Anyone who's read my blog, or followed me on instagram or twitter would have noticed that I'm a pretty big fan of Ragnar Relay.  I did two last year (Adirondacks and Tennessee) and have run two already this year (Atlanta Trail and West Virginia Trail) with a third (Tennessee) coming up in just over a week.

But one of the most challenging things is trying to convince other people to also love Ragnar... And if they've never done it before, well...  Then trying to explain Ragnar can be kind of confusing...

If you've ever run a race of any kind, you know one of the biggest hassles can be putting on your bib.

I'm anal retentive about mine.  Making sure it's pinned on straight, that the safety pins aren't going to rip holes in my shirts and shorts, trying to avoid stabbing myself...

Ya know, the usual.

So when I found out about XRACEWEAR's line of shorts, tanks, and tees designed to help me avoid all that I was pretty excited.   Their whole motto is #nosafetypins.

Plus, once I got into running Obstacle Course Races (OCR) I kept coming across people who had lost their bibs in the mud, crawling through obstacles.  I mean, bonus for me, because those lost bibs had drink tickets attached to them...  (Word to the wise, ALWAYS grab extra bibs.  Seriously.  Free drinks guys.  GENIUS.)  But that definitely had to suck for the person who lost their bib.  Not only did they lose out on their free beer, but also the opportunity for pictures, since most races tag photos based on your bib number.

Not to mention all those lost safety pins in the mud, stabbing you as you try to army crawl under thousands of feet of barbed wire.  OUCH!

See That?!?  Right there, on this webpage listed under the heading "AWESOME BLOGS"?!?!

It's ok, I'll still sign autographs.  Oh, you wanna take a photo.  Yeah, sure, I can make time in my busy schedule...

#NBD

This morning, while drinking my half-hot chocolate, half coffee plus creamer morning beverage, I read an article on The Huffington Post titled The Biggest Mistakes Women Make When Working Out. 

Go ahead.  Take a minute or two and read through it.

I'll still be here when you get back.  I can wait...

Are you back now?  Good.  Let's discuss what we've read.  I hope you paid attention, because there's a quiz at the end.

Just kidding.  Sorry, sometimes old habits from teaching die hard.  No quiz.  (Unless its a pop quiz!)

It was an interesting article and while their mistakes were valid points, it also gave me an idea about what MY most common mistakes when working out are...

So here it is!  An examination on the things that I know I could do better...

So I will be the first to tell you, I am resistant to anything that to me seems like a "fad."

And for the longest time, that included foam rolling.

A friend of mine is a Physical Therapy Assistant.  (Those who have read my blog before will know this is my girl Coley.)  Well, she's a pretty serious runner.  And by that I mean
that she takes running very seriously. 

I'm more of a "go out and wing it" kind of gal myself.  But Coley has training plans and regimes that she follows.  Religiously.  It's not too often our runs line up together, but we have run a few races together in the past and that's usually where the overlap occurs.

I promise, we're getting to the part about foam rolling...

So, it's winter time.

And despite that fact that I now live south of the Mason-Dixon, I've decided it's still too damn cold.  Which means this is the time of year I move most of my training to the indoors.  And luckily, my Planet Fitness membership followed me to Nashville and there happens to be a gym just down the road and around the corner.  The perks of being a Black Card member, I suppose!

And, because as all runners know, the treadmill (from here on out referred to as the "dreadmill") is the bane of my existence, winter is the time of year when I generally tend to focus more on weight training than on running.

There are a few reasons for this...

With Hot Yoga.

Get your mind out of the gutter!

Ok, so maybe that title was misleading.  It happens.  But it's certainly not inaccurate. 

I started doing hot yoga just over a year ago.  A friend of mine had begun taking a community class at a local hot yoga studio in East Grand Rapids, Michigan called Funky Buddha.

If you live in West Michigan, I strongly recommend it.  I LOVED classes there!

Anyways...

Shins.

What did you think I was gonna say?

Anyways, like most people who run, I've had to deal with shin splints.  And since starting the runstreak, I've tried to be extra careful about taking care of this problem area.  Because shin splints, while they may not seem like a huge deal, can seriously sideline some training.  Especially since, if left untreated, they can progress to stress fractures.  So when I started noticing some pain in my shins late last week I knew I had to take care of them right away. 

Not gonna let something stupid like my shins ruin this runstreak.

So what are shin splints and how do I treat them?