Wake up (drink) Pour up (drink) Sit down (drink) Stand up (drink)

Drinking water is important for everyday living but it's especially important when you're an athlete. Staying hydrated helps your body work more efficiently and recover quickly. I'm explaining all of this to you so that means that I follow my own advice, right?! Well not quite. I would drink water but I would sip it throughout the day, not realizing that I wasn't getting the amount I needed every day. Last Thursday I decided to change that and really make drinking more water a priority. So I took my bottle and measured the amount of water it holds (because I didn't know) and started making a plan.

My water bottle holds 24 oz. So I decided that I needed to fill this up (and drink) at least four times a day. I would start first thing in the morning, like right after me feet touch the floor and drink the first 24 ounces. What I discovered is that in order for me to get all of the water that I need I can't sip. With each filled bottle I would essentially chug the water till there was only a quarter of the water left in the bottle. Because otherwise if I sipped the water (like I was doing in the past) I would only drink a full bottle during the day.

The first day was rough because I immediately felt bloated. I went from drinking maybe 26 oz. to drinking 96 oz. Though there was some discomfort I figured that I needed to keep going day after day. Well Thursday was the best time for me to try this experiment because I had a five mile run the next morning. With the humidity and temperatures so high here in south Florida, I really should be drinking more water anyway. Friday morning was humid and muggy just like every other morning for the past six months. But this morning was different in that I didn't feel like I was going to die two miles in! 

I couldn't believe how great I felt and I thought Wow! My wife was right, I wasn't drinking enough water. Today makes four days of drinking 96+ oz. of water and earlier this morning I ran 15 miles. This was the first time in a long time that the end of my run was a faster pace than the beginning. I didn't feel completely exhausted and depleted.

The other day I looked up what percentage of water you should have in your body. I have a scale that measures your fat, water, muscle and bone percentage. I never really paid much attention to the water percentage but I do remember that it was always at 31%. After two days of drinking more and more water, I got back on the scale and checked what my percentage was. Now I was at 51%! Based on this website women should be between 45 and 60 percent. So that means that I'm in the golden zone! 

If you are wondering if you drink enough water take a moment and look at this list to see if you are showing signs of mild to moderate dehydration.

• Dry, sticky mouth
• Sleepiness or tiredness
• Thirst
• Less urinating
• Headache

I used to get headaches quite a bit. That is definitely a tell tale sign that I wasn't getting enough water. If any of these symptoms apply to you, try increasing your water intake. Drinking too much water can be very dangerous too and shouldn't be taken lightly. Talk to your doctor first about how much water you are currently drinking and how much water he/she suggests you increase it to. It will take some time to adjust to having more water in your system but you will feel better, run better and look better. And your body will be happier.

Website is up!

The day is here folks! I have finally set up my website! Check it out here. In addition to listing my coaching information my blog will be moving to my site as well. I've already put up some of the posts from here to there. So check it out. 

Late birthday update and reflections

Last Saturday was my birthday. With each passing year I become less and less interested in celebrating. Don't get me wrong, I love my birthday and I am happy that I get to see another year but I really cherish every single day that I wake up. In the weeks leading up to my birthday my family always asks me what I want as a present or what I want to do. Every year I say the same thing, "Nothing". The main thing I want to do on my birthday is relax and just take it easy. Well my birthday (and the entire weekend) didn't go as planned.

My plan for the day was to do some yoga in the morning and run at least six miles. We were expected to have a tropical storm hit us on Sunday and I wasn't sure if I would be able to do my long run. But as usual, my plans got thwarted. On Saturday I woke up to find my oldest daughter on the couch looking not so great. She was sick and vomiting most of the morning so I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for my chicken noodle soup which is the only thing she is able to keep down when she gets sick. I made a HUGE pot of soup so that we could have it for the next couple of days.

I did get a chance to get out of the house for a couple of hours. I met with a friend who wanted to purchase a bracelet that I had made. A couple of days earlier I posted a picture on Facebook showing some bracelets that I made. 

The post was really just to show how proud I was of my new adornments. I didn't expect to actually get orders for them! Within hours I had six people asking me for bracelets. So since Thursday of last week I've been making bracelets and filling orders. :)

Saturday ended with my daughter feeling much better and no longer looking like someone from the Walking Dead. My mother had already cancelled the monthly Sunday dinner we have at her house due to the weather. And with the storm scheduled to hit around Sunday or Monday my running buddies and I decided to play it by ear for our long run on Sunday. But before my alarm went off I heard claps of thunder and the sky looked like it was being lit by strobe lights. We all text each other to say that we would cancel our run. The hilarious thing was that an hour later the weather was absolutely wonderful and it didn't rain for the rest of the day.

Not that I don't think that we need information and need to be prepared for a storm but the forecasters were making it seem like this storm was going to give us some trouble. But as it turns out the weather was no different from any other day during the rainy season in south Florida. 

This year I turned 35 and it feels so good. When I was a little girl I couldn't wait to be thirty and I'm not quite sure why, I just had this sense that thirty meant great things would start happening. Even when I was in my twenties and most women want the clock to slow down, I was still rushing to hit that thirty mark. I started running in my thirties, my youngest daughter was born when I was thirty-two and when I turned thirty-four my oldest daughter became a high school student and is turning into a beautiful and amazing young woman.

I'm not afraid of getting older. With each passing year I become more confident and secure within myself. There's nothing that I can complain about and that's an amazing thing to brag about. 

Be free! But not too free...

Earlier this month a story broke about Kiran Gandhi running the London Marathon during her menstrual cycle without any sanitary pads or tampons. You can read the article here. In a nutshell Kiran, who is a drummer for the singer M.I.A., was free bleeding to draw awareness to women in third world countries who don't have access to feminine products during their cycle and to remove the shame from period shaming.

In typical internet fashion comments exploded everywhere. Many of the people that had a lot to say were other females and they weren't standing in solidarity with Kiran and her views. Women were dragging her name through the blood, so to speak, and expressing their frustration and overall disgust with her way of highlighting these issues. But the only comment that I was remotely interested in reading was from Tigist Tufa, the winner of the London Marathon that Kiran ran in. 

She made her thoughts and opinions known to the world in this article and I think it's safe to say that she wasn't happy with Kiran's form of expression either. Tigist could have used her platform of wining a prestigious race in a mind blowing time of 2 hours and 23 minutes to address issues plaguing females around the world, but no one was interested. She called People magazine to talk about the race and her preparations but they were only interested in the "tampon girl" and quickly hung up on her. 

When I first came across this article I quickly scanned it and then forgot about it. But as I kept seeing more and more comments pop up on my Facebook and Twitter feeds I decided to take another look at what was really going on and determine if it was worth forming an opinion. Though it is likely to change, as it stands my opinion is this. I think Kiran is brave for making such a bold move and I think Tigist is correct in her observations and opinion.

I can't say that I've felt any sort of period shaming in my lifetime and I doubt that there will be any in the future. In general, women are made to feel inadequate in various aspects of our lives and unless you are able to be confident in yourself and your opinions it's very easy to be swayed with the changing winds. Of course I'm saying this as an American woman in her mid-thirties. I'm unaware of all the atrocities that women endure in other countries around the world and to an extent I'm able to freely voice my frustrations. So if a woman is in the position to bring attention to an issue that is plaguing other women, maybe we should take a look at what she is saying rather than completely dismissing her voice.

On the flip side of that, amazing athletic feats should not go unrecognized. Tigist's performance places her in the top twenty elite female winners of the London Marathon. That deserves praise! Tigist had an amazing performance, pacing herself with the front of the pack for the majority of the race and then kicking it into high gear and blowing past everyone in the last three miles. The last three miles! I have no comprehension of running a 5:41 pace for 23 miles and then saying okay now I'm going to run faster. WHAT!? How did she train? What was her diet? If I wear her shoes will they help me get to the finish line faster? All of these are questions that should have been asked but weren't. Runner's World did a great article about TIgist and you can watch a short video highlighting her finish here.

But this whole situation did one main thing... it got everyone talking. Whether you wanted to see Kiran with her blood-stained pants or watch Tigist cross the finish line you were drawn in. The other benefactor of this story is running in itself. Someone reading these stories and commenting on either end just might take a moment, go to their local running store, buy a pair of shoes, lace up and hit the pavement. In the midst of all this chaos a new runner will have been initiated, and in the end isn't that what really matters?

First week of school and first week of insanity

Nothing can get my world in a tizzy quite like the first week of school. The easy schedule that I had during the summer is quickly thrown out of the window and I'm immediately thrust into a tornado of organized chaos. Those early morning runs where I was able to chit chat a bit longer or take it easy are gone and they won't be back for another ten months. Fortunately this is the last year that I have to drive my oldest daughter to and from school because next year she'll have her license and she can drive herself.

To make matters a bit more complex my youngest daughter was noticing that her sister was missing in action, so that meant that I had create distractions and diversions so that she wouldn't get upset (or at least too upset because every morning she asked for her sister). Each day was filled with activities and adventures and when I put her down for a nap I would, without fail, take a nap myself. Here was our insane schedule.

Monday we spent the day hiking trails and doing some animal exploration. We checked out two parks and got to see turtles, butterflies, lizards, frogs, and at least five different species of birds.

Tuesday morning was my five mile run and later on the little one and I went to the zoo and splashed around in the fountains. Every week they have water activities for toddlers to cool down in the summer heat. After the fountain she wanted to run around and look at all of the animals.

Wednesday we explored yet another trail with my mom friends and their kids and got to see some more Florida wildlife. 

Can you see the alligator tail?

I think the snake was posing for the picture

Then Wednesday evening I went to my speed session. This past week was tempo, the bane of my existence. 

Thursday we went to the science museum and aquarium. My little one could spend the entire day in here looking at the fish and exploring all of the hands on exhibits. 

Where was this lite-bright when I was a kid?

Can you guess where we went at the end of the week? If you said a trail you would be correct! The trail had a very nice nature center with some aquariums. 

The park is also on the beach so after we walked the trail and walked around the nature center we changed our clothes and headed for the beach.

I was supposed to run early Friday morning but I knew that I was going to be out later that evening. So I skipped out on the run and gave my friend/running partner a heads up.

And although I was a bit down about skipping out on my Friday run I made up for it today with my long run.

A moderate 18 mile run in 90 degree heat. From this point on my long run mileage will go up and down with the longest distance reaching 22 miles twice. So the fact that I'm able to write this post and refrain from passing out means that I've done pretty well this week. I can't say much about next week though.

Ain't nobody messin' with my clique

Running groups/clubs are a great way for fellow runners to talk, bond and get some miles in at the same time. I never thought I would join a running group but here I am, six months in with one and the benefits have certainly outweighed any disadvantages. What I find so interesting is that even though we are have the common denominator of running, we still seek even more commonality within runners. Just like any other situation where you have a large group of people getting together and meeting on a regular basis, running groups have cliques. 

Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines the word clique as a narrow exclusive circle or group of persons; especially : one held together by common interests, views or purposes. Naturally any group of runners would be considered a clique because we have running in common. But as I have experienced, not only with my running group but many other groups, there are cliques within cliques.

When my running group gets together on Sundays for our long runs, you can see the groups formed in the parking lot before we start. While we all say good morning and have a quick chat with one another, we soon begin to migrate towards our "people". Most of us can float between multiple groups but so often we tend to stay with our troop.
Some of these sub-groups are: 

1. the fast runners
2. the slower runners
3. male runners 40 and up
4. female runners 40 and up
5. ethnic runners
6. runner parents

On the off chance that a large portion of a sub-group didn't show up to a run, the remaining member(s) tend to just float about waiting for the moment we all start our run. I can certainly relate to this. Now that I've found my "people" I don't take the time to really engage with any of the other runners when my sub-group isn't there.

Initially this bothered me and I felt that it was important to mingle with ALL of the runners. Now, when my clique isn't at a run session I just keep to myself. I've become accustomed to our conversations, our silence, and our pace. Inserting myself into another group means that I have to now talk about their topics and run at their pace. Who has time for that? I'd much rather trail behind another group, or pace just ahead of them so that I can either see or hear them and know that they are there. Of course some days I just run by myself. That's when I really don't want to be bothered.

I keep telling myself that it's about the camaraderie and to not shut myself off from talking to other people. And then I say f-- it. There's something so cathartic about telling stories about my toddler when she did something to make me angry and then turn around and make me laugh. Or expressing my emotions about black men and women getting killed and how I fear for my children and my wife. Or laughing about my upbringing and finding a shared experience with a fellow runner. I enjoy these runs in part for the thoughts, ideas and moments I am able to share and it sucks that I can't always feel that when I missing my clique.

Am I a running snob?

When I indoctrinated myself into the club of running, one thing I noticed that was a constant conversation/concern was speed. Even when I ran by myself and didn't have another runner to keep up with there were always articles, apps and races highlighting faster runners. So naturally I assumed that speed was the thing to achieve at all costs and I became obsessed with it. I would push myself to run at speeds that were way too hard for me in the beginning which is probably why I stopped and started for so long, and also why I constantly suffered minor injuries.

Speed is something that seems to be an either popular or sensitive conversation and I have been on both ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately I have been one of those people who didn't want to run with the "slower" crowd. I put slower in quotation marks because everyones idea of slow is different. I was always under the impression that unless I was running hard and fast every single time, then I wasn't reaping the benefits of running.

Just yesterday someone vented on Facebook about being called a jogger because their pace is in the double digits. My initial thought was Ouch! No one and I mean NO ONE in the running community wants to be called a jogger. That's the most derogatory thing you can say to a runner. And yet other runners use that word so casually when it comes to people who run a 10 minute per mile pace or slower. Unless you were running everywhere as a child, or your body is perfectly designed for running, or you're from Kenya you had to start somewhere. And even the previous examples I gave doesn't mean that those people will start their running career at a 7 minute mile.

I tell people all the time that I love the running community because we are all inclusive but more and more I see that this isn't really the case. As human beings we have a tendency to want to categorize ourselves whether for our own comfort or to put others down (or both). The running community is no different in that we tend to idolize the fastest runner, yet talk bad about the slower runner. Now that's not to say that we can't congratulate the people who are faster, who have trained harder and committed themselves to this sport day in and day out. But I also think that we should honor the people who struggle to finish a mile without stopping.

Truth is that the boom in running is due in large part to the middle and back-of-the-pack runners in races. These are the people who on top of working a full-time job and managing a family, have decided to take up the sport of running and do it because it fulfills a need. A friend also reminded me that many runners whose pace is in the double digits tend to be overweight, another group that is overlooked (and sometimes criticized) by other runners. 

In the past I didn't say bad things about runners slower than myself but I also didn't say really positive things either. My perspective soon changed when I got a taste of my own medicine. I started a training plan over a year ago that had me running at about two to three minutes slower than my pace was at the time. To a non-runner that may not seem like a lot but it is a considerable difference. I remember reviewing the plan and thinking I can run so much faster than this. Why am I running so slow? Though I wanted to drop the plan I had already made the commitment and decided to keep it.

After only one week I was beginning to eat my words. Running at the slower pace was much harder than it was running at my faster pace. I found out that my form was absolute crap, something that was hard to detect when I ran faster. I also discovered that I really had no endurance. When I ran at a faster speed I could go no more than seven miles max without completely bombing. The slower pace helped me to gain endurance, built up my cardiovascular system and mental capacity for longer distances. To solidify my change in thinking I ran a race at a slower pace and discovered that all the other people who were running around me were working just as hard, if not harder, as the runners who already finished.

Another interesting experience that I've had is with the group that I currently run with. I've been with the group for only six months or so. When I started the group I only did the longer distances so I often ran at a slower speed. After doing some speed sessions and the other runners noticing that I'm a faster runner than they thought, more of the members began to engage me in conversation. I didn't want to think that this was the case but it was pretty hard to deny the truth. Now that I'm viewed as a fast runner amongst the group, my slower paces are considered smart training practices. 

I don't post my running stats as often as I did before. When I do post I often debate whether I'm sharing my experience out of sheer excitement for my new achievements or I'm just showing off. Before I click share I have to ask myself What am I trying to convey by sharing this? I don't always get it right but I continue to work on it.

All the runners who've been doing numerous marathons at break-neck speed had to have a beginning. Even those of us who continue to reduce our times the more and more we race get caught up in chip times and paces. How soon we forget that it wasn't always this way and we had to work hard to cut our 5k time from 40 minutes to 35 minutes. The trick is to not look at the back of the pack with disdain but with admiration. 

The force is strong with this one

Not too long after my last post my old daughter made a decision about playing sports. She was no longer going to play volleyball; instead she would:

RUN!

The same week that she made this revelation she had been running a mile in our subdivision. One day she came into the house, huffing and puffing from a hot run and told me that she was changing her mind about volleyball. She told me that running was hard and for the entire mile she felt like she was going to die. But once the run was over she felt great and for a moment thought that she would be able to do this more often. After I congratulated her on her revelation I laughed and said, "That feeling never goes away." 

On so many occasions I practically begged my daughter to come out with me on a run. When she started training for volleyball and asked me to help her run for endurance I secretly thought that this would be the gateway to becoming a runner. I figured that if she would just keep doing it that she would learn to love it. 

After one of our runs I asked if she would mind me looking at her form. There were some things that she had been complaining about and I thought her form might be causing some of these issues. But after seeing her glide across the pavement with such ease and effortlessness I automatically assumed that her issues were simply due to being a new runner. Her form was great, so great in fact that it brought a slight tear to my eye. Oh if she could only tap into this amazing potential. She could be an elite runner!

In a split second I noticed that I was starting to do that thing. The thing that so many other parents do when they notice a great source of untapped potential in their child; I was projecting. So I took a step back and stopped pressing the matter. I had forgotten how hard running was in those early stages and though I still have my bad days and crappy runs, my consistency has managed to override my frustrations. If she wanted to run it should be from her own decision, her own idea rather than a push from me. I mean, that's how she decided to play volleyball. The decision was all hers and I was so proud of that.

So when she approached me in the kitchen with a half-smile across her face, breathing deeply with sweat dripping from her face and told me that she wanted to run, how could I not be excited?! I had brought her into the fold and couldn't wait to lace up our shoes together and hit the pavement. 

My inspiration

Last year my oldest daughter decided that she wanted to play volleyball. She had to do a lot of preparation in order to get ready for practice because she's never played a sport before. My wife and I worked with her doing some conditioning exercises and running to build up her strength endurance. My daughter found out from some of her friends who are on the volleyball team that they also play in a club outside of the school team. So she called up the coach and started getting herself ready to play. 

Within about three months she progressed in leaps and bounds and really started to become a volleyball player. Since the school year was ending she was going to be practicing and conditioning with the beach team to get ready for try-outs at the end of the summer. Three nights a week we were up and down the road going to practice and we even spent two to three days going to our local park where there's a volleyball court for her to practice on her own. I was so proud of her and the hard work she was putting in to become a better player.

During one of our extra practices she got a bad shoulder injury and wasn't able to continue. Her shoulder had been giving her some problems a couple of times before this but it wasn't nearly as bad as this particular time. What I didn't know was that she was having shoulder issues before she even started thinking about volleyball. 

She talked to her coach and the coach referred us to a physical therapist who would be able to assess what was going on. We found out that she has an unstable labrum joint which causes her shoulder to "float" out of the joint. The P.T. told us that this is very common among young athletes and that she would need to build the muscles around her shoulder joint. If she didn't build up the muscles and her shoulder kept slipping out the joint, then she might start getting tears which would mean that she would need surgery. 

Even though this news felt like a hard pill to swallow, my daughter decided that it wouldn't deter her from playing volleyball. All that was fine and good until she went to practice two days later and her shoulder slipped once again. This time the school coach was there and informed her that she would need to take it easy and possibly find another sport to play. This crushed my daughter. She had been working so hard and was just beginning open gym at her school so that she could try out for the team. 

Once she got home (and after a couple good cries) she made a decision. She would take this entire year to build up her strength and work on serving and attacking with her left arm rather than her right arm which was the one that was giving her trouble. I was impressed! She decided that this setback would not stop her from playing volleyball. Instead of giving up and turning her back on something that she really wanted to do, she would put the work in to make her wishes come to fruition. 

So many times as a parent you wonder if the words of encouragement that you tell your kids are really absorbed. I always tell my daughters how proud I am of them when they accomplish something that was a hurdle. To not only be proud of them but to be inspired by them is such a wonderful feeling. I guess those encouraging words do stay with them.

On your mark...

So as of last week my marathon training has officially begun. Technically I've been training for the past two months or so. This year I really didn't want to have such a hard start with training because I was dealing with some mental anxiety about officially starting. While my level of fitness is completely different then last year I still has some nerves.

When I was preparing for my first full marathon I really focused on increasing my miles. I started out averaging between 25-30 miles per week and managed to peak at 50 before my taper. 26.2 miles was new to me and I had no idea what to expect. I was terrified of hitting the wall and figured that if I focused more on T.O.F. (time on feet) that I should be able to keep the wall at bay. But like many first time marathoners I ditched my race plan the minute the sirens blared. I went out faster than I planned and though the wall didn't surface until mile 22 and I was able to recover in mile 24, the struggle was very real. 

This year I'm running the same race so I'm already familiar with the course. I'm no longer a newbie and after running in some additional races this year I've gotten better at keeping my excitement in check at the start. As far as my plan goes the only thing that will change will be my long runs. My weekly runs will go as such:

Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: Alternate between tempo runs and hills (average 4-5 miles)
Friday: 7 miles
Sunday: long runs (12-22 miles)

I also do yoga and weight training three days a week. My focus this year isn't so much on miles or endurance but speed. Before I even started training I used a half marathon as a guide to see if I made any progress in getting faster. Last year my half marathon time was 2:17, this year it was 1:57. In one full year I managed to shave twenty minutes from my time with absolutely no speed work. While my nerves center mostly around training I'm pretty excited about the actual race. 

This post might be a bit of a stretch

Stretching is vital for any athlete and should be done if not every day at least after every workout. Stretching keeps your muscles from staying too tight which can lead to injury. There are tons of stretches and ways to stretch but here are a couple of tried and true ones that I consistently do and have always made me feel much better after I do them.

Touch your toes

This stretch is great for your hamstrings, glutes and lower back. If you can't reach your toes then you can place your hands lightly on your shins. Go as far as you can till you feel a slight tug, then stop and breathe. Keep your knees straight and your heels planted flat on the ground. It's ok if your back is rounded. Hold for about ten seconds, then slowly roll your up to standing, take a moment to breathe then slowly roll down again and hold for ten more seconds. In all of your stretches you should be breathing along with the stretch and the movement of your body.

Open leg stretch

This is a slight modification on the toe touch stretch. Instead of your legs being close together you spread them out. This can give you a deep stretch in your glutes and your lower back. You may be able to feel this stretch in your inner thigh as well. Keep you knees straight and your heels planted on the ground. You can put your hands on the ground or put them behind your back for a deeper stretch. You can also shift your upper body to the right and left to get a deeper stretch in each leg. Make sure you keep breathing.

Sitting hamstring stretch

I like this stretch because it's slightly modified from the stretch where both of your feet are out in front of you. You bend one leg with the foot touching the outer knee of your other foot. Bend at the waist and try to keep your back as straight as you can. The photo below has a forward view of this stretch.

The goal is to keep your straight leg as straight as you can, your back straight, your bent leg pushing down to the ground and your chest upward, not flat on your leg. If you can't reach your toes you can have your hands touch your shins. Check the picture right above this one and see a modification for your hands. This stretch focuses on your hamstrings, inner thigh and back. Make sure you do both sides.

Lying leg stretch

Lie with your back flat on the ground and bring one leg up in the air. Grab the back of your leg and slowly bring your leg toward your body till you feel a sight tug then hold and breathe. Your leg should stay straight and try to flex your foot. If you can't flex your foot initially you can point it but alternate between pointing and flexing your foot. For a deeper stretch you can count to ten and slowly keep pulling your leg toward your body. Make sure when you pull your leg that the movement is slow and controlled and your knee stays straight. Then when you feel the deep stretch in your hamstrings release your leg to a straight position with your foot facing upward, take a slight pause and repeat. You can do that four to six times on each side. As always make sure you keep breathing.

Lying glute stretch

After you do the lying leg stretch you can do this one. Bring one leg up straight up in the air  with the other leg bent. Cross your straight leg over your bent leg and place your foot just above your knee. Slowly bring your bent leg up towards your body and grab the back of your bent leg. If you look at the lying leg stretch it's easy to see how you can transition to this one. The lying glute stretch hits various parts of my legs, not just my glutes. I'm able to stretch my inner and outer thigh and my hamstrings. Make sure you do both sides and don't forget to breathe.

Quadricep stretch

For this stretch you'll want to start sitting up and bend one leg back then bend the other leg in front of you. Slowly lie back till you feel a slight tug then hold it and breathe. Make sure your upper body is straight and both of your knees should be as close to, if not touching, the floor. Your chest should be up and not caved in. If you can't get all the way back to your elbows then you can modify it and lean back with your arms straight behind you like the picture below. *Smiling is optional

Even with the modification your knees should still be trying to reach the ground and your legs should be as flat as possible.Your chest should still be up and keep breathing. Place your legs where they feel comfortable. Don't try and bend your legs so much that when you recline back that your knees start to point upwards. If your knees start to move up, readjust your legs by moving your feet outward a bit more then try and recline again. The goal is to feel the stretch in your quad muscles. You can hold this stretch for about ten seconds then go back to your sitting position, take a moment and slowly recline back. You can do four to six on each side.

Remember that stretching can be fun and and if you need help or simply want to distract yourself you can always get a stretching buddy. 

If you believe it you can achieve it

I've been running with my running club for the past six or seven months now. When I joined I only did long runs with them because I needed to get out early and I didn't want to run by myself (plus I needed some motivation at the time). I kept doing only long runs with them for a while until about a month ago when I decided to do their tempo/hill workouts and early morning weekly runs which we loving call our vampire runs (we start at 5am). 

I wanted to be able to ease into marathon training rather than feel like I was hitting the ground running. So increasing my group runs was a way for me to get miles in early in the morning and interact with the club more. And as my marathon training starts in about a week, I feel more than prepared for training.

Do you see that!? This new record was obtained last week during a grueling hill workout. If you haven't already, check out my earlier post about running with my club HERE and see how I transitioned from being a singular runner to a group runner. 

All the science even points to the benefits of running with others as seen in this article from Runner's World. Of course I didn't pay attention to that earlier in my running career because I'm stubborn and don't like to listen to others (my wife has first hand accounts of this). That's not to say that I didn't get faster on my own. Within a year I was able to reduce my pace by over one minute. But there's something about running with a group of people that can produce greater results.

This glorious time that I posted has come after a month of group runs and being coached with specialized workouts (I'll do a separate post about the benefits of having a running coach). When the record flashed on my watch I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not one of the faster runners in my club but over time I've been able to keep them in my sights on my runs. 

If this is what I'm capable of now, I'm certainly looking forward to how I'll do after training. 

Do you have a running buddy?

For over a year I was the lonely runner. I ran by myself morning, noon and night. My only running companion was my two year old who would ride in the jogger as I panted and sweat when I pushed her. I talked with other runners who thought I was crazy for running by myself. What!? How can you do that? Don't you get bored? I never thought I was bored because I had been a singular runner for so long. And quite frankly I didn't think that I was cut out for running with other people.

The few times that I ran with my wife there would be sprinkles of conversation nudged between long gaps of silence. How could people talk? I needed all the oxygen I could get and I certainly didn't want to use up more by talking about the weather. Plus I never knew what to talk about. So..... looks like it's gonna rain today huh? 

I admired people who could run with a partner. I certainly believed that by talking for the entire run that it could make the time go by quicker. Earlier this year as I was setting out my clothes for an early morning run the next day I simply got fed up. I needed some help, some motivation to get me through the thirteen miles I was planning to run in less than eight hours. 

I called up a friend who is a part of a running club ad asked her the location and time that the group was meeting. Ever since then I have never looked back.

Running with a group/buddy has opened my eyes to a whole new world. 

1. Running with others makes you accountable.
2. Someone else can understand your running struggles.
3. You can motivate one another.
4. They become a new group of friends.
5. Time flies when you chit chat for two hours.

I haven't gone back to running by myself because there hasn't been a need to. Once marathon training starts, and I'll need to pick up some extra miles there will be times when I have to run alone. And those will be the runs when I'll miss running with the group. 

When it all falls down

Yesterday during my long run, I fell. Yup! Face planted right on the concrete with my fellow runners watching. Honestly I wasn't embarrassed I was just in shock. As I was falling I was saying to myself I can't believe this is happening, am I really falling right now? Then right as I made contact with the ground I made sure to pause my Garmin. Priorities people! 

Most of the contact that I had with the ground was on my hands. I did hit my right knee but not so hard that it had me in pain. After my fall I simply got up, checked my body to make sure nothing was bleeding and no bones were protruding. Once I noticed that everything was okay I got back up and kept on with my run.

I had a feeling that as the day progressed that I would begin to feel the aches as pains a bit more. Soon after I got home and took a shower the family went out to the beach. It's been terribly hot outside so getting into the ocean felt like the way to go. I leisurely swam around and looked at the school of fish that were keeping my company. The day was going great!

Yes I did color! :)

Then once we got home I started to feel kind of blah. My knee wasn't bothering me, nor were my hands or wrists. But I did start to feel a scratch in my throat and my nose was constantly running. I had gotten some sea water in my nose during my swim but didn't mind since I needed to clear out my sinuses anyway. By dinner time my throat was getting worse and my energy was declining.

Long story short my fall didn't put me on the side lines for the rest of the day, swimming in the ocean did. Don't you hate it when non running activities cause you to stop running?

Have you ever had to take a break or gotten an injury from something other than running that caused you to not run?

Being a dancer has made me a better runner

For seventeen years I was a dancer. I spent well over thirty hours a week taking class, practicing, rehearsing and performing. In all of my years of dancing I never sustained a serious injury, only minor sprains and strains. As I got older and the passion for dance started to dwindle I went into panic mode. What would I do that challenged me like dance did? I'm not sure what drew me to running initially, especially since my history with running was not a pleasant one.

I had a very brief track career in middle school. When I made the team the coach gave me the mile and I hated every minute of it. Once my ballet teacher found out that I was in track she told me that I had to quit immediately because running would bulk up my thigh muscles and ballet dancers needed long lean legs. I can't say that my teacher's words resonated with me and prompted me to quit but it certainly helped. 









Now that dance was no longer the primary activity in my life I decided to give running a try. The first couple years of running were rough. I had this notion that because I was a dancer for so many years that my level of fitness would be high, so transitioning to running wouldn't be hard. Boy that was an incorrect assumption! Running uses the leg muscles in ways that I was not accustomed to. I actually felt sore! After many stops and starts I finally committed to running. Now that I've got some years under my belt and have done multiple races running has taken the place of dance. 

In the past couple of months I've gotten compliments on various things about my running. The compliments that I've gotten the most are about my form and how did I get my legs to look like they do. After I explain that I was a dancer people often reply with Oh so that explains it. Hearing this a couple of times made me want to take a deeper look into this. Has my dance career helped me with running? Well I think that it certainly had something to do with it and here's what I discovered:

1. Running form The same way that I would check my back, turn out, toes and arm carriage in ballet is the same way I review my form when I run. At some point during a run I do a body scan from my toes up to my head. When something feels off or slightly out of whack I'm able to zone in and correct it. I can thank all of ballet teachers for yelling, guiding and correcting me on my form all of those years because it certainly comes in handy now. 
2. Breathing I remember being in modern class, doing Graham technique and my teacher telling me that I need to breath with my movement and the breath should be so loud that she can hear it. She would say Holding your breath is like holding back your movement. You don't breath, you don't move. I didn't understand what she was conveying at the time and honestly I felt silly doing it. Exhaling so loud and using my breath to move through the space felt weird to me at the time. Though I thought my teacher was a little eccentric I did as she asked. As I got older a did more contemporary pieces the use of breath helped me. Now those same breathing techniques help me when I'm running. And she was right, you don't breath you don't move.
3. Stretching Every dancer that I know stretched. It's what you did. This was the golden ticket to getting your legs high in the sky. If you didn't stretch, you were tight and if you were tight you were prone to injury and that couldn't happen. You never heard of a dancer not stretching and if you did you questioned whether that person was a REAL dancer. I remember spending hours in my room sitting in the most unique positions trying to increase my flexibility. I will admit that my stretching is not nearly as structured or as frequent as it was when I was a dancer but I still do it. There was a period when I didn't stretch after my runs and after a couple of weeks I was feeling the difference. Now, even if it's something as small as touching my toes or doing lunges, I make sure I stretch. 
4. Diet and Nutrition Many people assume that dancers (ballet dancers in particular) have eating disorders. While there are some dancers out there who go to extreme measures to keep their weight down, many dancers understand the importance of eating well. You need fuel to be able to fly through the air with the greatest of ease. If there's nothing in the tank, then you got nothing to work with. Of course at the time I was young and didn't always eat the best foods but when it came to what was cooked at home, that was always healthy. My grandmother was the cook and made healthy and delicious meals. I credit her to this day for laying the foundation for how I cook today.
5. Practice, practice, practice I didn't think this was a concept that applies to running but now I see that it totally is. If you're someone who does races, all of your daily runs are practices that lead up to race day. If you aren't into races you may have some goal that you are working towards. Maybe you want to reduce your pace or lose some weight. No matter what the motivation, each day you lace up your sneakers and step out the door is a practice run to get you closer to your goal. 
6. For performances, leave everything you have on the dance floor and HAVE FUN I admit that this one is still something that I have to work on when it comes to race day. I do enjoy myself and try to be in the moment. But I do tend to check my pace to see if I'm on schedule and I get caught up in my head. The first race where I completely let go and didn't pay attention to time or pace felt like such a breeze. I talked with other runners, laughed with the volunteers and fell in love with the whole racing experience in a way that I hadn't felt before. The whole point of practice is to put the work in so that come race day, you can rely on your training and just enjoy yourself. The race (like the stage) is your time to shine and you don't want it to be a fleeting moment. Soak it all in and remember to smile! :)

Do I get an "A" for effort?

It's taken me some time but I feel like I'm finally getting back on track with my fitness. Have you ever been off for a week and suddenly a week turns into a month or even longer? I never completely stopped running but my weekly mileage took a huge nose dive. Thankfully everyone is finally feeling better after our Toronto trip so I've been able to kick things into high gear.

I haven't been working out with my mom friends because it's so hot around 10am when we start and my little one likes to run around while I exercise. I'm a bit concerned about having her out in the heat even though I bring ice cold water and have her in cool clothes with sunblock. There have been times when I've taken her to the park and she got so flush so quickly. I just don't want to take that risk. 

So I've been working out at home.

I want to get leaner so I've been weight training with fifteen pound weights. I try and workout at least three times a week. In addition to working out I've been adding some effort-based sessions to my running. Effort session are tempo runs, hills and intervals. The running group that I'm a member of has tempo runs and hill workouts once a week. 

I know this isn't a large hill considering I'm in south Florida but we work with what we got.

Last week our hill workout consisted of:

• Ten minute warm-up 
• Five minute tempo run
• 4 x sprint up the hill and jog back down
• 3 x 30 sec. sprint (on flat ground) with 30 sec. recovery jog
• 4 x up, over, down and back on hill
• 3 x 30 sec. sprint with 30 sec. recovery jog
• Cool down

Though I feel like my lungs are about to collapse on me in this crazy heat and humidity, I know these sessions are helping.

For my long run today I was able to maintain a nine minute mile pace. While that's a pace that I've been able to maintain for a while now, it didn't feel as rough as it normally did. There were even some splits when I was running at an 8:45 pace. Considering this heat was getting to me about 30 minutes into this run, I was pretty pleased with how well I did.

I got a chance to really break in my new capri pants.

I found these at T.J. Maxx for about $18 dollars. I was in need of a new pair of pants since one pair was literally coming apart at the seams. I'm trying to add some colors and patterns to my wardrobe since I mostly have black.

Two weeks of adding effort sessions and weight training and I think I'll have a great base to work with when I start marathon training at the end of this month.

*side note* My oldest daughter had a minor setback in volleyball. Last week we were practicing her serves and her shoulder came out of the socket. This has been the fourth time that this has happened and each time it gets worse. She's been doing some cross training to build up her strength but it hasn't seemed to help her shoulder. Her volleyball coach said that's not normal and she has a sports doctor that we can meet with. My daughter is pretty upset about this and is concerned about how this will affect her training and overall ability to play volleyball. Until we see the doctor there isn't much that we can do for now.