A Welcome Distraction

Sometimes things go as planned and other times they don't. I had no clue there was a Crossroads taping until two weeks ago or so when I was told about it. And told I would get a ticket. I may have been told this before recently and it didn't pan out. I wasn't holding my breath. But show day came and my name was on the list. I was going to see The Avett Brothers and Randy Travis.

The Avett Brothers are one of those bands I've seen a few times. A few being more than five. I have seen them in quite a few different types of venues and know they do their best in more intimate settings.  Randy Travis, now I've never seen him. But I am familiar with his music. I knew he had been in a little bit of trouble with the law recently, but didn't know to what extent. I looked it up while at the show and was pretty shocked. Randy Travis is going through some hard times. At the show he just made some really, really awkward jokes. I imagine we would all make awkward jokes if only two months ago we had been arrested for a string of alcohol related incidents. The songs that had to be redone were mainly because of him. It became clear that Randy Travis didn't know the Avett Brother's songs as well as they knew his.

I called my mom after the show to tell her who I had just seen perform. Her first question was "was he naked?".  We laughed for a few seconds and then the next thing she told me, "I've been praying for him." My mom is just a good person. When most people are making fun of a celebrity down on their luck, my mom goes and prays for them.

The Avett Brothers performed Murder in the City last night. I had almost forgotten about the song. And was so glad to be reminded of it last night.

Mom, I sure am glad we share our last name.

Make sure my sister knows I loved her
Make sure my mother knows the same
Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing
Like the love that let us share our name
Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing
Like the love that let us share our name

I needed last night more than I knew. My mind has been racing this entire week from nerves, or excitement as my dad calls it. I leave tomorrow for Washington DC. And I have no clue what the weather will hold on Sunday. It looks like I might be running my second marathon in the rain. But, I am throwing this out there. My goal is to finish as close to 4 hours as possible.

The Avett's Performing Murder in the City on the Conan show (a slightly different version)

Week 1: Yasso 800's

For the past 10 weeks or so my friend and I have been talking about running Yasso 800's in preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon in October. What are Yasso 800's exactly? According to this Runner's World article you start with 4 800's with the same amount of jog time between each repeat and each week and an additional 800 repeat until you have hit 10. In an ideal and perfect world you hit your time goal for each 800. Now, according to Bart Yasso, the time you run your 800 in should be used as a predictor for your marathon finish time. If you want to a 4 hour marathon, you should run 4:00 minute 800 repeats. Easy enough?

So last Thursday I was at the track at 5:50 AM. Also, at the track that early? Two other guys also doing some sort of speed workout and eventually we were joined by a local college softball team and a men's soccer team. (Side note, there was one girl on the softball team who was clearly the slowest one on the team. It was really encouraging to watch and listen to her teammates cheer her on and motivate her while they ran WITH her. GO KATIE GO! Sometimes I miss team sports. ) My friend and I started the warm up with a 2 mile progressively faster warm up. My friend is faster than me and I encouraged her to run faster when she felt she needed to. After the warm up we did some dynamic stretching (which I hate), but know is good for me- lunges, high knees, but kicks, etc. And then it was time to start the actual workout.

Over the past month I have gained a little bit of my confidence and fitness back and feel like I am ready to set a goal for Marine Corps: run as close to a 4 hour marathon as possible. Following Yasso logic that means I need to run my 800's at 4:00 minutes. My friend wants to run around a 3 hour 35 minute marathon so her goal was to run 3:35 minute 800's. My first 800 was about 3:43. Definitely need to slow it down a bit.  The next 3 were between 3:43 and 3:53. I am fully aware that this workout will get progressively harder each week so I need to work at getting my time as close to 4 minutes as possible. After the workout was finished, it was a 1 mile cool down for a total of about 6 miles.

I am trying to decide if I want to bring my ipod this week.

Super thankful to have such a nice track to run at and an accountability partner to meet me at the track.

Thirty and Beyond

Sh*t is about to get real folks. I turn thirty 8 weeks from tomorrow. And I am at my highest weight in probably 7 years. This is incredibly scary. Not the turning 30 part, but the part about my weight. My clothes don't fit like they used to fit. I feel slow and slugish while running. I am lacking self control when it comes to dessert. And I could go on and on. But starting yesterday, I am making a few changes. These changes aren't meant to be a temporary solution for a lifelong struggle. But to help me get back to a healthy place and stay there.

• I am returning to boot camp in the mornings at least 2 times a week. It's funny how once you quit something, there is such fear in returning. I stopped going to boot camp consistently in March. I went a few times in April/May, but nothing consistent. On my Tuesday night trail run I saw two people from class who asked me when I was coming back. I don't know why there is such a fear of returning when the people who can help and support me the most are ready and waiting for my return. I emailed the owner to see if my leftover classes could be used even though they technically expired and the outpouring of support was pretty awesome from the owner and the instructors. Are you looking for a boot camp in Nashville? Start Fitness is where it is at. 
• I am journaling my food. Pen meet paper. No more My Fitness Pal app for me for the time being.
• Every Sunday I am going to plan out my workouts for the week. I usually have a good idea of what my social and work activities will be for the week. I know that things will pop up, but I have found I operate best with structure.
• I will loosely be following Bob Harper's Skinny Rules...A life without beer and Diet Coke would be really scary for all of those around me.

I've laid it all out. It's going to be an exciting few months. I'll be turning thirty and then a month later running my SECOND marathon. It's on. Looking to be healthy at Thirty and Beyond. 

Race Racap: Yazoo Barely a 4k Brewer's Fest Edition Nashville, TN 7.28.12

On Saturday, one of my favorite Nashville events took place- The Yazoo Barely a 4k. I wrote about the second one here  and I had to miss the 3rd and 4th one because of work and vacation. So, I was pretty excited for this one. The cherry on top? Instead of a race t-shirt? We got capes! They divided us into three different groups and the the route you ran was based on the color of your cape. I was hoping for a red cape and red cape I got!

If you like to run and you like beer, this is the "race" for you. Even if you don't like to run, this is still the race for you. There are no timing chips. There are no road closures. There is no official start or finish line. It's just great people having a good time on a Saturday morning.

Personally, this race was a little different for me because my morning started at 5 AM with the first part of my run starting at 5:45 AM. A 9.5 mile run as part of my marathon training. Margaret and I planned this length to get in 12 miles total once we counted the 4k. We finished our 9.5 miles with about 30 minutes before the start and just enough time to get our cape and raffle ticket. I also changed my shirt and chugged some water.

The course was a loop and after a pretty fast for me 9.5 miles, I took the 4k at what felt like a snails pace. But this course was also no joke. Hills, hills, and more hills. And also more than a 4k. About 3 miles instead of 2.5. When it was all said and done I ran a total of 12.5 miles.

And then it was time for my favorite part of this race- The Beer and Raffle! This time we had bottles instead of kegs. The actual brewery, instead of just the tap room, was opened up for us to spread out since there were so many more runners. We drank some beers. We laughed. And then the raffle started.

The raffle is one of the best parts. Neil the race organizer gets random crap from his office and hands it out. Some people leave early and boy do they miss out! If you ever run a Barely a 4k, stay for the raffle or don't and up my chances of winning an awesome prize!

I'm already looking forward to the next Barely a 4k!

Red Capes!




Neil starting the raffle.


Jenny won a growler and a Yazoo santa hat.


I won an unbreakable pint glass and a t-shirt.


Steve and Danny didn't win anything. Oh the shame.




Running Buddies!