Here we are, a crazy number of days into Virginia's Stay at Home order. Today, the Northern Virginia area began Phase 1, which means more things will be open at reduced capacity and with masks required in establishments. To be honest, it's not really going to change my behavior (we are super careful), including that I will continue to run the majority of my runs right out my front door. But I do have some runfessions, so I'm linking up with my buddy Marcia to share them with you. I runfess that I never really got into Virtual Races. I always had enough real races on the calendar that I didn't need them. I still don't LOVE virtuals, but I've registered for a few. Everything I've registered for has had one thing in common: the money … [Read more...]
Tips for Running a Virtual Race
It's now been 2 months since races started getting canceled. Two months of not getting that motivation that races provide. Two months of missing the social interaction of running with (possibly 1000s) of your best runner friends. Naturally, runners are looking for something to fill that need. At the same time, organizations are trying to bring in income or fulfill the promise they made to provide a race or, unfortunately, take advantage of the situation. Yes, I've heard rumors of fake virtual races out there. So, here are my tips to have a successful virtual run. Choose a legit race. OK, maybe you didn't get a choice because the virtual is the option given to you for a canceled race. But if you are looking for a new race, there are … [Read more...]
The Week I Ran ALL the Miles
If you've been around these parts for a while, you know I thrive on doing crazy things. I've never quite crossed over to an ultra runner or even a consistent marathon runner, but I love to do things like Ultra Ragnar (6 runs instead of 3) and multiple marathons or half marathons in back to back days. So, it should come as no surprise that I jumped on the Yeti 24 hour ultra. What may be a surprise is that I did that on Tuesday and then on the weekend, I jumped on another challenge - 42.5k in 42 hours. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I was not in any way trained up for either one. But when have a I ever let that stop me. For those who don't know, the Yeti involved running 5 miles every four hours for 24 hours, basically 6 runs … [Read more...]
Runfessions of a Stay at Home Runner
Funny how when I was actually a stay at home mom and runner, I never actually stayed at home. That is so not the case anymore - I've literally run every day for the last 30 days without going farther than 2 miles from my house. So what kind of runfessions might I have with such a small running area. I'm joining Marcia from Marcia's Healthy Slice to share... I must runfess that I never thought that I'd start a run streak when I was under "stay at home" orders, but here I am. It's actually working great for me because it helps with my mental health and it gets me moving every single day. And since I'm running most of my runs super close to home (short runs are on a quarter mile loop...), it's nice to only have to run for 15ish minutes … [Read more...]
Running safely in the days of Covid 19
If you've been around this blog for a while, you know that one of the main reasons I run is to combat depression. It helped me overcome postpartum depression and it has helped me many times in situational depression. If there was ever a time when situational depression would rear its ugly head, isolation due to Covid 19/coronavirus is that time. I am currently on day 19 of a minimum of 15 minutes a day running streak, in an attempt to keep from a downward slide. So, obviously I'm concerned with running without putting myself or others at risk. I live in a highly populated area. It's not quite like living downtown with all the high rises, but there are a lot of people in my area. Gone are the days when I'd go on a 10:30am run and see … [Read more...]
Drinking coffee by myself
This weekend is the coffee date link up with Deb and Coco. Sadly, given the current pandemic, there will be no in person coffee dates. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that I hosted a "Corona Relay" this weekend. Every runner had to run 3 legs in 24-36 hours. I managed 13.3 miles (math error, oops) in 24 hours. I had to do the last 3 on my treadmill because it was mid afternoon on a gorgeous day. The number of people walking past my house was ridiculous. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that I'm on day 11 of a run streak. I am happier on days when I run, so now I'm running every day. Today was leg day, so I only got in a mile and I did it on a T intersection near my house. I had to run it 8 times to get a … [Read more...]
Keeping my sanity during the Covid-19 / coronavirus pandemic
AKA how I'm only losing my shit occasionally during the coronavirus pandemic. I'm not going to pretend that I'm not stressed and that I haven't had moments of panic or that I haven't yelled at my kids, but for the most part, I'm doing ok. But it's not just "luck" that I'm doing ok. I had to institute some things to take care of myself and make this situation bearable for me. My number one rule: Cut myself (and my family) some slack. My kids are doing online learning now. I can still work for two of my jobs. My house needs a spring cleaning. Yada yada yada. Bottomline is that there's plenty for me and them to do. Some days we get shit done. Some days we don't. And that's ok. I've started a run streak. I realized late last week that … [Read more...]
Running in the age of Coronavirus / COVID 19
I'm gonna just put this out there: I am 100% in favor of social distancing. 100.Percent. I am far from panicked, but I do believe it's a necessary step based on everything I've read and some personal friends who are in the trenches. I may not be a doctor, but I am a research librarian. Long before this blog became a thing, I was trained in how to evaluate sources and how to synthesize information. So, now that we've got that out there. Let's chat. Today (yesterday?) alone, we saw the cancellation of 100s of races. I saw a lot of sadness, and anger, and disappointment. All of these are absolutely valid emotional responses. I get it. I don't currently have any races coming up on the calendar (I know, what?) and we managed to put on … [Read more...]
Celebrate International Women’s Day with ZOOMA!
International Women's Day is March 8, 2020. It is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. It has been celebrated for over a century and I hope that in my lifetime it becomes truly just a celebration of women, rather than a call to action. Unfortunately, we are not there yet. ZOOMA Women's Races supports and honors women every day, but for International Women's Day, we are hosting a virtual race to specifically support Women for Women International. Women for Women not only supports women in conflict areas directly by giving them support and tools that they need to overcome, but they also work to educate and … [Read more...]
Runfessions from the winter that wasn’t
Here we are at the end of February and I'm whining about being cold, but it's currently 33* and the high is supposed to be in the high 40s. While that's right around the "average" high and low for February in this area, it feels like we've had a lot more of the average and a lot less of the cold days than usual. And we've had zero snow. ZERO! It really feels like winter never arrived this year. So, my first runfession as I enter the runfessional at Marcia's Healthy Slice is that I'd really like at least one snow before the warm weather hits us! I must also runfess that there's been precious little running around here. The worst part is I can't find my "give a damn." I know I have some half marathons coming up (eh, they aren't until … [Read more...]
Hiking in St. George’s Bermuda
I wrote this post when we got to Bermuda and then got too busy to finish it. I'll post about the race weekend next, but suffice it to say that the trip was amazing! Bermuda is gorgeous! Our trip here was a little rough - 3 airplane changes in Miami, 5 gate changes (from one end of the terminal and back several times), and an overnight in a hotel (if by overnight you mean from 11pm-3:00 am). If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that you should probably never travel internationally with me. Anyways, we finally made it here on Wednesday morning and spent the day walking around the town of St. George's and the forts near the town. It was about 4 miles of hilly walking, so I didn't feel any guilt about not getting in a … [Read more...]
Reasons to Lift Weights after 50
OK, I'm not *quite* to 50 yet, but that big round number is looming in my near future. 2020 is a big year around here - Beer Geek and I will have been married 25 years, Jones goes off to college, and I hit 50. And I've really been struggling with my fitness since the 50K training messed with my hamstring. I'm finding that my body does not recover as well as it used to and all those things I skipped in my younger years are coming back to haunt me. I'm currently back on the FWTFL program, which has 3 weight workouts each week, plus HIIT which can range from a kettlebell workout to bodyweight tabatas to sprints. Since life is a lot busier than the days when I had time to run for more than an hour every day of the week, I find the super … [Read more...]
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