To the greatest role model around….

To my biggest supporter. My role Model. My best friend. My MOM. Happy Mother’s Day! I love you more than words can be written in this little blog that you read! say. Thank you for all that you do!

Ragnar Relay Recap

12 teammates. 2 Vans. 27 hours. 36 legs. 176 miles. 2 hours of Sleep. Zero Showers. 368 Registered Teams.

Ragnar Relay was a blast!

Team Run, Beaches, Run kicked some serious running butt over the past two days. 

I was in Van 1, Runner 5 which took off from Miles Standish Park in Carver, MA at 10 am Friday morning. One thing about most of Massachusetts that I must mention, is there are many hills. Looking at the course maps, you knew that hills were coming, but whoa! 

Our team was hauling! We “calculated” expected exchange times based on all of our previous 10K times which Ragnar uses to set us up for start times. By my first leg, we were a few minutes ahead of time, and at 1:15pm I took off. I had the shortest legs of all, totaling 9.6 miles in total. When you are in a Van of all experienced runners, no one wanted the short run. I volunteered and Although I loved knowing that after a mile or two I was over halfway through, I don’t really warm up and get into my stride until about two miles and by then, my legs were almost over. 

Here I am coming into the exchange at the end of my first leg: 3.4 miles in 32:10 (by my Garmin - my Garmin also said it was only 3.3 miles – therefore I averaged 9:45 min/miles)

Van 1 finished around 3pm, but we had to go stage cars so people had cars closer to the end of the race. We were able to quickly grab pizza and enjoy some cupcakes I bought when we went looking for coffee at one point, but due to traffic we had to be back on the road by 6 pm to make it to the exchange around 7pm for our next set. After 6:45pm, everyone must wear their safety gear. Below is a pic from Exchange 12, were we switched with Van 2. 

By this point, we were all about 30 min ahead of our schedule. And we kept it up. At 11:15 pm I took off for my 2nd leg. This one was only 3.1 miles; 5k which I can do in my sleep. This leg was along a bike path with woods all next to me and all I kept thinking was how I was going to be attacked by an animal. Thanksfully I must have been bright enough to keep them away because I made it. Again, I averaged 9:45 min/mile coming in at 30:15ish. 

Our #6 runner kicked it into high gear and finished his 7 mile run averaging at an 8 min/mile pace (which he thought he was a 9:30 pace) so we had to wake up Van 2 a little early. We made it to our sleeping area around 1:30ish, I would say I was asleep by 2 am. 4am we were woken up by Van 2 as they were hauling and we had to be at the exchange around 5ish.

Leg 3 started at 7:20 am for me. After making my van get me my coffee, I was all ready to get going. It was still cool out, but sunny. Again, I had a 3.1 mile run. This was also on a bike path, but it was a beautiful run with great scenery in Eastham, MA. The worst part about this leg, was the bike path had EVERY TENTH OF A MILE MARKED! It was a constant reminder of how far you have left. Luckily, I like numbers and just counted down from 31. This time I averaged 9:44 min/mile (atleast I am consistent!) and came in at 30:11ish. 

We finished up around 8:30 am and headed out in search of breakfast as well as continued on to Provincetown for the finish line. Van 2 meet us around noon and we all ran in together to gross the finish line around 12:45pm. All in all, 26 hours to complete 176 miles.  

All in all, this was a great experience. I was a little worried, how I would do off the diet I have been following, improper fueling, lack of sleep, close quarters, etc. But this surpassed anything I could have imagined. We had such a ball, our Van was so much fun, our entire team rocked it. I would love to do another relay again (maybe with some longer legs). But I will say, after 3 runs, no shower, lack of sleep, etc I just had the best shower EVER and am enjoying a relaxing evening with an early bedtime. Back to the grind tomorrow with school work, food shopping with a Mother’s Day Dinner in between!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Ragnar relay

Challenge

I miss the days when I had many mornings off to do as I pleased. When I used to ship out I worked a 60/60 schedule; 60 days on whichever ship I was needed, 60 days home on vacation. I took a few days off between jobs, so since my last day was Tuesday I have spent the past few days relaxing, getting ahead on my capstone project, doing all the little things around the house that have been put off (yet, I still have an ever growing to-do-list? Something is not right!). But mainly, i love getting up, having a cup of coffee then getting in a killer workout to start my day. 

Today’s workout was just that. A KILLER. We all know I can run. But I run distances. 10k – I do it in my sleep. I may not be fast, but I can go. Well today’s workout consisted of 400m runs and 300 rows. That is torture for me. I do not like sprints. And I am not good at them. I don’t mind being last, but when I come in after 400m and see that my “sprinting” time is really only 15-30 seconds faster than normal race pace; I get a little down on myself. 

But starting on Monday CFF will begin the Look Better Naked Challenge. One of the benchmark workouts for this is a 400m run. This is where I want to improve on the most. The LBNC is a 45 day challenge that incorporates Paleo principles when it comes to food, but also incorporates other key health components like fish oil supplements (benefits of supplements found here), getting ample rest as well as working out. I like that CFF emphasizes that this is not a weight loss challenge. Yes, weight loss may come with the territory of this, but this is an overall health improvement. 

So I mentioned how one of the benchmarks is a 400m run. Today I was running them around 2:00min each. Next week we will do official benchmark workouts during the WODs to see where we all stand. The other workouts include FRAN (21-15-9 of Thrusters and pullups for time) as well as a 2RM deadlift. I have no idea what my Fran time will be. I can only do about 3 deadhang pullups, so I’ll be scaling this on with bands. My 2RM deadlift should be around 250#. My 1RM is 275#, and Monday’s WOD was 5 deadlifts which I completed 235#.

Today I am going to use the BOD POD to get my body fat measured. This is for my own personal baseline. I’m really interested to see how it compares to what I showed during the final relative reduction weigh in. It would be nice to be the same if not less body fat than a few weeks ago, but I know different machines will show different measurements and I may or may not have been really lazy with my cooking this week and resorting to eating out. 

So that is my upcoming challenge. To look better naked. And run faster. Happy Friday!

Race Ready.

(Source)

Today is the James Joyce 10K. 

I have no real goals for this race. Which isn’t like me. The last time I ran a 10 was back in 2010 with a time of 1:01:05. So I would love to beat that. But I haven’t been running distances. Just quick 3 milers to work on speed, or sprints at crossfit. 

But today is one of the races that Team Challenge New England runs as training for their summer race, so I signed up for this to support them, wear my TC gear and see people I have run with before. 

So there are no goals going into this race. Just run. Have fun. And raise some support for Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Look for me in my orange singlet, because I look so good in that color! 

Changes.

Last week we discussed how I will be changing jobs early in May. While this oppertunity was a no-brainer for me, there was one lingering question I had to figure out. Where will I crossfit? 

My current box, Crossfit 508, is 20 miles from where I live. I started here because it was right on my way home from work as well as the amazing prices they had compared to other boxes around. 

But with my new position being in Cambridge now, I will be no where near 508, and although a part of me wants to stay with them forever, I know I would not be motivated to drive 20 miles each way to the box.

So with advice from DMA, the owner of 508, I shopped around and visited some new boxes. There is a fairly new box that opened the next town over from me, Crossfit Florian. The people seem to be a great, fun-loving group like I’m used to; the equipment is new & organized & plentiful; the space is large. All in all I was impressed with this box. Since it is only 5 minutes away, it’ll be nice to be home early than my normal 7:15 pm time as well. 

I plan to stay with my current 3X/week schedule. I’ve been debating about going unlimited – but I think I want to adjust to my new working schedule before I do such a thing. 

So May will be a big month of changes for me; all for the better I hope. 

(Source)

On another note. Yesterday was the ending to the Relative Reduction my family was doing. I would love to say I won, but I can’t! My Aunt was KILLER at this. Loosing almost 14lbs and 7% of her body fat over these 3+ months! How amazing is that! I came in behind her with losing over 5.5% body fat – although I had only lost about 4 lbs. No biggie. I was very excited about the loss of body fat. I see definition in my shoulders and arms & my legs don’t look so cottage-cheese-esque anymore. As much as the $$ would have been nice to win; the focus of this challenge was to better ourselves as a family – and that was accomplished. We are now looking at Phase II of the challenge, as we all will be vacationing in Newport, RI together at the end of June. #bikiniforthefirsttimeinyears

Cross that off the list.

Recently, I went through all my 2012 goals to see how I was doing on them.

One of my goals was to get a job in my preferred field of engineering. 

And now that I have spoken with my company and signed on the dotted line, I can tell the world that I can cross this one off the list! 

I have accepted a position in Cambridge, MA

 It’s in my preferred field. It’s what I am getting my Master’s in. It’s definitely better for me career wise and I have a feeling I’ll be a lot happier there. 

I’m so excited!

Here’s to the start of a new position!