Hoover Hope Ride

Ever since M fell in love with road biking 2 years ago, he has been trying to convince me to join him.  I was never crazy about the thought of riding a bike on the road as I don't trust myself or drivers, so I resisted.  Recently, however, he began doing his tri training rides at Natchez Trace which is a 444-mile scenic drive that is super popular for bikers and has very limited traffic (the few cars you see are usually toting road bikes themselves).  We rented a bike one weekend for me to try out and after my first ride, I was hooked.  It was a better workout than I expected, not as scary as I feared, and had the beautiful benefit of being impact free (my shins and hips thanked me). After driving all over Nashville and testing out lots of bikes, we found one we both agreed on and I became the newest owner of a road bike!

 

 

site: http://www.hooverhope.org/home.cfm

Not long after my purchase, I discovered a road bike race a little south of us and set my goal on doing the 20 mile portion.  I convinced Mike and two of the guys I work with to do the 40 mile option.  I was a little nervous as it was only my third time on my bike and definitely my first time with that distance. 

The morning arrived and was absolutely beautiful: zero clouds, blue skies, and crisp temperatures.  The race took place near Arrington vineyards (those of you who have been will probably remember how gorgeous the scenery out there is).  I was super scared getting started in such a big group and trying to get my feet into the cage pedals but, once we got going, it was great.  M and I stayed together for the first 3.5 miles before splitting off on our respective courses. 

There weren't too many people on the 20 mile course and I was usually by myself.  I learned two things about rural Tennessee: it's super pretty and contains super hills.  Some of the hills were crazy but it was overall pretty reasonable.  {I'm not sure that M would say his course was reasonable- he equated his to the Swiss Alps.}

I finished up the ride fairly painlessly and waited around for the boys to get done.  I met some of the organizers of the event as well as the mom of the boy who the foundation is in honor of.  The foundation was created to raise money for pediatric cancer research after Liam Hoover lost his battle with brain cancer.  They have hosted a 5k run for 7 years and this was the first year for the bike ride.  It was a great event for a great cause and I'll definitely be marking my calendar for next years... maybe even for a longer distance!

Currahee Challenge

Last weekend we made a trip to my bro's (Alex and T) in Georgia for a little running and a lot of visiting.  A had told us about a run in nearby Toccoa, GA at Currahee Mountain.  Mt. Currahee was used as a training ground for paratroopers in WWII and was the setting for the popular HBO series Band of Brothers. The peak stands at 1735 feet which makes for some pretty challenging climbs.  The paratroopers motto became "3 miles up, 3 miles down" and stands as the race motto today.

We arrived at the mountain early, checked in and fought the cold, upper-40s temperatures as we waited for the race to start.  A&T are the experts at this mountain as they've been running it on weekends and they warned us of steep inclines making up the third mile.

check out my ridiculous trail running shoes. briiight.

The race began with a quick out and back on the road (added to make the distance a full 10k) before starting UP the mountain.  The first two miles were pretty steep rolling hills with plenty of ups and downs.  As warned, mile three was suuuper intense and rounding each curve just gave sight to another crazy hill.  I often felt as though I were running in place and glances at my Garmin confirmed these feelings.

up

really up

almost there

I was beyond thrilled to make it to the peak.  The views up top were amazing!

gorgeous

Coming back down was awesome.  I felt like I was flying on the steep declines (which is rare feeling for me as I'm usually a "slow and steady" runner).  Unfortunately, those pretty rolling hills on the way up made for some challenging moments on my tired legs on the way back.  Crossing the finish line was a great feeling, especially because I was only 3 minutes behind my speedy husband!  The time for my 10K was 1:03 which placed me fourth in my age group and seventh female overall. 

A finishing- he never stopped to walk- ridiculous!

I absolutely loved my first experience with trail running.  The gorgeous scenes, relaxed atmosphere and new type of challenge all appealed to me.  I'm already finding new trail races to sign up for! 

Mike's First Tri

After hearing Hubs talk about wanting to do a triathlon for what seemed like months, we finally found a weekend with a good race option and no plans and I forced encouraged him to sign up.  He followed a pretty action filled training plan with swim, run, bike, and combo workouts. 

The event included a half-ironman distance, olympic distance, and sprint distance.   M was competing in the sprint distance (400 meter swim, 14 mile bike, 3.5 mile run) so his start time wasn't until 11:30 am.  The weather that day was absolutely gorgeous so we arrived a little early to watch some of the other races and get set up.

laying out the gear

marked with race numbers

by the Cumberland river

Swimming was the event he was most worried about.  He'd heard your first open-water swim was an experience in itself as far as not being able to see, being surrounded by flailing arms and legs and attempting to swim in the right direction despite a pretty significant current. 

cute hat ;)

getting ready

his corral was up first

they're off

all the swimmers

made it!

It was impossible to tell who was who in the swim with everyone in their sweet blue hats so I was super excited when he emerged from the water.  He said this was absolutely the hardest part.  The water was cold (for Floridians) and he swallowed his share of it. 

At this point, I sprinted across the grounds to where I'd be able to see him starting the bike course.  He was riding by in no time at all and was surprised to see me already there with the camera. 

the only smile i got on the boy all day!

During the 45 minutes he was off on the bike, I got to see tons of runners and bikers from the other events.  Seeing the half ironman-ers was such a cool experience.  {In case you don't know, half-iron = 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run.}  These people were competing in an event my body could never dream of completing and I loved being able to cheer them on.  I remembered being frustrated in our races when people would only cheer for their own friends and just stare blankly as others went by.  I know how far a simple word of encouragement can push you when you are struggling along. 

almost done

M finished the bike pretty quickly and I knew it was just a few minutes till he would be coming back by on foot. 

he's so speedy

At this point, I headed over to the finish line and a few minutes later, he was done! 

don't worry, not his time ;)

see what I said about the smile?

One of the first things he said (after asking what his time was) was "that was so much fun!" Apparently, he loved every minute of it and can't wait to do more triathlons.  I was so proud of him for meeting his time goal in each event and doing so awesome in his first race. 

The excitement that day was a little infectious so we may both be counting down to the start of tri season next year. 

Work it out

After enduring months of my begging nice suggestions, the Mister finally gave in to my endless requests to join a gym.  Apparently, he was planning on giving me the go-ahead as a Christmas gift and when I mentioned that the membership fees at the YMCA were waived until December 1st, he told me to go sign up!  I was so surprised and so thrilled. 

I enjoy running outside but have missed group fitness classes and the motivation from busy gyms that I haven't had since leaving GHFC.  I tried Vanderbilt's gym many times but the limited classes never fit with my schedule and driving 30 minutes each way for a workout is not something I ever wanted to do.  We now have lots of options including a brand new smaller gym a mile and half away and a huge one a few miles farther.  I've been a couple times and love it! I can't wait till Mike is over his horrible cold so he can come with.

At-home Strength Variety Workout

I reeeally wanted to run today.  I went so far as to get dressed and ready to go before I convinced myself that I'd better not push my luck.  Apparently, Hubs is tired of me complaining about my foot hurting.  Instead I decided to do some strength training at home.  I worked up quite a sweat!  I'd never done most of these exercises before and I enjoyed the variety. 

chair to plie 16 of first, 12 of second; I held 3 lb weights as long as I could
crescent with walking arms 16 each side with 3 lb weights
side angle raise I did 8/side of these and 8/side of pulling my arm straight back (like pulling the string to start a lawnmower)
rowing plie 5/side; I used a 10 lb hand weight as I don't have a medicine ball
mermaid twist 14/side
kick the can 20/side (ouch!)
Repeat!

I added some reverse crunches and bicycles at the end for a little ab work. 

{Moves courtesy of Shape Magazine}

Busy

The past two days have been super busy for me.  The summer semester is winding down and my time has been sucked up by studying, trying to finish up my summer clinical work, lab report writing, and monthly QA at the clinic.  After 11 hours at school yesterday, I was not being very productive at anything so I decided to squeeze in one of my favorite short workouts before heading to bed to study fall asleep way too early.   The first time I did this one was right before CMA music fest where we had to climb to the tippy top of the Titans football stadium.  Mike made fun of my struggle to the top the first night.  I made him do the workout the next day so he could see how incredibly sore it makes you!  You can find it here.  The maneuvers take a bit of figuring out the first time around but there are pictures to help you through!  All you need is a set of 3-5 pound weights. 
I'm off to review for tomorrow's brachytherapy test!  Let's hope Hubs pulls through with his ritual of making me cookies when I study because I'm really craving some oatmeal deliciousness right about now.  Wish me luck!

Saturday Run

I decided to take advantage of the not-quite-as-miserably-hot morning today and the fact that I found a slightly less hilly area nearby to get in a good run.  Most of the streets immediately around us are major roads with no sidewalks so I was excited to find a large, new neighborhood filled with sidewalks and trails about a mile from our house.  For those of you from Gainesville, it reminds me of Haile Village Center with lots of shops and a mix of single family homes, townhouses, condos, shops, etc.  Mike dropped me off a little before seven (the road to get there is STEEP and I didn't want to be burned out before I even got started).  This was my first run with my Garmin GPS watch that we got back in May.  Apparently tall, city buildings are really good at blocking the satellites and it never worked well downtown.  I was pleasantly surprised by it's performance today!  I didn't use any of the advanced features for my first go, but enjoyed knowing my exact pace, time, distance, etc.  I planned on doing 5 miles and then walking home but a little way into my walk home I got bored and decided to just run it out.  The watch tells me my total stats:

and my splits:
Mile 1 - 9:54
Mile 2 - 10:15
Mile 3 - 9:52
Mile 4 - 10:07
Mile 5 - 10:16
Mile 6 - 10:51
Pretty cool!

When I got home, I wanted something cold for breakfast so I decided to make a new smoothie I'd been wanting to try.  It was amazing!  Mike, who is a self-proclaimed smoothie master, admitted it was the best he's had too.

Ingredients:
~5 ice cubes
3/4 cup frozen strawberries
1 banana (I couldn't get the frozen one out of it's peel so I used a fresh one)
handful of fresh blueberries
half a handful of frozen chopped spinach
1 scoop stawberry Whey Protein powder
Splash of vanilla flavored almond milk (if you haven't had this stuff, go to the store now and get some- it's life changing.  I could seriously drink a carton of it every day. mmmm!)
1/2 a cup regular milk

Blend it all up and enjoy!

Quick Cardio

Because of our recent move (more on that soon!), I'm forced to adjust to life without a gym and get creative with at-home workouts that can be done with little to no equipment.  This morning's comes from How Sweet It Is and is a quick but challenging workout. Hubs thought I was insane when he woke up to me jumping around like a crazy person. 

50 jumping jacks
20 alternating lunges
10 tuck jumps
20 squats
60 sec high knees
10 squat jumps
10 burpees
60 sec jump rope
20 sec mountain climbers
25 pushups
60 sec plank
REPEAT!