Amazing blogger giveaway!

I am so excited to announce that some of my favorite runner bloggers, including myself, are doing an awsome giveaway!
We are giving away a race entry of your choice and a lululemon gift card! It starts I day, but unfortunately, I am out of town due to family obligations! (my grandma is 93 and not doing well). I thought I would have access to the Internet to upload the information here, unfortunately, I do not but will be back home later tonight or tomorrow . As soon as I am home I will have the information uploaded. please stop by the other hosts sites and enter. Don't forget to come back here though ;).

go follow me on bloglovin or google friends, and even twitter @risforrunning

Good luck and happy winning!

Happy Friday

Every day, each and every period, I greet my students "Happy (Insert day of the week)", or "Good Morning/Good Afternoon Boys and Girls"!  They know how to respond but sometimes it takes us a few rounds to get it correct.

So heres to you...HAPPY FRIDAY BLOGGERS AND READERS!

Friday letters are my favorite and I have been pretty absent on the bloggosphere lately, but here goes nothing!.

Dear Friday, I am so happy you decided to finally show up.  It has felt like forever since I have seen you last. 

Dear Brother, I am so excited I get to spend the weekend with you.  I am sad the other half of our B-Squad couldn't join us but we are going to have so much fun.  I am excited for your first race!!  We are going to dominate the gate River Run

 Dear Spring Break, hallelujah!! Even though I am already stressing out that I won't see any of you, I may only be home one day, I am determined to make the best of you.  I am determined to revamp myself.  My eating, my room, and learn to make some ME time. 

Dear Thursday Run, I need to give myself credit here.  This is a run I would have normally skipped, I was exhausted, overwhelmed with what I needed to get done, such as packing, cleaning, eating, and I actually went out to run.  I had 5 easy miles on schedule so I just went out to clear my head.  I came home with the overall pace right under goal pace and a few miles a little too under goal pace for it to be an easy run.  Yay for finaly making changes and progres.

Dear Friends and Family, thank you for putting up with my this week, especially Thursday when I had a near meltdown.   

This week is going to be super busy with lots of traveling and running.  I am excited to announce a few of my favorite bloggers and I are hosting a giveaway!!!  It is a nice BIG one with a GREAT prize! It should go live Monday at Midnight so check back here!!

What are your weekend plans?

What do you like to do with your vacation time?

How do you get through the chaos of life and remember what is important?

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! 



Getting dirty..

A few weekends ago I was given the opportunity to partake in my first mud run. This was part of the Dirty Girl series! It was such a great first experience as everything was so well organized and thought out. If you know me, I am not a "dirty" girl. I may not be all dainty and frilly but the one thing I hate about visiting New York is when dirt gets under my nails.
Late me preface this by saying how this was not the bat day for me to be partaking in this event because I had to run over to St. Pete for wedding dress shopping with my Big. Getting dirty right before hand, I was a little nervous and was on a time crunch.

When I arrived at little Everglades ranch, I immediately met up with Misty and the other Tampa Bay Bloggers! They were near experts ans told me I should bring my stuff to change into after the fun mud run becayse that is where all the changing tents are, I forgot my towel. We then headed towards packet pickup and bag check, took tons of picture, of which I took none as my camera is broken and was scared to get my phone all muddy!

Once they called for our 8am wave, we made our way over and they prepped us with Zumba. At about 8:15, we were off. Caitlyn mentioned wanting to do this in 45 minutes so I stayed with her knowing I really needed to get back. The bloggers started out together but after a few obstacles we slowly separated. I really wish I could have stayed with everyone as I know it would have added to the excitement and experience. Not only was this a 5k, there were tons of fun obstacles! You could have gone around the obstacle if you needed to, but they were all "easy" or "hard" enough for women of all shapes and sizes! There was sloshing through mud, climbing up a air staircase which Misty literally hoisted my rear end up so I made it up. She landed face first in the mud. We about died laughing! From obstacle to obstacle, we were dodging through cow droppings which was loads of fun! We got to climb ropes, ring bells, crawl on our hands and knees! I didn't realize how hard I worked until the next morning I was sore! I couldn't figure out why I was so sore!

These pictures were from Lydia. Her husband was nice enough to be our race day photographer. Raffi was also on hand for more pictures!
This was my first and probably my last mud run..at least for a while! This is defiantly a great race and I would highly recommend it! It is an all womens 5k with obstacles! all ages and abilities can definatly participate! To make it better, they donate to the National Breat Cancer Foundation!


I was comped entry for a review of this race. All opinions are my own.

Posted with Blogsy

Weekly Workout Recap

First off, let me apologize for not blogging regularly as it is the start of a new semester so life is a little crazy.  Also, whenever I try and blog, my computer/internet likes to act up.

This week was very exciting for me.  I was finally able to get in some runs that I was excited about!  I tried a new running club, went to an old one, and PR'd my 10k by almost 10 minutes.

I currently do not have a training plan so I feel like a chicken with its head cut off in terms of what I am supposed to be doing.  That is my goal for next week, come up with a plan that I can actually commit with for the Sarasota Half Marathon I am running on St. Patty's Day.

The issues I have started having again with running were stomach aches.  I will get into those when I talk about my runs this week.

Tuesday I met up with Michelle and her friend Kelsey at Four Green Fields for their run club.  I have wanted to go to this for years, but never really had the time.  I knew it was too soon to get into speed training, so I made my way over there after work.  I didn't have any particular distance I wanted to go.  I knew Michelle would be going 4.5 so I went the extra .25 out and ended right about 5.17 miles or so. I kept the average pace around 10:45.  I was happy this was so much better than the 3.1 miles I did the week before when it hurt to keep a 11:27 min mile pace.  At about mile 4, my stomach started to hurt.  It hurt bad.  I made it home but had to stop for gas on the way home.  At the gas station, I was hurled over in pain against my car.  I was happy to just make it home at that point.  (From that point on, I was in and out of the bathroom for the next 3 hours, sorry, TMI)  It was a lot of fun!

Thursday I dragged one of my running buddies, Misty out to Fitniche at Wiregrass mall for their weekly 5k.  I have been doing this fun for over two years now, but was stopped when I was training for NY because I had 8-9s on my schedule and we know if I do 3, I wasn't going back out for 6.  It was starting to get cold so I bundled up with as many layers as possible, but cool enough that I wouldn't be uncomfortable.  I started off with Misty but she told me to go ahead.  I am finally learning how to negative split! Yay!!  This averaged a 10:21 pace for 3.1 miles

My colorful warm outfit!

Saturday was the Best Damn Race 10k.  It was a last minute decision, as I signed up the week before.  I was looking at this for a PR and to get more miles in while having fun.  I did both.  I met up with my coach and Misty before hand, we drove over, picked up our stuff, met Elaine and snuggled in the car until it was time to head to the start line.  The course was great, there were some hills, and we all had a great PR day!  I PR'ed by 9 minutes and 51 seconds.  I am so happy about that! I also wish I would have gone just 15 seconds faster and I would have had sub 10's! My official finish time was 1:02:20 with a pace of 10:02.  My last 10k was in September and I finished in 1:12:11.  I will take it!

Thank you Meghan for the picture
Meghan, Meghan, Tori, Me

Me, Misty, Teresa, Elaine

Next weekend I get to participate in the Go Dirty Girl Mud run!!  I am so excited!  It will be my first mud run! 

Linkup your workouts (running, Crossfit, gym days) from this week with me, Kat, and Meghan! 

I want to start more cross training and strength workout soon, what do you do to help your running?

When setting goals, How do know what you are capable of?

I always find that the most challenging part, what are your goals?