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Let's talk about RVA baby!! Sorry so late...

I've procrastinated long enough. I would love to tell you that I've been resting since Saturday's 13.1 mile adventure through Richmond Virginia but that would be a lie! With a lack of soreness, first time ever, I've been plotting not only on my next race but joining groups to drop so fluff and have already worked out and ran! Lookie there lookie there...my body really is stronger!! Hey now that alone is something to be proud of . A HUGE change since being passed on the kitchen floor aye lol. Fri-YAY: Expo Day I have to admit that the joy I was feeling when I woke up knowing that I did not have to work, for that to be further exaggerated by the idea that at 11 am I was going to experience my first EXPO!! Yea I'm sure avid runners are laughing at me, the novices smirking at my ridiculousness.. but new runners.. ya better feel me.   With the littles off to school, I willed myself to get out and get my last run done. Up and out Nike+ called for a 1.75 mile r

Preparation

Wednesday morning, less than excited I woke from my slumber. Inundated with worry and concern from the state I had left my country in the night prior, I opened my eyes as I saw Facebook and ABC News share the news. You all know what it was so need to stress that, Election 2016 will always stand out in history, to me. Needless to say I wasn't in the mood to deal with office chit chat and debates as to what went terribly wrong or right or however you think. So I made the decision to be HAPPY! To me happy includes running.  So I took the joys I felt on Monday. Took those feels of others living out their dreams and honed in on my own peace of running joy to come... The American Family Fitness Half Marathon, my shot at running Richmond.I picked up my phone called out for the day, turned to my husband and asked him if he was up for a run around Richmond. Of course he was down! The plan has always been the same since the thought hit me almost 6 weeks ago. Get out to Richmond, figure out

Plotting on a PR

I go into everything I take on with passion and a goal of being my best. So no matter the challenge put before me I am looking for a way to do it better than I've ever done it before; in other words I strive to be the best! Competitive: Yes; Passionate: Yup; Driven: That's a give in. Life Has taught me "The 12P's";  "Piss poor planning promotes piss poor performance, piss poor performance promotes pain." in other words If you fail to plan, you plan to fail, oh my... I think that's also a saying but between the two you should catch my drift. I've planned and put my body through the rigors of training, cross training, yoga, long runs and speed runs all behind me minus one more speed run and a shake out run before I attend  the expo on Friday. So naturally like the athlete I have been for oh so long I'm plotting on the miles I have to conqueror on Saturday.  My madness is quite logical here is a look. Research was the first step. Af

Richmond on my mind

It's Tuesday and I have never looked forward to a long weekend like I am today. Some people are thinking about the elections; Who will be the next leader of the "free" world?!? Don't get me wrong, it's a concern of mine but as of now I'm using the joy of watching the New York City Marathon to project me into an amazing run this weekend as I take on 13.1 and #RunRichmond! Did I say I was excited?!?!?! I voted but I didnt see " This guy" on the ballot  Let's talk about the TCS NYC Marathon .. Omg, so much awesomeness in one race. I mean LOCATION, location, location! You get to literally run NYC! The whole city, all 5 boroughs are yours for the taking and that alone sounds amazing. I heard one of the announcers say that it is one of the hardest, if not the hardest marathon course and that intrigued me; I love a challenge!  It had me so excited on Sunday that I ended that day knowing that a marathon was closer then I thought it was just a week

A Message from Leadership

General Reminder: The American Family Half Marathon taking place in Richmond Virginia on November 12,2016 is not only the main reason we have all come here today, it is also the reason the blog was started and the original focus of it. So let us recall this, while appreciating all the the Petersburg Halloween Half Marathon has taught us, We have less 2 weeks left until I am running Richmond!!                              ðŸ’šðŸ’› Leadership  I got my bib number and was quickly smacked back to reality. My body is finally starting to feel normal again as all the soreness is FINALLY subsiding. Note to self: Never you go horseback riding and canoeing the week of a half marathon. The soreness is real!!! Now that I feel like moving its time to stop thinking about Bryan Park and finally go see what these hills are like. I'm so excited. I'm even thinking of moving my wave up. Right now I'm at 2:30 however, I feel that I should slide up with the 2:15-2:29 group. Any thoughts

An Emotional look at this last Half Marathon.... (Race photos included)

A friend asked me to write her an email about my half experience and this is what I wrote:  So let’s start with all the nerves that bubbled up in my stomach lol! You know I’ve run a half marathon before, 13.1 miles of torture and mental strength, but I did it with my best friend and this time around I was alone! IT WAS COLD! And I am not a fan of the cold so at 530 am I had to readjust my entire outfit for the race, which of course brought more nerves and uncertainty. Either way I got it together and headed out. The race stated at 7am. Cold, dark and alone I head to the start which had 100s of eager and less nervous runner. This started to release some of the fears I had. When they called for runners to line up, the excitement kicked in. I had a goal to beat the old me and that was what I was going to do! I found comfort next to an older man, he reminded me of Carl. He had on the same bright green shirt like me but had these words written on his back,” I can do all things throug

The aftermath

So I've talked about the rough time I had after my first half marathon.You may recall me passing out and clinging to box of orange juice praying that God wasn't ready to take me home. Well clearly He didn't and well I learned a lot of what not to do! So here is a look at the things I did differently.  Don't recall ...  Read about it here  But did you die?  First, I was not on a restrictive diet. The "Herb" part of my name on Ig and this blog aren't coincidence.. it was a well thought out play on words. Herb, short for herbal.. which brings use to holistic or at least thats where it brought me. I have for the past 4 years been moving to being more Holistic, an organic, natural way of living. No I am not a vegan, but I do enjoy oil pulling over brushing my teeth and avoiding medications by eating more organic and not indulging in preservatives and non natural foods and juices. With all that said, I eat cleaner than I use to and i don't consider it t

Spoiler there's a new PR in town!

What an amazing race day!!! Let's talk about. Petersburg Halloween Half Marathon I was awoken by the sound of barking dogs, my alarm, at 5:30am. Based on the weather report, I  was expecting temps in the mid 40s. So when I open my eyes and checked the weather app imagine my surprise when I see that it's 35 but feels like 29 and boy did it! I had to readjust my outfit choice and switched from my dri- fit cool Nike long sleeves to my under armour cold weather top. I'm so happy I did cause all the way up until mile 10 I was cold. I ate a banana while I got dressed and had a discussion with my husband about my nerves. Took his reassurance that I could do this, grabbed my cold weather hoodie and got to the car. Nice and toasty leather seats awaited me... thank God for that! Drove the 15 minutes into downtown Petersburg and found a close parking spot with 20 minutes until race time. I stumbled around with my running gloves, later electing to leave them and hopped ou

FriYAY!!

I's FriYAY!!! It's racing weekend for me and I'm excitedly scared out my mind  to run this half. This race wasn't even in my radar until my ever so sweet husband continually pushed, much like my best friend did in January, that I experience 13.1 prior to racing it. Name a better way of running.. I couldn't think of any other so a race on my 13.1 long run day is exactly what I decided to do. The Petersbug Halloween Half Marathon As a mother of 2 on a budget, I choose races that tend to be cheaper in cost. (Richmond was a tad bit more, almost $40 and yes I was late in registering.) Although this is the cheapest Half I've entered in it offers more than the Sentara Colonial Half Marathon did. Or so they are saying. They are offering, according to my email, a free bag check inside of  Union Station, which is also the start and finish line. There is 500 free parking spaces just 100 yards away from the start. Water and Gatorade at miles 2,4,5.8, 7.5, 8.5, 10, 12

But did you die?.... ALMOST

What you eat during this week can help or break your half marathon. Well thinking back on my first half as well as everything I read it's really what you do the whole training time. For some that's over the last 16 weeks for me, that's only over the last 6 weeks as this Half is an impromptu sign up to push me through the Richmond Half in November. Back in December of 2015 when I made the decision to run the Sentara Colonial Half Marathon  in Williamsburg Va, I was already training for over a month. I was also on an active weight loss program. In which  I was on a low carbohydrate , no sugar, no bs kinda lifestyle change  or "diet." Can you imagine going into a half marathon with no carbs. Now that I think about it, even as a sprinter we had huge high carb/ high protein meals all the time. So what I was thinking is so lost to me! Mannnnnnnnnnnnn... I recall weighing myself before and after the race, I suggest more people actually do this, I had lost over 10lbs

6 days and counting...

1 week is all I have left and I will be facing 13.1 miles in Historic Petersburg, VA.The same streets I walked as a college student brand new to the south. Even running through some of the places I once lived, partied and ran before. To think I will pass some of the same areas in which I've documented  with my then 6 year old for her cousin's "Flat Snai" project. It's exciting to finally run a place I once called home, a place I feel familiar with. Petersburg Halloween Half Marathon All that said I'm still kinda nervous about running 13.1 miles again. I know I physically can do it. I have faith that mentally I will find the inner endurance to silence the negative thoughts and push through but I am still nervous. In trying to shake the nerves of the Richmond Half is what got me here in the first place. So although I'm trying to the calm the noise I won't be doing anything too drastic. In taking on this race, The Petersburg Halloween Half M

Half Marathon Musical Selections

" "I'm feeling stronger than yesterday.." sings over and over in my head. Never more than " I got stamina. Don't give up I won't give up, don't give up. No No No." "Back in the day when I was young," I fell in love with music. I mean, " Music makes you lose control. Music makes you lose control" and  I realized pretty early that no matter what I was feeling there was a song that did a better job than I could to explain how I truly felt.  So when running music helps me through the hard times., it penetrates my soul as well as my sole and truly makes me move my feet!  I've explored different running stations on Spotify as well as Pandora's Running (Radio Mix) Radio, Rap Strength Training Radio and Pop and Hip- Hop Power Workout Radio. If I had to choose Pandora beats Spotify every time. I just like that its simple.Although I like Pandora I love my Nike running app and it and Pandora aren't really friends. However,