Weekend Wrap-Up: 3 Workouts!

Monday morning....not my favorite day. But I did have a great weekend and managed to get three workouts in!

Friday night I attempted to do some hill repeats on the bridge, and didn't get too far :) I basically ran almost a mile to warm up and then ran up the steep side of the hill, back down, and attempted a second run up. I gave up because it was Friday and it was hot :) Next time I do these I am going to do 1/4 mile repeats. Much easier than MILE repeats...what was I thinking.

Saturday I wasn't planning on working out, but around 2 pm I got bored of studying so I decided to go on a bike ride to work off my lunch. I was so glad I went! I managed to ride 12 miles and explored my soon to be new neighborhood. I wished I had brought a camera because it was so beautiful down on the marsh overlooking the river.

After the ride I decided to go return my new shoes that I was NOT happy with all last week. So I headed out to TrySports to see what I could find. This time I remembered to bring my old Adidas that I trained for (and ran) the last marathon in. The very helpful Diego looked at my tread and told me that I had way too much arch support and was rolling onto the outside of my feet when I ran (I forget which kind of pronating that is...) So he told me I basically needed a shoe with no support, and could possibly go with some orthotics or insoles after I tried them out on their own.

I ended up with a shiny new pair of Saucony ProGrid Rides. I freaking love them!

They're light and they have a nice sized toe box which is essential for long runs because your feet will swell. I also got a 1/2 size larger than the Asics I was returning. They felt fab on my feet during the run yesterday. I may not even need insoles! Plus they're a pretty silver and pink :) AND I got $40 back!

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early for my long run with my TNT group. We had 10 miles on the schedule that day, but we ended up taking a bit of a detour to run through the Harbor Fest down on Concord Street to see the tall ships in the harbor. I love tall pirate-like ships, they always remind me of The Goonies! (Only one of the best movies ever made.)

My Garmin is SERIOUSLY not liking the heat and how much I sweat. Every time I take it out when its hot for a long run, it gets really cranky and starts yelling at me and switching screens. I have reset it multiple times so I may have to send it back in to Garmin. I'm going to try getting a wrist band to put underneath it to possibly shelter it from my sweat??

It's odd to me because I was under the impression these $300 watches were MADE for athletes. Huh. Anyways, that was annoying. Luckily once we were done with the run it came back to its senses and let me know we actually ran about 12.2! (I did a little more than the team because I ran to the starting point from my apartment and then ran back.)

This time I succumbed to the walk/run method and it was actually nice given the heat and humidity. Plus we were able to keep a pretty decent pace during the running portions. Our Coach went a bit further at convincing me to train with the walk/run method druing the run:

• If you train with walk/run, you recover faster and can get in more miles during the week. (This is so true, I felt fine all day yesterday and today even though that was my longest distance run since the marathon May 2nd. In fact I will definitely be working out tonight, something I never do on Monday's after long runs.)
  
• You don't have to (and she said I wouldn't) run the actual marathon using walk/run.
• Once we get up to higher mileage, I could possibly start out half of the run doing walk/run and then finish the second half with a strong consistent run.
  

So all in all I may be convinced, it was nice to actually run with the group this time and get to know everyone better. But I guess the real test will be if the walk/run method can actually translate into me RUNNING the whole marathon.

After a much-needed shower (I was DRENCHED in sweat! Mid-run I realized I was sloshing in my shoes....so gross.) and a short nap....Matt and I headed out to the downtown Charleston chapter of Habitat for Humanity's Pig 'N Pluck!


Basically it was at the greatest locale in Charleston (in my opinion) Bowen's Island Restaurant.

The restaurant actually burnt down a few months ago and they are currently rebuilding it, but they still have their docks and covered shelter on the dock where the Bluegrass band played.

It is just gorgeous. Right on the water, on the marsh. I love Charleston. Check out the crappy iPhone pics. (I need a new camera.)

Matt enjoyed the Hometeam BBQ. (As did I.)


Beautiful Lowcountry marshes.


Kids even enjoyed the day!


Sandy and Jason stopped by!
There was lots of beer...And Matt made some new friends! (and apparently leaned on some paint somewhere...)

Although the pics look dark it was actually REALLY sunny and hot. I belive it was 98 yesterday? I worked the first hour at the registration table (I'm on a Habitat committee) and was sweating bullets until the hour was up. Then I went to chill on the dock with the breeze. We hung out from 3 to almost 8 yesterday and we were exhausted by the time we got home.

Great weekend, great weather, great workouts. What more could a girl need?

This week I'm planning on doing some health + nutrition related posts so stay tuned!

Weekend Wrap-Up + Exciting News

Before we left for the mountains Saturday, I got up and ran 3 miles. It was nice. It was easy. Then I did 50 girl push ups. WOA! Have I been sore since then! We got to Flat Rock, NC around 2:30 Saturday afternoon.

Our hotel was super cool back in 1974 when the Brady Bunch stayed there.


The wedding was fab, overlooking the mountains.


The bride was gaawwrgeous.


The reception was lovely. (The bride + groom are now enjoying St. Lucia!)


I drank a lot and had fun with Matt and my co-workers! Sorry, no pics of us :(

We spent Sunday in Hendersonville, NC and ate brunch at a Beatles themed restaurant!



Mean Mr. Mustard Cafe was amaazzing. Matt didn't know the song so I had to play it for him on the way there. Then we heard two different Beatles songs on the radio so I knew it was fate.


Matt got the French Toast Cordon Bleu! I just got some boring eggs and fruit. No fun for picture, but was really good.


Cute S & P shakers.
Perdy flowers.

The town had lots o' apples.
And I got to embrace my hippie side for a day. Life was good!

Exciting News!

So what do you guys think about a Running Bloggers Conference??? @antorias and I have been tweeting about it since Friday, and are furiously brainstorming/planning ways to make this happen! We are thinking early 2010, possibly attached to a race, possibly in Vegas?! But we're open to ideas + suggestions + help + sponsorship (we already have one sponsor on board)!

There are hundreds of us running bloggers out there, so this would be a great way to meet up, maybe run a 'lil, and have some fun!

I think this is the best idea I have come up with in, well, probably forever.

So we need your help. Ideas. Thoughts. Concerns. Whatever! We want to make this happen!

Follow the RunBloggerCon on Twitter!

What would you want to see in the First Annual Running Bloggers Conference? What would make YOU come?

Back in Biznass!!

I don't know about you guys, but I am glad that Monday is over! I don't really love Mondays, I seem to be much more productive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sorry for my absence of late, I am been so busy it's been tough to find time for anything. Quick wrap-up:

• Last week I was busy basically all week with studying for my big test Thursday.
• Wednesday night I was up all night (not even a wink of sleep) and had to drive 2.5 hours to Savannah, GA for my exam 9 AM Thursday morning (thankfully, Matt drove me while I studied)
• The test was SEVEN HOURS LONG.
• Unfortunately, I have to take the test again. BUMMER. I have 30 days to study.
  
• Because I was so cracked out on caffeine and no sleep Wednesday-Thursday, my body was messed up until...basically, yesterday. I felt out of it and so light headed all weekend!
• Although I was sad about the outcome, I was glad for it to be over (for now). I hardly ate anything all day Thursday. I immediately came home and chugged...a huge Green Smoothie + some vitamins. That seemed to help.
• No running ALL LAST WEEK!
• My BFF Alesha came to visit from Raleigh, NC Friday night, and unfortunately I was so wrecked, I had to pass out around 10:30 PM. We did, however, make it out to dinner first at Shem Creek Bar & Grill. We like it raw!
• But we did get up and "run" 4.5 miles Saturday morning through downtown. I had to walk a lot and felt extremely dehydrated and run down. Sorry Leesh!
  
• Stats: 4.5 miles in 47:38. Sllloooowww.
• But we both felt better for getting it done!
• Alesha and I headed to Folly Beach Saturday even though it looked like it was raining in that direction. But it didn't! It was a gaaawwrgeous day. We laid out for awhile, then ventured up the beach to find...a bar. As if I hadn't done enough damage to my body that week, I wanted to start drinking during the day.
• So we found a bar at the newly redecorated Holiday Inn on Folly (that sounds lame, but Folly is such a small beach it's actually a pretty nice hotel) that was beach-side. Perf.
• Alesha forgot her ID so I was stealthily buying us drinks...just like the good old days!
• We had three rounds of cocktails while we watched some drunken girls embarass themselves dancing in their bikinis to the band.
• After we had enough and the sun was setting, we headed home...er, to Taco Boy. We split some guac and each had a taco.
  
• Then we really headed home, got showered up, ate some Doritos (apparently I wasn't mean enough to my body yet) and headed out on the town for some drinks + to meet up with my boss' bachelorette party! (Pics to come soon)
• Matt was nice enough to give us girl time basically all weekend (I hadn't seen Alesha in a loooong time and this was the first time she had been to visit us since we moved to Charleston last August) so he drove us to our first stop, Chai's on King.
  
• Then we walked...in heels...about a mile to Light, a dance club on East Bay Street. We proceeded to dance the night away/eat jello shots/drink some more.
  
• Then we headed to Wet Willie's, a slushie bar on East Bay Street. I had about 1/2 of a White Russian slushie and then spilled the rest on the floor. (Was an accident, but I was glad to be rid of it, waaayy to sweet.)
• By this point, we were dunzo, and called Matt to come get us. It was pouring rain and we were ready for bed! (Alesha, I am sparing the details for you... :)
• Sunday morning, I did NOT get up to run with TNT. Oopsies. But it's okay, I have a lot of training time left and this week marks the beginning of actual training for me.
  
• Last night I was almost 80% convinced that I was was NOT going to run after work. But I was feeling crappy and I knew that I needed to go, so I went. Begrudingly.
  
• It turned out to be a good 3 mile run through historic downtown Charleston. I took a new route and ran down South Battery St and then back up the waterfront, so pretty. I even met up with a little pup named Ollie who seemed to be lost. I tried to take him home to the address on his collar, but he wasn't having any of that so I ran on.
  
• Stats: 3.0 miles in 28:00 minutes. Splits: 9:56, 9:30, 8:34. I'm back in biznass biyatches!
  
• Tonight we have a TNT meeting on Nutrition (woo hoo! my fave topic) and then we are heading out on a group short run.
  
• I think I have decided on a training program! I will post on that tomorrow.
  

***
Coming up on ChasRunner soon: Marathon Training Plan for a sub 4:30 26.2, a blog re-design, smoothie recipes, and all about juicing with my new juicer!

Also, as a follow up to my recent post about the benefits + dangers of soy, check out Gena's post on the topic if you haven't already!

A big THANK YOU goes out to Amy of Will Run for Fun for sending me my favorite Cliff Mojo bars! I mentioned to her that I was so sad I couldn't find these bars in Charleston after she posted about them, and she was kind enough to send me a care package! Thanks girl!


If you haven't checked out her blog, you should. She is a former NCAA cross country and track runner who is now a cross country coach. She has a lot of good running/training advice! (Also if you haven't tried Cliff Mojo, you should!)

Have a fab Tuesday and I'll see ya tomorrow!