Training Tuesday 5.21.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

Abbey’s out for this week, so it’s just little ol’ me today. She’s much better about getting this up sooner than me. She is my better Training Tuesday half and I am not ashamed to say it.

Last week, I talked about how how the scale is the devil and I’ve avoided it since then. Except for this morning. I stepped on it, held my breath (and then quickly let it out for fear it was going to add an extra ounce or two) and well, same as last week. I had every intention of avoiding it like the plague for the remainder of the year but then I decided to start doing Insanity. Like, tonight.

For those that aren’t familiar, Insanity is a 60 day workout program that is, well, nicely put intense.

Last year I made it through a month then stopped to start training for all my fall races. I lost 7 inches in like 2 weeks and finally managed to make into some pre-Lillie jeans. It really is a wonderful workout (although it is expensive). There are a few days that you are required to do a ‘fit test’ where you weigh and measure, those will be the only days that I step on the scale – roughly every two weeks. There are 10 (I think) different DVDs that you work through based on a schedule you’re given. It’s 6 days a week. I highly, highly doubt I’ll do it every day but I’ll give it a try.

But Tamara, weren’t you doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred?

Why yes. Yes I was. I made it 20/30 days and have lost some inches but I forgot those measurements at home – oops. I’ll update next Training Tuesday on that success. I know it could have been better if I would have stuck with it every day instead of bailing out on it during the weekends. I let a friend borrow it, and I imagine I’ll end up doing it again. My plan had always been do the 30 Day Shred as prep for Insanity, so I feel prepped and I’m ready for it.

Once Insanity is over, fall will be here and that means – more running & more races. Yippee!

I’ve already registered for a 5k/Half Marathon in January 2014 already and am seriously considering another half in November. Also, there’s that time I talked about a full-marathon in April. So yeah. In the meantime, Insanity and smaller races.

One of those smaller races is a mud run this Saturday with Sar from Life of Love and I can’t wait. If you’re in the Waco area and need something to do at 9am this Saturday, join us!

www.mudquestrun.com

We aren’t running to compete, we’re just going for the fun of it. I imagine it will be similar to the way I ran last year – we run for a bit, we stop & talk while waiting to cross an obstacle, we wade through mud, we laugh a lot, then maybe we run some more. Good strategy, no?

Alright, don’t let me be the lone ranger for this week since Abbey’s out – link up & tell me about your training!

That Just Happened - ViewSport

A few weeks (or more) ago, I was catching up on some blog reading when I was pleasantly surprised to learn I had actually won a giveaway. Say whaaat?

Megan from #runmeganrun (who, by the way, is a great read for those of you in love with running) hosted a giveaway for ViewSport and I won that hell out of that mother. I was incredibly excited since I had seen their products floating around on Pinterest and it seemed like the perfect culmination of fun & fitness. (Two things I strongly believe belong together if you want to be successful.)

Oh, I guess I should explain to you what exactly their product is before we go any further.

It’s athletic apparel. But, get this - it’s sweat activated athletic apparel. Yeah, you read that right. Sweat activated.

Sign.me.up. Am I right?

A little more information per their company:

“When you exercise and begin to sweat, an invisible image appears. We call it ViewSPORT Sweat Activated Technology - and the more you sweat, the clearer the image becomes. ViewSPORT reveals messages and images as you workout. Hence our tag line motivation revealed.  When training, sweat activates the ViewSPORT technology in which words and graphic designs appear where sweat comes in contact with the fabric.”

After winning, I chose “That Just Happened” shirt and I received it in like 4 days. Incredibly fast, incredibly pleased.

I chose this particular shirt for a couple of reasons:

1. Because I say “That Just Happened” on the regular.
2. I also wanted something that looked like normal every day wear and not fitness apparel.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fitness apparel, but I’m not the girl who wears it unless I’m in the process of using it.

Anyway, I really wanted to see if this ‘sweat activated technology’ worked, so I opted to wear the shirt during one of my stair workouts. You know, where I run up & down four flights of stairs for 45 minutes? Yep, definitely going have the sweat going on during that.

But Tam, I don’t see any sweat? What is activating? And for the love of baby Jesus, why are your eyes so big?

Calm down, grasshopper. I got the sweat. It’s activating on my lower back. And my eyes are big so that I can see you better, my dear.

 BOOM!

It worked like a boss during my workout. Awesome, right?

Typically I’m between a large & x-large when it comes to my shirts. This is a slim-fit and I went with the large. It fit as expected (uh, slim) but because I have the torso of an Olympic swimmer I was a little worried about the length. I have this problem where shirts want to bare my mid-riff and ain’t nobody wanna see that, but not a problem with this. It was long enough and didn’t ride up as I was huffing the stairs.

So, as a workout shirt. Yes. Definitely yes.

But what about for an everyday out-and-about shirt?Yep, it’s great for that too. I wore it for my husband's surprise birthday party (we had a gladiator ring & I was about to get down with it, thus the helmet) It was comfortable & totally appropriate for when I went after Sunny, because uh, That Just Happened. No judging. There was sangria involved.

Overall, I really liked this product. Even though I didn’t pay for it, I will definitely be buying something from them in the future. They’re cute (they also have men’s products) and to be honest, I felt like I tried harder to sweat during my workout to get the "Boom” to show up.

Interested?
You can find ViewSport on the following media:

www.viewsport.us
www.facebook.com/viewsport
www.twitter.com/viewsport (For simply being a follower I recently received 15% off!)www.pinterest.com/viewsport
www.instagram.com/viewsport

This shirt was provided free to me because, I, uh won a giveaway but all opinions expressed within are my own.

Training Tuesday 5.14.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

Usually I go through day-by-day training but I don’t really want to do that today. I worked out last week. I know I did. I just…felt like I was going through the motions. I’ve really had a hard time lately finding motivation. I even cried at the gym last week. I couldn’t pinpoint what the issue was and it was really frustrating.

Then, I had a conversation with Sara from Maurer Power (she’s wonderful, check her out if you haven’t already!) that led us into talking about the scale. (Mostly with us saying it’s the devil. It is.)

Last year I stopped weighing myself and just focused on being healthier. I was happy and felt ready when this year for a New Year’s Resolution I put out there that I wanted to lose 30 lbs. I wrote in my Weight Hate post at the beginning of this year “…my weight does not define me…” and when I wrote that I felt that. Everything I wrote in that post is true. I was happy because I was healthy. Running was a huge part of that.

And because of that I assumed I was in a healthy place mentally & emotionally to be okay with the scale. To be friends with the scale even.

I am not.

It started out innocent enough, I wanted to see where I was starting so I’d weigh myself every 3-4 days and gauge how I was doing based on that. Then it was every 1-2 days and eventually, at minimum twice a day.

Every time I saw a gain, even by .2 lbs, I felt sad like I failed myself for some reason. At the same time the logical part of me knew this was normal, weight fluctuates daily based on the time of day, what you ate, how much water you are carrying, etc but the emotional part of me said, “FUCK THAT. YOU’RE FAT.”

It’s ridiculously exhausting to be in a constant battle against yourself. And it makes you want to give up.

I caught Lillie ‘weighing’ herself this weekend. It pissed me off. Not that she was doing something wrong, because she was just standing on a piece of metal watching the numbers move, but because it felt like I was failing her. That instead of associating me with running (she tells me to go faster which is adorable) it was like she was associating me with a number. And, like I said earlier, that shouldn’t define me for me and it damn sure shouldn’t define me for her.

Simply put I can’t be friends with the scale. I can’t have her telling me whether or not I’m going to be in a good mood today because I weigh .5 lbs less today than I did yesterday.

So, I’m getting rid of that 30 lb resolution.

Which also means, the scale is going too. Holler bitch.

If I lose weight, so be it. I’ll continue working out & trying to eat better but I just can’t have that scale toxin near me. It does not make me a person I am proud of. And ultimately, that’s what I want. Not to weigh less, not to skinny, but to be happy & to make the people around me happy.

Here’s to being happy.

Sometimes it sucks

I’m an optimist. The glass is generally half-full for me (usually with wine) and I’m convinced I have chipmunk cheeks because my muscles are so strong from the smiling gene my mother blessed me with.

Obviously this is my chipmunk face.

So, naturally, the cheeriness comes across in my blog and how I handle the motivation I need/use to continue feeling like I’m becoming the type of person I’m proud of. The kind of person who works out not to be the thinnest, but to be healthier & happier for my God, myself, my kid, & my husband.

And with all that said, sometimes it just sucks.

Some days I just feel like I have nothing to give. Like, I’ve used up my “happy”quota for the week. Things from work, from life, being a mom, financial situations, anything just pile up & I have an off day (or week). It’s life, it happens, I’m an adult so I deal.

At one point in my life, I dealt with these things with Oreos. (Fine, there are still some times that I still do this. Don’t judge me. They are made of Unicorn Farts & puffs of amazingness, I can’t always help myself.)

But now, at this point in my life, I try to deal by working it out. Whether that’s going for a run, or doing an at home workout DVD, or going to the gym. Generally, if I make myself do something I’m happier within 10 minutes and I kind of forget about what’s been ailing me.

However, last week that did not happen.

I don’t know what it was – just a culmination of worry/anxiety/work – is what I’m going with. I’ve talked about Mojgan, she’s my amazing friend who I run stairs with or follow along for evil Tabata workouts, she had asked me to join her for another workout. I wanted to say no, but I didn’t. I figured I’d go and in 10 minutes I’d be calling her “the spawn of Satan” and “the workout Nazi” to forget about the pain.

She laughs when I call her these things because she knows it comes from a place of love. And of looking pretty damn fly in a pair of skinny jeans these days.

But 10 minutes into our 45 minute workout and I was struggling. We were doing things I had done plenty of times before but my head & heart were just not into it. I was in a funk and even she noticed when she called me, Grumpy butt.

At least it wasn’t Lumpy butt, I guess. (See, positivity, that bitch)

I wanted to quit. I really did. I’ve never walked out from workout but I was on the verge. I wanted to give up. It was horrible.

At one point, I was attempting push-up/plank combination and with my face facing the floor. I just started crying. I didn’t look up & I hoped if people noticed they’d just assume it was sweat hitting the floor (common in our workouts).

I hated it because it felt like my body could keep going, but my head wouldn’t allow it. I was frustrated and annoyed that I had to work out so hard just to maintain. To everyone else in the gym it looked like they were breezing along.

I’m not looking for any kind of sympathy. I just wanted to share with you guys that even though it may look like I have it all together – that well, sometimes I don’t. I struggle, I curse, I smell like man-sweat more than I don’t.

We all have hard days we have to push through and well, that was one of mine.

Changing your lifestyle, no matter how amazing it can feel – well, sometimes it sucks. It really just does.

Training Tuesday 5.7.13

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

 

Grab the button above & link-up below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training

4/30 – 30 Day Shred Level 2
5/1 – 30 Day Shred Level 2. I also committed to a couple of challenges for May. A squat challenge (which weirdly enough the husband is participating in as well. My plan to slowly get him into exercise and then into running must be working. Muwahaha.) And an ab Challenge with Meg. If you’ll recall I did a Thigh Challenge for April – I’d say I completed about 25/30 days. So a success. Even on days when I didn’t do a typical workout I still found time to complete it. Seriously, less than 10  minutes a day. I feel good about both of my May challenges.
5/2 – Workout with Moj. She didn’t write anything down since she wanted to keep it as a “surprise”. I don’t know what was going on with me, but it was an off day. Like off in a “Oh my gawd, I am crying. In the gym. For no reason.” It was odd and I have more to say about this in a future post.
5/3 – 30 Day Shred Level 2.
5/4 – Getting Muddy.
5/5 – Recovering from muddiness.
5/6 – Now I’m just being plain lazy. Also, my forehead is burned from the mud & is peeling. I am sexy.

Other things:

A friend of mine who is a personal trainer, Terri DeVore, is the owner of Fit Chick Fitness here in the Waco area. She’s received a few requests for some kind of walking group. This would be a great kick starter for anyone who may want to try a 5k in the future but wants to start out a little tamer than just jumping right in.

If you’re interested or know someone who is – send them to www.fcbootcampwaco.com. She is so knowledgeable and genuinely loves to help people get involved into a healthy lifestyle.  Also, I wasn’t compensated in any way for this. I just really believe in Terri and what she’s trying to do.

I now have a Facebook page for the ol’ blog – go check it out & like it if that’s your kind of thing.

https://www.facebook.com/LehmannLaughter

I’ll probably be a little more free there than I am on my personal FB page, since this will be a direct extension of my blog and let’s face it – I’m pretty open with the info you find here. I actually prefer Twitter but I know a lot of my readers are on FB, so I figure this will be a great avenue for any questions/post ideas or bragging about running/fitness for those readers. We’ll see if it flops or not.

Also, tomorrow is the last day to sign up for our Jelly of My Jams CD Swap! You don’t have to have a blog to register – just a valid mailing address and the ability to make/send a kickass CD to your swap partner. Holly & I will send out partners by Friday.

Also, in sincere hopes that you won’t read this far down just in case I change my mind. I’m taking the dive. I’m jumping from the highest cliff. I’m going to fall into an ocean of sweat & self-hate.

What’s that mean?

It means, I’m going to do a full marathon.

26.2 miles. Yep, it’s going to happen. I can’t not do it. I’ve ran this far, I have to know if I can do it. I’ve ignored it for long enough.

So, here’s me telling you – it’ll happen. Right now, I think the plan/hope is Oklahoma City next April-ish (Abbey? Anita? Anyone else who is completely off their rocker and wants to join me? Can you hear me?) You have plenty of time to train! Please be crazy with me. Please.

So yeah.

Pray for me. But mostly, pray for my husband because I can feel him rolling his eyes as I type this. Poor guy.

How I feel after researching marathon training plans.

This Weekend, I [5.6.13]

Linking up with Sar & Syn to cover my weekend shenanigans.

This Weekend, I got a little muddy. We went to Mudd Jam 4 and had a blast! For those who aren’t familiar, this was an event at an ATV park. You can go camp, ride trails, get in mud & basically just get yo’ redneck on. Don’t knock it till you try it. :)

Our friends, Chris & Kayla (they’re the ones below who are pulling me out of a nice little hole I found), joined us in our redneckery as well as our friend Kevin.  

Alfred showed Kevin a real nice time (as evidenced by this picture below) for his Bachelor party weekend. Kevin is getting married this Saturday & seriously couldn’t stop talking about his fiancé. Twas adorables.

This Weekend, I rehydrated with oranges to counteract my dehydration of Bud Light. The husband laughed at me for throwing them in my cooler, but they were a hit. And sweet baby Jesus they were tasty.

This Weekend, I watched this happen. I didn’t participate because the water was colder than a mug & I had limited amount of clean clothing at this point. But, we have plans to go back in the summer months & you can bet your ass that’s the way I’m rolling. I mean, seriously, how can I not?

But mostly This Weekend, I missed the hell out of this little toot. (she’s so ready for summer!)

Donkey Dash 5k

Dudes. Dudes. I motherbeeping killed it last Saturday!

So, if you’ll recall I asked the twitter-verse for some song suggestions on Friday and it exploded with awesomeness. My playlist ended up looking like this:

And then (in case you hadn’t heard) Holly & I teamed up for a CD Swap that’s going on right now. So if you’re interested in swapping great music (you know you are) sign up!

 

Also, you totally should because the awesome suggestions KNOCKED OFF 2:48 OFF MY LAST 5K TIME!

 

My official time was 36:11. 

 

I officially am an average runner with an 11:44 average pace for the race. If you’ll recall one of my resolutions for 2013 was to be at 12 minute miles. Dude, I am there.

 

Much like every other race when I was finished I forgot to cut off my Garmin. Oops.

 

I had only ran twice since March 23rd (my emotional Bearathon half) and was just counting on the cross-training I had been doing, but definitely wasn’t expecting anything grand. My previous 5k time in February was 38:59 and I was thrilled at that because I finally got below 40. I joked once that I may just actually beat my real PR time (34:14) for the 5k I set in 2010 (before I became serious about running) by the end of the year, but now that seems less of a joke and more of a reality. Cray-cray.

 

I’m also pretty sure I was still hung-over from Friday night shenanigans with the husband. I am attractive.

One beer before a race is fine, two is okay, but beyond that I do not recommend (even though I do have a steel stomach like my friend Karri and our love of Fiber One bars. Don’t judge us.)

 

My friend, Sunny, ran the race with me (or in front of me, whatever) and she placed 2nd in her age division and 3rd overall. Girl is fast.

This particular race benefitted the American Cancer Society and with it being called Donkey Dash, they made sure to include donkeys for us. In true redneck fashion, we did not hesitate to take as many pictures as possible. I’d also be lying if I didn’t say I secretly hoped they’d gloriously throw their ropes off and join us in our run but alas, they did not.

 

I feel like I should also mention it was 70 degrees out when we started and humid than a motherfucker. We still killed it (this was a PR for Sunny too).

 

Despite nearly throwing up half-way through (see twitter picture above) I just kept moving. I kept telling myself that if I can 13.1 miles at a 13 minute pace then I surely can 3.1 faster than that, I just had to push myself. And I did. Totally felt amazing.

 

So, yep. I’m amazeballs.

 

Until we run again!