Bootcamp Recap and Race Training

Week 3 of Tina Reale's Best Body Bootcamp was so great! It included a new set of workouts and I am in love with supersets. I'm totally turning into aworkout nerd. While I haven't felt my jeans getting any looser, I haven't been eating the best. I have noticed, though, that my arms are becoming slightly more defined and I'm able to do exercises I couldn't before. I also have been moving up in the weights I use, which makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing. Can't wait for week 4 this week (same as week 3, just one more set of exercises).

This is how I feel lifting, sometimes. It'll get easier, though!

For my other exercise, I've been trying to keep up my miles for my 12 hour race and 100 mile race coming up. Last week, I got in 52 miles and this week, I squeaked by with 49.75 miles. I know that most of my miles are coming from my long runs (22 last week, 26.2 miles this past weekend), but I need to get my miles up some more. While I've never been someone to train with super high mileage, I know that I need to try to get some solid week with 60 miles, though.

One thing that has been plaguing me is the fact that compared to last year, my mileage and workouts have been lacking. It has been a difficult time for me because I know I shouldn't compare and each year is different, but I just feel constantly behind in my training without the ability to catch up. I'm insanely competitive and I worry that if I don't do well in my upcoming races, I'm going to be be really upset. This week's goal, though, is to try to distance myself from that mindset and focus on doing the best I can do now.

Here's to hoping the next ~6 and ~13 weeks of training go well, without the self-made pressure that I've created.

Bootcamp recap and a 100 miler

As readers know from my last post, I signed up for Tina Reale's Best Body Bootcamp and last week was Week 2. We were to preform the same workouts as Week 1, but the timing of the exercises was different (instead of preforming the action for 2 seconds, holding 1 second, then letting go for 2, we were to do 4 seconds up, 1 second hold, 2 seconds down, then pulse 15 times after each set). Boy, was I sore, but I felt good doing it!

One exercise in particular was extremely difficult for me Week 1: the one leg sit and stands. For this past week's workouts, I found myself doing the easier version (opposite heel on the ground) without even testing if I could do the exercise as prescribed normally. I assumed that I wasn't capable of doing it and when I gave myself the chance, I proved myself wrong. Not only could I do more than a few, but I was able to do nearly all of them without the aid of my other leg! This made me think that I may be creating walls and roadblocks for myself when I am fearful of not being capable of doing something.

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That lesson lead me to probably one of the craziest things I've ever done: I registered for my first 100 mile race. As an ultrarunner, I've always known a 100 miler was something I would attempt, I just never knew I'd register so soon. I heard about the Great New York 100 miler from a running friend and I was immediately intrigued. A 100 miler throughout all of NYC and the surrounding areas?! For some, that sounds awful. To me, it sounded like a really cool way to get to know the city and attempt my first 100 miler. After contemplating it and discussing it with some running friends and the BF, I knew I had to push myself and try it. If I didn't sign up, I'd regret that I never gave myself the opportunity to even try.

With the race less than 14 weeks away, I am beyond excited and nervous, but I cannot wait until that weekend where I get to see what I'm capable of. That's what ultras are for, right? For me, that's a good portion of what they are about.

Anyone do anything fun this weekend? Any fun race training or ways you pushed yourself. I'd love to hear!

Bootcamp and Miles Galore

Thankfully, it seems *knocking on every piece of wood in my apartment* my quad is getting back to normal. I've been good about rolling it out after exercises all this week and while I cannot say it is pain free, it is 90% back to normal. I'm hoping that will continue!

This week, I put the quad to the test a handful of ways. The main way was with Tina Reale's Best Body Bootcamp. I have been trying to incorporate more cross training into my workout routine and I thought this was a great way to do it! Tina sends out workouts every 2 weeks for 8 weeks and after Week One, I'm so glad I signed up. I will be doing 2 of the 3 total body workouts each week she sends (don't want to be too sore for my race training). The two workouts I did kicked my butt, but made me feel really strong.

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I also had to create two personal goals and I did really well on both! I never eat before I head out for runs and while eating a lot would be a bad idea, I need to have a little something before I exercise. I also tasked myself to do core workouts 3 times this week. I've been really great about sticking to them and only forgot to eat once before a run.

Speaking of runs, I've been able to up my mileage from last week and got in 34 miles this week, including a 22 mile long run I just finished a few hours ago. While 34 miles a week isn't as many as I'd like with 9 weeks until my 12 hour race, I'm just happy to be back to running sans major quad pain.

Hope everyone had a great week and here's to more running without quad paid. :D

Lazy Weekend and a crafty DIY

While my weekends would normally revolve around a 20+ mile long run, this weekend did not. Mid-last week, I started feeling quad pain that was similar to a strain. With less than 3 months until my 12 hour race, I knew pushing it would not be smart. I may run long distances and get a lot of crap from people (strangers, even!) about how much I run, but I am really good about listening to my body and not pushing it when I shouldn't. I did a test slow mile on Friday without much pain and 3 miles yesterday with no pain. Going to keep icing it and stretching and hopefully, I can get back up to my normal mileage this week. It does make me nervous that my race is less than 10 weeks and I feel like my training has been a bit wonky. I just have to keep my head up and hope for the best!

Instead of running through Philly for hours on end, I decided to finally work on a DIY I've been planning for the last few weeks. While my lovely friend Liz is the queen of DIY things, unless it involves baking or cooking, I am not patient or talented enough to do a DIY. I did, though, want to push myself to try to do something out of my comfort zone, so I created three picture frame jewelry holders this weekend.

I used the lovely Pinterest as inspiration and found some really cool jewelry organizers that helped me come up with my idea.

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For my organizers, I decided to use picture frames and gold hooks. I went to my local K-Mart and purchased the following items:

• 3 8.5x11 picture frames
• 100 gold hooks (cheaper than buying a smaller amount)
• 3M Wall Stickies

Here is how I assembled them:

1. Use small screwdriver to start holes for hooks.
2. Manually screw in hooks to pre-made holes. I had very cheap frames, so this sometimes damaged the frame a bit, but the hooks still were in there securely. 
3. Apply wall stickies to back of frames, then secure to wall.
4. For the earring and ring frame, I used white crinoline that I already owned and taped it to the back of the frame (didn't have a nail small enough, or I would have done that). I made sure to not have the crinoline go all the way down the frame so I could reach behind it to secure the backs to earrings.

Here is what it looked like while I was assembling them, as well as how they look up on my wall!

The assembling of the hooks. Definitely got frustrated at times with this. 

Finished product on my wall!

I am really happy with how they turned out, especially since I am not crafty in the least. It also is a good way for me to see all of my jewelry in one spot, so I have a feeling I'll be wearing more than I would normally.

Alright, back to normal posting about running and food next time. Hope everyone is having a great March so far!!!