Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

This was a pretty hectic week but a great training one. I started off Monday getting in my long run I missed during the previous week and ended the week at FitBloggin’13 in Portland fitting in 6 workouts in 2 days! I had so much fun and wish I could do this every weekend!

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Monday was really hot but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get my long run in early so instead I went during the hottest times of the day splitting my runs into 2 1-hour stints at lunch and just after work. I got 6.5 miles in around Hains Point during lunch and looped the opposite way plus over the Memorial Bridge back home for 7 miles after work.

Tuesday: Tonight I ran a 5k put on by the DC Road Runners. Check out the full recap.

Wednesday: Rest Day – although since it was moving day I think I got in a fair amount of cross training with all the lifting and walking up and down stairs I did in 90+ degree heat.

Thursday: Travel Day – flew out to Portland.

Friday: I started off with an early morning boot camp class, then hit the streets of Portland for a 20-minute tempo run and rushed back to the hotel for a Reebok cardio dance class…my kind of day!

Saturday: It was another early morning with some 6 a.m. SweatPink yoga, a 5-mile run along the water and a trampoline fitness class! Can you tell I enjoyed this one???

Sunday: I woke up bright and early one more time – staying on east coast time really helped me this weekend – and got in a 2 hour long run looping around the Portland waterfront area and bridges.

Trailblazing Through Saturday at FitBloggin Portland

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

It was another crazy busy, but awesome day at FitBloggin. I’m so glad I came out to Portland for this conference – it was even better than I could have hoped for! Like I said in yesterday’s post, I’ll get fuller, more in-depth recap posts up soon, but here’s a quick recap of my Saturday here.

My alarm went off bright and early again, and I was off to SweatPink yoga. It was one of the best yoga classes I’ve taken in a long time. I rushed off to squeeze a 5-miler along the water in so I could get back in time for my fitness trampoline class. Yes, you read that right. So. Much. Fun!

I needed to refuel after getting all of that in by 9 a.m., so I made my way by the Got Chocolate Milk booth in the expo…

We hit up a food truck area for lunch and then the afternoon was packed with some really great info-filled sessions. I went to a workshop on creating media kits, followed by a session on photography for blogging and finally a google analytics session. My brain is in serious overload. I learned so much. The people here are amazing. I can’t say enough about it.

We officially wrap things up in the morning with a fun run and goodbye breakfast. It’s going to be hard to leave!

FitBloggin Day One: Is This Heaven?

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

The first full day of FitBloggin’13 was awesome! I had so much fun and was totally in my element. By 9 a.m. I’d gone to boot camp, got out for a quick run around Portland and taken a Reebok cardio dance class. (The time change really helps make me a morning person.) Can I please do this everyday?! They also had a great hot breakfast for us, which made my morning.

Free Hugs Wrist Bands at FitBloggin

I went to some great small group discussions later that morning. The first was a talk about motivating your community to live healthier lifestyles and the second focused on tackling the taboo of therapy. An athletic wear fashion show at lunch was followed by a presentation from Reebok on choosing the perfect shoe. I also learned a lot during a couple more afternoon sessions on using SEO and monetizing your blog.

After a great dinner with Ian at a local Italian restaurant I headed back for the Ignite Fitness keynote featuring 5-minute presentations from various FitBloggin attendees. Everyone was so amazing and inspiring. Loved it. I am completely exhausted, but excited for more to come on day two. Full recaps and more pictures to come soon!

FitBloggin’13 is Underway

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I know I’ve been talking about it a lot, but FitBloggin’13 is finally here, and it’s off to a great start! I was a bit nervous heading down to registration and the welcome mixer since I didn’t know anyone here, but those worries went away quickly. I checked in and was immediately handed a bag full of swag and sent to the Reebok table in the expo to pick up some shoes and a tank top. Leading up to this week, I heard rumors on twitter of the swag being great here and they did not exaggerate! I got some incredible stuff…

So much SWAG!!!

After heading into the welcome mixer I worked my way over to a table to decorate my name tag and started to talk to some of the other bloggers. We had a good amount of time to mingle and then played some fun ice breakers to get to know each other ending with a mini dance party. This is going to be a great couple days! It’s also going to be a busy couple days so I’ll do my best to get some updates on the blog, but expect full recaps to come after I’m back home!

Early to bed tonight to get ready for an action-packed day tomorrow starting with boot camp and a Reebok cardio dance class. Here we go!

Ready for a Break!

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, life has been a bit hectic lately. While I do love being busy, I headed off for vacation in Portland today and was so ready for it! I’ll be spending my first couple days at FitBloggin, which I’m so excited for, and then Ian and I will have another couple days to just relax and play tourist.

Around this time last night, I wasn’t so sure we were going to make it. We started moving into our new apartment after I got out of work Wednesday – because who wouldn’t think it’s a great idea to try to fit in a move in one evening the night before trying to catch a 7 a.m. flight?! (Looking in a mirror, shaking head at self disappointingly.)

Ian got up to the new place before I got out of work to let the bed delivery folks from Mattress Warehouse in. They were less than awesome, but at least he managed to get them to still bring it after a bit of a battle. He had our Zip Van ready to go at the loading dock when I got home and we started piling things in. Of course it was over 90 degrees out and raining on and off, because why not?

I was re-engergized when we dropped off the first load of stuff and I got to see the place. I never actually got to see our unit when we toured there because they were completely remodeling it before we moved in, so we saw a similar style, but smaller unit. I am so incredibly excited about the new place and can’t wait to get all settled in there when we get back from Portland.

Next up we headed into D.C. to pick up a coffee table and TV stand I found on craigslist because we already had the van, so why not fit one more thing into our night? Next up was a return to our old place to drop off the coffee table, which is actually staying there as we’re renting it out furnished, and pick up a few more pieces of furniture. We drove back to the new place and took a quick break for dinner at California Tortilla before unloading the last few things. Just after 10 we decided to call it a night and go bring the Zip Van back before returning for one last night in our old place. I still had laundry and packing to do and was running on just a couple hours sleep so I’d had enough.

Unfortunately the universe didn’t think I’d had quite enough yet and we walked out to find our Zip Van was GONE! It had been towed. Not going to lie – I was a bit upset! We managed to track it down and bail it out of car jail, but didn’t make it home till almost midnight. By the time we finished laundry and packing it was after 2. That 5 a.m. wake up call sure came quick!

I slept the entire first leg of the trip on our flight to Phoenix though and feel worlds better. I even enjoyed some breakfast pizza in Phoenix, which was shockingly good for airport food.

Now it’s time for a break – or well, my version of a break, which will include a couple days of workouts, sessions and meeting new blogger friends at FitBloggin’13. So excited!

Tell me your crazy moving stories? Anyone else have vacation plans coming up this summer?

Race Recap: Smoking…

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

Tuesday night I ran the 2013 Women’s Distance Festival 5k. It was one of the DC Road Runners 2013 Bunion Derby series. It was actually one of two races that night. The race I did was a field of all women and we were followed 15 minutes later by a field of all men running the Run After the Women 5k.

The race took place in Bluemont Park starting near the South Pavilion. The out and back course seemed tailor-made for a PR and a negative split with what felt like a few gentle hills on the way out and slight downhills coming back. Unfortunately, the title of this blog does not describe my pace for the day. Instead it was smoking hot out – well above 90 degrees still at the 7 p.m. start time.

I love warmer weather and will take it over the cold any day, so I hate admitting that the heat slows me down, but this definitely felt like the case Tuesday night. I was drinking water and fruit punch Nuun electrolyte tabs all day so I was really well hydrated or it could have been a lot worse. Still I had an A goal of breaking my 21:25 PR and a B goal of breaking at least 22 minutes, but ended up crossing the line in 23:03. I realized just before the start that I’d forgotten my inhaler and immediately got upset with myself over that. I need to up my mental game when it comes to those kind of things (i.e. my Garmin dying before the start of the Nike Women’s Half), so I don’t let them effect my race.

At the start line.

We started off on a shaded path through the park and turned onto the W&OD trail where the sun was beating down into my eyes until the turnaround. I wish I’d worn sunglasses in addition to my running cap, but that was at least somewhat helpful. My legs felt strong, but my breathing was definitely harder than it should be for the pace I was running. I think it was part still getting my fitness level to where I want it to be, but also a bit due to the heat as well. I finished mile 1 in a (slow for a 5k) 7:15 pace, which wasn’t too bad, but then slowed down drastically on mile 2 – 7:48 – before picking it back up a little for a 7:25 third mile.

Despite the heat it was a really fun race. It looks like another one in their Bunion Derby series is on the same course in couple weeks, so I might give it another shot! I love the smaller races – and being a DC Road Runners club member, this was completely free for me. Can’t beat that! My usual 5k support crew of 1 (Ian) doubled for this race as a college buddy of his was in town and agreed to come along, so it was fun to have them cheering for me as I ran to the finish line.

Have to love those attractive race pics {insert sarcasm}…

Courtesy of the DC Road Runners Facebook page

Another positive takeaway was my new shoes felt great. I picked the Newton MV2s up last Friday and other than a slower run over the weekend this was my first big test run with the super light, zero heel-to-toe drop shoes. I really liked how they felt and will keep using them for my shorter races and speed workouts! Also, despite coming in slower than I hoped, I still finished 13th out of 87 women and 6th in my age group! All in all, this was a great way to spend a Tuesday night…especially since it was followed up with a trip to Ray’s Hellburger!

Warp Speed

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

Ever since Memorial Day Weekend, I feel like I’ve been living in warp speed. There’s been a lot going on to say the least, but all good things, so I’m okay with that! Ian and I started apartment hunting that weekend and ended up loving the first place we looked at. We went back there shortly after our tour to put a hold on the unit we wanted and filled out some paper work to put things in motion to sign a lease. We move in tomorrow night and I cannot wait! I’ll have more on the new place in a later post.

The following week we had an open house at our current junior one-bedroom condo, which I own, in hopes to find a renter. Everything seemed to fall into place as we had a lease signed shortly after. Then our crazy month of travel started. First we drove up north to his brother’s wedding in the Thousand Islands, which was a great weekend. We made that trek in a ZipVan so we could bring a whole bunch of furniture back down to bring to our new place since we’re renting the current place out furnished. Needless to say, it’s been a little cramped since then.

Less than a week later I headed off to Montreal for five days for a work trip, came home for two days and just like that we were back on the road to Hoboken. My brother and his fiance live there so it’s always fun to visit. We also made it into Manhattan for a 30th birthday celebration for one of my good friends from grad school. They rented out a back bar at Bourbon Street Bar & Grille in Manhattan and we had a blast. She’s a big Harry Potter fan, and while I have to admit I’ve never read the books or seen the movies, this cake was still pretty amazing!

Harry Potter Cake

I’m about six weeks in to working with a running coach and am really feeling good about the progress I’m making. I’m running a local 5k tonight and hoping the 90+ degree temps don’t thwart my attempt at a PR. I feel like I have a great base built to lead into Marine Corps Marathon training – hard to believe it’s that time already!

During all of this craziness I also got an exciting job offer and I start my new gig on July 8. Learning about all things biotech for the last year and a half has been a great learning experience, but I’m really excited about this new opportunity. More to come on that!

After the big move tomorrow night (it’s hard to say big move and not giggle – we’re moving less than a mile from our current place!), we head to Portland, Oregon. I’m spending the first couple days at FitBloggin’13 – sooo excited! – and then we’re going to stay and check out the city for a couple days. It should be a great trip! It’s already been quite a month…maybe in July I’ll have a minute to rest!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

It was another hectic week that started in Montreal for work and ended with a trip to NYC! Some of my runs felt better than others as I was pretty exhausted for some, but overall it was a pretty decent week. My long run got pushed to today, so you’ll see that in next week’s recap.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: Fartlek run around the streets of Montreal for 3.75 miles

Wednesday: Rest/Travel Day

Thursday: It took all of my energy to get myself to the track tonight, but I’m so glad I did. I love how good I feel after those workouts. I did 4X1 mile repeats with a minute break in between and hit my splits at: 7:18, 7:23, 7:22, 7:21.

Friday: 7.35 mile run plus 4 striders around the Mall and Hains Point.

Saturday: 3.65 hilly miles before heading out to Hoboken/NYC!

Sunday: Strength workout with a focus on core/arms.

Running, New Gear and Mac N Cheese Bites…Perfection

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I kicked off last night with a 7-miler at the end of my work day and finished with a few striders that left me feeling both exhausted and energized at the same time. From there the night kept getting better.

Ian and I had a dinner date planned, but stopped by Pacers first so I could pick up some new Newtons since my latest pair have seen a few too many miles. I’ve been eyeing the MV2 model for some time now. At just 5 ounces and with a zero heel-to-toe drop these shoes are built for speed and will be great for my weekly track workouts and shorter distance races. The black and green model looks super sharp as well. I can’t wait to get them out on the road. Once we got home I put them on right away and Ian poked fun at the fact that I always do this with new shoes. Apparently that’s not normal?? This is the one time I can wear them inside without them being gross, so it makes total sense to me!

While I was testing out my shoes at the store Ian wandered off around the store and picked me up a little gift…

The Stick helps to reduce muscle soreness, stiffness and pain. It’s a great massage tool that claims to accelerate muscle recovery and disperse the effects of lactic acid following activity. It’s also a great size for travel so it will be perfect for when I’m on the road, which means I don’t have my foam roller with me and usually end up pretty sore after my tough workouts with no way to work out the pain. I’ve known I’ve needed one of these for awhile, but have put off buying it so I was so excited that Ian got it for me. He said he was thinking about buying me flowers this week, but thought I’d like this better…he sure knows me well!!

After Pacers we walked across the street to Hard Times Cafe for dinner. We couldn’t decide on an appetizer so we ended up getting a couple – turns out their appetizers are pretty filling, so that along with a couple Miller Lites ended up being dinner for me. I immediately saw one of my favorites on the app menu – fried mac ‘n cheese bites. They might not be the healthiest meal, but they sure taste good. We also ordered some Santa Fe egg rolls, which I was a bit skeptical about, but they turned out to be absolutely delicious. I highly recommend these if you find yourself at Hard Times.

We walked back home to Rosslyn after dinner and watched a few episodes of House of Cards, which we started watching recently. We’re already about 12 episodes in and you might say a little bit obsessed.

Talk about a perfect Friday night! Hope you all have a great weekend!

What’s the latest running gear you’ve added to your arsenal?

Spirit of the Marathon II

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I’m a bit late with this post, but I was very excited to get to see Spirit of the Marathon II last week. Thanks to a last minute change in plans for the evening, I quickly ordered tickets online and Ian and I hopped in the car and drove up to the Ballston Theater. I still remember watching the original Spirit of the Marathon in a packed theater with my friend Lindsay and have since watched it too many times to count on Netflix.

I was a little disappointed that the theater wasn’t packed like last time, but it also worked out well since we cut it pretty close to the start and probably wouldn’t have been able to find a seat otherwise. I absolutely loved the movie. It began at the start of the Rome marathon in Italy – talk about some great scenery to run to – and then told the story of seven runners competing in the marathon occasionally coming back to clips of the actual race as they progressed through the course. I loved the diversity of the runners. There were elite runners, a charity runner, first-timers and locals including one 73-year-old who began running late in his life, but had since run all 18 Rome marathons since its inception.

I read a lot of reviews saying they liked the original better, but I have to disagree. Full disclosure – I haven’t seen the original in a while, so maybe it’s just because this one is fresh. The original that focused on runners training for the Chicago marathon was no doubt amazing and inspirational and still one of my favorites. It focused more on the training aspect of getting ready for the marathon while this documentary looked more at the life stories of each person being portrayed and how the marathon was changing them/how it fit into their life. I already know all about the ups and downs of marathon training – learning about these people was really interesting and made for a great story. Ian – a non-runner – actually enjoyed the movie too and I’m not sure he would have liked the first one as much, so if you’re picking one to watch with a non-runner I’d go for this one!

There was also some great history of the marathon interlaced throughout the movie and interviews with some pretty amazing people in the world of running including Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Hal Higdon, Kathrine Switzer, Paula Radcliffe, Nina Kuscsik and more!

If you didn’t catch it’s one-night only appearance in theaters, this is definitely worth a watch (or two) once it comes to DVD/Netflix!

Did you see the movie? What did you think?

Also, it totally made me want to run an overseas marathon again. I’ve done Dublin and Greece. I don’t think it’s in the cards for awhile with everything else I have going on, but maybe someday. How about you – have you ever run a marathon overseas?