The Life and Times of an Athlete on a Budget

Oh December. Nothing like holiday travel, parties to host, shopping, and year-end sales to make you think about money. I recently got a better handle on my budget by working with a personal financial planner at LearnVest. I felt kind of like an idiot for waiting so long to find a financial planner. Strangely, I'm really excited about everything we talked about. As I expected, I'm better off than many people who made a lot of poor financial decisions....and I could also BE a lot better. Talk about new years resolutions...

A little backstory... I didn't sign up for Ironman Florida this year because it was just too expensive (and there are too many variables in my life for 2014 to be sure that I could train appropriately) and because of my ankle issues. When Jeff looked at my spending, he said I needed to cut back on extras. You know, dinner out or "wow, x person would love that! I'll buy it!" but, when we started tallying up other areas of my life for discretionary spending, we realized that my fitness budget is outrageous.

I offered up a challenge he could "task" me with - cut out the majority of my fitness spending. No gym membership, no box membership, no regular active release therapy, no regular yoga...nothing, if it didn't fit into my weekly "discretionary spending" - which brings me to about $80 a month. I'm not including the cost of my coach in this $80, so keep that in mind - my coaching budget was something I was unwilling to budge on. I was willing to cut our cable to make that happen.

I figured that there are certainly ways to do most of my training without paying for it. This makes *me* accountable for stretching, for pacing, for pushing myself, instead of relying on something or someone else.

Here is how I intend to do it.

1) Running. This is free. Get off the treadmill and go outside.

2) Biking. With a bike (derp), this is also free. As it gets colder, instead of opting for the spin bikes at my former gym, I'll use my trainer, even if it is a demon piece of crap. If any millionaires trainer making companies out there would like to sponsor me, I will sing the praises of your bike trainer product if you give me one. I'm looking at you CycleOps. I'll shill for a product I want/need/use.

3) Swimming. Thankfully, DC has indoor, free to residents pools. Time to fall in love with my swim cap hair again.

4) Body weight exercises. I want to pick up heavy things. I want to be encouraged by my coaches. I want to be with other people who almost kind of like burpees. But I can't afford the $190/month. I just can't. At best, I can afford a drop in class here and there. For now, I'll use my trainer brain and do body exercises. I am always interested in these "30 day challenge" workouts. So, to structure my workouts, I'll be using these:

• 30 Day Push Up Challenge
• 30 Day Plank Challenge
• 30 Day Squat Challenge
• 30 Day Ab Challenge

Last night, I ripped out this:

10 rounds of:

- 30 second planks

- 20 sit ups (I wound up doing variations to keep from going insane)

- 10 leg lifts

- 5 pushups (low because my shoulder is still unhappy)

- 10 lunges on either side

- 15 squats

That totals to:

- 5 minutes of planks

- 200 sit ups or variations

- 100 leg lifts

- 50 push ups

- 100 lunges on either side

- 150 squats

Honestly...not a bad workout and my cats were excited to try and screw up my workout whenever possible.

5) Yoga. Because my ankle seems to do a lot better with yoga, this is where the majority of my budget will likely go. I am going to go once a week and then practice on my own at home and really invest my time with my foam roller, the stick, and active stretching band. 

We'll see how this goes and if I can actually work out as well as I did before without a strong budget for the gym.

Anyone else scaling back on fitness expenses while ramping up on workouts? I need your tips. 

#EnduranceFoodies: Grilled Baby Bok Choy with Italian Sausage

Welcome back to #miacooks. I've been busy a lot and so #miacooks has gotten tired - not because I haven't been cooking, but because I've been repeating a lot of my favorite recipes. When the Endurance Foodie Challenge group invited me to participate, I was stoked. Time to try something new!

This is baby bok choy!

And it is the key ingredient of the Endurance Foodie Challenge this month! I haven't cooked with bok choy so I was looking for an excuse to give it a shot. Our famers market had it in spades about a month ago, so picking them up was no big deal.

I decided to avoid the asian flavors that people usually use bok choy for, and went for a grilled hearty salad of sorts. It doesn't hurt that the second challenge ingredient was fennel seeds.

I love a good grilled salad, so I chopped the bok choy in half and coated with some olive oil and seasoned with garlic powder, seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika.

We don't have a grill beyond the George Foreman in our tiny condo, so I fired that up and did about 3 minutes on each side (I know you don't have to flip anything in the foreman, but I do anyway.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I grabbed some pork sausage from the market (no additives! free range! no hormones!), diced up some bell peppers and onions and sauteed all of it. I prefer to saute the veggies first in a tiny bit of olive oil, put those aside, then cook the sausage and drain the excess fat from it, then combine until fully cooked.

To hit the fennel seed requirement, I added my favorite spice blend from Practical Paleo, which is the following:

1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp ground sage
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1/4 tsp white pepper or 1 tsp black pepper
2 tsps dried parsley

I actually have all of the practical paleo spice blends pre-made in little tupperware containers. They're great for adding a kick of flavor to whatever you're making.

I love me some greens and try to shove them into anything I'm making, so I took some spinach that was beginning to peak, chopped it up, did a quick saute/wilt and threw that into the mix.

Here's the final "stuffing" for the bok choy:

Now, all you have to do is throw that over the bok choy and boom. Summer dinner!

Whoops! Forgot to mention...if you're interested in more recipes (and blogs much better than mine) check out the following:

Jason: cooktraineatrace.com

Donna: beatinglimitations.com

Victoria: obligatorytriblog.blogspot.com

Amanda: runtothefinish.com

Lindsay: cottercrunch.com

Courtenay (Will be posting on cooktraineatrace.com)

Adrienne: sixkickswitch.blogspot.com

Joanna: everydaynutrition.wordpress.com

Victory! Or, the week I started training (in earnest) again

2013 started out, in a word, crappy.

Early January, my foot was swelling at the end of long runs. I'd had ankle issues for a while now, but I mostly ignored them...until January. By early February, my entire ankle was made of #RAGE. It got to the point where running was totally out of the picture. Soon, cycling was too much, and swimming wasn't doing anyone any favors. I could literally hear grinding in my ankle and the back of my heel was turning shades of purple unknown in nature.

No one knows what caused it. No one had any perfect solutions. By mid-March, I was apoplectic every time I saw someone running (which, in DC, is frequently). But I still did my best to support runners at the RnR Half.

Finally, things started to change. My podiatrist re-fit my orthotics with a higher arch. I started seeing Erin twice a week for active release therapy, I continued to foam roll and use the stick like my life depended on it...and...I bit the bullet and took up yoga. I know, I know. But, much like my experience with Crossfit, yoga wound up surprising me. I used to be a mix of "this isn't making me sweat" and "w.t.f."

I signed up for a 6:30am flow yoga class with Yoga District in Dupont. I should say, up front, that Kat is a GREAT instructor. I'm not flexible and I'm really impatient, but class flows (ha) at a pace that keeps me moving, engaged, and focused. I loved starting my day SO much with yoga that I went ahead and signed up for Tuesday morning...and then Friday morning. Yoga feels a lot more like this:

aka: badass.

Ayla, if you want to gchat me with "I TOLD YOU SO" ^ infinitum, go for it.

A brief #miacooks interlude: my new favorite breakfast is a very simple protein shake. I use Vega protein powder at the recommendation of Christine. I do a banana, frozen strawberries, heaping tablespoon of greek yogurt from the market (no, do not buy that from the grocery), a scoop of Vega, and some almond milk. Boom. Awesome post morning workout breakfast.

I also went back to Crossfit this week. Since CFDupont is no longer (unicorn tears), I went ahead and gave Crossfit DC a shot. I got back from my first workout and talked Chadd's ear off. I said I might look around at other boxes, but I knew I'd already made up my mind.

So, come to Crossfit DC. Best box in DC. Chris and Tom know their stuff. They care about everyone there. The equipment is great. The space is epic. The vibe is like coming home. Or maybe I just missed Crossfit. Or both, who knows, but I'll go with it.

Better yet - Lindsey came to town! I was healed up in time to workout with her before she moves back to California.

This was for a photo opp. Let's not judge my form more harshly than I have.

On Wednesday, I was allowed to run precisely 1 mile at track. I'm sure my time was shameful, but my ankle didn't swell. I woke up Thursday feeling NORMAL (hence: all systems go for Crossfit).

This weekend is my first brick since...a long time. Wish me luck and enjoy the weather this weekend!

5 Random Thoughts

Goodness. What happens when you go on vacation and come back to a new office policy banning social media (blogger included). I need to get better about finishing my posts at night instead of leaving the editing to the morning.

Anyway - Miami was great - thanks to everyone for your support and well wishes! We had an awesome time and Chadd did really well. 

I have a post coming, probably this weekend, that I'm REALLY excited about, so maybe that will make up for the brevity of this post and the lack of posts for the past couple weeks.

Tonight is a random assortment of thoughts.

1) I really love Fitocracy. If you aren't on Fitocracy, you're missing out. It's basically a social media network for fitness people and I love it. And there's a forum that I totally love and am geeking out over. Here's the link to sign up - and we'll automatically follow each other. Leveling up is literally why I'll do another set of anything. And it's free. So, there's no reason to not do it. 

2) I really love track practice. Since it's spring break, those pesky students aren't having games on the track (must you have spring sports?) so we don't have to run around a block. Tonight we did 4x1200s. Goal was to start slightly lower than threshold and get faster with each set. My times looked like this:

1 - 6:02

2 - 6:06 (oops)

Coach said before our third set that if we couldn't get faster on this third set, this would be our last set - no fourth set. 

3 - 5:48 (f*ck yeah.)

4 - 5:49

One of the girls in my group said "there's no motivation like telling an endurance athlete 'you can't'" and isn't that the truth. I felt like I was freaking flying on those last two sets. 

3) My coach is the greatest. We had our one on one tonight post track workout to go over the approach to the Flying Pig Marathon (more on that later), how things were going currently, and to hang out. I love the fact that my coach takes a very personal approach to training. We went to Rocklands BBQ and sat outside with our food and a beer. I mean, really. How do you not love a coach like that?? If you're training for any major event, I strongly recommend a coach (specifically, my coach) because it takes the pressure off, mentally. I am not responsible for coming up with my workouts and worrying about if they're the right ones or if I miss one what will happen. I am simply responsible for doing my best and keeping my coach informed. Talk about a load off of your shoulders.

4) My weekend workouts are making me scared excited...which I am dubbing scaxited. Go with me here. Saturday I have my first real brick workout - 1-1:15 group bike ride, 20-30 minute run. I am still scared of my bike even though I'm in love with it (in scove?). Fear is a powerful motivator so I'm really stoked to get on the bike and conquer gears and clipping in/out. And then Sunday, after I figure out how to fit in my Easter celebrations at the church, I have a 15-16 mile run. I am anticipating not feeling amazing on Sunday afternoon in terms of energy, but pretty freaking awesome in terms of perceived invincibility. 

5) If you haven't read my how-to on track etiquette, please do. Or stay off the track before you or someone around you gets hurt. Also: DON'T TEXT MIDTRACK WORKOUT. Augh some people...

And that's all!

Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon

I don't even know where to start this blog post because I have SO many great things to say about Saturday's race.

First of all, I had SO many friends who were also doing it. Even if we didn't meet up at the race, I got to enjoy the pre-race Twitter and IRL conversations with everyone. Even MORE exciting was that this was Amanda and Alicia's first half marathon and I have so enjoyed watching them train and become strong, amazing runners over the past few months.

Bryan came into town from Chicago on Wednesday, and after track practice, we got to hang out at my place and chat. Thursday, we met up with Eliot and Alicia to hit the expo, pick up our bibs, and shop a little.

I picked up some more Sweaty Bands. If you need headbands for active use...this is your best bet. I know there are a lot of cheaper imitators, but don't be fooled. Pay the difference and I promise you won't regret it.

They have skull patterns. Clearly, I'm their target demographic.

Then we got dinner in Eastern Market. I had a bit of a snit regarding food and man, can I tell you that you learn who your real friends are when they tolerate you until you stuff your face with chips and salsa. Chadd met up with us for margaritas and dinner then we parted ways and I sat on the bike trainer for an hour. See also: dedication.

Saturday morning, we got up in enough time to use the metro...because my car was locked in the garage (awesome.) Thankfully, the metro was easy to navigate and despite an almost 20 minute wait, we wound up at RFK around 6:15 where we met up with Amanda. After the usual "I have to pee, wait, where did I put my timing chip, can you hold this gu pack?", we ran over to see Coach T so I could get a pep talk, a hug and a high five.

Then we jumped into the corral, and slowly moved forward as the wave starts were released.

Me and Bryan

Me and Amanda

This is the first of many times I'll say how well organized the Rock'n'Roll crew was. The corrals were clearly marked, the releases were adequately spaced out, and aside from slightly annoying announcers, it was a nice way to start the race.

I saw these compression socks while we were waiting...I need these:

The race was a beautiful course around DC - we went out to the Mall, up 18th Street, then on Connecticut and into Adams Morgan, then Columbia Heights, then down by Howard University, through NE into the Atlas District, then back to the stadium. Rolling hills through the course, which is my strong suit. I learned at Ragnar PA that I am an ace with rolling hills. Must be from all the spinning (shameless plug to come to my class). I also enjoy the feeling of cresting the hill and rolling down...it's like mini accomplishments through a race and for me, a good mental check point.

Source

Rolling hills. Lots of them! Source

The first few miles were kind of rough. I tried to stay with Bryan and warm up and get focused, but my mind was all over the place. My calves were in pain and I just wasn't feeling it. But around mile 3, I hit my stride, warmed up/woke up and got moving. Every mile from there out got easier (and faster!)

By the time I got to Chadd at Mile 6, I was feeling amazing. After a quick hug, I powered up the hill and enjoyed the bands, the crowds, the shot of green beer from the friendly spectators in Columbia Heights.

I saw Cyndi on H Street and waved hello frantically. I started to get distracted mentally around mile 9. I was having a good race, but for a split second, got off track, got lost in my thoughts and lost my way. Suddenly, the end felt far away, even though my normal weekend runs are around 13 miles. Then I remembered that Coach T was going to be just past the 12th mile marker. With renewed energy, I charged toward 12. I felt stronger and stronger and stronger and FASTER. I tried to slow myself down because I was afraid I was going to burn out, but I couldn't stop. I waved at Coach, then focused on a strong and controlled finish.

The Rock'n'Roll organizers did a great job with the bands and with the aid stations. Every aid stop was stationed just after the odd miles. I never wanted anything, never felt bored, and thought they did a great job with the course - especially helping people navigate the half/full split. The finish line was great and though it took a while to get out of the shoots at the end, it's only because they had a lot to offer.

I picked up water, gatorade, a banana, chocolate milk (!!), a bagel, a fruit cup, snicker's marathon bars, and had a finisher's photo taken twice. I didn't pick up the yogurt or the apples, but mostly because I was out of hands.

After I grabbed my foil blanket, I strolled out to the main stage and lay in the grass, stretching and waiting for Amanda. The music was blasting, the sun was out, and I got to enjoy my post-race feast. There is no better way to end a race than that, friends. Switchfoot played and though they're kinda meh on the radio/youtube, in person, they were a great post-race show.

Once I collected Amanda and Bryan, we headed to the beer tent.

Cheers!

In case you didn't know, I have a THING for Michelob Ultra. Marketing works well on me. I saw that series of "active people" commercials where all the hard working office folks hit the bar after a long run through the city, or a weekend biking in the mountains and went "oh, that's me! I too need Michelob Ultra."

Then, Michelob did something brilliant: they sponsored almost all of the major race beer tents in the US. You finish a race and boom, you get a Michelob. Pavlov's theory works very well with me.

Mmm beer. And a nifty banana belt.

Another cool thing that the Rock'n'Roll folks did, aside from awesome medals:

Was that they invited a medal engraver to the post-race area:

Even though it cost $20 - if you pre-made the medals for that to be engraved, I couldn't say no.

After we drained our beers, Amanda was awesome and drove us home. We all grabbed showers, then went to BGR and INHALED our food. I didn't even get the chance to take a picture of my burger. That good.

Of course, since it was St. Patrick's day, we met up later that night with Alicia and Eliot at a sports bar and were lucky enough to snag a table. Reed and some of his friends stopped by. A good time was had by ....I had such a great night, aside from how much I loved my outfit:

Every time I walked back to my table from the bar or the bathroom, I saw my boyfriend and my friends around the table. I had that cheesy realization that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I commented at some point that it was just like being in a group of friends like How I Met Your Mother...and it was. Laughing, drinking, talking, and really enjoying each other's company. After a couple hours, we wandered down to Flippin Pizza then passed out.

I lay in bed, about to fall asleep and reviewed the day. 

My times:

Finish: 1:58:14

The paces beside them show that interval's pace (i.e. 5k = start to 5k pace, 10k = 5k to 10k pace)

5k: 30:13 (9:43)

10k: 58:11 (9:01)

10 mile: 1:31:43 (8:49)

Finish: 1:58:14 (8:52)

Aside from a 3 second slip in my last 5k, those are some gorgeous negative splits. I was the 4086th finisher of over 1600, putting me in the top 25% range. I ran under Eliot's name, so I haven't bothered to calculate my division stats, but those concern me less.

Those numbers are amazing for me for a couple reasons - I haven't been running this fast in training and I ran without a headset for the first time since my first marathon. 

I learned a couple things: 

- Running in an event with a lot of other friends is fun

- I have a hard time running with other people because I lose focus

- I will definitely run more Rock'n'Roll events

- Trust your training

- I love rolling hills

- I don't need music to love the run

- I have awesome friends

And that is an awesome Saturday.

THUNDERSNOW

I don't have to tell you what happens when THUNDERSNOW attacks a city.

But in case you don't know: workouts stop.

THUNDERSNOW began midday on Wednesday. I skipped my Wednesday workout because I was enjoying getting an absurd amount of sleep every night (between 7-9 hours) and figured, no big deal, I'd do my running group Wednesday night.

I left my office at 4:15 and was home by 5:15 and very glad to be off the roads. Running group was clearly not happening considering I almost broke myself just walking a block to the liquor store (THUNDERSNOW calls for beer).

Chadd and I did go down to the Dupont Snowball fight:

Unfortunately, Chadd got slammed in the face with a big snowball and got what would be a black eye if he bruised. He just wound up with a puffy face and a red eyeball for a bit. Battle scars, man.

This meant that Thursday morning, I was in no mood to get up (especially since I was going to sleep in a bit to go to a client meeting, but when the client cancelled due to the roads, I decided to work from home. Which meant there was no way in hell I was going to go to the gym when I could sit around in sweatpants.

Friday, I was feeling very Friday-esque and didn't do anything.

Saturday, I did bite the bullet and head out at 10 to the Georgetown City Sports running group. Nike was there doing a give-away. I got a free city sports running shirt (yaay technical!) and won a draw string bag, which is always nice--especially since I need something for my cycle shoes.

The run was great, save the parts where I had to navigate across ice/snow/whatever that people hadn't shoveled yet (shame on you), but man did I feel out of shape. I was EXHAUSTED after the 5k and could have gone for a nap. What a difference a few days makes...

I will say, I have found the ideal combination for winter running: running tights under pair of shorts, tank top, long sleeves, zip up, skull cap, gloves.

I taught 20-20-20 on Sunday morning, as usual, and combined my 1 minute efforts for both upper and lower body.  For example: right leg piston squats with a left arm raise for 1 minute.

My shoulder are not exactly happy this morning. But now that my gym buddies are back in town, I don't have an excuse to not get to it. We've agreed that Monday mornings basically never happen, so here's the schedule this week:

Monday: YMCA running group (7pm)
Tuesday: AM: Light Run/Leg Weights, PM: teach cycle (7pm)
Wednesday: PM: Fleet Feet Running Group (hopefully Tuesdays' "wintery mix" won't get in the way)
Thursday: AM: Light Run/Arm weights
Friday: AM Cycle
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Cycle Certifications

Clocking in with a grand total of 7 workouts.

By the way, tried out my new cycle shoes--my butt killed for a few days. They really do help with the stabilization and isolation of muscles. Can't rely very much on gravity anymore. Definitely worth the switch.

Bouncing Back

Surgery was a success and even my surgeon says I'm the fastest healing person she's treated yet.  Awesome!

She said to the nurse as I was leaving "two weeks after surgery and she's comfortable walking around in stilettos. Do you believe that?" (I do, mostly because it was the first time I could wear my leopard print heels and I was stoked.)

She gave me clearance to begin walking/running as I was comfortable.  Before that, I'd been carefully walking and biking, but damn if it didn't tired me out.  As I tried to add running, I was SO tired.  You could have knocked me over with one finger.

The hardest part of surgery (aside from the very unpleasant side effects of vicodin) is the mental switch.  I ran a marathon less than a month before my surgery and suddenly, I was exhausted after walking for 20 minutes.  But, not much else I could do aside from keep on keeping on.

This weekend, I felt sluggish and unhappy, so I decided with Ragnar Keys rapidly approach (less than a month!) I needed to go and at least try to run.  I got up this morning at 6, and walked outside:

SNOW!

Winter-happy, I got to the gym and warmed up on the bike for 30 minutes, then hopped over to the treadmill.  I put on my power music (Pretty Lights: "More Important Than Michael Jordan") and started at my warm up pace of 6.5 mph.

Miraculous. I felt great.  I felt like I could breath for the first time in months.

Knocked it up to 7mph.  Even better.  I am getting such a high that I'm getting wave upon wave of chills.  I brought it up to 7.5 which I held for about 15 minutes before my allotted treadmill time was up.  I'm not even kidding, the world looked totally different.  I felt like I was on f*cking fire.  I was the phoenix.  I wanted to talk to every single person around me about how awesome today is and isn't it great that we can all work out!?  Talk about a serious runner's high.  I was giddy.

Wanna know how I got back to race pace?

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/fit-for-life

The general theory is that it's muscle memory.  Once I healed up enough, my muscles jumped back into action.  Probably looking at a 5k distance tomorrow morning.

I also lifted today for the first time in a long long time--I can only do arm weights below my shoulders for now to reduce stress on my abdominals, but that should change late this week since I'll be able to add leg work in late this week.

I also made a ton of veggie soup last night.   You need:
1-2 zucchini squash (green or yellow)
1 onion
1 c. carrots
1 c. celery
1 can diced tomatoes
1 c. peas
some mushrooms
6 c. vegetable broth
Olive Oil

In big pot, heat oil, add onion and celery, cook til onions are clear.  Add squash and carrots and stir.  A few minutes later, add the tomatoes and broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and add peas and mushrooms.  Simmer for a bit (15 minutes? sure).  Add salt and pepper if you want.  Makes about 8 servings of hearty soup. About 80 calories per serving.  Add hot sauce to eat it my way.

Getting back in shape post surgery begins today, especially before the holidays arrive...yikes.

The Bucket List

Well, aside from the fact that I'm still in excruciating pain, things are great.

Marathon training really does take your life away from you, so now that I have all of this time on my hands (and omg my boy is going to be home with me after tonight!) I'm amazed with all the prospects!

Surgery is just around the corner (damn, I need to find all that paperwork and do that before it gets to be too late...) so I'm starting to get a bit anxious.  I'm sure it won't be a big deal, but the downtime is going to kill me.

I'm ridiculously sore and I still want to go for a run tonight, what does that tell you?

I'm starting to think about my bucket list--things I want to do before I die.  It's pretty short right now--but it's also pretty extreme:

1) Do a race (any distance) on every continent (except Antarctica...doesn't count, it's an ice flow).  I came up with this one since Brannon's moving to Africa for 2 years for the Peace Corps--why not?
2) Do a race (any distance, though I'm considering saying only 10+ mile races count) in every state
3) Do all Ragnar relays (1 down, 14 to go!)
4) Do the Ragbrai (bike across Iowa)
5) Take a hang gliding lesson (don't worry Mom, I'll stay close to the ground)
6) Go Ice Climbing (again, Mom, I'll take a lesson and call it a day) http://www.utahmountainadventures.com/ice.shtml
7) Climb Mt. Fuji
8) Do at least once triathlon--any distance
9) Do the tough mudder
10) Become a marathoner


I'm looking to add to it.  What's on your bucket list?

The Ups and Downs of Marathoning

Marathon count down: 5 days

I've been going over my training again and again in my head--the only run I didn't get in was my last 8 miles because of the conference last week.  I may try to get in something small tomorrow night just to stay loose and reassure myself.

I keep thinking about the pain of the last marathon.  I'm reminded of women talking about childbirth--that you must lose your mind or your memory if you think of doing it a second/third/fourth/etc. time.  Marathoning is like that.  The first time, you have no idea what you're in for.  Sure, training you threw up in a trashcan in the middle of campus, lost some toenails, and were sore more often than not....but you know, how bad could it be?  I was definitely nervous, but not like I am now.

Now, I remember how painful it was.  I have this searing memory of somewhere around mile 22-23 thinking my legs would never move forward again.  It was like running through concrete.  And finishing?  There was this momentary relief, then this irrational fear: what if my support crew can't find me? Why isn't there a place for me to sit down?  Can't someone see I just finished a marathon?  Why are they asking me to keep moving forward?  Please, someone, help me.

What I should be focusing on is this: the first hill was like cake, running through Georgetown was easy, I felt great when I saw Chadd and my mom at mile 11.  Running around the mall? Awesome.  And sprinting up the final hill to the finish line?  I did it.  I should remember the relief sinking in, how I cried when I got my official time and how freaking happy I was.  I was in so much pain, but it felt really good, I was so proud of myself.

See, running a marathon is really truly all in your head.

The final piece of the puzzle is this: it's nearly impossible to control all aspects of a marathon.  I've trained well, I've cross trained, I'm in the middle of hydrating, I will be well rested...but there are still strong possibilities that I could have a bad running day...I could crap my pants at mile 20 (seriously, these things happen), I could hit the wall...but:

I'm spending the rest of the week not talking about how nervous I am and instead focusing on the fact that I do love running, that regardless of the outcome.  Regardless of how I do this Sunday, I did myself proud during training and since I am almost positive I'll finish, I'm telling myself that despite my time, finishing a marathon twice is enough.  I can truly call myself a marathoner (K said that once I run 2, I can say marathoner).

If you'd like a good laugh...or perhaps reason to never run one:

http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2010/10/marathon-horror-stories.php

I think they're hilarious, but then again, that might be runner humor.

The Salad Life

The good news!  I had my stress echocardiogram last Thursday after a very crazy week at a client's major conference.

The stress test was annoying at it's worst--I got there, lay down, had my uncomfortable echocardiogram (you guys, let's be a bit more gentle on the left side of one's chest.  There are ribs under that skin and fat....)

Then I jumped on the treadmill, and walked up a very steep incline (hi, my hill training is lacking, clearly) until my heart rate got to a certain percentage (I believe 85%), then you jump off the treadmill, lie down as quickly as possible and do another cold gel filled echocardiogram!

From what I gather, everything is fine--she said I could do the marathon, but she had to run because she was leaving the country to see her 88 year old mother and she wanted to schedule a follow-up to discuss.  I'll assume all things are fine.

In less awesome news, I do still have to have my hernia surgery (womp womp) on Nov. 18th.  I have no idea what to expect, other than that I asked them to put all the way under to do it.

What I do expect, however, is to be basically immobile for a couple weeks (immobile means I cannot run).  I was told that I could start "walking on a treadmill" two weeks after surgery.  Sigh.

This also means that I need to very quickly ditch my marathon training eating habits (which I won't even go into right now)

I've been analyzing my diet and once again, fresh food has fallen off the menu.  It seems to be inversely proportionate to the amount of time I have.

In spectacular news, Chadd was offered a new job last week that will put us on the same schedule.  If you've ever lived with someone on the opposite schedule as you (especially someone you love), you know how tough that gets.  While everyone else goes on dates during the week, shares chores, gets up and spends the morning getting ready/getting in each others' ways, etc., you're own your own.  It's been very difficult and very draining at times.

We celebrate this weekend with a bunch of fun stuff we've had on our lists to do--Luray Caverns, massages, dinner out, beignet breakfast, etc.

In short: my life is going to get a lot easier not having to worry about the car, now that I won't be tempted to stay up til midnight to talk with him while he's at work via video chat...I will actually have time to do normal people things like make dinner, fresh lunch, and eat breakfast.  Chadd's a lot better about keeping a schedule than I am.

Bottom line: I'm going to do an experiment to try and encourage veggies into my diet.  I'm going to do a salad for one meal every day.  These salads don't have to be run of the mill--I'm dreaming up one right now with a soy sauce reduction with seared ahi tuna, a bed of edamame, water chestnuts, baby corn, and a crap load of dark lettuce.  See where I'm going with this?

I need your favorite dressings, salad combos, etc.  I'll post my salad every day and a picture.

The experiment will probably start Nov. 8 (I want to have 2 weeks to get used to the low cal life style again).

Salad favorites...and go!

Thursday: Mid-distance Run or Sleep

Hope you went out for a run last night!

My beginning runners' group is growing with astonishing success.  Week two, up from 1 person to 4.  Everyone is a much better runner than they thought, and I find it so interesting that they all have told me "I'm afraid to run."  It's a concept that I'd forgotten many many miles ago.  That's not to downplay it at all, because I definitely had that fear.  I was afraid that I'd get too far out and my knees would hurt, that I'd be too tired to come back, etc. etc. etc.

Last night, we ran the small indoor track at the Y:

2:30 minutes jogging
30 second sprint
1 minute jogging
1 minute walking recovery

We did 5 sets of that (25 minutes), 5 minutes of squats, abs, core, then another 3 sets (15 minutes).  Pair that with about 10 minutes combined warm up and cool down.

Tonight, if you were me, you'd be getting into bed sometime around 8 to sleep for about 11 hours since you're afraid you're getting your boyfriend's cold.

But if you were me last week, you'd be headed out for an hour long serious run with your running partner.  So, if you're the me from last week, get to it, get out there and take a serious mid distance run.  If you're the me from this week...make pasta sauce and then pass out watching real housewives of dc.

Tomorrow morning, hit the gym for a spin class!

In other news--Hi Mom!  Don't worry, I'm not getting sick, I'm just stuffy.  Blame Chadd.  I'll call you when I get home!

More Exciting Things: A Month in the Life of Me

My Trainer Bob inspired me--he has a 4 week program (involving his videos) that you follow with his commentary.

If you give me 1 month, watch what you eat/drink (don't cheat) and do what I'm telling you to do here, I'll show you at least 5 pounds of weight loss.  Ready?  Sure you are.

Monday:

- Run, jog, or walk for 1 hour.  This may also be elliptical, biking, or swimming.  If you are walking, keep the pace going.  Got some energy?  Give me 1 minute of jogging per 2, 3, 4, or 5 minutes of running.  Try to spike your cardio at LEAST 1 minute for every 10.  

- Stretch

- Drink 3 full bottles of water throughout the day

- Tell yourself one thing that you love about your body.  Mine?  I love my slight ab definition at the top of my abs.

Tomorrow is group fitness!

False Starts

It is so hard to get started back on a routine, isn't it?

I did a lot of great planning this weekend (see last post).  I went to the grocery and did a power sweep through the store--bought lots of fresh veggies, stuff for healthy lunches, and good filling snacks.  I made a running plan that I'm comfortable with...then last night, the sneaky Sunday night time warp happened.

It's that weird time vortex where one second, it's 9:30 and you're excited that you're going to go to bed before 11, then something happens (I called my mom because I thought I had SO much time to kill before 10:30...) then I looked up at it was 10:30.  No big deal, takes me 10 minutes to get ready for bed...I'd still make my mark of before 11.

I was certainly IN bed before 11, but somehow I wasted like 2 hours on the internets and all of a sudden, past midnight.

I knew then that my 6:30 gym time was just not gonna happen.  Didn't help that one of the cats is on steroids, and they make him thirsty...and because of course he's the special one and of course, he only drinks water out of the running faucet...so I was woken up twice through the night because he was thirsty.  Poor kitty.  

So, my gym time didn't happen this morning.  It's okay because, unlike most of my days, I actually have time for the gym tonight.

20 minutes on the dreadmill, then 20-30 minutes of weights.  

I did a few good things though--my bodybugg subscription recently expired, so I renewed it for 6 months.  I'm getting back on this daily, even though I need to be careful of obsessively calorie counting, because with training, I need to keep an eye on my intake and on food trends that might show up in my training/recovery.

I also packed a healthy lunch last night (turkey breast, pita sandwich, carrots, and a beautiful peach from the market) that was ready to go when I woke up late this morning (typical.)  It seriously takes 5 minutes to make lunch the night before, I need to make a commitment to just do this.

The thing I don't want to do?  Get on the scale.  

It's such a headgame because I recognize I've gained a little weight back (I'd guess about 5 pounds), but somehow, I feel like if I don't step on that scale it won't be true?  Go figure.  

I should take my own advice: "don't obsess on the number because it's one of the least accurate representation of how healthy you are when you're a fairly healthy weight to begin with...and because it can always always change...it just takes time."

So here's to taking time...

Update! I AM alive!

First of all.  I am so so so sorry.

I know I've been neglecting the blog for about a month.  It's been busy here, to say the least.  I love my new job and have done a fairly decent job of staying healthy and keeping my work outs in line instead of ditching them like I did with my last job when things got busy.

I have a status update on my own fitness journey:
- I haven't stepped on the scale in over a month (mostly at the recommendation of my dietician who agrees with me and suggested I live by my own words that weight is the least accurate representation of your health)
- I fit into a size 2 levi jeans (ah!)
- I feel fantastic enough to not worry about the actual number on the scale
- Chadd and I are going to the beach with his family at the end of July (which has inspired me to whip my butt back into shape eating right)

I'm at that magical point in my life where I am 95% confident with how I look.  I am still struggling (as I think I always will) with looking like a hard body runner's world model...because that's just not how it ever will be.  I will always have a little softness because, well, women are supposed to.  That's just how we're built.

Better milestones are shaving time off my races, having better endurance, and being able to eat an extra cheeseburger per week.

I concluded my sessions with my dietician the other week.  She showed me how far we'd come--from me obsessively logging calories and having honest to goodness bad moods over going a few calories over my allotted calorie intake, measuring progress really only by weight loss, etc.  I feel like I graduated from the school of learning to eat better.  Now, I just need to enroll in the school of better time management.

I'm finding myself continuing to eat well, but I'm doing it by walking across the street to get a lean veggie curry dish from the Thai restaurant, or stopping by trader joe's for a salad, when I really need to be saving the money and just making food at home.

Currently, to keep myself at a place where I am comfortable/happy/confident, I need to do the following:
- 1 hour session with my personal trainer on Monday (extremely painful, extremely beneficial)
- 1 hour yoga on Tuesday morning, teach 1 hour step class on Tuesdays
- 1 hour workout on my own (usually running) or rest Wednesday
- 1 hour Body Pump class on Thursday
- Rest on Friday
- 1 hour Body Pump class on Saturday
- 1 hour 20-20-20 class on Sunday

At best, I get three days off if I'm not teaching a Thursday or a Saturday (usually I do one or the other).

The problem here is that I don't have a lot of time for running.  It's already June which means I should be warming up my marathon training this month.  My plan for my modified schedule looks like this:

Monday: AM: 5 mile run; PM: 1 hr. training session
Tuesday: AM: Yoga; PM: Teach Step
Wednesday: AM or PM: 5 mile run
Thursday: PM: Body Pump or 6 mile run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Body Pump or Long Run
Sunday: 20-20-20 and Long Run (if Long Run wasn't done on Saturday)

It looks like a lot, but just like some people like to come home from work and read, or go for a walk, or go out for drinks, I really do enjoy going to the gym, coming home to feeling physically relaxed, making dinner, popping on the tv, and chilling out.

When Chadd changes jobs, we'll likely move a few of those workouts to the morning so that we can spend time together in the evening.  I have four more sessions with Kimina (my awesome awesome awesome trainer), once those are over, I'll probably use that time for more running, then sign up again for another 8 sessions closer to the marathon.

New feature to blog will be food planning.  Probably will appear this weekend!

In the mean time, where are you with your fitness goals?

Body Pump Launch

Yes yes, it's 12:30 and I should be asleep.  But I have to share something that I totally forgot to talk about today.

Last night (tuesday night) we launched Body Pump (by Les Mills) at the Y and literally had to turn people away because we maxed out our class!  40 people!  I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have a full, energy-driven, group of people take your class.

A big shout-out goes to my amazing instructor friends for all the work they've done, the times we've shared sweating, maybe bleeding, crying, and laughing over the past two months getting ready for this.

National Capitol YMCA BodyPump Crew!

I also want to take this moment to brag.  Observe:

Yes, that is my right leg and no, my quads are not photo shopped.  I haven't had my runner's legs since...2006.  Want runner's legs too?  Easy.  Come to BodyPump!  (No joke, this is the most awesome workout I've ever taught) I'm teaching a week from this Thursday with Steph.  I'm going to try to put together a foam rolling class afterwards, but it might just be abs and stretch for now.

For my 20-20-20 class: FJ is going to be teaching my class this Sunday since I'll be in New York seeing my best friend from high school.  

Marathon Training, and how

I sat down at my computer yesterday with a little time on my hands in the afternoon to look over a few running schedules for marathon prepping.  I have Jeff Galloway's book at home, but since I forgot to pick it up and bring it in with me, I decided to do some online research and I found a program that I think I'm going to try out.  It was listed online through the Houston Chronicle and can be found here at this link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/run/971175.html

Anyway, since I've done one before and would like to consider myself in fairly decent enough shape, I figured I'd give their intermediate schedule a shot and modify it as I went a long due to teaching etc.

My class schedule is as such:
- Tuesday PM: Step Class
- Every other Thursday PM: Body Pump
- Ever other Saturday AM: Body Pump
- Sunday AM: 20-20-20

With three days taken up a week with training, I'm in kind of a pickle, especially since there will be weekends (every other weekend, in fact) where I'll be teaching twice, which wouldn't be an issue if I didn't also have to throw a long run in there, which can take up to 4 hours.

As I was charting out my modified running schedule, I started to realize that, uhoh.  I'm exactly 26 weeks away from the marathon.  Which, truth be told, is quite a lot of time (that's half a year, for those of you, who, like me, went "that's so soon!"), but since I have a serious goal this marathon, I need to be diligent.

My last/first/only marathon, I told Chadd that I wanted to run it in under 4:30 and he promised he'd take me to dinner wherever I wanted to go if I did it.  It was really a friendly competition, he later told me that he'd have taken me out to dinner no matter what considering that I'd just run a marathon.  The funny thing was that I really held on to that bet with him through the race, truly believing that I had to get a 4:30 (though through no reflect of who he is, had I actually been in a sane state of mind I'd have realized he was playing along).

I crossed the line at 4:22:34 and have never had such a strange surge of emotions go through me, exhaustion, elation, pride, extreme and momentary sadness, pain, confusion, clarity...and then I just sat my butt down and waited for someone to find me.

This time is going to be a bit different.  First of all, this isn't my first race (can you believe I did a marathon as my first race?  Talk about ambitious.  Thank God I didn't die...) and second, I've got a solid running history now.  I know what I can do, and I think I can do a sub 4.  If I literally came in at 4:00:00, I'd be okay with it, but a 3:59:59 would make me elated.

This puts me at needing to maintain just a little under a nine minute mile, meaning I need to train to stay at 9 and hope that race day, I get a speed surge.

But as I was writing out this program, realizing that it was 26 weeks away, and that my program literally started this week, I started to build a mental wall.  It doesn't help that I'm not really trained up for my half a week from this weekend...whatever.  4 miles should no longer scare me.  But I psyched myself out really badly for that run, had a miserable time, and barely made it home for just under 5 miles.

Tonight, after my appointment with my R.D., I have to go pull a solid 5, which means it's likely I won't be home until 8:30 tonight.  Must remain positive...and excited.  Here is, so far, the plan for the first 9 weeks of my plan, starting this week:

So.  Now to get to it...

Old Habits, New Ways of Life

I had some awesome ideas on what to blog about today, but go figure, they literally flew out of my head.  So instead, I'm going to talk a little bit about how I'm trying to stay healthy with my new life.

When I joined my last job, I was more focused on the fact that I was working my first full time job and that I wanted to make a good impression.  My focus was entirely on my career, which was the right mindset...but it blew up in my face because I neglected everything else.

Over the course of two years, no joke, I gained nearly 20 pounds.  I can't even tell you how hard it is to write that.  We've all read those magazine articles about how if you do x (ex: drink a whole milk chai latte) x times a week (how about 3 times) over the course of x years (let's say 2), you will gain x pounds (how about 20?).  My downfall was not chai lattes (at least not totally), it was the general lifestyle where I didn't focus on the pizza, the happy hours, the venti coffee drinks...and then I woke up one morning (when I started this blog) and asked myself "what have you done?"  I lost 8 pounds.  Then I celebrated and crapped out.  Gained the 8 back, plus 1.

About the time that I began to realize I couldn't be happy and stay in my previous job, I also began to realize that I couldn't continue to treat myself the way I was treating myself.

You've read the story of how I managed to get through those months before I joined my new company, so now you know it's possible, but I was really worried about the transition.  As unhappy as I was, I had a schedule I knew how to maintain, but I also had horrible habits.

If I didn't get up to go to the gym, I was usually up about 15 minutes before I had to walk out the door.  I was hitting the right caloric intake, but at the risk of of getting the wrong nutrition.  How do you make a day's worth of food in 5 minutes?  Easy!  You throw a lean cuisine, a 100 calorie pack, and some other processed stuff into a bag and off you go.

I promised myself when I started this job that I would live my life in a way that I was enjoying it.  Every minute of it.

I have promised myself to do the following:
- Make a meal plan every weekend that does not involved processed food
- Wake up an hour before I have to leave
- Eat breakfast EVERY morning
- Make my lunch every day or have a plan if I have a client lunch meeting
- Make a gym schedule and stick to it (schedule must be flexible)
- Enjoy every meal that I eat (because calories suck if they taste bad)

I know it's only day three, but I've gotten up consistently an hour before I had to leave for work, gotten to work early for 30 minutes alone to have coffee and watch the news.  I made a menu plan, cooked on Sunday, and have stuck with it.  My gym schedule hit a bump tonight, but because it was flexible, I'm going tomorrow night and taking tonight to relax.

I have 8 pounds to go--I added two pounds to my goal weight loss, otherwise, I am proud to say that I've maintained my weightloss for the past two months and that as soon as I sign up for my trainer, I'll be back on track with all systems go to burn off 8 pounds by the middle of June.

I think the bottom line of this meandering post is this: if you're unhappy with where you are, nothing says you cannot change that.  I know that I need milestones to help me change things, but think about what it is that you're dissatisfied with.  Do you rush in the morning?  Skip the gym?  Rely on take out?  Make an action plan and change it, because from where I'm sitting, and maybe it's the new job talking (it's so awesome, btw, I love being there), but changing something that makes you unhappy, as small as it may be, magnifies in how happy it makes you when you change it.

My Second RD Appt and the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run

I met with my Registered Dietician (RD) last Thursday after many a rescheduled appointment.

I have to say, if you've never sat down with an R.D., stop what you're doing, stop reading this blog, and go make an appointment. Get 4 sessions, and trust me.

The last time I met with my RD, I had brought her a food diary from about a week to two weeks of eating.  I'm fairly meticulous with writing down what I eat, so that was the easy part.  We talked about my goals, my life style, and some general rules, then she asked me to write down the emotional feelings I had every time I ate until our next meeting.

While that went out the window when I got busy, I did make note of my emotions while eating enough that this picture became clear:

- I woke up not hungry (even before and after a morning workout), got the office and wanted a cup of coffee, no food.  Halfway into my coffee, I wanted to eat my desk and the hunger came out of no where.
- I ate again around 10:30 because I was starting to get the munchies.  Usually a piece of fruit cured this.
- Since my team tends to eat together at noon, I was never hungry at the beginning of lunch.  The hunger picked up halfway through lunch, then I finished ready for a food coma nap.
- 3:30 I get bored and want to snack.  Has to be a slow to eat food--popcorn, grapes, anything that requires time to eat.
- Not hungry when I get home and especially not hungry after I workout.  At all.  I have to force myself to eat after a workout.  But about an hour after my workout, again I am ready to destroy an entire pizza.

My RD and I went through discussing that pattern and it basically followed exactly what she suspected/had seen in my food log:

I'm not eating enough.  Hi, shocker!  I'm a really big proponent of calories in, calories out for weight loss and while it still holds through, I'm highly active and not fueling my body to that level. Am I starving myself?  No, but is my body going "eh, let's not burn off that fat, we're a little worried about our caloric intake?" in a word, yes.  It sounds a lot more like a bad thing than it actually is. 

Think about your body as a car.  Let's say that the gas tank can fuel for the energy needed for exactly 1 day, plus a little bit of top-off fuel.  When you wake up in the morning (start your car) without eating breakfast, you're essentially running on fumes till you hit the gas station (first meal).  If you're like me and try to get in a few morning workouts, you're running on fumes, then pushing your car to the gas station if you fail to eat before hand.

Of course, you want to fill up the gas tank all the way (stuffing yourself).  Same thing happens if you decide to put in more miles in a day than your gas tank can hold (second workout) and you wind up filling up again before you take your car home and putting it in the garage.

Essentially, I burn on fumes, over load on food, get really tired, burn all my food off again, then eat a ton or not at all, then pass out and repeat.  My consumption looked more like a tiny hill followed by a valley, then a big hill, a steep valley, a little hill, then a huge hill, then right back down and repeat.

My R.D. says that I need to fuel before and after my workouts and definitely eat a breakfast and fuel through my day.

I don't have the papers in front of me, but she outlined the amount of stuff I need to be getting in these food groups:
- Grains
- Protein
- Dairy
- Fruits
- Vegetables

It's a LOT of food.  I know she was thinking that I'd be mentally tabbing up the calories from a sample meal, so she said something that I guess I knew in the back of my mind, but hadn't actually fleshed out into full thought.

I might have been eating the right amount of calories, but the nutrients? Who knows. I mean, what do you REALLY get out of a 100 calorie pack of chocolate pretzels?  Probably not much.  So we turned the attention to what kind of calories I was actually eating.  Cutting out a lot of prepackaged frozen junk and turning to "whole" foods.

While I'll be eating a lot more food, I'll probably be eating the right amount of calories, with all the nutrients.  I added milk back into my diet, which hasn't been there in years.  My stomach and I are still trying to decide how this is going to work out, but it has been nice to induldge in a big frothy glass of milk, especially post workout for the perfect blend of carbs and protein (and it cuts off that huge hunger pang I have about an hour post workout).

I'll post the sample menu that my RD gave me when I get home.

We also talked about setting SMART goals.  I think I've talked about smart goals, so I won't go there again, but if you're interested, just google it.  We  wound up setting two SMART goals for me with three supporting goals.

I'll post those, too, when I get home so I make sure I have them down right. 

So far, so good. I'm on 5 of eating more like the way we discussed and I feel really full all the time and I have energy.  Double win.

In totally different news,

The Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run was this weekend.  This was my second 10 Miler, my first one, I came in with like a 1:26 something because I was running with my friend, Maureen, from work and she pushed the hell out of me. This year, by total accident, I ran into her among 15,000 people.  We wound up running together again, all the time pushing the other by total accident.  We each thought we were slowing up the other, so we kept pushing and pushing and pushing.  Before I knew it, we'd crossed 4, just after mile 5, I saw Chadd where I handed off my jacket, then 6, then 7 (oh man, just a 5k left), then suddenly 8 and we only had about 17 minutes left to endure.  Then 9 went by and holy moly there was a hill.  Maureen put the pedal to the medal, and amazingly, my legs kept up with her.  We crested the hill to see the arches were not exactly right around the bend.  Falling back a bit, we tried to pick up the pace again and flew through the finish line. 

Time: 1:21:29; Pace: 8:09

And just like that, another PR this year. 

I can tell you that one of the most beautiful sounds to me in the world is the sound of silence and a thousand runners shoes hitting the pavement all around you.

Abs/Core Cheat Sheet: The 6 Moves Everyone Can (and Should) Do

Oops.  Ran out of time yesterday to finish this post. Abs.  Blah blah blah summer body blah blah. Whatever.

Summer bodies come and go, but a good posture is forever.  No, I'm not channeling your ballet instructor from years ago, I'm telling you how to avoid being a little old hunched over man/woman.

I think we all know why abs are important, but I want to reiterate what the article from last Tuesday's links said: Core Strength (not just your abs) is the key to fitness success, pain relief in back/neck/shoulders, etc., and will make you all around stronger and leaner.  Develop your core correctly (make sure you include lower back work, obliques, quads, and glutes) and you'll be one more step away from avoiding your back creeping up on you in your golden years.

Whether your new to core work or an old pro, here are my standbys that I almost always make my classes do:

1. Rope Pull:

• Lie on your back, feet on the ground.
• Imagine that someone tied a rope around your chest and tied it to a beam in the ceiling.
• Grab the imaginary rope and "pull" yourself up the rope, hand over hand.
• Your shoulders should be coming off the ground.
• Tip: If your neck gets tired/starts to hurt, put one hands behind your head to support your neck.
• Tip: Make sure your chin is lifted off your chest (think about having about the space of a tennis ball between your chin and your chest).
• Beginners: 2 sets of 30 seconds with a 30 second break between sets
• Intermediate: 4 sets of 30 seconds, 15 second break between sets
• Advanced: 6 sets of 30 seconds, 10 second break between sets
• Challenge move (try this after you can go a full minute pulling yourself up without a break): lift feet off the ground so your knees are bent, shins are facing the ceiling (90 degree angle between your body and your thighs, 90 degree angle at your knees).
• Advanced challenge: legs straight up in the air.

2) Lower back lift:

• Start lying on your back, put your hands to your sides on the floor to balance yourself, feet flat on the ground. 
• Squeeze your glutes and lift your hips up to the ceiling. Your body should be in a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
• Tip: If you need more support, hold your lower back up, gently, with your hands.
• Beginner: Hold for 30 seconds, lower and rest for 30 seconds.
• Intermediate: Hold for 1 minute
• Advanced: Hold for 30 seconds with one leg extended, foot off the ground.  Switch legs.  
• Challenge move: Hold your hands up towards the ceiling, this will require balance and stability, keys to core training.
• Bonus Move: Do single glute squeezes, touching the ground with your glutes, then squeezing your glutes, lifting your hips up. Try to do 20.

3) Bicycle and Modified Bicycle:

• Still lying on the ground, hands behind your head, chin lifted off your chest.
• Twist your core so one elbow moves towards the opposite knee.
• The opposite leg should extend fully. Switch sides.
• Beginner: 10 on either side
• Intermediate: 20 on either side
• Advanced: 40 on either side
• Modified Bicycle/Challenge Move: Elbow to knee, opposite leg fully extends. The leg that is fully extended remains straight, lower it down to tap your heel on the ground, then back up. Switch sides.

4) Modified Sit-Up:

• Instead of having your hands behind your head as you would with a normal sit up, put your arms straight out in front of you.
• Count to two as you sit-up, then slide back down, to the count of 2.
• Make sure you keep your chin off of your chest and sit up with your chest leading--it should feel like that same rope from the first exercise is around your chest and pulling you up towards the ceiling, then down.
• This doesn't have to be a full sit up, just shoulder blades up off the ground.
• Beginner: 20
• Intermediate: 30
• Advanced/Challenge move: Hold a light weight or a ball in your hands.  

5) Invisible Chair:

• Sit up with your heels on the ground (your knees will be a little more than a 90 degree angle), back straight.
• Hold your arms out in front of you.
• You will likely feel this in your quads and your lower back.
• Beginner: Hold this position for 30 seconds, rest, then another 30 seconds.
• Intermediate: Lift feet off the ground and hold your knees for balance. Hold for 30 seconds, rest, then another 30 seconds holding.
• Advanced: Lift feet off the ground and hold your hands out in front of you, not touching your knees.  2 sets of 30 seconds.

6) Plank and Walking Plank:

• Start on your hands and knees, hands should be directly under your shoulders, knees under your hips.
• Come onto your toes, into plank position. Your body should be in a straight line from the back for your neck to your heels. 
• Hold this position without your stomach dropping (making dip in your back) or your butt rising (causing an arch in your back) for 30 seconds.
• Beginner: If you can't do a full plank, you can start on your knees. Just make sure you keep that straight line from the back of your knees up to the base of your neck.
• Intermediate/Advanced: Just hold it for longer! Other options include holding your plank while on your elbows/forearms instead of your hands.
• Challenge Move: Walking Plank: Start in a full plank (on your hands), then shift 1 arm at a time down to a plank on your forearms/elbows.  Go back to your hands.  Continue for 30 seconds.

There ya have it. 6 moves that ANYONE can do.  Your challenge?  Do this routine (any level, mix it up if you need to!) 3 times before next Wednesday.  Questions, comments, concerns?  See me after class :-)

R2R 10k: Hold Back, Stay Steady, Finish Strong

I have been a terrible blogger, but I'm going to make a better effort to stay on top of it. 

So!  This weekend, I ran the Run to Register 10k for the Marine Corps Marathon out in Quantico and had a fantastic time.

My good friend, who I've previously called WB for Work Buddy came into town to do the race with me. We stayed close to Quantico Friday night because the last thing we wanted to do was drive an hour+ from the city down to the base. 

We got up early, headed over to base and walked out of the car into cool, crisp air.  The base was alive with a bunch of talkative runners, pacing around, warming up.  After a last minute bathroom break for me,we lined up under the familiar Marine Corps Marathon arches (my stomach dropped seeing them, remembering my anxiety at the marathon) and off we went. 

The course was a simple out and back, down a gently sloping (rises and falls, though nothing too steep).  Quantico really is beautiful, we were going down one road that stays along side a lake and a bunch of trees.  I felt amazing a few miles in, approaching the halfway (3.1), I felt amazing. 

I've noticed that I often times come out of the gate WAY too fast (aka, the Turkey Trot with my brother where I nearly puked all over everyone because I was trying to hold is 7:28 pace....HA).  This time, I stayed with my friend, stayed with the crowd, and as it opened up, I slowly let myself adjust to about an 8m/m pace.  That's a pretty decent and safe pace for a 5k for me, maybe even fine for 4-5 miles, but to stay with it for 6.2 was going to be a little challenging.  But it's amazing what checking your speed at the starting line can do.  Conserving energy, I was faster for longer.  I saw WB as I started back from the halfway and checked my watch.

I couldn't tell you now what it said, but I remember trying to do math for a couple of minutes, checking and rechecking to make sure I'd calculated it correctly.  I couldn't possibly be holding this time, this long...could I?

But I went with it, enjoying the scenary, feeling confident and breezy.  I turned the corner to come into the track and checked my watch.  In my bad calculations, I had hit 51 minutes and was about to turn possibly beat a 53, which, while I didn't "really" have a goal, I knew I wanted something below an hour and that it was possible I could pull out something under 55.  After rounding the bend in the track, I saw the official clock: 49:1something.  Two words went through my mind: HOLY SH*T and I booked it.  I'd already tried to put on the after burners coming down the hill onto the track but lost it somewhere in the middle.  Refiring was really difficult, but I crossed the line in what I swear was some blur of numbers around a 49:3something. 

Alas, my official time (which apparently was clock AND chip time...even though I started probably a solid minute after the clock time?) was 50.00.00.  A new 10K PR. Some smooth even numbers there, my friends.

I felt officially accomplished and spent the rest of the day, stuffing my face with Mexican food with WB (who also ran a solid race, crushing his PR by 15 minutes--major props to him!) and spending time with Chadd.

Here we are, WB and I, post race:

Best part of the race?  When we finished, we were handed a card with an access code on it for a guaranteed entry to the Marine Corps Marathon this year--the 35th.  I ran the 31st in 2006 with a 4:22:34...and am looking to crush the 4 hour mark this year, which is just a little over a 9 minute mile.  I'd be in line for a 3:45 if I held a solid 8:30.  We'll see how training goes!

I've got a weekend off, then the Cherry Blossom 10 mile!  If I can hold an 8:15 pace, I'll be thrilled, an 8:30, pretty happy, and anything lower, acceptable. 

A little shout out to all of you--thank you so much for the gchat messages/emails/facebook messages, etc. letting me know you read the blog and your congrats on my race--y'all are the best and you give me warm fuzzies. 

Coming up this afternoon: Abs/Core Arsenal--a few moves for beginners to experts to pay some special attention to your core!