Let the Mind Run the Body...

Who's idea was it to make all the good half marathon's in the fall?  I have the Disneyland half in four weeks and the Nike Women's Half Marathon in ten weeks.  This means I am in the thick of my miles--at the end of a very hot July.  I saw this saying last week and it really effected me.  

I had a TEAM run on Saturday morning that the Coaches call our hardest course.  It was very hilly and had absolutely no shade.  I keep this phrase in my head when I wanted to quit.  I ran around the track again this evening.  I was hot and my tummy did not feel very well.  I kept telling myself "let the mind run the body".  It worked for me.  I ran my four miles.

Do you have any phrases or sayings that you tell yourself when you run?  Do you think it helps you keep going?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy

Some of the best running advice I have ever gotten...

My Teammates

During a TEAM training run a few Saturday morning ago, I was having a tough time.  It was SO hot, the hottest weather I had ever run in.  It was humid, sunny, and I was miserable.  I was running at the back of the pack when a nice older man started running beside me.  He knew I was a runDisney lover, so he asked me about my past and future runDisney events.  He told me he ran Goofy a few years ago.  I told him that was my goal for 2014, but I was scared I would never be ready for a full marathon.   


Right then, during a very tough ran, my teammate gave me the most funny but most true running advice I had ever heard.  He said to me "running is 75% metal, half physical".  We laughed about the advice together, but boy was it true.  The accountant in me almost could not accept the statement, but I really understand what he was saying.

During that super hot run, my physical wanted to give up!  I was really hurting--hot, tired, thirsty....my body was done.  But, I did not quite.  I put in my 6 miles that day because I let the mental 75% overrule the half physical part.  I am so thankful that I got this piece of advice.  When my runs have been getting tough lately, I tell myself the 75% physical is stronger than the half physical.  Thinking about the cute little statement also takes my mind of the discomfort.

What do you think about this cute little piece of running advice?  What is the best running advice you have ever gotten?  How did it change you?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy

I'm Number 8569!

runDisney posted the link yesterday for the 2012 Disneyland Half Marathon waiver and bib numbers!  I am runner number 8569.  As the race gets closer, I get more and more excited.  What is there not to get excited about really?  I get to fly out to one of my favorite places in the world, Southern California, and have a girls weekend with my friends Danielle and Chelsea.  We get to spend a wonderful weekend at Disney's Paradise Pier hotel, check out the new Cars land in California Adventure park, party in Disneyland and run the Disneyland Half Marathon!

I am eagerly waiting for the Disneyland Half Marathon Expo.  I will be working a shift at the SparkleSkirts booth.  Not sure the times yet, I will keep you posted.  Lots of us runDisney enthusiasts are hoping that runDisney will unveil the medals for the 20th anniversary Disney World Marathon and the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  If that happens, I will be sure to let you know right away!

On another note, my runs this week have been tough.  The heat and humidity are slowing me down a bit.  I have also been getting awful side stitches. Prior to this week, I had not gotten a side stitch in like a year.  My mission this week will be to figure out why it is happening and make it stop!

My eating this past week has been mostly clean.  Since the first half of July was so, well not clean, it feels really good to be sticking to a clean eating plan.

My goals this week are to follow my clean eating plan and to stick to my half marathon training plan.  What are your goals for this week?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy

Clean Eating

Over the past few weeks, my eating has really not been good.  A few weeks ago was my birthday weekend with lots of eating out and cake.  After that was the Forth of July with all the picnic foods and desserts.  Then there was my daughter's hospitalization.  It is so easy for me to fall of the clean eating wagon.  When I allow my husband to do the food shopping, he brings home donuts and chips.  These things are very hard for me to resist!

Since I fell off my clean eating plan, my running has greatly suffered.  I was averaging about 12 minute miles for my shorter run and 13 minute miles for my longer run.  During the past few weeks my short runs have been around 14 minute miles and my long runs have been 16 minute miles.  Now I know the heat played some roll in this, but the slow down really disturbed me.  When we got home from the hospital with my daughter this weekend, I recommitted to my clean eating plan.  

Clean eating is when you eat mostly whole foods--foods straight from the earth.  These foods have not been processed.  This includes whole grains, lean proteins, fresh fruits and veggies.  I went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up some much needed clean food.  I got cherries, apples, watermelon, carrots, green beans, chicken breast, tea bags, Chobani greek yogurt, eggs, brown rice, some olive oil, and some almonds.  I restarted my Shakeology lunches.  Shakeology is a clean food, plus I love all the new flavors it comes in.  One "non-clean" meal a week is allowed.  I am happy as long as 80% of what I eat is clean.  

Since I resumed eating clean on Saturday, I can really feel a difference when I run.  I ran last night at my local high school track.  I did not feel sluggish like I did last week, and I was much faster.  Just last week I did the same run and ran at 14:34 per mile.  Last night my time was 12:25 per mile.  Not to shabby!

I am now a firm believer that what you eat directly reflects in your performance.  Have you ever tried clean eating?  Do you think it affected how you run?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy

I would love to connect with you on Facebook!

i sweat pink.

Heading out for a run in my new sweat pink top!

I am so excited to tell you about a new group I am part of.  It is called Sweat Pink.  I was recently hand picked to be an ambassador.  We are a group of women who love fitness and living healthy.  Sweat Pink is powered by the lovely ladies at Fit Approach.  


At fitapproach.com, you will find lots of fitness ideas, classes and other ambassadors just like me who would love to help you find your way to fitness.  Please check them out! 

To celebrate my new sweat pink ambassadorship, I am giving away some sweat pink goodies!  As you know, I LOVE all things pink.  How fun would it be to have hot pink laces in your running shoes?  I love mine!  Want some of your own?  I am giving away lots of them!  Here are the ways to win yours!  
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I also wanted to update you on my daughter.  She is finally trach free!  We went down to Johns Hopkins last week and she had her trach removed.  I am so happy for her!  She amazes me every day.  On Friday, she blew a whistle for the first time.  Small things, right?  


For me, I sweat pink when I run in my SparkleSkirt.  I believe you can still look good and have fun while you work out hard.  How do you sweat pink?   




A dream is a wish...


--Amy

Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013 is Open!

Today registration opened for the 2013 Disney Princess Half Marathon!  Did you register?  I did!

2012 Princess Half Marathon

When you register for the race, they ask you a question about your favorite Disney Princess.  I chose Cinderella this year after my blog name, plus I really love her.  Last year, I chose Belle.  She is my all time favorite princess!  Lots of princess runners choose their princess by the color bib they want.  That is really all runDisney uses the choice for.  With Belle, my bib was yellow.  Choosing Cinderella will get me a light blue bib.  Rapunzel will get you a purple bib, Snow White will get you a red bib, Sleeping Beauty will get you a pink bib, and Ariel will get you a green bib. Jasmine had a teal bib.  Which princess did you chose?

With this being the 5th anniversary, lots of speculation is going on about what the theme will be and what the medal will look like.  A few theories about the theme are:

1)  Jasmine will be the featured princess.  This theory is mostly because of the ads that have been running is Runner's World.  They feature Jasmine and  Aladdin.  I am not so sure about this theory.  All of the ads that ran last year for Princess 2013 featured a Princess and the Frog theme, while the race had a Tangled theme. So, the ads do not necessarily correspond with race theme.

My princess 2012 medal

2)  The next theme is the obvious--Brave.  It is the newest Disney movie and Merida is the newest princess. I am not so sure about this one either.  Disney does not always use the newest Princess the first year she is introduced.  Tangled came out in fall 2010, while she was the featured princess in 2012.  Tiana was the honor princess in 2011, while the Princess and the Frog move came out in 2009.  I think for the 5th anniversary, Disney will choose a classic princess.  That brings me to my last theory.

3)  I think they will choose Cinderella.  First, the castle in Walt Disney World is Cinderella's castle.  Also, Disney is re-releasing Cinderella this fall.  They love cross promotion.  They could also choose Sleeping Beauty since her color is pink.  There has not been a pink medal yet, so why not do it for the anniversary.  These are just my thoughts....They may be totally off and no where near what runDisney actually does--but its fun to speculate anyway.

All the princess medals so far, stolen for a FB friend.

What do you think runDisney will choose as the theme for the Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy

The Color Run Philadelphia

Lish and I before

On Sunday morning, I had my earliest wake up call yet for a local run.  I live about 2 hours from Philly, so I left my house at 4 am, while it was still dark outside, to make it to the race.  It feels like everyone I know was going to be at this race.  My friend and running partner Lish was there with her family, lots of Team in Training team mates, Princess Half friends....so many fun people to meet up.  I was not going to miss this one!

Lish and I after

I could not wait to get into town and get in on the action!  As I got off the expressway in Philly, the streets were crawling with white.  The race required all runners to wear a white shirt.  White shirts were everywhere!  I parked and meet up with my teammates.  We got a few pictures on the steps on the Franklin Institute.  Then I walked toward race village.  The sea of white got more crowded.  It was so much fun to see all the white.  I know it would not last that long...

I meet up with my running partner in crime, Lish.  She was running with her mom and sister in law also.  We were so excited to get started!  We chatted a bit and then headed to the starting corral.  The Color Run organizers keep telling runners that this is the 3rd largest 5k in the county with 23k runners.  How fun to be part of that!  Due to the size, they sent off about a thousand runners ever five minutes.  Their plan worked because the course never felt very crowded.  

The course was scenic but sunny!  We ran from the art museum, up near the zoo and then back along the river.  At each kilometer along the way was a color station with a different color--pink, yellow, orange then green.  Lots of volunteers were at each station squirting color with what looked like huge mustard bottles.  The dust made the air so foggy--you could barley see in front of you!  To color was a powder that did not taste or hurt at all.  We laughed so hard throwing it at each other, we barley ran.  

After the finish line, each runner opened and tossed their own color packet in the air at the Color Festival.  Wow, color was everywhere!!!  This was a very fun race.  No one took it serious as to try to PR, just have a blast.  If there is a Color Run in your area, do it!  But register right away, they see out quickly. 


A dream is a wish...


--Amy

Don't forget to register for my Firecracker 5k to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

Dog Attack

Hello Friends--

Something happened to me the other night while I was out running and I wanted to tell you about. I was running around my neighborhood the evening of July 3rd under the fireworks show my town puts on.  It started out such a beautiful run.  Lots of my neighbors were out on the sidewalks watching the show.  When I was almost finished my first loop, I saw a two teenage sitting on the sidewalk, a boy and a girl.  All of the sudden, the dog sitting in between them charged toward me.  I was so scared!  I noticed the dog was a pit bull.  The dog leaped at my.  It jumped on my a few times and scratched up my arm.  The teenager just watch--they did not get up to help me or get the dog.  I was screaming to them "get your dog!" and "put this dog on a leash!".  The dog finally ran back to the teenagers and I continued on with my run.

Really shaken up and scared, I ran past my in laws who also live in my neighborhood.   I told them what happened.  A neighbor who was also outside watching the fireworks heard me and she told me the same thing had happened to her with this same dog.  She said she does not run in the neighborhood anymore because of this.  Then I began to get angry.  This one family who are bad dog owners was not going to stop me from running and following my training plan!

I got home and told my husband.  We looked online at our Township website to find out what we should do. The site said to call the non-emergency number.  With in a few minutes, a police officer called me and told me he was close and would swing by.  Just a few minutes later the officer was at my house, then we walked over to the dog owners house.  There the dog was, still outside running free with the two teenagers.  Then the dog ran at and jumped at the officer.  The officer yelled at the kids to get the dog.  Instead of getting the dog, the kids bolted into the house.  The officer ran after them.  I yelled "I am going home, you know where to find me!", and I ran home.  I do not know what happened after that...

I wanted to tell you this story because most of us run alone.  This is not a cautionary tale of how bad pit bulls are.  I believe that any dog can be trained to be a nice dog, but these people clearly were not training it properly.  I have never called the police before, but since the owners did not even get up to help me, I knew talking to them myself would have been pointless. This incident could have been so much worse!  If the dog wanted to, it really could have hurt me.  I need to find something to run with to protect myself.

This incident really shook me up.  I was really scared to get back out there and run again.  My neighborhood is not very big and not going near  the dog's house would be impossible.  I ran this evening and did not see the dog.  Besides the heat, I had a great run.  My reason for calling the police was to hopefully teach the family that it is not OK to let your dog run free.  I guess it worked, because the dog did not bother me tonight.

Do you run with any type of protection when you run?

A dream is a wish...

Amy

My New Running Watch

Yesterday was my birthday.  My sisters got me the best gift--a Nike+ SportWatch!  This running watch is so cool!

I am not much of a "techie."  I just don't have the patients for it.  This watch seems very easy to use.  The main reason I wanted a running watch is so I could run outside and accurately know the distance, time and pace I had run.  You can hook the watch up to the computer and download your runs to the Nike website.  Since the watch GPS is powered by TomTom, it also shows me a map of my runs.

I went for a run with it this evening to try it out.  I could not wait to get my watch synced and see how I did.  The Nike site is so fun and easy to use.  When you look at the map, it shows you little peg running the course I ran, along with my pace and elevation.  My neighborhood is very hilly.  I could see my pace really slow down when I was running up the hills.  My calorie burn also really increased on the hills.  I am going to have some much fun with this thing!

The watch felt good while I was running.  My only complaint so far about it is that it does not have a back light.  Since I run most of my week day runs at night, a back light would be nice so I could see the watch while I am running.  

Do you use a running watch?  What do you think of it?

A dream is a wish...

--Amy

Don't forget to register for my Firecracker virtual 5k to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!  

This time you get a personalized finisher medal with our name and/or finish time!  

Firecracker 5k to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

I wanted to take time out of all my race reporting to update you on a project I am working on.  As you know, I have been training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.  I will run the Nike Women's Half Marathon on October 14th, 2012.  I will be running for a reason much more important than the personal challenge of completing a Half Marathon.  As a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training program, I have pledged to train on the behalf of all the affected children and their families to help raise money for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma research and patient assistance programs.

My Teammates and I

During my training, I have gotten close to a few families with sick children.  I am very sad to report that my sweet angel Kaitlyn has lost her battle.  Kaitlyn's family just celebrated her first birthday in heaven. I am very happy to report that Emily is still fighting leukemia--and winning!  She is the first child to get an experimental treat that involves giving her body new T-cells.  The treatment is working for Emily and she is now cancer free!  

As you may or may not know, leukemia is the #1 disease killer of children and the leading fatal malignant disease of men and women under the age of 35.  Although the cause of leukemia remains unknown, recently developed treatments and steady advances in research bring us closer to a cure every day.  These research advances were only achieved as a result of contributions made by companies, foundations and individuals like you.

This is the medal you will receive.  Engraving on back. 

My goal is to raise $3000 by October 1st. I am about half way to that goal.  If you would like to help, please consider registering for my virtual 5k.  For the 5k, anytime on or around the 4th of July (July 1 to 15), run, walk, skip or crawl the distance—BLING included!  As a thank you for registering, I will send you a finisher medal.  The medal this time is AWESOME!  I am actually getting really good at designing medals.  For this race, the donation to register is $20.  If you donate $25 or more, I will have your medal personally engraved with your name and/or finish time, or what ever you want.  How cool is that!  I don't have any medals with my name on them.  Do you? 

Please consider registering and helping me reach my goal.  With the generosity of people like you, there is every reason to believe that a cure for blood-related cancers is in sight!

A dream is a wish…

--Amy


To register, please click here!