Running

Running Slump

| cheriarmour

I’ve felt this way once before. Last year, right after my grandmother died, I hit a little running slump.  I was tired, my motivation was low, and when I was running, I felt slow and consumed by anxious thoughts, which really took away from my running.

This time, I think the reasoning for the slump is a little different, but the symptoms are largely the same.

In the span of two months, I got a new job, got married to my love, and we bought a house.  And none of it was planned to all hit at once.

With the job, I got a call in May, interviewed throughout the month of June, and was offered the position in early July.  The wedding had been set for August 23rd for some time, and the home came available, and honestly, the inventory is so low in Raleigh that it would have been silly to have forgone that home.

So we dove in headfirst.  And I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in my entire life.

And like I do anytime I’m faced with any major life changes, I felt this exhaustion come over me.  It hasn’t affected my work, as I’m still in that phase where I’m killing myself to impress everyone, but it’s definitely affected my running and my motivation.  Rather than constantly being raring to go for those runs, I’ve had to pull out every trick in the book to make sure that I make my workouts.  I invite friends, I try new workouts, I make sure that I am scheduled to take one of my instructors classes, all in the hopes that I don’t fall behind on my workouts.  But motivating myself to go when ALL I want to to is lay around in the bed and watch reruns of Sex & the City is hard, and I’m really trying.

Honestly, the last time I felt like I was in this slump a year ago, I pushed through it, but had a few tricks to help get me through.

  • I went to a lot of hot yoga.  Granted, one of the times I went, a pose we got into tapped right into my emotional side and I finished out the class sobbing for whatever reason, but I sure felt good after.
  • I ran.  And I revamped my runs.  I listened to Motown the Musical, Les Mis, and sometimes, nothing at all, all different from my usual playlists.
  • I read Dean Karnazes books.  Which is really good cause he’s an ultra marathoner.  So it kind of made you feel like your little 26.2 wasn’t that bad.
  • I vomited my way through the Greensboro Marathon.  But the fact I finished convinced me I was a lot stronger than I thought I was, and rekindled my love for running.

So the slump sucks.  I don’t like the way it makes me feel, and it scares me – makes me feel like I will never love to run again.  But slowly and steadily, I will be back to exactly where I was before, maybe even better!

What do you do when you’re in a running slump?

We bought a zoo.

| cheriarmour

But before I get to that, let me tell you about this thing I discovered!  So, the humidity in North Carolina is absolutely killing me as far as running goes, and I’m trying really hard not to let it discourage me.  On Wednesday morning, the humidity had its way with me for about 6 miles, and then again on Friday, for almost 4 miles.  Both times, I had that horrible feeling like I was going to faint, and both times, I had to reach for something that would quickly give me a little sugar boost.  So on Friday morning, after a run from work, I ran to the Harris Teeter, and would you looky what I found!

Starbursts

I found a packet of Starbursts that only contained the good flavors. Which is obviously pretty important because the most offensive thing about fruity candies, the main reason that I steer completely clear of them, is the errant yellow ones you get. Like what am I supposed to do with something that tastes exactly like lemon Pledge? Well, this here packets of Starburst complete eliminates that problem, and I praise the good lord above that I live in a world where this pervasive problem has been addressed head-on.

We bought a zoo.  

Okay, not really a zoo – more like a house.

We put in an offer here a few weeks before our wedding, which I told you about, but I didn’t mention much more about it because I was super busy with wedding stuff, and because I didn’t want to talk it up too much in case it felt through, which is apparently something that isn’t super uncommon in the house-hunting process.  But after our offer was accepted, and we went through all of this house insanity, we finally closed on the house last Friday!

Home Signing

It’s weird. Even though we signed a stack of papers that was the size of a small novel, I’m not really nervous, more just excited to get into a space where a squirrel doesn’t live in the wall, where our pets can fit, and where I’m not taking my life into my hands to get to a greenway to run – a biggie for an active couple like us.

What’s one cool thing you purchased this week? 

Coke

| cheriarmour

Wednesday morning, I went for a sweaty, hot, sticky run with some folks through downtown Raleigh.  I’m friendly with the Raleigh Ambassadors of Rock, the name bestowed on the Ambassadors of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Raleigh.  So when one of the Ambassadors stopped by my office and mentioned they’d be running the course for the half for next year as a recon-type thing, I was in!  Any excuse to actually RUN with living, breathing people is one I try to make – sometimes I welcome a run by myself, but for the most part, especially in the summer when I’m not particularly motivated, I love being with other folks.

We started out a little fast for me – consistently hitting just over 8-minute miles, which I was able to maintain for about three miles before I started to fall behind.  At one point, my vision short of shifted, and I realized that my blood sugar was dropping, and that immediately following the run, I would need to grab something to bump the sugar up.

I didn’t really tell any of the folks I was running with because the minute you mention the words blood and sugar together, people start freaking out and running around with their arms flailing like muppets, which I experienced once when I actually fainted in front of a class and came to with folks just standing over me, staring in horror, and not really doing a whole lot of anything else.

But I digress…

So following the run, I immediately hit the gas station, grabbed some change from the bottom dusty part of my purse, and hobbled into the gas station to find the source of all things life when your sugar is low, and popped a can of Coke as soon as I got myself back to the car.

It was really sweet.  Like…really sweet.  And within minutes, I started to feel myself perk up enough to make my way to my couch.  I flipped the can over, and was shocked at what I read.

The can was one of those 16-oz cans, the tall ones, and I’d managed to get a few swallows in, when I discovered what the “nutrition” in one of those bad boys was like.

Coke

The can listed the calories as being over 200 – but that part in itself wasn’t what kinda tweaked me out a little bit – it was the sugar and carbs. In each 16-oz can, there were 53ish grams of sugar, and like 57 ish grams of carbs, which is a pretty decent chunk of carb consumption that you really need to be doing each day.

Mind = blown.

Not that I’m inherently against fun things to eat.  I actually really enjoy sweets and have to reel myself in from going ham on the York Peppermint Patties, but 53g of sugar in anything is really overkill.  And the thought that folks are consuming this along with their meal is really sort of scary.  I mean, I just want everyone to be able to flip over the can, and realize that Coke is being a little unreasonable with their ingredients.

It also made me a little sad.  Back in the day, prior to me conscious of what I put into my mouth, I was a Coke-drinker, and and I no idea what it was that I was consuming.  And it makes me really sad that there might still be old Cheris running around and doing what I did.

What is (or was) your guilty pleasure?

Running at Night.

| cheriarmour

So first things first (I’m the realest). I’m sorry, I had to.  Couldn’t help myself.  But I hope you all had a really great Labor Day.  I woke up at some point really early in the morning to my husband yelping that one of that cats was ricocheting his feline body off of our end tables.  It sounded sort of like a demon had been released in our room.  So we remedied that by putting the offender in question in the guest bedroom, where he proceeded to rocket around the room like a big cat, but we managed to get some sleep, at least for a little while, which I’m not sure we’ve enjoyed since we got married last week.

I was able to convince Austin to take me to the WaHo (the Waffle House, for those of you not well-versed in all things breakfast).  And for those of you who’ve known me ever, you know I love southern breakfast food, so it’s really nice to treat myself to that once in a while.  So I was able to convince the hubs to take me there with the promise that we would hit up the run club to run a few hours later.

Now if there’s something disgusting on the menu somewhere, there’s a good chance that my husband will order it.  With that in mind, look at this monstrosity that my husband ordered.

BreakfastI believe that is an ENTIRE plate dedicated to hash browns adorned with jalepeños, ham, cheese, tomatoes, hot sauce, and I believe onions.  And he ate ALL of them.  (He ran twice yesterday to make up for it.)

We topped off breakfast by going into my job for a little while for me to catch up on some emails and for me to move the cycling bikes back into the studio for the week after we got the floors refinished, and ended the day with a long, hot run through downtown Raleigh.

Running at Night

I was at the coffee shop writing, right by the windows, when I saw her.

She was tiny, gorgeous, and fast, and she was running.  Nothing wrong with that quite obviously – I run like I brush my teeth, I sort of feel like it’s necessary for me to function like a normal human being, but I was struck by the fact that this tiny girl was running at night.

My first instinct was to think, “She shouldn’t be doing that!? Is she dumb or something?!”

And then I had to pull it back.  I should be able to run out night – she should be able to run at night without me thinking about how stupid of a girl she must be.  And unfortunately, a few stupid, horrible, sick guys have made it so that we can’t even do what we do at night without fearing for our safety.

So me?  I don’t really run at night.  Sometimes, during the winter especially, it’s unavoidable, but running at night, while exhilarating, makes me nervous, and takes away from my run.

Ladies, what do you think?  Do you run at night?

10 Fitness things I could not live without.

| cheriarmour

I thank goodness that I was born in such an amazing time, with such insane technology, that I can exercise pretty comfortably without injury ::knock on wood::.  HRG blogged on this a few days ago, and I just had to follow suit!  So I present to you, 10 fitness things that I Could not Live Without. 

1.  My iPhone. 

I don’t always listen to music, but I think the combo of the safety factor, music, apps, at the occasional Netflix when I’m stuck on the treadmill in the winter is really nice.  During the infamous Greensboro Marathon of ’13, I was able to call Austin (sobbing, mind you) that I was really sick, and that my finish would be later than predicted.  I thank God for that and that I didn’t have to worry him for hours.

2.  My Garmin.

photo 1Now of course, as soon as I started writing about this, my Garmin started acting really strangely, and at one point I thought it had completely died, but I used it yesterday, and I think it’s going to be okay for the next little bit here.  It needs to be okay because we just bought a house and that means you have to be really really smart with money for a second while you pay for this little thing that crops up, and that little thing that crops up.

3.  Not technically a fitness thing, but pedicures.  So, over the past few months, I’ve definitely dialed back on the pedis for money’s sake, but I went on Monday night to get a mani/pedi, and I forgot how good they are for the feet, and for the soul/sole.  Seriously, I forget that between teaching a LOT of classes a week, and trying to stay up with my running, your feet can use the help of a professional.  And that’s just what I did, especially since we were going to be taking our engagement photos.  It was awesome.

4.  Hydration things.  More specifically, the hydration backpack.  Yes, it looks really silly, and it kinda smells now that it’s been through some times with me, but I would never ever have survived a single North Carolina summer without it.  It’s convenient, it has a LOT of hiding places, and it frees up your hands to do things OTHER THAN grasping a water bottle.

5.  Good running shoes.  Thank God for the opportunity and the education I’ve been given on running shoes, because I think a good pair of running shoes can mean the difference between loving to run, and hating it because everything hurts and feels terrible while you run.  No, running shoes will not inherently make running amazing, but it makes the ride a little more enjoyable.

foam rolling

6.  The foam roller.  I think that there are some folks who still don’t really know what this thing is.  It is the most incredible little piece of equipment.  It’s cheap, and the best thing to do for sore muscles, pressure points, knots, or anything that comes up when you’re really feeling horrid.  And if you’re training for anything right now, you know that will happen.

7.  The treadmill.  Okay, okay, okay, hear me out okay?  Most of us runners refer to the treadmill as the “dreadmill” because of how boring it can be.  But it can be really really useful, especially when it’s really really hot, and really really cold.  (Anyone flashing back to the Polar Vortex of early ’14?)  There would have been no way, a few of those days, that I could have gotten a run in, and I would have gone crazy.  Especially the day when poor Austie was stuck on the road for like 6 hours trying to get home during the snow.  I needed an outlet for sure.

8.  Compression gear.  <-In general.  Compression socks.  Compression tights.  Will save your LIFE.  I started sleeping in compression gear during my first marathon and it heals.  I swear, it heals.

9.  Nuun, and other forms of electrolyte replacement that have  been invented that don’t contain corn syrup and Red 40.  This stuff is great to replace some of the stuff you sweat out, but also kind of great in real life.  You drank too much?  Nuun.  You have the flu and you can’t really eat anything?  Nuun.  You want to spice your water up and make it a little tastier and interesting?  NUUUN.

10.  Rundies.  Runderwear.  Banish them pantylines and they’re wicking.  You don’t have to go commando in your tights any longer folks.  Rundies are the way to go.  They’re expensive – but SO worth it.  I actually have started wearing them with regular things because of the lack of pantylines that is involved with them.  What a wonderful, wonderful invention.

What’s on your fitness must-have list?

Feeling the itch…

| cheriarmour

I’m not really sure what the photo company that Reebok uses for the Warrior Dash is up to, but a few mornings ago, I woke up to an email containing the photos from one of the first races I did over two years ago. Warrior Dash

This picture made me smile for a few reasons.

One, because I barely have any memory of this race. I think I might have fallen down and sprained my ankle a little bit during this race, but I really, for the life of me, can’t remember!

The other reason is Austin’s incredible facial expression. I think we were both having a great time – we typically do every time we do something active together, but what an incredible facial expression, right?  This is going to be my husband!

Feeling the itch.

I ran a ton of races back to back in the spring, and my body decided that it was ready to take a break after all of that, and that’s probably good since I had a wedding to plan and all that good stuff.  But today, I was at the Whole Foods, and I saw a flyer for a race I’d run in October of 2013.  I also saw another ad for the Greensboro Marathon, and part of me was a little tempted to maybe take on that challenge again – but no, right?  I need to focus on everything that’s going on here.

But I really am starting to feel like I’m ready to get back in the racing game.  My runs have been good – the heat has been tough, but I’ve been really comfortable with how my body has seemed to adapt to time/distance even though we haven’t been there in a while.  I know for a fact that I have Ragnar in November, but does a challenge in October sound cool?  Not sure yet.

Who’s racing in the fall?

 

 

 

Botched + Second Breakfast

| cheriarmour

First all, let me tell you about this app I discovered.

I registered me and the hubster for Fitbits for our wedding.  While we’re kinda like waitinnnng for one of our awesome friends to bestow upon us gifts so we don’t get “marriage fat” like a lot of folks say that you do when you get married, I’ve downloaded this app, called ‘Moves’ that I heard about in Shape Magazine last month.

It’s on your iPhone, and it tracks your movement throughout the day.  My goal is 10K steps, and I may up that to 20K once I get my Fitbit and can track when I’m not carrying my phone on me.  What is great about things like these is the fact that you never realize how sedentary you are until you have the numbers to back it up.  As a really active person, it’s pretty nuts that I sometimes have to hop up from my desk and do a lap to get my steps in.

Moves AppWhat I think is really cool, is the point in the day where I have run more steps than I’ve walked.  It always makes me think that my main mode of transport is my two legs, and that is really the coolest feeling – that I am really self-sufficient in a sense.

**

So part of the  other thing I’ve had to adopt doing is this concept of “second breakfast”. I used to have to do the second breakfast thing when I was working in the bakery at Whole Foods for a little while, post grad-school.  If you didn’t know, if you work in a bakery, you have to wake up at ungodly hours in order to have breads, coffees, and sweet things out.  So I used to eat something light and quick before work, and then during my break around 10 am or so, I would eat second breakfast, which was a more substantial meal.  Since I sometimes drop by my job super early or try to take an instructor’s class, I’m starting that second breakfast thing.  Usually my breakfasts are super healthy and involved a fruit and/or a smoothie.  But sometimes I go to Whole Foods and get one of these…

SconeWell, two things.  I ate one a few days later.  But yum to that breakfast!  I wish I could live off of breakfast foods and sweet things.  But alas, scones aren’t very good marathon fuel, so I have to eat other things sometimes.  Bummmmer!

***

I think you guys have me pretty well figured out by now.  I love love love reality television, and I will watch anything once.  Except the NFL.  So over 4th of July weekend, I started watching this show called ‘Botched’ which has changed my life for good.

The premise of ‘Botched’?

The premise involves two famous plastic surgeons, who we know as husbands of Real Housewives, Terry DuBrow and Paul Nassif, high skilled surgeons, who are consulted to do revisional surgeries, or basically, to fix surgeries once horrid surgeons have screwed it up.  It is so so frightening to know that there are doctors who run around screwing up people’s bodies, but they’re out there, hacking folks’ bodies left and right.

Now I’m pretty cool with my body, and I take good care of it, but once in a while, I think about getting my breasts reduced and lifted, or getting my nose fixed to look like my sister’s who I swear got the good nose.  But after watching hours of ‘Botched,’ I say HECK NO.  What a scary show!

What is your favorite breakfast food cuties?!

 

 

How long did it take you to fall in love with running?

| cheriarmour

I’m becoming a big fan of the Hungry Runner Girl, Janae, because she’s so freaking positive.  It’s funny, I’ve seen a few things written about her online, and the overwhelming “complaint” about her, if you even want to call it that is that she’s too positive or that she gets too excited about the littlest things.  I can relate to her – I actually had an associate at Barnes and Noble physically back away from me when I expressed my excitement that they had the Gavin DeGraw album in stock.  Okay lady, let me be happy, kay?

Anyhoo, so HRG posts yesterday and posed this question:

How long did it take you to fall in love with running?

The truth is, I don’t really know.

Sport Photo mailed me this blast from the past from my first race in 2011.  I’m not sure what possessed me to sign myself and my boyfriend (now almost-husband) for the race, except it sounded really really cool, and I think I saw in ad in one of the women’s fitnessy workout mags that I’d been reading like a Bible.

Mud Run

Austin so sweetly agreed to to the race with me, an obstacle 5k in Virginia, and we drove up there after a shift at the Whole Foods Bakery.   Yes, I know.  I’m a fitness director, and I worked at a bakery my first gig out of graduate school.  But I like my sweets, and I love Whole Foods so it worked.

I ran that race.  Finished in decent time.  Felt great afterwards, and within about a year’s time, I was running my first half-marathon.

There was never a moment where I was like “aughhh this is awesome,” but I guess I always just liked the way it made me feel.  I also loved the way you could kind of click into cruise control for a long run and just…run.  Like after a while it didn’t feel like death on a stick, but it just felt like a state of being, as natural as anything else did.  Sure, there were still some runs that made me feel like vomiting on on the side of the road, but the vast majority of the runs just felt…good!

So all that to say is, I just don’t know when I started to love running.  I’m not particularly fast or fancy, but it feels natural to me, and it feels like the kind of workout you can seriously do anywhere, and burn the most calories/stress off without killing yourself.

So my question on this wonderful Friday is….

When did you fall in love with running?

 

 

4th recap

| cheriarmour

The three-day weekend was perfect, but I’m almost at the point where three days was a little bit much for me because I laid on the couch nearly all day on Sunday, avoiding a smelly pile of laundry that needs to get done, and a dirty blender that has been in my sink all day.

As for my list of things that I wanted to do on the 4th, I think I achieved them all – the only thing I didn’t do was lay by the pool because the weather was unseasonably cool for North Carolina, and it was in the 80s all weekend – not blazing like I usually like it for pool days.

So on the fourth, we started the gorgeous day by doing NOTHING.  Well, almost.

First, I ran the Raleigh Downhill Mile with Matthew, where I found some friends.

photo 1I was able to crank out the mile fast enough so that I could cheer that little cutie on.

photo 2Matthew is a dear friend and my supervisor (for like two more days), and it was so fun to do something other than track down clients on a Friday morning at the race.  The girls raced first, so I was able to see him punch out a really impressive finish!

photo 5I cranked out a mile in 7:21.  However, my last name is not Armack, so the only proof you really have that it happened is my Garmin.  Which actually says I ran a 7:20 so HOLLA!  One of these days I will maintain a pace like this over the course of 13.1 miles.  A girl can dream, right?

photo 3

We were able to hit a local fancy coffee shop for some post-race eats.

photo 4And post race, we hit the WRAL Sand Desk that they’d set up.  How cool is that, right?

Once I got home, I laid on the couch, reading ‘The Fault in Our Stars,’ while Austin loudly chomped on peanut butter and jellies.  For hours, literally hours, Austin and I watched American Ninja Warrior while I fantasized about one day getting my upper body strong enough to fly through that course and make it up the Warped Wall.  Maybe one day…

I napped, of course.

And finally we headed out to see some friends for the 4th.

4thofJulyThe rest of the weekend was spent reading, napping, and running.  We also meet our wedding officiant, which is a fabulous woman who we seemed to click with really really well, so it feels awesome to cross another thing off the list.

On a personal front, I feel like emotionally, I’m a mess.  But I need to keep my eye on the prize, at the end of this emotional road, I get a new, wonderful husband, new pets, a new home, and a ton of time with friends and family, and that’s what’s important.

How was your 4th?