I workout so I do not have to drink light beer.

So the time has come for me to say goodbye to xsport fitness and hello to another gym.  I love everything about Xsport except for the location. I recently moved into a new city which means the gym is a good 25 minute drive from my home, which is totally unmotivating when I want to get in a “quick: workout. I also just found out that my company is doing some realigning so I am losing my Virginia territory and will now be in MD and DE which means I definitely need to find a gym that has more than two locations!

Choices:

Gold’s Gym: http://www.goldsgym.com/

Whenever I first moved to Virginia I looked into this gym but last I remember it was something crazy like $75/month with no pool. That is a big deal, first of all that is really expensive and secondly, I want a pool. I love swimming and would like to get more pool time especially since it is getting too cold to run outside. I need a good indoor cardio workout. The biggest pro to this gym is that it is right down the road from my new place, which means I could run to and from the gym and NEVER have an excuse about not going to the gym which is very MOTIVATING!

LA Boxing:  http://laboxing.com/

Whenever i was in high school and college, I use to take kick boxing classes and LOVED them. One of my friends recently joined this gym and although it was a healthy $750 for the year, which included her boxing gloves, she is very happy. She has lost about 16 lbs so far and likes all the trainers and classes that are taught there. She told me that they do have a treadmill and some light weights for you if you want to do something other than a kickboxing class. This is important because i will need a treadmill at the gym i go to for those really cold rainy days that outdoor running is no option. The biggest con to this place is that it does not have a shower. This means no pre-work workouts which is really bad. I must admit, I am not the best at getting up in the morning but I do like to have this option especially as my work schedule  gets more hectic.

Crossfit: http://tridentcrossfitva.com/

This is something I am very interested in which I heard about from a friend. This is located in the same town I am in so is close and very accessible.  What is crossfit you ask? Well it is a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity.  This gym offers ONE workout everyday all day. So whether I go at 6am or 6pm the EXACT same class is being taught. This is a gym I would like to join because I do not necessarily want to lose weight but tighten and tone, I would really love to get funkin buff. The biggest con to this gym is the cost! it runs about $200/month so is very costly. My friend swears by this gym and is trying to reason with me to say that it is like having a personal trainer just a lot less expensive. This is not the greatest thing to say to me really because I had a personal trainer once and it was a miserable experience but I am willing to give this experience a try. My initial thinking was do it for 3 months to get past the slump of winter training and then continue on with my running and biking workouts outdoors. Cross your fingers that crossfit will let me join for less than a year! I mean who has $2400 to spend on a gym membership?!?! Not this girl!

So I guess all that is left is for me to print off the free passes and get to work trying to find the right gym for my needs. At least I am going to be healthy this winter break!~

Mrs. Fantasy Football?

So this is what it has come down to…me, my opponent from Chicago, and 2 days of football. This is all that stands in the way of me winning the Fantasy football league and raking in over $100! More than the money, I want the bragging rights of winning of my husband’s fantasy football league which consists primarily of men! 

The battle did not start off well because my QB who has been a huge scorer for me all year, Aaron Rodgers, went out close to the start of the game with a CONCUSSION! What this means to me, 1 lousy point. I know this sounds insensitive, but come on man! You ruined this season for me when I was soooooo close to becoming a champion! I feel badly for him in the fact that this is his second concussion which could be career limiting if he is to get another one, but I want to be selfish for one minute and feel sorry for myself that all my hopes and dreams of being the fantasy football champ just went down the drain!

I had much anxiety about whether or not to play RB T. Hightower or WR H. Ward and to much disappointment I put both of them on my bench, only to be two of the leading scorers this week! Of course this would happen, what else could go wrong?

3 of my trustees pulled through for me RB L McCoy with 14 points, RB A. Bradshaw with 17 points despite the drama of the Metrodome caving in, and the Steelers D who put up 25 big ones.  In the end, without a QB you are destined to lose and those 3 performances were not enough to save me today….

This week, I lost more than a game; I lost money, and the title of Fantasy Football Champion. I had a disappointing loss to Team Anderson aka “BA” with a final score of 108 – 74 L 😦

Runner or Jogger? That is the question.

So today was the much-anticipated half marathon in Fredericksburg, VA. I set my alarm at 5am to wake up and get my stuff together to make the 45 minute drive down to Fredericksburg to run in this race. From the moment I woke up this morning, my head was not straight. I tried to talk myself into staying in bed because when I woke, it was in the 30’s and raining which sounds like pneumonia weather to me….

The entire drive down I tried to set my mind right but it was very hard. As you know, I had a time goal I wanted to achieve. I thought it was definitely attainable given my long runs I have been doing minus that terrible 11 mile run a few weeks back. To my dismay, I had to relive that terrible run once again. From the very first mile, I knew it was not going to be the day that I broke my goal time. I was really tight and just didn’t feel like I was loosening up at all during the race. At mile marker 3, yes that is right I said 3, I started having a mental breakdown and wanted to quit right there. I am not sure what was wrong with me but I kept having thoughts of quitting right there and walking back to the car, but then I remembered I did not have the keys to let myself back into the car to keep warm so I decided I better keep running. The negative energy never left my body and it did not help that my IPOD played the crappiest music known to me. I mean there is only so much Kings of Leon a person can listen to and it is not motivating music to say the least. What happened to all my techno and house music that has played countless times on my runs? Not to be found today, so this means no IPOD during the race today, I could not take it anymore! This left my mind to wander  that much more and think about how awful I felt and how my toenails and the balls of my feet ached tremendously. I am not sure what was wrong, but most of the race was on the streets of Fredericksburg which means it is a slight tilt in the road due to cars travelling on it. I tried to run near the center line to take away some of the tilt but it was really hard on my ankles and I developed huge blisters on the balls of my feet on the side of my foot from the roads.

I have about a thousand excuses of what happened to me today, but at the end of the day it does not matter, I was not able to get the job done and I ran the slowest race I have ever run, close to the slowest of my slow runs. I am very crushed not solely on the fact that I did not come even close to my goal time, but mentally I felt like a jogger today, not a runner.  This is the first time during a race I did not feel competitive and felt like a speedwalker, or a mom pushing a stroller.  At the end of the race, I got passed by my elders by like 40+ years which is almost as bad as getting beat my the stroller moms. When I say the race went poorly that is EXACTLY what I mean.

At the end of the day, it was supposed to be a “fun” run to get me motivated to stay active during the cold winter months and in reality I have nothing to prove so I need to let my competitive side rest for a minute and realize that there are plenty more races out there to accomplish my goals at.  Chad

I am very thankful to have Chad who is very supportive of everything I do, he was waiting for me at the finish line with a beer in hand to celebrate the finish of 13.1 miles which is something to celebrate on a cold, rainy December Sunday when most people are still nestled in their beds.

…the course was very challenging and the two HUGE hills at the end of the race will have my legs screaming for days to come, but in the end, everyone was very friendly, it was a nice course through neighborhoods of Fredericksburg and wasn’t too far away so if you are looking for a good winter race, I guess I would recommend this one.

W&OD Trail

So my favorite thing about running, is getting to run through new landscape and taking advantage of all the beautiful resources I have around me.  To mix up my run, I drove about 20 minutes to a trail I use to run on before I moved away. The trail is the W&OD.

This trail is very interesting to me because the last time I ran on it, I was training for the Nation’s marathon and had run it with 2 feet of snow covering it so I could not truly appreciate this run. Today was different however. Besides being extremely windy and cold on the first half of the run, it was very enjoyable. There are plenty of streams and woodlines to keep your mind off the pain and tiredness of an 8 mile run. Also along the path they have these old train carts set up with descriptions about each one written to the side. Obviously I could not stop to read about them, but they are fun things to see while running on a paved trail.  It really is the little things that makes running so enjoyable and today was a very enjoyable 8 mile run.

This is exactly what I needed because the half marathon is just one week away and that 1:50 time mark is starting to haunt me so wish me luck next week!

Running Club

Today I made a return to running club. I have been absent the last few weeks due to work dinners and other commitments but nothing was standing in my way today from running club. The location changed to BusBoys and Poets after our club got too big for the brewery to handle us.  As of today, there are 777 runners signed up. This is very impressive especially considering this group started with one girl and her 2 friends just meeting to run a few miles to catch up and relieve some stress from the work week.  I really do enjoy myself every time I go because there are so many interesting people and this is a great way for me to meet people with common interest.  Today i went with my girlfriend MJ who lives close, so we were able to run down to the bar together to meet the rest of the runners.  The course also changed a little and with that extended the length of the run so now instead of a 5k it is closer to 4 miles which is fine because it is extra motivation to work a little harder for that nice brew after the run.  After the run, it becomes a huge social hour with people ordering dinner and drinks. I met two new people tonight, one of which is a 50 year old man who is just starting to get back into running after taking a hiatus after college. He is working on smaller races such as 10k’s but nonetheless still impressive. The other man I met was a guy from England who does not like to run, is not fast, but lives in Shirlington and likes to come for the social aspect of it.  As you can see all sorts of people show up for this weekly run which makes it that much more interesting.

I have to give a shout out to one of the guys in running club because he is such an inspiration. Last week he qualified for the Boston Marathon running his race is 3:13. This guy is crazy because to him 26.2 miles is nothing he is a ultramarathoner and will be competing in a 60 mile race and a 100 mile race next year, now that takes a committment to running….MAYBE one day. haha

Midwest Division Champ!

So sorry for the blurriness of this photo but I need you to understand how excited I am that I am the Midwest Division Champion! This of course is pertaining to the fantasy football league I am in. this brings me great excitement because I play with my husbands friends from Chicago and Indiana, 10 men and 1 other girl and I am the division champion, now only two wins stand in my way from being the fantasy football champion for 2010. What this win means is that I advance to the semi finals next week and when/if I win that, I will advance to the final showdown. The champion wins about $125 so you know I am definitely in it to the end at this point. Keep your fingers crossed for me that Steelers D and Aaron Rodgers continue to put up great numbers and I will GO ALL THE WAYYYYYY!

…this beautiful certificate was made by the commissioner of the league, my husband, and you know will be hanging up in my home office with the rest of my career and personal accomplishments, that’s how serious I take this award!

Will Run for Turkey

So this morning, I woke up bright and early to drive 45 minutes to participate in the 28th annual turkey chase run in Bethesda, MD.  I did not want to get out of bed this morning because it was freezing cold and pouring down rain, but i sucked it up and pushed all the excuses to the side because I paid $40 to do this 10k race and needed to work up a good sweat because I knew I was about to eat a lot of food that was not necessarily good for me and I did not want to feel bad about myself later.  When I first arrived at the race, I was a little upset that the people organizing the race were so rude. It was so cold and freezing down rain and they would not let anyone inside of the YMCA to get warm or use the bathroom. They made everyone huddle around outdoor heaters under tents that were conveniently located in front of the speakers for the DJ. So you could stand there and get warm, but your ears would be ringing the rest of the day and you would not be able to hold a conversation with anyone in the tent. We had no choice however after walking around and getting kicked out of every dry spot we could find. I was very upset because I had just spent $80 on this race which went to the YMCA and they were making me stand outside and possibly catch pneumonia.  Before the start of the race, the announcer came on the speaker and said that 9.000 runners were participating the race. This was a lot bigger than I could have ever imagined so I then understood why they could not let people into the building because it could not hold as many people as wanted to go into it.

I was originally running this race with one of my doctors who was trying to beat 50 minutes for 6.2 miles. This was going to be a good challenge for myself and would leave no room for me to do the grandma shuffle if i wanted to break this time.  I had been training very hard to be right around this time and was able to run 49-51 minutes during training runs so I thought I could pull it off.  The night before however, I had dinner with my sister who had asked me to run with her and push her through the course. This took first priority because my sister was coming off from a knee injury and had not been able to run for a good week prior to this race. We are signed up for the Fredericksburg half marathon in December so I wanted to make sure I pushed her through her mental breakdowns and physical pain so she could prove to herself that she could run through the pain. I really want her to run her first half marathon and have me be a part of it.

We started the race off super quick, It took a little time to push through all the people initially but they were clearly not going to stop us, we completed our first mile in about 7:40 which is very quick giving all the circumstances of the start of a race with 9,000 competitors.  I kept asking my sister if she was okay and see how she was feeling because I did not want her to burn out for the remaining 5 miles. She ensured me she was feeling great and wanted to keep pushing, which she did.  We were right on target through 3 miles but it was somewhere between mile 3 and 4 where the pain crept up on her and started holding her back. I could see it in her eyes that her knee was hurting and she wanted to give up. With less than half the race to go, I was not going to let this happen. I kept encouraging her to push through the pain and the quicker we ran, the quicker she could ice her knee and take some medicine to make the pain go away.  She was hating me during this part and kept insisting that I leave her behind but that was not an option. My goal was to make sure she knew that she could battle through the pain and complete the race, I needed to get her mind straight. She pulled through despite her pain to finish the race in about 52 minutes. We finished the race holding hands which was such a great moment with my sister!  Despite all the pain and suffering she endured, she was able to average an 8:30 pace which is very impressive considering she was considered a couch potato about 3 months prior to this race. She is inspiration to me and that moment keeps me motivated to fight through all the pain and mental breakdowns to finish the race strong!

…after it was all said and done, I could enjoy my thanksgiving dinner guilt free with a big smile on my face knowing I had plenty of room in my belly for all the amazing food I was able to digest. Thank you Turkey Trot, I shall see you next year!

Fantasy Football Queen

What a great week! My favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving is here, I had a great run on Sunday, and I am once again the reigning FANTASY CHAMPION!  I have slowly been moving down in the rankings for the last 3 weeks but had a change for the best and moved from the #3 spot to #1 with my two biggest threats getting a pretty nice beating.  My QB A. Rodgers had a HUGE week putting up 30 fantasy points for me. I made a last minute change and put in the Steelers D who scored 19 points for me in place of the Lions D, who scored -1 points. My biggest problem with my strategy game still remains the same, I feel as if all of my RB’s are so good that I never know which one to sit out. Of course I made the wrong choice by putting in Bradshaw (0 pts) instead of McCoy (19 pts). Thankfully this was not a game breaker for me today but if I want to win the jackpot, I definitely have something to work on…..

Getting my mental game back.

This entire past week has been the peak week of my 1/2 marathon training. I cannot believe it has creeped up on me so quickly. Today was the longest run of my training schedule, 12 miles. I was really struggling mentally with the distance thing especially since I had such a hard time on my run last week.  I went north on the Mt Vernon trail this time because I figured out that by running North, my turn around spot would be DCA airport, if I went South then I would not make it to Mt Vernon so would not have an end point to work towards.  Running around the airport is my absolutely favorite place to run. It is such an amazing experience, you really get the idea of how small you are when you have planes soaring right above your head.  Let me show you the view from the trail…

The run definitely kept my mind right and my legs going. I felt really great on the majority of the run. The biggest problem is my toes aching around my nail beds from the constant pounding. At least I realized on this run that I now have my mind right and I have not had a total mental breakdown.

…oh yea and the best part of the run, I was able to complete it in about 1:44 which is so much better than last week’s long run. I will obviously have to push it a little more to shave off some minutes to get my 1/2 marathon time around 1:50 but I feel good considering I was not dying this week when I finished. I just need to keep my head straight and I think I will be able to work through it.

Fallen Friends.

WOW i am not sure what is up with my feet but lately after running my little toenails have been hurting like heck! I had this problem when I ran the Marathon earlier this year and lost 4 of my toenails. My big toenail has just started growing back finally and I fear that I am now going to lose it again! I had blood blisters under them which turned them black, once I stuck a hot needle under my toenail, it relieved some pressure for me but caused a lot of pain when I would wear heels for work.  I went straight to the running store to find out 1) i was way over due for new shoes and 2) i trained and ran an entire marathon in shoes that were 1/2 size too small. why o why could i not figure that out myself, why did i have to go to a special store and pay “special” prices in order to find this out. eek! 

The problem this time cannot be the 1/2 size thing because I am still training in the same pair of shoes that they fitted me in, which are again way over due to be replaced. but that is another issue which is called MONEY!  I cannot afford to buy shoes every 2-3 months especially when the specialists are recommending $125 shoes to me… The problem I thought this time was that I have not been the best at clipping my nails SUPER SHORT! I am chalking up the problem to this but too bad I realized when it is too late! I am losing another little guy. He had a blister underneath him that needed popped but has not stopped throbbing since then.  I am going to go back to the running store and see what they say now, and dont worry I will keep you posted!

In the meantime if anyone knows any solution to sore toenails, please do share!!!!