Running

A few weeks back I did a post I called "Dehydration: Think 7-Up, Not Mountain Dew" wherein the color of your urine during and after an athletic endeavor is probably the best clue to whether you are drinking enough fluids.A run earlier this week and daily life brought that home again, and I wanted to point out how dehydration is not always obvious in the sense of causation.That run was undertaken during cooler weather, so I had no particular impression of copious sweating. But when I got home my short, shoes and sox were all pretty damp.Clue 1 ignored.That morning I had run early and only had drunk a single cup of coffee prior to the run. Then afterwards I had another cup of coffee, not a big glass or two of water. Clues 2 and 3 ignored.Then I set out to working on some stone steps in a new flower bed (I'll post separately on that cool project, with photos, when it's done). At this point I did sweat a bit. Yet I still did not drink much.Clue 4 ignored.Gradually I felt a strong headache coming on. I went to the bathroom to pop some Ibuprofen and figured I might as well pee while I was there.Think Mountain Dew, not Seven Up--heavy yellow and not much volume.I finally realized that I was dehydrated, and it'd had been creeping and building up throughout the day. Not the result of a major athletic effort but more or less a cumulative result of not paying enough attention to the clues that were obvious. As an athlete I should have known better.

You’ve probably seen enough tweets and pictures now to know that this weekend is Blend 2013! I promise not to drive you crazy with posts, but had to give a quick shout out to Vega and Lock Laces…so many brands are providing great swag, but I’m working with these two to spread a little extra love this weekend.You know all about my love affair with Vega, so I promise not to rub it in repeatedly that we got more goodies this weekend and my belly is so happy. Of course this time I am able to share the love with all of the attendees and a fellow ambassador Heather! Even if you aren’t sure about using Vega, you gotta checkout the free Thrive Forward Sport Edition Videos. Tony Horton among other trainers and athletes in the videos provide helpful tips about the entire spectrum from endurance athletes to strength training. I believe my nutrition will always be in progress and I love these for keeping me excited about WHY! Lock Laces was a great sponsor for the Spring Challenge, sending a pair to every participant. Both David and I have been using them in all of our workout shoes since then and I am excited to not only test them out on hike, but get them in the hands of some other crazy workout women to see what they think . REMINDERSI’m also super excited to say, the Clean and Lean Challenge sign ups where blowing up, so I may have to cut off registration…don’t wait! This challenge is all about finding what works for you, in the meantime don’t forget to join the Under Armour Clean and Lean team to start getting feedback and motivation! Fingers crossed tomorrow I will be doing a 10 mile run at altitude…hope these ladies are strong enough to carry me back if I drop dead. ---------------------------------------------------Gratitude JournalMay 17I am grateful for sponsors who make it possible to keep following my passion and find out where it may lead.

I may have a problem. Or it could be that I'm cured. Puzzling either way.Today The Hub and I went for a walk at one of the malls considering it was kind of chilly outside. It was supposed to be a run day but I was being a cold weather wimp. Good long walk at Colorado Mills.The problem - we came across a huge discount shoe store yet I did not buy anything! This is still disturbing hours later. It's not that I didn't not see anything I liked. I browsed, tried on a few and left. No regrets.big hmph!Normally I would have spent much time in the store, experienced increased heart rate, maybe a little sweat and swiped that plastic sucker a few times and left with a few too many pairs. Maybe I'm getting senile or it's the running that's taken care of the jollies that used to come from hoarding shoes.Whatever. It turned out to be a good day anyway.Tomorrow I'll run in my old shoes.

My arms were powerless. My body hung squirming from the bar. There would be no more pull-ups today. Had the urge to rediscover the puke threshold sabotaged the rest of the workout? Or was it that these weeklong breaks between workouts keep forcing me to take a step back after a step forward? Maybe it was just the heat. Yesterday's visit to the Sand Run Parcours Trail occurred on Northeast Ohio's return to summery weather, with a temperature in the high 70s, which is probably the hottest it's been during a run this year. Can you say "sweaty mess"? I knew that you could. Although running the par course has become a weekly event this month, breaks of five or more days between runs remains a fairly regular thing, because obviously these short runs are really tiring. My own frustration over my lack of consistency sometimes causes me to do something really stupid like seeing if I can get myself to puke by starting off the workout in a near sprint. By the time I got to the pull-up bar, my body felt wobbly. It seems those prescribed walk breaks along the course help you recover from each exercise before getting to the next station. Furthermore, I had forgotten my watch, which I use to time my recovery between each rep at the pull-up bar, and I know I usually spend a good five minutes there. Instead I rushed myself and wasn't able to match my previous outings. My arms crapped out after six pull-ups. OK, maybe it was more like five and a half. By this time, sweat was spurting from my brow. My body sagged like it had a sad. My mind wandered to cope with the total bummer that were the remaining exercise stations. Do you know what this nice weather reminds me of doing? Running barefoot. I haven't done that in a really long time. Doing 10 push-ups felt the way it would if you were William "Refrigerator" Perry but had the arms of Kate Moss. Leg lifts seemed to be rupturing my quadriceps. Forget about not embarrassing myself on the balance beam. In the end, though, it was another course record, shaving a full three minutes off last time. Sadly, the puke threshold eluded me.

Adjusting the 100 day plan : Doc, I plan to run the NYC marathon in 2014 & the Yonkers 1/2 marathon in September of 2013. How can I use your plan to

All this week leading up to softball, I’ve been annoyingly bouncing around like a fool and counting down the days left until our first game. Normally on gchat to my friend Jon who is also the team coach. This is Jon, one of my closest friends and coach of our team I’m sure Jon wanted to wring my neck. Softball pretty much signals the start of summer for me, and it was so good to be back on our field playing under the lights last night. Most rec league sports teams in DC have to send an intern to squat on the Mall all day long to reserve a small patch of grass to be used as a field, but luckily, we have a permit for a real field down in Southwest that has lights for when they sun starts to set. We got to work pretty quickly putting a hurting on the other team. The final score was something like 16-3. Team mascot Marley watching from the sidelines I played a so-so game. My first at bat was awesome. Got a really solid hit – a two-run RBI single I believe. My second at bat was pathetic. I was getting annoyed at the pitcher’s inability to throw a hit-able ball and started swing half-heartedly at a lot of really, realllllly bad pitches. And third at bat I reached on a fielder’s choice. I pitched relief in the 6th inning and threw pretty well. Glad to see my pitching managed to not get rusty in the off-season. (Then again, it’s a slow-pitch league, pretty much just need to lob the ball over the plate.) And of course after the game, we headed over to the Tune Inn for our traditional post-game celebration. Our team Tune Inn jerseys So glad softball is here and thrilled summer is unofficially here too! The post Tune Inn Softball Season Opener appeared first on Jess Runs.

Mango Madness is the next race in the 2013 HURT Trail Run series. It is 10+ miles and travels through the mountains of the Tantalus trail system. The "plus" usually means there's a bit of 'madness' thrown in...a detour, a...

[photo by Gary]In yesterday's run along my beloved Pig Farm 10 mile route, I found a golf ball in a corn field (the corn is barely up and visibility is good).This one was in a field beside the road, at least 1500' from the nearest house, with a scrubby woodlot on the other side of the road. Certainly NOT a result where someone was practicing in their backyard and one got away.Then a mile later I found the golf tee laying on the road.Thus my incisive golf-ball-while-running coverage continues. Last previous post was here where I postulated:The ubiquitousness of finding golf balls in unlikely places now leads me to consider some formerly outlandish theories. I'm beginning to suspect that they are alien eggs, prepositioned, awaiting a hidden signal, and when they all hatch en masse there will be hell to pay for mankind.The link to Ultrarunning? None, other than I was running when I found these artifacts. Plus Ultrarunning is a sport; golf is not. Case closed.

I’ve been running regularly for 26 months now, but I still feel like a newbie in many respects. I’ve not competed in many races, I’ve signed up for, but never run a ParkRun and I don’t run in a club. What I have been reminded of at the weekend is just how much I love running (something my 16-year-old self would’ve scoffed at!) and on my run tonight I had an epiphany: No matter how tall, short, thin, fat, old, young, fast or slow you are, there are just 4 essential things to take with you on a run. And here, in no particular order (except to make an attractive acronym), they are: #1 – Reason There are always many excuses not to run: work was tiring, it’s raining/snowing/windy/too hot (delete as appropriate), the footy’s on, there’s chores to do. Whenever any of these little things creep into your head, before they prevent you from getting off the sofa or before they tempt you to cut that run short remember the reason you started (or wanted to start) running. These may be just as numerous and varied but they often can’t be heard over those naughty excuses. Whether it’s to get fitter, to de-stress, to challenge yourself, or to raise money for charity, focus on your reasons to run. #2 – Inspiration I mentioned I was reminded how much I love running at the weekend. This was thanks to Liz and Laura who organised the inaugural “Write This Run” event, a conference for running bloggers. A day full of interesting speakers and surrounded by equally passionate running bloggers left me charged with energy, emotion and inspiration. “If you have a body, you are an athlete” A degenerative nerve disease didn’t stop Donna DeWick (@donna_de) from becoming a para-triathlete when the doctors told her she shouldn’t run. “Why can’t I do that?” Mimi Anderson (@Marvellousmimi) took up running at the age of 36 and hasn’t let age or Grandparenthood get in her way of running on 6 of the 7 continents (only the Antarctic eludes her) and becoming the fastest woman to run from John O’Groats to Land’s End, the fastest person to cross Ireland on foot and the first and only woman to run back-to-back Comrades Marathons. “Only stop if there’s no other option” When Kevin Betts‘ (@52marathonman) dad committed suicide, he decided to raise money and awareness for Rethink Mental Illness using his goal-setting approach. In 2011, Kevin ran 52 sub-4 hour marathons, 27 of which were on treadmills! “Why? Why not?” It’s takes little effort to find amazing people doing extraordinary things. You don’t have to try to match them – just pinch a bit of their energy, drive and determination. I know they won’t mind, they have plenty to share round! #3 – Belief This is perhaps the most difficult of the four things to find and hold on to (it’s certainly my weak spot) but that’s why it’s so important – if you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t. Now as in real life, there is a fine line between arrogance and confidence but frankly, for many of us I know that fine line can sometimes be as far away as the horizon. Have faith in yourself. Your mind will tell you to stop far quicker than your body needs to. Pinching another pearl of wisdom from Kevin: If a marathon was really that hard, why do hundreds of thousands of people complete them every year? #4 – Support Some people may disagree but you can’t do it on your own. Surround yourself with people who will provide you with encouragement to keep going. They don’t have to understand why, they just need to understand its importance to you; whether it’s taking on a Mimi-sized challenge or just taking the first steps to get yourself off the couch. Your support doesn’t need to be limited to those you can touch and feel either (althoug

Half day tomorrow then we're outta here. Here's where we are going Saturday: Dry Tortugas National Park.And onto food.Coffee and prunes. Then I went to work and ate my turkey meatloaf before I took the picture! So I took a picture of everything in my lunchbox! :-)Turkey meatloaf, then for lunch my usual salad (I did add leftover broccoli), and grapes for afternoon snack. Mid morning I did get hungry and wanted ... something. So I went downstairs and bought a boiled egg.I totally didn't feel like cooking tonight and luckily dinner was about as non cooking as it could be. This is going to sound weird but its actually good. Also, I won't lie, it looks kinda gross. I take a couple of chicken sausages (we used chicken kielbasa but you can use whatever kind you prefer) and saute it with a little olive oil and a bag of cole slaw mix - I used the type that includes red cabbage and carrots. I added a few red pepper flakes and onion powder. That's it. Very easy, tasty, and lots of veggies. We ate an entire bag of slaw mix between the two of us.I wanted a fudgecicle, but my husband ate the last one!