Tri To Finish Cinco De Mayo Race Review....and Triathlon talk!

A little overdue, but life's been busy with a new infant and changing of jobs! There sure is a new normal of getting things done once you have a baby in the house...still adapting to that change. :) 

Anyways...

This past May, Ryan and I ran the Cinco de Mayo 5k Race at Swartz Creek Golf Course in Flint, Michigan. that was organized by Tri To Finish. Tri To Finish puts on events throughout the whole lower peninsula of Michigan and range from 5k's, 10k's, triathlons and duathlons. We had a great time at the Cinco de Mayo race. It was an awesome course with a few nice elevation climbs throughout and paved conditions. I especially enjoyed it because part of the course is included in the CRIM so it helped give me an idea of what to expect in August when we run that race. The starting line was well organized with the MC getting everyone pumped up for the start and the course well marked (always good!). 

This was a perfect race to get me back into the running game after taking the last year off during pregnancy and Aiden's birth. Ryan and I did really well too, so that's always awesome! Ryan got 2nd place in his age group and I got 3rd (out of 14) with time of 28:58, which I was happy about. I wish I had pushed harder at the end, but was reluctant that I would burn out since I hadn't been running as often as I had hoped and didn't know what expect with the hills. I'm really hoping to work on my pace and carve some off my time and maybe place even better by end of summer. 

Pre-race selfie!

Finish line

Awesome medals!

Age group finisher medals

After race with Aiden (Grandma and Poppa watched him). Sweet sombreros, huh? Race swag at it's best.

Overall, super fun race that was well organized. We really loved the medals, shirts and fun hats too (some runners dressed up and wore them - AWESOME). Also, had a mini-breakfast after race for runners to help re-fuel with food from a local mexican restaurant..bonus!

I'm super excited to say that I'll be racing in my first sprint triathlon EVER with Tri To Finish in September at Holly Recreation Area (which is gorgeous if you have never been there). I have a mixture of feelings of excitement and nervousness, but I'm confident that'll it'll be a great starter triathlon. I've started training for it and I'll be sure to update on that hopefully later this week or next week. :) 

How Are Your New Year's Resolutions Going?

It has been almost two months since the start of 2013. How are your resolutions going so far? Have you hit that "21 days to form a habit" point yet?

Source: them.

I've been sticking to mine pretty well, except for one of my large ones, "Blog once a week (at least)."
I've been failing hardcore on this one, which is ironic considering I wrote it on my blog. So thanks to Rob over at Rob Complains About Things for pointing out that I'm slacking on my resolutions.

Aside from the obvious, all my others are rocking out pretty good so far.

- Read 40 Books: I've knocked out 5 pretty stellar books so far, and am about to finish the 6th today (Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning...twisted and entertaining read). So I'm about 17% through that goal. Any good recommendations for some books to add to the list? 
- Swear Less: I'm trying to think before speaking a bit more instead of running out the mouth.
- Run a 10k: This one hasn't happened because apparently Mother Nature wants to torture me with more winter weather. So over it, but have been logging some solid gym and yoga time to keep in shape and build muscle and endurance.
- Get my 5k PR under 25 minutes: Will be a work in progress come spring and the above should help. I hate the dreadmill so until weather gets warmer that one will be put off a bit.
- Work toward being able to accomplish yoga inversions: Wham, Bam, I'm smacking this one outta the park! Pretty pumped at how I've been able to nail this one. #YogaADay, #InversionArmy, and #BalanceARMy on Instagram have been awesome for inspiration on this one.

- Blog once a week - FAIL. But I'm hoping to make some changes. I miss the catharsis that writing brings so I need to make this a priority. I need to stop nit picking and just write again.

Let me know how your resolutions have been going! Have you found anything or someone that  motivates you to keep going? It's never too late to start or begin again.

(Source: drowned-in-daydreams, via ego-x-deactivated20130119)

Calling all tomato (red) faces!

Ok, I have a confession...

My face turns beet red pretty much every time that I workout. I'm not talking about a healthy pink glow, but more like a bright red. It's especially worse if it happens to be a hot and humid day, which in Michigan is most of the summer. It's sometimes to the point that it's embarrassing and I can feel people staring at me with a worried expression like I'm going to stroke out.

It sucks. I feel fine when like this, but it's more of an annoyance than anything else.

As if having people constantly be worried about you and questioning if you're alright isn't bad enough, it last forever! After a long run or cardio workout the red sticks around for hours. It's to the point that I have to make sure to allow enough cooling time afterwards to let my face get back to a normal color before heading out in public or going to work. Trying to put makeup on after a red faced workout is pretty impossible too.

This is barely a glow compared to the normal (only after a warm-up).

The only thing that I've found that helps is splashing my face with cold water continuously afterwards and standing in front of a fan on high. I've seen lots of cooling towels/hats lately that you freeze so maybe one of these days I'll give those a try. I'm digging the weather lately because the cool weather seems to knock down the redness a notch or two.

Are you a fellow tomato face? 

Have you tried any of the cooling towels or hats?

You've never seen a push-up like this....and I don't want to.

Yesterday I got an email for Victoria's Secret with the subject title...

"Your gym has never seen a push-up quite like this..."

Seeing as how I have an affinity for workout clothes and most Victoria's Secret items I looked further and was disappointed in what I found: a sport's push-up bra.  Really? I. Don't. Get. It.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the push-up bra for the right time and location, but the gym is not one of those areas, and shouldn't be. The last thing I want to worry about when lifting weights, doing ab exercises (can you imagine doing a plank in it and wondering where and how your boobs look? Just think about it...) and running on a treadmill (boing, boing) are my breasts. For those activities I'd rather have them securely tucked away and focus more on what I'm doing then the attention I'm getting. To me, it just sounds uncomfortable and like an accident waiting to happen (a la Janet Jackson nipple slip).  Just imagine the car honking, catcalls and so on that you'd get running out in this sports bra (it's already annoying enough at other times wearing sweaty old "conservative" sports bra's).

I guess it isn't enough that we bust butt in the gym to look good, but now we have to get dolled up and have a 'sexy style' for the gym now too (I could understand it being used for fitness competitions).  Maybe it is a great product, but this certainly is not something for me. Aside from the aesthetic look of it, I can't imagine it really being that supportive if it's also a push up and the sparkly material seems like it would really chafe the skin around your shoulder/arms.

What do you think about the new push-up sports bra?

One of the best things we've done....Rock Climbing in West Virginia!

This past weekend was one of the greatest weekends I've had in a long time and so needed after the hustle bustle of the past month.

 A few months ago, my old college roommate and dear friend invited me on a trip to West Virginia to go rock climbing and zip-lining. I immediately said, YES! The few months prior to the trip had been a blur in between moving twice and starting a new job so the trip really crept up quickly. A few days before the trip was due I checked out the website of the place that we were going and I think my stomach dropped upon seeing the pictures. This was not the rock climbing that I expected at all. I was thinking that we would be climbing a few rock fronts, but nothing too tall or scary.  Boy, was I wrong.

The rock climbing experience that we decided on was at Nelson Rocks Outdoor Center in North Folk Valley in Pendleton County, West Virginia and we stayed at Germany Valley Cabins that were nearby. The area is known for their fin like rock formations that jet out above the mountains. The climb that we chose to do is called Via Ferrata, which means 'iron road' in Italian. These systems are found worldwide and consist of iron rungs that are implanted in the mountains. It's a mountain route of fixed iron ladders, cables and bridges that are to be utilized by climbers.

The specs of the climb we did are:

• 3.5 miles long
• ~1100 feet of elevation gain/loss
• 280 feet of vertical exposure
• A 200 foot long, 150 foot high suspension bridge
• A top height reached of ~450 feet
• Breathtaking views and shaking hands (just kidding, but not really)

After a 9 hour drive, a night spent by bonfire laughing and catching up with old friends and watching the Perseid meteor showers (so awesome in the pitch black night sky and so many meteors), it was finally the day to climb! After signing our life away (no really, their old waiver is crazy, funny and the most badass waiver I've ever seen: read here) , we finally suit up in our harnesses and hike the route to the beginning of the trail. WHOA, was my first thought when I looked up. Do we really want to do this? Pushing nerves aside we start the climb after explanation on how the carabiner and cable system works. The first climb was the most nerve-wracking and not because it was the most intense, but because you are learning how to use the cable system. After only a few minutes though we all were pretty comfortable with it and climbed on.

Below are just a few of the photos from our trip (here are all of them).

The view driving in was amazing! 

Our idyllic cabin for the weekend!

The view off the deck of our amazing cabin. Mountains surrounded us completely. 

Lots of cows that followed us all around the property.

The four people it took to start a fire ;)

Hubs and I before the climb started.

The view after the first part of the climb...still have a long way to go.

Handsome hubby at the turn of the fin. Gorgeous scenery at this point and a bit ore challenging maneuver to get around to the other side.

At the edge of the fin.

Looking down at Angie and Jim. Getting high by this point.

Good view of the treetops.

The scary suspension bridge. The wind of course picked up at the time I had to cross and it swayed pretty god, especially once there was more than one person on it.

The slats were pretty far apart...nice view of the ground 150 feet below. Eeek!

View from the top. I feel like we were looking down from a plane. 

Superman atop the mountain top!

#Plankaday

If you look closely, you can see the suspension bridge we crossed earlier in the climb.

The whole group at the summit!

The watering hole at Seneca Rocks. We took a dip after the climb because we were burning up being in the sun all afternoon.

Hazy sunset our last night at the cabin.

If you've ever contemplated rock climbing or a via ferrata climb I highly recommend giving it a go! This was one of the coolest mini vacations that we've done. Aside from West Virginia, there are also climbs available in Colorado, Kentucky, Utah, Arizona, Tennessee, Canada and other countries. 

Have you been rock climbing or tried a Via Ferrata climb before? Would you like to? Would a fear of heights stop you from doing something like this?

Bump in the road, or root in the trail...injury time!

It's been over three weeks and I feel like I'm slowly going crazy. Three weeks ago I was running in this beautiful place:

...when a tree root decided to grab hold of my foot and give it a wicked twist. Immediately I knew that I was going to be out of the running game for a while. I had been in the middle of a jump (over some overgrown brush) when I came down so there was lots of extra force and torque on it. I heard a pop! and immediately dropped to the ground. A string of expletives stammered out of my mouth as I yelled ahead at Ryan (my hubby) to stop/help. I knew that it wouldn't be long before I wouldn't be able to walk on it at all, so together we hobbled back off the trail and to a spot where I could wait for Ryan to come back with the car because there was no way I was walking back. 

I tried my best to get it raised right away. I sat there about 20 minutes waiting for Ryan to get back. 

Maybe cried a bit (frustration along with radiating pain)

And did a lot of this (plus ice) the next few days.

It didn't bruise a lot...at first, but after about 5 days it turned lovely shades of blue, green and yellow. I never went to the docs to have it checked because our insurance sucks and I was 99% sure it was a mid-foot sprain (this is only about the 100th sprained foot in my life, although it's usually my ankle). Three weeks later and I'm regaining a lot more strength and almost all the swelling is gone.

This time off has really made me realize how I much I really began to love (yes love, not just like) running. It's been a tough few weeks to take off and I feel the frustration mounting. I'm more than eager to get running again, but am reluctant because I don't want to start up too soon and re-injure. Lately it's been lots of stretching, walking and toe raises. I'm hoping to start back up next week, but very slowly. I had plans to run a 10k later this summer, but we'll see if that happens depending on how quickly I can build up strength/endurance again. 

I feel like that last few weeks have taken forever to go by. Whether that's due to the injury or the fact that were in transition from moving from our old home, to my parent's home, and waiting to move into our new home, I have no idea. One things for sure, I miss the solace and time spent getting away from it all on my runs. 

Have you had an injury that knocked you out of the fitness game for awhile? 

Did it take you long to get back to your normal routine and endurance once you healed?

Join my #SummerOfBliss team and challenge!

The other day I came across a social workout challenge that I thought would be really fun to do with a group of people. All of the goals are attainable and having the extra support from other people may make it a bit easier when people are struggling. I know that I am one of those people that needs someone to hold me accountable for goals because it keeps me on track and in line. The goals of the challenge are:

1. Limit the drinking of sugary beverages. No more than four sugar sweetened drinks a week. Check out this infographic to see some of the disastrous effects of sugar on the body.
2. Log your happiness, or "level of bliss" at least once a day. Record your level at least once a day and contemplate what factors make you blissful and which make you bliss-less. This activity can help you make changed to a more positive outlook and life and help you weed out those things that drain your happiness away. 
3. Meditation: Take 5 minutes a day. Take 5 minutes a day to disconnect and reflect. Take those 5 minutes for yourself to center yourself and get in some deep breathing exercises.
4. Welcome in summertime by eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Substitute your not-so-savory or healthy snacks with some fresh produce. Step out of the box and try something new. You may find a new favorite. Eating Well has some great info for what a fruit serving size consists of.
5. Log 5 workouts a week. Aim for at least 30 minutes a day for maximum health effects (assuming you've been cleared by your doctor). With summertime cruising in there are many options even if you don't have a gym membership: Run, bike, swim, hike, row a boat...anything that gets your heart pumping.
6. Plank pose: 1 minute per day. Core strength is key and this exercise will engage all those muscles. There are variations so do the one that is best for you. Check out Tina Reale's site for 22 different variations.

The challenge starts this upcoming Monday, June 11th and ends July 8th. Four weeks towards living a healthier life and establishing new habits. 

Also..you could possibly win prizes too from Bestowed.com so it's an extra bonus.

Be sure to sign up for the team HERE.  

The team name is: Love, Laugh, Live Well Body Rocker's. Once you've joined the team click on Summer Of Bliss and join the challenge from there. Starting Monday you'll begin logging your progress. If anyone has any questions be sure to let me know and we'll figure it out!

I Run Because...

In case you missed it, today is....

I plan on taking a nice, long run later this evening at a new trail that we discovered at Holly Recreation Area. This area has really helped renew my running again. In recognition of today, here's a brief list of the reasons why I run. I'd love hear your reasons as well so share below! :)

I Run Because...

- It makes me feel strong.
- My health depends on it.
- It's cheaper than therapy (both psychological & retail).
- The silence is needed sometimes.
- I'd rather be sore than sorry.
- Sometimes I just need to get away from life.
- It makes me feel healthier...and happier.
- It gives me something to work towards.
- It gives me energy.
- It gives me an excuse to buy cute workout clothes.
- Some of my best ideas come while zoned out running.
- My personal best is just that: mine.
- I can participate in fun races to raise money and get covered in mud.
- I really like to eat.
- I really, really like chocolate.
- I enjoy the scenery.
- I love the endorphin rush.
- It makes my legs look fab!
- I like the one on one time with the hubby.
- It makes getting dressed in the morning so much more positive.
- It's the best way to sight see.
- There's a freedom in just getting out and running with no destination in mind.
- It gives me an excuse to take a break sometimes.
- It's a great stress reliever.
- I love crossing a finish line and the positiveness of those also running.
- It makes my heart, lungs and muscle stronger for a longer and healthier lifetime.
- It decreases my chances of cancers.
- It increases my lifespan.
- It fights obesity.
- It gives me confidence.
- I can. You never know when that could be taken away.

Are you doing anything today to celebrate National Running Day? If you need some ideas here are 10 ways to celebrate. I'd love to hear what you love about it or any goals you've set.  My next big goal: Run a 10k! There's one in late August so I'm really considering it


Are there any specific reasons that you love running? 

Product Review: Margarita Activewear!

Recently I was given the opportunity to pick out and review any item from Margarita Activewear clothing line from ActivewearUSA.com. Let me tell you, I was super excited about this! I've been contemplating a new pair of fitted capri yoga pants for awhile now so this was perfect timing. After lots and lots of time I was finally able to narrow it down to these (there are so many to choose from it took me forever -- check the ActiveWear Website for more Margarita Activewear products).:

Margarita Activewear Capri #1004T $83.00

I chose the black pair and anxiously awaited their arrival. When these came in the mail I was super excited to check them out. When I pulled them out of the package I had a mini panic attack because they looked tiny. I soon realized that this material stretches a lot and I had gotten worried for no reason. These pants are super soft and comfortable. The fabric that they are made of is called Supplex with Lycra, so they're very fitted and somewhat remind me of Spanx but comfortable and flattering. The design on these particular pair made me feel like it streamlined by body and lengthened the leg. The stitch work on the pants looked great and not questionable like some of the other pants I've seen out there. Based on what I've seen so far they look like they will be able to withstand lots of wear and tear.

The day that I wore these was spent doing a lot of different activities and I had no major issues throughout. I spent half the day lounging in them and that afternoon wore them for a yoga session and a 2.5 mile train run. The elasticity of the pants was great during yoga and the run. Throughout all the different movements it stretched easily without pulling and tugging. Another thing that I really liked is that they were breathable. I have a tendency to get super hot while running and I felt like these were great for dissipating heat and wicking sweat away from the body.

One issue that I saw with the products were that they do run a bit small. Next time I would probably order a size larger than what I got. I ordered a medium and usually wear around a size 4 or 6 and they were a bit smaller than I'd like. The main issue with them was that the inseam was shorter than I'd prefer (I had to pull them up a bit during my run because of the short inseam). I consider myself average to slightly tall (5'8" and around 130 lbs.) so be sure to consider ordering a size larger than normal if you purchase these products.

The price was also a bit steeper than I would like. They are definitely a step up from most products out there so you are paying for better quality, but I think that for some the price may be a deterrent. I have to say that if I had the extra money I would splurge for these pants though! There were so many different products in this line that caught my attention that I'll likely return back to see what else I may eventually get. I love the bright colors and designs and the quality materials make these pants that will last far longer than others. The next investment that I'm considering: a running skirt!

Pros:
- Awesome designs and colors!
- Breathable material -- less dampness and overheating!
- Easy to clean (can do at home!)
- Comfortable and easy to move in material.
- Flattering & unique designs
- Long lasting material and craftsmanship

Cons:
- Price a bit high
- Sizes run small (order a size larger than your normal)

Super cute packaging -- I enjoy the small touches!

A little more info on the Supplex with Lycra material (click for larger image)

Great stitching and quality

Pretty sweet design, huh?

This is about the time that I had a freak out moment about them fitting, but they fit and stretched comfortably - no pinching or sucking in required ;)

Washing directions - Machine wash cool

Daisy logo on the right booty 

Many thanks to Lisa Johnson and Activewear USA for giving me this opportunity!

Do you have a favorite workout related product or clothing item?