Summer Training

Summer training = heat, humidity and a whole lot of sweat!

Now I am not above working up a good sweat, but I truly am not a big fan of running when the temps start to rise above 80 degrees.
Through my research and reading of Jeff Galloway's book, Half Marathon - You Can Do It! He charts that you are significantly slowed down in running when the temps get over 60 degrees. If the temps are 66 - 69 degrees F you should be slowing your pace down by a mile/minute. That is substantial when you are training and says alot for those of you (like me) who may feel nauseated when running in the heat!

With the goal setting that Runnerbud Jen and I have done, training is currently in full swing. We have a 10 miler in just a few weeks, a 200 mile Ragnar Relay in October and our first 1/2 marathon in March. I'm sure we will toss a few 5K's in there for good measure as well.
As we have been increasing our mileage I decided it was time for a fuel belt. If you know me well, you realize I had to research them to death online and in the stores. I feel bad for the guy in Flying Feet who helped me take apart, resize and put back together about 5 types of belts. THEN I decided to check out the water bottles that you carry in your hand. If you have never checked out the variety of bottles and belts out there, I must tell you that the choices are dizzying!
In the end I decided to go with the I-Fitness fuel belt that has 2 bottles on it and a good size pocket for gels, Shot-bloks or even an I-phone. It took me about two runs to get used to wearing it and I will admit I'm sold on wearing it. Any runs over 3 miles, I have to have hydration. Which brings me to remind you to HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE out there!

Did you know that your metabolism slows down when you are dehydrated?

If you want to read more about running in the heat check out these informative links!
Tips for Running in the heat
Myths About Running in the Heat

So for the next month or two, Runnerbud Jen and I will keep on keeping on as we have for months. Kicking it before dawn seems to help us find cooler temps (and less traffic!) which in turn helps us to add those training miles to our runs.
Of course if all else fails...sign up for runs that have cold, frosty beverages at the end!

If you run, you are a runner!
~Rachel

The Color Run Philly Experience

The Color Run experience was just that…an experience. No PR, timing chips or racing was going on. This was one of those runs that I had on my bucket list and was able to enlist 3 of my girls to join me on the journey. This is definitely one that the kids could join in and enjoy as well. (Maybe next time!)

The Philly Color Run was the largest ever this past weekend and they touted 23,000 runners. Considering the large number, it was well run and the volunteers had as much fun as the runners!

We arrived the day before to do some touristy things and stopped at the check in Saturday afternoon. The line in Color Village looked long, but didn’t take more than 20 minutes to get us through. The dance music being piped through the speakers helped and we jammed out in line while waiting…yes dancing did take place!

Due to the large numbers & extreme heat we wanted to get there before the start time of 7:00am so we headed out about 6:30. We stayed in the city so luckily we didn’t have to deal with parking issues. The sea of white was enormous as we headed for the starting line. (All participants start the race by wearing white)

Here we are in our white garb, you can see the folks behind us in white as well!

1,000 runners were started in waves every 5 minutes and it seemed to go quite smoothly. Although we arrived well before the start, we were pretty far back in the wave line. By the grace of some higher power a Color Run volunteer opened the gate and allowed a large group of us through and we actually ended up running in wave #4.

The idea behind the Color Run is to get sprayed with color each kilometer. The color is cornstarch with food coloring in it and the volunteers spray you with it using large bottles that looked like condiment bottles. If you run in the middle of the path- that is the low color zone, if you run on the sides you are in a high color zone. I’m glad I wore sunglasses because the powder was everywhere in the color zones. It didn't burn your eyes, but you had no clean body parts to wipe your eyes if it got in. Probably not a good race for asthmatics as I was breathing color through the zone. (Nose blowing has been interesting the past 2 days to say the least...)

I have to say the first 2 zones were a little skimpy on the pink and blue, but the orange zone was going crazy. By the end we were an array of rainbow colors and some people were even rolling around in the powder on the ground to get extra colorful.

Jen and I after color zone pink and blue. You can see the powder flying behind us from the color zone.

You can see I am overly orange in this photo! That zone was color happy!

 Each runner is given a packet of extra color to throw at the after race festival so needless to say we were pelted with more colors post-race by random color throwing racers. It was pretty cool too to walk through the city seeing other color runners who had finished the race as well. We definitely spiced up the city of Philly on Sunday.

You absolutely want to do this run with some friends and go into it with a happy attitude. The music is fun and the colors are great; a good picture taking, memory making kind of day. I used a disposable camera as I was a little leary about my IPhone with the color dust. I did have it with me in a baggie and that seemed to work okay. The pics are little blurry thru the baggie, but you get the idea.

Here we are post-race in our rainbow attire. You may notice there are only 3 of us here...we lost Diane after the run in the mob of 23.000 people. Note to all runners - ALWAYS decide on a meeting place post race. We learned the hard way. (No worries she is safe and sound now!)

So, there is another run off my list of to-do’s…highly recommended if you are looking for a fun time. Just don’t think you will get anywhere quickly!

If you run, you are a runner!

~Rachel