Weekend Review: White Tail Trail Half Marathon Race Recap

Saturday: 13.1 mile trail run

Well, hello there Monday! Why do you always arrive so quickly?

This weekend was neither productive nor restful. But we did have fun!

Friday night was spent prepping for my trail half marathon the next day. Foam rolling, laying out outfits, drinking wine...

Saturday morning I was up nice and early since the race was about 45 minutes away. I was nervous about finding the right location and there were buses to take us to the the start line so I wanted to give myself plenty of time.

It was a gorgeous morning and this sunrise greeted me at the finish area/packet pickup area.

The course basically went all the way around the lake.

This was probably the hardest race I have ever done. It was extremely humid and in the lower 70s at the start. The trail was gorgeous, but very technical - at least to my inexperienced trail running self.

I didn't want to risk losing my chip again so I used 4 zip ties. The poor volunteer at the end had quite a rough time getting it cut off, but it was worth it.

I fell at mile 3. But my chip stayed on!

Thankfully it wasn't that bad. I picked myself up right away and kept going, but I refused to look at my knees until the end.  I lost count of how many times I slipped or almost fell. I am lucky I only went all the way down once.

All the runners were very friendly and helpful. The woods echoed with warnings of  "mud", "log", "slippery" and the loud stutter steps of runners catching themselves from falling. I met several first time trail half marathon runners which was reassuring.

The second half seemed to be much harder than the first. There were more steep inclines and the trail seemed much more windy. Or maybe I was just tired at this point! I just kept saying to myself "the more you run, the sooner you're done" and "run when you can, walk when you must".

I wished the race was over at mile 9.5.

Looking back, I should have brought my own water and Gatorade. There were several aid stations, but it was so humid and pretty warm, I could have used more.

 On Saturday I was listed at finishing 3rd in my age group, but when I checked again I had moved to 4th. Darn! Overall the race was well-run. I am really happy to have completed my first (and possibly only) trail half marathon!

Weekend Review: The Color Run #kindawesome!

Over the weekend I had the awesome opportunity to run The Color Run because of the amazing people at KIND.

Sarah and I arrived at the race early to pick up our packets and to have time to stop by the KIND booth since we were KIND ambassadors. As soon as you walked into the festival area you knew it was going to be #kindawesome!

We knew we wanted to do some sort of fun costume for the race, so we made tutus last week!

Lots of women (and a few men) were also rocking the tutus.

There were so many fun outfits - patterned leggings, silly hats and fun sunglasses. It was #kindawesome to see everyone's creativity shining through their outfits.
 

 

We had such a good time. It was #kindawesome to do a fun race. Sometimes I get so caught up in my time or training for longer races, that I forget about the fun and silly side of running.

I definitely recommend The Color Run for a fun day, family event, bachelorette party, girl's day or just any excuse you need to get a little exercise and have fun!

Don't expect to set any PRs, but do expect to have a #kindawesome time and be covered head to toe in color!

Weekend Review: PR City!

Happy Monday!

Foggy Monday morning sunrise. View from my backdoor.

This weekend was quite fun!

Friday night K and I had a date night at the hibachi grill. Such yummy food!

Then we headed over to his brother's house and hung out (and drank some wine!) with his family. We ended up over there WAY later than we expected. Time always flies when we are with them!

Saturday was pool party time at our friends house!

The weather was absolutely beautiful.

I made a delicious quinoa salad I'll tell you about later this week!

We also played this super fun game Telestrations.

Imagine Telephone combined with Pictionary. Totally hilarious!

Sunday was the big race day!

 

I'll give more of a recap later, but the BIG news is:

I have a new PR and Sarah kicked some serious booty in her FIRST half marathon!

Weekend Review: Double Digits & Kayak Adventures

Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10.1 mile run outside
Sunday: Kayaking

We started off the weekend celebrating one of our nephew's 8th birthdays!

It was another fun family night filled with bounce houses, rock climbing, air hockey and cake!

Saturday morning I was finally able to get to running club!

It was drizzling and overcast most of the drive there, but I kept hoping the rain would stop and at least hold off until I got my double digits in.

Luckily I was able to run with Sarah the whole time and the miles seemed to fly by as we chatted and caught up.

It drizzled a little bit, but not much at all.

It was so humid that I wouldn't have been upset if it decided to rain just a bit though.

I might have even changed my wish to wishing for a rain on a few of the hills we had to run!

I am happy to say I did achieve my double digits - the first ones since May!

The rest of the day was filled with a nap, errands, some house stuff and a movie night.

Nothing too crazy, but it was nice to have a day with NO plans!

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day, so we decided to check out the river right by our house in the kayaks. It took us a few minutes to figure out the best place to park to put in.

Apparently there is a dam with an 8-12 foot drop right downstream from where we put in, so we paddled upstream.

We discovered a boat club we had no idea was so close. There were several boats out and one of them was pulling tubers. Who knew all of this was practically in our backyard?!

I was hoping they would want a turn in kayaks in exchange for a turn tubing, but then realized how COLD the water was!

What a fun weekend!

Weekend Review

Friday: 5.5 mile run outside
Saturday/Sunday: Nada, Zip, Zilch
Monday a.m.: Insanity Cardio Plyometric Circuit

Wow, what a busy yet lazy weekend!

Friday night's run was just what I needed after a few rough days at work.

A good friend to vent to and nice (cold) fresh air cure a lot of things!

A margarita might have done the trick too.

Saturday I got to spoil my friend Tara who is expecting her little girl in May.

This little princess is already spoiled rotten.

It's so fun to spoil babies though!

Sorry for the bad pic, but i was way across the room and only had my phone

This gift got lots of laughs - best part is that it was from her mother-in-law!

Sunday I got to hang out with some great ladies and do a little shopping!

Autumn and I started the week off right with Insanity this morning. Hopefully we'll get at least 3 Insanity workouts in together this week. It's so much easier to get up at 4:50 a.m. when you know your work out buddy is counting on you!

I feel like all I did was run around all weekend, but it was worth it to spend time with so many friends.

Weekend (And Last Week) Review

Thursday: 2.5 mile run outside
Sunday:  3 mile treadmill run & weights
Monday: 3 mile treadmill run

Somehow last week got a way from me and it's Monday already!

Quick recap from last week:

Thursday: HTB and I got out and enjoyed the 60 degree weather for quick 2.5 mile loop around the neighborhood. I was a little whiney last week and didn't feel like doing anything, so 2.5 miles was good enough in my book! I'm glad I did it, but I was also happy it was short!

Friday: No gym date night. Sadly enough, I was a little disappointed by this.

Pugalicious in his new cave bed

Saturday: Woke up with a bad headache and since a bad headache made me really sick last weekend, I didn't want to chance it with running, so I skipped running club. We ended up having such a fun day with an impromptu visit to HTB's brother's house. We had so much fun hanging out with him, his wife and their 3 adorable kids. Five hours later we finally let them have their Saturday back.

Sunday: Lots of work got done around the house! Combining households is kind of a pain, but it will be worth it! We organized the whole kitchen yesterday. The best part was that HTB started it while I was still sleeping! I think I'll keep him!

I only took one after photo, but wish I had more. It felt good to get everything cleaned out and organized...now we just have to finish moving my things over! We also attempted to teach Pugalicious Hugo how his cave bed works. See picture above.

I had to be coerced in to going to the gym Sunday evening. Not really sure why, but I just haven't felt like working out lately. HTB convinced me to go, and I am definitely glad I did.

Quick treadmill run, then a leg weight work out.

I put my big girl pants on and made it to the gym bright and not as early as I hoped this morning for another 3 miles on the treadmill.

This is the beauty of not running a marathon this spring - no long run this weekend and it doesn't matter! Even though I do feel fairly lazy because of it!

Weekend and ActivTrax Review

Friday workout: Weight training
Saturday workout: Smiling for an hour for photos
Sunday workout: 5 mile run outside

Well, it was another busy yet productive weekend for us!

Friday night, Hubs To Be and I had a date at the gym. We did our tests and had our orientation for ActivTrax. I LOVE this! It makes it so easy to do a weight workout. I enjoy doing weights, but I often just can't decide what to do next or just don't know what to do next, so now I don't even have to think about it! 

The above sheet prints out at the gym (or at home). You record the actual weight you lifted (if different from the suggested) and the actual reps (it gives you a range). After you are finished you log in and enter your workout. It keeps track of everything for you and will increase your weights when appropriate.

Easy peasy.

Saturday we had our engagement photos taken. We were unsure about doing any, but went ahead and went for it. We know the photographer and that definitely made it less awkward. We lucked out with weather in the 60s and no rain!

Sunday was spent cleaning, running errands, grocery shopping and working out.

I woke up at 5 a.m. but refused to get out of bed until 7:30. I think I had 4 loads of laundry done by noon not to mention several other random household chores. It felt good to be productive so early, but I was ready for a nap by 12:30.

 

Instead of napping, I went for a run! It was warm but rainy. I ran the first 2 miles with HTB then went on for another 3 alone. It was the first we ran together since December 16th! It was nice to run together and I felt really good on the 3 I did alone too. I almost kept going.

I made a homemade air freshener to simmer on the stove while cleaning Sunday too. What better way to use the peels of the clementines we've been snacking on? I just added the peels, water and little vanilla. Smelled delish!

My friend got me hooked on these vitamin C chewables. They taste great and with this flu craziness they can't hurt, right? They were BOGO at Kroger and all they had left were these ginormous bottles. So, if you  need any vitamin C, you know where to go!