Trail Hog recap and this morning’s Eats & Sweats

Brazen Trail Hog 5K

Yesterday morning I completed my first trail run…even though I said I wasn’t doing it for time you know deep down I didn’t want to be a total schlub on my first race out.

I was 45th out of 156 with a pace of 10:52/min for a finish of 36:50.  That doesn’t sound too bad for my first one out until you look at the rankings and see that some 9yo kid finished 7th with a  7:40/min pace.  GAH!

I promised you some awesome running fashion and without further fanfare – feast your eyes on this slick combo!

No, I’m not color-blind.

Just to let you know how awesome these threads were…while I was on the run one of the camera dudes said “hey, nice socks”.  Woot Woot!  Oh, yeah!

Thanks to HunBun for getting up early with me and hanging out while I was on the trail.  He was a pretty good photo-logger.

It’s like you were there with us

My favorite is the one in the lower right corner…that’s my super white self – shining in the summer sunshine – it looks like I’m naked.  🙂

I’ll kick your patootie

At the end we got these wicked cool medals…this hog’s been working on his bicep curls!  Then we piled through the feed trough – I mean the buffet of a refuelers dream.  They were even handing out It’s It ice cream sandwiches!  EEEE!  I grabbed a cappucino flavor – unfortunately it’s a cookie sandwich so no ice cream for HunBun (insert sad face here).  I should have taken a picture of the food line – if that doesn’t motivate you to run I don’t know what would!  So after grabbing half a bagel (the MOST DELICIOUS bagel I have ever eaten – it tasted like warm garlic bread, SLURP), a little dixie cup of Skittles for HunBun, some Raw Energy bars that I’ve never tasted and some more water I moved over to the side to eat my ice cream sandwich and watch the rest of the 5K/10K participants come in.  While I was eating HunBun asked “do you have makeup all over your face?”..I said “no, it’s probably all the dust gathered in my tears”.   Hahahaha.  One take away – wear sunglasses on a trail run ESPECIALLY if you wear contacts!  My right eye kept tearing up and I was afraid my contact was gonna fall right out.  **10yo calls tears eye sweats – so for all you men out there it’s not crying it’s your eyeball sweating. 🙂

The Brazen racing team is THE BEST!  Made you feel completely comfortable and when the announcer asked who was doing their first trail run and a ton of hands shot up he got super stoked!  There were a couple of big hills I had to walk up – I’m not ashamed to admit it – but for the most part I kept my pace up and had a really great time.  I encourage anyone to try anything once…you might find your newest addiction that way!

Sunday Morning Eats & Sweats

This morning I had some instant cinnamon oatmeal (cleaning out the pantry last week unearthed some food that needs to be eaten), ungloopified by some unsweetened coconut milk, fattened up with some sunflower butter then flavored up with some cinnnamon and blueberries.  On the side I finished up the other half of the papaya.  Can’t go wrong with instant oatmeal (I stick to the high fiber version or the low sugar version – I don’t know why they don’t combine those two features..Come On Quaker!).  Well I should say you can’t go wrong IF you like oatmeal (unlike my Ann girl who can’t stand the stuff).

Our finicky little Keurig has been working for the past week (HOORAH!) so I added a cup of coffee whitened with unsweetened coconut milk then spinkled with this lovely find from Trader Joe’s  – a Chocolate, Coffee Bean and Sugar grinder!  Gives your morning joe a little extra howdy-do.  I enjoyed that in my Disney World cup that I got from our trip this past June.  Cheery!

Sweats

Today I did my Functional Workout from Tina Reale – who I have helping me out as a virtual personal trainer.  I was supposed to do this workout yesterday – but the 5K threw our day off schedule and I didn’t get to it like I wanted to.  So this morning I did 4 supersets at 45/sec each exercise after a 10 min stationary bike ride while I set up my interval clock.  Then I finished up with a 15 min speed workout on the treadmill.  My darn iFit is not connecting on my treadmill so I need to figure that out.  Bugger.

So that’s my weekend so far as Sunday’s still got some hours left in her.

See ya later!

Cathy

Trail Hog Bib pick up

Race Bib Pick Up

Sometimes GPS makes me feel dumber than ever.  I drove out to Road Runner Sports in Campbell to pick up my race bib for the Brazen Trail Hog 5K happening this Saturday.  First some nutter next to me decided he wanted to go straight EVEN THOUGH he was obviously in a turn only lane and I was also turning!  So after slamming my brakes and watching the nutter wiggle-waggle his steering wheel as he attempted to overcorrect his major fail THEN get back into his turn only lane (DONKEY) I blindly followed my GPS (giving him the stink eye as I drove past the goober) as it made me drive in a complete circle.  I finally just drove into the shopping complex with Whole Foods and pulled up Road Runner Sports on my phone – then after making another U-Turn found my way to their parking lot.  Criminey!

Swag Bag

I was surprised I got one and it was filled with some pretty useful stuff…and something I hope I don’t ever have to use.

I’m digging the Swag

 

Hoping I never have to use this though

I love the shirt and bib design for this race…it’s what really caught my attention and why I signed up.  Pretty slick, huh!

Get outta my way, I’m a Trail Hog

As this is my first trail run I’m being cautious and signed up for the 5K.  Brazen’s cool about letting you switch which race you want to compete in when you pick up your bib.  So I let the friendly gal know that I was sticking to the 5K (in my head I was saying “so I don’t faceplant or break something important the first time out”).  I’m super jazzed for Saturday to get here.  I’m going to convince HunBun to come with…to give me some cheerleading support and also so we could maybe hit some Eatery on the way back.  🙂

While at Road Runner Sports I also grabbed some super bright compression socks.  These’ll go great with my fancy new shoes I just got.  I’ll be sure to post a photo of my race day outfit…if it’s the stuff I think I’m going to wear it’ll be pretty darn colorful I tell you.

Aren’t you prettier in pink!

See ya later!

Cathy

What’s the coolest competitive event you’ve entered?

 

 

Aloha

Feeling pretty tropical this morning – only in the house since my weatherbug widget says it’s 54º outside…BRRRRR!   Actually feeling more tropical because of my lovely papaya that I got at Sprouts the other day along with this lovely bottle.

Coco-nutty!

I was inspired to add a little tropical flavor to my morning Eats.  Tropical fruit is so colorful AND flavorful – that is the one thing I do miss since I’ve moved away from Hawaii – all the tropical fruit that we would eat like it wasn’t even a big deal.  Now I have to save up to buy a $1.99 papaya.  Gah!

Let’s dance the hula while we eat

I know I’ll need a snack around 10’ish…I actually need more protein in the morning – I’ll have to look at the bottle to see how much protein is in coconut butter.

Morning Sweats

This morning I did a Tempo run on the treadmill.  This is the first time I’m getting serious about improving my pace time.  I’ve cut time for each of my Half-Marathons but I think that’s more from the sheer excitement that is generated while you participate in a race.  I really want to hit a 2:00 finish time…with a sub-2 as a full on squeal goal.  So here’s what an expert has to say about the Tempo run, courtesy of Hal Higdon:

Tempo Runs: This is a continuous run with a buildup in the middle to near 10-K race pace. A Tempo Run of 30 to 45 minutes would begin with 10-15 minutes easy running, build to 15-20 minutes near the middle, then 5-10 minutes easy toward the end. The pace buildup should be gradual, not sudden, with peak speed coming about two-thirds into the workout. Hold that peak only for a minute or two.

So as you probably guessed I didn’t read this BEFORE I got on the treadmill at 5am this morning…instead I read it after – like right when I posted it here for your reading pleasure.  Now that I know what it IS I sort of followed it – backwards…I started off fast then tapered slower for the 10 minutes I ran a tempo.  Now that I know what an actual Tempo Run is I’m good to go.  So next Thursday (I have a full plan made up – I’ll post it next time), I’ll be on it for tempo running.

Trail Run = New Shoes

Since I don’t want to jack up my Brooks Glycerin’s that I use for the Half’s I stopped at Big5 with 12yo last night to pick up some trail running shoes.  I did what novice’s usually do – which is buy a cheap but good shoe.  They are so pretty so I’m hoping the trail is not too dusty & muddy so they don’t get all janky on our first date. 🙂

Please don’t ugly me up on our first date

They are some kind of New Balance running shoe.  Big5 doesn’t have the widest selection or variety of shoes.  I do have to pick up my bib for the Brazen Trail Hog 5K on Saturday from Road Runner in Campbell.  So maybe I can find some matching compression socks for my new kicks.

Off to drive 12yo to school…then getting right to work!

See ya later!

Cathy