Cicadas and Pringles

Tonight was my first time training with other Team In Training participants. I missed the first three group workouts so I was pretty nervous heading out. I wasn't sure what to bring...water? my ipod? what do I do with my keys? I felt sure I would be the clueless one today. Oh, and for some strange reason a small part of Cinci has been struck with cicadas plague style. Fortunetly it is not where I live. However as I turned off the highway there were cicadas flying around everywhere I looked! Gross! It took all my strength not to turn the car around and run on my own at home, cicada free! But I kept going knowing I was going to need this community of runners when the training starts to get hard. Luckily, everyone was great and I had so much fun! (I still was the clueless one...but who cares!)

We met at a sports store where we signed in, clipped a nametag to the bottom of our shirts, and attached a small tag on our shoes with our emergency info. After everyone arrived we walked around to the back parking lot for our stretches and warm up. One of our coaches, an older man, led our stretches and shocked me when he said we were going to do yoga! I have never done yoga and I think it's a little fruity and boring. So I giggled through the downward dogs and pigeon poses.

For our workout we jogged about a mile down the street (Kenwood Ave) to a small neighborhood. Along the way I ran with a girl my age and, more importantly, my pace. We talked about our schooling, our husbands, our jobs, and our reasons for training - all while ignoring cramps in our sides and dodging cicadas. When we got in the neighborhood the coaches had us stop and take a water break. Up the street was a hill about 200 meters long. After giving us a talk about the importance of strength training for runners, they had us run up and down the hill twice, the first time with our hands behind our backs and then once running normally. We were supposed to tell the coaches which run was easier. My friend and I ran both runs and agreed that the first run, hands behind our back, was easier because it was the first run. Then the coaches passed around a can of pringles and had us each take two. For our next run up and down the hill we were supposed to hold the pringles in our hands and not let them break. The goal of this exercise was to learn to relax our arms and hands as we run. I have to admit, I really had fun doing all these different exercises instead of just running for 30 minutes. We jogged back to the store, signed out, and that was that! I am really looking forward to working out with them this Saturday! (By the way, I had no problems with knees or ankles today! Yeah!)