Back from vacationing in Florida and after just about a week off from working out except for a day of elliptical/Strength (nice 2 hour combo) and a day of Yin Yoga did nothing but sleep and eat. With Rock and Roll New Orleans now around the corner time to get back at it, am off the whole week so that should help.

 Since I am still on vacation, I did sleep in and after a nice cup of coffee got the workout done.

Today I started Cathe's  Ripped With HIIT/Xtrain Rotation, which of cause started off with Xtrain Hard Strikes I could feel every roll jingle during those jumping jacks then those dreaded situp/pushup combo just about killed me I was one whole set behind Cathe but got it done.




Then 25 mins of HIIT Spinning using Global Cycling Network program, love the music and structure of program, hard and short.



Finish it all of with a morning yoga from The Cexercise Trinity which I assume was going to be gentle but it wasn't, it was nice thou and I made it through the whole 15 mins, love the flow and sequencing.






At 5:45pm putting my big girl panties on since it was 37 degrees, windy and raining I met up with the BGR Motivation Monday group and did 5+ miles.

Tomorrow is another day, make it a great one.

Weather has been unbelievable for December in Ohio, warm and occasionally sunny, above 60 degrees is unbelievable, by now we should be knee deep in snow and temps in the twenties.

Saturday, decided to head to Pine Lane with Shelby to run trail, this is another great challenging hilly trail, this trail is almost impossible to run sometimes in the winter, once the sheet of ice forms you are sliding down with no way to get back up. I actually remember last year or was it 2 years now, we couldn't even walk in the parking lot due to the sheet of ice so we know the trail was going to be impossible so switch location to Boston run.

You do encounter just about everything on this trail, flat section, uphill, downhill, creek crossing, road, ... you name it, it probably has it and also my favorite tic-tac-toe section with the Pine tree roots, the smell is heavenly at the right time. An out and back to Boston Store is 8 miles, assuming you don't get lost, this is a blue blaze trail but that doesn't mean much, we did better this time and didn't get lost or go  round in circle.

After a quick shower and getting Son#2 up and ready, we headed off to my company employee kid's Christmas party, we have been volunteering at this for a while now even those the boys no longer qualify, I think cut off is 14 and the Son #2 is 20, always a fun event and a chance to see some of the employee's wives and meet their family.

Then a quick trip to the grocery store before heading to a surprise retirement party for a friend, all in all a great Saturday.






Sunday, is another beautiful day and after church and prepping meal for the week, met with Black Girls Run for an impromptu run since the temps where in the 60s. We met up at Rite-Aid , then ran 1 mile to the Bedford High School Trail, to get in some miles around the track then 1 mile back, the 1 mile WU and CD, I try to take it easy and socialize with any new runner or someone I haven't seen in a while but I take the rack serious and normally do my own thing.

Warmup



Today did 4x400m with 1 min recovery walking



then got in 3 quick 0.1mile With 1 min recovery (should have drop this to 30secs) before we had to leave



Then 1 mile back but forgot to reset the Garmin, was mainly walking talking to a newbie.

Had a great time, pace felt good, it will be nice if I can do my speed workout on the track, need to look into that.

All in all a great weekend.

Yesterday was a nice 7.26 miles trail run with Shelby at Hudson Park, this is a 1.8 mile loop that we did 4 times, there was a group of hikers on the trail that started just a little bit after us and it was interesting seeing them 3x since we were changing direction. This is a great place to run and it quite challenging with the hills, but requires no think since you are just looping around, with you passing your car every time also no need to carry water and there is a bathroom available although now close for the season but there are porta potty. Was surprise we did this as fast as we did for a 10:23 average pace due to all those hills but my legs did feel good.

Today, was the graduation run for Black Girls Run, Walk Before you Run program, goal was to get the ladies running the 5k with minimal walking except for the walking group. Experienced runners were buddy up with 1st timer and I had two ladies to hang out with, this was such an incredible experience since my 1st 5k was 8 years ago it was great experiencing a 5k through the eyes of a runner, the anxiety, doubt, apprehension , can I or can't I but just like anything in life, one step at a time.

The Reindeer 5k was a great beginner's course in Lakewood, fast and flat also out and back, which means by the time we got to mile 1 the front runners doing a 17mins+ 5k were coming towards us, miles 1 and 2 were just about across from each other, we were going about a 13+min/mile.

My runners were suppose to be about the same pace but one seem stronger so wanted each to tun their own pace, so went back and forth between the 2 which was great since I got a chance to sprint and workout some of the caffeinated energy I was harboring. They both did great shattering their time goal and finishing with a sprint, to do a 5k and not huff and puff was heavenly, this is the way to do it :) I will like to return to this course to really run a 5k since it is nice and flat and scenic, no crowd support but not really needed.

With all the back and forth I did about 4.5 miles, I also went back to bring in the last walker, just because I had so much energy, it was a great time a nd I was very proud of all the ladies, 100+ ladies started and about 40+ did the race, not that we had so many dropouts, with this being Sunday and a 9am people had to go to church the only reason am able to make it is this is Communion Sunday and we go to the evening service for communion.

Have a great week

BGR 4 year Anniversary Cruise

After the race, made it home in time to shower and change for church, afterwards was a much needed eggs and sausage breakfast before taking a nap, 2 early weekend mornings of 6:30am wake up left me exhausted and sure the running played a factor.

Woke up and it was time to get ready for the Black Girls Run Cleveland 4 year Anniversary Cruise on the Nautical Queen, I love being girlie and also love what all my physical activity is doing for my body, love being able to put on any outfit in my closet and it fit.

Had a great time hanging with all the beautiful energetic women, so very inspirational.

Sunday - Woke up early, got in some laundry and also started cleaning the garage, for some reason all the untidiness just bothers me, after a bot of cleaning, went done to the basement and tried our the new workout that was emailed to me from Pretty Fierce Lean Out called Core Plyo, wasn't sure what to expect but know it wasn't going to be easy, well she didn't disappoint, this woman loves burpees and plank moves, I am having great definition in my arm from all the planks and burpees. 10 exercises were you are doing 12 reps but then the you have to do left and right side and then she had a finisher, 32 mins later I was a sweaty mess. Shower changed and got ready for church and for the first time in a while, we got there before the opening hymn, yeah

Monday: Finished cleaning the garage then met up with BGR Motivation Monday group to get in some miles, we got poured on by mother nature but it felt great since it was muggy and hot initially. 4 slow miles done on the multi purpose trail at Garfield Park, last Garming mile was off since I forgot to turn it off. Picture by Candice

Friday:
If I known I was going to volunteer to watch my sister's 4 kids I will have gotten a run in but not a shabby routine none the less. Started off with Cathe All out low impact hiit the full workout plus burnout chest and core #1. I haven't listed very heavy in a while and my chest I have to say are still sore 3 days later. To finish things off then did W365 Fluid, this was my first time doing this and it was a great workout although quite challenging since you flow from one pose to the other hence the fluid part.

Saturday:
No workout, the kids were brought over earlier than expected but it was no big deal since my last rest day was 10/19 felt I was due for one and entertaining a 4yr old was enough exercise.

Sunday:
While the baby was still asleep and in my husband's care I got in D2S P3 Timed Metabolic workout before making breakfast for the rest of the clan. After the kids left, took a much needed nap but woke up in time to join the BGR Fun group for their Sunday run, always a pleasure and a treat to run with this awesome ladies.



What am currently reading: Relentless by Tim S. Grover enjoying it so far, love his no nonsense straight forward approach to training, looking forward to harnessing  my dark side into raw controlled power.

Chapin Forest

Great run today and the weather was perfect, met up with 4 of my BGR sisters to preview the Outrun 24 loop since they are planning on signing up for it. I love the location Chapin Forest is another one of those hidden gems of the MetroPark Systems. I mean it has a real working bathroom.

1 hour of swimming with Coach Tim at the Twinsburg Rec, got a bit more confident today and got further down in the deep end, they have  an adult swim class starting April 3 in Twinsburg, I think I am going to sign up for it.

Made  a quick stop at the Grand Opening of Portage Cyclery, it is now a one stop swim, bike run stop, great times, wishing them the very best, they did an awesome job with the remodeling.

Oh what Tough Love

Woke up this am a little unmotivated, it was cold out although we didn't get the big Nemo storm, the plan was a long run (although Coach only had a 45mins run in the Spinerval Super6), since I am not training for anything I use that term loosely and then Spinerval 13.0 Tough Love. Why is it called Tough Love because it is 3 hours of pure torture on the trainer, although time did fly this time around.

Since I was feeling very motivated, decided to hang out with Black Girls Run South East Cleveland group who were meeting at 9am, my other problem was that I had a 11:30am dentist appointment so I couldn't meet up with the forget the PR group for hill repeats. BGR SE was meeting at Garfield Park and that was only 20mins from my house, so I figure I should be able to get in at least 6miles it was better than nothing. It was cold, temps was 26degrees but no wind so that made it quite bearable.

Even though Garfield Park is about 20mins from I have never been there, it is actually a great place to run, there is also a Nature Center with indoor restroom. We were going to be running on the multi purpose trail which was 2 miles long and has a nice hill regardless of which direction you go so I guess no cheating.

Got in 7 miles with my ladies before having to run home, shower change and head to the dentist.The Brooks Green Silence did great in the snow and ice without the yak-trax attached, didn't have to slow down or walk even thou the trail was a bit icy.



Got back from the dentist after a quick stop for pho then came home rested while seeing what is going on in the world around me, or in other words procrastinating, well about 5pm knew I had to go get it done so off I went to the basement, pop in the DVD(Spinerval 13.0-Tough Love) and we are off. Still new at  this biking thing and my pace sucks but this was one of my fastest ride so fare so excited about that, had to make 2 stops to start dinner and also refuel, drank a lot of water during this ride. Not sure if I will can call it fun but time did fly, hate the 20mins and 30mins segments.



Now drinking some Endurox R4 Vanilla, this taste really good for recovery.

Still on a quest for 4:30- Akron Marathon

I had no intention of running the full Marathon in Akron or any marathon this year at least that was what I told my son in January until I found out this was Akron’s 10th year anniversary and I wanted to be part of the fun. The intention this year was to heal my body by only doing short races, but somewhere along the line I realized short races are just as hard as long ones, so picking my poison decided on a combination of both.

Going into race week, I really wasn’t sure what to expect training hasn’t really been the best, but I was healthy, how bad can it be I did get in 1-20miler even if it was on the treadmill. I have come to realize that racing is all mental.

This is Marathon #6, the 3rd time in Akron, the course is very hilly and for the first time not sure why the course was modified to so called “easier” course they really should have left well enough alone. Representing CLIF, so have my CLIF bar gear on, short sleeve CLIF shirt, with a black Capri with white piping and CLIF sock since it was chilly at the start had on my arm warmer covered with the tattoo sleeve.

This race has a 7am start but because we are starting and running around downtown really needed to get out there by 6am before all the road closing starts, it really sucks when you have to park about a mile away. I found my usual parking spot in between the start and finish line in the city parking lot, which is free during the race. Reclined the seat back and dozed a bit regardless of all the energy around me it still was only 5:30am. I had my usual CLIF bars with coffee on the drive down; I love the bars not too heavy and enough calories to get me through the first 12 miles, that is the way I have trained with them either 2 before for 12miles or none before then 1 every 6 miles.

Left the car around 6:20 to check in gear and meet up with fellow runners. The goal is still the same break 4:30 I came close in Houston with 4:31 and that course was relative flat and I was 5 pounds lighter, but none the less that was still the goal.

With Shelby from the Towpath Turtles

Decided to start behind the 4:30 pace group led by Judy, to avoid the initial congestion by the pacer. The start was like an L with people running under 4 hours on the vertical and over on the horizontal, they under 4 hours where completely through the start line before we were allowed to go so once we started running we kept on running because the congestion from the precious group was completely cleared, so it took me almost 8 mins to cross the start line.

I felt fine from the start and the intention was to stick with the 4:30 pace group as much as I can, I noticed that we were running reasonably fast around a 9:55 – 10:10 pace even thou I understand the logic because of the hill there is always that concern of running too hard so early in the race.

By mile 2, I was quite warm so rolled down the arm warmers was so glad I didn’t have long sleeve on, I decided not to carry fluid knowing that Akron does a very good job with the aid station and I started a week before the race drinking Powerade to condition my body to it but since it has only been a week my body does what it does best doesn’t care for it so I had to pee even thou I went twice before the race started. On the second loop back downtown there were lines of POP with no line so I ran in and took care of business hoping this will hold me till the end, I had to speed up to a 9min pace to catch back up with the 4:30 pace group I was still determine not to get drop since I felt fine.

We broke away from the half marathoners around mile 11+ and headed into the valley, really steep downhill don’t remember this either, oh well, now time to start the Towpath session this part is nice and flat but really not my favorite not that much crowd support and I hate those small lime stones they always get into my shoes, which they did but I did ignore it since it was causing any damage. Ended the Towpath section around mile 16 and now we have the hills to look forward to, this is the section with the biggest change so instead of one big hill around mile 17+ to 19+, we now have the pleasure of non stop rolling hills from 17+ to miles 22+. I was determine not to walk the hills regardless of how slow I am running, with everyone walking around me I knew once I start it was going to be an invitation to walk the rest and I really didn’t have that much of a cushion.

When you have a pacer that has a 3:47 marathon PR running a 4:30 pace means going up the hill was a breeze and all we mortals were suffering. We stayed together as a group up the first hill but it soon became apparent that most of my groupies didn’t train for the hills of Akron and by mile 18.5 we were down to 4 from about 9 with the pace leader about 5mins ahead, we could still see her and since she walk through the water stop I know we can catch up but the hills well they kept on coming. By mile 22 it was just me and Larry left and he was beginning to cramp up, I encouraged him to take him more electrolyte at the next aid station and went on my merry way.

At mile 24, I looked at my Garmin and did a quick mental math if I can drop the pace down to under 10mins pace I may just make it under 4:30, boy is this going to hurt, I could still see the pace leader also and I know we were coming to the end of the rolling hills, so how bad do I want it, I was so tempted to give up because everybody was walking around including all the relay runners. All of a sudden I saw the Pace leader stopped at mile 25+, I guess she realized she was going too fast and was going to get to get to the finish ahead of time, she shouted for me to keep the pace and keep going I was so happy knowing I was finally going to get this 4:30monkey off my back.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	11:09.1	1.00	11:09
2	10:23.3	1.00	10:23
3	9:56.3	1.00	9:56
4	9:21.1	1.00	9:21
5	9:21.2	1.00	9:21
6	9:22.3	1.00	9:22
7	10:09.7	1.00	10:10
8	10:04.9	1.00	10:05
9	10:20.2	1.00	10:20
10	10:10.1	1.00	10:10
11	9:42.3	1.00	9:42
12	9:40.6	1.00	9:41
13	10:24.9	1.00	10:25
14	10:17.8	1.00	10:18
15	10:12.3	1.00	10:12
16	10:51.1	1.00	10:51
17	10:43.3	1.00	10:43
18	11:00.2	1.00	11:00
19	11:16.9	1.00	11:17
20	10:06.3	1.00	10:06
21	9:54.6	1.00	9:55
22	10:15.6	1.00	10:16
23	10:40.1	1.00	10:40
24	10:58.4	1.00	10:58
25	9:31.9	1.00	9:32
26	9:49.9	1.00	9:50
27	3:55.7	0.44	9:00

Was disappointed to see that there was no real food at the finish, but there was bagged up stuff to eat and along with Powerade and beer. Now I have to wait for my training partner, she went out with the 4:40 group and I found out from another runner that she wasn't doing great and had stopped briefly in the medical tent.

With my BGR sisters

She finally made it back after another stop to the medical tent, we need to work on nutrition.

Official time 4:29:36
Overall 926/1629
Gender 303/649
Age Group 30/75

Beleive and Achieve Group Training Run #2

Nice turn out for the second group run for the Believe and Achieve Race coming up September 16th, with all proceed benefiting Girls with Sole, I am sponsoring the race on behalf of CLIF bar so had been had both training runs to support and encourage runners. The course was marked by the race director this time around to make sure we had 3.1 miles since the first time around we only got 2.86 and we all agreed we would rather be long that short, new course came to 3.2 which we are all happy with.

The Penitentiary Glen is a beautiful location with the terrain changing from roots, to gravel, to grass and also water crossing couple of nice up and downhills

First Weekend in June, jam packed

Saturday When trail running with a group of wonderful women that got outside their comfort zone and tried trail running for the first time, it was such a joy experience the trails through their eyes. They were all so use to running with music that I recommended they one without it in the woods since there was so much to hear between the different kinds of birds and the flow of the Chagrin River, what a joy. Black Girl Run Cleveland Group.

Before the run

After the Run, as you can see they are still smiling

After getting 4 miles in with them , drove down to the other side of the South Chagrin Reservation and got in 5 more miles before going home showering and heading out to help out at the Twinsburg Duathlon Expo worked the bike swap, sold 3 bikes before having to leave shower and change and head out to a graduation party was up till 1am

Next day, got up at 5:30am to get to the Duathlon site, first duty was helping with trasition and then I worked the finish line, really had a great time, we decided to have the tape up for many people as possible to break so as to have a great photo finish.

Got back home around 11am and was extremely tired so took a very long nap, felt great.

Weekend Fun

Great time this weekend running since my husband is out of the country and the 16 year old kid had ACT testing, I dropped him off before 8am with a kiss and Good luck then headed over to the Towpath off of Rockside road to meet up the Black Girl Run (BGR) Saturday group for 10 miles on the towpath, this is my first time running this side of town and I really enjoyed it, really ran by myself, this is a funny group they tend to all run with music so always hard to link up with anyone, I mean they have their earbuds in from the very start. I had a great run, went out slow for the first 5 miles then outing on itrain outdoor challenge myself for the last 5, I felt great, hydration and nutrition was perfect.



Sunday decided to join the early Fleet Feet Trail running group, not sure why I wanted to go at 7 but felt great, did 4+ miles before coming back to get the rest of the group and for some reason they decided to move fast since they did half trail half towpath I was beat but it really felt great.



Got back to the packing lot and joined Crooked River Trail group to maintain the trail even though I had a bar, an hour into the cleanup I know I had enough and called it a day, got back home and took a long nap, cook for the week and did laundry. Such a perfect all that was missing was gardening.

Picture by Matt Brady