Ragnar Runners Needed Update.

So the spots on the Ragnar team that I dropped out of are quickly filling up. But they have 2 spots left and need runners as soon as you can commit.   Below, please find all the details.

In Van 1: Runner 2: Leg 2 (4.5miles), Leg 14 (4.5miles), Leg 26 (6.8miles): 15.8 miles

In Van 2: Runner 11: Leg 11 (5.5miles), Leg 23 (4miles), Leg 35 (8.3miles): 17.8 miles



Please keep a couple things in mind:
•You'll probably need to take Thursday June 9th off of work for travel to Wisconsin and definitely Friday June 10th since the race starts that morning.
•Registration: $90
•Hotel room in Madison, WI Thursday night before the race: $35
•Van rental: $35
•Gas for Van: $??
•Food: ??
•If you are coming from out of state, airfare: $200++

Ragnar = think MTV Road Rules, but running.  You're in a van with 5 other gals running, sleeping, and carrying on.  Truthfully, it does sound like a cool experience so if you want in & this sounds doable contact Courtney ASAP at wannaberunnergirl@gmail.com

Weekly Work Out Round Up (vol. 2)

and. how did this week go? cliff notes version: still a little lazy.


monday: nothing. nada. lazy.
tuesday: lazy. nothing again. thought about it, but then went for mexican to gain weight rather than lose it.
wednesday: pure barre. 55 minutes. still sore from boot camp it seemed. but the core work is getting easier which means, i am building a core. now, if the extra skin on my stomach would go away.
thursday: nothing. (oi this is getting embarrassing)
friday: i was gonna run, but i didn't get home in time to miss the rain. but rejoined LA Fitness.
saturday: run in the neighborhood. only .98 miles - my allergies or something made it hard. but i think this will be my "monday mile" run, if i can find .02 to add. i skipped mitzi's boot camp, but i will go back next week.  ohhhh and i did a 30 minute dog walk with the dog.
sunday: pure barre with afton and lyd again. =)  and another 30 minute dog walk with the pup.


miles ran this week: .98 -- pa-thet-ic.
                                                                                                                          

And in other news... As you know I have dropped out of Ragnar. And really, I am okay with it. My heart wasn't in it, nor was I athletically in shape for it. With that.... the team is on the hunt to fill up a few legs and I am going to *at least* try and help! 

In Van 1:

Runner 2: Leg 2 (4.5miles), Leg 14 (4.5miles), Leg 26 (6.8miles): 15.8 miles
Runner 5: Leg 5 (6.3miles), Leg 17 (3.2miles), Leg 29 (2.9miles): 12.4 miles

In Van 2:
Runner 7: Leg 7 (4.7miles), Leg 19 (3.7miles), Leg 31 (4.9miles): 13.3 miles
Runner 11: Leg 11 (5.5miles), Leg 23 (4miles), Leg 35 (8.3miles): 17.8 miles

Please keep a couple things in mind:

• You'll probably need to take Thursday June 9th off of work for travel to Wisconsin and definitely Friday June 10th since the race starts that morning.
• Registration: $90
• Hotel room in Madison, WI Thursday night before the race: $35
• Van rental: $35
• Gas for Van: $??
• Food: ??
• If you are coming from out of state, airfare: $200++

Now if you're interested and this sounds doable for you, please e-mail Courtney ASAP at wannaberunnergirl@gmail.com

Ragnar Update

So. I have some news. I am dropping out of the ragnar relay that i had planned for this summer. this is something that i was REALLY looking forward to, but as I will explain why... I think that you will begin and maybe understand my reasoning.

I guess, I should start at the beginning.  I first read/heard about this relay when I 1st started running and thought it was a cool idea and something that *with the right group* I would love to do.  I don't have a big group of running friends here in Atlanta, so I knew I couldn't start and create a group but when one of my twitter pals blogged about it, I knew that if they had a spot for me, I wanted to join the fun.  lucky for me, they did. and they had a spot for one of my favorite people & my maid of honor Erin.  So we agreed and were ready to rock and roll.  I was excited about it and I mean REALLY excited about it.  I was pumped to meet people like Jessica and Jennifer and Jen Z and Ashley and Courtney and Lauren.  We had it all set up that our van of 6 was going to be fun.  

....And then it started.  The emails about people dropping out and people being replaced.    I can't remember who was the 1st to go, but it felt like once she dropped out people were dropping like flies.  All for good reasons - school, new jobs, babies!!  But with each "drop out" my excitement started to fade. you can ask Erin.  every time an email came in, I bbm'ed her and was like uhhhh do you want to do this?!  And as people got replaced they were being replaced with randoms, people who I had never even seen on twitter or in the blogging world before.  the adventure of meeting & running with people who i had a social media relationship was slowly going away.  [no offence to any of those people, we thank you for stepping up]

And then the money came to light.  I knew that I had to fly there and get a hotel and help pay for vans and gas ... but with gas prices rising I could only imagine how much the flight would cost + the money for gas for the van + food + hotels + shirts + supplies.  And then the chatter about volunteers came up and how we were going to have to pay for them if we couldn't come up with a certain amount of them.  The total cost just kept piling up and I was having a hard time spending that much money on something I was not 100% excited about.  And I really wasn't even 25% excited .... it all just became draining and a chore.

And the icing on the cake came when I got the "invitation" to operations training June 7-9 for our newly hired recruiters.  assisting with training & helping develop and grow my company's operations team is one the of parts of my new job that i am most excited about.  I knew I wouldn't be able to leave Atlanta till like 7:00 that night and then I would have to start running miles upon miles on June 10th.

.....I just knew that this was not going to happen and I was (and am) okay with this.  Not being excited about it was not helping my training and when you run a half or a full marathon unprepared you're only hurting yourself and your performance, but with this... I had 11 other people relying on me to be ready to run 8 miles in 1 leg... and running 4 miles is hard right now.

i know i am adding more stress to jen's life and i am sorry for that -- especially since June is so close... and i know i am pulling out partially for very selfish reasons, but i just want to be excited about something especially if i am going to be spending A LOT of money on something.  i wish the 12 girls who do it the best of luck and i hope they have a really good time.  but this go round, just not for me.  ....if they ever organize another one, I am 100% in but this one.... I am just not feeling it. 

Ragnar Update / Moving Plans

If you have been following my life you should know that this past weekend I moved.  Let me tell you, I am IN LOVE with our house.  It is bigger than I would like but it is so cozy and us and I am really pleased.  Though, we still have a lot to do to get it ready for my parents arrival next month!!  I will eventually post a crap ton of pictures, just wait for it.

moving plans.  with me being moved there are 2 things I am excited about and need to do.  1) Get a Stone Mountain season pass and make the run around Stone Mountain a weekly occurrence!  I am thinking Saturday mornings.  Erin. This is your formal invite.  2) Join Lifetime Fitness so I can reenter the world of swimming, spin class, and ellipticals.  Even treadmills  :: gasp::

ragnar. it is in june. and we just got our running routes. which means it is really happening. which means i need to start running and training so i do not let my team down. so if you don't know anything about ragnar it is 2 vans, 12 people, lots of miles, a relay race.  I am leg 11. we run 3 legs with varying lengths.   In total, I will run 17.8 miles.  5.5 miles then 4 miles then 8.3 miles.  Needless to say, I feel like I need a few 10 milers under my belt and lots of energy gels.  ...let the training begin...
I am having some ragnar fears. like running at night. like being kidnapped. like being hit by a car. like being stranded and something happening to me. like running when really tired.

Polar Bear 5K Run - I bailed.

So a few weeks back I signed up to run my first 5k (and first organized race of 2011) of the year.  I chose the Polar Bear Run in Marietta for 2 main reasons. (1) I wanted to see how far I had fallen as a runner after pretty much sitting on my butt since October and (2) I really want to work on my 5K this year so I needed a 2011 starting time.


For week I had planned to not set out to set a PR at this race.  I just knew that I wanted to run it in at least 35 minutes (which is 2 minutes slower than my 5K PR) and I wanted to give my nike free running shoes a race trial especially since i was kind of on the fence about them.

Well, my alarm went off at 6:30 AM on Saturday and I hit snooze. And then I hit snooze again and again and again.  I did not get out of bed and I did not run.  My body was just too tired from this past week and bowling on Friday night that it kept saying "do not do it" --- normally I can just muster through, get up, wake up, and go, but Saturday morning it was SO different.

BUT! I told myself that I was going to not let sleeping in and being a lazy bum hold me back from running 3.1 and today I ran my own little 5k on the treadmill so I could figure out how far I had fallen and figure out my 5k time and my nike frees.

Well.  I ran 3.1 in 35:25 (average pace of 11:25) which is 2 minutes slower than my PR so I guess I did not do too bad.  I felt pretty good the whole run (minus the treadmill shocking me every time I touched it) but I definitely could not go much farther than 3.1 which means I have a lot of work to do over the next few months for Ragnar in June.  But I did remember how much I miss just running and listening to the music.

The nike frees -- I just cannot decide.  I can feel my legs getting stronger but I just do not think they give my feet the support they need (or are used to). 

randoms.

I have had about 4 million and one things running through my brain over the past few days. so here we go. bullet form. we will scratch three things Thursday tomorrow because of this...

• the marine corps marathon is 12 days away. so i am starting to figure out times and where i need to be on the course at certain times. for example, i need to be at mile 17.5 in 4 hours and mile 20 in like 4 hours and 40 minutes. when i ran Disney in January, I hit mile 20 at 4 hours and 21 minutes, so *hopefully* I should be fine. am i allowed to write things like 17.5=4 hrs and 20=4.41 hrs on my hand?! or what about 1:15 (since that is when the bridge cut off happens)? Would you judge me? But who doesn't start second guessing themselves going into a freaking marathon????
• i was looking at the weather for Northern VA (the 10 day forecast) and a lot of rain is planned for the week of the race. lets hope there is no more rain in the sky on race day. looks like i am bringing my running rain coat. oi.
• i am having a rocking month of miles so far. just look ----->
• there has been a lot of talk about the Boston marathon and the qualifying times and charity runners and how it sold out in 8 hours blah blah blah and i know i do not see eye to eye with a lot of people on this topic of discussion, so i am not even going to go there. but i do think that Boston is something that so many people work towards and when they do qualify it is an exciting moment in a runner's career (a  moment I may never be able to experience) and i personally am impressed and excited for everyone who has had their BQ moment. and that is all i am gonna say about that.
•  i need to get a massage, pronto. my little legs are getting heavy and sore. I need to have all the kink worked out before running 26.2 miles. i think i am gonna plan for one Sunday. do 1 last long run Saturday and then get a good rub down. any suggestions for somewhere in Atlanta.
• i decided to run my marathon in a running skirt. i hope i do not regret that decision. now i gotta figure out what to wear on top, but i am leaning towards a tank. yes. i may freeze but that is okay.
• i am having an internal struggle with if i should or should not get a flu shot. i have been getting one for 3 years and nothing has ever happened, but since i am getting so close to my marathon i am scared to risk it. but then i am gonna be on a plane so i feel like i should be getting one. to flu shot now or to wait is the question...
• I am really excited about the MCM tweetup that is happening on Friday night.  I am excited about meeting people at the Brooks table at the Expo on Friday. There have been so many people on Twitter encourage each other from the day we signed up till now that I want to put a face with a @name.
• I ordered a ragnar hoodie in gray and I really hope I have it in time for my trip home to DC for MCM. With my luck, it will come Thursday afternoon... the day I fly out. =)  ...I am hoping there is a MCM hoodie I can buy at the Expo.  Barbie loves Hoodies.
• so. this right here makes me nervous. don't know why. but hello nerves.
• Right now I have 7.5 hours of music for the marathon. I think I have more than enough tunes to get me through. Some songs are on there about 5 times, but that i becaue i love them and they make me move.

and i will leave you with this: Run hard, be strong, think big. -- Percy Cerutty
and that i all i think. goodnight.