Generations of Strong Women

I haven't posted in a while, but as I gathered motivation from the strong women in my family this morning I logged on to blogger only to find that this is my 100th post, and I couldn't be more proud of the topic.

This post is in honor of my mom for running her first race ever, my great grandmother who is fiercely battling a truly devastating disease--Alzheimer's, and my cousin who is traveling to DC next week to run her first half-marathon.

If you've ever met my family, you know that we have an overwhelming ratio of women to men. Many of them have red hair and are yes, stereotypically stubborn and feisty. However, they are also wildly successful, frequently independent, have resilient souls, and are nurturing caretakers. They are lawyers, teachers, firefighters, realtors, grad students, wives, mothers, and most of all friends. 

This morning my mom ran her first race ever, The Pasco Challenge 5k to raise money for Alzheimer's research. She was nervous about completing it, but I knew she would be fine. When she called after the race and told me she did the entire 3.1 miles without stopping to walk I could hear the happiness in her voice and I have honestly never been so proud. She pushed herself to do something outside of her comfort zone and succeeded. In the process she helped contribute to research for a disease that hits close to home. I only wish I could have been there at the finish line cheering her on.

My mom at her first 5-k

Next weekend I have the privilege of cheering on my cousin as she runs her first half marathon (the RnR National Half Marathon on St. Patrick's day) with her sister and dad. You should have no doubt that I'll be decked out in Green sparkles and waving some ridiculous poster for all the runners. I hope I can come up with something as funny as the other spectator signs I've seen throughout my races.

I am honored to be a part of the women in my family. They impress and inspire to me to no end. Congratulations, mom! 

Looking at old photos with Grandma.

Love you, mom!

My mom with my great-grandmother

There's an App for That

I can't do a comparison of nutrition/fitness apps because the first one I happened to download turned out to be phenomenal...and free! No matter how many times I've resolved to "eat healthy" I've always resorted to old eating habits after a few weeks (read: eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's in one sitting). I'm hoping this new app I have called My Net Diary will be just what I need to stay on track for the long haul. 

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It really is unbelievable when you start keeping track of all the calories you eat in a day. Little things add up so quickly. With this app all I have to do is put in the food I eat and the exercise I do every day as well as my weight loss goal. So far, the app has been able to find every food in the database and save the nutritional information to my iPhone. At the end of the day it gives me an anaylsis of everything I ate and what I need to improve upon (for example my calorie intake was good, but I ate too much sodium and not enough fiber). It also tells me if I keep up at today's rate of eating/exercise I'll be losing about ____ pounds per week. 

You can also upload before and after pictures, keep track of water intake, any vitamins or medicine you've taken, etc. I think it's great and because I always have my phone with me it's pretty easy to keep up with. Here is the website if you're interested in learning more.

What are your favorite health and fitness apps? 
Do you have a weight loss goal? Mine is 139 pounds by June 1. I'm 5'8" and my starting weight on February 1 was 157 pounds. 

Happy Running (and fitness tracking!), 

   

New Challenges

Some anxiety has recently been relieved from my life now that I have my dream job in the Navy and I know exactly when I’ll be leaving for boot camp. On June 19, 2012 I’ll fly to Great Lakes, IL to go through 8 weeks of basic training. Following graduation I’ll head to Fort Meade, MD for 7 months of schooling to become a Mass Communication specialist. Until then I have to contain my excitement and eagerness to get that part of my life started, and instead focus my energy on studying and exercising while maintaining my 40 hour/week job. Both the studying and exercising are incredibly specific. Sure, all aerobic activity will be to my benefit, but at the end of boot camp I will ultimately be tested on three areas of fitness: running, push-ups, and curl-ups. 

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For my age and gender my bare minimum requirements are as follows:

1.5 Mile Run in 15:15

50 curl ups in 2 minutes

17 push ups in 2 minutes (allowed to rest in up position only)

Obviously I don’t want to risk only passing with the bare minimum so here is the full chart:

FEMALES:  AGE 20 to 24 YEARS

PERFORMANCE                                CURL    PUSH     1.5-MILE    
CATEGORY                                          UPS       UPS           RUN   

OUTSTANDING  HIGH                           105         48              9:47   
OUTSTANDING  MEDIUM                      103         47             11:15  
OUTSTANDING  LOW                             98         44             11:30  
EXCELLENT    HIGH                               94         43              12:15  
EXCELLENT    MEDIUM                          90         40             12:45  
EXCELLENT    LOW                               87          39             13:15  
GOOD    HIGH                                        78          33             13:30  
GOOD    MEDIUM                                   66          28             13:45  
GOOD    LOW                                        58           21             14:15  
SATISFACTORY HIGH                            54           20             15:00  
SATISFACTORY MEDIUM                       50           17             15:15  
PROBATIONARY                                    46            16             15:30  

I’m thinking of setting a goal for myself. I’d like to be able to go to boot camp in the “Excellent High” category and graduate boot camp in the “Outstanding Low” category. It certainly won’t be an easy task considering my current push-up max is 17, and to be honest I don’t even know if they would count. It’s like my elbows get to a 90 degree angle and turn into JELLO. It’s a problem.

If that's a push-up then I completely take back the fact that I can do 17. Source

As far as the run goes, you’d think I’d be fine, but it turns out running 13 miles at a 10+ minute pace doesn’t help you at all when you’re trying to run 1.5 miles quickly. Last week at the gym I forced myself to run 1.5 miles in 12:57. At the end I went from sprinting immediately to walking and gasping for air with the sweatiest, most bright red face you’ve ever seen. Because I have wonderful luck, this is the exact moment that a cute trainer at the gym walked in and looked my direction which caused me to stumble. I dropped my towel and it went flying off the back of the treadmill. He came over and handed it to my while trying to restrain his laughter at the girl who apparently isn’t coordinated enough to walk on a treadmill. Awesome. Obviously it will be much harder to complete the 1.5 miles without a treadmill forcing me to run a certain pace and replacing cute, smiling trainers with screaming boot camp instructors, but hey, I’m up for a challenge.

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On a side note, I’m headed to Florida next week on a little vacation to visit the ’rents and soak up some sunshine with my college friends. Which is good because it is currently 34 degrees and about to sleet in Washington, DC. I’m pretty sure Satan invented sleet. The weather channel cannot fool me when they call it a “wintry mix.” More like a mix of evil.

This face says I need to get out of this office and soak up some Florida sunshine quick.

So what are your favorite speed workouts? Any tips on getting faster?

Happy Running,

Race #12: Rock N Roll Las Vegas - December 5 - Las Vegas, NV - 2:29:

Sin City. My goodness, there is just too much to say. Get a cup of coffee, it's a long one: 

I landed in Vegas and met my family at our hotel: Treasure Island. Flying in at night was awesome - Vegas really is just as cool as it seems in the movies.

I quickly learned that the National Finals Rodeo was in town at the same time as the race and I was in heaven. Everywhere I looked there were cowboys and you better believe I ran upstairs to put my boots on :)

I took my parents to the expo where I got my bag, doll-size shirt (you better believe I traded that sucker in for a large), and head lamp (pretty cool freebie!). This was their first race experience and they were overwhelmed. They had absolutely no idea how big the race world is. My mom totally got in the spirit though: 

Then I got to meet up with some of the most beautiful, friendly, and talented runners (who also happen to have some pretty cool blogs). In true blogger fashion we all met up at an ice cream shop - totally Hungry Runner Girl's idea. I blame her for making me and my mom eat this monstrosity of an ice cream :) p.s. - she is just as sweet and beautiful in person as she seems on her blog!

I met wonderful bloggers like Blonde Ponytail, Skinny Runner, Runner's Rambles, Meals and Miles, Vitamin Bee, Running for Trevor, and of course Pain, Pride and Perseverance. There are many more - sorry I didn't get everyone's names!  

So many great runners and bloggers!

SR doing something funny

Glad I found a new blog to read: Vitamin Bee :)

Love this pic with Julia.

My family and I spent the weekend doing a little gambling and shopping (a.k.a. throwing money out the window, but that's apparently okay in Vegas). We also got to see the Cirque du Soleil show Mystere. It.was.freakin.amazing. I'm not kidding when I say my brothers and I had our jaws hit the floor several times, and 19 and 20 year old guys are hard to impress. It is just unbelievable how talented (and strong) those people are!

Before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and time to get ready for the race. My brother Nolan was happy to cheer me on from the warmth of the hotel room :) I don't blame him.

It was pretty dang cold and I was a bit worried that I wore a t-shirt and capris when it seemed like everyone was wearing long sleeves. Personally though, I was perfectly happy with my outfit choice. I know I would have been hot and miserable if I wore more clothing. 

The excitement surrounding the race was incredible. Not really sure how it couldn't be - I mean you are running the strip at night! This is a 180 degree change from my Ohio/Indiana race where the only thing to look at was a corn field.

The only photo I took during the race was this blurry one where two women were wearing shirts that said "Cuz Sam" and "Cuz Heidi" - my name is Sam and my mom's name is Heidi. What are the odds of that?! With all those gambling junkies in Vegas I'm sure someone smarter than me could figure out the actual odds, but you get the point. 

I'm not as heated as others about how the race was executed because I thought that overall it was decent, but I will say that the design of the finish line was absolutely outrageous, actually dangerous. The medals and pictures were so close to the finish line that everyone had to immediately come to a complete stop when it got backed up. My leg muscles weren't very happy and I felt like I was going to be sick. Water > Pictures. Just sayin. I'm sure it is ridiculously hard to organize 44,000 runners, but if you're going to charge people $150 to run you should have your sh*t together. Enough said.

You all know that I am the Queen of awful race pictures. (Remember the I'm so pretty picture?) I didn't even realize it was possible, but I think I might have beat it with this one: 

WHAT?! I refuse to believe that is me. That person looks like they are about to eat someone.

The next morning my parents left and I was waiting around for my 10:30 pm flight when I learned that tickets to the American Country Awards were being sold for just $22 to a 5:00 pm show. I'm sorry, WHAT?!? I think I almost cried I was so excited - I didn't even know it was in town! I even treated myself to the lower level $60 ticket, a new dress from Forever 21, and then got my hair did all fancy-like at the mall. Yes, it was a "treat yo' self" kind of day (anybody watch Parks and Rec?).

American Country Awards at the MGM.

The gorgeous Carrie Underwood

It was an awesome show. It was too bad that I didn't  have any of my family or friends with me. I had such a good time though, even if I was by myself.

Then I headed to the airport.

Love the colors/design of this race shirt!

I was about to say adios, Vegas when I discovered this in my coat pocket: 

Noooo!!! $30 down the drain :( Oh, but wait, excuse me Mr. baggage handler man, do you ever gamble? I have a $30 casino voucher that could be yours for only $20. Score.

I don't recommend taking a red eye and then having a morning layover in Atlanta. From 5 am - 6:30 am EST I slept just like this even with Christmas music and vacuums blaring in my ears.

I just realized that 2011 consisted of 7 half marathons, one full marathon, and a few 5k races. I had so much fun, but that number sounds ridiculous. Maybe 2012 is the year I cut back on the number of races and instead focus on improving my time. Regardless, I wouldn't take one minute of 2011 back - it was phenomenal.