2 for the price of 1

I just saw that Women's Running Magazine is doing a 2 Years for the price of 1 deal that ends on Labor Day.

this race course just in!

Nike just posted the official course for the full and half marathons this October in San Francisco.  I freaked out a little at the elevation when I couldn't zoom in on the map to see that the half gets diverted back to the finish line and doesn't have to do the extra hill.  Whew!  Dodged a bullet on that one.  Looks like the course hasn't changed much.

taking care of the ladies

Pacers Running Store in Alexandria, VA held a Ladies Night tonight, with the help of sponsorship from Nike and Moving Comfort.  All those that attended got to enjoy food and drink along with discounts on apparel and chances to win prizes.  It was also an opportunity to get refitted for sports bras because it's very important to have a good support system!  I love Moving Comfort's line, but I opted to buy a style slightly different from my favorite design to try it out.  Prepare to be tamed ladies!

running with abe, george, frankie delano, and thomas

One of my favorite runs in D.C. is the National Mall and monuments.  It's approximately a 4 mile loop from the Lincoln Memorial, around the Capitol pond and back.  I modified my route today, though, to cover some of the tidal basin monuments because of where I was able to find parking.  I'm still working on my endurance, so it was a run/walk for me.  I need to be careful because I don't want to repeat what happened the last time I pushed myself to do a 10k with little/no training - a story that ended up with weeks of back spasms and sciatic pain resulting in a cortisone shot to the spine.

starting line

half way point

finish line

too much orange and red!

catching some zees.....

I seriously have the worst sleep habits.  It's a perpetual cycle of allowing myself a little nap right before dinner so that I'm then up until 1am or 2am.  Of course, mainlining iced tea tonight at trivia night isn't helping the situation right now.  How does one break this habit??  Especially with the new TV season coming up and all my favorite shows being on late.  So frustrating!

inspiration for the week: reason #390 to be fit

I submitted two suggestions to the owner of this tumbler site this weekend.  We'll see if they make the list!

it sounds like a bingo drawing

But it's not.  It's a vitamin B-12 shot, and I got a big pink dose in my arm today.  That's right.  I have (practically) mainlined Red Bull, well the vitamin part of it anyway, in an attempt to boost my energy.  Not that I'm opposed to napping, but it really disrupts my daily productivity!

check out this week's playlist!

Lots of fun songs with quick beats!

a little sunday crosstraining

Have you ever paddleboarded before?  If not, you should try it!  Very fun.  This is how my experience went:

(1) Here we go!  This is fun!

(2) A little break to learn some tips and tricks

 

(3) Heading to the baby rapids

 (4) Hauling a** back to shore because of thunder and lightning (this was the real workout!)

it's a good day...

When I have a Jamba Juice in hand. Mmm Orange Dream Machine!

dis or dat - a 30 day challenge

I want to do something as a 30-day challenge the month of September because it, conveniently, has 30 days!

Kristin Bell (IMDB her if you don't know the name) did a 30-day fitness challenge for herself and posted her progress, both negative and positive, on Twitter (#30dayhomies).  She was able to motivate a lot of her 600,000 twitter fan base, including Jenna Fischer from The Office, to work out for at least 1 hour every day for 30 days, and won a VH1 Do Something award in the process. Well, I ain't no Kristin Bell, but 30 days doesn't seem so hard.

Because I need to add some sort of strength and cross training into my routine, I've narrowed my choices down to two things:

1. P90X - I've tried to start this program several times, and the extreme soreness is always a turn off and motivation buster!

2. Jillian Michaels Total Body Revolution - This one is a lot more approachable, but does it get the same results?

This may come down to a coin toss...

the best fitness plan i've found on the web...so far

This also reminds me of the last time when I could consider myself a runner.  I would go on a long weekend run with a friend or two, then we would choose a breakfast spot for after.  Not a bad reward for hard work!  I love breakfast food!

inspiration for the day

reason #0298 to be fit

i'm a spud!

I knew I was a couch potato, but I didn't realize I was this bad!  I wanted to see how far I could go on this initial day of this 8 week race to the finish and after a weekend of total slothiness (yeah, I made that up) due to rain and new comfy mattress.

I only got a half mile on the treadmill, due to breathing issues, but at least I finished out the workout at the elliptical so it was not all a loss for the day.  OK, so it wasn't my planned 90 minutes.  I'm quickly discovering how challenging 90 minutes of stationary exercising can be.  Tomorrow is another day, and I know how to mitigate the breathing issue (I was being lazy tonight and didn't want to search for some medicine).  Thinking, no knowing I'll get at least a mile straight to start the day!

gee...thanks for the reminder nike!

Officially 8 weeks left as of yesterday.....

ballet and running

A classmate from high school is very involved in the promotion of a fitness toning method that combines the moves of pilates and yoga with a ballet barre -- called Barre3.  It's very popular in the Pacific NW, like Portland and Seattle, and is slowly making its way across the country.  Anyway, she posted a new instructional video today on Facebook that I thought I'd share.  It's a demonstration of how to add a little Barre3 toning to your run.  Enjoy!

waiting on a beautiful weekend

The weather is the best that D.C. can possibly be in the summer - sunny, no humidity, and 80s - and I'm stuck.   Of course when I am actually motivated to get out and go for a run, I'm stuck at home waiting for a delivery truck!!  Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!  And of course I would get scheduled for the latter part of my 4-hour delivery window.  Crossing my fingers it will all be worth it because I finally took the plunge and got a tempurpedic mattress.  If all the people who have given me extraordinary reviews of these mattresses are right, people with disc issues like me who say that their pack pain is reduced, then I should reap a long-term benefit from a short-term sacrifice.  Crossed fingers!!!

time to begin the foolishness

With 8 weeks to go from couch potato to finishing 13.1 miles in whatever possible way I can (fortunately, the time limit for the half is the same as the full marathon!), I've come up with a training plan that goes against everything you read about proper training methodology.I'm going to call it the "dive into the ocean and head straight into the rip tide with underinflated arm floaties" training plan.

The theory is that my butt is guaranteed to be on that race course for approximately 3 hours, probably more because of the hills (just look at the elevation chart below!).  I mean let's get real - even at my best, I only ran a half in 2.5 hours because I'm a slow runner, and the last ones I completed without any advance training were run/walk events with goal finish times of 3 hours (so a 14 min pace).  Plus those were relatively flat courses.

So last night, my insane brain (which I believe is deserving of a spot in mensa because I'm that awesome) figured out that it's not physically possible for me to catch up to where I should be in my running training program -- see genius!!  But if I have to be out there on the course for awhile, then I can condition my body to not freak the "F" out over 3 hours of exercise.  So it's time for me to become best buddies again with my elliptical trainer because we have a lot 90+ minute workouts on the schedule for the upcoming week, in addition to some outdoor runs in order to wake all those muscles up too.  So what to do for 90 minutes in one spot??  What else but start a Veronica Mars marathon!  90 min = 2 episodes.  And after those three seasons, I have all five seasons of Friday Night Lights to watch! In a sick way, I'm kind of looking forward to all this exercise...

 

don't forget your vitamins

Throughout my life, I've always struggled to take my vitamins.  Let's face it, some of those pills are HUGE and tough to swallow.  I think the worst ones I've ever tried were in one of those GNC vita-paks made especially for women.  Fortunately, some genius took pity on us adults and created gummy vitamins!!!  Now I actually look forward to my vitamins: multivitamin with immunity boost, omega-3 (fish oil), fiber, and probiotic. Well, the omega-3 has a little fishiness to it, but it's still like eating a generic gummy bear - tolerable.  Now, my plea to the supplement industry is to please make a gummy glucosamine alternative!  I'm getting older and need the joint juice but not the horse pill serving.

Here's an article I read today at Shape Magazine Online that helps clear up some of the more confusing supplements.  Of course, no gummy vitamins were listed because what's so hard about eating candy??

8 weeks!

I have 8 weeks before I'm supposed to do a half marathon on San Francisco and I can't run more than a mile before having to slow down!

This is classic Julie....signing up for a race, planning the weekly training program out on my Google calendar, then having it all be overcome by events and laziness only to freak out as the number of weeks away from the day turn to single digits.

OK, so this race was a little different because when I signed up, it was for a lottery.  I have not received entry through the lottery for the past 3 years that I've tried, so who would have thought I would get in this year!  The race I'm talking about is the insanely popular Nike Women's Half Marathon, with the main attraction of this race not being the crazy hills around the Presidio at miles 6-10 but the handsome tuxedo clad firefighters holding silver trays piled high with Tiffany & Co blue signature boxes wrapped in white satin ribbon bows.  Yeah, that's right!  No finisher medal for me.  I'm after that necklace inside that box!!

Finishers Necklaces From Past Years

So here I am writing this first entry to my new blog still procrastinating.  Oh the irony, I know!
 
OK...only 5 more minutes of writing and I swear I'm going to post this and go workout. Here's the deal, I decided to create this blog to try to see if I can hold myself more accountable and actually turn my compulsive planning into an equal amount of action, by exposing my successes and failures to the public. And when I found that this domain name was available today, I had to grab it because it was so silly! I'll try to keep the posts candid and funny whenever I can.  I also want to share with you things I learn along the way, including insights and inspirations from all of my friends with a wide variety of commitments to running or fitness in general.  My biggest hope is that I am able to entertain you, my followers, as I stumble back into the world of running one stride at a time.