Totally Zoned Out

Yesterday I ended up only running 2 miles and did a tempo run for the whole distance. It was great :) Usually I run with a little effort but I can still comfortably talk for most all of my runs. This run I was by myself but I know I wouldn't have been able to spit out more than 2 words at a time.

I was breathing heavy the whole distance. My legs felt good though and I didn't get any side aches. I actually really enjoyed it. When I stopped I was in a daze. I was a hot sweaty mess and totally zoned out. It was great.

Then Chris and I took a long walk last night with the boys. We do a 2 mile out and back walk from our house that takes us past a brook, a farm with lots of oreo cookie cows (belted Galloways), and a lot of beautiful houses with big gardens and ocean views.

Today I ran a 3.23 mile loop in Rockland leaving from my work. I am in a daze from that run as we speak. I love that post run feel. I'm rocking my legs back and forth as I sit here and type to keep them loose. I always feel so in tune with my body after a run.

Post Run Pic: Hot and sweaty!

What a beautiful day out here in the mid-coast though!

Post Run Snack: clementines and berries :) mmmm

How many miles are you running?

What do you usually run past that is interesting?

Do you prefer trails, pavement, treadmill...or something else?

Charity Walk Weekend

What a busy weekend! We had a lot of fun though.

Friday Afternoon/Night:

I ran some errands after work/paid bills etc... Then our family headed over to my parents for my Dad's birthday. He wanted Lobster for dinner so we steamed 10 lobsters outside and were actually able to eat outside since the weather warmed up! He got a lot of Lowes gift cards and decided to buy a fire-pit with the money :) Noah and Elijah ran around in the driveway chasing Riley, road their bikes and skateboards and had a ton fun!

Dad's New Fire Pit where they are going to 

start building a patio.

 Their 4 year old Maltese Riley. He is a runt 

(about 5 pounds) and LOVES Elijah!

Saturday:

I was up until 1 in the morning waiting to see the hubs and gave up and went to bed. I never did ask him what time he got home. I then got up for the day at 6:30. Let me start with this - I need 9 hours of sleep each night to function correctly. Elijah and I took the hubs truck to the tire place for a new set and my parents picked us up there at 8 a.m. We went to the Bagel Cafe in Camden for breakfast then headed over to the Episcopal church where the MS Walk was starting (and ending).

Photos Galore:

Breakfast @ Bagel Cafe before the walk.

My mom and her grandbaby :)

Cole and Elijah ready to go!

 The grandparents pushing the boys 

A small view of the Camden Harbor during the walk

Dad and I doing some pushing :)

Boys decided to walk...

The wonderful lady we are walking for - Juanita Smith

with her fellow child care providers

 Boys eating some lunch after their long walk

Sunday:

Up fairly early again to drive to Bangor (a 3 hour 20 minute round trip drive) for the Walk for Autism. This was an awesome event. My friend Heather's youngest boy has autism. Her blog the A-Word can be found here: www.livingwithautism-brian.blogspot.com . (The team raise a little under $1,000)

Check it out! Her posts are touching, inspirational and educational!

Photos galore ensuing again:

The boys making off with a bunch of balloons

Waiting to get his face painted 

Eli snagging a ride on Colin's shoulders :)

My beautiful friend Heather walking with her son Brian

Elijah just HAD to pose with the moose statue

Photo-op with my boy!

Close up of our awesome Pinterest shirts Heather 

made for all of us and a button of her son

Now I am awaiting my first patient of the day.

What did you do this weekend?

Do you have any charity walks you do/raise money for?

                                                                xoxo,

Nathan Sports Race Hydration Vest GIVEAWAY!! (Closed)

I received this awesome hydration vest in the mail today from Nathan Sports. It is lightweight (without water in it) and fits great. This particular vest is the Minimist Hydration Vest. It features a mesh pocket on the back where the water bladder is held. This is detachable from the pack.

You wear it like a backpack and there is a chest and waist strap to cinch tight to reduce movement.

There are reflective strips on the front straps to aid in nighttime visibility as well.
On the left shoulder there is one zippered pocket, a small velcro pocket, and a small open pocket.

On the right shoulder strap there is one open pocket. There is plenty of space to store gu, shot blocks, keys, cell phone, ipod etc.

Nathan Sports: Nathan's vest technology reinvents the bladder pack. Instead of compression, Nathan race vests and bike vests utilize a system of balanced weight distribution that eliminates pressure points at shoulders. Meant to be worn a little loose, it feels more like a hug than a weight on your back, resulting in the most comfortable way to carry fluids for extended exertion.

Check out their site www.nathansports.com to see all of their great products.

I have not been compensated for this review in anyway. I was given this vest to do a giveaway with to show new products to my readers. I have used Nathan Sports product for quite a few years now and would love my readers to enjoy using their products as well.

GIVEAWAY ends May 3rd. All entries after that date will not be included.

Soo... to enter you must live in the United States and:

You need to subscribe to my blog and comment below that you are a subscriber.

For additional chances to win:

Follow me on Twitter (@BrittBratDPT is the name) & comment below that you did

Like my Facebook page BrittsRunningStyle & comment below that you did

Follow Nathan Sports on Twitter & comment below that you did

Like Nathan Sports on Facebook & comment below that you did

So that is 5 chances to enter in to try to win this awesome race vest!

Good Luck!!

Google Blunder & Felt like I was Flying

So Ja @ Ja on the Run  informed me today that she could not comment on my blog. The site asked her to use her Google+ account. Apparently, if you don't have one, it does not allow you to comment. So, in light of that I disabled the Google+ comments. Thanks for the heads-up Ja!! Check out her blog here @ http://ja-ontherun.com.

This is me headed out for a run

last week...but I wore

the same outfit today, so we can

pretend this is from today! lol :)

P.S. - Love the shirt I'm wearing. 

I will do a review on it soon.

Today I ran 4 miles with two of my besties. I felt like I was flying and that I could have ran so fast. 

Tried this ale the other day....DELICIOUS! 

Strawberry Time Traveler Shandy

So comment away peeps! 

Also, I wrote this on my kindle, so if there are a lot of grammar problems, please ignore. Lol

Did you run today? How far?

Do you like running with friends?

I love it!

Strong Hips & Core

I figured after complaining about my weak hips yesterday and how sore I was that I should do some research on exercises to strengthen my hip flexors. 

I'm a physical therapist, so I know quite a few, but I always like to find new ones to try out. I chatted up my Google+ communities and got a couple good ideas as well.

Here are the hip flexor muscles:

The only one that is missing is the Rectus Femoris which is part of the quadriceps.

The Adductors do not flex the hip, they bring the legs medially.

So you have Psoas major & minor, Iliacus, Sartorius, and Rectus Femoris as your

major hip flexors.

These are a few exercises that I started with last night:

Straight leg raises (I did 2x10 for each leg of these.)

Bridged Knee Extension with Adductor Squeeze (I did 1x10 on each leg of these and I squeezed my foam roller.)

Ball Pass for Core & Hips (I did 10 total of these.)

I then proceeded to foam roll my quads (I only did 5 total of these, they were so sore!)

What are your ideas for some strengthening?

My hip flexors must be WEAK!

My hip flexors are soooooo sore today! Especially the right one - I don't know if that maybe has to do with the grade of the road or what, but I can barely lift my foot up high enough to use the stairs! The bestie and I did our 10 mile run yesterday afternoon. It was a pretty good run that we did about 9:30 pace for, which is about what I want to do for my half marathon. I want to come in at 2 hours or under. This will be a huge PR for me.

On the way to see the bestie for our run :)

 Pretty tree just starting to bud where we 

started our run

I did not train for my last half marathon. I maybe ran 10 times over the course of 4 months before the half that I did in October of 2009. The longest long run was just a 7 miler. Not good. My core was really weak and my back was killing me by mile 10 of the race. Not good. At this point I would walk for a minute and jog for a minute. Needless to say the last 5k of the half marathon took a lot longer than it should have if I had trained. I finished in 2 hours 38 minutes which is about a 12 minute pace.

Ready to start the Maine Peak Performance 

Half Marathon October 4, 2009

I need to really amp up my hip strengthening - especially for the hip flexors over the next couple months so that this doesn't keep happening.

I had a great weekend though. I'm so glad that we got that 10 mile run done. Saturday I spent the day with the boys. We walked the board walk, ate pizza for dinner and had our first Dorman's of the year. - Famous local ice cream joint.

Picnic table yoga @ South-end playground 

Eli sitting on an anchor at the harbor park

Walking the boardwalk <3

Eating our Dorman's at home after some yummy 

Keag pizza

Sunday I got up early and met my girls out for breakfast at the Home Kitchen Cafe. Delicious! I had their Oatmeal brulee with blueberries and brown sugar on top. I should have taken a picture! I zipped home to take the boys to Sunday School. S and I went on our run that ended at the Rec Center playground where my hubby met me with the boys. We played for a couple hours and headed home for dinner.

Playground fun @ Rockland Rec Center

Refreshing H2O

This was a perfect weekend.

What did you do this weekend?

Friday Filled with Fun

Half day at work today - wahoo! So when I get out at noon I just have a couple quick errands and then I'm heading home to plan a picnic with the little one. It is supposed to be fairly warm here today so as long as this fog lifts we are headed outside to eat!

I am also heading outside on my run today instead of the treadmill. I plan on doing 4 miles again probably around a loop I've done before in Rockland...I will charge my smart phone to bring with me and take pics along the way. It's an in-town loop, so not super scenic except one area near the ocean.

That is me in the front running the Lucky Leprechaun 5k 

a couple years ago in Rockland - one of the nicer walk

ways that is in town.

My little guy is w/ his Ninny (my mom) this morning and they plan on doing some outside stuff too - bike riding, hiking, exploring etc... things all little boys live for. They also have been on the search for polliwogs so they can watch them transform into frogs. Have you ever done this with your children?

Speaking of frogs, when we were on our walk the other day they were peeping so loudly it was amazing. I love that sound too - spring is here. My daffodils have still only grown about 4 inches and are probably a couple weeks away from blooming. However, I see other people's daffodils are up - what's up with that?!

One I saw near work :)

Additional fun that our Friday entails:

• Possibly going to watch our friend Colin perform at Rock City Coffee this evening with the boys
• Watching movies and enjoying popcorn tonight before the boys go to bed
• Racing my kids in the back yard :)
• Grilling some chicken and foil wrapped potatoes and onions - is this fun? I don't know, but it's yummy

What does your Friday entail?

Are you running/working out today?

If you have kids, do they like to race you?

As always, I love reading your comments!

Running & Upcoming Nathan Sports Giveaway

Doing a 3 or 4 miler today on the treadmill at work. Getting this done during my lunch break today. Yesterday, I had all intentions of running 3 miles at lunch, but I ended up with a shorter lunch break than I thought I would have.

It was beautiful out yesterday though, so when I got home I told the hubs that Elijah, him and I should go for a walk. During the walk Eli and I did some sprints together back and forth - running to and from daddy. Let me tell you - Eli is fast for an almost 5 year old.

Here he is trying to look oh so sweet :)

He's about 45 inches tall - which means like 20 inch legs or something.... He could keep pace with me for the 150 foot sprints we were doing. Maybe he has a future in running. He must take after his Uncle Chris. My brother ran indoor and outdoor track in high school and he was pretty good. He always did the 400 and was the last leg for the 4x400 relay. It was amazing to watch him run. He still runs now and posts on Facebook his routes through the Nike app. Have you or do you use the Nike app?

It is supposed to be a little cooler here today than it was yesterday - it hit 65 here in the mid-coast yesterday and its supposed to only get to 55 today. Tomorrow though, we are back up in the mid 60s. It is finally starting to feel like spring!

So, about the giveaway...  I contacted Nathan Sports about doing a giveaway and they responded quickly to my request. As soon as I receive the race vest I will do a review and post it so my readers can enter in to win it. I have used Nathan Sports products for a few years, and my kids do too.

Here is the link that you can check out their race vests: Nathan Sports Race Vests

So stay tuned for when I announce the giveaway!

What do you use for hydration on your runs?

Have you ever used Nathan Sports products?

What are some of your favorite running products?