you this blog post. More airlines need to get on this!
I don't have to sit in traffic on 95. Rush hour is a B in DC, in Philly and in NYC, all cities I'd have to contend with if I were on the road. Oh and I don't have to pay tunnel tolls when I take the train. Sure, the bus might be a little bit cheaper (and most have free wi-fi these days too) but the train is a million times faster, which makes NYC day trips possible.
You can roll up to the train gate about five minutes before the train leaves and not have to deal with massive security lines.

On that note, I'm going to unplug, grab a quick nap, and catch you from NYC! If you want to follow along with the day events live, follow me on Twitter (@jessmilcetich). I'll be tweeting updates all day!

Tri Training Week 12

2012-05-08T07:35:00.000-04:00

We're officially four days out from my very first triathlon!! I cannot believe it's almost here. I've somehow managed to keep the stressing to a minimum so far this week and the anxiety nightmares have stayed away. I'm hoping that pattern continues for the rest of the week, so I'm well rested come Saturday morning.

This Week's Numbers:

Monday: 60 minute swim

I struggled with motivation on Monday. I originally had plans to meet a friend for a run in the afternoon, but he got sick and cancelled an hour before our planned run. I had been really looking forward to the run since we were going to explore some new-to-us trails. I moped around for a while debating whether to run by myself, but then decided to get in the pool to prove to myself that I am actually a pretty solid swimmer. My swimming confidence was a bit shaken after that first open water swim, but I felt much better after a good pool workout.

Tuesday: Brick - 60 minute bike, 30 minute run

I made a fun little video about this workout for the Under Armour What's Beautiful competition and I thought I'd share.

Basically, I kept it steady on the bike and tried to hold on through the run.

Wednesday: 3 mile run

I've been finding the runs on the days right after my brick workouts have kind of sucked lately. I think it has something to do with fueling so I either need to eat more the night after my brick or eat more the morning before my run.

Thursday: Strength

Mainly upper body and core.

Rocked my bran new Terps Under Armour workout shirt. I am totally obsessed with it.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Unintentional rest

I ended up missing my brick workout on Saturday because I was out late Friday night with friends and then had plans all day Saturday starting at noon. I didn't have the time to squeeze in a three-hour workout before that. My original plan was to move the brick to Sunday, but that just didn't happen.

Sunday: Open Water Swim clinic

I swam 1,000 yards/meters (I'm not really sure) in a murky river in Virginia. I did a little better with my sighting this week, but I always find myself super out of breath during open water swims. I need to work on keeping my heart rate lower and my breathing more calm and consistent. The water in the river was much warmer than the water in the bay and I'm hoping that means that water I'll be swimming in for the tri will be warmer too!

Swim and Transitions Clinic

2012-05-07T07:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Zach and I headed out to Lorton, VA for an open water swim and transitions clinic. The weather was less than desirable (it was rainy, overcast and cold) and I was cranky because we were awake so early, but I was still hoping I'd learn something valuable for my tri this weekend.

Bleak swim conditions

But I won't lie, I was a little bit let down.

I paid $43 to attend the clinic and I was expecting learn some tips for open water swimming, maybe get advice on how to sight, how to deal with swimming in a crowd, etc.

Instead, the people running the clinic inflated some buoys, and just sent everyone into the water to swim. You had an hour to be in the water and in that time you could swim as much as you wanted. The loop they set up was 500 meters and I did it twice.

But I learned nothing about having a good swim, and that was disappointing.

Trying to put on a happy face

The transitions portion of the clinic wasn't much better.

My transition stuff

The organizers talked us through a successful transition and demonstrated how to set everything up so it would be neat and organized.

Then they had us practice a T1 and T2 transition.

The only valuable tip I learned was that if you cuff the legs of your wetsuit before you take it off, it comes off more quickly.

But I could have practiced the transitions on my own anywhere and learned just as much as I did at the clinic.

Overall, I was definitely disappointed that I paid a decent amount of money to learn almost nothing. I kind of wish I would have run the Frederick half with my friends instead.

Why This Weekend Will Rock and a Winner

2012-05-04T07:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday friends! We've just about made it through another week! I have a fun-filled weekend planned and I can't wait to kick it off!

1. The weather is going to be amazing! I don't know about where you live, but we're getting a taste of hot summer weather this weekend, and after some dreary gloomy days I'm planning to do everything I can to take advantage of it by spending as much time outside as possible.

2. The Around the World Embassy Tour is tomorrow in DC. This is one of those events I've wanted to do just about every year since I've lived here, but never had a chance. Basically 40+ embassies open their doors to the public and put on a great showcase of the culture of their country. I'm excited to eat yummy food and learn something new about a ton of countries. I will also have to remember to wear my patience hat. Most of the embassies will probably be packed with people.

3. Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day all in one? Need I say more.

4. My open water and transitions clinic is bright and early Sunday morning. After last week's open water swimming adventure, I'm looking forward to picking up some tips and practicing techniques that will help me have a successful swim. I'm also really excited to learn more about how to set up a transition area because right now, that's all still a mystery to me.

5. Downtime on Sunday afternoon. Next week is jammed packed with training, work meetings, a day trip to NYC and of course my triathlon. I actually don't know how I'm going to make it to next Friday, so I'm looking forward to spending Sunday afternoon relaxing on my back porch doing a whole lot of nothing, but soaking up the sun and relaxing.

And of course, I couldn't end this post without announcing the winner of the Technogel pillow giveaway.

Congrats to Faith from For the Health of It! Shoot me an email (jess@jessruns.com) and we'll get you set up with your new pillow!

I also want to wish a friend of mine from college lots of luck as she enters her first figure competition this weekend. She's busted her butt for months now and I think she's going to kick butt! She's chronicled her progress on her blog, so check it out if you're curious!

And of course good luck to everyone I know running the Frederick half this weekend or just racing in general! Hope the warm temperatures don't get to you too much!

Here's to the weekend! Do you have anything fun planned?

Tri Training Week 11

2012-05-03T07:53:00.000-04:00

After lots of racing in the beginning of April, I was worn down and desperately in need of a step back week last week. My training up until this point had very heavily focused on running to get me ready for my half marathon and 10 miler, but with long distance races out of the way, the plan was about to transition to more tri-specific workouts and two-a-days.

I knew I needed a week in between of some lower volume training before getting into the heart of tri-training, so that was my focus last week. Step back and recover a bit before the final push of training.

Week 11 Numbers:

Monday: Rest

After my 10-mile race on Sunday, I was tired and in desperate need of sleep. I came home from work at 4:30 and was snuggled up with my Technogel pillow and asleep by 8 p.m. I woke up feeling on top of the world Tuesday morning! (P.S. You still have time to enter my Technogel pillow giveaway!)

Tuesday: Brick - 60 minute spin, 2 mile run

I was feeling kind of unmotivated Tuesday when I get home from work, but I hopped on the trainer, knowing I could at least get a little bit of spinning in. About half way through the ride, I started feeling pretty good and decided to round things out with a little run off. The run off ended up being pretty speedy. I was happy about that.

Wednesday: 2 miles of torture

I set out for a nice and easy run on Wednesday, got to mile one and ended up walking the rest of the way home. It was warm, and I was horribly dehydrated. My stomach hurt, and nothing felt good about this run, so I turned around and walked home, feeling rather defeated. Then I had a good cry and felt marginally better.

Thursday: Strength training

Strength training workouts with Emily are quickly becoming one of my favorite workouts of the week. It's nice to get away from our desks and get a workout in over lunch.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 5K and Open Water Swim

(Source)

I kicked butt in my 5K on Sunday and set an awesome new PR, shaving exactly one minute off my previous time!

Then I met up with Zach for my first open water swim ever.

And with that my step back week came to a close and I was mentally ready to tackle the rest of triathlon training. Nine days until my first tri!!!

My First Open Water Swim

2012-05-02T08:02:00.000-04:00

Holy crap the Chesapeake Bay is cold.

That's what I was thinking as my my training buddy Zach and I waded into the water Sunday afternoon. The air temperature was in the low 60s and the water was somewhere in the 50s.

Brrrrrr.

Don't let the sunshine fool you. It was cold.

Open water swimming was extremely humbling.

I'm a strong swimmer in the pool. I don't tire easily and my form has improved tons in the last few months. Swimming is the one sport in triathlon where I have a very clear edge over Zach. At least in the pool.

In choppy bay waves, it's totally different.

Zach destroyed me in the open water.

Zach getting ready to swim

I've been referring to Sunday's open water adventure as an epic failure. Zach more kindly prefers to call it a learning experience.

It didn't bother me that much to not have a lane line, but I really, really struggled with sighting the buoys in the distance. It took a while for me to get into a rhythm of breathing and sighting. During my first couple of laps I had to alternate between freestyle and breast stroke to sight, but by the end I had gotten used to picking my head up out of the water in the middle of my freestyle stroke.

My form though was all over the place. I was having a hard time getting used to swimming in a wetsuit and I felt a little restricted in my arm movement. I kept swinging my left arm super high out of the water trying to improve my range of motion. Not only did it look ridiculous, but it wasted a lot of energy.

This is bad form. Don't do this.

I was also having a hard time figuring out how to breath. With the waves coming in I could only really breath on one side without getting a face full of water. I ended up swallowing a mouthful of bay at one point. It was fairly disgusting.

Toward the end of our swim, Zach decided to swim behind me and swat at my feet so I'd get used to being bumped in the water. That didn't bother me too much. But then I started to veer off course a little bit and all of sudden Zach was swimming over me.

Right onto my back.

My first instinct was to throw an elbow, but I didn't. He correct pretty quickly, and he didn't swim over my head or anything, so it wasn't quite as scary as I expected it would be. But I can totally see how stuff like that would cause someone to panic in the water.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

I have no idea how long we swam for. We ended up taking a decent amount of breaks to get out and warm our hands and feet up. We eventually called it quits when neither of us could control the movement in our hands anymore since they had started to curl into claws.

My fingers were useless for the next 20 minutes. I couldn't get out of my wetsuit, nor could I tie my shoelaces after changing. The water was definitely chilly.

I'm really, really glad to have done at least one open water swim before my race. It was a humbling experience. I'm not used to moving that slowly through the water. I seriously felt like I was crawling.

The waves made me miss the nice smooth water in the pool.

Dealing with Race Anxiety Dreams + A Giveaway

2012-05-01T07:38:00.000-04:00

If you've been following along with my whole triathlon journey, you may have noticed that I have not been sleeping well throughout this training cycle because I've been having major freak outs and nightmares about the race.

First there was the dream where I parked my bike at my friend's apartment and when I got back all the parts where gone except for the seat and the handle bars. It was like my bike had been to the chop shop.

More recently, I dreamed that I got to the race late and my wave has already started or that the race has decided they aren't going to use timing chips or that I can't find the tent for body marking.

I have woken up from all of these dreams in a horrible cold sweat, and have had a hard time falling back to sleep.

So sleep lately, has not been my friend.

However, when I got the opportunity through FitFluential to partner with Technogel to test out one of their amazing pillows and host a giveaway for my readers, I jumped at the opportunity.

I know that a pillow isn't going to banish my anxiety dreams, but I figured that maybe if I had something comfortable to snuggle into after waking up from one of my dreams, I'd drift back to sleep easier.

Guys, in all seriousness, this is the best pillow I've ever slept on.

Technogel makes several different style pillows and I opted for the Classic, which is their thinnest pillow. I absolutely hate big, fluffy pillows, and tend to snag my pillows super cheap and super flat from the pillow bins at Ikea. Big, fluffy pillows are annoying and hurt my neck, but the Classic was the perfect height.

Just the right amount of fluff!

My favorite part though was the blue gel on the inside that feels slightly cool to the touch when you put your head on the pillow. I like sleeping in the cold and having that chill factor was awesome.

Sleeping on this pillow has been amazing. And lucky for me, this week the triathlon nightmares have stayed away. Sure, I know that is not a direct result of the pillow, but it's sure been a nice coincidence.

Hooray for a good night's sleep!

The best part of this whole thing is that I get to share the wealth! Technogel has offered to give away one of their amazing pillows to one of you. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment answering this question:

How do you deal with bad dreams, especially anxiety dreams about races?

I'll pick a winner on Friday morning.

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Earth Day 5K and Another PR

2012-04-30T09:33:00.000-04:00

I made the very last minute decision to sign up for the Earth Day 5K over the weekend, mainly because I needed to get a short run in and the race was five minutes from my house.

The race was hosted by Pacers, one of the running stores in the DC area, which meant I'd earn some points in their race series. I've been doing a pretty solid job racking up points this season, since almost every race I've run so far has been one of their events. I'll get some nice swag at the end of the season.

The Earth Day 5K is one of Pacers' smaller events, but the start and finish line are a five-minute jog from my house, so how could I not sign up?

The race started at 8, and I rolled out of bed at 7:30, got dressed and jogged up to the start. Most low-key race start ever.

I met up with my friend Meredith who also happened to be running the race. You may remember her from when we ran the Hot Chocolate race back in December.

Me, Hannah and Meredith

Meredith is pretty fast but we started the race together and she said she wasn't planning on racing hard, so I figured I'd run with her for as long as I could. Solid race plan right there ha.

But it actually ended up working at well. We ran and chatted about life and work and stuff and I was impressed by the fact that I could still manage to talk even though I was running much faster than normal.

The race starts out on a ridiculously long downhill and since it's an out-and-back course you get to run up the hill at the end. I was able to hang with Meredith for the first 2.5ish miles of the race, but on the hill on the way back I just couldn't match her pace anymore.

My pace dropped significantly in that last mile. I positive-split the crap out of this race:

Mile 1: 7:29
Mile 2: 8:01
Mile 3: 8:50
Last .1: 1:01

But I still managed to shave more than a minute off my PR, finishing in 25:21. That's an 8:10 average and was good enough for 81 out of 378 total runners.

I have raced the last three weekends in a row and have managed to set PR's in two of the three races. It's been a pretty solid spring race season for me.

Under Armour What's Beautiful

2012-04-27T08:19:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have seen that Under Armour recently launched a competition to find some new faces of the Under Armour Women brand. The goal of the What's Beautiful competition is to redefine the female athlete and our traditional definitions of beauty.

Given my slightly over-the-top love for Under Armour gear, I signed up right away.

As part of the competition, I had to declare a fitness goal and will have to document my progress toward that goal over the next several weeks.

My goal: Train for and complete my first Olympic distance triathlon.

I've already been documenting my training regularly here on the blog, but as part of the competition there will be additional challenges along the way, like jumping rope for as long as possible and completing part of the Marine Corps Fitness test.

My first challenge was to make a video stating my goal and talk about training, so I thought I'd share.

After the end of the nine weeks Under Armour will select 10 finalists and put them up for a public vote. Three winners will be chosen, two by Under Armour, one by public vote, to be the new faces of Under Armour Women.

I promise I'll share some of the photo and video I shoot for the contest here on the blog, but definitely check out my page on the What's Beautiful site.

And to all my wonderful lady readers, I encourage you to sign up yourselves. (And if you do leave me a comment and let me know. You can follow athletes on the What's Beautiful site and I definitely want to follow you all!)

What I've Learned About Triathlons So Far

2012-04-26T07:43:00.001-04:00

Hey guys, today I'm guest posting over at MizFit Online about what I've learned so far about triathlons and triathlon training! Go check it out!

Changing Focus

2012-04-25T08:09:00.000-04:00

Now that all my long races are over for the spring, my training is shifting focus from distance running to more triathlon specific workouts.

I was looking at my training plan last night and realized traditional running rest days have been replaced with easy bike rides or recovery swims and long runs have been replaced with brick workouts.

Shit's about to get real.

I have this week as a sort of easier transition week and then from here until the end of June, I'll be trying to figure out how to balance several two-a-day workouts, bricks, long rides and of course my softball games (the season starts in a few weeks!).

Here we go!

Tri Training Week 10

2012-04-24T07:50:00.000-04:00

This week of training was tricky. I was trying to recover from a really hard half marathon effort on Saturday, while still fitting in most of my workouts and somehow prepping for the 10 miler this past Sunday. My legs were so sore for several days after that half that I ended up shuffling a lot of workouts and drastically reducing some of the intensity.

Week 10 numbers:

Monday: Recovery swim + strength

I got to the pool thinking I'd be able to put in an easy hour of swimming, but after a couple 100's I could tell the energy just wasn't there. I certainly didn't feel like I was drowning or anything, I just felt like I wasn't moving in the water -- at all. I pushed through to get at least 30 minutes of swimming done, but it was my most pathetic swim workout ever.

Later in the afternoon I decided to do a light weights workout so I didn't feel like the day was a complete waste.

Tuesday: Tone It Up strength workout

I read on Meghann's blog how she's trying to the Tone It Up strength program to give a little bit of structure to her strength training. Since most of the time when I do weights I just sort of do a bunch of stuff I learned from my personal trainer and physical therapists back in the day, I thought having some structure might be nice so I did one of the Tone It Up workouts. It was a little more leg work than I would have liked post-half marathon, but it was a solid workout.

Wednesday: Running intervals

I debated for a long time whether or not I should skip this workout since I still had a bit of soreness in my legs, but I hoped that running would shake some of that out. I hit the treadmill for nine intervals of two minutes hard, two minutes easy. By the end my legs felt tired, but strong.

Thursday: Strength training with Emily

Normal lunchtime strength training routine.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 80 minute bike ride

We had beautiful weather on Saturday so I met up with Megan for an easy bike ride. We did a few laps of Beach Drive while chatting about our weekends. This was definitely not an intense workout, but I did practice using my toe clips (not to be confused with clipless pedals), which were a new addition to my bike after I took it in for a tune up last week.

Sunday: GW Parkway Classic 10 Miler

(Source)

The only picture of me from the race. Can you spot me?

I treated this race as a long run and didn't push it too hard. You can read more about it in yesterday's race report.

So another solid week of training in books, and only a bit more than two weeks til my first tri!

GW Parkway Classic Race Report

2012-04-23T08:05:00.002-04:00

On Friday I talked about how I wasn't really looking forward to the 10 mile race I had this weekend. By Saturday I was trying to get a little bit excited, but it still wasn't happening.

Running in the rain isn't fun and I just wasn't looking forward to the early wake-up call.

So I made a deal with myself before going to bed Saturday night. If it was pouring rain when my alarm went off, I would skip the race and go back to sleep.

(Source)

Fortunately/unfortunately (I'm still not sure), it wasn't raining at 4 a.m. on Sunday. So I dragged myself out of bed and over to Alexandria, VA to board the buses to take me to the start line.

Since I didn't know anyone else running, I made friends with the girl I sat next to on the bus. We chatted about races and training. We found out we're both signed up for Marine Corps in the fall. Yay for new runner friends!

It started pouring not long after the buses dropped us off at the start line. Luckily Pacers was prepared for this and had set up a few tents for runners to wait under and handed out Mylar blankets. While huddling in the tent, I spotted Sarah and Jay. It's much more fun killing time at the start line with friends!

The rain eventually tapered off to a light drizzle of some sort as the race started.

(Source)

Because of the weather I wore a pair of old shoes and carried no electronics. No phone, no Ipod, no Garmin. (Hence the lack of pictures).

I could tell running ten miles in my old shoes was going to be less-than-enjoyable. Since I wasn't racing hard, I took walk breaks when I needed to help loosen up my hip/knee/IT band. Somewhere near mile 5, I stopped to stretch since my left leg was really, really tight.

I was enjoying the course though and having a good time. The miles seemed to pass pretty quickly, even though I wasn't moving very fast. It took me a while to settle into a groove, but finally, by the 10K I started to feel good.

The best part about running a 10 miler the week after a half marathon? Getting to mile 8, thinking you still have five more miles to go, but then realizing you actually only have two to go!

The last two miles of the course went through parts of Alexandria and had pretty decent crowd support.

I crossed the finish line in 1:37:03, certainly not my fastest 10 mile time, but not too shabby for a race where I took many, many walk break and stopped to stretch.

Luckily, I finished the race just before the real downpour started. I quickly grabbed a post-race Gatorade and bagel before high-tailing back to my car and out of the rain.

At the end of the day, I'm glad I did the race. It was a fun run on a great course and it earned me some points in the Pacers Race Series. I <3 Pacers events!

Less Than Excited To Race This Weekend

2012-04-20T08:03:00.000-04:00

This weekend I'm running my last "long" race of the spring, the GW Parkway Classic 10 miler.

When I signed up for this race, I was really excited for it. It's been voted one of the best races in the DC area, and I was excited to try an alternative to Cherry Blossom for a spring 10 miler.

But now that the race is almost here, I'm feeling less than excited.

Part of the reason is that it's supposed to rain all weekend, and nothing sounds fun about running 10 miles in the rain.

Another part of the reason is that I don't really know anyone doing the race, and racing by yourself is way less fun than racing with friends.

And finally, after last weekend's kickass PR at the half marathon...well I just don't know that another race this soon is going to be better than that.

Still, I'm trying to not be a total downer about this race.

There are some things I'm still looking forward to.

First, the course is fairly awesome. I know because it's a very similar course to the Wilson Bridge half course that I loved last fall.

Second, it's put on by Pacers, one of our local running stores, and Pacers puts on top notch events.

And third, it's a race and even though I won't be racing hard or running fast (this time I'm serious!) I still love the satisfaction of crossing the finish line.