iRun Running & Walking Specialty Store

Tomorrow: Saturday 5-25-13
Time: 6:45am
Distance: 8 or 10 miles
Meet: 30th St & Biscayne Blvd (Salsa Fiesta Parking Lot)
Course: Crazy Eight (4 Bridges X 2) 
Flagler RIGHT to SW 4th Ave LEFT (1st Bridge) SW 1st LEFT (2nd Bridge) South Miami Ave RIGHT (3rd Bridge) follow curb SW 7St, RIGHT on SW 2nd AVE (REPEAT TWICE) After the 2nd loop once you get to Flager St RIGHT & back to Salsa Fiesta.

Water provided before & after!
ALL LEVELS
Invite your friends.
Any question call the store, 305-751-9440
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Workout Thoughts:
Yesterday I got out to La Salle at 6:45pm to get a Track workout in. Upon arriving...An eerie, quiet, familiar, yet ghostly ambiance filled the air. I hadn't been on that cement track in 10 years, and it still managed to look EXACTLY the same, with the exception of some new grass patches that have grown between the lanes, and faded lines. If I closed my eyes, I could see myself lining up to the 2 mile race, Montalvo in the Green Announcer Tower, Coach Martinez with his Belen Cap by the High Jump mat, and my heart throbbing so loud I could hear it. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lining up for 4, 1 mile repeats with essentially a group of strangers and some familiar faces...in an emotional tug-0-war  between the past and the present.

The best part of this workout was being held accountable for showing up, and finishing the workout. There are times we say we will do something, but then we "excuse" our way out of it by rationalizing and our training tends to get the short end of the stick.

The group that was out there doing runs varied in age and pace...and that's what makes running so amazing, we all lined up on that track for the same workout.

I was conservative in my goal pace setting, thinking that it had been a long week, and an even longer day...not to mention the crazy hot humid weather...so I shot for 6:35/6:40pace (which I know my running partner, Paola, would have crindged at the mear thought of anything above 6 minutes). To my surprise, I came through the first lap at 1:25, first half mile right under 3 minutes, and then just tried to keep it even (with no watch) but ended up holding back a little to come by the first mile in 6:15.

Clearly it was below my goal pace but I felt great and smooth, so I didn't want to hold back too much. In workouts and runs, some of us tend to err on the side of caution and HOLD BACK so that we don't DIE in the middle of the run...but that's what workouts are for! They are meant for us to push ourselves to that point where we HURT like we are going to throw up, that our legs go so fast that they are going to unhindge, and that our  heart pumps so hard it feels like it's going to pump right out of our hearts.

So to not bore you with more times, I'll just tell you that I kept it steady, around the same pace for the next 2 and then pushed on the last one, not at hard as I could, but harder than I had initially planned.

As I came around the track on the last lap, the full moon was already nice and bright, and the sun was almost done setting. It was a great feeling to run that barefoot cool-down drenched in sweat, feeling tired, feeling strong, feeling down-right happy.

Try the workout out and see what times you hit. 

-Happy Running 

All day I've had a crazy itch to write about something, write about anything, but I couldn't quite put my pen on it. But then I came across the news that 18 year old, Zach Sobiech, passed away this past Monday. I first heard about Zach's story a couple weeks ago when it came ip in conversation with a work colleague, who also happend to be a former teacher. Check out his story...but be ready though, you may walk away from the video questioning the ways you are choosing to spend or waste the precious time we have here on earth and the beautiful gift of life we have been given.

One of the things that most stuck with me when I heard this boy's mother say, that in a way, cancer was a blessing because their family had to snap out of the denial and realize that her son really was dieing. Truth is however, not in a morbid way or anything but we are all in the same boat--- with the exception that we assume that our eventual death is much further down the line than the estimated (3 month) time frame that some cancer patients, like Zach,get.   

Zach's difficult, amazing, and inspirational journey just came to an end a couple days ago but his words, and ideas will linger far past his mortal life allowed him to. His message:  You don't have to find out your dieing to start living is absolutely beautiful!

If you are anything like me, you are aware that this life is the one shot we have, but you find yourself more often than not trying to make excuses for why you haven't been able to do what you said you would or verbalized you'd like to do or verbalized you'd like to do, be the person you thought you should be, taken time to spend with those who truly make your world better.
Bottom line is we all have room in our lives to fit a little more living and a little less complaining and excuse building. Tomorrow is a great day to start something you've always said you wanted to do, but ....TODAY is an even better day to do it! 
We have a lot of Life to fit in the short time we have--- jump, play, travel, cheer, draw, scare, surprise, wow, learn,teach, share, grow, harvest, invest, train, try, and most definitely.... live, laugh, run, and love!

For those of you not familiar with the book, Of Mice and Men, there is a quote in there that really struck me when I read the book years ago, and still resonates today. The quote goes: Tbe best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, which means that no matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it.

In my case, this project. I had full intentions of getting this project off the ground as the the apple dropped in time square and the fireworks welcomed the new year...but here we are in May and now is when I'm finally putting vision into a reality.

I constantly look for reasons or signs for when to start something new and always tend to go with the generic "Next Week". However I thought I'd break the mold this Tuesday. Today is the day that kick off my Running Blog--because if today was good enough for a run, it's good enough to start something new.

I hope that you will join me as this project grows.
-Happy Running =)