Agility X

Today's workout was one that I am sure will be one of my favourites.  First of all I pushed myself and woke up around 515 am so I could get the work done in the morning. It truly energized me and was wonderful to not have to worry about squeezing it in later in the day. This was my whole reason for buying these workout DVDs so I could simply put on my shorts and get a fabulous and challenging workout in my own home without having to go anywhere!

The idea behind the workout was high intensity cardio and has you moving around 2 lines  and 6 x's in your own living room.

I loved the high intensity and constant changes, not to mention Tony's quirky attitude :)

The only down side was that Tim and I cannot do this workout together, out living room just isn't big enough.

Tony does a great job at keeping you on your toes, literally, as every minute he has you trying something new. Again I am sure I will become faster and much for AGILE once I learn the drills a little better.


Food:

Breakfast oatmeal with egg whites. banana, walnuts and a splash of almond milk. Cup of coffee.

1st snack - apple and a pumpkin muffin Coffee

lunch - Salad greek yogurt with chia and an orange (no dressing) water

Afterwork snack - multigrain bagel with peanut butter and a large half coffee half hot chocolate  ( I forgot my Vega protein bar at home and I was in desperate need  of caffeine after my 515 am wake up and very stressful workday).

Dinner - bowl of Skinny Tastes Pasta Fageoli and water.

I drank about 3 water bottle of water in total.

Day 1 Total Synergistics and our fit tests

We started P90X3 yesterday with our fit test, before pictures and measurements.

I am pretty pleased with my before photos and my measurements as I am decent shape due to all my hard work last year.

My fit test results were like wise ok. I failed miserably on my pull ups (no surprise) What I was surprised about was my core strength, actually lack of core strength. I knew I was weak here, I can barely hold a plank. I really hope that I build up my core strength during this process.


Tonight Tim and I started the real deal. We completed the Total Synergistics DVD and true to its word the workout only lasted 30 mins.

The warm up was quick and to the point and focussed on dynamic movements that gets your juices flowing.

Once in the main portion of the work the average exercise only lasted around 60 secs. I love that idea! I can do anything for 60 seconds!! P90X3 also incorporates tiny rest periods between sets for allow you to catch your breathe.

Being that it was the very first video I think that we did pretty good. I often had to stop to watch to be sure I was doing the movement correctly. I also kept my weights really light. Next week I will be sure to ramp it up a bit. Tony highly recommends writing your reps and weight on the P90X work sheets. He even gives you a time and reminders to do so throughout the DVD. I will most definitely do so next week.

My first overall impression is that this workout program seems to be right up my alley and totally within my range of capability.

I can't wait for tomorrow's workout :)

Getting Back at it ....

Its been a long time since I have taken the time to write a post. Too long....
Well I am ready to get back at it.

Let me catch you up.

I went back to work full time :(

Ran several half marathons including a PR race in Winnipeg and WDW Half Marathon in Orlando!

Since my last race I went on a Disney Cruise, caught the flu, spent too many days traveling in airports and eating really terrible food.

I have been in a bit of a workout funk. The weather has been beastly (-40C) for more days than I can count which limits prevents running outside.

OK so its not -40C right now, but -25 is still cold and today is the warmest its been in a long long time!

So last week I went out and splurged and bought myself the newest in the series of P90X - P90X3. The thing that most interested me in the series was that the workouts only last 30 mins including warm up and cool down and they can be done in my living room. Because honestly going to the gym to run for 30 or 40 mins takes me well over an 1 ½ hrs by the time is get organized and drive to the gym and then change again to come back home. AND it is FREAKING cold outside!!!

I have always wanted to give the program a try, I like that there are a variety of workouts so hopefully  I won't get bored too quick and want to hop over to another plan.



I am pledging today to give this program my all and BRING IT as Tony Horton would say and finish the entire program just like Tony has laid out.

We are starting today Feb. 1st with the before pics and measurements along with the fit test. Then we are going to jump right in with the first workout.

I plan on blogging my progress and experience right here!

Running and Gratitude

Yesterday I went for my first 10 mile run of this training session!! I knew it was going to long, slow and hard. To keep myself motivated I decided before I went to think of something for which I am grateful at each of my mile markers.

This had two purposes:
a) kept me feeling positive and happy (its hard to feel negative when you are focusing on the good things in life.

b) It simply gave me something to think about rather than how much further I still had to run or about how tired my legs were getting etc.

Here's my list:

Mile 1 -  I am grateful for the sun that is warming my soul. Corny I know but after such a long cold winter it really felt good!!   11:02

Mile 2 - I am grateful that I have made the choice to lead a healthy lifestyle. (mile 2 just happens to be right outside Tim Hortons, our local donut shop). I am so happy that I choose running rather than donuts and coffee!!   10:32

Mile 3 - I am grateful that I was taught that I can do anything I put my mind to, no limitations here :) I took a short walk break at mile 3 to drink some water and eat a few of these yummy gummies.   10:03

Mile 4 - I am grateful for  all my "cool" running gear - including my fuel belt water bottles, Garmin and iPhone. 10:40

Mile 5 - I am so grateful for half way marks and awesome play lists that keep me moving and groovin  down the long hilly highway.  10:36

Mile 6 - I am so grateful for the amazing people in my life who have been such a positive influence and helped me along my fitness path. I took another short break for water and fuel. 10:49

Mile 7 - I am so grateful for compression socks, need I say more?!?!   10:47

Mile 8 - I am so grateful for my cheerleaders, both IRL and online. My life is filled with people who support me each and everyday. They encourage me to live my life to the fullest. THANK YOU!  10:27

Mile 9 - I am so grateful for my second wind that helped push up the last few hills. Another water, gummie break :) 10:29

Mile 10 - I am so very grateful that I have learned to love myself for who I am. Not an easy task!!  11:11  ( I had to walk up the very last super steep hill - Luckily the Manitoba half marathon is FLAT)

After my run I was still very grateful - For my Vega recovery drink, my Luna protein bar that served as lunch (after 1hr 45 min run I had to quickly cook dinner for my girls as we had a dress rehearsal to attend) And of course I was super grateful for a long long HOT shower!!!!

Do you practice Gratitude??

How is your training going? At this point I think meeting my time goal at the Manitoba  Half Marathon is a real possibility!

Sad

That is the only word that can describe my feelings today. I know its simple and rather boring, but the truth of the matter is that I am simply quite sad.

The fact that someone turned what is supposed to be a momentous occasion - Crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon - into a tragedy is just so sad.

I'll likely never run a full marathon, much less run Boston, but i still know the feeling of crossing that finish line. The sense of accomplishment and pride that you finally met your goal after weeks and months of hard training is surreal. That feeling was taken away yesterday and that makes me sad.


So today I am doing what many other runners are doing, putting on my favourite race tee and running. Its really all that we can do at this point. We runners are a tenacious group and together we stand to show our support for those affected by yesterday's tragedy.

If you can get out and run and pray for Boston.

CrossFit 101

Yesterday 20 brave Red Lakers who were ready to take their fitness to the next level were fortunate to have 2 terrific CrossFit coaches make the 3 hour drive from their box in Kenora to put on a 4 hour CrossFit 101 clinic.

David and Jay from CrossFit Kenora, kept our bodies moving and our spirits soaring as they instructed us in the basic CrossFit exercises.

We started at the very beginning and moved through 4 different squats: Air squat, Suitcase squat, Goblet squat, and Front Squat. We used light dumbells and worked on our form. One of the best exercises we did were wall squats in which we faced a wall to help us work on pushing our hips back and keeping our knees back. It was a whole lot tougher than it looked.

We followed that session with a 4 min squat tabata (8 rounds 20 sec on 10 sec rest). My legs were SCREAMING at the end of the WOD on which I scored 11 reps as my lowest score.

Next Jay taught us 3 shoulder moves: shoulder press, push press, and thrusters. I love that CrossFit is so modifiable and that just using a PVC pipe can offer a terrific workout while focusing on form.

learning shoulder press

After our tutorial with pipes we moved onto dumbbells and took about 30 mins to practice.

Our second WOD of the day looked like this:

3 rounds for time:

7 thrusters - 15 lb dumbbells

7 bentover rows 15 lbs dumbbells

7 burpees. (we could choose from: standard to the floor burpee, squat thrusters, steps puts or jumping depending on our skill level - I did standard to the floor burpee)

thrusters

I finished all three rounds in 2 mins 48 sec.

After a brief rest and snack break we moved into dead lifts (my favourite CrossFit move) David explained how the dead lift may just be the best exercise out there. It works your entire body and can be done without a partner, unlike the back squat). I love dead lifts because they make me feel like a BEAST!!

From Dead lifts we moved into the squash courts and through wall balls and learned proper ball slams. It is so much easier to slam a 10 pound ball vs the 60 lb ball we have at the firehall!!! 

wall balls

We ended the day with one last WOD - 3 rounds of Fight gone bad.

We set up 5 stations 1 min at each station - 

box jumps

bent rows

push press

ball slams

wall balls

1 min rest 

repeat

This WOD was a KILLER after 3 hours of working out but we ROCKED it as a group. People we yelling and cheering and motivating each other the entire time. We truly felt like a CrossFit box!!

push press

I have to say that this experience was one of the BEST in my entire life! I felt so empowered and learned some very valuable tips that will help me perform better.

Do you CrossFit?

Do you have a Box?

What's you favourite exercise?

 * All photo were taken from CrossFit Kenora's facebook page.

Running

Its not secret that running is definitely on my brain these days.

I wrote an earlier post on how I joined Spring Shape up, a program that gets you ready to run the Manitoba Half Marathon.  This program starts really slow but builds a terrific foundation to help a person "finish" the half marathon.

At this point in my life I want to do more than just "finish" I am ready to PR and I don't want a little PR I want to kill it! My best official half time is 2:19. I am hoping to be faster than 2:15. My Manitoba time 2 years ago was close to 2:30.

In order to achieve this goal I have been hitting the pavement hard 3 days a week.

Mondays I run with the group - an easy 2 miles plus hill repeats.

Saturdays we have a "long run" as a group down Nungessor road.

The only problem with this is that the so called "long run" isn't actually long. Its actually shorter than my base line short runs of 4 to 5 miles. Not to mention all the "long runs" are interval run/walks. I am not planning on intervalling ( if that's even a word lol) the race so they don't really help at this point.

This little problem had me rethinking my running schedule.

So for the last two weeks I have been running my own LSR and joining the running group for some short camaraderie. Although they run intervals we are adding a little push into the running portion (sub 9 min miles) which is somewhat working as speed work for me, I hope.

This weeks was a terrific run. The weather cooperated, I had a strong head wind on my way out, but that worked into a tail wind for my way home! Bonus!!!

I finished a solid 9 miles in 1:38. That time had me super pleased as Red Lake is super hilly and the Manitoba race is super flat. I had nice negative splits and would have killed that last 2 miles had they been flat.

Have you been out running??
ARe you training for a race or a PR??