Less than 12 hours until Flower City Half Marathon!  I felt more excited about the race today than I have all week – the day almost here!

Workouts The Week Before a Race

I ran Monday and Tuesday this week (5.75 and 4 miles respectively) and 40 minute bike rides on Wednesday and Friday, 8 miles each.  I spent today taking it easy to rest up, although I did ride my bike to a yoga class and back (2 miles each way) this afternoon to help loosen up my legs and get my muscles moving just a bit.

The Flower City Half Marathon is one week from today.  Like most runners right now, I’m feeling pretty nostalgic about the sport of running in light of what’s happened in Boston over the past week here.  I’ve had this post in the works for a while, but my running woes and sore toes suddenly felt insignificant on April 15, 2013.

With that said, running can be a healthy way to deal with tragedy or stress –> and sore toes can keep you from running!  This post is for anyone who has struggled with sore toes so you can get out there and keep running.  This is where my riveting sore toes tale begins, to give you some ideas of what to try when toe pain strikes – or better yet, beat it to the punch.

Don’t Sweat It

March 24th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (2 Comments)

A few days ago I started to notice that I was getting a cold. Fortunately, it never turned into a full fledged cold (special thanks to my bag of tricks for when I feel a cold coming on!) but I was definitely not feeling like my usual self on on Thursday night, Friday and into Saturday.

Green Today, Green Tomorrow

March 11th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (4 Comments)

Greens To Go. Thank you Daylight Savings Time for NOT SAVING ME ANY TIME AT ALL.

Green Smoothie to Go

OK, that’s not true. I had plenty of time for breakfast this morning, I just ran out of time. This is why God invented Travel Mugs. For people like me who continue to underestimate how long it will take to get all of the children out the door on time.

Today’s green goodness was a blend of orange juice, spinach, cottage cheese, broccoli and frozen strawberries.  Much like this smoothie, except without the banana – only because I forgot it, not because I’m holding a grudge against bananas or anything.

Choices Lead to Habits

February 26th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (9 Comments)

Do you know the best thing about running on cold and dreary days?

Cold and Dreary

It makes running on the sunny days that much brighter.

(I know that sounds corny but it’s true!)

My weekend long run for Week 4 of half marathon training was seven miles. It was 30-something degrees and I wore all my usual winter running gear with the addition of a windbreaker over my fleece. By the time I was three miles in, I was starting to feel HOT and overdressed. Sometime around mile four I finally took off my neck warmer and mittens and shoved them in the pockets of my jacket before tying it around my waist for the remaining three miles home.

In the Long Run

February 18th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (3 Comments)

Let’s say you want to run a half marathon, but you take a look at a couple training programs and you’re worried that you don’t have time to commit to every single run prescribed in the plan or if you’re really going to be able to keep going through all these snow filled days.

Half Marathon Training

Spring Training

February 4th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (3 Comments)

Flower City Challenge 2013

The Flower City Half Marathon here in Rochester is twelve weeks away.  I haven’t officially signed up for this race yet – but I unofficially signed up in my head yesterday, and that totally counts.