Best Body Bootcamp...the Final Phase

That title sounded kind of Star Trek-y didn't it? Believe it or not I meant it to-because this plan is out of this world *cheese ball alert!* I have been nothing short of amazed.



Amazed at how quickly 8 weeks went by;
Amazed that I have managed to sneak in almost every.single.workout;
Amazed that my body was able to accomplish almost every.single.workout;
Amazed that each phase threw me for a loop, made me groan, and then made me grin;

And best of all...
Amazed that I am in the best shape (ever) less than a year post baby!

I love them!!

This is NOT the type of picture I would normally post, but I thought maybe some #proof was in order here. I mean seriously, I have guns biceps.  Of course they were always there and I've always considered myself somewhat strong (for a chick!) but I can't believe what I see when I flex now. And we haven't even been doing dedicated bicep work. That's the beauty of the plan to me. All the moves are very functional and sequenced in a way that you get in, get out and get the job done in the time you have. Which, for a busy mom is perfect!

Here's another great thing...Round 3 of BBB just opened. I highly recommend checking it out. It's the most bang for my buck, fitness-wise, I've ever gotten. Of course you get out what you put in but the facebook group and great motivation/advice they provide will be there for the days you feel down. Sometimes just reading a few of their comments got me headed in the right direction.

Half marathon training has been fitting right in as well. I use the 2 cardio segments of BBB as my short runs, doing the interval work prescribed and using the 'cardio of choice' day for the long run listed in my training plan. I finally made that 6.5 mile run and felt awesome about it. 2 short walk breaks and still gas left in the tank at the end.

It didn't hurt one bit that the weather was perfect, I was the only one out there, and the new sports complex where I ran had nice (open!) bathrooms to look forward to at the end ;-) And check out this awesome sign they had hanging at the entrance to the ball fields. Great advice!! It 's unfortunate they felt the need to do this, but at least it was done in a cute, funny way. Kudos.

I mentioned before that I will probably take the BBB plan and go through it again. I'm in the middle of a little and much-needed break from 6 day/week workouts, but when I get back on track that is what I'll do. It's the type of plan you could repeat, make a few modifications to suit your style, and never get bored.

Bottom line-sign up. And Thank You Tina!! I only wish warm weather would stick around a little longer so I can sell some tickets to the gun show! Haha!

Just because she's so darn cute!

Taking the Plunge

I did it. Finally. I registered for the race I've been talking about...the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!! Ok, I did it a few weeks back, but still-it's done and there's no turning back now! I can't believe how excited I am over something so far in the future-I'm so glad I chose a race like this for my first, it's more of an event than a race and I think the atmosphere will be so much fun that the run itself will be an afterthought!

Seriously, how much fun does this look?

I've also mentioned the Jeff Galloway plan I'm using to train. I made it through the first 4 weeks without a bump. I even finished my first non-treadmill 5-miler without much incident so I figured things would continue to progress steadily (and easily) along.

Princess Pics Source

Wrong. This past weekend we came upon the 6.5 mile run. I woke up dreading it. I haven't been dreading running in quite a while so I knew this was not a good sign. It was also pouring down the rain which meant being confined to the basement treadmill-blah.

I decided to try a similar tactic as the 5 mile run with predetermined walk/run intervals. I think this works much better than waiting until you need to walk. This time I counted steps- 500 run, 100 walk. I only count one foot when I say steps, btw. I've used the step counting thing for a long time to keep my mind occupied. *It's also an easy thing to do when you first start running and actual distances freak you out, or you just can't tell how far a quarter mile or 400m or something like that is. Just get yourself to run X number of steps and then walk X number, increase the running number each time you go.* I also find the pure monotony of listening/counting my steps soothing, I get in a rhythm, so to speak.

Generally a good pace should be about 90 steps/minute (I think I heard this on another mother runner podcast, can't be sure though) so this was only 5-ish minutes of running at a time but I was still barely slogging through each one. It didn't help that I was feeling guilty for leaving G upstairs with her daddy who also had a million things to get done on the one day of the week we were actually home. These two things combined gave me an easy out and I only ran 4 miles in 42 minutes.

Should I enter G in the kids race?

I'm lucky. I'm way ahead on this training plan for my race so repeating Week X isn't a problem. The problem for me is always the mental game. Why was I dreading the run in the first place? Let's run down the potentials...

1. Because I hadn't had enough sleep-no, I get the same 6.5 hours every night (this is the compromise for me to both function and get stuff done!) 
2. Hmm-did I hate doing it on the treadmill? Sure, but I'd better get used to it with winter and looong training runs unfortunately coinciding soon. 
3. Was it leaving G with the hubs? Maybe, I always feel guilty (please don't ask why) about doing that even though they need their time together. 
4. Because I doubt that I can do it and hate failure so much that I tell myself ahead of time that I probably won't be able to do it so that I'll be prepared? DING, DING, DING-I think we have a winner!!

Ah-the psych out. Now here it is the beginning of repeating that week. I have two interval runs before I tackle that 6 miler again. So I have that many days to get myself mentally prepared-this time for the fact that I CAN do it. I need to keep my eating in check-I've noticed almost immediate fatigue when the processed stuff sneaks back in-and practice some positive self-talks during my week day runs.

I've continued to follow the Best Body Bootcamp format for those which means hills this week-yikes! That plan has helped tremendously with not getting bored with the weekday treadmill runs. In fact, even though this is the last 'official' week I think I'm going to turn around and do it for another 8 weeks. I plan an entire post about the overall experience, but it was great and highly recommended.

Here's to positive thoughts this week!

What run/workout thoughts keep you going?

Best Body Bootcamp Update

Well kids, we've made it to the halfway point of Best Body Bootcamp. Hard to believe it's been 4 weeks already. To me, this is the sign of a great program since I am anything but bored and I continue to see results. Tina just announced there will be round 3 (yay!) so check it out if you're interested!


This week we continued tempo workouts, but changed the counts holding the contraction portion for 4 seconds. Sounds like a short amount of time, right? I challenge you to do some squats like this-2 counts to lower, hold for 4 (no cheating!), 2 counts back up. Now do that 10 more times. And then do 3 sets of that. Yeah-no joke!
Running went really well this week. I completed the workouts as written-even though I worried about the 5/5 intervals I ran a full 4 miles at speeds I wouldn't typically attempt. That is what I'm loving most about BBB, it's pushing my preconceived thoughts of what my abilities are. 

It was 57 degrees and I'm still dripping with sweat-hot!

I've been saying for awhile that if I would just get out of my own way, I'd be further along with my half marathon training and I think this program is helping me do that. Thanks Tina!! I managed another 4 miler on Sunday as my cardio of choice, so back on track with the training program.

We also set 2 goals each week as part of BBB. I haven't really been talking about mine, and apparently I need to so that I hold myself accountable. I decided on a 2 minute plank a day. I did get 6 of these but in the middle of one I realized I hadn't started my timer and I'll be damned if I was starting over!!!

My 2nd goal was to hike from my basement office to the fourth floor via the stairs at least once a day. I chose this because there is only one bathroom in the basement and the only other one I care to use is located on the 4th floor. I drink a lot, therefore I pee a lot; there are at least 25 women to this one bathroom-easy goal to meet thanks to mother nature. And I must say it's getting easier (when I don't wait to long to go!)
The hubs and I also kicked off a challenge for us-30 days of Clean Eating. I generally eat this way, but there are a lot of non-clean convenience foods that make it into the house each week. The more educated I become about food and the food-like products we consume, the more important this becomes to me. Day 1 is in the books so I'll keep talking about our struggles and how we're coping throughout the month. I'm sure there will be lots of positives to talk about as well. So-help me out:
What is your favorite clean eating snack?

Before the Crack of Dawn...

That's when I worked out this morning. Why? Because sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! I knew there was no way it was getting done this evening so I sacrificed a little sleep and completed the 30 minute progression intervals from Best Body Bootcamp. I think I would have pushed my speed intervals a little faster had it not been so early. Seriously, all I'm thinking as my short little legs go at 8.5 mph is "Don't bite it, you can't go to work with treadmill burn on your face." I'm not even close to kidding.

We are in Phase 2 now which includes push/pull workouts done at tempo speeds. This is new to me and in all honesty, is testing my patience! I like a tough, quick workout so taking my time is hard to get used to. We're lifting and lowering at a set number of counts (for example 3 counts up, 1 count down). I do admit that I noticed soreness after what I thought was an 'easy' push workout. Tina knows her stuff, that's all I'm gonna say! :-)

I've been pretty happy with my weight and am not really trying to lose any, but I actually have dropped a few lbs on this plan. I don't know if my routine just needed a shake up or if more concentration on weights vs. cardio was needed but something is working. Even though my runs are still not long, I feel strong during them and like I said, have been sore following most of the circuit sessions. 

One more circuit to go for Week 3 and my cardio of choice workout, the weekend run from the Jeff Galloway half marathon training plan I'm trying to following. 196 Days people. We're in full planning mode for the trip, and it's been frustrating. I need to find someone who has run at Disney to recommend accommodations. I'd love to stay right there, but hey it's Disney, and you pay for that. When I go for an all-out Disney vacay with G and the hubs I'm sure we'll do the whole thing, but not for this. At least I don't think so. Anyone know anyone?
Have you done a "Destination Race"? How was it?

Weekend in MI

Wow, it's Tuesday evening already!! Where have the past 4 days gone?! I guess 2 of them were spent on the road so that explains a lot...G is a great traveler. Thank goodness!!

I have been on a family/friend visiting overload! I arrived at my parent's house Friday afternoon and in a few hours my best friend/cousin was making us a dinner full of goodies from her garden. She is way too smart for her own good and is a fountain of information on the effect food has on your body. My mom and I are now armed with some new information that is likely to make the men in our lives cry for their soda and candy! ;-) Sorry guys! Hopefully after I get the chance to visit some of the resources she provided and maybe make some changes I can pass the info on. Needless to say, there was no BBB workout completed on Friday. Oops.

Saturday morning I ran a 5k as my "cardio of choice" workout. It was part of a local event called the Pig Gig, betcha can't guess what kind of cook-off they have! We got a medal stamped with a happy pig running through finish line tape just for participating- awesome!

I hope you realize the goofy pose is a nod to the Olympics!

It was a humid morning, thank goodness the race was on the water so we had a breeze. It was a nice route but I have never been part of such a messy start. They didn't separate runners from walkers and had children runners all mixed in so I spent the first half mile trying to get around people and into a groove. I finished in 31:48, not even close to my goal time. No excuses though, I wanted to stop and walk several times but didn't. I'll take that as a victory.

Saturday afternoon my mom, G and I drove to visit with my old colleagues from Indiana. I literally felt like I spent the majority of the weekend in the car. Good thing I like mine. And apparently so does G. She became a big ham over the weekend. I guess there was a swine theme!

My Dad and I golfed on Sunday morning. I was feeling pretty rusty since I didn't play at all last year (a belly full of G probably would have gotten in the way!) and only once so far this year. It was a really nice course though and we just enjoyed being out there. Then we visited with my brother and family. I got real lazy with the pics on Sunday-sorry!

In between those adventures I had my mom do BBB Workout C and core with me. She's a trooper, even though she accused me of trying to kill her more than once! I love being up there, but it's good to be back and get to my usual schedule, I'm a real stickler for a schedule! I'm excited to be starting the next Phase of BBB and I plan to make some more detailed updates during this one.

Until next time Michigan :-)

Road Trip!!

It's time for another trip to MI to visit my lovely family. Only this time it's just me and G. Girl's trip!!

Just in the past few days she's become increasingly stubborn and all about G. As in, this is what I want and I want it now and I'm going to scream at you when you disagree. We were planning to drive overnight tonight so she'd be asleep for the trip but some last minute changes have me getting up SUPER early to leave tomorrow. Can you say caffeine??

That means this evening was filled with unpacking for 3 and repacking for 2 and I didn't get my workout in. Hopefully I won't be too exhausted when I arrive tomorrow to do Workout C, even if I don't get to the cardio part after.

Best Body Bootcamp Week 2:

Monday:  Workout A plus HIIT-awesome once again. I thought I'd get more reps to fatigue during the second week, but it was the opposite. I'd never done HIIT on the elliptical before but it kicked my butt. In a good way.

Tuesday:  Run intervals on treadmill-3.6 miles

Wednesday:  Workout B plus steady elliptical cardio-My goal was 2 minute wall sits. I got one (out of four!) Progress is progress right?! My gluteus are definitely feeling it today! Oh yeah, and core.

Thursday:  OFF

Friday:  Plan is for Workout C plus core. Maybe an evening walk with the folks and G.

Saturday:  Run 5k race. Shooting for under 30:30 finish.

Sunday:  Golf-I always walk when playing with my dad. And I'm horrible so there is a lot of walking from one side to the other...and a lot of searching for golf balls!

It's a big, busy weekend of fun with the fam in MI. I can't help but wish every time I have to make this trip that I could blink my eyes and bob my head like I Dream of Jeanie and just be there. 8 hours is a long time in a car, and it's likely to be longer on my own with a 9 month old! Please send me all of your patience, I may need some extra :-)

Then I'm excited to start with BBB Phase 2. Tina sent us the plans already and I know it's going to be a whole new kind of hurt. Gotta keep those muscles guessing!

Big weekend plans? Do they include some QT with your favorite peeps?

Best Body Bootcamp-Week 1

I had meant to do a few updates throughout the week, but a lot of planned things went down the drain with the computer crash. The Macs are up and running (obviously!) and other than some learning on the file downloads things are going well. It's amazing what a difference in speed there is when compared to our ancient outdated ones!


Anyway-Week 1 is in the books!
I really enjoyed the strength workouts, and by enjoyed I mean sweat and grunted for every last rep-especially the moves we did to fatigue. I've never completed circuits where you fatigue the muscle first and then do a second complementary move directly after. And man, did I feel the burn :-) 
There was an upper, lower and combined workout like this. Can I just say how much I hate working lower body? I know you burn major calories doing it and that it's uber important as a runner to get those muscles in tip top shape, but squats and lunges really suck. And wall sits? I'd rather watch paint dry. But I fought through it and I'll be better for it. Maybe I'll learn to like them through boot camp? Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!
Speaking of lower body, I got this cool new piece of equipment at Dick's last weekend (on clearance!!!) SCORE!

I'm using it in place of a Bosu ball, which I've been wanting for a long time, but they're pricey. This bad boy is similar in that the base is made of air chambers so you can leave it as soft as you want, challenging your balance and core. I've been trying to stress the importance of core work to the hubs for-well, forever. This is a step (pun totally intended!) in the right direction.
Bootcamp calls for doing cardio after circuit work, which is tough, but in a good way. I'm using our elliptical for that since I spend too much time on the treadmill already. I also completed two cardio-only interval workouts (running) and one cardio of choice workout (again-running!)

This is probably the last picture of my sweaty self you're going to see-ugh!

I'm just not making the headway I'd like to with what is supposed to be my 'long' runs. I'd love to blame it on those wall sits but the fact is, I'm pretty sure it's all in my head. I'm at a complete plateau and I know I need to get my mind out of the way of my body. Easier said than done, eh?
Week 2 has already begun and I'm running a 5k on Saturday in MI...wish me luck!
Have you ever hit an exercise plateau? How did you break through?