Posts in the Workouts Category at , Page 2

When Garmins Turn into Gremlins and a Month of Fartleking Workouts to Refresh You Mentally

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Cait — 16 Comments ↓

Happy Saturfarts to you all!! If anyone has raced, I expect some bragging on your fine selves below pahleeez!

My workout was…surprise…9.5 miles on the treadmill to the distraction of Freaks and Geeks on the tube, followed by core and abs today. I know, I really am such a crazy person living on the edge and you never know what my workouts will be. Again, do as I say, not as I do, I know I should mix it up more.

So today I think I want to address a comment that was left HERE by the very fine Vanessa at The Gourmet Runner. It started when I read on her blog about a tempo run she had done. Basically she was saying how she was frustrated about not hitting the exact splits and that during her run she was constantly obsessing about what her pace might be, checking the Garmin, and that it was stressing her out.

Not a Gremlin but I wouldn't want to piss this guy off...

You can read my little comment I left her HERE if you like but I’ll sum it up, and I actually touched on this exact same thing in my own post HERE about things that could derail your race plan. Basically it’s this, in today’s age sometimes runners get sucked into information overload; I’ve seen people out there running at it looks like they’re hooked up to some kind of life support system between the iPods, watches, GPS trackers, Garmins, cell phones…etc. (Don’t get me started on the people fully decked out with fuel belts and three water bottles for a four miler…lol.)

Ummm, am I still the only person who (when I do run outside and am not being a weenie on the treadmill….haha) only wears a straight up watch? I don’t even own a Garmin or anything like that. Now, I’m just as obsessive about times and exact miles, trust me you can ask anyone who’s run with me, so I’m not saying I’m perfect about it and part of the reason I do like the treadmill is because I guess it has all of that info built in.

But, I digress, the point is that Vanessa’s workout was a 4 mile tempo at 9 min pace. She actually finished up the workout underpace but was frustrated because it was not ‘exactly’ what it should be and during the whole thing she was speeding up/slowing down depending on what the GARMIN was telling her. So here is a workout where she should leave feeling happy she’s actually fitter than she thought but she’s unhappy and the whole workout wasn’t even enjoyable because of the Garmin induced stresslevel. Can I call it a Gremlin at this point?

Workouts aren’t exactly supposed to be enjoyable, but the lactic acid will take care of that for you, so there is no need to make it harder on yourself. A coach once told their athlete (actually the athlete was my mom…lol.), “Don’t think. That’s my job, I’ll do it for you.” When you’re running, shut the brain off as best you can, zone out, and work on running hard.

Sure, we want to hit splits and times, we don’t want to loaf and we do need to check-in with the clock every now and again so we don’t let the lactic acid beast swallow us and if we are slowing down we need to know and try to pick up the pace. BUT you need to tread a fine line between being aware of the clock and not letting it stress you out to the point where it’s working against you. Running is so mental that if you’re obsessed too much you’ll be the one doing your undoing. (Reread that sentence, I’m convincing myself it does in fact make sense. )

Think about running for FEEL too, you want to get to the point where you know what certain paces feel like. As you’re going along you want to stay relaxed, focus on keeping proper form, expending as little unnecessary energy as possible (don’t clench your fists or jaw, make sure your shoulders aren’t up to your chin), looking ahead, your breathing…and talking yourself through to the end.

Screw the Garmin, Vanessa, and run hard. Run for feel, and I’m pretty sure you’ll wind up running faster AND you’ll feel much better doing it.

In fact, if you want to read my little reply comment to her you can, and I told her that maybe doing some workouts that aren’t so ‘rigid’ for a period will give her mind a break too. Fartleks are perfect for this, you don’t know the exact distance, you don’t know the exact pace, you just run HARD for the sake of running hard and you’ll get in a great workout.

Try this: for the first week do a fartlek workout with sets of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. In Vanessa’s case I’d suggest that since her tempo run was about 36 minutes, she should aim for 18 repeats, so that would be 18 minutes of hard running. Later in the week she should run an un-Garmin tempo run for 36 minutes; take only the watch, run hard, she might come in running a little more than 4 miles, maybe a little less…who knows…live on the edge. (PS-it kinda goes without saying, but make sure and do a warm-up and cool-down with each hard workout…haha!)

The following week, for the fartleks do sets of 2 minutes hard and 2 minutes easy. This time that would be 9 sets total for Vanessa. Later in the week try the un-Garmin tempo but make it a little longer and go for 45 minutes. (Anyone can do this, to adjust it for your own pace pick a time that would be about 5 miles for yourself.)

Third week she should do 6 sets of 3 minutes hard and 3 minutes easy. Instead of the tempo for her second workout late in the week she should do this: 2 x 16 minutes hard (she’ll be going faster so this should be around 2 miles) with 3 minute recovery jog between each, then finish with 4 x 1 minute hard/easy. The goal is to finish with something faster to get those legs mooooving.

Finally, the last week will be a pyramid style farlek:

1 min hard/easy

2 min hard/easy

3 min hard/easy

Repeat 2 more times.

Later in the week she’ll come back with a tempo run and we’ll let her use the Garmin but ONLY to see what her splits end up being. The rules are these: she can only look at the Garmin at the END of each mile to see the split and not between. She can’t think about it during the tempo run and try to run like it isn’t even there…just run hard. Run the freaking tempo. When she’s done, look over those splits and I’m pretty sure she’ll have run faster, but regardless, be happy with a solid, hard effort.

Don't let the Garmin turn into your ball and chain; use it as a training tool alone.

Wow, this turned out to be an EPIC post, so I hope there might still be a few weary eyes reading this. Sometimes taking a mental break from really regimented workouts is necessary and that’s why no one does straight up track workouts all year round, it’s just too easy to make it too stressful. So, perhaps a few others might do well to ditch their Garmins and have a little farleking fun.

1) What do you run with? A watch, a Garmin, iPod, or any other techie thing?

2) What’s your favorite type of workout?I know I’ve asked this before, sorry, but my answer is still going to be a tempo run!

3) What are your fun weekend plans?

4) Not really a question, but sorry Vanessa for the way overload of unsolicited advice and don’t feel any pressure to actually do any of it…haha! But, if you happen to, do feel free to let me know how it goes.

Beef Out Those Hummingbird Arms..It’s Good for You, I Promise

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Cait — 17 Comments ↓

What day is it? My week is all helter skelter, yesterday I kept thinking it was still Sunday but then Bachelorette talk started storming Twitter so I knew it had to be a Monday. But I woke up today feeling more in a mid-end of week mode…not that it really makes much of a difference to me either way since I’m not reporting to a ‘normal’ job right now…but still I feel a little topsy-truvy!

So move update here, it’s going well. I have to say that I’m really liking the new place I’m staying at. I’m actually renting a room from a very nice man, and not going to lie his place is re-dic. (To steal a word from Katy.) Also not gonna lie, the biggest draw is…hold your breath folks…the full on decked out home gym up in here! Heck to the ya!

We’re talking a treadmill, elliptical, weight bench, free weights, and the much needed TV/DVD combo…if I ever go MIA again for a few days it may be because I’ve been on the tread non-stop. Just kidding on that. But seriously…I’ve died and gone to heaven!

This is how happy I am about the gym!

The even better news? You know how I was bi***ing about how my old gym treadmill made you reset after 60 minutes, well this one lets you go until 90 min’s before a reset is in order. I used to feel really ridiculous at my old place because on most my easy runs I’d come in at 8.25 miles for 60 min’s and that’s a sort of awkward point…if I wanted to do say 9 miles then I’d have to reboot the tread for what, like, less than six minutes? I’ve done it but I feel like a total weenie whenever someone would walk in and see me end my run at six minutes, lest they think that’s all I did. Another sign moment.

So anyways, today I was able to get in those 9.2 miles without any reset interruptions…hurrah, I’m a happy Cait! I did my arm routine that I do with just my free weights. I do 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise that I split up into two groups. I cycle through continuously and seriously this takes 15 min’s tops and I do it right after my run while I’m still motivated to get er done:

Group 1:

*Chest flies: Sit or stand and start by holding dumbbells together in front of your chest, arms bent at about 90 degrees. Keep your back straight and then ‘fly’ your arms out, moving them laterally to the side until they are even with your torso then return to the starting position.

*Should flies: Start in the same position as the last one with the dumbbells together in front of your chest but this time ‘fly’ them up vertically and raise your arms up until they are even with your shoulders then return back down. (This chick is in the finishing position. But don’t be fooled, she’s really a giant so those weights she’s holding are 100 lbs.)

*Bent over flies: Stand and bend at the waist so your body is in an upside down L position. Hold the dumbbells together at your chest and now ‘fly’ them up by raising your arms out to your side until they are even with your back and then back down. For this one you want your arms to be only slightly bent, less than 90 degrees.

*Overhead raise: Sit/stand straight up and hold the dumbbells like you were in the finishing position of the shoulder flies. That’s arms bent 90 degrees and up at your sides. Now raise the dumbbells straight up until your arms are straight and then back down.

Group 2:

*Bent over rows: Stand next to a bench with one leg right beside it and the other one propped up on it. Rest one hand on the edge of the bench and then lean forward so that the arm with the dumbbell hangs straight down off the side of the bench. Keeping your back straight ‘row’ the dumbbell up by lifting your arm straight back until your tricep is even with your back. Think of like staring a lawn mover. Then lower back down. Be sure to repeat with the other arm. (PS-That picture is SO obviously me too. And what the heck is up with him working out in cut off jean shorts? Sorry, this pic was just so bad I HAD to put it in.)

*Bicep curls: Pretty self explanatory there. Grab some dumbbells, hang arms down at your side and then lift the dumbbells up towards your shoulder and work those biceps.

*Tricep kick backs: Stand up in the upside down L position again, with your arms bent at 90 degrees and weights in hands. Straighten your arms and bring the dumbbells straight back, feel it in those triceps. Lower back down to starting position and repeat.

So that’s just a quickie arm routine that hits all the major groups there. As a runner it’s easy to neglect those arms and come down with hummingbird syndrome where we’ve got scrawny arms that flap like crazy while we go. Having stronger arms will not only make ya look better…let’s be honesty that is a nice perk, but it will improve your running too. The stronger you are the better able you will be to keep proper, efficient form when you’re tired at the end of races or workouts. Being more efficient means well, you’re times will be faster…duh. haha. Core work does this too. Finally, even if you’re not planning on racing, you don’t want to ever just skip out on strengthening parts of your body, weak points are just begging for an injury and only holding you back!

That said, this chick is back to getting situated up in here! Happy Sunday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday….whatever day it is.

PS-I’m going to have new pix up soon, I’m sorry, my scanner and some other supplies were still in the midst of being unpacked and squared away but I promise fun stuff is forthcoming!

1) Do your days ever blur together if you don’t report to a traditional job schedule? Do you also rely on the TV schedule to help keep you on track?

2) Favorite arm exercises or workouts?

3) Any classes, activities, or workouts that you’d like to try? Or have you just tried something new and would like to share?

My mom and sis (YES…so stoked they live so close now!) are into this kettlebell class, I want to jump in and try it…trust me I’ll look like a dweebette, no coordination on this chick!

The Everest Mile and Track/Cross-Training Intervals II

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Cait — 7 Comments ↓

I remember the day when I first ran an entire mile. An. Entire. Mile. I thought I was the shiznit, the boomdiggity. I mapped out a plan for myself, I thought that if I ran a mile every single day I could be one of the fastest people in the world. I remembered learning in grammar school math 101 that one mile was 5,280 feet, so what did i do? I busted out a ruler and set to measuring a circuit I could run inside my house. (I guess I couldn’t just find a tape measurer?) I figured out that if I ran around the dining room table and then looped around the perimeter of the living room it would only take me something like a billions laps to a mile. I told myself I should just do that every single night and soon I’d be setting world records.

Clearly I was idiotic, living inside a little fantasy world bubble, and going to be really dizzy. This little confession is made all the worse because it’s not like I hadn’t grown up seeing my parents run. How did it not dawn on me that every day my mom was gone for an hour plus, did I think she was running only one mile and then shooting the sh** the rest of the time?

The only point of my little moronic previous past story is that everything is relative. Then I though a whole mile was a great feat of strength (bust out the Festivus pole!) and now flash-forward and there are days I feel lazy for only putting in an hour and doing 8 miles. Funny how that works.

But it’s really easy to get sucked in. Running, and other things too, has a kind of snowball effect. One day you’re one cloud nine for finished a 5k the next you’d count that as a warm-up. One day you’re watching Two and a Half Men, the next you’re running around half naked dodging Sheen sh**. The snowball effect.

Personally, Im one speed Chock and like me the longer stuff. That slow build of pain is much better than the full on bodyslam of lactic acid straight from the get-go in my book. Well, that and probably in my entire body I’ve got about one fast twitch muscle fiber total.

Still, it’s always good to get back to your roots and not lose touch with those shorter distances. Even if you’re a marathon runner it’s good to toss yourself into a shorter 5k or *gasp* even a mile every now and again. The same goes with training, and I’m as guilty as anyone for avoiding short speed stuff like it’s the devil. But often times it’s what we hate the most that is the best for us, right?! hehe.

Anyways, this workout has the best of both worlds if you please. Awhile ago I did a post on how boring cross-training can get and talked about a pyramid interval workout. Here’s another one and I’ll map it out both to be done as a running workout on on the elliptical/bike/swim/your choice of cross-training here.

Running Style- 800/300’s

*Start with a warm-up

*800 meters hard (This is a half-mile for anyone who has yet to figure out that whole metric thing; two lappers for the track school flunkies.)

*400 meter recovery (take a slow lap to regroup)

*300 meter sprint (3/4 of the track people. I’m sure you know this but just to be extra sure…lol) *400 meter recovery jog

*Repeat. Do a total of 4-7 sets. 4 if you’re on the shorter race end of the spectrum and 7 if you’re planning on going longer. The 800’s should be at or a little faster than your 5k race pace but you want those 300’s to be as fast as you can get them. Working on your base speed will make those 800’s feel comparatively much ‘easier’ or ‘slower.’

*Finish with a good cool-down and stretching.

NOTE: if you don’t have access to a track, you can do them on a treadmill (Though those 300’s might put that baby thorough a decent pounding! A 300 would be 0.18 miles if you go that route. But you can also take it to the streets and if you know about your pace just go for time.)

Cross-training version- 3 minutes/1 minute

*Warm-up 10-15 minutes easy

*3 minutes hard interval- try and ramp-up the resistance a notch or two as well and work on getting that heart rate up; you want it to be hard but controlled, feeling like an 800 meter effort *2 minutes easy pedaling- lower the resistance a couple notches and keep moving but allow yourself to recover

*1 minute power interval- ramp the resistance back up and really motor that minute; should feel like a sprint

*2 minutes easy pedaling

*Repeat 4-7 times. Finish with a cool-down.

That’s all she wrote for today folks! But think back to when you thought one whole mile was the equivalent to climbing Mount Everest and look to where you are today. It’s usually pretty funny. I remember the day I came home from my mile effort (at that point I’d taken my mile outside and did a loop around the block, I meant laps in the house, what was I thinking?!) and was talking to my mom. She asked me how far I went, I told her and then I asked her how far she had run that morning. Her answer was a nice slap or reality. That and later on that summer the Oly Trials were in Sacto, CA and being that I lived there I was able to beg my way to a seat for one of the days. It was inspiring and helped put that whole mile=a marathon thing in perspective….hehe. Hey, at least I wasn’t as bad as the dude sitting next to me, he turned and asked, “So one lap around this track thing, that’s like a mile right?”

1) Do you remember the first time you were able to run a full mile and thought you were the boomdiggity?

2) How long until the snowball effect took you over and what do you think a ‘shorter’ run is for you today?

3) Favorite running, workout, or pump-up song?

Has been and will forever be The Distance by Cake.

Random Seinfeld Conspiracy and Cross-training Workouts

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Cait — 9 Comments ↓

So I kept seeing this commercial and something about it has been bugging me. This has been going on for days! You know that feeling when you recognize someone but you don’t know exactly from where? Well, this also happens to me when I recognize an actor on TV, not the big name actors though. I’m talking about the ones who have the one time appearances on a show, they sort of drift around in the background of the usual sitcoms like the leftovers passed from one table to the next.

I have this funny little game that I play. I’m obsessed with both Seinfeld and Disney Channel shows. Well, I swear there is an odd connection between the two because lots of Seinfeld characters have made the D-Channel circuit. Who? Well I’ll name a few of my favorite sightings. Larry David himself (my favorite LD character on Seinfeld was of course the man in the cape) made an appearance in a Hannah Montana episode where he was a father trying to get a table at an exclusive restaurant. He gets bumped by HM. Estelle Costanza’s been in a few different D-Channel shows but was an irate old lady on Sonny With a Chance. J Peterman showed up on Wizards of Waverly Place to play Captain Jim Bob Sherwood. There’s others but I’m getting way off on a tangent here.

Well the same thing of obscure recollection was bugging me about this random commercial I kept on TV. It’s with a family sitting in front of the TV wondering what to eat and then this awkward looking lady walks in from their kitchen touting the words of some new frozen food thing. I seriously spent forever looking for the dang commercial online and of course now that I’m obsessed with it it’s not on TV. I think it was for some kind of stuffed popper bun, but the woman selling the product, THIS lady was the one I swore I had seen in something else but I couldn’t quite place where. It was driving me crazy…ya, I’m the kind of person where stupid things like this will seriously bug me.

Last night it came to me! I thought I must have seen her in some other kind of commercial or cameo but no…I SWEAR I used to see this lady in my old gym!! Now, like you I thought there was no way it was the same lady, ya it’s not like it’s a huge role or anything and it was probably filmed somewhere else. But, she’s got a pretty distinct face and way about her. I’m convinced it’s the same lady; she was really nice by the way. Those popper things look gross, but power to her!!

Speaking of gyms, in perusing blogs and such, the whole cross training issue came up. Running of course is my top pick of exercise/cardio but let’s face it, it’s really hard on the body. Inevitably we ALL wind up with stupid injuries that force us to resort to some kind of cross-training. The usual round-up are the bike, elliptical, and swimming. I’ll tell you, after my whole car accident and spending what felt like an ETERNITY on the elliptical, it got to the point where looking at the d*** thing almost made me physically ill. When I finally got to move up to the treadmill I almost wanted to burn that elliptical! Juuuust kidding.

But in reality that elliptical is awesome. If I had to pick my favorite cross-training activity it would be that…it feels the most like running to me. Though, not gonna lie, it does get boring. So to help pass the time, and also get the most out of the workout, intervals are perfect. Here’s a pyramid style interval workout; the harder effort times vary which is good because it works both your endurance but also strength/power because on the shorter bouts you really want to push it and go nearly all out for that interval. Tell yourself that ya, it hurts but it’s almost over!

**Start with a warm-up of 5-10 minutes

* 1 minute- Hard effort; try to get your RPM’s really up there, think sprinting

* 1 minute- Easy recovery

* 2 minutes- Hard effort

* 2 minutes- Easy recovery

* 3 minutes- Hard effort

* 3 minutes- Easy recovery

* 2 minutes- Hard effort

* 2 minutes- Easy recovery

* 1 minute- Hard effort

* 1 minute- Easy recovery

* 2 minutes- Hard effort

* 2 minutes- Easy recovery

* 3 minutes- Hard effort

* 3 minutes- Easy recovery

* 1 minute- Hard effort

**Finish with a cool-down

Okay, so the hard portion of the workout comes out to be a total of 29 minutes. Obviously you’ll be going ‘faster’ for the shorter intervals just like you would running a 300/400 meter repeats on the track versus the longer interval times. Think of those like a 600/800 meter repeat. Take the easy minutes as just that…easy and allow yourself to regroup and recover. Because tension levels and inclines vary between machines I can’t give an exact guideline there but on the one I use I tend to put the incline at around 6-7 and the tension there too. What I also do is for the harder portions I’ll set the tension higher, 7, and scale it down to 5-6 for the recovery minutes. For me I like to feel like my turnover is similar to that of running and getting that faster rather than upping the tension to a level where my turnover just feels to slow…if that makes any sense.

You don’t have to do this on the elliptical, you can do the same layout on any kind of machine or even if you’re aqua-jogging in the pool. Just go harder in there like you’re trying to run faster. The goal is just to get that heart rate up! That said, cross-training isn’t only for when you’re injured but a great supplement to your running. So now that I’m able to run again I’m happy I didn’t burn the elliptical.

Side note, that cartoon up top with the man on the elliptical was another one from the Gym Offenders Caught series. He’s the guy plugged into his iPod and belting out the lyrics like nobody’s business. I’m all for listening to music to get you pumped but do you need to sing so loud we all have to listen to your music selection?

Today for me I did an easy 8 and change. Pedestal core routine and abs. I’m thinking that’s it for now, but I hope you all are having a great Tuesday!

1) Favorite Seinfeld character? If you don’t like the show then we’ll have to send the Soup Nazi out after you. Just kidding.

2) Have you ever met an actor or actress? They can be quasi-famous too, or not even all that famous. I’m adding my gym lady poppers peddler to my list! hehe.

3) What’s your favorite crosstraining activity?

Mine’s the elliptical, but it looks like some people have resorted to just switching shoes.

Negative Splits Rule or it Might Get Ug-LY

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Cait — 13 Comments ↓

Up and at ’em early today. Got up and put in my easy 8 and change on the tread this morning. Sundays kind of stink TV wise so it was Nick at Nite (bleeding over into Nick Early Morn would be more correct) and Family Matters was on. I’ve never been a huge Urkel fan myself, and when he was on TGIF I put up with the half hour block but looked forward to the Full Houses and Step-by-Steps on later.

Finished up with abs and core work and on with the day! Yesterday I noted how there are tons of races going on now that summer’s here; for some these are their first races and for others it’s their bizzillionth. Newer runners often ask for tips before their first races, or perhaps they’ve raced shorter distances but are now signing up for the longer ones. I think one of the biggest lessons that most of us have learned the hard way is this: DO NOT GO OUT TOO FAST!!

Sorry, didn’t mean to yell that one, but trust me on this because it’s a very easy trap to fall into but paying for that fast start later in the race gets ug-LY!! I used to think that if I went out faster and under pace in the beginning of a race (or even workouts) then I’d be setting myself a nice little ‘cushion’ so that if I happened to slow down later I’d still be able to hit my target time. That sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it? Well, the body isn’t always logical as any PMS’ing woman can tell you.

When you’re running, or working out in general, the body burns glycogen as it’s prime fuel source. Physiologically the body burns glycogen more efficiently if you gradually work into a faster, more intense effort and not the other way around. And it doesn’t make just a little bit of difference, but a lot. The amount of time you go out too fast in the beginning could leave you slowing down 2-3 times that amount in the later miles. That means that should you go out even just 10 seconds too fast in the first mile, you could be paying for that with 20-30 seconds/mile by the end. And trust me, those seconds will feel WAY longer than the time on your watch indicates…lol.

That’s why negative splits rule. Negative splitting just means that you get faster as the race/workout progresses. Not a complicated theory but it’s tough to hold yourself back and not get swept up in the excitement of race day. But you want to go into a race with a goal pace and race plan in mind and then stick to it.

Finding your goal pace is pretty easy to do based off of your workouts for most races. But it’s trickier come marathons only because you don’t typically run the full 26.2 miles in regular training like you would a 5k or 10k. For a marathon you can of course get a good idea based off of your long runs but there’s also a track workout you can do to give you a fair approximation.

Marathon goal prediction workout as Perfected by the Running Coach Legend Mr. Bart Yasso:

Do a warm-up and then head to the track for 10×800 meter repeats. Do a recovery jog lap between each repeat and make sure to take your recovery easy before starting the next one. Once you’re done with all 10, take your average time and whatever it is in minutes:seconds will translate into your marathon prediction time in hours:minutes. So if Bob ran his repeats in 3 minutes and 30 seconds, his predicted marathon time will be 3 hours and 30 minutes. From there you can figure out his mile pace should be 8:01. (PS-don’t forget your cool-down! hehe) This workout is fittingly dubbed Yasso 800’s.

Going out too fast for your capabilities in the beginning of ANY race can suck, it’s just that it’s a lot ‘easier’ to gut out the rest of a 5k than some of the longer races. In the case of a marathon you might not even be able to finish. So that’s my spiel on negative splitting. Oh, one more thing real fast, other factors that can make you slow down more and feel even worse should you go out too fast are heat and elevation. So keep that in mind too, if you aren’t used to running at elevation you might want to go out even more conservative at the start.

All this marathon talk reminds me that if you happened to read about the drunk driving accident I happened to see and wrote about, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s tragic that these accidents are so common. My friend, Kara Goucher, lost her father because of a drunk driver and is an avid supporter of MADD. (For anyone who doesn’t know who she is, you should because she’s a kick@$$ distance star, she’s one of the leading US distance gals. She rules the track and the marathon…so that was my line of thinking to get here…lol) Well, she created a design that is featured on both a card and shirt and if you order one 100% of the proceeds benefit MADD. So I wanted to share those links!

Okay, so I think that’s it for now! I’m off to the store to restock and then we’ll see.

1) Worst story of going out too fast in a race or workout?

Too many times to count, but I think the most embarrassing was at a really big cross-country meet that I hoped to do really well in. My whole family was there, coaches, and let’s face it plenty of other people who I hoped to ‘look good’ in front of, and I totally bombed. That was one painful and humiliating last mile!

2) Favorite track/running type workout?

I already said tempo’s and long runs, but for intervals I like mile and 800 repeats.

3) What are you up to this fine Sunday?