Disclosure: SaltStick sent me some capsules to try and a bottle to give away. I did not receive any other compensation and all opinions are my own. It has been a wicked hot week in the Old Dominion AKA Virginia. Hot like, going for a run early in the morning and looking like you went swimming. Hot like, lots of feels like 100* going on. I've been sweating like crazy (and I'm a salty girl), so I have found myself frequently using electrolytes. SaltStick reached out to me and offered me the chance to try their product. Each capsule contains vitamin D3, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium, and potassium and you take them every 30-60 minutes with water while you are working out. … [Read more...]
Strip marathoning and I chose to do this
My brain is going about a million miles a minute right now. Too bad I can't run that fast LOL. So, I'm hooking up with Amanda at Running with Spoons again for Thinking Out Loud Thursday. 1. As I expected, the weather here has started to warm up. We are looking at starting temps around 50, going up to 70. The big question, of course, is how fast will it go up that high? I'm hoping not until at least noon since the races start at 6am. 2. The beauty of the Mainly Marathons races is that the course is a loop that you do multiple times (14 for marathoners on the courses I'm doing.) This means I can take off layers as necessary and change things up if needed. As Beer Geek said to another spectator at one of the Riverboat races last … [Read more...]
Did you #rockyourcore last week?
Last week was... interesting. I made some dietary changes, it warmed up a LOT, allergy season hit, and Beer Geek was on a four day bike ride. All my runs kind of sucked, my core was barely rocked, and my house looks like a bomb went off. … [Read more...]
Fueling your teen athlete, Gatorade style
A few weeks ago, Gatorade flew me down to Florida to visit the IMG Academy and learn more about their product. (How has it been a few weeks already and why haven't I written my recap of the event??? Oy.) The theme of the event was fueling your teen athlete and they had flown 9 bloggers down to attend. My athlete is only 8, but I took away a lot of useful information for both him and myself. I have long been a fan of Gatorade on hot race days. I tend to lose any interest in food, so having a way to get carbs into my body while hydrating on the run is very important to me. Learning that there is actually science behind it was pretty cool. Although there was definitely an emphasis on Gatorade during and after games (especially … [Read more...]
A Reluctant Southern Girl’s Tips for Hot Weather Running
Suddenly, this past week, Virginia decided it was July. Nevermind that it was really May, it was 90* with matching humidity. This is what I looked like when I got done running on Tuesday: Yes, that is sweat dripping from my elbows. Thanks for asking. Remember how cold it was for most of us this winter? The winter of single digits and crazy wind chills? The winter that thought it would stick around until August? Yeah, well that winter is over and I bet your body hasn't quite caught up. Mine certainly hasn't. So, I've been working really hard to acclimate to hot. After all, I have three more half marathons left this "spring" and it would be a safe bet to assume that at least one of them will be super hot and humid. In … [Read more...]
Bedhead is back
One of the things I love about long (very straight) hair is that there is no such thing as bedhead. Seriously, I could roll out of bed and brush my hair and it would look just as good as if I'd washed it (and sometimes better LOL). Those days are over for now. About a year ago, I realized my hair was getting pretty long and decided to just let it grow until I got tired of it and then donate it. I did some research and found a group I wanted to donate to: Children with Hair Loss. I chose Children with Hair Loss for 3 reasons: I like that they give free wigs and care kits to kids who are experiencing hair loss for any reason (and as far as I can tell from internet research, they are a legit company with a good record.) They … [Read more...]
I’m so fickle
Apparently I'm in love with running again. Or not. But tomorrow I might be. I feel like a 13 year old girl with her first crush. It seems I only love running when the weather is perfect and the timing is right. And, as one might expect from Virginia in August, it's hot and humid again. I tried to do everything right yesterday: I woke up and put on running clothes. I didn't shower. I even planned when I'd run. And then I just didn't do it. I could blame it on my crazy day: two work meetings, calls with insurance (both car and house), meeting with a contractor about house repairs, a call with the county about the car, the maid service, Jones' cello practice... I could blame it on being tired: I haven't slept well for the last … [Read more...]
TTT: Kindrunner, hot running, and bye bye Jeep Cherokee
1. Kindrunner has been around for a month and to celebrate they've decided to pay the kindness forward. Kindrunner.com announces "48 Hours of Paying Forward the Kindness!" We are so confident that anyone who experiences our website and learns our mission will want to take part that we are willing, for the first time ever, to pay the Kindnessforward. We have now been in existence for just over a month, and want to share our mission with as many runners as possible. From now until we leave the office on Friday (7pm EST) anyone who registers for Kindrunner will receive a $10 Kindness Cash Rewards Credit towards a future purchase of ANY brand and ANY item! Simply register on our site, treat your feet when the time comes, and remember … [Read more...]
I need to be independently wealthy
Why? Because I need a cabin or cottage or beach house in the north in the summer. I mean, Beer Geek works from home four days a week. It would work. He could fly up every Wednesday night, work from our summer home and then fly home on Tuesday evening to be in the office for his Wednesday meetings. That sounds perfectly reasonable, right? So, who wants to share their lottery winnings? Or family money? Or pay me a million a year to run and blog? No? Guess I'm stuck in the land of hot. At least the boys and I get to run off to Wisconsin for a big chunk of August. (Sorry, Beer Geek. Remember to feed the gecko while we are gone.) We have at least a couple of weeks every summer that look like the above. And every summer, I … [Read more...]
Virginia Summer + Foodie Pen Pal!
Virginia is hot and stupid humid in the summer. This is not breaking news. But this year, Virginia has been kind enough to throw in some low humidity days and some cooler weeks. For example, last year's end of school picnics were all cut short because of 100* weather and air quality advisories. This year, we had cold 1st graders when they got wet playing a sponge game at their picnic. But that's ok, Virginia is making up for it now. This week has been all high 80s to low 90s, with matching humidity. It's like trying to breathe soup. As you can imagine, my run did not go well yesterday. It wasn't that hot when I went out at 8am, but the humidity was 96%. I could.not.breathe. I planned to run 4-6 miles at an easy pace. I ran … [Read more...]
No rhyme or reason
Sometimes I have amazing runs. Sometimes I have runs that completely suck. Some days my legs feel fresh, others not so much. On any given day, my stomach can rebel. Or not. There are certain factors that are likely to make a run better than others. Cool weather=good run. Rest days=happy legs. Eating right=happy tummy. All pieces of an equation that you try to put together to make a good run. And then you have a run that surprises you. It's warm out. You start kind of dehydrated. You've eaten enough tomatoes to feed a small country. It's so humid your elbows drip sweat. And you think "this run is going to suck". But somehow it doesn't. Your legs turn over smoothly. A faster than usual pace feels easy. Nothing hurts. At the end … [Read more...]
And the rains came…
Saturday, the DC area missed a record high by two minutes. Seriously. It was 106* for exactly one minute, but it needed to be that hot for at least 3 minutes to count. As far as I'm concerned, 105* was still awfully darn hot. Sunday, I begged one of my friends to let us come over and use her pool. Otherwise, we were all going to sit inside all day and not move. (We had to turn our air up to about 82 to get it to actually turn off once in a while, so the inside of our house was melting hot on the main level.) But they promised us it would cool off if we could just get through the severe storms. Yay, just what this area needs - more wind and lightning damage. The first storm missed us, doing nothing but dropping the temp a few … [Read more...]
