Mud Crusade! 4/22/12

Today I ran Mud Crusade with Lenny, and my friends Jenny, Jeremy and Terri.  We had a great time!  It rained just 10 minutes prior to our wave starting and it was a bit cold!  But once we started running, it was not bad.  It only rained maybe 10-15 mins, but it sure made for some mud fun!  The course was tough.  There were 20 obstacles, a lot of running up hill and jumping over walls.  Some of the wall were too tall to climb over by yourself, but I think the toughest (scariest) obstacle was this gem:

Going up was a bit wobbly, but getting over the top was S-C-A-R-Y!  I contemplated going back down the rope side and skipping it, but with the help of Lenny, I made it over.

The best obstacle was the huge water slide!  Lenny and I went down together and you end up in a pool of murky water.  I think I screamed the whole way down.  LOL

Lenny did help me a lot with some of these obstacles, because let's face it... Grace is not my middle name.  I probably would have broken my leg going down one of these things.  :-)

Check me out on the monkey bars!  I wasn't sure if I could do it.  I hadn't been on monkey bars since I was about 8 years old.  Nevermind how long ago that was.....

We did it! 

Overall, it was a good race, but I was disappointed that there was no (free) food- not even bananas.  They also handed you a drink ticket at the finish line for (one) bottled water, Gatorade or beer.  You then take the ticket to the drink line.  I can understand limiting beer, but most races have plenty of free bottled water.  Plus, the line for the drinks were way too long, so we skipped it.  Good thing we brought our own waters.  Lastly, our freebie was a plastic water bottle with the Mud Crusade logo.  It was nice, but personally, I'd rather have a t-shirt and I think many people would agree.  However, since we got a great discount on this race, I can't complain much.  If we had paid full price, I don't feel it would have been worth it.

My training sucked this week.  I felt like I was coming down with something, but I think it was mostly stress and exhaustion.  So I had a bit of a break besides my 5 miler earlier in the week.  Getting back in full swing this week!

Classes are over for the next two weeks, and then its back to madness!  So glad we get these little breaks in between.  They are definitely welcomed!

4/18/12

Last Saturday, I ran the Roar Thru Ybor 5k and had a great time!  It's a great race.  I ran it last year, so I knew it was a good one.... great food, great vendors and great music at the start and finish line.   My time this year was 34:02, and I ran the entire time!  No walk breaks!  I was really impressed with myself because I thought I would finish in about 36 minutes.  I also had negative mile splits.  The first mile was about 11:40, second mile about 10:40 and third mile about 10:30.  Everything was just perfect that morning. 

Well, I also have to admit that I haven't run since then.  :(  I was planning a long run the next day, but my legs were pretty sore.  Then it's been quite hectic this week with it being the last week of the school quarter and work being slammed.  Yesterday, I was so exhausted, I crashed for a couple hours when I got home.  With being so busy, I haven't had time to plan my workouts or even meals for that matter.  I really need to start getting into the habit of gettng up early at least a couple times during the week so I can knock out a run. 

So, on the news the other day I heard about the Boston marathon and temps being in the mid 80's.  Yeah, that's pretty warm for a marathon.  But the newscaster said something to make me chuckle.  He said, "But be careful what you wish for!  Next year, it could be snowing!"  So, I never ran in snow, but I have run in weather cold enough to snow, and it is so much better than heat.  Mid 80's isn't an extreme temperature (at least for a Florida girl like me), so I would equate that to running in 35 degrees in the cold.  For me, that is cold, but I would still take that any day over running a marathon in 80 degrees.

Down 3

I am down 3 lbs!!  Finally, the scale has budged!  I have been working out regularly for several weeks now, but I hadn't been counting calories.  I've done it before, but it was a lot work that I simply was avoiding.  Well, after weeks of the scale not budging and me not really being honest with myself, I started counting again.  I found the LiveStrong app on my itouch and it's easier now than what it was before.  I still have to plan my meals though, but its so much easier to be able to upload my calories basically wherever I go.
       
  
Oh, and yes, I have an itouch.  I don't have an iphone, or Blackberry, or any other type of phone with mobile capabilities.  I doubt I'll ever get one, until it's forced on me.  It's enough for me to check my emails & receive texts periodically wherever free wifi is sold..... I really don't want to have access every.single.place. I go.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Livestrong app, and even if you don't have access to apps, use the Livestrong webpage (thedailyplate).  This tool helped me tremendously in the past to lose weight.  If you have any weight loss stories, I'd love to hear them!