Monday Motivation. #Chachacha

 Who else did a little dance when they read this?

Don't let those Super Bowl party foods be your disaster...get back at it!

Go get that Monday and DO NOT skip the workout!  :)

Valerie

Funny unrelated anecdote: February is my birthday month and I usually celebrate in some form or another ALL month (because I can! haha) but now that I share the month with my youngest daughter, I've had to relinquish the first couple of weeks to her. (phfft, kids!) Anyway, I mentioned to my hubby this weekend about my birthday plans and she (quickly and loudly) interjects "you mean MYYYYY birthday????"  Seriously, kid?  Her birthday was LAST week!  How quickly they catch on to the birthday month celebration concept.  Conversation was tabled, obviously.  She wins. :)

1st Recovery week round up

I guess recovery week means lesser effort rather than fewer workouts.  I straddled the line between the two this week tweaking away as is the norm.  No travel for hubby this week but yucky cold and wet weather coupled with evening commitments made for another week of switcharoos.  I won't bore you with the details but here's the round up depicting the prescribed plan in bold and what actually went down following.

Monday - Day 15 -   Rest - 1 hour, PowerOne Cycling class (indoor bike on trainer)

Tuesday - Day 16 - 1:30 Bike easy - Rest since I did hard class yesterday (and have birthday brownie/ice cream dessert) :)

Wednesday - Day 17 - Rest or swim 900M - 1000M swim (10min time trial w/o warmup: 300M, 100k, 100p, 10min time trial warmed up: 400M, 100k)

Thursday - Day 18 - 1:15 Bike easy - thought I'd wake up early and knock this out but sleep felt too good.  A little regretful since fitting in for the rest of the week will be tough. Birthday happy hour will make early Friday workout a little more difficult too.

Friday - Day 19 - Rest - Um, yea...I swear they put everclear in those margaritas. Rest it is.

Saturday - Day 20  30 min Swim, 850M  - Feeling guilty for all the rest days, pulled the trainer in and did Thursday's workout. About 14 miles...I started with easy effort and then pulled out all the stops in the last half hour because...me.

Sunday - Day 21 1:30 Run Z1-3 -  I was hoping to leave the house early and get the "or swim" from Wednesday in before the long run.  I forgot how toddlers wake up at the crack of dawn full of energy.  Hubby got my distress signal late morning (he's so awesome) and took the whole crew out so that mom can have a "free" day.  No nails, shopping or massage but rather a solid 2 hours of putting my house back in order from 2 littles (I'm looking at you, Mateo aka Monster-teo) transporting random household items to all the places they don't belong.  A good solid 20 minutes were spent looking for remotes, not even joking.  Is it in the trash? (dig through trash)  Did he put it in the snack drawer? (dig through drawer and reorganize the mess) What about the shoe basket?  Oh, no...is it in the washing machine?  High cardio, super fast hide and seek and put stuff back before I lose time to run counts for a workout right?

All this, followed by the prescribed hour and a half run.  A little over 9 miles that I couldn't keep below Z4 because that would be walking?  How is that possible?  Anyway, it was a non issue because Garmin went dead before I made 3 miles.  Pace was fairly slow so I know I didn't over do it and given it was the longest run since my injury, I'm feeling pretty good.  Success!!

So how'd I measure up?  Well, I didn't do the extra swim and never made it around to Yoga and the foam roll effort really was pathetic.  But all the other stuff was done!

Coming up this week are brick workouts (8 total workouts +- 6-7 hours), crappy weather (cold, wet and dreary) and a travelling hubby.  Great recipe for getting it done dontcha think?

Here we go!

Happy Monday all!

Valerie

4 weeks in and I lost my...

butt.

Yea, I said it.  Consistent & frequent cardio exercise has that effect on me.  Apparently.

I was going to post this at week 2 and 3 but never got around to it...there are just not enough hours in my days!  So...here we are at the middle of week 4 of T25 and I can confirm that yep, I lost my butt.

Remember all those pencil skirts and pants I had "goaled" to fit in? (I just made up a word, I think)  They all fit.  In fact, I tried one on earlier this week and it was big on me.  I totally missed the wearing period on that one because now it's been relegated to the back of the closet due to "saggy pants syndrome".  Usually a phrase I save for pants, this particular skirt falls in that category.  It is highly unattractive.

My birthday is next week and celebrations begin tonight (which I am sure will extend until next month).  My goal of being in the "best" shape of my life is meh, pretty close.  Although I am thrilled to fit in my clothes again (because it was getting to be slim pickins' in the closet), my intent was never to lose a bunch of weight and be "petite".  I only use that term because my husband called me that recently...it is not a word you would associate with someone 5'9". Rather, what I want to be is fit and strong, which to me defines "best shape".

When I first started writing this a couple of weeks ago, my thought was to cut back on T25 and not follow the program to the tee.  I had been running and upping my mileage along with my weekly aerial class and nightly yoga challenges in addition to T25 and I knew I needed to cut back.  Of course, I didn't.  But then I got busy and naturally, something had to give.  I initially cut back on the running because it was the hardest to squeeze in and quite frankly the weather sucked. Sub 40 temps are not a favorite for this South Florida girl so that was an easy call.  It's warmed up now and I still haven't been able to pick back up on the running. This is frustrating to me because I had really cut my pace down pretty quick to a place that made me giddy of where it could go.  Breaking the consistency really puts me at square one.  Boo.

I kept at T25 because really, it's TWENTY FIVE minutes people!  Before you can start complaining about it, you're half way done.  The amount of sweat produced in that short amount of time is really amazing.  I figured some workout is better than no workout but really my "lass" situation is still not being tended to (albeit it's a diminished area).

This week has been a total bust.  I admit that right now.  I've skipped 2 days of T25 (for shame!) and tonight, I doubt I will want to give it a go after a couple of  birthday cocktails.  Ditto for the yoga challenge...I went to bed so late and completely forgot! Boo to me!  I have lots of work to make up for this slacking over the weekend.  A bike ride, run, aerial class and definitely some standing on my head is in order!

Gotta go now, I have to take my diminishing bedunkadunk out of here...there's a cocktail with my name on it!

~V

Set a date & get a move on.

Daily challenge. Race Date. Coach Schedule. Workout meetup. Without these things, I am sure I'd be a total bum. I KNOW this and because of it, I try to always have at least one on the list going.

Over the last few months, I've gone on several runs, one good bike ride, a couple of swims, done some P90X workouts and have gone on plenty of walks but I have done nothing with consistency or on a schedule.  I have had no end goal in sight (other than fitting into my pants & pencil skirts again). I was doing just enough to keep me moving but I knew that once I went back to work, some level of discipline would be required so that I can stay fit with my crazy schedule.

So, right before the new year, I started looking for challenges, planned on meeting up friends on their long training runs and looked into following a "Coach" schedule from the new update on my Nike app. Aren't I resourceful?! I figured these were all things that would get me "there".   But then again...what was "there"?

I started to think about races to sign up for that will give me more of a definitive finish line (pun intended). I have a few goals swirling in my head but nothing I am willing to commit to just yet (especially on an public forum like the interwebs). Will it be my first tri that comes first or a half marathon? Maybe just PR a 10k?

But then, something BIGGER hit me in the back of the head while I was looking at dates. Um. My birthday! I have a whopper of a milestone coming up and I have always said I wanted to be in the "best shape of my life" by then. Well, crap! I totally forgot about that and now I am what...a month away?! Aaaaahhhh!!! Where has the time gone?!

All this to say that my ho hum approach will have to be stepped up for the next few weeks if I want to meet that goal. I guess first things first though.  What does the "best shape of my life" really mean? Well, I guess this is where I can cheat some, huh? I define this based on me and my life? Because, technically, I am already pretty close to being in the best shape of my life. I have been the fittest I have ever been in the last 5-6 years and more importantly the HAPPIEST. So, I'm done right? Oh yea, I still have to get into those pants.

But seriously, I need to define this so that I can have something to put a tack on or write it on that post it on my monitor. To me, being in the BEST shape is feeling strong, being tone, living a healthy lifestyle and...being confident enough to wear shorts.

Yes, that's right. Confident to wear shorts.  I said it.  That may seem silly (and my husband thinks I'm crazy) but every one has that "area" on their body that just makes them cringe, right?  Okay, maybe not everyone...most people. Fine, I'll speak for myself.  Yes, I have that area.  For me, it's the lass. You know, the area between the back of your thigh and your ass? There. And upper thigh area altogether could use some toning up.

Sitting down in shorts with confidence is a pretty solid goal.  In my mind.  Sitting down is the key piece of the goal though.  I am totally okay with standing, walking and running around in shorts (if they are not too short) but sitting? That's a different animal.  Tightening up the ab area where baby left squishy I'm throwing on to the goal too because...what the heck, I could use a fall back of success if this lass thing doesn't work out. (I hope you all have picked up on my sarcasm and sense of humor by now)

Anywaaaay....I have a few things going for me that will make this endeavor a little less painful and perhaps even achievable. For starters, these are the things that I am already doing (yay, me!):

~ 30 Day Yoga Challenge - keeps me practicing and engages my core daily (Abs!)
~ 10K Coach Challenge on Nike Ap - keeps me running MORE often (fat burning & some leg definition)
~ Green smoothie daily - I admit, I am addicted.  I've been doing it since pre baby and when I go without it, I crave it.  This keeps my nutrition in check by getting all my daily fruits and veggies (and then some).
~ Meet ups - I've been also meeting up with friends on Sunday mornings for long runs. The Nike coach would disapprove as I would be considered as "over training" but...it's motivated me to push the pace and distance.
~ Weekly Aerial Fabric class.  Good overall body workout but lots of core work. (more abs!)

My abs seem to be heading in the right direction but my lass was not mentioned in any of those things.  This is where the rubber meets the road. I'll be looking for some glute workouts on pinterest so pardon all the butt pics coming through on the board below, this mama needs to get squatting!

Now I have a fast approaching date to work towards.  I also will have measurable results which will be before and after pictures (that will never see the light of day).  My first goal for 2014 is set and I know it's going to be tough but my motivation is not only to wear those shorts but to wear them (and a bikini) on that birthday beach trip my hubby will be taking me on. (wink, wink - hi, honey!)

Stay tuned for progress reports.  I gotta go...I have some lunges to do.

~V