Hot BAM

I did it!  I finally did it!  I actually went to HOT YOGA.  It only took me a few months but I have now attended class one of four that I purchased through Groupon.  I have three classes left and they expire on December 6th so it looks like I will be doing a lot of hot yoga in the future!  At first, I didn't think the room was that hot but the heat seemed to build over time so by the end of class it was almost unbearable.  The absolute best part of the class was the chilled, lavendar-scented washcloth they handed out at the end of the class.  It was the best feeling in the entire world.  Although I enjoyed the class and only found some of the poses to be challenging, it begins my list of things you shouldn't do before a race.

Things NOT to do before a race:

1. Try a new fitness class the day before (Hot Yoga will help you find muscles you didn't know you had)
2. Go out for dancing and drinks the night before (Magner's is full of carbs, right?)
3. Dance like a crazy person for three hours (droppin' it low is a great pre-race stretch)
4. Go to bed at 2:30am
5. Have a pre-race breakfast of a cup of coffee and an expired Power Bar gel
6. Arrive to race approximately two minutes before start time, use the port-o-potty (because it's a non-negotiable) and run directly from the potty onto the course because the race has already started

Needless to say, this race was not my most shining moment.  The cherry on top of my poor decisions prior to the race was the race course itself.  Holy Hills.  My quads have never been so sad :(  At about halfway through the 10k, my legs felt like they were made of lead and I was contemplating just telling my dad to leave me for dead and walking the rest of the way.  He refused and continuously told me that he was just out to have fun.  I'm not sure what "fun" he was having because I was not experiencing the same. 

While running this race, I got a side cramp.  It was very similar to the cramp that I got while wearing the heart rate monitor last week except for the fact that I wasn't wearing the heart rate monitor.  I stopped to walk for a minute and then began running again.  I tried to really focus on my breathing and it ended up going away after a while.  I'm really confused as to what that is all about.  I used to get cramps all the time when I was younger but have been totally fine until recently. Any ideas?

Here's the good news:  I finished!

Not only did I finish but I was third in my age division!  This truly speaks for the size of the race, haha!  I was third out of four girls in the twenty-somethings age group.  My overall time was 60:36 3/4.  Like I said, I was running from the POP onto the course so the Garmin actually had me completing it at 59:13 (-1:14 from official).  My goal for this race was 1:08:21 and I beat it!  This is also a 10K PR (personal record) for me.  Woo!

I'm so thankful for goals.  It's very exciting to accomplish them :)  I'm also very thankful for my dad because I would have wimped out and run much slower if I was running by myself.  I'm also thankful for those people that didn't sign up for the Turkey Trot, which enabled me to come in third place in my age division!  I'm also thankful for giveaways!

What mistakes have you made before a race?

The Confessions of Silence

It's often the case that when I don't tell you what I am doing to work out, I am simply not working out.  For a while, I was doing an amazing job getting up at 4am and logging miles on the treadmill.  The lazy switch is apparently suck in the "ON" position, as I have not been able to get up that early to save my life.  The unfortunate thing is that if I don't exercise in the morning, the likelihood of exercising at all that day is slim to none.  Yesterday was a none day...Oh well.  I will make sure that I get on the treadmill for the five miles that were scheduled!

Why don't I own this???

I really have no excuse for not working out in the evenings.  Alex is wonderfully accommodating when it comes to me working out!  I'm sure tonight will be no exception!  Tomorrow I will do another three miles, Friday will be a 30-minute tempo (?) run, and Saturday is a seven mile run.  Woo!  Of course, the weekday runs will be logged on the treadmill but the Saturday run will be alfresco.  I will be planning it out ahead of time so I know exactly where I am going.  I do much better mentally when I know where the finish line is located!

Other fun plans for my weekend will include hot yoga :)  I know where to go now so I should be able to attend without any further incidents.  I'm thinking about hitting it up a couple times this weekend since we have a long, holiday weekend and Julia is going to visit her cousin in South Carolina.  Better start drinking extra water now....

Do you have Columbus Day off?  How are you spending the weekend?

~Andrea

*Hot Yoga*

Good morning!  Last night was an incredible night's sleep after getting my booty kicked by Patrice.  I have to admit that I am still not achieving my goal of a ten o'clock bedtime.  I just feel like I have too much to do to be going to bed at ten. 

I was a bundle of negative emotions last night.  I was very stressed about my current situation with my trainer.  It was important to me to make sure that she was available during times that were convenient for me.  I made sure that was the case before I gave her tons of my hard-earned money.  I was under the impression that we had agreed on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  We have trained on Wednesday only when I have that day off and can workout in the morning and we have maybe trained one or two Saturdays.  She always is out of town or attending a meeting or something.  I have known her for quite some time and I feel that she is taking advantage of that.....plus, for the most part, I'm a pushover.

So I was frustrated with Patrice because I wanted to train on Saturday but she is going to be out of town (again).  On top of that, I got into my negative mindset and started focusing on all things wrong.  My house is a mess.  My yard needs to be mowed.  I have tons of laundry to do.  I am not getting into bed by ten o'clock.  Whine, whine, whine.  Blah, blah, blah.  So today, I will be making an action plan of the things that I need to get done to get back on track.

In other efforts to calm my frustrations, I bought a four sessions of hot yoga for $30!  I think this is a very awesome price.  It's up in Reston so that is kind of a bummer but my friend Jen I think lives close and goes there too :)

Source

I'm really excited to try this out!!  Click here for the bloomspot deal.  Hurry though, it's only good for another two days :)

How do you relieve stress?

~Andrea