Is it really May already? Yikes!

Work picked up a bit in April so I haven't had the time to gather my thoughts into semi cohesive/comprehensible bits of writing otherwise known as blog entries. Sorry!

I also have had the pleasure of watching this lovely lady cardinal set up her nest right outside my office window, no chicks as of yet, but I will be ready with my camera at the window when the time comes.

Anyways lets do a quick recap

1- I decided not to run the half marathon. Rather than limping across the finish line and doing long term damage to myself, I've chosen to drop my mileage and focus on strengthening my IT Band. So far so good...YAY! The past few weeks have been relatively pain free, a little soreness here and there, but nothing in terms of what I was feeling back in mid March. I'm still using the ITB Rehab Routine from Strength Running and I have also majorly upped my (plant based) protein intake to aid in recovery.

Picked it up on a whim while in a local natural foods store, I figured it couldn't hurt to try it out for a while. I've been adding about half scoop of Garden of Life's RAW Protein in my oatmeal in the morning, honestly I thought it was chalky at first but after a while I didn't really notice it all that much. Now I'm all out of it and I decded to check out Nutiva's hemp protein since the 3 pound bag is a little more budget friendly.

2- Along with strengthening the IT Band I've been trying to work a bit on building up my overall strength. That means there is now a core day, an arm/back day and leg day (with ITB rehab routine), though I have been slacking this week. All this is being done for two reasons, one to be a better runner, and two to be prepared for October 20th when I fly out to California to race with some friends in the “Run for your lives 5k”. Excited, you bet I am! I'm hoping to have a series of getting ready posts over the next couple of months so look out for that.

3. The garden is showing signs of life. Just last week we moved our seedlings into their outdoor beds. Now if the sun would come out and shine I would be really happy (so would the plants)

Broccoli

Kale (Siberian)

Lettuce and Carrots

So there it is a very brief summary of what has been going on, I look forward to posting on a semi-regular basis again *fingers crossed*

What have you been up to?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking part in the 18^th annual Rabbit Ramble 4 mile race in Guilderland NY. In all honesty I signed up for this particular race because of its name, I am a sucker for anything rabbit related. I couldn't find much info about the race so I decided to take the opportunity to do my very first race write up.

For starters, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, couldn't have asked for a better day. By the time we left the house it had just hit 45 degrees outside, it was a little breezy at times which was lovely during the race.

The Rabbit Ramble is a small race, I overheard one of the coordinators saying that they had 199 preregistered participants and that 23 people registered that morning. I'm assuming that these numbers included both runners and walkers. Since it is such a small race signing in was a breeze leaving ample time to use the facilities and warm up for the race. Both the runners and the walkers started at the same time.

The course itself was an out and back route with no major changes in elevation. There were a few cars out on the road that we were running on, but for the most part they were courteous and drove by slowly allowing for ample room for the runners.

There was one water station set up right before hitting the one mile marker, since it was an out and back course you got to pass it twice which was perfect for me on the way back, I was dying of thirst on the way back. I will say this water station had one of the most enthusiastic volunteers I have ever seen, jumping up and down and informing us of our rock star status, it was great pick me up.

The race finished up in the parking lot of Guilderland high school parking lot with a small crowd of on lookers. As of writing this official results haven't been posted but it looks like I came in around 38:49 which is beyond what I could have hoped for.

All in all I would totally run the Rabbit Ramble again next year. The volunteers who made this happen rocked, the entry fee is beyond reasonable, and the size of the actual event is perfect for me. The shirt was pretty cute too!

Special thanks to Dan for being my camera man yesterday!

Do anything fun this weekend?

Ever sign up for a race based solely on the name?

I love my two guys, I wouldn't give them up for anything, that being said they are quite the handful. Rabbits require time, patience, and money (see this article posted by Time for some more info), if you are in short supply of any of these three things please reconsider getting a rabbit, perhaps get some Easter sea monkeys?

If you won't reconsider for me, would you reconsider for these two guys?