Five Things Friday...

1)      Got some great news yesterday- Mom does not have the BRCA genetic mutation which means no more surgeries for her and no ‘tough talk’ between me and my doctor about me getting tested and what to do if I had the same mutation. Huzzah!

 

2)      I also got some news today from my doctor. My blood work results came in and my results were awesome…my cholesterol is 142, my LDL (the bad cholesterol) is 60, and my triglycerides are 76. To give you some perspective of healthy numbers; total cholesterol should be below 200, LDL should be below 70 if you are high risk for heart disease (given my family history I would say I am) or below 100 if you are just at risk for heart disease, HDL (which mine is 82) should be above 60, and triglycerides should be below 150. BOOM! My numbers are awesome! I don’t remember exactly where my blood pressure was when I went in for the appointment but I think it was 110/73 (the tech said that was excellent) and my resting heart rate was 58 bpm. Seeing numbers like this always makes me happy- especially since I am still overweight. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want to get to a healthy weight range but it is good to know that I can carry a few extra pounds and still post great numbers.

 

 

3)      I downloaded a printable wellness calendar for September from Cassie at Back to Her Roots. I think this calendar is fantastic and I plan to print it and post it on my bathroom mirror. I am very excited for September. My FB group is going to be weighing in and helping to keep each other focused and accountable, I am going to be participating in a back to basics challenge through Colleen the Fit Bee (she is awesome, one of my biggest inspirations) and using a custom workout and meal plan she created for me, I will hopefully meet with a nutritionist later this month (still haven’t received a call from them) and I have my follow up appointment with my primary care doc where I will hopefully be able to get the ball rolling with paperwork for the abdominoplasty so I can try to get it scheduled for the end of this year/early next. I am pretty sure September is going to kick ass!

 

4)      It’s official- I am breaking up with Crossfit…again. I told Paul that when I decide next year I want to give it another shot that he needs to remind how miserable I was and how badly my body reacted to it. After days of icing, wearing compression pants, deep tissue massage (with the moji and having Paul help), stretching, walking, resting, you name it- my legs still hate me. My ass is doing better but my IT bands and the area around my kneecaps still are just really pissed. So that’s it. I’m throwing in the towel. On to something new. Boot camp next week. Oh, and on the 7^th I am trying out aerial yoga…how cool is that? I’m also thinking about signing up for a 5K on the 14^th. And like I said in my previous post, I may even try out a personal trainer session. Who knows?

 

 

5)      I love long weekends but I am guessing that goes without saying. Who doesn’t love them? I told Paul that we could do whatever he wants at night as long as each day this weekend is filled with some sort of fun activity. Our agenda now is to take a long bike ride down at Pensacola Beach tomorrow, go hiking and swimming at the state park on Sunday, and go kayaking on Monday. Fingers crossed that the rain doesn’t ruin our plans. Tonight Paul is making me a surprise homemade dinner and then we are going out for the tapping of one of the only 2 kegs in the entire state of Florida of Beard Beer from Rogue. Since I had this beer in Portland and failed to bring any back I was super excited that it made its way down to Pensacola. I think it’s kind of random that only 2 kegs made it to Florida and both are in Pensacola. I’m not complaining, I’m thrilled. I love my funky, beer-loving mini-metropolis!

Walking around campus on my lunch break...took this at my new favorite spot. Great start to my weekend :)

 

How are you spending this holiday weekend? Are you excited or terrified that September 1^st is this Sunday?

OK Crossfit...

Ok Crossfit…I’m giving you a few more classes to prove you are really worth it before we break up.

Again.

But to be honest…it’s not looking good.

I apologize to all of my readers out there that love Crossfit. This isn’t about Crossfit, it’s about me. It’s totally awesome if you love it, if it’s your ‘thing’. I just don’t know if it will ever be my 'thing'.

Why, you ask…

Well, honestly….it’s just too much. It’s a bit too intense for me. Not the workout itself- that I enjoy. It’s the after workout that is making me miserable.

 If Crossfit was going to be the only thing I did for exercise I would probably be ok with it but it’s not. I am training for a half marathon (a slew of them actually) and I love cycling. And Crossfit is preventing me from doing either. Because it is just killing my muscles.

Right now every large muscle group between my knees and up to/including my ass is sore. And not just ‘that was a good workout’ sore, it’s more like ‘oh, you would actually like to stand up from a seated position? Nice try’ sore. I don’t like that sitting/standing is a challenge, I can barely navigate the steps in/out of our apartment without leaning on the railing, I am walking slower than a snail’s pace and I cannot run. I was able to jog a bit yesterday- for like a few hundred feet downhill- but running, forget about it.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not in pain really. Just complete muscle fatigue/failure.  And every day it gets worse. Who can live like this?

And trust me…I am doing everything possible to help speed up my muscle recovery. I’m stretching (what seems like all the time) and walking- just trying to keep moving because I know being sedentary, even though it feels good, won’t help me one bit. And of course eating really great foods to help rebuild.

Again, I have to reiterate- if Crossfit was the only activity I wanted to do I would be ok with this. But since it is preventing me from doing anything else I am none too happy.

And that’s ok. I don’t have to love Crossfit. And I don’t have to force myself to keep up with it just because I know it will make me stronger. Lots of things can make me stronger- and it’s looking like it’s time to find one that will help me build lean muscle mass without me having to sacrifice what little cardio endurance (and of course the residual happiness from being active) I have.

So yesterday I started to do some research.

I found a boot camp class that is offered at the university where I work. It’s twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, right after work. The timing is perfect. The location is super convenient. And the best part- it’s free.

And I love boot camp classes. Back when I started boxing very, very early on in my journey (like I think I was still above 260lbs or so) I would take a boot camp class at the boxing gym. I loved it. It was intense. There were definitely times where I felt I wouldn’t be able to finish the workout but I always did. And the best part- it never prevented me from doing other activities.

I think it would be a great fit. It would allow me to still be able to run and bike in the mornings and then a couple times a week I could take this class right after work and still make it home at a reasonable hour that would allow me to eat dinner with plenty of time to digest before bedtime.

Another avenue I looked into was a personal trainer. At the university they offer one-on-one sessions with a trainer for an astonishingly low $20 per session! Isn’t that unreal? So, if the boot camp classes don’t pan out or even if they do but I still need additional help trying to get in shape for the Spartan race and my crazy fall/winter half marathon schedule then I know I have something else I can try.

So my plan is finish out my free week at Crossfit (you never know, things may get better)and if after that I want to try something different I will check out the boot camp classes here at the rec center.

I’m not giving up on strength training.

I’m just looking for a better fit.

And I am confident that I will find something that helps me become stronger AND allows me to still be active.

I really don’t think I need to limit myself to one or the other and I certainly wouldn’t want to if I could find a better fit.

Is strength training a part of your routine? What type of strength training activities do you like to do?

Reebok Spartan Race Giveaway!

Reebok was one of the sponsors at Fitbloggin’ 2013 and I was very fortunate to come home with some amazing goodies from them. I am pretty sure that the total value of the items I received from Reebok actually exceeded the ticket cost to attend Fitbloggin’. And it was all really nice, and very useful, stuff so I was one happy camper.  Thanks Reebok! J

I was even more excited to find out that I could receive a free entry fee into any of Reebok’s Spartan Races, if I was interested.

Heck yeah, I was interested. Paul had just signed up for the Spartan Race in Mississippi a few weeks prior to me attending Fitbloggin’ and was hoping that someone else would sign up with him. I had said no originally because I am running a half marathon the following weekend and was concerned I would injure myself or at least still be totally exhausted from the race a week later.

When the Reebok rep told me about the free entry fee I thought to myself…’What would Dani do?’ (when it comes to running, she's my measuring stick for crazy ideas) and since I know she would have said ‘heck, yeah I’ll do it!’ I decided I would too. I immediately told Paul about the free race fee and he was super excited.

And I’m excited too. I have never done an obstacle race before. Do you remember that I registered for one back in April that ended up being canceled-that crushed my heart.

 

I know I'll be happy to receive that medal in the end. Hopefully I don't have to fight off someone with a giant q-tip thingy to get there....

Yep, I am definitely excited to train up for the Spartan Race. I may even go back to CrossFit to help get me ready for this race. I mean, Reebok did give me a free pair of CrossFit shoes so I probably should put them to good use, right?

Crazy!

Oh, and do you want to know something else that is pretty darn awesome? In addition to my race entry, I also have one to share as well. Reebok Spartan Race has given me one free race entry to give away on the blog. The winner gets to pick any open heat in any 2013-14 race within the continental U.S. How awesome is that? And if you live in my area of the south you could even sign up for the Mississippi one with me J

Ridiculously crazy!

I was actually kind of jealous of all the amazing locations there are for the Spartan Race. If I wasn’t already committed to a trail half marathon in Georgia on September 29 I would have totally registered for the one in my hometown Philly- at Citizens Bank Park (where the Phillies play, for you non-baseball people) on September 28. That one looks awesome!

Yikes....

In addition to Philadelphia, there are races all over the country; New Jersey, Illinois, Nebraska, Virginia, Massachusetts (Fenway!!!), Wisconsin, and Washington to name a few. It looks like about half of the states in the U.S.  have at least one of the three race options offered; Sprint (what I’ll be doing), Super, and Beast. I love that they not only offer so many locations but that they offer various lengths/obstacle counts – this makes it less intimidating for a newbie like me.

Completely badass!

It’s also very cool that you can sign up to receive emails with their signature Spartan Workout of the Day. I have yet to try one of these but Paul has been doing them and they are no joke.  I guess they would have to be intense in order to get you ready for the race. Yep, I am excited (and a bit terrified) for this new challenge- definitely entering a new frontier for me.

So, without further ado...what you have all been waiting for…

How to Enter

I am going to make the entry process fairly easy for all of us…if you want to enter just leave a comment on this post telling me which Spartan Race location you would pick for your race entry. That's it.

 *Check out their website here for a list of race locations.

You can only enter once.

You have until 11:59pm (central) on July 18^th , 2013 to enter.

Winner will be chosen at random and announced here on the blog some time Friday, July 19^th, 2013.

Easy enough, right?

Remember this is only good for open heats in any 2013-14 Spartan Race located within the continental United States. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments or email me- axid200 (at) gmail (dot) com 

Since there will only be one winner for the race entry fee, Spartan Race so kindly offered up a 15% off registration fee code for us to use. Isn't that awesome?

Here is the link: 15% off code 

Now the only question that remains is ARE YOU SPARTAN TOUGH???

Disclaimer: Reebok/Spartan Race provided me two free race entries in hopes to promote their events. I did not or will not receive any compensation for this or any Spartan Race post. I will be writing about the race I participate in but all opinions will be my own and true to my experience.

Note: there is a mandatory fee of $14.00 for insurance that is not included in the race registration fee. Winner will be responsible to pay for their own insurance costs.

Photos and videos were taken from Spartan Race website with prior approval J