We've been lucky enough to have a company and help of one Larisa Manuel at Oiselle for the past few months. Tomorrow she is on her way to her spiritual city, Portland and we'll miss her stories, laugh and blistering pace on the Friday afternoon run. Larisa is one fast lady, running for the Run Portland team. Check out her career bests and biography at Larisa's Run Portland page.

I asked everyone a few weeks ago what their injury prevention go-to was. Mine is stregthening my hip abductors. Larisa's is keeping her hamstrings stretched. Stretching can be tedious for runners, but we all know how helpful it is. Larisa battled out injury this winter with the help of her physical therapist. Below is the proper form of the hamstring stretch he taught her.

With a flat back engage core and reach forward from hips, go as far as you can and hold for 30 seconds, release and repeat.

On a side note, how cute are the distance shorts on L? Good luck in your next adventures Larisa!

Today after my early morning fun (yaaaawn) I realized I was out of eggs. I wanted some protein so I whipped up a SUPER DUPER SMOOTHIE! (This is a true story, no one said it would be interesting). I have found a cheap, fabulous (easy) smoothie recipe using ingredients from Trader Joes. My apologies to anyone out of range of TJ's, I truly can't comprehend the tragedy.

Ingredients:

1. Trader Joes Super Green Powder

2. Aria Women's Protein Powder (Vanilla)

3. Almond Milk

4. A little bit of coconut milk (I go full fat, yum)

5. Optional - frozen fruit

Seriously SO good. It could qualify as dessert.

As I've said before, my hips are the weak link in my running form. They are the cause of most of my falls into injury. Strengthening my hip abductors and traverse abdominis muscles (low, low abs - more like pelvic muscles) are my focus. Here's my new 1, 2 punch for both!

Low Side Plank with dropped inner knee. Draw other knee in while keeping hips stable.

While keeping body stable, now kick that leg out and up (can go higher than hip). Bonus points: Always look like someone is tickling you.

You should feel your low, low abs working to stabalize hips. Hips are always stacked (think of fitting your body between two planes of glass - your booty can't be sticking out). The leg that is drawn in and kicked out will feel the burn on the hip abductor (side glutes + higher).

Repeat 12 times each side, 3 sets.

What's your go-to injury protection?

The spring racing season is now in full swing! So many races last weekend. Just in our little corner of the northwest we had the Tacoma Half, Eugene Full and Half, Pacific University Twilight, Bloomsday...and of course Oiselle had athletes in almost all of them.

Some of Oiselle Elite team showed up at the Pacific University Twilight to lay down these blistering times.
800m - Kayleen McDowell, 2nd - 2:12.48, Ashley Miller, 6th - 2:16.30
1500m - Kayleen McDowell, 3rd - 4:39.36, Ashley Miller, 9th - 4:45.47
5000m - Jessica Harper, 9th - 18:10.95
400m Hurdles - Emily McCutchan, 1st - 1:02.84 LIFETIME BEST
4x400m relay - McCowell, Miller, McCutchan, Harper, 3rd - 4:04.34

Meanwhile Andrija Barker-McCurry and Marci Klimek ran the Eugene Half, both setting LIFETIME BEST times. Andrija took second place with a time of 1:17:36 and Marci took third in 1:18:55! I was lucky enough to run this race (way back behind the speedsters), and see both girls in the finishers area. Both had huge grins after working so hard out there!

On the East Coast we had Allix Lee-Painter killing it in the 3000m Steeplechase at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford. She hooked second place in 10:22:17.

In the Tacoma Half, Sarah Kjorstad ran her fastest 13.1 yet and cruised across the line with a 2nd place finish! Go Sarah!

In the ultra distances, Brandi Bolli rocked a 50K! She was the fourth woman in her age group. Awesome!

It's so exciting to see these girls getting after their dreams, here's to an exciting spring and summer! Did you race this weekend? We'd love to hear about it!

Remember that sunny day we had in Seattle a few weeks ago? Sure you do, there was only one. Well, it inspired Sarah and I to do our first Oiselle video. Equipped with nothing more than an iPhone and non- existent video skills, we thought we'd give you a quick tour of Green Lake, our office location.

What you WILL see on this video:
- The grand entry way to Oiselle HQ
- Sally at a cowboy bar
- Sarah and Sally RUNNING to get in front of moms with strollers at Starbucks
- Sarah at the lake
- A risky but no-one-got-injured ride on the merry-go-round
- Spotlights on celebrity retailers Super Jock n' Jill & Gregg's Green Lake Cycle
- A cameo appearance from the Green Lake Hole

What you WON'T find on this video:
- Professional editing
- Smooth transitions
- High quality sound
- Exercise tips

Enjoy!

Earlier this week I was inspired to create a street wear look with a running tee, in the imaginary world of Polyvore. I asked people to share some fashion-transition inspirations of their own. Above Jen Bigham shows us how it's done! Love that even the headband made the transition. Free up some space in your gym bag and wear your running tee to the office. :)

Rebecca created a rock and roll style with the Oiselle Birds Tee on Polyvore. Hellooooo leather pants.

Oiselle T by Rebecca 157 featuring suede booties

iris sport top burnout by oiselle featuring lace up leggings

As runners we’re often planning our next workout or meal more than our next outfit. Working at Oiselle I’ve become a tee shirt and jeans kind of girl again. But I do love pairing a casual tee with some thing more dressed up. Like, I have a vintage hot pink/black wool houndstooth pencil shirt. Yes. I know. I love to pair that with a cotton tee and my Jeffery Campbell 99 wedges for a dinner out.

I played in Polyvore a little bit the other day, because I’ve been dreaming of the perfect outfit for the Bird Woman tee. Here’s what I came up with:

bird woman dreams by oiselle featuring metal bracelets

I told you I was dreaming. In real life I’m shopping thrift not runway… but it’s fun to imagine!

How do you create style with your casual wear? We'd love to see your style visions - create a set in Polyvore using a tee (or tank, bra...) from Oiselle and tell us about it! You can leave a comment or email [email protected]. We'd love to feature it here in our blog, on Facebook and Twitter. Have fun!

Seattle is in the midst of a much needed stretch of sun. Three wonderful sun soaked days! The first day, giddy with spring fever, we took to the streets armed with an iPhone 4, coffee and our wittiest tour guide repertoire. Most of these video clips are in the editing room. But the first one I tackled was Sally’s tour of the daffodils that had sprung to life that week. Sweeping angles. Great soundtrack. One person (me) attempting to get out of the shot. It’s YouTube gold. Gold I tell you.

Okay well if that’s not the best thing you’ve seen all day, just wait. A tour of the Oiselle office, Green Lake and more video is on it’s way from our studio in Seattle. Check out our channel to see a stop motion video creation, some of favorites (that other people have made) and soon more from Oiselle at the Oiselle Channel.

Have a great weekend!

I didn't give ice baths much thought back in college. You just jumped in the training room tub after a hard workout. Check the temp, add some scoops of ice, flip through some old soggy running magazine and try to forget you're freezing your $%^* legs off.

I left those ice baths in the past until I started training for my first marathon 4 years later. I decided to bring them back into my routine. I remember I searched the internet to see if you could do them at home. Of course you could!

I was training with my friend Dave and I introduced him to the ice bath after our first 18 miler. He is a swimmer turned runner and thought I was INSANE. I had to prove to him that runner's actually did this. Then he got in his first ice water soak. He lasted about :45 seconds and screamed like a little girl boy the entire time.

Watching him curse me while he stomped off to 'warm up' got me thinking about the rituals we runners never even think twice about that non-runners may deem crazy. Like... snot gloves. You know the $1 a pair cotton gloves perfect for blowing your nose into and potentially throwing away mid-run if your hands get too hot. Or driving part of your long run loop to drop off Gatorade. Hiding little bottles behind fences or trees. (This one's old school now that people have the belts, but I used to drive my long run to hide hydration along the way). Not to mention race day rituals. The ‘crazy train’ never stops.

What is a ritual that you think non-runners would find crazy? Or maybe one you thought was crazy before you became a runner?

-If you look at the Google image results for 'ice bath runner' you'll see a surprising number of pictures. Here's one more to add to the mix: my popsicle legs after last Sunday's long run.-

Kathy Kanes, myself, Liz "The Woz" Stahl, and Elizabeth "ER" Hutchinson following a cross country race in Golden Gate Park in 1995.

A running friend recently told me that she had been feeling fatigued on runs, and after seeing the doc, was found to have low iron (aka anemia). My iron levels have been normal for a while, but when she said it, I had a flashback to the mid-90s when I was racing a ton. It was then that I noticed serious fatigue at the beginning of every run…like lead in the legs – that would gradually lessen as the run went on. For a while, I dismissed it as merely a symptom of training (along with sore muscles, afternoon lethargy, and pre-meal anger management problems).

The culprit, however, turned out to be low iron. And what I learned was that there are a couple of ways to solve it. One was to take supplements, but per usual, the more effective way was via diet.

At the time, I was close friends with an elite runner by the name of Kathy Kanes. Although Kathy ran and did some workouts with us, she was on another level – to the tune of a 9:20 3,000m. She was also a brainiac, having gone to school and raced at Cal Tech.

When I told her of my iron issue, she sent me the below chicken liver recipe – which I dutifully followed, and within a few weeks, was totally cured. (Like the richest, most expensive pate, I told myself, while eating bite after bite.)

The sad epilogue to this story is that Kathy died a couple of years later from an aggressive form of cancer. It was sudden and fast and she was far too young. So I feel lucky to have met her and been a friend. Along with the chicken liver recipe, she taught me many running lessons that are still with me today (such as how to cure side aches, the value of really slowing down on rest days, and that the secret to not getting cotton mouth before races was to drink coffee without milk. I mean c’mon, solid gold wisdom.) Bigger yet, her brief and talented life reminds me that every day – and every running friend – is an immensely valuable gift.

Kathy Kane’s Simple but Deadly Chicken Liver Recipe

• Lightly sauté livers on low heat with chopped onions
• Use Canola or safflower oil (not olive)
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• If onions are too much for your alimentary tract, discard but keep the oil
• Mash the whole business together with hard boiled eggs until reasonably homogenous
• Use about one eggs for every four livers
• Serve on crackers or Melba toast

Yum!

There’s a hole in our ‘hood. It’s across the street from the Oiselle office and it’s an entire city block. About 4 years ago, it was the home to Vitamilk, a local dairy that used it as a distribution center. But then land prices skyrocketed and the prime piece of land one block from Green Lake became too valuable for the dairy. So they sold it to developers to turn it into condominiums. Hole digging ensued. And then in mid-2008, the real estate bubble burst and construction halted. So we’ve had this hole for two and a half years. We walk by it. We peer into its abyss. We wonder when the recovery will spur action.

Which got me thinking. Condos are fine and good. But c’mon Seattle, what else you got? What do we WANT to see in this space, rather than settle for? A park? A climbing wall? A food cart village, a la Portland? A farmer’s market? Affordable housing? A Green Lake activity center? An indoor running track? (Okay, even I admit there’s limited civic appeal to that last one). No matter what, it seems that somewhere – between dairy distribution and another condo building – there could be something amazing. Something as amazing and cool as Green Lake itself. What would you build in the hole?

I lead a running group every Wednesday night in Seattle with Sassy Fit. I didn't exactly know what to expect the first night, would everyone be super different paces? Would some people need to walk? What would the dynamic be like? I'm happy to report it's been really fun! The first night had about 11 ladies come out to run a 3 mile loop. Afterwards, I lead them through their first plyometric running drills. No one had ever done them before. Which was fun, because they were excited about learning the whole "why?" behind them.(Rather than groaning at high knees)

Now the group is right around 8 ladies. They are all very close in pace and all striving to get faster.

Last night Oiselle sponsored the group run, so I brought in a box of samples for the runners to look through and pick out some new running clothes. Holy feeding frenzy! Everyone get out alive, barely. Then we went off to run our 3 mile loop. I don't know if it was the competition of the sample grabbing or the threat of a rare Seattle snowstorm in the air, but these girls hit the pavement on a mission. Definitely the speediest loop we've done.

- Sassy Runners! You can't see the snow, but it was coming down -

-Deana rocking her new Oiselle gear -

Not to end this on a sappy note, but last night as I packed up the Oiselle samples after an awesome run with fun group of ladies learning to love the run I felt this rush of happiness.  I find myself in a life where I'm surrounded by ... passion. Running, a sport I've known and loved my whole life long, found me again. Basically everyday I get to do exactly what my 6th grade self would have wanted for me. And trust me, I know that's a rarity to be appreciated. :)

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If you're in Seattle you're welcome to join us! It's free. Email [email protected] or comment and I'll get you the details.

So tell me about you. Do you run with a group? Or are you a lone wolf? Dabble in a little of both?