Monthly Archives: May 2012

No Shades of Gray in May.

Despite 50 Shades of Gray being in my dirty little hands since the end of April, in one month I’ve barely cracked it open…less than 2 chapters to be exact. I feel like I know the said steamy story without reading it and it’s lost all appeal. It’s kind of like eating cold oatmeal – no steam, no interest, just brain-like mush.

Should I feel like a failure for a) not being on top of the trend? or b) failing on reading — miserably.

As a marketer it’s pretty important that I’m aware and versed on what’s current and relevant but I’m holding steady on the latter… while the book may currently be setting suburban housewives on fire, I should probably find a new book to light my mind on fire. Suggestions welcome.

Looking back, May really didn’t really bring any Gray.

I celebrated “just because“

I celebrated this lady

I celebrated the tatas

I went to DT heaven

I redefined Hump Day

I had a not-so-stepford weekend with this girl

I made my first and second vlogs!

I hosted a NAKED giveaway {today’s the last day to enter}

and

I got down and dirty with the boys of summer (yes, the same boy as last summer and next summer and ever and ever, ok ok)

May was about 50 shades brighter than Gray.

{MF Dre}

Just Do It.

3 Replies

Psssst

I found something I think you’re going to like. Big Time.

The Nike Training Club app is where it’s at.

You know by now I’m a runner – an obsessive, compulsive, crazy, fanatical runner – no, not me, that’s you’re other friend. Anyway, I’ve been looking for ways to supplement my running with a little strength training. I certainly consider my weekly YogaHop classes an opportunity to build strength, but I’m not much of a weight lifter and I’m pretty lazy about doing abdominal work. Since it’s a fact that having a strong core and strength training reduces your risk of injury and makes you a better and stronger runner – I.have.goals.people - I am confident I need to do more.

Enter Nike Training Club – the first fitness club I’ve joined that’s FREE free. Seriously – no paying to park, no paying for a towel, no paying for water, no paying per class. OK so you may have to buy a medicine ball or a small set of hand weights if you don’t own them. Still, for me, better than a monthly gym membership to a gym I’ll ~~rarely~~ never go to.

Just head on over to the app store and it’s yours for less than that penny filling the void in your wallet.

Here’s what’s great about it – they do the work for you. Well not the actual work, but the thinking and planning and coaching part. All you need to do is choose your LEVEL and your GOAL.

Then you’re served with a myriad of different options in 15, 30 and 45 minute programs. Set the music to your own playlist and you’re then coached through the workout by a trainer who offers you motivation, time tracking, tips and more!

In the last week, I’ve done 3 different GET FOCUSED workouts after my runs.

Ab Burner (did this one 2x already): Toe Touches, Russian Twists, Planks, Side Planks & Crazy Ivans
Arm Definer: Arm Curls, Medicine Ball Push Ups, Tricep Push Ups, Sumo Squats with Press & Plank Rows
Core Crunch: V-Ups, Extensions, Suitcases, Side Planks, Frogger with Swivels & Supermans

Not sure what any of these exercises are? Yeah, I wasn’t either.

Nike Training Club also provides you with videos to show you how it’s done. {– the clock stops while the video is on so there’s no cheating on time –}

With each workout completed, you earn points towards rewards. The more you train, the more you get. Now I can’t speak for more than 60 minutes worth of rewards points, but I hit the 60 minute reward yesterday — now I’ve got 5 new Power Smoothie Recipes to test out!

So what’s the verdict?? Just Do It. Download.It.Now.

It’s a great easy addition to your workout regime. Use it everyday, use it when you have just enough time to squeeze a quick workout in, use it when you’re on the road and in a hotel gym, use it when you need that motivation to work a little bit harder.

Promise you’ll love it.

{MF Dre}

Memorial Day Weekend

1 Reply

Our weekend was full. Really full.

Traditionally we head up to Lake Arrowhead over Memorial Day weekend with the Mr’s family/friends to open up their cabin in Lake Arrowhead. This involves raking, cleaning the grounds and usually some sort of home improvement project – not exactly the most fun way to spend your weekend, but honestly, once this is done, it is so nice to be away from the city, have no cell phone reception or access to technology and head out on long hikes, rock climbs and play board games in the cabin.

This year our schedules collided a bit – the Mr. had quite a bit of work over at the shop and I had some work conflicts – namely these – so we had to skip Arrowhead. Luckily, we were able to get most of our “to do’s” done so that we could spend the first ‘unofficial’ day of summer at the beach yesterday.

We filled the cooler with snacks and hydration and spent what was arguably the quintessential LA beach day catching some rays and getting down and dirty in the sand.

Volleyball people.

please.

I hadn’t played in years – easily 15 – and I was honestly surprised that I had any game at all. Turns out that when we went to play 2 on 2, the Mr. {who’s really good btw} wanted me on his team. Not because he felt sorry for me or felt obligated…We’re way past that stage. Nope, because he wanted to win. Duh.

Hammer time.

Meanwhile, a funny thing happened. Somehow in the hydration part of volleyball recovery, we lost the bottle opener for the Sodas. {You know we.would.never imbibe publicly on a beach}

Anyway, about 25 minutes later, I found it… just like that little frog that used to be at the bottom of my hot chocolate mug.

Silly me to think the Mr. had so nicely added a lime to my ~~margarita~~ soda.

Once all that ice started to melt, turns out it wasn’t a lime…

Cheers. Let’s Have Another!

Hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

{MF Dre}

Review: lululemon Run a Marathon Crop

8 Replies

Yes, lululemon has a Marathon line. It’s genius. They’ve entered the hard.core.runner.scene and I.frickin.love.it.

wait, you already knew that.

Anyway, my friends over at my local lululemon gave me a chance to test out the Run a Marathon crop – a pant they claim to be “fully prepared to tackle the unknown.”

Run: A Marathon Crop

{black.menthol.porcelain}

How did it test out? What’s my verdict? Well I made you another vlog.

Have you tried them? Agree or Disagree with me?

Now I should probably go have a Memorial Day Weekend cocktail…these vlog things take some getting used to. Maybe vlogging counts as doing one thing a day that scares you {from the lululemon manifesto}

{MF Dre}

PS – there is still time to enter my NAKED FOOT 5k giveaway – free race entries!!!

Want to RUN NAKED? Win a FREE Race Entry!

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Ever had that dream where you show up to a race completely naked?

Oh wait. That wasn’t a dream.

At the end of winter semester every year, there was this crazy University of Michigan tradition called the Naked Mile.

{Not Pictured, but present: MFDre}

Anyway, today running naked has an entirely different meaning to me.

Among many things, I’m “born again runner”. Remember this? When I was told running was not likely in my future and that I should probably learn to enjoy walking?

{wait….what???}

I was a dedicated athlete, a soccer player, and a marathonee-in-{heel strike}-training. I was in the best shape of my life.

This was fiercely interrupted by a snowboarding trip gone waaaaay bad. You know the story.

I felt lucky to be finally able to walk virtually pain-free and my new bionic wrist was a pretty good rain/bad hair day indicator, but I was discontent with the idea of possibly not running again. As you might suspect, after that kind of injury NO ONE backed me up when I said I wanted to run again – they all said I was crazy, off my rocker and worse. Looking back, it’s probably safe to say that not many of these “supporters” were athletes or even casual gym goers. Of course they didn’t get it.

So I read and I read and I read and read some more. I wanted to make a running comeback and I wanted to learn how other runners and athletes had become born again runners after injury and more specifically back surgeries. In everything I read, the key to preventing injury and protecting my body was proper form.

I learned it was time to

RUN NAKED.

Time to get uncomfortable with running. Time to strip my running down to its barest form. Time to start over and teach myself how to run all over again using these tips.

Head Position: No one who is bold enough to Run Naked would ever cower down. Look ahead at the horizon, not down at your feet. This will cause the back and neck to come into alignment.
Stride: Run like your feet are Naked! Don’t over-stride and land on your heel, as it causes a braking action – and thus FAR MORE impact on your ankles, knees, hips, back etc. Like when you’re barefoot, your feet should land directly under your body, and you should land on your mid-foot.
Posture: Show off the goods! Your body should be at a slight forward tilt from your ankles, not your waist. Keep your hips forward as well to maintain a balanced posture. Keep your back straight.
Shoulders: Keep your shoulders low and relaxed – don’t hide your face! Unless you are hauling it in a sprint to the finish {like I am here}, keep them down. If they are too high, the tension will take energy away from your running.

Training my body to run a different way than it felt programmed to do was not easy. Try doing your hair or brushing your teeth with your left {or right} hand? Learning to mid-foot strike was not a natural feeling for this heel striker. The other changes seemed less difficult once I had the strike down, but it took time. The good news was that I hadn’t run in more than a year so I was able to start from scratch – sort of.

And with time, focus and determination, I made a STRONG comeback!

I’ve continued my comeback with two Marathons and another two Half Mary’s.

So what’s next? Actually an opportunity for YOU to get your NAKED form on! The Naked Foot race series is passionate about getting people of all ages outside & moving, while having fun.

More importantly, their events provide pre-race clinics and training on how to run “like you are barefoot” (whether in shoes or without). Even better – their courses are barefoot friendly – think beaches and parks – if you wish to run sans shoes.

It is a GREAT race for all – experienced runners, new runners, families and those looking to learn/improve their form.

They also partner with Soles4Soles – a charity that collects and delivers shoes to people in need all over the world – and encourage runners to bring gently used shoes to the event to donate to this great cause.

So where do YOU win?

I’m giving away 8 FREE Race Registrations – that can be applied to any of the cities left in the series for 2012!

Washington DC – June 23
Denver, CO – July 21
Minneapolis, MN – July 26
Grand Rapids, MI – July 29
Nashville, TN – September 15
Seattle, WA – September 29
Austin, TX – October 6
Santa Barbara, CA – October 27

Here’s how you enter:

Leave a comment below letting me know what you’d most like to improve about your running form – if anything and which city and/or cities you’d like to run in.
Additional entry for Liking theMFDre on Facebook and letting me know in the comments below.
Additional entry for Liking TheNakedFoot on Facebook and letting me know in the comments below.
Additional entries for following @MFDre and @NakedFoot5k on Twitter
Additional entry for tweeting the following message out: I want to RUN NAKED with @MFDre and @nakedfoot5K in the Naked Foot 5k Series. You can WIN a Free Race Entry here: http://wp.me/p1XUSi-uS

Winners will be announced on June 1, 2012 via facebook, twitter and right here. Note: I will pick 8 Winners total, not one per city. There may be multiple winners per location vs. 1 per location.

Additionally, you can sign up and get $5 off your registration from ME using the code: RUNNAKED12

I’ll be at the Santa Barbara event in October – join me there!

Or join any of the other races – bring your friends, bring your family and Kids Under 12 run free!

Time to start RUNNING NAKED!

{MF Dre}

The Weekend Briefly

1 Reply

A perfect weekend with this girl, best described in pictures.

followed by a flashback Sunday afternoon attending a reunion at the Mr.’s grade school.

{priceless}

Highlight of your weekend?

{MF Dre}

My First Vlog.

3 Replies

So I hear that Vlogging is a good idea.

Good Idea?
or Bad. Very.Frickin.Bad?

and I need to learn how to say Chianti like someone who is not 100% vanilla.

{MF Dre}

Not-So-Stepford Friends.

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I am headed down on the train to San Diego for the weekend to spend time with this girl.

We met freshman year of college as we werevery skepticallyapproaching sorority life at the University of Michigan. We spent the first few months commiserating on how much we didn’t want to be a part of the songs, the dances, the forced social obligations and a crew of women that were so unbelievably smiley and happy.

{not that we weren’t happy and smiley, but the experience felt a bit stepford}

Nonetheless we stuck with it and came to like it – not for the silly songs, the garish{in my opinion}rush process, founder’s day ceremonies and Monday meetings, but for the support, the friendships, the incessant laughter, the pranks, the stories and a pretty sweet house on the hill that beat living in the dorms any day of the week.

And…gasp…16 years later, we remain the best of friends and have had an army of un-stepford-like adventures together over the years.

this.weekend.should.be.no.exception.

I’ve prepared my abs all week with loads of crunches in attempt to handle the non-stop laughter, I’ve rested my legs for what will undoubtedly turn into a double-digit mileage run along the beachbecause when we have as much as we do to talk about, we’ll either get lost or somehow forget how long we’ve been running,and I’ve packed a bag full of clothes to support just about any adventure we might take on.

{MF Dre}

Monkeying Around.

Running for the Tatas {and other Women’s Cancers}

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On Saturday my friend T and I got up bright and early to head downtown to join the throngs of women, men, families and children to join the fight against women’s cancers in the annual EIF/Revlon Run Walk for Women. This was our second run together – the last one back in November.

The event was hosted downtown by the LA Coliseum and was a 5k through downtown and the USC Campus.

The race started much later than I’m accustomed to – 9am – so we arrived around 8:15 to huge crowds of people. It was very atypical of the races I usually sign up for and attend. In fact I’d venture to say it wasn’t a race at all. There were no timed start corrals, no timing chips, no elite runners, no one was in “the zone”, Gu and gel wrappers were not strewn across the ground, nor did you get the sense that anyone was out there for anything other than a good time. The beauty of this run/walk is that it brought out people in support of women’s cancer vs. the people ready to dominate a race. There were strollers, wheelchairs, large packs of families and friends, parents lined up to run with their young children and more – far different from the crowd of PR focused runners at a road race or marathon.

The event kicked off right around 9 and while we were probably only 50 yards back from the start, it took us a good 15 minutes to get through the gates. With a cast of celebs including Mario Lopez, Matthew Morrison, Stacy Keibler and Halle Berry kicking off the event, many participants were very interested in snapping photographs with them before they crossed the start delaying movement forward significantly. We planned on ‘jogging’ the race to the best of our ability knowing that we had no idea how crowded the course would be with walkers and strollers. Turns out VERY.

As we made our way through the start, we started to jog {if you can call it that} – for those of your who are runners, this was every race pet peeve gone bad. Packs of walkers lined up horizontally in a group, people stopping in the middle of the street to tie shoes, I even saw a woman changing her son’s diaper in the middle of the road! However, we put that aside – this wasn’t about racing or getting a PR. This event was MUCH BIGGER than how you got to the finish, it was about the fact that all of us came out to walk or jog or stroll a 5k to kick cancer in the face.

As we started off, and pretty much the entire course, we did the bob and weave thing, navigating our way through the crowds. There were quite a few moments of inspiration along the way. Many women walking with scarves on their heads – evidence that they were still fighting the battle with cancer, people with signs on their back stating how many years they’d been a “survivor” and those that had signs in memory of the many women they’ve loved that did not win the fight. We saw a father running with his daughter who looked to be about 7 or 8 years old and considered what a special memory it will be for both of them to remember in the future.

As we hit mile 3, we turned off the streets and headed down the tunnel into the Coliseum. At that moment T pointed out a woman who was running with her Mother who was a survivor. As they entered the tunnel, they grabbed each others hands and ran the last .1 together hand-in-hand – not only a celebration that they were finishing, but a celebration of the life and memories they would be able to continue to share together because she had won her battle against the deadly disease.

talk.about.emotional

We finished in just under 30 minutes and as we were walking out of the Coliseum and back to our cars, we recounted all of the incredible memories and stories that we’d witnessed in such a brief time. Once again, I was blessed and reminded of my goal to Do.More.Good – to put my body, my strengths and my energy towards making an impact in the world and community around me. Saturday I was able to do this once again, running and raising money in support of the fight against Cancer – and this time, to be able to do it alongside one of my best friends!

One day, we’re going to kick this thing for good.

{MF Dre}

the MF Dre

Movement Fuels, Life Inspires and Passion Defines

Monthly Archives: May 2012

No Shades of Gray in May.

Just Do It.

Memorial Day Weekend

Review: lululemon Run a Marathon Crop

Want to RUN NAKED? Win a FREE Race Entry!

The Weekend Briefly

My First Vlog.

Not-So-Stepford Friends.

Monkeying Around.

Running for the Tatas {and other Women’s Cancers}

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