Captain's log 30 March 2016 - Ragnar SoCal 2016

Wow, where has the time gone. Oh yeah, big project at my #accounting job, #injury, and life with #kids. But now is the time to start focusing on #Ragnar!!!! I am getting pretty excited, if not a little nervous. Ragnar is just around the corner. Literally 2 days away! This will be my 3rd year and the 3rd team I have captained. Every year is a new challenge and every year is more fun!

Ok, for anyone who has not heard of Ragnar Relay let me explain, briefly, what that is. It is a Relay race with 12 people, 2 vans, and roughly 36 hours. You all run 3 different times of varying distances starting at one location and ending at another. For me that relay is the SoCal relay, starts in Huntington Beach and ends in Coronado this year (although it has been a different finish line every year so far). The short version goes like this Runners 1-6 are in Van 1 and they start, early, Friday morning. Runner 1 starts and then hands off the baton, or in this case the slap bracelet, to runner 2 and so on. Runners 7-12 are in Van 2 and meet up with Van 1 at exchange 6 where runner 6 passes off the slap bracelet to runner 7. At this point Van 2 is "on the road" and Van 1 can go "sleep and eat" before they run again after runner 12. It is crazy, exhausting, and fun. Find out more at http://www.runragnar.com.

Van mate/Team mate during the "night" hours 

So, on to this year. I have again set up an amazing team of women, some I know really well and some I have never meet personally but have been told they are amazing. After captaining 2 teams I am getting a little more selective on who is on my team. I have learned that getting 12 people to run is not as hard as it may sound, and a team fills up pretty quickly. Every year the team dynamics are different and every year brings on a lot of new and fun memories. But here are a few tips for any new captains or anyone thinking of creating a team:

Tip 1: Make sure everyone understands the importance of working together and going with the flow. Teams are set up usually at least a few months in advance, if not longer, things happen things change, go with it. If you get to worked up over something it ruins the fun and experience.

Team Run Runners of Ragnar 2014

Team Fox in Socks 2015

Tip 2: Logistics, logistics, logistics! When you set up your team remember think about where they are coming from and if you are able to get them to and from the pickup location. When running SoCal you start in Huntington Beach and end in San Diego (somewhere - it changes yearly). If you have some runners from LA area and some from San Diego you have to think about how to get everyone back to where they need to be. It isn't complicated, but needs to be considered. Also, think about start times, do you need to rent a hotel room for the night before or after the relay?

Tip 3: VANS - get them reserved early and be prepared for something to happen to that reservation. Last year I had 2 12-passenger vans rented and the reservation got lost. I stressed, cried, screamed and in the end we used Expeditions owned by my teammates and it was a bonding and close experience ;-). But because my team was able to "go with the flow" we made it work and had a blast. This year I have found out, again, the 12 passenger vans are not available because of a recall from Ford. So, we will do this in Mini vans with stow and go seats for extra storage (or space to lay down when we are trying to "sleep"). Either way, I am not crying this time. Frustrated yes, apparently the van gods have something against me, lol. BUT the main lesson, GO WITH THE FLOW.

Type of van I wanted - Glad Donate Lifers got on though!

Van decorations are the key!

2015 Home on the road, so much fun making it work!

Tip 4: Pack light and only the necessities! Whatever you think you will need, reduce it by 1/2. The stack of 20 magazines you think you will read, bring maybe 2. You will be way busier cheering, navigating, and running to really do anything else. Pack 1 warm outfit and your running gear, really you need nothing else!

Tip 5: Be prepared for injuries! You set up the team in January and a lot can happen before April. When a runner is injured don't freak out. You can handle it one of 3 ways, replace them (for serious injuries), move runners around so they have less miles (for minor setbacks), or other runners pick up there runs. If the team has only 11 runners then some of you can pick up those other 3 legs and you will be fine.

Tip 6: As captain taking your teammates opinions into consideration and then just make the final decision. There is a lot to get, magnets for tagging, team name, team shirts and costumes (if you do costumes), etc. Not everyone may LOVE the idea but I go by the majority rules type mentality. This is where the whole making sure the teammates you picked can go with the flow and be flexible. This year were are "Mermaids out of Water." I know a few people on the team or not Disney fans and would rather be a "Running from Zombies" type team. But because they are easy going and flexible the have loaded their iPod's with Metallica music and will tolerate the "Under the Sea" and other Mermaid themed songs that are thrown at them, as well as wear the mermaid skirt and pretend like they love it.

Tip 7: Let it Go and have fun! You are a captain but this is a relay of 12 people. It won't always go as planned so let it go when it isn't important and have fun!!!

Above everything, BE FLEXIBLE, and GO WITH THE FLOW. If you can't handle change on the fly and yet staying organized then you may be better suited to just being a teammate and not the captain. But if you really want to run Ragnar and can handle a little responsibility then go for it. Start the team, you have at least 1 running friend and they have a friend and it goes from there.

Those are my tips from my experience. Hope it helps anyone thinking about creating a team! No matter what Ragnar you are doing and if you are a captain or a team member Ragnar is an experience you will never forget! I would recommend it to any adventurous runner out there!

Injury, booo!

Here it is, early on a Friday morning. Kids are sleeping, husband is at work already. Perfect time to get a workout in, maybe even a run on the treadmill. Right? And yet here I sit at the computer about to work on a project for my #accounting job and mad. Mad may not be the right word, frustrated, scared, sad, upset, all of the above. Ever since the "accident" in January I feel like I can't get into a good routine.

Let me explain. While I have been cleared by the doctors to run, and I do run it isn't the same. Running is important to me and my sanity yes. But when I started Marathon training, really back in March of 2015 when I started the 21 Day Fix Extreme, cross training became important as well. When I didn't feel like hitting the treadmill and wanted to exercise I would pop in a video. I know have a pretty good library to chose from and there is always Beach Body on Demand with tons of options. Variety when needed or a set program if I was on one. I was starting to see stomach muscles! I was feeling great and ready to take on the next 26.2 in June. Then BAM! Out of no where I get rear-ended and everything changes. Between Dr appt for myself and my daughter, worrying about the long term affects her #concussion may have. I am at my wits end. Then to top it off, I can't really do my home workouts because I don't want to do anything to my back. I am at this point beyond over it!

I will say the massage therapy from Fix Body Group is/has helped tremendously but now I am nervous to try anything for fear it will bring back the pain. So here is the question of the day, when you are injured and have to find new methods for exercise and stress relief, what do you do? Comment below with your ideas! I need some help please!!

I Am A Mermaid

Man, time just keeps ticking away doesn't it. I meant to relieve my most recent Half Marathon so much sooner! Sorry about the delay. But here is my recap of the Mermaid Half Marathon on Saturday, February 13, 2016!

I found myself up and going at the crack of dawn. Race days always make me wonder why I am a runner. I mean honestly it was cold, dark, and foggy! Why do I do this to myself? But thanks to the generosity of the Mermaid Series the San Diego Mom's Run This Town chapter had received a free entry. They had held a little competition to encourage us runners and get the new year started right. A winner was chosen at random and I was the lucky winner!

I was super excited when I received the message letting me know I had won. It was the perfect timing, a few weeks after my marathon and I could hopefully finally get the sub 2:20 I was looking for. And then, as my previous post stated I had a car accident. That slowed my training down. It is so important to listen to my body. While I am cleared by doctors to run I also make sure I listen and if my body is hurting then I adjust. That means the plan to continue training hard for those 3 weeks slowed to plan to just maintain as much fitness as possible. And I did. Had some good training runs, and some not so good training runs leading up.

The morning of the 1/2 dawned cold and foggy. The drive in was a little nerve racking. I got to the race a little unsure of where I wanted to park. The parking situation was a little different. While the course loops around Mission Bay and Fiesta Island the start line is about 1.5 miles from the finish. I had planned on parking at the lot right between the start and the finish. However, when I pulled up and it was PITCH BLACK and foggy with minimal lighting between the planned parking lot and the start line I decided that was not the right option. I parked by the start, opting to have a good 1.5 mile cool down at the end. I will say the bathroom setup was not to bad and I had the chance to meet up with some other running friends, always helps to keep the nerves down.

o dark 30! Fog and all but ready to run, right?

As the 10Kers headed out I got lined up and positioned myself between the 2:20 pacer and the 2:30 pacer. I had already decided to scale back on my goal and take a sub 2:30, it was still a PR so I was okay with that. The course starts behind Sea World and I had run the course a few times already. I spent the first 4 miles adjusting my new fuel belt (now I know why you don't run a race with untested gear). It was a fast 4 miles because I am not usually a fan of running on Fiesta Island, the sloped road bothers my hips, but it is a fairly easy run and the foggy started to burn off so it warmed up nicely and was a pretty run. Then as the course opens up around mile 5 onto Mission Bay Drive you get a nice easy flat run pretty much the rest of the course. It is a wide street and the course was well marked.

The course was pretty well supported with water stations. Running in Mission Bay races is usually a little tricky because they can't close the path to the public, but overall it was a slower day so that part was not as bad as I was afraid it would be. I won't lie, the last 3 miles coming back into the finish was a little difficult for me. The course goes onto the bike path at this point and there tend to be some slight elevation changes you have to account for. Overall I was just tired at this point and because the road is closed it makes it difficult for spectators and cheer squads to get down there so it was pretty quiet as far as that goes. The finish line however is set up nicely and they were very well stoked with water and food. I LOVED the post race refreshments and while I finished at 2:28:59 (I got my PR) and feel confident those finishing after me received the same food as me and that always makes me happy. There is nothing worse then finishing a 1/2 Marathon and there is NOTHING left because you are a back of the packer.

These ladies are some awesome momma runners, friends, and Ragnar 2016 teammates!

After the race there is lots of space to stretch, meet up with friends watch the kiddos run their race. Overall, it was a great race to run. I know a lot of people that PRed and a great one to run with younger girls because you get the t-shirt, medal, and a necklace at all the distances. I mean who doesn't like BLING?

After this last race I have had time to sit back and really focus on where I am heading in my running now. Stay tuned, that is a post for another day :-)

From Marathon to Car Accident

As I just posted I ran my first #marathon on 1/17/16. It was a slower time then I was shooting for, but I count it as a major win that I #finished and could still walk afterwards. I also didn't have any blisters so I was doing great! I had my #recovery workout on Monday night and then was ready to maintain training for the Mermaid Half Marathon I had coming up on 2/13/16. By Thursday I was no longer sore from the Marathon, felt rested and was ready to rock Friday.

And then, driving home from my oldest daughter's #swim #practice we were rearended. I never saw the other car coming and it was moving at probably 60 mph to my 25 mph. BAM we are pushed forward, and by we I mean my daughters and I. It was scary and something I hope we never deal with again. That evening was filled with getting the police report filed and taking my daughters to the Children's Hospital to be checked out. Turns out the high end car seat for my youngest was worth every penny because my youngest had minor whiplash but was completely fine the next day. My oldest was, and still is, a different story with a large bump on the back of the head and a concussion that, to this day (4 weeks later), is still giving her headaches and making her miss all activities.

Night of 1/21/16 car is a little banged up.

I on the other hand had some back, shoulder, and foot pain. As a mom, of course, the night of the accident was spent taking care of my babies. So on Friday my hubby spent the day taking care of me. I did go to the Dr, I had a 1/2 Marathon in 3 weeks and wanted to confirm I was cleared to run. He examined me, x-rayed my back and foot and determined no broken bones, just muscular soreness. So, he cleared me for running, suggesting I stick to "shorter" distances. Now, what IS a shorter distance? That is so subjective. I mean if I am a marathoner then a "short" distance is 10 miles or so, if I am a 5K runner then it would only be 1. So I took his comment as an all good to start running again.

What we called "the Pickle" car is no more (there used to be a pickle bumper sticker on it)

Big girl is ready for the Dr like a trooper at the ER

She didn't like hearing the other babies upset at the ER

Oldest resting the day after, she never takes naps!

So, the week after the accident was a long slow week. Dealing with a 9 yr old basically told to do NOTHING but lay in a dark room relaxing until no headaches is pretty impossible. But we are getting thru it. I was more upset that I was no longer sore from the marathon and then I am sore all over again in random places because of the accident! So frustrating! On the bright side I appear to be on the mend. At this point the back is not hurting unless I am working on the bathroom remodel.

Masterbath remodel in full swing

Oldest helping with the tile work

We finally have finished talking with insurance and have purchased the Tacoma my husband wanted. Lexi has been busy cheering on her swim team friends at meets in spirit since she is not cleared to dive/flip turn/backstrock yet. To distract from the things she is missing we are trying to distract with easy hikes and sunset trips to the beach. Oh and she helped her daddy lay tile in the master bath.

Hubby's new ride

Surfboard carrier

Thus the reason for my delayed race recap of Carlsbad Marathon. Stay tuned for the race recap of Mermaid Half Marathon I ran on 2/13/16!

Easy Hike to get outdoors at Mission Trails

She has a hard time seeing her sister hurting so the beach was a nice distraction

It is hard for this one to accept change and saying goodbye to "the pickle car" was not easy for her.

Marathon Time!!!!

Okay, I know, I know! Carlsbad Marathon was January 17, 2016 and it is now February 17th, so I am a month late in posting my race recap. But I am going to get everyone all caught up real quick on life. A lot happened the week after the #marathon, and it slowed my #blogging down. But better late then never!

Expo and Packet Pickup, we are ready, we think.

So, lets get right to the fun stuff. I am a MARATHONER! I finished and I lived! I know a lot of people will never understand my #obsession with #running, to be honest I don't understand it myself. However, here I sit, one completed and already signed up for another one. So this is how the weekend played out. I had pretty specific nutritional instructions from my coach. Friday I was to eat a good dinner with fish/seafood and a fine glass of wine. Then get to bed early and get a good night sleep. I did just as I was told. Who am I to argue when being told to drink a good glass of wine, honestly. Then Saturday I was instructed to hydrate, stretch, mobilize, go for an easy walk, foam roll (or use "the Stick") as needed, then eat a big 3 egg omelet with healthy veggies. I was again more than happy to oblige, all these seemed easy enough. The tricky part of the instructions was to take it easy Saturday afternoon, you know, nap, watch a movie, etc. Apparently he forgot I have 2 young kids and a husband that believes in staying very active. In fact, hubby wanted me to help him weed the back hillside.  I must admit, I laughed at him when he said that. Just what I should be doing before a race i have trained 7 months for, climb up a steep embankment and give the gluten and hamstrings a good workout, nope I am good I told him.  I did help with the weeding, on the lower level, then left him to do the rest. I was busy packing any way. My running partner and I had plans to stay up close to the start line so we could actually sleep and not be distracted by the kiddos during the night.

Flat Mommas are ready to go!

So around noon on Saturday the family left for a friends birthday party and I finished packing and rested, picked up my running partner and headed up to the expo to pick up our bibs, buy last minute necessities (like gu and a running pouch) and get her foot taped at the Roc Tape booth. After that we headed to Claim Jumpers for our required chicken, sweet potato, and veggies. It was delicious let me say. Then headed to the hotel, rolled, stretched, laid everything out, and got to bed by 9 PM. It was a fairly good night sleep, woke up a few times, ate my bagel, prefuel, took my salt stick, hydrated etc.

Then the alarm goes off at around 4:15 AM, wow that is early! It was dark and COLD. But we got up and out the door, almost on time. Found a starbucks for the prerace fueling of a breakfast sandwich. Coach said to get an egg mcmuffin, but sorry I cannot eat McDonalds, it just isn't happening. So got a substitute from Starbucks. Got the the start line in plenty of time for a quick warm up and pics from a friend. Coach was running also so he met us at the start line and stayed with us to keep the nerves down until just before the gun went off. Thankfully my running partner had an extra "throwaway" shirt to help keep me warm. It was a brisk 49 degrees for most of the early miles.

The race itself started well. Can I just say there are WAY less people running the marathon then the 1/2 marathon. There were no corrals and it was super lax. Great atmosphere. We started running and used the first mile or two to get warmed up and find our good pace. In those miles we met some other "mother runners" that were out there. It is so funny to meet people you have seen posts from on social media but never met in person and then it is like, "hey we have talked or commented on each others posts." All of a sudden they have a face and are even more fun in person (hint we should get out and off our phones more often). We would proceed to switch lead with them the rest of the run! I will say miles 1-7 we felt pretty good. Then we hit the hill. We knew we would not be able to run the down hill the way we wanted due to my running partners injured foot, so we worked really hard at nailing the up hills. It was all about form and keeping moving. #Posemethod of running was completely the reason we were able to get up the hills in good form and not kill our legs in the process.  So miles 8-15 were all about the up and down of the hills. We were still feeling strong and hanging in. At mile 13 we were met by my wonderful husband and daughters. It was great to see them. They were also at mile 15, 21 and the finish line. Cannot begin to tell you the encouragement it brought to me, so happy my daughters saw me finish something I had trained so hard for, but I am jumping ahead.

So from about mile 15-19 we hung on. Running partners foot was starting to bother but she was staying positive an strong. At mile 17 we saw some orange peels on the ground and started to fantasize about a cold orange slice, then as if an angel was there a spectator was there handing out orange slices and pretzels, it was AWESOME!!! Unfortunately the GU's I had taken at mile 5 and 10 were not helping me, in fact they gave me such bad acid reflux it was actually hindering my breathing. Note to self, I am currently testing real food options for the long runs.

Always fun to see my favorite Mother runners!

Mile 17 brought us a visit from running partners family and friends. They had signs for both of us. In fact I didn't recognize them so I saw a sign that said "GO CARRIE 26.2" and thought, "huh, look at that another Carrie is running the marathon today." Then we got closer and running partner recognized her family and I realized the sign was for me! That gave us a little boost and got us thru to mile 19, were they were waiting for us again to cheer.

Mile 19-23 were a bit more difficult. We took turns hitting the wall and we hit is hard. We were both hurting and running partners foot was REALLY hurting. I did discover the miracle spray #biofreeze, wow that stuff smells but is amazing! At mile 21 we came across my family, meet another couple mother runners who were also first time marathoners and found another angel handing out orange slices.  At around mile 23 I hit my second wind and we both were able to start thinking on the positive side. At this point the time goal of 5:20 was out the window and we were just shooting to finish in the time limit and under 6 hours. At mile 25 we finally caught a speed walker we had been chasing the WHOLE frickin' race and it gave us some motivation to finish strong.

Around Mile 23ish, no other choice but to finish at this point.

As we came around the corner with .1 left to go we saw our families and coach (who finished a good 2 hours ahead of us). Our kids were able get over the barriers and run in to the finish line with us. My 5 yr old loves to tell people that she beat me across the finish line, haha I let her believe she is the winner because why not! She told me that someday she was going to run the marathon and win it. I told her with hard work and dedication I had no doubt she would (and she is a fast little thing so it is possible!)

After we finished we cooled down, took pics with everyone and then left for some pizza. Would you believe after running 26.2 miles I barely ate the rest of the day, and sleeping that night was not really happening. All the #adrenaline and lactic acid was swirling and made if very hard to sleep. But come Monday, I could NOT get enough to eat and was exhausted. I could not even muster enough energy to type up the blog post! I did make it to the gym for stretching and mobilization that felt AMAZING!

Our awesome support crew, could not have done this without these two men!!

I had every intention of writing this on the Friday after, and then. . .the car accident happened. I will tell you more about that in the next post! Stay Tuned!

We did it! We are Marathoners! And the pants were a big hit too. 

6 Days!!!

I am getting very nervous and excited today! It dawned on me that this time next week I will have accomplished a goal I have been working toward for a very long time. I will be a marathoner! Just a quick recap of the past week.

San Diego is known for its beautiful weather year round, so last week was a little bit of a blow to the training schedule. El Nino kicked in full force and we got flooded. I mean it was bad! Thankfully the house escaped and because we got the back hillside landscaped there were no mudslides in the back yard. I am sure the neighbors at the top of the hill behind us are grateful for that. I would hate to have their house fall into ours because of our landscaping (or lack there of previously). So, we escaped that one. However, this SoCal gal doesn't really run in that much rain. I will gladly race in rain and I will run in a nice slight rain shower, but not during flash floods.

Yes, this was the weather report at 3 on Wednesday, 1/6/16

So, my Wednesday hill repeats got pushed to a treadmill on Thursday and that meant my Friday run was delayed til Saturday. But I am so glad I was able to get the run on Saturday in. My oldest daughter had the opportunity to swim and learn from the high school students on her swim team and so that meant getting her up and to swim practice on a cold but beautiful Saturday morning. I took that time to get in my 3 miles. I enjoy when I have a time limit because it pushes me to get done a little faster. I was pretty pleased with my splits on that run.

Sunday was another cold but dry day. We did have clouds and originally I was excited thinking I only had to do 5 - 1 Mile repeats. I could go down to the park and hammer those out in the loop that goes around the soccer fields, nice and flat with a bathroom and water fountain if I needed a refill. No big deal. And then my coach sent me a revised plan. He decided we needed just one more lesson on hills. A 5.8 mile lesson of major ups and downs to be exact. Plus, as an added bonus he would meet us bright and early at 7:30 AM at the starting location. I was glad and sad at the same time. Glad because he would be there to help me get my form correct and really make sure I was doing what needed to be done. Sad because that meant I had to set my alarm and really show up ready to work with no excuses. But none the less we did it. Amanda and I got there and got thru it with some good times despite the injury on her foot and the head cold that hit me on Saturday (did I mention I have no time to be sick!). Best words we heard at the end of our training run, DON'T RUN ON MONDAY and NO GYM ON MONDAY. Yes, that is right I am excited for a rest day today!

Coach Bill, me, and my running partner Amanda

The rest of the week will be minimal training runs and some yoga/pilates. Taking the youngest on an easy stroller jog on Wednesday, just 3 miles, and then an easy 30 minute run on Friday just to keep loose. The hardest part will be making sure I am fueling correctly this week. I am still craving sugar after the holidays and have been working on that, but otherwise I am good to go!  Saturday it is off to the expo, dinner with friends, good
night sleep in a hotel (so no littles with bad dreams can keep me up) and then race day! I am as ready as I will be. Praying that is enough!

2016 Goals

So, here I am on January 6th, 2016. A new year has started. I have my goals set, I think. Last year was a year full of new experiences with new friends and old. Things have changed in my life and I am learning to adjust and roll with the punches. As for my fitness goals last year I met some and didn't quite get to others. I did see a major shift in my mindset and that is a big change and a great thing. I stopped acting like I needed to go on a "diet" and started make lifestyle changes. 2015 was a pretty good year all the way around.

Now onto 2016. Goals for this year? Lets start with goals I will be achieving this month: Run my first marathon! For those that don't run, that is 26.2 miles, and yes I may be that person that puts the sticker on her car. I am sorry but that is a really big accomplishment and if my sticker upsets you that is not my problem (said with love). I have been training for 7 months now and am excited and scared to finally hit the start line on January 17th. Best part about it has been getting to know a new running friend and training partner better! I don't know if I would be as prepared and motivated with out Amanda by my side!

I am allowing myself 1 week to recover and then on to the next thing. I will be starting the new Masters Hammer and Chisel program on January 25th. It is a 60 program and I am very excited to start. A lot of my friends started it on the 4th so I am behind the curve on that, but the Marathon is the goal and so I decided to wait. I want to give it all my attention when I start to get the best results. Now, that isn't to say I won't still be running at this time, but no major goal races so these are all just for fun!

Race schedule at this point thru April - Carlsbad Marathon on 1/17/16; Mermaid 1/2 Marathon on 2/13/16; Hot Chocolate 5K with my 9 year old on 3/20/16; Ragnar SoCal with Mermaids Out of Water on 4/1-4/2/16. I had plans to do all these big races this year. Once I evaluated the training time and the goals for the year I decided I am taking it month by month and only doing races that I want to do because they sound fun, not because I want a PR or because I think I should and it fits in a schedule.

Ultimate Goal is to continue setting an example for my daughters of what a healthy and balanced lifestyle looks like. I am also setting the goal to blog weekly and keep everyone up to date on my training, nutrition, and life in general. Keeping the list small and attainable. Stay tuned for more posts on what I am doing to live a happy, active, and balanced life!