Bye, Bye 2012

So many exciting thing happened in 2012! Here is a quick recap in no particular order. Beware there are a lot of photos.

I ran a bunch of half marathons. 2012 was a year of half marathons for me. I started the year off by running a half on New Years day. 

Minneapolis Half in June

Monster Dash dressed as a pirate

I got to cheer on a friend at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR. It was so much fun and my friend won the triple jump. She represented the US in the Olympics!!!

Amanda on the Podium! 

While at the Olympic trials, I got to watch 4 days of events. It was fabulous! I love track and field!

Shalane Flanagan and Amy Hasting in the 10k

I got to meet the ladies of Oiselle at the Olympic Trials. They make my absolutely favorite running gear. If you haven't tried the Rogas shorts and the Rundelicious top. Do it! You will love them! I was so bummed that I left Oregon before their Totally Trials party. I hear that I missed a great party!

I was selected to run for the Oiselle Team! I am beyond ecstatic to be representing such a great brand of clothing and to be part of an amazing community of women runners! I can't wait to meet some of my teammates!

I met and went running with Scott Jurek. He is one of my favorite local running legends. I loved his book Eat and Run. I highly recommend it. It has some great recipes in it. Try them, you will love them.

Scott signed my book!

While in Eugene, I met Deena Kastor. In case you can't tell from the goofy grin, I was really excited to meet her.

I played bicycle pac-man with my friends. Yes, I am riding a miniature bicycle in a banana costume.

I took a vacation to Duluth, MN and got to meet up with one of my good friends and former college cross country teammates.

I won a pair of Keen's with this photo of me taking a recess break.

I ran the Twin Cities Marathon. It was a great experience. I can't wait to do it again. Hopefully, it will go better next time. My legs started cramping at mile 13. I may have cried during the race a couple times. It felt good to finish.

I ate a lot of ice cream during the annual Tour de Ice Cream.

I am excited for 2013! I have a feeling it is going to be a good year!

Twin Cities Marathon Expo

This was the first year in a while that the company I work for hasn't had a booth at the Twin Cities Marathon Expo. It was nice to not be standing all day the day before the marathon. I decided I wanted to go to the expo when it wouldn't be too busy and Carrie Tollefson was going to be there at a 2:00 on Friday so I decided it would be fun to stop and talk to her. She is another one of my favorite local running legends. She is so down to earth and friendly.

When I got to the expo, I went straight back to the packet pick up. There was no line. Yeah! I grabbed my number, chip and ear warmers and was off to explore the expo. There were so many booths so I just wandered around. I didn't need anything specific but thought I might find something I wanted.

I got to chat with Carrie Tollefson for a little while. I was surprised that she remembered me from a couple weeks earlier. I was at the Mac track with a coworker filming some exercise progression videos for runners and she was there doing a workout. She remember seeing me there and asked about my work. She is really the nicest person. It was so fun chatting with her.

I continued to wander through the booths when I ran into a friend. He also happens to be the President of the Twin Cities in Motion. The organization that puts on the TC Marathon. I had to get a photo with him. I can't believe I forgot to get a photo with Carrie Tollefson. He wished me good luck in the marathon and was off to his marathon duties for the day.

I really liked the Twin Cities Marathon poster and debated on whether or not to buy one. In the ended, I decided not to buy it. I wasn't sure where I would put it.

I grabbed a photo at the Medtronic's booth. I am not sure why I didn't throw my hands in the air like I  was winning and was crossing the tape first. I will do that next time. It is the only time I will cross any tape first.

The expo was fun. There was so much stuff to buy. I can't believe I left the expo with only my race packet.

Coming soon...the Twin Cities Marathon Recap.

Twin Cities Marathon

I am running a marathon in 5 days. I have so many feeling about the race. I made a word cloud to represent somethings I feel about it today.

I am really excited about my upcoming year of training. I have some very ambitious goals that I will write about soon. 

Runnin' with Scott Jurek

A couple months ago, I got to go running with Scott Jurek and a hundred other people. He was in town promoting his new book, "Eat and Run." I was planning to buy the book. I am a sucker for new recipes especially from vegan athletes that I admire. He was going to be in town giving a talk, signing the books and running with us. I was so excited to meet a local running legend!

Scott Jurek before the run.

I went to local running store and picked up my copy of the book and hung around waiting for the run to start with 100 other people. I figured that I wouldn't really have the opportunity to talk with Scott but I was excited to have the opportunity to run near him.

Scott in orange with a bunch of other runners.

 We did a little trail running. I took a photo of Scott running a little ways in front of me. I figured it was the closest that I would get to him.

I love trail running.

Well, I figured wrong. He ran right next to me chatting for a little bit. I said that I needed a photo to show all my friends that I ran next to running legend Scott Jurek. He grabbed my phone and took a picture of us running. I was so excited! It is a bit blurry but that is me running next to Scott!!!

I look like an alien.

After the run, he was going to give a little talk and do a Q & A session. Since I live in Minnesota, some of the locals that he talks about in the book were able to make it to the run and talk.

Dusty and Scott

I also got to meet Jenny and Hippie Dan. It was so exciting talking with all of them.

Post run he gave a little talk and then it was time to get our books signed. I positioned myself so I would be one of the first people to get my book signed. I still had to get home and pack for my trip to the Pacific Northwest. I was leaving the next morning at 5am.

Scott signed my book!

It was great fun to meet my favorite ultra runner! He really is an amazing athlete and a really nice guy!

I decided to run my first 50k next spring. I will be running the Superior Trail Race on May 18th. I am so excited and a little scared.

Minneapolis Duathlon

The Minneapolis Duathlon was the 4th of 5 races in the Team Ortho race series that I won entry into last December. I was excited to get out and spend sometime running biking and then running some more. I figured it would be good cross training for the Twin Cities Marathon coming up in a little over a month.

The weekend started out with a 2 hour and 40 min trail run at the Minnesota River bottoms on Saturday. It was a great morning to be out on the trails. Being on the trails reminds me of running cross-country.

After some good stretching and lunch, I went to picked-up my race packet. At the packet pick-up, they asked what kind of bike you were planning to ride. This isn't a hard question but I haven't been on my road bike in 2 years. I ride my commuter bike almost everyday. The dilemma...do I stick with what I am use to (commuter) or go with the hopefully faster road bike that has been sitting collecting dust for 2 years. I decided to go with the road bike.

I got home dusted the bike off, oiled the chain, pumped up the tires and found my road bike shoes. I was planning to take it on a test ride but it was rainy and wet outside so I decided against it.

Sunday morning, my alarm goes off at a way to early hour. I decided to bike to the start because it is only about 4-5 miles away and would be easier than finding parking in downtown Minneapolis. As I am biking there, I thought about how smooth, fast and nice my road bike felt. I was glad I picked the road bike for the race.

I got to the race and setup all my gear in the transition. I went out for a warm-up run and was in line just before the first gun was to go off at 7:01am. I was in wave 12 which meant I had 12 min to wait and be nervous in the crowd of people. I kept telling myself just take it easy you aren't planning to race this hard. You did a longer run yesterday. It is good cross training.

I was time for my wave to start. I lined up a couple rows back. The first leg was a 5k so I started at a decent pace. 1 min and 40 seconds into the race, I had passed everyone in my wave and I was beginning to pass the runners from the previous wave. I also noticed that my left shoe was untied. What should I do? Stop and tie my shoe...that would take too much time. I was only running a 5k so I decided to leave it. 4 min into the race, I started to hear additional clinking of shoelaces so I looked down, my right shoe was untied. Now what to do, I was just over 1/2 mile into a 3.1 mile race. I just left them untied and hoped that I wouldn't trip on them.

I made it to the transition, switched to my biking shoes and ran out with my bike. The bike portion was a little scary with me passing people and people flying past me. I was surprised there weren't more crashes. After 15 miles, I made it to the transition again and I was ready to get off the bike and run.

I triple knotted my shoes to make sure they didn't come untied. I was off on the last 5k with 1 goal in mind to not be passed by anyone on this leg of the run. I almost succeeded but a guy sprinted past me in the last 0.1. I felt good on that run. It was fun cruising past people. I finished my 2nd 5k 42 seconds faster than my first.

I ended up finishing 7th overall for women. It was a great day for a duathlon.

The medal and jersey from the race.

Tour de Ice Cream

June was a great month. I did so many fun things. I haven't had time to write about them. Here is quick recap of Tour de Ice cream. I also was in Oregon for the Olympic trials so I will try to get a recap of that up soon. It was so much fun...I can't put into words how great it was to be out there watching the best track and field athletes in the country.

Tour de Ice Cream taking over the road.

Tour de Ice Cream was a huge success. Eating tons of ice cream = success. There were about 30 people that participated in Tour de Ice Cream. What is Tour de Ice cream? Well, it involves 2 of my favorites things…ice cream and bicycles. Basically, you bike around to some ice cream shops and eat ice cream. It is a great way to spend a summer day with your friends.

I love ice cream!!!

We started off bicycling to the Pumphouse Creamery. This is one of my favorite ice cream shops in the Twin Cities. The ice cream is made with mostly local ingredients. They have a 5 scoop sampler that I love to share with a friend. It allows you to try so many flavors. Then we hit up Sebastian Joe’s for some Nicollet Ave pothole ice cream and ended at Grand Ole Creamery. It was a fun day in the sun with friends.

Things I have learned from previous year of Tour de Ice Cream:

1    1. Pace yourself with the ice cream. Ice cream is delicious but you can only eat so much before going into a sugar shock. Remember you still have to ride you bicycle home. It is best to find a friend and share your ice cream. What SHARE? Yes, share your ice cream. You will go to enough ice cream shops that you won’t mind sharing.

I bet you want some ice cream now.

2    2.  Pace yourself on the bike. There is no need to race everyone to the next shop. They won’t run out of ice cream. In fact, the longer you take the more time your ice cream has to digest. Win…you can eat more ice cream

RunMinnesota Article

I had my first article published in a running magazine! It came out at the beginning of March. Sometimes I am a little slow at posting. 

I had fun writing the article and hope to write many more. I hope you enjoy it.

The article can be found here.

Oiselle Totally Trials Entry

When I heard about the Totally Trails contest that Oiselle was running, I knew that I needed to apply. The olympic trials in Eugene...Sign me up! I called up my coworker/running buddy and said, "I just heard about the best contest ever and we need to apply for it." Her reply was "oh my gosh, yes we need to apply that would be the best experience." 

So with the no brainer decision to apply out of the way, we needed to come up with a creative application. We talked and talked about it while running our weekly track workouts together. We decided we wanted to be funny and involve our other totally ninja triple jumping coworker Amanda. Yes, Amanda it is that Amanda. The US Indoor and Outdoor National Champion!

If you haven't had the chance to meet her, you are missing out! She is the nicest, friendliest, most down to earth, wicked smart person that I know. Yeah, she has a Ph.D. She is SMART. One more thing she can jump far. I sent her a text and said Tsmocks (that is what we call her), we need your assistance winning the chance of a lifetime trip to go watch the olympic trials. 

Of course, she wanted to help. So we met her at the track and filmed our application. We laughed so hard while filming that we had a hard time getting any real clips. Amanda had so much patience when trying to help two distance runners try to triple jump...Let me tell you triple jumping is hard. Hop, step and then jump...that is way to many things to try and remember. I just wanted to put one foot in front of the other at a consistent pace.

Without further ado...here it is our Oiselle Totally Trials Entry:

The Track

I freaking love the track! This Spring, I started doing track workouts again. It had been a long time since I had spent any time on the track. About a month ago, I started coaching one of my friends so I have been hitting the track with her on a weekly basis. 

Running fast is hard but it also feels so good to be flying around the track. I heart it!

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet up with Amanda at the track. She is one amazing athlete and person! 

We weren't going to do our workouts together. We have very different workouts. I can't imagine running as fast or jumping as far as her and she can't imagine running around the track a bazillion times (okay, maybe a bazillion is an exaggeration) like me.  I was there to get a quick video of one of her jumps and, of course, run a bunch of laps around the track. 

I didn't get to my workout until she was done with her's because I ended up watching all of her jumps. I can't describe how amazing it was to watch that caliper of athlete in action. It made me want to train harder...I know I will never be at that level but watching her made me want to become the best me possible. Thanks Amanda! 

I realized that day how much I miss track and field. I loved track meets in college.

A New PR...

I ran my first 25k trail race thus I set a PR. Leading up to the Trail Mix race, I was on the fence about racing. My runs have been less than stellar lately so I knew there would be no fast time or placing but a running buddy convince me to do it. Thanks running buddy for your love of trails and helping me to see how fun they can be.

Online registration closed at 11:59pm on Thursday for the Saturday race. At 11:45pm, I was still hemming and hawing over whether or not to run since I wasn't in top shape...yada yada yada...excuses. The clock turned over to 11:50pm, ok I decided to register. I raced through the registration process and finished at 11:55pm...Yeah, 4 min to spare.

My trail racing buddy told me don't start too fast. "Everyone starts fast and dies on the second loop" she said. Okay, start slow. So I started with a friend at the back of the pack. We weaved our way through other runners for the first couple miles running 9 min miles. I am trying to hold back but there are so many people in front of me. I slowly start to slip away from my friend. She yell that she is just going to let me go or she will blow up on the second lap. I think about staying with her an following my other experienced trail running friend's advice but I have never been good at following advice.

I picked up the pace a little and found myself passing people. From that point on, I wasn't passed by any one running the 25k. I did get passed by the men that were leading the 50k. The race was pretty uneventful from that point to the end. I was running by myself and occasionally passing people.

It was so fun running the 25k trail race, I can't wait for my next one. I think I want to try a 50k.

In other news, I just discovered the most awesome running apparel company ever. Oiselle! If you haven't checked out their apparel you absolutely need to head over to their website right now. Stop reading this post and go there now. You will love it. I can't stop reading their blog it is so funny and entertaining! What an amazing crew of women. Also you need to follow them on Twitter. Believe me. You won't be disappointed. These are some funny ladies! They also have some really amazing runners representing their brand. You should also read about them. 

What not to do when running a half marathon

I love the great running community in the Twin Cities. There are so many fun races every weekend. I am always tempted to jump in and run one of the races even when I haven't been training or I am injured. I jumped into one recently. It was a half marathon on St. Patrick's Day.

Here are some thing I wouldn't recommend doing when running a half:

1. Wear new socks. Toe socks are not ideal running socks. I found a cute pair of green toe socks that said "Kiss me I am Irish" and thought it would be a good idea to wear them for the half marathon. I figured it would be festive. I probably should have tested them out on a run prior to the half...lots of blisters.

2. Start training the Saturday before the race. Run 6 miles on Saturday, 6 miles on Tuesday, 3 miles on Wednesday, 5 miles on Thursday and run a half on Saturday. Time to rethink the week long training plan...research doesn't support this training plan.

3. Have a nagging hip pain. Ignoring an injury doesn't mean it will go away.

4. Run with a "slower" friend the first mile. I ran into a friend and thought it would be a good idea to run with him to keep me from going out too fast...it didn't work. I looked at my watch at the mile and noticed it turn over to 7 min. I immediately slowed down.

I am on a new path. I am following a regular training plan (Daniels' Running Formula Marathon plan). I got rid of the funny St. Patrick's Day socks so I am not tempted to try running in them next year. I saw a doctor for my hip and I will be ready to run a  sub 7 min first mile in my next race.

Happy Training!

Adventure in Babysitting

Today I am babysitting my friend's daughter kp. Here are just some of the adventures we have been on today.

Instead of her morning nap, we took a quick trip to Paris, France to see the Eiffel Tower.

On our way back to Minneapolis from Paris, we decided to take a quick side trip to the moon!

We had tons of fun hanging out with the space aliens.

We stopped off at an amusement park and took a ride on a roller coaster.

kp loved it but she got a little dizzy.

Of course, we had to stop at the fun house and take some funny pictures of us.

kp and me with bug eyes!

kp with a nose twist!

She also saved the day as a comic book superhero!

Don't worry we did normal baby stuff too!