Monthly Archives: November 2011

Keep your Friends Close<3

By Posted in Uncategorized 15 Comments

A good friend of mine passed away over break…

And I got to find out…Through my schools email. 

Thomas was truly one of the most inspirational people I have ever met.  I originally met through my ex a few years ago but we didn’t really become close until second semester of last year.  Both us were kind of lost and we would often bump heads in the gym and chat for a while.

Thomas had MS (disease that affects the spinal cord and brain).  Within 3 years, he literally lost all of his muscle mass.  He went from being roughly 225 pounds to about 150.  Im not really sure I can find anyone else that worked as hard as he did in the gym to gain it back.  I’d always see him in the gym lifting while I was running on the treadmill.  He was one of the few that stayed in there the entire time I did my long runs.

Though out this semester, we stayed in constant contact.  We would get lunch often or bump heads in the gym as always.  He would always tell me that I ran really funny but it worked for me and then tell me an inspirational story of his own bank of tales.  He would watch football and cheer for the Patriots (and by cheer-I mean he yells as much as I do when watching football) while I would run or lift and watch the Panthers.  Good thing we never actually were within yelling distance when they played each other.

Anyways-keep your friends close.  You never know what can happen in a second.   So here is to one of the most inspirational people of my life. 

<3 

Truthful Tuesday Rambles.

By Posted in Personal Tagged 23 Comments

Guess where I am?  

Back in school, being productive, but just this once.  I compiled the most interesting facts about me that I could think of while sitting on the airplane trying not to fall asleep and end up drooling on the guy next to me.  Anyways, yes I drool in my sleep.  Don’t tell me you don’t, I wake up sometimes in the morning and think I never quit swim.  I digress.

  1. I buy too many hoodies.  I buy them…wear them once or twice then never wear them again.  I feel guilty not buying hoodies from sports teams I’m on.

This seemed to be the most appropriate picture to add.

  1. I want to be taller.  5’10 would be optimal for me.
  2. I don’t like bananas.  Don’t try and change my mind-it won’t work.
  3. My favorite movie is Charlie’s Angels.  I could watch it 100 more times.
  1. Speaking of things I don’t like, I also hate how people put clothing on their pets.  I don’t know why I correlated that with bananas.
  2. And another hateful fact, I used to hate getting shots.  Since I have gotten my spinal tap a couple years back, I have gotten better.
  3. My favorite song right now is Sleazy by Ke$ha.
  1. I actually just wish I could be Ke$ha.  She gets paid to be vulgar.  Essentially what I do 99% of my life.
  2. I’m really bad at answering texts.  I don’t carry my phone a lot of the time.  If I haven’t answered you in 3 hours, chances are you probably should text me again.  But not double texting.  I hate double texting so much.  Anyways-phones just don’t really make me that happy. 
  3. I hate driving, when I marry a rich man, I’m going to demand that he provide me with a personal taxi service.

My car is only good for modeling. Obviously. and getting 160 miles to a tank of gas.

Tell me a fun fact about you. 

Cross Country Race Recap (5k)

By Posted in Running Tagged , , 19 Comments

I know everyday you wake up thinking “Gosh when is Hollie going to post another race recap?”  That’s okay-I wanted to wait for one of the very few times that I can include race photos.  (I know you also wake up thinking, “where is my favorite ostrich runner”) Most cross country races (which have been the majority of my races for a while) don’t have a lot of photos being taken.

But this time I was able too snag some.

My final cross country race and I actually wore a singlet when not forced.  My brother Matt said it was unacceptable if I wore a cotton shirt at such a prestigious race.  I saw a few people doing it but then again I scoped it out.

The afternoon before dad jogged out the course twice with me. (Yes those are my lime pants)

Anyways-the race started at a nice 8am.  I haven’t done early morning races like this in a while.  I’m not complaining, I’m just saying my body just wasn’t used to running at that time.  If I was that worried about it, I would have done these last few runs at 8am, but I didn’t.

The gun went off right at 8:00am.  It was quite chilly and race attire consisted of arm warmers, gloves, head warmer, singlet and I really did layer two pairs of spandex.  I didn’t mean too but I didn’t feel like rolling with ass out spanks. I immediately took off at “my take off speed”, but as typical Hollie style I got out extremely slow.  Every.Single.Time.  Lolz.  I was probably 275/300 at this point.

I swear this wasn't a one man show.

As the race progressed I began my move and started to mark and drop bitches.  You can tell in any sort of 5k that I am not a speedster.  This race was really well marked by every .2k.  So there was a sign at .2k, .4….1k….3.8k…5k.  So you literally knew how far you had left the entire time.   I would tell myself pass this girl at .4k, look up and move to the next in my line of view.   In cross country races, I’m more concerned with reeling girls in versus time.  Road races are more for time, in my opinion at least.

There was a rather big hill at exactly the halfway point.  I wasn’t worried about this hill, just the extremely steep downhill.  I didn’t wear spikes either, (I wore flats) so I was so afraid my bumbling ass would topple down the side of the hill. 

I literally was like I’m not about to injure myself to shave five seconds off my time  and so I took the hill pretty conservatively.

Then I continued passing people.  The first half of the race was in woods and so I didn’t have many spectators.  If you know me well-I don’t care either way.  Screaming at me never motivates me (for both swimming or running).  I have been known to flick my swim coaches off while, I swim at get some yard punishments for that…but that is a story for another day.  The second half of the course was all in the open though.  There was no escaping the literally thousands of spectators. 

There were a lot of people that knew me (because of Matt) cheering for me which was pretty cool.  I felt like I had real life friends.  I kept pushing though and the last .25 was around a lake so I felt like I was running around in a hamster wheel.  When I came around the bend I saw the clock clicking and it was at 19:54.  I knew there was no way I’d break 20:00 minutes but I just sprinted to the end.

You can't tell but I'm wicked pissed it was at a 20+ lolz. ;)

My final time was 20:05.  My goal was originally breaking 20 on a cross country course (I’ve done it on road quite a few times) but that was not in the cards today.  It was still an awesome race and I have no complaints.

My coach told me that it was equal to going about 19:40 on the roads.  Who knows though.  This wasn’t the hardest cross country course I have ever run, but it wasn’t a cake walk either. 

My next 5k is New Years Eve back on the roads.  Actually-that is my next race, but I would prefer to find something before that.  Either way-I should be under 20 minutes on my next road 5k and should actually be closer to 19 minutes.  We shall see where my running takes me though, always an adventure in my life.

——————-

Question for you:

  1. 1.       What is your optimal racing time?

I think mine is 11.  I do a nice shakeout run around 7:30, eat and then wait around.  I’ve always done well at that time.  Noon is too late because I’m wicked hungry. :)

  1. 2.        Do people screaming/cheering at you motivate you?

No.  Never.  Especially in swimming though, people would tell me to make my move at the 1000 mark in the 1650, and I’d get so pissed at them because they had no idea how to swim the mile.

Fueling on the Road and for Races

By Posted in Food, Resturants, Running Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 12 Comments

I get a lot of questions of how I fuel myself for races.  I would certainly say it depends on the distance of the race and if it is a travel race or a race close to home. 

Well it all worked out perfectly because I went on a 6 hour travel race to Charlotte, North Carolina over break.   So please enjoy this long wordy rambling post about food.

——————

It all started on Friday morning at roughly 6:30am.  I woke up and decided to make myself a few peanut flour pancakes before heading off on the road.  Thank goodness I wasn’t driving the entire way by myself.  I wouldn’t go, or I would go and get 1000 speeding tickets because I’m secretly a driver for Nascar.  My dad and brother Matt, were coming along too.

Well if you want to get technical-dad and I were going along with Matt. But anyways-we will get to that when I chat you up about the race in a later post. So thus after peanut flour pancakes, we set off, by we I mean the broski, daddykins, and friend of the broski who was carpooling with us. I haven’t created a good nickname for him but just wait…it will come. My brothers entire high school was carpooling in separate cars and needed a few extra people so they asked me and then Dad wanted to come too (because he doesn’t trust Matt and I driving together…). We stopped at Subway around 10:50 am because they were starving. Or Matt was starving because he always is and never packs anything in the car. It reminded me middle school when we used to eat lunch at 11:00am. I got a subway salad because I like them a lot. taking from my quality phone camera.

After driving another 3 hours and getting to the course at roughly 3pm, we jogged it out twice (because who doesn’t love a good bonus round 5k) and it really flushed out my legs from the previous day of racing.

For dinner, we went to Cracker Barrel.  I do not eat a heavy pasta dinner the night before any race.  I feel worse if I do and it just isn’t my style, so I had fish and a baked potato.  I actually have fish and potatoes before about 99% of my races if possible.  Surprisingly, the rainbow trout was really good.  I had never been to Cracker Barrel before but I loved it!

I figured the potato was the same as any other one so didn't include it in my photography...

Then we did some misc things and went to bed (passed out) pretty early.  We were after all getting up at 5:30am.  And my body hates me to run on anything less than 8 hours of sleep.

I had a Snickers Marathon Bar at 6:00 and 24 ounces of coffee when I awoke.  They are my favorite bar ever and prerace early morning snack.  Every single time.

I won’t give too many details of the race but it went pretty well.  :) I’ll save it for another post. 

I ended up eating hotel breakfast around 10:00 after the race.  They were just closing so I was only really able to snag some oatmeal.  They didn’t have anymore waffle stuff so I was sad for about 10 seconds.  Then I realized I was hella hungry so it didn’t matter.

Yummy oatmeal in a plastic bowl.

After breakfast and a shower, dad and I went back to the course and cheered on lots of people.  It was a great time but we ended up leaving around 2:00pm.  I was so hungry.   

Matt is so obsessed with chickfila.  So that is where we stopped for lunch.  Late lunch.  Linner.  Dunch.   I don’t know.  I got a grilled chicken sandwich and one of their normal sized fruit salads that I forgot to take a photo of.

Then we drove the 6 hours home.  Either way we just snacked all the way home on gold fish and I had 2 24 ounce gas station coffees anyways…

Question for you:

  1. 1.       What are some of your favorite prerace fuels? 
  2. 2.       What do you eat on travel days? 

Turkey Trot 10k

By Posted in Food, Running Tagged , , , , 11 Comments

Have you ever noticed that by in large most Holidays come complete with a road race?  The only one I know of that doesn’t is Christmas but I’ll be on the prawl for one.  How cool is that?

The Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot in my area was a 10k.

10k (although it was a long and 6.3M)

Before I begin, I will say that it is a PR for me but I’m not really that happy about it.  (I am happy yes, but OMGEEZ best race ever?  No not really)  I had to stop twice take off my gloves and retie my shoes.  Like why do freak things happen in my life.

Anyways-I think this race had over 1000 people.  There were certainly a lot.  Actually I just looked and there were over 2500. Good heavens, that is a lot of best friends for me to make.

I was somewhat nervous at the start because so many people were running by me before mile 1.  I’m really claustrophobic and cannot handle people running next to me, breathing down my neck all that jazz.  (one of the few reasons I do enjoy swimming) I thought maybe I was taking it too slow when the whirlwind of people flew by…but I just ignored it and said trust your body  and realized I was at a 6:30 pace when I hit mile 1.  Which was super comfortable (so that is wicked exciting).

Between mile 1 and 2, my first shoe came untied.  I stopped-tied it and continued.  God knows my clumsy ass is not about to trip and fall on pavement.  Cross country dirt is another story, but pavement  Hell no.

lolz+penguins.

Then between mile 2-3 my other shoe became untied.  Once again (and maybe more skillfully) I stopped tied it real quick and by this point had muttered every four letter word under the sun.  Probably created some new ones as well.

The rest of the race is somewhat of a blur.  It was pretty windy in spots but completely flat.  Minus a serious elevation gain of 2 feet and some man was so upset by it.  I chuckled and thanked my hill training, which has been doing me wonders.

I do remember getting to mile 5 at 34:51 and I was super excited because it meant I had dropped down back down under a 7 minute pace even with the stopping.

The final home stretch was like .3 of a mile so I had to look at the finish line for a third of a mile.  I don’t know how that makes me feel.  I hauled butt to the end but my kick is probably all of a 5 second pace faster than my normal speed.

I did, however, end up getting second my age category despite the circumstances.  I seem to always win awards that give out bird trophies.  The duck from the open water swim, two of these guys.   I would like a Penguin award, since they are the only birds I love.

Lolz.

Another race down.  Like I said-not overly happy that my shoes came untied and made me stop but nothing to get too upset about.    Plus I came home and ate about 5 servings of this nomtastic food.

———–

Question for you:

  1. 1.       Runners:  Have your shoes ever come untied? 

Oh and yes I double knot them.  I have a very high turnover and so it’s impossible to keep them tied, I swear.

  1. 2.       How was your Thanksgiving?