Nike+ 10k Human Race 2009

Thanks to my brother, I learned that Nike is having it's second worldwide 10k race on October 24th. I didn't hear about the one from last year somehow, but 780,000 people ran in it. The race is hosted in 24 cities worldwide. US locations include NYC - Prospect Park, University of Southern California, and Ohio State University Campus.

HOWEVER... if you don't happen to live near any of the 3 cities (which I don't), you can still participate. You can register for the "run where you are" option and use your Nike+ sport kit, log a 10k run that day, and be included in the results of nearly a million people worldwide.

If you don't currently have a Nike+ sport kit, which is either a Nike+ SportBand, iPod nano and Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, iPod touch 2G and Nike+ sensor, or iPhone 3GS and Nike+ sensor, you can buy them online at Nike's website. Obviously cost will depend on how many products you already have, but if you just need the sensor it's $29. When my friend Nicole and I were training for our half marathon, she used the iPod nano and Nike+ iPod Sport Kit to measure our time and distance and it was really nice to have, especially when you're not training on a road where you can easily calculate distance. You can also track your runs and progress with their tools online.

Oh, I should mention that along with the equipment listed above, Nike also tells you that you need their special Nike+ shoes which range from under $100 to about $130 (not bad for a high quality running shoe...but only if you are in need). You can get the shoes at Dick's Sporting Goods as well. I'm including a link at the bottom of this post for free shipping.

What Nike doesn't tell you is that you don't actually need their sneakers, and what you can do is buy a sensor pouch at Amazon for $2 - $3 (black or multi-colored) and attach it to your shoelaces. I know people that use these and they work fine. So if you don't have Nike+ shoes and want to save some money, get a pouch :).

I hope everyone will join me virtually for this 10k run! Assuming my ribs are healed enough...
Let me know how you did and post it in the Fit Chicks forum :).

Free Shipping on Eligible Orders over $125 at DicksSportingGoods.com!

Fleet Feet Sports - A Rochester Best

Fleet Feet Sports is a full service fitness store that sells clothing, accessories, all things running related, and of course sneakers! By full service I mean that instead of you going in there and picking out the prettiest running shoe, they will put you into a pair, put you on a treadmill, and watch a video of your feet when you're running to see what type of shoe is going to fit you best. Once they know this, they bring out several pairs of sneakers, you put them on, run around the store outside if you wish, and pick the best fitting ones. This was pretty crazy to me since I grew up picking out the coolest looking sneakers and not caring how they fit, but let me tell you, my feet are super happy now.

Other than selling things, they host several races a year, have group workouts a few times a week, have workshops and speakers come in about training for triathlons, sports injuries, nutrition, girl nights, pretty much anything you could desire. Fleet Feet Sports is located around the country: Fleet Feet Locations, but when I go on and on about how cool they are, I'm talking about my local one: Fleet Feet Rochester ...so I have no idea if all the other ones have as much going on or not but you should check it out.

Every race they host is so much fun and they have loud music cranking for you when you cross the finish line. The owners Boots and Ellen also seem very laid back and that they care about making people happy by adding new things. In the past couple of years they have added some really fun races during the week for cheap. They are called the Dirt Cheap Trail Series and consist of a trail run once a month for 6 months at different parks around Rochester... they're my favorite. I mean how else are you going to get a 4-7 mile trail run done in the middle of the week with 100 other crazy people? They also have a new series this year called the Beach Cheap Aquathalon which is a combination of swimming and running which I haven't gotten a chance to check out.

In conclusion, check out the location link I put above and make sure to see if you have a Fleet Feet Sports around you...you won't regret it :).

Fractured Ribs & Vicodin

So to follow up with my last blog, I ended up fracturing 4 ribs. I thought I'd talk about the top 10 things that work and don't work when trying to heal. Here it goes:

1. A nice nurse at an Urgent Care center near me gave me Tylenol with Codeine - didn't help.

2. The next day, I went to see my doctor, he gave me Vicoprofen which is Hydrocodone mixed with... yup, Ibuprofen - helped.

3. Placing bags of frozen vegetables on my bare skin - helped.

4. The process of laying down and sitting up... most painful thing - made it worse.

5. Attempting to go back to work Thursday morning carrying around a pillow - didn't help.

6. Laying in bed propped up with 2 pillows not doing anything - helped.

7. Attempting to drive my car that's a stick shift - made it worse.

8. Walking to a convenience store to get some comfort food and a fountain diet coke - made it worse.

9. Taking Excedrin Migrane once the Vicoprofen started giving me migranes 1 hour after taking it - helped.

10. Accidentally hugging my friend at a wake - made it worse.

So in conclusion, to recover from multiple rib fractures, you should make your Doctor give you Vicodin, not move, stay home from work for a week, and don't show your friends or family any love... ok? :)

I know this is a health and fitness site... but whatever, I was hurt and talked about comfort food :) Chocolate.com - The World's Largest Chocolate Marketplace

XTERRA M2Xtreme

So last Sunday I competed in my first full distance XTERRA triathlon; M2XTREME. If you've never heard of these races (as I hadn't 2 years ago), they are off-road triathlons consisting of a 1500m swim, 17 mile mountain bike, and 5 mile trail run.

Ok, some background now, a couple years ago I decided to run a half marathon with my friend Nicole. We trained for a couple months and got up every Saturday morning and ran around 10-14 miles. I felt very accomplished when the race was over, but knew I had to set my goal for next year. Since the idea of getting up at 7am every Saturday morning and running double what I just trained for didn't sound very fun to me, I decided to move on to triathlons. Given the fact that I don't own a road bike, and LOVE mountain biking, I turned to XTERRAs. That next year I half-assed my training and did the sprint version (750m swim, 12 mile mountain bike, 3 mile trail run). It was the most fun I've ever had at a race... I knew I would try for the full the next year.

This year I bought a training plan online for the full XTERRA at Holiday Valley Ski Resort in NY (the M2Xtreme). I followed it pretty closely and dragged myself out for a couple hours every day after work to train. This year I was determined to do well on the swim because it was my weakest part last year so I even took a few lessons at the YMCA.

I brought my parents with me to watch the race (they love that stuff). The swim went really well (although I don't know my exact time yet, I know it improved greatly since last year)...yay! I threw all my mountain biking gear on and started the course. They had to change it this year because of the ridiculous amounts of rain. I could tell why when I saw all the mud on the course. I'm going along and doing OK, but I've never ridden a mountain bike in the mud...I'm going kind of slow and getting a little frustrated. I wonder how I'm going to do 2 more laps of this, then next thing I know, I'm going down a hill, slide on a bunch of mud, and my bike throws me onto a log... yeah that hurt. I lay there not being able to breathe for 5 minutes with my bike still in the path (not safe). Some nice guy helped get my bike out of the way and asked if I was ok. Actually about 5 people asked if I was ok, and I didn't want to trouble anyone so the answer was always, "yeah I'm fine."

The entire right side of my body was aching in pain (ribs, hip, some blood and bruises). I walked my bike on the trail for a while thinking maybe I could finish, but then decided that wasn't going to happen and met one of the volunteers near the bottom of the mountain and he walked me back to my parents. He was awesome and had just done a half Ironman... I'm jealous. I felt like a huge tool walking in front of everyone and not being able to finish...especially after all that training... o well :(. My friend did well so I was happy for him. This is a ridiculously long blog so I'm going to continue on some injury details tomorrow...

Buy some mud tires from these people next time you go mountain biking after a downpour: BikeTiresDirect.com - they have lots of other biking stuff too...

Blogging Virgin

So yes, here I am... a blogging virgin. I tried to find an adequate picture online to go with the title of my post, but you can imagine the outcome (note to self: don't Google "virgin"). Anyway, I'm your normal (kind of) 27 year old who is also a fitness, exercise, and health nut (I was going to say closet but everyone I've ever come in contact with knows this...), so I decided to start blogging about these slight obsessions, and hopefully I will help a few people out; either with their fitness goals, nutrition goals, or just weekend boredom reading :).

I'm not going to pretend like I know everything, but feel like I know more about and am more passionate about fitness than I am my career as an engineer... oops. I'm in the process of studying for my personal training certification (ACSM) and really hope to utilize it online to help women using my Fit Chicks website; which is currently in the very early stages of development. I eventually want to include custom fitness programs, reviews of workouts, reviews of fitness and health related products, a forum where women can inspire each other, and anything else I can think of to help people.

I would like to find ways to differentiate myself from other fitness websites, so any ideas you can think of for what should be included on my site to help with your goals, I would really appreciate those as your ideas may help many other women succeed in their goals as well :). And now I'm no longer a blogging virgin!!