2 Weeks Until the Boston Marathon–My thoughts VLOG

It’s been about 9 weeks since I joined the Hyland’s Powered Team to train for the Boston Marathon and share my journey with you. I can’t believe we’re already 2 weeks away from the race!!?! That is both terrifying and exciting to me.

I just got this final confirmation email from the Boston Marathon and it just made it more real. It also made it kinda sad because my mom is my emergency contact person and I realized my usual partner in crime SkinnyRunner is not running the race this year! I feel like I know someone every year who runs the race and this is the first year there’s no one.

The Hyland’s Team was put together for a few really good reasons. The company is a big sponsor of the race and wanted to highlight the 50th anniversary of the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon. So they put together an all female team to share the journey of training to run 26.2 miles.

We were challenged to:

A.) train for the race

B.) share our running, motivation, fears, struggles, blisters, excitement, triumphs, black toenails and more along the way to the race weekend.

It was a process of learning about ourselves along the way to the finish line. I love that it’s been more than just about running because I know not all of my readers are also runners. And I’ve really enjoyed thinking about my fears and motivation and everything else along the way.

This week we’re sharing a video of our thoughts 2 weeks out from the Boston Marathon. Check out the vlog below and let me know if you have any tips or advice for me if you’re familiar with the race!

And send me your running / eating / random questions too. I love Q&A vlogs and podcasts so feel free to ask me about anything.

Question: What is your FAVORITE part of a race?

The post 2 Weeks Until the Boston Marathon–My thoughts VLOG appeared first on Run Eat Repeat.

On the Road Again...

 By Crabby McSlacker

Are you ready for a blog post chock full of healthy travel tips, amusing anecdotes, surprising discoveries, inspiring advice, and breathtaking photos of scenery and wildlife?

Oops, sorry! You probably want to type a different URL up there in your search bar. Did you not realize this was Cranky Fitness?

As it happens, I've done some decent "on the road" posts before, both of the "holy crap look how pretty this is" variety, as well as the "here's how to exercise at gas stations even if people think you're a psycho" kind. But we've only got a brief layover on this, our eleven thousandth cross-country schlep, and there's laundry to do and email to catch up on and other miscellaneous shit to take care of while we're not rolling down the road at 75 miles an hour.

But for today, I do have at least a few hiking pictures and one Important Cross Country Road Trip Lesson Learned.



The Lesson Learned? Take at Least One Day to Do Something Awesome.

For us, that was a totally gratuitous stop in Sedona, Arizona for a day of hiking.

It wasn't too far a detour, though it wasn't by any means "on the way." We'd been before, we could have easily skipped it and been more practical.

But fuck that. We wanted something to make the thousands and thousands of miles feel more like an adventure and less like a long-haul truckers' day job.

The hike we ended up on wasn't our first choice. We underestimated how popular the trails (and thus the parking lots) might be, and didn't get out early enough.

But we could not have been happier with our hike, and the further we went, the fewer other people there were until we were all by ourselves, just us and the rocks!

 

The trails were extremely well-marked.

High on the Hog? Our Kinda Trail!

Well, mostly...

One missing sign sent us scurrying up a dry creekbed instead of a the real trail. (Detour not pictured, alas). Having been warned we were in an "extremely difficult" section of trail, we persevered way too long up steep slippery slopes until our natural tendency to say "fuck it" finally kicked in and we headed back down to the much more reasonable path we were supposed to be on. (We later figured out that the difficulty level was probably aimed at the mountain bikes, ridden by far more fearless types that we will ever be. Because the real trail wasn't bad at all for hikers).

But thank goodness for cowardice and capitulation, right? Otherwise we'd still probably by stuck on some narrow ledge miles in the sky, fighting over the last of the turkey jerky, awaiting helicopter rescue.

However, that momentary miscalculation didn't even begin to dampen the incredible day.  We loved every second of it and only wished we could stay longer. Sedona is always going to be one of those "must come back to" destinations.

Note: I still won't rule out a future "healthy travel tips" update though, since I've got a bunch of boring just-in-case pictures of hotel pools and fitness rooms, plates of fast food adulterated with bizarre and theoretically healthy ingredients we take with us, some rest-stop action shots, etc. (And of course a bunch of pics of the Lobster and I posing in restaurants with various alcoholic beverages, because, well... um... I'll get back to you on that).

(I have no idea what New Age Forehead Poking Ritual is going on back there.)

Anyone got any Road Trip Tales or Tips? Anywhere you'd like to head off to?

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I want NYC style Pizza because of Andy Cohen

It’s gorgeous running weather and gorgeous scenery in Orange County right now. I had to stop and smell take pictures of the flowers.

I ran 13 miles while listening to Andy’s Cohen’s new book Superficial. It’s literally just his diary and just day-to-day stuff but is super entertaining.

He talks about work – including famous people he’s interviewing on WWHL,

the real housewives – sometimes with behind the scenes drama,

his parents – his mom is adorable and strong willed and I love her

his dog Waka – who is biting people! He is a rescue that needs training.

his super fancy vacations – including a week on a yacht with super rich & famous people including one of the Olsen twins

food – he lives in New York and every now and then talks about grabbing a slice of pizza at the end of the night… which has me picturing amazing NYC style pizza – that’s hard to find around here.

So all the pizza talk had me on a mission to have thin crust pizza this week. I was going to go out for pizza with a friend, but that fell though. So I hit up the grocery store to see what my frozen pizza options were. I ended up looking at every single frozen pizza option one by one for the longest time.

I’m sure the employees at Ralph’s think I’m a complete weirdo. They always ask me if I need help because I spend hours and hours walking up and down the aisles looking at everything as if I’ve never been to the store before in my life. But I like going to grocery shopping! I think I should start a grocery shopping service in the OC for people who don’t have time or hate it. Shark Tank.

Anyway.

I got into a discussion with the cutest lil grandma lady about frozen pizza. She said she likes the frozen pizza from Alberston’s (store brand). Her daughter was taking her shopping and helping her pick one. It was the cutest thing ever.

But I decided to just got home and order a pizza and try to lure Cindy to come over and hang out. I went with Domino’s Brooklyn style pizza.

Vegas went with sitting in a box.

I am also in need of a haircut but decided to get a blow-out first to see if I just might need my bangs trimmed and some inspiration to actually do my hair…

I need to learn how to do my hair beachy waves style. I kind of had it all pushed together so the curls look tighter in this picture so it’s not a great representation, but I really loved how it looked. I know I need a flat iron to get this look but I don’t own one and am super loyal to my hot rollers so we’ll see.

I think you’re supposed to make a blow-out last a few days but I don’t know how a runner girl would do that. I have a lot of hair so I can’t just put it in a loose bun to run.

I ran on Sunday morning and did my hair in the usual braids. Then, I put it up to take a shower. Post-shower I took it down and it was pretty straight – my hair doesn’t like to hold a curl. So, I put the hot rollers in it to give it a boost and it came out okay – but does not look like a blowout.

I walked by Old Navy after I left the Blow Dry bar and saw they had a crazy sale – 40% off EVERYTHING in the store. Everything.

So I walked in because I need shorts. Well, a few tops fell into my hands and my Guardian Angel was probably trying to teach me a lesson because this morning when I went to put on one of my new tees I realized the security tag was still on it!!?! Boo.

(I just checked and the 40% off sale ends today & is online too. It’s automatically applied – no discount code needed.)

The moral of the story is:

I shouldn’t buy things I don’t need.

I should buy a flat iron because I do need to curl my hair in beachy waves.

If I order a huge pizza I’m going to eat it all within 19 hours. (And this is Andy Cohen’s fault)

I should open a restaurant that sells donuts & pizza or donuts as big as a pizza.

Question: What was the BEST thing you RAN or ATE or DID this weekend?

The post I want NYC style Pizza because of Andy Cohen appeared first on Run Eat Repeat.

A Run to Randall’s Island

I’m feeling good.

I ran 10 miles yesterday with Nike Run Club. I’m training for the Brooklyn Half in May. It’s where my PR is from from two years ago, but I won’t be coming anywhere close to beating that this year. And that’s more than ok with me.

I didn’t finish this race last year. I felt like crap. So my goal this year is just to finish and so long as I don’t get all stuck up in my head again, I should be a-ok there.

But I do/want need to “train.” I used to always want to be in half-marathon shape. I haven’t been there in about a year or so, but I’m trying real hard to get back to the place where I can run a half on a whim — maybe it won’t always feel awesome, but it will be doable. After “accidentally” running 10 miles (I had wanted to run ~8, and the NRC run was advertised as 90 minutes, so I figured about 9 miles, but it ended up being way closer to 10), my strategy will probably be: 1-2 easy runs per week, one day of tempo/track/Mile High (ONE of those, not all 3!), plus a long run, with some swimming and biking thrown in as XC. (I may also be doing two tris in June?!)

Yesterday’s run didn’t come easy. I was tired, I hadn’t eaten before, it was gusty AF. Our route took us from Nike Town, up Fifth Ave, across 102 (including one big-ass hill at 102/Lex) and over to Randall’s Island (early morning island hopping for the win) and back across 102, into the park and down back to the store.

One of my BFFs makes fun of me because I point out so many places as “one of my favorite running places.” Well, I realized another one yesterday.

That southwest corner of the park, when you’re exiting the park at 59th and 5th. It’s so many things: it’s near the end of the marathon or other group runs I may be doing. It’s downhill. It brings back so many solid memories of runs I didn’t think I could push through and I did…and yesterday was no different. 

There is way too much unknown in my life right now, but I know this: running makes me feel good and proud of myself, and I’m glad to be back at it.

 

Related posts:

1. rave run!
2. Yesterday’s Run
3. The Run That Fell Short

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