Stretching helps!

Here’s another stretching video over at Active.com

Sodas!!! You should hate them!

“Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.”

Please read this article and stop drinking the stuff!

I’m going to have a busy Spring!!!

I’ve chosen my first few races for the coming year.  I had a couple that I knew I wanted to run, but hadn’t decided exactly what my plan was.  So, now that I do know, I wanted to get it posted.  I know that posting it here, makes it real somehow.  These races only get me through May 2010, so once I find more races that I want for later, I will post those at that time.  This list, also includes my first triathlon!  Yeah, scary, I know.  Without further ado…

These first three races are part of the “Triple Crown of Running” (Anthem, Rodes, & Papa John’s).  The entry fee for all three is $60.

March 6, 2010   Anthem 5K Fitness Classic

March 20, 2010   Rodes City Run 10K

April 3, 2010   Papa John’s 10 Miler

April 24, 2010   Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon – entry fee = $50

May 2, 2010   Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon (Relay) (Ohio) - entry fee = $60

May 8, 2010   OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (Indiana) - entry fee = paid

May 22, 2010   Terre Haute Triathlon (Indiana) - entry fee = $50

Well, I posted the entry fees for each, to see if any of my generous friends would like to help out this aspiring endurance athlete pay for the entry fees.  If you do, please let me know, and I’ll help you, help me

2009 Nike Human Race – Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day!  I want everyone to go out, and run this for my birthday!  This would be my birthday present from you to me.  For those locally (Louisville, KY), let me know if you want to meet up and run together.  I have a 10K course downtown that takes us across the bridge to Indiana and back.

I was working on getting a shirt from my team captain, Sarah Kay of the Pied Pipers, but I don’t have it yet.  If I have it by tomorrow, I’ll be wearing it during my run (of course I’ll get pictures). ***update – received the shirt today!

So let me know if you’re doing the same.

My official time from my first half-marathon

You can read the details from the race here.  I found it weird that the race results weren’t posted on the official website (http://www.louisvillemarathon.org).  I kept updating it today, to no avail.  I went to the “Contact” page and saw that they had a link to Head First Performance’s website.  Low and behold, the link to the results are there!

Here’s the link so you can look it up yourself, but I ended up with…

Official Time (chipped): 1:55:50.90

Gun Time: 1:56:56.30

Ave Mile: 8:51

Place: 200

Age Group Place: 24

My first half-marathon

As the title states, this was my first 13.1.  I hadn’t even ran that far in any of my training runs.  I think I had maxxed out at 12 before I began my taper.  If you haven’t read my previous posts, this was the Louisville Marathon/Half-Marathon that was ran on Sunday Oct. 18, 2009.  It started at 8, and it was cold!!!  You can see by my picture below, I was a bit on the chilly side…

Once it got closer to race time, I did a light warm up and stretch.  The sun had started to come up too, which gave me hope that it would warm things up a little.  Then started the dreaded disrobing…

Just Purchased – Garmin Forerunner 305!

I’ve been wanting one of these for a while now.  I have a couple of friends that have them, and seem to really like them.  Suzy from the Bourbon Chase also had one (she had the 405 as well) that she let Tim use during his legs.  Logan (the Ironman) had the 310, but that one was a little out of my price range.

I picked up the 305 this evening from Best Buy for $149.99.  Not a bad price.  What I like about the 305, is it has some extra features for those into multisports.   I can later pick up a bike attachment for my bike that will show me my cadence.  I can also get an optional “foot pod” for when I need to run indoors.  The foot pod is a little expensive, so for my indoor running, I think I’ll stick with the Nike+iPod system.

The 305 does come with a chest strap to record your heart rate.  This wasn’t a big deal since I already have the Polar F11.  It has worked well for me, and I will continue to use that for my strength training, and non mulitsport cardio.

I have it charging right now, and I won’t be able to really try it out until my half-marathon I’m doing on Sunday.  I will try to right up a review on Sunday after I run though, to let you know how it held up for me.

RevAbs released today!

I forgot all about this until just a little bit ago!  RevAbs 90 workout program by Brett Hoebel through Beachbody.  It’s a 90 day workout program to get you fit, and bring out the abs (obviously).

I got a demo disc with my Tony Horton One on One series about a month ago, and really liked the workout.  If you’re looking for a new program, this might be one to look into.  It’s a little less expensive than P90X too (which is always good).

You can pick it up through my coach link here. By purchasing it through this link (or any other program), you will be assigned me as your Team Beachbody Coach.  I’ll assist you throughout your program, and answer any questions you might have along the way.

I plan on picking this up soon as well.  I’ll be posting my thoughts on the program, as well as weekly updates as I have done with P90X.

My first Half-Marathon – this Sunday

Ok, so you know I’ve been training for a half, and it is almost upon me.  I signed up for this just a couple of weeks ago.  I’m very excited about it, but also a little nervous.  I wasn’t until I ran the Bourbon Chase last weekend, now I’m concerned about me recovering completely by this Sunday.

If you are interested in coming out to support me, I’d really appreciate it.  As you know from my first 5K run/post, I was really lonely at that race.  So come out, make signs, bring your cowbell, and help me get through my first 13.1!

Here’s a link to the course, so you can decide where to see me on the course.

Bourbon Chase 2009 – Fun!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted this sooner.  The race really took a lot out of me.  I’m just now starting to recover, and hopefully my legs will soon as well.  So here’s the story.

This year was inaugural 200 mile relay race on the bourbon trail through Kentucky.  The race started on Friday, Oct 9th, and ended Saturday Oct 10th at 8:30.  They had a staggered start based on the projected running times of the teams.  My team, The Healthaholics, started at 9:30 on Friday.  We had two vans, each carrying 6 runners.  Here is a breakdown of the two vans:

Van 1

Runner 1 – Jim

Runner 2 – Stephanie

Runner 3 – Renee

Runner 4 – Devin

Runner 5 – Melanie

Runner 6 – Holly

Van 2

Runner 7 – me

Runner 8 – JC

Runner 9 – Logan (Ironman)

Runner 10 – Suzy

Runner 11 – Timothy (Timbo Slice)

Runner 12 – Jennifer

The day started off really horrible weather wise.  It was cold and rainy, and at some times, really rainy!  I felt for the first van’s crew out there running in all of it.  Van 2 met up at 11:30, and headed to Leg 7 exchange point.  This was located at Maker’s Mark Distillery.  When we got there, the rain lighted up, and stopped for a bit.  I was praying that it’d stay that way for the rest of the race.  I started my warm up, about 30 minutes before I projected Holly would be at the exchange to hand off the baton (slap bracelet – how cool) to me.  Once I was done with my warm up, Van 1 showed up to meet us.  Before my race, we took this photo: