Category Archives: D.C.

Getting Others to Their Fitness Goals

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As a runner and an athlete, setting goals and working to reach them is a major part of my life. It’s what drives me to get better and it makes me happy. Even more fun though, is helping other people reach their goals.

Back in high school I was always putting together plans and forcing my friends to run sprints in an empty gym during the off-season to get ready for basketball. For years I’ve acted as a personal trainer for my Mom setting up workout plans for her and teaching her how to swim so she could add a new cardio element to her routine. A couple years ago, I got to take things a bit further.

I saw an ad for a company called Custom Fitness Concepts (CFC) looking for outdoor boot camp instructors. I had taken boot camp classes for a few years and thought this would be a blast, so I replied to the ad with my background and reasons for wanting the job. After a month and a half of CFC’s in-house training program and shadowing other instructors, I was getting my own class. It would be a new site up in Quincy Park and would be held Monday through Friday at 6 a.m.

I had five people show up for my first class – four were friends of mine. Attendance was a bit rocky at first, but eventually it built up and I had a pretty solid showing most mornings. During the nicer months, especially when we were running Groupon deals, I often had 20+ people showing up. Despite the early hour (I’m not much of a morning person), I absolutely loved it.

A few months later I took over the evening class at Quincy Park as well for a trainer moving out of town. That one met Monday through Thursday after work at 6 p.m. I was able to do both classes and my day job for a little over a year before it became a bit too much and I dropped the morning class. If only there’d been a financially feasible way to turn fitness-related work into a full-time gig!

It was so fun to see so many people coming out and trying to get in better shape while having some fun doing it. Although, a lot of my bootcampers out there might say that I was the only one having fun, they kept coming back, so I don’t believe it! It was especially great to get to know the regulars who came over a long period of time, and see how much of a transformation some of them made. If you’re in the DC/NoVa/Maryland area and are looking for a kick-butt workout, look no further than CFC.

I had to give up teaching boot camp when I started my new job and at the same time my car died at the beginning of this year, but it was an awesome experience. This summer I started doing some personal training for CFC. I only have one client a couple days a week right now since that’s pretty much all my schedule allows for, but it’s great to be back to helping someone take a step towards getting more fit and leading a healthier lifestyle.

While it’s no doubt rewarding to reach my own fitness goals, there is nothing quite like the feeling of knowing I helped someone else do something they didn’t know or never thought they were capable of accomplishing.

How do you reach your fitness goals? Do you like to go at it solo or take group classes? What are your favorite types of classes?

Election Night in D.C.

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I often find politics frustrating and don’t understand why neither side seems capable of any compromise, but one thing I do find cool is the atmosphere in D.C. during an election season. It’s treated like a sporting event.

For the debates and the election, you can find lists of area bars best for viewing and many offering election-themed specials. I caught the second presidential debate at a bar near Capitol Hill with some friends. We walked in a bit early and saw that the Yankees game was on. We checked with a bartender to see if there would be a TV showing the debate, and got a quick response that at debate time all the TVs would be switched over and the volume turned on. I don’t think there are too many cities where a debate trumps baseball playoffs!

On election night you can basically go to any bar in town to watch the returns come in. We ended up in Chinatown and watched with a packed crowd cheering or booing as results came in for or against their candidates. It was pretty entertaining, and regardless of how you feel about how the night’s results turned out, it is cool to see that level of interest in the direction our country is going.

DC Photo Safari

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Last weekend I took a Washington Photo Safari class at the National Museum of the American Indian. I’ve previously taken their Monuments & Memorials and Monuments at Night safaris and absolutely loved them both, leaving with a much better knowledge of how to use my DSLR camera. This class, Canon Rebel DSLRs: Practical Use Digital SLR Photography, did not disappoint.

I bought my Canon XSi a few years ago since I love taking photos and wanted to be able to do more than I could with my point-and-shoot. I also had a big trip to Ireland coming up in a few months that I couldn’t wait to bring the camera on. I quickly learned that just having a nice camera didn’t guarantee great pictures, so I started taking various classes. Between the photo safaris and a digital photography class Arlington County offered I learned quite a bit, but after some time of not using my DSLR for awhile, it was time for a refresher.

Two of my biggest takeaways from this Photo Safari class were metering and white balance. I learned the difference between evaluative metering, center-weighted metering and spot metering, which is extremely helpful when you’re trying to take a picture of someone that’s backlit. From now on I’ll make sure no one appears like a dark spot in front of a bright background in my shots.

I’ve learned to use the different white balance settings several times before, but it had been awhile so I’d gotten back to keeping my camera on the auto white balance setting. I understand again when it’s best to use each setting and even better, now know how to create custom white balance settings for any situation I’m shooting in.

I’m certainly no expert, but I love taking photos and learning new ways to take better shots creating some great lasting memories!

Below are two sets of pictures. The first set shows the same picture taken with two different metering settings and the second set shows the same picture shot with two different white balance settings.

Out and About D.C. Style

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One of my favorite things about living in the Washington, D.C. area is that it never gets old to play tourist. Whenever someone comes to visit, it’s a great excuse to get out and explore. My parents were coming down for a visit recently and since they’ve been here many times, we wanted to come up with something we hadn’t done yet.

Amazingly in all the years they’ve been coming down, we’d never gone to the National Archives. I haven’t been in years either, so we decided to make an afternoon of it. The highlight of the Archives of course is that it houses the Declaration, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Seeing these documents in person as opposed to them just being some abstract thing you learn about in history class is unbelievably cool. Yes, I’m a total nerd!

Our main reason for visiting the Archives on this trip, however, was to see a new temporary exhibit called To The Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The exhibit looks back at the crisis and features real-time White House recordings from Kennedy’s meetings in October of 1962. Also at the exhibit are chairs used by President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev during the June 1961 Vienna Summit. It has personality studies of Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, satellite photos of missile sites under construction in Cuba,  a map of Cuba used and annotated by President Kennedy,  secret correspondence between Kennedy and Khrushchev and a synopsis of a speech that never had to be delivered that President Kennedy drafted if he had to announce an attack to “destroy the nuclear build-up in Cuba.”

The exhibit was great – full of information and cool pieces of history. I could’ve spent hours more there listening to all of the recordings from Kennedy’s meetings and hope to get back before the exhibit closes. If you’re planning on being in D.C. between now and February, this is a can’t miss museum.

Running in the Rain

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The October 7 Run for the Parks 10k got here before I knew it. Where is this year going? Everytime I blink another month goes by. Naturally, I still hadn’t seen a doctor about the tightness and pain that started in my hip flexors this summer, so this was going to be another race that I treated more like a training run than an actual race. I wasn’t thrilled about that and I really wasn’t thrilled that temperatures were supposed to drop 25-30 degrees overnight the morning of the race.

This face pretty much sums up my race day attitude!

Put on by the Potomac River Runners, the Run for the Parks 10k was held in West Potomac Park. This has always been my least favorite stretch of races like Marine Corps and Cherry Blossom, but since it’s right around the corner from my office I force myself to frequently run it on my lunch time and post-work runs. I still share a love-hate relationship with this flat, quiet and windy stretch of road, but it’s actually starting to lean more towards love.

I woke up early on race morning already angry about not getting to sleep in after only catching a couple hours of sleep. Seeing it was 40s and rainy didn’t make me much happier. West Potomac Park doesn’t have any real close public transportation so I took my negative attitude over to the closest bike share rack and rode my way into D.C. for the race. I was at least pleased with myself for not bagging the race and crawling back into bed.

I lined up at the starting line pretty chilly, but warmed up quickly. We headed down Ohio Drive and around the bend at Hains Point before turning around and tracing our steps back toward the finish. I started slightly faster than I planned, slowed in the middle and sped up again for the last two miles. My hips were annoyingly tight once again so I averaged a 7:50 per mile pace, which for a 10k is slow for me. (For anyone that’s annoyed by that, years ago that would have been a quick 10k pace for me – it’s all relative and fast and slow is different for every runner.) My finish time was 48:40 good for 16th in my age group and 56 out 643 female finishers, so I can’t complain too much.

The rain wasn’t bad, but it held steady throughout the race, and the temps weren’t showing any signs of rising. All I wanted to do after crossing the finish line was go home and take a hot shower, but I noticed that Fast Track Physical Therapy was on-hand giving massages and free injury consults. I figured it was finally time and signed up for the waiting list for an injury consult. It didn’t take them long to tell me I was in fact injured and needed to stop denying it. I set up an appointment to visit their office, and will hopefully get to the bottom of this soon so I can get back to a training schedule and working toward Boston again!

On a side note, I’m pretty sure my finish line pic (courtesy of Potomac River Running’s Flickr page) could rival some of Mark Remy’s best “race face” pics.

Revenge of the Penguins 20 Miler Recap

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I’ve been neglecting my blog for far too long and have some catching up to do now. When I initially signed up for this race, I was going to use it as one of my 20-miler training runs along the way to MCM. However, with the continuing hip issues I hadn’t run further than seven miles for my long runs, so I wanted to use this as a test to see if it still made sense to run the Marine Corps Marathon this October. The results weren’t all bad, but they certainly weren’t good either.

The Revenge of the Penguins 20 Miler ran along the C&O Canal path starting near the Key Bridge in Georgetown on a beautiful, sunny and cool mid-September morning. The race start was only about a mile from my apartment so I walked over that morning with just what I needed to race and my keys and cell phone stuffed in my water pack. I was worried there wouldn’t be a bag drop being such a small race, but it turned out there was, so I really wish I’d brought a hoodie along to keep warm before the race started.

A few hundred people gathered near the start ready to run either the 20-mile or 10-mile options. Race organizers and volunteers were energetic and enthusiastic from start to finish making this a great low-key race. For those that know the C&O, it’s a pretty narrow path, so the 20-milers took off a few minutes before the 10-milers to cut-down on early crowding.

For the first-time ever in a race I wore headphones. It was a last minute decision so I didn’t even have my iPod, I just used my phone. I’m normally very against this because I think that you miss out on the race experience and it can also be dangerous. Seeing as this was along a canal path, there wasn’t going to be crowds of spectators cheering along the way and there wouldn’t be any traffic to worry about. Still, I kept the volume low so I could hear other runners approaching and hear any directions from volunteers at water stops. As I ran almost the entire race on my own at a much slower pace than I’m used to, I’m pretty glad I had the music taking my mind off things.

My plan was a slow, steady race pace so as not to aggravate my hip flexors. One of the positives I took away from the race is that I actually maintained a steady pace with a small negative split (negative split is runner-speak for running the second half of a race quicker than the first half). I have a tendency to start off too strong and slow up, so I was pleased that I kept it steady for all 20 miles. I enjoyed the out-and-back along the canal. I frequently run on the Capital Crescent trail very close to the C&O path, so this was a nice change of scenery, and we could not have had better weather.

I crossed the finish line in 2:59:11, sixth in my age group and 46th out of 184 overall. Everyone’s GPS watches had the course at about 20.3-20.4, so I averaged just over an 8:45 pace. I was pleased with how it turned out, especially given the lack of training, and I certainly didn’t mind the post-race pizza and snacks before my walk home! My only issue was receiving Powerade Zero at the finish. Now I appreciate anything that’s free, but come on, I just ran 20 miles – give me some calories!

After the race I made the tough decision to defer my entry in Marine Corps to next year’s race. I only had a few days left to defer, and I knew that there was no way between then and race day that I could get the mileage in at the paces I needed to to reach my Boston Qualifying goal time. I could go out there and run the race at a slow pace just to finish as I have done with marathons before, but I know I wouldn’t enjoy that this time. I’m bummed about missing the race as it’s one of my favorites, but I’m excited about getting healthy and competing in it next year. I’m already starting to plan out my race schedule for the rest of next year as well. I can’t wait to get more details on the newly announced Nike Women’s half in D.C.

 

 

Race Recap: Running to Remember

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Last weekend I ran the Arlington Police, Fire & Sheriff 9-11 Memorial 5k. Like most Americans I vividly remember where I was that day 11 years ago when the planes first hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. It was surreal at first. I remember thinking it must have just been an accidently plane crash when I heard about the first plane. After the second plane hit, the terrifying realization that this was not an accident set in.

During last year’s tenth anniversary of the attacks, I watched hours of footage from that day – much of it sad and horrifying, but also uplifting to remember how everyone came together for each other after the attacks. I was amazed at how many of the stories I had forgotten about. I think it’s so important to remember that day, the victims and their loved ones left behind, and one of the ways I can do that is participating in this race.

This is my second year running the local 9-11 5k that takes off from Army Navy Drive and loops through Crystal City before running by the Pentagon where another one of the terrorist planes struck that day. It’s incredibly moving to pass by the Pentagon and to see all of the law enforcement and fire fighters running together. I love the bag pipers along the course as well. Last year we finished under an American flag held up by the ladders of two fire trucks, which was amazing and I’m assuming had to be scrapped this year because of the weather.

As my last post mentioned, I haven’t been able to run as much lately due to some hip issues so this would be my first time out on the road and off of a treadmill in awhile. My plan was to take it easy and see how I felt back on the road. I put in a slow, one-hour treadmill run on Friday night and cranked out a couple miles Saturday morning also on the treadmill before spinning class. My main reason for getting some miles in that morning was that I wasn’t sure if the race would go on.

We had some pretty severe storm warnings for Saturday night, but fortunately the storm hit early enough and moved quickly enough that the race went on as scheduled with a minor delay. The start of the race was pretty chaotic and disorganized as people piled into the starting corral after the rain delay with little regard for what pace they were running. I got the biggest laugh out of a girl I passed in the first quarter mile who was telling her friend that she was going to go slow so that she wouldn’t sweat – apparently she missed the fact that one, it was raining, and two, she was running a race! Knowing what this race was about certainly puts things in perspective and kept me from getting angry.

Despite the crowded start, I still went out a little faster than I planned, finishing the first mile in about 7:15. I pulled in the reins and slowed it down a bit for the remaining 2.1, finishing in 22:49. While much slower than my PR, it was a lot better than I had expected given the circumstances and my hips only tightened up slightly after the run, but didn’t bother me during it, which seems promising.

The time was good enough for 246th overall out of 3,070 and 10th out of 504 in my age group. I also ran as part of the Pacers Ambassadors team which finished in an impressive 16th place out of 68 teams in the open division!

I encourage anyone who lives in this area to run this race next year if you haven’t yet. It’s an experience you won’t forget, and a way to always remember what happened on that tragic day.

9.11.01 Never Forget.

Fun in the District

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I moved to Arlington for grad school six years ago now. It’s so hard to believe I’ve been down here that long – time has absolutely flown by. I instantly fell in love with this area and am still blown away by how many cool things there are to do in Arlington, D.C. and even occasionally (usually begrudgingly) Maryland.

I’ve gotten to a couple Nats games already this season. Nats Park is a great, new stadium with some awesome stadium food options too! I’m a fan of the Ben’s Chili Bowl spot, but might have to try out Shake Shack on my next trip there now that I’ve finally gone to their restaurant. I was lucky enough to go to opening day here during the Nats inaugural season and have attended several games a year since then, even getting to sit in the Diamond Club seats once.

This season I caught a Saturday afternoon game with friends in a packed stadium to watch the Nats beat the Phillies and got out of work for a weekday game as part of a department outing. We got to see Strasburg pitch, but unfortunately it wasn’t his day as the Nats lost to the Padres.

My parents made a trip down to D.C. to visit in late May, and having visitors is always a good excuse to get to play tourist in my own city. They’ve been coming down for years now, so we’ve already done most of the usual touristy things and joke that most of our visits are planned around food, but with all the great restaurants down here, you can’t go wrong doing that! We ate at some of our usual favorites, Rhodeside Grill, RiRa and Brooklyn Bagel Bakery (best bagel spot in the greater D.C. region!). We also got a deep dish and a thin crust at District of Pi Pizzeria, which my Dad had never been to and wanted to try after I’d been raving about it for some time. It didn’t disappoint. Their specialty seems to be the deep dish pizzas, but both of ours were delicious. The service left a bit to be desired, but fortunately the pizza was so good it made up for that.

On our past visits to the National Mall, we’ve never made it all the way down to the Capitol Building so I decided to start on that end this time. I get to run around this area a lot and it’s such a great site to take in, so I was excited for them to get to see it up close finally. I waited too long to try and get tickets for a tour unfortunately, but we walked all the way around the outside and passed by the Supreme Court and Library of Congress as well.

My favorite museum to visit in D.C. has always been the Newseum. Working so close to the National Mall now, I have no excuse not to visit some of the Smithsonian museums I still haven’t managed to get to in my six years here. I’ll share some future posts on my experiences at them and which ones I think are most worth visiting.

My Best Forest Gump Impression

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Last Saturday I started running, and kept on running for a lot of my day. It was my last big, long run before my upcoming marathon so I had a 20-miler on tap for the day. I was up bright and early so I could get 6 miles in before meeting up with the DC Road Runners for a 14 miler at 7.

I started out with a loop that took me over the Key Bridge, through Georgetown, down Rock Creek Parkway and back to the Iwo Jima Memorial via Memorial Bridge. The Road Runners route took me on a course I hadn’t run before, and if I’d know how hilly it was ahead of time, I might have just chosen to finish my 20 on my own! The first five miles felt like a seemingly endless uphill battle, but hills are always easier when you’ve got other runners to help push you up them. The run took me up the Custis Trail, through Zach Taylor Park and by Marymount College before a very steep downhill sent me over Chain Bridge onto the C&O path, by the Kennedy Center, back over the Memorial Bridge and up the Mount Vernon trail back through Rosslyn.

Getting ready for the Pacers Mini Relay with Blair and Lindsay

I’ve had some tough, bad-day runs over the last couple weeks, which can be pretty discouraging leading up  to a race, so I really wanted to do well on my last big test before my next marathon. My pace was a bit slower than I’ll need to qualify at 8:29 per mile, but I felt strong throughout and given the terrain we followed, I wasn’t disappointed with the time. I ran some pretty fast late miles too finishing miles 17 and 18 in close to 8 minutes each. I crashed a little at the end and slowed way down for miles 19 and 20, but instead of letting this freak me out, I’m going to hope it just had to do with the extreme ups and downs over the course and will look forward to the mostly flat marathon course I have coming up at the Niagara marathon.

One of my favorite Saturday post-long run treats is waffles, so I had my waffle iron, mixing bowl and ingredients out and ready to make things as easy as possible when I got home from the run. After a quick shower and some delicious waffles, I had a few hours to sit on the couch and ice my legs. I wasn’t done yet though.

I met up with my friend Lindsay and fellow Pacers Ambassador Blair for the Pacers Mini Relay. Pacers teamed up with Ragnar and Saucony to put this race on and it was a lot of fun. It was more of a fun run since it wasn’t a timed event and there were no winners or awards, but it was a blast and ended with a great party at the Clarendon store. The starting point was the Pacers location in Alexandria and the run went from store to store with the last leg ending at Clarendon. Blair started us off running the longest leg from the Old Town Alexandria store to the Pentagon Row location. I took off from there on a 5-mile route to their Logan Circle store, where Lindsay finished things off with the shortest, but by far the steepest leg of the race ending at the party in Clarendon.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to move very well, but was surprised how good I felt. After running my first mile in 7:25, I looked at the Garmin shocked and decided to slow it down a little, but still managed to average a 7:40 pace over the 5 miles, which left me feeling pretty good. My only issue was the lack of signage at a few spots along the course. There was no set route as you were allowed to get from point to point taking any route you wanted, but there were suggested routes and at least along my section a turn off of Rock Creek Parkway onto P street was completely unmarked. Not being familiar with that section of the trail, I would have had no idea it was where I was supposed to turn had I not seen another runner sporting an orange snap bracelet out of the corner of my eye. A small sign posted in the ground would have been really helpful, but I guess figuring out your way was also part of the fun of this event.

All participants got a commemorative pint glass at the finish filled with complimentary beer – more races should end this way! To make the day even better, a grilled cheese food truck pulled up outside of the party so Lindsay and I enjoyed delicious Vermont Cheddar Cheese sandwiches on sourdough. The event was a lot of fun and a great way to meet and mingle with other runners in the area. I can’t wait to do it again next year, but maybe next time I’ll plan better and won’t run 20 miles earlier in the day!

Crystal Run 5K Friday Take 3

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This Friday marked my sixth weekend in a row of racing and my third Friday heading
over to Crystal City after work for the Pacers 5K Friday series. I got there early again to
help out with bib pick-up before the race and was happy for another night of my favorite
race weather. It was warm and sunny, but not too hot.

Sporting my new Newtons that I bought last week (after just a week of running in them,
I’m already in love!) I didn’t need a test pair from the Shoe Lab this week, but did get a
cool free tee when I stopped by to say hi after the race! Race shirts for series entrants
were also available this week. I’m a fan of this year’s design. Pics below.

It was my slowest race of the series, but still almost a full minute faster than I was
running 5Ks last year, so I was feeling pretty good after the race. My 21:51 finish was
good for 136th of 1,381 overall, 20th of 724 females and 14th out 336 in my age group.

Last week I did a good job of keeping a steady pace, but after getting caught weaving in
and out a little bit at the start, I started pushing the pace thinking I had to make up time
and ended up hitting the first mile mark in 6:40. I wasn’t able to maintain that however,
running my second mile in 7:03 and the third in 7-flat. With just one week left, I’m hoping
for another good outing next weekend.

I followed Friday’s race up with a long run Saturday morning with the DC Road Runners
who I ran with for the first time last week. Getting up by 7:30 on a Saturday might be
normal for a lot of people, but is no small task for me, so I was pumped I was able to get
myself up again and out the door in time to run with the group.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, running with a group really helps me pick up the
pace and push myself to run faster. One of the other cool things is learning new routes
I had never ventured on before. The downside I learned this week is that there are a
whole bunch of people around to see when you take a spill along a trail. Yea… that
happened. On the plus side, I wasn’t hurt at all – except for maybe a bruised ego!