Workout Wednesday

Howdy,  howdy folks!

We're halfway through the work week and I'm  happy,  happy, happy about it.  I'm looking forward to a long weekend.  And this weekend marks the kickoff of college football!  Woohoo!

It's been in the triple digits here this week,  so our Pathways runs have been hot, hot,  hot!  I hope we get a break soon because they're starting to give me the side eye when I tell them it will eventually get better.

And I'm back on track with my strength training.  It feels good too!  Tonight is Body Beast Build Back And Biceps.  Tomorrow night,  I'll run with Pathways them I'll do Body Beast Build Shoulders.

Speaking of shoulders, I got a compliment on my traps the other day.  Woohoo!  So,  in honor of my "awesome" traps, I've got a shoulder workout for you for Workout Wednesday,  because who doesn't want  Boulder shoulders?!   I found this on Bodybuilding.com It looks like a good one that I'll be adding to my ever growing list of favorite strength training workouts.

Ok,  that's all I've for for now.

Until next time--get up, get out and get moving!  Whatever you decide to do today, be awesome at it!

Your friend,

Theresa

New Week, New Day

Howdy folks!

Happy Monday!

I hope you're having a great day so far.

We had another relaxing weekend at the lake. The weather was so perfect yesterday, it was really hard for me to leave. We only have a few more warm,  boating weekends this season.  I usually fight the end of summer tooth and nail, but this year has not been quite as enjoyable as usual. So,  I'm not going to be real sad to see it end. I am looking forward to some fall camping,  sitting around the campfire and relaxing though!

I flew through the chores and weekly meal prep when we got home.  I fixed  ground  turkey,  turkey  burgers,  brown rice,  baked sweet potatoes,  broccoli,  mixed vegetables,  and hard boiled/baked eggs in literally  1 hour!

I've been running with my Pathways group,  but have been neglecting my strength training workouts the past 2 weeks.  I'm am hoping to get back at it this week.  My fitness goals for the week are:

Monday: Chest / Triceps
Tuesday: 3 mile run ; Body Beast Lucky 7
Wednesday: Back / Biceps
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 5-6 mile  run

So,  that's what's up with me right now. 

I hope that you all have a great week!

Until  next time- get up,  get  out,  and get moving.
Whatever you decide to do today,  be awesome at it.

Your friend,

Theresa

Positively Wednesday

Howdy,  howdy y'al!  Happy Wednesday!

We're already halfway through another work week,  and personally,  I'm more happy about it than usual.

This has been the  most  craptastic week from hell ever!

I've had a very difficult,  unsettling work situation to deal with this week.  I'm finding out the hard way,  that you can't trust anybody these days.  It's been rather difficult  for me to process this.  I'm not usually a  mean person and I get my feelings hurt very easily when someone is mean to me.  Someone at work felt the need to attack my character. I'm trying as hard as I can not to take it personally,  but that's easier said than done.  I've been told that "I did a great job"  and "consider the source".  Well,  I'm trying!  My sweet hubs  said  last night  "sometimes,  when a fly lands in your tea,  you just have to dump it out and get a fresh one". I think that's  the best thing I've heard in a long while,  so now I'm in search of "new tea"

But,  in the meanwhile,  I'm trying to stay as positive as I can.  A couple of weeks ago,  I was challenged by a friend  to  post 3 positives for 7 days. During the course of this little  challenge,  I realized that despite all the negative in the  world,  I really  have  a lot to be grateful for.  It made me realize that not every day may be good,  but there is something good in every day.

So,  I challenge you all to write  down  3 positive things daily for the next  7 days!

In the meanwhile,  PW3 had a good run last night.  It was track night and that scared some of them. But  they did a great job,  especially considering the  heat index was 100 degrees.  We did  800m x 2 then  400m x 4.

Our splits were:

800 @ 5:45
800 @ 5:45
400 @ 2:33
400 @ 2:45
400 @ 2:44
400 @ 2:33

Personally,  I  was glad to leave some of my frustration  behind on the track!

Ok,  until next time--get up,  get up  and  get moving!  Whatever you do today,  be awesome at it.

Your friend,

Theresa

Friday Wrap-up

TGIF y'all! Happy Friday!

We made it to the end of another week.

It's been a pretty good week here,  all things considered.  Last night was the first hill night for  Pathways. Despite a couple of snafus, it was a good run. I'm proud of my group thus far. They are eager and ambitious. That will serve them well over the next 10 weeks.

Tomorrow morning we are  running  a relatively flat  4 mile route.  After that,  we're either going to the lake to make the best of the remaining summer weekends. Or  we're  staying home because I've got some errands I need to run.  I'm torn and undecided.

I've been hitting my macros pretty close this week but  have been slacking on my strength training....oops! I've got to get back at it!  I was worried that I had lost my endurance during my running hiatus.  But,  I think that because of the strength training that I have been doing,  I'm not as far behind as I initially thought.  And for that,  I'm glad.  I am having some of the pain in my lower leg,  heel,  ankle area that I was experiencing with my  Achilles issue.  I'm going to try taping in  the  morning and plan to do  some rolling/stretching or maybe even yoga tonight.  I don't want to be injured again!

Wel,   I've got a lot on my mind,  but I won't bore you with all that today.  We'll save that for next week. Ok,  so  y'all have a super weekend! Same time,  same place next week!

Until next time--get up,  get out,  get moving! Whatever you do today,  be awesome at it!

Your  friend,

Theresa

What's on your agenda this weekend?
How many miles are you running?

Workout Wednesday

Good morning!! Happy Wednesday!!

We're halfway through another work week and y'all know that makes me Happy, Happy, Happy!!

Yesterday was a rare day for August in Oklahoma. The high was only in the 80's and the humidity was very low. It was beautiful, almost like fall! I had some frustrating personal issues to deal with yesterday, so I was more than happy to run last night. Pathways did a 2.5 mile recovery run through the neighborhoods near the store. I think that we all enjoyed the lower humidity! Everyone did very well. We have a rather large group, so we have some safety issues to work out, but all in all, I think I've got a great group and its going to be so much fun working with them this session.

Today is Workout Wednesday. Since fall marathon training has started for most of us, I thought today would be a good day to discuss marathon training.

Runners spend so many hours and put in so many miles training for their desired goal race. When race day arrives, we all know what we need to do/should do. But, do we know what NOT to do? I found infographic from Proform.com to share with you just to make sure you don't make any rookie mistake that could cost you time or heartache. Enjoy!

Spread the word on how to not run a marathon.



Until next time-get up, get out, and get moving! Whatever you choose to do today, be awesome at it!

 Your friend,

 Theresa

 Have you ever made any of these mistakes on race day?

Monday Motivation

Good morning!! 

Here we go again!!  It's a new day and a new week, lets make it count!!

We had another fabulous weekend at our lake place. Yep, we just left and we went right back! That's how much we love it there! Plus, there aren't too many more summer weekends left, so we're trying to take advantage of it while we can.

So far, Pathways is going GREAT!!  I'm so excited to be back. It's so exciting to work with these runners. I enjoy watching them pursue and achieve their goals. It really is very rewarding! We ran 3 miles last Thursday night and 3.5 on Saturday morning. Its been rather hot and humid here recently. We really aren't acclimated to that because we've had such a mild summer. I keep telling them to hang in there, it will get better. I'm not sure if they believe me, though. :-)

I really enjoyed our time at the lake recently but I'm ready to get back into our regular routine. I haven't been as careful with my macros as I should have been and I've slacked on my strength training. When we got home last night, I meal prepped, of course! I fixed ground turkey, baked chicken breast, brown rice, black beans, baked sweet potatoes, broccoli, mixed veggies, salad, and HB eggs. Tonight, we'll get back on track with our strength training with Body Beast chest and triceps.

And, that's all I've got for you now. Until next time--get up, get out, and get moving!!  Whatever you do today, be awesome at it!!

Your friend,

Theresa

Back to Reality

Hello, hello!!

I hope that you're all doing well and having a good week, so far. Hang on, we're almost there!!

Its been a great week for me, but its back to reality today. Hubs and I decided to take a little extended time at the last this past weekend and I am so glad that we did!! It is always so beautiful there but I was surprised at how peaceful it was. Monday and Tuesday were nearly perfect. There were very few boats, so the water was very calm. The weather was perfect! We had the campground all to ourselves. It was so quiet and relaxing! I could have stayed for days and days!!  Hubs got the chance to do a little fishing while I got to float and soak up the sun. The highlight of our trip was getting to see the goats on Goat Island. We've gone to this lake for several years now and just recently learned that this island is called "Goat Island" We heard there were goats on the island but we were skeptical, as we had docked there before and never saw or heard one. We've seen pictures of them recently but until Sunday, we had not seen them with our own eyes. We had a chance to see one of them Sunday and then on Tuesday, we saw them both.  Needless to say, it was a great week!

I didn't work out as much as I had planned. I probably ate way too much junk and consumed a few too many adult beverages, but it was all worth it! I think that we spend way too much time wrapped up in our daily lives-working, working out, watching what we eat, etc. Don't get me wrong, that's all very important. But I believe that if we truly want to be the best that we can be, we need to learn to lighten up and relax. Rest is just as important as exercise and clean eating!!

I packed my gym bag for a run after work today. And for the first time in about 6 months, I packed this shirt:

I have to admit that I'm more than a little bit excited about returning to coaching this group! It was such and integral part of my identity then I got injured and a little burned out. I've taken a break and now I'm looking forward to working with this group, preparing them for their goal race, the Tulsa Run 15k. I had such a fun group last fall. I haven't met them yet as I missed the first run Tuesday night but I'm hoping that we have as much fun, if not more! Some of our Pathways alumni have graduated to coaching, including my sweeper coach. It will be as much fun working with them too. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted with frequent updates and pictures!!  I just hope that I can keep up!!

 

And, back to reality for us includes back to our healthy habits: eating and working out. Of course I meal prepped when we got home yesterday. I fixed turkey sausage w/ potatoes, peppers and onions, baked chicken, baked sweet potatoes, salad and HB eggs. In addition to running tonight, I'll continue my strength training with an upper body workout.

 

OK, gotta go get ready for work now. I'll check in with ya again tomorrow!

 

Until next time--get up, get out and get moving!!  Whatever you decided to do today, be awesome at it!!

 

Your friend,

 

Theresa



Friday Confession Session

Hello,  hello folks!

TGIF!

I hope you had a great week!

I have a confession to make. I haven't run at all this week!  Eek! I've been doing my strength
training,  but I haven't run.  :(  I am fairly certain that I sustained a heat related issue last weekend.  According to  the  American  College of  Sports  Medicine, one should take at least a week off from exercising after a heat related issue. I had 1 physician at my work who recommend 2 weeks off.  At least the weather had been cooler this week, that will help when I get back out there.

Another reason I've limited my running this week is the amount of residual soreness I had after last week's long run. In the past,  I would have taken a day off and then got back of there,  never fully allowing my body to recover. I've been injured so many times though that I felt it wise to allow the soreness to resolve.  Meanwhile,  I've been doing some research into why I was  so sore.  I'm sure part of it was the dehydration,  but I believe my existing muscle imbalances played a role as well.

In the past,  I've had knee pain,  shin splints,  IT band problems,  Achilles tendinitis,  blisters,  etc.  My recent gait analysis indicated that I have "dead butt syndrome"  meaning my glutes don't  fire like they  are supposed to. It is basically caused by sitting all day. When the glutes and hamstrings don't fire properly, that forces the quadriceps muscles to overwork which contributes to injuries, especially knee injuries. I also have problems with tight calf muscles resulting in pain in my ankles and peroneal/Achilles tendons. I've spent most of this past week resting, stretching, rolling and cross training. I've also been reading articles trying to figure out how to correct these issues. I was delighted to get this email from Lisa @ The Conscious Runner regarding how to avoid dead butt syndrome.

I seems that I need to do squats to strengthen my booty. But I'm confused about that. If I'm "quad dominant" and trying to do squats, won't that only make my quads bigger? How to I squat properly so that I feel it more in my backside rather than in my hip flexors and quads??  I don't know, but I'm determined to figure it out because I'm tired of being injured!

Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying the strength training that I've been doing. I'm really starting to see some changes! I had a good pump going on last night after BodyBeast Build Shoulders. I spent probably 30 minutes in the bathroom flexing and ogling myself in the mirror. LOL

We're leaving after work tonight to go to the lake. I'm planning to get in 6 miles in the morning. Its not supposed to be as hot as it was last week and I'm going to make sure that I'm well hydrated. I plan to take it easy and not over do it. I don't want to be sore all week! We're staying through next Wednesday so we're temporarily putting Body Beast on hold (I don't want to pack all my free weights) but we'll do body weighted workouts while we're there. And of course, I've got a health menu planned.

So, that's what I've been up to all week. What have you been doing??

Until next time--get up, get out, and get moving! Whatever you decide to do today, be awesome at it!!

Your friend,

Theresa