I'm not gonna lie. Our vacation was AMAZING. But I've been home since Sunday and I'm still struggling to recover. The almost 16 hour flight from Sydney to Houston, coupled with the layover and then 3.5 hour flight from Houston to DC wore me out completely. Add in the fact that it's literally day and night difference in time (14 hour difference) and I've got the worst case of jetlag I've ever experienced. The first couple of days I also kept having issues with equilibrium. (You know how you feel the world is moving when you get off of a boat? I had that for about 36 hours after I got off the plane.) On the bright side, I've been waking up at 5:30am every morning, so I've gotten some early runs in. On the not so bright side, that means I've … [Read more...]
5 Tips for running in a foreign country
One of my favorite parts of traveling in a foreign country is to go for a run while we are there. It's a great way to combine getting some exercise with doing a bit of sightseeing. But not every location is conducive to a safe run and even those that are, requires some thought before hand. Culture, location, and distance all need to be considered before heading out on a run. Obviously, I'm assuming you already packed appropriate items for running and just need to figure out how and where. When we went to Ireland, I was not able to run much because the roads near where we were had no shoulders and no sidewalks. In New Zealand, I could have run easily in Rotorua and Auckland had a bike/run path right in city centre. In Australia, I was able … [Read more...]
Getting coffee halfway around the world
It's time for a coffee date, international style. I’m joining up with my friends Deborah and Coco for a virtual coffee date (they are both local to me – I should meet up for a real coffee date…) I’m also linking up with Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for Friday Five 2.0. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that this trip has been amazing! We've been to Auckland and Rotorua in New Zealand and to Nelson Bay and Sydney in Australia. For some reason, despite not having been here in 20 years, Sydney always feels like coming home. In fact, we immediately went for a beer at a brewery we enjoyed the last time we were here. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that we've had an amazing mix of kid oriented and adult … [Read more...]
Ragnar Pennsylvania Recap: Ultra Version
This past spring when my close friend (and multiple Ragnar teammate) suggested running Ragnar PA, I was all over it. When she suggested running it as an Ultra team, I was, umm, a little nervous. But I decided I was all in and signed up for a bunch of half marathons as training runs. I had grand plans of high mileage weeks and 6 training runs in 36 hours. But then I wore the wrong pair of shoes for approximately 8 hours of standing. And then I ran several races, despite a nagging soreness. And, boom! I was sidelined at the beginning of May. I've been injured before, but I've always managed to get back running within a week or two. Instead, I barely ran in the month of May. I did manage a pain free 5K at the beginning of June, but my … [Read more...]
Tuesdays on the Run: Celebrating the 4th of July
Today on Tuesdays on the Run, the topic is July 4th. In the US, that's Independence Day and we've been known to celebrate by watching fireworks on the Mall. (We've also been known to celebrate by going to bed at our normal time. Yeah, we are exciting like that.) This year's a little different. I'm sure I'll go for a run like I did today and then we are going whale watching. Not a bad life, really. … [Read more...]
Do you have to run to make a runfession?
Seriously, I feel like I've forgotten what it's like to run 5 or 6 days a week. Now it seems like I'm running 5 or 6 miles a month. Sigh. Runfession #1: I think I ran fewer than 50 miles in June - 30 of those miles were at Ragnar. That's right - more than 75% of my miles were run in one 36 hour period. Runfession #2: I was lucky in that my foot did not hurt when I ran at Ragnar, but I must runfess that I would have run my miles anyways. Thankfully, an amazing friend set me up with a pain preventing protocol (seriously, I've never spent so much time icing, massaging, rubbing essential oils, foam rolling, etc after a run in my life) and I was able to keep the pain to a dull roar when walking and it didn't hurt to run. Runfession … [Read more...]
DuClaw Sour Me This Cherry Soup
Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Sour Me This . All opinions and the cherry soup recipe are my own. Welcome to the June edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It’s a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month’s beer is “Sour Me This”, a sour beer that starts sweet and ends with a pucker. This is the third time I've received this beer from DuClaw, so it was really challenging to come up with something new. We did some brainstorming and we kept coming back to pairing it with fruit. But what kind? Last year we made a blueberry cheese cake and the year before we made granita. What new … [Read more...]
The highs and lows of June running
It's that time of the month again - the time we dig deep and think about how our month went and then share for Tuesdays on the Run. I have to admit that I had a hard time deciding how I felt about June. It was somewhere between awful and epic! June was an interesting month. My heel and ankle mostly behaved themselves, but for the most part, running was nonexistent. Well, except for Ragnar weekend. I ran fewer than 50 miles all month and 30 of them were at Ragnar PA! I started off the month with an awesome weekend with my fellow Skirt Sports Ambassadors at our retreat. The retreat closed with the Skirt Sports 13er - where I ran the 5K. The highlights of the 5K were no pain while running and I got to run it with one of my … [Read more...]
Tips for preparing for running Ragnar on an ultra team
Last weekend I ran Ragnar PA on an ultra team. Generally speaking, an ultra team has 6 members and one van, as opposed to 12 members and two vans. This means that you are running twice as many miles and have no time as the "inactive van." As you might guess, this makes it an entirely different experience. To be honest, I loved it! I don't think I'll ever go back to a regular team. Before you can even prepare though, your team has to decide if everyone will be doing 6 runs or 3 LONG runs. While I can't say this would be the case for every location, for Pennsylvania (and DC) doing 3 long runs means you could very well be doing a half marathon or longer in the middle of the night and then be doing the same at noon. No thank you! I'd much … [Read more...]
Skirt Sports Ambassador Retreat
In addition to traipsing all over Colorado with Beer Geek, a few weeks ago I attended the Skirts Sports Ambassador Retreat, which closes with the Skirt Sports 13er, 10K, and 5K. This was my second time attending and my second time running the 5K. Maybe next year I'll brave the altitude and run the 13er. (Or not, since I love cheering in all of the other runners.) (Photo courtesy of JoAnne Vaughn, Verve Photography) The retreat starts with a cocktail party on Friday night. It's a great time to shop, catch up with old friends, and meet some new ones. It's so awesome to see so many lovely ladies all dressed in Skirt - and to drool over both the vintage items that some wear and the "coming season" that they show us in the fashion show. (I … [Read more...]
School’s out for the summer!
Yes, it really just let out here (actually my middle schooler has a half day today). Yet, somehow I feel like we've been fulfilling our summer plans for a few weeks already. And since today's topic for Tuesdays on the Run is "summer plans", this post will be somewhat retrospective as well as looking to the future. A vacation with Beer Geek in Denver - this trip is already in our rear view mirror. Beer Geek and I hiked all around Denver - hitting Breckenridge, Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Colorado Springs, and Laramie, WY. We hit Pike's Peak, drank at innumerable brewpubs, and survived a crazy hail storm. All in all, it was an amazing vacation together to celebrate 23 years of marriage. Skirt Sports retreat - I had been looking … [Read more...]
It’s better to undertrained than overtrained, right?
In 3 days I'll be hitting the start line of Ragnar Pennsylvania on an ultra team. What's an ultra team? It's a team of 6 instead of 12 - which means you pretty much never have down time and you run twice the number of miles. It seemed like a good idea back when I signed up. And my usual method of running races as training runs was going well. Until it wasn't. I'm honestly still not sure what is going on with my foot and ankle. I've managed to run 7 miles in the last 3 weeks. Seven. I missed 100 miles for the month of May by more than 45 miles and so far in June I've run a 5K. A pain free 5K, thankfully, but only a 5K. I only have to run ten times that between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon - … [Read more...]
