Almost forgot to update the prior week!
I started the week in a bit of a daze. I signed up for my Monday morning class on Sunday night and had no other goals for the week until late Monday when I just decided to jot something down:
5100M Swim
2:10 Bike
10M Run
1 Strength Session
1 Yoga Session
1 brick Session
I knew the swim would force me to get into the pool at least 3 times which is what I really needed to do. The mileage was very conservative since I had injury concern (more on that later) and everything else was more of a wish list (and cheating some knowing that the Cycling class already covered half my goal for the week)
This is how it played out:
Monday - PowerOne Cycling
Tuesday - Early morning swim in the "short" pool. I didn't want to intrude on the Masters class already in session. After a little math coversion in the office, I came out to a 1770M swim.
Left work a bit early to take son to practice and realized that I had a small window....OPPORTUNITY!! I ran 4 miles!
Wednesday - I was planning an early spin class but snoozed one too many times. Took advantage of the inadvertent switch up and went to Hot Yoga at lunch. I felt redeemed!
Thursday - Last week was so good, I had to go back...early morning Barbell Strength at the gym!
Friday - Make it or break it day...if I didn't get it in early, it wasn't going to happen on this super busy day. I managed 1600M swim followed by 15 minutes on the spin bike...baby brick!
Saturday - This was going to be a rest day but I realized I still had too many things on the goal list not checked off. So while babies napped, I jumped on the trainer for an hour then quickly laced up and went for a quick 2 mile run. (they were awake by then but hubby was home) Another baby brick!
Sunday - Ugh...rest day? NO. Rearrange and organize your entire house day? YES. How did we accumulate so many toys and J U N K?? Ahhh!! I sorted through EVERY bin, box, cubby and basket. Put all like things together, collected outgrown "baby" toys and threw a bunch of odds and end crap away. I visited with in-laws who came over for awhile and my first outing of the day was to pick up my daughter at Cotillion at 8pm. PM! When I set my mind to work on something...I. DON'T. STOP. Hubby made us all super yummy shrimp pasta dinner and after the company was gone and the kitchen was clean, I decided...I still have time to reach my goal!!
I tried to convince my buddy to join me for a late swim but she couldn't get away. So I packed anything I could possible need and headed out. 1800M followed by a super fast 5k on the treadmill! Brick!! I was walking out of the gym at 10:45PM but felt accomplished!
This is how turned out:
5100M Swim - 5170M check!
2:10 Bike - 2:15 bike check!
10M Run - 9.3 miles - almost there...whawhaaa
1 Strength Session - 1 - check!
1 Yoga Session - 1 - check!
1 brick session - 3 - check, check, check!!
I came close to the meeting the mileage goal but with the slight overages everywhere else, I'm gonna call it square. And of note, NO rest days! I'd say I finished the week strong!
So, since my Power class was cancelled this morning (I was relieved actually) I just may not do anything tonight. (But I probably won't)
Time to set this week's goals!
Talk at ya later!
Valerie
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
32 weeks - 8 months!
I'm 8 months pregnant. That just blows my mind. I can't believe it's gone by so fast and I can't believe it doesn't feel like it. I miss my non-pregnant body and fitting into all my clothes but for the most part, I feel pretty darn good.
The schedule was a bit out of whack again but I managed to stay active all week. The 30 day challenges admittedly are what keep me on track the most. I don't want to fall behind so they motivate me to squat, plank and pose even in the last hour of the day. And in many cases, they are my only exercise when I can't get a full blown workout in.
This is how the week went down:
M - 75 squats
T - 80 Squats and Yogratitude Yoga challenge pose for Day 6 & Day 5 Challenge pose for the #30dayyogachallenge - Had a late burst of energy and did P90X KenpoX DVD - great workout!
W - 85 squats w weights for arm exercises, 1:15 plank, Days 6 & 7 of 30Day Challange poses and Days 7 & 8 of Yogratitude challenge poses.
Th - Son's birthday dinner - still managed 90 squats and 1:15 plank before bed (and after ice cream!)
F - 95 squats, 1:15 plank, Days 8&9 of 30 day challenge poses and Days 9 & 10 of Yogratitude poses
S - 1600M Masters Swim (had to get at least one swim in!), 100 squats, day 10 30day challenge pose
S - 2mi walk, 105 squats, 1:30 plank and Day 11 Yogratitude and 30Day Challenge yoga pose
I realize that these updates are getting monotonous but they really motivate me to keep moving and stay active. By keeping a running tally of what I do (or don't do), I can easily track my activity levels and compare them to how I feel. The whole reason why I started this blog was to serve as a reminder to myself and to those who always ask, "how did you stay fit while pregnant" or "how did you get back into shape after baby?" It has become more and more apparent to me that people find it very easy to give someone grief for being in shape, however.
Just this Saturday, a fellow female swimmer actually splashed me when she learned I was 33 weeks along. This very same person that I was sharing a lane with the entire time had no idea I was pregnant until I got out of the pool and the coach told her how far along I was. She made a snarky comment about how it must be my first...and when learning that it was actually my fourth, proceeded to splash me and tell me that it wasn't fair. Um. Ok. Granted, I have a longer torso and I'm taller than average so genetically, speaking, pregnancy "fits" me differently than most women. HOWEVER, if you've read this blog for any number of posts, you would also know that I don't sit on my laurels either. I put in the work so that I can reap the rewards. Those rewards to me are feeling strong, building muscle, having energy, being healthy, feeling great about myself and giving me the confidence to know that post pregnancy, I will have the stamina to bounce back and manage both my job and growing family...not to mention that I am also setting a positive, healthy example for my family in making these choices a priority.
It's taken three days to for me to actually publish this post. So many words I've wanted to say but have decided that less is more. Do the right thing and everything rights itself.
Namaste and happy hump day (and birthday to my amazing husband and best friend!)
~V
The schedule was a bit out of whack again but I managed to stay active all week. The 30 day challenges admittedly are what keep me on track the most. I don't want to fall behind so they motivate me to squat, plank and pose even in the last hour of the day. And in many cases, they are my only exercise when I can't get a full blown workout in.
This is how the week went down:
M - 75 squats
T - 80 Squats and Yogratitude Yoga challenge pose for Day 6 & Day 5 Challenge pose for the #30dayyogachallenge - Had a late burst of energy and did P90X KenpoX DVD - great workout!
W - 85 squats w weights for arm exercises, 1:15 plank, Days 6 & 7 of 30Day Challange poses and Days 7 & 8 of Yogratitude challenge poses.
Th - Son's birthday dinner - still managed 90 squats and 1:15 plank before bed (and after ice cream!)
F - 95 squats, 1:15 plank, Days 8&9 of 30 day challenge poses and Days 9 & 10 of Yogratitude poses
S - 1600M Masters Swim (had to get at least one swim in!), 100 squats, day 10 30day challenge pose
S - 2mi walk, 105 squats, 1:30 plank and Day 11 Yogratitude and 30Day Challenge yoga pose
I realize that these updates are getting monotonous but they really motivate me to keep moving and stay active. By keeping a running tally of what I do (or don't do), I can easily track my activity levels and compare them to how I feel. The whole reason why I started this blog was to serve as a reminder to myself and to those who always ask, "how did you stay fit while pregnant" or "how did you get back into shape after baby?" It has become more and more apparent to me that people find it very easy to give someone grief for being in shape, however.
Just this Saturday, a fellow female swimmer actually splashed me when she learned I was 33 weeks along. This very same person that I was sharing a lane with the entire time had no idea I was pregnant until I got out of the pool and the coach told her how far along I was. She made a snarky comment about how it must be my first...and when learning that it was actually my fourth, proceeded to splash me and tell me that it wasn't fair. Um. Ok. Granted, I have a longer torso and I'm taller than average so genetically, speaking, pregnancy "fits" me differently than most women. HOWEVER, if you've read this blog for any number of posts, you would also know that I don't sit on my laurels either. I put in the work so that I can reap the rewards. Those rewards to me are feeling strong, building muscle, having energy, being healthy, feeling great about myself and giving me the confidence to know that post pregnancy, I will have the stamina to bounce back and manage both my job and growing family...not to mention that I am also setting a positive, healthy example for my family in making these choices a priority.
It's taken three days to for me to actually publish this post. So many words I've wanted to say but have decided that less is more. Do the right thing and everything rights itself.
Namaste and happy hump day (and birthday to my amazing husband and best friend!)
~V
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
23 week wrap up, challenges, kids and vacation included.
Week 23 looked like this:
*Ab & Yoga are in reference to the challenges I mention here.
M - Ab (25 sit ups, 10 crunches, 10 leg raises & 15s plank) & Yoga
T - Ab rest day, Yoga
W - Abs( 30 SU, 12C, 12LR & 20s plank), Yoga + 4.5m run
Th - Abs (35 SU, 15C, 15LR & 25s plank), Yoga + AerialTone class
S - (Travel day) Ab rest day, Yoga
S - 5mi run, Boston city walk (countless miles) plus yoga. Ab halt.
A fun, challenging, full week complete with the start of a new job! Still feeling great at week 23, full of energy and ready to take on a week of an active vacation. More on that week coming up next.
~V
*Ab & Yoga are in reference to the challenges I mention here.
M - Ab (25 sit ups, 10 crunches, 10 leg raises & 15s plank) & Yoga
 |
| Wild Thing with my girls |
 |
| Warrior II with bonus baby squatter |
 |
| Upavistha Konasana (I have to really work on this one) |
 |
| Crow - I mean, Crow!!! I did it!! |
 |
| Aerial Tone - Awesome back stretch |
F - Abs (40SU, 20C, 20LR & 30s plank), Yoga + 1250M Swim
 |
| One legged, one handed headstand |
 |
| Gorgeous day for a swim! |
 |
| Forearm Sideplank |
 |
| Dancer at the Boston Common |
 |
| Cambridge side of Charles River overlooking Boston |
A fun, challenging, full week complete with the start of a new job! Still feeling great at week 23, full of energy and ready to take on a week of an active vacation. More on that week coming up next.
~V
Challenging Yourself on the Daily
I'm behind on my weekly updates but when I started writing them up, I realized most of my focus was on the challenges that we've taken up. So...I'm pushing the update again (what week is this again?) to describe what has been a fun twist to keep things interesting in the way of workouts.
About the challenges: There are two in the month of June (ab & yoga) that in some shape or form have gone from a mere exercise challenge and turned into all out family adventure too.
The ab challenge is one that we are participating in amongst a group of friends. It's a 30 day challenge that progressively grows with repetitions. We all keep tabs with each others progress (translation: send that "Reply All" email to say "I'm done!, How about you?") which is great motivation to get you to drop down, do the ab work and Reply All again "ME TOO!!". Can't leave your friends hanging after all, right?!
If you have ever done P90X's AbRipper (and survived and gone back to do it again and AGAIN) this challenge should be fairly simple, but by no means easy. My husband and I were doing it at first and by day 3, the kids were joining in too. That can a both be a blessing and a curse because they will NOT. LET. YOU. SLEEP. unless you get the challenge done. You have to love the kid's motivation and enthusiasm and you can't let them down, either! (So get out of bed!!)
I had no issues whatsoever with this challenge but I knew from the get go that I would no way come near doing 100+ situps on any given day during pregnancy. I went to day 7 doing the full workout with no issues and I found it relatively easy (don't tell my husband) but I have heard and read mixed schools of thought with regard to working out abdominals during pregnancy. I feel fairly strong and felt pretty good doing them throughout that week, however, the sit ups in particular create a bit of a tightness in the lower abdominals that I am not comfortable pushing without further research. Given that I haven't been able to post this in 2 weeks, you would have to imagine that I haven't had much time for research either. So...rather than take a chance, I decided to throw in the towel. After day 8's rest I split a couple of the days by only doing half the reps required but in this last week have continued strictly with the plank portion of the challenge only. I can live with that...and I can relish in the enjoyment of having the kids get on my husband every night to get his ab work done before he snoozes off (it's actually quite fun!) Haha!
If you want to give the challenge a try next month or really, start on any given Saturday and see how far you can go, I have included it here for reference. As the month progresses, the repetitions get pretty high up there, some friends have been splitting up the workouts into sets. Say, take your 60 situps, 75 crunches and 40 leg raises and turn them into a morning set of 30, 40, 20 and a night set of 30, 35, 20. Good luck!!
The yoga challenge I have alluded to in the past. I follow a few yoga enthusisasts/instructors/lovers on Instagram and their posts of their beautiful poses are incredibly inspirational. In the last couple of months or so, my daughter and I would randomly pick out poses and try them, just to see if we could do them. We were never consistent with it nor did we ever photograph each other doing them. But this month, we decided we would attempt at doing the challenges AND taking pics every day.
I have never been that big of a yogi as my only experience was with the P90X version "YogaX" that I was introduced to a few years ago when I went through the program. I have attended a few other yoga classes, most recently the one I did as a perk of my previous employer's. The thing about yoga is that it is really a constant practice. It's not necessarily taking a class every day or building up weight or reps or pace like in other exercises, but rather a fusion between body and mind withing yourself. Sometimes, I look at a pose and immediately think "well, there goes the challenge! I can't do THAT!" But then I take a few minutes and think (just as I would ask my kids), why can't I do that? How do I know I can't if I don't even try?
I have learned in the last few short months that I can go from not even getting close to getting my feet off the ground in a crow position (which seemed SO advanced when I did Yoga X, by the way) to doing it facing forwards, the side and with a twisted root too! It has been a learning experience for me and one that I am passing down to my daughter because she is so eager to get into the poses and she is so darn flexible and nimble that for the most part, she can without skipping a beat. Until she gets to that one pose...the one she just can't do because she can't turn that way or because her arms aren't strong enough. That's when I can tell her to SLOW down. Breathe. Focus. Take your time. I will watch her go from a hurried school girl to a focused, determined young lady that wants to nail the pose. All the while, I have my phone in hand, ready to click her picture when she says she's ready. She'll quickly run over and say "did you get it?" and come over analyze the photo(s). She will look long and hard and sometimes will say..."hmm, my back needs to be straighter" or "my leg is not doing the right thing on this one" and follow it with: "can I try it again?"...and there you have it, PRACTICE. :)
It has been a pure joy to share it with her and with the IG community too. I am amazed at the poses I can get into even at this many weeks pregnant. I hope that I can finish the month strong and will keep working on the challenges daily even after the month is over.
If you want to check out the challenge on Instagram, look for the June hashtag #YogainSpace, you'll see all the posts related to the challenge. I doubt you will come away without being inspired and motivated to give it a try. If you want to follow the amazing yogi's hosting the challenge, follow them! They are: @laurasykora , @masumi_g , @gypsetgoddess and @beachyogagirl.
About the challenges: There are two in the month of June (ab & yoga) that in some shape or form have gone from a mere exercise challenge and turned into all out family adventure too.
The ab challenge is one that we are participating in amongst a group of friends. It's a 30 day challenge that progressively grows with repetitions. We all keep tabs with each others progress (translation: send that "Reply All" email to say "I'm done!, How about you?") which is great motivation to get you to drop down, do the ab work and Reply All again "ME TOO!!". Can't leave your friends hanging after all, right?!
If you have ever done P90X's AbRipper (and survived and gone back to do it again and AGAIN) this challenge should be fairly simple, but by no means easy. My husband and I were doing it at first and by day 3, the kids were joining in too. That can a both be a blessing and a curse because they will NOT. LET. YOU. SLEEP. unless you get the challenge done. You have to love the kid's motivation and enthusiasm and you can't let them down, either! (So get out of bed!!)
I had no issues whatsoever with this challenge but I knew from the get go that I would no way come near doing 100+ situps on any given day during pregnancy. I went to day 7 doing the full workout with no issues and I found it relatively easy (don't tell my husband) but I have heard and read mixed schools of thought with regard to working out abdominals during pregnancy. I feel fairly strong and felt pretty good doing them throughout that week, however, the sit ups in particular create a bit of a tightness in the lower abdominals that I am not comfortable pushing without further research. Given that I haven't been able to post this in 2 weeks, you would have to imagine that I haven't had much time for research either. So...rather than take a chance, I decided to throw in the towel. After day 8's rest I split a couple of the days by only doing half the reps required but in this last week have continued strictly with the plank portion of the challenge only. I can live with that...and I can relish in the enjoyment of having the kids get on my husband every night to get his ab work done before he snoozes off (it's actually quite fun!) Haha!
If you want to give the challenge a try next month or really, start on any given Saturday and see how far you can go, I have included it here for reference. As the month progresses, the repetitions get pretty high up there, some friends have been splitting up the workouts into sets. Say, take your 60 situps, 75 crunches and 40 leg raises and turn them into a morning set of 30, 40, 20 and a night set of 30, 35, 20. Good luck!!
The yoga challenge I have alluded to in the past. I follow a few yoga enthusisasts/instructors/lovers on Instagram and their posts of their beautiful poses are incredibly inspirational. In the last couple of months or so, my daughter and I would randomly pick out poses and try them, just to see if we could do them. We were never consistent with it nor did we ever photograph each other doing them. But this month, we decided we would attempt at doing the challenges AND taking pics every day.
I have never been that big of a yogi as my only experience was with the P90X version "YogaX" that I was introduced to a few years ago when I went through the program. I have attended a few other yoga classes, most recently the one I did as a perk of my previous employer's. The thing about yoga is that it is really a constant practice. It's not necessarily taking a class every day or building up weight or reps or pace like in other exercises, but rather a fusion between body and mind withing yourself. Sometimes, I look at a pose and immediately think "well, there goes the challenge! I can't do THAT!" But then I take a few minutes and think (just as I would ask my kids), why can't I do that? How do I know I can't if I don't even try?
I have learned in the last few short months that I can go from not even getting close to getting my feet off the ground in a crow position (which seemed SO advanced when I did Yoga X, by the way) to doing it facing forwards, the side and with a twisted root too! It has been a learning experience for me and one that I am passing down to my daughter because she is so eager to get into the poses and she is so darn flexible and nimble that for the most part, she can without skipping a beat. Until she gets to that one pose...the one she just can't do because she can't turn that way or because her arms aren't strong enough. That's when I can tell her to SLOW down. Breathe. Focus. Take your time. I will watch her go from a hurried school girl to a focused, determined young lady that wants to nail the pose. All the while, I have my phone in hand, ready to click her picture when she says she's ready. She'll quickly run over and say "did you get it?" and come over analyze the photo(s). She will look long and hard and sometimes will say..."hmm, my back needs to be straighter" or "my leg is not doing the right thing on this one" and follow it with: "can I try it again?"...and there you have it, PRACTICE. :)
It has been a pure joy to share it with her and with the IG community too. I am amazed at the poses I can get into even at this many weeks pregnant. I hope that I can finish the month strong and will keep working on the challenges daily even after the month is over.
If you want to check out the challenge on Instagram, look for the June hashtag #YogainSpace, you'll see all the posts related to the challenge. I doubt you will come away without being inspired and motivated to give it a try. If you want to follow the amazing yogi's hosting the challenge, follow them! They are: @laurasykora , @masumi_g , @gypsetgoddess and @beachyogagirl.
Here are a couple of our pics from earlier this month:
As you can see, the challenges have been way fun and exciting to stick with. If you're bored with your workouts or your routine, these challenges are great way to sprinkle in some variety particularly when you are waiting patiently for the next pose to be posted every night!! I highly recommend it, give it a try and have fun!
~V
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