Triathlete turned Featherweight

With all fitness routines and training plans, there is always a potential for burnout due to excessive training.  The majority of my friends participate in endurance events and will train year round with few rest periods (you know who you are). For many of us, it's hard to ease up on the training when you see your times getting faster or all the cool kids are signing up for another half marathon in two weeks and you don't want to be left out. Getting better though requires training smarter and recovering from races, training and seasons.

So what's my point? Well, it's officially off season for the sport of triathlon and although there are plenty of swim, bike or run workouts I can be doing to improve for next year, I've decided to try a few different workouts to prevent burnout during my 2013 Tahoe Ironman training instead of trying to find a cure for burnout one month out from the race. Granted, I will continue to run and cycle during the next couple of months to keep up my fitness but I'm gonna have a different kind of fun for now.

Okay, so this picture was from Halloween '07 but fast forward five years and this week I had two successful power hours of boxing at Title Boxing Club in Arlington minus the robe. I bought a GroupOn for two weeks of unlimited boxing or kickboxing classes for $15. Hooray for savings! On my first visit the staff was great at making me feel comfortable and "The Apostle" (yes, our trainer for the class is a professional boxer whose real name is Kendrick) assisted me in wrapping my hand and wrists with my new free pink hand wraps. If you don't own gloves, they will let you borrow their loaners.

The place is a cool sight as the entire room is filled with rows and rows of punching bags and a small ring that I assume is used for personal training. The idea behind the power hour workouts is to give you a total body workout with the potential to burn up to 1000 calories. "The Apostle" had us warm up for about 20 minutes by jogging, performing lunges, side squats, jumping jacks, etc.  I was very comfortable at this point as one of my favorite classes called Nike Training Club at 24 Hour Fitness has the same type of warm up drills. Then it was time to put on the gloves and find our bag.

For the next 20-25 minutes, we performed one to three minute fitness rounds led by "The Apostle". I'm not the greatest when it comes to an instructor telling me what to do in a class. I'll be honest in saying that it takes me a minute to register the movements that I need to perform and I really have to think through it the first few times. I hope I'm not the only one like this but anyway, my first class was a learning experience as I tried to get my straight punches, left hooks and uppercuts completed in the right combination he asked for. If you have never repeatedly hit a punching bag, believe me...it's hard work when you don't have a ton of upper body strength. My deltoids were burning and I was failing at getting my gloves "home" after each punch. "Home" is putting the glove in front of your face for protection if you were really boxing, but since I wasn't about to get hit in the face at the moment the glove was not going home as my gloves felt like they weighed 50 lbs each after a few minutes of repetitive punching.

The last 15 minutes were dedicated to core exercises using medicine balls. I was happy we were about to do some exercises that I knew I was sort of good at. Then I realized that lifting the 10lb. medicine ball over my head was not happening with the spaghetti arms I had so I had to switch to an 8lb. ball.

When the hour was over I checked my heart rate monitor and I had burned 430 calories. This is pretty typical for an hour workout for me so my goal for the second class I took this morning was to burn more calories. It's pretty amazing how the body adapts to exercise, my arms were sore from Wednesday's workout but once I got going, I was able to last longer during the fitness rounds. With "The Apostle's" motivation and encouragement to concentrate on hitting his bare hands with my gloves faster than me hitting the bag on my own, I was able to burn 500 calories today.

Wiping the drops of my own sweat off the floor is guaranteed satisfaction that the $15 I spent to try something different was worth it. I would recommend anyone wanting to try something different or get out of a rut to check out a boxing class. I'm looking forward to some super sexy toned arms at the end of my two weeks!

I'm certified to kick your butt!

On Thursday, November 15th I went to the PSI Testing Center in Arlington to take the 120 question National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer Exam. It felt a bit odd being the only one in the room waving my arms around and performing squat exercises to determine the answers to some questions, but hopefully I was entertaining the proctors and other folks taking tests.

I will say that the test was challenging but I felt very confident with my answers to the questions, thanks to the Kinesiology classes I'm currently taking. Nonetheless, taking a test can be nerve wracking and you can’t ignore the feeling of possibly failing. Thankfully, there was no waiting on a professor to grade my test in a few days as I was told immediately after the test that I passed. Yippee!!! I had been told by many that NASM's test was one of the hardest to pass or that individuals typically fail it the first time, but in no way was I planning on adding myself to that statistic.

I'm thrilled to have the national credibility that this certification holds and look forward to transitioning from my current role in the membership department at 24 Hour Fitness to the fitness department as a Personal Trainer. For those of you that know me well, you know that I thrive off of helping people reach their goals. With my own personal success in weight loss and improved endurance performance, I can't wait to help others. Signing people up to start their journey on to a healthier and active lifestyle is rewarding but I’m excited to begin working with people one on one to meet their goals mentally and physically. It’s gonna be a blast!

Setting and Meeting Goals

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."  -Zig Ziglar

I set a goal back in June to run the half marathon at the Rock ‘N Roll San Antonio event on November 11, 2012 in two hours. My best half marathon time up to that point was 2:09 from 2008 when I was training for my first half ironman triathlon. Since then, I let up on consistent training and had times ranging from 2:15 to 2:45 over the next 4 years. It didn't feel good to see my times get slower but I couldn't complain if I wasn't setting goals and holding myself accountable to my training.

So I set this goal 5 months ago and yesterday, I DID IT! I set a new personal record of 1 hour and 59 minutes, just skidding in below two hours. I didn't care how ugly it was out there, I stuck to my guns and when my body wanted to quit due to the heat, humidity and wind…I just ran harder(at least I felt like I was going harder).  I knew every single person participating was enduring the same conditions I was and I wasn't going to let it get me down.

I’d like to say I had a blast yesterday, but let’s be honest, it was HOT! I stayed calm though and remembered how great I did at sticking to some important guidelines when I set this goal.  What guidelines am I talking about?

There are multiple guidelines that should be followed when setting goals in sports or any part of your life and talking through them in my Sports Psychology class really helped me hone in on them.  Here are a few tips or reminders to help with goal setting:

1.       Set specific goals in measurable terms (I wanted to do my half marathon in 2 hrs and to do that I needed to average a 9:10 pace so began tracking all of my runs while doing intervals and tempo runs to see my progress)

2.       Set moderately difficult but realistic goals, don’t exceed your ability (I didn't get crazy and say I wanted to run the half marathon in 1 hour and 45 minutes when I only had 5 months to do it. I knew I had done this distance in the past close this time, but I needed to start all over again)

3.       Set short and long range goals (I've cut over 4 minutes from my 5k time, but it didn't happen quickly. I measured it frequently to see how I was progressing and signed up for a practice half marathon three weeks before my race to test out the endurance)

4.       Set goals for practice and competition (I’m sure you see a pattern in what I was doing above for me not to detail it out)

5.       Provide support for goals (Important people in your life should know, understand and support your goals. Plus it’s easier to not give up when everyone knows what you want to achieve and can help keep you accountable)

6.       Identify target dates for attaining goals (Write it down and post it somewhere for you to see often!)

So what’s my next goal? Ironman Tahoe in September 2013! Big jump from a half marathon to a full ironman triathlon but don’t worry… I have lots of short term goals up until then. J For now, I think I deserve to celebrate my half marathon victory and have a little fun with cross training! Stay tuned for some reviews of upcoming group class workouts!

**Shout out to my amazing husband, Anthony who ran the half marathon yesterday and set a new personal record of 1 hour and 31 minutes! I joke that I'm getting faster now that I have his last name.

Who did you vote for?

The 2012 Presidential Election is over and I wore my "I Voted" sticker proudly on Tuesday. I didn't have to worry about them running out because I was there at 7:00 a.m.  As much as I wanted to stay awake to see the results, it was past my bed time and I knew the world wouldn't end overnight. Don't worry though, when my dog decided to wake me up at 3:30 a.m. to let her out to potty, I was able to count on my Facebook friends to fill me in.  Without fail I saw who was happy, who was sad and who was down right mad. Hopefully, everyone will return to normal Facebook postings by the end of the week if they haven't already.

Keeping all political views aside, I couldn't help but notice how physically fit each candidate was.  I'm sure you're thinking, "They have people planning and cooking their meals, personal trainers on stand by and can't drive themselves to a drive-thru!". Okay, so maybe they do have a great deal of support but no matter what, they have to be the driven ones willing to sacrifice and be role models for our country.  We all have the ability to make smart choices when it comes to cooking and working out and can build a great support team of our own to help us get there but it takes time and dedication to make it happen. Some of you may be pros at this whole healthy lifestyle gig and if you are, I challenge you to motivate someone today to join your healthy train.

How do you know if you're on the healthy train or no where near the station? Think about how you feel each day. Are you low in energy or not motivated to do anything after getting off work? Maybe you run 20 miles a week but never thought about getting some upper body exercises in. I mean, it's not like we walk around on our hands all day to need the strength, right?

I recently found out about The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition organization and if you have never visited their site, do it. It has been around for over 60 years and it's mission is to engage, educate, and empower all Americans to adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes regular physical activity and good nutrition. Am I the only one who didn't know about this?

No matter who you voted for and what you hope to see over the next four years, think about your health and what you will do to be a better you.  Start by taking the President's Challenge Adult Fitness Test which includes tests on:

Aerobic Fitness

Muscular Strength and Endurance

Flexibility

Body Composition

There is also a booklet that gives you guidelines on what the results mean and how to improve on them. No matter what, you need a support crew to get you to where you want to be. Think of your friends and family who would love to start moving and challenge them to a friendly work out or weight loss competition. It's always better with friends!

Start Today, Not Tomorrow!

How many times have you said I’ll start working out tomorrow?

If you’re like most Americans, you spent the weekend doing everything except getting enough exercise. At least that’s what was said about Americans back in 2002 when CNN reported that only 30% of individuals were exercising three or more times per week.

I can honestly say that I was a victim of the “I’ll start tomorrow” disease year after year but in 2004, I signed up for my first marathon with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training program.  I don’t think I knew a marathon was 26.2 miles at the time but supporting this organization in memory of my grandfather seemed like a great way to work out regularly and improve my fitness.  Most non endurance athletes would think that if you run a marathon you are in really great shape, but that is not always the case.  Anyone with a body can be an endurance athlete with the right mental attitude and willingness to train.  I say this because I completed multiple endurance events including marathons, century rides and triathlons by doing the least amount of training possible due to time constraints or plain laziness. 

Today, it’s estimated that the trend in exercising has increased to over 50% but with over 300 million Americans, there are still over 150 million people NOT exercising and my goal is to encourage hundreds and maybe even thousands of people to get moving.  Exercising obviously decreases the risk of many chronic diseases but making a lifestyle change can be tough which is why I have refocused my life to improve my overall health while encouraging others to improve their lives as well.

I’m currently pursuing my Master’s degree in Kinesiology and taking courses in Exercise Physiology, Sports Psychology and Analysis of Human Movement to have a better understanding of how the body works.  I feel this is key in providing the best information for individuals wanting to improve their well being but also enhance performance.  I lost 20 lbs in less than three months this year and focused on strength training which allowed me to finally place in my age group at four different 5k’s and sprint triathlon races.  I’m a born again gym rat and look forward to helping people achieve their fitness and triathlon goals as I document my journey to my second Ironman in Lake Tahoe in 2013. 

So until next time, don't put off what you can do today until tomorrow! 

Take on The Heat Triathlon, 3rd place AG 30-34