Bob ya head.

This morning, I had pretty much the best workout in months. I debated over ditching spin class, ditching the gym altogether, doing something at home, etc. I finally decided that yes, I would ditch spin, but I would still go to the gym and try some new programs on the machines.

Snagged a treadmill and selected an incline interval program. LOOOVE! Maybe I was just in a good mood this morning, but I was totally feelin' running up hills. It was hard. And I loved every minute of it. My favorite moment? Running 6 mph on a 7% incline while this song came up on shuffle:



I'm pretty sure I was smiling through that whole song. I was sweating, breathing hard, legs burning and feeling my heart keep me alive. It was one of those rare moments where I was 100% in tune with my body and completely aware that I was putting forth a damn good effort.

As my 15 minutes came to a close, I knew what had to be next.



I craved that machine, for some sick reason. All but two machines were taken and two old men were quibbling over using the newer model of the two. I knew I had to act fast; I didn't want to run any more and wasn't feeling the elliptical at all. I hopped off the treadmill and snagged the older stair master while Old Man River x 2 continued to yap. The older machine works perfectly fine, it just has a less flashier screen than the others.

I don't remember the exact program I selected, but it whooped my ass. Twenty minutes of various speed intervals. No handles, of course. And yes, I'm bragging because once again, everyone around me was a handle-slave. I kept thinking of bailing out at 10 minutes. Then I got close to 10 and said, "Eh, I'll stop at 15." Well, when I got to 15, I knew 20 was around the corner, so I kept at it. Ended up doing 80+ floors. It was the longest amount of time I've stayed on that machine, so I was feeling pretty bad-ass.

Since I only covered about 1.5 miles during my 15 minute treadmill thing, I ran the last half-mile after my stair-step routine, to even things out. Left a sweaty mess. And felt phenomenal. I know it probably doesn't sound like the most exciting workout, but I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and didn't hate it. I didn't feel like I was struggling or phoning it in. I was working hard and appreciating my own strength. Doing a hard workout is one thing, but being completely engaged and positively reinforced by your own capability is another.

If you didn't come to party, then why did you come here?

Alrighty. Well, today is my [27th] birthday. I scheduled today off from work and all weekend, toyed with the idea of running 10k at the gym to celebrate. I kept going back and forth, debating on whether or not I should try (or if I should even workout on my birthday at all), but then I realized that if I didn't at least try, the day would a be a bit of a waste, as I really don't have anything else planned.

So, this morning, I slowly got out of bed and sloooowly got ready for the gym. Got to the gym. And then? I ran 10k.

Pretty sure my main source of fuel was the laughable amount of peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies Doug and I made (and ate) yesterday. But forget that, check out my times!

• 5 mile mark: 47:31
• 6 mile mark: 57:20
• 10k (6.25 mile) mark: 60:06

Someone was hauling ass! Not only did I set a new distance record, but I totally beat my previous 5 mile time by quite a bit! And I'm sure my speed during the first 2 miles was pretty fast, but I don't recall the exact times. Ah well.

I'm happy, but also kind of exhausted. I was worried my sides would start cramping up something fierce, but it was actually my glutes that started giving me trouble at about 4.5 miles. But I just ran through the pain. Luckily there were some cute little rabbits playing on the gym's front lawn to distract me most of the time.

Part of what helped my time was skipping my first walking break and just running straight through the first 2 miles. And during those breaks, I didn't walk for very long; in less than a minute, I went from 3.5 mph back up to 6 mph. Then my speed increments went like this:

• at .25 miles in, sped up to 6.2 mph
• at .5 miles, sped up to 6.5 mph
• at .75 miles, sped up to 7 mph
• at 1 mile, slowed down to recovery

Sometimes I ran at 7 mph for as long as I could, especially in the beginning, so that definitely helped my overall time. Towards the last 2.5 miles though, I really had to push hard.

Kind of a sadistic birthday gift to myself, but I'm glad I did it. I'm officially in the best shape of my life.

New record!

Ok, before I get to breakfast pics, I have some pretty exciting news to share (well, exciting to me, of course): This morning, I ran 5 miles in 48:56!!! I'm so incredibly stoked right now. It didn't come without pain though; I definitely had my share of side cramps, but I ran through them. And, during my cooldown walk, I contemplated going for another mile, but instead forced myself to press the STOP button on the treadmill and headed to the locker room. Could I have done 6, maybe 7 miles? Sure. Would I regret it the next day? Yeah, probably.

Although, I am contemplating on going again on Sunday and either repeating my time, beating it and/or increasing my mileage. We'll see.

I'm not at work today, so I was able to sleep in and had some Amazing Grass Green Superfood with water and 1/2 a small banana before I headed to the gym. I usually don't eat before my workouts on the days I get up at 5 am, but since I had time to digest and was planning a long-ish run, I decided it would be wise to fuel up a bit beforehand. I think that helped in the end.

And y'know what else? These strength training workouts have been buffing up my legs big time. The first half of my run was pretty cake because my legs just felt so strong and capable, versus heavy and sloppy. And with all of the squats and lunges I've been doing, my knees are stronger and rarely sore. In fact, this was probably the first long run where my knees didn't bother me afterward. High-five for getting stronger!

I'm seriously contemplating getting some champagne tonight to celebrate this run, haha. I thought for sure it would take me 50+ minutes (I did take walking breaks every mile), so when I saw a 4 in front of my final time, I freaked myself out. I wanted to break out into some serious fist pumps.



Yeah, those kind of fist pumps...

But alas, I simply went home, showered and rewarded myself with an awesome breakfast:



Big bowl of [soupy] fruity oats:



In this mix:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 small banana
• about 1/2 cup frozen strawberries (thawed)
• about 1/2 cup frozen peaches (thawed)
• 1 tbsp reduced-fat unsweetened coconut
• 1.5 scoops of Biggest Loser vanilla protein powder
• splash of vanilla extract
• splenda

Oh. My. God. Probably one of the best (if not THE best) bowl of fruity oats I've made. I totally wrecked that bowl.

And on the side, cold coffee with 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze:



Probably will skip lunch pics today. I'm not planning on having a traditional lunch anyway, seeing as I finished breakfast at 11 am. We have dinner reservations at Rock Bottom Brewery this evening, so I'll probably have a small snack before we head out. I've been dreaming of their smoked salmon fish 'n' chips for months now, so I'm gonna order those. But I'll probably ditch the chips for some steamed veggies. I really just want hunks of beer battered smoked salmon and not much else. Omg. Can't wait. I'll try to remember to take pics before I inhale them like a Shop-Vac. 'Cause, y'know, that's the plan.

Hope everyone is having an awesome Friday!

Running & Reviews

Good grief, it's already February. Ugh. Anywho.

This morning, I headed to the gym and tried out a treadmill interval routine that boasted a 500 calorie burn. I'm still not counting calories these days, but I'm sure I burned that 500, if not a little more. It was tough, but it of course went by super fast (my favorite part about interval training) and I felt pretty damn refreshed afterward. Highly recommend! I'd also recommend browsing around the FitSugar website when you have some free time. They have a decent variety of interval workouts on various machines, as well as a lot of food/fitness info.

Quick follow up to my last post: I got a chance to try out my new workout DVDs this weekend.

Jari Love's Extremely Ripped 1000: Great DVD! I'm always hesitant to try new DVDs these days because they usually don't challenge me enough, but this one definitely exceeded my expectations (and made me sweat my ass off).

It's basically a bunch of circuits back-to-back and they all start with 3 minutes of cardio, followed by one minute of strength training, mostly with dumbbells. If you've done 30 Day Shred, it's kind of a similar format (and 3 times longer, haha). The hour routine can be split into two half hour sessions if you prefer. I liked that there wasn't any prolonged breaks in between circuits; Jari just keeps you moving along the whole time so your heart rate stays raised during the majority of the workout.

She has people working out with her in the back and they're all either doing beginner, intermediate or advanced versions of the moves the entire time. I thought this was especially awesome because it enabled me to keep up, instead of getting over/underwhelmed and turning off the DVD. I alternated between intermediate and advanced for a nice challenge.

I did the full hour and just when I thought it was over, she closes with a push-up and ab routine. I definitely groaned when that came up, but I suffered through it anyway (I think it was about 5 minutes or so).

All in all, this one was definitely worth the money. It forces me to get a good amount of strength training in, but also has enough cardio to keep me sweating on the days I don't feel like running or going to the gym for the elliptical or incline training.

So if you are, dare I say it, bored with the Jillian Michaels' DVDs and want a good gym substitute, this is next best thing (in my opinion, of course).

Weight Loss Cardio Kick: I don't have a ton to say about this one... Overall, I liked it, but it definitely didn't bring on as much sweat as I had hoped.

It did fulfill my craving for kick-boxing though. As I mentioned before, I was disappointed with the last few Tae Bo DVDs I got, so it was nice to try something different.

This DVD also works in a bit of strength training with dumbbells as well, so I'll definitely be doing it again. I think I'll just save it for days where I just want to do a fun light-to-moderate workout, versus busting my ass doing something at a higher intensity.


That's about all for now. I will quickly note that Jillian Michaels has a new yoga DVD coming out soon!



I've got it baaaad for this woman, so of course I will be getting it. I totally laughed at the thought of her teaching yoga because it doesn't seem like it would be relaxing at all, but I guess we'll see.

Custom Circuit #1

The night before last, I started thinking about putting together my own strength/cardio routine, so I grabbed a pen and paper and gave it a shot. Completed it yesterday morning. This is what I came up with:

*5-10 min warm-up run on treadmill
*dumbbell squats x 10-12
*50 (or more) jumping jacks
*deadlifts x 10-15
*box jumps x 10
*shoulder press w/ dumbbells x 10-12
*burpees x 20
*push-ups x 10
*50 (or more) jumping jacks
*deadlifts x 10-15
*5-10 min. close out run on treadmill

It was pretty good. Took me 33 minutes to complete and my heart rate was all over the place, mostly high, which was nice to see. Think I need to increase my weight for deadlifts though.

I forgot to mention that we have a treadmill at home these days. Our housemate bought a used one off of a friend for like, $5, so I've been using it. It's old and basic, but still in good shape, so it's been a treat having it around. Especially this morning; I set my alarm for 4:50 am so I could go to the gym, but apparently forgot to turn on the switch (duuhhh moment of the week), so I didn't actually wake up until closer to 5:30. I didn't have time to commute to/from the gym at that point, but I still had time to work out, so I ended up running on the treadmill for 40 minutes. Hooray for back-up at home!