RacingThroughMidlife

This week we welcome back the Great Aloha Run in person in Honolulu! We last ran in this event in Feb 2020 and used to be the longest run we had ever completed at about 8.2 miles (from the Aloha Tower to Aloha Stadium). It wasn't until training for the Honolulu Marathon last year that we exceeded 8.2 miles on any running activity. Now, 8.2 miles for us is no longer a scary and daunting feat and we went into this "fun" run actually looking forward to having fun :-) The very next weekend we competed in the Kailua 10-miler and both ran a hard race in our first event of this kind. The night before, we changed things up and tried out a new local New Jersey style pizza restaurant in Hawaii Kai, called Repetti's Pizza and Provisions. The pizza was excellent and worked wonders to fuel us up for the 10 mile run the next morning!

This week Jay did most of the workouts as Chelle was recovering from a rib injury from falling on her bike the previous Saturday. It was most likely Jay's fault but that's for another day ;-) This week we focused on long slow runs in preparation for the Great Aloha Run on President's Day, the first in person running of this fun race since 2020.

This week we primarily did our morning crossfit and walk routine Mon, Wed and Fri as we too Tuesday off as a recovery day after the hard weekend workouts last week. Thursday we completed a 7 mile base run which is a slow pace cardiovascular building foundation run. It's good to mix those low aerobic workouts into your routine to vary your conditioning for best results. Saturday, we completed our longest bike ride yet at 36 miles but unfortunately, Michelle fell over at a stop on a curved road and injured her ribs. She completed the rest of the ride that day with minimal pain but strained some muscles in between her ribs Sunday on our long swim. She's currently resting up and will be taking it easy until her rib muscles heal. Next week we'll be working to get ready for our next race, the Great Aloha Run on Feb 20th (President's Day). This will be the 39th annual running of this classic Hawaii event and finally back in person after the last two years being a virtual only run. Aloha!

This week we talk about the "why" behind all of the training and how we stay motivated to keep it up day after day. Also, we completed our first full Ala Moana Beach swim from Magic Island to Kewalo Basin wall and back for 2200 meters. Then went for a 4 mile run around Ala Moana Park. It was raining pretty hard that day so we didn't catch any film of us running. Sunday though, we got in a nice long 28 mile bike ride with some thrilling downhill on Diamond Head and then went for a 10k run to follow at a hard pace. Was a good week for training for sure!

The week following our Akahai Half Marathon was a bit out of the norm. We did a nice 10k run on Tuesday and then a stand up paddle board session Wednesday. We were supposed to do a long bike run and run on Saturday but it was pretty rainy so we ran 9.3 miles instead. The bad weather continued into Sunday, so we opted for a Peloton indoor bike session instead of braving the outdoors. Since the weather was fairly wet this week and we didn't do as much outdoor filming, we have included our favorite recovery shake post workout. We have one of these most days of the week following our workouts just to help replenish our bodies before a full meal. Here are the ingredients for our recovery shake: 1/2 cup chopped jicama 1 tsp MCT oil 1 tbsp fresh chopped ginger or 1 tsp ginger powder 1 tbsp fresh chopped turmeric or 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp Hawaiian Spirulina powder 1/2 cup organic unsweetened almond milk 1/2 cup coconut milk 1/2 cup coconut water 4-5 frozen strawberries & 1 frozen banana or mix and match fruits with 1/2 cup frozen blueberries/cherries/raspberries/blackberries/acai or other frozen fruit. 1 handful of fresh baby spinach Blend all of that up in a Nutribullet or other high speed blender and enjoy!

This week we take a beautiful hike halfway up the Kuliouou Trail as we prepare for our first big race of the year, the Akahai Half Marathon. The available distances are 5k, 10k and half-marathon (21k) and is the first annual event put on by Aloha Racing (https://aloharacing.com/). The race takes place on the Leeward side of Oahu in Ewa Beach. This is our first race with our new running gait (basically the correct running form) that we just learned the first week of January at Ortho Sport Hawaii in Niu Valley. Check out the beautiful views from the Kuliouou Trail and see how we did on our first Half Marathon of the new year!

We started this week with some strides/sprints up and down the road leading to Hanauma Bay and attempted to run the Makapuu Lighthouse trail. We actually ran the majority of the 1.5m trail which is a vast improvement from last February where we only made it about 1/4m before walking the remainder. We're still trying to work through the new running gait that we learned from Ortho Sport Hawaii at the end of Jan Week 1. We have a lot of work to do to incorporate this entirely new running style into our races. We basically learned how to run "correctly" with a more forward lean and higher cadence and will be sure to share our progress and what we learn along the way.

We started out the new year with a Race on the very first day, something we've never done (or even wanted to do) before. Come along for a recap of how we raced and trained the first week of the year!

Introducing Jay and Michelle and our journey through newly discovered fitness and nutrition in our midlives. It's not too late in your 40s and 50s to truly incorporate health and wellness into your daily life, complete races you never thought possible and feel better than ever. Age gracefully as an athlete and live your best life!