running

5k Update!

| cheriarmour

So I started to get a little itchy when I was at home.

I’ve been keeping up with all my workouts.  I’ve been spending more time in the gym, and if you live on the East Coast, you understand why.  It has stormed nonstop just about every day since I’ve been home.  But after my visit to Charlotte Running Company, and my discovery of that 5k series about an hour away, I signed up, and there I was! 

First off.  I have never been so late to a race in my life.  I rolled our of my house super early and encountered some traffic due to a, get this, pickup truck that was towing a car.  Rubberneckers almost made me late to my race?  Seriously guys?  So once I got there, I literally jogged to the registration table, snatched up my race number, and jogged down the start.  I don’t suggest this to anyone.  Leave enough time for traffic, for rubberneckers, for whatever may go wrong.  That was stressful, and not a good way to start a race.

So the 5k began, and it was literally the hottest and most humid race I’ve ever participated in in my entire life.

Hot 5k

This is me after the race, looking like a sweaty shrimp. I had to run shirtless, and fantasized about all the things I could drink as I dragged through the course. The air was like swimming through soup, and the fact that I could see Lake Norman along the course, and that I couldn’t touch it, really wasn’t helping.  So we finished, and I stuck around for awards, and found out I won my age group, 25-29, for the 5k.  Cool!

I think for the minute, my thirst to get out of the house and do something competitive has been quenched 🙂

What running means to moi.

| cheriarmour

Yesterday was National Runner’s Day.  So I had to celebrate what’s brought me so much joy, so much comfort, so much much CONFIDENCE, and so much calm.

I can’t say that I’m an incredible runner.  I just love to run.

I dabbled in running a few summers ago, in the summer of 2010, when I took off some of the weight that college put on me.  I was teaching Zumba, and I was interested in this whole “running” concept.  So I didn’t really run, I more schlumped about.  And I continued to schlump as I began my second year of graduate school.  The schlump became more of a jog.  The jog became more of run.  And my first race was a Warrior Dash.  One race turned into many.  Many 5k turned into a half.  And a few halves turned into my first full.

Running means feeling comfortable in my body.  It means I’ve accomplished insanely cool runs that I never thought in a million years I’d be able to.  It means this blog.  And it means this super cool feeling I get when people tell me (as they did at the wedding I was at a few weeks ago,) “I love your blog!  You’ve inspired me to do my first 5k!”

That said, join me in cheering on my little sister!

Kimmy Treadmill

Kimmy’s joined us for our summer streak as she strives to take off a few pounds that Auburn University put on her, with an ultimate goal of doing a 5k in November.  I’m proud of her.  We ate, we drank, and she still had it in her to hop on the treadmill (positioned right in front of Jeremy Lin), and get some milaege in.  Keep it up!  We’ll certainly keep up with you!

Taking my show on the road – Charlotte Runnings.

| cheriarmour

Having a sick parent totally blows.

My mom’s been sick since about March, and I had to make one of my first real grown-up decisions, leave my job for a few weeks, and come home to take care of bidness.  A lot of the care-taking was falling on my dad, and that’s a lot for one person to deal with.

I packed up my stuff yesterday, and hit the road to Charlotte, a place I haven’t really live-lived since the end of high school.  So I’m taking this time to take my running thing on the road, try a few new classes, meet up with some old friends, and document the whole tour! (All the while taking care of my mama!)  Can I do it?  Ya darn tootin’!

So after I peeled myself away from this face…

Mini

…and I headed back to the neighborhood where I spent the majority of middle school, and some of high school, Willowmere in Matthews, NC, for a little tempo run, and to go see my childhood home.  I wish I’d snapped a pic, but I felt like a neighbor would come and beat me if they caught me taking a picture of a home where children dwelled.  I had to play it safe.

So I ran down memory lane.

I ran down the strip of grass where two little douchenozzles on the school bus held my bookbag, and I flailed around, turtle style, as I missed my stop.

I ran down where the bus would usually let me off and I had to carry my bass clarinet allllll the way home in 7th grade. (I was a weird kid.  I literally get embarrassed when I see people from my childhood because I don’t want them to recall how strange I was.)

I ran past the house where the late Fred Lane, a football player for the Panthers, was murdered during a dispute with his wife, a less happy memory.

I ran down the cul-de-sac where we lived, and tried to steal a peek to see if our playground was still up.

I ran past the kid’s house who I had a crush on, but who moved away to like Ohio in 8th grade.

And I ran down to the track where my Daddy, no lie, woke up early for freezing morning track workouts so I’d make the track team.

What a weird and cool feeling to literally run down memory lane.

Monday Motivaçion

| cheriarmour

So, I rolled over around 9:00am on Sunday morning (before you call me a big fat slacker, I worked out this evening, okay!), and met a dear friend, Melanie, for brunch on Hargett Street in Raleigh. It was prime position for us to watch our Ironmen (and women!) compete in Raleigh’s inaugural Half Ironman Triathlon.

I’m no triathlete. But I have nothing but the utmost respect for them. So when we heard that a Half Ironman was coming to Raleigh, I was blown away. I mean, I didn’t even know what it entailed, but it sounded hard. So I did what every Masters-educated woman. I Wikipedia-ed it. Duh. (Seriously, tell me I’m not the only one who can waste hours on Wikipedia). So a Half Ironman Triathlon consists of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and 13.1-mile run. And cool as it is, they picked my city to host it! I mean, Raleigh is up-and-coming. But it’s so cool to think that people were traveling from far and wide to my city to get their Ironman on.

If you can’t wrap your noodle around how incredible of an athletic feat that is, think about this. All my marathoners and half marathoners, close your eyes. Remember that relief you felt at the end of your first half marathon? Like “yay girl! I’m done!”. These folks swam. Weren’t done. Biked. Still weren’t done. And then went for a jaunty 13.1 miles through downtown Raleigh in blazing heat. That is an athlete. Here I am, feeling myself because I ran a rinky-dink little marathon, and these guys are killing it in four hours?

So anyhoo, after we finished brunch, we made our way over to the finisher’s chute. We saw a few of the guys finish, and they were cruising like it was a Sunday jog. Like they didn’t look stinky, sweaty, or stressed about finishing.

And then we saw her.

Laura Bennett, a 38-year-old woman from Colorado came down the chute. She was cruising, again, looking like her 13.1 mile run was an effortless jaunt. She smiled as Mel and I screamed variations on “You go, girl,” at the gazelle that was making her way down the chute. She was gorgeous. She was inspiring. And I’m in love.

Ironman

I may never run an Ironman. I mean I’d like to, but who knows. But if nothing else, Laura Bennett, 38, inspired me to sport it UP and get my tail in gear. If she can kick that much butt on a blazing Sunday, what the heck am I capable of? Congrats girl. You totally blew me away.

I was such a slob kabob today.

| cheriarmour

I wasn’t feeling great. And I didn’t make it any better by watching hours and hours of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,”and drawing the blinds. Watching a show on a day where you feel less than stellar about yourself featuring a family of insanely gorgeous Armenian bombshells does nothing for your self-esteem. As I lay there watching Bruce Jenner (who may be one of my favorites in that family) contemplate doing a little something-something to his face to fix the damage a doctor had done in the 80s, I began to fantasize about the work I’d do, should a plastic surgeon magically appear, free of charge, in my living room. I dreamt my breasts were lifted and reduced, and that I’d magically begin frolicking on beaches in teeny fringed bikinis, similar to Rihanna, and that my new boobs might just stay in place without any worry about them flopping out of the suit. My mind wandered further. How long would this imaginary surgery keep me away from the gym? Would I gain weight as I recovered from this imaginary surgery? This surgery was compounding my imaginary life.

I’m aware that this line of thinking is insane. And 93% of the time, I’m normal . I’m super intelligent, and I’m an ugly girl at all. I place a premium on treating people well, which is the number one factor that contributes to beauty. But evvvvery once in a while, that sneaky little rude thought weasels in. So I wanted to see, and sort of make sure, that I’m not alone in this irrational line of thinking. So I posed this question to a lot of you a few evenings ago, and I was shocked to see a lot of you had the same weird hang-ups about your body as I do. Comments poured in. A lot of you hate your stomachs. Your legs. Your feet. Your thighs. And the most insane thing? The majority of these comments came from smart, beautiful, and last but not least, healthy girls. Girls who were not only beautiful on the outside, but girls that I know for a fact had accomplished and lived through incredible feats. Girls who work for non-profits. Girls who successfully manage a hectic work schedule. Girls who’d picked up and moved across the country with no fear, and no family.

All this is to say, I think it’s okay to have those days when you doubt something about yourself, even if it’s physical. But those perceived flaws are likely only a flaw to you. If you keep on being an awesome girl with a sick personality, those little things, only perceptible to you kind of become non-existent. Cause who really cares that you have big boobs when you right a sick blog, right? 😉

Summah motivation – I’m going streaking!

| cheriarmour

The weather is getting warm, and the heat, plus North Carolina humidity has this way of zapping your motivation for anything but sitting by the pool in a pink bikini with a cold Mich Ultra.  But alas, you don’t get any faster, musclelyer, and you don’t get paid for sitting around, sippin on kCals.  Womp womp.  Cue the RW Run Streak, here to save the day.

Streak

 

 

During those long hot days, there aren’t really any races to motivate you.  For the past few weeks, I’ve literally had to drag myself, kicking and screaming, either to the gym, to the mat, or to put running shoes on.  And I always feel better during and after the workout, but the getting started party is like so….::side eye::, ya know?  So the RW Run Streak is this thing where, from Memorial Day (yesterday!) to the 4th of July, you run at least one mile, every day.  It’s a 39-day-streak, and it gives me a reason to add a mile onto whatever it is I’m doing, plus it gives me a sweet excuse to turn that iFonuh on selfie mode and grace your computers with my sweet mug.  So RW Run Streak, Day 1?

Streak 2

 

Hawt.

So I tried this new thing yesterday…

| cheriarmour

So I have my new car, and since I’m saddled with a teeny car payment (it’s big for me!), I’ve been budgeting a looot more tightly.  Brown-bagging the lunch, seeking out more free/less expensive group x options, and running (which is free) a ton!  Which I must say, it’s kind of a nice feeling to actually have a sense of awareness about where my money is going.  But I digress.

I live about 2-3 miles from my job.  And I’ve started to become a little tired of watching my gas dwindle away from these little back and forth trips I’m making to my job.  It’s unnecessary.  And I’m not helping the earth.  So while I save up a little cash for a bike (and lord help, this means I’m going to need to learn to put a helmet over my huge hair), I decided to try running to work.  Get a little exercise in, run to work, and run home.  So how’d it go.

So Raleigh is hilly.  I had to plan a route that was a little more roundabout in order to avoid a gnarly hill.  It was pretty unavoidable. 3/4ths of the way in and I was cursing my decision, and running about 6 minutes late for work.  Dang.  I should’ve left a little earlier.

I’m going to challenge myself to run to work a few more times, see how much gas I can save, and build a few more miles into my day.

Challenges with this plan.

  • Packing.  I had to stow my keys, $5, and a few chews for my low blood sugar in a belt.  On days when I need a little more, this may become challenging.
  • Time.  I didn’t build enough time.  But for incidentals, I need to block off at least 30 minutes for me to get to work with enough time.
  • Clothing.  I need to waterproof some makeup or something.  I looked heinous at work yesterday.  I could feel judgment piercing me from people’s eyes.  I felt the need to caveat each time someone looked at me with “It’s not my fault, I ran to work today”.
  • Stench.  Oh my god.  Like.  I cannot with the way I was smelling yesterday.  To be fair to myself, the funk was two-pronged.  I’d taught a Zumba class earlier, so the Zumba sweat, layered with the budget sweat, added to me smelling like a horse.  I smelled like a horse.  I really sincerely apologize to all my co-workers, and I commend them for not making any comments to me.  Any comments would have been deserved though.  I need to figure out a way to leave some wet ones, some baby wipes, and some touch-up makeup at work.
Before...you don't want to see the after...
Before…you don’t want to see the after…

So I challenge you, if you can do this safely at any point this week, to build a few extra miles into your week by running to work.  Oh, and Happy Memorial Day, guys!  Werk!

Wedding weekend! (We took the running tour to Reidsville, NC!)

| cheriarmour

Pardon my brief absence, this weekend, one of my nearest and dearest friends, Alexa Wilde (formerly Terry) got married.  SO I took the tour to the bustling metropolis of Reidsville, NC.  Reidsville is a cool little town, kinda close to Greensboro, and the Terry home is beautiful.  Additionally, Charles and Tish, the parents of the bride, have acted like something of my parents away from home – if I showed up to their home in the middle of the night, they would take me in, feed me, and refuse to allow me to leave until I was back on my feet.

Alexa and I have been friends since Elon University, when we both were members of this sweet a cappella group.  And before you act like a hot dog wiener and make fun of us for being all Pitch Perfect, we were so amazing, so don’t be a hater.  So anyhoo, Alexa got murried.  And I’d be lying like a snake if I told you I didn’t ramp up my workouts and healthy eating the week or two before.  The thought of appearing in wedding photos that will be in a person’s memory forever is terrifying to me.  I don’t want to be the one screw-up in a picture that the bride like is still making fun of   25 years later, when she’s explaining to her kids who the sweaty buffalo was.  So I threw in a few extra cycling classes and made sure I didn’t eat anything that might make me all puffy in the photos.

So being the naturally anxious person I was, I did the best thing I knew to do to make sure I wouldn’t drive anyone nuts with my anxious pacing, the morning of the wedding.  I packed my running clothes, and a pair of sneaks, and hit the (super country) road.  I decided to actually run to the barn where Alexa was getting married to check a few things out.

Field

I cruised up to the field first, where you can see that the sky was lookin a little weird, and a few chairs were set up.  (Spoiler alert! The rain held off for us to get our girl married!)

Barn

And then I headed over to the barn. From the outside, it looked like a barn. But it was magic.  Deer antlers.  Old artwork.  Furniture.  A bluegrass band.  I ran around a few times, then headed back to the house, where we did all of the girly fun wedding prep stuff.  I truly feel like scheduling a workout before you put on fancy clothes is the best way to make sure you feel awesome in your clothes.  I don’t care if you’re 500 pounds, running before you put on a fancy dress makes you feel like Tyra in the photos.

Alexa

So me, my date, and the bride. We had a blast.  We didn’t stop dancing.  And we sent our girl off in style.  I’m so happy for our friend, and even happier that I was able to squeeze a run in in such a beautiful little town.

As a side note, disasters don’t just happen for the bride the day of a wedding.  Examples?

    • I didn’t pack any underwear except the ones I was wearing. None.  I had one pair for the entire weekend.
    • I forgot the appropriate undergarments for my dress and had to borrow some from the brides amazing mother.
    • The orange cat I’m cat-sitting ate ALL of the food I put out for him in the first 5 minutes of me being gone, I’m assuming because he vomited on my bed.  Or someone else’s cat broke into my apartment simply in order to vomit on my bed.  Either way.  There’s cat vomit on my bed.  I’m totally not going to include a photo of that here.  Some things have to remain sacred, ya know?

So congratulations Alexa and Colt Wilde!  Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your special day.  And welcome home, Cherisse, time to wash the sheets!

“I just don’t have time to work out”

| cheriarmour

We don’t embarrass people here on the blog. So no names. But a few years ago, a co-worker who knew I taught fitness classes asked me how it was that I’d managed to say in such good shape throughout school. She was interested in beginning to work out. I thought that was great! So I told her to make sure that she was doing something every day. Walking, going to Zumba, running, swimming, just doing something. And she told me that she’d love to lose weight for a cruise she was going on later that year, but that she didn’t have time to do all that I’d told her. Um. First off. Why did you freaking ask me if you’re just gonna be like “Nah, definitely not doing that.” Second off, what the heck do you mean you don’t have time to work out?!

I get it. You’re busy. We’re all busy. I work full-time, I work at the gym, and I have relationships that I’d like to maintain. But if you’re anything like me, you also may like to maintain a healthy weight, you want to feel good in your clothes, and you’d most importantly, like to avoid diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, high blood pressure, and the like. Right?

So if you feel like you don’t have time to work out, take 5 minutes out of your busy day, and look at my suggestions. I’ll have you working out in a second!

  • So, like, what sort of stuff do you do to maintain your personal hygiene? I know it’s a weird question, but work with me here. Do your pluck your eyebrows kinda daily? Do you floss? Do you paint your nails? Wash (or in my case, twist) your hair? You need to start regarding working out like you do some of these things. So tell yourself you’re not allowed to go to happy hour til you spend like 45 minutes on the elliptical.
  • Build your workout into your day to make it more convenient for you. When I was in my second year of grad school, I had like, 8 hours of classes on Tuesdays. So between my 2nd and 3rd class, I would spend the hour and a half doing something. Sometimes I’d run. Sometimes I’d hit the gym where I worked for a class. Sometimes I’d row. And then I’d baby wipes the gross parts and put extra deodorant on for my class. So if your day is jam-packed? Consider a lunch-time workout. Consider a workout while you have a break.
  • Have a date with yourself. I assure you, I have a brain. Actually, I have a Masters. But there’s something simply delightful about carving out the half-hour, the hour, or the hour-and-half to work out while Judge Judy, Maury, Swift Justice with Nancy Grace (which no longer comes on much to my chagrin), the Real Housewives of Blah, or Dancing with the Has-Beens blares. You focus on the crap, and somehow, your time spent on the machine kind of melts away.
  • You have homework to do? A paper to write? Break it up. If you’re pulling a marathon stint, writing your final paper of the semester, write half, write 3/4ths, go for a walk with your dog, and then finish up. You’ll have a little more energy, and some gnarly ideas may come to you when you get the sweat pumping.

So like seriously, if you want to be the sexiest person in the office, in your graduate school cohort, or at church, as I often find myself to be, sneak your workout in.  You’ll perform better.  You’ll look better.  And you’ll finally feel  better cause you’re not making some lame excuse to stay out of the gym.