Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Workin' on my Fitness

I had a high school teacher that would tell us when we were writing papers, "If you don't know how to start, leave it blank, and come back to it." So that's what I did here, but an opener worth reading wasn't coming to me tonight. My b.

Workout Accountabilibuddy check from last week:

S: Yoga
Mon: Long Walk
Tues: Two a day, Chest and Tri AM, Race training PM
Wed: Legs
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Bike HIIT, Abs
Sat: Race training
S: Yoga + Back and Bi

Last week I planned a rest day on Thursday on my workout notebook, but forgot to consult said notebook before Target Practice. SuperDan and I also keep a workout calendar in the kitchen that we write our workouts on when we get back from the gym. It's fun to be competitive, and its really easy to see when its been too long for you to skip another day. Yep, that's three different locales for workout calendaring. Excessive you say? Quite possibly, but they make me happy, and I find cute free printables, and if I need a little bribe to keep up a good habit, so be it. Seriously though, check out the link. Her stuff is so cute!

Overall, I feel pretty happy with how last week went. Fitness wise at least! Saturday I had to cut my run a little short to get my hair did, but I was proud of myself to get in there and leave when I had to. Trying to not run late EVERYWHERE I go should be my life Target Practice like.every.single.week!

I have been frequenting the free yoga at lululemon in North Hills every Sunday that I'm in town for the past couple of months. I really can tell that the breathing helps with just every day stress, and I treat it more as a relaxation process than a workout, though I'm happy for the added benefits. This week's focus was on alignment, which is hard to do in a large class, but this instructor made it work. One of the creepy but beautiful things about yoga is how a good teacher gets inside your head. It's like she knows that my knee is rotating out before I even do, and that I should bring it back to center. Or that I *really* don't want to hold this pose, "but I can do anything for 5 breaths." Downward dog has always been a challenging pose for me. As of late, I've been having a little inflexibility (wasn't sure that was a word until Word said so) in my left shoulder, but even prior to this new and unwelcome development, Downward dog was so incredibly hard for me to hold. I'd look around the room and think "what could I possibly be missing!?" And then this class happened. Teacher said to push through your finger pads and think of the weight coming through your hands and out of your shoulders. And just like that, my dog got a little happier. While I was originally a little disappointed that this class wasn't the sweat rag the previous week was (literally, my pink pants turned red and I was horrified to give my mat back!), I did end up learning some things that I know I can take into my practice moving forward.

As I've said in previous posts, I tend to have fitness ADHD (rereading this post, I'm not at all convinced my ADHD is limited to fitness and not my thought process entirely). There are so many activities that I like, want to try, or want to be part of my weekly routine. I read a tip somewhere to think about making your routine based on a time frame that works for you, not necessarily constrained by calendar days. This is something I might continue to flirt with regarding my strength training workouts. I don't love that I work out each muscle group only once a week, but I have a hard time figuring out what to cut to get more time in. 

Anyways, here is my tentative schedule for this calendar week. I'll try to leave my Type A self behind in February and play with a 10 day rotation or something even crazier!

M- Race training
T- Bike Sprints + Shoulders and Abs (OUCH today!)
W- Race training + Incline hike
R- Legs
F- Yoga (Sign up with me! Donation class for GOTR.)
Sa- Race training + Chest and Tri

What about you? How do you divide up your workouts? Do you focus on muscle groups for lifting or hit em all at once?


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Two a Day Tuesday and Target Practice

Getting back into blogging is a little like getting back into your gym routine or healthy eating habits. It takes a while to get in the habit, and its so incredibly easy to fall out of. I will never cease to be amazed by how one missed gym date begs to turn into another, and how I have to smack it down soon, knowing that the more you give into the begging, the louder and more whiny it is the next day.

I've adopted a philosophy that I used in law school- you have to stay up on your plan because if you fall behind, you'll never catch up. If I miss a workout I planned, I don't stress about trying to make it up anymore; I just go at the next scheduled time. Maybe this is what everyone has been doing and I'm just now finding out about it, but it sure does help me keep it all in balance.

This week I decided to come back with a Target Practice to refocus my efforts. I'm still working on my goal to run a 5K, but after the challenge in December became out of reach (maybe more on that later, maybe not), I need something to sort of jump start my giddy-up train.

Target Practice

Health: I went to a nutritionist about two weeks ago who told me I should be eating about 300 calories more a day than what I was shooting for and to NOT eat markedly differently on days I worked out vs. days I didn't, a la MyFitnessPal. Although a helpful tool for calorie counting, she really explained why I would need to intake more so my body wasn't going into starvation mode. This was a concept I was familiar with, but assumed my intake was fine and no where near that level. Guess that is why she gets paid the big bucks. This week I'm going to focus on taking her lessons and putting them into action, namely, focusing on healthy dinners. Dinners I find a lot more difficult to control because we are always out and about or get back from the gym later than planned but I need to commit to eating in more if I want to see the results!

Fitness: Buy running shoes. My lovely Brooks were great for Dance Trance (which I miss terribly) but do nothing to support my ankle, even on the shorter runs. If I really want to start running regularly, regardless of my attempts to underscore myself as a "runner" because I don't do long distance runs, I need to get better shoes. 

Life: Incorporate some relaxation. Wedding venue shopping has been stressful yall. Oh, did I mention I got engaged? While I've hired a venue coordinator, sometimes her bluntness of "you don't have enough money to get married in Raleigh, or really married period" has been tough to take. Okay okay, slight exaggeration on my part, but we haven't gotten much great news yet, though I feel like its about to turn a corner! I need to remember to prioritize the things that help me relax: yoga, reading in Chair (Chair needs a better name), walking Roxie, and the afterglow of a bad ass two-a-day. This weekend is pretty open right now, so I'm hoping to keep it that way and work in some relaxing around inevitable wedding planning.

Any suggestions for a name?

Workout Schedule for this week:

Sun: Yoga
Mon: Long walk with pup! 
Tues: Chest and Tri AM, Interval Run PM
Wed: Legs and Abs AM
Thurs: Interval Run AM
Fri: Back and Bi PM
Sat: Endurance Run

Dishes for the week:

Lunch-
Leftover Turkey, Beef, and Black Bean Chili
Gingery Red Lentils (Courtesy of Eat Live Run)

Dinner-
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chicken Chili (Courtesy of Get Crocked! SN: This is a fantastic website for slow cooker recipes, and healthy ones at that!)

Alright all. Happy New Years Resolutioning!