Miami runner

Earth Day Running with Knockaround

Disclaimer: I received a pair of Knockaround sunglasses to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!

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I have been a fan of Knockarounds for awhile, they are one of my favorite running/active sunglasses. Living in a tropical place means that I need lots of sunglasses, when I first started running I would run early in the morning before the sun came up but in the past few years, Phoebe has grown and early morning runs usually mean treadmill runs. Sunglasses are a necessity for my afternoon/early evening runs in South Florida. Even on the off chance I get in an early outdoor run on the weekend when the sun is still rising it can get pretty bright out. These are fantastic for not slipping down.

Ever heard of the term, plogging? It is a Swedish term for jogging while picking up litter coined back in 2016. It’s a great idea to help clean up the environment and get in some exercise, it should really be taking off at this time since there is a ton of trash out there at this time and lots of people walking/biking/jogging on the sidewalks/streets now.

Adventures in plogging recently has changed a bit due to the covid-19 virus, I used to be running and see a couple bottles or large piece of trash and a trash can nearby and would not hesitate to pick it up and trash it. But now with the virus being able to live on plastic and cardboard for sometimes days, plogging requires more preparations, like gloves. Also with social distancing you cannot run with others who are not living in your household so things can be a little slow in the clean up of neighborhoods. I decided to keep my plogging nearby my house in order to be able to have my gloves and garbage bag ready so I often ended my run with some plogging around the street next to my house. Living off a very busy avenue means lots of trash to pick up and now lots of discarded gloves and masks too. Instead of throwing out their masks/gloves at home or in a bag after their grocery shopping trips people have started throwing them out of their cars and damaging the trying to heal earth. I haven’t been able to take any pics of said plogging in action as I have to wear gloves and do not want to touch my phone to snap a pic before I am decontaminated. But I was able to get in some pics of the bags of trash that I found in less than half a mile from my house recently. Lots of people in cars gave puzzled looks because it’s odd to see people who are not forced to clean up the streets who are not in a community service program. I did get a few cheers.

We are currently in a very lax lockdown in Miami right now and people are venturing outside to exercise since all the gyms are closed and only some fitness classes are online right now. So I am seeing a lot more disposable water bottles strewn in the grass by the sidewalks and less litter free lawns now than a few months ago. I love running outside and now the rules are you have to stay at least 6 ft but preferably 10-12 ft away from  others when running as our heavier breathing causes virus particles to fly farther than those who are walking. I do not wear a mask while running but at any grocery stores or drive thru restaurants I do. I live in the suburbs so there is not a ton of people on the streets at any given time like if I were to live in downtown or Brickell area where there are many condos and lots of people living in a small area.

Also there is currently a contest going on currently through social media about hugging a tree for Earth day and tagging knockaround and bibrave with the hashtag #earthdayknocksbr in order to win a pair of Knockarounds, hurry, it ends tonight! Here’s my pic : IMG_7043

 

Right now to celebrate earth day Knockaround sunglasses gave us the code: BibRaveKnocks4 to get 20% off your entire order! I have the Special Release No Signal Fort Knocks ones, which come with the coolest tv guide printed sunglasses pouch and the box they came in has a printed old school tv remote. Reminds me back when I was a teenager and at midnight the tv would go fuzzy and then have these colorful lines until the channel started broadcasting again. Very fun and nostalgic!

Did you do anything special to celebrate Earth day? Do you think every day is Earth Day? Have you ever been plogging?

 

 

 

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Writers Block not Runners Block

The past few months have been a whirlwind of things happening in my life.

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Let’s start with end of March, I managed to fall on a sidewalk in a park, tearing off a big chunk of skin from my elbow and causing some hip pains for the next week.

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Then in April I managed to kill two treadmills in a week, well one was on its last leg after the thousand miles I had spent on it for the past 6 years or so. It was not such a shock but the replacement treadmill bought months before used also had major problems. From the first run on it till the whole belt folded and almost threw me off the thing! Trashed that one as well. I rely heavily on the treadmill certain times of year and during major training due to childcare things, I get in my early morning runs on the treadmill or late night runs while watching my kid sleep in her bed by baby monitor. I had to get a new treadmill ASAP so I got one from amazon, a Proform which is not the best as its had some rust issues after only a short time and not being exposed to the elements but it works and I can get my miles in! Then mid April my grandmother had a heart attack and almost died from it, major stress for the entire family. She ended up pulling through and is back to herself again.

May ended up being my 2nd highest mileage month for the year, which was surprising since I had to work early for half of the month. Also I turned the big 3-8! Ran the ALS 10k in Coconut Grove, it had been a few years since I had ran the race and ended up happy with my slower than usual time. Felt strong but steady in the race despite the high humidity and heat.

June and July were slow running months for me, probably in part due to the heat of the summer months and then planning Phoebe’s 4th birthday party and traveling to Seattle and Alaska. I hit 1000 miles for the year in June. I enjoyed running in Seattle, where the morning temps were 58 but I was not really feeling those huge hills! We stayed in the downtown area and I walked up more than one of the hills in the middle of the run. Luckily I was able to borrow a bob stroller so we could take Phoebe out for some runs as well while we were there, thanks to one of my Oiselle Volee teammates! It was a little more difficult to square away an hour while cruising through Alaska on a boat but I managed to run 4 of the 7 days we were onboard. July was my lowest mileage month for the year – just got in a little less than 100 miles.

August brought on a new challenge of getting back into a schedule again after being on vacation for 10 days! The first part of the month started off slowly as I tried to get back out of the running rut, then Phoebe got a cold and more things piled in front of miles. Also this was the month that I started my Space Coast Marathon training, slowly. Phoebe started VPK and I went to see Bush in concert, it had been awhile since I went to a concert and many years since I had seen them live.

September was the month that I started getting serious about my mileage goals again. I started extending my long runs past that 13 mile mark and hit 50 miles for 2 weeks in a row at the end of the month. Still trying to get back into being a morning runner but my evening road runs are getting faster and feeling easier and the weather hasn’t yet started to cool down yet. I look forward to cooler temps, but I don’t expect to see that happening for another few months. I took a hands only CPR class and learned some new things, feeling confident I can help someone out in an emergency situation.

October has just started but going to work hard this month with waking up early again to run. I don’t yet know what I can promise myself for accomplishing this goal but no doubt I can figure something out. Now I am in the middle of marathon training for Space Coast Marathon and at the beginning of training for Miami Marathon. Not so smart but what are you gonna do when you want to do both marathons and they just happen to be only 8 weeks apart? Simultaneously marathon training, fun times!

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At the beginning of the year I made a goal to read at least 12 books this year, I figured it would be extremely hard because ever since Phoebe was born I feel like there’s no time to read. I am happy to announce that I am currently only book #35 for the year so maybe I will adjust my reading goal to 52 instead?

Haven’t signed up for Miami Marathon yet and want a discount on your registration? Use this code for $5 off – BIBRAVEMIAMI

 

 

 

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Win Detergent FTW

Disclaimer: I received a bottle of Win sports detergent to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

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I have been on the lookout for a new sports detergent as the one I was using prior to Win was just not cutting it and my running clothes still had a sweat funk smell to them. Plus the other detergent was good but it was also not free and clear, it had a hint of fragrance that I was just not digging. There is also a fresh clean smelling one as well but I prefer fragrance free. The blue bottle is the fresh clean scented one and the green bottle is the free and clear, scent free, which is preferred by me as I have a daughter with extremely sensitive skin and prefer the one better for the environment.

Right now I am at the beginning of a run streak and I am going to have even more sweaty running clothes than usual since I won’t be taking my one rest day each week anymore till the end of this month or perhaps even longer if I want to continue for the runner’s world streak also. Plus my boyfriend runs with me 3-4x a week and I have his sweaty running clothes to deal with also. One thing I have noticed in the past year or so with running laundry is that it is best to hang the clothes so that the sweat dries before putting them together in a laundry basket. But even with hanging the sweaty clothes I would not get all the sweat smell with the previous detergent. I was lost on where to look to find another sports detergent, till I got the notification that I could test this one out. Something else that I enjoy about this stuff is that I can order it on amazon.com and get it shipped along with my other amazon goodies! Very convenient! Even more convenient is that in my area with Prime I can get it in one day, I can have my detergent tomorrow for no extra fee! Right now there is a promo going on that you can get 20% off your order when you use the code: WIN4RAVE – I am actually buying some more right now while I can get the discount and if you are an athlete, workout a lot or sweat a lot this is the detergent for you!

For more technical reasons your running clothes smell from the sweat is because the oils from your sweat attract the wicking technical clothing and get trapped in the fibers causing the smell, unlike other fabrics like cotton. But who can run in cotton? So how Win works is that the active ingredients separate the oils from the synthetic fabric to get back to that clean smell. Other sports detergents that I have used in the past have possibly taken out some of the oils but not all which means my running clothes retain some smell. Which is basically not good enough so check out Win for truly clean clothing. Definitely living in Miami I sweat for every run because we only have 2 days of cold weather where we sweat a little less.

 

 

 

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305 Half Marathon – A Race Recap

Disclaimer: I’m promoting 305 Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

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Race day attire (arm sleeves were not required)

Going into this race morning I was a bit tired, had ran the DRI hope for a cure 5k on Saturday morning and ended up taking my daughter into a pediatric urgent care later on for a fever after coughing for a week. Spent a few hours there and ended up leaving with antibiotics and nebulizer liquid for her with instructions to give her treatment every 4-6 hrs and bring her back immediately for anymore fevers. Exhausted and not going to sleep till closer to 10:30pm, I woke up at 3:30am to get ready and head to the 305 Half Marathon. Luckily I had laid out my clothing/shoes and race bag was ready to go so I basically just got up, jumped in my clothes and ate some cereal before heading out.

 

By some miracle we had cool weather at the start, I was debating on checking a bag or not but ultimately changed my mind, also changed my mind about needing arm sleeves for the race (good choice!) I did sit in my car for awhile in my Every Mother Counts hoodie to wait as long as possible before heading out into the cool weather. This wasn’t the 55 degree weather was predicted originally on the weather channel app but rather 60-62 degrees. Not bad but when the wind whipped through the buildings/hotels on South Beach it could feel quite nippy. Not bad though as usually this race is quite warm or even kind of rainy, in the past 6 years, this has been the coldest it’s been for this race. So I basically walked quickly to the port o potties and peed before meeting up with another running friend, Stephanie (TheCookieRunner) at the Miami Beach clock and she gave me a cool Momentum bracelet that would remind me later in the race to Just Breathe. We talked for a little bit and then I headed into the starting corral, where it was warmer with all the people crowded in. Talked to my friend, Carmen before the start and vowed that I would try to stick with the 2 hour pacer as long as possible. Starting I felt fresh and the cool air helped me in staying ahead of the 2 hour pacer at least for the first 7 miles of the race. They gave the pacers speakers filled with Miami/running related songs and just general anthems to pump you up: PitBull, Enrique Iglesias, Beyonce, Cake, AC/DC to name a few I heard while running with the group. At mile 6 I saw our Every Mother Counts South Florida ambassador, Esther and was cheered on by her. I think the ascend up the MacArthur Causeway slowed me down a bit but then a friendly cheer from my friend/mayor, Harolyn around mile 10 helped me get back out of my head and speed up a little for the final 5k of the race. Along the way lots of iRun runners were cheering us on and at the end Frankie Ruiz was running back to find his fiance to cross the line together, got a high five from him as I passed. Then Hector from iRun was about half a mile from the finish line and urged me to go faster, so I followed his instructions and sped up to even kick it up a bit and not let some other runner (guy) pass me at the finish line!

Something I did different during this race that I haven’t done before in a half marathon was not take in any nutrition. I think it helped that I had half of a bowl from Chipotle the night before and cereal race morning that helped fuel my race. I brought my Honey Stinger chews with me but never took them out of my back pocket of my awesome pocket full Oiselle pocket jogger shorts. So weird but somehow it worked, I do train with them generally and use the starting at mile 6 but this time I just didn’t need them.

I crossed the line in just under 2 hours, like literally 40 seconds or so before the 2 hour mark, I pushed at the end a little and my splits show it but I did not feel totally depleted. The course was slightly different at the end, which I did not realize until we were running it, I’m glad because that running straight into the blazing sun at South Point Pier is no fun after 12 miles!  Right after the finish line after collecting your medal and water there was a pots and pans PR station where you could hit the pots and pans together in celebration for a new half marathon PR. I had no PR but saw a couple people taking advantage of hitting the pans. It’s been a couple years since Miami has celebrated in the streets with pots and pans from a Heat championship win or Castro death, haha So some folks were very eager to hit them. After that was a long line to take pic in front of the official finisher backdrop, but I had no time to stand in the line but I think it would’ve been nice to get that free photo. I got some pretzels and the food tent had the regular runner food: bananas, fruit cups, pretzels, cookies, bagels and then pastelitos, empandas and some other little hispanic dessert cups. Very cool but I was not really in the mood to eat anything and no sweets after the race. I really just wanted to get home to my sick toddler and get some rest time. I went to the Storm Series tent and collected my category 4 medal before looking around at the other sponsor tents and then heading back to the car. Took a couple pics first and headed back to the finish line for a cool pic of my medal when Frankie Ruiz and Carla Duenas were crossing the finish line together, caught a few pics and then headed back to the parking garage. The weather was awesome for the cool down walk back to the parking garage, almost a mile away. Did not have the extreme soreness when I got home and got out of my car after sitting down and driving for 25 minutes from South Beach like I was expecting.

Great race and afterwards got an email from Athlinks to remind me to claim my new half marathon result and check out my pictures later on that evening. If you do not already use Athlinks, you need to get create a profile and add all your race results from the past. You can have all your race results on one site incase you ever wonder what was your PR for a certain distance or how fast/slow you ran for that race. You can also add friends/rivals and see what races others in your area are doing, so cool. Plus the Athlinks people are super helpful and only a tweet away from solving any issue you may run into.

If you are interested in doing this race in 2019 right now the prices are the lowest they will EVER be. Register in the next 2 days and only pay $60! That is extremely low for a half marathon! I am posting below exactly how affordable prices are for the next week or so for the half marathon and the 5k option. So hurry so you can get your 3-0-5 medals and oh if you somehow missed this race but want the whole set of medals you can purchase your 3 medal when you register for the 0 in 2019!

305 savings

Race Pics
Oiselle pocket jogger shorts FTW

 

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