Tootie Fruitie!!

Last Saturday the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge was kicked off.  Amanda from Run to the Finish is hosting the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge that runs from Nov. 19th to Jan. 6th.  Basically you have to move to get points and also you get a point a day from eating 7 servings of fruits or vegetables.  I thought I eat a decent amount of fruits (I'm not a huge veggie fan)..turns out I don't.  It is killing me trying to fit in 7 fruits and veggies a day!   I am going to try to bring a salad for lunch and see how that helps me squeeze in my fruits and veggies this week.  Last week I frequently had to eat 2 fruits or veggies before I was headed to bed because I was short two servings.  That would not have been bad except I wasn't hungry and I was just shoving food in my mouth.  On a positive note, I have been eating more fruit and less junk during work hours.  Hopefully this week I will have planned ahead to not have to scarf down multiple servings of fruits and veggies before bed.  

After driving six hours from Pennsylvania to Virginia today I knew I needed to head to the store to stock up on some fruits and veggies before the week starts.  The above picture was my pickup from the store.  Hopefully this helps me squeeze in those fruits and veggies this week.  Last week I felt like I ate a lot of clementines and applesauce.  Hopefully that doesn't happen again this week.  I love clementines and applesauce, but honestly I was starting to get a bit sick of eating them. 

What are some of your favorite fruits or vegetables?





Hug a runner!

Today is Hug a Runner Day!  So big hugs go out to all of you runners!! 

I'm sure these guys run in their spare time..thanks for passing along the hug runners!

Marathon hugs rock!!

So Big Hug to all the runners out there!!

Round of Shots on me!!

Not sure if you want my round of shots..but if you do step on up and get your cortisone shot!!  Yep went to the podiatrist yesterday!  Why does a bit of panic set in when I see the Dr. reach for the needle.  Ugh..I hate needles and doctors to for that matter!  It was a very quick appointment.  I went in got some x-rays.  No heel spurs!  I got a cortisone shot, new inserts and an appointment to come back in 2 weeks all in less than 30 minutes!  The heel does feel better tonight.  I am still doing my stretching exercises and wearing the ever stylish boot at night!  All the cool kids wear a boot to bed!  Hopefully we caught this round of pf much earlier than the right foot's pf and it will be all cleared up in no time!  Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow I begin Amanda's Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.  Which reminds me I need to go and get some fruit to try to get my 7 fruits and veggies!

Wipeout!!

I went to run club on Tuesday night.  It was a beautiful night for a run!  I wasn't going to run.  I was going to rest my foot but how can you sit and watch other people run on what will probably be the last beautiful night to run.  So off I went.  I ran with my friend Glen.  We were almost at the end of the run..probably a 1/3 of a mile left when my ankle went crazy.  I am not sure if I ran half off of the asphalt or if I am just a klutz (I am leaning towards the klutz).  I tried to catch  myself..so I am quite certain I looked very graceful.  I know I can't save myself so I try to aim for the grass.  Next thing you know I am lying flat on my back in the grass with the wind knocked out of me.  Glen is asking me if I am ok and his friend Gretchen who happened to be near us is convinced I am dying!  Am I ok?  Well it is hard to say I am fine when I am trying to get enough breath in my lungs.  So I am wheezing out yes.  Meanwhile a biker stopped by to see the sideshow.  Do I need Gretchen to run back and get someone to get a car to come get me?  Um NO~!!  Am I sure??  Yes I'm sure.  I already am embarrassed and you want me to lay her and wait for random people to scrape me off of the side of the trail??  I don't think so.  The bike guy is convinced that I am ok, so he pedals off.  Gretchen is still convinced that I require an ambulance or something.  Finally I convince Gretchen that I will live and I am starting to catch my breath.  She runs off and I get up..walk a bit to test the ankle.  Feels fine and then start back on the run.  When I get back Gretchen is very pleased that I am walking and breathing at the same time.  I want to crawl under a rock!  I get over to Becky and she asked what the hell happened to me.  Seems that I had a lovely bit of dirt and grass hanging from the side of my face.  Great..could it get any worse??  Thankfully the rest of runclub was uneventful. :)

Next Half Marathon....

Well looks like I broke down and signed up for Rock n Roll Va Beach.  I originally didn't want to run Va Beach because it is on Labor Day weekend (I hate driving that weekend) and it can be really hot at the beach that weekend and I don't like to run in heat.

What made me change my mind?  Well I was talking to Matt at run club and he just raved about the RnR Va Beach run.  Other people had told me how great it is, so why not.  I have trained in the heat of the summer and survived, so I guess I can do it again.  I also get some extra bling since this will be my second RnR run of 2012.  I signed up over Veteran's Day so I saved $20 and I found a coupon code, which really saved me 30 dollars for the race.  I couldn't pass that up!

Megan is calling 2012 The Year Of the Half Marathon..I guess it really is turning out that way.  So to refresh the 2012 race calendar:

RnR DC - March
Kentucky Mini (13.1) - April
Vermont Covered Bridge  - June but not signed up yet..so fingers crossed
RnR Va Beach Sept.

Looks like I am going to go through some running shoes in 2012!  Combine that with the other random 5k and I would like to do the Army 10 miler again...I think I am getting tired just thinking about all of the racing...I might have to find a part time job to finance my race calendar :)

Boys and Girls Turkey Trot

This morning  I woke up to 30 degrees outside!!  Yikes that is cold!  First cold race of the season.  I watched the news and where the race is taking place it is 25 degrees outside..brrr... guess I get to wear a new long sleeved running shirt! 

 I found Megan at the race and Kristen was hanging in her car to avoid the cold. 

We picked up our bag/bib number and lovely orange pumpkin (turkey) shirt.  Everyone started to walk to the start line.  It looked like there were less people at this turkey trot than last year.  There were only 70 runners running.  Very small.  All of the money goes to support the local Boys and Girls Club so it is a great race to run.  Turns out that they are now able to offer 100 scholarships for membership to the Boys and Girls Club!  Wonderful!

There wasn't an official race start, just Glenn from the B&G yelling go!  And we were off.  The course wasn't that well marked.  Turns out that we ran down 3 cul de sacs and we should have only gone down the last one.  Oh well I guess they will mark them a bit better next year.  Then towards the end there is a back road/woods to run towards the B&G.  The sign was blown away so many people continued running straight and then turned around.  I did not, I saw everyone coming back (I guess that is a perk of running a bit slower than other people).  So I ran 3.6 and many others ran much more than that this morning.  I hope it doesn't mean that those people will not come back next year.  It is a very good organization to run for.

 After the race, Kristen and Megan enjoying some of the many food choices and waiting for the door prizes to be called!

 I had to change out of my sweaty 1/4 zip and into the ugly tech shirt from the Heritage Half!

 

All of the people waiting to see if they won their age group or a random door prize!

  We did not win any door prizes this year...maybe next year. :)  We headed over to Panera to have some breakfast and chat.  Great cold morning for a little longer than a 5k run!  On a side note, my foot is killing me after the run this morning.  Luckily I have a podiatrist appointment on Thursday!  I hope he fixes me up nicely.  I also have ordered new running shoes.

Supporting a friend

Joining run club has been a great experience!  If you are not a part of a run club and you have the chance I highly recommend it.  I am not a fast runner (11 min mile) so I was a bit nervous a year ago when I showed up to my first run club.  Since that first run I have gotten the chance to meet a bunch of people that I would not normally have had the chance to meet.  I have made some great friends at run club and really look forward to Tuesdays night run club. 

Last June Megan, Becky and I volunteered at the Northface Endurance race.  At the endurance race, Becky was paired up with a random guy from the Air Force that was there to volunteer too.  Whiticar seemed like a good guy and he tolerated our craziness.  We invited him to run club and lo and behold he showed up.  It has been a great time hanging out with Whiticar.  If it wasn't for run club and volunteering we would have never have met him. 

Well Whiticar is heading over to Iraq so we had to give him a little send off.  Some of us from Run Club decided to meet up in Old Town Alexandria and have some food and drink to say good bye to Whiticar.  We are also going to keep in touch for the year he is away and take flat Whiticar on runs and take him to run club so he will still be around in spirit!  Good Luck Whiticar!

Becky, Nestor and Megan

Enjoying some s'mores

Me, Glenn, and Megan

Whiticar and Nestor having some laughs

S'mores are better with friends.

Plantar Fasciitis you are not my friend

I think my last trip to the foot doc was last year (or could it have been the year before that??) My right foot was killing me for months. So much so I didn't look forward to work or getting out of bed because I knew my foot was going to kill me mid day. Well I sucked it up and went to the doctor. Well my right foot still feels great. Now my left foot hurts. I was going to just keep trying to stretch it and wear my boot at night. I am thinking I may want to go to the foot doc and see if he can give me a shot. I hate cortisone shots! And then maybe get some therapy on it to help it start feeling better. I have 2 months before half marathon training kicks in, so I think this might be a good time to visit the doctor and get the foot feeling better. If not I am going to start looking like an 80 year old woman when I walk!

 

fun half marathons??

Well in my quest to become a Half Fanatic, I may need one race to run in April, May or beginning of June.  So far Megan and I are signed up for the DC Rock n' Roll Half on March 17th and the Kentucky Derby Mini on April 28th.   We have until Mid June to run another half to qualify as a Half Maniac. 

So far we are thinking of signing up for the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Vermont.  I  have never been to New England so this should be fun.  The race takes you through 4 covered bridges.  It looks like it is a very pretty run.  The run is limited to 2300 people.  So it is not a large race, but large enough.  The only issue is that this race has sold out in 19 minutes last year.  So if we snooze we lose. 

Anyone have any half marathon ideas in case this one doesn't work out?

Wanting to be a Half Fanatic

So not much running lately means I can look up random running ideas online.  Megan and I have decided that we want to be a Half Fanatic.  We are going to go for 3 half marathons in 90 days.  We already have the RnR DC on March 17th and the Derby Mini at the end of April on the calendar.  All we need is one more half and we are golden!  I guess we will see if this helps my "I don't want to run after a half marathon" problem that I am having right now. 

Megan also found out that if you run 2 RnR races you get an extra medal.  I love medals!   We are both bling whores so this is very enticing to both of us.

I love bling so we are going to do this one too.  I was thinking of maybe doing the RnR Montreal.  We get extra bling, I have never visited Montreal, and I have never ran outside of the US.  So much to check off with one run :) And as another added bonus I could practice my high school french.  Well we haven't decided on anything yet.  We will see what fits with our schedule and what sounds good too. 

I need some run-ivation!!

It happens to me every time.  I run a long race and then afterwards it is so tough to get back to running.  I just don't feel like running or visiting the gym, even though I know I have to.  I am tired of buying bigger clothes!  I told myself I can have one week off after the half..yeah that was 2 1/2 weeks ago.  I did run this week at run club, but I need to run more than once a week.  And it gets dark earlier..and it is cold..do you need more excuses?  Hopefully I will take my lazy self to the gym tonight.  I need some run-ivation!  (I'm sure that run-ovation is stronger than motivation) 

The great thing about having a race on the calendar is that it forces you to get out there and run.  I currently only have a 5k Turkey Trot on the calendar next weekend then a 5K Hot Chocolate race in December.  I am doing Amanda's HBBC.  I hope that is the incentive I need to keep on running right now. 

Flat Whiticar

Last night I went to run club.  Great night as always.  It was the winter route so it was a tad bit longer 3.7 miles.  It was a bit cold at the beginning, but once I started running I warmed up quickly.  This really was one of the first colder runs.  I hate the first couple of colder type runs, I never know what to wear.  I started out with a hoodie, but ended up sweating, so tied it around the waist and ran in the short sleeved shirt. 

While at run club we found out our friend Whiticar's last run club will be next week. :(  We will miss Whiticar.  If it wasn't for volunteering at an endurance race, we wouldn't have met Whiticar and we wouldn't have made him come to run club.  The teachers (Becky, Megan and myself) have decided that we are going to make a flat Whiticar and write to Whiticar while he is in Iraq about Flat Whiticar's adventures.  We will take him on our runs and races.  During run club we can take him out and prop him up next to a beer and send Whiticar a picture of Flat Whiticar.  I think it could be very entertaining.  I mean really, what else is Whiticar going to have to entertain him in Iraq?