Rest Day on a Souper Saturday

Rest days are important.  So after three days of intense workouts I took a rest day Saturday.  I needed it since I was really sore from Muay Thai Kickboxing.

Plus with the snow it was the perfect day to take a rest day and get some chores done at home including making some healthy soups.  One of my goals this year is to cook a little more.  So the first weekend in January is the perfect time to start!  I split the soups and put half in the freeze, some in the fridge, and put two servings of each in containers for one of my cousins.  I made my mom's vegetable soup.  She normally puts lean ground beef in hers.  I put ground turkey instead. The other soup I saw on Giada at Home on the Food Network.  In the "Power Boost" episode she made a turkey, kale and brown rice soup.  Both are delicious and I'm so glad to have some lunches and dinners done for the week plus more to enjoy over the next few weeks.  

Pilates to Kickboxing

Friday was an intense workout day. It was a two-a-day workout day for me.  I did my first Pilates session of the new year with Erin at Pura Vida Club.  I had a mini goal reached in that session.  There's a move on the Cadillac machine where you are sitting with your legs out straight and dive forward to try to reach your feet.  I was so excited when I could touch the bottom of my feet.

Then I went back to the club for a 30 minutes session of Muay Thai Kickboxing with Sean.  I knew it was going to be tough when the warm up involved a fire hose size rope stabilized by two heavy weights.  Hold the ends of the rope I had the move ropes up and down as fast as I could for 20 seconds then lift both ropes above my head as fast as I could for another 20 seconds.  After the first round, Sean says I have four of those. Buck up little camper was all I could think!  From there we did series of kicks and punches.  My heart rate soared, I couldn't breathe and yes I felt like I was going to puke.  It's tough but I loved it!

I'm A Runner Ballerina...Well At Least Today!

With the high of 65 today in Denver there was no way I was going to miss out on a great running day.  65 degrees on January 5th!  So I did a 2.5 mile run at my favorite park in Denver, Wash Park.

From there I bolted over to Pura Vida Club for a ballet body class.  There's a reason ballerinas have beautiful figures.  The instructor Elizabeth Vino is a classically trained dancer and it was an awesome class.  Great blend of ballet and fitness.  Yes it kicked my butt especially the plank, hamstring, and abs series.  I'm already feeling the soreness of going for the dancer body.  But I love it!

The Dirty 30

I had two classes I wanted to try at Pura Vida Club today:  Mad Abs and Dirty 30.  We'll I got to the noon Mad Abs class about 5 minutes late and it was packed.  So off I went to do my own abs workout of crunches, planks, roll ups, and other ab exercises including the elevated side plank.  

So after abs it was in to Tim's Dirty 30 class.  It's 30 minutes of give it all you got.  


It's a boot camp style  class that's designed to kick your booty!

Here's the series:

Burpes 15 (Push up, jump feet to hands, then jump up reaching hands to ceiling, and back to push up position.)

Lunges 25 each leg (These are three-quarters of the way down with goal of quick, not deep full lunge.)

Weighted squat lift 12 (Using weight plate or weighted ball, squat then bring weight forward to shoulder level.)

Run .25 mile (I used this to push my run at a faster pace but not all out sprint.)

Turkish Get Up 7 each arm (I'd never heard of these before but you start laying down on your back with a 3-10 pound weight, straight arms and weight in line with shoulder. You use other hand to help you sit up, then stand up, all while maintaining the weight high reaching up to ceiling then go back to starting position in the reverse fashion of how you got up.)

Mountain Climbers 50 each leg (Start with straight arm plank position and alternation bringing knees to elbows.  Feet on gliders.)

I got through two rounds. Some of the guys got through three. That's my goal to get to in the Dirty 30.

I have a good feeling I'm going to feel this workout tomorrow.  

I finished out the day with a great 45 minute dog walk.  With temperatures around 60 in Denver in January, I couldn't pass up a nice long walk with my dog.  He was certainly happy too.

6 Months To Go!

January 3rd.....six months to my 40th. Time to kick it in high gear!  We'll I had every intention of that with a run then hour ballet body class but the shoot I had scheduled for Thursday got pushed up to Tuesday afternoon.  I spend time wandering through Ice Castles and even did a little ice climbing to the top of one.

So on the way to and from to Silverthorne I thought about my workout challenge to myself.  What is really that I want to accomplish?  Well get in best shape of my life of course but that includes some specific goals.  I don't want to be skinny.  I want to be athletic.  So in the next 6 months I want to get back to running 5 miles with ease, get some definition in my arms, strengthen my core, and be able to put my head on my knees.  The last one is my flexibility goal.  I thought about maybe I should try to be able to do splits again but head to knees is a bigger challenge.  I had a yoga instructor show me recently how to start:  stand with knees bent, hands on calves or back of ankles, and start by just trying to get chest to quads, and breathe into the stretch taking several breaths to deepen it and work toward goal.  So ladies what to be in a bikini on their 40th, I want to be able to put my head to my knees.  Guess we all have goals!

Taking A Long Walk

One of my favorite things to do is head out on a long walk.  So on a beautiful afternoon with highs in the low 50s I took my pooch and headed out for an hour.  I just wanted to spend some time soak up the great weather.  It was wonderful to see so many folks taking advantage of a cool park day and walking, running, and playing with their dogs.  So it's an easy cardio day for me with some stretches afterward, but it's pretty hard to beat a nice long walk.

New Year's Day Run

Happy New Year!  I celebrated part of day one of 2012 with a chilly jog.  Can't be in the middle of a fitness year and not workout on New Year's Day!  There weren't many people out since I was running at halftime of the Broncos game.  It was really cool to run by the stadium and see it filled with people.  Plus I got a nice treat on my run.  The bike path has been extended! Looking forward to logging some miles on the new section.