My Headbands Finally Came!!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in another post, but finding good headbands is pretty difficult for a girl who has frizzy, curly-ish type of hair. I've tried a bunch of things: Scunci, Halo, Nike, and some other regular headbands, but nothing has worked. Then a couple of days ago, a friend on facebook was commenting on these headbands that she swore by, so I bought them. They are by Bondiband and are really cute (plus they have fun sayings on them). For those of you who know me, funny sayings + me = Ridiculousness. I bought 4! My favorite one is definitely the one that says: Will Run for .. and shows a bunch of my favorite foods :)



Tomorrow I'm not too sure what my workout will consist of. I wish I had these headbands today because I did 4 miles this morning. It was blazing hot, and I could have used something to hold my hair back. I tried to scale down my pace because of the heat and still finished at a 9:09 min/mile pace. Thankfully I had some shade and brought water full of ice. Last time, I had to stop and actually sit still to recover because I felt so overheated. Summer running is extremely hard, especially in South Florida. I haven't run outside enough to acclimate so I've been trying to do shorter distances and slow down my pace. As much as I hate to admit it, you need to be smart during these training runs and not kill yourself, or else you might end up in the hospital. I can't wait until it gets cooler...

I usually do Orange Theory (OT) on Sundays, but since school started they changed the schedule and no longer have the class I used to go to on Sundays. I'm pretty annoyed. Luckily they're morning classes are pretty early, but I just really loved Sundays. I actually went to OT on Friday morning and we had a hell of a workout. We had to do something called Greenacres (?), which consisted of a squat, plank, row on each arm, jump your feet up to your hands, and an overhead press. The sets consisted of 20, 15, 10, 5. Each time you started a new set, you needed to grab heavier weights. I ended up with 20 pound dumbbells. Its crazy how much stronger I've gotten in the past couple of weeks, I could barely lift 10 pounds when I first started!! In between each set you had 1 mile, .75 mile, .50 mile, .25 mile. You could either do these distances rowing or on the treadmill. I chose to switch things up and did a run, row, run, row. On the mile I hit a 7:35 mile and a 3:25 half mile. I was pretty proud of my half-mile.  I really do love it there.

I might do sprints in the morning. If I do, I'll try out my headbands. I really should bike though, considering I have a triathlon next week...

I Lost My Keys

I lost my keys during run club tonight. I mean I've done a bunch of dumb things, but this has to take the cake.

So on Wednesday nights I go to run club. It's pretty awesome because I've designated this day as a day to push myself. They've got runners of all paces and some of the faster runners help me to push my pace. Tonight started off particularly well because I made a new friend who I might run with on Mondays.

So I started the run and put my key in my Ipod holder (my first bad idea of the night). I took off and ended up killing the run. I did 3.72 in 30:03. As I finish my run I go to grab my key and nothing is there. Oh shit. This is not good. I actually stay pretty calm but have no idea what to do next. I ended up borrowing that one girl's phone and call my husband. No answer. I know he's screening his calls so I leave him a voicemail hoping he checks I after I'm gone for a long time lol.

I start walking around retracing my steps but have no luck. I wait some more. I pass by one of the guys I recognize and he lets me borrow his phone. Perfect. I call my husband - no answer. I leave him a text and two seconds later he calls back!!! I tell him what happened, and he naturally laughs and says he will be right over with the key.

Twenty minutes later he's there with the key and I get into my car. As I turn on the car I think about two things: 1 - Put your key in that stupid clear bin everyone else puts their keys in. 2 - Don't try to lose your key. You are ultimately screwed if you do.

I can't help but laugh it off now. I was literally stranded and contemplating running about 3-4 miles back home. Instead my wonderful husband saved the day :) On a separate note, I lost one of my freaking yurbuds. Luckily I lost one of my other pairs too.. so I can now combine them... Yay.

.:Back to the Beginning:.

I turned 28 this past Monday and as I reflected on another year of being on this earth. I started reflecting on what made me want to become  runner.

In middle school I was pretty overweight and ugly. Yup, I admit that I was unattractive and awkward. At the beginning of eight grade, my friends were trying out for the varsity soccer team and I figured I would try it out too. So I went out for tryouts, and lo and behold, I made the freaking team. It was brutal. When you're an overweight kid in Florida, you sweat profusely even when standing still. Even though the season was hard, I made it to the end and loved it. For the following season, I figured I needed to get my cardio in shape for soccer so I joined the Cross Country team as a freshman. I think that's when my love for running started. I loved being outdoors, and I loved taking that time just to think.

After that soccer season was over my freshmen year, I joined Track & Field. That year, I had the best coach: Mr. Meyers. He saw something in me that I don't think I saw yet, and he pushed me during every practice. I remember there was one practice when he took me to the side and all he had me do is run .25 mile under 1:30. I think I did 15 sets and even though it sucked, I loved it. That year I lost all of my unwanted weight and started competing in the racing world. I wasn't the best by any means, but I was pretty decent. My events throughout all of my track years was the 4X800 meters, the open 800 meters, and the 2 miler. I tried meddling in pole vault, but let's just say that wasn't my best event (hell - I couldn't make it the first level lol).

As the years went by, I got better. I loved running and wouldn't trade it for the world. It became a part of who I was and even on my worst days, I laid it all on the track and felt much better. My senior year started off bright, and I won the first Cross Country meet of the year. I came in at 24:00 for the 5K and beat everyone who competed by over a minute. I was so motivated and knew I would be shredding that time in the next meet. Our next meet came and I sank. My calves were on fire and I knew it wasn't normal. I went to the doctor and they said I was done for the season - I had tendonitis in my heel/lower calf. I was confined to cycling and my life was over (it was high school and I was dramatic -what can I say). I eventually was back to running during the track season, but was only able to run during major meets. Needless to say, my dreams of running at college were crushed (not that I was going to go to a major school for running, but maybe a small college).

 It's funny how passionate I became about running. It started as a way to lose weight, and ended up being something I couldn't live without. It made me a different person, and made me feel strong - like I could do anything. I never want to lose that feeling.

I guess one of the next steps in my journey is to become a parent (I'm not sure when that will happen so I can't tell you the time frame). I do know however, that once I become a parent, I want to keep it up. I think some women lose their identity and focus only on the baby. They fail to realize that to be the best mother you can be, you need to focus on yourself. It reminds me of the pre-brief they give you before you take off on an airplane. They always say to put your air mask first before you help anyone else, because if you don't you'll fail to help anyone else. How can your children learn to be strong, when they don't see your most conquering moments?

Ok - I'll get off my soapbox, but before I do, I encourage everyone to do something positive and active in their lives. For me, it's been running. It'll be running until the moment I die.

 

Yup - that's me in high school :)

Morning Workouts are Draining..

I woke up at 4:50 a.m. this morning for another morning workout. Orange Theory has a 5:15 a.m. class every weekday that I try to go to once a week. Waking up for that one class is hard enough so I try to do it at the end of the week. However,  yesterday morning I woke up at 5:25 a.m. to get in 3 mile run. I know what you're thinking - why the heck are you running by yourself that early in the morning? Simple, I bring pepper spray, run like hell, stay alert, and plan to kick some major ass. Sure working out in the morning makes you feel energized and great, but let's be real, it makes you tired as hell.

This morning I felt like a zombie as I walked into the gym. I actually started the "weights" circuit first instead of the cardio (I've never done that). At first I thought it was a bad idea since my heart rate wasn't going up, but my final calorie count shows a different story. The weights circuit was about 25 minutes long and had three different rounds. The first round was about 11 minutes, the second round was about 8 minutes long, and the third round was 3 minutes long. For the first round they had us do three workouts: 10 Burpees, 20 mountain climbers, 10 Jumping Jacks, and 20 twists. The next set consisted of  12 up/down planks, 10 plank jumping jacks, and 12 jumping lunges. The last set consisted of 10 TRX bands like squat, 10 tricep curls, 10 upright rows, and 200 meters of row. Good news is I wasn't last, but I definitely wasn't first.

Next was cardio. It was also split up in 3 blocks. The fist block was to run a mile as fast as you can in 11 minutes. Once you finished you had to do 40 seconds of all out sprint and 30 seconds of walking. I got my mile in at 7:30 and finished up the set. The second set was a split of 2 minutes push pace with recovery time in between push pace The last set had to do with push pace and all out sprints (I don't remember the break down of them).  At this point I was beyond tired. During the weight circuit I was conscious of how focused I was on my workout. It's like literally nothing else in the world mattered except the move. I was tired.

Tomorrow.. I'm sleeping in and not working out.. and I'm having fondue hahaha... What can I say .. I workout to live not live to workout. However, once I get my workout on.. I turn into a beast.. until it's over..

                       
 
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