Race Review: 2012 Army 10 Miler

Let me start off by saying slow and steady does not win the race...training does (or at least it gets you to finish line at a decent time)!

Let me rewind. This past weekend Justin and I ran the Army 10 Miler. I started the race weekend off by picking up our race packets at the DC Armory, which seems to be a common place for bib pick-ups it seems these days. I went on Friday afternoon and Sargent Vincent Hancock, gold medal winner in skeet shooting at the 2012 London Olympic games was there! I got to take a picture with him. He was the nicest guy and even let me hold his medal! It's heavy!

The expo was pretty typical, except for the addition of military and defense-themed booths. Now for my race review. Personally, I didn't train as well as I should have. This race was kind of afterthought since Justin and I registered for it such a long time ago. But there we were bright and early, ready to do the darn thing.

Here's a pic of the start of my wave:

The race started off at the Pentagon and I don't know why I didn't learn my lesson from the Navy 5-Miler last year, but I should have guessed it would be super hilly since that area is surrounded by on and off ramps. The race was somewhat scenic as we did run by the Washington Monument, however, we also ran by a bunch of federal buildings (e.g.: Justin's work) which didn't contribute much to the running landscape. I started off the race running my usual pace, but as we neared the finish (with about three miles to go) I started to slow down due to the hills. Hills I didn't train for since I didn't train much a all! :( Man, I must have really slowed down because compared to my last 10 miler time (the 2011 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler) I was over 40 minutes slower! Wah wah. Far from a personal record.

Correction! My dear friend N. just informed me that the result times were incorrect for some people, including myself! Instead, of being forty minutes slower than my personal best, I was only 3 minutes slower than my PB! What a huge difference! Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post ;)

The things that I liked about the race:

• Water/Gatorade every two miles
• The Army ROTC swag (with jumbo size grocery bag, water bottles, mini flash drive and t-shirt)
• The course was quasi-scenic, but it was no Cherry Blossom...
• The cause :) -- Another military race coin to add the collection but I don't think I'll be getting the Marine Corp. Marathon coin anytime soon...

The things that I didn't like about the race:

• The hills :(
• The finish line was anti-climactic
• Post-race munchies were sparse (yes, I know I was slow, but can a girl just get a banana?!)

This race pretty much concluded our running season for the year. Although it ended with more of a fizzle, than a bang I'm looking forward to registering for some races next year. I definitely want to do the Inaugural Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC, and maybe another mud/color/zombie run with some friends. Since I'm training challenged, perhaps I might want to focus on my speed work and do a bunch of 5K's? With house stuff, travel, and a full wedding calendar planned for 2013 I'll just have to wait and see!

Weekend Review: Lighting the Night!

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a good weekend! Mine was jam packed with activity so let's start with the bad news. On Friday, my beloved Nats were one pitch away for moving on to the next round of playoffs, but lost game 5 to the St. Louis Cardinals. I had not attended any of first round playoff games, but had reserved tickets to the NLCS in the event that they won, but alas it was not meant to be... #Saditude
 
In brighter sports news, the Redskins had their first home win since last season! Now that's something to celebrate! Yipee!
 
Although, it was a busy sports weekend, Justin and I had a lot on our social plate! Friday night we attended the surprise birthday party of the parents of our good friend, Joos. They flew in from Florida and were completely surprised. The look on her mom's face was priceless!
 
The next day as members of Team Pimp Joos, we participated in the Washington, DC Light the Night Walk.
 

Photo Courtesy of LTN National Capitol Area

Since we raised so much money, we were able to get our tent and in true Pimp Joos fashion, we had to "win" the walk in come in first, LOL. Here's a picture of some of the team with our fearless leader:
 

 

Afterwards, we all ate dinner together which was nice since we all hadn't been together in a very long time.

 

Sunday was filled with errand running and football watching, but in the midst of our lazy Sunday, we managed to join the rest of the neighborhood lookie-loos and checked out the open house across the street. They had been renovating it for a few months now and it had just been put on the market.

 

Here's a shot of Justin in the master suite of the home. I was trying to console him of the fact that we do not have an en suite bathroom, nor dual sinks in our house...wah wah...

 

 

This is what I was lusting after. A garage door, a parking pad, with a bit of green space is all we really need!

 

 



Of course this could all be yours for the simple price of $879,500. Okay, I hope you didn't spit your drink all over the computer screen at that price, as even for DC that price is a little steep (especially for our little Hill East neighborhood), but if it does end up selling for that much (after all inventory is low in the city) it does nothing but bolster the value of our home as well. :) 

 

This weekend will probably be a bit low key since we have a race on Sunday. Until next time!

September in Review

Wow, can you believe that it's October already? The year is almost over. Justin and I haven't been working too much on the house lately but we've still have been pretty busy! Here's a a bit of what we've been up to!

We had some friends over for a Labor Day cookout...

Jill and I saw Volta Bureau at the Black Cat. If you've never heard of them before I suggest you look up their tracks, especially "Alley Cat." Their style is kind of disco/house-y...Their music is awesome for dancing and they're local too!



We got invited by our friends to join them for their company's Kings Dominion Day! Thanks J and V!

You already know about the 5k I did with the family...

One of the highlights of the month was seeing Avicii at the Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore

The crowd going nuts!

Justin and Mike enjoying the music...and the people watching!

I won tickets via We Love DC to see an Independent Filipino Film called, "Busong (Palawan Fate)" a the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival.

Here is a picture of the director introducing the film:

And to cap off the end of a great baseball season, I got to see the Nationals clinch the National League East title! It would've been a bit better if they had beaten the Phillies that night, but seeing them pop champagne in the locker rooms and then come out to great the fans was amazing!

Pleased to meet you Mr. Lincoln...

A packed stadium!

Yay!

September was a whirlwind of events and the fall is just picking up for the Brionii clan...stay tuned!

Race Review: Run Wild for Autism 5K

A pre-race shot

A few weeks ago my Auntie Marie told my sisters and I about the team that our Auntie Lowella was putting together for the Run Wild for Autism 5k, in honor of her son, Alex. Oh, by the way these Aunties (as seen in the photo above in the top right and bottom, respectively) are actually my great-aunts to all you non-Filipinos and they're like my age, so calling them "Auntie" has always been a little funny to me.

We woke up bright and early to make the drive up to Baltimore. Because we didn't pick up our race packets beforehand, we had to get there early to pick them up onsite. The vibe was nice, as it wasn't one of those huge corporate organized races. You can tell it was locally supported and organized because even the Maryland State Troopers were running the 5k showing their support! We got there sooner than expected, but enjoyed the beautiful scenery around us. The start location was outside of the Maryland Zoo and unfortunately we didn't run through the zoo.  The landscape that we did run through was gorgeous nonetheless. There was a 1k walk/fun run option as well as the 5k (each started at a slightly different location). When we were called to start, I put in my headphones, turned on my Runkeeper (they didn't have timing chips, but I think they were manually tracking the time) and I was on my way.

The race took place in Druid Hill Park, which was pretty hilly. The course didn't have super steep hills, like here, but they were the gradual hills that kick your butt! You don't realize why you're calves have been burning until it's too late! We started off the first mile or so in a wooded area which provided some much needed shade as I was starting to get really hot!

The second mile of the race took us around Druid Lake, at which point the sun was blazing! The run around Druid Lake also offered some really great views of Baltimore City. I wanted to stop to take a picture, but I wanted to stay on the task at hand! By this point, I had lost my sisters, but I maintained my pace because Jill usually sneaks up on me at the finish. I would later learn that Jill's too small shoes would be her downfall. I finally beat her! Woohoo! Although she was handicapped!

The last mile brought us back to the woods (and back to the shade!), and the finish line was almost in sight; however, we had to go up one last hill! Ack! I ran up the hill and made it around the corner to the finish line and I made it under 40 minutes (which was my goal)!

I met up with the family after the race as we gathered some water, juice boxes, fruit, and granola bars as post-race snacks. There was a table that was offering free informational and children's autism  books, which I thought was great! Jill was going to give her books to her friend that works with an autistic child. What a great idea, pass it on!

Overall, I would say it was a terrific race that helped me prepare for the Army 10-miler that I am doing next month. Good times with family for a great cause!

Let Me See Your Peacock (Bathroom)

If you've been a reader of my blog you'll know that sometimes I like to incorporate song titles into my blog titles. Living on the (L)edge and Walking into Spiderwebs are some examples that come to mind. If you know who sings this song/blog title you get double points as it might be a little obscure, especially for you non-pop listeners. Anyway, onto the bathroom update!

I think I can finally say that one of the rooms in our house is officially done. I think we're done with the downstairs bathroom which is our main bathroom. Yes, it could probably use a full remodel five years down the road, but I think we've made it look pretty nice as it can be from a cost effective standpoint. The glass tile and spa finishes will have to wait. ;)

For some reason, I don't have any pictures of how our bathroom looked before, but it pretty much looked like it did in these pictures below, except the walls were a light beige/off-white. 

If you remember here I recruited my sisters with the lovely duty of painting our downstairs bathroom and they were less than enthused. And as you can guess, you get what you pay for so we knew that we would have go back and touch up the paint. By the way, we didn't pay them anything, so you can guess what type of job we got, lol. Since this bathroom is pretty big I thought we could get away with painting it a darker color. I wanted to go with a peacock color theme with blues and greens and pops of chartreuse. 

Here's a shot of Justin touching up the paint. He hates painting and curses everytime the painters tape lets him down.

In addition to touching up the paint, Justin patched up some uneven spots on the wall...

To prettify the space, I found some art for the walls. At first, I wasn't sure what I should put in the bathroom because of moisture, but I found just the perfect thing online. And they were my favorite price, too: free!

Q.A. Design was offering various state and country prints as free downloads. Unfortunately, you can't change where the heart is located on each state so their locations are kind of random. Since I'm using them in the bathroom, if they ever got ruined by dampness I could easily replace them. I downloaded the states that were nearest and dearest to me and headed to my local copy center to enlarge them and print them out. It seems that I have a thing for state art. I think they complement the United Plates of America I have in the dining room. :)

Here are the prints up close:

The state of my birth and where we got married:

Not sure if that's Sacramento

Justin's beloved Bluegrass state and where we first fell in love...awww...

 

That might be Frankfort?

This one is obvious...

Why there's a heart over the Palisades is beyond me...

 And the lovely place where I spent half my adolescence...

And I am completely baffled at why the heart is in Salisbury and not Annapolis...



Here's a shot of Justin putting up the pictures...

One over the toilet...

...and the other three near the door. I love them! They really add a pop of color!

Sorry I'm not able to get a good shot of the bathroom (I'll try to get a better shot next time), but with teal walls, our bright shower curtain, and the state pictures, I think our bathroom is now complete!

Yard Sale Finds

On Friday, I got to leave early because my work gave us early release. Upon driving home, I stumbled across a yard sale that had some pretty interesting finds.

Here's a plug-in bar sign and painting. These were the ones that I didn't pick!

I found this retro fan on this table. This seems to be a pretty trendy design element that I've been seeing on design blogs (such as on Young House Love). Too bad I don't need a fan or else I would've totally taken it

These end tables were pretty cool too. With a can of spray paint I'm sure you could make these good as new in a bright white or punchy magenta. Unfortunately, I don't think I could commit to remaking them or else I so would have taken the one with the drop leaves.

Below is what I ended up getting: a bridge painting, mounted steer horns, a Miller High Life lighted bar sign (in cursive it says, "The Champage of Bottle Beer"), and a small, blue dish. The High Life sign is pretty ironic since I hate High Life (Justin loves it), but I couldn't pass it up. Both the light and the clock mechanism were in working condition! I think I made out like a bandit paying $15 for all four items. On eBay, vintage plug-in bar signs can go for hundreds of dollars. Now, all I have to do is find a way to incorporate all of this in the decor of our house (without making it look like a pool hall!).

A Tale of Two Boxes - My First Foray Into Crossfit

I must confess. I'm in a workout rut :/ Ever since I made my New Year's Resolutions, I don't think I've been doing my best to get in shape. Since we're already past the halfway point, I thought now was a good a time as any to explore other avenues of working out.

I'm sure many of you have heard about Crossfit by now. It is a strength and conditioning program based on, “constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement." You can read more about it from this highly informative Wiki page here.

Since there are two Crossfit facilities (aka: Boxes) near my work (and they are literally one block from each other in the same industrial park), I figured I would try each of them out. I wanted to see if 1) crossfit is for me; and 2) if it was for me, which one would I like the best. So, here's my very informal review of each box. Take what I say as a grain of salt as I am completely new to this. :)

 

Image Courtesy of Tyson's Corner Crossfit

Tyson's Corner Crossfit
8466 Tyco Rd Suite E
Vienna, VA 22182

Schedule
The class schedule at TCXF may seem to fit my needs as there are weekday evening classes. I went to the 5:30pm class.

Facility
Because this was my first time at a box, I didn't have any expectations on what it should look like.  Honestly, I would have to say that it looked a little like a garage and was about the size of a two-car garage with an upstairs level. From what I hear, that's what they are supposed to look like. No frills with just the basics. I think what also contributed to the garage feel was that the entrance was an actual rolling garage door! In any case, I saw all of the crossfitters in all their glory before I even entered.

Class Size
There seemed to be about 15 people there that day. There were four girls, two (including myself) of which were new and were doing the free class for the first time. That wasn't too promising because you could be the only girl on any given day. I know I should be like, "I am woman hear me *rawr*," but I'm not at that point just yet...

Warm-Up
The warm-up was really informative because I got to use a pvc pipe to practice different types of lifts. The only lifts I know are the "clean" and "press" so I found it useful to practice the form of these newly learned lifts without the weights!

The Actual Workout (aka: the Workout of the Day-WOD)
Being the newbie that I am, I can't believe I actually participated in an actual crossfit workout. The name of the workout was "Helen" which consisted of the following:

3 rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
21 kettlebell swings
12 pull-ups

Of course I struggled with the run since I hadn't run much since the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon back in March (!!). I was somewhat comfortable with the kettlebell swings since I had done them before. The pull-ups were what really killed me, but I was thankful that I had a large rubber band to use, to help support some of my weight (but apparently not enough, lol). From what I am told, this workout and others, such as the infamous "Fran", are great benchmarks for you to find out how fit you are getting, and how your body is developing athletically. You are supposed to time yourself in order to see improvements, but for this first one I was just trying to get through it!

Stretching/Cool Down
Everyone pretty much did their own thing as far as the stretching went.

Coaching/Instruction
The main instructor, Matt, was nice and he helped me every step of the way. Kari, Matt's wife and fellow instructor, offered me some guidance as well. There were some TCXF instructors taking the class as well, so they helped me with informational tidbits, too.

Vibe
Upon entering the box, everyone introduced themselves to me, so they seemed pretty nice. After that, everyone went to their own cliques, but that isn't different from any gym...

Overall:
I would say it was a cozy box. Yes, I know in real estate cozy=small, but I say cozy because it appeared that everyone was like a pretty tight knit group.  In addition, the box is kind of small, so you are sure to easily get to know one another. The pricing can't be beat ($150/month unlimited, no contracts).

Image courtesy of The Meanest Momma

Crossfit Rubicon
8500 Tyco Road  Vienna, VA 22182

Schedule
The class schedule at Crossfit Rubicon also fit my needs, as there are weekday evening classes. If I were to join this box, I would most likely attend the 6PM classes; however, they have a free beginner's class on Saturdays at 10AM so I went to that one. If you happen to be a seasoned crossfitter, you can email them to attend a free trial class.


Facility
After attending the other box a few days earlier, I kind of knew what to expect. Unlike the first box, CFR's space is definitely bigger. Upon entry, you saw the women's bathroom on the right and a huge contraption consisting of barbell racks and ropes(!). There were shirts of other boxes displayed on one wall and various exercise equipment (foam rollers, pvc pipes, etc.), and medicine balls located on the other wall. On the website, there were pictures of astro turf (where they flip tires and what not), but I didn't see any turf. Maybe it's in another room?

Class Size
In my intro class, there were 4 females.  Right before I started our intro class, I got to see the end of their morning XF class.  There looked to be about 15 people in that class and let me tell you that class looked intimidating!


Warm-Up
We grabbed a weight plate and rotated it around our body using our shoulders.  Then we did some inchworms (crawling out to pushup position, and then crawling up again). It was a good active warm-up.

The Actual Workout (aka: the Workout of the Day-WOD)
We didn't do the WOD, but instead did a tabata (timed, high-intensity interval training), consisting of a overhead presses and ball slams.  We did as many as we could in a short amount of time. After that, we laid on the floor and got up as many times as we could (also timed). That was pretty exhausting!

Stretching/Cool Down
As a part of the cool down, we used the pvc pipe to loosen our shoulders. We moved the pvc pipe in front of our bodies, and then in back of our bodies (without bending our elbows!). They also showed us some techniques using the foam roller, which felt great!

Coaching/Instruction
Our intro class was led by Hronn.  Her husband and co-owner/instructor, Dave, also assisted with instructing the class shortly after it started. What I like most about them were the helpful anecdotes they gave us throughout the class.

"Please pay attention, because the minute you stop paying attention is when something bad happens." (Oops, my eyes were caught wandering, sorry I was in stimulation overload!)

"As a woman you want to be strong. You don't want to be running around the house, looking for your husband to open a pickle jar." (How did you know!?!?)

"The human body wasn't meant to run long distances. You all saw the Olympics. Look at the distance runners. Now look at the sprinters. Which one do you want to look like? (Never thought about it that way, so true!)

Vibe
The vibe between the four women in the intro class was amicable, but like I said earlier, the class before us looked intimidating. Dave said it best when he compared the WOD to an orchestra practice: "It looks like chaos at first, but once you get familiar with Crossfit, it all goes together."

Overall:
I'm glad that there was a separate intro class because the instructors were able to break things down further than if it were a regular class. Compared to TCXF, the pricing is a little more expensive for the unlimited option. They do offer a 3x/week no contract option for $150 that I would probably do if I joined because I would only be working out there weekdays.

What a tough decision! What say you? Are you a crossfitter and lovin' it? Out of all the boxes in the world, what were the deciding factors in choosing the box you now work out at? Although they are just around the corner from one another, they each have their own qualities. I'm going to take a few days and decide if I want to join up with either box, but I'll be sure to keep you all posted on my fitness journey!