Wednesday, December 31, 2008

End the Year with a Fast 5K!

Me and my No#1 Running Buddy, Keri!

Race Report: MADD Red Ribbon Run 5K
Fairfax, VA - December 31, 2008 @ 4PM

This year (2008), through December, among the Triathlons that I raced, I ran five (5) stand alone 5K events and there was one consistent factor to all these races. It seemed that sub 36:00 was out of my reach. UNTIL LAST NIGHT!!

GW Parkway Classic (May) - 36:17
Capitol Crescent 5K (June) - 38:26
Survivor Harbor Seven 5K (June) - 37:28
Rainforest 5K (June) - 37:02
Crystal City 5K (July) - 37:20

On the last day of December on the hilly George Mason University campus in Fairfax VA, in temps of 35F with wind gust of up to 40mph, I FINALLY broke through the 36:00 minute mark for 5K!

MADD Red Ribbon Run 5K: 35:42

I ran the race with my good friend Keri and while I was secretly hoping for a year end PR, I figured conditions were miserable for a hilly course so I might as well just enjoy and have fun and not worry about it. While I started my Garmin at the race start, I chose to ignore it completely. While it did a great job recording my stats and pace, I didn't let it effect my thoughts during the race. Keri and I ran and simply took it little hill by little hill.

Mile ONE Split: 11:16 - It felt like we had gone out fast and the mile race clock said 11:30 - so I asked Keri if she minded a quick 1 minute walk break. She agreed and we briskly walked for a minute to recover from the first mile - that was our only walk break of the race.

Mile TWO Split: 11:37 - "Oh my God, where do these hills keep coming from?" Keri and I just talked and grunted and giggled and got buffetted by the winds as we climbed up and down the hills. We took a brief water stop (maybe 10 seconds) and continue on...

Mile THREE Split: 11:28 - The best quote of the race came in this mile from Keri "That is NOT A HEADWIND, we are just running that much faster!!"

The last .10 of a mile to the finish line was a nice downhill to a gentle blip up to the finish line. As we ran down, I tried hard to "let off the breaks" and just let momentum take me even though I have a fear of falling on my face that usually prevents me from letting go on downhills. It wasn't until Keri saw the finish line clock and said "Holly the clock only says 35:15 - come on let's go!" that I realized how well we were doing and I took in a deep breath and pick up my big flat feet and gave it whatever I had left.

Mile 3.0 to 3.10: 1:21 - According to Garmin we ran that last 1/10 mile at a 8:39 minute mile pace - I didn't even know I could move that fast without a bike! LOL

Besides ending the calandar year with my fastest 5K for this year (2008), I would say the best part of this race was the fact that NOT ONCE did I bitch or moan or complain during the race. Not one negative thought entered my head at any point and other than the walk break at the end of the first mile, which I thought at the time was just smart recovery (and it turns out it was) I never had any desire to walk again. I knew that I could run those last 2.1 miles, regardless of the hills.

I could not have asked for a BETTER RACE to end 2008 nor a better friend to race is with!!

Life is Good! Happy New Year to you all!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

I have Thunder Thighs!


KUDOS to my sister Heather for finding this ad and listing as one of her favorite things or I would have never seen this ad and I LOVE IT!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Can you covet a Cake Topper?

Holly is currently coveting this:

Okay seriously...the cake topper is ADORABLE but when your trying to stick to your wedding budget, a $95.00 Cake Topper seems completely unreasonable and excessive!

Seriously, the cake itself is only going to cost us around $200.00. So this "miniature wedding cake topper, handmade in France" is a no go. The piece is detailed in enamel over bronze with a happy bride and groom riding tandem--plus a small white dog in the bicycle basket. 

Now if the basket had two Bengal kittens in the front basket - ALL BETS WOULD BE OFF and the money would be spent cause that is the way I roll but since it does not have two Bengal kittens in the basket, I am on the search for another cake topper!

C'est La Vie! (That's Life!)

This past week Jim and I spent the week in Jackson, Mississippi, celebrating a "Early Christmas" with his family and interviewing and hiring vendors for our upcoming nuptials. There are still a lot of decisions that still need to be made but at least now we have an Officiant, a Caterer, a Baker, a Photographer, a Florist, a Tent Rental Company, AND we have bought and paid for the wedding bands. Of course we could not have gotten all of this stuff done if it were not for all the hard work that our Wedding Planner - Deborah Simmons did before we ever got into town.

Let me tell you - if you are planning a wedding OUT OF TOWN, you really ought to consider adding a Wedding Planner to your overall budget. Deborah has been fantastic so far. Not only has she been able to stick to our budget and find us good vendors but she has some great ideas on little things to add to our wedding that will really make it special (and IN OUR BUDGET!) and she really seems to understand exactly what Jim and I are looking for in terms of the "Wedding" to be refereed to from this day forward as Le Tour du Coeur 2009 (The Tour of the Heart 2009)

We managed to send out almost all the "Save the Dates" (still a few to go out...) and a lovely side effect of that is the nearly finalized guest list. Getting those "Save the Dates" out before the holidays was a personal goal. Does getting them out between the major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas mean I kind of met my goal? In this case - HECK YEAH!

Just before Jim and I left town for the week, I made another big decision. On Friday night, Dec 5th, I put down the money and joined a local TRIATHLON training group called Team Z. 

While this is a step away from the one-on-one coaching that I was doing, I believe this will be the right kind of IRONMAN training for me. I have always done better training with other people and while on race day, everybody is on their own. the idea of having fully supported training rides and long runs over the winter, spring and into early summer leading up to Ironman USA, really appeals to me. 

So this week I am going to drop in on several week-day Team Z workouts and see which ones work best with my week day schedule. I may still find myself training alone during the week but the support on the weekends and at local races throughout this coming 2009 Season will be worth it!

There is more that has happened in the last 2 weeks...Much more but I am going to have to save it for later in the week.  I'm gearing up to get back to regularly blogging.  I have a feeling it will keep me SANE over the next 12 months...or at least it will provide me with a safe place to be CRAZY...(Much closer to the truth!!)

Life is Good!  More later this week!

LiveSTRONG!

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

FUTILE!!!!





I wasn't going to post about this but I am so pissed that I have to...

RANT ON!

I AM A GROWN WOMAN 

YOU TOOK PICTURES OF MY BODY

YOU EVALUATED THEM, YOU HAVE RESULTS

GIVE ME THE DAMN RESULTS!

Don't give me this "You have to get the results from your Dr." crap....Last time I checked, you had the letters "MD" after you name Mr. Radiologist.  That makes you a Dr. too...and if you read my films that makes you a Dr. evaluating MY BODY so therefore I think I have the right to know the results IMMEDIATELY!  Especially if you are going to make me sit around while you read them....

RANT OFF!

(By the way, as far as "I" know without official confirmation from my Dr., everything is probably fine or else "they would have called you yesterday" according to the Nurse who sounded annoyed to even have to be pulling my medical records out of the pile next to the fax that nobody had bothered to look at yet....)

ARRGGGG!!!!!!