will run for chocolate!

I've mentioned before that I only really like to run kitschy "theme" 5ks - the Hot Chocolate 5k is only half that. It's basically your standard 5k with a twist - instead of the usual water and protein-filled post-race snacks, this one gives you a giant mug of...yep, hot chocolate! Along with chocolate fondue and plenty of stuff to dip in it, including marshmallows, Rice Krispies, pretzels, and a banana.

Originally we were going to run this race in Detroit, but the date got canceled! So...road trip!

Unlike any 5k I've done so far, this one only had packet pickup the two days prior to the race, at a mini Runner's Expo in the convention center next door to our hotel. The Expo might have been small, but it was mega fun! There were a few different booths from local health, nutrition, and fitness related businesses, a stack of running-related Christmas tree ornaments, tons of discounted fitness merchandise including clothes and shoes, walls of chocolate-related running merchandise, and best of all, a chocolate marshmallow sample of what was to come at the race... 

They had these in all sorts of race lengths - 5k, 13.1, 26.2, even some that just said RUN! I bought this one as a Christmas gift, but got the same for myself in hot pink, as well as one that says, "May all your miles be merry". Too cute!

Only a small preview of what was to come when we finished the run...

I ended up buying 3 ornaments, a discounted Nike workout shirt I'd had my eye on for a while, and a new cool-weather Hot Chocolate 5k compression shirt. Oops! 

The race itself was at 7:30 on Sunday - getting out of bed to be there at 6:15 (the time or packet suggested) was rough, but I loved that the whole even was so early in the day - awesome for those of us who have to drive 4 hours home.

The weather was a bit of a downer - steady downpour all morning that let up just a little but before the race (and then was stop and go the whole time...), but it was a nice temperature to run, and our race packets came with really nice quarter-zip running tech shirts with hoods, so we were all set! 

The course wasn't as gorgeous as last weeks romp along the water, but downtown Columbus is full of some really lovely old bridges and buildings, and the race went by super fast. I didn't PR, but I'm not unhappy with my time either. And moat importantly, Theresa and I got a whole bowl of chocolatey goodness to warm up with afterward!

The mug/bowls came with a cup of hot chocolate, some chocolate fondue, banana, marshmallow, rice krispie treat, mini pretzels & a Keebler wafer - chocolate overload!!

I could only eat/drink about half, it was so big, but soooo yummy!!  I'm ready to take a little 5k break now, after 3 in 3 weeks, but it's been fun, too. Thanks for the memories, Columbus - you're pretty all right!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Have you traveled for a race or a fitness event before?

fitness away from home

Greetings from Columbus, OH! 

My friend Theresa and I headed down here on Friday night for a quick weekend away because we signed up for the Hot Chocolate 5k that happened this morning. Conveniently, it coincided with a Columbus/Montreal hockey game on Friday night, so we nabbed some really nice tickets and took in a game that played out in what seemed like an endlessly entertaining NHL blooper reel. I also got to meet up with my friend Skye, who I've known since 2004, but rarely get to see, and picked up dinner at Barley's Brewery, where I had a nice, smooth Centennial IPA, their firkin of the night, and a yummy, spicy Christmas Ale. Ohio beer is pretty decent!

Saturday morning I really wanted to get some kind of workout in, since I knew we'd likely be eating out and drinking more beer. I see "hotel room" workouts posted all the time, and my hotel actually had a small fitness room, but I don't enjoy working out alone on machines much - I just don't feel the motivation!! So instead, since I've been really into yoga lately, I sought out a studio near the hotel and ended up finding Yoga on High, which was about a mile up the road from the hotel, and had a slow burn (my favorite!) class in the schedule for 8am. Perfect!

It was a nice walk through downtown Columbus to get there (I love cities!), especially that early in the morning. The studio itself was wonderful - they were very welcoming when I told them I was in from out of town and just wanted somewhere to practice for a weekend - and I have nothing but awesome things to say about my experience. The instructor Michael was lovely - I really love when instructors get right up in your personal space and basically (in a respectful way of course!) manhandle you to get you deeper into poses, or show you just how it should feel and where you should be feeling it (especially because when it comes to yoga I'm still a beginner when it comes to the vast majority of poses!), and push your body's limits in a way you wouldn't necessarily be able to on your own. After that hour and fifteen minute class I felt AWESOME and ready to face a day of shopping. Thanks, Michael and everyone else at Yoga on High!

I felt so good afterward that I walked another mile north up to The Little Donut Shop to bring some goodies back to the hotel room: 

The Little Donut - directly underneath The Big Tavern!

Maple bacon, strawberry shortcake, and cookie dough - I was good and only ate a third of each, but I couldn't choose!!

After we ate these babies we went out for a day of downtown shopping - the highlight of which was finding a shop where you could blend scents and pour your own candles!! Of course since they had a hops scent, I mixed it with a bit of grapefruit and blue spruce and made a nice little IPA candle - it really does smell like a nice cold glass of Huma Lupa!! 

I got a little overexcited about designing a label...

All in all I'd say I got in about 8 good miles of walking between this excursion and shopping on top of the yoga class - not a bad day for exercise on vacation!!  

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you do for exercise while traveling? Have you ever sought out and taken classes in random cities you've visited? 

3.1 is still too much

Like (I think) I said in my intro post, I hate running!  Don't get me wrong, I love cardio - I'll take hour

long dance fitness classes all day long and love every second of it, but just plain running feels like torture.  Some people say you learn to love it, some people say it gives them time alone with their thoughts & lets them step away from the real world for a bit, some people just enjoy the physical aspect of it.

Absolutely loving this Race T-Shirt!

I am not one of any of them.  Generally when I run a 5k, I spend the first minute thinking this isn't so bad, it almost feels kind of good, maybe today's the day I start to like running, and by about the 5th minute I'm thinking holy crap is this over yet? Why did I talk myself into this again?  Then I inevitably check my watch, realize I'm only about 1/4 the way through (I run about a 28:00-29:00 5k) and I spend the next few minutes thinking how after this one, I'm DONE.  No more 5ks for me, no more forcing myself to do something I hate.  At around the 10 minute mark, I start bargaining with myself (just make it to that stairwell and you can walk for a bit, we'll just run 2 miles and then we can walk the 3rd) - and coming up with reasons why the run feels so bad today (it's so windy, it's too hot out, it's a hillier course than normal, my calves were so tight this morning).  By this time I've usually passed the Mile 2 marker (but not noticed it, because I was too busy thinking about how miserable I am), and I spend the next mile looking desperately around for it.  Somehow the looking around usually winds me up settling into a decent pace and not hating my life so much, and about a mile goes by of peaceful semi-misery before I hit mile 3, try to do that thing where you bust it for the last .1 mile to get across the finish line, and then spend the next 15 minutes positively dying.

But then the most inexplicably glorious thing happens - all of a sudden you start to feel awesome.  Surrounded by a bunch of other miserable runners, all exhausted but high on endorphins, I look at my heart rate monitor and think hell yeah, I did that!

So I keep running 5ks.  I ran my first on January 1, 2013 - Lifetime Fitness' Commitment Day 5k - and since I've done 7 others.  I admit, as a run-hater, my 5k niche is basically the silly, kitschy, theme/obstacle/etc. runs that are pretty non-serious, as far as races go.  These past two weekends, however, I ran two pretty basic 5ks:

• Saturday 11/2 was the 2013 Run of the Dead in the Southwest (Mexicantown) area of Detroit.  The run was in celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, and the course took participants through Detroit's Holy Cross Cemetary (the 10k route went through a second historic cemetery as well).  The highlight of the run was absolutely the loop through the cemetery, where they also had members of the Living Arts Youth Ensemble performing a traditional Danza de la Muerte through the headstones.  It was tough not to stop running just to watch them!  It was a cold, damp, rainy day, but the run was really enjoyable regardless.  At the end they served us bottles of water, traditional tortilla chips from a Mexicantown bakery, and Mexican style cookies!  I finished the run in 28:58.8 (which is about 40 seconds from my PR), and 44th out of the 247 participants, so I wasn't unhappy.  And the Race T-Shirts were lime green and feature an awesome looking traditional sugar skull!!  I'm definitely in love with mine.

The Mustache medals were sooooo cute - and we also got chocolate mustaches
 for finishing!! I gave mine to my BFF Alyssa for coming to cheer me on :)

• Yesterday, 11/9, was the Mustache Dache Detroit.  I admit, there are three things everyone seems to be obsessed with that I just don't get - bacon, Shark Week, and mustaches.  The Movember thing is for a great cause, but I won't ever understand the obsession with it!  However, I had a couple friends who were planning on running this race, and it is a neat idea - plus it started at Atwater Brewery and I love few things more than beer ;)  This race started out extremely rough - the wind was crazy yesterday and for the first 1.5 miles it was basically blowing directly into us - and most of that section of the race was uphill!  I confess about a mile in I started to really think I was just going to walk - I even did, for about a minute or so.  Luckily right after my almost-breakdown, we turned the corner and started doubling back.  Suddenly the wind was at our backs, and the next mile plus of the course was run on almost completely flat ground right along the absolutely beautiful Detroit riverside.  It was sunny, the scenery was gorgeous, and I fell into a nice, steady pace that didn't even make me feel like I was going to die.  That mile and a half was probably the happiest I've ever felt while running.  Thanks to my poor start, I finished with a time of 29:39 - as soon as I saw the finish line and the clock time at almost 30:00 I busted ass to get across it!! While I didn't even come close to my PR time, I was determined to finish under 30 and I did.

After the race we got some seriously cute Mustache Dache medals, and a free beer at Atwater (my best friend had come down with me, so we split a Decadent Chocolate Ale (which was delicious), and a Hop-A-Peel, which was the perfect bitter end to an exhausting race.  I would absolutely do this 5k again!

Following the race, we grabbed some lunch at Slow's BBQ, took a little trip to explore the old Detroit Train Station, and hit up the Red Wings game (even though they lost, I got to see my boy Richard Panik assist on Tampa's winning goal, so it wasn't all for nothing!).

Next it's time to gear up for yet ANOTHER race next weekend - the Hot Chocolate 5k in Columbus!!  Enough already!!

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY:  Do you enjoy running?  What makes it tolerable to you or how did you learn to love it?  How do you feel about "trendy" theme 5ks (like color runs, obstacle races, glow runs at night, etc.) vs just plain old running races?

a wordy introduction

2013 Hop Harvest spoils!

WELL HELLO, internet.  I have been trying to make this post for about a month now - created the blog, fussed with the layout, did a thousand and two things that afterward I thought, "this would make a great blog post!"...but none of them seemed like the right FIRST blog post.  Problem is, that let to a thousand and two things that I wanted to blog about NOT getting blogged about, so here I am, sucking it up and making that first post.

My name is Stephanie; I'm a 27 year old Michigander, half-Canadian, (bottle) red-head, amateur hop farmer, craft beer enthusiast, gym rat, aspiring fitness instructor (currently certified to teach Bokwa), 5k runner (even though I hate running), avid reader, lover of cooking (even though I'm not ashamed to admit I eat popcorn for dinner a whole lot more than I should), & hockey obsessed (we ARE Hockeytown here in Detroit, MI).  I spend too much money on decorating my condo & clothes I never get a chance to wear between work and the gym.  Sometimes I have a hard time motivating myself to do anything but lounge on the couch with my cats (I have two - Chopper, a 4 year old too smart for his own good tabby, and Trix, a 2 year old all black bundle of stupid) and watch crappy TV.  I work in plastics engineering as a materials manager/release analyst for Chrysler/Ford/GM production & service parts. I couldn't care less about cars - I went to college (Western Michigan University alum, what what!) for creative writing & Japanese language.  Go figure.  I love fall more than anything in the world; Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I could eat peanut butter by the spoonful and polish off an entire bag of trail mix without even realizing it (there's no polite way to say this, but I friggin LOVE nuts).  I like to do nerdy hipster DIY stuff like making my own pickles and jams and granola.  I'm just getting my yoga feet wet - but I'm definitely the definition of a bad yogi.  Everything I read makes me want to do CrossFit but I'm not ready to give up my global gym membership just yet (I love too much about it - and I've grown so close to so many of my instructors that I'd feel like I was leaving my family!).  How do people afford both??

I love Michigan - the lakes, the colors, the climate, and especially the beer and brewing culture.  My dream is to open a brewery (more on this later!) and live out my days happily growing hops, making beer, and seeing happy people enjoying it.  In the meantime, while I slave away making sure people can get replacement parts when they inevitably smash up their vehicles, I'm slowly but surely plodding away at my quest, which was the original purpose of this blog, before I realized I have a LOT more I want to talk about than just this journey, to visit & sample (at least one!) beer at every Michigan Brewery.  Currently at 82 and counting!  (More on this later, as well.)

So, there it is - beer, fitness, good eats, and a whole lot of crap I can't imagine anyone being that interested in.  But it feels damn good to flex my blogging fingers again.