Fitness Update | Major Lack Of Motivation

Count down to worlds.....62 days and counting!

Stress and anxiety are really starting to set in as race season is ramping up and World Champions is now only 62 days away. My training this last month has gone down hill FAST. There has been a serious lack of motivation to do anything in our house recently - mainly due to our 11 month old pup, Bear, getting hurt mid May.

Our poor little guy hurt his leg and has been in a lot of pain since then. He's not sleeping through the night, which means my husband & I are also not sleeping through the night. He's needed a lot of help getting around and it's been a real struggle keeping him on "bed rest" for a month. If you want to hear more about our story check back on Wednesday, I'll be post Bear's 11 month update and I'll share what happen. 

I feel that because of my lack of sleep my whole schedule has been thrown off. I'm tiered all day everyday and the last thing I want to do is train. The few days that I did train I felt very sluggish. Running was near impossible. Every time I put my runners on my legs felt like led. May was probably the toughest month of training to get through. 

Luckily our pup is now on the mend which means we are getting back to our normal day to day schedule. Training is finally starting to pick up but I'm feeling a little out of shape since I missed so much training. This past week I've been working on my tempo runs to bring my legs back. I know it seems like something so small but I find when I've taken a big chuck of time off my endure just fades away - speed I never have any trouble with, I guess that's because I have a background as a sprinter, plus speed training is fun. Endurance I find to be a bit boring and difficult to get through the workouts...especially feeling out of shape. To help me get back on track I've been using a MetroTimer, it's annoying but it helps with how many strides you take per minuet. I find if I focus on something other than my endurance run it helps. I try not think about my pace or how much longer is left, or how far have I gone.....I just run and think about my stride, my running form, the strike of my foot on the pavement, ect. It seems to help take my mind off my endurance run. 

Besides running I have also been using my Beachbody programs as cross training. Right now I've been using 21 Day Fix and focusing on leg fix, upper body fix, cardio fix and Pilates fix. In addition to all that I've finally been able to get my bike back onto the road. I honestly think my biking is going better than my running right now - except my bike computer has decided to stop working. For some reason my cadence on my bike computer decided to crap out so I've been just using my Garmin in the meantime while I shop for a replacement. 

All and all things are going well, you are always going to have set backs in your training because LIFE HAPPENS. There are a lot of things that are outside your control and you just have to juggle those with your training schedule. 

Motivation while training will come and go...it's tough to come back from being unmotivated but sometimes you just have to push through it to get to the other side. 

How motivated have you been this past month?

Fitness Update

Time has flown by since my last fitness update. I had to scroll way back on my blog and found my last fitness update post in February! Check out my February Fitness Update post if you haven't already. 

Since then I have completed my first race and my training has changed slightly. 

I did a 5km race April 9th to work on my running speed. Unfortunately the race course changed two days before race day due to flooding and they had to incorporate a hill! I haven't done any hill training as it is still early in race season so I was 5min slower than I wanted to be. We hit the hill about 2km into the race and up until then I was running under a 6min/km pace which was great. The hill was about 500 meters long so the turn around was at the top and by that time my legs were DONE. I really struggled the last half of the race but I keep telling myself it was the first race of the year and my time will only get better from here. 

Bear is still joining me once a week for training runs. I'm trying to run at least three times a week - that includes a interval run, tempo run and longer run. 

It's still too early to get my road bike out....even though I've seen some brave soles out and about on their bikes...so I'm still just biking at my house inside on my trainer around twice a week.

Of course I'm still keeping up with my Beachbody programs as a cross training/strength training. Right now I'm just using 21 Day Fix and in three weeks I will switching to 21 Day Fix EXTREME. Mainly I've been using lower fix to work on leg strength, upper fix to work on my upper body strength and of course core.

My next race is another 5km in about three weeks. I am also trying to find a duathlon sprint race nearby that I can participate in at the end of May but so far I've had no luck find one. 

Make sure you are subscribed for more fitness updates.

Fitness Update | Coming Back From Being A Victim of Crime

 It's fitness update time!!! It has been a hot minuet since my last fitness update, if you want to check out my last post Fitness Update | Finished 21 Day Fix EXTREME | National Sprint Duathlon Women 25-29 Champion! If you did happen to read it you would know that I qualified to race in Duathlon Worlds this year in August.

I did take a few days off after the qualifying race in September to recover but now I'm back at it. I sat down and made a training plan that lasted to the end of December....which unfortunately I didn't finish and it's a long story...

 ....without going into too much detail as I'm still not sure how much of my experience I want to share I was the victim of crime in December. It was an absolutely gut wrenching experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I honestly lived most of December fearful to leave my house, sleep, anything! I basically sat locked up in my house armed and waiting for our attacker to come back....which he did several times.

It's hard to even put into words what happen, how I feel about the whole situation because I feel like I'm still processing what the hell happen!

My husband and I were so fortunate to have some many amazing family member's and friends that stepped in to help us. We were brought food every single day, people were coming over to my house to walk my dog - no I wasn't even leaving the house to walk my own dog! For me that's a big deal since our little pup usually goes for three walks a day....minimum. I even had people just come over and clean or sit with me to watch some TV to help get my mind off of what was happening.

So basically - as I'm sure you can imagine - my training came to a screeching halt.

Time seemed to just disappear...it honestly took me till about the beginning of February for me to get back to my normal routine - and even then it was hard to even think about how to get back to what was "normal".

If you've even been the victim of crime, you know it's hard to get back to your life. I was told by so many people that it's ok to be all over the place and that it was going to be a struggle trying to return to a "normal" life.

I do want to share a piece of my experience on my blog - my hope is it could possibly help someone who as been affected by a victim of crime...or just provide some support to know you are not alone. I found there wasn't a lot of public support for myself and my husband. Give me about another week or two...I'm going to have to sit down and put what happen into words which I already know is going to be difficult.

 To be honest my training really just started again this February - and yes my body could absolutely tell that I had taken a big chunk of time off. Since the plan that I made ended at the end of December I decided to make a new one instead of trying to finish off my old training plan.....sort of like a fresh start.

Currently I have a new training plan I'm following that includes three times a week of doing at home Beachbody workouts (Piyo, 21 Day Fix Extreme and T25), one interval running day, one tempo running day, one longer running day and spinning at home on my trainer.

It's a busy schedule but I've been loving the variety.

My favorite part of my whole training plan has to be including our puppy, Bear, in one of my training runs per week. If you haven't read about Bear you can read his last 5 month update post. Bear is now almost 8 months and technically he's not supposed to be running with me for another 2 months but he doesn't do my whole workout and I go so slow when he's with me all he does is quick walk beside me while I jog.

I'm planning on doing another update on how Bear is doing on Wednesday so make sure you are subscribe to my blog for notifications. I'll include what sort of training he does with me, how long he runs for and what equipment I use - this is so important! I've tested out so many different running belts, leashes and harness to get the perfect combination. It's not enjoyable if you have to keep stopping your run to untangle the dogs leash or if they are dragging you because they aren't trained properly to walk hands free.

I am so excited to share with you all Bear's update on Wednesday and make sure you are subscribe for to my blog to get notified on my next fitness update!

Fitness Update

Happy Fitness Friday!!!

It's my favorite day of the week.

Yesterday I posted a quick entry about where I've been...if you read it you know I've been BUSY with life events. With that being said I've really let my fitness go. It's been the hardest thing to set aside my workout time in order to move, build furniture and settle into our new place. I love to workout, it makes me feel energized, relaxed, and just overall amazing! When I miss my workouts I basically just feel like crap.

This weekend my husband and I are going to be setting up our fitness studio - FINALLY!!! It wont be anything fancy since it will be in an unfinished basement but it will just be a nice and large space to burn some calories! Then I can buckle down and start workout out again.

Check back next week and I will show you our basement transformation.

Healthy Eating Tips - Do & Don't

Whether you are just looking to make healthy changes in your diet, on a weight loss journey, or looking for some healthy eating tips. Here are some simple Do & Don't for healthy eating that a VERY easy to follow. 

DO eat smaller & more frequent meals a day – smaller & frequent meals will help increase your metabolism & help keep you satisfied throughout the day. Don’t be afraid to snack, just keep the snacks healthy and nutritious

DON’T skip breakfast – your body has been fasting while you've been sleeping, your morning meal establishes a healthy metabolism throughout the day. This is why people usually say “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and it really truly is

DO drink – drink water. At least 8 cups of water a day to stay hydrated and help keep your stomach feeling full

DON’T drink too much alcohol – there’s a reason why “Beer gut” is a real thing. Alcohol has a lot of calories and they are all empty calories. Save the alcohol for special occasions and be smart about what you choose to drink

DO keep healthy snacks on hand – I don’t know about you but I’m a BUSY person! Running around, work, errands, family, life, it’s easy to give into bad temptations or go for something that’s FAST instead of HEALTHY. Pack snacks in advance and have easy to grad snacks sitting in the fridge just in case

DON’T service super sized portions – even on a clean diet, you don’t need to super size everything. Learn proper eating portions and stick to it!

 

Sick With A Cold - Exercise Do's and Don'ts

Lately I've been a little absent from social media as a battle with a spring cold which inspired this blog! Exercise has been the last thing on my mind this week but light exercise can actually make you feel better while you have a cold….now there are some exceptions to that! Typically I will only workout when I have a slight head cold, anything that is more severe than that I skip my workouts all together.

Here are some simple Do’s and Don’ts for exercise when you have a cold

Do

Walk – Don’t stay cooped up in bed all day, it’s surprising how great this can make you feel. I’ve been out for serval walks this last week and it’s defiantly made a difference

Jogging – I skipped this one for this cold but you can go out for a light jog, nothing too intense or long

Yoga – Personally I love doing hot yoga when I’m sick but since I couldn’t make it to any of the classes. I just used “21 Day Fix” yoga DVD and did some yoga in my living room

Don’t

Endurance running – You don’t want to push yourself too hard, don’t do any running such as intervals or races during your cold

Machines at the gym – While you have a cold be courteous to other people, think about it. Do you want someone beside you who’s sick? Gym machines can spread germs when people don’t clean them off properly, stay at home to avoid getting other people sick

Lifting weights – During your cold your body is going to be weak, lifting weights during a cold can increase your risk of injury. You’re putting an extra strain on your muscles which can further worsen your cold….plus your spreading your germs to other people using weights

5 Tips on Boosting Your Metabolism

1) Eat just enough so you're not hungry - you don't want your body going into starvation mode so eat three meals a day plus a mid morning and mid afternoon snack


2) Eat Breakfast - jump start your metabolism in the morning and keep your energy up all day


3)Drink tea - the antioxidant in tea can help provide a system boost


4)Drink your water - make sure you are drinking water throughout the day, about 8 cups for the average person


5) Include protein - your body need protein to give you nice lean muscles, make sure you get protein in every meal

Try These 7 Exercise Tips

1) Always workout on Monday
Start your week out right, this is more mental than anything. Get week off to a great start!! Continue the trend throughout the week

2) Try to workout in the morning
I know this is easier said than done. I hear you...I am not a morning person, however, when I can drag myself out of bed and workout in the mornings I always feel i have a super productive day. It gets me up ready, awake and energized for the day

3) Never skip two workouts in a row
We all have a life and sometimes our workouts get skipped. It happens, but try not to miss two workouts in a row, this can affect your workout routine for the worse

4) Reward and acknowledge your results (no matter how small)
Make sure you are giving yourself "a pat on the back" as they say, even if you have achieved a small milestone like losing your first pound. It will put yourself in a positive mind set that will make you keep going because you can do this after all

5) Exercise several times a week
It's hard to be active every day but lets face facts, working out once a week isn't enough. Adults are encouraged to try to be active 5 days a week for at least 30min

6) Look for affordable workout 
You do not need to always be spending money when working out. Try something free like going for a run or riding your bike. Get others involved and play football or basketball with some friends.

7) Make exercising more enjoyable
It's proven that if you enjoy something you are more likely to stick with it. If you don't like running then don't run. Find a workout that you like to do. Whether it's going to the gym, buying a workout DVD and doing your workout at home, playing basketball, soccer, baseball, find something that you enjoy!

5 Fintess Things To Try This Weekend

1) Take your family out for a walk


2) Include more fruits and vegetables into your meals


3) Start doing an at home workout


4) Stretch!


5) Fuel your body by eating breakfast, lunch and dinner (no skipping meals)

10 Workout Tips For Busy People

1) Make a schedule - plan ahead and note when you have time to fit in a quick workout

2) Utilize your lunch - make every minute count, take your lunch and head out for a  walk or head to the gym

3) Short works with maximum efficiency - even 20 min a day can count. Do short effective workouts, there are tons of DVD's to follow along at home. My favorite is Jillian Michaels, she has short workouts but she packs a lot into 20min and you can really feel it

4)Get your Z's - getting enough sleep and feeling well rested will help feel motivated to go workout

5)De-stress - use your workouts as a way to manage your stress levels

6)Set Goals - set weekly goals for how many times/how long you workout for. Try to better that goal every week, challenge yourself!!

7)Make it social - work out with others: coworkers, friends, family, workout group, ect

8)Be realistic - don't schedule too much every week. Be realistic with your goals, always set yourself up for success! Being successful during this process will help motivate you

9)Include your household - if you have kids, spouses, furry pets include them in your workout routine. Not only will you set a good example but you are promoting a healthy lifestyle for the household. Get everyone involved! It's fun for the whole family

10)Make your commute a workout - try biking or walking to the office if you live close enough, promote your coworkers to do the same