Running | Tall Tara

June 6th, 2010

Race Report: Bolder Boulder 10k 2010

by Tarable

I never usually write race reports. But then again, my goal for the usual race is just to finish. This year, I had an actual goal with time involved. And I had posted about it on the internets. Twice.

Since I don’t run that many races anymore, I’ve decided that when I do, I’m going to take them a bit more seriously. Not that much more seriously, because let’s remember it is me, after all…

But enough about my serious running goals, let’s talk about the Bolder Boulder as it happened almost a week ago…

–It was the first race that no carb-loading took place the night before…maybe ever? The hubby made me spaghetti squash and fried eggplant, with plantains and a salad fresh out of garden. I wasn’t missing carbs one bit and didn’t have that heavy feeling the night before the race.

–Race morning: Got up early to stretch, drink coffee and eat a banana w/ almond butter. Felt like a champ.

–Ended up in same wave as a friend and had someone to chat with for the first mile. Before I dropped her. Although, in her defense, she was suffering through a sinus infection. (Hi Robin!)

–After parting ways with Robin, I ran the race by myself. Well, me and my watch. It’s the first time in three years that I haven’t had my husband running the race with me. I think the solo effort helped me to keep an eye on my mile splits and to push myself harder than usual. Not that he slows me down or anything, but without my husband there, I was able to fully focus on my performance. And it showed in my time.

–No water until mile 5. It felt good to keep running through the early water stations and since I rarely train with much water, I was okay not getting any until later in the race.

–After I got home and checked my results online, I realized I pulled off a negative split. Meaning that I ran the second half of the race faster than the first. This has been a goal of mine for a long time and it’s the first time I’ve actually pulled it off.

–Shaved three minutes off last year’s time, which was the very public goal that I made sure to tell everyone about. Also? I was *this close* to coming in under an hour. Like 21 seconds close. Can you guess what my goal is going to be for next year?

–Felt strong the entire time. I was passing people in the last couple of miles and that’s something I really enjoy doing. Because in years past, it wasn’t something I was doing much of.

–I did the whole thing with a busted lip. It’s a long story but suffice it to say, I’ve had prettier years running this race. (You can see a little something on my chin in the first picture and yes, it’s a big gnarly scab.)

–I honestly think that CrossFit had a lot to do with my success in this run. I didn’t do that many training runs before the race but because my core is just generally stronger, I had more power overall, less soreness in my legs and the ability to push myself when necessary. Not to mention the fact that I’ve done way more sprinting with CrossFit than ever before by myself. Sometimes I just need someone yelling at me to insure that I run short distances.

This race just gets better by the year and is the perfect start to my summer racing season. I plan to continue running this one for as long as I live in Boulder.

And because it’s apparent that I stole borrowed the photos above from Brightroom event photography, let me just say thank you to Brightroom event photography for capturing this year’s race.

(Maybe next year I’ll actually buy one? But only if you get pics of me looking good. Deal?)

Category Awesomesauce, Boulder Love, Goals, Running, Training | Comment Comments

Tags: always with the Mondays Boulder gratitude Running Training

April 10th, 2010

Baby got back

by Tarable

Not mine...

I remember the first event in my life that made me start to hate my butt. It was Freshman Honors English class and the teacher asked me to diagram a sentence on the blackboard. I walked up there confidently (my diagramming skillz are legendary) and got to work. As I was finishing, I heard a voice come from the back of the room.

“Tara’s got a big ol’ butt…I know I told you I’d be true…but Tara’s got a big ol’ butt…and I’m leaving you.”

Shawn Senter, popular football player, was serenading me with the lyrics to LL Cool J’s song as I stood with my back to the class.

It amazes me that after seventeen years, this event and the feelings it brought up, remain crystal clear in my memory. How is that even possible when I can’t remember where I put my keys?

Despite this high school trauma, I’ve had an amazing revelation since then.

I love my body.

In fact, I said that very phrase out loud to my husband the other morning. I realized that it was, quite literally, the first time in my life that I said it AND meant it.

(After I said it, my husband responded that he, too, loves my body. So cute, that one.)

back1

It’s a little sad that it took me thirty-four years to fully embrace my junk. But is it all that surprising, really?

Negative body talk surrounds us. From snippets of complaining I overhear to images and posts I see online, women are unhappy with their bodies. Whether it’s the off-hand comment about losing five pounds or the demeaning joke about the pear shape of your body, it seems like this body unhappiness seeps into many conversations I have with my friends.

And it’s not just my friends.

“In one American survey, 81% of ten-year-old girls had already dieted at least once. A recent Swedish study found that 25% of 7 year old girls had dieted to lose weight – they were already suffering from ‘body-image distortion’, estimating themselves to be larger than they really were. Similar studies in Japan have found that 41% of elementary school girls (some as young as 6) thought they were too fat. Even normal-weight and underweight girls want to lose weight.”

I’m tired of it.

My strong and powerful glutes (the gluteus maximus, minimus and medius are the major muscles in your butt) made all of the following possible…

1000 miles backpacking
7 half-marathons
1 marathon
2 triathlons
7 Bolder Boulder 10k races
1 24-hr. mountain bike race
1 100-mile road bike race
5 summits of 14,000+ peaks
skiing black diamond runs

Call it my booty resume.

But besides the impressive list of achievements above, what else has changed my mind and caused me to embrace my body now?

butt3

Two things: my husband is an ass-man and CrossFit. The fact that I hear on a daily basis how much my husband loves my ass (and that he can’t keep his hands off of it) has had an amazing effect on the negative feelings I used to harbor towards my backside. When someone loves a part of me that much, who am I to hate it?

And because of CrossFit, I’m much stronger now than I’ve ever been. The ability to deadlift like a champ, perform 150 squats and box jump with the best of them have made me love my body in a whole new way. My glutes are the basis of an amazing amount of functional strength and I honestly feel like I can do anything, physically, that I put my mind (and my ass) to.

Plus now that women are buying butt enhancers and having surgery to plump up their behinds, who’s singing the praises of my ass now, Shawn?

The average TOTAL cost of butt augmentation with fat injections, (the brazilian butt lift) averages $16,000-$18,000.

Echoing the famous words of Six Mix-a-lot, I too like big butts and I cannot lie. But enough about my booty…how’s yours?

[Photo credits: Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr CC, my friend BJ Gumkowski and PlasticSurgery.com]

Category Life Lessons, Running | Comment Comments

Tags: body love challenges crossfit

October 25th, 2009

Shots on Goal

by Tarable

Oh hai list of goals that I wanted to accomplish for this year. Long time, no see.

Enter snowy day and the perfect time to sit down and revisit said list. After blowing dust off the blog post, I spent some time thinking about what I’ve accomplished. ¹

With the hopes of keeping myself accountable, here’s how I’ve been progressing:

#2. run another marathon.

This was one of those goals that got slightly amended. I did not have time to train for a marathon, but I did have time to run a different half-marathon in a new state. So that’s what I did instead. (Perhaps before I’m 40 I’ll get another notch in my marathon belt.)

#3. elope.

Done. And done well.

#4. work on improving my green thumb by growing beans and helping with the community garden.

With the help of my ever-loving and most patient husband, our garden was bountiful and prosperous.

#5. pay down credit card debt.

Two cards down, a few more to go.

#6. write more letters.

Do thank-you notes count? ²

#10. play another season of Ultimate Frisbee.

It wasn’t a championship season like last year, but we had a lot of spirit. ³

#11. do more push-ups.

The ladies of the Lijit office do (almost) daily push-ups together. Nothing beats a little muscle pump in the afternoon.

#14. roller derby!

Saw my first bout last month and although I’m still undecided on whether or not I should try out, I’m a big fan.

#16. get scuba certified.

Thanks to Weaver’s Dive Center, I’m all set. Belize, here I come!

#24. throw a kickass wedding party.

How about not one, but two kickass wedding parties?

#29. put money in my savings account every month.

So far, so good. ⁴

The results are a little rough, dear readers. I’m almost two-thirds of the way through the year and I an only done with one-third of my list.

However, to make myself feel better, I will rationalize that a full third of the list are all goals that are in progress, which means that they will be crossed off at some point:

#1. more yoga.

#8. incorporate strength training into my workout routine.

#9. reach out to my old friends.

#13. give more bodywork

#17. blog more. ⁵

#20. get rid of unnecessary stuff.

#21. say yes more.

#22. reach outside of my comfort zone.

#23. swim.

#27. be sure my loved ones know how I feel about them.

#28. dance more.

#30. acknowledge gratitude daily.

So, what about that pesky last third of the list? For one reason or another, these goals are the ones that will probably need some adjusting ⁶ in order to accomplish.

These represent the worst kind of to-do’s–easy to type but much too broad and vague to actually do:

#31. practice compassion.

#32. forgive and forget.

And then some goals are difficult to achieve because of the money involved:

#19. buy more vintage clothing.

#26. get the tattoo on my ankle redone.

Not to mention, there are the things left that I keep meaning to do…

#7. perform stand-up at least once a month.

#12. explore new parts of Colorado.

#15. experiment with video

#18. learn basics of Photoshop.

#25. volunteer my time with a cause close to my heart.

#33. learn how to juggle.

but that take up more time or energy than I had realized when first creating this list. But I’m figuring it out as I go…and my progress reflects that fact.

It’s just a shame that rocking the footnote plugin wasn’t on the list. ⁷

Don’t worry. It’s not much. ↩
If you’re reading this and you haven’t received your thank-you note yet, it’s because we’re planning something extra special for you. ↩
That means we wrote good cheers, brought baked goods to games and only one won game. ↩
Of course, in addition to going in, it also comes out some months. ↩
Hey, I’m trying… ↩
Massaging, tweaking, shifting ↩
Because once I start, I just can’t stop… ↩

Category Awesomesauce, Blogging, Goals, Life Lessons, Love & Rainbows, Running | Comment Comments

Tags: 33 for 33 Adam birthday list good times gratitude life questions Running

September 27th, 2009

An Ode to Portland

by Tarable

This was inspired by our recent 4-day excursion to Portland…and Brooke’s request to have her picture featured in a blog post. Not to mention my desire to drop some rhymes.

portland

Green moss, lush trees and bike lanes, oh my!
‘Tis a beautiful town, you cannot deny.

Tattoos are a plenty and the hoppy beer keeps a’flowin,
Roses are sweeter-all the rain helps them a’growin.

roses

Bridgetown, oh Bridgetown, with the parks and the art,
The streets full of character, hipsters and heart.

Strip clubs on every corner, promising a good night…
Your food carts delight and the coffee’s done right.

spanishcoffee

No sales tax, I was warned…shopping’s a breeze.
(And yes, the money did flow out of my wallet with ease.)

Our hosts, Brooke and Nic, showed us the best of the town,
We ate well, we slept well and generally, got down.

brookeandnic

Oregon showed us, like in Jersey, you can’t pump your own gas.
And just like in Colorado, a half-marathon can kick your ass.

Thank you to Portland for the West Coast adventure and fun,
Our late summer vacay was lovely–I’m glad there was sun!

racefinish

Category Running, Trips | Comment Comments

Tags: Adam Photography Portland Running trip out west

August 19th, 2009

On becoming a champion triathlete

by Tarable

The Fort Collins Triathlon was the second of the summer. I had so much fun doing the Longmont Tri that it seemed a no-brainer to do another.

However, I did something a little different with this race registration. While filling out the online entry form, I looked to see if they offered an Athena and Clydesdale division.

For those that don’t know, Athena and Clydesdale are the nice terms for the larger men and women competing in the race. Men have to be over 200 lbs, while women need to be over 150 lbs. In big races, you have to weigh in prior to the triathlon to make sure that you actually qualify for these divisions.

[I think the men got the short end of the stick on the naming of these categories but for the record, Peter Shankman is proud to be a Clydesdale, so I'm going to rock the Athena designation. It could be worse.]

Race day came and there were never any official weigh-ins. I had too many other things to think about and was just excited for the event. The swim went well, I kicked ass on the bike and felt strong going into the run, as evidenced below…

Transition from bike to running @ FoCo tri

Crooked is the new black when it comes to tri skirts.

I finished in good time and was happy with my performance. After the race, I was sitting around with my crazy triathlete friends (who had talked me into racing in the first place), drinking well-deserved beer and eating hot dogs.In the background, I heard age group winners being awarded.

I’m halfway through with my hot dog when the announcer mentioned something about Athenas. Since I held no hopes of winning, I thought it would be fun to check out the chicks who did.

The next thing I know, my name is being called out as the first place winner of the Athena division. It’s hard to say who was more surprised…me or my serious triathlete friends. I was in shock and somehow made my way up front to accept my award. After I shook hands with the announcer, I stepped over to the prize table to collect my winner’s plaque. The nine-year-old handing these out looked up at me and told me the truth.

“Uhhh…you were the only one in the category…”

Whatever. Little shithead.

I still won first place.

Upon returning back to Boulder, I was able to honestly answer when my friends and family asked me, as they always do, if I had won the race.

Actually, yes…yes, I did.

I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

Two days after the race, I happened to be in a friend’s bathroom with a scale. For laughs, I hopped on and was shocked to realize that I only weighed 140, which meant that I hadn’t actually qualified for the Athena category. Whoops.

To summarize, if you want to win a triathlon, here are the two things you have to do:

Make sure you lie about your weight so that you can get a special distinction when it comes to race participants.
Make sure that there is no one else competing against you in your category.

See?

It’s easy to win a triathlon.

Category Awesomesauce, Goals, Life Lessons, Running | Comment Comments

Tags: award-winning triathlon tales who knew I was so awesome?

May 25th, 2009

Giving Boulder Love, Day 8: Kiss my Skirt

by Tarable

This is Day 8 of a 21-Day Salute ™, an attempt to deprive myself of sleep and to express my gratitude for living where I do. I saw these series of posts on The Communicatrix (my very first blog crush) and when I asked, she encouraged me to copy her. Here are 21 days of my favorite products made in Boulder…or at least started here*…

Skirt Sports has been a godsend for women’s running. Before Skirt Sports, there were running shorts but to be honest, they were never that appealing. It seemed most of the gear I had was designed by a man for a woman and how it looked was of minimal concern. Times have changed…I can now wear a cute running skirt for a long training workout or wear my one-piece marathon dress on raceday.

Rocking the running dress on an attempt to summit Mt. Huron

Nicole DeBoom is the woman behind Skirt Sports and she has a good story. She grew tired of not finding any running gear that looked good on her. (Sound familiar?) So instead of getting frustrated, she got creative and created her own line of female fitness gear.

I love that despite the fact that she used to be a professional triathlete, she’s also a woman. And she wants her butt to look good while racing. Nothing wrong with that.

My first skirt was a triathlon transition skirt that I pulled on after the swim, for the bike and running portions of the race. It provided exactly what I needed and I was indeed hooked after that first test of the skirt.

My only complaint was that the skirt kept turning to the side...but that might have been user error.

Soon, I had skirts for the gym, skirts for running and skirts for races. Besides being comfortable, they’re cute and they make me feel better while running. Just because I’m out there working hard doesn’t mean I have to look like it. (I also think the skirts make me faster, but that claim is still under investigation.)

Boulder Backroads Half-Marathon 2006

I’m simply a big fan of the Skirt Sports brand and products. They’re all the rage around town, but I still notice that when I’m running in different parts of the country, there aren’t many other skirts out there. I get lots of questions and am always an evangelist for the brand because I think every woman deserves to look good while she’s running.

Running shorts and I broke up a long time ago. And I’m never going back.

*The skirts are not made in Boulder, but I feel like including them in this series because the company and the idea for the running skirts were.

Category 21-Day Salute, Blogging, Boulder Love, Running, The Ladies | Comment Comments

Tags: Boulder gratitude Running

May 24th, 2009

Giving Boulder Love, Day 7: Lusting after Larabar

by Tarable

This is Day 7 of a 21-Day Salute ™, an attempt to deprive myself of sleep and to express my gratitude for living where I do. I saw these series of posts on The Communicatrix (my very first blog crush) and when I asked, she encouraged me to copy her. Here are 21 days of my favorite products made in Boulder…or very close to Boulder*…

Larabar, oh Larabar, wherefore art thou Larabar?

larabarlogo

Normally, around this time of the year (Bolder Boulder/Memorial Day weekend), I have lots of Larabars stashed around the house. We pack them on ski trips, snack on them during backpacking trips and stuff them in our pockets on summit attempts. Larabars seem to have a presence at most of the races I participate in and the small sizes of their samples make for excellent on-the-go munching during long runs.

lb_cashewcookie

Flavors of Larabar I love include Cashew Cookie (there are really only two ingredients, cashews and dates, and it seriously tastes like a cookie), Banana Cookie (which almost makes me think that such a thing actually exists) and one of the newer flavors, Coconut Cream Pie (which was easily better than many of the real coconut cream pies I’ve had). I haven’t had the Peanut Butter Cookie yet, but I have a feeling that it will easily join the list of favorites.

I’ll be eating a Larabar tomorrow, probably around mile 4 of the Bolder Boulder and most definitely at the end of the race. If you like the Larabar, what’s your go-to flavor and where have you taken them?

*These are made in Denver, which isn’t too far from Boulder. Interesting side note: This company was bought by General Mills a year ago and I don’t feel like I’ve seen a difference in the product. I consider this a compliment to Larabar.

Category 21-Day Salute, Blogging, Boulder Love, Mountains, Running | Comment Comments

Tags: Boulder gratitude Running

March 5th, 2009

33 for 33

by Tarable

the-scene

Ummm…mic check, one, two, one two…

So, right, sorry about my silence. Honestly though, things were a little crazy in February, with less days and my birthday and a comedic presentation and a blogging conference.

There are no good excuses to be made about the blog neglect. But hey, I’m back and attempting to be better than ever. And? I’m getting married tomorrow.

That being said, why in the hell am I writing a blog post on the eve of my elopement? Basically, I am a week overdue in posting my birthday list of what I want to do this year. By sharing it now, I can cross at least one thing off the list the day after tomorrow. (And if you know me at all, then you know how much I really love crossing things off lists.)

more yoga
run another marathon
elope
work on improving my green thumb by growing beans and helping with the community garden
pay down credit card debt
write more letters
perform stand-up at least once a month
incorporate strength training into my workout routine
reach out to my old friends
play another season of Ultimate Frisbee
do more push-ups
explore new parts of Colorado
give more bodywork
roller derby!
experiment with video
get scuba certified
blog more
learn basics of Photoshop
buy more vintage clothing
get rid of unnecessary stuff
say yes more
reach outside of my comfort zone
swim
throw a kickass wedding party
volunteer my time with a cause close to my heart
get the tattoo on my ankle redone
be sure my loved ones know how I feel about them
dance more
put money in my savings account every month
acknowledge gratitude daily
practice compassion
forgive and forget
learn how to juggle

Let’s see how I do. I promise it will not be another month until my next post. Especially since I’ll have rad pictures of a mod wedding dress to share very soon. (If that’s not a teaser, I don’t know what is…)

*Thanks to Caroline for being a constant source of inspiration and for sharing her own list.

**Somewhat interesting tidbit…Caroline and I have six things in common on our lists (almost twenty percent), which helps to illustrate why we’re friends in the first place.

Category Awesomesauce, Blogging, Goals, Love & Rainbows, Running, The Ladies, Training | Comment Comments

Tags: 33 for 33 birthday list challenges

January 19th, 2009

Training 2.0

by Tarable

Back in the day, I really got into documenting all the training I was doing. Whether it was weight workouts, excursions to the climbing gym, or runs around town, I wrote it down. Something about looking at all of my physical activity made me feel good.

I also blame it on not having a coach and being a later-in-life athlete.

In fact, not only did I write it down, I kept it all. Since I never received any awards for the races I ran, the binder represented a trophy of all my athletic achievements and fitness milestones. It contains approximately 4 years worth of training logs. Don’t worry, I’m not going to unload all of that on you but I would like to give you an idea of my OCD around this particular area.

Click to see the ugly details.

I think the records tell an interesting story of what my life was like then and what was important to me. Fast forward a few years and I’m now living more of my life online. Why not transfer my race record-keeping to a more digital (and eco-friendly) form? Welcome to my experiment.

I found a free tool that allows me to easily record my training online. There are lots of similar programs out there, but I wanted something that was going to have a dead simple interface without any unnecessary bells and whistles. No reason to make training for a marathon any harder than it already is.

<ulterior motive>In the hopes of keeping myself honest and accountable, I’m putting a link to my public training calendar in my sidebar. Gulp. Should you ever be curious how I’m doing in working towards my goal of running a marathon, simply click on that link. Double gulp. It’s out there and I’m interested to see if my training transparency does the trick of getting me across the finish line.</ulterior motive>

If making my training calendar public doesn’t prepare me for the marathon I want to run, then five months from now, when I’m woefully unprepared to complete 26.2 miles, you can point to my digital training log and say, “I told you so”.

Yes, Mom, even you.

In the words of Gatorade and Jeremy Tanner, no excuses.

Category Goals, Running, Training, Wayback Machine | Comment Comments

Tags: FoCo Marathon09 Running Training what have i gotten myself into?

November 22nd, 2008

A much happier half-marathon

by Tarable

Last month, Adam and I ran our second Denver half-marathon. This is my favorite race distance because it’s the lazy man’s length. It’s long enough to challenge you but not long enough to kill you. (I got a crazy look from a friend when I said that at a recent party.) You can slack off in your training, maybe even drink too much the night before, and still pull off 13.1 miles.

I wanted to do something a little different this year by attempting to document the race in pictures. There were a few challenges because I don’t own a small digital camera and unfortunately buying one of these was not in my budget. So I went with a disposable camera, a running fanny pack (a little better than the tourist kind), and high hopes of catching interesting shots along the way.

[Before actually sharing any pictures, I feel that a few things need to be mentioned. Like how I sometimes forget just how shitty disposable cameras really are. And how horrible I am at holding the camera out at arm's length and trying to get myself in a picture. Finally, despite my wanting them to happen, not many crazy things actually happened during the race.]

So with all that mind, I present you with the Denver Half-Marathon 2008. And to make it even more fun, I’m giving you the pictures in the style of one of my favorites. And don’t ask where the pictures are from the start line. It was too dark.