Fit Fluential

October 19, 2014

Fastest Pace Yet

My lower back is all sortsa out-of-whack.  I have to see my Chiro two times a month.   I missed my regular appointment two weeks ago.   Bad news.   Very Very Bad News.  Now I am behind and paying for it.  And speaking of paying for it, WHY do Chiro’s have to be so damn expensive?!   I calculated what they make an hour based off my monthly rate and the 5 minutes they spend with me.  All I can say is, they aren’t hurting for money.  =/

Anyway, back to my point.

Sitting down sucks.  Hello compressed spine. 

Bending over sucks.  Squat baby, squat.

Laying down sucks.  Sleeping on an ice pack helps, but rolling over?   That’s a whole other story.

Standing feels ok.  But only after about 2 minutes of being hunched over and slowly but surely straightening out. 

Running.  Ya, I can hear your scolding comments now.  But, I went running.  I told you, standing feels just fine once I am up!

And ya know what is even more weird?   I had one of my best averages.   What the What?

 

I averaged an 8:52 mile pace for 4.5 miles. 

My normal happy place is 9:30.

This makes no sense to me.  None.  

I guess the fresh fall air in my lungs combined with the warm sun and open trail just made my body happy.

Did I do more harm to my back?  I don’t think so.  Felt fine the rest of the day as long as I was up and moving.   The second I sat down though, forget about it.   Pain.  Just sharp throbbing pain.  Nothing new.

Back to chiro tomorrow.  I’ve got a full class load to teach this week.  Ain’t NOBODY got time for a broken back.

Until then I’ll stick to this suggestion – but I’ll take Vodka, thanks.

back

 

Cheers.

May 12, 2014

Market to Market Iowa 2014

Apparently I like to spend my weekends running long distances.

Who am I?  

m2m

 

This past Saturday I added the Market to Market Iowa Relay to my list of races.    M2M is a relay race between two cities, 6-8 person teams, 75 total miles, 17 exchange points and a celebrated group finish.

It. Was. Awesome. 

We set up our groups into two 6-person teams so that each team had one person running every stage.  Having a partner turned out to be a great idea.  More time to chat and less time to focus on the rainy weather and the miles.

Meet my team:

Team Runaway Brides

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And the other team

 

Off Like A Prom Dress

minus 1 because she was already running 

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Each team had a runner 1, 2, 3, etc.  At each exchange point the runners would pass a timing chip off to the next group.  This exchange happened for 17 stages.

 

6person

 

I was runner 3 and was teamed up with Tracy, a fellow fitness instructor.

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Tracy and I found ourselves with very similar stories, which made the distances seem shorter as we had much to talk about.   We also challenged each other by running at faster paces then we normally would.   Our running distances weren’t bad at all, but when you combine the distances with long intervals of rest, your body tends to respond with stiffness.

 

 

imageTracy and I

 

It took us a little over 11 hours to run the 75 miles.  We managed to hit all the weather elements, minus snow.   Cold, Rain, Wind, Hot.   But, we had an absolute blast.  I only knew four of the 12 runners so it was a perfect set-up as we had so much to talk about and learn.

 

Highlights from Leg One

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 The Starting Line

 

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Finishing with a smile.

Seriously, what is wrong with me?

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An Exchange Point

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Go Jessie, Go!

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Highlights of Leg Two

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Happy!

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They’re smiling too.

We are all insane

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Waiting for their exchange to happen.

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Way to bring it in strong, girls!

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No explanation needed, right?

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Highlights of Leg Three

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Last Stage for Runner 1.  Looking good!

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They finished strong!

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Runner 2- getting ready to hand off!

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This totally looks staged, but it so wasn’t!

Stage 3… here we come.

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This is my

“Oh Thank God I am DONE” look

and Natalie’s

“Oh, Shit, here I go AGAIN” look

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For the record, Tracy and I’s third stage of 4 miles was BRUTAL.

One mile of it was all UPHILL.

Are ya kidding me?

I thought I was dying.

Done.

         Dead.

                       Holy Sh……

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Almost Done!

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Couldn’t resist a cute shoe pic…

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Rach and Mac waiting for our last runners to come in so we could finish Team Strong!

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This team carried that American Flag all 75 miles.

Awesome.

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WE MADE IT!

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Teams:   Off Like A Prom Dress

&

Runaway Brides

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Cheers to an EPIC race, new friends and Ice Cold Beer.

May 4, 2014

Lincoln Half Marathon- 2014

You guys…

SERIOUSLY on a high right now.

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Completed my second ever Half Marathon today.

 

And you know what else?

I hit my PR!

2:05 

 

That is 5 whole minutes FASTER then last year.

And you remember how I trained this go around, don’t ya?  Weekends.  I ran on the weekends and cross-trained by teaching during the week.

To say I am elated is the understatement of the YEAR.

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To anyone in the Lincoln, Nebraska area….  Thank You!  You guys know how to organize a race.

I have never seen so much support for runners IN. MY. LIFE!

There were people cheering, bands playing, kids giving high-fives, water, gatorade and kleenex every step you took.  I am not kidding when I say every last stretch of that 13.1 miles was filled with someone or something.

 

Lincoln- you made that 13.1 miles seem like 6.   It was fantastic.

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This morning started off in a little bit of a cluster.   My 4:30AM alarm didn’t happen.

Nope!

What happened was my 5:21AM internal alarm clock that was FREAKING OUT!

Race-7am.  Drive time- One Hour.  Parking time and walk to starting line PLUS last minute bathroom break – OMG I am gonna be late!

Ninja like moves happened and somehow my race clothes made it on, my teeth got brushed, my lucky hat made it to my head and my race bib made its way into the car.

And off we went.

No water.  No fuel.

Usually I eat a Clif bar before a long run.  Sometimes I even have a little caffeine.   Clearly THAT wasn’t happening this morning.

Thankfully, I calmed down once we were on our way.

It was going to be ok.

We made it to Lincoln just prior to 6:30am.   Found a spot to park relatively quickly (miracle in itself), hit up the porta-pottys (a must, if you know what I’m saying…) and made my way to a spot in the middle of the pack.

In the middle of 10,500 other runners, that is.

 

And then the wait.

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The race started at 7.  It was 7:32am by the time I made it up to the starting line.  And off I went for the most enjoyable, exhilarating, hyped up 13 miles I have EVER run.

I paced myself at around 9:30 the entire way.  Sometimes I was little faster, sometimes a little slower, but I never broke that average pace of 9:30ish.  Thanks to MapMyRun, my trusty GPS sidekick.

The final results?

halfmarathonlincoln

 

Finishing inside the Nebraska stadium was pretty fantastic as well.

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And my sis-in-law Jamie ran her FIRST ever Half-Marathon.  She did SO great!  Very proud of her for committing and conquering.  Way to go, Jamie!

 

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And of course, a shout-out to my #1 supporter for getting up at the crack of dawn to drive me down to Lincoln to just ‘hang-out’ for two hours while I ran.  He’s pretty awesome.

 

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And THAT my friends, is the end of my Lincoln Half-Marathon recap.   Will there be another?  Not sure.  Time will tell. 🙂

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May 1, 2014

Let’s Chat Fat

fat crying

 

About a month ago I went to see a Sports Nutritionist.

Why?

Body Fat

That’s why

I’ve always been calorie conscious. You name a food item and with 99% certainty I’d be able to tell you the exact calorie content.  It’s a a weird obsession.  I admit.

I’ve always eaten a fairly healthy diet.  But, I also never denied myself sweets and alcohol.   I mean, come on.  I love candy.   And I sure do love a cocktail.  Happy Hour!!

Speaking of Happy Hour; now that warm weather is here, HH means Friday at 3 through Sunday afternoon.   It’s hot, we make plans, we have fun, we ride motorcycles.  And Sunday Funday?  Duh!

Annnnyway…

 

About this Sports Nutritionist.

 

I am in the best shape I have ever been at this point in my life.   I can run 13 miles, I teach Turbo Kick, I teach Insanity, I lift weights.  And I don’t lift baby weights.  I go heavy.  By rep 8 I am gritting my teeth and the ol’ limbs are a-shaking.  I teach 8 fitness classes a week for goodness sakes.  And while I don’t always give 100% during Insanity, I give nearly 90%.  I do the workouts.  I walk around.  I stand next to others and push them and in return that pushes me.

 

I am fit.

 

And I am also sitting at a higher body fat percentage then most people with an equivalent activity level.

 

Cue the nutritionist.

 

My friend, Tyree, has been seeing him for over a year now while she preps for a fitness competition.   Tyree has always been physically fit.  But to see her now?  She looks damn good.   Lean, mean fighting machine that girl is.  So, she hooked me up with an appointment.

What was I told?

My 1500 calories intake a day was too little.  My body was in near starvation mode and holding on to any and all fat that it could.   You know what else he said?

 

TOO. MUCH. CARDIO.

 

Well, kid.  We’re gonna have to work around that because I am not giving up teaching.  Period. End of sentence.

 

However, this running crap?  I am so over it.  So, once I get through this half-marathon business on Sunday and my 75 miler relay on the 10th… running will become like a hobby that I take up occasionally.  Like 5K occasionally.

 

runner_no

 

So, this works great for his suggestion of:

“You need MORE weights in your life”

 

Why, yes.  We CAN work on this.

 

rosie

 

Are you all still with me?  Hang in there… I’m almost done.

 

I am now sitting around 1800-2000 calories a day.  Nutritious calories.   For two weeks he had me following a strict 6 meal a day plan.  Each of the 6 meals has a set carb/protein ratio.  And not white potato carbs.  We are talking whole grain, brown rice, sweet potato carbs.   And not beef jerky protein.  Think chicken, fish, egg proteins.  At the end of the day my total gram intake should be roughly  152 carbs and 198 protein.

And guess what?

I felt bloated.  Full.  Chubbier.

But, what did my numbers say after 2 1/2 weeks?

DOWN!  

DOWN 2.5% body fat.

That’s HUGE!

Up 1% lean body mass.

That’s AWESOME.

 

This sh!t is working, friends.

 

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So, let’s hear it for sports nutritionists!  They know what they are doing.

 

I am SO stinking excited to see where I am at in June.  I am not going back for my pinches until then.  I want to get these long runs out of the way and get back to my weight training.   Suns Out- Guns Out.  Let’s see those babies grow.

 

I am also looking into a few nutrition certifications as well.  I am obsessed to say the least.  This seems right to me.   Feeding your body is what we are to do.  I want to know more.  I want to be able to help others, the RIGHT way.

But, first.  I am working on me.

Stay tuned!

 

 

Cheers!