Inspired to Blog

On days like today, when I had a really good workout, I get inspired to get back into this blog.  It really couldn’t be a better time for it, because I just started a training program with AGTri Coach Mike Galvan to get ready for the Mighty Hamptons Tri in September.  I’m excited to actually properly train for an Olympic tri this time around.  I think the most notable things are that I’ll actually be doing some bike and brick workouts (my first brick workout was this past Wednesday, which was REALLY tough) and receiving consistent and good swim instruction, which I really need.  I’ll also be accountable to someone for my tri-specific workouts, so I won’t be able to wake up in the morning, decide I don’t want to swim or bike and go to bootcamp instead.  Hopefully I’ll be able to document my weekly workouts on here instead of falling off the blogging wagon like I’ve been consistently doing…oh you know, since I started blogging.

Consistent tri-specific training requires that I cut down on bootcamp a bit (which makes me sad b/c I’m obsessed), but for at least the next month, I plan to go 3 times a week on Monday and Friday mornings, and Wednesday evenings.  I used to only go to morning bootcamp at 6:30 am but now I’ve kinda gotten into the 7:30 am class.  The extra hour of sleep is wonderful and given all the training I’m doing outside of bootcamp, I haven’t been running down there so I don’t need to get in early enough so I have time to get all the way home and shower/change etc.  Plus one of the girls in 7:30 am is super fast and I figure if I spend my time chasing her, eventually I will get super fast too.

Today’s 7:30 am class was a killer.  We didn’t do a ton of running, which is fine because since Monday, I ran 3 times plus during my brick workout.  We did however, do a TON of strength and core.  Some of the highlights:  

We did 4 sets of 25 pushups with 4 laps between each set, which sounded totally okay until I realized that added up to 100 pushups.  On set 3, I tried to drop to my knees because my arms and pecs were tired, but of course Alex gave me crap for it, so that plan was foiled.  We also did sets of 50 situps with Russian twists and sets of 40 throwdowns where you open and your close your legs at the bottom.  Those always hurt like a mofo for me.  My legs are too heavy to be throwing around.  One other thing we did was jumping pull-ups.  Basically you jump onto the monkey bars and pull yourself up over the top of the bar, with an underhand grip.  These had to be my absolute LEAST favorite exercise for the longest time.  I just couldn’t pull myself up to save my life.  Now, I can consistently get my chin up over the bar and lower myself down slowly.  Doing the exercises that were impossible when I started at bootcamp (even though freaking hard still) really make me feel like I’ve accomplished a lot since I started at warrior 1.5 years ago.  

Tonight I have a swim workout at 8pm with Coach Mike.  Swimming is by far my worst sport and sometimes I feel like there’s no hope for me to get better.  But I have come a long way---I feel much more comfortable in the water, and like my stroke actually moves me through the water instead of struggling with each pool length.  So I’m trying to trust Coach Mike when he says that I’ll continue to improve with more practice and instruction.  Fingers crossed.

Till next time.

Today's Workout is Brought to You by the Number 55

May 2.  Day 2 of the WFBC consistency challenge.  I had a pretty good day for eating yesterday except for a slice of red velvet cake placed in front of me during the dinner I attended.  I COULD NOT resist.  I'm really into baking and my red velvet cake recipe is allegedly the Waldorf Astoria red velvet cake recipe, so I wanted to see if it tasted the same as mine.  I mean, that qualifies as a good reason to eat cake....right? 

Anyway, this morning I struggled out of bed this morning to run (literally, not figuratively) down to bootcamp.  It takes only about 5 minutes longer to run to bootcamp than it does to take the subway, which is kind of ridiculous given that it's 3 miles from my apartment.  It's a perfect distance for a "warm up" for bootcamp. Little did I know that I probably didn't need the extra running/warm-up today.  Today was Fred (one of the 6:30 am bootcampers)'s 55th birthday.  Needless to say, 55 was the number of the day in class.  55 pushups.  55 jumping jacks.  55 squat jumps.  55 squat thrusts.  55 curls.  55 presses.  EVEN 55 LAPS! (which comes out to almost 2 miles).  At least Alex broke the laps into about 7 laps at a time.  Basically we'd do 55 of another exercise, and then we'd have to do 7 laps.  I was DYING!  In particular, my quads were screaming.  I still think they are unhappy from all the cycling I did last week.

Fred is a rockstar and I hope that when I turn 55 I'm half as fit as he is.  He's probably one of the most consistent bootcampers in the 6:30 am class and does not SLACK.  He works hard every day.  It' s inspiring to be around such committed athletes. 

Just 2 more days of bootcamp this week till I get my free class for week one of May!  Woohoo!


Today's Workout:

3 mile run
1 hour of bootcamp

Consistency Month with Warrior Fitness Bootcamp

So, to prepare us for the summer, the boys at Warrior Fitness Bootcamp have made May Consistency Month.  Basically, for every week in May we go to class 4 times, we get a free class.  Also, if you lose 5, 10, or 15 lbs, you can earn 2, 3, or 4 classes respectively.  I know, it probably sounds like TORTURE to some of you non-addicts, but to me it's AMAZING.  It's like being rewarded in my favorite currency for reaching my own goals!  #winning.

I'm pretty sure that I make it to WFBC 3-4 days a week with no incentive at all, so that part of the consistency month is just icing on the cake (that I am not eating b/c I need to drop pounds).  My addiction combined with my fear that if I stop going, I will lose fitness and the Marines will be disappointed, gets me there just fine.  On the other hand, I've been trying to get these last 10-15lbs off for the last 6 months but have failed miserably b/c I just haven't had the willpower.  So I figure, I will go for broke and shoot for collecting 9 free classes. 15 lb weight loss to get me good and ready for Hamptons summer living and 5 consecutive weeks of WFBC 4 times a week.

Today I got a good start.  Showed up for 5:30am bootcamp, ready to be weighed in.  Not sure if it was Alex's scale or the excessive eating I've been doing for the last few weeks, but I am HEAVY.  So, losing 15 lbs should be totally doable. Bootcamp was awesome, per usual.  Alex kicked our asses with the usual pushups, running, stairs, etc---all you could ask for and more.  At one point, we did we did as many squat thrusts as we could in a minute and then 30 seconds.  I did 39 in a minute and 19 in 30 seconds, which I think is pretty respectable.  One of my favorite 5:30 am-ers, Diana, was there, and she definitely helped me keep up the pace.  I really appreciate when other Warriors are there working hard b/c they push me to do my absolute best. 

Diana and I were paired up today for sets of Japanese situps and regular situps.  If there is one thing I HATE, it's Japanese situps but, Alex said to do them, so I had to do them.  25 Japanese situps, followed immediately by 25 regular situps.  So, for those of you who don't go to WFBC, imagine this:  Your partner sits on your feet, hand around your calves and you basically do a sit up and then stand up all in one fluid motion.  Trust me, it aint' easy.  Also, I feel like you can't really appreciate the difficulty unless you actually do it, so please try to bang out 25 of them and let me know how it goes.  For me, it burns the hell of my generally, already sore quads. 

Surprisingly, after bootcamp my quads felt less sore than they did when they started.  (Or maybe they were less sore after I rolled my evil torture stick over them...unclear)  I LOVE it when that happens.  And I REALLY needed to happen because I need to go to bootcamp for the next 3 consecutive days to get my 4 days in this week, plus get a couple runs in plus swim practice on Wednesday and Friday.  I have to cram all the bootcamp in so I can take Saturday off to rest up for a race Sunday.  On Sunday I have the Broad Street run--a 10 mile run in Philly.  More on that tomorrow...

Anyway, that's all for now.  Stay tuned and I will keep you posted on my progress.  I'm hoping I can sneak in and use that Warrior Fitness scale once a week so I have an idea of how things are coming along.

Today's Workout:  Warrior Fitness Bootcamp: 1 hour

Tri tri again...

I have tried and failed at this blogging thing several times, and each time I have just given it up. So I make no promises this time that I will be a dedicated blogger but for the last week, I've been itching to blog, so I figured, what's one more try. 

Since I've blogged last I did my first Olympic Triathlon in South Beach! It was amazing and I LOVED it, but it was also incredibly difficult. I promise a full dedicated post on that event eventually...but not today. Today I just want to share how I felt training today and my plan going forward.

So, I meant to run 10 miles either on Friday or this weekend but it didn't quite pan out that way.  For one, I went out to dinner drinking and woke up super hungover on Friday morning--so clearly no 10 miler there. Then, after a week of a few double workouts (Mon-bootcamp, Tuesday-cycle, run, Wednesday-bootcamp/swim, Thursday- cycle/bootcamp, Friday-swim) + drinking, my body was just not interested when I woke on Saturday morning afternoon.  And, since recently I've been taking a new approach to training where I listen to my body and rest when it's tired, I had to do what my body asked me to. So on Saturday I slept 12 hours, got up to eat and watch tv around 1:30 pm  (yes, not kidding...I did actually sleep until 1:30pm), and then caught a movie. On Sunday I had a long bike ride with Alanna and Terrier Tri coach Kyle. Alanna and I just finished up Kyle's 2 week cycling clinic so it was really exciting to use the skills we learned to ride across the GW bridge and on 9W. I definitely fell trying to make the very very narrow turns to go around the pillars on the GW bridge, but the progress I've made on the bike is so incredible, that the spills I took were totally worth it! At least that's what I tell myself when I see the black and blue marks all over my legs...

So that brings me to this morning. Finally my time to do my 10 miler had run out. I've been a real slacker with my running in general recently. I usually get in at least a long run and one shorter run per week but my obsession with Warrior Fitness Bootcamp along with my need to improve my cycling and swimming has gotten in the way of me logging a ton of miles. Anyway, I got two of my running friends, Shebna and Rachel to meet me at 6am, with the hopes that they would inspire me to get through a long run. Thank God I did, because there is NO WAY I would have made it on my own. From the first step, my quads were super achy. I should have known that was coming since they were achy during my ride the day before. Basically my legs only felt good for about 3 miles in the very middle of the run. We did two 5 mile loops, cutting off the northern (evil harlem hill) end of the park. Runs like these make me realize how much running/cycling/swimming or whatever your sport, is so mental. If someone asked me at the beginning of my run today whether I could have done 10 miles, I would have most certainly said no. But, having 2 buddies alongside me, I just kept telling myself to go one more mile and somehow I made it through the whole run.

So now that's out of the way I can look forward to a WFBC filled week :) My plan for the week is as follows:

Today: 10 mile run
Tuesday: BC
Wednesday: 3 miles + BC & swimming practice with Mike
Thursday: easy ride +BC
Friday: 3 miles + BC
Saturday: off, if I decide to do the Broad Street run on Sunday
Sunday: Broad Street Run or long run or ride

I think part of the reason I've been struggling with blogging is I have SO MUCH to say in one post, when sometimes I can just leave some of it till the next day. So, I'll leave with that and hope to be back tomorrow with more!

Today's Workout: 10 miles at 9:15 pace