Fitness Friday: 2 Weeks til Race Day, Weekly Workouts and Body Combat Review

It's Friiiiiiiiiiday!  This week flew by, and I suddenly find myself 2 weeks away from the St Luke's Half Marathon.  That's what happens when you sign up for a half marathon 6 weeks out!  HA 

Two weeks left means I only have one more double-digit training run this weekend.  The following week will be a taper week and my last 'long' run will probably be about 1/2 the distance of the race, so around 7 miles. 

Do you embrace the taper before a race?  I just read this article re: tapering mistakes on Runner's World, and it has some good pre-race reminders.  I personally always taper one week before a half-marathon, and I can definitely feel the difference/freshness in my legs and entire body on race day.  Sometimes, I even take a few days off running before shorter races like 5k's too.  After a hard training cycle, you will not lose any fitness in a few days' time, but this break gives your body a chance to reload its glycogen stores and your muscles a chance to rest and rebuild themselves as well.  I really believe it gets you to the finish line faster.

Since I'm currently not in taper, this is what my workouts looked like the past week:

Saturday - 11+ miles outside
Sunday - Rest day (Easter!)
Monday - Strength training (Upper & Lower body - combo of free weights and machines) + core work (variety of crunches/twists)
Tuesday - 3.3 miles outside
Wednesday - 1 hour Body Combat
Thursday - 3.2 miles outside
Friday - Rest day
Saturday - 10 miles (planned)

My friend has been inviting me to take Body Combat with her for weeks and I finally went this week.  It's been awhile since I've taken classes at the gym. I used to take Body Pump religiously.  That was my favorite.  But when my work schedule changed a couple years ago, I couldn't get there for awhile and then just fell off the wagon.  I've been lifting weights on my own but I do miss Pump.  The only other Les Mills class I've taken is Body Attack and I am not really a fan.  It's HIIT which I like but there's too much choreography to learn!  Most of the time I was getting lost with the moves so I didn't feel like I was getting the best workout. 

But I thoroughly enjoyed Body Combat this week!  It was a great way to mix up my cross-training workouts and left me sore (in a good way).  I definitely used muscle groups in that class that I haven't used in awhile/forgot existed!  A bit of history here.  Years ago I used to take a kickboxing class at my old gym that I LOVED.  The instructor was phenomenal and many of us developed a personal relationship with her.  A coworker and I used to attend her classes 2-3 times a week.  After a year or two, she had such a following that she was able to coerce the gym to get us standing bags like this:

which were AWESOME!  Obviously, I'm not a physically violent person but having something to punch and kick after work was pretty cathartic! Hahaha

Ok, getting back to Body Combat.  If you've never taken it, Les Mills describes it as "the high energy, martial arts-inspired, non-contact workout".  If you did Tae-Bo back in the day, it's like that!  This is a non-contact class, meaning there are no punching bags, so you are punching/kicking 'air', however it is definitely a high intensity class that moves quickly.  If I did not have a history with kickboxing, I probably would not have been able to pick up the moves so fast on my first class.  Luckily, I remembered most of the punch and kick moves and was able to get into the combos pretty quickly.  There are low and high intensity variations for most combos so you can adjust the workout to suit your current fitness level or needs.   My shoulders, biceps, triceps and back are sore today so I guess I've not been working them as much as I should be!  Upper body strength is an area often neglected by runners (myself included) but the more of it you have, the more power you will have for your runs.  True story.

A few tips I would offer for those new to Body Combat.  First, if you've never taken a kick boxing type class, go slow the first class.  It is high intensity and you don't want to overdo it or pull something your first time out.  Secondly, and this one is for myself as well, wear proper shoes.  I wore an old pair of running shoes (I never wear my current pair of running shoes for anything other than running), which was not the smartest choice.  The cushioning in them was long gone, and since I'm a neutral/supinating runner, there is very little support.  Because of all the pivoting and jumping, I could definitely feel some discomfort in my feet and I was wishing I had a more supportive cross training shoe. 

I'm looking forward to working more classes back into rotation after my race and Body Combat will  be one of them.

Hope you had a great week of workouts and enjoy the weekend!  Catch you on the flip side :)


Do you like taking group exercise classes or do you prefer solo workouts?

Ever take any Les Mills classes (Body Pump, Body Combat, Body Attack, etc)?

Any spring races coming up?

Fitness Friday: Favorite Pinterest Workouts

Hello and Happy Friday!  I am taking a trip back home this weekend to celebrate a few very special people.  My best friend just gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday and I can't wait to meet her!  And, another friend of mine is currently pregnant with twins and I'll be attending her baby shower!  Babies, babies everywhere.

Now onto some business...

I wanted to thank everyone who provided feedback on my Fitness post last Friday. There were a lot of good ideas and concerns in there and I'm going to do my best to address them.  In an attempt to give myself some consistency and structure, I'm going to try to devote Fridays to Fitness posts.  This may be every Friday, or every other Friday, and I plan on addressing everything from stretching to workout recaps to beginning a running program.  Please feel free to contact me via comments or email (Jillyruns@yahoo.com) with any topics you'd like me to cover on Fridays, and I will respond!

My main point of that post was that I believe we need to start shifting the mindset in America that thinks fitness is a completely separate entity from good health and health care.  As we saw, by the very definition of the word, fitness is an indicator of good health, and I don't believe you can be truly healthy if you do not have a baseline level of fitness.  As far as 'baseline level', I'm still not sure how to quantify that, but I'm going to do some research and see if I can come up with something amalgamated from a variety of professional resources. 

I think the hardest part for everyone is getting started, followed by sticking with it (when they don't see immediate results).  I think many people feel that perhaps they are just not inherently athletic and so fitness is just something they'll never be 'good' at.  But I don't think 'fitness' and 'athleticism' are interchangeable terms.  You don't have to excel at sports or be born with natural gifts to be able to go for a walk or do simple exercises in the comfort of your own home.  I don't think I'm particularly athletically gifted but I just love moving, playing, and trying new things.  [This is probably the reason I love hanging out with kids so much; we are kindred spirits.]  I like to run, but I am not particularly fast.  I am a solid middle-of-the-pack runner and will never win any big races, but that doesn't stop me!  I also mentioned that I played a lot of sports growing up and that's true, but what I didn't tell you is that I completely STUNK at a lot of them!  Perhaps one day I'll do a post on a list of the sports I've tried over the years and the ones I've completely failed at! Haha Maybe that will give you some courage to get out there and Just Do It :)

Also, as I previously mentioned, you do not need a gym membership or fancy equipment to work out.  Case in point: Calisthenics.  Calisthenics are great for improving endurance and strength, and if you perform them in High Intensity Intervals, great for burning fat.  They are also great cross-training/strength-training exercises for runners.  I get a lot of my at-home workouts from Pinterest, and I'm going to share some of my favorites with you today (these were created by other Pinners, not me). 

Most of them are short (15-30 mins) and can be easily modified to suit your needs.  Just decrease the number of reps suggested or do modified moves (ie. pushups on your knees instead of standard pushups).  For beginners who are unsure what some of the moves may be, I wish I could post photos of myself modeling them, but alas, I have no one to take pictures of me!  There are mirrors at my gym, so maybe one day I'll just go in and selfie a bunch of moves so I have personal stock photos for you?!  In the meantime, you'll have to Google/Youtube them, or just ask me. 

Without further ado, here are a few of my favorite go-to workouts (all of these can be found on my Pinterest "I Work Out" board):

Source/via Pinterest

 

 

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*Be careful - This one is more advanced*

 

 

If you're snowed in this weekend, or staying indoors because of the insane polar vortex, why not pick one of these and give it a try!

 

Also, I'd recommend you check out the FREE 7 Minute Workout app that I blogged about last year.  A couple of years ago, the American College of Sports Medicine came out with a study stating the benefits of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and published the specific 12 moves in this program to be a scientifically excellent workout. 

 

It is a Tabata style workout, in that you are performing moves at a high intensity for 30 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest (true Tabata is 20 secs on/10 secs off), and it is pretty intense and comprehensive.  I usually run through the circuit 3 times for a total of 21 mins of work and that's plenty, but you can start out just doing it once and it will be worth your time!  [There are a few of them in the App Store, but this is the one I use by Bytesize]

 



 

Well, that should be enough to keep you busy for the weekend!  I hope you all have a great one!

 



*Disclaimer:  I am not a personal trainer or medical professional; these are simply exercises I enjoy and recommend.  If you have medical or health concerns, please consult a professional before beginning any exercise program.*

 

 

Do you work out at home?

Ever done the 7 minute workout?

What are your weekend plans?!

What Next?

Source/via Pinterest

 

Oh this is indeed a question that keeps me up at night.  There are many iterations of this question for me, but presently I'm contemplating what to physically do with my body now that my goal race has come and gone.  Even though I didn't train extensively, it was still the focal point of the past couple months of my life and gave me something to look forward to.  After every big race is over, I usually cycle through a series of the same thoughts and feelings.  First, Yippee I did it!  Secondly, ugh, I could have done better.  (Is this healthy? Prob not, and a subject for another post.)  Third, ok time to relax.  Fourth, I'm bored.  Now what?!  I am already at Stage Four and in fact, landed there about last Wednesday, but I still took a few more days off (no running).  By this weekend I was feeling aimless and like I was resting on my laurels.  Coincidentally, this is a feeling that has been slowly seeping into my general life thoughts lately too.  But let's deal with one at a time here.

 

Physically, I was contemplating throwing another half into the mix later this Fall but now I'm not sure I want to remain in 'training' mode for the next couple months.  I kind of just want to run, simply for the enjoyment.  However, I do love racing because it gives me something to look forward to, and it's fun.  So I'm considering doing a few shorter distance races for the rest of the year (5K's or 10K's) since they require no training.  Well, truthfully I should have done some speed work this year, as opposed to the ZERO I've done at all, if I want to get faster, but there's also no harm in just running some turkey trots for fun! 

 

In addition, I'm looking to get stronger.  I haven't done much strength work lately.  When I was training for my race, my weekly workouts looked like this:

 

Running - 3x week

Weight lifting - 1x week

Cross training (biking, rowing, swimming, hiking, walking) - 2x week

Rest - 1x week

 

Only 1 day of strength/weight training a week is not going to make anyone stronger/faster.  I'm longing for that all over body soreness, can't-walk-the-next day feeling that I can only get from HIIT or boot camp type workouts.  I can't get that feeling from running or from regular workouts in the gym.  I want to challenge my body again in new ways so that I can build more strength and speed.  I really really liked the boot camp I did last winter at EA All Day Fitness.  Those were truly some of the most intense, hardest workouts I've ever had, and I really liked the instructor.  So, I'm thinking of contacting him to see if he has any deals going on right now and maybe I can get a month or two of training in with him.  If not, then I'll scour Groupon and see if I can find myself another boot camp  deal.  I usually seem to luck out on there!

 

Now for life plans.  Oh life, you are a wild and twisting path aren't you?  I recently read this post at Lifting Revolution, titled 'Would Your 20 Year Old Self Approve of You?' and it got me thinking, even further back than my 20 year old self, to what my hopes and dreams were as a younger child.  I am a Pisces after all (classic dreamer) and considering my current profession, believe there is value in honoring the dreams of children.  I don't think I ever had a clear path or 'aha' moment in knowing what I wanted to do with my life.  You know, how some people just seem to be struck with the concrete notion that they will become a doctor, or teacher, or circus professional, at a very young age, but I think I always had an idea about the kind of person I wanted to be, if that makes sense. 

 

The earliest memory I have of wanting be 'something' was in First Grade and I ardently wanted to be a nun!  Had to be the Catholic school upbringing, but I got a huge thrill wearing the homemade nun costume for Halloween her aunt made her that year.  And the next.  And possibly even a third year in a row?! I dk, I can't remember.  I can't really pinpoint when that dream ended but there are a few other things that I think are important about my early development that somehow got pushed aside in later years.  I was an early and avid reader as a young'un.  I devoured books of all kinds (Babysitters Club anyone?!) because once I learned to read, I found such enjoyment in it.  I also took a real interest in art by middle school and even took some lessons.  By high school, internal and external pressures pushed me to more academic pursuits and I became super studious.  I was a high achiever and honors student (despite my lowest grades always being in math, the bane of my existence!), but what strikes me about those years is I feel like I never had an end goal in sight other than to get good grades.  I couldn't see ahead as to what I was doing all of that work for.  Same thing in college.  I went back and forth on my major a few times.  First, thinking pre-med.  Then thinking teaching because I loved kids (I had been babysitting for a few years by then).  I ended up with a dual major in General Science and Elementary Ed.  Weird combo. 

 

Fast forward and somehow I ended up with a career in Finance.  WTH?!  I was never good at math, ever.  It was a constant struggle for me.  First warning sign right there that perhaps this career was not the best choice.  But, a stable career in a corporate environment is just what one does after college, right?!  Isn't that the formula for success.  Nada my friends.  Not at all.  So, that brings us to present day and I think the point I'm trying to make is that I need to go back to my roots.  To where my strengths and interests emerged from a very young age.  If I do that, I see that I long to be doing humanitarian work of some kind.  Nannying, check.  I also need a creative outlet.  Blogging check.  Now, it remains to be seen if either of these pursuits will sustain or satisfy me in the long term, however at least I know I'm on the right track (much more than the last 10 years of my life).  However, I still feel like there are several pieces missing and that is what I'm longing to put together. 

 

With the new season almost upon us, I feel like change is in the air and I have a feeling there is going to be movement on my part.  I am not a huge fan of Fall, because I know it leads to the worst season ever (you may call it Winter), but I do feel like it ushers in change.  I know if I really listen to my heart, it will point me in the right direction.  As long as I feel like I making a difference and an impact in the world, however small, whether that be caring for a child, helping people live healthier lives, or something entirely different (vegan bakery anyone?!) then I am living at least part of my purpose.  Where the future leads, I am still unsure, but the times they are a changin'.

 

Last Fall, in Baltimore

 

 

 

 

What do you do after you complete a big goal race? 

 

Are you living out the life your younger self thought you would?

 

 

 

 



 

Looking For A Fall Half

First off, I just wanted to say Thank You for all of your kind and encouraging words on my last post.  It took a lot of gumption and a big change of heart for me to stand up for myself, and then recap that entire string of events, and I wanted to put it out there for anyone else who's ever been in the same position.  The thing is, I'm realizing, is that I LET people take advantage of me far too often.  I give people the benefit of the doubt A LOT because I tend to think that most people will do the right thing, but it turns out that's just not the case many times.  No one is going to look out for you, but YOU.  Hard life lesson to suck down right there.  I don't think the world will ever turn this dreamer cold, and I'll probably always be the empathic, believer-in-all-that-is-good person but I realize I also need to make sure my needs are being met before trying to save the world :)

Now on to today's running business...

Source/via Pinterest

I'm currently looking for a fall half and open to suggestions.  When I take another peek at the running goals I set back in January [side note: how is it MID July right now?!], I see I've got some wins and some losses.  I had wanted to run 2 half marathons again this year, but the first couple months of 2014 were so hectic for me schedule-wise that I realized early on a Spring half was just not going to be a possibility.  In addition, I wanted to run some more short distance races this year, including my first 10K, which I did back in April, so Yippee on that one!  I've really enjoyed mixing up my workouts the first half of this year, and not having to train seriously for anything.  While running is always a constant for me, it was nice not having to stick to a strict schedule since 5K's and 10K's didn't really require any training (although I really should start doing some speed work!).  I also loved trying out some new workouts over the past several months like Barre and a new Boot camp.  I am a workout junkie so sign me up for pretty much anything and I'm like a kid in a candy store.

Case in point - This is how varied my workouts were last week:

Sunday - Rest
Monday - 2.5 mi walk (morning); 30 min interval bike workout/2000m rowing/5 min abs (evening)
Tuesday - 5K run
Wednesday -  2.5 mi walk (morning); upper and lower body strength training/5 min abs (evening)
Thursday - 5K run
Friday - 2 mi walk (morning); 1 hour swim/10 min sauna (evening)
Saturday - 1.5 hour hike

Although I am really enjoying running just for running's sake right now, I'm kind of getting the itch to run a longer distance race again.  Sooooooo, I've been prospecting fall halfs.  My sister, who just ran her first half marathon EVER in March, has signed up for her second!  She will be running the VIA Half Marathon back home in PA on Sept 7th.  I considered running this race with her for quite some time, but just felt I wouldn't be prepared for the early Sept race date, plus I honestly think the weather the weekend after Labor Day is just too hot for a half marathon!  I really don't feel like squeezing my 10, 11 and 12 miles runs into the last weeks of August, ie. 95 degree temps and 100% humidity here in Baltimore.  However, I did briefly reconsider again when I saw this race is advertised as the 2nd fastest course in the US?!! WHAT?! I hope my sister PR's like a beast.

September is also going to be a busy month for me, as I'll be planting myself in the Deep South later that month to help my other sister out with Baby #3!!!  Wheeeee!  So, I'm setting my sights on October for a fall race.  Although I'd absolutely love to make a trip out of it and go someplace new, I don't really have the funds for a destination race right now.  So, I'm searching for something within driving distance - MD/DC/VA/DE/PA/NJ/NY.  Wow, that's a lot of states.  Hahaha, there's gotta be some good races in there somewhere.  I've been checking out various half marathon calendars and am currently eyeing up the Hershey Half Marathon on October 19th (same weekend as the Runner's World Half & Festival, but I already ran that last year).  Has anyone ever run Hershey?  It seems like this may be a somewhat flat course which of course got my attention. 

I'm also (somewhat reluctantly) considering the Baltimore Half Marathon, which I've somehow avoided all of the past 10 years I've lived in this city because the HILLS...MY GOD, THE HILLS!  But, on the other hand, this just might be something I want to cross off my Baltimore bucket list before I move on...

And last but not least, I'm looking at the Philadelphia Half Marathon on November 23, because I've always wanted to run a race in Philly and have yet to do so.  However, Philadelphia weather at the end of November can be like running through the Arctic tundra.  Man, I am really such a baby about running weather - too hot, too cold.  MAKE UP YOUR MIND, BEAN!

So, there you have it.  Pretty solid plans we're looking at here: a race, probably in October, somewhere along the eastern seaboard.  Nothing like laying a solid foundation.

I would LOVE suggestions from anyone in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic area for a great fall half.  If you are doing one, let me know and maybe we can do one together! And if you've done any of the races I've mentioned above, I'd love your feedback on them to help narrow down my choices.


Running any fall races?  Where/What distance?

Boot Camp, Part Deux

I realized I haven't done a workout post in ages so I thought I'd update you all as to what I've been doing for exercise lately, other than chasing babies around all day.  As you may recall, at the end of last year, I joined a boot camp style workout studio for a month on a Groupon, and not only did I not die, but I loved it!  (Check out this post, and this one.)  The only problem was the monthly membership fee was not sustainable for me - same thing goes for CrossFit.  So I recently bought another Groupon for a month of boot camp at a different studio in the city, and have been attending Believer's Fitness Boot Camp in Mt Washington for the past month.  No surprise here, but I am of course LOVING it.  Here are my thoughts on the past month.

STUDIO:  The space is bigger than the last place I went but set up very similarly.  It's a big open warehouse type building.  The floor is artificial turf, and all the equipment we may need is lined up around the exterior so there is plenty of wide open space for all the running drills we do.

WORKOUTS:  Are 1 hour sessions and are different every single day - love this!  Much like my last boot camp experience, you never know what you're walking into on any given day and that excites me to no end! Hahaha, I can't wait to get to class to see what kind of torture we're in for :) 

There is a basic formula though.  Each class starts with a warm up that lasts about 10 mins.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the warm up board one day but they go something like this:

Run 2x (length of studio) at 25%
Skip 1x
Heel walk up/Toe walk back
Cradle walk 1x

Run 2x at 50%
Mountain climbers 25x
Arm circles 10x each arm
Jump squats 25x

Run 2x at 50%
Grapevine 1x
Side shuffle 1x
Lunge forward up/backward down

Run 4x at 75%

Then, we get into the meat of the night's workout.  All workouts are based around High Intensity Interval Training.  We would usually do 45 seconds work/15 seconds rest.  Sometimes the ratio would be 1 min work/15 sec rest.  Most of the time, the coach would set up stations around the gym with different exercises we would be doing, but sometimes we would just run back and forth across the room, stopping at either end to do the exercises.  The interval sessions usually lasted 25-30 mins and were intense! 

Exercises for each station included things like:  Plank variations; Squats, lunges and leg work with weighted medicine balls; High knees ladder running; Jumping over obstacles; Suspension cable leg and arm work; Free weight arm/leg work; Ab work on the ball; and much more.  This past Monday we spent the entire night sprinting and lunging back and forth across the room, stopping for a minute on each end to do either core work at one end, or arm and leg work with the weighted medicine ball at the other.

The night usually ended with some core work, followed by some stretching.

 

 

VERDICT:  Boot camp is my jam, for real.  Its basically the part I loved most from CrossFit and utilizes many of the same elements of CrossFit, except for the heavy lifting (which was my least fave part anyway!).  I love super high intensity workouts and I love that every day is different.  I literally feel like a kid walking into a candy store every night! 

 

I'm not sure if I would financially be able to swing a membership here either, plus my Nanny Family is moving next month, so the studio location will be much further out of the way, however, I'd like to see if there is some way I can continue boot camp sessions at some point on the regular. 

 

I've talked about the benefits of HIIT on here before and really do believe they enhance your performance - in terms of speed, strength and endurance - more effectively than doing solid state cardio or lifting.  I suppose I'm just going to have to continue buying up every Groupon in sight for every studio in the city of Baltimore!

 

As far as running, I've only been doing it 1-2 times a week in between these sessions (low mileage/3-5miles) and just realized last week I have a race on Sunday!  Eeeeeek....cue panic.  I'm running the Baltimore Women's Classic 5K this weekend which is always a good time (It's one of the largest female-only 5ks in the nation).  This is the race for which I coached a training group last summer.  I was going to coach again this year but just didn't have as much free time in the evenings.

 

I PR'ed my 5K time at last year's race, however I was doing speed work all summer with the training group at the track, and that obviously isn't the case this year!  So as far as time goes, I'm going to run until I feel like I'm about to die...and then just keep going until I see the finish line.  Isn't that what the 5K distance is all about?!  I'll let you know how it works out :)

 

Pinterest

I'm highly considering a pair for the race...

 

 

That's all I got for now.  Happy Thursday to you all!

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?

Do you incorporate HIIT into your training?

Is your 5K racing strategy similar to mine, ie. RUN TIL YOU DIE?!

Week in Review

Happy Friday!  I want thank you all for the birthday wishes on my last post!  All the messages were so sweet :)  I kind of went into my birthday feeling a bit meh about it, but I actually had a lovely birthday weekend and a really stellar week.  And I'll tell ya, now that I've been 35 for almost a full week, I feel incredibly older and wiser :/

Here's what's been going on in my life this week...


1.  I think my back is *almost* completely healed!  (I say almost because I don't want to jinx anything!).  I did a high intensity circuit workout that included burpees and pushups, and also lifted weights this week, including free weights for shoulders and tris.  These workouts definitely would not have been possible 2 weeks ago.  Dare I say, I'm BACK baby and I'm looooooooooving every minute of it!


2.  The city of Baltimore is being overrun by foxes.  No, not really.  BUT, the cutest little fox walked right past the window I was standing at at work the other day!  It was probably only 10 feet from where I was standing; I have never seen a fox up that close before.  It looked cute and snuggly and I wanted to take him home.  Do foxes and cats get along?  Prob not.  Oh well.

via morguefile.com

Not my photo - but it looked kind of like this.  SO CUTE!

 

 

3.  Grapes have approximately 5 calories each.  Who knew?  I found this out through an article on Facebook, which I can't locate at the moment.  Good info to know when you are eating the entire bag of approximately 200 grapes!  There goes breakfast and lunch.  I actually always felt like I was kind of on a sugar high when I would overeat grapes and this article stated that they are high in some simple sugar which is known to cause a quick spike in blood sugar. 

 

 

4.  Birthday sushi is the best sushi!

Instagram

 

 

5.  I am possibly one of the only people on the planet not obsessed with the missing plane.  I feel terrible for the families of the passengers aboard but I kinda think the entire world has gone crazy with these black hole/conspiracy/alien theories.  I also didn't learn until today that CNN has now devoted their entire newscast to 24/7 coverage of the plane mystery?!?!?!  How are we supposed to find out what else is going on in the world right now??

 

6.  4 year olds are incredible abstract artists.  Exhibit A: This painting done by my niece that I received in the mail this week, and is now proudly displayed on my refrigerator.

 

 

 

7.  Morningstar Farms black bean burger > Gardenburger black bean burger.  Like x1000.  I am addicted to the Morningstar Farms variety, and I legit had to throw out the Gardenburger ones.  They made me gag.

 

These are the best!

 

 



8.  And last but not least, SPRING IS HERE!!!  I really hope Old Man Winter got the memo and gets the heck out of Dodge.  Winter, if you're reading, you're no longer welcome here.  Move it along.

 

 

The combination of my birthday and Spring's arrival this week just made me feel happy and hopeful!  I hope you all had a wonderful week as well!

 

 

How was your week?  What went down??



 

 

 

 

 

Workouts Lately...and an avocado shortage?!

source

 

Since I don't have a Spring half marathon on the books, you may be wondering, 'What has our little Jilly been up to?'.  Or more likely, you have not, but I'm going to tell you anyway!

 

I'm still running, but I'm also doing lots of other kinds of workouts lately too.  Mother Nature has been throwing lots of tricks at runners this year (helloooo polar vortex), that have made it hard to get outside.  I do enjoy snow running now and then because it's so peaceful and serene when the snow starts falling, but lately there is just SO much packed snow and ice on the ground, it's been difficult and too dangerous to do much running outside.  I mean, lesson learned from these guys:

  

So, here's what I've been up to this week:

Sunday - Rest.  Traveling back from PA.

Monday - 20 min interval workout on the bike.  40 min upper/lower body weight lifting (machines and free weights)

Tuesday - Xtend Barre (1 hour class)

Wednesday - Got all the way to the gym, started undressing in the locker room and realized I DIDN'T PACK TIGHTS!  Since I believe my gym frowns upon working out in your underwear, I had to pack up and take my workout home.  I ended up doing this workout from Pinterest 3 times through (took about 30 mins) ... in my underwear.  You're welcome for that image.  #thisisprobablywhyi'msingle

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Thursday - 5K run outside.  In which I risked my life because 1 out of every 2 houses had not yet shoveled their sidewalk from winter storm #Pax, which let me remind you, was an ENTIRE week ago.  This run was more like an obstacle course.

 

Friday - 30 min interval workout on the Arc Trainer.  Followed by 10 mins of abs and stretching.

 

There you have it.  The most random workout mix up ever. What can I say, I like variety.  I get bored doing the same thing over and over (unless its running, because I'm kind of transported to another world sometimes when I'm running). 

 

In fact, last week I did a workout on the most awkward piece of cardio equipment at my gym - the StairMaster:

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You would think since I have been working out in gyms since I was about 15 (so going on 20 years now) I would have worked out on this machine millions of times by now.  You'd be wrong, and now I know why!  I did a 30 min workout on this thing and feared for my life every second.  I kept having the feeling that I was going to fall off the back.  I have very tiny elf-like feet (size 6.5) and they didn't even fit all the way on these stairs. I can't imagine how people with larger feet feel.  Do only your toes fit on the step?! Although I felt like I got a really good workout, I don't think this is a machine I will ever be going back to.  I think I will just climb the steps to my 3rd floor apartment for 30 mins next time.

 

And for the last piece of randomness here, I heard that the drought in California may cause an avocado shortage?!! Say it isn't so.  I am currently sitting here eating one now as I type this and praying for rain for you West Coasters (sorry runners). 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful week of workouts :)

 

 

 

What have you been up to this week? 

 

Has your running suffered this winter, or do you just take it to the treadmill?

 

Have you ever done the StairMaster at the gym!?

 

What will we do without avocados?!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



Bootcamp Wrap-up

My month-long membership at EA All Day Fitness is coming to an end; in fact, tomorrow will be my last workout!  The past four weeks have literally flown by.  I would venture to say that these workouts have probably been the most intense I've had to date and I'd say they were on par with the workouts I did last year during my month-long CrossFit trial in terms of intensity.   This experience has definitely proven to be one of my best Groupon purchases to date! 

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It's not often that I feel really challenged or pushed to my max during a workout; I guess mostly because I work out solo.  I guess I go too easy on myself!  The only class I take regularly at the gym is Body Pump and while it's a great strength training class and I occasionally up my weights, it's pretty much the same succession of moves every week and the level of high intensity bursts of activity is just not there.  When I run, I mostly run for distance, meaning I rarely (if ever) do speed training.  Now of course some runs are harder than others, depending on the day, terrain, etc, and I do push my pace on occasion but again, I'm not sprinting and I'm not carrying around any weights with me so there's no resistance training there.  When I swim, I swim for time.  I'll usually tack on some sprints at the end of the workout but I'm not sprinting the entire time.  On the other hand, I've definitely maxed out several times during the past month at some of these boot camp workouts, but in a good way.  I think the combination of the instructor's enthusiasm and support throughout, plus the team atmosphere in the studio, allowed me to give just a little bit more than I probably would on my own. 

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In addition to being challenged, I've also learned some new moves and picked up a lot of ideas that I can incorporate into my own workouts going forward.  To give you an idea, here is the basic framework for each hour long workout session:

- Most sessions would start off with a 10 minute dynamic warm up that consisted of 60 seconds each of 8-10 different exercises including:  plank, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, running in place, high knees, inchworm to cobra, among others.  The warm up would also sometimes include an 800 meter run.

- After the warm up we'd get into the circuit for the evening.  Sometimes we would do the whole circuit for 45 mins, sometimes there would be 2 or 3 different circuits that we would rotate between for the duration of class. 

- The circuits were pretty much anything our trainer could come up with!  One class we had to go through this obstacle course for 45 mins straight:  Several box jumps in a row, 15 burpees, jumping over low hurdles with a band around our feet all the way across the studio, plank-walking under a series of high hurdles back across the studio and then long jumps all the way back across again - over and over again!  That one nearly killed me.  I could run 5 miles in 45 mins and not feel even remotely as wiped as I did in 20 mins of doing that crazy man course!

- If the weather was decent, sometimes he'd take the workout outdoors for the day.  One night we did a partner workout.  We had to run 400m across the parking lot, then each do 10 burpees over each other while our partner held a plank.  Then we had to run 600m back across the parking lot and do 20 partner push ups (clap hands with your partner in between).  After those, we ran down to a tire flipping station where we had to flip monster 80lb tires about 20 times before moving onto the final station which was holding 45lbs in each hand and walking 100m each!  Phew.  My partner was pretty awesome though so we kept each other motivated.  And even though I was freezing when we stepped outside, about 2.5 mins later I was sweating like crazy. 

- Some other moves we did throughout our workouts this month:  one legged burpees (try them!), using 30lb sandbags to run stairs, suspension cables for arm workouts (pull-ups, curls), squat thrusts, wall sits with weighted medicine balls (kill me). 

It would be impossible to recap everything I've done over the month, but I hope this gives you a good idea what the workouts were all about and what I've been up to for the past month.  The workouts were varied, intense, and fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it!  Almost...

True story.

 

I would consider myself to have a fairly high fitness level at this point, and the studio instructor actually said the same to me one night, however, he mentioned that at this point it's more about getting stronger and faster for me.  He works with people of all fitness levels, from those just starting out to athletes trying to improve their performance, and these boot camp workouts can be scaled for people at every level.  I want to condition myself and my body not just to benefit my running, but because I want to reach a bit higher and see what else my body can do.  I want to see how lean and strong I really can become. 

I'd really love if I could continue on with this studio, even if it's just a couple of days a week between running and other workouts, however I think just like CrossFit the cost is going to be much too prohibitive!  If I purchase a few basic items I could probably do some of the workouts at home.  If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd really love to spend it conditioning my body, however that will probably never be the case for me, or most people.  Between work, family obligations and life in general, most people can't devote hours to working out.  But I think if you do an hour or even a half hour of super high intensity workouts like this a few days a week, you can see pretty incredible results.  Just like this guy:

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Your turn!

 

What's the last workout you really enjoyed?

 

What do you do for cross-training?

 

Have you ever done boot camp style workouts?