Life makes living hard. .

So the last few weeks at work have been especially tiring… mentally and emotionally draining.  So much that at the end of the day I was grateful if I could get to yoga for a class. 

I was getting more & more anxious about the two Disney races I had coming up.  I hadn’t done the level of training I planned and didn’t eat as well as I normally do. So needless to say I was starting to doubt my ability to run the races.

So HunBun and I drove down to Disney early Friday morning.  The ride was pretty smooth. just a few F bombs from HunBun as fellow drivers weren’t following the rules if the road.  We switch seats at the Grapevine.. so I get to deal with the LA traffic.  🙂

We got to the park at 11and got something to eat.  I love the chicken salad sandwich on brioche that they have there.  They also offer a pretty good gluten free bun option for HunBun and his turkey sandwich.  Saw this….but didn’t eat it.

The 5k was Saturday morning at 545am.  I felt awesome and finished in 28:47!!!  I was super stoked and my legs felt great walking back to the hotel where HunBun was sleeping.  Hahahahaha.  Love the support!

We spent Saturday in California Adventure park and then headed back to Disneyland for the afternoon.  We were tired..from the drive..from the work week.  I grabbed a sandwich for dinner – chicken salad again and (here’s where I make a foolish decision) a seasonal cupcake.  This cupcake had chocolate mousse frosting on a chocolate cake with raspberry cream filling.  So decadent…but absolutely the worst thing for me to eat before a 13.1 mile run.

My Verizon service wasn’t working well so I have no pictures from the morning of the race. 

I started off good…then felt myself getting slower.  So I would speed up, then slow down.  When I heard Kanye singing Power at mile 10 I knew I wasn’t going to hit my goal time since he’s supposed to be singing that to me at mile 11.  Gah!

Well I finished strong.  Didn’t make my goal which was to cut 11 minutes from last September… instead I added 11 minutes.  Doh!

Finish time was 2:22.  But hey I finished right?  I had fun.  My HunBun was there for me at the finish.  What more can a girl ask for?!?

Plus I get one more chance to PR next month at the DisneyWorld Princess half marathon.  So as I stare at my medal I’ll take pride in my accomplishments. 

See ya later

Cathy

Janathon Day 10 update…and Day 11 start

What up Janathoners!  So long as you’re getting active for this first month in 2013…that’s the best thing.  🙂

Thursday, January 10th: 5-6pm Muscle & Flow

Push Up Challenge:  9 FU style!

Friday, January 11th: …nothing yet…

Push Up Challenge: 10 FU style and 20 Knees!

I’m making sure to do a little something every day.  This weekend I’m going to mentally prepare for those 2 little races noted on the right side of this post.  You see those?  Yeah, the NeverLand 5K and Tinkerbell Half are next weekend!  I will freely admit that I have not maintained my training plan.  Did not complete near the number of distance miles that I should have.  I have maintained levels of fitness by yoga’ing and circuit training – so I am hopeful that I will be carried by that and the excitement of running with thousands of others.  I will prepare myself not to be disappointed with my time…but plan on pushing myself to accomplish my goals.  No giving in here!

I enjoyed the green smoothie starter for every meal.  Certainly kept me filled up and hydrated at the same time.  I’ve been using water in the smoothies to keep them light.  Although yesterday I made a batch of date balls…must have had 25 finished balls….this morning I only had 2 balls left.  Whoops!  Guess they are a little too tasty.  🙂

See ya later

Cathy

 

Race Bib Pickup – Brazen Rocky Ridge

LiLo and I are “running” the Brazen Rocky Ridge 5K this Saturday.  I say “running” because this is the hilliest place we have ever seen!  (We didn’t know what we were signing up for, that’s for sure.)

Being the two supersmart gals that we are, this morning we met at the race spot to get a ‘lay of the land’ only to find that they closed the trail we’ll actually be on to set up for Saturday.  To feel like we didn’t waste our time we hit the Elderberry trail instead.  OM-stinken-G!!!!  If this isn’t the most vertical race route ever created! (Apparently it’s not, I ‘oogled “most vertical race route” and it spat back at me Badwater Ultramarathon, which starts at 280′ and ends at 8500′; so I guess I should stop acting like a baby.)

Las Trampas Regional Wilderness Park

We were huffing & puffing AND trying to carry on a conversation – like all good gal pals should.  We did look around (to make sure we weren’t ambushed by a cougar or a crazy person (I did watch The Hills Have Eyes you know) and the views are absolutely GORGEOUS!  I’ll be sure to take photos while we are “running”.  Ha!

Here’s a video of 2010’s race so you can have an eyeball into what I’ll be doing on Saturday morning.

After our morning “hike”, we drove to downtown Danville’s Forward Motion Sports to pick up our race bibs and so I could check out a pair of Mizuno’s for my upcoming Half’s.  With our race entry we got 15% off any purchase at FM when we picked up our stuff so I figured I would try to take advantage of saving a little dough.  In addition to my sweet new kicks I also joined the cult of water belts.

MIzuno Wave Rider

Yes I drank the water…while I carry my own water… HA!

I know, I know…why’d I pick the most obnoxious looking one?  Well the others looked weirder AND didn’t sit right on my waistline.  But really, the real reason for buying into the water belt idea is an article I read recently (Runners World or Active.com or some other super smartsy place) where a tip to reduce your run time was NOT to stop at water stations.  DER!

I always have to slow down to drink my water/’ade otherwise I will literally drown myself while standing up right on dry ground. (I think that was a CSI episode).  I mean have you ever tried to guzzle a dixie cup full of liquid while jog/running?  Your nose holes will be clean as a whistle if you try.  So I can totally agree with the article’s opine that if you don’t stop your race time will decrease.  (insert head smack here).

I won’t be using the belt for this weekend, but I will be using it for the Tinkerbell Half in January and the Princess Half in February…in addition to practice runs with my meet up group.

Anyhoo…super cool swag again and really neat-o t-shirt.  Enjoy the pics…beam your “fast” thoughts my way around 830am pacific time.

That’s me!

There’s the Swag’ger baby!

See ya later!

Cathy