Do You Compete Every Day?

As a follow up to our random Wordless Wednesday post the other day we thought we’d give those of you who do not know who or what Compete Every Day is some more background!

We found out about Compete Every Day first at Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas expo and while standing in their booth Teal went “wait a minute! I know that model in the picture! She’s engaged to one of my co-workers!” Turns out one of her co-workers is also a model in some of the pictures! But really that’s besides the point. The point is Compete Every Day is a cool company based here in Dallas.

Ok, what are we competing for every day? might be what you are thinking right now! That’s what is cool about Compete Every Day….they don’t just mean compete for your fitness or to win race (even though that might be just what you are doing), but instead look at your life as a whole. What are the things you value most in your life? Family? Friends? Faith?

Or what is going on in life today that you are competing for?

And as a reminder to yourself you can purchase one of their comfy shirts, tanks, hoodies, shorts or even a wristband to remind you to Compete Every Day.

All the CED products we proudly own!

So why do we like Compete Every Day so much?

Well, you know now that we love what Compete Every Day means. We love local businesses with products that are worthwhile and unique. The connection was just a bonus. We have since then learned on our own that they have great customer service and super comfortable workout gear with a great message. We hope you’ll at the very least checkout Compete Every Day, but let us know if you do make a purchase!

Happy Friday!

Wordless Wednesday No. 22

Compete Every Day

Things We’ve Learned & Wished That We Knew Sooner

As you may or may not know in 2010 was when we began our training to run our first half-marathon.  Both of us had run in high school and/or college, but never to the distance we would hit in our half marathon training.  The two of us and probably like a lot of people who train for their first half marathon followed Hal Higdon‘s guide.

 
Hal Higdon’s guides are great and perhaps there are some people out there who work their way through a number of his different plans.  We, however, did not and kind of decided to start looking through different plans (one of which was definitely Hal Hidgon’s) and piecing them together.  After all what works for one person might not work for another and it never hurts to try something to see if it works for you!

Throughout the not quite two years of us running together we’ve learned to appreciate aspects of our training, realized some things that needed to be added and why, so we shall share with you!

Weight Training

Both of us got personal trainers at a point where we each wanted to lose weight (You can read about Beth’s story here and Teal’s story here).  Boy are we thankful to Will & Johnny for helping us to get into shape, get healthy and teaching us a lot!  Weight training is very important as you need to build a base for yourself.  If you only rely on running to build your muscles then you are missing out!  Not every single race you might run will you actually feel yourself digging deep and using that core strength or pumping those arms hard to get to that finish line, but those are important parts of your body to work on strength so you have it when you need it.   With that said it’s important to find a balance with your weight training and make sure you are working every part of your body.  Build that strong foundation so you can be a stronger runner!  It was well into us running together that we realized we were at an advantage by already having trainers and having those weekly weights session.  We didn’t know where we would be in our running if we didn’t have them!

While yes, a trainer makes it so much easier to get your weights session in you don’t neeed to have one! Grab a friend that’s knowledgeable about weights and ask them to show you the ropes a few times or look into one of the many apps that’s how there and available to guide you through a workout!

If you would like more of an explanation of the benefits weight training please see this post from Runner’s World.

Tempo Runs

We just recently started to incorporate these into our workouts.  What were we waiting for with these??

What? There is lots to read out there about tempo runs and sometimes it doesn’t seem to be written in layman’s terms, or is that just us?  Part of why we probably did NOT do tempo runs for awhile was because we did not truly understand them.  A tempo run normally consists of running at an easy pace to start, let’s say we are doing a 4 mile tempo run, so you may run your first mile at an easy pace then for miles 2 and 3 you kick it into a higher gear. This higher gear is a hard pace yet if you were rate levels of hard you might have comfortably hard, hard, and extremely hard.  You want this higher gear to be at a comfortably hard pace so that you can sustain this level of intensity for the entirety of your two miles.  Once you hit mile 4 take your speed back down to where you were in mile 1 for a nice recovery mile.

Importance.  The idea behind a tempo run is to raise your lactate threshold. If you are at a point in your running where you are able to run the mileage you want in a long run but are ready to work on speed this is a workout you’ll want to add into your training schedule once a week to build speed and strength.  The one thing that really helped us in determining how to do a tempo run was by using the McMillan Running Calculator not only did it help with tempo runs but also discovering what type of speed we needed for all sorts of runs.

Hill Workouts

What? While yes there are races out there that you might register that are flat, flat, flat!  But that is simply not going to be the case for each and every race that you will ever run.  Those hills in your runs/races continue to help challenge us as runners.  The best workout we have found to make sure a hill does not defeat us in a race are hill repeats.  We’ll be honest they aren’t the most fun type of workout, but believe us when you finish a race with hills you’ll be thankful for the time you spent on hill repeats.  For us a hill repeat workout consists of:

1.  Doing your homework and find a hill that will work.  You might want a hill that is somewhere between .1 – .2 of a mile.
2.  Get a little bit of mileage in before your hill repeats, i.e. run from your house out to the hill
3. When you reach your hill if it’s your first time maybe try 4 or 5 runs up the hill and back down (but have a goal of working up to 10 hill repeats)
4. Get in that last bit of mileage back to your house
Importance.  We’ve recently heard a couple people say this and it is the absolute truth, “the difference between me continuing to run and the people walking up the hill in that race are these workouts.”  Even if you are not specifically training for a race that has hills in them, this workout is beneficial! It’ll build muscle that running on a flat path does not, help with your endurance and help you to get faster!  Throw this type of running workout into your weekly mix as well and you’ll feel a difference at your next race!

Tangents
Just for good measure we are throwing this one in this post.  And no we aren’t taking you back to geometry class either! 🙂 Or is it basic algebra?? Ha, math is hard, y’all! 🙂 There were plenty of times that we can remember one of us saying “ugh! My Runkeeper says I ran 6.43 in that 10k race!” and there were times when we’d finish our long runs together that we were asked “why did Teal run a further distance than you Beth?” TANGENTS! It’s about tangents!  We can honestly say we were taught this very valuable piece of information from reading katieRUNSthis’ blog!

The majority of races we have run together have a certified course so it has been measured and is exactly the distance the course claims it to be.  When a course is measured it is done so on tangents, so when there is a curved portion of your course the person who measured it did so on the tangents.  This is also why for instance when we go run our long runs or even if we run side by side during a race our mileage for that long run or race could be different because neither one of us is running the curves the exact same.  For the visual people out there, let us show you the tangents in visual form.

 

While you might have learned about tangents today know that at your next race you might do your best to run the tangents but still find that you have some extra mileage at the end, well, it’s hard to run the tangents EXACTLY.  As you have to be looking ahead and plotting out exactly how to run the next curve not to mention that there are other runners out there with you on the course that might keep you from running that straight line exactly.  All we can do is do our best!

We are no experts by any means! We read articles, blogs, etc. online in an effort to try and learn how we can improve our running.  We wanted to share some information that opened up our eyes, helped us to understand running more and that we think everyone should have the benefit of knowing!

If you already knew all of this, well, thanks for bearing with us today!  If you didn’t know all of this – are you going to be making some changes now to your weekly running?  Glad to know why there is extra mileage on those races you’ve run before?

We’re Running in the Rain, Just Running in the Rain

Should we get out of the car now? Or wait a few more minutes?

Well, Saturday afternoon the winds started picking up here in Dallas.  It never really rained in our neck of the woods that day and even when we went to bed that night it was still dry.  By the time we both woke up think the rain hadn’t fully started until it was time to actually drive down to Fair Park. But enough about that let’s just cut to the chase. Here’s how Big D Half went for each of us…

Miles 1-3

Teal: Ugh! Where is a water station when you need it? These first few miles were HOT! I think I had more sweat in these 3 miles then I did during any other stretch of the race. It was hot and humid and the air was seriously thick! I kept coughing because it honestly felt like something was stuck in my throat. I start looking to the sky and thinking where is the rain we’ve been hearing about and if it doesn’t rain I am going to be pissed because I decided to forego buying new shoes because I felt like that would be a dumb idea to run in new shoes in the rain and then feel like they were ruined after one time.

Beth: I didn’t really have a goal in mind for this race because I knew I needed to see how the weather would play out so my goal would be determined out on the course. Somewhere in mile 1 a man asked where the water stops were and I told him I had heard they were few and far between out here. In these miles I saw a man who is a regular with me in spin class and talks to me about my running. He asked me why I wasn’t further up and I told him I was trying! Ha. Teal and I had decided we needed to take advantage of each water stop since we wouldn’t know how the weather would be throughout the race. At the second water station we had to stop and wait for water to be poured in a cup for us.

Miles 4-6

Teal: Not bad but I was worried about being too hot as there was still no sign of rain and I was like, I’m not in the mood to deal with this heat and decided to slow down. Not based on total need just based on me really only going to do what makes me happy right now and that is not run fast in the heat. Happy also meant eating all my gummi bears, which I did! At this point, I was thinking, just do what you feel like, just be happy, and who really cares about the rest. At mile 6.5 the air started to cool and you could see darkening clouds! I kept crossing my fingers!

Beth: I forget when exactly now, but somewhere around 3 or 4 miles I’d seen the 2 hour pacer pass and thought welp, there goes that, but if it’s going to end up being hot this whole time I can live with that. Still have yet to get many runs in while it’s just been HOT outside. At some point running along White Rock Lake a breeze was coming through periodically so I started to feel good and knew I could pick up my game some but that there where still hills to conquer! Even though I had my Runkeeper app going I wasn’t fully aware of where I stood to finish this thing at the pace I was at, but I knew if I wanted it I could possibly bust out another sub two half. Just as we were leaving the lake we had pretty much switched over into a new climate. It was cool! I let out a woohoo!! And the people around me said yes! This feels good! This next part I mention only because it gave me a laugh out there but shortly after this I’m coming up on this muscular guy running without his shirt on and then I see him raise one arm, flex and admire his bicep. Ha! Then I passed him. Ha!

Miles 7-10

Teal: Sweet RELIEF!! The rain hit at 7 and I could not have been happier. Had the crazy humidity kept up it would have been a different story. Everyone around me literally started to cheer! Most people put their hands in the air and you could just tell we all wanted that rain. This excitement died shortly after, and honestly I got a little worried. I didn’t want to deal with lightening or anything and decided to speed it back up and just get off the course. It pretty much rained consistently during these miles!

Beth: After the rain hit in the beginning of mile 7 I knew a sub two half was mine that day I just had work to do to in this last half! The rain was completely exhilarating to me and from there on out I was running happy! I thanked as many police officers and volunteers as I could. I also high fived as many little kids as I could! I just felt awesome so I picked up the pace! Go time!

Miles 11-13.1

Teal: Not bad at all. Not too tired, didn’t feel great but didn’t feel bad. Just wanted dry clothes. I usually count when I run but instead of counting as pace keeping I just decided to repeat the phrase “ dry clothes, dry clothes” as motivation to get this over with! I saw Beth at 13 and she ran a few steps with me and then it was over!

Beth: To me some of this last half truly runs together because I was happy. I was constantly thinking you got this! Let’s get it done! It was also somewhere in here I spotted the 2 hour pace and eventually passed him! YES! Running through numbers in my head and somewhere in here I thought, wait a second, could I get a new PR today?! So I kept pushing. When mile 12 came I knew I’d put in a ton of work and my body could only take so much more pushing. I knew if I did PR it would be a close one and I thought if I don’t I don’t care. I’ve run a strong race and I am so proud of myself!  It was kind of nice that Teal and I happened to walk by the 13 mile marker that morning as we made our way to the start and knew just where the finish was.

Teal: Not my best run and not my worst run. I can honestly say I am excited for the break. I have not expected a PR or anything in a while for the simple fact that I have not been training at all. I have done a couple hill work outs and nothing over 2-3 miles randomly besides the hills. I am ready to have time to train, change things up and use the second half of the year to work getting faster and stronger. Continually just running races and using them as “training” is no bueno and does not make you faster! I’m healed now and ready to go. Can’t wait until August when I feel better about doing actual training work and regaining the confidence that I have worked on speed! The break is needed because I really have not felt that huge desire to push!

Beth:  I didn’t stop my Runkeeper app right away, but I’d gotten across the start fast and when I crossed the finish line I knew I was in the 1:57 range.  I missed my half PR by 34 seconds meaning 34 seconds faster and I would have hit my same exact PR so 35 seconds faster and I’d have a new PR barely.  But I didn’t care! I had a good race! Overall, I finished 22 in my age group and 326th in the race. The past few months I had put in a lot of hill work and with just the two short stadium workouts my trainer Johnny has had me do in the last two weeks I had that push in me during the race.  Yes, we are taking a few months off from running halfs and I’m excited to take this opportunity to get stronger!  I know that I’ll come back in the Fall making sure I conquer my overall goal of having mostly sub two half marathon races.

Once the race was over we wanted to try and see a few people who were running the marathon.  After the marathoners hit the mile 26 marker they had to keep running up this road that takes them along the gate of Fair Park and we stationed ourselves where they’d make their last turn into the park.  We cheered for a good two hours out there!  Ultimately we ended up missing the people we knew, but we managed to see Army Amy as she was closing out her marathon!  We still haven’t met you in real life, but it was good to see you out there! You were looking strong, lady!  So there you have it our Big D race recap and if you’d asked us 4 months ago after White Rock Marathon if we would ever be grateful to run in the rain again we both would have probably yelled NO!! But the rain made this race bearable!

The Day We Got to Be Superheroes

If you’re not from the Dallas area then you probably have no idea that the forecast called for rain on Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Well, at least in the beginning of the week! The weather gods must have smiled upon Dallas CASA as they put on their first ever Superhero 5K because the rain did not make an appearance!

If you read our pre-race post then you know that neither one of us really  had a goal for this race, weeelll, we aren’t fully capable of just making a race an easy/laid back/casual race.  There is very much a competitive edge that lives on in each of us.  Plus as the temperatures are staring to go up and bring us the hot weather goals for a race can change in our minds in an instance.

Lindsay, Teal a.k.a. The Green Lantern and Beth a.k.a. Ms. Marvel

Lindsay, Brent and Beth

The race start was counted down and we were off!  We got going running side by side with each other and the course started out with a couple of hills right around Lindsley Park (where the 5K was held).  We powered through them though and from there the course took us onto the Santa Fe Trail which neither one of us had ever run on before.  About the last half mile we got off the Santa Fe Trail and pushed on towards the finish line.  It was probably about here were as a result of how hard we were running Teal first felt the need to throw up.  As we got to about the 3 mile mark Beth was starting to need to throw up. Ha!  Both of us successfully made it across that finish line without any throwing up.  Although Beth can’t say that for after crossing the finish line. 🙂  But that’s a sign of knowing you gave it your all in a 5K right???

Teal had paid more attention to how many females may or may not have been in front of us finishing the 5K.  We thought that at the very least Teal might have placed in our age group, so Beth & Brent stuck around in the end to find out since Teal had to get to work.  Before they announced any results they gave a big shout out to a little girl named Teal for being a Superhero that day by bringing all of her allowance to the race to donate to CASA.  How sweet is that?  And kind of fun that her name is Teal!  Unfortunately, the awards part of the race only mentioned who won the race and from there who won in each age division.  In our age group it was a man so he was the only person announced.  So Beth left there still not knowing exactly how we did.  It wasn’t until results were put up online that we found out we finished 1st and 2nd in our age group and 18th and 19th overall!

If only they had done an award for the male and female in each age group Teal would have gotten an award!!  This race brings a new PR for Beth!  We are both so proud of how we did especially considering Beth’s previous PR and Teal’s PR was from an all out flat course.  We definitely gave it our all and owned those hills instead of letting them own us!  You should definitely consider signing up for this race next year! Just a fun atmosphere with everyone dressed up in their Superhero costumes!  They had everything from Quail Man (who remembers him??) to generic superheroes to Wonder Woman.  Lots of great costumes out there!

We Are Seeing Doubles Again!

We liked our double race weekend in March so much that we decided we needed an April repeat….or something like that! 🙂

As you probably already know from previous blog posts tomorrow we are running the Dallas CASA Superhero 5K at Lindsley Park! This race will bring a bit of newness for both of us as neither one of us have ever run at that park AND it’ll be the first time that Beth gets to run a race with her future sister-in-law!

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Then Sunday morning we are running the Big D Half the first half marathon to kick off the start of our Four Seasons Challenge we decided to participate in and you know, get extra bling for when we complete it! 🙂

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So it’ll be a full weekend, but hopefully a good one!  Though we have already gotten a heads up email from Big D that they are closely watching the weather for Sunday since right now there is a 70% chance of rain and/or thunderstorms for the race!  If it does rain at least it won’t be in the 40’s like White Rock Marathon was in December! =)

We both do not have set goals for this race!  We are going to go out there do our best, race smart and hopefully have a lot of fun while running! 🙂

What are YOUR weekend running plans?  We want to know!

BluePrint Cleanse Recap

As you saw in my April goals #1 was to survive the BluePrint Cleanse. At the advice of my trainer and basically just myself and my sanity, I decided to do a more intense cleanse then I had done before. I can not afford the actual BluePrint Cleanse, where they actually send you everything made because it runs about $75 bucks a day plus shipping so, yea, I’m a teacher, that won’t work. I decided to just buy their book and buy the supplies. The total cost of everything, including a 3 day pre-cleanse and 3 day post-cleanse ran about $110 bucks. Not bad for 9 days worth of food!

The pre-cleanse is basically 3 days of preparing your body to deal with straight juice for 3 days. I know, and you probably do too that when we know we aren’t going to eat or we are going to be “cut off” of things then we cram food. Like maybe decide to eat the most fattening meal ever the night before, well, if you did that and went straight to juice you would die. I didn’t do that anyways but I still wanted to pre-cleanse. This was totally not bad and runs around 1100-1200 calories. I was still able to work out too!

Pre-Cleanse:

Day 1: 2 pieces of fruit, gazpacho, veggies and hummus, veggie tacos (avocado and sprouted corn tortillas)

Day 2:  basically the same but instead of veggies you can have a larabar

Day3:  basically the same but for dinner you eat a big salad with tons of veggies

Prep for the actual cleanse is a little insane and this is where I do wish I had a money tree! Juicing is messy and I cut my finger on the stupid pineapple. I made my juices over two nights because honestly it took me forever. The juice will keep for the 3 days if you do it all at once!

Here is what you drink

1-     greens with apple

2-     watermelon

3-     greens with blueberry and apple

4-     pineapple and mint

5-     greens with apple

6-     milk drink (basically ground cashews, coconut oil, water)

Day 1: I started the actual cleanse on a Thursday and had to work. I teach so this made me extremely nervous. I even freaking spilled my green drink at my desk! I almost cried! Also I am essentially trapped in a room for hours at a time with very short breaks to actually go the bathroom. It really was not too bad though. I did have to go to the bathroom at least once an hour just due to the increase in liquids. But I mean nothing bad that I’m embarrassed to say 🙂 I chose the second level of cleansing because I have done cleanses before and figured I could handle it.

See the spill?

Day 2: This day really was the worst, I just really wanted to chew, but was not that hungry! I did not like the “milk” drink you take at night and couldn’t drink it. It’s made with ground cashews so instead of drinking it I just ate a handful. I don’t think I actually ruined anything with this but who knows – the chewing just might have saved me. I did have to take “smooth move” tea, because I really wasn’t going #2 haha! That worked out well!

Day 3– I actually really did feel awesome. I was full, my joints weren’t hurting, not even in my knees, and my eyes no longer really had bags under them! I felt really good and still do even today! I ended day 3 with my last green drink and right before bed ate some more cashews.

Honestly I was not hungry. I actually didn’t even want to drink all of the juice sometimes because I didn’t feel hungry. The drinks do not taste bad, the green one takes some getting used to, and if I actually liked coconut I would have liked the “milk.” At this point, I am not 100% sure how much weight I lost. On the second day I was down a full 5 from the last time I weighed right before, and today at the gym, 2 days after the cleanse is completely over, I was down 8 pounds total. Not bad, the weight is awesome, but I also for the first time just feel really good!

Just my advice:

–          Drink lots of water and green tea- so much so that you think you will pop

–          Buy smooth move tea – it doesn’t taste bad and works

–          Learn to love Apple Cider Vinegar and drink it if you are hungry (mix with a little honey and drink warm) it’s the least gross way!

–          Plan!! And don’t do this when you have to go places, its annoying to carry a cooler – I took one to school and it annoyed me with all the ice!

–          Your kitchen will be a holy mess, so if you are crazy like me learn to breathe!

Beware of weird questions! Liiike – What the hell is that? Is that gross? What are you doing? Why would you do that? That’s weird. (Oh and evil sideways stares at the grocery store because your buggy has far too many fruits and veggies)

-Teal

Wordless Wednesday No. 21

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What’s a CASA??

If you follow us on twitter or have connected with us on Facebook then you might already know that this Saturday we are running in the first ever Dallas CASA Superhero 5K and Family Fun Run.  Beth’s future mother-in-law works for CASA and is really the main reason we know about their 5K this coming weekend.  Yes, we are also doing Big D half on Sunday – we like to do double race weekends! We’re crazy like that! 🙂

Both of us have been familiar with CASA for quite some time, but realized that not everyone might not know as much as we do! So we’ll let you in on that –

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a nonprofit organization of community volunteers who serve as voices in court for abused and neglected children.  CASA volunteers are trained and supervised to advocate for the best interests of children in protective care and to make recommendations that help judges decide what is best for each child. For many children, a CASA volunteer is the one constant during a frightening, uncertain time. A CASA volunteer can have an immediate and critical impact on the life of a child. Less than half of the children in protective care in Dallas County have CASA voices in court. 

Fun fact for you – the sole reason that each of us know about CASA is because in college we each had a friend who was a Kappa Alpha Theta and well CASA is Theta’s philanthropy.

The superhero theme behind the race is because – Like the superheroes of childhood, CASA volunteers know that in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for abused children, they must never give up. They also know that they are more powerful when working together. The Superhero 5K brings our community together as superheroes for abused children to help Dallas CASA provide volunteer advocates for every child who needs one.

Did you know that there are more than 2,000 children in Dallas County who have been removed from their homes and are waiting for the courts to decide where they can live safely and permanently?  

As of now only two out of five abused children have CASA volunteers to advocate for their best interests and help them find safe, permanent homes.

So we would love for you to come join us, come help support Dallas CASA and help spread the word about  who CASA is and what they are doing for local Dallas County children!

Children are very near and dear to both of our hearts as Teal is a middle school teacher and Beth majored in elementary education in college, and it is our privilege to help support a great cause through our running! Registration is still open at runontexas.com

Dallas CASA superheroes to race for a better future
for abused and neglected children

We All Mess Up Sometimes…

So you all know we ran a race this past weekend, right?  Well, we aren’t going to name that race in this post or another company because this is NOT a post pointing fingers at anyone! So please note that now and try to not read that tone in the words to follow! 🙂

As we were finishing out our half marathon this passed weekend we both heard the guy announcing finishers and around the time Teal crosses we hear “Blanca Perez from someplace, TX.”  Hmmm, how much of a coincidence is that someone with Teal’s same last name was crossing right around the time she did??  We were both confused.

Fast forward to our racing results:

Yes, Beth did pull ahead at the very end of the race, but NOT so much so that there was an 11 person distance between the two of us and not a gap that spanned 38 seconds!  This morning Teal, still confused by her racing results found the item in her results that is wrong! Her bib number was 347, see…

So Teal Perez and Blanca Perez’ race results were in fact switched!! This was our 26th race together, so honestly this was bound to happen to one of us at some point, right?  And as you all know this was the slowest half marathon either one of us had ever run before so the time really is irrelevant, but the real point of this post is – who else in our running community has this happened to?  Did you do anything to get your results changed? You know since pretty much once you run a timed race your results are forever searchable on the interwebs!  Let us know!