It's Been a While

Ahh! I haven't blogged in two weeks! I'm sorry! A lot has happened in the last two weeks.

First things first, I got three of my subscription boxes and I was impressed with some, and not so impressed with others. I'll give you a run down of those first!

Bulu Box- I bought three months of this subscription box through a Living Social deal and haven't been very impressed so far. It only has 3-4 samples of weight loss products and the samples are extremely small and unappealing. I haven't tried any of the samples this month. I have had the product "Calm" in the past and wasn't super impressed with it. I actually got a whole bin of the product in one of my other subscription boxes a while ago, unlike this small packet. I think it's safe to say that I won't be reordering this product. Here is a picture of the box:

 


 
Klutch Klub: I've ordered this subscription box before and absolutely loved it! Last time I got yurbuds and some other pretty nifty samples that I can't remember. This time I ordered their limited edition healthy treats box for $10 with shipping and handling. So far I've tried a bunch of their samples - the pop chips, jelly beans, Fruit and Seeds snack (which was absolutely amazing), and dark chocolate bar. All of the samples were absolutely amazing!!! They did have a Wheatgrass drink, and that's the only sample I'm not too sure of. I probably won't order this subscription on a regular basis because they have deals on them all of the time! Here is a picture:



Kona Kase: My absolutely FAVORITE subscription box. They actually had a bunch of my favorite athletic nutrition. I love the Power Bar (I actually talked about this in one of my last posts). I love Skratch lab hydration products. They are supposed to be the best hydration product you can intake after a hard workout. I've ordered it online before. The Kind granola is fantastic on top of yogurt!!! I wasn't a big fan of the FlapJacks (It was wayyyy too plain for my taste) and I'm typically not a fan of the Honey Stinger so I gave it to a friend. The uplifting quote is pretty awesome too. I'm not going to lie, I'm probably going to keep this subscription. If at some point I don't think it's worth it, I'll cancel it.

 

I ordered two more subscription boxes: one is the Food for Love which I won't be getting until next month, and the other was Sample Society (a beauty box). I'll let you know how it goes once they come in. I think I like this subscription box is fad. It gives me an opportunity to venture out of my comfort zone in a good way.

Ok - so now for my workouts. I've been trying to keep up with my Orange Theory twice a week and then cross training in between. Last week in Orange Theory we did a burpee challenge where we did 100s of burpees and it absolutely sucked. This week, we had a partner workout where we had to pick our workouts out of a pumpkin basket. Every time we finished the workout, we picked a new one. It was pretty intense. I'm most likely going to go again on Saturday. I've got to take advantage of my membership until it runs out at the end of January. I really love it, but I'm also starting to miss running.

Which brings me to my next story: my freaking awesome 10K I did this past weekend. I signed up for this 10K a while ago and haven't been giving it the full training attention it needed. I did run 6 miles a couple of weeks ago, but it was a lame attempt at trying to cover some distance. Other then that, I've been running at the most 5 miles and it's been at like a 9ish minute mile pace. So when I went into my race on Sunday, I figured I would take it easy. The weather was absolutely wonderful (maybe a tad colder than I would have wanted) and I loved just being outside. Once the race started, I got into a comfortable pace. After a mile I looked down and I saw 8:10 on my watch; I was surprised, I didn't even think I was going to keep anywhere near an 8 min/mile pace. As I approached mile 2, I had the same result. At this point, I thought I could actually keep it up. So on and on I went. At the end, a 70 year old man came up next to me and told me to come on. I kinda chuckled to myself and made myself push a little harder. He ended up kicking my butt, but at that moment he gave me the little push I needed. I finished and ended up placing first in my age group; 8:02 min/mile pace. I ended up winning a cup full of candy, probably the best prize ever. Overall, I was impressed with myself and it's motivated me to maybe train a little more. Next 10K is in January... maybe this time I'll train a little bit harder.



Worst Idea Ever...

I went to Orange Theory today. Yup - dumb move. I mean y'all didn't stop me!! I know 8 of you read my post already. Someone could have commented and said - hey, you sure you want to do that? I might have thought to myself - you know what this is a dumb move.. but instead I went to class.

Today was probably the hardest workout we've had in class. It started off with running for 7:30 minutes at a push pace. The goal was to hit at least a mile. I did, but it sucked. Next, we moved to the weight room. We had to start off doing 10 reps of each of these workouts- thrusters, SBT rows, and pushups. After each set of workouts you decreased your rep by one - so it went 9, 8, 7, etc. While we were doing our reps, our instructor kept pushing us to go faster. After he called time, we went back on the treadmills with weights. Our goal was to sprint .08,get off the treadmill and then do 8 reps of squat thursters. After we completed each set, we had to sprint .08 followed by increasing the reps of squat thrusters by 2. After time was called, we went back to the weight room where we started off doing 3 reps of: snatches, box jumps, and burpees. After each set, you increased your reps by 3. Next, the instructor called time again and it was back to the treadmill. We had to run .25 on a 1% incline and started off with 20 kettlebell swings. After this set, we continued to run .25, increasing the incline by 2% each time and also increased the kettlebell swings by 10 each time. Lastly, we were on the rowers where we rowed 150 meters, 8 thrusters, and 8 medicine ball throw squats. After we completed the set, we continued to do 150 meters and increased the thruster and medicine ball throws by 2.

Yup. That was my workout. I burned the most calories I've burned in a class -550. I normally burn 450-480 calories. I'm sure after reading my post about this workout, some of you might think that this is ridiculous AND I guess it is. However, this is probably one of the most difficult instructors in that gym and I try to go to his classes. The other instructors aren't easy, but they give you more of an opportunity to recover in between all of the workouts.

Now, I'm taking an Ibuprofen before I go to bed and hoping for the best when I wake up tomorrow. On another note, I took a new nutrition product before my workout: Power Bar Performance Energy Blend. It tasted like baby food (which is delicious in my opinion). It wasn't too heavy on my stomach and it definitely helped me to push through my workouts. Thumbs up! I think I am going to try to scout it out to use for some of my workouts. After the workout, I tried another one of the nutrition products in my Bulu Box - AminoX (a recovery drink). It was awesome!!! The flavor was watermelon and didn't taste like crap. I'm not a fan of recovery drinks so I probably won't buy the product but at least it was good!

Tomorrow, I have to drop my car off for some work. While they work on my car I'm going to go for a jog (maybe walk depending on my legs). My rest day can't come soon enough!!!

Made It To The Podium!!

I have been a triathlete for some time; about six years to be exact. I can remember my first triathlon. It was a women's only triathlon and it calmed my nerves knowing that I would only be racing with women. The scariest part of the triathlon was the swim, and I knew that if I could make it through the swim, then I would be okay. I had a road bike at the time. Nothing fancy, just something to get me through the race. I mean, I didn't even know if I would enjoy doing triathlons. Lastly, I was a runner. How hard could the run actually be? Little did I know..

At the time little did I know that running after biking would be one of the hardest things to do (even as a runner). Your legs feel like jello as you start the run, and you pray it gets better. It does get better, but after about 5-10 minutes. So until then, keep running! Little did I know that this sport is a small community, and treats each other like family. At races you hear everyone cheer each other on. You recognize faces and talk to the regular racers. It's quite calming knowing someone else at a race. I used to do these races by myself, but meeting friends at races puts a whole new spin on things. Little did I know that I would love doing triathlons. Years later I've completed 12 triathlons. Two of these triathlons was a half ironman distance (which by the way is my favorite distance to race). The training for the race sucks, but once it all comes together at the race, you realize how truly powerful you are as an athlete. Overall, I'm glad I chose to do this sports years ago.

Now, I am mainly a runner. I am recognized by some of the local runners since I participate in club runs and races in the area. I have placed in a handful of races locally, but this time I actually made the podium for a triathlon!!!  It's kind of exciting to place in triathlons just because you actually get to stand on a podium! Although this wasn't my best race time, it was definitely a faster pace race and I got a good workout in. Let me tell you a little about the race.

 


The venue was CB Smith Park. Overall, I don't think I'm a fan of the venue. The lake for the swim had overgrown weeds in it, and that pretty much freaks me out. At the swim start, it was hard to spread out in the water and caused a bunch of us to run into each other, which sucked. After the swim you ran to the transition area which was hard pavement. I'm a fan of the grass, because of how soft it is. Once you got on the bike, you had to do two loops which consisted of an inside loop followed by an outside loop. There were a lot of turns so it was hard for you to really get speed. The run wasn't too bad and consisted of 2 loops. Overall, I'm not sure if I would race at this venue again. There are plenty of other venues which are much more enjoyable.

Oh, one more quick note. I just ordered a one month box of Kona Kase. What is Kona Kase? It's a monthly subscription box (the new fad) of 8-10 goodies for active people. For a discount code, use this link: http://email.curebit.com/c/cj1ldmllZ3JsNDIlNDBhb2wuY29tJnQ9b2ZmZXJzX2VtYWlsJmVudj1wcm9kdWN0aW9uJmk9NWZiNTQ4YzItZjc5MS00YTNiLTk0OWMtMTAwYTkwMzFiMWU3JTQwY3VyZWJpdC5jb20maD05M2QxMDcxYzVjYWY5MDJjMWI5YmI0MTljYzFmODJkZCZtc2dfaWQ9MTI1NzQ5OSZsPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZjdXJlYml0LmNvbSUyRnglMkZ6cW9vVjgmZD1mMw
Now, I've tried other subscriptions before - KlutchClub and Bulu Box. I think I'm even talked about them before. I'm currently still subscribed to Bulu Box and should get another box with goodies soon, and I just ordered a one time limited edition healthy box from KlutchClub.
So far, my favorite box was a KlutchClub box in which I received those awesome Yurbud headphones. The reason why I didn't continue was because of the monthly commitment. However, I'm seriously considering it after my Bulu Box subscription runs out or unless I find another subscription box which is better. There is one which I ould like to try which is the Runner Box, but it's $20 plus shipping which is expensive. I'm sure I'll splurge on it soon, but I want to try these first.

Tomorrow, I am going to Orange Theory. Please pray that I don't turn into mush after my workout.

So Sleeepppyyyy

I constantly feel like I'm tired. No matter what I do, or what I eat. When the doctor told me that I had a high TSH a couple of months ago, I was almost relieved. I felt like my constant exhaustion and difficulty in losing weight would be attributed to it. Dead Wrong. The results from my second blood work came in today, and no high TSH. It went from 6.8 to 2.5. How is that even possible? Maybe I need to stop blaming everyone else and just figure out my nutrition once and for all.

So let's talk about my weekend. Sunday morning I was pretty impressed with myself. I finished 5 miles at an 8:33/mile pace. For not running that often, I would say it was flipping fantastic. I'll tell you one thing, the weather is absolutely gorgeous. However, even with the beautiful weather I definitely overdid it in the running department. The next morning I woke up early for Orange Theory at 5 a.m. and was completely stiff.  So I told  the instructor I felt like my calves were on fire and that I was going to take it easy and walk. Talk about a humbling experience. I forced myself to walk while everyone else was running and intensely running I might add. But, overall I'm glad that I walked it off instead of causing myself some more pain.

Even with walking it off yesterday I was still sore today so I knew I had to get some of that lactic acid out. So, I spun while watching Law & Order SVU. Yes, I love Law & Order...and I love watching it while spinning. I did some light spin for about 45 minutes and still mentioned to sweat a little bit. Tomorrow's workout will be with the running group.. Until then I'm going to try to get more than 5 hours of sleep :)


 
Another Runner's Journey Blog Design by Ipietoon