Fit-Pic: Is It Really November?

Can you name this stair climb? Consider these clues. It's been mentioned on Fit-Ink before. It's tougher to climb than the Hustle Up the Hancock and the Step Up for Kids to the top of the Aon Center (based on personal experience)--and I'm guessing it's harder than climbing to the top of the Willis Tower or all four of the Presidential Towers. Apolo Ohno knows it well--or so I've heard. And because it was warm and sunny today, I made my quads ache and my lungs burn as I scaled to the top. But can you blame me? It's November 29, which doesn't exactly spell T-shirt weather in most parts of the country, and yet it feels more like April 29. Now if only the days were growing longer instead of shorter...and there was snow, not the manmade variety, to ski in the mountains.

Shop Me a Bargain: Cyber Monday Fitness Finds

Skip the bags, it's online shopping on Cyber Monday. Credit

First it was Black Friday. Then it was Small Business Saturday. Now it's Cyber Monday. Sick of shopping yet? Not me! So I hit the gym instead of the mall on Friday. And Thanksgiving put me more than 1,000 miles away from the stores that I would have shopped on Saturday. But come Monday, which is set to be online's largest shopping day of the year, I'm raring to go.

Give me a computer and an internet connection and I'm a happy camper. No lines. No crowds. No store hopping across town--or bundling up to deal with Chicago's cold. I can shop in my pajamas. I can have multiple "stores" open at once. I can shop before and after the retail shops close. And I can pray that the items I really don't want to pay full price for, putting an even larger dent in the wallet, are in stock and on sale.

Here's where we'll be shopping:

Shop Small, Shop Local, Shop Small Business Saturday

I didn't wait in any Black Friday lines. I didn't score any Black Friday shopping deals. And this year I didn't even push my way through the crowds at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. 

I slept in. I worked out. And I learned that the best Black Friday deals I'd want to score happen on the fitness front--unless I was glued to my smartphone while braving the mall. Life Time Fitness had a membership deal that comped the joining fees--so did the YMCA (the Colorado Springs branches). Real Ryder Revolution warned to watch for package bargains on Black Friday. Train Chicago Studios held a free four-hour--or two-hour if you couldn't cut four hours in the saddle--Computrainer bike ride on the Ironman Canada course. Shred415 offered discounts on its packages and retail, and Urban Athlete featured a $35 per month membership steal. Now those are my kind of deals.

But I'm saving my shopping bucks for Small Business Saturday. Here's why I'm a fan...

• I need running socks. I mud-ified my new Balega socks on a trail run (should have occurred to me to wear the older pair with the holes in them since trails have mud) and desperately want a replacement. Plus we all know socks make good stocking stuffers for the runners on your gift list, and you're not going to find the blister-free variety at the department stores. Or at least I haven't yet.
• I'd rather avoid the Mag Mile crowds. Fleet Feet is less than a half mile from where I live and I can just as easily ride my bike to Universal Sole (as long as it's not freezing). So whether I ride my bike or I walk, I can get there faster than I can get to the big stores along Michigan Avenue or State Street. Besides, do I really want sweaters, fancy shoes, and fine china? Not really...my eyes are on running gear this season. And with Chicago being such a big, spread-out city, surely there's a store you fancy not too far from your front door.

The Hardest 5K I've Ever Run

I've been running 5Ks since I was 14. Sure, it was only one a year up until I turned 20, when running became fun and not swim team dryland torture. After running my first 3.1-miler ever, the distance got easier as I ran longer and trained harder.

But at the turkey trot I ran this year, you may as well have turned the clocks back to 1994 and put me right back on the course of my first Birmingham Lions Club Run for the Blind 5K. Yes, that's how tough it was--and it was only a 5K (which I'll get to explaining).

When I learned that the Chicago turkey trot I ran last year had been shortened from an 8K to a 5K, I scoffed, knowing I'd barely burn off my holiday dessert at that distance. When I knew I'd be running a 5K in Colorado Springs where the elevation is roughly 6,800 feet above sea level, I was thankful that the city's largest, and only, turkey trot wasn't any longer. A 5K at altitude is an entirely different animal.

When you run a 5K at altitude--and you're not even close to adjusted to the added elevation--it hurts. A lot. Every step of it. You can't wait to cross the finish line because it means you can stop running and the burning sensation in your lungs can finally subside. That lingering idea of a 5K not being far enough to run on Thanksgiving Day to make up for the food frenzy? The thought of doing a second workout to put more calories burned in the bank sounds preposterous. And the workout itself? Abandoned.

Nike Women's Half Heads East

This race heads east in 2013! Credit

I should be psyched about races, especially new ones, to run in Chicago. And most of the time, I am. I can ride my bike to the start line. I can run a course that's flat and fast (yep, that's pancake flat Chicago for ya). I can run familiar routes. I can roll out of bed to run without stressing too much about having the right layers, the right pre-race foods and the right directions to the start line--and if I don't, it's my fault for not stocking my fridge or shopping for gear.

But this time around, I'm psyched about a new race that's happening more than 500 miles away from home. Here's why I'm ready to break my routine and sign up, stat!

1. It's the Nike Women's Half Marathon. I've wanted to run the San Francisco race FOR-EV-ER, hills and all, to get that Tiffany bling at the finish line. The race vibe sounds too cool to miss, unless you're religious about running the Chicago Marathon, turn yourself into a total cripple (or expect to) on race day, and know that the only way you could survive San Fran was cheering a friend from the sidelines and having a Segway on call to power up the city's hills. Ahem, that's me.  
2. It's in Washington, D.C. I have runner friends and family who live in and around our nation's capital. Surely, I can fire them up to run with me? After all, some of us have been talking about running another race together since 2009. And I've never run in D.C.--not even a training run--so I'm in for a surprising race course.