Friday, May 29, 2009

stoking the fire

I have been going back & forth in my head on running again. On one hand, I want to run the Disneyland half in LA so I can get an additional cool Coast to Coast Disney medal. It's only 13.1 miles! But, it's Sep 6, theoretically a day I would be on my honeymoon. On the other hand, I could just do the Disney marathon again, maybe as soon as next year, and try for the Coast to Coast in that yr as well. But, who knows if I will ever be able to put the time in for training again, and do those 26.2 miles? I can't really predict the future.

But then as if all this back & forth wasn't enough to encourage my indecision, Disney sends me the marathon newsletter in my email...and I read it and get that yearning to do it all again. Darn those emotions!! And then I watched this 3 min marathon video and relived all the feelings...ahhhh I really want to do it again!

And p.s. I am not the only one who throws her hands up & yells "yeahhhh" :)

Friday, May 22, 2009

treadmill of death

I just want to note here that I almost died by the hands of a treadmill today. We were inside for boot camp b/c of the rain. So we did sprints on the treadmill for 2 minutes. Ugh. I can't sustain a sprint for that long. So, at one point I felt like I was going to fall off, so I put my feet on the sides, and when I went to get back to sprinting, my little legs just couldn't keep up and I almost fell off.

So that's the bad news for the day. In good news, I've made it through 2 wks of boot camp! Yay for a long weekend.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

kettle bells

My coworker & friend at boot camp sent me this article. Take a look at kettle bells...something we use every day at boot camp!

Monday, May 18, 2009

disney marathon: miles 11-13

Once we left the Magic Kingdom, I have to admit, I was pretty bummed. I knew that what lay ahead was pretty much no man's land for the 5 miles between the Castle and the Animal Kingdom. I knew we would swing around the other side of the lake and run past the Grand Floridian, but either I was so caught up in the morning that I didn't hear Ryan tell me, or I was so in the zone that I didn't realize it was time...in my low after my biggest high of the race, there was my whole fan club again, waiting for me in front of the Grand Floridian. I can't even describe the rush of joy it was to see them where I wasn't expecting and right before a hard, lonely stretch. In fact, I may not have seen them were it not for the water stop right before them, where of course I slowed to get some water, catch a breather etc.

Here I come!!! Swooping in there on the right.


Why, hello there! So glad to see you! High fives all around!


And I'm off again, into the sunrise.


Another cool thing around the Grand Floridian...I don't know what the tradition is, but there a lot of older couples, like grandmas and grandpas, dressed with mickey ear top hats and minnie bride ears & veils. I assume this is because the Disney Wedding Pavilion is right there with the Grand Floridian, but I wasn't sure what the tradition was with all the older people. Anyone know? They were super cute and so great at cheering :)

one wk down

So I made it through a whole wk of boot camp! Phews. Thursday was the toughest day. I got called out so many times for doing things wrong and then had to do even more to make up for what I didn't do right! Embarrassing and hard. Friday was actually fun though. Also hard, but we did a little obstacle course of sorts that I found fun. Today we were inside since it rained yesterday. It wasn't too bad until we did one of the things I dread the most...bear crawls! They are really hard to do inside. I actually had gloves to prevent blisters from the track, but I think they just made my hands more slippery. Plus we had just done a lap of lunges. I'm pretty good at lunges - I mean I have strong legs, I was a runner and was always working on lengthening and strengthening my stride. But after prolonged lunges, it's hard to get down on the ground and crawl like a bear. Another hard thing was at the end, we did reverse burpees down the length of the basketball court. So we got down, kicked both legs out (like doing a pushup), then walked our hands backwards while keeping our legs straight so that we were eventually standing up again. And then we got medicine balls and did a squat and then threw it at our partner. Who knew an 8 lb ball could have so much force!?

We also turned in a week's worth of food logs today. I can't WAIT to see what the coach writes on mine. I am sure it will be a humbling & eye-opening experience.

Ok next I am going to blog about the marathon. I'm feeling inspired listening to my Lady Gaga Pandora station. Thanks Lauren/Elliott :)

Friday, May 15, 2009

link of the day

I caved & started a twitter account last week (you can follow me @corrienav)...and this AM I found a really interesting link through @allahpundit. The gist is that 51% of Americans are now pro-life, and only 42% are pro-choice. This is the first time pro-life has been the majority since 1995. Interesting no? Esp in light of the Supreme Court nomination that Obama will have to make this year...just some food for thought on this awesome day before the weekend...Friday!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

boot camp

So I have been through 3 days of boot camp now, and I can honestly say that an hour of boot camp is exponentially more difficult than an hour of running. Put it this way, marathon training is much, much harder over a course of a year. Mentally and physically, it is quite the undertaking. But boot camp is harder when you look at the timeframe of an hour. Every single part of your body is exercised in some way, and in a way that doesn't give you much rest time or recovery.

Anyway, the first morning, I didn't eat anything before going. Big mistake! I felt so sick & dizzy near the end, I wanted to quit. But if there's one thing I know about myself, I'm not a quitter. So, I kept going. Let me see if I can run down what we did. First, we ran about half a mile. Then we did wall sits. Then, lunges and bear crawls around a track (I had bruises on my hands afterwards). Then we moved on to more calisthenic type things - frog jumps, jumping jacks, burpees (sp? they're like up downs), plank, high knees, windmills. Pushups & situps. Suicide sprints and more frog jumps. I was amazed at how much we could fit in an hour!

Then yesterday we made a new friend. Stairs. Like, running up 5 stories of stairs...back down, run back up, back down, run back up. And an obstacle course of sorts, and dips. And today we met resistance bands and I remembered how little arm strength I have since running put all my strength in my legs. I ate a banana before each workout too so I felt a lot better.

I was pretty sore when I woke up on the 2nd day. My lower back and thighs were sore. Today my thighs are still sore but now my abs really hurt, because guess what? I have homework too! 250 situps a night...I'm just doing crunches til I can work my way up to situps. And we're also supposed to work out 3 times outside of boot camp. Tonight I did some yoga & strength exercises with the wii fit.

It's very intense.

I don't feel too different yet, although today I felt a little stronger, or really just more in the know. The first day I was so clueless, but now I feel like I kinda know how to do all the stuff we're doing. Oh! We also have to keep a food log that we turn in every Monday. I already know I'm going to get some comments on "m&m cookies" (thanks holly ;) they were worth every delicious bite!) and "lobster ravioli". Hehe. At least I haven't drank any kind of coke product yet! Our food goal this wk is to replace all cokes with water. So far, so good.

Monday, May 4, 2009

yikes...

So I ran a marathon...and then I've worked out maaaaybe 5 times since then. That's being generous. Well today I took a fitness assessment because next Monday, I'm starting boot camp at my company's athletic club. I'm a little nervous - it's going to be hard, and it's going to be at 7 am every weekday morning. I'm not much of a morning person.

Anyway, what is really "yikes" is that my fitness assessment today has revealed that I've gained at least 10 lbs since the marathon, and my body composition is 30% fat! Yuck. I need to lose at least 20 lbs to be in the ideal % fat. This has definitely been a sobering day for me. Who knew running for almost a yr, stopping for 4 months, that I could be in such terrible shape? :(

So here's hoping I can change things around. I'm going to try to start waking up early this wk in prep for next wk, and maybe get some good workouts before boot camp starts. Another adventure is starting! It will be fun to have something to blog about again, anyway :)