Eating vs. Working Out

Today after my 4 year old's preschool Christmas program she wanted to go to McDonald's before I dropped her off at my sis-in-law's house.  We went through the drive-thru and she got her happy meal.  Rather than find something else to eat I opted for the 2 cheeseburger meal (don't judge me).  She was very excited when we were eating the same thing then when I took a bite of my second one she said "you eat two mama?  you fat!"  So after that I couldn't finish it and just threw it away knowing I shouldn't have been eating it in the first place.  Then when I was back at work I got this text and was dying.  She is the funniest kid.  I only wish my double workout today could make up for my poor eating choices!  

Speaking of today's workout:  I did intervals on the treadmill 6 miles total with 3 - 1 mile intervals at a 7:12 pace then did 360 fit.  The WOD today was crazy.  It was a partner workout of 50 knees to elbows.  50 star jumpers. 50 ops burpees.  50 ball slams.  50 kettleball swings.  2 rounds for time.  It nearly killed me! 

So instead of throw away all the hard work I did in the gym this morning I think I'll make sure my dinner is healthier than my lunch was!

Fun 360 Pictures

Most days our trainer takes pictures of us during 360 fit.  It cracks me up looking at the pictures when he posts them on facebook.  Here are a few that made me giggle that got posted yesterday. 

Are my legs really that white?  I may never wear that light pink hat inside again.....don't love.

I really need to get my butt down in squats - UGH!

I am moving so fast I'm blurry

I have to take my hat off to do my pushups right - that is some scary hair!

I thought my wall burpees were way cooler than they look here

At least I've got major height on my double-unders

Today's workout:  Run 6 miles and 360 fit. 

Today's 360 WOD:
round 1: 40 kettleball swings 10 burpees
round 2: 30 kettleball swings 20 burpees
round 3: 20 kettleball swings 30 burpees
round 4: 10 kettleball swings 40 burpees

I Run the Day!

I love this.  It is so true. Last night my 4YO did not sleep well.  She was in bed with me since dad is out of town and she cried and tossed and turned and was very itchy all night.  So this morning at 5:00 am I did not want to get out of bed.  But I knew there was no other time to fit in a workout today so I forced myself to get up, get dressed and hit the gym.  I am always glad I got up once I start working out.  I ran 4 miles then did 360 fit then ran 2 more miles.  And now at 10:30 am I am ready for a nap - but no luck I have to work so I'll just go to bed early tonight instead.  I love feeling completely exhausted from a hard workout.  And when I start my day with a run everything goes better!  

Today's 360 Fit workout:  20 kettleball swings (35lbs), 10 pull-ups, 20 star jumpers.  AMRAPs for 30 minutes.  I did 6 rounds + kettleballs + 3 pull=ups.

Stocking Stuffers for Runners

I never get tired of running gear.  I ask for it for every birthday and Christmas.  So here are a few items every runner would love.  What else do you have on your list?

 

Scott James Jewelry ($12 per pendant). 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my necklace and wear it all the time.

 

Fuel Belt hand held water bottle. ($8-$15)

It's dark in the winter so a headlamp is awesome ($20-$80)

A great basic running watch from Garmin ($130)
I love my 305 but I really want one of these too and it comes in fun colors!

 

A few great long sleeve running shirts. ($20-$70)

I have thinner ones and fleece lined shirts.  You need a variety for layering.

A fun way to display your race medals ($25+ on etsy)

Compression socks or sleeves ($50)

I love my CEP and Pro Compression ones.
ProCompression is doing a 40% off right now with free shipping 

Promo code: SOM12

Give the gift of "not getting hit by a car" ($20)

I love my sleeves ($8)

 

Injinji Socks ($12)

 

Spi Belt ($20)

 Smartwool Sock ($8)

these are great for winter running.

 Yurbuds ($35)

And if you want to throw down some cash get anything from Athleta or LuLu Lemon.  I absolutely love everything I have from both of those stores. 

Thanks for changing women's running!

The "Boston Incident" of 1967 was the spark that ignited the woman's running revolution. Kathrine Switzer went on to finish that 1967 Boston Marathon in 4 hours 20 minutes, despite being disqualified by Jock Semple. She was inspired by the incident, however, to go on to run 35 marathons, including 8 Boston Marathons, running a personal best in 1975 in 2 hours, 51 minutes, & winning the 1974 New York City Marathon. She also created the Avon International Running Circuit, a global series of women's running events in 25 countries, involving over one million women, & lead to the inclusion of the women's marathon in the Olympic Games. (from her website)

In 2009 I ran the inaugural Boston 5K and she was there and she said a few words before the 5K race.  What an inspirational moment in my running life. She and lots of other previous Boston marathon winners ran the race I was running.  I might have been beaten by tons of people twice my age but they are rock star runners and I was so excited to be running in the same event as them!!  I love that I share a name with her too - mine's spelled a little different but still it's a great name :)  

Thanks Kathrine for changing running for women!!

Today's workout:  taught spin (endurance hills) and did 360 fit.  Today was my first time to RX a workout (which means I did it with the recommended weight for women instead of less like I usually do).
 

Positive Thinking

On lots of our runs lately we've talked about positive thoughts instead of going to the "ugly place" in your head.  During the UV marathon in June my thoughts were horrible - I was mad at the headwind, I was mad that I walked, I was mad that I missed my goal.  I was so unhappy during and after the race. It didn't matter that I PR's by 10 minutes I was grouchy and it started by mile 10.  That makes for a really loooooooong marathon.

Then at the STG marathon I was so happy the entire run and even when things started to hurt I had positive thoughts about the pain instead of being grouchy and going inside my head to the "ugly place".  This changed everything for me.  I ran and I smiled the whole 26.2 miles.  I was just as strong during both races and had trained hard for both but the experiences were completely different for me.  There is something so powerful about our thoughts and mind over matter. 

Now I just need to remember that on the hard run days.  It's ok when my body is tired and not performing how I want it to - and instead of beating myself up I need to just think happy thoughts and keep moving.

Today's workout: 6.5 miles on the treadmill and 360 fit 

Ragnar Christmas Party

Have I mentioned that I have the BEST running team ever!  I'm sorry to make you jealous but really my team is amazing!!  Running ties us together but we have a blast no matter what we're doing.  And when food, diet coke and presents are involved it only gets better.  Yesterday I got to host our Christmas Party. Everyone from the team was able to attend since we did it early this year and it was so much fun.  I love reliving memories and laughing and chatting with these girls. 

And look at all the fun gifts:  a sweat towel with each of our initials, an awesome running quote (that will soon be framed in my office), pink earrings, nail polish, spatulas (because we don't just run), a super fun picture layout of favorite pictures from last years race, mints, a hot pink hair tie (or bracelet for me since I have no hair), and butter rum bubble bath.  Are you jealous yet?  You should be. 

 
I have been planning this years present since June and am super excited about them.  I had a friend make double sided fleece blankets with our logo and spice names on them.  They turned out perfect and I can't wait to see them on the course next year!!

The lovely Sunshine Spice displaying all of her gifts - this picture was sent via text last night and I cried I was laughing so hard.  Love her!

The food was delicious and since everyone brought stuff I didn't have to do a thing but set up and eat.  I love that!

We watched a video of pictures from 2011 and laughed and cried at all the good times.  It's times like this that make me even more excited for next years race.

P.S.  Yesterday's workout was a 6 mile run outside and today we did 360 fit - it was a killer workout 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 situps and 50 air squats 5 rounds for time!!

Today's Workout

I love this picture of T and I in sync doing our kettle ball swings yesterday.  

For today's workout I ran 6.5 miles total and did the 360 fit class.  It was a butt kicker.  3 rounds for time of clean and jerk w/a split, then knees to elbows then running.  First set was 21 of each with a 200 m run.  Second set was 15 of each with a 400 m run then the last set was 9 of each with 800 meters.  

I suck so bad at knees to elbows - I'm more of a knees to hips kinda girl and even then it's only 2 or 3 at a time or my hands hurt too much.  One of my goals with this 360 fit stuff is to be able to do a pullup without assistance - maybe I should add in to be able to touch my knees to my elbows as well. 

Thanksgiving Weekend Workouts

I was so busy having time there was no time to blog.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - lots of family time, lots of food and very little stress.   For the last 5 years we have all run the Turkey Trot but we didn't get signed up early enough this year and then didn't want to spend $40 for day of registration so a group of us just went for a run that morning instead.  I love starting the day with a run.  It was perfect weather too!

Then Friday morning me, my sister, her husband and my brother all hit Gold's to do a 360 Fit class.  It was awesome and it kicked my butt. 

On Saturday I did a 12 mile long run with my running partner T - and my brother and sister ran it too.  I love working out on weekends like this.  I could sleep in and enjoy a good workout then enjoy good meals with my family.  I love this holiday!!

Today I taught spin then hit the 360 fit class - it was brutal and I loved it. 

My Morning Run

I need my morning run.  It really is therapy for me.  It's therapeutic to feel the burn.  It's therapeutic to talk it out on the road with the girls.  I need it and I love it.  

Because I need the run so much but also want to try new things I've been doubling up my workouts quite a bit lately.  Today I did my tempo run (6 miles total with 4 miles at 7:50 pace) before my crossfit workout.  Mercy I thought I was going to die.  But I didn't die and I'm tougher now that it's over.  The crossfit workout was AMRAPs 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 air squats.  I did 12 rounds.  Now I can enjoy a guilt free day!

1500 Miles

Today half way through my 10 miler I hit the 1500 mile mark. I wish I had looked at my running log before the run. Maybe then I would have had a better attitude. The run was tough and my legs felt like lead - those stupid squats are still haunting me!!

Pain Tolerance

Today while sitting in the dentist chair (getting an old filling replaced) my doc was talking about pain tolerance.  He told me to raise my hand if it hurt then joked that he wouldn't trust my pain tolerance since I'm a runner.  Then chatted about a study he heard in dental school about pain tolerance and rugby players .... I don't really remember much else thanks to the laughing gas (p.s. I love that dentists can just chat without needing anyone else to comment - great quality).  

Anyway since I left the chair I've been thinking about pain tolerance.  I have always thought I have a fairly high pain tolerance.  It can be traced back to the Indian burns my older brother gave me daily - he would keep going if I cried but would stop if I acted like it didn't hurt.  Ha ha.  OK so maybe that's not where it comes from and who knows maybe I don't even have a high pain tolerance - I've never been tested.  :)

I found this article on how pain tolerance affects running performance.  Here are few parts of the article I really liked:

The reason is that, in endurance racing, nobody is able to use 100 percent of his or her physical capacity. Research has shown that athletes always finish races and time trials with some reserve capacity left over, and the thing that prevents them from using that reserve capacity is the feeling of suffering. Runners always reach a limit to their tolerance for suffering before they hit the limit of their physical capacity.

 But were the elite swimmers elite because they had a greater pain tolerance? Or did they have a greater pain tolerance because they trained as elite swimmers? Well, it just so happens that the authors of this study measured the pain tolerance of the elite swimmers several times over the course of a competitive season. As the weeks went by and their training became more intensive, their pain tolerance scores improved. So individual pain tolerance is clearly trainable to a certain degree.

And here is the part that I needed the most:

Ironically, you may find, as I have, that suffering in tough workouts is made a bit more tolerable just by embracing those feelings as part of the point.

I needed this today during my crossfit workout - it was a tough one.  30 wall balls, 30 box jumps, 400 m run - 5 rounds for time.  Kicked my trash since I can still barely walk after the squats workout on Monday.  But I dug deep and did it I'm not sure I "embraced" the way it felt but it was the point of the workout so I pushed past it.  I remember saying at mile 22 of the St. George marathon "of course it hurts it's mile 22" and that helped me get past the pain. 

 At least now I know working through the pain will make me stronger!!
 

Staying fit during the holidays

I'm not good at making diet treats.  I'd rather make the real thing and eat a smaller portion or workout more to eat a full piece.  I know this doesn't work for everyone but I just can't really do diet deserts.  

When I saw this recipe for "Skinny Pumpkin Pie" on pinterest I was intrigued - but like half the stuff on there it went to a broken link.  Oh well I guess I'll just make real pumpkin pie next week.

I try to stay fit over the holidays and a few of the things I do are:

- don't let 1 meal or treat ruin the entire day
- keep working out
- drink extra water
- try to make my non-party meals extra healthy (protein shakes, low cal, etc)
- make people take home the leftovers (especially desserts)
- don't beat myself up and enjoy the holiday

What do you do to combat the holidays?

Today's workout:  spin (after I taught my 45 minute class I just rode the bike for another 40 minutes)

Death by Squats

The name alone should have made me walk away....but I decided to do go for it anyway.  I started the morning with 3.5 miles on the treadmill then did the 360 fit workout of the day - "death by squats".  For the workout we started with 5 squats during a one minute interval - you got to rest as soon as you finished.  Then we did 6, 7, 8, etc. until we couldn't finish in a minute.  I made it to 28.  Which means I did 396 squats in 28 minutes!!  Then I had to do max rep pushups - 25 for me.  After than I jumped back on the treadmill to finish my run.  I ran 1.5 more miles and thought I was going to die.  Truly.  My legs felt 100 lbs each.  It took almost 3/4 of a mile before they relaxed at all.  But I really wanted to get 5 miles in so I forced myself to keep going.  Now my legs are jello.  

And since I worked out so hard I thought I should make sure to eat really healthy today.  My goal right now is to eat lots of protein - 30 g. 3x's a day. 

Breakfast: recovery shake - winder dairy recovery with a banana and udo's oil
Lunch:  Fage greek yogurt (1 c.) with fresh blueberries and Traci's homemade granola
Snack:  apple, string cheese and nuts

360 Fit

I'm trying something new at the gym - 360 Fit.  It's basically Gold's version of crossfit.  It's crazy hard and totally different than anything I've ever done before. This morning was my 3rd class and it was awesome.  I can't do half the stuff we are supposed to - my pushups are on my knees and I look ridiculous, I step up on the boxes more than I jump and I had a huge welt on my arm from doing double unders with the jump rope.  I don't usually try new stuff because I hate making a fool of myself while I'm learning.  I'm going to keep at this until I don't look like a fool. I would love to be able to do real pushups and maybe even a few pullups. The trainer takes pictures for the facebook page so I even have documentation of how crazy I look!

Today's workout:  I ran 4 miles before class on the treadmill.  Then we did AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of 10 box jumps, 10 wall balls, 200 m run.  I made it through just over 8 rounds.  Then I ran another mile.

 

Box jumps

My lame sauce push up

making an ugly face since the squat hurt so bad

Catching serious air - I'm sure the rope hit me at the end of this one :)

I'm not ready for winter

I'm a little behind on my posts. Today I taught spin then ran 4 miles on the treadmill. Gotta burn those calories before Halloween tomorrow!!!

 

 Here is Saturday's post: 

I feel like the cold came way too fast and early this year.  I'm being a baby about it and have no desire to run in it.  It takes all my energy to get my butt out of my warm bed and hit the pavement.  On Saturday we did 12 miles and when we started it was 30 degrees.  It took me 10.5 miles until I was warm enough to pull off my jacket and just run in my shirt.  (I know I'm being a big baby with all this complaining.)  Other than the cold the run was good.  I was nervous that the water I dropped off the night before would be frozen but it was just icy cold (why can't it be that cold in the summer....)  It's nice to go for a run without caring about times and just go because I love running.  

I wore a fleece headband, a long sleeve fleece lined shirt, jacket and gloves.

 

 I also tried something new this year and put a running skirt on over my tights to try to keep my rear warm - it seemed to help so I think I'll try that again. 

 

\

A new workout

It's so fun to not be officially training for a race (even though I've already signed up for 4 races next year and have 2 others I plan on running).   I feel like I can try new things and have some no pressure time for running.  I will still run 4 days a week and do speed work and long runs but it's for fun now not for training.  I love it!!  So Saturday we tried something totally new.  It's similar to a crossfit type workout.  I went up to a new gym Lyceum and did a boot camp workout.  It killed me!!  In an hour I was dying and I have been so sore ever since.  

For the workout we moved our own pace and did as many sets as we could.  We did things like stairs (3 times), TRX rows (16), TRX pushups and exploding pushups (16 times), lunges with weights (10 each leg), bag pull, pullups (16).  Between each one we had to do 10 box jumps.  And it was hard.  We finished 3 full sets in the hour.  I can't wait to go do more workouts like that.

 

After the workout

The dreaded boxes

with the TRX bands

Cold dark running

This morning when I woke up it was 35 degrees and pitch black.  It was so hard to not send the "I'm out" text.  I mean I'm really I'm not training for anything so why get up and go run.....because I need it and once I'm doing it I love it.  It was still dark outside when I finished my run.  UGH.

I am so not looking forward to cold, dark morning runs.  I already miss running in shorts and tank top.  Today I had on a tank, long sleeved shirt, jacket and gloves.  UGH!!  

But I won't stop running outside just because it feels like winter.  I'm a runner and this is just what I do.   

So I think to get me through this winter I need this cute white jacket from Lululemon.  I totally deserve it for getting out of bed :)

Today was a nice easy 5 mile run and yesterday I did 6.5 miles.  My legs feel completely recovered even after making the mistake of not doing any recovery for my legs after the marathon.  Tomorrow I'm going to try to run 10 - we'll see how that goes :)

Best Training Partners Ever

I am always impressed by people who train for marathon's by themselves.  I can't imagine running over a thousand miles by myself.  We have run over 1300 miles so far this year.  The vast majority of those miles were run with no music just us girls chatting.  I love these girls so much.  I could never had made my goal without them.  There is just nothing better than a great training partner - except two of them!!