Race Recap: Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest

It’s def over a week late, but here it is! A recap of my recent 8k race…

On Saturday, July 21st the Night Crawlers team was ready to run the 2012 Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest… but first, let’s start at the beginning.

And by beginning, I mean the t-shirt creation

Yep, creating team t-shirts is one of my specialties.  And this time, I even had some help and guidance from these lovely ladies!

And boy did those team shirts look good

Oh yeah, and the race.  That was fun too!  It was an 8k through the neighborhoods of Rockville, MD.  The last time I did it was 2 years ago.  I wasn’t in great shape, and I didn’t run it incredibly hard, so my memory of the actual course was a bit fuzzy.  But this year, I had been thinking about it for a while, and I’ve been making a conscious effort with track workouts in order to get faster in shorter distances.  My last 8k was in December, and I finished in 42:XX.  I was hoping for a PR this time, and with the plan of averaging about an 8:30 pace.  Since I had done a 3 mile tempo run a few weeks ago at an 8:15 pace, I was confident I could hold 8:30 for 5 miles.

Well, it didn’t quite work out like that.  But, I did run a good hard race, and I’m very happy with my performance.

The first 2ish miles of the race took us up and down hills, through the neighborhoods.  At the first mile marker, I realized I was running about a 9:00 min/mile pace, which was so confusing because I felt like I was working really hard.  Mile 2 came with about an 8:45 pace, which given the hills is pretty decent.  I stopped keeping track of my remaining miles, but I definitely kicked it up once I hit the mile 3.  I kept telling myself, “you can run any pace for 2 miles!”

The last mile, I really kicked it up! It was significantly flatter the the previous miles, and I was still feeling strong.  I came across the finish line in 42:55, with an average of an 8:38 pace.  I was super pumped because I was so sure I had PRed! And it felt great!

The last 8k I did was in December, and I ran it while experiencing pain from ITBS.  Although it was flatter, and the weather was better, I definitely felt stronger this time around.  Welp, turns out I did not PR.  I ran 42:39 back in December.  I missed a PR by 16 seconds.  Whomp whomp.

You win some, you lose some.  But was really mattered is that I ran hard and strong, and had a great time with my teammates.

(and that we had a lot of free beers to consume…)

Will definitely be back next year for this race (4 free beers per person!!)! It’s fun, local and relatively small.  Registration is also pretty inexpensive! And its a great mid-summer race!

More Food Truck Happiness

Yesterday, I visited a food truck for lunch.  It was so delicious, I thought “I must share this with everyone!”  And then I devoured all the food, sharing it with no one.  BUT, it reminded me that I also visited another food truck last week.  So now I have two food trucks to share with you! I hope you’re huuuuungry!  We’ll start with my experience from last week.

Last week, my friend came into town for a few days before we headed down to Charleston (pictures from that trip coming soon).  I immediately told her that we were going to hit up the food truck scene for lunch.  I’m pretty sure she has never been more excited.  We headed to Metro Center, since that’s where a lot of trucks gather.  And we happened upon this beautiful sight:

No, not that man, although I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Anyway, say hello to Wassub! They are an Asian-fusion sub truck.  It was the first time I had seen them, so I decided to give it a try.  I got the Regular Bulgolgi sub, and it came with provolone, lettuce, tomato and mayo.

It was soooooo good! But also super huge! 9 inches! As much as I wanted to, I could not finish both sandwich halves.  So not only was the sandwich delicious, it was s great deal! $8! Will definitely be searching for this truck again (and hoping they come to Rosslyn soon!)

I’d also like to share this sign with you, taken from the Wassub truck itself:

Haha, my friend and I couldn’t help but crack up as we read this.  Makes you really want to try their subs!

And yesterday, I visited another food truck for lunch, Red Hook Lobster Truck.

This truck is known for their lobster and shrimp rolls, either warm in butter (Connecticut style) or cold in mayo (Maine style).  I always go with the Connecticut style, and it certainly did not disappoint.

Just looking at the pictures now makes me hungry for another.  And after taking one bite, it wasn’t long until I had devoured it all.

The lobster rolls are full of delicious lobster chunks, and the rolls are soft, yet lightly toasted.  Just delicious.  But, then again, for $16, it better be.  I will DEF (and have a few times) go back the next time they’re in Rosslyn!

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And for a running update, yes I’m still doing that (haha, sort of…).  I actually will be running the Rockville Twilight Run tomorrow evening! It’s an 8k that takes place at night, and me and my friends have put together a team.  I randomly (or bc of vacation) have taken a week off of running, so this race will mark my official return.  The last time I did an 8k was in December, and I was hardcore struggling with ITBS (it had yet to be identified as such).  So, I’m hoping I can pull off a PR, despite my seriously long (and accidental) taper.  Oh, and yes, you can look forward to pictures featuring our “Night Crawlers” uniform.

Happy Friday!

Any fun weekend plans? I’m also hoping to go to a Nationals’ baseball game tonight, but the forecast does not look promising.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Few Words Wednesday – New Discoveries

Last week, I made a few new discoveries that I thought I’d share with you.

Fountains behind the House of Representatives office buildings

and…

  A Gold’s Gym that’s about 6 blocks from my apartment

and…

Biking is really hard (and longer shorts are better!)

and…

Fireworks in DC are amazing

Made any new discoveries lately? Re-discovered anything?

Weekend (and last week!) recap

Boy, it’s been a while since I last posted! Last week was crazy busy, but I’ll try my best to catch you up!

• Hot, hot, hot.  I’m sure everyone else is feeling this, but boy is it hot.  I’ve been trying my best to stay strong in the heat, but also stay smart about running.  Which means, I’m carrying my handheld water bottle on basically anything over 6 miles.  I’m pretty sure my biceps will show evidence of this in a few days

• Track Party Wednesday actually happened on Wednesday! Woohoo! On the schedule was 6×800 @ 3:55.  I managed to do them in 3:55, 3:50, 3:50, 3:51, 3:49, 3:43.  I’m not going to lie, but this makes me feel good about MCM training!  Hopefully, I can keep this up!

• Crazy storms this weekend!  Luckily I spent much of the storm in  Metro train car, on my way from Foggy Bottom to Cap South, so I had no idea until I emerged!  There sure is a lot of damage! My parents & sister are still without power finally have power back.  Which is awesome, bc oh yeah, and it’s still HOT. 2.5 days without AC is moooore than enough.

• Made 2 attempts at a long run this weekend.  First on Saturday morning- only got to 4ish miles before I called it quits.  My legs weren’t into it, and neither was my head.  Physically and mentally, I wasn’t ready for a long, hot run.  Attempted again on Saturday morning, but didn’t head out until 7:40, and it was quickly starting to heat up.  Did about 8, so it was close to the planned 10.  It was miles/strides above my attempt on Saturday, just really warm and sunny.  Have confirmed that long runs now need to start during the 6am hour.

• My calves have been bothering me a bit, and my shins too, so I thought I should bust out the compression socks again.  But since it was above 80 degrees, I figured it was too hot to wear them during my run.  So I opted to rock them after. It sort of matches, right?

• I’m heading to South Carolina in less than 2 weeks!  My friends and I are going down next weekend to spend a few days in Charleston, SC! I’m super excited! I’ve been working on my “beach body” so I’m pretty sure I’m only a few crunches away from perfection.  And by crunches, I mean crunches of the chips and guac I’ve been snacking on   Any suggestions on places to eat/things to do/see while in Charleston are welcome!

• PROBARS! I ordered some ProBars (to split with a friend) and they came! I’m def going to use them as my pre-long run fuel.  Although, I read this article the other day, which has me reconsidering breakfast…

• The beginning of July means… official beginning of MCM training! I’m excited, nervous, anxious, terrified, pumped, etc.  My training partner and I have decided that our motto for this training cycle will be “No Excuses. Play Like a Champion.” (name the movie- this should be easy)

How has the summer heat been treating you?  Are you ready for fall like I am? (well, after my trip to Charleston, of course!)

Professional fishing, here I come!

This weekend I went fishing for the first time.  And I’m happy to say,  I think I might have a new career.

Kevin, Brian and I headed out on the Chesapeake Bay on Brian’s boat.  It was my first time going fishing so I really had no idea what to expect.  So I just sat back to relax, and enjoy the ride.

Please enjoy my finger in the upper right hand corner

Luckily for me, it was a GORGEOUS day. Humidity was down, the sun was out, and I was very, very happy.

We settled in our a “lucky fishing spot”.  Since I had never fished before, I had to get a “casting out”, “reeling in” and “applying bait” tutorial.  I’m pleased to say I did not get the hook stuck in anyone behind me.  (What? I’ve seen this in movies before!) But I was really grossed out by the squid we used as bait. Eww.

After the tutorial was done, Brian explained the scoring system.

• 1 point for first fish
• 1 point for biggest fish
• 1 point for largest diversity of fish
• 1 point for each witness to catching a fish (people on other boats)
• 1 point for last fish

Brian got us started by catching the first fish.  I kept thinking that I had a fish on my line, but it always came up empty.   Kevin was next, catching a fish, and then accidentally killing it (we threw back the rest of the fish we caught).

But finally, I caught a fish! My very first fish!

But then Kevin had to go and try to one up me.

2 fish at once? Baby stuff.I could do that (another day, maybe).

And then I caught another! Clearly, I was ready for the big times.  Being that awesome felt GREAT!

But sadly, that was the last fish we saw (which means, I ended up with one point! But Kevin won overall with 2 points, he caught a striped bass and a white perch).

So, we just enjoyed the water, the weather and the ride.

And some of us even got to drive, because we’re all professionals here.

I’ll let you all know when I make it to the Bass Pro Championship (is that a real thing?).  Maybe I’ll let a reader even join me!

Is everyone enjoying the Track and Field Olympic Trials as much as I am??!! I LOVE that Dathan Ritzenheim made the US Olympic team in the 10,000m! I’m so happy for him (and Amy Hastings too!) OMG, I’m so excited for the Olympics!

What’s your favorite event in the Olympics? I love track & field, swimming and of course gymnastics!

I’m such a newbie

Last night, I found myself at work after 7:00pm.  After the air had gone off, I realized it was time to go.  I had also realized that I had missed my planned mid-day Pilates class. Whoops.

You see, I haven’t been to the gym very much since I made that commitment and joined.  Every time I plan for a lunch-time workout, I get sucked into a project, or a meeting goes over, or I just lose track of time.  So yesterday, I was determined to get to the gym and do at least something.  After looking at Gold’s Gym’s class schedule, I came across this guy:

Enter “Body Flow”.  As the last class of the day, it was my best option for making it to the gym.  So I went.  And I was nervous.  Trying new things always makes me nervous, and I had NO idea what to expect.

I was waiting patiently outside the room with a few other girls (the previous class was finishing up), and I turned to one of them and asked if she was waiting for the Body Flow class.  She said yes.  So obviously I asked her what it’s like.  And she said, similar to yoga.  Oooookay.  Not exactly what I expected, but hey, that’s great! I need stretching and strengthening.

So this is what I expected:

This is what we actually got:

Overall, I liked it! There was a lot of stretching, but also a lot of strength too.  We even focused a few moves on hips, which is fantastic, bc I have ridiculously weak hips. We also did a few core moves, and hamstring stretches.  I’m even sore today! I love that!

My only problem is that the class is at 7:30.  I don’t really like staying at work that late.  But, I suppose in the future I can go to the gym for a short run or bike, and then go to the class.

Woohoo! Look at me! I’m becoming a real gym rat!

What’s your go-to class or move for stretching and strengthening? My plan was to really focus on pilates, but I can see the Body Flow class working for me!  Have you ever done it?

A Plane! A Plane!

This past weekend, I found myself up in Baltimore for a Sailabration!  It was the bicentennial celebration of the War of 1812!  Kevin had heard about it weeks ago, and was determined to go.  So I gladly tagged along (and invited my sister and nephew).

It runs through June 19th, so there’s still time to go see some of the ships!

But before I share some photos from that with you, I’m pretty eager to tell you about my track workout last week.  I know, I know, again?  I’m sure you’re probably tired of hearing about my track workouts, but I’m going to be honest.  They make me super excited! It’s my chance to dig deep, and prove to myself that I can do it.  It’s also a chance for me to think about how badly I really want it, and how much I’m willing to work for it.  And that’s what I love about it.

So last Thursday, I headed to the track, with the goal of accomplishing 5×800.  This time, my goal was 3:55.  The last time I did the Yasso 800s, I easily got them all under 4:00, so I figured it’s time to up the pace.  I’m pleased to say, I was successful!

#1- 3:49

#2- 3:49

#3- 3:54

#4- 3:53

#5- 3:43

My first 2 were a bit faster than I wanted, but I was still able to finish all 5 strong, and (slightly) under goal time.  I’m hoping in a few weeks, I can shoot for 3:50 goal!

#PROOF! (i forgot my footpod in my other shoes, which is why the distance reads zero. i promised i did run that 800!)

Annnnnnyway, back to this weekend.  So, in honor of the War of 1812, there were tons of ships at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and around Ft. McHenry.  In addition, there was an air show, featuring planes and helicopters from the Navy and Coast Guard, so we headed to Ft. McHenry to see what it was all about.

We saw some helicopters

And planes

And different planes

And then there were the dare-devil planes. You can see video clips of their stunts here.  Believe me, the Blue Angels are insane!

Every time they got close to each other, I held my breath! Those Blue Angels pilots sure are brave! (and very trusting of each other!!!)

In between the different planes, Joey and I tried our hand at a photo shoot.

Sadly, the 3-yr old beat me in the “look like a model” pose.  I was trying to channel Tyra and clearly failed.  Whomp whomp. (also, please excuse the wild hair, it was windy)

It was a great way to spend a beautiful day in Baltimore!  It was the perfect way to SAILebrate my great track workout! (haha, I’m obsessed, I know)

How was your weekend? Anything to SAILebrate? (yes, I will be using this for a while)

Catching up!

Hey all! I hope everyone had a great weekend and an even better (or maybe just tolerable?) Monday!

About 2 weeks ago, Claire at Let’s Go On a Living Spree nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award! I’m super excited and extremely honored! If you haven’t already, def go check it out! She’s so funny, inspiring and has amazing fashion sense!

And with the award, come a few rules I must follow:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you (go check out Claire’s blog!)
2. Paste the award image on your blog, anywhere
3. Share 7 facts about yourself.

Since I have the first 2 out of the way, I guess this is the point where I share 7 facts about myself. Ooooookay, here goes…

1.  The first pet I had as a child was a guinea pig when I was 5.  And I made my mom buy a leash for it so I could take it for walks.  Poor Hatcher…

     2.  I can make my shoulders pop out of the socket.  When I was in high school, my doctor told not to do it because I’d end up stretching out those muscles.  As a 14-year-old, I could not, for the life of me, figure out why that would be a bad thing.

3.  Both my parents are from Haiti, so I grew up in a bilingual household.  Speaking both English and Haitian-Creole.

     4.  My sophomore year of college, this guy that lived on my floor convinced me to try cheerleading again (I had done it for 2 years in high school).  And then I fell in love with it during my college years.  To this day, I still love watching competitions on tv and seeing the level of stunts change!

     5.  I rarely go a day without eating any candy.  Today, I snacked on smarties, a lollipop, some gummy worms and a fire-ball (could only handle one!)

     6.  When I was younger, I HATED my first name.  I always promised myself that the following school year, I would start going by my middle name, Christine.  Well, that never happened and I’m still going by Daphne.  But its okay, my name has totally grown on me

     7.  I started running only outdoor track in high school only because all my friends were doing it, and I didn’t have a spring sport to do.  Well, I really enjoyed it and ended up doing cross-country too! And I still love it to this day! Gotta bring it back to the old high school running crew! It was the good kind of peer pressure!

Fascinating, aren’t I? Haha!

A few final rules:

4. Nominate some other blogs you like for this award.

5. Post a comment on each of your nominees’ blogs telling them about the nomination

I read so many blogs on the regs, but here are a few that I love!

• Running the Windy City
• Sushi and Sit-Ups
• Katie Moves
• C’est La Vie

What was the first pet that you had? Anything unusual?

My sister always wanted a dog, but instead we had parakeets, a gerbil, fish, hermit crabs, hamsters and we even babysat a chinchilla!

I’m still here!

Goodness, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged!  Work has been crazy, life has been busy, and I’ve just needed every bit of down time I can get. 

Just a quick recap for the past week-ish:

Saturday : I went to the Great Grapes wine festival with Kevin.  We enjoyed some great local MD wines, some not so good ones, and even sampled a bunch of different olive oils! (Yes, I LOVE olive oil). The weather was perfect, so it was a great day to be out and drinking wine tasting.

Sunday: I got tricked into helping my mom with one of her “projects” for most of the day.  When I finally got back to my apartment, I promptly started my cross-apartment move (one of my roommates moved out, so I moved into her room).  Interrupted that with a quick 5ish mile run with KR (so sorry for being late!) and then back to my apartment to finish moving stuff.  Super proud of myself for taking my bed apart, and being able to get it back together. Without it falling apart while I sleep (well, not yet anyway).

You know, just being Daphne the Builder

Monday: Work, work, work.  Then met up for a “run”. But decided I wasn’t really feeling it, so we did a sort of modified circuit workout/run. We ran to the WWII Memorial, did some pushups, tricep dips, abs. Then ran to the Washington Monument, and did the same thing.  Finished up by running back to the Mall, and did another set.  My arms and abs were DONE!  I probably did a total of 3.5-4 miles, BUT I def did a total of 45+ pushups that day.  20 pushups is a lot for me, so 45 was CRAZY!

Tuesday: Run club day! Normally I go out with the 5 mile group, but today again, I just wasn’t feeling it.  Decided to just do 3 miles, which ended up being harder than I wanted.  We decided about halfway through, that we wanted to catch this guy that had sprinted ahead of the group and lost us (mostly bc we got stuck at lights).  So we were in a basic all-out sprint for about 2 miles.  It was rough, but so worth it.  For the record, we didn’t catch him, but it’s only bc we got stopped at all the lights he was able to keep going through. Grumble, grumble.

Wednesday: National Running Day! I should have been so excited to run, but I wasn’t.  So I forced myself through 2ish miles and then returned home to grab a burger with my roommate.  Good Stuff Eatery, thank you for being across the street. 

Thursday: Track workout! I know Wednesdays are supposed to be speed days, but we had to switch it around this week.  After work, work, work I dragged my butt to the track.  Imagine my shock and surprise when I went to change, and realized I had no socks! Waah! So I found these little gems at the nearby CVS.

Since I’ve been so tired of running lately, I decided to switch it up with the track work and stay away from the 800s.  Instead, I did what I guess you could call a ladder workout? 5 min hard, 5 min recovery, 4 min hard, 4 min recovery, 3 min hard, 3 min recovery, 2 min hard, 2 min recover, 1 min hard, 1 min recovery.  I’m gonna be honest, I totally thought it would be easier that knocking out 4 800s, but it totally wasn’t.  The first 2 sets weren’t bad, bc you got plenty of recovery, but the last 3 were def more challenging. I tried to make each set a bit faster (pace-wise) than the last.  I don’t know if I really succeeded, but I can def say that all the “hard” sessions were below an 8 min pace.  All in all I think it was a good, quick (30 min for the workout) speed session.

Friday (today): Planned to do a short recovery run this morning, but decided to nix it.  Instead, I will spend my post-work hours hanging out at the Bullpen (or whatever its called these days) and gorging myself on food trucks!

I’ve been feeling very unmotivated and tired, and just generally not in the mood to run.  While this isn’t particularly unusual for me, it does worry me a bit, since MCM training will start in a few weeks.  So, that being said, I’ve decided to discontinue with the RunStreak.   I obviously would have liked to see how far I could have gotten, but I’m more focused on MCM training and making my marathon goal.  I don’t want to burnout right before I have to start dedicating myself to my training plan.  So for now, I’m going to decrease my mileage a bit, so that I can make sure that my legs and head are ready to go come July.

Which leads me to the next thing…

I still need to put together my official training plan! Eeeeek! July is almost here!

I usually use Runner’s World’s SmartCoach.  Anyone have any good marathon training plan suggestions?

Fun plans for the weekend?

Track Party Wednesday

I did it! I managed to drag myself to the track for the second week in a row.  And you know what? I actually enjoyed my workout!

I know, I’m just as shocked and surprised as you are!

I got to the track, a little nervous and a bit reluctant to start.  My track buddy was stuck at work (boo!) so I had to go it alone.  Track party of one? I pulled myself together and I started with a 3 lap warm-up.

3 laps? Why not 2, or 4?

Well, the plan was just to warm-up with 2, but I didn’t feel sufficiently warmed-up (which is odd bc it was hot and humid) so I did one more.  And then I stretched for a bit.  And finally, I was ready to step up to the line.

The plan was:

• 3×800 @ 4:00 w/ 400 jog recovery
• 2×400 @ 1:30 w/ 400 jog recovery

What actually happened:

• 800 @ 3:58
• 800 @ 3:53
• 800 @ 3:49 (thought this was my last, but decided to do another)
• 800 @ 3:45
• 400 @ 1:38 (made me realize I’m not a middle distance runner anymore! ha!)

I was feeling good with the 800s.  It’s always a challenge, but I think I start out slow enough that I have a bit more pick-up in the end.  After seeing my time on the 3rd one, I was like heck! Let’s see if I can do that again.  And I went ALL OUT.  And it felt great! And then I looked at my watch and was like WHAAAAAAT??!! I know it doesn’t seem awfully speedy, but for me, that’s FANTASTIC.  Also knowing that I was able to bust that out after 3 challenging 800s just makes me feel super strong. 

So I decided to go ahead with the 400 to finish off the workout.  I’m doing an 8k in about 6 weeks, so I’d really like to work on my “short distance” speed and finishing speed for that.  Plus, one of my friends is convinced that our team can place, and that I’ll be one of the scorers! Ha! Talk about pressure.

Well, the 400 didn’t feel as good as the 800 did.  And I finished 8 seconds slower that I really wanted to.  But you know what, I’m still happy.  I ran it all out, and I ran it after doing 4 progressively faster 800s.  I’d say that’s a good start to my summer speedwork season!

I finished it all up with a 1/2 mile cool-down.  Serious happy face So glad I got out, and rocked it.  If I can keep this up, MCM will go exactly how I want it to!

I followed up my Wednesday night workout with a Thursday morning run.  Not going to lie, I really, REALLY considered just skipping it and going back to bed this morning. My bed is so comfortable, and I was just so sleepy… But then, I thought:

#RWRunStreak

So I got up, a jogged 2.5ish slow easy miles.  It was perfect bc I certainly needed to loosen up my legs.  So for me, the RunStreak is doing it’s job!  My route included a nice loop around the Capitol Building, where I stopped to take a pic, just like a tourist.

Yep, it was 7:00am and the sun was out and ready! It was already a little warm, but I survived.  That’s day 3 of RunStreak for me! (and now I can go to hh guilt-free!)

Do you work out in the morning, afternoon or evening? I’ve been trying the mornings, but it’s so hard!

Favorite track workout? I’m looking for some inspiration and to change things up!

I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I do feel the need to mention why I decided to do the RunStreak.  I have trouble committing myself to my workouts, training plans, morning runs, whatever.  So something that will get me up, out, and on the road is a HUGE plus to me.  Also, with my training, I’ve been trying to incorporate more slow, easy recovery runs, and forcing myself to run the day after a hard run encourages that.  Without the RunStreak looming over my head, I probably would have stayed in bed this morning.  For me, the RunStreak is the extra kick in the butt I need to get my training on track.  It’s not about running a certain number of miles, or adding in harder miles, or even junk miles.  It’s about committing to something, and coming out strong.  Believe me, if I think I need a rest day, I’ll take a rest day.  RunStreak or no RunStreak.  So let’s all be happy for those willing to attempt it, because each person has their own reasoning, but each person could probably use some support!