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 :)