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We turned around at mile 32, and stopped around mile 36 to refill our water bottles and buy more gatorade. I was so thankful for that gas station, as I had already gone through about 55 ounces of fluid (like I said- it was HOT out). Somewhere around mile 43 I started to get a little achy and hungry, and was craving fried chicken REALLY badly. If someone had delivered it to the trail, I would’ve been a very happy person.
Most of the second half of the ride was back up hill a little bit, so I was a bit sore and tired, plus I could tell I was drinking and eating less as well. I finally had my last snack break about 10 miles from the finish, and could notice a significant energy spike towards the end. I’m so glad I finally got my nutrition right after a few pretty tough rides at the beginning of the summer! I think tracking it and writing down exactly what and when I ate on each ride was beneficial.
Overall, this ride was fantastic, and it was a great way to usher in my birthday. It’s great to see that, even though I’m two years older than when I started riding back in 2012, I’m much faster and can go MUCH farther distances. My poor co-worker had to listen to all sorts of random chatter along the ride, but I had a great time being able to talk to someone.
Here’s what I ate along the way:
- Mile 12: 2 margarita shot bloks
- Mile 20: 1 honey stinger waffle
- Mile 32: 1 gu (tri-berry flavor) & 1 salt packet
- Mile 36: 2 margarita shot bloks
- Mile 44: 2 margarita shot bloks
- Mile 55: 1 honey stinger waffle
- To drink: 40 ounces of gatorade, 20 ounces of water w/0.5 nuun tablet in it, and 30 ounces of water
I climbed over 2,000 feet on the ride, and had a great time. It’s been great to see how I’ve progressed over the summer!
While my birthday was actually yesterday (the 6th), my celebration kicked off on the 31st. Meg, Melissa, Marci, and I had planned to go out to dinner that evening (not for my birthday- just because it was the first time that Meg was able to come down on a Thursday). When Meg, Marci, and I got back to Melissa’s, she had set up food for a little surprise party for me! I was really surprised- I hadn’t picked up on anything all evening!
Out to dinner
Birthday Cupcakes- I was REALLY excited about them 🙂
With the mugs that Marci painted for each of us.
We ate a little, danced and twirled in the living room, and of course took some pictures. Marci had also painted insulated mugs for each of us- perfect for keeping water ice cold at the pool in the summer! She did such a great job on each of them, capturing our personalities really well (mine is covered in sparkles and glitter! 😀 ).
Poor Fitz was a little overwhelmed with the excitement.
Twirling
After that, it was about 10 pm, and we decided to head down to the pool (open 24 hours a day) for some jumping and twirling into the pool. Like children, we jumped in and then got out and did it again over and over again, and had a great time doing it! After that, we headed in for a sleepover, which involved nail painting, cupcakes, talking, and watching “The Other Woman”. It was really fun.
The next day we spent at the pool, enjoying the warm weather and sunshine.
It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it (plus- so nice to have ice cold water for a few hours in the mugs)
The second part of birthday celebrations came on Saturday when we went to the Keith Urban concert. Keith does NOT disappoint in person, and I absolutely loved the concert. I’ve been listening to his songs non-stop since then.
On the Monday before my birthday, I went with a co-worker on a 64 mile bikeride, hitting a metric century! I’ll have an entire post on that next week! I had to prove that I’m still young, and it was a great time.
My actual birthday, Wednesday, I was at a camp for a 2 day retreat for work, so it wasn’t really a work day at all, but it wasn’t a completely free day like the last few years either. The day was really fantastic though, and it was fun to have a laid back place to spend time with co-workers! Of course I had to start the day with my annual birthday run. This is the 4th birthday I’ve had as a runner, and I really enjoy my reflective runs. This run was only 1.75 miles (we had an early breakfast time and I was up until 2 am playing games), which was enough because it was really humid (my glasses kept fogging up!) and there were some intense hills at the camp (I don’t normally run hills, so this was a different sort of workout!). The run was fantastic, and I kept a pace up that I know I couldn’t have done on my birthday last year. I’m thankful that I can move and exercise, that I have a great stress reliever, and that I can feel the freedom in it.
Very late to bed, up early to run= very tired eyes
So, like I said, although I wasn’t so excited about my birthday, I had a great time. This last year of life has been really tough for so many reasons, and for those reasons I’m not too sad to leave that year behind. However, the last year of life has brought about so many great times too, and for that, I’m thankful. I’m thankful for the races I’ve run, friends I’ve made, things I’ve done through work, moments with my siblings, ways I’ve grown, and for another beautiful year of life, even when it’s been tough. And now- here’s to the next year of life!
I first heard about Busy Bee Headbands at the Carmel Half Marathon Expo, and was instantly intrigued. Then, Melissa gifted one to me before the Indy Women’s Half Marathon at the beginning of June. I broke the rule of not doing anything new on race morning, because how could I turn down wearing a sparkly pink headband?! I’m SO glad that I broke the rule, because I fell in love with the headband. Despite it being hot and me sweating like crazy, the headband didn’t move at all!
The headband is adjustable at the bottom, so you can fit it exactly to your head! That, plus the non-slip feature and the adorable designs, make this company one of my “go-to” companies for racing and exercising! I also wore the headband during my accidental half marathon at Rock n’ Roll Chicago, and it worked just as well at that race. Needless to say, I’m hooked!
Busy Bee Headband in action!
When I asked Tracy, the owner, the story behind Busy Bee, she shared this with me:
“There are many things we do by accident. We can trip, we can lose something, we can even crash our car, but rarely do we become an entrepreneur by accident. That’s exactly the situation Tracy, the founder and owner of Busy Bee Headbands, found herself in more than 3 years ago.
An avid runner, Tracy spent many weekends running races and acquiring race medals. She also was obsessed with the right kind of headbands while she ran and worked out. One day she looked at those race medals and realized that they were the same width as her headbands. Light bulb moment! Tracy went to work making herself headbands from her race medal ribbons! As someone that loves to work with her hands and create things, Tracy didn’t stop there. Her fashion sense took over and she began buying ribbons for headbands that would match her workout clothes.
Tracy’s headbands quickly became the talk of her running buddies and her clients in the personal training business. She made headbands for gifts and then began getting requests from friends and clients to purchase her headbands.
Eagerly, Tracy began selling her headbands at the training center where she worked. She was a newly single mom looking for ways to keep ahead of her finances. Over time, the headband business became more profitable than the personal training business and she began to focus completely on headbands. This was a challenging time working through a divorce, dealing with the loss of her mother; starting a business wasn’t on her radar at all.
Tracy has embraced the idea of being an entrepreneur even if it was not something she set out to do intentionally but with her love of crafts and working with her hands and her background in graphic design, it just made sense. And so, in a wonderfully happy accident, Busy Bee Headbands was born. With the nickname B, for always being a “busy bee”, her work ethic comes in handy as she designs, sews, and travels to local sporting events to sell her headbands.” (shared with me by Tracy, as written by Rebecca Hession- a Writer/Speaker living in rural Hamilton County. Rebecca shares her rants and musings at www.randomthoughtsbyrebecca.com)
Pretty great, right? I love supporting local products, and I especially love supporting other runners! To celebrate my birthday, I KNEW that I wanted to share this product with you all, and Tracy offered one lucky winner a free busy bee headband of their choice! This giveaway is open to all U.S. Residents:
giveaway rules:
- Contest runs from 8/6/2014-8/10/2014 at 12 am EST.
- No purchase necessary
- 1 winner will be randomly selected via Rafflecopter
- Open to all US Residents (& must have a shipping address in the US)
- Winner will be notified by email if available (or other social media if email isn’t available)- winner will have 48 hours to claim their headband.
- If the original winner doesn’t claim their headband within 48 hours, another winner will be randomly selected
- The prize will be directly shipped from Busy Bee Headbands
I’m a big fan of introspection and sitting back regularly for a few moments to evaluate where I’m at and what little changes I can make to get to an even healthier, flourishing life, and I wanted to incorporate that into the blog as well! These questions will include a broad spectrum of issues and ideas to hopefully cover areas that would be helpful to each of my readers.
If you have any ideas for topics or questions you’d like covered, feel free to leave a comment here or email me directly! I’d love to hear your feedback.
Now it’s your turn to share! Do you enjoy journaling currently? Why or why not? What would you like to see covered in this series?
Today’s guest post is by Andrea! I’ve been blogging about POTS for awhile now, and one of the fun things that has resulted from that is connecting with others who have POTS as well. I connected with Andrea a few weeks ago, and asked if she might want to share her POTS story with all of you! Take it away Andrea!
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Seven years ago, I was diagnosed with POTS and for quite some time, I thought I would never be able to run again. My life once filled with countless physical activities and no restrictions stopped, suddenly. As time went on, POTS made running seem like something that I could only dream of as I began to feel like I was living in a nightmare. My walking started to become impaired as I learned how to deal with my newfound illness and the thought of exercise grew farther from me. I had become so weak that I had to start walking with a cane. At 15, you’re “supposed” to feel young, wild, and free but I felt like a complete outcast as a prisoner within my own body.
One day, a family friend introduced me to the most extraordinary place on earth called The Root Farm, and my life changed. I began equestrian therapy after I met a horse named Stella who helped strengthen my muscles and balance through the motions in her body. Just like magic, I began to feel strong again. I decided that my illness had taken enough from me, and I wanted my life back. One day, I decided to run to my neighbor’s mailbox and back (a grand total of 250 feet.) The next day, I ran past another mailbox, and the next another, and another until finally I trained myself to begin running again.
I began to feel strong and empowered. Those feelings made me cherish my health more than ever. I now run 3-4 times a week and do Pilates 3 times per week because I learned that if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. I challenged myself to enroll in a 5k and set a goal to take back my health. I started a Crowdrise account that helped me raise money for The Root Farm while I trained for my first 5k and when I crossed the finish line, I was no longer a “sick” girl, I was a runner.
Having the ability to strengthen our bodies is one of the greatest gifts we will ever have. Although it may be uncomfortable, painful, time consuming, and difficult, the results are definitely worth the struggle. It shouldn’t take an illness to make your health a priority. We don’t need excuses to be anything but good to ourselves. Most great things start from small actions, like running to just one more mailbox. I recently completed the Worlds’ largest road race, The Boilermaker 15K because I kept running to more mailboxes.
Today, I run for my health. I run for the peace that a run brings after a long day. I run to feel strong and empowered. I run so I can preserve as much of my health as I can. I run because I want to be in control of my body. And more than anything, I run because I want to enjoy my life.
Will you run with me? Without excuses? Without limits? Because we can all use a little help sometimes. And I need you to run with me.
Good luck my friends. Find your reason and run with it.
To find The Root Farm, visit: http://www.rootfarm.org or https://www.facebook.com/rootfarm
For Andrea’s Crowdrise: https://www.crowdrise.com/andreapiazza
To share Andrea’s nature runs, visit: http://instagram.com/andream024
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Thanks Andrea for telling your story! Working out with POTS is definitely a really difficult and frustrating process, and I love hearing stories of people who can deal with their illness and push themselves to a healthier place in the process! For more information on POTS, click here.
If we were having coffee this morning…I would talk about my birthday! My birthday is this coming Wednesday (the 6th), and I’m sort of equal parts sad and happy about it. I’m happy to close out this year of my life- it was a tough one, but I’m not thrilled about being another year older. That being said, I feel like my body is younger than it was a few years ago, even though my biological age is older- I can thank running, biking, and pilates for that! This weekend I’m celebrating my birthday with friends, and having a blast. I would also tell you about the surprise birthday I had this weekend!!
If we were having coffee this morning… I would talk all about my training lately. I’d tell you about running my accidental half marathon, and I’d tell you about my long bike rides on sweet country roads and being chased by dogs. I’d also tell you all about how I’ve adjusted to running with a running buddy! My workouts have been solid lately, and I could talk for hours about it!
If we were having coffee this morning…I would tell you how frustrated I am about my POTS right now. I’m having a flare up right now, and I constantly feel sick and “off”. I’m having to put my legs up on a wall for almost an hour a day because the blood is pooling and it’s making me dizzy. I have migraines every day and am not sleeping well (insomnia is another side effect). I’m working hard to do everything physically and mentally that I know to do to stay healthy through it, but I am pretty frustrated with my symptoms right now, and I wish that my body would just get itself together.
If we were having coffee this morning… I would tell you all my hopes and dreams for this blog. I have a whole series that I can’t wait to introduce (I hopefully will soon!), and I hope you will love it!
Now it’s your turn to share! If we were having coffee this morning, what would you share?
Cooking delicious meals with friends
Fun at the pool
My BioSkin compression sleeves- great for running and my POTS symptoms
These girls! This was from the summer of 2006, so I’m 8 years younger here. We ended up in a summer program in Colorado together, and we are still friends. I love them 🙂
Fresh Raspberries (and other fresh fruit this summer!)
Now it’s your turn to share! What are you feeling thankful for today?
Amazing sunset, right? It was raining during sunset, and the colors were unreal.
Our “we’ll leave at 7 am” plan was a wash, as I was the only one up and eating at that point. We headed out about an hour and a half later, and it was already hot and humid. I brought my handheld with me, and I plan on doing that for all my longer runs until it gets cold again.
Melissa took us on the route that she normally runs, and it was fun to mix it up! I really enjoy running with Melissa, as we’ve hit a really good pattern in our running. We must have subconsciously aligned our strides, because when we run side by side, our feet hit the pavement at the exact same time (I noticed this around mile 4 of our run).
I’m sure that this run would’ve felt a little tough by myself, but with these girls it was an absolute blast. We were laughing and making jokes, which was great. I’m also really impressed with how good I felt on the run, especially since six days previously I had run an unplanned and accidental half marathon! By the end, I was feeling strong, which I was pleased about. We ran about a 10:45 pace, which is about 45 seconds per mile faster than usual for me, even in races. This was surprising and especially exciting for me!
The entire run, as we got more and more hot, we talked about Coke Freezes from down the street. When we got back and were stretching (and planking!), Melissa’s husband went out to pick them up for us, which was really fantastic. We took them down to the pool, as we were anxious to cool down!
We were the only ones down there initially, and were so energized from our run (awesome pace, and Marci went the farthest she’s ever run before!), so we decided to have some fun. I haven’t run and umped into a pool in years (maybe at least a decade?), so we spent about 20 minutes jumping and twirling through the air into the pool. It was honestly one of the best ways to cool down from a summer run!
Cooking family dinner later that day
So- moral of the story. Train with friends in the summer to keep you motivated, use Coke Freezes as post race fuel, and cool down by jumping into a pool! I think that’s my ideal summer running plan 🙂
Today I’m posting over at Lindsay’s List, so make sure to head over there to read all about “The Best Decision I Ever Made…” It was interesting for me to think through the snowball effect that occurred after one simple decision, and it’s gotten me to think about other little decisions I’ve made that have made a big impact on my life.
If you’re stopping by from Lindsay’s blog, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. You can learn a little bit more in my about me section. You can learn more about my life with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome here, and if you’re interested in running or racing, you can check out my race recaps! Make sure to say hi while you’re here 🙂
Now it’s your turn to share! What is one of the best decisions that you’ve made? What impact did it have?
I’ve known of Vega for a few years, but have never had the opportunity to try it before! When the opportunity to review it came up, I was on it immediately, choosing the Vega Protein Performance Powder (the recover one). One of my goals for this summer has been to be better about consuming protein to help me recovery immediately after working out. Previously it may have been up to 2-3 hours after exercising before I ate protein- not ideal for trying to increase the amount of exercise I was doing in training!
I was so excited to open the box and find that they had sent a box of packets in Vanilla! It’s also a plant-based protein, which I’d never tried before!
One other disclaimer when it comes to me using protein powders (there is one other one that I like and use regularly in chocolate)- I tend to use only half of the recommended amount. Any more than that and it tastes too thick and disgusting to me- the same was true with the Vega (plus it extends your protein powder!).
I first tried the protein powder at 1 packet in 16 ounces of water. The vanilla powder smelled almost like cake batter, and I was really excited to try it. It wasn’t that it was bad, but I knew it was too much powder in the water for me. From there on out I used half a packet of powder in 16 ounces of water or almond milk, and that tasted much better! There was no chalky texture or weird after taste at all!
I also used the protein powder in my morning oatmeal. I kept a packet open on my counter, and added it to my blueberry and almond milk oatmeal in the mornings, and it was delicious!
I think that very often with protein powder, it takes a few times of drinking it to really adapt to the taste and to figure out the best way to personally drink it (powder to liquid ratio, powder in water vs. in a smoothie, etc…), so I tell people to try it a few times before really deciding if they like it. Vega is a definite win in my book! It’s tasty, doesn’t make me feel sick afterwards, is lactose free (obviously a huge plus for me), and is packed with all sorts of good things to help aid recovery!
This is a product that was on my “to try” list, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it out before taking the plunge. This was a product I really liked, and plan to make part of my training from now on as I try to fuel my better.
You can check out the Vega Sport website here.
Now it’s your turn to share! What are some of your favorite ways to “fuel your better” after exercising?
