30 Day Challenge

I am a part of this 30 Day Challenge with several other ladies.  I'm doing 30 Day Shred several times per week (5-7x) along with my regular exercise.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been too much "regular" exercise on top of it, but I'm running another 5K on July 17th (I believe).  I need to get running more.  I think something that will help with that is summer school, which I am currently teaching, is over Friday.  That'll make it so I can run any time during the day starting next week.  I know later year, I liked running in the late morning.  I get so tired now in the afternoons that I don't want to run. 

Anyway, I am proud to say that I can use 8 pound weights doing the Shred instead of 3-5 pounds like I used a year ago when doing it.  I'm feeling it some, so I hope I get some muscular results! 

I'm happy to say that others in my life are exercising too.  My sister has lost 40ish pounds (if I remember correctly), and my husband is doing a 200 push up challenge.  I love seeing and hearing about people exercising!

Finally, I am really looking forward to ordering Turbo Fire, which I hope will happen in the next few weeks.  I LOVE Turbo Jam, and I need something to take me to the next level.  Hope it does the trick for me!

later...

I found some motivation!

I think noticing people checking you out is some good motivation!  :)  That's what happened to me yesterday, even though I thought I was in some "scrubby" clothes.  My husband pointed it out after I got home, and I noticed some guys too.  I feel re-motivated now.

On another note, I got in a 4.5 mile run yesterday.  My pace was a 10 minute mile, which I don't l ike.  I've been faster than that a lot, but lately, my time hasn't shown it.  I'm going to work more on intervals and what not to try and improve my time.  My next 5K is July 17, and I'm aiming for 28:30 or less.  I have a month to get it down to that.  That means I need to shave about 37 seconds off my fastest 5K time (my last 5K race).

Going to do some more strength today.  I really need to work my ab region the most.  After three kids via c-section in four years, it's just not pretty. 

Turbo Fire came out yesterday.  It's the "Insanity" of Turbo Jam; at least that's how I explained it to my husband.  It's $120.  Maybe I can afford it next month.  Since we get a $100 refund for health from work every semester, I could get reimbursed most of that.  We'll see.

Later...

I am trying to find more motivation.

I am trying to view food (again) as a fuel for my body.  I don't need to push garbage in.  That's not what our bodies are made for.  I can't get my best workout in if I don't have good food in my body. 

Something else I've been thinking about is interval training.  I can use the treadmill for that.  We have an interval mode and a weight loss mode.  I am planning at least twice per week to do these variations on my run.  My other goal is to get in two more runs during the week also.  This week I'm planning at 3 miler (at least) then at least a five miler.  Add 2-3x strength training and my favorite exercise video (Turbo Jam), and my scale should look beautiful this week! 

On another note my daughter's 3rd birthday is tomorrow.  I hope I can inspire her to love her body and want to exercise.  She likes to exercise with me some now, so I hope that continues.  She has apparently been blessed (errr...or cursed) with my body type.  I think she'll have to really work to be in good shape.  BUT, she can turn to her mama to help her with that.

Off to do some strength and intervals!  Later...

Strength training

I have a love-hate relationship with strength training.  Sometimes I really want to do it because I love seeing what muscles I have.  I want to make them bigger and stronger.  Other times, I don't really want to do it.  It just seems too hard.  One of the main reasons for not wanting to do strength is boredom.  I have tons of exercise videos, but they are getting pretty boring to me.  I think if I had a gym membership and could use the machines, I would do more strength.  If I have to keep doing it at home, I might need bigger weights.  The 10 pounders I use now aren't quite cutting it. 

So, I can use the local health centre once for free.  I think I'm going to take advantage of that in the next week or two since both my husband and I are on summer break now.  If I really like it there, I might see if there's a way we can afford it monthly.  The good thing is that my school/job will reimburse us $100/semester for health related expenses.  That would cover about half of my gym membership.  The bad thing about this gym is it had bad hours.  It doesn't open until 5:30am and closes at 8:30pm.  It'd be better for me if it opened at 4am or so.

On another note I think I might get up early a few times during summer school teaching (the month of June) to run outside before work.  It sounds great in theory, but we'll see if I can make it happen.  I wouldn't have to wake up until 5am or a tad before that, which is the time I wake up during the school year to get around for work then.  So...it shouldn't seem THAT early.

Okay, I think I've rambled enough. 

Later!

My First 10K!

My first 10K is under my belt.  My friend Jess and I ran the Sunburst race in South Bend today.  We finished in 1:02:07...not too bad.  I wanted to be under an hour, but that was pretty darn close!  There were three hills, which definitely didn't help  My other goal not to walk at all was accomplished.  It was such an awesome feeling!

The best part of the race was the ending.  The race was from the College Football Hall of Fame to Notre Dame Stadium. At the end we got to run through the (famous) tunnel while the Victory March was playing and the "crowd" was cheering.  SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME!!!  Being a lifelong ND fan, that just made my whole day. 

I'll be running at least two more 5Ks this summer, a 5 mile race in September, and possibly a half in October.  Gotta keep running!

Here is a picture of Jess and me after the race...