marion arts festival half marathon recap. what’s next for training?

so…after 12 weeks of training, yesterday was finally my half marathon.

as always, here’s a recap of it using my thoughts during the entire race:

• fueled with dulce de leche cherrios(um, YUM) with a scoop of almond butter, 1/2 scoop protein powder, almond milk, and sliced banana. i also shared a caramel light frappucino with my mom.
• we got there 20 minutes before the race began and i really had to use the restroom, but the lines were outrageous so i decided to hold it. [because i can hold it for 2 hours..yeah, not so much.]
• the morning was BEAUTIFUL. the run started at 7:00 a.m.
• there were 900 participants and within the first mile there was a small bridge we had to cross that only 2 people at a time could cross so we got held up for a good minute during that time. [this was the start of my 'not so great' time]
• i got to mile 2 in under 20 minutes and there was a restroom so i went because i obviously couldn’t hold it. that took another 90 seconds :/ but oh well i wasn’t too distressed about my time
• after that i was feeling pretty good. the course was really nice. we went through parks, neighborhoods, roads out in the country-ish.
• i kind of don’t really recall my thoughts from miles 3-7. i kept passing people and was trying to make up for those 2.5 minutes i lost in the beginning, but i didn’t want to overdo it.
• around this time, it got HOT. highs were around 88 yesterday and i was definitely feeling it. i took advantage of people who had their sprinklers on and ran through them to cool off. i also grabbed a cup of water at each h2o station.
• then between miles 8.5 and 10, i hit ‘the wall’. the top of my foot had a very sharp pain and i started having side aches and chest pains. this has never happened during any of my runs so i was starting to get a bit concerned.
• i still pushed through..until around mile 10 there was a pretty big hill to climb. i just could not get my breathing to stay on pace so i stopped at the water station and started walking for a minute or so. i was super frustrated with myself and could not use my mental self talk skills to keep fighting.
• i started back up again but the last 3 miles were so difficult for me i stopped to walk about 3 times.
• i decided to not let it bother me  because i obviously wasn’t feeling very good (might have been a combination of the heat and pain in my foot) and just tried to finish.
• i sprinted the last 400m to the finish line and crossed with a time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. actually better than i thought it would be with everything that was going on with my mind and body! my des moines time in october was 2:15 i think.

so what’s next?

well i have my warrior dash june 17th. so for now i’m just going to run when i want and maybe focus more on speed training. i’m also going to put more effort into my lifting because i’ve been seeing awesome results in my strength gains lately and i know i can do so much more!

i start teaching a new 6 week bootcamp session tomorrow. we’re calling it “Ultimate Metabolic Training.” Metabolic training is a great way to lose fat in a short amount of time because there is little rest and increases your metabolism which helps you burn more throughout the day. We’re also including a general meal plan for our participants to follow if they want to and I’m going to follow it as well.

lifting heavy and running has changed my life. part 1: anxiety

Okay everyone. We’re about to get deep again.
I’m going to write a few blog posts about how being healthy and fit has changed my life for the better & how strength training and running has both affected certain areas of my life.

this is Part One: Anxiety.

Let’s rewind to my younger years.
When I was little, I was a cry baby. I’d cry about anything and everything.
When I got through the end of my elementary years, I stopped crying as much. I was the popular kid. The one everyone liked. I didn’t have a care in the world.
Fast forward to middle school and I was a loner. My mom moved us out of my known neighborhood(for good reasons, it wasn’t a very good side of town) and moved to a whole different side of town where I knew absolutely no one.
I was shy, timid, and hesitated when it came to making friends. This brought on the beginning of a very anxious path. I started making a few friends and by the time 8th grade came I had a solid group.
High school hit along with my experimentation with many things. I started down this terrible path, which led to me feeling horrible about myself. I worried that I was becoming someone I would hate. I became extremely depressed, to the point of self harm, and was constantly caring too much about what people thought of me.
Throughout the rest of high school I was on and off feeling these thoughts and eventually weaned away from it due to joining a church and really putting my heart into believing in God and forgiving myself for things I had done. I was less anxious and more “happy.”
Then I stopped. for whatever reason, I cannot explain, but I stopped.
and spiraled down this path of anxiety once again.

If you’ve read “my story” or this post then you know that I’ve struggled with bulimia and other forms of disordered eating. this is at the point where I started this. Right out of high school. I moved out of parents house and was on my own. Even though I had many friends, I felt alone. I tried to become too controlling of myself and when I failed, I would discipline myself for it. The whole disordered eating brought on more anxiety than I could really handle as an 18 year old.
It continued on and off for 3 years. Add panic attacks in there and life was starting to get a bit harder.
You could never tell that all of this was going on with me. I was always the smiling girl who everyone came to for help. Inside I was struggling and fighting against myself. I had a hectic schedule to try to keep myself busy to shove my awful thoughts away without trying to fix them.

My anxiety attacks started in college. They would come out of no where, for no reason. I would hyperventilate, cry uncontrollably, and my heart would race. Nothing would help them, except for time and I was too afraid to go see anyone. I never had luck with counselors. Until one day, it got bad.
In 2009, I was living with my friend Erica at the time and it happened at our apartment. I couldn’t even move. I was having horrible chest pains and an extremely hard time breathing. She had to drive me to the medical center where we waited to see what they would do. I explained my symptoms and the doctor prescribed me a Xanax to take to get rid of the panic and then put me on a prescription of Paxil without explaining side effects or anything. I took the Xanax when I got home and the panic quickly went away. I felt like a zombie all night, but it was better than not being able to breathe.

Paxil: the drug of all evil. I started taking Paxil every day thinking this would help with my daily anxiety(I was having anxious feelings everyday prior to this particular panic attack). Let me tell you, NEVER TAKE THIS. I became an entirely different person. My boyfriend at the time always got annoyed with my crying/anxiety attacks that would happen, but he told me I turned into a completely new person when I started taking this. And not in a good way. Instead of overly caring for people, I didn’t give a shit about anything.(excuse the language.) I was completely emotionless. Not happy. not sad. not angry. not excited. nothing. I was commuting to my college(25 minutes away) and would find myself almost falling asleep on the way there. I hit a parked car in a parking lot from being so zonked out. I didn’t care about my grades. nothing.
I decided to stop taking it. As much as I hated my anxiety, I wanted those emotions back. I wanted to feel something again. Well, turns out the withdrawal symptoms for paxil are as bad as heroin. As soon I went a day without taking it, everything felt insane. This website “quitpaxil” exists and it explains the frequent symptoms. The ones I experienced when I quit taking it was intense insomnia, vivid nightmares, depersonalization, memory and concentration problems, severe mood swings, an unconventional dizziness(this one was the WORST), feeling of shocks running through my body(it was such a weird feeling), blurred vision, nausea, and chills/hot flashes. I couldn’t handle it. I had to keep taking it even though I wanted SO BADLY to stop.
I finally went to a psychiatrist at my school to figure out how to get off of it. He really helped me out and recommended I start taking half of it along with a dosage of prozac because it had less side effects. Eventually I could keeping decreasing my dosage while still taking prozac and then eventually decrease my dosage of prozac and get off of everything. I did it. It took me 2 months, but I finally quit taking these AWFUL drugs.

I decided right then and there, I’m just going to live and deal with my anxiety because I’d rather have those feelings than not feel anything at all.

Around this time, I was offered the service desk position at a local gym when I moved to Coralville. I had always “worked out”, but not very intensely and obviously not enough.
I started taking group fitness classes and noticed they really helped with calming me down and getting rid of those anxious feelings. The adrenaline helped a LOT and I became even more interested in fitness.
I started running when my mom was diagnosed with diabetes and have found that running is a a very helpful anxiety curer. I haven’t had an anxiety attack since I’ve started running and working out more intensely. It helps me clear my thoughts and get away and boosts my self confidence and self esteem each time I complete a run or a workout.
I’m starting to love the person I am and not care (in a good way this time) about how I look to others, what my future is going to hold, if I’m good enough, etc.

I encourage you, if you struggle with anxiety, to start moving. I hope it changes your life like it changed mine.

dam2downtown 10k recap + workout video starring yours truly.

Yesterday I ran my first ever 10k. I’ve done multiple 5ks, an 8k, 8.8 mile race, and a 1/2 marathon..but never a 10k.

Thoughts regarding this 6.2 race:

• I was super excited prior to the day because I heard there were hills and I wanted a good challenging run.
• That morning, however, I regretted signing up. It was cold, windy, cloudy, and there was a chance for rain. Not the most pleasurable weather to run in. I like it sunny & warm.
• Once we got moving, I felt okay. No pain in my hamstring (I was having issues a couple days ago).
• The first hill was brutal. I had a hard time breathing, but I didn’t stop like a lot of people around me did. I just kept trucking up that sucker.
• Mile marker 1: just shy of 10 minutes. meh, not my best but I knew I had 5 miles to go so I was holding a breezy steady pace.
• 2nd hill – long & drawn out, but not terrible. I kept thinking “when is this going to end” but I didn’t feel like I needed to slow down. Again, i just kept moving up that thing.
• Mile marker 2: 19ish minutes keeping a very steady pace here
• I lost track of the next 2 miles..I was off in my own world thinking about some upcoming big decisions I have to make regarding my life. [I seriously don't even remember the roads at this point.]
• Somehow we got from country roads to neighborhoods and I started to pay more attention to my running. I hit mile 4 in 38 or so minutes. We went up another steep hill. wanted to barf. but kept moving my legs.
• Mile 5: 48 minutes…dangit I just really want to finish in under an hour.. move it sharelle.
• I started to really pick up my pace during this last mile. I sprinted to the finish line during the last 400m or so.
• Finished in 59:27 with a 9:35 min/mile pace. not too shabby.
• I even forgot how cold it was…until I stopped running.

Today I did a 2 mile HIIT routine. Short & simple, yet effective.
Warmed up by walking 4mph on a 5.0 incline.
7 mph for 90 sec
5.5 mph for 2 min
repeat 5x
Cool down: walk 4 mph for 3 minutes

then I did a random short workout I found from fitvillians.tumblr.com
I even made a video to share with you. It’s great for getting your heart rate up and you can do it anywhere. No equipment necessary.

motivation.

Doing a spur of the moment post today.
I wanted to write about what motivation means to me.

In the past and a lot of times even now, I struggle with motivation.
I lose my confidence, focus, or a sense of direction.
Not even with my health & fitness, but also in life. Waking up can be a struggle in itself.
So how do I do it?

I make a mental list of my personal strengths.
Yesterday, for example, I was extremely upset.
I had a strain in my hamstring and I broke down. Injuries cause me major upset because I feel like it’s the end of the world if I can’t workout. (addicted, much?). In reality, it’s just my body saying “WHOA, slow down. you need to rest sometimes.” But in my head I say “you’re not even close to your goals and this is just going to set you back even more.”
Then I had to stop and think about that thought. That was a terrible cognitive representation of what’s really going on.
I looked at what I have accomplished in the last year.
Since I skipped my run yesterday due to pain, I chose to do a yoga DVD that I used to do all the time a couple years ago. I thought it would help get a good stretch in and maybe still work on some strength.
This particular DVD used to be HARD for me to do. I remember how I would struggle with the chatarungas because I didn’t have the upper body strength, how I couldn’t lift my leg up and hold it because it burned so bad. and this time it was a walk in the park. my strength in my body has increased by a HUGE amount. it’s unbelieveable to me. this changed that negative thought right away and made me realize all of my personal strengths i’ve achieved. which motivates me to rest, heal, and keep on striving to where i want to be. it doesn’t matter how long it takes. there will be set backs. that’s normal. there’s no such thing as perfection.

An eye opener this morning was the participants that I teach in bootcamp.
They are extremely motivated. Most of them have stuck around since January. Waking up everyday of the week to get an hour work out in at 5:30 a.m.! Watching them get stronger, run longer, increase their range of motion, build their endurance, look and feel GOOD has been such a blessing to me. They are my number one motivators for myself.

Today we did 2 AMRAP challenges. (as many rounds as possible for time). I’ll share with you what we did as a sneak peek to the kind of things we do in bootcamp.

Warm up: run 400m
do some dynamic stretching (lunges, walking quad stretch, good mornings, knees to chest, etc)

#1: AMRAP 15 minutes:

- 10 sumo deadlift high pull
- 10 kettlebell swings
- 10 pull ups
- 10 push ups
run 250m

rest 2-3 minutes

#2: AMRAP 15 minutes:

- 30 walking lunges with 10# plate overhead
- 30 jump rope high knees
- 15 box jumps
- 15 floppy burpees

Everyone got 4-5 rounds for the first tone and about 3.5 rounds for the second! Amazing, I tell you. The transformations I’ve seen in such little time..is incredible. I love my job.

5k mudchug recap

one race down, 10 left to go.
what a race to start the season!
go to www.mudchug.com for more details but this is what i experienced through my eyes:
(definitely not as muddy as it shows on the website, by the way.)

• lots of running.
• lots of hill running. had to stop and walk a lot to catch my breath.
• lots of rough terrain running. didn’t want to roll my ankle.
• there were probably 6-7 obstacles. they weren’t really that difficult although i couldn’t do the monkey bars.
• i army crawled under some hurdles through the mud.
• i climbed over a couple walls
• i said screw it to the balance beam and just trudged through the pool of mud water.
• the slide at the end was actually pretty terrifying, but it was fun!
• we had an awesome group, but unfortunately had two injuries

I finished in 36 minutes and 36 seconds. not too bad since i walked quite a bit and had to go through those obstacles.

i had a lot of fun and this makes me even more excited for the 2 warrior dashes i’m doing this summer. (june 17th and july 14th)

next weekend is Dam to Downtown. It’s a 10k.

thunder thighs meet 5k PR.

pancake (grain free, paleo)

i’m loving my paleo pancakes lately. smothered with non-paleo pb2 sauce. fills me up for a good 4-5hours which is crucial since i wake up so early everyday. looking for the recipe? came from pumpedpumpkin.com

things have been non-stop crazy. as usual. i am now going to teach bootcamp 4 mornings a week, have countless exams/projects to get through for the end of the semester, work my butt off to save $$ for all the summer adventures i want to do, train for my 11 races(!!!), and continue my lifting routine so i can keep getting strong.

in training for this half (which thankfully i’ve done awesome at sticking to my plan), a “5k race” was scheduled for last sunday. since there were no 5k’s to actually participate in last weekend, i did it on my own. i started the run thinking “ehh..as long as i get under 30 minutes, that’s good enough for me.” my best time for a 5k is around 29 ish minutes.

when i headed out the door, i felt good. no, i felt great. i wanted to see how fast, while still maintaining a do-able pace, i could go and not stop until my watch said 3.1 miles.

26 minutes and 31 seconds later….i did it! i stayed under a 9 minute/mile pace! never, have i ever, ran that fast. i averaged around 8:34. i didn’t think i had it in me.
in the past, i have always hated my lower body. i’m definitely a pear shape with a smaller waist, wide hips & “thunder thighs.” i remember looking back and always being so mad that i could never fit into less than a size 6 jean because i couldn’t get them up my legs. and then jeans that i could fit over my monster legs, would always be way too big at the waist that not even a belt would suffice. (hence why you almost never see me wear jeans.)
now i could care less than i’m a size 10.
my legs are strong & powerful. not only do they allow me to run long distances and quick short distances, i can also squat over 125# now. (slowly progressing up)

;

i would much rather have this girl’s legs…

than hers…(will someone please give her a sandwich?)

now i don’t mean to judge their body types…this is just my own personal preference. i used to want skinny legs like in the 2nd picture. but then.. i got obsessive about it. this is what ended up spiraling my obsession with food, calories, and brought the self-conscious and anxiety in me. i still struggle with my flaws. everyone does.
the difference now is that i’m not saying ” i wish i had the legs like the girl in the first picture.” but i am striving for my own personal strengths. throughout my entire body.

back at it

back at it this week.
this weeks workouts have been tough mentally and physically. i took 5 days off while in Virginia and am definitely feeling the soreness.

Tuesday: ran 5 hilly miles. this was definitely tough. i felt like my heart was going to explode out of my chest.

Wednesday: 1 hour lift session with my trainer. We did hang snatches, snatch pulls, bench press(worked up to 4 sets of 3 reps at 80#!), and back squats (worked up to 4 sets of 5 at 115#!!!), and 3 sets of 10 hanging knee raises

Thursday: ran 4 miles in the a.m. and then did two intense workouts in the afternoon:

10 rounds of:
10 pushups
10 kettlebell swings (25#)
10 box jumps

that took me 17:03. it was tough.

after that i did ZWoW #5 and ended up getting through 3 rounds and 7 bicep curl/shoulder press

and now….i am sore.

Go take a look at Lindsay’s FLOW for more fitness ideas.