Goal Progression and Weekly Fitness Schedule

Good morning!

Now that Mike has a summer job, Sadie is all by her lonesome all day. She’s caught onto the new routine and now she makes her sad face and doesn’t leave my side all morning. Such is the life of a needy, Velcro dog.

Speaking of new routines...

I’ve been working on my chin-ups every day! The first day we installed the bar, I surprised myself and did one full chin-up! HOLLA! I’m stronger than I think! Then Mike did 3 in a row NBD, but I will have my revenge when I can do 10 by July. I’ve been at it for a week now and I can already see improvements and progress. Practice, practice, practice!

Backbend progress has been less than stellar. That could be because I haven’t worked on it yet – I’ve been too jazzed about the chin-ups ;) I’m heading down the yoga studio by my work today to get a membership so I can start going once a week over lunch. A few months ago when I was doing yoga regularly over lunch, I saw major improvements in my backbend (along with everything else). I hope that by going once a week to a studio and then doing a regular practice at home, I can meet and crush my Under Armour goal.

Other things:

-Slo-pitch season is here!

We had our first games on Sunday and it was so much fun! The season was delayed a few weeks because of flooding/snow still being here (only in Saskatchewan), so we had a double header. My right arm was a bit sore the next morning. Time to get in the swing of things!

-It’s crunch time for my canfitpro PT exam!

My brain absorbs info better when I have Cougar Town on in the background....

I have now finished reading every chapter and my notes are done. Now, it’s time to memorize and study hard. Flash cards, anyone?

-This tea

This isn’t anything important, but I just wanted to let you know that this tea is the nectar of the gods. That’s all.

Fitness Schedule

It’s been a while since I’ve posted my fitness schedule for the week! It’s high mileage week for my half training so I should be spending some quality time with my foam roller this week.

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: Sub Zumba
                  Bike 35 minutes

Wednesday: Run 5 miles

                        Strength

Thursday: Swim 30 minutes

                    Yoga

Friday: OFF

Saturday: Bike 35 minutes

Sunday: Long run – 12 miles

               Slo-pitch

And I can actually do my biking OUTSIDE now! It’s a miracle! No more hamster wheel spin bike for me!

What’s your fitness schedule look like this week?

How are you doing on your goals?

I’ll see you guys later this week!

PS: I was a part of a shape.com article last week! Check out the article here and my part here. SO COOL!

Winning Combinations & UA What's Beautiful Goal Declaration {ad}

Check out what I made last night with the last of the strawberries:

Strawberry and mint infused water! So easy – take a pitcher and fill halfway with ice, add strawberries (washed, halved and without the tops), a handful of mint leaves and then fill the rest of the pitcher with water. You can let it sit for about an hour and it will have a light taste to it or you can mashed the strawberries and mint around in the pitcher with a big spoon so they are bruised and therefore release more of their taste.

It was pretty good, but I think I can make some tastier combinations. I’ll be sure to let you guys know what combos are winners!

Other winning combinations:

(sick segway alert)

me and Zumba

My shirt was soaked after the class! It was approximately a thousand degrees in the studio because the weather has spiked to the high 20s and no one has turned the AC on yet. Yum.

I subbed a zumba class last night and it was ROCKING. It was the first class of the series so there were TONS of people. Lots of first time zumba-ers who looked a little worried at first but were shaking it like no one’s business by the end of class. I love it when people don’t give an eff about what they look like and just go crazy – that’s when zumba is the best!

Me and my training!

I have been attacking this tri/half marathon training like no other lately. I was stressing over the Saskatoon half marathon and how fast I would run, if I was prepared enough, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then I kind of realized I should just run this half for fun and EVERYTHING changed. I no longer fret my long runs or my pace or anything else that was stressing me out. That’s NOT why I love to run! Now I run for fun (but still getting my big mileage in) and it’s just the best. Maybe I’ll think about attacking a PR at the Queen City half marathon in September but I’ve kind of come to terms with the idea that not every race has to be a possible PR run! I know, shocking information ;)

Also, I’ve been making progress in the pool! One of you guys (Tanya – hey girl) left the best comment of life on this post and recommended a bunch of training drills. I’ve been doing a bunch of them, especially the kick drills. The first time I did a kick drill with a paddle board, I was going so slow, I literally almost came to a dead stop in the middle of the lane. If this was twitter, I would put #embarrassing because it was. Now that I’ve fixed my kicking form and have been doing these drills, I move a bit faster. It’s really helped take all the pressure off my arms/shoulders!

Me and Under Armour’s What’s Beautiful Campaign

A few of you were around when I attempted the Under Armour What’s Beautiful challenge last year. I let it fall to the wayside (sad face) but I am BACK and more determined than ever to kick ass at it this year!

I get so fired up when I watch that video. Female athletes coming together and being POWERFUL! Plus a yoga and surf retreat in Costa Rica? Yes please.

FYI: I want to be upfront with you guys on here. Even though I would 100% participate in this event on my own, I am being sponsored by Under Armour through FitFluential. It absolutely does NOT change my opinion on this campaign. I loved this challenge a year ago when I wasn’t sponsored and I still love it today. I think it’s doing wonders for the female fitness community and helping change the perspective of who the female athlete is.

My goals have to do with strength and stretching, two things that I struggle with all the time in my training. I always say I’m going to make strength training and stretching a priority, but then life happens and I choose running, biking or swimming over them. Whoops.

So there you have it. The official declaration of my goals. By July 20^th, I WILL:

-be able to go into a full backbend and hold it for 5 breaths

-do 10 unassisted chin-ups

-have maintained a clean diet

I’ll do a separate post talking about how I plan on attacking these goals within my training plan because this post is already pretty long for me and I’m sure some of you are just here for the Sadie picures ;)

It won’t be anything different from my training plan I posted a few weeks ago, I just now have a solid plan for those strength and stretch days.

If you have something you want to get better at, join me in this challenge!

You can sign up here.

My profile is here.

And my team is here! The team is basically a group where we can post our accomplishments, motivate each other, and share our successes. Let’s redefine the female athlete!

If you're on twitter, you can use those hashtags to join the convo.

Guys, I’m one more “rah-rah female power” sentence away from posting a Spice Girls picture.

Who am I kidding.

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This may be the best picture of the Spice Girls ever. Girl power = grabbing yourself/blue steel/giving the guns? Sure, why not.

Name one thing you want to be better at. Do you want to do X amount of push-ups/burpees/squats? Run a mile? Run a mile in a specific amount of time? Or go 8 weeks without weighing yourself (ie break up with that demon scale)? Catch and stop yourself from comparing your body with everyone else’s? It can be anything!

See you guys later!

Erin

Weekend Eats & CPT Exam Prep Progress

Guess what’s back in my life after a loooooong hiatus?

The Bombshell Spell from Tone It Up! It’s a concoction that increases metabolism, provides digestive enzymes, and gives you an energizing effect first thing in the morning. I used to drink it every morning but then got lazy. Whoops. But now it’s back! And I honestly feel better now that I start my day off with this drink. Side note: Unfortunately, I can’t share the recipe since it’s part of the Tone It Up Nutrition Plan (which you have to pay for).

This has been my breakfast routine for the past few weeks now:

Water, bombshell spell, and greek yogurt with granola and fruit. Quick and easy.

All my breakfasts will be filled with strawberries this week because....

Check out what I got at the farmer’s market this weekend! All these strawberries for $10. Pretty excited about that deal. I’m going to try some strawberry infused water later so I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Some other eats and happenings from this weekend:

My sister made us an awesome meal on Friday – thinly sliced steak marinated in a soy sauce mixture with sautéed peppers and broccoli served on lettuce. We found that making lettuce wraps out of the steak and veggies was super delicious.

Spinach salad topped with chicken, cashews and – what else – strawberries! This is my lunch all this week. I’m going to turn pink from all the strawberries I’ll eat this week.

Making kale chips = sister bonding time?

Gina’s cool ranch kale chip recipe! Best kale chip recipe ever.

Homemade iced tea made from David’s Tea’s Berry Good.

Shiny new accessories from Aldo. They suck me in with the nautical theme and then really crank it up with my spring/summer favourites – mint green and neon.

New candle alert! My parents were in Yellowknife this past weekend and brought me back this beautiful candle holder. Now I have two or more candles in every room of the condo. God help me if Bath and Body Works has a 3 for $30 candle sale any time soon...I’ll need a bigger house to accommodate my candle collection.

CPT Exam Prep Update

I’m almost through the entire Can Fit Pro textbook! After that, it’s flash card/memorization time. It was amazingly warm and sunny this past weekend, so I took my studying outside

And I swear, I learned SO MUCH MORE by reading/studying outside in the sunshine ;)

I’m getting pretty excited about all the new stuff I’m learning. I can’t wait to put together a program for myself and one for Mike to practice everything!

How was your weekend?

Is there something you do every day start your morning off on a healthy note? Now that it’s light outside before my alarm goes off, I’m going to get back in the groove of running before work. Such a great way to start your day.

I’ll see you guys later this week!

Another Race & Things I'm Loving

My wallet loves me.

I’ve signed up for my 6^th spring/summer race of this year! I can’t WAIT to do this one – it’s on my fitness bucket list and one of my 2013 goals! Plus, I’m running it with Allison and my TIU sister Tahnee – go Saskatchewan online fitness buds!

PS: We made a team for this race! If you want to sign up with us, our team name is Hue Wants To Know and we’re doing the 9am wave.

I had to resist the urge to sign up for another race yesterday when my local tri club sent out an email about a new women’s only sprint tri in July. I need to give the Visa a break. And probably try out the whole triathlon thing with See Jane Tri to see if I even like it.

I have a whack of fun stuff I want to share with you guys so how about another “Things I’m Loving” post? Let’s go.

-Starbucks. Okay, I ALWAYS love Starbucks and our love affair began a long time ago. However, I recently found out that a hotel close to my work sells Starbucks coffee. Hello.

-American Eagle. I just found out that AE offers an X-Long length in jeans, but you can only get them online. And their X-Long is 36”! And they’re not $100+ per pair! PRAISE THE JEANS GODS!

The current frontrunners.

Okay, that might seem a little excessive, but my fellow 36” inseam ladies know what I’m talking about. So much for giving my Visa a break....

-1 Day in May. From the website:

The site has stories of people living with MS, links for information about MS, the research taking place and places to donate, as well as information for how you can get involved in 1 Day in May. Check out this page to see how you can participate and help spread MS awareness. I know that I knew next to nothing about MS before Mike was diagnosed so I LOVE campaigns like this that get people involved.

-These Nike Pro Compression shorts

I wore them running for the first time last weekend (usually just wear them for volleyball) and now I’m in love. They don’t ride up, they’re not too shorts, and they don’t dig in at the sides. Perfection. And I want all the colors. Except for white. Because let’s get real – who wants to run in white spandex??

-Tone It Up 3 Ingredient Cookies with Perfect Fit Protein.

I’ve been going off the deep end with my sweet cravings lately and I need to calm down a bit. Instead of reaching for something that’s processed and full of sugar, I’m going to turn to these bad boys instead. So easy to make and super delicious.

What’s something you’re loving?

I’ll see you guys later!

Spring Running, Snow (YUP), and MS Walk {Weekend Recap}

Good Tuesday morning! I was all set to write a YAY SPRING AND WARM RUNNING WEATHER ARE HERE AGAIN post, but then I woke up to this

We had about 2 inches of snow this morning. Hoorrraay.

At least this weekend was nice since we had the Regina MS Walk on Sunday!

Our MS Walk Team!

We all gathered Sunday morning for a lovely 5K walk around Wascana Lake.

There was a pretty large turnout and they had water, snacks and bathrooms along the walk path for us. Lots of people brought dogs, so Sadie was in puppy heaven. Except she was super scared of Gainer, the Roughrider mascot. And she thinks she’s so tough.

After the walk, we dropped the Pants off at home and went out for brunch at Fresh and Sweet. Their breakfast menu on the weekend is basically the most amazing thing ever. Clean eating? Not so much. Delicious eating? OH YEAH.

My breakfast - maple bacon waffle.

My sister's breakfast - red velvet pancakes. Basically, cake.

After brunch, we all parted ways and I went out to work off my delicious breakfast by way of a 10 mile run

Oh to have it be two days ago when it was shorts weather. Also, I wore my compression socks to run in (as opposed to the lounging and TV watching I usually do in them) and I’m on the fence about it. I found they were maybe too tight to run in? I’ll try them again this week. I liked having the high socks to hide my lack of leg shaving though. Laaaazzzyyy.

The path I ran went by the creek and Wascana Lake that runs through the city. We got a lot of snow this year and it looks like the city is preparing for a big flood

I had to hurdle/jump over the sandbag barrier on the path at some points in my run but otherwise, it the path was pretty clear! Let’s see what it’s like in a week or two when all the snow is (hopefully) gone. Flood city, probably.

How was your weekend?

Who else got out for a lovely spring run?

I’ll see you guys later this week!

PS: It’s my friend Ricki’s birthday today! I know she reads this blog so I wanted to give a little shout-out and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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FYI: I tried to photoshop our heads onto this but you have ZERO pictures of you with your head turned. What the hell.

Can't wait to christen Big Carl/Joe/Lou!