I have a confession to make.  OK, it’s not really a confession because everyone knows and I’ve said it before.  I am a LAZY runner.  I’ve been running for ages and still have never run much more than 4 miles because I tend to take breaks. Usually just because I lose the bug, sometimes, like this last time, because of a ulcerative colitis flare. Even when I take a break because I’m sick I tend to milk it.  I haven’t been sick in over a month and I just started running again last week. This time I decided to stop pretending like I have running pride and I am sticking to a beginner 5K plan I found on Runkeeper. For free!  Check them out.

Anyways, I found the perfect motivation to stick with it for a couple of weeks at least, and by then I’ll be back in the habit.  Sunday, May 3rd at 10am Cigar City Brewing is having a fun run in downtown Tampa along the Tampa Riverwalk.  There’s no color being thrown on you, no obstacles and no mud.  So what makes this a fun run?  Well.  Let me tell you.

First of all, it’s only 2 miles making it the perfect run for someone who hasn’t been running so much lately. Short and sweet, sounds perfect!  Secondly, since it’s being put on by Cigar City Brewing you know you’ll be getting a Cigar City Beer afterwards. AND the medal that you get doubles as a beer opener. Which (call me an optimist if you must) I feel pretty confident will also open my Angry Orchards. You also get a t-shirt. I really should begin calling myself a professional t-shirt collector between running and donating blood!

OH, lets not forget that this run is just one part of a BIG weekend in Tampa!   As part of the RiverFest 2015 there will also be the Bloody Mary Festival and a downtown carnival, both of which I’ll be doing a giveaway for very shortly. There’s PLENTY more going on as part of RiverFest 2015, you really should check it out!

But, back to the run.  Want to go?  You can check out the run and register here. Or, I’m giving away a pair of tickets to a random winner.  To enter just leave me a comment telling me what your first run was, or letting me know if this would be your first!  Don’t forget to click HERE: RiverRun giveaway and let me know you are entering!  That way I’ll have your email address to let you know if you win.  🙂  The contest runs through Sunday night and I will contact the winner on Monday.

I received 2 tickets to River Run 2015 as a member of Tampa Bay Bloggers thru their partnership with the Big City Events in exchange for this giveaway. All opinions are my own, of course.

To be honest, I didn’t really know what Pippin was when I first heard about the show. I looked on Straz’s site and saw “Broadway’s high-flying, death-defying hit musical” and thought death-defying DOES sound interesting!  Maybe no zombies and no space monsters would be OK?  After all, a Spartan race is not the only way to step outside of your every day and try something new.

Then my partner in crime asked around and was told he was uncultured for even having to ask. Seems Pippin is a big deal with a lot of history and we WERE uncultured for not knowing it. Well, thank goodness we were able to right that wrong!

The theater was full and it was pretty obvious that people were excited about the show. And now I know why. It was excellent! Pippin the Musical has a little (or a lot) of EVERYTHING. It seems the entire cast has incredible singing voices, can dance, can flip, balance, and do all sorts of other things that I would not even attempt.  The sheer number of people all doing different things yet perfectly working together at any given time in the show was pretty amazing all by itself. It’s a circus act rolled up in a drama that includes war, patricide, sexual innuendos, philosophy and love. And I would say that technically speaking there is even a zombie or two. But don’t quote me on that. In other words, something for everyone.

My pictures a a wee bit fuzzy because I used my (brand new) cell phone and I was back a ways, but I’m still sharing.

Which, by the way brings up a great point – if you decide to go see the show there is not a bad seat in the house. I was pretty neat the back and could both see and hear everything perfectly, the fuzz is my phone not the seats.

This guy is kind of amazing, I so want to try this at home. Stupid insurance deductible.

If you’d like to go there is still plenty of time! Here’s a list of showtimes at Straz Center:

• Thurs.April 16th at 7:30 p.m
• Fri. April 17th at 8 p.m.
• Sat. April 18th at 2 and 8 p.m.
• Sun. April 19th at  2 and 7:30 p.m.

If you aren’t in the Tampa area, move because you are missing out.  But  while you are waiting for your house to sell you still may be able to catch Pippin, it is after all a U.S. tour not a Florida tour. But heads up, they will be in Orlando and West Palm Beach. Check here to see if they are coming near your town.

I received 2 tickets to Pippin as a member of Tampa Bay Bloggers and their partnership with the Straz in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own, of course.

I mentioned that I was going to the Spring Beer Fling last month, then never got around to telling you about it.  Why, you may ask?  Well because I was super happy with some of the cool pictures I took, then I dropped my cell phone (aka my camera) into the toilet.  Happily, it was freshly cleaned and shiny. Unhappily, my phone didn’t care about my wonderful cleaning habits. Here’s a thing I found out: turn your phone off IMMEDIATELY if it gets wet.  Because otherwise things get fried, to put it scientifically. Even alcohol and organic rice will not save it.

Anyways, coming back from another squirrel moment…

The Spring Beer Fling was A LOT of fun. I didn’t get to try all of the different drinks I would have liked to because of that thing were I had to wake up eventually but I did try Light My Fire which was as amazing as expected. A mixed drink with Angry Orchard and Fireball? Like that could be not awesome. Also the Arnold Palmer Remix with Sam Adams Cold Snap, lemonade, and Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka. ‘Cuz vodka. I did not try a single Beerlini Puree which is a sad, sad thing but I was a too little distracted to remember everything.

The bands were a lot of fun. And guess what? My partner in crime did not destroy his phone so I actually have a couple of pictures. You have to love The University of Tampa in the background. As a matter of fact I was so loving it we walked across the river to check out the buildings.  If you get a chance, walk through them, they are pretty amazing. I’d show you, but you know, the phone incident.

That’s another great thing about the Beer Fling.  We got bracelets at the door (paper, not like, jewels or anything) and we could leave and come back as we wanted.  Since the Fling was from noon to 10pm that made it pretty cool. There are a LOT of things to walk around and look at around Curtis Hixon Park.

If you missed it you can’t go to the Spring Beer Fling again until next spring, of course.  However, Big City Events, who put this on, has several other events every year, and they seem to add new ones all the time. So check out all of their coming events, and maybe I’ll run into you at one of them. Not that either of us would know that, but still.

I received two VIP tickets to Spring Beer Fling 2015 in exchange for writing a review and a giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

So. You may or may have noticed if you’ve read much here that I kind of have a thing for color runs.  Why? Well, for one thing these are my running partners:

They love color runs so much that this year their birthday party was Color Me 4 – complete with a color run around the park.

So what’s the biggest, best-est (yes, that’s a word. Stop mocking me!) color run coming? How about Color Me Rad? Of course it is.  This year they’re going to have DOUBLE the color- powder AND color gel. How cool is that?  Very, that’s how cool.

Check this out:

OK, yes that would have been better set to Slipknot but I had nothing to do with the music choice.  I think the point is it looks like a whole lotta fun.  So you should probably sign up to win a pair of tickets to the Tampa run! The winner will be emailed next Wednesday morning.

Enter here: Rafflecopter Color Me Rad giveaway

Here’s the link if you want all the details, but here’s the basics:

Saturday, April 18th, 2015 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Florida State Fairgrounds
4800 U.S. 301
Tampa, FL 33610

Your entry includes a t-shirt, a pair of knee-highs, a color pack, the run of course and free photos.  I love free photos!

Just in case you don’t win, want to get your tickets NOW, or just want more than 2, here’s a code for 40% off the Tampa run. How are you gonna beat that?

Disclosure: I received race entries through the Tampa Bay Bloggers’s partnership with Color Me Rad in exchange for this giveaway and for writing a review.

I am super excited, next weekend is the Spring Beer Fling in Tampa.  I went last year and had a really good time.

This year they’ll have (once again) a bunch of bands that sound like they’ll be a lot of fun.  The headliner is the Black Lips. Check them out:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZscgSDYDHM]

Sounds like summer and a good time to me!

Jensen Surf Company is going to be there too. This clip outta get you in the proper mood for the Spring Beer Fling:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2UjhD6gCw0] The Spring Beer Fling Will feature 12 signature beer cocktails, fresh made shandys, and beer-linis.

I didn’t actually know what some of those are, turns out a shandy is your choice of beer mixed with lemonade.  Sounds like the definition of a refreshing spring drink! The beerlinis are beer mixed with fruit puree. So, basically I’m pretty sure it counts as a health drink, seeing how the word fruit is in it. Yay! They even include Angry Orchard Cider as a beer for those of us like myself that are less beer inclined. Not that I won’t be sampling some of them!

They’ll have lots of mixed beer drinks too. The ones I really want to try are Light My Fire which is a combination of Angry Orchard Cider, Fireball Whiskey and peach puree, the Arnold Palmer Remix which is Sam Adams Cold Snap, Lemonade and Deep Eddy Sweet Tea vodka and The Screw Brew which is Wheat Beer, Deep Eddy Grapefruit Vodka, orange juice. I just want to try that last one because I like the name. 🙂

The festival will be at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in downtown Tampa on Saturday, March 21st, 2015 from noon to 10pm. Enter at the main entrance of the festival will be on Ashley Dr, closest to the Sykes Beer Can Building.

Ticket prices:

General Admission: Advance $14 | Door $25 (if available)
VIP Fling Experience: Advance $75 | Door $125 (if available)
For more information, visit www.SpringBeerFling.com

I was given the opportunity to give away not just one but 5 pairs of general admission tickets, just leave a blog comment or follow my on Twitter and let me know that you did through this Rafflecopter giveaway. The contest ends Thursday night and I’ll notify the winners Friday morning.

I received two VIP tickets to Spring Beer Fling 2015 in exchange for writing a review and this giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

Well, once again I have done no running OR other exercise in a couple of weeks because of stupid colitis. It isn’t horrible this time but it is enough to make me not want to go get thrown around in mma class or go running or pretty much anything that I really should be doing.

However.  Before this latest bout I hadn’t been doing any running anyways.  Because I don’t like running anymore? No. Because ‘cross training’ has taken over.  I’ve been going to classes three nights a week for about an hour and a half, going out (what? Just for fun?) on a weeknight most weeks and spending the other with the kids doing whatever. Don’t ask me what happened to the weekends because I don’t know.  They do seem to start and finish simultaneously sometimes! Oh, and I was throwing in some yoga and a bunch of walking too. And Walking Dead is on again. And I bought a kettle-bell so I had to try that out… But not a run to be found.

It made me wonder, am I seriously the only adult around that cannot stick to doing one thing consistently? It’s not like I don’t enjoy running, because I do. Mostly. It’s just that there are so many other fun things to do! And it’s not like I am focused on getting to the Olympics or anything.

The funny thing is that when I was at the Spartan Race running all over the place I actually was able to run further and faster than expected.  Further and faster than if I’d been just running all this time. Seems running isn’t always the best practice for running after all. Of course it could just be me-weirdness. Not at all outside the realm of possibility.  It makes me wonder what I could do if I kept at the other stuff and somehow managed to get a few runs in every week too.

Last Saturday was the 5K Zombie Run, I think I’ll use it as a catalyst to get back into a running schedule and see how it goes.

Do you ever have an issue with simply running out of time before you can get all of the different kinds of workouts in that you’d like to?  Also, do you choose your workouts because they sound fun and you enjoy them or do you push yourself to do workouts just for the physical benefit?

Last weekend I finally ran a Spartan sprint at Raymond James Stadium.  Just about time. right?  I had a blast, as expected.  I couldn’t do all of the obstacles, as expected.  But I did hella better running up and down stairs than I thought I would.  Plus I didn’t fall once which is always a major win for me. Of course I did run into a stadium chair twice, leaving my hand looking kind of like I punched someone and a bruise on my leg the size of a saucer.  Not bad for me, I’ll take it.

This wasn’t a mud run at all, though we did go through some mud a couple of times.  So I guess not at all is a bit strong and untrue. Whatever.

It was a stadium run, which I didn’t really think about when I signed up (good thing) but which meant about a thousand miles of running up and down stairs.  Up got a wee bit painful after a while, down I was just terrified I’d trip and fall. Not that I would.

The funniest thing about the race (you know there are funny things about everything) is that just to get to the start line you had to get over a pretty high wall. Of course I needed a boost, but up and over is what matters, not how you get there.

The most FUN thing was they had jump ropes out of that really thick rope that cross fitters use and you had to jump with this huge rubber band around your ankles. And jumping over the fire at the end, but that’s a given.

So why does size matter? Because from the top of the ladder thing I could not reach the (curse word) monkey bars.  Yes, I tried on my tip toes. Anything I had to get over or reach up to was harder than it had to be for me.  However, crawling under the barb wire? Cake. I would not have wanted to be any bigger for that one, or for running between the stadium chairs! I guess it all evens out in the end. At least this run didn’t have the mud / water that some people walked through while I had to swim.  🙂

Here’s the course as they mapped it, but I am pretty certain there was a whole lot more weaving up and down the stairs than this map shows.

So what did I actually think of the race? I would do it again, for sure.  I’d even like to try the longer distance next time. But I will say this run is (fun but) less about having fun than most of the runs I’ve done in the past and more about proving something to yourself. There was nothing fun AT ALL about lugging a huge @$$ jug of water that seriously maybe weighed almost as much as me. I had to stop and set it down a few times. Didn’t really know how much I hated stairs till going up them with that thing.  But I did it and I did it without help.  There is something to be said for completing a task that you are seriously certain you can not do when you start it.

Maybe that’s why they say you’ll know at the finish line.

Guess what time it is if you’re in the Tampa area?  5K Zombie Run time! (every time I use the word time without numbers Hammer Time comes unbidden into my mind, which is both sad and awesome.)

I did this run last year and the year before, and both times the only thing I had to complain about was that I immediately wanted to do it again. Badly. February 28th the zombies will be coming back to the Tampa area, and you know I will be there!

This time is a little different, because this time I was given an entry to run and an entry to give away for the run.  Lucky me, lucky you! If you’re in the Tampa area anyways.

Enter to win a race giveaway here: Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you ever run a zombie run? Long story short, you can run as a human OR as a zombie, either way you know it’ll be fun.  Even if you DON’T live. Which I haven’t yet.

If you are a runner you get 3 flags (like in flag football) on a belt and the goal is to get to the end of the 5K with at least one flag left.  Lost all your flags? You can pick up extras in the safe zones. Even if you lose those too you go home with a t-shirt and an awesome medal so really it’s a win/win situation!

They’re also having a costume contest, spectators are free, and there will be free photos after the race as well. Yay! They even have free gear check, which I think ALL runs should have, but they don’t always. Oh, and don’t forget the “post-race Apocalypse party complete with music, food, great vendors and a fun atmosphere.”

Check out their web page for more info, and don’t forget to like their Facebook page for updates.

If you aren’t feeling particularly lucky or you need more than one ticket sign up on Active.com and be sure to use code 5ZEN for $5 off your run!

Remember how much fun I said Tae Kwon Do was? Well I was telling the truth, it is.

However.   I also mentioned that the class was mostly kids.  As in most days there was only one other adult and some of the kids were as young as maybe 9.  That didn’t make the class any less fun, but it did make it perhaps a bit less challenging after a while.  So the kids (mine, not the ones in the class) and I decided to look for a different dojo that  maybe had a few more adults and that didn’t want us to belt test as often.  The dojo we went to was good and the teacher was great but it often felt like we were just teaching to the test, meaning learning just what we had to know to get the next belt and not really learning as much as I’d like.

We found one!  Just one small thing… we couldn’t find a single Tae Kwon Do place with adult classes that both had classes as many nights as we want to go AND weren’t so expensive I’d have to get another mortgage on the house for the three of us to go. So we’re trying out an MMA place.  A little bit intimidating?  Gosh, I don’t know, let me just tell you about the place.

You pull into the parking lot and you just see the bar and a liquor store.  Two of my favorite places, awesome!  But where is the place I’m looking for?  Oh, look up. It’s over the bar.  There is a little not too lit door between the two places that leads up a dark, steep set of stairs and you can’t actually see what’s at the top till you get there.

Once you get in the gym though, the place is awesome.  I’m sure the bar is awesome too, I just haven’t had a chance to find out yet. But you know I will. Oh wait, we were talking about intimidating.  Did I mention that actual professional and amateur fighters are training with you in some of the classes? Ya…

We went with this place because it has 2 classes a night, 5 nights a week.  That means if I want to go out one night, no worries I can easy make it up another night. They offer MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Karate/Judo, and cardio kickboxing classes.  Pretty cool, even I won’t get bored with all that to choose from. Everyone is crazy nice and I’ve tried the MMA class twice without even getting injured.  Score!  I’m so looking forward to trying the other classes, I’ll let you know how they go.

So what happened was…

I’ve been wanting to to sign up for a Spartan Sprint for ages.  I’ve read Joe De Sena’s book Spartan UP! (it’s great, go read it), I’ve done giveaways on the blog, and I’ve stalked their web site trying to figure out how the heck those people do all that.  But I haven’t signed up.  Why? Because of that thing where I am not bad ass.  Good reason if you ask me.

I haven’t been running until about a week ago and really the only workouts I’ve done in ages are Tae Kwon Do three days a week. So I signed up for the next Spartan Sprint in Tampa – in 2 weeks.  What? What changed? Absolutely nothing. And nothing was going to change.  Go big or go home, right?

Wish me luck. I am so going to need it.  And also a bit of motivation to get moving and ready.  And I found a great source, Spartan Up! The podcast.  Why is this so great?  A couple of reasons actually.

First of all, since it’s a podcast I can listen to it on Stitcher while I’m running.  If you have an Apple phone you can subscribe on iTunes. It’s hard not to run a little bit faster and a little bit longer while listening to people talking about how it’s done.

Second of all, each episode involves interviewing different people in different fields about different subjects. In other words, it’s not all about the same subject or even about racing in particular. So far I’ve listened to two episodes – Allen Lim Says It’s Ok to Eat Cookies and Angela Duckworth What is Grit and How Do You Learn It? Of course I started with the cookie episode.

Both episodes were really fun and motivating to listen to.  I like running and all but sometimes it’s nice to let your mind go other places while you are running. I found them especially cool because Joe De Sena (founder and CEO of Spartan Race) doesn’t necessarily agree with everything the people being interviewed are saying, and his mystification of how someone who is obviously well disciplined and in excellent shape would consider a croissant and coffee an acceptable breakfast was great. I love hearing two people who are both obviously doing things right talk about how they are taking different paths.

So go listen to the podcast, go get  motivated, and go sign up for something that you are totally not ready for.  Then get ready!  🙂