Changes...

Wordless Wednesday? More like Word Filled Wednesday...


Monday was my first crossfit class. 


My workout looked like this:


500m row (on rowing machine-duh!)
40 squats (all the way down past parallel)
30 butterfly situps (feet together, legs spread like butterfly/frog, all the way back w/ hands over head touching floor, all the way up touching feet)
20 pushups (chest to floor, hand release)
10 pull ups (up: chin past bar, down: arms fully extended.  I needed a band for assistance as most women do)


Total time: 8:59 (The goal is to repeat this beginning workout every 4-6 weeks and improve your time with each try.) 


I was a little dizzy off the rowing machine headed into squats, and my arms felt like jello after 20 pushups and 10 pullups; but, I didn’t die and I felt great the next day--not sore at all! So there’s that.


I really enjoyed how quickly I was fatigued and how hard I worked in such a short period of time.  I also love crossfitters' bodies, which means that I am absolutely diving head first into this crossfit trend (yes, I said trend and yes, I'm jumping on the band wagon!).  This means that my previously posted training schedule is going to change a bit.  I will still be doing my best to maintain my weekly runs (*I maintain the right to change my daily schedule as needed per life's interruptions); however, all of my strength training workouts that were designated to a NTC, Body Rock, or Women's Health routine will be replaced with crossfit.  I am still not sure about my cross train days, though.  I know that cross training is recommended for runners, but I just don't know if I can justify a second gym membership for two days of spin class per week.  And trust me, I do love me some spin class!  


I'm also hoping that big changes will come in the shape of my body, and my running speed.  Along with having the crossfit body that I love so much on others, my ultimate goal is to create a stronger core and stronger legs as a means to improve my speed for running my next half marathon (and all that follow). 


I shall keep you all posted...

Matchstick Challenge: Week 3

Week 3 Challenge: Meal Makeover: 


"Basically, there are always little things we can do to make a meal healthier overall. A meal makeover is a couple of swaps that exchange unhealthy food for a healthier option. Some examples?

White Bread to Wheat Bread
Soda to Fruit Juice
Fried Chicken to Grilled Chicken
Whole Milk to Low-Fat Milk
Ranch Dressing to Vinaigrette

You can also up the nutritional value of your food by adding fruits or vegetables, like Erica did to her otherwise veggie-less and less-filling pasta. You could add some on the side, or as areplacement for something else (like strawberries instead of candy to top your ice cream).

You can get as into this as you want! You could try buying a meal ready-made from a restaurant and giving it a “Meal Makeover” yourself, or you could do it with something you already eat. I would love to see pictures of the before and after—that’s the most fun part! You could choose to include nutritional info before and after if you’d like.

I’m so excited to see what everyone posts! Be sure to link up with this week’s linky party as soon as you post yours as well [click here for last week’s], I’ll post the link on Wednesday to give people a chance to put up their makeovers."

Slacker Sally

I'll start with my apologies.  I was so excited to start the Matchstick Challenge, but then I forgot to update with progress posts.  I updated over at tumblr, but failed to do so here.  Sooo...

Sorry! Sorry! 100x's, Sorry!

Now, on to those updates (posts coppied from my tumblr blog):

Week One: Try a new fruit or vegetable you've never tried before:   Because I don’t have enough on my plate as it is, I decided to join what seems like hundreds of other bloggers/tumblrs in Molly’s Matchstick Challenge.  This week’s challenge was to try a fruit or vegetable that you’ve never tried before.  I had a hard time finding one that I hadn’t tried and was a bit worried that I’d be a failure in the first week; when last night at dinner, a new veggie presented itself to me: cardoni (or as it more commonly called in Italy, “cardi”).  Cardoni comes from the cardoon plant, and while it resembles a celery stalk in its appearance, it is actually a distant cousin of the artichoke family (and it definitely tastes like an artichoke).  

I had cardoni as an appetizer, served deep-fried.  Not at at all healthy, but all sorts of delicious! Apparently the preparation process is rather extensive, so it doesn’t look like cardi is going to make it on my “things to make at home” list; however, if given the chance, I’d definitely order/eat it again!

(Sadly, my iPhoto still isn’t working, so I wasn’t able to add the matchstick challenge logo or an image of my new veggie.  If you google image search “cardoon plant”, though, you’ll see several celery-like pictures of the delicious Italian vegetable.) 

Bring on challenge number 2, Molly!

Week Two: Walk: As I said in a previous post regarding Molly’s goal for week two of The Matchstick Challenge; I don’t feel safe walking alone where I live.  I would love to be able to live in a town that I feel comfortable walking to the gym, to work, or to the closest Starbucks; but sadly, I do not.  To be quite honest, I live close enough to all three that the task is physically doable, but mentally, not so much.  I get inside my head and convince myself that there is someone following me or a creeper in the bushes.  That just takes the pleasure right out of the walk for me and I’d just rather not do it.  

That being said, I did go on a short walk around the neighborhood with my sister and her two kids after our Thanksgiving meal.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Such a beautiful day!

(*I realize that the afore mentioned creepers do not disapear simply because I am with another person and two small children, but hey, safety in numbers, right? Right!)

Also, I almost always take the stairs instead of the elevator when I go to my Rick’s place (the almost part being reserved for situations when my hands are full and I can’t manage the stairs in all my clumsy glory).  And, as much as I love finding a front row parking spot at the grocery store, I never troll the lot searching for one.  I don’t mind taking a spot further away and walking a small distance, so if a close spot isn’t available I swoop up a far-ish (because really, how big is a parking lot in the scheme of things?) spot and make the trek!

So, even though I didn’t walk all over town all week long like some other Matchstickers, I’d say that week two of the Matchstick Challenge was a success! I’m ready for week 3! 

And there you have it.  My updates for the challenge.  I promise that I'll do better in the weeks to come in updating all my runners over here in Blogger Land!  Also, if you're following and participating in the challenge, leave your comments.  We'd love to hear from you! 

Constant battle...

Yes, yes it is.

Danielle

Why do you run?

"Running is the only thing I have that is mine... To go sweat, breathe, cry in the rain, and scream or sing in the woods is why I love running." -Christine Orr from Runners World


Danielle

Thursday Thoughts

"Running is beautiful.  It gives you control, it leaves the negative behind.  Hurt, tears, hate, anger, sadness; it all leaves in the form of sweat and something stronger takes its place." -unknown

Tumblr Tuesday (on Monday)

... because I just can't wait until Tuesday!

As you may know, I have a second blog, Pandamonium, over at tumblr.  It is somewhat running/fitness  related (tumblrs call it "fitspo" or a "fitblr" blog), but mostly it's just a random collection of "me-ness".  Over at Pandamonium, I follow a girl named Molly, who writes a blog called Matchstick Molly.  She had this genius idea to bring fitness and healthy life-style bloggers together by doing a weekly challenge geared towards healthy living.  Each week, she'll post a goal/challenge of some sort that we should strive to attain by the end of the week.  To show our participation in the challenge, we are asked to post our progress through a written post or picture throughout the week, or at a minimum at the end of each week.  As a means to mix and mingle, we are also asked to view and reply to the blogger listed directly above and below us on her participants list.  Easy peazy, lemon squeazy.

As a means to expand on this challenge, I am bringing it over here to blogger land and incorporating it into my our (Danielle, jump on the band wagon, will ya?!) running blog, and inviting you to do it with us.  Run with us.  Matchstick Challenge with us.  We don't ask for much around these parts!

This week's challenge: try a fruit or vegetable that you've never tried before.

Seems easy, but given that I love love love fruits and veggies, this actually may in fact be a challenge.  I feel like I've tried them all!  I'm going to have to hit up the produce section and/or farmers market on Wednesday and diligently search for something I've never tried.  Suggestions are much appreciated! 

Motivational Monday: Ben Does Life Edition

This guy.  Holy amazingness!

Wordless Wednesdays

Sadly, Amanda's iPhoto isn't working.  That means, no pictures.  Which means no Wordless Wednesdays from her for a while.

(It also means that if broken iPhoto leads to lost pictures, she's going to go completely bat shit crazy!)

Fingers crossed...

This One Time, At Spin Class...

... I almost threw up.

True story, people.

I was a few minutes late to class on Tuesday, as my warm and cozy bed was doing its best to convince me not to leave.  However; I won the argument, said my good-byes to the comfiness that is my bed, threw on some clothes and was out the door with a Lara Bar and banana in hand.  Since I was late, I did a quick warm up and proceeded to push myself to the max for the remainder of the class.  I figured if I pushed extra hard, I'd make up for the ten minutes I lost.  Makes sense, right?  Yeah... Not so much.

Apparently it doesn't work that way.  It seems that if you're late, you're late.  You lose out on the ten minutes and will have to take that up with your bed later (stupid bed).  Trying to make up for lost time in spin class leads to nausea.  Trying to do an ab/core workout after a hard-core spin class accentuates feelings of nausea causing you to stop mid plank and mentally convince yourself not to throw up all over the ab room.

And the worst part of it all, is that even though I pushed myself so hard during spin, the rest of the day didn't leave me feeling like I had a great workout.  I didn't feel stronger or more toned like I usually do after a good workout.  Bumm to the er. :-/

Lesson learned: Be on time and know your limits!