Sparkle Mail

I love getting sparkle mail.   Sparkle mail is what I (and other sparkle fans) refer to when we get our running skirts in the mail.  The company Sparkle Skirts is based out of Florida and they make the most amazing running skirts.  When you get your package it comes with glitter tissue paper wrapped around your skirt and a quick note from the people that work there (usually a good luck with your upcoming race or happy running around town).  They respond to e-mails really fast too!

 This was my first Sparkle Skirt (pixie dust).  It is lime green with sparkley sequins all over it.  The best part is the spandex shorts underneath that have large pockets for carrying gels and such (a must for long runs and races).  I was hooked after this and bought their mud busters (just the shorts) for under other running costumes.

 I was going to order a whole new skirt for running but since I really love the zipper pocket in the waistband for my phone and with the cold weather requiring a jacket for my gels I got these two "commando" skirts instead.  They don't have the built in shorts so you can wear leggings or shorts of your own under.  Autumn and Purple Passion are great and really make me feel special on my weekly long runs.

This is me after my Sunday long run with purple passion.  I can pop my mud busters under it and have some extra carrying capacity and keep warm with double "coverage" on my legs in the chilly months ahead.

Weekly Training Round Up week 7

This past week I hit most of the training miles and definitely the paces for my workouts.  I also got some sparkle mail.  If you don't know what that is check in later this week to find out what I'm talking about.  Anyways, here is the weeks worth of training:

Sunday     long run just under 11 miles in 1 hour 35 minutes
Monday   3 easy
Tuesday   8x600 with 400 recovery.  Nailed the pace of about 2:39 for each 600 (7 total)
Wednesday  rest
Thursday  3 mile tempo at 8:45 pace plus warm up and cool down (5 total)
Friday      4 easy
Saturday  6 easy

Weekly Total:  36 and a bunch of quality in there.

Weekly Training Roundup Dopey Week 5 & 6

Sorry about missing my weekly training info for last week.  I went up to Vermont for a few days to be a leaf peeper even though we have gorgeous leaves here.  Then I had a smidge of a cold and it just was snooze mode for me for a while there.

Week 5
Sunday     6 medium pace (not easy but not hard)
Monday    4 easy and it was raining buckets
Tuesday    6 easy but my right calf bothering me a lot, very tight
Wednesday  6 easy but calf really bad
Thursday    0
Friday        0
Saturday    0
Week total:  16 and hoping the rest makes my calf magically better

Week 6
Sunday      7 on the track (scared of back country roads... people zing on those corners) calf a bit tight
Monday     0 this is the day I got whammoed with a cold.  head pounding, nauseous
Tuesday     5  supposed to do a track workout and swapped it with 3 miles of fartleck doing step counts
Wednesday  3.5 elliptical miles very easy
Thursday    5 miles with a tempo for 3ish miles in 24:45
Friday         4 easy
Saturday     7 easy
Total:  28

Motivation

I am volunteering with Girls on the Run.  It is a great national program but I am not going to put all the details here.  Anyways, the girls I get to work with are so positive and I wanted to share the poster they made the other day at practice.  All the things that are positive in their lives... they could have added to this for hours.  So when you are thinking those negative things just remember that there are lots of little positive things that you love and you can get through it.

Weekly Training Roundup Week 4 of Dopey

Unusually hot temperatures for this time of year were happening in Upstate NY.  Not that I'm complaining about it but I do love me some crisp fall air to go with the changing leaves and to make me feel great on my runs (heat and humidity are hard).
Sunday     big fat 0 goes here (we were in Buffalo visiting hubby's family)
Monday    1  I just felt horrible with a headache that didn't want to go away even after asprin
Tuesday    6 easy but my right calf was bothering me and foot
Wednesday  5 easy and wore my old shoes
Thursday   7 medium-ish pace (not hard or easy) and wore old shoes, foot/calf almost all better
Friday       3 easy and perfectly fine
Saturday    5 easy
Total for the week was 27 miles

I had been wearing my Newtons prior to middle of this week.  They weren't comfortable but they weren't uncomfortable either.  I think they are just a half size too big but I had to go with that based on what info I was given when I bough having been new to the brand.  I am not writing the shoes off completely, but just for now as I need to start kicking up the pace and miles the next few weeks/months as I get ready to be Dopey.

Spartan Sprint

It was a beautiful fall day in Vermont a few weekends ago.  My best friend Dani and I lucked out because the day before was a bit chilly and the day after our race was cold and rainy.  Dani had asked me about the race about a month before it took place and I agreed quite quickly.  Guess I should have read the website a bit better since it was tougher than a Tough Mudder or Warrior Dash (their claim and I am not sure since I've not done either).

The race started with us having to tackle our first obstacle before even getting to the starting line.  We had to basically hop a barricade into the starting corral.  After that the race started and we jogged across the slight uphill at the base of the mountain through a smoke making item.  Shortly into the race we had a few more barricades to go over or crawl under before making our way up the blue ski slope followed by the black slope.

 I was feeling pretty good climbing the mountain.  It wasn't that bad.  Many people were stopping to rest and we figured there was no way we'd have to go all the way to the top, that was for the crazy people in the Beast race (8+ miles instead of our measly 4+ miles).  We were wrong.  The sprint went all the way to the top of the mountain and then immediately most of the way down.  It was so steep we basically had to crab crawl a good portion down.  Then we were slowed by a single trail through a small wooded area that was pretty gnarly.

I cannot remember the exact order of the rest of our obstacles but we had more than enough walls to climb over.  I helped Dani over most and then was able to get over them by myself.  One of the walls slanted back so you were almost upside down and had to get over the top.  I was so sick of the walls at this point.  Next up was a 5 gallon bucket filled with what we were told was 50 pounds of cement.  We had to use a pulley to get it to the top of a contraption and then lower it back down.  If you "gave up" you had burpees to do.  Later we had to drag a hunk of concrete down a small hill and back up.  The concrete was oddly shaped and was ready to take out some ankles.  We encountered monkey bars that were "up and down."  Reminded me of being a kid on the playground.

At some point I got super excited and started to sprint towards the rolling mud obstacle.  The people around us groaned loudly at my, "that look like so much fun."  It was a short, steep set of hills (3 or 4) in a row with a mud puddle at the bottom that was chest deep.  Dani and I had a blast jumping from the top of the little hills into the water pit and sprinting back out.  Then came torture.  Torture started out fun and quickly became not so much fun.  We had to basically army crawl under a barbed wire for 150 meters.  Fun until they decided to fill the mud pit with oversize rocks so you really couldn't "slide."

I was quite excited to finally be out of the barbed wire pit only to be frustrated quickly by our next obstacles.  We were given one chance to throw a spear into a bale of hay.  We both failed so we had to do 30 burpees.  That sucked a lot and I thought my arms would fall off.  Basically they had us do a squat thrust with a push up in the middle.  Ouch.  We finished our burpees and turned the corner where I saw a series of walls and verbalized my disapproval to the woman volunteer about how we should be allowed to skip it since I've gone over enough walls and I am not going to make it over since my arms are about to fall off from burpees.  Fortunately we only had to rock climb across (traverse) to the bell at the far end.  If we fell off it was burpee land for 30 of those evil little buggers.  I did not fail but Dani did since she is short and the "rocks" for traversing were really far apart.

We jogged through some more trail in the woods before seeing the finish line.  Before we could sprint for it was had to enter another chest deep mud pit with barbed wire over our heads and pull ourselves out with a rope onto a slippery and slanted slope (over the top and down the ladder).  And then we had to jump over some hot coals/fire pit.

We had a lot of fun and it will probably go down as the slowest 4+ miles that I ever run.  Not sure exactly how far it really was but I learned that I am stronger than I thought I was.  I figured I would have been pulled off the course or struggled terribly with all the strength activities on the course.  I survived and had a great time with my best friend.  We are event talking about doing another one together.