Updates, Races (Running and Working), and Crazy Life Antics

Oh dear! It’s been awhile! My last post was…….when!?! Holy crap, the beginning or March! And I’ve only posted six posts this whole year. The whole year? THE WHOLE YEAR!? Oh dear.

I really would like to call myself a blogger, but with that reputation, I don’t know if I can!

I am chalking it all up to my new(ish) job. I love, love, LOVE  my job (with 3W Races), but I am on the computer for most of of the day working, so when I get home, the last thing I want to do it sit on my computer again! That’s the only reason I haven’t blogged in awhile. Well, that and I have literally no free time.

But I miss blogging! I really do! It’s the creative part I miss and getting to tell my stories because lets face it, no one listens to them in real life!! 😉

I know I have few posts since the beginning of the year, but let’s just start from the beginning… It shouldn’t take too long…

…..Well, I have been pretty busy…

Silly games at the 3W Ambassador Party!

January

• The First 3W Ambassador Meeting/Party to welcome all the 2015 ambassadors! I got to help work and participate since I’m both an 3W Ambassador and an employee!
• 

  1st in my age group!

  Resolute Runner 5k by 3W Races (I actually ran it, I didn’t have to work it!)

• “Arctic” Prairie Dog Half Marathon and 10k – Worked as volunteer coordinator (my first time doing this!)
• A Six Pack Series Race (5K) from 3W Races – Ran and got 1st in my age group! 15 seconds shy of my PR.
• Frosty’s Frozen 10k – Worked at a 3W booth to promote our upcoming events.

February

• Heart Throb 5k – Ran!
• Silverstein Concert (my favorite band!)
• 

  Sledding in Boulder!

  Joined a volleyball team

• Snowman Stampede – worked at a 3W booth again
• Sledding with the 3W Crew!
• Pre-Season track started (I’m an assistant coach and I coach the long jump and triple jump at Green Mountain High School)

Erin Go Braugh 7.77k

March

• The track real-season starts
• Dream Catcher Half!
• I helped create and start the 3W Run Club – The Brew Tour (first Tuesdays of every month!)
• 

  RRCA Coaching Class

  Erin Go Braugh 7.77k by 3W Races – RAN!

• RRCA Coaching Certification Class!!!!!! (I passed my test in April and I’m now a certified run coach!!!)
• Last snowboarding adventure for the season, the New Belgium Scavenger Hunt at Loveland Ski Resort
• Became a SKIRTS SPORTS AMBASSADOR! Woot!

We have a lot of fun at the ambassador parties!

April

• Dan + Shay Concert – My first country concert
• “Spring Fling” Prairie Dog Half, 10k and 5k – Worked as Volunteer Coordinator, again.
• Bunches of track meets…
• I MOVED! If you’ve been following me, I just moved to Golden back in September, but this time I just moved houses. I still live in Golden, just in a better, less-smelly/creepy roommate, kind of place (it’s a looooooonnng story).
• Lots of trail running!
• Another fun ambassador party/meeting!
• Volbeat and Anthrax Concert

Woah. That’s a a lot. And to think, that’s just the highlights! What has May brought me so far? Glasses (just call me four eyes), 3rd place in my age group at the Women’s Classic 5k, Regional and State High School Track Meets, The Colfax Marathon Relay (today) and lots of work with 3W Races!

Colorado Women’s Classic

Work Updates –

Yes, in recap, I’m still working full time for 3W Races doing a lot of marketing and a little bit of race production…. It’s great to be a part of the behind the scenes for a huge passion of mine!

Yes, I was still coaching track at Green Mountain. It just finished up yesterday and we have a banquet on Monday.

Yes, I still work at the City of Golden Rec Center doing group fitness and personal training.

Yeah, I know, it’s a lot!

Other. Random, Stuff –

I’m now a Skirt Sports ambassador!

I am now a RRCA Certified Running Coach! Hooray!

Running Specific Stuff-

I have still been running. Although, I keep going through phases of hard-core training and feeling un-motivated. I got really sick right before I moved, so I had taken quite a bit of time off, but I’m back at it!

What’s next from Racing the States?

-I am making a vow (to my Dog, he’s sitting right next to me) to post more regularly! You’ll see race reviews/recaps (up next the Colfax and Women’s Classic), places to run, upcoming events (with discounts!), Skirt Sports #REALwomenmove campaign and more!

-Today, I ran the Colfax Marathon Relay again with the City of Golden, just like last year!

 

-Bolder Boulder is NEXT week!

And that’s pretty much an update on my life. 🙂 I may not have been keeping an active blog, but I’m very active on Instagram! Follow me to see all my daily adventures!

March Updates

Hopefully you all caught my Erin Go Braugh Post Race Recap! If not, go read it.

A lot has been going on in Racing the State’s world. It’s been busy, busy, busy! If you need a refresher, here’s my last set of life’s updates and my post on running updates.

Let’s just get at it:

Career Updates:

Last you heard I was job searching like crazy and picking up random odd jobs here and there. I had a few hours with the Camp MissFits job I do. Well, now pretty much all my hours from there were cut. BUT I wasn’t fired, per say. It’s a long story. I’ll try to make it short and understandable while trying to be professional and respectful.

Let’s see, how do I say this? Basically the business was losing revenue and my boss needed to save money. So, she had to cut everyone’s’ hours and coach all the boot camps herself. ALL of my boot camp hours were cut but the two other coaches got to keep one or two sessions. Given, they’ve been with the company longer…but they also have other jobs that supply the majority of their income.

That being said, she did want/need me to do the tedious, boring, confusing administrative work I’ve been doing..becuase that’s where she needs the most help, apparently. However, most of that involved paperwork, which requires picking up the actual papers and it’s not worth my time to drive and just grab a few papers for one hour of work. So basically, I don’t do very much admin work anymore either.

She did drop a line that IF I was available during tues/thurs nights (which I’m not because of another job I got), I would have been able to keep one boot camp session. Take from that what you will.

To say that I’m disappointed would be an understatement. I helped develop the small group personal training program that she took from me. I worked really hard on training myself and being a better boot camp instructor, but she took that from me. But above all, she had asked me back last year to literally drop my own business and not have a bunch of part jobs (a common thing in the fitness industry especially for newbies) to work more with her and with the promise of getting more and more hours. And now, I’m exactly where she promised me I wouldn’t be: with a handful of part-time jobs.

I still am partially employed by her and will answer emails and help as needed if I can which just means I do a random boot camp here and there and a little bit of admin work that only involves our data entry websites. She did say as soon as she can (who knows how long that will be), she would like to have me, and the other coaches, coach boot camps again, but understands if I wont be able to in the future from filling up my schedule with other jobs. Sounds like a bad breakup, eh? They always realize what they had after it’s gone.

Now, just because I do have a handful of part time jobs, doesn’t mean that’s bad for me right now.

I do have some great news to tell you! I basically have three other jobs I work regularly (along with random gigs I pick up here and there for promotional jobs and brand ambassador work).

Job 1: I am the newest Green Mountain High School Assistant Track Coach!! Yep yep!! I am the long and triple jumps coach! And it’s a blast. I realize that track season only goes to May, but this is excellent experience and IT’S PAID! (Where as when I was coaching Cross Country, I was volunteering). I actually don’t have much experience with jumps, but I’m learning and the kids who are jumpers are new, so I’m not destroying anyone’s track and field dreams! In all seriousness, this is the case, I am leaning as I go with the help of the other coaches and one of my jumpers took 2nd in the triple jump last meet!

Job 2: I got hired just last week as a personal trainer at Prestige Fitness! I’m really nervous for this because I don’t have much one-on-one training experience but excited that I get the opportunity to develop as a personal trainer. Plus, my fitness manager used to teach where I went to personal training school. So far, so good! Everyone there is really nice and not your typical gym worker (you know what I’m talking about: The big douche bag, meat heads or the typical stuck up fake girls). Everyone is down to earth and just athletic in general, the clientele is mostly younger and I really like the atmosphere!

Job 3: Working as a fitness instructor for the City of Golden. I’ve been here since the beginning of February. I have 3 classes a week where I get to develop my own boot camp type of class. It’s  a blast!

The best part about theses jobs is they are all really close to each other and I have very minimal travel time if I’m going from one place to the next. Whereas Camp MissFits was really far from everything and when I had to get there during rush hour, I had to add an hour (literally) to travel time.

Working for Bear Naked Granola on top of the ski slope!

Odd jobs: I still do promotional work and brand ambassador work. “What’s that,” you ask? Well, you ever go to a trade show, auto show, or event at, say, your local ski resort? Chances are the people working those sponsor booths are brand ambassadors. It’s part-time, random work but pays very well.  You also get to meet really awesome people (some not so awesome as well) and make some really good connections. It’s a whole world and you really could make a career out of it – but you have to be very regular about searching for your next job. Some people look for big, fun, popular events and travel across the country while others stick to their home towns and work a lot of, maybe, not as fun ones. Recently I spent about a week in Vail, CO working for Bear Naked Granola again for the US Open (a snowboarding competition). It was a blast and the week ended with free concerts in Vail.

Apocalyptic Fitness: This is my own business. My current projects are writing up a business plan and also figuring out what I really want to do with it. I have dreams of maybe opening a running store with a studio for training people. I really wanted to open it right in the middle of Summit County (the mountains) where there’s a lot of traffic and athletes all year round, but I just found out there’s already a specialty running store there. 😦  I have a lot of thinking to do on this and I also want to get more experience training people one-on-one which I will get through Prestige Fitness!

While working I met Danny Davis (an olympic snowboarder) and got to eat lunch in the Athletes Tent with the boy (who was working in there for the same company)!

I think that covers it for career updates.

Running Updates:

Since my “falling back in love with running” post, I was still working on building up my base, running about 4 times per week to give my body enough time to recover. It wasn’t until I had to go to Vail that I hadn’t run. After my Erin Go Braugh race, I felt pretty out of shape and way far from where I was last year. I vowed to myself to get back in shape!

I haven’t picked a full marathon yet that I want to try for, but I have picked a half to train for. April 13th, 3W is doing their Prairie Dog Half. It’s the same weekend as the Horsetooth Half, which super bums me out, I LOVE the Horsetooth half, BUT I can get into the Prairie dog half for free and it’s the company I’m an ambassador for anyway. Although now that I look at the calendar, I have a lot of work to do! That’s like less than a month away! I can do it! I think. My body is at it’s best when it’s in half marathon shape.

For now, check out the “Upcoming Races” box on the side as I fill in races!

Fitness Updates:

Now that I am an employee of a gym, I am ready to get back to lifting! Bear in mind, this isn’t what it sounds! Everyone hears the word “lifting” and thinks “BODY BUILDER!” I just want to get my strength back and work on some exercises for injury prevention. I’ll keep you posted with my plans/workouts.

I also started climbing again with a girl I met through the 3W Ambassadors. I really missed it! I’m hoping to go again here real soon!

Other than those things, life is pretty much the same! I’m still seeing “the boy” and I’m trying to hang out with friends as much as possible whenever I get a spare moment. I want to get a few more days of snowboarding in before the season is over! Lastly, over the last couple of weeks, I got to enjoy some live music at a few concerts, which I haven’t gotten to do for a really long time. At the end of the work week in Vail, Capital Cities played and then we hopped over to a Tribe Called Red and Dr. Jazzy Jeff! Then last week, I got to enjoy the musical entertainment of the Kongos, The Unlikely Candidates and New Politics at Keggs and Eggs! All three were awesome! AND they were all FREE!

New Politics rocked the house! Including break dancing on the bar, right in front of us!

Sedona Marathon Training – Week 5 Recap

(I actually did finish this on time for Tuesday Newsday, I just forgot to press publish! Such is life!)

Welcome back! I have every intention of writing more than one blog post a week and every intention of writing some more interesting, running related posts. But for now, you’re stuck with my weekly updates on how training is going. But guessing that most of my followers are runners themselves, I’m sure you’re ok with that!

Sedona Marathon Training – Week 5:

Monday: 4 miles easy, done and done.

Tuesday: 1 hour fartlek due, 45 min fartlek done. I woke up a little later than I wanted to, so in order to squeeze in my workout before going to a meeting I had, I had to shave 15 minutes off. I did another “fartlek ladder” this time. Starting with a 10 minute warmup then: 1 min ON (race pace), 1 min OFF (slow jog), 2 min ON, 1 min OFF, 3 ON, 1 OFF, repeat 3 ON again, and back down the ladder with a 10-ish min cool down. QUESTION: Do any of you do workouts like this??? This is the first time I’m incorporating any type of speed work into my own personal training program. I find this workout in particular pretty difficult, but once I finish it, I feel very accomplished. I did quite a bit of speed work with the cross country team I was coaching, but on a smaller scale and I wasn’t training for anything.

Wednesday: Rest day. I’m really good at rest days.

Thursday: Um, I also skipped this workout. It was supposed to be a tempo run. 3 mile warm up, 3 miles tempo and 2 miles cool down. Slacker? Yes. Tired? Yes. Lazy? Yes. But, hear me out! I was up late the night before! Ok, not a good enough excuse? Then…I got nothin’.

Yes, that person in the picture is actually me.

Friday: 5 miles easy due. Snowboarding complete. I got in a lot of snowboarding this day. It was a good day on the mountain, they opened up a few more trails than last time I was up, and I got off work at 8am. Snowboarding was a a done deal. After cleaning up, the special someone and I got pizza and drinks at Old Chicago where I picked up my long awaited zombie tshirt that I earned from the halloween mini beer tour.

Saturday: Rest day actually scheduled. It was a busy day though. Work followed by a mimosa brunch with my bootcamp ladies to celebrate them completing an 8 week team challenge. Then I attended my first ever baby shower. How many jokes can I cram in about not having babies?? Then I met up with a friend for a drink and followed up with an early night in. I’m pretty sure I was asleep by 8pm. No joke.

Sunday: Woot woot! 14 miles due. 14.4 miles complete! BOOM! After last week’s failed attempt at my long run, I was not looking forward to this run. But I made up my mind the night before that I was going to do it. Just get up, get dressed, eat my breakfast (and drink my much needed coffee) and run my 14 miles. And I did. Sometimes that’s all it takes, changing the mindset.

The run itself was decent. I wasn’t really feeling tired until there was about 3 miles left. Mostly my calf was sore from previous week’s activities, but as I was nearing the end, my hip and knees started acting up and feeling a little painful.

Pre-Game, watching the Half Time Show Practice for Honoring our Veterans. The Row closest to us is the Wounded Warriors and there’s even some doggies with them!

After the run, I had to shower and change and get ready to work the Bronco’s game, so I spent the following 7 hours on my feet.

I woke up monday morning pretty sore; mainly my left hip (which is the same hip that was bothering me mid-year after the Tough Mudder). So I decided to take it easy and foam rolled for a good hour.

Upcoming: I have a busy week at work, but this Saturday starts a week long “vacation.” I am heading to Fayetteville, Arkansas (oooo, exciting, I know) to visit my Dad and Grandparents for Thanksgiving. I actually WILL be getting to run a race in that state, and I’m really excited to knock off state number 11 (and to get a week off – although, I have a lot personal projects I want to work on, career related).

Your Turn: What are you thanksgiving break plans?? Am I still allowed to call it a break as if I’m still in school?? Sometimes I wish I was still in school.

Living Out of Bags

This is what the passenger side of my car looks like on a regular basis.

Everybody has heard the phrase “living out of their car,” right?? Well, I live out of bags. I’m always packing, unpacking, and repacking bags. Constantly. Everyday. This is what I do, it’s what I’ve always done.

I’ve gotten really good and thinking ahead about what I will need or want. Ever since I was a kid, I would travel between my parents’ houses and have to be really good at knowing what was already at each house and what I needed.

Now, I’m packing work bags, gym bags, travel bags, race bags, camping bags, hiking bags, going over to the boyfriend’s house bags…

And this means I own a lot of bags…but not in the girly-girl way of having 500 Coach or Gucci purses (did I even spell those right??). I have ugly bags, practical bags, bags that actually are useful and not for an accessory. In fact, I think I’ve had my purse for at least 4 years. No joke.

Actually, I’m barely girly enough to carry a purse, I never used to until well into college, but I learn the hard way that I tend to lose stuff if it’s not kept together in a Bag.

But, this is what I do. I live out of bags. Just today I had my work back, my purse, and my gym clothes bag (for my own workout). There was one weekend, as I was driving down to Colorado Springs, I loaded my car with my regular bag filled with clothes, my work bag, and a separate bag with hiking stuff because we had planned to go hiking. Oh, and my purse.

That’s what my life’s been for, well, all my life, but more so in the last couple years has it gotten to the point of multiple bags loaded into my car on just one given day.

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Seg-way in into what’s been going on lately; a little bit of an update.

I haven’t been too active on my blog because I have been trying to figure out my professional world. I have been getting slightly more hours with the bootcamp I coach and do administrative work for, but it still isn’t quite enough. After TONS and tons of interviews, I decided that I might give it a go at doing my own business. I knew it would be rough in the beginning, and it is, but I like being in control of my own ideas of how I want to help people and using personal training to do that. I don’t like the way big corporate gyms view fitness and health…but don’t get me started on that. We would be here all day.

While running around town and promoting my business one day, my boss from the bootcamp called me up and offered me a “promotion” of sorts. She wants to start incorporating personal training and semi-private training into her business; she, herself, just doesn’t have time for it. So, she asked me if I would like to help develop it. I’d even get to use my business name if I wanted. “OF COURSE”, I replied. So there you have it. So I’ll soon be helping with personal training, in addition to coaching bootcamps, for Camp MissFits, and I can still have my business for clients that don’t live in the area.

Let’s see, since my last major post was about volunteering at the Leadville 100, what has happened since then????

-> We started off cross country season with a “scrimmage” of sorts called the Arvada Sr. High School 7th Annual Alumni Race (say that 5 times fast). So it was all the high school runners I coach, the alumni and community. And I took 1st of ALL women!

My t-shirt and my gatorade “award”

-> We’ve also had a handful of meets. I love every aspect of coaching, I really would love to see where this takes me, because I could see coaching as a major part of my life!

It’s funny though, I forgot how far 3.1 miles seems to a high schooler. Every meet I get the same question: “How long is this race?” 3.1, it’s always 3.1!!! My girls are great, though. We have a fairly big team, although only half a dozen are dedicated and show up 100% of the time. Oh well, what can ya do? We don’t want to exclude anyone, so, we promote cross country as a way to stay in shape and keep the kids out of trouble; but at the same time, we’d love to see them really try and see how far/fast they can take the sport. It’s such a journey!

-> I’ve been additional helping out my cross country team by working the Bronco’s games to raise money for the team. If you live in the Denver area and go to a Bronco’s game, come support our team; were the beer stand at 552, and the Philly Stand is like 556 or something like that.

watchin’ the Broncos warm up.

-> One weekend, the boyfriend and I took a fun trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

No, that’s not a real elephant

-> Then drove up through the zoo to the Shrine of the Sun, or something like that, I can’t think of what it’s called at the moment.

hehehe love this picture. Yes, he’s running from me. Typical.

-> I was supposed to run in the Area 13.1 half, but that was when all the flooding was going on, and even though the race was safe and NOT under water, the boyfriend had to work, so I decided to stay home, warm and dry, and help my mom work on her wedding stuff.

What will be the party favor

-> This most recent weekend I helped my boss put on a conference. It turn out to be a great event; I really enjoyed myself in between actually working, and took away a lot of helpful info. It was a conference called Highway to Happiness; basically a motivational conference to “reset your mindset” so to speak. Five speakers: My boss (spoke on Mindset and achieving your goals), a professional speaker (spoke about being a powerful female leader), A comedian (bringing humor into your life to make it less stressful), a Financially Fit Female (it’s in the name: speaking about being financially fit as a women), and an ex army drill Sargent (spoke on being the best YOU).

One of the Speakers, Karyn Ruth

-> Last, but not least, and most recent, it was also the boyfriend’s birthday this last weekend. I baked a cake (no, it was not a healthy cake), we went out to dinner and a movie (Insidious 2 was great and SCARY!), and the next day, drove to the top of Pike’s Peak, a 14er (no, we didn’t hike it unfortunately – it was really a spur of the moment event!).

Being spur of the moment, Yes, I was wearing shorts and flip flops in the SNOW!

And that’s about a sum of the last month or so!

YOUR TURN: Let’s see, how about: What is the most fun event/thing/activity you have done in the last week!