marathon

Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon – A New PR!

| cheriarmour

I hope you have had a good weekend.

I did!  Let’s lay it out right here in the beginning – I PR’ed at a half marathon on Sunday with a time of 1:55:40, at an average pace of 8:55 minutes per mile.  Whew!

I can honestly say today that I am sore and hurting today.  But more on that in a minute.

Weekend’s Beginning. 

So I started the busy weekend off by heading over to Fleet Feet Raleigh, and working on Saturday, which I do from time to help them out.  And it certainly doesn’t hurt that I get to be around a bunch of running stuff and running people.  You really ARE the company you keep – it’s nice to be around a bunch of runners and not feel crazy once in a while.

So after my shift at FF, I headed out to Holden, where I spent the night with some friends.  I was really paranoid about oversleeping the race, so I figured if I was with three other people who were running the race, it was nearly impossible to oversleep, right?

The Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon

The only thing I knew about this race was that it was flat.  Previously, I had run one beach race before, the Shamrock Marathon, and it was a good experience, however, because it was at the beach in March, the weather was chilly and very windy.  I was a little concerned that the same would happen this time because in the days leading up to the race, the weather app was looking pretty bad.  Bad enough that I had to borrow some rain jackets from some of the staff at Fleet Feet.

So anyhoo, the morning of the race dawned….early.  We had to wake up around 4:30am to drive to the shopping complex at the center of everything, and take a shuttle to the start, where we could run back to the center.  It was warm-ish, like 51 degrees, and we headed out to the start on a trolley.

There were *ahem* facilities as far as the eye could see when we arrived, and I was able to quickly use the restroom before we started.

The race was flat, and the air was still.  Because of how humid it was, I didn’t listen to music, and instead thought…a LOT since the humid air was causing my earbuds were slipping.

After the first mile, I looked down and noted that I was running a little fast.  In the 8:20s.  I tried to will myself to slow down, but kept things between the 8:30 mark and the 9:00 mark.  It hurt – the course was really flat, and with the same muscles firing over and over, my quads and hips started to ache early on.  Once I passed the halfway mark, and saw that I was holding that pace pretty steadily, I decided to push on for the following 6.5 miles, and held in there.

I quite obviously chugged a beer at mile 12.5ish, then pressed on to the finish, where I swung around to meet my friends.  There was a beer stand, massages, pizza (not for me after a race), and most importantly, places to sit after the race!

This was Jeff's first marathon!
This was Jeff’s first marathon!

10403090_10100524726620623_349408993288737128_n

19130_10100524626740783_4461370513366265902_nThe race was good, ran smoothly.  Unlike Tobacco Road, there wasn’t the profound congestion on the trail, so there was no need to bob and weave and waste energy throughout the race.  Water stops were frequent, and were FUN.  My favorite water stop was the ECU stop (they don’t call it a party school for nothing), where they’d rolled out a camper and blasted music for us to enjoy.

I’m sore.  I’m happy.  And I think I would do that race again.

What did you do last weekend?

Speed werk + China

| cheriarmour

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m training for Rock ‘n’ Roll, the full, in Raleigh in April.  Training is in full-swing, and last night, with there being some nasty weather in North Carolina early this morning and last night, I was forced to do my speed work, 12×400 with 400 meters of rest, on the indoor track.

Now that all sounds well and good, but the track?

Indoor Track

15 laps equals a mile.   Kill me!

Surprisingly, it wasn’t so bad though, and I’m not as sore a day later as I thought I would be.  Even though I think most people kind of dread speedwork, I will say that it’s a really fun way to get a lot of miles in – you’re so focused on hitting those meters 12 times (ew) that you don’t realize that 6 miles is come and gone!  And I think speed work can keep you skinny!

China

Forgive me, but I’m a little salty about this topic.   And by salty, I mean I’m a little salty, but more jealous.

My husband is going to China for work in a few weeks and I can’t go!  Blah!  It’s a work trip, so I have to hold down the fort while he goes and does work things in China.  But a few things I will do while he’s in China that first week of February?

  • I’m going to hire some housecleaning help that we’ve been talking about since before we got married.  Judge away, but we both work full time, I’m messy, and housecleaning isn’t my skill set.  I think it’s a good time for me to get some help in here and see how we do with it.  I would LOVE to (if money were no object) have someone once every two weeks, but we’ll start with just the one visit while my husband is gone.
  • I will cook so girly. Remember that epi of SATC when Carrie talked about secret single behavior?  One of my SSBs is eating strange things as meals.  Veggie dinners, salads with weird little things on them, and all of the things that your husband might look at you funny for eating.  I’m PUMPED.
  • I will drink wine in my underwear.
  • And I will miss the heck out of him.

I’m jealous, but I just want him back with me, not running around China!

What are your SSBs?

Addicted

| cheriarmour

It’s official…I’m addicted to quinoa.

It all started when I got a free quinoa bowl from Happy and Hale a few months back.

Photo via Bizjournal
Photo via Bizjournal

The place is a really cool concept – a very “Stuff White People Like” deal, with a full bar of fresh ingredients waiting to be combined into your delicious salad. Prior to my intro to the ‘noa, I’d kind of just avoided a ton of rice and grain, simply because the serving size on it is so small and I’d really like to eat more of something else without me getting bloated.  But I discovered the incredibleness that is quinoa, and now I just can’t get it out of my mind.

Similar to rice, you can cook it in the steamer, get a ton of fiber out of it, stay full for hours, and it’s SO plain, you can mix it with just about anything that you want.  Why I waited so long to be introduced to quinoa, I don’t know.  But I love it, and I’m not turning back.

2015 Events

Since I’ve been focusing more on the budget the past few months, even thought I’ve really wanted to sign up for races right and left, I’ve kind of held back, and as a result, I’m only signed up for Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh, and I’m so itching to sign up for something in order for me to keep my motivation and my fitness up throughout 2015.

So here are the options I’m looking at.

Rock ‘n’ Roll DC

P1160281I did this race, and since I stayed at the Westin, I ran into some cool-ass people like Carrie Keagan, who used to host Big Morning Buzz on VH1.  Still one of my favorite races, except for the killer hill at mile 6.

North Face Endurance Challenge

Since reading Dean Karnazes’ books, I’ve been really intrigued by the idea of ultra marathons (any marathon over 26.2 miles).  The idea makes my husband really really nervous, but I’m thinking about doing it just to see what I can do.  I love the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing one of these things.

Marine Corps

Marine Corps isn’t open, but the lottery opens in March.  Which means that if I got in, I would have to train throughout the summer.  In North Carolina.  Kinda blah, but I hear the race is absolutely awesome.  I also did training with a friend end of last summer, and I forgot that I don’t completely hate running long.  I just hate the heat kinda.

Nike

So this one is just sort of annoying.  The past two years, I’ve done the Nike Women’s Half marathon, and love it.  Nike canceled their DC event, and have yet to announce a spring event, leading me to believe there is no spring event.  It sucks, because these races are definitely one of my top races, but it’s also a total first world problem, and I have clean water and a warm bed to lay my head down at night, so no complaints.  Well, not that many.

So those races are on my radar for the year.  Any races/events you’re looking forward to signing up for to keep you motivated?

 

Weekend updates.

| cheriarmour

While you’re reading this, I’m actually sleeping in my little brother’s room at my parent’s party pad in downtown Charlotte.  I’m in town here only for a day or so, but that’s totally cool, because it gives me a new terrain to run on, and keeps things interesting.

So a few interesting points about this weekend.

  1. My Fitbit is turning me into a lunatic. I don’t think people really believe me when I tell them that my competitive nature has taken me to really really ugly places.  But to put things into perspective, my first summer working at Camp Pocono Trails, I was playing Gaga with the kids, and they would make fun of me for how into the game I would get.  At the top of my lungs, I’d scream that I would be the “LAST. WOMAN. STANDING,” as I picked kids off with the dodgeball, one by one.  They thought it was a game.  I knew better.  Well now that I can see how many steps I’ve taken, a friend of mine and three of her coworkers challenged me to a “Daily Showdown,” so I proceeded to walk to the bar, walk home from the bar, and continue walking well past 11pm.  I came in second, and I can’t really talk about my defeat, that’s how painful it was. Fitbit Competition
  2. We had a shed put in the backyard on Saturday.  So I wake up on Saturday to check out the shed, and it actually was pretty cute!  Then I look over at one of the guys installing it, and he’s wearing swim trunks and no shirt.  No judgement here, I’m just truly curious about his choice in attire.  Shed Install
  3. And finally?  I’m feeling really ready to sign up for something serious.  I got over my running hump, and running is starting to feel like a natural state of being for me again.  I’m playing with a few options – I ran Shamrock a few years ago for my first full, and I’d be interested to try it again to see if I’ve made any improvements.  I also have an entry for Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh set up, but since they haven’t released the full course, I’m not sure if I’m ready to commit without knowing the course.  Raleigh is terribly hilly, and that race can either be really really awesome, or kinda miserable.  I also am playing with the idea of like a 50k or so, to delve into the world of Ultra Marathons, but don’t tell my husband.  We watched a documentary about Dean Karnazes, and for some reason, I still have the itch to see what I can do.  I have zero interest in being a regular 90+ mile a week girl, especially with all of the teaching I do, but once or twice?  I think it would be worth it!

What did you do this weekend?

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?

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?

 

 

 

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?

 

 

Sometimes ya just gotta make out in public.

| cheriarmour

photo 1-1 photo 2Sike, when is this EVER okay?  Like, EVER.

Austin, his sister, and I went to the best sushi place in all of Raleigh for dinner to celebrate his sister’s almost-last class in her rotation at Pharmacy school.  She’s really cool, and noted this really odd couple at the bar – an older gentleman and a younger girl, maybe my age.  They flat-out refused to be normal and made out for like 70% of the night, making everyone on the bar side of Sushi Blues uncomfortable.  Cool….

Anyhoo, despite shattering my thumb into 10,000 pieces, I’ve been a able to at least keep up with my runs for the Nike Women’s Half this weekend, and got a run in some friggin beautiful weather in prep for the big race.

Race Prep

I’m so excited for the Nike Women’s Half for a few reasons.  One, having a race to run motivates me to keep up with my running and my fitness.  I work out a ton in real life, but having something to work toward, imagining cruising and ticking off miles on Sunday morning is what has kept me going over the last few weeks.  It’s cool because I get to do it with a million (okay, closer to 15,000) other women, I get to meet other bloggers in a meet-up on Saturday morning before the race :), and I get to spend time in the city that I really am in love with.

So now that I’ve blathered on and on about what my plans are for my weekend in DC, what are you looking forward to this weekend?

 

Home happenings….

| cheriarmour

More mangos.  

Number one, I’m still extremely troubled by the fact that there’s not one consensus on the plural word for mango.  It can either be mangoes or mangos.  So, I’ve been switching it up, but it makes me really uncomfortable nonetheless.  But if you’ll remember from about a week and a half ago, I went crazy on the mango sale at Whole Foods.  Well, when I went back the other day, and they were on sale, this time two for a dollar, so ya girl went cray on them.

photo 1 (8)I went to town dehydrating mango, which can be really expensive if you buy it in the bags, and really really fully of sugar, so it’s nice to slice up your own, and know that you’re not getting any of the gross stuff that can come in the bag.

Let’s make a right turn.

Reality TV.  

Porsha
Gif Via: LittlePieceOfDribblePiss /SurvivorSucks

Did anyone catch the RHOA reunion? Yikes, yikes, yikes. Porsha absolutely lost her mind for a second.  Now I absolutely do not condone violence, and because of that, Porsha needs to leave the reunion, and whatever it is that Bravo Andy chooses to do with her is his decision, but my LORD Kenya was getting on my nerves with the scepter and that damned bullhorn.  She is so so obnoxious, and she really needs to go.  But Porsha, you know you were dead wrong for hitting her.

This app.

I know you’re probably sick and tired of hearing all about my iPhone woes, but while I was in the process of re-downloading and configuring where I like my apps to go on my little phone’s desktop, I stumbled on Sara from Loving on the Runs’  sort of mini-review of TimeHop.

photo 3Here’s what it looks like, and it’s terribly cute.

The app links up with your Twitter, your FB, and your Instagram, and pulls statuses and photos from YEARS ago, so it’s a total trip down memory lane.  Here’s what I got yesterday!
photo 2This one was following a day when I won like $1000 in a local singing competition.  It was really awesome.  I also spent most of it repairing that Taurus that I had, but whatevs, that’s the life of being an adult, right?

I skipped Body Pump this morning 😦

I’m really bummed, but my thumb kinda still hurts from when I jammed it on Sunday night.  I packed my running clothes, and as soon as my clients leave from the job today, I’m going to set out for a few minutes and get the blood pumping!

How’s your Tuesday shaping up!?