I'm Obsessed (Part 1)

...WITH MY FITBIT

The first day I wore my Fitbit Charge HR..it was an historic day.

Ok, I'm one of the people who swore that she was not going to jump onto the Fitbit wagon, no matter what. It was GARMIN or BUST.

I SWORE to myself that I wouldn't be one of those step-counting obsessed folks who, if they hadn't reached their step goal before bed, would walk around the house, up and down the stairs....just to get some damned steps in.

Well, yesterday I found myself doing exactly what I said I wouldn't. I was all primed to take a nice, hot lavender-scented bath and well, I still had on the Fitbit Charge HR that my youngest brother had painstakingly saved up for to get me for Christmas.

I pressed the little button on the side, because OF COURSE I had reached 10,000 steps. I had been active all day, walking up and down hills and stairs on the very hilly campus where I work. I had even done two The Firm Express videos that morning. 

Sigh and ALAS. I had only done 9860 steps. 

I'm pretty distractible, and I knew that if I took it off before I had reached that now elusive goal, I would forget about it and not finish it. So I started doing circles around my bathroom, which is fairly small, and got a little dizzy. But I didn't care. 

Wait, why isn't it moving? WHY ISN'T IT DOING THE HAPPY BUZZ??????

Fitbit ON, no doubt! (Here I was doing the Crunch Fitness Fat Burning Yoga DVD)

So there I was, pacing and naked in my bathroom trying to get my 10,000 steps in. When I realized how ridiculous that was, I stopped and looked at myself in the mirror. What was I doing? What had I become? Some numbers obsessed person, who normally did way more than 10,000 steps per day anyway with all of the running training I had been doing, but who was suddenly attached to this vinyl-rubber coated device that tracked my heart-rate, steps, flights-of-stairs completed, calorie-burn, and daily mileage?

Yep. That was who I was in that very moment and to be honest, I was enjoying every minute of it. But I needed to take that bath because the heat in my house was dissipating all too quickly.

I took the Fitbit off ever so gingerly and placed it on the counter, letting the idea of finishing my 10K go. I reasoned with myself: Actually, I didn't put the Fitbit on until midway through the first video this morning, so I'm good. I know I did way more than 10,000 steps anyway.  I'm pretty active. I mean, I'm really active. So that number isn't going to determine whether or not I have a good, restorative bath...

I took my bath with eyes closed, luxuriating in the soothing scent of lavender.  Ah! What a long day it had been. Nice to be able to relax after a long day and listen to some Bonobo.

And then I opened my eyes, the green light from the underbelly of the Fitbit taunting me.  You haven't finished yet.

I tried my best to ignore it but I couldn't. It would bother me all night if I didn't finish.

I got out of the tub (the water was cold and the notion of bath-time was old by now anyway), dried off, lotioned up and put on my Christmas jammies, sweats, and thick hiking socks (did I say my house was cold yet? Cuz it's BRICK) and promptly put the Fitbit back on my wrist. I was going to kill these steps.

I collected clothes around the house and put them in the washing machine. I ascended the stairs to my son's room to tuck him in just one more time. I swept the rug--(because it would require too much adulting to actually get and keep a vacuum.) I loaded the dishwasher. I checked on my son again to his chagrin. I straightened out my growing collection of trail shoes in the mud-room. As I was walking across the living room to start folding clothes, it buzzed.

Now I could go to sleep.

Good Gear: Scangrip I-View

Over the past couple of months I've had the opportunity to test A LOT of gear. So this year, a couple of posts till be dedicated to reviewing the cool gear that I get to wear in my training and racing.

Here is a cool headlamp that may have you wanting to get up at 4AM and head out the door just so you can use it:

SCANGRIP I-View Headlamp with Sensor Motion ON and OFF Function

Right before I set out for my epic journey on the Javelina Hundred 100K course in Fountain Hills, Arizona, some lovely folks sent a high-tech lamp for met to use during my early morning and night runs. I decided to use it for the third and darkest 15.5 mile loop of my 100k. This is a a lamp that is very different from traditional headlamps designed for the trail. It was actually first designed as a work lamp for professionals who need the entirety of their workspaces lit.

Scangripusa.com

On the trail, the lamp illuminated a generous and wide swath of space in front of me. It was a very bright light, that I imagine working even better in the light absorbing, dense forests of the Southern Appalachians. The lamp was GREAT, for about three hours and then the battery died. It was my fault completely. I hadn't read the directions and had apparently left the lamp on in my bag at the trailhead.  Lesson learned. Read the directions and the rechargeable battery lasts for up to six hours a charge.

This lamp is REALLY bright and has a wide
range of illuminating power

This lamp is a great piece of equipment to have, especially if you do a lot of night running for which you need adequate lighting say, on a very technical trail. The elastic band is fairly comfortable. Even the lamp part is big, it doesn't feel any heavier than say a comparable Black Diamond or Petzl headlamp. However, I think it could benefit from an extra adjustable perpendicular strap to further stabilize the lamp on the forehead, as runners do bounce around quite a bit. Even then, it was comfortable and not noticeable after a few minutes of running.

The coolest thing about the headlamp is that after pressing the one button to turn it on, you don't need to press anymore buttons during the entirety of your run. You can simply wave your hand in front to turn it on and off.  You do have to press the button again to adjust the brightness, but that's not even an inconvenience.

I highly recommend this lamp. Make sure you 1. have it fully charged and not sitting inside your drop bag illuminating its contents and 2. always carry an spare headlamp or small flashlight on your person.

This bad boy will run you about $75 and is well worth the investment. You won't be disappointed.

BUY IT HERE!

It's a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 

Gnomes on the trail!

It's been a few weeks since I posted in my blog..I know, I know!

But I have been super busy, what with having a million Christmas concerts at school, trying not to be a mean mommy, nursing an injury (I'm alright now!) visiting family back home in NYC, hanging out with friends, and working on some writing projects, oh and doing school work. (If you thought that teachers have it scot-free during vacations, you're WRONG.)

I visited with my old running club in New Jersey, the Chester Runners and we ran on the Columbia Trail in High Bridge. This trail is the site of my very first long runs of 15-20 miles while I was training for my first marathon, the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon. The trail follows the beautiful South Branch Raritan River, of which parts are stunning.

Burning it up on the elliptical

I also worked out at the Planet Fitness in my family's neighborhood. For ten bucks a month, you can't beat it. Even though I only work out there when I'm home during vacation, it is totally worth it to have a place to go when I'm away from home. I love treadmills, I love ellipticals, and I love using equipment that I don't necessarily have at home to change up my routine. As much as I like to be outside, I also love working out at the gym. There aren't any pools, saunas, or towels, but there are Tootsie Rolls at the front desk. I'll take it.

COOL HAPPENINGS

Lots of cool things have also been in the works. You may have noticed that I have another blogging platform on the Women's Running Magazine website, along with several other really awesome women bloggers who run and are mothers, are wifeys, are single, are struggling with various things, are elite, are not, are each AMAZING in their own right! I'm so stoked to be connected with such a great and ground-breaking magazine for women.

Also, I am happy to announce that I am now a Skirt Sports Ambassador Captain!

I have fallen in love with this brand. Skirt Sports is company founded by Nicole DeBoom, a professional triathlete based in Boulder, CO (where maybe I'd like to live one day...) who was not happy with the limited apparel available for serious athletes (from professional to amateur to people like me who take running very seriously) who wanted to look and feel good in high-performance and stylish wear. The company is committed to being "a community of women who support and inspire each other in our pursuit of happiness through the transformative power of running and fitness." What more could I ask? This is right up my alley and I'm happy to be a part of this movement by and for active women!

The second piece of good news is the I just became a Swiftwick athlete. I'm so excited! I absolutely love Swiftwick socks. If you look at any of my pics on Instagram, FB, and whatever other media I happen to be in, I'm wearing Swiftwick socks--the long ones, the short ones, the medium length ones, the mid calf ones...you name it, I'm wearing them. Never had a blister, even when running for 12 plus hours in the rain and crossing 3 streams. Nope. No hotspots, no nothing. Also, I don't think I can go back to wearing non-wool socks, unless they're Swiftwick, of course. 

Stay tuned cuz I've got some other cool things in the works.....

Recovery Is Hard. Physically AND Mentally.

Second run after Javelina. Very difficult.

Recovery sucks. I mean, it’s worse than tapering. 

At least when you’re tapering, you are looking forward to a big race. Whether it is your first half-marathon or your first ultra, there is a sense of simultaneous excitement and nervousness, but all in all the anticipation level is high. As you taper, your muscles heal, recover and repair from the stress of training. They become primed for your event. They quiver with excitement and they become difficult to tame. 

Then there is the frenzy of preparation in the days and hours preceding your event. You lay out your clothes on the hotel bed the night before. You carbo-load. You drink entirely too much water. You pin your bib crookedly on your shirt. If it’s a really long race, you organize your gels and electrolyte tablets, bars, food and toilet paper for the inevitable times when you arrive at a port-a-potty only to find that 20,000 people have already used it. 

Even so, you’re still excited. 

You get to the starting line with the thousands of people about to embark on the same journey. There is camaraderie. There is awesomeness galore! 

You run your race. You cross the finish the line. You get your medal and pig out on the after-race fare (that is, if they haven’t torn everything down yet—that’s another story). You run into the arms of your family and friends (that is, if they’re not sitting at the Buffalo Wild Wings as you’re finishing your second Marine Corps Marathon—again, another story). You shuffle painfully around in a contented daze, visiting the beer garden and marveling at yourself and at others for completing what you had thought to be impossible just a few months prior.

This is exactly how I felt in the two weeks after Javelina.

Read more of this post in Women's Running Magazine!

Training for and Running 100K: Not Easy, Not Impossible

Part of the Pemberton Trail, McDowell Regional Park in Fountain Hills, AZ site of the Javelina Hundred 100k

Two weeks ago I flew down to Arizona to participate in the Javelina Jundred 100K put on by Race Director Jamil Coury of Aravaipa Running. It would be a unique way of celebrating my 40th birthday. I don’t like regular parties with DJs and sweaty people, but I do like TRAIL RUNNING PARTIES with DJs and sweaty people! 

I have not yet even begun to process the entire experience; it was so varied, soul-searching, physically and mentally difficult, AND phenomenal. My actual race report will be up on my blog soon, but I wanted to pass on some things I learned in my training and during the race. 

You must train.And you must train hard and long. 100K is, for me, an enormous distance to cover—there are tons of people who do multiple 100-milers and even some crazier folks who do 200-mile races but this was HUGE for me. 

I spent most of my weekends over the summer and in the early fall doing long runs and races to train my body to not only be able to do distance, but to even CRAVE it. I did the Tortoise and the Hare Hourly Ultra in Canton, Georgia, the Catamount 25K in Stowe Vermont, the Finger Lakes Fifties 50K in Hector NY, the Montour 12 Hour Run in Danville, Pennsylvania, and the Georgia Jewel 35-Miler in Dalton, Georgia. This was in addition to countless miles spent on my own both on pavement and on the trails. 

I knew that in order for me to be able to finish my epic journey, I would have to do run lots of miles consistently to get the body accustomed to being used and abused for hours on end. 

It worked! 

Read the rest of this post on my blog in Women's Running Magazine! 

Guide To Becoming a Trail Runner For NOOBS

At the Javelina Hundred 100k this past October. The desert trail run of your dreams!

Have you ever been disappointed in a run because there was no real scenery and the only thing that kept you engaged in the run was dodging aggressive drivers and in-the-zone, mute cyclists?

I happen to live in a beautiful, mountainous part of Georgia and there is gorgeous, stunning running to be had everywhere, both on the road and on trails. But I love running trails more than anything, even more than the treadmill, and I LOVE running on the treadmill. I know, bizarre.

I love trails. There is a freedom and connection to nature on the trail that you simply cannot replicate anywhere else. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to do a run on a trail, stop whatever you’re doing and get yourself to the nearest trailhead immediately! You won’t be sorry and you’ll fall in love, promise! Here are some tips to enjoying your first few trail runs:

• Sign-up for a local trail race. I like to familiarize myself with new trails by doing events. There are tons of 5ks, half-marathons and *gasp* ULTRA-MARATHONS to be run on trails. The great thing about events is that courses are usually well marked, there are awesome aid stations (with PB&J sandwiches, M&Ms and gummy bears!) and friendly volunteers, and very often there is imbibing at the end of the race, if you’re into that…did someone say IPA

• If you’re not doing a race and even if you are, make sure you’ve read and are familiar with a map of your trail/course. It’s fun and all to get lost and then find your way back to the trailhead, but it’s even MORE fun to have your family not imagine that you’ve been eaten by Bigfoot.

• If you’re a road runner who is accustomed to cruising at a blazing pace, take a breath and slow down. You’ll need to, if you are hoping to remain upright for the bulk of your run. Trail running is a full-body and full-mind exercise. You’ll spend lots of physical energy running, hopping over large boulders, ducking under low hanging branches, squeezing yourself between large boulders, and balancing yourself in general. This takes a lot of mental energy too. You will be tired but exhilarated at the end of your trail run, even if it is 31 miles long!

Read more on my blog in Women's Running Magazine!

EAT ALL THE THINGS

Updated November 2016: Here is a pic of baked macaroni and cheese. You're welcome. Happy holidays!


Caveat Emptor: There are no selfies or other pics beside the one of my boy throwing shade because I asked him to shred cheese. KIDS THESE DAYS! You'll just have to use your imagination. Also, this is mostly not running-related. It is about food, however.

As one commenter on Facebook wrote a few months back when all of the media attention was at its highest, I must be addicted/obsessed with food since I enjoy cooking. You know what? I am addicted to food. I am obsessed with it. But only on THANKSGIVING. And I would like for you to indulge me in this non-running related post. Because I love Thanksgiving so much, I'll accept that comment even with its ignorant and ridiculous assertion that loving cooking equals food addiction. But anyway...

For this holiday, I hope everyone has the gumption and wherewithal to EAT ALL THE THINGS. Yep, I said it. 

EAT ALL THE DAMN THINGS

with no regrets 
and no shame 
and no silly attempts 
to conform to what society thinks is a healthy meal. For this one day, friends. You will not derail your life or your "diet" or your lifestyle if you allow yourself this one day to stuff your face. 

Work out, go for a walk or a run, do Zumba, do Crossfit, do a Turkey Trot, do yoga and Pilates, do a Beachbody video (or a few)....but please eat, and do it heartily and with ELAN. If you've been following me on FB or the Gram, you know that I've been upping the ante on my non-running workouts, even as I recover from Javelina (and I know I haven't posted my last installment of the race report yet, but TG is on my mind today!) I've been preparing for this day, because I will eat all the things without a hint of shame. At the end of the day, my face will be greasy, my belly full, and my heart full. I will be grateful to have spent this day with my son and friends from all over the world (this year Croatia, Spain, and Benin will be representing!) and my one of my besties and his momma from Chicago and NYC.

Pre-teen=SHADE THROWN AT EVERYTHING

So, don't bombard me with messages, both subliminal and direct, imploring me or my family to make our Thanksgiving meals healthier. Thanksgiving is ONE DAY of the year and I would be DAMNED TO HELL, if I made some cheapened, no-taste-non-filling-non-gluttonous-non-heart-attack-inducing food to the table or to my family's meal. I made lasagna last year and my son is STILL throwing shade about it. I'm an adventurous gal and I love and flourish on cooking new things, but that is left for the other 364 days in the year. Don't mess with my Thanksgiving.

If you spend Thanksgiving with your family, friends, or even people you don't like, SAVOR IT. Someone invited you to eat. Someone invited you to have fellowship with (hopefully) GOOD FOOD. If you are part of the growing subset of the population that can't cook, or that hasn't ever really had the opportunity to have really GOOD and WHOLESOME home-cooked food, please just come to my house next year. I don't disappoint.

Thanksgiving is basically the only holiday I celebrate. I don't do Easter; I have all kinds of stupid anxiety around Christmas; I only want to run Finger Lakes during the July 4th holiday (I don't care for fireworks, but I loves me some running for many hours in the forests of Upstate NY); I celebrate my 40th by doing another ultra, and my kid's birthday?  I send him to summer camp as his gift.

Do NOT mess with Thanksgiving, though. It is sacred (cue Gregorian chant here, preferably sung Anonymous 4, but I digress...) 

I don't know what your family does, but what mine does is comparable to a royal feast. For a family with limited financial means, back in the day (and now too) WE.THROW. DOWN. for Turkey Day.

It is a ritual that begins weeks before the actual day of indulging. Back in the day, from calculating how with limited funds how they were going to feed the immediate family and everyone else who "happened to be in the neighborhood"--Oh really? Because you live two buses and three trains away--" to figuring out how all of those people were going to fit into our two-bedroom railroad apartment, my family made do with little financially but somehow produced the feast to end all feasts. No matter what the finances were, or how small and cramped our Brooklyn apartment was, we managed. And we ate. And boy did we eat.

There was always a turkey. Not just a turkey, but a 20-22 pound turkey. How else would we feed all the people? The turkey would be placed in the oven, after having marinated and such at around 4 in the morning. It would roast all day and somehow, even though quite literally nothing else could fit in the small oven we had, everything else would magically appear, fully prepped, seasoned and cooked from the deep recesses of the stove. A miracle every year, I say.

And there was roast beef in its own jus/gravy, and duck, and brown sugar and mustard glazed ham topped with carcinogenic maraschino cherries held in place with charred toothpicks. There were also ALWAYS two chickens (one barbecue, one just "plain") because there wasn't enough poultry. And the cook's (my mother's) piece de resistance, the PORK SHOULDER or PERNIL as the Boricuas in our neighborhood called it. Stuffed with oregano and chopped garlic, vinegar, adobo and other goodness, this cut of pork-- complete with it's hardened chicharron, was roasted for hours and hours until the spicy, tangy, and heavily aromatic meat fell off the bone. It was a treat to be handed some of the skin while it was cooking. It was if you had been let into a secret world of taste and wonders. The skin was hard and crunchy on top, and fatty and juicy with the all of the swiny dripping goodness on the bottom.

And gravy. There would be one kind of gravy for everything, never lumpy and never EVER made with any store-bought broth. Drippings from the turkey, chickens and duck would make their way over to the gravy pot and my mother would sprinkle some Wondra and Gravy Master into that bad boy (along with some other magic) and BAM, most flavorful, most complementary, most satisfying most everything-you-could-ever-ask-for gravy was born.

That's just the meat. I'm sure I'm leaving some other animal flesh out but now onto the CARBS. During really plentiful years and even during the lean years we would always have egg-based baked macaroni and cheese (no bechamel sauce here, NO SIRREE!), potato salad, some iteration of rice and beans (these days it's either yellow rice and gandules/pink beans) but in other years it was red beans or cow peas and rice, the broth always stewed first with a thick piece of smoked meat. Sometimes we would have macaroni salad in addition to, and never in place of the potato salad. We also have candied yams, and NOT with gross marshmallows on top--that would make it dessert, and although essentially that's what candied yams are we'll stick to calling it a side dish and maybe a taste of what was to come in the sweet potato pie. And then there's the dressing (Note: NOT STUFFING), which I learned to make at an early age, since passing off this time and labor intensive part of the meal must have been what my mother had been longing for years: sweet cornbread and broth made with veggies and the neck, gizzards, and livers of the chickens and turkeys, and lots of poultry seasoning and well, magic would contribute to this sweet and savory treat that when smothered with gravy goodness left you in a coma of its own.

Veggies! One would think that veggies wouldn't have a place in all of this absolute gluttony. But alas, they do! The vegetable focal point in our family is GREENS. Not turnip, not kale, not beet, not definitely NOT mustard, not anything but COLLARD GREENS, boiled for hours and hours in broth with, you guessed it, a large hunk of smoked flesh--I use jowl meat these days, but others might use fat back, neck bone, slab bacon, or if you're that kind of family (half of mine is) smoked turkey wings and legs. There are always two big and honking pots of greens going.  We also do string beans (cooked the same way!), and mashed rutabaga. No one but me and my mother eats the rutabaga. It's a tradition to make it just as my grandmother used to--she would peel it, cut it into chunks, boil it, and inevitably burn it a little while she was smoking a cigarette. I can't even fathom rutabaga without its slightly burnt/caramelized, spicy aroma.

Now we get to the desserts, with an s. 

It's not enough to make a dozen sweet potato pies. (And if you want a LOT of shade thrown your way, mention how wouldn't it be nice if we tried a pumpkin pie...or maybe not, because that will promptly get you kicked out of the kitchen, and possibly excommunicated from the family.) We must also have a cake, banana pudding, apple pies, AND peach cobbler. 

And drinks. We never gave much thought to drinks besides the obligatory Southern Comfort Egg Nog. Some of us nowadays, since we are GROWN, spike the eggnog with rum, Henny, or Jack Daniels...but most of us drink water or, GASP, soda. For this ONE day.

After we have eaten in shifts, we sit on the couches and folding chairs, because there is really never a dining room table, and talk about people, rank on one another, crack jokes, roll our eyes, doze off, and then maybe eat some more and pack plates to go because the bounty is REAL. We clean, we wash dishes, we pack the food away and then head to our separate homes and lives. Even though I do not have the pleasure of dining with my family up in New York this year, I know that I am with them and they are with me during this most important day of family celebration and thanks.

On Friday, I may have a slice of pie, and eat some leftovers. But I'll also go for a run and get back to my pre-TG routine no problem because that's exactly what I have done. I've created a routine that my body craves and will pop back into because that's what it must do. I'll continue enjoying the family and friends that are still around, and I will invite them to come and workout with me. If not, then so be it. No judgment, just love and contentment and thankfulness that they are here partaking in my sacred ritual.

A Very happy and wholesome Thanksgiving to you and yours.