Endurance Swimming Workout

I was pressed for time the other day, but B and I still wanted to knock out some yardage in the pool. I ended up doing one of those endless-laps routines that everyone hates so much, but I broke it up into more manageable pieces so I had a few thousand yards under my belt before my shoulders knew what hit 'em.

Warm up
3x300 easy

Workout
5x200 good effort
4x100 drill
4x50 odd fast, even easy
100 easy
5x200 good effort

Cool down
2x200 easy

Total: 4000 yards/meters 

Places to cut back on yardage if necessary:

• Do 2x300 warmup 
• Remove second set of 5x200
• Remove 100 easy 
• Do 1x200 cool down 

These modifications will lower the total to 2400 - still a very respectable amount of swimming.

My Other True Love

I have a MAJOR thing for soup. Everyone talks about the winter months being "soup season," but let's be honest...soup is fantastic 365 days of the year, if you ask me.

Which, obviously, you did. Or something.

Regardless of your opinion on the seasonal appeal of soup, the fact that it's December means that everyone should be cozying up to a bowl of warm, liquid perfection. I recently found two recipes that blew me away, and I had to share them with you. Bonus - they're both from the same website (Vegangela), which I will now be obsessively stalking. Girl's got talent!

First up was the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. Until last week, I hadn't found a good recipe for butternut squash soup (most are too sweet for me). This one balances the sweetness of the squash with some tropical ingredients and there is so. much. flavor. in every bite. B even loved it, and he hates every ingredient on an individual basis. Note: I left out the coriander and cilantro because I was out of both. I also didn't use a jalapeno because I was lazy.

I tried the Roasted Fresh Tomato Soup the very next day. I had bought a ton of tomatoes at the grocery store for some reason and needed to use them up, stat! I eat approximately 1 tomato a month, so I don't know why I felt compelled to buy a pack of 9. Brilliant. But, obviously, it worked out.
I once again omitted the fresh herbs for this recipe. I also think I added a hair too much salt :( Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious, but the roasted veggies should really be the stars of the show here.

Let me know if you try out either of these awesome recipes! I still have a small container of the tomato soup sitting in my freezer, I'm trying to save it until I can get some more tomatoes and restock.

Have a happy Friday!

Back from the Dead

I'm still here! The last few weeks have been terrible in terms of work and school, but I'm back now! Let's see...what's happened since the last time I posted?

• Two 5K races
• One 5 mile race
• Three  PRs (because I haven't done a 5 miler before)
• Some swimming (but not enough)
• LOTS of wonderful foam rolling. My calves are happier than they've been in a loooong time. 

First was the Chesterfield Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, which I ran with B. I broke 23 after a slow start. There were more than 3000 people there and many, many people lined up way too close to the starting line. I had never run a big race without corrals! It was lots of fun though.

The 5-miler (the Believe in Girls 5M race) was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I placed well but wasn't trying to race hard. My goal was to keep an even pace with good form. I held consistent 8min/mile and finished at 39:59.

Yesterday, B and I ran another holiday-themed race, the Santas on the Loose 5K in Webster Groves. Everyone who entered was given a beard and a santa hat. I elected to forgo the beard because I always get way too warm when I run. It was 60 degrees! St. Louis has been burning up lately.

There were cookies and hot chocolate at the finish line, yum! This course was also hillier than expected. I don't think I've been giving Missouri enough credit, I thought it was flat all over. WRONG!

Small hills,yes, but they just kept coming! 

But - amazingly - I PR'd with a 22:28. I didn't feel like I was running that hard, but the start was much smoother than the Turkey Trot so that certainly helped. I don't love the 5K distance, but I don't want to swear off it until I break 22. I think I'll be able to do it pretty soon with a flat course with a good race plan.

So - that's been my schedule for the past month. I can write up some individual recaps if anyone is local and is interested in doing these races next year.

As for my life outside of running....
I made Thanksgiving cookies, using this awesome blog as my inspiration.

Oh yeah - done with our Christmas shopping! And see those golden star gift tags?

I made them! They were super-easy. I made some salt dough (like you'd see on pinterest), cut out stars with a cookie cutter, made a holly pattern with a big rubber stamp, and painted them with gold paint after they were done drying. 

Carly getting into the Christmas spirit...

Of course, I've been working a LOT. Here are the fruit flies that I stare at all day, e'ery day:

Well, I think you guys are more or less caught up on my oh-so-exciting (not) life. I tried out a few recipes that I'll be sharing over the next few days, including the best butternut squash soup everrrr. And marathon training officially starts tomorrow!! Very excited over here in the AIDIH household.

Have you done any holiday races this year?

A Confession....

....I haven't done a very good job with my nutrition/hydration/foam rolling goals for the past few days.

I've had several exams this week (not a good excuse!) and have let things slip. I ran a 5K this morning and paid the price: I felt terrible as soon as I started and my time was way off.


The race was on a really hilly trail, and I don't think that any of the runners expected anything but flat pavement. Here's the elevation map, courtesy of RunKeeper:

That last hill was a doozy. I felt like my nose was scraping the ground. My time was in the mid 23s, i.e. doubling this 5K time still wouldn't be as fast as my most recent 10K time. Yikes!


Things to be grateful for: 
- I still managed to place 1st in my age group, 2nd in women, and 5th overall (disclaimer: there were not many runners, haha!)
- I got a medal, and I love love love medals. I have 5000 swimming medals that I don't care about...it's something about RUNNING medals that gets me all hot and bothered.

Standard post-race picture. Hairy legs - check. Chipped polish - check.  

- My calves cramped up, but not in the usual way or place. I think it had more to do with dehydration than injury.
- It was only 3.1 miles, not 13.1. Short race = shorter recovery, so I won't be out for a week.
- Christmas is right around the corner (at least in my mind). Bring on the snowflakes!
- I just found out that two of my best friends from college are doing the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May! B and I will be headed home to race it with his mom and sister, and I'm SO EXCITED that we'll get to spend time with close friends as well. It will be their first big running race - they used to be swimmers too - and I hope they catch the running bug for good.

Things that are bumming me out:
- This test. Tomorrow. 12 hours away. I am NOT prepared.

Goals for the week ahead: 
- Survive tomorrow
- Get back on track with my hydration, nutrition, and general care.
- Squeeze in a bike workout
- Swim at least twice
- Keep a positive attitude even though work will be getting crazy (I'll be in lab 6AM-11PM some days!)

What are your goals for the week? 

I'll leave you with a quote that helps me through failures in lab: "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'" -- Mary Anne Radmacher

Election Day

VOTE

“Remember something, if you will, about voting: Voting is not a horse race, you're not going there thinking "Gee, I gotta pick the winner so I can brag to my friends 'Oh, I picked so-and-so and he or she won.'" Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience and when you've done that, don't ever, EVER let a Democrat or Republican tell you that you've wasted your vote because the fact is, if you DON'T vote your heart and conscience then you HAVE wasted your vote.”  ― Jesse Ventura

Holy Cheeseplosion, Batman!

Have you guys heard of the site called Pintester? No, not Pinterest....PinTESTER. This girl tries out popular ideas found on Pinterest to show you if they work or if they're a giant fail. She's HILARIOUS. But seriously - don't take my word for it - go read about the soap clouds.

Anyway, last night B and I were inspired by a pin about baked mozzarella cheese bites. Basically, you just (1) take a piece of string cheese, (2) cut it into cubes, (3) dunk the cubes in milk and roll in breadcrumbs (4) bake. Easy peasy, and we had all of the, uh, "ingredients" on hand.

Inspiration: *

 

Our sad little attempt: 

As Pintester would say.... "nailed it."

As ugly as they look, we devoured the whole pan. Warm, melty cheese is never a bad thing, although I think next time I'll just stick a cube of cheddar in the microwave and call it a day. 

*Original picture and recipe come from Abby at Never Trust a Skinny Cook. She DOES offer tips about how to keep your cheese balls from melting/expanding/exploding in the oven...we just didn't see them until it was too late. 

Dealing with Disappointment

As I mentioned in my post about the Rock 'n' Roll St Louis half marathon, I had a mediocre race that ended in a PR that I probably didn't deserve. But what if it were the other way around? What if I had trained my butt off, had perfect race conditions, fought for a super PR, and fell short? It wouldn't have been the first (or second or third or fourth...) time that I'd fallen short of a goal, and it happens to everyone sooner or later.

I met very few setbacks as a swimmer in middle school and high school. I did suffer from one potentially career-ending injury, but I did lots of rehab and made the tough (but correct) choice to skip half of a swim season. That same year, I had the goal of qualifying for the PIAA state championships as a high school freshman. I worked insanely hard for the second half of the season and I did end up qualifying for states. I met every major goal that I set for myself over the next few years. One time, I wanted to make it back to the finals in a big swim meet but missed the cut by one place...only to find out that a girl ahead of me had been disqualified (i.e. I was bumped up and did indeed swim in finals). A lot of my swimming went like that: part of my success was luck, and a larger part was just plain old hard work, killing myself in the pool and weight room every. damn. day. (like those Nike ads, except, you know, real).

In college, my all-consuming goal was to be an All-American. To be an All-American, you have to go to the NCAA National Championships and place in the top 16 in an event. I had a great freshman year and provisionally qualified for NCAAs, which means that my time was below the consideration cut but fell short of being fast enough to be invited to the meet. I was disappointed, but I knew I had three years to improve.

And then the same thing happened sophomore year.

And then the same thing happened junior year.

And then, my senior year, I had a shot. My relay snuck into NCAAs as the last invited team, and I was stoked. I had a crazy-talented group of ladies on my relay, I was swimming best times (aka PRs in runner-speak) without even tapering, and I ready to cap off my senior year with one of those storybook comebacks that are in every inspiration sports movie ever made. I was about to star in my own version of Miracle.

Training for nationals was awful. I felt like I was swimming through jello, and I was sluggish at every practice. I wasn't too concerned, because I knew it would all work out in the end. It always did.

We got to the meet, swam our race, and JUST missed placing high enough to be All-Americans.

I've never been someone to cry after a race, or talk about life being "unfair," or throw hissy fits in general, so I'm ashamed to say that I had about 5 minutes of insane corner-of-the-locker-room bawling before I was able to get it together. Everything felt OMG-SO-UNFAIR, and I was too immature in those emotional post-race moments to remember to behave like a human being.

I'm not proud of how broken-up I was over that one bad race. I had everything in the world to be thankful for, and I lost perspective for a little while. I felt insane, immature, and ashamed as soon as I came to my senses. My coaches and teammates asked me how I was doing, and I was able to look them in the eyes and tell them that I was truly disappointed, but life goes on. I was thankful to have had a chance after four years of failure. I was thankful for the fact that I had a healthy body that let me swim at all. I had both a "real" family and a swimmer family that I loved to death. I had food to eat and water to drink and a place to sleep at night. Thinking about all of the truly wonderful and important things in my life made me feel so small and selfish for worrying about something as comparatively insignificant as being an All-American. That's not to say that being an All-American isn't an amazing accomplishment - it is a HUGE deal - but I'm disappointed that I let it consume my life to the extent that it did.

It's been a while since NCAAs, and I've thought a lot about how the experience changed me. I still feel sorry for myself sometimes, and that's ridiculous. Why? Because my exclusion from the NCAA podium wasn't at all unfair. I had thought - mistakenly - that my hard work meant that I was owed something by the universe. But really, what made me more deserving than anyone else? Absolutely nothing. Whether the girls on the other teams had worker harder, trained smarter, or just had a better race by chance, they had all beaten me. Fair and square.

I don't know why it took me 21 years to learn this, but sometimes you will truly work as hard as you can and you will fall short of your goals. It happens. It sucks. And that doesn't mean that "waaahhh life is unfair," it just means that you have to get up from the floor, dust yourself off, and face your work/training/life with renewed determination and grit. Make yourself stronger instead of complaining about what went wrong. I did a terrible job of that at NCAAs, but I can guarantee you that every failure since then has been different. I'd encourage you to take a similar attitude - work hard, set big goals, don't be afraid to fail, and then work harder. At the same time, be thankful for the amazing things in your life that have nothing to do with work or sports. With an attitude like this, even your failures will be more graceful and inspiring than the successes of many, many other people.

And to end on a high note: Luckily, the girls on my relay team had qualified in other events in which they DID make All-American. They were (and remain to be) incredible, and are some of the most decorated athletes in the history of our school. Those ladies take hard work to a whole new level, and they still motivate me on a daily basis. I'll tell you more about them someday so you can be hella-inspired too :)

Procrastination is the Name of the Game

I started today with one of THOSE mornings. You know the ones - when you really really want to get out of bed and be productive, but your covers hold you hostage and your pillow whispers sweet nothings in your ear. Blah - it was bad. I usually pop out of bed at 6:30 to walk the dog and get some work done watch the news, but I was up too late last night and was feeling lazy. I got my butt out of bed just long enough to take Carly outside and hear the Today show music, and then I konked out until 9AM when I (again, begrudgingly) headed out the door. I had a review session for an upcoming cell biology exam...I appreciated the review, but yikes! Scheduling it on a Saturday morning was a killer.

I got back around 11 and headed to PetSmart with B to get some food for fuzzbutt. There was an adoption drive going on and we were thisclose to coming home with another dog, i.e. I considered stuffing one of the puppies into my hoodie and bolting for the door.

Died when I saw her. Beautiful. 

We made a pit stop at Target because I needed a peppermint mocha fix and because we were out of oatmeal. I've eaten oatmeal for breakfast every day for....three years?... and we haven't had any in the house for FOUR DAYS. I'm amazed the earth didn't explode.

Can anyone go to Target and only buy one thing? We looked around for a bit and ended up getting some egg nog, hot chocolate, and a hat for our upcoming Turkey Trot 5K. B desperately wanted to run in something festive.

Pumpkin as stand-in for B's head

This hat was only two dollars! It's our first thanksgiving away from our families so we're planning on drowning our homesickness in sweat in the AM and turkey/green beans/mashed potatoes in the PM. I'm looking forward to our first low-key holiday but I'll miss my grandma's annual 20-person blowout.

I really needed to get studying after shopping was over, but I thought a nap was a better use of my time. I have NO idea why I was so tired today! After another hour with my true love (my bed), I decided to test out the calves with a short little run. My goal was simple: don't push too hard, no more than 3 miles, and listen to my body. I felt awful in the first 200 yards and almost went home, but I loosened up after that. I took a few breaks to stretch and massage my calves whenever the pain got too bad, and was able to do a safe, easy 2.5 miles. I held a 9:08 pace, which is slower than I normally run but was perfect for today. I would have been thrilled with 10:00min/mile this time last year, so I'm just thankful for how far I've come since then. I have to keep reminding myself that this injury is only a temporary roadblock...unless I get in my own way and prolong it by doing something dumb.

I was so proud of myself for staying within my limits that I went down to the gym in our building for some celebratory arm work

The gym is really nice for a high-rise, and I love the variety of cardio machines. There are a few key exercises that I couldn't do here, but it's a great place to go for a workout in a pinch. B and I probably wouldn't have joined a "real" gym if it weren't for the fact that we needed a place to swim.

Earmuffs still on from earlier....dork

I did some tricep pulldowns and lat pulldowns, but unfortunately ignored my biceps as usual. Swimming works your triceps much more than your biceps, and so my tris are quite literally larger and stronger than my biceps. Thus, lifting biceps depresses me, so then I don't do it and just perpetuate the problem. Note to self: add bicep strength to list of "stop being dumb" goals.

Dinner was a junk salad, i.e. a mixture of all of my leftovers on top of lettuce. That bad boy had butternut squash, roasted onions, almonds, raisins, feta cheese, black beans, pinto beans, and some balsamic vinegar on top. It was ok, but didn't knock my socks off. The gingerbread tea I had along with it was also suprisingly blah.

The rest of the night was foam rolling, studying, and enjoying the first glass of eggnog of the season.

What's your favorite seasonal drink? Eggnog, cider, hot chocolate, peppermint anything...? For me, this would be like trying to choose between my (non-existent) children.
Do you have pets? Obviously I am Carly's babysitter/snack-giver/ear-scratcher, but I've had four other dogs over the course of my life. I've also had a few fish and an ill-fated hermit crab named Pickles.

Swimming Workouts

I have no idea how to put together a good running workout. People talk about "tempo runs," "hill repeats," "sets of 800s," and I'm all like "I'm just gonna go do some random miles, ok?" It's not the most interesting or productive way of going about my training, but I do it because I'm still inexperienced.

It hit me yesterday that some people swim this way! New flash: no one wants to just do laps for an hour straight. I'd try to drown myself. Sooooo: I think I might start a new page on the blog for swim sets so that you guys can get some fresh ideas. I'll try to post my own workouts to keep myself honest, and you can adapt them to your own skill level and time commitment. If anyone is interested in starting a swimming routine (DO IT!) I can post some basic workouts, too.

Yes, you. Get in the pool. 

To start you off, here's something similar to what I did the other night with B. Do these at your own pace - I didn't include times.

Warm up:    4x150 choice (I do mostly freestyle)
                   4x50 freestyle - descend (1st 50 is slowest, 4th 50 is fastest)
Kick:           5x100 kick - odd flutter, even choice (I do breaststroke kick)
Main set:     2 times through (first time through freestyle, second time stroke/choice):
                       2x100 drill
                       2x75 kick, drill, swim by 25
                       2x50 choice - HARD
                       1x50 easy freestyle 
Cool down:  200 easy choice

Total:  2500 yards (or meters, depending on your pool)

Good luck! We didn't get through all of it..it was a little overambitious for our first time back. We'll get there soon, though! We've been calling ourselves "swammers" (like the past tense of swimmers, get it? har har) and we're finally ready to commit some serious hours to the pool. There's nothing like staring at that black line :)

Would a new page on the blog be helpful for you?
Do you ever schedule "workouts" for your running?  If so, have any tips? 

Halloween and Getting Back in the Pool

Did you guys have a fun Halloween? B and I always had swim practices or meets on Halloween so we've never really gotten excited about it (except for the candy, of course). This year, we were invited over to a friend's house to pass out candy and enjoy some cider. We were so out of touch with the rest of the world that we didn't realize we needed costumes until 15 minutes before we left...oops.

We were in a rush so we didn't take pictures...he just wore a batman T-shirt with black jeans and I wore an LMFAO Party Rock Gym T-shirt with pink leggings and crazy sunglasses. Their song "Sexy and I Know It" was a popular choice for swim practice playlists, so their songs make me weirdly nostalgic.

Oh, and there was gold eyeliner involved. 

These are new friends so it was really great to tour their gorgeous house, meet their dogs, and get to know them a little better.  I had some of the adult cider, it was a little strong for me but it was warm and that was all I wanted! We didn't get many trick or treaters :( I was bummed. I grew up in the woods so no one ever came to our house, and little kids in costume are so cute!

Now, if you've been paying attention to the last few paragraphs, I'm really missing my old swim team. I told B that I was kind of sad about it, and he said that he feels the same way. Well, big news: we decided to actually do something about it!

We joined a gym with a pool and got back in the water for the first time since the 2012 NCAA championships (me) and the 2011 conference championships (him). It hurt, it wasn't pretty, and we didn't get as much done as we would have liked...but it was a start. I usually bounce back pretty quickly after time off, so I'm feeling optimistic about the next few weeks. I'm experiencing the perfect amount of total-body fatigue right now.

Oh chlorine-hair, how I've missed you.

Random: we got passed in a no-passing zone on our way to the gym. This lady was FLYING. Then she started honking her horn at the person in front of us and flipping off everyone on the road. It was so crazy. Aaaaand she ended up going to the same gym as us. AWKWARD. The end.

Drunken Veggie Chili

I love to cook and I love to alter other people's recipes, but I rarely come up with anything on my own. This recipe, though? All mine. It actually happened by accident: B had a chili cookoff at work and, procrastinators that we are, we didn't even try to think of a plan until the night before. We threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and it worked like a charm. Chances of that ever working out again: 0%.

Ingredients: 

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1.5 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cans (15oz each) diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp light brown sugar 
• 1 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 cup APA beer (we used Schlafly) 
• 3 cans (15oz each) of beans (we used kidney, pinto, and black beans)
• 2 cups water (plus or minus)
• Optional: shredded mozzarella cheese and Greek yogurt.*

Directions: 

1. Warm olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. 
2. Add onions, garlic, and bell peppers. Let saute until just short of caramelized, about 5 minutes. 
3. Add chili powder and red pepper flakes, let cook for another minute. 
4. Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, brown sugar, salt, pepper, beer, beans, and enough water to reach desired thickness (we used around 2 cups). Bring chili to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes. 
5. Serve with mozzarella and a dollop of Greek yogurt. 
6. Optional: refrigerate overnight to thicken. Reheat next day. Win cookoff. 

We used McCormick Chipotle Chili Pepper instead of regular chili powder. It's amazing and a little spicy. Use regular chili powder or a mixture of the two if you're worried about the heat.

If I'm not crying, gasping, and choking, then it's not hot enough

Full disclosure: I hate beer. Luckily, the alcohol cooks off so the beer just adds a nice deep flavor that is so often missing from vegetarian chili. My first attempt at a meatless chili (from a real recipe, even!) tasted like chewy, barely-spiced beans...not good when you want a warm, comforting bowl of yum.

Do you want a picture of the finished product? Let me answer that question with a question. Have you ever tried to make a bowl of chili look appetizing in a picture taken at 8PM with an iPhone? (Hint: it's impossible)

What's your favorite recipe, vegetarian or otherwise?  I have too many to choose from (I know, that's a cop out)
Do you like spicy foods? YES. I have yet to meet a buffalo wing that is hot enough for me, much less too hot.

*Note that this recipe is vegan if you don't serve it with cheese and yogurt and pick your beer carefully.

New Lab, New Plan

Today I started working in a new lab! First year grad students rotate through several labs over the course of a year before they pick a place to do their thesis work. It's a great way to try out some different things before you commit 5+ years to one group, but it's a bummer to feel like a nomad for 10 months. I had gotten comfortable with the people and protocols in my old lab JUST in time to switch.

Regardless, today was fun and I feel good about my projects for the next few months. I'm in a new, much fancier building that has awesome wooden lockers for the scientists and SHOWERS in the bathrooms! I've been wanting to start swimming or running before work, but it would have been a huge pain to come back to the apartment just to shower and then walk to my lab. Now I can just finish my workout by running right to my building and showering/changing there!

Anyway...now that I'm done geeking out over a shower...
(But really, if you can't get excited about the little things, what else is there?)

I tried to go on an easy recovery run yesterday afternoon, but my calf "injury" was bothering me so I cut it short. One of my goals for my running from here on out is to listen to my body. I have a problem with either being a slave to a training schedule or totally blowing it off. Actually, the two are related - as soon as I miss or modify a scheduled run, I figure the whole thing has gone to hell in a handbasket and my plan spirals out of control. This leads to (a) initial overtraining/injury because I push when I shouldn't and then (b) severe undertraining because I'm either injured or I've given up.

No more.

This time around, I'm going to be smart, i.e. I'm not going to do 7 miles on a strained calf just because that's what my calendar told me to do. I've been an athlete since I was 9, and I need to trust that I know the difference between normal pain and "back off now!" pain. I've also left myself plenty of time to get ready for this marathon, as opposed to the 1.5 months "training" that I've done for both of my half marathons. Hopefully this means that I won't beat myself up for modifying runs because I'll know that I have time to make up the missed miles. I'm going to be serious about my stretching and foam rolling, I'll improve my nutrition, and I'll make sure that I get enough sleep. Come April, I will be ready to kill some miles and eat some hills (well, I'm always ready for hills).

And to lighten the mood, I'll leave you with a picture of Carly, a.k.a. the jello dog.

She sleeps like this all. the. time. 

Do you follow a training plan?
One of my favorite bloggers, Skinny Runner, is a marathon-running beast and she never follows a plan. Color me jealous.

Hermann London Halloween 5K

B's parents are visiting this weekend! His mom was one of the people who first inspired me to get into running competitively, and now B is showing a renewed interest in the sport. We toyed around with the idea of running a race together, and it was a done deal once I found out about a local Halloween run. Racing PLUS a costume contest? We're there.

After several phone calls to both of our parents, we decided to try for the "best group costume" prize and go as a shark, a swimmer, and a surfer/victim. Sharks have always been my favorite animals and this wasn't the first time I dressed as one for Halloween! B's parents stopped by my mom's house to pick up my shark costume from yearrrssss ago, and they schlepped that thing all the way to St. Louis. Meanwhile, we got our "surfboard" (old foam boogie board) ready for the race.

It was actually the first race that B and I ever ran together, so it was pretty special. He's usually my bag holder/jacket giver/man slave before races, and he hasn't competed since high school cross country. It was fun to see him get excited about running again!

Sleepy breakfast time!

We arrived an hour early because we bought our race entries from Living Social (great idea, by the way) and were worried that our registration might have been messed up. It all worked out great, though, and we used the extra time to drive back to our apartment to pick up the boogie board that I had forgotten. Brilliant.

Lots of people LOVED the shark costume. B wore a very realistic bloody T-shirt (thank you, gel food coloring) with goggles and a swim cap, and his mom wore a swim suit with goggles around her neck. We decided to all run together because I couldn't see a thing and the course was open to traffic. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

We ditched the boogie board 5 seconds after this picture was taken.

The course was a lot hillier than we were anticipating, and we lost B's mom early on. I, of course, took each hill as a personal challenge and sprinted up as fast as I could. B stuck with me and was a great guide..."car on your right...pothole...parked car on your left...hey, let's pass this lady!"

The mesh covering my face turned to steel wool sometime during the second mile, so I'm currently sporting a nice red nose. Not gonna lie - running in that thing wasn't a ton of fun. It was hot and I couldn't see, but it was neat to wave at little kids on the course and to pass people who weren't in costume. 

We finished at a 26:16 - not nearly as fast as we could have gone, but we were pretty happy with our times under the circumstances. I heard one guy at the finish line say to his son "Hey, you see that shark? It beat me!" Chomp chomp. 

We didn't win the costume contest, so it was obviously rigged. For what it's worth, the race director's wife came over to us said that we were her favorites! They had hot dogs and chips for the runners, so we hung out for a little while and listened to the band play. This was my first 5K - I gravitate towards the longer races - so it was a nice way to recover from last week's half marathon and have some fun with my family. 

Have you ever raced in a costume? 

Rock n Roll St Louis Recap/Review

After a grumpy 5AM wakeup call, B and I showed up at the race around 6AM for a 7AM start. We found super-close, super-cheap parking and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. I was surprised at how few people were there by 6, but it made it easy to find my corral, grab a bottle of water, and use the bathroom (no lines at the porta potties!).

At about 6:45 I shed my outermost layers, parted ways with B, and made my ways into the 9th corral. It. was. cold. The weather in St Louis has been schizophrenic lately, but I don't think that many of us expected such a frosty morning. The race also began about 10 minutes late, so it was 7:20 by the time my corral crossed the starting line. The announcer counted down for each corral's start, so every 90 seconds we heard "10...9....8... come on, everyone count with me! *dead silence* ...7.....6...." and I wanted to punch her.

The gorgeous view from the start

Not only could I not feel my extremities, but my butt was totally numb for the first mile. Has that ever happened to you? It was awkward.

I hadn't gone on a single run in two weeks, for a total of about 10 miles total in the month before the race. It was probably dumb to even run this race, but I'm a stubborn pig who likes medals. This was originally going to be a PR attempt, but I gave up on that at the starting line and decided just to have fun.

One big complaint: the lack of bands along the course. The ones that were there were good, and I really appreciated their time and effort, but this race didn't "rock" nearly as much as I thought it would. Some "band stations" just had speakers blaring Justin Bieber. Also, the band at mile 5 was playing "Halfway There" by Bon Jovi when I ran by. No one - halfers or marathoners - was even close to "halfway there," so I felt some insult piling on top of the injury that 5 miles will do to undertrained legs (more on that in a later post).

At mile 4 I decided that I was going to go for my original goal of PRing with a sub 2-hr race.

The course support was great, and the volunteers were the best part of this race. They were numerous, they were cheerful, and they were quick to clear empty cups out of the road. There were water/gatorade stations every 1.5 miles or so, and there was a Gu station around mile 7. They had vanilla Gu - my favorite!

At mile 7 the mental struggle started, and I decided that PRing was ridiculous and dumb.

At mile 8, I did some mental math and decided to PR.

At mile 9, I decided that PRing was not going to happen, plus it was ridiculous and dumb,.

At mile 10, I was hell bent on going under 2 hours.

Around mile 11, I saw a sign that said "ONE MILE TO BEER." I was so delirious from my internal PR struggle that I assumed that I missed a few mile markers and was about to come up on the finish. EXCITEMENT. I mean, they couldn't give us beer on the course, right?

Wrong. A local bar was passing out little paper cups of PBR to anyone willing to imbibe on the run. I was so confused that when I got to the next aid station I wasn't sure what was in the cups, so I screamed "WATER?!?!??" at the poor volunteer to confirm that I wasn't about to get a bitter surprise. Also, that last aid station had put water in the Gatorade cups (and vice versa) and my delusional brain couldn't handle the switch.

The grunting and groaning started at mile 12, when I decided to sprint for the finish. I had eaten a Shot Blok right after the last aid station and my stomach was sick of my bull. I had to slow down my painful slog sprint so I wouldn't puke on the side of the course. I dragged my butt across the finish line at 1:58.41, a 7 minute PR that was fueled by stubbornness and vanilla Gu.

The secure zone is my favorite part of races. Where else can I grab free food to my hearts content AND get a medal for my trouble? It was a struggle to hold onto everything until I met B at the gate. My quads starting cramping almost immediately, so we walked a few slow, painful laps around the family reunion area while I ravaged a bagel and whimpered.

The medals were glittery and HEAVY. The ribbon was awkwardly short, but no big. Notice the attractively chipped nail polish. We didn't stick around to hear 3OH!3 play because we knew our dog was probably going nuts at home. I got back to the apartment, showered, ate, and still had time to sit at the window and watch the marathoners go by. At that point, it was better them than me.

Overall, I loved the volunteers and support, but the course was boring with a capital B. Very few spectators, very few hills, and almost no music. It felt more like a 13.1 mile training run with a few thousand of my best friends. However, this is only the second time St Louis has hosted a Rock 'n' Roll race, so I might be tempted to sign up for next year (if I registered early and with a discount code). I think there's some good potential here.

Have you ever ran a Rock 'n' Roll race? 
What did you think?