The best 10 miles...

This past weekend our running group gathered for a 10 mile run at 6:30am on Saturday. What?! Yes, that's right we got up early on a Saturday morning to get in a long run. I know most people get in the long run on Sunday. We decided to change it up a bit! 

There were quite a few of us, as you can see in this photo: 

We ran a similar course that Erin and I ran a few weeks prior. It's a hilly course but really every course in Tallahassee is hilly! We left right at 6:30am from our usual starting point and made our way to our first turn. Erin and I had stated early on that we were just going to have an easy pace and enjoy the run. We always say this and somehow we end up running race day pace, trying to kill ourselves! Saturday was no different, for the first few miles we were under a 9:30 minute per mile. As the course twisted and turned through the Killearn Estates Neighborhood we slowed our pace down a bit. The hills in that neighborhood are unbelievable and we may have stopped to check out a house or two that were for sale. Needless to say we had a great run, we finished 10.5 miles in 1:47. 

After a quick shower, my family and I headed off to tailgate at Doak Campbell Stadium for the Bethune Cookman vs Florida State football game. My legs felt good after the run but I wanted to make sure I didn't over do it. In order to ensure proper recovery, I wore my compression sleeves to the tailgate. 

Yes, Yes I did! 

I'd say that Erin and I cleaned up pretty nicely for our tailgate fun! 

Ever have a day where you need a good run?? That was me on Saturday! I needed that good run. This was the last long run before I head off to Nashville, TN for the Women's Running Series Half Marathon. I needed a confidence boosting run to finish off the training and this run provided just that! 

Fun Favorite ...

Disclaimer: BAMR Bands sent me this product to review. I received no other compensation. All opinions are mine.

If you are looking for a cute headband that matches your workout clothes then I have discovered the perfect headband for you ~ BAMR Bands, Bad Ass Mother Bands! Fellow Sweat Pink Ambassador, owner & designer Katie Heddleston is stay at home mom of one cutie little boy with another sweet little bundle of joy on the way. By day she chases after her son and night she creates these awesome bands! 

I knew about BAMR Bands thanks to several of my running buddies whom wear them often. The girls always look cute and their hair isn't a mess as mine tends to be post run / workout! The bands come in an array of colors; however, since Katie knows my passion of for all things Garnet and Gold she sent me this lovely FSU BAMR Band to try out for the review: 

Here I am pre - run : (ignore the bags under those eyes, this was taken at 6:15 am on a Saturday!) 

I loved it! Not only does it show my loyalty to my team (and my place of employment) it kept my hair out of my face for the entire 10.5 mile run this past weekend!! When you have wild, thick hair such as mine this is important! 

I encourage you to check out the website, http://www.katieheddleston.com/bamrbands/ as well as follow BAMR Bands on Facebook and Twitter! 

Here's your chance to win a BAMR Band of your very own: 

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Colossians 3:23

Before I recap this weekend's last long training run and taper week activities, I wanted to share our bible study from Sunday. 

We began our study by reading Colossians 3: 18-24 "Rules for Christian Living"

"18Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

²¹ Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 
²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

One thing is true whether at our job or in a relationship, we are working! We’re always working at something, and since we spend so much of our time working we need to remember the Bible gives us some guidance on this very topic.  This particular passage teaches us what our attitude should be in all our relationships. 

In verses 18-22, Paul points out three common relationships found in the home- #1 - husband & wife, #2 - children & parents, and #3 - slaves & master. The similarity between all of these relationships is there is a position of authority and one of submission to that authority. We find ourselves in positions of authority and submission all the time, in many different forms.  

We took a deeper look at what Colossians 3:23 teaches us about working through these relationships should look like. 

Whatever the relationship, whatever the task, whatever the work we should give it our best! Paul was not speaking to a specific spiritual gift even (teaching, preaching, etc.), but he was speaking to anything we do. We must pour ourselves into all those relationships. 

Whatever we do, we’re to work whole heartily.  This means our work should be done with everything we’ve got! There should not be any laziness but putting everything we have into whatever we do. Paul also speaks of this in 1 Thess. 4:11-12 and 2 Thess. 3:10-12.

No matter what the circumstances, we can find fulfillment and satisfaction in our work, as long as we keep this scripture priority.  Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 2:3-5 about not working for men, and it shares the same reasoning as our passage here:  "working for the Lord has eternal reward."  There is no eternal reward is pleasing men. The problem in trying to please men is that it is impossible and people are mean.  It’s impossible to make everyone happy all the time plus peoples’ moods and expectations change.  Someone in authority might be one way one day and another way the next, which changes what we must do to please them.  

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever so if pleasing Him is our priority, we know that working heartily will rewarded because his expectations will not change!

Realizing that we are serving the Lord Christ, as it says in vs 24 of our passage, should change our perspective of our work.  When we’re working (whether at a job or relationship), we have the opportunity to serve others, which could show them the character of Jesus.

All of that seems simple; however, I know that I fail it at this often. My prayer is that we will each work harder at our relationships and that we will encourage each other daily to have a good attitude towards life in general! 

5K at 5th...

It's fall race season in Tallahassee, only wish the fall temperatures would accompany the race calendar! Saturday our team from Badass Fitness and Moms Run This Town met up for a local 5K supporting the Leon High School Volleyball Team. The race director, Shannon Moore of F.U.E.L. Nutrition is a long time friend of mine. Shannon has two daughters that play volleyball so organizing this race is close to her heart. 

The race began at Paisley Cafe in the midtown area of Tallahassee and ended at the 5th Ave Taproom. In those 3.1 miles we conquered what might be one of the biggest hills in our lovely city. Tallahassee is known for our hills but my goodness Crestview Ave is a beast! I knew this would be a tough course thanks to a friend who lives in that area of town sending me this message earlier in the week "I am not sure I can even fast walk that @#$%&".  

Here's the course from my RunKeeper: 

Here you can see from the charts at mile 2 I struggled getting up the hill:

Our MRTT Leader, Tammy P., came by and tried to cheer me on up the hill but my little legs just gave up towards to the top. Thankfully, I got myself back on pace and finished strong at 28:10, according to the race clock. 

Everyone coming to the finish line talked about how awful the hill(s) were on that course. Even with all the "talk" we had a 2nd place overall winner, and two ladies coming off injuries that finished together in the 33:00 mark. What more could we ask for?! Well, did I mention we think cooler weather would be great?!

Most of all we were ALL smiles! Those of us that have been battling injuries, soreness, side stitches, etc.. all had a great race. Everyone was pleased with their time despite the tough course. It was so great to see everyone so happy! To me that was the best part, seeing all my friends just bubbling with excitement! 

Our own Badass CEO, Shannon C., came in 2nd overall and 1st in our age group with Allison of Soul2Sole coming in 2nd in our age group. I am pretty sure a few of us did finish in the top 10 of our age group but the official results aren't available yet. There's a bunch of us in the 30-something age group, too! 

Here's a few snapshots from Saturday of the Badass Fitness and MRTT groups: 

My girl Jenny broke her leg back in April and ran a 33 minute 5K on Saturday! 

Get it girl!! 

Allison and I are so proud of Crystal! New goals being achieved! 

Our Badass Fitness Crew! 

Our MRTT Crew! 

I love races like Saturday! It was a smaller race and we were all having a great time! There was not a sense of competition in the air like there can be at the more popular races. We all  cheered on each other from start to finish. I wish every race could be like this one, minus Crestview Ave. 

Shannon Moore and the Leon Volleyball Boosters did a great job with the race. The swag bags were awesome, can't wait to take advantage of a few coupons that I received! Everything was very well organized and we look forward to supporting this 5K again next year! 

Happy Running! 
Mitzi 

17 days ....

Today I realized there's only 17 days left until the Women's Running Series Half Marathon in Nashville, TN. ~ EEK!

Today I began questioning my training!

Today I begin to panic a tiny bit! 

As most of you know this race has special meaning to me. I wrote about this in a previous blog post. This race isn't just about me that's for sure! I have taken my training pretty serious for this race.  Here's a sample schedule of my recent training (give or take a few workouts)

Sunday : Rest / Active Rest with Power Core Yoga

Monday : 6am - Tabata Bootcamp Class (sometimes 5:30pm Weights / Abs workout)

Tuesday : 5:30am - 5 mile run (sometimes an evening workout at the gym) 

Wednesday : 6am - Tabata Bootcamp Class (occasional 5:30pm Bootcamp at the Y)

Thursday : 5:30am - 5 mile run 

Friday : 6 am - Tabata Bootcamp Class 

Saturday : Longer run or bootcamp class 

Before I get any of comments on too much training, I have backed off the two-a-day trainings in the past two weeks! However, I also want to say all of this training has helped me gain a lot of strength. I have noticed my training runs are getting a little better and I am running a consistent pace. I am happy to say I am not having any repeat injuries pop up - YAY! It has also helped me handle some stressful situations that were causing me to be discouraged toward my goal of running this race. 

So all that say, maybe I am ready. We will find out in 17 days when I cross the finish line! Is there a goal for this race? Yes, there is! I'd like to finish this race under 2:30 making it my best half marathon to date. Again, we will find out soon enough! 

Have you ever trained for a race and began questioning your training as time grew closer? If so, please share some words of advice! 

For now, I am going to set aside the nervousness and focus on the remaining training. I have a long run planned for Thursday morning. We typically run longer on Saturdays; however, it's the first home game for Florida State Football! We have tailgating to get to, not running - HA! Then next week we will get in our usual 5 miles on Tuesday and Thursday before heading into taper week!  

Prayers appreciated! 

Mitzi 

The Color Run ~ Tallahassee

I'm not sure my weekends can get any better than they have been lately! Lots of time with family friends, mostly involving football! Yesterday, we skipped watching College Game Day and headed to downtown Tallahassee for The Color Run. 

To be honest, when they announced The Color Run was coming to Tallahassee we were a bit surprised. None of the races like that have ever come to town so we were pretty excited to be able to participate in a fun like this in our own hometown! Riley was especially excited to be able to run this race with us, he was a little jealous when we did our first color race in Jacksonville last year. About a month ago a little rumor started flying that The Color Run organizers were having trouble with the permit because the city was concerned with about all the color product getting in the drains; therefore, causing issues with the water drainage downtown. By the way, it's only dyed corn starch! Luckily, there were some pretty awesome people working behind the scenes on this who were able to get the permit with plenty of time to spare! 

Friday evening Riley and I  met up with Crystal and Christina for packet pickup at our local Sports Authority. I am pretty sure that particular store hasn't seen that much business in years! It was very crowded, the line went from the back of the store out the front door. Needless to say us three Moms with our 4 kiddos were a little restless during the wait, ha! We waited about 30 - 40 minutes to get our packets. 

Not the best photo quality but you get the idea! 

Packet Pick Up - Complete!

Saturday morning the girls came the house to meet Riley and I so we could car pool to the race. Good thing we left early! I've never seen so many people in downtown Tallahassee at 7:45am on a non-football game weekend. We were able to park fairly close to the start line. We made it to the start line area in time for the Zumba party where Riley quickly let us know that was not an option for him, ha! We enjoyed a few good laughs while waiting to meet up with our friends from Badass Fitness and our local chapter of Moms Run This Town. Once we snapped a few photos with our friends we headed for the start line. 

 The Happiest 5K 

Tallahassee Moms Run This Town

Representing Badass Fitness 

The race started promptly at 9:00am with the first wave heading out. We were in the second wave and left about 9:15am. Riley and I quickly jumped up on the sidewalk so we could avoid the sea of people and get a good pace going! He forgot our pep talk about it being a race for fun and not time - HA! We made it through the first color spot with little blue on our clothes. Riley was very bummed by this so we had a to form a new game plan before the next color spot! On our way through the route we were cheered on by Ms. Shannon and some more of our Badass Fitness friends. We made our way around campus then weaved through downtown Tallahassee making sure we were hit with plenty of red, yellow and pink color, afterall this was The Color Run! Riley and I made it back to the finish in 32:00 minutes with plenty of color. We met up with Erin at the finish line, she killed that course! We were able to cheer on Christina as she finished her first 5K! We were able to cheer on Crystal as she finished the Happiest 5K ever! 

 I love being apart of one of my best friend's first 5K! Christina has been training hard during the heat of the summer to get ready for the race. I think it's great she chose a fun race with no time clock to get the first one under her belt. We always say "you will never forget the first race" and I am pretty sure this will be true for her, too. 

I love seeing Crystal at the finish line at most of our local races. She is always smiling at the finish line! Although she might not be if she doesn't get some new shoes after we calculated her miles on the ride home - LOL! It's time honey, it's time! 

I also love that Riley was able to run this race with me. We stayed together the whole time, he had to take a few walk breaks. The heat has kept him from training as much with us lately and it showed during the race. Around mile 2 he got very frustrated and we had to have a little pep talk! He overcame his minor soreness and finished the race sprinting! I love that he shares my passion to run and since he has decided not to play baseball this fall we will have plenty of time to train for his next 5K. He desires to get back to a sub-30 5K! 

Here's a few more post race pictures: 

This was the kickoff to my fall race season and if I had to rate this race on a scale from 1 - 10, I'd give it a 10! It was nice to see so many people out in the area enjoying a fun morning together. It's great for our community to have events like this! 

Up next for me is the 5K at 5th Avenue and I continue my training for the Women's Running Series Half Marathon in Nashville. I will share more on my recent training activity soon... very soon!