Keri Hilson - Lose Control ft. Nelly

Maine Event

As you know I went away for 4 days to Camden Maine and was off the grid the entire time.  I came back to enjoy my time off, go to the beach, continue to stay away from the computer, and started to get back into my running routine.  I have also been babysitting for my favorite "Bear" ever this week and made dinner plans each night.  BF has been nursing a knee injury that has certainly off put his marathon training, so fingers crossed it actually isn't a torn Meniscus like the doctor suspects.

Anyway, want to see a photo montage of some beautiful shots of Maine?  Thought so!

Lots of ferry rides, bike rides, kayaking, walking, and camping!  Love my adventure camp!  Also, did you know that school starts next week!  I'll be back to my real routine come the first.  I'm scared for this!  I also took on more responsibilities with the Mass School Psych Assc. in an effort to become the Most Improved Member (an award I made up for myself!).  Hopefully I won't be complaining like I did last year about how tired I am all the time!  At least I was able to enjoy this beautiful beautiful summer.

It's for the children.

So I'm currently camping in Camden, writing this post from my iPhone. Holy mother Mary it rained all afternoon when setting up tents. They were soaked!! Luckily, the weather (and kids) have been winding down in order for me to check in with all my readers... At 11 pm. Tomorrow it's biking and then Thursday it's kayaking. Yay for adventure! My life and running routines can resume to normal next week!

Boooo!

Lauren= fail at blogging this summer.  I just. have. not. had. time.  I haven't even had time to download my photos from the Yankees game.  Tonight I'm busy packing and then am heading to Camden, Maine for the rest of the week where I will be camping with 15, 13-year-olds.  I will be back on Friday to sleep and then out for Restaurant Week in Boston!  Please don't be mad at me!

(A picture of the counselors after a storm last summer. Raining and camping= wet.)

Attention Female Runners

I've not been home the last few days and am about to embark on one last New York trip this summer.  Off to Yankees Stadium!  I swear I'm not cheating on the Red Sox.... but its a family tradition to go. 

I decided to write this short post because of the inspirational photo I saw on facebook from Will Run for Margaritas aka I run like a girl.  I loved its message (even with the spelling errors). I have to remember that I'm married to running; in sickness and in health, til death do us part.  Running makes me feel stronger, improves my confidence, and reaffirms that my most important relationship is always going to be with myself.

Remember this when you feel tired, rejected, hurt, embarrassed, disappointed, frustrated, or defeated.  Running keeps you in the moment with yourself.

Enjoy all of your weekends and I'll be back to post on Sunday!

New Mizuno Wave Precisions

Since my marathon days are long gone, and the mileage and months have passed, I've taken some time to think about what shoe I should move into next.  I loved my Asics Gel Kayanos for marathon training, however I know they are a bit too heavy for lighter training and shorter distances.  Low and behold, I discovered the Mizuno Wave Precision 11 shoes.

 

Although I realize that a later version has come out of the shoe, I looked up some specs and discovered that there were only minor touch ups.  Thus, making the 11's much more affordable, especially when one has a $25 Amazon Coupon she received back in 2006!  Woah. Woah. Woah. Hold the phone. As I was writing this post, I realized that Running Warehouse has them even cheaper for $60!!!  And free shipping!

ANYWAYYY> before I got to try out my new little precious's, I had to get through a day of adventure camp...and look what the cat dragged in.

A day full of rollerblading! (By the way, due to inclement weather, tomorrow I'll be heading to an indoor water park, ha!) Because I work with 12-13 year olds, I had to follow the counselor code of honor (I made this up) that you must always be weird, yet always be a role model. Thus, we have a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, and sweet rainbow socks.  My co-counselor Jen also rocked this look!

Awesome.  So after a day full of lessons around my good ol' South Boston Castle Island, I got home and felt the opposite of good.  I felt bad, real bad. Like cranky, headache, tired bad.  The run didn't look feasible.

Yet, I persevered. Hollllaa!!! Something inside of me was like. LAUREN. Get out there and RUN!  You have to test out these new Mizuno's and see if they are worth the penny that bought them! 

Then I ran. 

The Mizuno Wave Precisions are a training/racing shoe.  They are light, they are airy, and in one run I noticed a huge difference in the way I felt.  Although my 3.5 mile run was at an 8:30 pace, slower than some other runs, I felt AWESOME.  There are a neutral runner's shoe, although someone with a little bit of a later overpronation in their foot strike, such in moi, benefits from a tiny bit of stability which the Mizuno's certainly provide despite the lighter feel. Obviously not the stability of a marathon shoe, but I don't need shoes to keep my feet happy and healthy for 26.2 miles.  More like, 13.1. 

(BT dubbs. My pacing was slower because I'm building endurance, thanks in part to reading Cely from Running Off the Reeses' post about the book Run less Run faster.  This girl's got speed.  She ain't got endurance.  YEa yea yea. I know, I'm faster than a lot of other newbie runners, but its no where near where I want my pace to be...Cue Boston Qualifying time.  Years of work will go into that...So right now I'm learning to not run as fast in order to build up my endurance.  I'm tired of my everyday speedwork sesh's.  They donna help NOBODY.)

When I got home, I took off my shoes, and then kissed them.  Mostly because I needed to take a picture.

Little did you know, I was kissing them as I flexed the shoe on my muscle. Well, you might have known because you looked at this blog.  But I digress.

I love the Mizuno Wave Precision running shoes and I hope you do too.

P.s.- Yes this is the exact outfit that Skinny Runner had on. I don't care, I bought it. I'm weak.  She's pretty, and fast, and I want to be TOO.

A weekend away and back to adventure camp

Man oh man, I have not stopped traveling this summer!  Just got back from a whirlwind tour in New York State to see my sister sing, go out with some college friends in Saratoga, and then celebrate my brother's birthday!  Never was there a moment to exercise, I'm not even kidding. Its like when Jessie Spano had that panic attack on Saved by the Bell.  "Time?!! There's never any time!!" At least I can say that it's been fun! Check it out!

Seriously so ridiculous!  Not to mention...I'm back at adventure camp for the next two weeks so today's crosstraining included kayaking!  I don't want to reveal the name of my camp, but I will let you know that I work at an adventure camp that encourages its campers to Step Outside!

We go out on daily adventure trips that include hiking, canoeing, kayaking, biking, rollerblading, high ropes, indoor/outdoor rock climbing, and more!  Not to mention, during the second half of every two-week session, we go on a little ol camping trip for several days in various beautiful locations around New England!  Next week I'll be traveling to Camden, Maine for four days to go camping with the kids.  The trip also includes sea kayaking and taking a ferry to bike around Iylesboro, Maine for the day.

If you want me to brag I will.  Its like, the best summer job ever!  Now go STEP OUTSIDE!

Cobra Starship: You Make Me Feel...

you make me feel like... downloading this song. !

My sister at the Geoff Armlin Tribute

Here you'll find my sister Courtney, and her friend Josh performing "If I Die Young" during the Geoff Armlin tribute.  Click on my Team in Training Tab for more information.

Lady Gaga - Scheiße

If you love weird yet dance-y songs, you will love Scheiße by Lady Gaga. OMG. Run to this!

Breakfast waffles!

I told you that I'm a Red Sox Runner.... A pic of me and the bf at the game last night.

Ok, let's move onto the breakfast waffles; a low calorie, totally filling breakfast!  I wouldn't recommend this before a long run, but I certainly eat this most mornings (which helped to contribute to my recent 5 pound weight loss).  The recipe is courtesy of self.com

Ok so first you take 1 multigrain breakfast waffle.  Obviously you toast it. (115 calories)

 

Then combine a half cup of lowfat cottage cheese (90 calories) with your choice of 2 tsp of nuts.

I went with pecans (roughtly 45-50 calories). 

Cut up your choice of 1 whole fruit. Apple, pears, banana; whatever you want!  I decided on two apricots.  Did you know that 1 apricot is only 17 calories!!! Two is only 34!! 

 

Then top with your favorite spread: butter, honey, or sugar free syrup!  I went with the sugarfree syrup because I love it with all of my heart no matter how unorganic it is.  

 

Then combine!  My photo here does not make it look very appealing so I'll show you what it would look like using pears and almonds and photographed by Self.com.

P.s. I love their Drop10! Challenge recipes.  Muy delicioso! 

So total calorie count isssss.....  approximately 285!!! plus the calories of your topping...so for me it was probably around 320-340 calories with the syrup!! Hip hip hooray!!!  Believe me when I say its a lot of food! I have to put it in a bowl to eat it because its so much!

Happy Friday!  I'm off to New York State again.  Family love times, fair love times, college friends love times.  Back Sunday!

Not to mention...I will be attending a tribute concert that my sister is singing in, for Geoff Armlin, who I mention in my blog page: Team in Training, The story of Geoff.

New Blog Name!! Red Sox Runner

Although I certainly loved lauren and her life...I realize I started the blog without a focus.  Now that I've turned it into a blog about fitness, running, healthy eating, and fun loving times with my friends, I've decided to make the title more...Brand Worthy.  Yep. I just branded myself.  Hopefully you like it!  Oddly enough, I'm heading to a game tonight! 

Also, head over to Running with Sass to make a donation to Team in Training!  I know how scary it can be to fundraise so much money!  However, even a donation as small as $5 enters you into a raffle to win a running skirt, compression socks, and many other assorted prizes.  NOW GO!!  Donate to Running with Sass here.

Races and Remembering

Well I'm about to do again folks.  I've signed up for my third half marathon in the last year....making that one 5k (Boston Jolly Jaunt), one 5-miler (Harpoon Brewery 5 Miler), two Chilly Half Marathons, one Baystate Half Marathon (come October!) and one full marathon (San Diego Rock n' Roll) all in 365 days.  Plus a wednesday consisting of a 30 minute tempo run.  Wait. That's today.

So the newest addition to my race total is the Chilly Half Marathon in Newton, MA.  Interested?  Sign up HERE.

I'm trying to get my good friend Olivia, from Diablog, to do it with me.  She was a former roomie and now a bestie.  She is just getting into running so I thought maybe this would be nice to get the race started together!! C'mon Boliv!!!

The 2010 race was my first ever long road race (I had done a handful of 5k and 10k races previously) and marked my inaugural stint into the world of running!  Finishing faster than 2 hours made me feel like I really did belong in the running world.

Reading Jess of Blonde Ponytail's latest post (Planting my "Running Seed") got me thinking. Since it'll be one year ago that I started really running and training, I thought it might serve as a nice reminder as to why I signed up do this first race, and take a walk down memory lane. (Thanks Jess! I hope you don't mind that I dovetailed your post with my own ramblings!!).

Running was a saving grace for me. I'm not sure if I'll ever do it enough justice, or thank the sport enough for helping me work through some difficult feelings and frustrations. My own "running seed" was planted when I decided enough was enough; that I wanted to focus on me instead of the life I didn't think I would ever have or giving too much of myself to people who didn't appreciate all I had to give.  Maybe I'm skirting around the issue and not speaking directly about it (I do work in the public schools) but I felt a lot of hurts and was tired of letting other people dictate my self esteem.

So in August of 2010, I started running and I didn't stop. I wasn't sure how I would feel after that marathon (and a missing toenail later...by the way it did finally fall off). It was a lot of dedication, and a lot of solo me time, regardless of the fact that I ran in a pack of beautiful women. I had to keep myself involved and motivated...I had to push myself to run when I didn't want to i.e. stressed, tired, and overworked. I had to stay in on friday nights and get up early saturday mornings. I vowed to not date anyone until after it was over (oops. best mistake ever.) although I'm guessing that focusing on myself and my fun helped in ways I will never understand but will always be grateful for.

Now that I've taken some time to sleep, lay low, travel, run on my own agenda, and enjoy my friends/family, I feel myself getting back on that running horse and doing it all over again.

While journaling my own adventures, I've been amazed at how many people have started their own running stories, or have been inspired to at least incorporate healthy eating and fitness into their lifestyles.  In no way am I bragging, but its felt good to set off a little fire underneath some people's butt's...from my family...to friends...to ex's... to current boyfriends (if you read this, you know its true, ha!). 

Hopefully I have a lifetime of miles to run. And if for some reason I don't, at least I know how I got there, and will continue to use those thoughts to keep me motivated and healthy in other aspects of my life.

I also wish for tight abs...so lets see if I can use my positive thinking to will those as well. Eh I can't be serious all the time. It hurts me brain!

  

(Forever and always my biggest supporters. Obviously go mom go is a big one as well.)

What would you bring on a deserted island?

The song is Eminem - Lighters (Ft. Royce Da 5'9 & Bruno Mars)

As you can tell, I love music more than anything.

If I were stranded on a deserted island with only three items, I would bring my ipod, my sneakers, and my makeup.

Yea I realize its deserted and no one would see me, but what if brad pitt rescued me because he was filming a movie there!?! I would want to look my best, obviously, duhh.  I also would want to run around that island and not cut up my feet. Music, wellll because I love it. I wouldn't be lonely.

If you could only bring 3 things with you on a deserted island...what would you bring?

Zensah, where's my free loot?

Seriouslyyyy? I'm just as cool as all the other bloggers out there who got their free zensah racerbacks and bras (SR, Cely from Running off the Reese's, and Mizfit). Instead, Zensah used my heroes to push their product onto me,  knowing that if it were cute enough I would by it.  But I don't get why they didn't use me with my massive readership and ability to make running look oh so stylish!!! I mean, look at me pose before my run today. (Also, I hope all of you know I'm being sarcastic.)

Come on, look at that wonderful modeling job for my north face tank and nike tempo shorts.  Plus a blue hair band from Goody ala CVS?

But guess what.  All those reviews WORKED on me DANGIT!!! I humbly admit that I loved the purple tank and hot pink sports bra ala Skinny Runner, that I wound up buying it myself.  I'm a fool. A fashion loving, fun running, fool. Maybe I should name my blog that.

Yet I digress.

I ran my first run of my half marathon training program. IT STUNK.  I'm sorry to use such foul language, but omg.  Here is what I ran in.

 

Grossssss. It was also not cloudy, p.s.

3 miles in that made me feel like I was going to die. Not because I don't know how to run, its because I chose to run it at 1 p.m. on a 90 degree day.  I had to stop a couple of times in the shade so that I wouldn't pass out before I got back.  But once I did, brother, oh man, I chugged gatorade and water like it was my job.  Which it is, by the way.  Its my job to stay alive!

So after a few minutes of wondering whether or not I was going to pass out, I decided to check out the last of my Gotein protein powder shake that I won from a giveaway done by Jess at Blonde Ponytail.

Previously, I had tried the vanilla and chocolate versions and loved those.  I just wish I had used colder water and actually taken pictures of my experience.  This time I had the strawberry version.  I also added a little almond milk to see if I could get it to taste like Strawberry Quik.

As you can tell by the consistency of the above photo, it did not mix well when stirred in a water/almond milk combo job instead of just shaking it into a water bottle.  It also did not in fact taste like Strawberry Quik.  More like, Pepto Bismol.  I wound up dumping it out in the sink.  I think I'll be sticking to the Vanilla and Chocolate versions from now on, because those actually tasted good.  As good a protein powder will ever taste.

Love youuu.

Sir Hal makes me run distances.

Ok, here it is lovers.  I have 11 weeks to train for my half.  I could feasibly not really train at all and complete it, but I want to beat my original time of 1:58. Oh and by the way, in no way do I think I'm super awesome at running that I'm like, Heyyy, novice training is for...novices.  But I know my times in shorter distances have proved to need some tweaking and pushing to be somewhat respectable. 

Since I decided to go with the intermediate program, I've decided to let you know what Sir Hal has to say about trying an intermediate program:

THE ABOVE SCHEDULE IS FOR EXPERIENCED RUNNERS: individuals who have left their Novice roots behind and who want to improve their performances. You should be capable of running 30 to 60 minutes a day, five to seven days a week, have competed in at least a few 5-K and 10-K races, if not a marathon, and at least be willing to consider the possibility that some speedwork might help you improve. If that sounds like too much training, and this is your first half marathon, you might be more comfortable training using the Novice Program.

Ok, I think I can handle that.

But...Its Day One and...well... I get to stretch and strength train.  I added a widget to my side profile so that you can keep up with my training, but obviously no miles are added for today.  I'm just going to hang out at Golds Gym; lift some weights and elliptical the place UP!

You want to know more about strength training when trying to improve your running performance? Here is what Hal has to say about strength training c/o Cathy Vasto.

Go High/Low: If you’re training for a race like the Gate River Run, you don’t want to bulk up. Extra weight will slow you down. To avoid putting on pounds, keep the pounds of the weights you lift low and the repetitions high. Vasto recommends lifting 50 to 60 percent of the maximum weight you can lift in a set of 12 repetitions. Two sets of 12 work well for most of the lifts described later. For maximum benefits, without wasting a lot of time, do your strength training two or three times a week, after you run, not before.

Look Good Lifting: Keep your form—not for vanity, but to prevent injury. Think 90-degrees. Most seated lifts work best if your body parts are at right angles: legs straight, feet flat against the floor, trunk erect, chin up, eyes forward. Practice the pelvic tilt where you press your torso back against the chair, or floor, to keep your back from slumping. "Good form works in lifting as much as it does in running," says Vasto.

Breathe Right: The worst mistake you can make while lifting is to hold your breath. That simply tightens the muscles that you want to keep loose. Inhale while you prepare to lift the weight, then exhale while lifting it, inhaling again while lowering it. "The best way to breathe is naturally," says Vasto, "so that you’re not even aware you’re doing it."

Rest by Stretching: When moving from exercise to exercise, don’t rush and don’t waste time chit-chatting with friends. Stay focused on your workout by stretching in between. "It’s very important while strength training to have a stretching routine," warns Vasto. "You don’t want to lose your flexibility, which can happen if you forget to stretch. Eccentric contractions (which occur when lowering the weights) actually can tighten the muscles." Stretching while strength training provides a double dose of conditioning in a minimum of time. (For six sensational stretching exercises, see: Stretch.)


Look what happens when you start to strength train.  You look like my DAD!

 

 Also, the Athletarian is doing a giveaway from her blog HERE!!