Evaluating your training

It snows in Maryland. Alot more than I thought it would.

We've had 4 or 5 snows this month which has made running outside difficult. I don't care how cold it is, but when it comes to snow and ice on the trails that's where I draw the line. I have not the experience nor the bravery to try running in it. I'd rather not take the chance of falling and injuring myself, taking myself out of the game completely. Last week I did the treadmill thing on the gym, which wasn't bad for 2-3 mile interval runs but the thought of a steady state long distance run on it makes me very flustered! Plus driving to the gym for a run seems silly when I can just slip out my door.

It snowed on Monday and it's been pretty cold since. My husband and I walked on the trail a couple nights ago and there were only a few ice patches. I figured with how sunny it's been they would have melted by now. So today I went out in the 17 degree weather for my interval run. Well it ended up being alot icier than I thought. This was a day when I probably should have gone to the gym to run. But hell I was already dressed up and on the trail, might as well do what I could with it. I sprinted where I could but ended up walking alot more than I wanted to. I probably could have gotten more out of my session at the gym. Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

The last couple weeks have been a focus on HIIT strength training. It's been fun and all, but I am really missing my heavy lifting. This type of training is strenuous and testing my limits in a different way - I am building endurance and cardio strength. However I feel like I'm losing upper body strength. So next week I'm going back to lifting but with a few changes... instead of going body builder style and splitting upper body into 2 days, I'm doing this

Monday - legs/core
Wednesday - upper body
Friday - HIIT strength

This should allow me to train my whole body heavy yet at the same time get some plyo and power work done.


Oh, I also have good news (sort of?) I was at the doctor last week and at the end of my visit I asked her to refer me to a knee doctor. It feels clicky and weak at times and it pulls on my hamstring and calf. She grabbed my knee, moved it around a whole bunch, then said she didn't feel anything wrong with it. She thinks it's probably my patella and I need to strengthen the muscles around the area. This was my theory as well. Obviously I do strength train my legs heavily which has helped alot... I'm just concerned with the possibility of it getting worse when I increase my mileage and start running races again. I guess I'll keep my eye on it but it's a bit of a relief to hear the doc say nothing appears to be wrong.

The Fit Test

This week I joined the Gold's Gym near my house. I went to Gold's in Augusta when I still lived in Georgia and enjoyed it. Their facilities are nice and usually pretty solid

Pros

• Seems to have a good free weight section that is laid out slightly better than Augusta was.
• Has an actual free ROOM for body weight exercises, throwing medicine balls around, kettlebells, bands, boxes, etc. There wasn't as much room or variety of resistance equipment in Augusta
• Monkey bars with alternating heights!
• Sauna and steam room!

Cons

• No climbing ropes
• Uses a huge amount of space as a t shirt display
• No open concept, eveything is sectioned off while Augusta was one huge open space with high ceilings
• No assisted pull up machine
• More expensive. I had the deluxe membership in GA so I could bring a friend ($19), however their membership here is $18 biweekly so $36 a month. Not killer but I was expecting to pay $9 a month for their basic membership

So on Friday I went to the gym to do my HIIT strength training session. I had been seeing signs all over the gym about the Fit Test. Basically you take the test to see how fit you are and where you stack up vs others. And I gotta admit, I was really curious to see how I would do. So I did my 5 minute warm up run and instead of doing my workout I spontaneously decided to ask if I could do the fit test. I walked on the treadmill for 10 minutes while I waited for their trainer to finish with his client. He came over and got me so we could get to work.

As many reps as possible in 1 minute

• Squats - The trainer seemed pleasantly surprised at my ability to squat. Not sure what he's used to seeing but he seemed impressed and said my form was good. 45 in 1 minute.
• Push Ups- This is where I think I blew him away. A goal of mine is to get good at push ups so I've been working really hard on them. Last time I did them I maxed out at 20 (but then did 2 more sets). Today I did 30. 
• Sit Ups - I never do these, in fact I can't remember the last time I did them. I do other things to work my abs and core. A bit out of practice but I managed to get 43 reps.
• Bent Arm Hang - This was hanging from the pull up bar with a wide grip and arms bent at the elbow. Wide grip is something I rarely work on and it's the hardest grip. I got 31 seconds, looking back I think I could have held on just a little bit longer. If it was regular pull up grip I probably could have gotten close to a minute.
• Step Up Test - Step up onto a 12 inch box and step back down with both feet. This is a test of your cardiovascular health and it really sucks. I got 60 steps per foot so 120 total per minute.

I think I really surprised the trainer. He said I've done better than most of the other women who have taken the test so he put me on the leader board. Wasn't expecting that at all. Evidently I'm one of the fittest chicks at this gym. Of course this is out of those who have taken the test but apparently alot of people have taken it. I would think if you really care about being in good shape you'd be curious to see where you're at, right?

I'm at the bottom... Second place in a few areas and even beat some of the boys at a few things. I guess I could work on sit ups and squatting faster. The gym manager who signed me up came over and said "...You did 30 push ups?" Heck yeah. 

This made me feel pretty awesome. Not long after the test ended I proceeded on to my workout, followed by a 20 minute incline walk on the treadmill. It made for a great gym session.

Yesterday's long run proved to be slightly faster than my previous runs - including the fact that I had to slow down for half of it because there was slush and ice on the trail. And today I'm resting up after a week of hard effort in the gym and on the trails. 

Lazy on the blog, hard in the gym

Whoops. I kinda stopped blogging for awhile.

I haven't been on here but I have been working very hard. 

About a month ago it occurred to me that while I have lost alot of fat since that fateful day in 2012 when I began my weight loss, it seems the fat loss has stalled and it's even been creeping back on in certain areas. I'll admit my focus in 2014 was not even on fat loss - it was on racing, running trails, and more recently lifting in the gym. But lately I've been feeling like I want to try and get rid of some of the last bastions of fat left on me. I want to LOOK like I do all the crazy shit I do. 

Medically I need this to happen too. I still struggle with PCOS, and as a result I am trying to manage my blood sugar and blood pressure. Having abdominal fat, an "apple" shape, whatever you wanna call it is not healthy. Therefore I need to minimize the pot belly that genetics has given me. 

The solution - I'm in a cutting phase. Started it 2 weeks ago, already seeing some results...

Start - 

173 lbs

26.8% body fat

Last monday (1 week in) - 

172 lbs

25.2% body fat

Goal? Maybe 165 lbs, but what I am really looking to hit is 23-22% body fat. Minimize my belly fat, also get rid of my arm/upper back fat that's hiding all my muscles. I have alot of muscle and I am looking to lose fat while trying to avoid muscle loss, or at least minimize it.

Here's what I am doing ...

Diet - around 1500 calories a day, back to using Lose It again for tracking purposes

• Aiming for 170g protein a day, however that is a HARD number to hit, so I'm just trying to get the most I can. 
• 40-50g of fat
• Carbs ... my nemesis... trying to keep them under 150g a day, it's freaking HARD!!! Y'all know I love my carbs, but I've been good about reducing my carb intake and resisting SWEETS! My main sources of carbs are oatmeal or fruit an hour before my workout, half of an english muffin with eggs and cheese, a Chobani yogurt (searching for something with less sugar), then the rest comes from veggies and fruits, with the occasional small serving of rice or pasta with my dinner
• Saturday I'll have a cheat lunch after my long run and a cheat dinner :)
• Supplements are simply BCAA and protein. If I'm about to have a crazy day at the gym I might pop some pre workout.

One of the benefits of this cut is that it will retrain me to eat healthier as a whole. I have really fallen far over the past year and was eating so much crap. 

Exercise

• 3 strength training sessions a week
• For the next 3 weeks I am focusing on HIIT/power strength sessions because I rarely train that way. They are 20 minutes, 5 heart pounding high intensity exercises back to back, then with a couple minutes of rest before repeating the circuit 2-3 more times. 
• After my strength training I am walking for 30 minutes - trail, treadmill, elliptical, or treadmill on an incline. Anything low intensity. This helps burn some extra fat
• Running 3 times a week. 2 runs are HIIT - all out sprint for 30 seconds, then walk/jog to recover for 2 minutes. Repeat this circuit for 20 minutes. HIIT is best for fat burning. Then my long run is Saturday which is currently 5 miles, looking to increase this to 8 or 10 over time to get ready for racing season

I have been so consistent for the past 2 weeks and it's been pretty easy to maintain. It's all about having a set routine that can easily become a habit, and of course having will power. 

I am going to start posting here consistently again. I missed having an outlet for all my fitness crap that my normal friends don't want to hear about. Right now it's time for me to go to my new doctor to get refills on my meds, and maybe talk some PCOS concerns with her.