Fit Chick in the City » Marathon

Shaking

Jess — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:23:50 +0000

Thank you for all your comments today. If you haven’t weighed in on my question, I’d love to hear your opinion. I really love hearing what you guys have to say.

I’m happy to report that I returned home blister free from my long run this morning. Told you I’m bad @$$! I am so happy that my run was today instead of Sunday. The weather was perfect! However, I do think that I have to rethink running long on Mondays because my legs were not happy about teaching BOSU boot camp tonight.

Anyhow, I’m here tonight to tell you that I’m shaking a little inside. The thought of this makes me nervous. The desire to be there fills my stomach with butterflies. The fear of failure hangs over my head… yet, I run with hope.

All this just to attempt to BQ this fall.

Flexibility

Jess — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Due to unforeseen circumstances, today’s long run has been postponed until tomorrow.

Our friends, Scott and Amber organized a wine tasting party. Guests were asked to bring a bottle of wine for a wine tasting showdown. The bottles were placed in a paper bag, assigned a number and then passed around for a taste test. We scored each wine based on 5 factors. Then, the wine with the highest score was crowned the winner and the person who brought it was given a fancy wine journal.

We had a really great night! We didn’t leave the party until after 1 a.m. way, way passed my bed time.

It seems the person behind the camera was struggling to take pictures after tasting 15 different wines.

One thing I did in the past while training was miss out on social events. There was no balance in my life, only training. I promised myself that this time I’d be flexible enough with my training schedule to allow for this type of activity. Not doing your long run on the planned day, does not mean skipping it all together or getting bent out of shape. It just means doing it another day. A simple lesson thats been hard to learn.

This type of night isn’t our normal weekend thing. I’m so happy I decided to fully join the party instead of having one foot out the door the entire night. Mondays have been my usual day for long runs, and I guess its gonna stay that way.

How do you balance a demanding training schedule with your social life?

I Sweat, Therefore I Stink (the gross smelly truth)

Jess — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:58:26 +0000

I’m busy doing some funk busting. Smelling bad is part of my life.

Behold, a weeks worth of running clothes (does not include other workout clothes)

Sorry for being so gross! But, stink happens. My workout clothes reek especially the ones that have been living in my laundry basket since Monday. I have a friend who jumps into the shower post workout with her clothes on, but I’m just not into it. I’ve also heard of people who immediately rinse out their stinky gear in the sink post workout, but I’m too lazy. Plus, the stopper in our sink doesn’t really work.

My secret weapon:

I combine one scoop of Oxi Clean with one small serving of WIN. I then let them soak in the wash for 10 minutes. Hang to dry. It has dramatically increased the shelf life of my running clothes.

Other than doing chores and running today, I also bought a pair of new running shoes. Because I’m so bad @$$ I plan to break all the rules and wear them on my long run tomorrow. Hopefully, I won’t come back here tomorrow crying about blisters.

I almost forgot to tell you that I haven’t completed my test as promised earlier in the week. I can’t seem to calibrate my Nike Sport Band. Hope you’re having a great Sunday! I have to get back to my chores now and get ready for a wine tasting party.

Commitments

Jess — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Hey guys! My internet connection has been spotty to say the least. Updates may be infrequent this week.

Fitness Commitment

Yesterday, my good friend and former co-worker, Sandra surprised me at work. This woman overflows with positivity. Her and her husband are a fitness power couple. He will be doing the Louisville Ironman at the end of the month. I love being around these two.

It turns out we both have the same running goal this year. She convinced me to sign up for the ING Hartford Marathon in October. I’m nervous and excited all at the same time. We won’t be running together, but I know her positive vibes will help carry me through both my race and training plan. I plan to reach this goal by using this training plan.

I’m also excited about this race because of their commitment to being “green“. Check out their impressive commitment to sustainability in their community.

Serving all natural, organic or locally sourced post-race food
Providing hybrid vehicles for transportation
Initiating an aggressive recycling program
Offering a 40-person water bubbler to cut down on waste
Supplying water and food in compostable serving products
Off-setting carbon footprint of the event with high-quality carbon credits
Collecting running shoes for recycling into running tracks
Providing recyclable Heatsheets for runners
Stuffing non-woven drawstring goodie bags to eliminate plastic bag waste
Donating all extra food to local food banks
Creating incentives for participants to bike to the race
Ensuring spectators can use public transportation to get to the race
Increasing awareness of CT Farmland Preservation Trust

Blog Commitment

Despite the fact that this little blog is only a few weeks old, I have a growing affection for it. After learning so much in such a small time at HLS, I began to think about how much I would have learned at Blogher. Conveniently, the 2010 conference is being held in NYC in August of 2010. Yes, I did… I signed up for this event despite the fact that is almost one year away. Not typical of me, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to attend. Now, I’ll just cross my fingers and hope that I’ll still love this new hobby of mine.

Vacation Commitment

The best news of the week is that we are going on VACATION!!!!! We will be heading to Napa Valley in October. The last time we had a real vacation was our Honeymoon three years ago. Clearly, we need to be more committed to taking regular vacations. I am so excited, I can’t stand it!!! Bring on the vino!

Do you normally make commitments a year in advance? Also, what do you do to recover after a big fitness event?