Sweat Pink

August 25, 2014

Monday Motivation – Keeping the Momentum

stay motivated

 

Remember when last week I made the statement that I was taking back my life and creating an equal work/life balance?

Well, I did it.

The gym and I have made amends.   It kicked my ass – I was sore – and it was great.

That gym and I?  We are becoming BFF’s again.

If you remember, Monday morning I got my butt up before 5am and ran to the gym, lifted and ran back home.

The rest of my week in fitness looked a little like this:

Tuesday

4:23am – Alarm

5:00am – Upper weights before class

5:30am – Taught the new Round 60 TurboKick

4:45pm – Taught again!  TurboKick Round 60

Wednesday

4:35am – Alarm

4:55am – 1.25 mile run to the Gym – Lower Weights – 1.25 Mile run back home

Thursday

4:23am – Alarm

5am – Lunges, Situps

5:30am – Taught Insanity

4:45pm – Taught a second Insanity

Friday

4:45am – Alarm

5am – Slow run 1.25 mile run to the gym – That hill kicked my bootay.   Upper weights – 1.25 mile run home.

Saturday

8am – Subbed for a gal at the Y.  Offered Insanity to a class of 14!

 

My nutrition was slightly better last week.  Sugar is still a huge deal for me.  And Diet Soda.  They are a real life struggle.  It’s a deep love the three of us have.

The weekend didn’t go so well in the nutrition area.  A lot of booze, pizza, burgers, cookies… you get the picture.   It’s summer.  I have a lot of fun.  One step at a time.

 

Goals This Week:

Fitness –

  • Make the gym every morning M-F
  • Add an early Saturday morning distance run of at least 5 miles. (which is a LOFTY goal considering Friday is my B-day and we have plans that involve liquor that evening)

Nutrition –

  • Add in a few more glasses of water each day
  • Cut back on the sugar Monday – Thursday.   What about Friday, you ask?

It’s my birthday!

I eat frosting on my birthday.

It is straight up ILLEGAL not to.

 

Cheers to staying on track, keeping the momentum going and accomplishing new goals.

 

image

 

June 28, 2014

Vega Sport Review

Thanks to my Sweat Pink Sisters and my affiliation as an ambassador, I was given the opportunity to do a #FuelYourBetter Review on Vega Sport Performance Protein.

 

Vega Sport

 

I was really excited to try the product as it is a plant based, no sugar added, dairy gluten and soy free protein supplement.  Finding a protein drink that tastes good by itself is a difficult task.   Finding one that tastes good and doesn’t contain all the chemicals and processing yuckiness is even more difficult.

 

Vega Sport

 

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this tasted by just mixing with water.  Typically I make my protein shakes with almond milk and blended with ice.   I wanted to put the Vega Sport through a true test by mixing and drinking it without the ‘doctoring’ up.     Of course, my preferred method is definitely blended in ice with milk but it is nice to be reassured that for convenience sake, this is good shaken with plain ol’ water too.

 

image

 

A couple more bonuses is that it is packed in individual packets making it travel friendly.  AND there are 26grams of protein in each packet plus 5,000mg of BCAA’s.   Branched-Chain Amino Acids are key in endurance and muscle repair.    Finding this in a protein drink is a win-win situation.   For more info on BCAA’s visit this website.

 

If you are looking for a plan based protein supplement, I highly recommend Vega Sport.   They have multiple products to choose from that will help you reach your goals.

#FuelYourBetter Review

 

vega-sport-performance-system

 

** I was given this product for free in return for my review.  All opinions are my own.

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

image

 

And the other team

 

Off Like A Prom Dress

minus 1 because she was already running 

IMG_2919

 

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.

image

 

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

image

 The Starting Line

 

.

image

Finishing with a smile.

Seriously, what is wrong with me?

.

image

An Exchange Point

.

image

Go Jessie, Go!

.

Highlights of Leg Two

image

Happy!

.

image

They’re smiling too.

We are all insane

.

IMG_2928

Waiting for their exchange to happen.

.

IMG_2923

Way to bring it in strong, girls!

.

image

No explanation needed, right?

.

Highlights of Leg Three

image

Last Stage for Runner 1.  Looking good!

.

image

They finished strong!

.

image

Runner 2- getting ready to hand off!

.

image

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

Stage 3… here we come.

.

image

This is my

“Oh Thank God I am DONE” look

and Natalie’s

“Oh, Shit, here I go AGAIN” look

.

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……

.

image

Almost Done!

.

image

Couldn’t resist a cute shoe pic…

.

image

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

.

image

This team carried that American Flag all 75 miles.

Awesome.

.

WE MADE IT!

image

Teams:   Off Like A Prom Dress

&

Runaway Brides

.

image

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

 

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.

image

 

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!

 

image

 

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.

 

image

 

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

image

image