The Weekend, In a Nutshell

Hello! I'm back from Cleveland and surprisingly very well rested!

This weekend was the BEST. I kind of love Cleveland a little bit...except for their public transportation...although I had the same issues getting out of Cleveland as I did getting into DC yesterday...so maybe I can't complain.

Oh well.

I flew in on Friday night and Holly picked me up from the airport. I got to her house and promptly fell asleep. Saturday morning, her family treated me to the best blueberry pancakes I have ever had.

Then if was off to Cleveland where I checked into my hotel (hello upgrade!) and took off for an easy peasy 3 miles around Clevleand...stopping along the way to buy tickets to the Indians game for that afternoon.

I got back to my hotel, showered and headed to Progressive Field for a Tribe game with Emily and her new hubby, Jim.

After the game, we headed to the Great Lakes Brewing Company for dinner. I had pretzels at Sarah's recommendation (which were amazing), pizza (which was ok) and their Amber Ale which was amazing.

I got back to the hotel around 7, took a bath in my giant jacuzzi tub and was in bed by 9. I miraculously woke up 5 minutes before my alarm and was ready to race!

I'll have my race recap up tomorrow but I have just a few things to say.

First, the race was not flat, as advertised. It wasn't exactly rolling hills but there were some significant inclines which, you really don't expect when the race advertises "one of the flattest and fastest courses in the country".

Second, it was hot. I felt myself overheating by Mile 2 and really didn't think I was going to have a good race. If you follow me on Twitter, you already know how the race went. If not, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow. =P

Third, the Cleveland Marathon gave out Miller Light at the Finish Line (gross) which was only permissible because they had these awesome koozies on hand to accompany your beer.

Fourth, Holly RAN HER FIRST HALF-MARATHON! I was so so so happy to be part of this race with her! We've been talking about this weekend for months and I'm SO proud of her for crossing that Finish Line with a smile on her face. Go send her love and congratulatory notes because she is *awesome.*

So there you have it, my weekend in a nutshell. Stay tuned this week for my Cleveland Recap and my recap of Progressive Field, which was my 20th BALLPARK!!!

I'm unbelievably excited for this week. Thursday is my Friday because after work, I'm headed down to TEXAS for my little brother's wedding...aka family reunion of me and my 6 siblings who haven't all been together in 13 years! I couldn't be more excited. This week better flyyyyy by!

Hope you all had a GREAT weekend!

Any races this weekend? Any PRs? Let me know so I can give you a shout out!

Friday Finds

One of my favorite things about the internets on Fridays is all of the blog posts compiling the random shit that people find on the internet throughout the week.

Seriously, I love them. It makes Fridays go by so much smoother. Those posts and Cookie Fridays. (Yes, my office building management makes cookies for all of us every Friday).

Every week, I try to start compiling a list of my favorite internet finds and fail miserably. Either I lose the post it note, don't find interesting things or forget. This week though, I think I have enough to merit a decent post.

If you're interested in spending your Friday the same way I will though, here are some of my favorite random Friday bloggers: Running Off the Reese's, (Never)HomeMaker. Check them out at 3pm today when you hit the inevitable OMG-HOW-IS-IT-ONLY-3:00 slump.

So, without further ado, here are my random finds from the internets this week that I wanted to share:

1. "Real Women: Forget the Disney Princesses" - When it came time for her daughter's 5th birthday, photographer Jamie Moore looked to the web for inspiration for portraits for her daughter. Overwhelmed by the images of little girls dresses as Disney princesses, she decided to give her daughter some real inspiration and photographed her as 5 different historical women. I love this. She ended the post on her website with the following quote "Set aside the Barbie dolls and the Disney princesses for just a moment, and let's show our girls the real women they can be."

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 2. "I Hate Engagement Photos" - WHYARE THEY ALWAYS IN A FOREST/ON A BEACH/IN A MEADOW? Don't get me wrong, some engagement photos can be really nice. I just don't get the point. In this day and age, when we photograph everything, why not just use one of your favorite pictures to slap on the Save the Date? To each his own, I suppose, but they just aren't for me. This post echoes some of my sentiments.  But let's not get me started on maternity photos...or even worse... photographing the birth of your child. Goodness no.

3. "30 Excuses to Leave Work Early and Enjoy the Sun" - Because hey, the weather is getting nice and sometimes, you just want to go outside and play. My personal favorite is #8...though I'm pretty sure if I told my boss I needed to leave because 2ge+her was getting back 2ge+her, he would have no idea what I was talking about. (Related: Can BBMak please make a come back?)

4. Maid of Honor Speeches - First, we had the bride-and-groom-have-an-original-not-so-original-first-dance trend. My guess, is that Maid of Honor (and/or Best Man) speeches like these two will start to make their rounds across the internet. Personally, I think they're awesome and may have to start auditioning people for the role of Maid of Honor if/when I ever get married to see if they're up to the task (kidding...seriously, I would never.) These two are my favorites. The 2nd one is a little long (TWSS) but it's funny.

5. "21 Most Swoon-Worthy Moments of Prince Harry's Visit to America" - Goodness, when did Prince Harry become so unbelievably good looking? He was most certainly not the cute one when he was a kid.

So there you have it, Happy Friday. Enjoy the weekend. Go do something crazy and good luck to everyone racing!

Three Things Thursday

1. Cleveland - I'm getting pumped for a weekend of running, baseball and being touristy in the city that Ted Mosby hails from. Wooooo! I'm oddly excited for the Cleveland Half this weekend (I'm not sure why it's odd, but just go with it) and even more excited to hit up a game at Progressive Field! I really want a shirt that says "Wahooooo Baseball" because "Wahoooo" is just about my favorite expression...especially when it comes to baseball. I'm hoping to hit up the West Side Market, Great Lakes Brewing Co...and I probably won't have time for much else, but it's still going to be an awesome weekend!

2. Capital BikeShare - Add this to one of my new all time favorite things in DC. Long gone are the days where I didn't cross train. Here to stay are the days where I forget that riding a bicycle is a legitimate work out and that riding up Capitol Hill is no freaking joke. Yesterday, I left work and rode a bike to the Lincoln Memorial to meet up with The Pilot (I love that that's where we met up).  We rode to Metro Center to do a little wedding shopping for next weekend at H&M. Then, we rode home. Spotted along the way, this guy who decided to turn the BikeShare into a stationary work out. 

Seriously though, come to DC and ride the bikes. It's the best way to get around this city. I bought an annual membership ($7 a month vs. $7 a day without a membership). 

3. #hollychallenge - This is the hash tag I've dubbed for the challenge that Holly and her coworkers have come up with for their 12 week personal improvement challenge. First of all, I love that she has such an awesome support crew at work that will partake in something like this. Second, it just seems awesome! Each week, there is a different challenge. The idea is to incorporate all of them as you go through the challenge so that you adopt a more healthy lifestyle. I consider myself pretty healthy to begin with but these are great. This week's challenge: Drink at least 8 cups of water a day. This one is tough, not because of the water itself, but because I have to pee all the time. Oh man. You can check out Holly's blog for all of the challenges. Next week's task: Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Considering I live on the 9th floor, this will be a blast. 

Not sure how much water to drink? Here's a good rule of thumb to follow.
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So that's what's going on this Thursday morning. What's going on with you? Any races this weekend? Have you ever been to Cleveland? What should I add to my list? Does your city have a bikeshare program?

May: Strengthen Your Brain

If you've been reading along this year, you know that I'm been following Runners' World's Guide to a Fitter, Faster You. It's a month-by-month guide put out by RW back in January to help you have your best year running. Following it has been really beneficial. I feel like I'm definitely becoming a much smarter runner and healthier eater and I've definitely noticed improvements in my running - both physically and mentally.

The actual plan for May is to "Sneak in Speed," but since I've been pseudo-tapering for Cleveland, and since I'll be base training for Marine Corps in June, I figured it would be best to switch up these two plans.

So, May is about strengthening my brain. The Guide's recommendations are:

• Follow a training plan
• Find the race in the workout
• Take small bites (i.e. focus on one part of the workout at a time)
• Relax
• Repeat a manta

Well, I'm definitely relaxing...and I'm definitely taking small bites. As I mentioned yesterday though, I think that the biggest part about strengthening your brain and becoming a better runner is knowing when and when NOT to follow a training plan and right now, I'm being much smarter by NOT following a training plan. 

Since I'm not following a training plan, I've very much enjoyed following the 'race' in the workout and pushing myself at certain points during a run...up hill, for a mile, to a tree, whatever it is. As a result, most of my runs this month have been steady progression runs. 

And as far as a mantra goes, this one popped into my head earlier this year and has really just stuck.

"Be Great Today."

I love it. It's simple and it motivates me to make every run great. 

So Tell Me: What's your mantra? How do you work to make yourself a better, smarter run?

On Running Lately

This morning, I walked into work, opened up my work email and had this from my boss: 12 Ways to Not Sweat the Small Stuff with your Running. If you're a runner, please go read this. 

Boy, I needed that. I haven't talked about running on this blog in quite a bit. I haven't really had much to say and haven't really wanted to talk about running.

There isn't anything wrong, I still love running just as much as I always have but lately - I just haven't felt like running.

My mini injury that left me to opt out of the Potomac River Run Marathon was such a blessing in disguise. I needed a break. I ran 3 marathons last year and jumped right into training for one this year.

Last Thursday, I didn't really feel like running. It was hot out and it had been down pouring, but I headed out and had a fantastic run. On Sunday, I didn't really feel like running and I had a horrible run. Sometimes that happens.

I decided against running my spring marathon back in March, right before Cherry Blossom. I had a great race at Cherry Blossom and ran a decent amount of mileage in April. This weekend, I'm running the Cleveland Half-Marathon. Initially, I wanted to make this a big PR attempt...and then I just didn't feel like running.

For the last few weeks, I've absolutely hated the feeling that I have to run. So, I've thrown caution to the wind, ignored any semblance of a training plan and run when I wanted to. I'm excited to hang out with Holly and Emily (and hopefully Sarah) in Cleveland and while I know I'm in great shape to have a strong race, my A goal for this race is to have fun.

Sometimes, you just need a break. Training for Marine Corps won't start until mid-late July and after this Sunday's race, I'm going to run when I feel like it, make use of my pool, do lots of yoga, ride Bikeshare bikes all over DC and otherwise, continue being fit, active and healthy and not be a slave to any sort of training plan.

And believe me, with my type A personality, by time time Marine Corps training rolls around, I"ll be begging for a regimented training plan and that will be great.

In the mean time, I'm just going to run. Get ready Cleveland, we're about to have a little fun this weekend.