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Dirty Thirty

Over the weekends, I always feel like I don’t have that much to blog about (I truly live an exciting life! My friends from home are all going back to summer school and my friends from school are long gone!). But then I go to blog and realize I actually took quite a few pictures. 

As promised, I have a workout for all you guys! I tested it on my friends, and they approved. The idea is to take rest when necessary. If you go straight through it will obviously be much harder! We kept taking breaks to chat, because, well, that’s what we do. Let me know what you think!
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(I tried to make this into something prettier but me+computers is not a good combo…)

Forward squat jumps: jump forward (covering distance)

In and out- balance on tailbone, hands on head, and bring your knees in toward your chest while crunching up

Plank dips-plank position on elbows, and lower hips to the ground, then raise up

Cross leg sit up cross- sit with your legs crossed, and then do a sit up, crossing one arm over to touch the ground in front of you

Let me know if you try this! A modification you could do is Filthy Fifteen (15 reps of everything).

Other highlights of my weekend included a trip to Whole Foods for Paleo-ish foods. 
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YUM.
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Actually surprisingly good!

Friday night I bundled up in all my warmest clothes and headed to San Francisco for the Giant’s game! Only in SF would I dress for a snowstorm in the summertime!
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San Francisco is known for having good food at the ballpark, so I was able to find a pretty healthy option. I got something called a Cha-cha bowl. 
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AKA one of the few things there that had vegetables. It is a bowl with pickled veggies, pineapple salsa, chicken, black beans, and rice. They were kind enough to make it for me without the rice too! I’m maintaining my Paleoish way of eating! Since I knew I’d be craving sweets later in the night, I decided to bring my own (it would be really hard to argue that a Ghiradelli sundae is Paleoish).
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Baker’s chocolate and raisins-a winning combo! Although sadly the Giants lost.

Saturday morning, I was back at Crossfit. Since I was the only Intro person, and the guy who usually works with the Intro people had to leave, I was thrown into the regular class, which I was super pumped about. The WOD was:

20 AMRAP

5 handstand push ups

10 pistols

15 pull ups

For the handstand push ups, I did them with my feet on a box, and definitely not a handstand! Pistols are single leg squats. And I did the pul-ups HEAVILY banded! I made it through 8 rounds, plus 15 reps! My arms were jello….I was glad there wasn’t too much leg work involved because I was a little concerned for my 8 mile run Sunday!

In the afternoon, I went for a walk along the bay with my friend. I am so grateful she introduced me to the trails along the bay-they are perfect for my long runs because they basically go all the way up the peninsula! 
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You can kind of see the city through the fog!
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When I got back, I promptly put my feet up in preparation for Sunday’s run. Saturday was a quiet night spent watching Burn Notice with my family (and cats of course). 
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How is this comfortable??

And since I’ve been talking about it all post, you guys know that Sunday held my 8 mile run. I think this was the longest I’ve ever run. While training for my 10k last summer, I ran for 75 minutes, which my little Nike chip in my shoe CLAIMED was more than 8 miles, but I don’t believe that for a second. For one thing, when I run for time I definitely am dogging it. 

Since I knew 8 miles was more than I’ve run before, I was a little nervous about how my feet would hold up. I got a really bad blister last weekend, which had been kind of sore all week (although it hadn’t bothered me much running). In addition, there’s also that whole landing on a nerve in my foot and making my toe hurt thing. Right before my run, I remembered how my toe thing actually got BETTER after like an hour. 

My run went really well! To be honest, way better than I was expecting. My feet weren’t fabulous, but they held out just fine. My running shoes that I wore are super old though, and I felt like my feet were hitting the ground kind of hard. My new Nikes are in, so I’m picking them up tomorrow. Hopefully I can break them in enough for next week’s 10 mile run! (Gulp.) I ran with a book on tape this time, which I really enjoyed. I find that on long runs I get bored with music. Now, I can’t wait for my next run! They discovered a body just as I was finishing up!

I was also pretty happy with my pace. While I simply want to FINISH my race, I would LOVE to maintain 10-minute miles, so I am trying to train to this pace, which is pretty close to where I was. 
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I had a little trouble finding where I parked, but the walking time was much appreciated-I was not capable of getting in my car right away! I also found myself wishing I had a foam roller WITH me. Next time! On the way home, one of my favorite songs to spin to came on the radio. The gym was on the way home, so I stopped there to spin my legs out a little (just lightly) because they were starting to tighten up. 20 minutes of spinning, and then foam rolling worked wonders! I legs felt 1000x better. Foam rolling my calves was kind of death, especially the outside-ish parts, since I run on the outsides of my foot. WHEW. 

I actually enjoyed this run, although I am kind of scared for the 10-miler. So my Crossfit gym is holding a trail group run on the same day that I am supposed to run 12 miles (which is the highest distance my plan goes), and there is a 13.1 distance option for that trail run. Should I do it? It would be more interesting, and to be honest I would be a bit more comfortable getting the race distance under my belt before going into the race. Plus, it’s only a mile more, and what are the odds my schedule would line up so perfectly??
Summer Shape Up Banner
I wanted to update you guys on this week’s goal of my Paleo(ish) style of eating. It’s going really well! I feel a lot more confident making eating choices, although there are definitely some areas I could clean up (for instance, I’m sticking with corn but eating half a bag of kettle corn wasn’t necessarily the best option). Is it possible that grains could mess with my hormonal levels? I swear I feel almost depressed eating them. I’m just way happier eating this way! So what HAVE I been eating?
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I really disliked this. It was just WAY too sweet, and I felt a little jittery. I missed the tartness of yogurt! I may add kefir back in, since it is 99% lactose free. 
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I much preferred the coconut milk yogurt; it was tarter. Although I probably won’t get it again unless I can find it in Plain instead of vanilla. 
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href=”http://fitnessista.com/2010/04/insanity-workout-re-cap-week-1/” target=”_blank”>Blueberry lavender smoothie from the Fitnessista! This was SUPER good, and I still have some left over for another day!
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I really liked this flavor of Kevita-Coconut Mango, how could you not??
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Salad with hard-boiled eggs and roasted garlic hummus. 
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Pre-run fuel. For this, I kind of decided “screw Paleo.” The bar has grains (Gluten Free) but worked for me before a run in the past, which I decided was more important. I also said screw you to during run fueling, which I was planning on practicing on this run. Mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to carry a water bottle (I ran in the morning, on a cloudy day, next to the bay. It was definitely not hot!)
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Post run. After drinking random almond milk and sampling all kinds of things trying to decide what I wanter (answer-FOOD). I really was craving sweet potatoes, but making them would take time and effort, so I settle for these little spinach bites. Yes, they are Spongebob shapes. HOWEVER. They are one of the cleanest foods in the frozen section at Whole Foods-potatoes, spinach, eggs, spices. No sugar, grains, or dairy. For this coming week, I’m going to try to clean up a bit more-more fruits and veggies and less Paleo-alternative products. So we’ll see how that goes! I’ll leave you with this picture of my crazy cat watching the Giant’s game:
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How do you spend your weekends? Do you watch baseball-what team?

Eek

So as I was laying around reading blogs, it occurred to me that I should probably post something…I think I wrote yesterday’s post a little ahead of time so I feel like I’m out of my normal habits! Plus, this is the first day this week that I didn’t have to get up before 6:30 for one reason or another (workout, workout, babysitting, kitten nursery). Sooo yesterday I talked about my plan to try a week of Paleo to try and figure out my food sensitivities…I decided to start that today. (Hence part of the eek). But first. here’s one of my last non-Paleo eats:
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Kefir, cereal, blueberries, sunflower seed butter. I think I want to try coconut milk yogurt, because I have a feeling I’m going to miss yogurt like crazy. 
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Vegetable soup and gluten free bread.
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Lazy girl’s blueberry crisp: blueberries topped with a premade crisp topping-all you have to do is add butter, it is just oats, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc. Microwaved because I’m lazy, and topped with a little frozen yogurt because I like yogurt. 

Let my outline for you guys what the next week will look like-I’m not going to be ridiculously strict-I have no problem eating beans and legumes because I have no issues with them. A touch of dairy here or there may happen. And I have no idea what I can eat before/during my long run that would qualify (help?). 

Speaking of my long run…this Sunday is 8 miles. I may have run 8 miles once before. The stupid little Nike chip I got that goes in my shoes and works with my iPod is really off (and that was what I was training with last summer). My longest run last summer registered at over 8 miles, but I don’t exactly believe that. So eek. Other problem-I currently have a bloody blister. Not really sure what happened. My blister from last week was doing so well and not bothered me, but this morning, all of the sudden it is bleeding? Huh? I really hoping it feels a lot better…And I’m still not 100% sure WHERE I’ll be running…
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Maybe here?

So if anyone has any tips…also I have no idea which shoes I want to wear, or how to keep my toe from hurting. Maybe you guys can help with this-I finally figured out why my toes hurt/go numb. When I run, Im landing on a nerve right at the base of my index toes. I can kind of tap on the spot and feel it, which explains why I feel like I’m hitting my funny bone in my toe when I run. Runners…? 

One thing about half marathon training though-it has made me sooo glad I didn’t sign up for a full marathon. 6 miles is hard. Add 20 more miles? No thank you. I have so much respect for all those marathon runners! Given my feet are falling apart after my 6 mile run!

In other fun happenings, I played in a slowpitch game last night!
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Mmmm not quite that serious…
It was fun though! I loved being back out there-although adjusting to the pitches was kind of rough…I was so early on everything when I was hitting! Add in the fact that it has been almost a year since I swung a bat (geez how crazy is that?)…I still did pretty well though! I got at least 2 hits! This also reminded me how much more sane I am when I am playing a sport. Why does my school not have club softball??
And tonight, guess what I’m doing?
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Giant’s game! SO PUMPED!
Gee, I seriously need to organize these posts better. Come back tomorrow for my Dirty Thirty workout! I have my guinea pigs coming to help my try it out today 🙂
Runners-any tips??

WIAW-SUMMER

Hey guys! Happy WIAW! Thanks a lot to Jenn for posting, as always!

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First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food. 

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.ImageImageI LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!ImageI’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.Image

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!ImageYeah, I have a lot of stuff…ImageAnd last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity. 

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are. Image

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:ImageThese things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously). 

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

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Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well. Image

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts. 
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After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.Image

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops). 

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!Image

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class. 

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!ImageWhat is your favorite thing about summer?

Bad Blogger

So guys…I’ve been a very bad blogger in that I haven’t been taking pictures of anything. Or eating anything remotely interesting. 

This morning, I had  Harry and David pear. Image(Old picture…cheating but we’ll go with it).

I also wanted some protein, so I whipped up some egg whites in the microwave, and topped them with a lot of avocado. There was probably more avocado than egg, not that I’m complaining!ImageThis was one of those mornings where I throw a ton of stuff together in a hurry in an attempt to not be late for class…

Lunch is unpictured, as it was not really according to plan. After my 9am class, I had planned to go to the library, but I was SUPER sleepy so I headed back to my room for a nap instead. I ended up finishing off my sunflower seed butter jar with yogurt and a banana, and some carrots. Plus a Harry and David Orange! So not very photographable. Also, I made a major life choice today-I’m not going to open a new sunflower seed butter for a while. It’s time for a break!

Dinner was semi-exciting. I went to a different dining hall, and they had a baked potato bar! I loaded mine up with butter, cheese, and scallions, although it is hard to see under the salad. ImageIn the front is some type of veggie with some type of non-meat tofu-like product. In the back is some couscous with roasted mushrooms. I also had a slice of cinnamon bread (so good!).

So as you can see, not a lot of excitement going on in the food front. Or in life. What stinks about having such a great weekend is that the week seriously pales in comparison. I hadn’t really been bored with my weekdays at all until this week. And now, the week. is. dragging. I can’t wait for the weekend! I am going rafting on Sunday with my dorm, and I have a million and two friends from high school who want to stay with me this weekend (but I have a chem midterm next week, so I don’t know if that will be able to happen). I don’t think I’m ready for the year to be over!

On the plus side, my workouts have been quite good lately, if I do say so myself. They’ve been a little more varied than normal, as in they haven’t JUST been weights, or JUST rowing. Yesterday, I lifted in the morning. I was annoyed because I wanted to do cleans, and the rugby team was taking up most of the bars, so I took some time to do a circuit with pistols and pushups, and then some dumbbell snatches. When a bar opened up, I jumped at the opportunity and did this workout:

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Hang clean (95#)

Box jumps

Technically, I was supposed to do the whole circuit twice, but my wrists were DONE after this. And dropping the bar on myself=not good. I followed this up with some work on the rowing machine…I believe I did 2k. Yeah, my shoulders were seriously feeling the cleans!

Here’s an ab workout I have been loving lately! I’ve been doing it most days with my workouts.Image(The wrestler move is lying down with your legs in butterfly, and then pressing yourself into a crunch with your elbows.)

In the afternoon, I went for a 3.7 mile run with a girl from my sorority. She is interested in running together regularly, and wants to do a half this summer as well. Yay for more training buddies!

This morning I went to a Spin class, and then this afternoon I decided to do a rowing workout. I’m getting inspired to get back on the erg more. In some strange way, I miss those marathon workouts. I definitely have trouble motivating myself to go all that fast though. I could never do a 6k on my own. Today, I did a pyramid:

250 m

500m

1000m

2000m

1000m

500m

250m

I took a minute or two of rest in between. I followed that up with that abs workout above, and a few other moves. Back in my room, I saw all the balloons still here from my Big, and was inspired. ImageI did some crunches with a ballon under my lower back, which was super hard! But then the inevitable happened…the ballon popped. Eh, what can you do, right??

One more thing, I have posted about the concept of Healthy Living College Blogger retreat…if you guys are interested, could you publicize the idea on your blogs as well? The more the word is out, the better! I think we could totally do this thing!

Running Musings

Today started off right, with an on-my-own Crossfit workout! I started by working on my cleans and deadlifts for 30 minutes before I moved on to me WOD. I didn’t max out either lift. One thing about lifting on my own is I could easily be getting into bad habits. I’m having a ton of trouble getting my elbows up on the cleans. The WOD was courtesy of Tina’s blog. It consisted of a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 rep of Bear Complex and burpees, with a prescribed weight of 55 pounds. A bear complex is a clean, front squat, push press, back squat, and then back push press. I knew going in the behind the head push press was going to be the limiting factor. I started at 55, but the second round I dropped to 50, and then 45 for the rest of the workout out. I was surprised I got as far as I did with the heavier bar though. It was a little weird because everything felt super light except the back push press, which I was seriously struggling with. Either way, it was an awesome workout, and I will definitely be feeling it in my shoulders tomorrow!

Breakfast was a smoothie with the random fruit the dining hall had out (after waiting for a while). They were out of fruit for a while, and never restocked the frozen fruit. Annoying! My smoothie included strawberries, apple, and soymilk. It was ok. Image

Today was absolutely beautiful out. Sorry to all you guys who are experiencing snow/rainstorms right now!

I had a quick lunch at the bookstore. Image

Minus the bread though. I couldn’t afford to fall asleep in Chem (again-ish). The difference I felt between sitting in class today, with no bread in my system, was like night and day between how I felt Monday. I felt amazing and alert. I’ve felt great and happy all day. Maybe it is the weather, or maybe it’s my super clean eating. I don’t know. Either way, yay!

I had to break out the new sunglasses!

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Sorry for the lack of smile. I was in a VERY public place…

I wore them a bit before realizing something was off…Image

Whoops…

I love these new sunglasses. While I have been known to rock the neon green shades, they simply don’t stay on my face very well…Image

Exhibit A. (Me and my sis in Santa Barbara 2 years ago! Also note the bash on my shin from box jumps…)Image

Exhibit B. (End of Senior year.)

Where was I? Outside in the plaza, there was a mariachi band playing. Image

Also, can I just say there are a lot of tourists this time of year? It’s difficult not to run them over. Meh.

I arrived at Chem early so I sat in the shade of a tree. I overheard some guy talking at the next table about the tons of caterpillars that fall from the tree. “Hmm,” I thought. “I don’t see any caterpillars.”

A minute later a noticed a ton on my backpack. Which led me to believe they could be crawling all over my body. They weren’t, as far as I know…

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Snacks after class:

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Boring, boring. But delicious. A little while later I went for a run (roughly 4 miles). This was my first time since I was sick doing a double day. Not counting yoga, that is. Mannn was I feeling it. Plus running hasn’t been terribly easy as of late anyways…I guess two-a-days take some getting used to. But it got me to thinking what great shape I was in at the end of last summer, when I ran my 10k. I think I was in the best shape of my life then. Which is probably why I could never PR on my 6k test for crew, I couldn’t really get better. It’s sad how much I’ve lost. I was doing 3-a-days at the end of summer, with some regularity. Mostly because I wanted to do tons of different classes/training sessions, and was training for my 10k on top of that. And a lot because I was bored. I had a lot of time, and nothing else really to do! I would regularly get my butt out of bed super early (5:45 am spin anyone?), go to spin, then go straight from there to do my 10k training run, then straight from there to do my softball conditioning. 3 hours of exercise before 10 o clock! And it wasn’t THAT big of a deal. Just to be clear, I am not recommending doing this!

At the beginning of the year, before crew started, I regularly ran the Dish, which is a roughly 5 mile run from my dorm, with 2 miles of straight uphill. I ran this 2 or 3 times a week, because I had nothing better to do (still wasn’t comfortable with the gym/didn’t know the best time to go). Now the thought of doing this run seems impossible. My run was really a great time to reflect on how much I have lost though. But at the same, all the more motivation to get super fit again! On a similar note, if avoiding bread/grains (and possibly dairy) makes me feel this awesome, then I need to just stick with it! It wasn’t really hard, minus the momentary craving for pancakes at breakfast…but I guess the knowledge that it will put me to sleep is enough to deter me…Image

Post-run, hot and sweaty picture. Since so so many of you guys post them, I figured I might as well jump on the bandwagon…ImageImage

Snacks before yoga.

Dinner should have been awesome and ended up being not very good. I thawed a sweet potato (I roasted them at home so they would get that nice flavor),, which was good, but put it in my salad, which was a bad decision. Bad decision #2 was putting in zucchini and carrots which turned out to be seasoned in a sweet way. Ick. The thought of that seasoning…I don’t know why but I really dislike it. Image

I went back for more chicken and veggies, so get that weird taste out of my mouth….

And since it’s prom season, throwback to my proms!

Junior prom:

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I curled my hair. It doesn’t hold a curl.

End of the night (don’t ask):Image

Straight…

So Senior year I curled my hair and didn’t put hairspray in because I figured, I’d rather have straight hair at the end of the night than straight, stiff hair.

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Basically straight already!

How were your proms? What do you think about while running?