00kate: Ramblings of a Running-Obsessed Undergrad

Maine

Hi everybody!

It’s been a super busy summer – I have spent the past two weeks finishing up at work, packing for college, and getting ready for my Maine trip! Right now I’m sitting on the porch at camp looking out at the lake drinking a cup of coffee and looking forward to Day One of rest and relaxation before things get crazy next week.

If you follow me on twitter you know that I had a brush with injury last week and ended up missing about 5 of my training runs, including an 11-miler, due to a mysterious hip/back pain that made walking and running pretty painful for a few days. I’m glad to say that my worry that it was another stress fracture was (probably) unneccessary, as it has healed up pretty quickly and I was able to do 3 miles this morning on the beautiful Maine roads with no pain. I think it was a back muscle injury… Hoping to do 6 miles tomorrow, and then have a biking/rest day on Monday, and then…  :D Around the lake, baby! Here’s a video I took this morning post-swim using my new Bloggie PM5 camera from Sony.

My Next Race

Back to a running race after my June triathlon! This September 5th I’ll be in sunny Virginia Beach for the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon, my second half and my first half on the roads (I did a half marathon on the trails at Walnut Creek last November). I’ll be running as a Sony-Sponsored blogger, as they were generous enough to sponsor me for this race, and I’ll be sharing my training using the Sony Bloggie PM5 camcorder. Thanks, Sony! Prepare for some videos, guys!
There will be a whole host of DailyMile peeps at the race, and I can’t wait to meet some of them for the first time! A DailyMile meet-up will be the perfect post-race celebration.

My goals for this race are pretty simple – I want to stay injury-free! That means no time goals for this race. Staying healthy and having fun are all I need for this one! Coming back from the injury was pretty hard mentally, and I struggled a bit with being motivated to go out and run when it was slow and painful and tough. Training for the triathlon was a great break from that, and now that I’ve regained the fitness I lost being injured I’m ready for a new running challenge. This race on my calendar has definitely revamped my running training!

Right now I’m trying to plan out my next races. I just got the book “The Triathlete Training Bible” from my mom as a “way-to-go!” present for finishing my triathlon (Thanks mom!) and I think that will be a great tool for sketching out my training. When I’m done planning I’ll share it here!
Enjoy the beautiful weekend, guys! I’m off for a bike ride :)

Vibram’s Grip Your World Giveaway – I won!

UTMB1

A few weeks ago, I entered the Vibram Grip Your World contest hoping to score a pair of my favorite barefooting shoes (I love me some Bikilas!). I was linked to the sweepstakes from my fellow DailyMile Team member Steve Speirs, at his blog at www.runbulldogrun.blogspot.com (He’s also on twitter at @britishbulldog and on Dailymile). It was easy – and fun! – to enter, all I had to do was submit a photo of myself running in my VFFs and I was given a chance to win some free footwear!


Last Monday I got an email from Vibram telling me I’d won! Sweet! Free shoes, right?


Not quite.


Turns out that there’s a grand prize. And that grand prize is a trip to Chamonix, France, to follow the The North Face Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc, a 100 mile race around the base of Mont Blanc on the border of Switzerland, France, and Italy.


No.


Way.

So this coming August, I’ll be setting off for Europe with my brother to watch some ultrarunning in the Alps! I’ll be sure to take TONS of photos. More info to come!

Recovering from Injury on RunReview.com

Check out my guest post on RunReview.com on how to recover from an injury!

Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon 2010

I did it! I finished my first triathlon, the Charlottesville Sprint in my hometown-away-from-hometown (Charlottesville, VA, home to UVA).

Crossing the finish line!

Crossing the finish line!

More »