Thanks to A Moment in Time Photography for taking photos at the Claytor Lake Triathlon a couple weeks ago. Here are the ones I found of myself. I raced the dude to the finish line…and won! My time was 1 hour and 33 minutes, a personal record for me. Maybe I can do TWO races next year!
I just registered for the Claytor Lake Sprint Triathlon that will be held September 12, 2015. It’s a half mile swim, 12.5 mile bike, and a 5k trail run. I have work to do!
My favorite resource for triathlons is “The Woman Triathlete” book. I need to get it out and make my plan for training. I have about 6 weeks till race day and my base fitness is good, but I need to work on intervals on my run and swim. The book has great workouts. I am going to pencil in my workouts on my calendar or I know I will not get to them.
I blogged on my personal blog a while back about Triathlon FAQs. Check it out if you have a minute. 🙂
It’s been a great week of workouts for me and I hope to squeeze another good one in today. Monday, I jogged/walked outside and did really well. I surprised myself and jogged about 80% of the distance (probably 2.5 miles or so) which isn’t too bad considering the baby is only 8 weeks old and I haven’t jogged any distance in almost a year.
Tuesday, I taught the noon BodyPump class and was sore through yesterday, in my biceps especially. I’m teaching the class Tuesday and Thursday next week and have to record my second video. I really hope I pass this time!
Wednesday, I took the noon BodyAttack class. Thankfully, it was only 30 minutes because it’s a tough one! Empty your bladder before you take that class because you jump around A LOT!
Yesterday was a rest day, but I hope to either do BodyPump on my own today or swim laps. I have this terrible plantar’s wart on my foot that is causing some serious pain, so I want to swim, but I need to practice Pump. However, I’ve not swam all week and I really enjoy my time in the water.
I had a personal training session with a gal this morning and she did this workout. What do you think?
300 Rep Full Body Workout
Warm Up: 15 seconds of each exercise (repeat three times)
Main Set: complete circuit 2-3 times
This was my inspiration for the workout – http://tarasabo.blogspot.com/2014/07/guest-post-300-rep-high-intensity.html
What do water and ants have to do with each other? Nothing that I can think of off the top of my head, but they’re both going in this blog post!
This morning, I took my 6:15 class outside for a workout since it was daylight and a nice 60 degrees. We walked on this outdoor trail, integrating light dumbbell exercises like bicep curls, triceps extensions, and lateral raises. We did some body weight lunges and had brought mats out to do some core work. Well, little did we know there were tiny ants everywhere! The ants got on me and one of my class participants and we both received one bite each. Thankfully, it wasn’t a painful bite and neither of us are allergic, but those ants were telling us to get out of their territory! The problem is, they had taken over the entire area. The class seemed to enjoy the outdoors and the workout.
After that, I swam 15 laps. It felt so good to swim again this week and I was afraid that if I didn’t get to it today, I’d miss my chance this week. I have a busy couple of days ahead and I’m not sure it’s going to include swimming.
I also wanted to share this article that came through in my ACE personal training newsletter. I’m a big advocate of drinking water, and I firmly believe everything in this write up. I also read last week that the more water you drink, the more trips to the bathroom you’ll make which helps combat sitting too much. Turns out, sitting too much is the new bad habit that smoking used to be…I’m so happy I have great well water and can just refill my bottles. Saves money and trash, too!
May 5, 2014
Many clients come to us in pursuit of a lean, svelte body. They usually tell us that they have lost weight in the past but one of their biggest complaints is that they were unable to sustain the loss because their hunger got in the way of keeping the pounds off. One of the first questions we ask them: “Do you ever drink a glass of water when you feel hungry?” The brain often confuses thirst for hunger, so it’s common to respond to the brain’s cue by eating and overconsuming calories when you’re actually thirsty. So, the next time you’re hungry, swig some water and those stubborn pounds may be a little easier to shed.
But helping to stave off hunger isn’t the only reason we need to drink more water. Here are some additional compelling reasons to drink up!
1. Flush Toxins and Wastes.
Water helps your kidneys by flushing harmful waste out of the body, including all of the end products of fat metabolism that are the result of body fat loss. How do you know if you’re getting enough to flush out the bad stuff? It’s easy (but not glamorous!) to make sure your properly hydrated: check the color of your urine. You want it to be clear, pale and odor-free; if it can pass for apple juice, that’s your cue to down a few glasses of water! [Mandy’s note: As gross as this sounds, it works! A couple of weeks back, I had a stomach virus and my urine was not looking good at all. I knew I had dehydration issues going on and was so happy to see it back to normal.]
2. Boost Your Energy in the Morning and All Day Long.
Your body is about 60 percent water and every process in the body requires water, including digestion, circulation, nutrient transport and body-temperature maintenance. If you don’t get enough water, the body can’t function at its peak and even little movements like getting out of bed will feel like more of a struggle.
3. Work Out Harder and Longer.
Even when you’re only slightly dehydrated (as most Americans typically are!), performance is impaired. Your training sessions suffer, you tire sooner and can’t work as hard. Water carries oxygen throughout the body and to the working muscles, so without oxygen, you better believe your workout takes a hit. Water also:
-lubricates the joints
-moistens the lungs to facilitate breathing
-helps maintain proper muscle tone
Drink 17 to 20 ounces about two hours before exercise and continue drinking 4 to 8 ounces regularly every 15 minutes during exercise.
4. Get Glowing Skin.
When you’re dehydrated, your skin looks dry and withered. Consume enough water and it helps to fill the spaces between your cells, making your skin look plump, youthful and glowing. Water also helps to keep skin from sagging after weight loss.
5. Prevent Constipation.
Water and fiber are the magical combination to flush out waste and beat the bloat! If you don’t drink enough water, your body pulls water from stools to maintain hydration. The result? Discomfort, bloating, constipation…it may also make you feel less inclined to slip into a swimsuit—or even exercise for that matter!
6. Lose Weight.
For the best success, drink plenty of water and eat an abundance of water-rich foods, which are much more satisfying than a processed-food diet that’s loaded with calories. The real weight-loss kicker is when you replace caloric beverages with water!
7. Be Happier.
Who isn’t happier when they feel satisfied and svelte, super energetic, leaner, lighter and constipation-free, have gorgeous skin and are having fabulous workouts to boot?
One last note…I actually got LOTS done this weekend on my to-do list from last week including:
If you have young children, chances are when you hear “Just keep swimming”, you hear Dory in Finding Nemo. If not, a clip is included below for your viewing pleasure.
Either way, I finally swam today after 2 weeks of missing it. It just seemed like I never made time to swim, even though I was in the water with personal training clients. So, today, I got my 22 laps in and it felt great! Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise for us pregnant ladies, so I plan to make it a bigger part of my routine for the next several weeks.
Just wanted to share a blurb from http://www.babycenter.com/0_great-pregnancy-exercise-swimming_7822.bc
“Any type of aerobic exercise during pregnancy helps increase your body’s ability to process and utilize oxygen, which is important for you and your baby. But swimming is great exercise because it uses both large muscle groups (arms and legs). And although it’s a low-impact activity, swimming provides good cardiovascular benefits and allows expectant women to feel weightless despite the extra pounds added by pregnancy.
Swimming also improves circulation, increases muscle tone and strength, and builds endurance.
Swimming helps counteract the increased back strain from your expanding belly. Pregnancy forces the spine and shoulders to round forward and the pelvis to tilt out of alignment, but swimming gently strengthens the muscles and offsets this tendency. The water also protects you from overheating and supports your joints and ligaments as you exercise, preventing injury.
If you swim, you burn calories, feel less fatigued, sleep better, and are better equipped to handle pregnancy’s physical and emotional challenges. Swimming also helps you keep your weight within a healthy range, and some women say swimming also makes them feel less bloated.”
Not sure if swimming during pregnancy is right for you? Check with your doctor and hopefully you’ll get the green light.
This week has flown by and I’ve been a silent blogger. There’s been a lot going on! I wanted to share with you the blessings I’ve been bestowed this week.
There’s a song we sing in church that goes like this:
Count your blessings name them one by one
Count your blessings see what God has done
County your blessings name them one by one
Count your many blessings see what God has done
It’s a sweet little song and it really makes you think about how blessed and loved you are. So, here are my top blessings of the week…
Our son loved the wave pool at the Great Wolf Lodge
Our new house we hope to move into this week!
My in laws came up and helped us Monday with the new house.
And my dad came to build our back deck with the help of my husband and his friend.
Holding my son with baby #2 in the oven
My boys getting ready to go play in the pool at Great Wolf.
Well, I think that sums it up for now. I have so many more blessings, but I could blog for days and days and days and never cover everything. My prayer for you today is that you have a place to go and worship and get in touch with God. Thank Him for what he’s done for you.
Just a few days ago, I was telling my husband how I feel like I’m actually helping people in my line of work now. For years at my other job, I felt an emptiness – like I wasn’t helping better mankind in any way. I didn’t dread going to work much, but I just didn’t feel there was much purpose. I think that if I would have been paying more attention, I would have seen that God was opening doors for me earlier than I did.
I’m currently employed as “Executive Assistant” at a local fitness facility. My job is to be the director’s right hand woman and help with whatever she needs. The position has morphed into not only helping do small things like keep our website updated, create signs/flyers about happenings in our facility, etc. into personal training, group exercise instructing, and being a lifeguard. I wear tons of different hats, but I was used to that from my old job and I really like it. I’m one of those A.D.D. type people, so I need variety.
Either way, I’m really excited about the new Sunday school books we got at church this week. The cover has a pretty picture of plants and it’s for SPRING 2014! I started reading the first lesson this morning and it’s really good. I won’t get to attend church this weekend, but I can study the lesson and still get a blessing.
Here are some of the points I picked up from my reading this morning. The scripture comes from Genesis 1:28, 2:8-9,15:
STOP right there for a second and re-read that last bullet: GOD BLESSES YOU WHERE HE PLACES YOU. The question posed is “If we’re not being blessed, why not?”
The key question of this lesson is “Why has God given me this particular work?”
Let me clarify something before I go any further…if you are a stay at home mom/dad, you ARE working. I’m a firm believer in the important work you are doing. I honestly used to look down my nose at you all, but once I had my own child, my outlook changed. I think it’s one of the most important jobs in the world.
Secondly, if you are disabled and truly unable to work, I understand your situation and I don’t have any negative feelings toward you. In the same sense, if you’re not able to stand on your feet for hours at a time, for example, there could still be work for you to do! If you have a stable mind and the ability to sit and listen/talk, you could volunteer or work with elderly. Just keeping them company and helping them feel loved and appreciated is a very honorable job.
I do feel God has a purpose for me in my current job and I feel He had a job for me in my old career. Here are a few things that have already happened in my current career in less than 18 months that I really feel He had in mind for me:
Yesterday was my day off. Granted, I normally have Saturday and Sunday off as well, but Monday is my weekday off. I love only working 4 days a week and I really try to spend as much time with my son on Monday as possible. That was one of my biggest intentions of changing jobs was to spend more time being a mom. Sometimes on Mondays, I feel so guilty that I’m not at “work”; but then I think, “THIS is work, too!” Going back to my comment above about stay at home parents, it’s one of the most important jobs in the world. My goal is to instill in my son (and future son/daughter) my beliefs and values before the world out there starts trying to tear his little world apart.
So, think on it today. Are you happy with your job? If not, you best start talking to God. Maybe you have blinders on and are missing what He’s asking you to do. Maybe He has a different job in mind for you.
I like days like today. Not only for the beautiful, sunny 52 degree temperature, but also the fulfillment I am experiencing. I taught my 6:15 class this morning and we did some water aerobics, which was a nice change of pace. Most of the time, we do a workout in the aerobics room, but we throw water in there every once in a while. I think we’re going to make it a once a month thing now.
After class, I swam my 20 laps and then I had two personal training appointments. One of them was one of my weight loss contest gals and she’s the sweetest thing. She almost died last year from a terrible blod clot and she’s only 30! Either way, we’re taking it slow and easy, but she’s got a good outlook and we have a lot in common. She’s a preacher’s wife, so it’s easy to talk faith and family with her.
It’s pretty windy out, but that makes me think of March and SPRING!!!! March has always been kite month in my mind and I’m longing for the month to be here. I don’t like to wish my life away, but I’m looking forward to things greening up and praying that we are in our new home by then. Plus, it’s my birth month so that’s always good!
One thing that bummed me out is figuring out why we’re getting less back on our taxes. It was about $1000 less than last year and I was stumped until I figured out we didn’t have as much taxes withheld in 2013. I switched jobs and at my old job, I had them withhold extra because we used to end up paying in every year. I think I forgot to do that with this new job. So, even though we actually made less money last year, we’re getting a lot less back. Overall, I’m happy we’re still getting a refund to help with home and new baby expenses.
Speaking of new baby, I am on the fence about whether or not I’m feeling those first flutters. I’m 16 weeks along and I just can’t determine if those are flutters or not. Probably are, but who knows. I go next Tuesday for my one hour glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. I had it the last pregnancy so they are checking earlier this time. I’m figuring I’ll have it, but I can control with diet an exercise.
Well, let’s get outside and enjoy some of this random February weather!
Swimming is an important life skill!
I just wrapped up a set of swimming lessons with a lady that’s probably close to 70 years old. When we began, she could do a basic freestyle with her head above water, but her goal was to learn to swim the freestyle correctly. She’s doing very well! We had a total of 11 lessons and she’s getting the hang of freestyle with her face in the water. She still has some work on the rhythm and breathing, but her kick is strong and she keeps her face toward the bottom of the pool. We’ve also worked on a modified breaststroke where she keeps her head above water. Breaststroke can be trick because of the timing. I’m so proud of her and we’ll probably do round 2 of lessons in the near future.
My other swimming students has improved as well. A couple of weeks ago, I timed her swimming a length of the pool and this week, she was 5-8 seconds faster! She hasn’t been practicing swimming as much, but she’s been running more and I think that’s helped her as well. This gal is only 22, but when she began our lessons, she couldn’t swim. At all. We had to strap on a float belt to get her comfortable the first lesson or two, but now she could easily save herself if needed.
I’m not tooting my own horn here. I have no formal training in teaching swimming lessons, but I was taught how to swim nearly 10 years ago so I’ve applied those lessons. Several years ago, I was part of a small masters swimming team here where I work and I learned a lot there as well. I’m just glad I’m able to teach something that I can do. Sometimes, you can DO something, but not teach it at all.
I’m really wanting to focus on muscle strength during this pregnancy and I think I’m going to focus on the Body for Life weight training for at least the month of February. I did this years ago and lost 30 pounds with a changed diet. I’m not trying to lose weight, but I want to gain muscle tone throughout this pregnancy. I don’t want to push for 3 hours this go round! I did the upper body session today and I really like it. I can tell I’m going to be sore tomorrow. During my first pregnancy, I mostly walked and swam and didn’t too much weight lifting, so I’m going a different route this time.
One thing I’d like to throw in there is always stretch when you’re done working out. I learned that lesson at Curves for Women when I worked there years and years ago. They have a great flexibility chart that stretches your entire body and I have them memorized. They are my go-to, no-thinking stretches.
We worked hard in my 6:15 morning class today. I had my folks warm up walking around the gym while I set up this circuit:
We did 90 seconds each the first round, then 60 seconds the second round. They were troopers! It’s a hard little workout if you put your best foot forward.
I won’t be teaching this class for the next three weeks since I’ll be taking a lifeguard instructor course. In a way, I’m sad, but in a way, I’m looking forward to the break. I have to get up at 5:15 on Wednesdays, but I won’t have to for a while. It’s nice not having to go out in the freezing cold dark! Hopefully, by the first week of December, I’ll be certified by the American Red Cross as a Lifeguard Instructor. That will make me even more valuable, eh?!
My son splashing in his kiddie pool this summer. He’s gonna learn how to swim at a young age!
I also had a swim lesson with a lady this morning. She’s probably in her 60’s and wanted to learn how to swim with her face in the water. We started out with basic flutter kicking, then progressed to blowing bubbles in the water, some side kicking, and then a catch up pull & kick with the board. She didn’t have goggles, so it was hard to get her whole face in the water, but she’s getting there.
Before she and I had our lesson, I swam 20 laps. I’m so glad I can easily swim! Now, I’ve been at it for over 9 years and I’ve had lots of practice, but I’m so glad it’s a skill I have gained. I started swimming when my friend asked me to do a triathlon with her. Neither of us had ever done one, so I started practicing swimming on my own. Thankfully, the lifeguard at that time put me in my place by telling me I wasn’t going to swim a triathlon very well if I couldn’t swim with my face in the water. He gave me some pointers and lent me some DVDs to watch (this was before youtube was popular). It wasn’t an easy thing to learn, but I’m so glad I did. I really feel good when I can teach folks how to swim. Not only could it save their life at some point, but it also gives them a new way to stay healthy and fit.
It’s pretty cold outside and I think my husband wants to get into something after I get off work today. I think I’m going to call the bowling alleys to see if any are open so we can go bowl with our son this evening. I love to bowl when it’s cold outside! It’s just something I feel guilty doing if it’s sunny or warm out because I should be outside playing.
What are your favorite indoor cold weather activities? Especially ones that involve toddlers…
Me bowling at my 31st birthday party back in March. Fun times!
Because Nice Matters 