I will never understand why today is not a national holiday. I mean baseball is America's past time after all.

But luckily, I have the day off work so I'm spending what looks to be a sunny and gorgeous day in Baltimore celebrating anyway.

I'm so glad to have baseball back in my life -- and since I can't spend opening day with the Phillies (they're in Texas after all), Baltimore seems like a solid back up option.



Happy Opening Day! May all your teams win (unless your teams are the Rangers or anyone in the NL East...)

When I first got my iPhone however many years ago now, I was very much in "download all the apps!!!" mode.

More specifically, I was in download all the health and fitness-related apps mode.


Also, the iPhone brought the dawn of the fitness selfie

Over the years I've found some of the apps have come and gone, but a few have endured stuck around for the long haul.

Here's a peek at what I use on a regular basis.

1. Sleep Cycle. I did a review of the Sleep Cycle app a while back now, but the gist is the alarm on this app wakes you up during a 30-minute when you're in your lightest sleep. It judges that based on your movement in bed through a sensor in your phone. Plus it gives you a million awesome charts. (Data porn!)



2. Fitsnap. This is a photo overlay app specifically geared toward athletes. It lets you select a workout type (I usually select running) and then it puts your time, distance and various other notes right on top of the picture before you Instagram it, post it to Twitter, etc. I've only had this app for a few months, but it's fun.



3. My Fitness Pal. I actually have a really love/hate relationship with this app. In general, I despise tracking the food I eat. I find it extremely annoying and tedious, and it makes me get way, way too worried about what I'm eating. I prefer to you know, just eat and not think about it. But, I think tracking has its place every once in a while. It was especially helpful when I was having some dairy sensitives in 2012. (Thank goodness that seemed to resolve itself.)

4. RuntasticPro. This is the newest addition to my fitness apps collection. For a long time I never had any interest in an app that tracks time and distance on a run. I mean that's what my Garmin is for, and I always found Garmin's data way more accurate than my phone. But Runtastic released the newest version of its app yesterday with a sleek new design and bunch of new features that I was curious to check out. (And for full disclosure, I was given a sneak peek before it went live.)

I like that it's got a library stocked with routes for when I'm not feeling very motivated to run my same loop for the millionth time. And it's got some voice encouragement built in (though if that's not your thing you can opt to turn it off.) And also, more charts and data.

That's actually probably my favorite part about all of the apps is that they give you quantifiable metrics about yourself. Pardon me while I veer into some major nerdiness over here, but ever since I started running seriously, I have loved getting data and feedback about myself...speed, pace, time, calories burned, hours slept, etc. etc.

I don't have a FitBit, Nike FuelBand or anything like that, which sort of surprises me since I'm obsessed with having all the latest data about myself. For now, I use my suite of fitness apps to satisfy my need for fitness data.

What's your favorite health and fitness app? And why? What should I download immediately?

Thanks to everyone who suggested possible race ideas based on my last post. I have a quite a list of options going that I'm hoping to narrow down in the next few weeks!

Planning a race calendar is fun and definitely something I've been missing.

Unfortunately though, getting back to regular workouts has been slow.

Remember that giant blister I got at the Shamrock half? Well it pretty much burst open in the middle of last week and has expanded to even more of my toe. No matter what I do to cover it and protect it, it still bothers me.

I was hoping to go on a short run on Friday during my lunch break since the weather was so nice, but the minute I slid my foot into my running shoe, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I could feel the raw skin on my toes rubbing uncomfortably immediately.

On Saturday I thought I'd give my two hours of spinning a go since spin is generally a little bit more gentle on the body than running.

I managed to make it through the class just fine, but by Saturday evening the blister situation was pretty uncomfortable again.

Guess I will just try to keep it wrapped up for now and let it heal. Seems like forcing workouts is just making the situation worse.

Now that the Shamrock half is behind me, the big question is what's next?



I'm not registered for any races right now, but I'd like to pick up some shorter races this spring -- maybe 5Ks and 10Ks. Nothing that requires too much of a training plan, but hopefully something that I can convince a few friends to join me at.

And I'm already trying to figure out what my fall schedule will look like. I'm thinking I might target one major half and then just fill in other free weekends with shorter stuff.

Emily and I have been emailing some fall race possibilities back and forth, and last night, I spent some time digging through back issues of Runner's World until I found the article on best half marathons for 2014.

Our two front runners so far are the Hershey half in PA and the Navy Air Force half in DC.

Does anyone know anything about those two races? We've never done either of them and I'd love to hear what you think if you have!

I'm also super open to hearing suggestions for other great races in the DC, MD, VA area, or even something outside that radius -- as long as it's a reasonable drive.

Here's the Cliff Notes version of this weekend:

It.was.amazing! The weather was gorgeous, I kicked butt in the race for not being trained, and this weekend out of town with friends was exactly what I needed.



I think I might have a new favorite race.

Dianna, Aila, Emily and I piled into my car Saturday morning to head to warm, sunny Virginia Beach. The sun was shining, the traffic wasn't too terrible and we took our time on the drive down.

We obviously made a pit stop for some Wawa for lunch.


Wawa picnic - Dianna, me, Aila, Emily

After swinging by the expo for packet pick-up, we headed to the beach to scope out the start and finish area.


Expo - Aila, Dianna, me, Emily

It was so warm and gorgeous we couldn't help sticking our toes in the water and playing in the sand before settling in at the hotel for the night.


Emily, Aila, me



Our alarms went off around 5 a.m., which actually wasn't too bad for a race morning. Aila, Dianna and I were running the half, which started at 7 a.m. and Emily was running the full which started at 8:30 a.m., so the three of us wished Emily luck and headed to the start line.

It took us a little while to find parking, and after using a hotel bathroom we had to jog to the start line and got there just in time for our corral to go off.

My plan for the course was to run three miles and walk the remaining time to the bottom or top of the hour. So I ran the first three miles, had about two minutes left until 30 minutes on my watch and pulled over to walk.


Running through Ft. Story.

Then I ran until mile six and had five minutes left before 60 minutes. I was feeling good and being a bit stubborn (or stupid, you decide) and decided there was no way I was walking five minutes. So I walked another two minutes and repeated that for the rest of the course.

I loved this course -- it was a flat, gorgeous, lollipop course that started right downtown and and then looped up through Ft. Story -- a military base on the coast -- before finishing on the boardwalk.


Entering Ft. Story.

I felt surprisingly good the entire time. I kept running waiting to completely bonk at some point. I mean I hadn't trained at all other than some really long brick workouts in the last several weeks. But zero running specific training.


Pretty views of the water

By mile 11, my legs were getting tired, but other than that I felt great. When I passed mile 12 and then made the final turn on to the boardwalk for the last half mile, I looked at my watch and realized I could finish below 2:05.

I pushed it a bit in the home stretch and crossed in 2:04:54. I was ecstatic. I can't believe I pulled out such a great time after dealing with so many injuries and not being able to train. Man, imagine what I could have done on this course if I had actually been able to train.



After meeting up with Dianna and Aila -- who also both rocked the course -- we headed back to the hotel to change out of our nasty clothes, shower and head back to the finish line to cheer for Emily.

Emily had told us the night before that she was hoping to PR and that her big crazy goal was to get a BQ. She had no idea if that would be in the realm of possibility, but as I was getting her text alert updates, I realized it was totally within reach.

Through the first 18 miles she was holding an 8:08 pace. I knew if she could hold that pace the rest of the race she'd make it with some time to spare.



I got to the finish line early to stake out a spot and wait for her to finish. As the race clock edged closer to 3:35, I was getting more and more nervous.

I finally saw Emily coming down the stretch, she looked great and was pushing so hard. I looked at the race clock and it said 3:37, so I figured the BQ was out of reach, but she had still smashed her PR.



When my phone vibrated with her final time, I saw it was 3:35:31. It kind of felt like a little bit of a sucker punch. After such an awesome, awesome race, to miss Boston by like 30 seconds, man I think I would have cried.

But Emily just had a big smile on her face. She crushed her old PR by 20 minutes.



We stuck around for a bit to warm up in the beer tent before hitting the road back to DC.



After getting stuck in some terrible traffic and a three hour drive magically turning into a five hour one, it's safe to say I'm beyond stiff and sore today. Also, I got a nasty, nasty blood blister during the race that is literally the size of my entire toe. (It seems mean to post a photo of something so nasty here, so if you want to see it, it's in my Flickr album.) Even though I drained it yesterday it's still throbbing. So my ability to walk today is supremely compromised.

But this entire weekend was so worth all the soreness today. It was so great to get out of town and spend a weekend with the girls and it was so wonderful to run again.



Emily and I spent a large portion of the car ride back figuring out what races we want to run next. :)

Happy Thursday friends! Who's excited for the weekend? I know I am.

I made a final decision that I'm going to go to Virginia Beach this weekend to see if I can run the Shamrock half marathon. My plantar fasciitis hasn't been bothering me much at all lately, so I'm sure I will at least be able to run part of the race without any problems.

Since I'm not well-trained, my game plan is to be pretty liberal with the number of walk breaks I take. And if anything starts to bother me while on the course, I will have no problem stopping and taking a DNF.

I'm looking forward to the trip because it's been a while since I've gotten out of DC. The last time was back over New Year's when I was home in PA and frankly that trip was not under the best of circumstances. Plus I'm looking forward to hanging out with Emily, Aila and Diana! It will be a fun girls weekend.


Me, Aila and Emily before MCM in 2012

I'm also looking forward to heading slightly south where the temperatures might be a little be warmer than what we have going on in DC today. After a gorgeous nearly 70 degree day yesterday, today we are plummeted back into the low 20s.

I'm over this winter stuff. I want to be able to pack up my sweaters and dig out my sundresses and flip flops.


Beach last summer with my brother

After more than a year plagued with injuries, I toed the start line of my first race in close to 11 months yesterday.


Start line and the Capitol

And the good news is, I didn't have the worst performance ever.

My friends Ryan and Abe had been planning to run the St. Paddy's Day 8K for the last several weeks and had been asking me to sign up too, but I was hesitant to pay for yet another race that I might not be able to run.

But I've been able to do some pretty decent workouts in the last few weeks -- nothing that amounted to actual training, but enough to prove that I would probably be able to finish the race.


Abe, me, Mrs. Fiora, Ryan and Kim before the race

So I registered Friday night and Sunday morning, I met Ryan, Abe, Ryan's mom and Kim in Freedom Plaza for the race.

It was chilly at the start and the gun didn't go off on time, so I was pretty stiff in that first mile.


Probably my favorite picture from the entire race

I tried to get myself to loosen up and somewhere near mile 2 I felt myself settle into a pace. It was probably a faster pace than I should have been holding, but it didn't feel too bad.

Not long after, I found Ryan and Abe in the crowd. We'd all started together, but then lost each other in the rush.

We ran together for a bit of the race and I was entertained by Abe singing along to his music.

Somewhere near mile 4, Abe stopped to tie his shoe, but I kept pushing on because I could feel the pace getting to me. I knew if I stopped to walk there might not be any re-starting.

My legs were pretty much toast as I tried to pick it up in the final stretch, but I was so determined to finish the race in under 45 minutes.

I crossed the finish line with an official time of 44:26, good for an 8:57 average per mile. Pretty solid performance for my first race back I'd say.


Everyone after we finished!

I celebrated my run by heading over to College Park for some brunch before watching the Terps knock off #5 UVA in overtime in our last ACC regular season game at home!



That game was something else and the atmosphere in the Comcast Center rivaled some Duke games I've been at. I really can't think of a better way to peace out of the ACC.

So long all-Carolina conference.

First off, I want to thank everyone for the comments, emails and tweets about my most recent post where I was debating running a half marathon in a few weeks despite not much training because of my plantar fasciitis.

I got some great encouragement and some really solid tough love. I'm still deciding, but I'm leaning toward making the trip and seeing what happens. I can always drop out of the race if need be.

Anyway, this weekend, I met up with my Ironman friends again for another weekend of awesome long workouts.


Swim, bike, run!

Saturday I met Aziz and Jim for some back-to-back spin class action. Unfortunately my favorite instructor wasn't there this week, so we had two hours with one of my least favorite instructors.

Luckily Aziz had a solid plan of attack, and the three of us spent the two hours doing a variety of drills -- sprints, climbs, combos of both. At one point during the second class, the instructor saw the three of us doing our own thing in the back, and started having the rest of the class do the same thing we were doing.

She would yell, "Keep up with those bikers in the back. OK they're sprinting now, we're sprinting too."

It's a good thing I was working so hard that I couldn't laugh because I just couldn't help wanting to crack up.

After the two hours of spin, I left the guys to finish their long ride, and I hit the road for a 30-minute run off.


If you look really closely, you'll see my average pace was 9:25

Holy brick legs batman.

After finishing, I ran to the Jimmy Johns a block from the gym and annihilated a turkey sandwich. It's embarrassing how fast I put away that food. I was so, so hungry.

Sunday morning I was back at it again. I met Aziz at the gym for my first swim workout in ages.

He had some sort of crazy long swim on his schedule, but I opted to do some drills. In total I did 1900 yards, which was a pretty decent workout after not having been in the pool for a long time.



I did the workout above, I just changed some of the time intervals because some of them were just a smidge too fast for me. Also, I don't do kick drills. I hate them with a fiery passion, so I just swam that 200.

We wrapped up our swims around the same time, did a quick change and set out for our run. He had 2 hours and 30 minutes of running scheduled, and I was hoping to do about six miles to see how I felt for Shamrock in a few weeks.

We did a nice out and back on a new-to-me trail, but I broke off after three miles and let him go on his way.



I finished up my last three miles, and I have to say I felt pretty good. Sure my legs were a little tired, but nothing really hurt.

Yes, I was a little sore yesterday, and spent a large part of the day chilling in my compression socks because my calves were really tight, but my plantar fasciitis didn't bother me at all, which I think is a huge win, especially after the high volume of training I did over the weekend.

I'm actually really enjoying these long workouts, and training with my Ironman friends is kind of fun. It makes me excited to think that I might be able to start racing again soon!