Promo Code: Hit & Run 5K

You all are lucky – Two posts in one day!!!

I have a great promo to offer you all today – A Discount code for the Hit & Run 5K on July 5th

Now, why should you do this race? Well, that is easy – It has been hot and steamy here in Chicago and this race is a great way to get a good workout but not get overheated! With various obstacles involving water, you are bound to get wet!

Need more reasons? Foam!

Obstacles!

A Slide! I mean, who doesn’t love slides?

The race will be held at Toyota Park
7000 Harlem Ave
Bridgeview, Illinois 60455

What is better than everything I have shown you? 15% of the registration fee! Use promo code: INGEYJGB15

But it gets better! If you share on Facebook during the registration process, you will get an additional $5 off.

Click Here to Register

Feel free to also check out their Facebook Page – If you still have questions, you can email them at info@hitandrun5k.com

 

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Weekly Training Report: June 23rd – 29th

Monday – 3.06 Miles

It was rather warm and humid when I went outside for my run. I saw a couple of the Condo Board members sitting outside so we chatted for a little bit. In all honesty though, I was putting off the run… The full sun exposure and humidity was not something I was looking forward to. I wanted three miles but told myself that I could cut it down to two if the heat started to get to me. I was pleasantly surprised as I started my run though. I was feeling really good and thankfully it was several degrees cooler along the lake.

Tuesday – 2.16 Miles

My mind wanted three miles but my body did not. I kept trying to fight for it but it just wasn’t going to happen. The humidity was pretty crazy and that just didn’t help… also probably did not help that I didn’t hydrate enough throughout the day… ooops…

Wednesday – 3.03 Miles

Today I was getting my three miles even if it killed me. Luckily it did not 🙂 It was also a lot cooler… still insanely humid though. Thanks to the polar vortex over the winter, the lake is still really cold so the warm air had been creating a dense fog and with winds off the lake, that fog got blown into my neighborhood. It meant the sun was hidden too, which always helps.

Thursday – 2.05 Miles

I wanted 3 miles again but after having walked into the work that morning, my legs were a tad toast. But I headed out with the intention of getting my three miles. A few blocks into the run, I calculated my weekly mileage and where I would be if I did the rest of the mileage I had mentally planned for myself… I would be a little too high for the week (given my weekly mileage last week and the week before) if I did three. When I reached the point to continue on for a three miler or turn and do a two miler, I made a last minute decision to do only two miles. While doing my two miles, I got to witness race set-up for a race that was apparently being held in my neighborhood that night… somehow it is a race I did not hear about either. Looked kind of cool though.

Friday – 2.17 Miles

The plan was two miles. Throughout the day the temps soared and the humidity did not let up at all. However, the winds were no longer off the lake so we no longer had the dense fog… both good and bad. I had not intended to run this one fast but when I got home and saw my pace, I was shocked. It certainly did NOT feel like I had been running that fast… which is definitely a good thing. So we are going to call this run speed work

Saturday – 1.07 Miles

Since the WRCE was heading to Milwaukee for a baseball game, I knew my only option was to run in the morning. I hate running in the morning… I was wide awake at 5:30 even though my alarm was set for 7:00… by 6:30, I gave up on  trying to go back to sleep and decided to start my run earlier than planned. After all, I wanted to eat a good and big breakfast before leaving for the game. The entire first half of my run felt horrible. My legs were dead and heavy and if you had asked me, I would have sworn that I was running a 12:00 pace. I hit the LFT Trail water fountain and turned around. Still wasn’t feeling it… at all. When I got home and checked my pace, I was shocked to see 10:15 because it felt like I was running a LOT slower. Perceived effort… interesting…

Sunday – 1.01 Miles

My original plan was to get up and run first thing in the morning to avoid the crowds from the pride parade. But I got to bed after midnight after tracking a teammate doing the death race this weekend. The previous day being in the heat and humidity wasn’t good either because I woke up with a massive dehydration headache despite my avoiding alcohol while with my friends at the game… Lovely. There was no way I was running in the morning. So I made myself coffee, breakfast and was a bum on my couch most of the day… Still tracking my teammate at the death race. It got really exciting in the late afternoon/early evening when we were hearing rumors (thank you DR live feeds for playing mind games with the spectators) but after we finally heard from the crew, I knew it was safe for me to go on my run and not miss any major news. I then quickly realized I should have forced myself to run that morning… Streets shut down and hundreds of pedestrians… I don’t even weave that much in races… But hey, I got it done.

~~~~~~~

It was a great week for training. I also did some strength training but didn’t track any of it. Strength training will be hit or miss for July and then I will jump back in for August and September to prep myself for the Spartan race I am doing at the end of September…. More on that at a later date.

I will also fill you all in on the Death Race that went on over the weekend either this week or next week (more than likely next week).

In the meantime, Mom gets into town this Wednesday!!!! So excited! I also have a half day of work on Thursday and a day off on Friday for the 4th Holiday weekend. No big plans for the weekend yet but looking forward to spending time with mom.

The last day of the run streak is Friday. Part of me wants to continue it but part of me also wants to take the pressure off and end it. I know I will need to start doing longer runs come August and I sort of want to start doing one longer run a week in July if I can fit it in…

Essentially my July running plan is a bit up in the air right now… I am just going to go with the flow for now and if I end the streak this weekend then it ends, if I don’t then I don’t. I have ZERO intentions of extending the streak for months but maybe for July… I don’t know. I will figure it out but I am 99% sure the streak will end after my run on Friday.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Picture Friday

I think this is very accurate… Not everything on the surface is what it seems

I know I keep saying it but… Consistency is key

Huge shout out to an incredible team of people taking on a HUGE challenge this weekend
#CandCdeathfactory #‎DFQ‬

Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Something New…

So, the time has come. In all reality, I knew it was going to come eventually. But I was trying to put it off.

Throwback Wednesday will be going away. Yesterday was the last one.

What?!?!?! Were you expecting earth shattering news?

I started this blog about 3 years into my running adventure… well… rather three years of running logs adventures. But I wanted to remember the races that I had run in previous years. I had many fond (and some not so fond) memories and I wanted to put them down on paper… so-to-speak

That is why I started Throwback Wednesday – for the record of years past… errr… in running related records…

But eventually I was going to reach the point of when the blog started, so I came up with a different idea. Well, truthfully, I bounced around a bunch of ideas. And there are also several ideas that my fellow bloggers use on Wednesday. “What I ate/drank Wednesday” Seems to be the most popular. But I am not a huge drinker and I don’t often get fancy with my food. I am single and live alone so it is pretty rare for me to prepare a huge fancy meal. And my weekly lunches are pretty basic (some may say boring).

So after tossing around the ideas that I came up with, I choose one and ran with it (hehe – Pun intended)

Starting next week, we will have Question & Answer Wednesday

I will be choosing one question each week to answer…. it could be personal or running related. It could be about Chicago. It could be about the other 3 states I have lived in before. But more than likely, it will be running/health related.

Stay Tuned!

 

 

Throwback Wednesday – The 2013 Plan

After a very unsuccessful 2011 and 2012, I knew I needed to make changes. But I was struggling with how to go about that. I kept putting together plans and I kept failing miserably at sticking to them.

In fact, Most of January and February was an attempt to follow a plan of some sort but it just was NOT working for me. I had laid out a do this on this day and that on that day type of plan. Which is essentially what I had done for all of 2011 and 2012 as well. But I was failing to analyze why this concept was not working for me.

Towards the end of February, I came down with a nasty little cold and I was forced to rest instead of run. It was during that down time that I decided to analyze what was going wrong with my “training” so I pulled out my training logs from 2010 and compared that year to 2011 and 2012.

I was a novice in 2010 but I managed to do a LOT of things correctly without ever realizing it. But once I started to consider myself a “runner” or at the very least, not a novice, I thought I needed to follow a training plan in order to actually BE a runner.

That thought right there is terrible and horribly incorrect. If you run you are a runner. Period.

But it took me a couple of years to realize that last statement…

I consider 2010 my “golden year” – the year where things were perfect and I made so much progress and I fell in love. But, I also never really followed a plan during that entire year. If I had a distance race coming up then I would add in longer runs a few months before the race but for the most part, my overall goal was to run a certain number of days. Not run a certain number of MILES but DAYS.

Once I realized that was really and truly the only difference between the years, I had a new “plan”.

I scrapped EVERYTHING I had laid out for the year already and updated everything to just running a certain number of days.

But what number of days to choose?

I actually struggled with this. 5 days a week was so successful in 2010 (even though some weeks were less and some were more) but I had been so out of the running game for two years that I wasn’t sure if I could run 5 days a week consistently. But I also felt like 3 days a week wasn’t enough for me (personally) to maintain running fitness.

But I decided to start back slowly. Most of March I would require myself to run at least 3 days a week but I really wanted at least 4 days a week. I just needed a little running ego so I kept the “plan” at three days but mentally told myself I would be running 4… Sometimes we need a little cheat.  Then I would (Officially) bump it up to 4 days a week in April and stick with that through the rest of the year. If I had distance coming up on the race schedule, I would add in a longer run once a week. Otherwise the focus was just simply to run a certain number of days per week… whether it be a half mile or 5 miles.

That was the turning point. It is almost as if I need to run without the pressure of sticking to a plan. Or if something happened and I have an off week, I didn’t feel like I fell too far behind. The thing I struggled with the most while trying to stick with a more traditional plan was dealing with a set-back. Everyone has a week here and there where life gets in the way or you get sick or whatever. It was how to get back into the plan after that off week that was the main crux of my issue. I put so much pressure on myself to run a set number of miles that when I didn’t or couldn’t for whatever reason, I would get insanely frustrated and just wonder what the hell the point was.

Basically, I would give up completely.

With the pressure off, I had more success with running. I started to feel stronger and I was getting out there regularly. And that is the most important part, Running became a regular activity again instead of this haphazard, oh crap I have a race in a couple of weeks so I should probably run, type thing.

Consistently, after all, is key.

Perhaps I should have realized this earlier but I wasn’t analyzing what was and was not working for me. I just kept trying to stick to a plan because that is what I thought I needed to do.

But when the longest race distance you do in a given year is a 10K, do you really need to lay out a plan where you HAVE to run X on X day and Y on Y day?

Not really… It works for some and more power to them. But it does not work for me.

So with my plan for 2013 figured out, I laced up and got back out there.

Running With the Bulls

As far as bucket lists goes, running with the bulls is definitely an item on such lists. Thousands of people will travel to Pamplona, Spain to accomplish this. But why go all the way to Spain?

That’s right folks, you can now run with the bulls locally through The Great Bull Run

This is not you typical 5K Folks – You are getting the chance to actually run with REAL. LIVE. BULLS.

Even better, they are coming to the Chicagoland area on July 12th. More specifically, the Hawthorne Race Course.

Source

The run will be held in six different sessions  from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm. Runners will enter a 1/4 mile stretch of the track along with the bulls. The bulls run at about 35 miles per hour.

This all day Saturday festival will also feature a “Tomato Royale” which is essentially a large food fight. The kid in all of you can forget about what you mother told you and you can totally play with your food!

Souce

The Tomato Royale will be held after the bull run. This giant food fight is inspired by Spain’s La Tomatina festival dating back to 1945. Music will start off the food fight where participants will sprint to a large mound of tomatoes. Once you reach the mound, start throwing!

“The one-day Festival includes forty 1,500 pound bulls, one enormous tomato food fight, music, beer and cowboys”

What is better than all of that? An offer of $10 registration! Please use Promo Code NVR when registering to get $10 off. To Register for this fantastic event, please click here

If you still have some questions, please visit the FAQs on their website

So go ahead and check off another item on your Bucket List! Spend a day playing with your food! Most of all, Have a ton of fun on a not so typical Saturday!

 

 

Weekly Training Report: June 16th – 22nd

Monday – 2.63 Miles

It was really hot and muggy out but my plan for the summer is to maintain a solid base and I am not going to do that by only a running a mile every day. So I decided it would be a good idea to start trying for runs in the 2.00 to 3.00 mile range. So I set out for my normal 2.50ish mile course since there are water fountains at every 0.63ish miles or so (and yes, I do keep track of that). All in all it was pretty decent. A tiny bit of residual fatigue from the weekend and definitely residual soreness from Saturday’s HIIT workout but overall I was pleased with the run. Going to bed at 8:30 that night helped with the fatigue and a massive stretching sessions helped with the soreness.

Tuesday – 2.01 Miles

Yet another hot and muggy day… are we noticing a pattern? As much as I wanted to do more than 2 miles, I just didn’t really have it in me. It was enough of struggle to get the 2 miles in. Sometimes, you just need to listen to your body. I also really need a better two mile route for the sunny, hot and muggy days.

Wednesday – 3.03 Miles

Wednesday Afternoon while I was at work, a storm came through and it drastically cooled things off. It was still muggy (again, pattern) but so much cooler. I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather by heading out for a 3 miler. Figuring it was best to have a water fountain every half mile, I used my typical 3 mile route. Although, I do have issues with the LFT in the summer because of all the beach bums and cyclists… But I like that the water fountains are at regular intervals. I felt really good the entire run and was surprised when I saw my pace when I got home because I did NOT feel like I was running at that pace.

Thursday – 1.02 Miles

Since I had run nearly 10 miles the previous 4 days, I thought it would be a good idea to throw in a dial down day. Essentially just a streak keeper which is sort of acting as a rest day…. if that makes sense. I headed out for my normal, slightly hilly, mile long route. About 0.40 miles in I noticed that my right hamstring was REALLY tight. Not like I had strength trained and it was sore… oh no… this was like something might be wrong tight. I was already at the “hill” portion of the run and there really was no way to avoid the hill at this point so I kept moving. But all along I was thinking about how stupid I was being. I was in pain but I was stubbornly still running to finish off the mile. I stopped to stretch a few times… luckily I have a lot of traffic lights to deal with on this particular mile long route. The stretching seemed to help but things were no loosening up. I made it home and took the elevator instead of the stairs because it felt like my hamstring wanted to lock up and it doing that while on the stairs would not have been fun. I rolled as soon as I dried off (I was dripping with sweat from the muggy run) and it definitely helped. The rest of the evening I kept stretching and rolling and just praying that it would feel better in the morning…

Friday – 1.04 Miles

I was really nervous about this run after the pain in my right hamstring from the day before. I had a lingering dull ache pretty much the entire day at work and I knew it was a strain of some sort. Despite knowing that it is likely better to rest than push it, I decided to head out for a mile run anyway. I figured if I shortened my stride and stuck to an area that was completely flat, I would be ok. Luckily my theory proved true. I had a few moments of pain but mostly it was just an ache and uncomfortable. The foam roller is my friend :-p

Saturday – 1.10 Miles

The right hamstring was feeling MUCH better when I woke up. I braved it and decided to walk to/from the grocery store and see how that felt. The ache was now mostly gone thank goodness. As such, I decided to test the leg a bit and when I headed out for my run, I choose my more hilly mile route. There was no pain and almost no ache at all. In fact, I felt rather good. I was beyond thrilled because I had been REALLY worried that I had managed to give myself an injury with less than two weeks to go in the Run Streak.

Sunday – 1.88 Miles

My weekly mileage was already nearly three miles more than last week so I knew I didn’t need to worry about mileage. I considered doing just a mile and then calling it a day but I also wanted to see if the leg could survive more than a mile. I decided to take my normal “hill” mile route knowing that I could take on some distance easily if I wanted to. I was feeling pretty good so that is exactly what I did. I ran to the CARA water fountain and considered continuing on. But, knowing that my leg had been bothering me and knowing that I still felt a slight twinge when using the stairs, I decided it was better to be safe. So I then backtracked home to get almost two miles in. Overall, I was still feeling really good when I got home so small victories.

~~~~~~~

I am pleased with the week. A few ups and downs but luckily, nothing serious. With only 11 days left in the streak, I feel confident that I will finish it off with success… assuming my right hamstring cooperates. But, luckily, there is no pain or aching at all anymore.

Mom gets into town this week for her annual month long visit and I am really excited!!!

Plan for the week is to just continue trying to do 2-3 mile runs but listen to the body… if I need just a streak keeper run (aka only a mile) then I will do that. Saturday I will be forced to do my mile run in the morning… Ugh… Have I mentioned that I HATE running in the morning?

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Picture Friday

This has certainly been the motto while doing this run streak… I have always been the person that goes home and changes into my workout gear right away. If I sit down, I am less likely to get back up later.

In case you missed the news, this totally happened last weekend. I donated 12 inches of hair. I love how quick my showers are now!

This has been on my mind a lot this week… for a lot of reasons. I have always felt that this rings true but this week, it has been a prominent thought for me.

This will totally be me this weekend. It is the first weekend since March that I have had zero plans. I don’t have to be anywhere at any particular time. However, I do have to do laundry and go to the grocery store… why can’t laundry do itself?

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Review: CrossTown Fitness

On Saturday afternoon, the bloggers were offered a special treat. A chance to check out CrossTown Fitness for free! I was all in!

At first, I was under the impression it was actually crossfit… but apparently I cannot read… I blame several busy weeks and thus being tired :-p So I was a tad bummed when it was pointed out to me that it was more HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) instead. I have been intrigued by crossfit for over a year but just cannot afford the classes. But since I have also been intrigued by the HIIT gyms popping up everywhere, I was equally excited.

I had a late night on Friday and was up early on Saturday for a run before my hair cut. I was perfectly content with my one mile run because I knew I would get a solid and effective workout later in the day.

Eric met me at my place and we headed over to the Halstead bus stop to go south to get to the West Loop, where CrossTown Fitness is located.

I failed to take any pictures because I am a bad blogger (or my brain wasn’t entirely functioning from lack of sleep) but Eric snapped the below pic of the space

We had arrived a little early so we were able to watch the end of the previous class. I was immediately nervous about having to jump on a moving treadmill… I attempted that ONCE back in my always running on the treadmill days and nearly flew off the back. Luckily I was holding on tight and there was someone else next to me who immediately hit the stop button… But yea… I was sort of freaking out (Spoiler alert… I did not fly off the back)

We were told to grab a Kettlebell and a set of free weights each. I wanted to challenge myself but I also wasn’t entirely sure what we would be doing so I was choose what I thought would be good. We then had a brief introduction. Our instructor was very energetic and encouraging and did a good job of explaining things… always a good sign.

The basics included the treadmill at an incline, two “strength” moves, another moved to get the heart rate up (think jumping jacks, high knees, etc). So overall 4 “stations” which we could through a total of three times. After the phase we did burpees (I loathe burpees). We had a few seconds to grab water before we moved on to the next phase which was the same concept but more challenging. The last thing we did was stretch

With that we started

We started off with the treadmills at 4% incline but on the next phase we bumped that up to an 8%. I choose to set my pace at my normal running pace and was determined to stick with it. The 8% was a huge challenge… especially the last round but I was able to gut it out.

We did a variety of different moves… I cannot remember the exact order but we did Kettlebell swings, plank rows into tricep extensions, jump squats, high knees, spider jumps (sort of like mountain climbers but far more challenging), squat shoulder press and a few others that I am probably forgetting.

I was dripping with sweat when I was done. The workout was excellent! I loved the instructor and thought it was awesome that she showed us to modify some of the moves if we needed to.

It was an awesome experience and I would love to go there again. Only thing I do not like is that it really isn’t all that close to my place. So not likely to be a place I go to all the time… although it is only about half a mile from my work so if I plan ahead then maybe…

I would highly recommend CrossTown Fitness!

Please note that I was not asked to write a review. I received the class for free but was not, otherwise, compensated. All views in this post are my own.

 

 

Throwback Wednesday – NYD 5K 2013

After a less than stellar 2011 and 2012, I was determined to get my running back on track in 2013. What better way to do that than by running a 5K on January 1st?

Since I don’t typically go out for New Years Eve and rarely drink in general, it was no difficult task for me to plan to run the morning of the 1st. I signed up and had an evening of pizza eating and movie watching all planned out. I knew my best friend and her husband were going to be in town and I mentioned the race to her. Her husband decided to join me for the race which I thought was awesome! I love having people to run with.

The only flaw in the plan of running a 5K on January 1st? It tends to be chilly… And sure enough, it was rather cold that morning when I woke up. But oh well. I have run in cold weather before…

My best friend and her husband were in the area so they picked me up. Her husband had to sign up for the race and I still needed to get my packet (because packet pickup before the morning of the race was when I was out of town for Christmas… Flaw in the packet pickup plan folks…

After registering and packet pick-up, we found a warm place to hang out until it was time to head to the start line. It was this morning that my best friend informed me I would be an Aunt!!!! And suddenly her request for Pizza for lunch made MUCH more sense :-p

Really could not have been happy for her and her husband!!!!

Despite the cold, the sun was out in full force. I was very much looking forward to the race.

I had no plans for the race and certainly had no time goals. It was just a good way to kick off the new year with a commitment to get my running back on track.

Her husband and I lined up and I remember chuckling at all the people around me complaining that they were too hung over and really didn’t want to be there.

With a very few frills, we were off. It was a relatively uneventful race. We walked a little bit before the two mile mark which was fine by me. I was in no hurry and had warmed up quite a bit already.

After the race, we headed back to Starbucks were my best friend was staying warm. We took a quick trip to my place so we could change and then head out to lunch… And yes, we got Pizza 🙂

My official time – 36:18 for a Pace of 11:43