4th July Watermelon 5K

I secretly think that running in extreme heat is only for 'real runners' and I'm not a real runner yet :). I do the majority of my training runs very late in the evening or very early in the day and for the last couple of years (since I started running), I have seriously cut back on miles between May and Labor Day. Last year I promised myself I'd sign up for a race in June and took full advantage of the fact that I happened to be in NY to make it happen ;). This year I have been determined to keep up with running (and activity in general) right through summer with a view to starting out the season much stronger than ever before in the Fall.

I ordered 'Run Free - in miles we trust' shirts for the family to benefit the USO - an organization that serves military families...

So happy that Lu is back! She is very excited to get her bib and packet :)

And even happier that the shirt is so cute...

And it's a small :)

Mike is a bit more sedate when he's registering...

There was a watermelon eating contest scheduled after the race. This guy wore his on his head...

And this guy had painted himself blue for some reason...

There were about 4,000 runners which totally blew my mind! I can't believe how many people in Orlando don't use the heat as an excuse! Way to represent - O-Town!!

I've missed my Lu...

Now we are both rocking the sleeveless shirts - how'd that happen?

Today was tough for me and I just wanted to know that I ran the whole thing. I spent most of the race doing endless math to figure out how much longer I had to keep going! I tried to focus on celebrating the day and having an appreciation for the fact that we live in this amazing country where we can run whenever, wherever...and even painted blue with a melon on our head if we want to! And I made it through!!

Happy Birthday America!!

Juneathon - the verdict!

Juneathon is finally over!!!

Juneathon, "the annual festival of activity and excuses" is an event within the blogging community where you commit to working out (and blogging about it) every day for the entire month of June! Since this is usually the month that my activity levels seriously slow down, I signed up to see if it would help me stay on track during the hot, hot season:). My goal was to work out every day for at least 20 minutes and 'eat clean' for the whole month...and here's how it went...

In the first week I managed to miss a couple of days so I changed the rules and gave myself the opportunity to make missed sessions up on other days (because bending the rules is how I roll). I realized pretty quickly that making up sessions was far from ideal and did pretty well at staying on track for the rest of the month! The eating clean thing was more of a challenge though and I counted 8 days during the month where I just didn't :(. Here's what I learned:

* The days when I didn't eat clean were generally the ones when I didn't work out, primarily due to poor energy levels :(
* Even though I only technically had to do 20 mins activity a day, I actually did an average of 35 mins per day :)
* I ran over 41 miles during the month compared to 17 for last June and worked out for an extra 7 hours too!

So it was a huge success! My triathlon training is right on track and I only have two more months until the temperatures are a lot more bearable!! I feel healthy and strong and even ready for something I've never tried before - a race in July!! Thank you Juneathon for keep me on track:).

And my goals for July? I'm going to stay on top of the triathlon training program (here!) and cut down in half the average number of days that I don't eat clean which will give me 4 'off' days for the month :).

Juneathon is here!

So it's June 1st and this is the month that I traditionally slack off a bit (OK a lot) from running. Thanks to Denise at Run DMT, this year I've found Juneathon (see link on RHS) - a virtual, international network of people who are committed to working out (and blogging about it to stay accountable) every day for the whole month of June! This is exactly what I need, particularly now that Lu is not in town for a month and I feel lost without her all of a sudden! I'm prepared to commit to a minimum of 20 minutes a day (with longer sessions for training days) - and while I'm in the spirit of making commitments I'm going to shoot for eating 'clean' for a whole month too after reading this inspirational book:

I'm still going to shoot for running 3 times a week - but hopefully the regular, daily workout will help me stay motivated overall. I may even get used to the heat a little? I wonder how I'll feel in a whole month's time?? Wish me luck!!

Day 1: Ran 4:2 Sprints: 2.5 miles, 24:00 mins

Day 2: Weights: 20 mins

Day 3: Ran: 3.0 miles, 32:09 mins

Insanely hot. But totally my fault - I had to run in the evening since I didn't get my arse out of bed this morning at 6 liked I'd planned after staying up chit-chatting until nearly 2 a.m. But still - crazy hot. But I'm not whining. Because nobody likes a whiner. Not even other whiners...

Day 4: Bike: 8.0 miles, 48:58 mins
Day 5: Ran Treadmill: 4.4 miles, 40:00 mins, Weights: 20 mins
Day 6: Bike: 10.40 miles, 49:36 mins

Had a bit of a slip on the clean eating front today and had two (yep that would be two) protein bars and a piece of cake today. I had a ton of 'safety fruit' to hand so I have absolutely no excuses. I can't even say that I didn't enjoy it or felt guilty:)

Day 7: Gym Bike: ?? miles, 45:00 mins

Very lame workout after a horrendous eating day too. I can't seem to decide on my next event or which training to focus on. Feeling lost to be honest. A good night's sleep will help for sure...

Day 8: Nothing
Day 9: Nothing
Day 10: Nothing

Oops :). Well it looks like pesky Juneathon has gotten the better of me after only 7 days! This weekend was horrendously busy and I have been so exhausted. I feel like I've been lurching from one place I had to be or task I had to do to the next. In short, life got in the way. And I let it happen :(...So what now? Well, I was thinking that maybe I can rewrite the rules a bit and give myself credit for 'doubling' up sessions? So basically I can 'buy back' a missed day if I do two different activities on one day?? It's worth a shot...now I really want to see if I can do that! And there's that 'eating clean' thing that I haven't stuck to...Juneathon - I'm coming BACK!

Day 11: Swim: 11.5 laps, 20:00 mins, Ran Treadmill: ?? miles, 25:00 mins

Great workout and one session bought back. Two more to get back on track...:)

Day 12: Gym Bike: ?? miles, 40:00 mins
Day 13: Nothing :(
Day 14: Gym Bike: ?? miles, 45:00 mins

OK so I'm still 3 sessions behind so I'm going to need to step this up if I'm going to be able to claim victory over Juneathon!! I have nothing major scheduled for this weekend so I have a perfect opportunity to catch up completely if I can just stay motivated! This 'daily' thing is so much tougher than I thought:).

Day 15: Ran 5:1 Intervals: 6 miles, 1:06:06 mins

I was totally dreading tonight since I haven't ran 6 miles on my own for a very long time and I've really been struggling to stay on track. It's often on nights like this that the Running Gods intervene and I see something really special and tonight was no exception. I've lived in Florida for nearly 15 years but I've never seen a Scarlet Kingsnake before...

OK so that's not my picture but mine looked exactly the same! I nearly stepped on him and for a second I wondered if I would be able to run to the hospital before certain death. Then I remembered 'If red touches yellow, it can kill a fellow. If red touches black, it is a friend of Jack' and realized he was harmless. And he didn't bite me anyway :). About 10 minutes later I caught the Epcot fireworks too. Florida is certainly hot but you get to see some amazing things when you're out for a run. Lucky me..:)

Day 16: Swim: 19.5 laps, 35:00 mins, Bike: 8.1 miles, 38:46 mins
Day 17: Swim: 13 laps, 20:00 mins, Ran Treadmill: ?? miles, 25:00 mins
Day 18: Swim: 13.5 laps, 20:00 mins, Bike: 7.5 miles, 33:18 mins

All caught up now:)

Day 19: Swim: 18.0 laps, 30:00 mins
Day 20: Run: 5.0 miles, 54:11 mins

Virtual run tonight for Emmett Sebright - a little boy with Craniosynostosis, a defect of the skull that inhibits brain growth. On June 20, 15 month old Emmett had his scheduled surgery - a cranial vault reconstruction. During the 7 to 8 hour surgery, his mother, Kathy planned to run on the treadmill at the hospital the entire time Emmett was in surgery. She pledged that she would not stop until he was out - even if it took the full 8 hours. Emmett's (virtual) Endurance Event was organized on Facebook as a show of solidarity and support.

Day 21: Nothing

Day 22: Gym Bike: ?? miles, 45:00 mins
Day 23: Swim: 15 laps, 25:00 mins

Just one more week to go and one session to catch up!

Day 24: Nothing
Day 25: Ran Treadmill: ?? miles, 45:00 mins

Great run tonight after a lethargic weekend. Feeling really motivated to catch up the two sessions I've fallen behind on and end the week strong :).

Day 26: Swim: 13 laps, 20:00 mins, Gym Bike: ?? miles, 30:00 mins

Just one more session to catch up and 4 days to go :)

Day 27: Ran: 3.0 miles, 32:25 mins
Day 28: Nothing :(

Day 29: Ran: 7.0 miles, 1:19:68 mins
Day 30: Swim: 12.5 laps, 20:00 mins, Ran: ?? miles, 20 mins, Gym Bike: ?? miles, 25:00 mins

All done...Juneathon verdict to follow...!

Tri photos

So the photos are in from the weekend....I totally love this picture of me on the bike. I was just as happy as I looked :)

And I felt just like that when I crossed the line...:)

But wait - I'm pretty sure my hat was green...other than that I can totally see how the photographer got us two mixed up...

Swim, Bike and Run like a Mother...

Today was Mother's Day in the states and Lu and I did the Women's Danskin Super Sprint Triathlon!

The only triathlon I've ever done had a pool swim so my goal was to do one in open water. For this event they had a Sprint (0.5m swim, 12m bike and 3m run) and a Super Sprint (0.25m swim, 8m bike and 2m run) so we opted for the shorter distance since the swim seemed a bit more achievable for our first time in the dreaded open water. To train for the event, we have been working out about 4 times a week and each Sunday we've managed to get out of bed at the break of dawn to do a swim, bike and run at the pool in Celebration to practice all three together. We've worked really hard but were still really nervous.

We got up at 5am to get over to Clermont in time to do all of the transistion set-up. We loved the body mark-up and in particular the sign calling us 'athletes':)

Don't let the smiles fool you - once we were ready to go - we wanted to cry...

Look at beautiful Lake Minneola - I didn't expect it to be just like the beach!

We were the second wave with a 7:19 start time...

Here goes...

The Swim...I am amazed to say that my swim was so much better than I expected! I started at the back and stayed wide of the turn points and didn't get kicked or pushed at all. I felt strong and was able to beat a couple of swimmers in the first wave too! The Bike...it was so beautiful biking all the way around the lake although it was hilly in places. I was really pleased with how it went and it was so much more comfortable now that I've been biking regularly (and have a gel seat :)). It was also really nice to get so much support from the other ladies on the course. Everyone was cheering everyone else the whole time:). The Run...I was dreading the run the whole time I was on the bike. I had worked really hard and my Negative Nelly brain started to make me question if my legs would be able to run at all when I got done. When I got started out with the run I saw so many people were walking and was really tempted but pushed through and just ran as best as I could!

The ending was phenomenal. The spectators were just the best and we got a flower, a goodie bag, a great tech shirt and a gorgeous medal too!

Mike bought me a 'bad ass' biking shirt for Mother's Day - I love it!!

Maddy came to support me for Mother's Day too which made the whole thing extra special :)

I came in 10th out of 27 in my age category which was awesome! Lu came second in hers and won a free entry for next year! Go Lu!!!!! My results looked like this:

Yeah!!! But regardless of the times, I felt strong and healthy and happy. And ready to take on the full Sprint distance and an open water swim next time :)

More Mud Crusade....

So the photos are in and the memories are flooding back again...what a fantastic experience...:)

The Amazing Mud Crusade!

Today we had the most amazing time at Mud Crusade! It was my first proper mud run and I was a bit nervous to be honest. Mud Crusade is a 5K with 18 'challenging' obstacles - I didn't look too closely at the website (http://www.mudcrusade.com/) because I knew that if there was any mention of walls or monkey bars I may rethink the whole thing;). I figured it was better just to show and figure it out as I went. Mike, Luciana and I registered as Team Daaaaamn! and got up at 5:30am to make the drive to Pasco County...Daaaaamn!

We arrived and took millions of pictures before we got too dirty :)

So I need to be ready to toss this whole outfit? Even the shoes? It can't be that muddy - right?

"We need a tough pose - look Lu - we can do this one:)"

There you go...

Mike: "Is this what you do before races - just take photos? Don't you stretch?"

The course looked intimidating and the participants looked fearless. Like this wasn't their first rodeo...

Mike was really excited...it's a boy thing...

And then the madness began. The obstacles were challenging! I tried every one of them and only fell into the water a couple of times. I made it over all of the walls and even managed the cargo net! We were literally up to our necks in mud several times and I had sand in my ears, my mouth and up my nose. I went down the slide sideways and have more bruises than I care to imagine. We stayed together and worked as a team and other team members helped us...and we helped other teams. It was amazing. I totally got the whole mud racing thing and my heart skipped a beat when the sky turned black and torrential rain started to pour down just as we came into the home stretch. It was an indescribable rush.

The results aren't in and the race photos aren't published yet but for now I think our 'after' shots say it all :)

Update: found this headcam of the whole thing online today...can't believe we actually did this!!

Corporate 5K

The Corporate 5K in Orlando encourages coworkers to run together to build camaraderie and to benefit the the Track Shack Foundation, a non-profit that promotes health and fitness by funding youth athletics and sports programs through grants. Participants from more than 700 companies, non-profit organizations, churches and schools took part in the run to celebrate workplace health and fitness. There were more than 14,000 runners that participated this year around Lake Eola for what's billed as "Central Florida's largest office party!"

Lake Eola is really pretty...

Luciana and I ran with my colleagues at my new office. I was so proud to be in the RunDisney enclosure! We were right at the finish line - and it was the biggest - and the coolest:)

It was a great run - hot, but fun. Is wasn't chip-timed but according to my trusty Garmin, my time was right around 31 minutes which I was really pleased with!

Jelly Bean Virtual 10K

Luciana and I were particularly proud that we managed to pull out a 10K on a Monday night after a long day at work at 9pm for the annual Jelly Bean Virtual 10K! I really wasn't feeling it but together, we made it happen!

Now the tough part - to stay "10K-ready" through summer in Florida...:)