2013 Fitness Highlight Reel

After a 6 week stretch of no blogging, I'm back! For the sake of time, I'm going to highlight the biggest events of the past month and a half and answer the most FAQ's from my friends and co-workers...

What happened to Insanity? I tried my best, I really did. But as I've mentioned before, trying to tackle an Insanity workout 4-5 days per week, plus Mini training, plus that other thing called my JOB where I teach classes all week did not work out. After dealing with a lot of lower back pain, multiple colds, and a constant feeling of exhaustion, I had to give Insanity up completely. Chad, however, kept at it at least 4 days per week and saw great results. He didn't lose many pounds, but his percent body fat, overall appearance and stamina really improved for just a 60-day time span. I would like to incorporate one Insanity video per week into my workout schedule--on a day where I'm not already teaching spin class or doing a long run. You're always guaranteed to get a great, hardcore workout, and we all need someone like Shaun T telling us what to do every now and then for a good kick in the butt!

Did the weather during Mini training ever improve? Short answer: no. On our 11 mile run, starting at mile 2, we had a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning. Although the rain cleared off into occasional light sprinkles after that, we were drenched for the entire run. Like clothes sticking, shoes sloshing, WET. Surprisingly, bad weather aside, the 9, 10 and 11 mile runs were all great ones for me--comfortable pace, felt good on my body and the time always seemed to fly by each week.

Then, something called vacation happened. And not just any vacation, but an international trip to Paris where my total time off work (and exercise) spanned 12 days. I returned to work on April 24th: the night of our 12 mile run. It was a day where we had a late April cold snap, but at that point, we were all used to running in frigid weather, so the low 40's didn't feel so bad. I had only intended to try to do around 8 miles, but at 8 I still felt fine, so I just kept making deals with myself: get to 9, then you can have your gel pack as a treat, get to 10, then leave the group if you need to. Then, once I made it past 10, there was no turning back, because my only choice was to keep running to get back to our starting point where my car was. It wasn't pretty towards the end, and my legs felt like concrete, but I ran the whole 12.67 miles that night (the person who mapped our route underestimated the mileage a bit.....).

As luck would have it, for our very last training run before the Mini, the temp was in the 80's and humid. Even though it was just 3 miles for taper week, it was the only run where I actually had to stop to walk a couple times because I thought I was going to get sick. Just when you think you're well-trained, throw in one tiny element like weather you're not used to, and you feel like such a weakling!

So, how did the Mini go? The race went well--I felt good the whole time, I had 2 friends from work that I ran the race with, and I was happy with my finish time. It was my second-to-worst time ever for a half-marathon...2:06. But I'm not disappointed, because with the slower pace that I had been training at (9:30), the way my last few runs had gone, and my overall attitude this year of not really wanting to run the Mini in the first place, I knew there was no way I was going to break 2 hours. So, that automatically made it my worst time ever, since the only time I've been over 2 hours was my very first Mini when I finished in 2:15. But, not every year can be a PR. To finish and to run all 13.1 is an accomplishment any day! This is the headband I bought for the Mini, which pretty much sums up my feelings this year.



What is Jillian Michaels like in person? Yes, one of my life-long dreams to see Jillian Michaels was finally realized. Between that and going to Paris, I can now die happy. (I'm just slightly exaggerating.) She is pretty much the same on-stage speaking as she is on Biggest Loser. Not quite as mean, but not exactly someone you would call lovable. But the woman speaks the truth, and is pretty comical on-stage too. This was her Maximize Your Life tour, so I didn't really know what to expect, nor did I really care what she talked about, as long as I got to be in the same room as her. It turned out to be a 2.5 hour session where she spent the first half talking about all the nutrition and exercise basics (sort of like sitting in a college class for me) and then saving the second half for her motivational speech about getting out of ruts and obstacles to realize the life we all deserve. Most of what she said about nutrition dealt with not eating "poison." Instead of stressing what types of food groups to eat, it was about eating on a scale of 1-10 where ones are "superfoods" (blueberries, almonds, spinach, salmon, etc.) and tens are absolute junk like soda and donuts. So, the goal is eating more 1-5 foods, and avoiding eating chemicals in your meats, dairy and produce. Here are the lists that she left us with. I will be writing another post shortly about my stance on organic, but for now, here are Jillian's lists for produce shopping:

What Half-Marathon Training is Like in Indiana

We Hoosiers complain about it all the time...the weather. It's too cold (like wind chill of -20 this past January) or it's too hot (100+ degrees last summer). So I'm not going to bore everyone by complaining about the weather again. What I AM going to complain about is the fact that in the past 3 months, the snow and/or freezing temps always choose to arrive on Wednesday. It's like the curse of nasty-weather Wednesdays. Which is unfortunate for me and my co-workers, because that is the night of our Mini Marathon training. Let's take a look at my "weather journal" for the past 9 Wednesdays:

1/30: 3 mile run. Alternating between snow and rain, with wind so hard that when the snow hits your face, our participants described it as microdermabrasion.
2/6: 4 mile run. Just plain cold.
2/13: 5 mile run. Just plain cold.
2/20: 6 mile run. The day's high temp was in the 20's. SO incredibly cold that I could not feel my legs, fingers, lips or eyeballs. Until I got back inside and everything thawed out and BURNED.
2/27: 7 mile run. Warmer (30's! Woo!) but with a constant downpour of huge, heavy snowflakes that blew in our faces the entire time no matter if we were down-wind or up-wind. By far the most soaked I've ever been after a run.
3/6: 4 mile run. The day after a big snowfall, so although it was not falling during the run, we were running ON snow and ice patches.
3/13: 8 mile run. Just plain cold.
3/20: 9 mile run. Temp is currently 31--highest it's been all day--and windy. What I can only expect will be another miserably cold, numb run.

At this point, I would just be happy with high 40's or any temperature that eliminates the need for my hat, gloves and thermal fleece vest.

And, because it's Indiana, this date last year was 85 degrees...which I would not have wanted to run 9 miles in either....

How Much Exercise is Too Much?

Ok, I finally admit it. Agreeing to do Insanity every morning with Chad before work was a bad idea. I'm still mustering up as much energy as I can each day to exercise with him for the accountability and encouragement, but speaking for my own fitness and health, it's really NOT working out. To think that I could do Insanity 5x/week, combined with Mini-Marathon training 3x/week and Jillian Michaels' Hot Bod in a Box 1x/week (this month's boot camp series) on TOP of teaching my group fitness classes was really overestimating the strength of one human body.

I've started to live in a constant state of lower back and hip pain/tightness from the sudden increase in running and then all of the up/down, bending over cardio in Insanity (things like burpees, ski abs, hit the floor drills, etc). I've been suspect to IT band sydrome in the past with running, and now with the overload on my muscles, I can feel major issues coming on in my left hip. As for my low back, the only time it's comfortable is either when I'm stretching it or when I'm sitting in my car with the heated leather seats on full-blast. Every time I stand up from my office chair, I have to hobble around until my back loosens up enough to stand up straight and walk normally. My saving grace has become yoga, foam rolling and weekly visits with the guys at CHAMP Chiropractic and our massage therapist Beth Weaver.

For the "Recovery Week" in between months 1 and 2 of Insanity, I did just that--recovered by NOT doing any of the videos. (Because of course I still had my weekly runs and classes.) Shaun T's definition of recovery is not at ALL the same as mine. You still do many of the same cardio drills but at a "slower" pace. Chad successfully completed all 5 days of recovery, and we're now into the first week of month 2. After Mon-Tues of incredibly hard Insanity videos (oh yeah, they're 60 minutes now instead of 40), I took Wed-Thurs off and made Chad go it alone. We will get in the 5th workout tomorrow (Saturday) since it dawned on us that we both are free--so why get up early and work out Friday morning if we can on Saturday around 11?!

I have to realize I'm not an Olympic athlete in training. While I would like to say that I completed the entire series of Insantiy, it's not looking like a feasible or wise choice. Training for the Mini has to be one of my top priorities this year, since I'm leading a pace group each week. I can't get injured this early into the training when we're only up to 6 miles. I'm still struggling to figure out how many Insanity workouts per week I can realisitcally do, and also which days.

As fitness professionals, we always preach listening to your body. But when our own bodies tell us to stop or slow down, we aren't as compliant.

Insanity Week 3 Updates

We're on week three of Insanity now. My body has at least adjusted to the early mornings--I now wake up between 6:30-7 (instead of my usual 8:00), even on days where we don't have to do the workouts. We've been finding oursevles going to bed around 9:30pm and being more conscious of what we eat for dinner, because you have to think about how it's going to feel in your stomach when you're jumping around doing a plyo workout the next morning. Chad and I have both gotten colds/fevers since starting Insanity, but that's hard to say yet if it's just because flu season germs are still going around, or if it's because our bodies are so exhausted.

The workouts themselves don't get easier; I think your body just gets more used to them. You can always go faster or harder to match the speed they are going at on the video, so as your fitness level improves on each workout, you can work harder and still be just as tired as you were in week one. Each day we do a video, we'll say "THIS is the hardest one." But we've narrowed it down to the Plyometric Cardio Circuits as the hardest/worst one, with Pure Cardio as a close second!

I have to say, I'm not a fan of a lot of the body positions Shuan T has you in. For instance, when you're doing hamstring and hip flexor stretches, he has you keep your arms straight out away from your body while you bend down. The first few days of the workout, I started having low back pain, and once I stopped holding my arms out the whole time, it got better. When I got my YogaFit certification, that was one of the BIG no-no's: having someone bend down with their arms straight out. It's usually recommended that you would do what's called a "swan dive" and bring the arms out to the sides of your body as you lower down for less strain, (i.e. shortening the lever).

I'm also not a fan of his Cardio Abs workout for that same reason: uncomfortable body positions. By the end of the 10-minute ab workout, I'm feeling it in my tailbone and hips because he has you sit in "C shape" the entire time (see below). Again, that was something we were taught as group fitness instructors; you can't have someone in the same body position for more than just a couple minutes, otherwise you start feeling the workouts in places like bones/joints, not the intended muscles.

What I do really like about Shaun T's style is his constant focus on form and the core. If we're doing high knees, he keeps stressing using your abs to pull up. His constant reminders make you focus on the whole body, not just "getting ripped" like you might expect from his personality and appearance. I treat core the same way when I instruct people--for example, even if you're doing a shoulder press, your abs should be engaged so the spine stays straight and the back doesn't arch. Constant attention and engagement of the core practically eliminates the need for standard crunches and traditional ab workouts.

That's my "review" so far. Still have to see what the dreaded month 2 brings...

NIFS Mini Marathon Training

This year, my Mini-Marathon training is going to take a different twist. Instead of just training alone, I'm going to be one of the pace group leaders for the NIFS Mini-Marathon Training Program. They host these trainings on Wednesday nights starting Jan. 23, at two locations: downtown at NIFS and in Carmel at Cherry Tree Elementary. I will be at the Carmel location leading the 9 min/mile pace group.

There are still spots available, so if you think you might want some added help in improving your finish time, or just want the company for the long runs, sign up!! Not only does the registration fee cover your training runs, but it also includes a post-race celebration dinner at Maggiano's!

I have to admit--I'm  a little nervous about running in the snow, if it should come to that. I generally don't start my Mini training until March, and by that time, all the snow has cleared out. I'm a wimp about running in snow, so my biggest fear is slipping and falling on a patch of ice and making a fool of myself in front of my entire pace group! :/

Digging Deep in 2013

When I logged onto my blog today, I realized that my last post has been almost a month ago! My apologies! I'm sure you've all been as busy (or sick with the flu) as I have this holiday season.

So, now that the holidays are over, and sadly, so is the Colts' season, what's next? Well, I think I might be officially insane. It's full-swing back to work for January with all the New Year's resolutioners demanding high-intensity classes, then Mini Marathon training begins on Jan. 30th (more about that in a later post), and to top it off, I have decided to support my husband in his weight loss/health goals by completing the next 60 days of Insanity with him. Yep, insane.

So, my weekly workout schedule is now looking like this (and this is eliminating ALL of my normal workouts aside from the classes I have to teach for my job):

Monday: Morning Insanity workout; 1-hour spin class at lunch; 45-min yoga class at evening
Tuesday: Morning Insanity workout; 1-hour core/BOSU/stability ball class at lunch
Wednesday: Morning Insanity workout; 30-min yoga class at lunch; mini training long run at evening
Thursday: Morning Insanity workout; evening Boot Camp
Friday: Morning Insanity workout (finally...only 1 workout per day!!)
Saturday: Rest or short run or yoga
Sunday: Rest

(We elected not to do the Saturday workouts like the Insanity schedule dictates, in order to avoid burnout. So, although we are completing all 60 days of workouts, it will take us longer than the 9 weeks to finish.)

And, honestly, I should be squeezing in a couple more short runs. Because although I'm doing a crazy amount of exercise, when you don't train specifically for something like an endurance race, you don't have as much success. So, why did I do it at all, you're asking? First and foremost, I'm resolved to do anything and everything to support Chad in his 35-pound weight loss goal. Insanity was his idea (he completed 3/4 of the series a couple summers ago), and he made it clear that I didn't have to do them with him. But, I know how I would feel if I had to get up for an early morning workout while my spouse was still cuddled up in bed. I realize that even though Chad knows how healthy I am, I can't talk the talk at work and not walk the walk at home.

Secondly, I'm doing it out of pure curiosity. I've always made fun of people who get on bandwagons like P90X and Insanity, like they think it's going to be some miracle worker, when just regular exercise and diet could have helped them all along. And, I'll still feel that way. But at least now I'll know exactly what the workouts entail, have more educated answers when people ask about the program, and I'll see how the intensity stacks up to my own boot camps--new ideas! :)

Last night we took our "before" pictures (apparently if you send in B&A pics, you get a free Insanity t-shirt...wooo), we have the training schedule posted in our kitchen like some sort of tacky decor, and we knocked out the first workout this morning. I'll definitely keep posting about how the 60 days are going!

I have a feeling my coffee intake will be on the rise....

Unveiling Our New Home Gym!

When we moved into our house last summer, we had several ideas for this small, extra room off of our basement: possibly an office, possibly a music room for Chad's drums and guitars, or perhaps a small gym? A year later, we had still done nothing with the room, but we had a strong inkling that there was mold behind the wall, so at the bare minimum, we had to rip out the drywall and insulation and scrape/clean any mold we found. And boy, did we find mold:

 

After cleaning up the insulation and ridding the room of all mold, this is what it looked like. We left it with all the ceiling tiles and drywall still in the floor, unmotivated to do anything else with the room once we at least knew that it was mold-free.

Then, almost out of the blue, Chad decided to jump on my dream of having a home gym. While I had always wanted some workout equipemnt for the house, I knew the chances of me using it often would be slim--I exercise at work Mon-Fri and I like the save the weekends for runs/walks with Charlie. But, Chad realized that if the equipment was available at home, he would be more likely to use it and workout hard, plus we could cancel his membership at LA Fitness, saving that money. Once he had the idea, we moved quickly. In 2 hours, the room went from the above picture to this one, all cleaned and swept:

Then, thanks to a whole day of devoted work and equipment-purchasing by Chad and our friend Drew, this is what the room became less than 24 hours later!

All I had to do was add my finishing touches to the "ambience" of the room, and it was set! It turned into my perfect idea of creating a small, industrial-looking space into a gym with everything you need for a great workout!

The only con of a home gym is that my husband now thinks it's acceptable to workout in an undershirt, paint-stained shorts, and tall black socks..... :)