Will Run for Food

I feel like my weekends have been perfect lately.  Every weekend since the end of September I have had something to look forward to and it's looking like 2012 is going to go out in a great way.  By the way, can you believe it's almost November!?  What is happening to our year?!

This weekend my nice friend and I went on a food tour in downtown, historic Frederick.  Once again, I remembered why I'm not a food blogger.  How do they wait long enough to take a picture before they dig in?  I got pictures of a few things, but the highlights were pizza and beer from a local brewery, a pastrami sandwich from an adorable shop, a seafood appetizer trio from a fun restaurant, olive oil and balsamic vinegar tastings, and CHOCOLATE.  I was a little disappointed because we went to a wine bar, and instead of wine they gave us a beet salad.  Eh.  Overall, Taste Frederick was an amazing experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling in the area!  Sarah, our tour guide, was so knowledgeable about the restaurants and city.  It was fun learning about the unique places Frederick has to offer from a local!

One of my favorite parts of the tour had nothing to do with food.  We walked by the Community Bridge and it was incredible.  The bridge incorporated designs from all over the world of things that depicted community.  There were also optical illusions.  From across the river there looked like there were actual statues and even a duck!  Once you crossed to the other side you realized they were just part of the painting.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Probably shouldn't try to go through that door.  IT'S NOT REAL.

Not really stone.  It's concrete.  SURPRISE! :-)

Things on the running front have been ok lately.  Sunday I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill in about 31:30 minutes.  I tried to push it (gotta get used to running hard for about 30 minutes for my upcoming 5k!) and ended up being pretty happy with my effort.  Today I took it easier and while I played with the incline a little, overall it was a much easier run than yesterday's.  I made pumpkin spice puppy chow, and after the sugar overload I got from eating some this run was much needed!  The run ended up being about 3.3 miles in 30 minutes.  It's nice only HAVING to do 30 minute runs for the time being.  It makes me want to try harder with running faster.

Have a happy week! :-)

New Places

So back in May I ran in a local 5k.  Part of it went through a trail and I thought it was really pretty and made a mental note to go back.  Things got busy and needless to say I never made it back out to that trail.  I always like to take Maddux with me the first time I go to a new potential running spot, just to check out the area and make sure it's not sketchy.  My little boy has to go in to get some treatments at the vet tomorrow and will have to lay low for a few months.  I figured today was our last chance to go exploring together for a while, so I took Maddux to the park which is only about ten minutes away from my house.  Why did it take me so long to get there again?

When we got to the park we couldn't find a map, so I figured we would just stick to the shady areas and wander around a little.  There was a pretty lake and lots of trash cans which is a plus for dog walking.  Maddux was so happy and I was really glad we got one last good adventure in before the down time.

 Water Break!

After I dropped Maddux off I decided to go back out to the trail and explore a little more.  There were lots of little families there and it looked like a good place to run from what I saw with my pup.

It turns out that the lake we saw is almost a mile around (with mile markers on the pavement!!), but it branches off at one point to connect to another park.  I didn't really have any plans for this run.  I have this weird thing about making it 30 minutes, but it was HOT.  When the temperatures are up I have no shame when it comes to walking and water breaks.  I tried to relax and just enjoy the park and not worry too much about breaking any records today.  I was excited to see some wildlife on my run.  I live in a pretty urban area, and I feel like I don't see little woodland critters as often as I would like.  I'm definitely a country girl at heart.  I saw a mama deer with her two little fawns and they were so, so cute.  There were also a ton of geese, and not gonna lie, I was a little worried that they would turn on me because they didn't seem phased at all when I ran by.  Not to get too off topic, but I have a very valid fear of birds.  Perhaps we will discuss it one day, but hopefully I won't have a real reason to share my stories.  According to my Nike+, I ran a little over 3 miles in 30 minutes.  I probably lost about 10 pounds in sweat alone.      

Much to my sister's amusement, I made my first (in my opinion) run nerd purchase today.  This little number is on its way to me as we speak.

(Thanks Amazon for the picture!)

I have been thinking about this for a while now.  Back in November I ran in a little 5k, and I realized that my winter pants had nowhere to hold my car key.  Most of my shorts have the little hideaway pocket in them, so I never really thought about it too much.  Then, in March my friend rushed our bags to bag check while I stood desperately in line for the Porta-potties at the half marathon.  Had I had this nice belt, I would have been able to hold my Metro card and car key in there and it would have been one less step.  I feel silly checking a bag for two tiny things.  Anyway, people who reviewed the product said they usually forget that it was on because it stays in place so well and is light.  I will keep you posted.  I am a little skeptical.    

A recent buy that I can rave about is the Champion Racer Back Compression Sports Bra.  

  

Yay Target and inexpensive, yet effective sports bras!  This is probably one of the least expensive sports bras I've tried, and it's the most comfortable one I have yet.  It's done its job staying in place even on my longer runs and I love it.  I also love how they are in fun colors.  

Now I am off to cuddle my pup before his big day tomorrow.  I am planning on running while he is at the vet so that I don't think too much about it.  Luckily, he has the best aunt ever and we got a nice care package to help us through the tough times! (Chocolate and candy for me and a toy and treats for Mad Dog!)

Wish us luck tomorrow! :-)

Hot Chocolate 15k: A PR Story

I have been looking forward to this race for a loonnnnng time.  The second I heard the words "chocolate" and "running" together I knew I had to sign up and luckily my birthday was right before so my mom and dad agreed to gift me with the entry fee, along with my very own box of hot chocolate, and a brand new running shirt (which by the way, was part of the perfect race day outfit).

As I've said I was really nervous about the race from the expo to race day.  I just knew I would miss the expo and not be able to pick up my bib and then sleep through my alarm, be late for the race, and butcher my goals.  Only one of those things happened.  Guess which one?

My friend went to the expo with me because I was paranoid about not being able to find it (my GPS sometimes plays mean tricks on me and we often have communication issues...) and other than interpreting the Hot Chocolate Expo 2 rights the wrong way we made it with no problems.  I got really excited because the National Harbor was pretty and I saw Ketchup which is a restaurant they ate at in that show The Hills in LA, which is a terrible reason to get excited about something, but whatever.  The expo went really smoothly and I hardly had to wait at all to get my race packet.  The entry fee included a windbreaker, which turned out to be yet another part of that perfect race day outfit, along with my favorite Target pretty much spandex pants and my gloves and headband.  The jacket also had POCKETS!  No worrying about what I was going to do with my gloves when my hands got too hot or my ipod falling into the water or something.  You never know.

I stayed at my friend's house before the race because it was closer than my apartment, and as my sister can tell you, I was once again paranoid I was going to forget something.  I had a continuous check list going through my head and I'm proud to say I didn't forget anything.   

Maddux wanted to go, too!

I have a very nice friend who is willing to leave the house at 5:30 in the morning, ride a shuttle through tons of traffic, and stand in the cold for hours to see me a total of 2 times during the 9 mile race, all while holding my bag of stuff.  Said traffic made the race get off to a late start (which is good considering that I made it to the race site 10 minutes before we were supposed to start and I had to sprint to the portapotties to make sure I wouldn't suffer the whole time...which happened anyway, but not because of my grandmotherly bladder).  I was really sad to see all the negativity from runners at this race.  There were a few unexpected change of events, but I mean it happens.  Usually runners are such a fun group to be around, but so many people were complaining about the dumbest things I have ever heard.  Man up or go home.  Anyway.  I just felt sorry for them that they allowed themselves to dwell on the things that weren't going as planned and ended up having a sucky day.  

As far as the actual running part goes (I know, ridiculously long post), I felt awesome for the entire first 10k.   Most of that was on the highway, which was kind of cool at first because a lot of the time I'm stuck in traffic on the highway and have this thought that it would be really awesome to run and see how much faster I could run than drive and that dream came true!  Kinda.  I got a high five from my friend around mile 5 so that gave me a great boost.  Then mile 7 hit and things started to get hard.  Mentally I was saying, "You have less than 2.5 miles left, WOOO! YOU CAN DO IT!", but my ankles were saying, "Excuse me, we don't really run this far.  We're going to tighten up on you now."  Then at mile 8 my IT band said, "Hey, remember that time you ran too far after training too little?  That's what you're about to feel now."  Then at mile nine I said, "THANK YOU, LORD!" and made it to the end for an ever so swift 1:38 finish.  According the the race results, that means I had a 10:30 pace.  Bah.  Not exactly the goal I had planned, but a PR no less.  And the end of the race was really pretty.  And there was yummy hot chocolate at the end.  And more Ghiradelli squares at the end.  And chocolate fondue which I didn't want because I just wanted to get on the shuttle and sleep until we got home.  

I am very sore today, but now I'm more motivated than ever to get my butt in gear for my March half marathon.  This race definitely proved that not taking training seriously isn't going to surprise me with an awesome run.  If I want to meet my 2:05 goal I really need to stop the excuses and start working hard.  Annnnnd for more motivation I am cashing in my birthday gift certificate from that very nice friend from the race to go get my new running shoes today!  I hope they don't make me run to see my stride though.  It might not be completely accurate right now....