Great way to end the week

Happy 3 day weekend readers!

 

Sorry for being MIA this whole week, things got a little crazy and I am finally able to relax and feel all caught up! I am pretty excited for this weekend because not only is it a 3 day weekend, but I am hosting my best friend, Tori's, bridal shower tomorrow!

 

I started out today with a 20 minute warm up on the stair master before moving on to an arm workout:

My arms were screaming after this!

 

Next up, I did a quick ab set:

10 jackknife sit ups

25 Russian twists with dumbbell

10 weighted sit ups

30 crunches

20 weighted oblique crunches

:45 second plank

20 hip twist in plank

25 Russian twists with dumbbell

30 vertical leg crunches

10 weighted sit ups

 

I then finished with 50 squats on the smith machine.

 

Good night!

 

 

 

Girls on the Run!

Good evening friends, everyone geared up for another week?

 

My weekend started by doing an 11 mile run on Saturday. My legs took a bit to warm up but I was glad that I kept a good strong pace for the whole run! I am keeping my fingers crossed for a PR but don't want to jinx anything (*knock on wood!*) because training and race day are two different experiences! This weekend will be the final long distance run of my training, the 12 miles! After that, I will taper back the mileage till the run! The training for this half has come by a lot faster than my first half! 19 days!

 

Girls on the Run!

 

Today I had a New Coaches meeting/training for the program, Girls on the Run! Girls on the Run is a nonprofit girls running program for girls in grades 3rd-8th grade. GOTR teaches life lessons as well as the importance of physical activity! I am very excited to be helping out with this program 2x a week come September! I will posting updates of my group on this blog when we start, as we work for our final goal: a 5k in November sponsored by Girls on the Run!

 



A new functional workout//French sandwich

It's almost the weekend people, keep your heads up!!

 

Today's workout was a new functional workout that I found off of my favorite blogger. I did 2 rounds of this after a warm up on the elliptical:

 

I have really been feeling my workouts this week, and not just in one area but all over. Tomorrow will be a nice break before I run the 11 miles on Saturday!

 

Dinner

I have been on a recipe frenzy lately and tonight's dinner was a basic recipe I've wanted to try for awhile: French sandwich! It was so delicious....and easy to make!

 

Ingredients:

French bread

mozzarella

tomatoes

pesto

olive oil

 

Put the mozzarella, tomatoes, and pesto in between two slices of French bread, drizzle with olive oil and grill!

Mixing it up Monday and crockpot recipe!

Good evening readers!

 

I just got done eating a yummy dinner that I made in the crockpot: Fire Roasted Tomato Chicken . I put everything in the crockpot this morning before work and then served it over no yolk egg noodles tonight. It was very hearty and yummy!

 

 

Back track to yesterday's workout (today's was just a run):

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I got to the gym yesterday. It was a rainy Monday so I was dragging once I got to the gym. I got on the elliptical to do a 20 minute warm up then chose to do a leg workout. Even though I run, I still like to do leg strengthen exercises to help strengthen them and prevent any injuries, especially knees. During my half back in February, my knee started really bothering me around mile 9, which led to me slowing down a lot for 2 miles. I don't want that to happen again.

 

I did 3x15 leg press on the machine where you are laying down and literally pushing your legs up...90 pounds.

2x25 walking lunges with weights

3x20 calf raises with weights

3x20 leg curls

50 single leg deadlifts with 25 pound weight, each leg.

 

I was also feeling this in my booty afterwards ;) 

 

Next up was abs:

:35 plank

5 side plank dips each side

20 crunches

15 vertical leg crunches

:15 cobra stretch

:40 plank

40 Russian Twists

10 jackknife sit ups

30 bicycles

:30 side plank each side

 

I then finished out with some various back and arm quick exercises, gotta work on that posture! :)



10 mile run

Happy Saturday!

 

Today's run was the 10 mile run for my training program. 27 days till the half! I was so glad to see that the weather today was going to be in the 60s so I wouldn't feel the need to wake up and run before the heat! I slept in, had my pre-race peanut butter  & toast, charged my Garmin forerunner and updated my ipod, and figured out my route before heading out!

 

 

There were parts during my run where I was just feeling....blah. I tried to just stay focused on looking ahead and getting into the music and my "world" (what I call when I start to daydream while running). It wasn't until around mile 5..after I almost stepped in a hole, which would have been a bit disastrous, that I was really able to get into a rhyme. The one good(&bad) thing about where I live are the hills!! I pretty much run on hills, gradual or steep, most of the time, so that comes to my advantage on race days when there is usually 1 or 2 big hills. The bad part  though is that, duh, they are hills! Talk about tiring your legs!

 

By the time I finished, I was a bit hungry (seeing it had been a few hours and good amount of calories burned since my toast!) so I went into a café and got a Pineapple Paradise smoothie and a breakfast sandwich!  I had drank all of my water by mile 8 so I was quite thirsty and the smoothie hit the spot! I always try to re-fuel myself after a long run because of the amount of calories I burned, mainly so I don't start to feel shaky or sick! After my Disney half, I didn't eat right after because I was still taking everything all in and calling my parents. My mom immediately said "eat something or you'll start to get shaky".  

 

Caroline leaves for college tomorrow so we are helping her pack (really go through all of her clothes)! I still can't believe my baby sister is going to be a college girl! :(

 



5 mile run with a splash of a sorority sister

Happy beautiful Wednesday everyone!!!

 

Today's weather was the perfect weather for getting out and doing something!! Running, walking, biking, or just sitting on your porch and reading! Weather like this makes me so happy :)

 

After having a case of the Runners Blues yesterday when I threw in the towel after a mile (ok, it also looked like it was about to pour any second), I was hoping to feel much better today.

 

About a mile and a half in, a car drove by me and the driver was waving like crazy. Not being able to recognize who it was in the split second I had seen them, I figured it was just a family friend. However, when I turned around to look at the car again, I immediately recognized it as one of my sorority sisters, Rebecca! Ah,  the joys of college and sorority bumper stickers ;) I waved back, but at that point, she had gone over the hill, so I kept running. I stopped a little further up to fix my hair (worst thing ever to happen while running), when who comes flying down the road, Rebecca!! She had turned around to catch up with me, wanting to join me on my run! We ended up running just about 2 miles while talking away What else do you expect out of girls?! ;)

 

After we got back to Rebecca's car, I ran the 2 miles back to the gym, running a total of 5 miles. I plan on resting my legs the next two days before running 10 miles on Saturday! Today marks 1 month until my half!

 

I finished today's workout with a quick round of  Super Sweaty Abs

 

 

Body Remix

The Monday after a 2 week break and a wedding should be considered a day off right? I'm sure I'm not the only one who was on struggle bus this morning!

After 3 days off from exercising (though standing all day and night in heels and dancing does count!!), I was ready to hit the gym after work today!

I started out with 20 minutes on the elliptical (5 mins forward, 5 mins back) before heading to the aerobics room to do a 30 minute Nike Training Club workout called Body Remix.

1 minute back pedal

2 minutes slide and glide

2 minutes light jog

1 minute recover

1 minute burpee to shoulder press

1 minute push ups with feet on medicine ball (I nixed the medicine ball)

1 minute plank row to rotation

1 minute ski jumps

2 minutes basketball lunge with medicine ball

2 minutes squat arm curls

2 minutes bunny hops with medicine ball (also nixed the medicine ball)

1 minute bicycles

1 minute toe touches

1 minute kick downs

1 minute push up to frogger

2 minute single leg deadlift dumbbell row

1 minute medicine ball triceps push up (also nixed the medicine ball)

1 minute alternating forward lunge to shoulder press

:30 seconds mountain climbers

:30 second knee tucks

2 minutes each of standing hamstring stretch, pretzel stretch, and lying quad stretch.

 

**I recommend watching videos of any exercise you don't know before starting this. That way you don't have to pause in the middle of your workout to figure it out!



Cardio sandwich!

Hello everyone!

 

Today's post is actually going to be a recap of yesterday's workout because I never got around to doing it! Yesterday was an off day for my training schedule so I like to do lots of cardio on those days to help keep my heart rate going (a good practice for running long distance).

 

First up was 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by the following set 3 times:

I then finished the workout by doing 20 minutes on the stairmaster.

 

 

 

 

Arms & Abs superset

Something I've learned when getting into running, especially long distance, is that having strong arms and abs (core) helps! I have always tried to get an equal balance on working out each body part, but I've really gotten into habit of doing arms or abs after a run.

Having a strong core really helps with running because it helps keep your body balanced and proper balance for running. Having strong arms helps when your legs are dying. It may sound silly but when  I did my triathlon last year, my legs were shot towards the end when I still had half a mile to run uphill. A spectator on the side yelled out "Hey #35, use your arms!!" Realizing he was yelling to me, I really started swinging my arms and I could feel the pressure coming off of my legs . It may sound cheesy but its very helpful!

Today's Workout

After my 4 mile run this morning, I did the following Arms & Abs workout. The only change I made was instead of suicide planks, I did planks.

 

I have attached videos below to some of the workouts to help show what they look like!

 Bent Over Rows

Plank Knee Tucks

A "Glee-ful" Run!

As you can see in the title, today's run was a bit gleeful....as in the show 'Glee'!

 

Today's run was 8 miles (41 days till the half!) and I've been starting to get a bit bored with some of my music and knew for my run today, I'd want to mix things up a bit to keep me focused...especially since I was running at 7am (yep...it's a Saturday and my break....)! I have most of the Glee songs on my ipod (shout out to all my fellow Gleeks out there) and it made my running much more enjoyable, kept me in an energetic, bouncing mood.

 

Question: Any workout/running music suggestions?!

After my run, I had a quick turn around before meeting up with Tori to go to her dress fitting (69 days till she gets married!) After a quick shower, I stopped by a café to grab a post-run mango smoothie and apple cinnamon muffin. It hit the spot after the run.

My legs didn't start getting sore until we were at the fitting so once I got home, I immediately started icing them.

 

Hope everyone has a relaxing Saturday! :)

Arm pyramid and ab Xfit

Good evening greeters!

The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind thanks to my car breaking down on my way back from Ben's yesterday. So instead of waking up and getting in a morning run, my dad and i spent it driving back to the shop where I had to leave my car to pick it back up...almost an hour and a half away. So after a 3 hour round trip, I was ready to work out!

I ran 4 miles for my training schedule  which felt more I was running through soup because at 2, it became very humid out, wishing I could've been able to go run this morning when it was cooler!

I wanted to do abs and arms after my run today and did the following ab set first, then arms:

I was pretty tired after this but didn't feel quite ready to throw in the towel so decided to do 50 squats on the squat machine with 25 lbs. I didn't want too much pressure on my legs before my 8 mile run Saturday.