Polish Pickle Run 5k

Back in June I signed up for this (fairly local) 5k knowing full well it was probably going to be miserable. You know, with Texas heat & humidity and all.

And guess what? Hot diggity dog it was.

I think it was already 80 degrees by the time the race started and even though I managed to sport my Chub Rub loophole, I was still a sweaty mess. Things I won’t complain about: it was overcast and I think that made a huge difference.

I knew with the heat situation that the odds of be PRing (Personal Record) on the 5k were slim to none, so I went in with the attitude of finishing and enjoying some of the great post-race food celebration they had going on. It included sausage (Of course, I mean it is a Polish festival, right?) and a huge abundance of fruit. There was also a free beer at the end where you drank from your Polish 5k Mason Jar you received in your race bag.

Speaking of race bag – ours did not include the timing chips. We pre-registered, got everything else, but come the day of we didn’t have chips. I assumed they were on the bibs, but as we were crossing the finish line we realized they were the kind you tied to your shoes. So, I have no official time. But my Garmin told me:

So, taking the heat into consideration not that much of a change from my previous 5k time of 36:11. I’m good with it. I was definitely feeling it by the end – if you couldn’t tell by my pace changes.

They had a photographer at the start/finish but unfortunately I didn’t get any real great shots. Although, I probably do have a few I can save for any future ‘great race photo’ posts.

This is blurry but I like that I’m hovering in the air of awesomeness. I’m like Superman. But you know, not an alien, or a man, or a superhero. Toe-may-toe, tuh-mah-toe.

Overall, I’ll probably race this again. The course wasn’t spectacular (just through an old country town) but the atmosphere and people, definitely made it fun. Also, the food spread was pretty damn scrumptious.

Until we race again!

Spark

A couple weeks ago I told you how I lost 6 lbs in 10 days using the Herbal Cleanse product from Advocare. I’m down 8 lbs (as of this morning!), so it’s stayed off which makes me happy that it wasn’t some “fad fat” that I found after I quit using the product.

(If you’re interested in purchasing, you can find the product here – it’s $31.50 and if you’re local to me, let me know and I can pick it up myself giving you free shipping)

During that post I mentioned another product, Spark.

Here I am wearing red lipstick, eyeliner and showing you the Mandarin Orange flavor. I am fancy.

This is my absolute favorite product so far. It has helped me knock my soda addiction down to practically nothing. I had been drinking from 20 oz to 50 oz a day of carbonated beverage – I’m including Monster Energy Drinks in that as well – and now, I kind of just take a few sips out of the husbands can (he just loves this, let me tell you) to satiate the flavor taste I still crave.

I do not crave the sugar high/rush from sodas/energy drinks anymore. It’s kind of amazing considering Spark contains NO SUGAR. Say whaaa?!

Here’s the nutrition facts with a little comparison of other products you probably have enjoyed a time or two:

Things I noticed immediately – Calories and Sugar. Go ahead, check it out. That’s right 45 calories and 0 grams of sugar, with the exception of coffee, that is ridiculously low in comparison. And with coffee, that’s only if you’re one of those who don’t add any extras (creamers, sugar, etc).

And then of course, it’s also jam packed with vitamins – which is wonderful and more satisfying than say a Flintstone Vitamin. Or at the very least, longer lasting.

It’s branded as an energy drink mix, but keep in mind it’s a slow-release energy drink which means you won’t come down off your sugar high with the jitters and wanting to punch squirrels in the face.

Uh, not that I know anything about that feeling. Stupid Monster.

Personally I love drinking it in the afternoon around 3pm when that feeling of “Where’s my nap time at?” comes. It really helps keep me in focus without adding an extra 100 calories to my diet. I’d rather eat 100 calories than drink it.

I was also surprised that the headaches you can normally associate with dropping sodas were practically non-existent. Like the first day I had none, it was just a slight tinge in the afternoon when my body was used to that pick-me-up but I grabbed a Spark and it went away. Which is crazy because like I said, it has no sugar.

This isn’t sponsored. I’m not being paid or received free product to talk about this. Hell, I’m pretty sure Advocare has no idea who I even am. I sincerely, honestly love this product. My husband does too and is continually dipping his hands into my stash of flavors. That’s considered stealing and I can chop his hand off, right? Totally learned that in Aladdin.

Speaking of flavors, check out what they got.

Watermelon (my personal favorite)
Mango Strawberry (my runner-up)
Fruit Punch (honorable mention)
Mandarin Orange
Cherry
Grape
Pink Lemonade
Citrus

You can buy a box for $22.95 which includes 14 pouches – so about $1.64 or you can go the canister route of $51.95 for 42 servings that comes to $1.23, roughly the price you’d pay from a vending machine.

I haven’t bought a canister (yet) because I’ve been working on trying all the flavors (I’ve tried the first 4 listed) and seriously they all have been great.

If you’re interested in learning MORE about Spark, they have a wonderful product page that you can find HERE. It tells you the benefits, gives you comparisons, and nutrition facts for each flavor (they do vary slightly but sugar & calories do not.)

If you’d like to try it out, CLICK HERE. Shipping is only $7.95 and if you’re local to the Waco area, I can actually offer free shipping and bring it to you personally. And as always, you’ll receive one free high five upon arrival.

There are a number of other products I am currently taking/figuring out and as I use them I’ll be posting reviews.

I’m planning to do the 24 Day Challenge in the next month. I’ve heard wonderful things about it, people losing crazy inches and upwards of 20 lbs, so if you’re interested in doing this with me – that’d be wonderful! More power in numbers, right? I’ll be posting before/after pictures and measurements for your entertainment and my humility.

For more information about the 24 Day Challenge and what it entails – CLICK HERE.

If you have any questions, you can always leave a comment or email me at thesparkrunner@gmail.com

Training Tuesday 7/30/13

<a href="http://lehmannlaughter.blogspot.com/search/label/Training%20Tuesday" width="200" src="http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a611/Tamara0827/2f34edc7-7101-4a2c-bcab-611d13987963_zpsa1b488d9.jpg" height="200" /></a>

This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

My Training

7/23: 30 minutes on the elliptical doing interval training. I sweated a lot more than I thought I would.
7/24: Nothing.
7/25: Nothing.
7/26: 2.43 mile run on the ol’ treadmill in 30 minutes. My pace has been pretty steady in the mid 12 minute range per mile and I haven’t really been pushing to be faster lately.
7/27: Toddler chasing. It’s a legit workout I swear.
7/28: I started Jillian Michael’s Killer Abs workout and then the kid woke up, and she was not having me finish any kind of work out.
7/29: Nothing

I’m currently trying to work out a training plan for the fall. Or rather, training plans. (Hopefully I’ll have something in the coming week to bounce off you guys).I have 5ks, 10ks, and one half that I had already registered for before I jumped off into the crazy bin by declaring I wanted to do a marathon. I’m trying to make an overall large plan that incorporates all those, but still has me focusing on the next run. Does that make sense?

Right now, I know I will have at least one cross-training day with Mojgan. And then for sure one of my runs will incorporate some type of speed work up until my half-marathon. Since I’ve ran a handful of shorter distance races, I think I can handle adding that instead of just focusing on the distance. My plan is to only focus on distance/endurance after the half since at that point it will be miles longer than 13.1.

Weird.

I want to say thank you to all of you who have directed me towards plans that you have used or any advice you’re handing out. Keep ‘em coming. Much like my pregnancy I want to know everything. Some people don’t like knowing everything, but I do. I feel more prepared and then when things don’t turn out just right I can say “Well, at least this didn’t happen.”

Optimism. Ha. Let’s see how far that gets me in the coming months.

Tell me what’s going on in your neck of the woods.

Any new distances in your fall schedule??

Every Pound is a Victory

In my post on Tuesday, I mentioned I had recently lost 6 lbs.

Which may not seem like a lot, but dudes, if you’ve ever tried losing weight you know that’s not the case. Every pound is a victory. Every pound gone is punch in the face of fat, and that feels pretty damn good.

Except on days when chili-cheese fries are involved. Those are the days that I’m like “COME TO ME FAT! ALLOW ME TO MAKE ROOM FOR YOU IN MY THIGHS, FOR I LOVE THEE!” #truetalk

Anyway, back to losing 6 lbs. You know, the 6 lbs I lost in only 10 days without having the flu, or starving myself, or cutting a deal with the devil all because of this:

It’s a 10 day cleanse. I know, I know, it sounds like I’m selling out but I’m not. It legit worked and I wasn’t (forgive my vulgarity) shitting up a storm because of it. Have any of you ever tried a cleanse that hasn’t had you reading the back of the same shampoo bottles for hours at a time?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

Basically, the guidelines for this are as follows:

Day 1-3, and Days 8-10: Fiber Drink. They have two flavors, Citrus & Peaches and Cream. I got Peaches & Cream and while it was not exactly wonderful going down, it was loads better than the Citrus (I tried this right after Lillie but I didn’t complete it).

Days 4-10: ProBiotic Restore Ultra. These are capsules that promote happy bacteria in your intestinal tract, helps with digestion and balances you out.

Days 1-7: Herbal Cleanse Tablet. Helps rid your body of crap.

It also says for best results to drink water, eat fresh fruits & veggies and avoid fried foods and that if you do this 80% of the time, you’ll see results.

I’d say I did it for about 60% of the time, which kind of pisses me off because if I would have done 80% I wonder if I would have lost more. But dudes, weekends. That’s all that needs to be said about my 60%.

It’s been a week since I’ve finished this, and the weight is still off. I didn’t change my diet drastically, although I did start drinking more water and thanks to another great product, Spark, I’ve been able to cut my soda intake/addiction to like nothing.

I’ll write more about Spark in another post (because it’s awesome enough that it deserves that much.) Even my husband (who hates all things that are even perceived to be healthy) loves it.

In fact, he loves the products we’ve used already so much he let me become a distributor.

What’s that mean?

I now sell Advocare products, not because I have too or some sponsor asked me too, but because I legit like the stuff and I really think it will help me lose weight/meet my running goals. (They even have gels!)

I actually bought a domain. I don’t even have one for my blog that I’ve been writing on for years.

www.thesparkrunner.com

If you’re interested in more information regarding the cleanse, comment below (and if you’re anonymous or a no-reply blogger please leave your email) and I can give you the nitty gritty about it all.

Here’s to a great weekend!

Training Tuesday 7.23.13

<a href="http://lehmannlaughter.blogspot.com/search/label/Training%20Tuesday" width="200" src="http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a611/Tamara0827/2f34edc7-7101-4a2c-bcab-611d13987963_zpsa1b488d9.jpg" height="200" /></a>

This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

My Training
I think I only worked out once last week, okay, wait no, I don’t think I did. Unless you count my race I had on Saturday (a 5k). Oh, and I did run 2.4 miles yesterday. So, 5.5 miles this past week – not wonderful, but definitely not horrible (please remember these are my own standards, and have no relation to whether you did 0, 1, or 20 miles. In any case, you’re fucking awesome. ‘nuff said.)

I’m trying to amp up and get ready to increase my mileage for the fall race season. I haven’t ran anything further than 3 miles in months. Which normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but I’ve got some training schedules to pound out.

Specifically, a marathon training schedule. No, I haven’t signed up for one, but I plan on it. It’s just narrowing down the one I want, waiting for registration to open, and then downing a cold one before I hit “PAY REGISTRATION FEE” to make it official.

I’m trying to figure out the weeks between some of my fun runs & my longer distance runs, so I don’t stray so far off track that I’m dead by mile 15.

Ha, mile 15. Is it weird that I got a little excited when I typed that?

Did you say no? You must be a runner.

Did you say yes? Then it looks like I need to get on the motherfucking ball and sign you up to run with me. :)

Other news

• My dear friend, Katie from State of Change, is now a certified personal trainer! She is offering a wonderful special on her facebook page for 50% off online training plans. And yes, I totally already emailed her to see what she could do for me. I trust her that much. You can shoot her an email or better yet, like her FB page. You won’t regret it. I promise. (This is not sponsored in any way, like I said, I just believe in her and what she’s doing.)
• I’ve lost 6 lbs! More on how & what I did & how I swear I’m not a sell-out later this week.
• I wore pink shorts to work out in today. Nothing special about them other than they’re new and made me feel super good.

Link up and let me know how your training is going!

Mudquest 2013

I’m a lot little late in posting this considering I ran this back in May and it’s now July.

Oops?

I always try to wait on race pictures so I have something to show you and in this case, I waited, and waited and when they finally came I just kept putting it off.

If there were a procrastinator gene, I’m sure I’d have it.

I ran the 2 miler last year, they ended up nixing that distance, so we opted for the 3.5 mile instead. And by we, I mean, Sar from Life of Love, Christine (no blog, but she ran it with me last year!) and me.

Sar, me, Christine with our finisher medals

They also had a 6.5 & 13.1 mile course (they also had a course for children). The 6.5 was the same loop we did for ours just done twice. I’m not sure if the 13 mile course was any different. It was tough and by the time we finished (1 1/2 hours later) I was glad I didn’t opt to do the 6.5 miler. They have really upped their game for this mud run since the 2 miler I did last year (I think that was the first one they held).

They had 20-30 obstacles. Here’s a couple from their website & facebook:

They had a 10 foot high platform you climbed up and jumped off into an 8 foot mud pond, it was pretty damn scary but was such a rush. And this huge slide that could totally compare to something at Schlitterbahn Water Park except you only climb up some stairs for that, and here you climbed up rolling muddy hills for like 20 minutes. 

This was the only picture I could find of myself from the photographers. That shirt? Yeah, it was white when we started out. It was completely brown within the first two minutes.

Between waiting to go through obstacles, going through obstacles and trying our best not to fall and bust our ass, we finished in around 1:30. We ran to each obstacle as best we could, but mud is kind of a bitch to navigate so the definitely were not ‘race’ miles. But they were fun. We laughed a lot, held on to each other like crazy and enjoyed every minute of it.

Except for the last 20 minutes or so, I’m pretty sure all three of us were over it at that point.

I do have a nice video of me busting my ass for your enjoyment though.

I was going to explain to you where I was, but just watch the video. You’ll figure out which one I am pretty damn quick.

I had more than a few bruises from this one, but they were all worth it.

Another great thing – we received medals as finishers! Unless it’s a half or full, most races don’t spend the money on medals for finishers so that was a pleasant surprise.

Overall, I will definitely be doing this run again. The cost isn’t bad for a mud run, I paid around $40 with early registration and it’s local to me (Waco, Texas). You also get a t-shirt & two free beers at the end. Y’all know I love me some beer, so even though it was 10 am, that shit was getting chugged.

Until we run again!

Training..uh, weeks?

<a href="http://lehmannlaughter.blogspot.com/search/label/Training%20Tuesday" width="200" src="http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a611/Tamara0827/2f34edc7-7101-4a2c-bcab-611d13987963_zpsa1b488d9.jpg" height="200" /></a>

This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

I’ve been a little MIA lately. Like, no new posts in nearly a month. Oops.

I needed a break, or rather, I needed to not feel like I was tied down to having to write something when I didn’t exactly feel like it. Huge thanks to Abbey who kept Training Tuesday alive even while I was off in La-La Land.

My Training

It’s been three weeks, but I don’t really have anything new to report. I haven’t exactly felt like training lately – I’ve been focusing a lot of my time on spending & enjoying my family, so exercise has fallen through the cracks. I’m still running sporadically (Clueless reference, anyone?) but am definitely not hitting the gym 5 days a week like I was at one point.

I think the heat has been part of my lack of motivation and the fact that I’m enjoying sleeping in, or reading a book on my lunch break, or not sweating at 8pm. I refuse to work out while Lillie is awake, my time during the workweek is limited with her – an hour before work, and three hours if I’m lucky before she hits the sack – and I am not willing to cut into it. 

Although, I will say she does love to run. We “race” a lot in the hallway of the house & the backyard. I’m not very competitive, but my husband is and I think she may have gotten that from him. So, hopefully at some point running won’t take time away from her but add to it. Fingers crossed.

I do have a 5k this weekend. Yay!

Except it’s July in Texas and hot as fuck. I ran this one last year and it was a horrible, horrible experience. I didn’t hydrate enough and I was a little over confident in my abilities to run in the heat (which was stupid considering I had only ever ran on a treadmill at that point. Sigh.) Lessons learned, so this year my goal is to finish feeling well and with a better time than last year.

And to, you know, not poop myself.

I probably worry about that far more than I should. Or maybe I worry about it just the right amount? I don’t know.

Runner friends, am I alone in this? Totally a legit fear, right?