I Sweat Pink!

 #sweatpink

There's a number of blogging/tweeting/online fitness communities, all which I've seen all over (Twitter, mostly). I've always wanted to find a way to get involved, as I'd really like to find additional means for not only holding myself accountable, but for finding more ways to inspire and encourage others out there to get fit, have fun, and make a difference in their lives (and hopefully the lives of others!).

And then I found Sweat Pink. Not going to lie, I had seen the ambassador information about a month ago, but applied for a different community instead, and well... still haven't heard from them. And I like pink. A lot. And then when my friend Katy Beth applied to Sweat Pink, I figured I had something to give, too. Thanks for the push, KB. :) So I did it, last Friday night, when I had nothing else to do but sit and focus on ways to get myself more motivated and really on this running wagon...

And, on Tuesday of this week, I got a super exciting email!

 

I hadn't seen any tweets from Katy Beth about her receiving an email, so I didn't want to post anything at first -- and then she finally got hers, too! Hooray! I'm really excited be part of an already very motivational, inspiring group of (mostly) women, and excited to have a group to connect to! Thanks, Sweat Pink, for picking me and allowing me to be part of the team!

Interested in applying? Check it out here: Sweat Pink Ambassador Program. 

Are you part of an online blogging/fitness community? How do you rely on them for motivation, inspiration, and support?
 

Race Report: ATL 10K & 20K Relay

Running Nerds Atlanta has hosted races before, but this was their first venture at a 10K and relay - as we went through the course of the morning, I tried hard to keep that mind. It's always difficult to run a race during it's first go-round. What will go right? What could go wrong? How will they solve it? Heather and I first heard about this race via postcard after Peachtree in July -- and as usual, time came and went before we realized it was here, so we signed up about three weeks ago! Heather and I quickly pulled in her co-worker, Antoinette, and another running sorority sister of ours, Brandi. Brandi had the brilliant idea of following suit with our team name, Will Run for Cupcakes, and dressing up as "flavors." If you know me, I've wanted a good dress-up opportunity for a loooong time, so you know I jumped right on this! (She was also a sport and let me take funfetti... thanks Brandi!)

I'm funfetti head to toe. I love costume runs!

And before we knew it, race day was here. On Friday evening, Heather, Antoinette and I went down to Iwi Spa for packet pick up -- a random location, but it was right on what would be the course route, and actually... pretty cool. A cute little space, but as any good spa is, way out of my price range! Anyway, pick-up was a breeze, as there was only maybe 2 other runners there. We quickly got our team goodies (koozies & race-logo wrist sweatbands) and, the best part... our choice of five colors for our tech tees. Have you ever had the chance to choose your shirt color, let alone to have FIVE to choose from? Win! For the record, we all ended up picking purple.

Saturday morning gun-time was 7 am. Brandi was already at race start by the time we had even left Heather's; Antoinette, Heather and I arrived around 6:30. There were a lot more runners than I anticipated, but only four porta-potties (important details!), which caused quite the line all the way up through warm-up.

Team Will Run for Cupcakes: Funfetti, Cookies 'n Cream, Strawberry & Key Lime.

 Each "group" of runners (10Kers, 20K individual runners, 20K relayers) had their own bib, which was a good way to actually keep track of folks. Everyone started from the same starting line, but for the relay teams & guests, once everyone took off, they walked us up about a third of a mile to where the relay exchange would be. We didn't think much of it until our Garmins started telling us otherwise... stay tuned. We each had a bib, but our "baton" was a clippable nametag with the chip stuck to the back of it. The chips were activated once the gun went off and there was no chip mat until the finish line; I wish there had been chips for each of us so we had known our own times as well.

Antoinette ran first and ran an awesome first loop - her watch came in at 3.12 miles. Brandi (strawberry) took off second and her lap came in at 2.85 (Nike watch), which is when we started to get a little confused. We realized, however, that the difference came up from where the finish line was versus where the exchange actually was, but at that point we weren't sure if it was just a faulty GPS or if the rest of us wouldn't legitimately have a 5K to run. Heather took off third and her watch (also a Nike) came in at 2.7something.

Just love this shot. Antoinette to Brandi, exchange 1.

I'm ready!

I anchored -- and was plenty antsy at that point! Man, waiting is hard! (I'm also not exactly the most patient person on the face of the planet) The course itself was awesome; the area is called Castleberry Hill and is essentially southwest downtown Atlanta, near the Georgia Dome. The course was a slight series of rolling hills, flat roads near the Dome and downtown, and just enough of a challenge to really make you work for it. Volunteers were awesome, cheering you on, with plenty of water at stations, and the last station even had a girl passing out watermelon! I came up near the end, which wrapped around two corners essentially. I expected my teammates to be at the very end, but they were at the second to last quarter and ran with me the whole way in! I absolutely loved it, what a great ending. Thanks ladies!

35 Will Run for Cupcakes - Women's Open

2:08:06

10:18/M pace

All in all, the race was pretty great. Course was awesome, volunteers were great. I absolutely loved that we got to choose our tech t-shirt color because that is just about non-existent in any other race I've seen! I'm bummed that the 2-4 loops for runners weren't full 5K loops, so it obviously wasn't a full 10K or 20K for other runners either. There were medals for 10K and 20K individual runners; we ran into a few relayers who had medals, though, and when I went to ask the guy who was at the medals table, he said pretty shortly, "Well, that was a mistake." Mistake or not, find a way to settle it! Oh well -- I kept our chip. That's my validation! It was a fun race, great atmosphere, and I loved our tutus, but not sure I'll do the race again. Thanks for hosting, runningnerds!

Wine & Dine: Week 2

Week 2, done and done. Didn't get off to a fabulous start, got on a super awesome high, and almost ended on a blah note again. Off and on week to say the least! Ended on a good note with a fabulous race and a lot of fun times!

Sunday: Cross -train
cycle 7.75 miles / 31:44
walk 3.42 miles / 1:11:05
Got in an awesome cycle session at the gym, followed by about 30 minutes of weights just to toss in a little strength work. Felt amazing coming off that gym session and knew I was bound to be really sore -- just had to find out how sore the next day. Later in the evening, joined two dog park Shepherd owners on a walk to the park, let the pups play, and then walked home. Exhausting for the pups -- awesome for me!

Monday: 3 miles
1.82 mi / 18:44 / 10:19 pace
Um, yeah. I was really sore. "Hurts so good!" was never in my vocabulary before, and while I enjoyed knowing that I put in some good work on Sunday, was not feeling having to run on that "hurt so good" sore legs! I also got out the door later than I had hoped, so had to cut it short and high-tail it home to get ready for the day.

Tuesday: 30 minute tempo
3.01 miles / 27:44 / 9:13 pace
Yep, that was a tempo run! My legs were still sore, though not as much as on Monday, but apparently my legs do okay when tired. This run felt awesome from start to finish - holy wow. I've never run more than a mile at a pace that quick, let alone a solid 3. This run had me on a total high for the rest of the week... or so I thought.

Thursday: Rest
I was excited to rest, not going to lie.  

Friday: 3 miles
1.58 miles / 16:18 / 10:21 pace
Yeah, that high quickly went away, huh? Really struggled on Friday morning with getting in a groove. Was disappointed, but knew I wasn't any closer to getting my head in the game at 1.5 than I was at 1, so just turned and headed home. I knew it was best, especially with fighting the want to actually get out and get moving. But you know...

Saturday: 5K Race
2.83 miles / 27:24 / 9:40 pace
Well.... it was supposed to be a 5K! Check out the full story here.

 

After our race, we headed straight to the Chattahoochee River and went tubing, literally all afternoon! We got on the water around 1:30 and surprisingly didn't get back to our cars to grill at around 6:30. Totally drained, we ended up staying in Atlanta again and came back home this morning.  And this is how Molly spent the evening:

How was your week? How's training going?

Wine & Dine: Week 1

Well, week 1 is in the books! It's been a long week, certainly, and at first I wasn't too sure on how this week was going to turn out, but come the end of it, I'm pretty happy with my progress. This is the first plan I've been on since April, but I really couldn't even call that last one a plan because I hardly followed it at all; so truly, first real plan since January. Rough.

Week 1!

Sunday: Do whatever (plan started Monday)
3 miles / 34:47 / 11:19 pace + 10 minutes bike cool-down
Quick run on the dreadmill in Nashville. Our hotel wasn't in the best place to get in a good road run, so Heather and I sucked it up and ran inside. I haven't run inside in so long, it's pretty torturous and I definitely felt the effects of that. Run and done, plus 10 minute cool down on the bike.


Monday: 3 miles
Rest
A long day on Sunday (run, business, touring Nashville, delayed flight to Atlanta, late arrival home) made for running being the last thing I wanted to do. So I took the fact that I had run on Sunday without really needing to as my go-ahead to rest on Monday. Also considering I was on campus volunteering at this:

Ooooh yeah!

Tuesday: 5 x 400 @ 5K pace
3 x 400 / 9:18, 8:21, 8:51 / x400 cool-downs for 1.67 miles
 First speed workout of this plan, and really, only my second speed workout ever. It's difficult remembering to hit the lap button; only since that I have learned that I can set auto-lap to quarter-mile increments on these kinds of days. Well, gee, if only I had known. These laps were crazy inconsistent, and I'm looking forward to challenging and pushing myself to tighten these up and make them more consistent over the next few weeks!

Wednesday: 3 miles + strength
3.01 miles / 30:18 / 10:04 pace 
I don't remember much about this run other than it was moderately difficult to get moving. Once I did though, I felt like I found a really great stride and was able to move along pretty well. I got to wear a long-sleeve shirt at 7 am... to run... in Georgia... in August. What a feeling! The mornings this week were in the mid- to high-60s and just heavenly. I know fall is around the corner and that makes me so excited! Please come quickly, fall, please!

Thursday: Rest
Rest
Happily.

Friday: 3 miles
2.89 miles /  29:42 / 10:16 pace
I didn't take this run too crazy knowing that I had Saturday's long run to tackle. Another beautiful morning, felt really great getting in these few miles before work. I think I can get back into this morning runner plan. Nothing special about this morning, just lots of runners/walkers out and about - love seeing an active community around me!

Saturday: 5 miles
5.25 miles / 1:02:10 / 11:15 pace
Certainly one of my slowest long-ish runs, but a good one nonetheless. One of the grad students I work with, Paula, joined me - also a rarity in that I had a running buddy; I'm so used to running alone! So the overall pace was pretty slow, but I actually spent 5 miles running and talking, which I would consider quite a feat, considering that never happens, and I wasn't feeling like I was going to die! It also helps that we didn't head out until 8:45 this morning or so, and the high didn't hit 70 until nearly 10 am. Beautiful - dear weather, please stick around. I'd appreciate it. Nothing special to report about this first long run; glad it's on the books, glad I did it pretty well, and glad that I completed the first week back on schedule. It was nice getting back on my old loop, but I'm looking forward to exploring some new routes in the next few weeks as my mileage increases!

After mellowing out for a little bit, Molly and I headed out to the river for a little fun. Much needed and it totally wiped her out for the rest of the evening.

Things I want to work on:
- Journaling each run: that way I can actually remember runs when I come to blog, but also so I can look bac and see a visual log of the progress I've made.
- Stretching: I don't know why this is so hard for me to want to do, considering we always did it before and after pretty much every soccer game. Just need to get back in the zone! And take care of my knees.

Total Week Mileage: 15.82 miles

Are you getting back on a training plan? How was your first weeks(s) back? How do you get your head back in the game?

Hope you all had a great week!

Dear Monday...

want to join in? link up!

Dear Monday, Though not a terrible start to the day, it's been rough. Long day ahead! But it's exciting because it involves volunteering at this:

I haven't really listened to country consistently in years... but I'm pretty excited.

Dear NEB, Thanks for an amazing weekend. I am so excited to be serving with such an amazing group of women and really hope I can live up to the expectations and hopes that have been set up for me and my position! You all are wonderful and fill my heart immensely.

Dear Nashville, Though I had all of 48 hours with you, you seem like a truly awesome city and I can't wait to come back and visit for real. Country Music Hall of Fame was neat, Vanderbilt seemed to be mostly under construction, and Broadway seems like a good time. There will be more visits in our future, don't you worry.

Dear Fall Semester, You are going to be amazing. And busy. And outstanding. I've got trips to LA, Pittsburgh/DC, Austin, Detroit, Austin again and Orlando. Exciting times ahead and I cannot wait! Slash... am looking for extra funds. Ideas, anyone?

Dear Lucy, I love you. I know I haven't been around, really, in like eight years and I'm so thankful mom and dad took care of you the way they did. I know you're better, off playing with Sadie again... I just wish I got to say good-bye. Love you, my original fur-ball!

Dear Life, Let's settle down a little bit and make it easier, mkay? Too much emotional and life stress really takes a toll on the desire to get out of bed and go running. I need help, thanks.