Nuun News You NEED to Know

There are so many exciting NUUN things happening and while some of them are only exciting for me (let me be selfish ok?) there is some great news for all of you too!

First things first...I very briefly mentioned in my 2012 recap but I figure I should shout it a little louder...

I am a 2013 NUUN AMBASSADOR!! I was pretty much pretending like I was one for most of 2012 anyways, so I'm glad they actually made it official.  What does this mean? Well basically I get to spread Nuun love any way I please and get the opportunity to run with Nuun again.  Check out my Ambassador page here!

from Nuun website

And where might I (and YOU) get to run with Nuun again?...second piece of exciting news...

Nuun is the official hydration drink of the entire Ragnar Relay Series!! This is great news for all your Ragnarians out there as well because you can 100% bet that you'll be well hydrated if you run any Ragnars this year.

Pretty sure this partnership happened because of Nuun Kids on the Block...no?

And since Nuun wants all its crazy ambassadors to help hydrate these Ragnarians I will be joining the Nuun team for the 2013 Ragnar Relay in the Adirondacks...that is upstate NY for all you West coasters.  Why did I pick the Ragnar farthest away from me? Well, my mom's family lives in upstate NY, so two birds, one stone...it is going to be a fun long weekend in September for sure.

And the final piece of news and arguably the most exciting...

Nuun has THREE NEW FLAVORS coming out! According to my twitter stalking this will all happen on March 4, MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

follow @nuunhydration if you aren't already!

I was super lucky enough to get a preview of the flavors from Megan at Flywheel one night.  I felt kind of naughty receiving these samples in an un-marked plastic baggie...hehe.

Meet Lemonade, Cherry Limeade and Watermelon!

The verdict...all are delicious and very different from their current flavors...but if I had to rank them it would go like this:

1. LEMONADE - SOO refreshing and delicious.  It tastes exactly like sugar loaded lemonade without the sugar, how they do that and add electrolytes...no idea! This MAY be replacing my current Nuun favorite, Citrus Fruit.

Waiting very patiently for my lemonade tab to dissolve!

2. WATERMELON - Also very refreshing and best enjoyed with ICE COLD water. I found this a tad milder than their other fruity flavors and if you are a fan of the lightness of the Lemon Lime flavor than this will be your new BFF.

3. CHERRY LIMEADE - Now let me go on record and say I don't like cherry one little bit. Cherry pie...eww...fresh Rainier cherries...yuck! BUT, this is pretty good! It has a pretty strong flavor and also has some caffeine so if you need a pick me up with your electrolytes this combo is for you.  I also think this might be perfectly delicious mixed with some vodka.

Question: Which new Nuun flavor are you most excited about?

The Perfect 10 - Get Your Weight Training On

I recently picked up an issue of Fitness Rx (mainly because Jamie Eason was on the cover) and tried one of their short strength workouts in it that I thought I would share with all my runner friends. There were all sorts of helpful stuff in The Perfect 10 article so I urge you to go buy it yourself!

There are only about a million articles, studies, etc out there that say strength training is super important and I can tell you first hand that all those running PR's last year weren't necessarily from me doing track workouts every day or running more (cause I didn't do that!)...it's all about the weights!

I know it's really easy to see my bulging biceps under all those layers!

Anywho, in this issue they basically give you 10 strength exercises that will tone your whole body.  There are two circuits that you can do once or twice a week and they each took me about 30 minutes...super easy to fit in before/after a run or on a day when you aren't running.  If you are super strapped for time just do 3 rounds instead of 5!

I performed circuit 1 on Tuesday and circuit 2 on Wednesday and I am the perfect amount of sore today...not too brutal!

I've provided bodybuilding.com video links to the exercises because that site is awesome and has pretty much anything weights related on it.   Plus you get to watch buff men lift weights...if you are in to that sort of thing ;).

In the circuits below perform each exercise and move directly to the next with minimal rest.  Do the whole circuit 5 times with as little rest as possible.

CIRCUIT 1

Barbell Squat - 20 reps
Barbell Bicep Curl - 20 reps
Barbell Skullcrusher - 20 reps
Barbell Bent Over Row - 20 reps
V-Ups - 15 reps

CIRCUIT 2

Straight Leg Barbell Deadlift - 20 reps
Shoulder Press (I used dumbbells) - 20 reps
Incline Bench Press (I used dumbbells) - 20 reps
Pull-Ups - 10 reps <---I used a pull-up assist machine
Walking Barbell Lunges - 20 reps <---I did 10 per leg

See...easy peasy! I get super bored with strength routines, so magazines like Fitness Rx and Oxygen are always giving me new ways to pump some iron.

Question: What magazines do you subscribe to and stalk your mailbox for every month? My current subscriptions are Oxygen, Women's Health, and Clean Eating!

Three Things Thursday - Sedona Edition

Yeah yeah it's Valentine's day and my Three Things Thursday should be all about love and hearts, blah blah, but I have nothing to say about that subject so...

Back to my trip to Sedona ok?  So, what else did I do besides run a half marathon?  Sedona is such a beautiful place and really you just need to be outside at all times to try and soak in as much sun, sights, and adventure that you can.  Here is what Sonia and I did:

1. HIKE!

On the day before the half marathon we decided to do a nice and easy short hike.  After reading some descriptions of Cathedral Rock being very hard and then in the next breathe saying inexperienced hikers could do it we though "why not!"  It was barely a mile to the view point but what a mile that was...STRAIGHT UP! Pretty sure there was some freestyle rock climbing in there and my running shoes did not offer the best traction.

I don't know why, but doing yoga in this setting just seemed right!

Sonia and I had big plans to do a long hike on Sunday but the hills during the race kind of tore us up and since the sun didn't come out that day, either did we ;).

On the way to back to Phoenix on Monday we stopped at Bell Rock to hike around the area and did a nice leisurely pretty flat hike for a little over an hour.  It was still pretty early so not many people were out and it was just a nice, relaxing way to end the trip and say goodbye to Sedona.

2. Jeep Adventure - Day in the West Jeep Tour

I scored a sweet deal on this Jeep adventure through Groupon so we basically got 2 for 1.  AND we ended up being the only ones in the Jeep so we got a private ride.  Our driver was this awesome lady who just chatted our ear off the entire time about the history of the area, how it was formed, and what all the rock formations were called.  We went out past where we ran the half marathon and onto forest service land and did some rock climbing with the Jeep.

We ended at a nice spot and watched the sunset...so romantic ;).

3. Relax!

It might have barely even reached 70 degrees but for these Northwest/Midwest gals that was enough to lay out by the pool for a while.  Our resort had a great hot tub, lounge chairs and infinity pool so we took full advantage and relaxed most afternoons.

Sunday was the ultimate relaxation day where we took a short road trip for breakfast, visited a winery, had massages and ate dinner in bed watching the last half of the Superbowl.  One of my favorite things about staying in a hotel is the fact that you can eat in bed and not worry about getting crumbs everywhere!

Pizza, wings and wine, what more could you ask for!

Sedona with my bestie Sonia was the perfect way to get some quality girl time in all while getting rejuvenating with fitness, sun, and relaxation...ahhh!!

Question: Where is your favorite spot for R&R?

Race Recap: 2013 Sedona Half Marathon

SPOILER ALERT: I did not get my goal of a PW (personal worse)...I know tragic!

And major side note before I recap the race...Sedona is the most amazingly beautiful and friendliest city I've ever been to.  Literally every person we encountered was friendly, inquisitive, and always helpful.  I'm sure it has to do with the fact that town literally survives off tourism and 99.9% of it's residents are retired and happy...it was an amazing feeling to be around for 4 days! I'll fill you all in on some other things Sonia and I did besides running later, but on to the race!

First up...HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONIA!! The whole reason we were in Sedona running a race in the first place was because Sonia couldn't see a better way to spend her birthday ;)

The half marathon started at the late our of 9:05 so we were able to sleep in until 7, eat breakfast and make our way to the shuttle.  This also allowed the sun to fully rise so it wasn't freezing temps...much appreciated!  We arrived at the start almost too close for comfort, checked bags, stood in the port-a-potty line and literally jogged through the start line with no waiting in any "corrals".

I honestly couldn't give you a breakdown of miles because every mile was either uphill or downhill.  LITERALLY...Sonia and I remember ONE small flat part.  It was very challenging but manageable and we powered up the hills at a slower pace and made up for the time on the downhills.  Every time my heart rate would start climbing and I would think I might have to walk there was a downhill to recover.  Since it was an out and back the mind games you play with yourself are pretty brutal... imagining running back up all the downhills was pure torture in my opinion.

Not a bad race backdrop eh?

Photo note: it may appear from these photos that the course was all downhill...NOT so, that was just the only time I had energy to remove my phone from my spibelt and take pics :)

Sonia and I made the turnaround after mile 6.5 with renewed energy and excitement to be done with the race. We were averaging about 10:00 miles which is slower for both of us but considering the course we were happy with the pace so far.  We ended up chatting with a local resident for about a mile and a half which made the time fly!  There was a nice steady downhill from about mile 11-12ish so it was nice to recover from such a challenging course.

I have no words for my horrendous form in this pic...but at least I'm smiling! This is about mile 10 up a hill.

But...oh wait for it...what be the hardest thing to do to anyone running a hilly race?  Make the entire last mile a uphill slog ;).  Thanks Sedona Marathon!  At this point Sonia and I were just dying to be done so we took whatever was left in out tank and pushed it to the finish even managing a short sprint at the end...and DONE!

Painfest 2013 on mile 13 hill. And seriously...I have the worst running hands...WHAT am I doing?

Our final time ended up being around 2 hours 11 minutes...a time to be VERY proud of for sure.  If I wasn't running with Sonia there is no way that time would even be in the 2 hour range because I would have walked probably most of the last half.  We both admitted that we kept each other going with motivation and a bit of competitiveness ;).

NOT a fake backdrop!

And I know you are all thinking "man that Sedona finish photo looks so familiar"!  Well you would be right, evidently Sonia and I like to finish races exactly the same way...flashback to 2012 Mercer Island half finish:

hehe!

Some random notes of awesomeness:

• The weather was 100% sunny skies with temps in the 50's.  A small wind cooled us off for the entire race, it was PERFECT.  
• Altitude? What altitude? We ran at 4,500 feet and I honestly didn't really notice a difference in my running...I must have lungs of steel!
• I got RECOGNIZED! After I finished a lady came up to me and asked me if I blogged?! She said she was searching around for Sedona marathon stuff and stumbled upon my blog.  I was so touched and she was so sweet...sorry I forgot your name so please please leave a comment if you read this...you made my day...ok...my month ;).
• There was Muscle Milk at the finish, my absolute favorite post race recovery drink!
• I got a little sunburn, now I'm a shade slightly more offwhite.
• The aid stations were awesome.  They all had water and Gatorade and most of them had some sort of food as well (bananas, oranges, gu). 

Being my 10th half marathon I think Sedona was the perfect way to challenge my body by pushing through the hills and not quitting.

Sonia and I celebrated our finish and her bday with a delicious lunch, hot tubbin with champagne and an evening adventure I'll talk about later.  While in the hot tub that afternoon at our hotel with other runners everyone agreed that Sedona is the hardest course they have ever run and that was partly from 2 ladies who have ran races in 29 states.

P.S. I'm still SORE ;)

Question: Who raced last weekend? Any races coming up?  I "may" have the bug to race again in the near future...