Hiya, friends! I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever! As you can tell from my absence, it’s been a busy week, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Here are some highlights:
These new sneakers carried me through two runs this week: Wednesday’s run off the bike and today’s speedwork. I’m tempted to #shoegeek out and share the details, but I’ll spare you. (Unless you come to the store for a shoe fit, then all bets are off!) I will say, though, it’s an extremely light and comfortable shoe, and I plan to use it for speedwork and racing only. On a related note, does anyone know if Lock Laces come in orange?
2. Speaking of racing, I officially signed up to volunteer for Ironman Lake Placid in July.
One of my teammates is tackling the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run, so another one of my teammates and I decided make the trip, volunteer at the race, and support him. We also plan to turn it into a fitness-cation of sorts, meaning we’ll bring our wetsuits, bikes, and running shoes. When in Rome Lake Placid …
3. My aunt and uncle sent the sweetest card from our MuckFest MS Mud Run escapades.
In total, our team raised more than $8,300 for the National MS Society. Way to go, Mighty Mucks!
4. And now for the big news—I got my first big-girl job promotion! I’m the new Community Outreach Coordinator for JackRabbit Union Square!
Since day one, this job has really clicked, and I absolutely love it: doing shoe (and wetsuit!) fits, talking about training goals, and helping people discover healthy living. I’m excited to take on more responsibility, and in this position, I’ll be in charge of brainstorming, planning, and organizing community events like yoga classes, informative workshops, and basically getting JackRabbit’s name out there. There are a few ideas I’m kicking around already, and did I say I’m so excited? Oh, and I get a company email address and business cards. Woohoo!
Tell me about your first job that clicked. Did you love it immediately, or did you grow to enjoy it?
Yes, I’m 23 years old and still make Full House references. The show is applicable to everything. Plus, John Stamos. End of discussion.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mommas out there!
And a little fun from this afternoon’s Smorgasburg visit.
Now it’s time to switch gears and talk workouts. A bunch of my Full Throttle Endurance teammates and coaches are off biking in Italy this week—yes, really—so there are no official organized team workouts until Wednesday morning. However, a few of the non-Italy goers made plans to link up, so I’ll be running and biking with teammates Monday and Tuesday. Here’s this week’s edition of Write It Down, Do It Up!
(If you’re new to WIDDIU, here’s how it works: Every Sunday evening, I post my workout schedule for the week, and I invite you to do the same. This way, we can motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable. Sounds like a win-win, right?)
Monday – a.m. run; a.m. strength train
Tuesday – a.m. bike; a.m. strength train
Wednesday – a.m. brick workout with Full Throttle Endurance (FTE)—indoor cycling and running off the bike
Thursday – a.m. bike; a.m. run
Friday – a.m. swim with FTE
Saturday – a.m. swim with FTE
Sunday – a.m. easy bike or off
How did your workouts go this week? Did you do anything fun for Mother’s Day?
So I know I overuse this phrase, but Sunday was one of the best days ever: My Full Throttle Endurance teammates and I biked from Manhattan to Fort Lee, NJ, did the Escape to the Palisades 5-K, rode around Jersey some more, and then headed back to New York City (and celebrated Cinco de Mayo).
We left New York City at 7 a.m., biked north across the George Washington Bridge (my first time ever!), and arrived at the race site around 8 a.m. Although the ride over was a little stressful—mainly due to a super-narrow uphill bike path that led to the GW Bridge—it was worth it.
This video tours the half-marathon course, which we rode after finishing the 5-K. It was absolutely beautiful and reminded me of Central New York riding. During the season, most FTE members ride to and around Jersey at least once a week, so I’ll definitely be back soon.
Anyway, at the race site, we signed wavers, picked up packets, and stowed our bikes in transition the secured area. And took a few team photos of course!
We ended up hanging out in transition by our bikes for a while, so I didn’t visit any of the booths. It seemed like a home-grown race, so there weren’t a ton of national vendors, but there was a huge Muscle Milk table.
About 15 minutes before the 9 a.m. start, I had this strawberry Hüma Chia Energy Gel. (Full disclosure: Hüma contacted me and asked if I’d like to test two gels in exchange for a review. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.)
In terms of road races, I don’t take gels for any event shorter than a half-marathon, but I knew a pick-me-up after biking and before running would be a good idea. I’ll post a full review after I test the second gel, but so far, I’m a huge fan. This one tasted exactly like strawberries, and aside from its flavor and consistency being spot on, it also didn’t give me any stomach trouble. Total win-win.
Anyway, onto the race. An out-and-back course, the route contained lots of hills, including a killer one at the beginning that spanned half of a mile.
Screenshot from the first 1.5 miles of the half-marathon course, which is why the image is so tiny.
But what goes up must come down: on the bright side, this hill made it easy to negative split the race, which was my primary goal. During both Nautica South Beach and the most recent two-mile time trial, I aimed to get progressively faster each mile, which didn’t exactly happen. My pace group teammates were on board with doing a progressive/tempo run with the goal of negative splitting, so we decided to stick together, but if one of us wanted to make a move, then pulling away was obviously OK.
This was my first 5-K race in nearly one year (was RUNapoolza really my last one?), and I forgot how quickly it goes by! We held a steady 8:20 pace on the hill, which actually acted as a great separator. Yes, it was a smaller race anyway—about 150 runners—but it was still nice to have lots of space. Shortly after clocking the first mile (Garmin said 7:58 I believe), we saw our coach and two teammates making their way back already! Our coach won the entire race (casually running 5:20 miles, crazy!), and our two teammates took second and third. Nice job, FTE!
Once we hit the turnaround mark and headed back, a lot of runners cheered for my female teammate and me. (One guy is also in our pace group, and he was holding strong with us too.) Apparently we were the first two women. What the what?! Guess there’s a first time for everything, right?
At mile two, my teammates told me I should leave them and make my move, but I couldn’t find the next gear; maybe it was biking to the race, maybe it was forgoing a true warm up, maybe it was a combination of the two. It just wasn’t my day; what can you do? With the downhill to the finish line in our sight, my female teammate opened up her stride and flew down. She rocked it and took first overall for women! When I saw her attack, I knew she was gone. I crossed the finish line a few seconds later and posted a final time of 22:29 (7:14 min./mi.), which was good enough for second place overall for women and (lucky) thirteenth overall, including the men. Gotta love the local races!
Overall, FTE did really well: eleven finished in the top 14! Unfortunately, we didn’t stay for the awards ceremony, and it wasn’t until after we were back in NYC we found out there were plaques for the winners. Maybe we’ll bike back next weekend to pick them up!
Do you prefer doing races with friends or by yourself?
Happy Cinco de Mayo, friends! Hope you had a safe and festive holiday! My day started with a 15-ish-mile bike ride from New York City to Fort Lee, NJ for the Escape to the Palisades 5-K with my Full Throttle Endurance teammates.
Too hot for the black Under Armour pants–ditched those for some shorts after this photo was taken.
We came (via bike), we raced, we conquered—and then biked more, ate some delicious carbs, biked back to Manhattan, and finally enjoyed some Cinco de Mayo festivities. The race recap will be posted within the next few days, aka when the official finishing times (and photos!) are released. It was a hilly course, and even though it went relatively well, the highlight of the day for me was biking. Riding in Jersey was absolutely gorgeous, and it reminded me a lot of good ol’ Central New York. Plus, I logged 40-plus miles roundtrip, which is the farthest I’ve ridden—ever. Very solid Sunday!
Time for this week’s Write It Down, Do It Up!
(If you’re new to WIDDIU, here’s how it works: Every Sunday evening, I post my workout schedule for the week, and I invite you to do the same. This way, we can motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable. Sounds like a win-win, right?)
Monday – a.m. run with Full Throttle Endurance (FTE); a.m. strength train
Tuesday – a.m. bike with FTE; a.m. strength train
Wednesday – a.m. indoor cycle with FTE; a.m. run off the bike
Happy Friday! Has this week flown by for anyone else? There are a bunch of things getting me in the Friday/weekend spirit, so I’m going with a list-style post today.
1. This will be my first time in four years celebrating Cinco de Mayo. How is this possible? In college, I always seemed to be stuck at a prof’s house for final portfolio presentations (ah, the joys of a small liberal arts college), which meant no Cinco shenanigans. Things will be different on Sunday!
My teammates and I will bike to the start line of Escape to the Palisades, run the 5-K, and then ride around Jersey. More likely than not, some adult beverages will be consumed—after the race of course.
I’ve been eying this pair for a while, and my size was finally available last night. I’ll spare you the shoe geek specs, but it’s an incredibly light and comfortable shoe. Coincidentally, I’m also due for a new pair of sneakers. Hmmm …
3. In terms of cooking, I took a risk and threw together a new spice blend.
I don’t remember the exact measurements, but it contained cayenne pepper (obviously), garlic powder, brown sugar, and dried thyme, plus some cinnamon and salt. Huge success!
4. This Facebook post made my day: MuckFest MS shared one of my aunt’s photos.
Cross it off my fitness bucket list: on Saturday, the Mighty Mucks completed the inaugural Boston MuckFest MS Mud Run. And we had so much fun!
It was only a matter of time before I did one of these messy obstacle courses, so when my aunt told me she was forming a team, I immediately said yes. Plus, I loved how the mud run functioned as a fundraiser for the National MS Society. If you can use your passion to help others, then why not do your part? My fundraising efforts went much better than expected, and our team raised the second-most money out of all the Boston groups; we ended up being one of the top 10 fundraising teams in the nation. Yaya, Mighty Mucks!
On Friday morning, I traveled to Boston, and my aunt and uncle picked me up at the train station; we spent the day exploring the city before we met a few teammates for dinner at an Italian restaurant located in the North End. We actually didn’t know everyone beforehand—some are from Syracuse, N.Y., others from Philadelphia, and a few from Boston suburbs—but we felt like old friends by the end of the weekend.
Our team of nine registered in the 11:30 a.m. recreational wave, so we got to sleep in and leisurely make our way to the race site. Major props to race organizers and volunteers: even though there were about 3,000 muckers (yes, I’m making it a word!), it took us less than 10 minutes to get our bibs and timing chips.
The Mighty Mucks had two goals: have as much fun as possible and make sure everyone crossed the finish line. Our laidback outlook was refreshing for me. During my training and events, I’m used to hitting specific splits, holding certain paces, and basically pushing nonstop. I really valued taking a step back and doing an athletic event for total, 100 percent fun—with no finishing time or “secret goal” in mind.
OK, so let’s talk about the course—and the obstacles.
Thanks to my stellar investigative reporting skills, I found this video online. As you can see, the route contained 20 obstacles and took participants through several different surfaces including grass, concrete, and trails. There were also some very hilly sections, so if my coach asks why I didn’t ride this past weekend, let’s say I did hill work on Saturday, OK?
Anyway, this post would be way too long if I described each obstacle, but I will mention a few highlights. First, I found “The Spinner” to be the toughest one. (It starts at 1:10 in the video.) Basically, this merry-go-round-like contraption had several ropes that muckers had to grab and hang on to for dear life while the device slowly rotated. Since I have basically zero upper-body strength and haven’t been on a rope since elementary school (did anyone else have a rope-climbing unit?), I struggled; I started loosing my grip and sliding down immediately and thought I’d definitely end up in the water! Luckily, though, I pushed through.
Unfortunately, there weren’t a ton of super-muddy obstacles. Out of the 20, maybe three or four had a significant amount. The last one, though, was definitely a favorite.
I’m the pale-looking one on the right. Yes, I also got sunburned.
We had to crawl through these tubes army-style, which were lined with mud (and stones and pebbles). Very mucky and very fun!
Team Mighty Mucks crossed the finish line in about two hours (1:53), and the race absolutely flew by! The obstacles broke up the running, so we never jogged for more than a quarter of a mile or so. Honestly, we were sad when we reached mile four; we wanted the course to be longer.
Some of the ladies.
We’re obviously doing MuckFest again next year too!
Have you ever done a mud run? Would you consider it?
Hey, hey! How’s your Monday been so far? I can’t wait to share the recap from Saturday’s MuckFest MS Mud Run, but I’m still waiting on more pictures. But posting one won’t hurt, right?
Yes, running through mud and tackling 20 obstacles totally calls for some serious muscle flexing. Woohoo for Team Mighty Mucks!
Workout #1 – Running
Well, recovery week is definitely over: a new Full Throttle Endurance training cycle officially started this morning—with a two-mile time trial on the indoor track. OK, by now, I should be used to this TT business—I’ve done it not once, but twice—so you’d think I’d have it somewhat figured out. Clearly, the knowledge isn’t the problem; it’s the execution. Case in point: eating pizza for not one, but two meals yesterday probably wasn’t the best idea.
Yes, this is leftover from Saturday night’s dinner. Yes, this is a picture from Sunday’s on-the-go breakfast. Yes, it was delicious.
So I probably didn’t fuel as well as I should have the day before, but what can you do? Life happens. Even with the sub-par pre-TT nutrition, I still shaved 30 seconds off my previous two mile time and finished in a respectable 14:0X. Success!
Breakfast
During high school, I used to be obsessed with the breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin’ Donuts. I actually had one Saturday before the mud run (again, not fueling adequately), but it didn’t live up to expectations. Sadness. So this morning called for my favorite, an egg white breakfast sandwich.
Mmmm, missed this big time.
Later this morning, I met Jen for coffee—and for a trip to Dashing Diva to get our nails done! Even though there’s an unofficial blogger commandment that says multiple photographs and posts to social media outlets are required for an event to truly happen, our morning went entirely undocumented. We had so much fun chatting away and getting manis (for her) and pedis (for me). I always enjoy hanging out with Jen because one, she’s super fun, and two, she reminds me it isn’t totally taboo for a young, 20-something to be active and training for events. We hope to go to a yoga class sometime soon!
Lunch
After a quick trip to Trader Joe’s, I made a wrap with mustard, spinach, turkey, avocado, and pepper jack cheese.
Plus a ton of carrots while I worked on MuckFest donation thank you notes.
Multitasking at its finest.
Workout #2 – Strength Training
I originally planned to lift this morning after running, but my teammates and I ended up talking about tri bikes for 40 minutes (#trigeek). At this point, the tri bike may happen this season, especially in light of recent news, but we’ll see. Anyway, I hit the weights this afternoon for a full-body workout.
Post-Workout Snack
My workout ended around 5 p.m., and I didn’t want to eat a huge snack before dinner, so I made a mini protein smoothie with one frozen banana, a little bit of frozen kale and spinach, plus a few blueberries for good measure and half a scoop of Jay Robb egg white protein powder.
And now it’s time to get dinner in the oven.
Without getting too graphic, is there anything you can’t eat before workouts or races?
Happy Sunday, friends! Guess who survived—and loved!—her first mud run!
Yesterday’s MuckFest MS Mud Run was so much fun! Our team completed the 5-mile, 20-obstacle course in slightly less than two hours. What a great day, and we’re already planning to do it again next year. My uncle took a ton of pictures (as did the race photographers), so I’ll wait for those to include with the recap.
And with this mud run, recovery week officially ended. This means Full Throttle Endurance workouts will pick up in terms of volume and intensity, which is good because Mighty Montauk is just around the corner—only 40 days away! Starting this week, I’ll be focusing on getting my butt in the saddle and riding more often. Even though Friday’s time trial in Central Park went OK, there is a lot of room for improvement. Luckily, the Escape to the Palisades 5-K takes place Sunday, which means an additional team ride will be built into my schedule. Here’s what I have on tap for this week’s Write It Down, Do It Up!
(If you’re new to WIDDIU, here’s how it works: Every Sunday evening, I post my workout schedule for the week, and I invite you to do the same. This way, we can motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable. Sounds like a win-win, right?)
Monday – a.m. run with Full Throttle Endurance (FTE); a.m. strength train
Tuesday – a.m. bike with FTE; a.m. strength train
Wednesday – a.m. indoor cycle with FTE; a.m. run off the bike
Thursday – a.m. bike; a.m. run
Friday – a.m. swim with FTE
Saturday – a.m. swim with FTE or off
Sunday – Escape to the Palisades 5-K (plus two bike rides)
What did you do this weekend? If you raced, how did it go?
Hiya, friends—long time no see! As usual, I’ve had a busy week: my big-girl internship ended yesterday, which was very bittersweet. It was a good experience, and I learned a lot about magazine land, plus I had the opportunity to attend cool events and interview some neat people. I’m definitely ready for a change, though, so I’m excited to pick up more hours at JackRabbit and become truly immersed in the world of running, biking, and triathloning retail.
Anyway, short and sweet post this afternoon because I need to pack; remember the MuckFest MS Mud Run? Yep, it’s this weekend!
Team t-shirts because we’re so legit.
I also need to figure out what apparel will help me trudge through five miles of mud and obstacles the most efficiently. Capris would probably work, right? And an old pair of sneakers? I’m a mud-run newbie, so help a girl out!
There are several ways to qualify for this Olympic-distance event, and since I finished second in my age group (AG) at the Nautica South Beach Triathlon (or top 10 percent), I made the cut. Honestly, I’m still taking it all in. I’ll be the first to tell you my AG isn’t super competitive (most people start doing triathlons in their late-20s or early-30s), but it’s obviously a great honor, and I couldn’t have done it without my team, coaches, mentors, and support of my family and friends. So right now, it looks like I’ll be heading to Milwaukee for the Aug. 10 event! (I guess that means I won’t be doing the Cazenovia Triathlon on Aug. 11 anymore.)
Have you done a mud run? Any tips? What’s on your agenda this weekend?
I’d be lying if I said the thought of homemade blueberry pancakes and a cheese, bacon, and asparagus frittata (plus coffee, bacon, and mimosas) didn’t motivate me to hit the water. That afternoon and evening, I worked at JackRabbit. And guess who sold her first wetsuit! Woohoo! Because I’m going to Boston next weekend for the MuckFest MS mud run, I swapped shifts with a few coworkers, so I’m spending my Sunday at JRab as well. And I definitely don’t hate it.
On the workout front, the next seven days will be a recovery week, and two of our coaches will host the second indoor triathlon of the season on Saturday (which I’ll miss because of the mud run). We begin a new training cycle next Monday, so I plan to embrace this step-back week. Time for Write It Down, Do It Up!
(If you’re new to WIDDIU, here’s how it works: Every Sunday evening, I post my workout schedule for the week, and I invite you to do the same. This way, we can motivate each other and hold ourselves accountable. Sounds like a win-win, right?)
Monday – a.m. run with Full Throttle Endurance (FTE); a.m. strength train
Tuesday – a.m. bike with FTE; a.m. strength train
Wednesday – a.m. indoor cycle with FTE; a.m. run off the bike
Hi, there and thanks for stopping by! I’m Carrie, a 23-year-old who loves to write, sweat, and eat nutritiously (most of the time!). Currently based in New York City, I work as a diet and fitness writer, and I can usually be found swimming, biking, or running.
Contact
Feel free to contact me at carrie.stevens205@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you!
I am neither a registered dietitian (RD) nor a certified trainer. The views I express are my own and are based on my own experiences; what works for me might not work for you. Please contact an RD or your doctor for medical advice.
