We’re planning to run the Washington D.C. Ragnar Relay at the end of September. That is only 4 months away, ahhhhh! It’s time to lace up and hit the pavement, or treadmill if that’s your thing.

Tell us how your training is going. I’m going to need all the motivation I can get.

And today, I officially got my EBR 2011 training party started with Day 1 of Couch to 5K. (Actually, I accidentally misread the chart and started with Day 7…oops.) It was shockingly doable – I mean, yes, in general my body is pretty tight all over, but it wasn’t a problem to run the 3-minute intervals. I was happily surprised!

In fact, the only uncomfortable part was the boob situation. I nursed Violet before I left, and I was thrilled that I fit into one of my typical sports bra tops, but I felt pretty bouncy out there. I’d be curious to hear from other nursing moms (or well endowed women in general) what running tops you recommend. At this point, I’m thinking I’ll wear two sports bras out on my next session. Thoughts?

What a fabulous weekend we had hanging out with 14 amazing women! I couldn’t have asked for more kind, qualified, and beautiful people to party with at The Relay in Northern California. It was quite a roller coaster of the emotional, mental, and physical kind, but we got through and are better for it!

Here’s a few fun photos from Start to Finish:

• And we’re off! Van #1 at the starting line, ready to send Sherry on her way!

• Sparkly Skirts

• Runner Hand Offs

• Potty Break

• Sleepy Time

• We Were Running!

• Daring Drivers

• Fabulous Volunteers – Jeff and Allison

• Sponsor Love

• Butt Slaps and Cheerleaders!

Yay! What a fun and wild ride, but we can’t wait to do it again. We’ll be sharing more information when we get the band back together. And we have possible plans to open it up and create a few more teams! Yay, Go EAT BLOG RUN!

Thank you to our friends at GMC for hooking us up with these 2 fantastic vehicles for the relay. It was 200 miles of pavement and our GMC Acadias got us through safe and sound.

We started off the weekend with dinner at Buca Di Beppo, sponsored by GMC, helping us get our carb load. The 3 representatives who joined us couldn’t have been more gracious as we ate and chatted about the race. They even sent us on our way with a fun care package, complete with ice packs and bandaids, both of which came in handy during the race.

We got a quick tour of the vehicle, seeing all the amazing amenities. These cars have plugs, not just a plug from the adapter, but real 2 pronged plugs. This came in super handy when I forgot my car adapter plug for my cell phone, but had my 2 prong plug. Yay for Acadia 1!

Then on Saturday morning, it was time to decorate for the race. We had fun with our washable markers, can you tell?! We definitely got noticed in our sparkly Acadia cars. Go Team!

Thanks again, GMC, for giving us the go we needed to get through The Relay!

Here are all our shirts on display in my kitchen. They’ve just been screen printed and are set out to dry.

Even our bags got hit with some ink!

And here are our fabulous teammates sporting our tees!

Thanks to the YUDU and Hanes for helping make this happen.

Here we are all in a fun little row sporting our Eat Blog Run GREEN! A few of us even painted our toe nails the same color, helping us match our fabulous flip flops!

Thank you, Crocs, for being a part of our relay weekend!

For a quick update on our relay, check out our Twitter stream at #eatblogrun or see Emmie’s live blogging about Van #2!

http://lifebehindthecurve.com/2010/05/01/eat-blog-run-live-blog/

The best part is that they are sending us GREEN Blistex, so our lips will be matching our shirts for the race (well, just the container is green. How cool would that be if it colored our lips green too?!)

Go EAT. BLOG. RUN.!!

When it comes to sports and working out, I consider myself a runner.  It’s not something I’ve ever really loved (or hell, even enjoyed until very recently), it’s just something I’ve always been able to do.  In high school I loved soccer.  And sucked at it.  Horribly.  Cross country?  Loathed.  But routinely scored in the top five of my team.  Go figure.

I haven’t been in race shape since, and more to the point, haven’t kept running as a daily part of my life.  Especially during my travels.  I’ve had bouts of fitness here and there where I’d run a few times a week, but always to be “healthy” and “in shape” and never racking up mileage or gunning for speed.

All this to say, I hadn’t run like it mattered in years.  And when you start running again, it’s hard.  Huffing and puffing, lumbering like a water buffalo, with only one thought going through my brain: WHENISTHISGOINGTOBEOVER?!

There were concerns voiced about doing too much too soon and injuring myself and training wisely, not foolishly.  My knees would be a little stiff or sore after runs, which hadn’t happened since my race days.  I wanted to keep pushing myself and improving, but I didn’t want to hurt myself.

So I did something I’ve never done before: spinning.

Have you taken a spinning class?  Holy Hannah that stuff is hard.  We’re talking dripping with sweat, soaking through everything you’re wearing, hating your life, flat out DYING on a bicycle.  I mean, I’ve heard spinning is hard stuff.  But spinning is HARD STUFF.

I have absolutely no idea if spinning will help with my runs or The Relay, but it was a high-intensity workout that was easy on my knees (and hard on everything else).  I figured not running for a day would give my joints a breather, but I’d still get in a full load of conditioning.  And then on Thursday I doubled up and did spinning in the morning and ran in the afternoon — and then promptly died.  It was so hard I was practically dragging myself across the pavement.  Which is probably how I’ll feel come leg #3 this weekend.  Oof.

No idea if I’ll stick with spinning post-relay; at the moment I’m leaning toward not.  Today was my third (and final) spinning class in preparation, and it was marginally easier than my first two.  Which is always encouraging.

In any event, I’m pleased I squeaked in some solid conditioning.  I’m sure it’s all mental, but it feels good feeling better prepared for the big race.

In order to combat this inevitability, Coach T told us to start hydrating earlier in the week. He wanted us to drink at least a gallon of water by the time of the first game. What Coach T forgot was that we were teenage girls who left EVERYTHING to the last minute. Including hydrating.

That little oversight on his part meant that on the drive to the tournament, during warm-ups and even during the game (!), each of us took turns running over to the bathroom to relieve ourselves.

I learned that day that waiting until the last minute to hydrate is a very bad idea. With The Relay just four and a half days away, there’s no time like the present to get hydrated. Exhibit A:

My desk along with six bottles (101.4 ounces) of water so far today.