Week two of C25k is OVAH!

(Whenever I say "over" in real life, I always say it like the announcer on the old Japanese Iron Chef. "And Battle Pufferfish is OVAH!")

Anyway, I just finished up week 2 of the Couch to 5k. My legs feel great, I'm not even going to wrap and ice them.

Lifting is going well - squats at 75, bench at 75, deadlifts at 90 (!!!), rows at 80, military presses at 60. We won't talk about pullups. They're really hard and I'm gamely giving them my all, but my all is not very much.

I bought a bunch of whey protein from True Protein, so I'm actually getting enough protein now! I got the unflavored stuff because I hate all artificial sweeteners (and stevia) with the passion of a thousand suns. I just add about a tsp of sugar or honey and it's totally drinkable.

I feel awesome!

Boy I need inspiration.

Man you guys, you are going A LOT better than I am. Between show season suddenly exploding into full swing and working 70 hour weeks (AND riding AND walking the dog AND finding time to have a life AND actually trying to get more than four hours of sleep at night... which never happens), I've just been utterly exhausted and totally uninspired to give up my very precious and very little time off after work to workouts. So I need inspiration... lots of inspiration. I'm tired and I'm weary and my job is 100% physical labor, and I'm a horrible cook who doesn't get her nutritional needs in ever. I need advice. What would YOU do to get motivated?

Yay we're all here!

Hi DiJ! I would love a mini-workout from the PX90 guy - I've heard great things about that system. I don't know if I'm hardcore enough for that yet but it's worth a shot!

So lifting is still going pretty well, except I sucked at military presses today. Oh well, those are really hard.

I'm gradually adding more stretching before my workouts, mainly because I am gradually remembering more yoga poses! There is no yoga up here. Well, there's like two aerobiyoga classes at two other gyms miles away from my house. I'd rather just try to remember what I did in my old yoga class every week for two straight years.

My shins are starting to maybe think about hurting when I run and directly after. I did a little googling, and I'm trying RICE as a preventative. When I get home from running, I immediately wrap them in ACE bandages and drape ice bags over them for about 20 minutes, then get up and cook dinner, then ice them some more afterwards.

I do actually feel like a horse, getting polo bandages after a workout. :(

Anyway, I'll let yall know how this works out for me.

-Dressage in Jeans, Post Uno

Funder has yelled at me, so here is my post! Hehee. :)

I actually HAVE been working out. The initial two weeks was hard, but now I've gotten into that addictive mode where I'll kneel down on the floor to grab something and I'll want to do a push up. I ran a mile and a half with my brother yesterday, and we had a nice (exhausting) sprint at the end of it.

I know Andrea is busy as hell (Don't know about you Funder!), and my mom saw these 'ten minute trainer' workout videos and ordered them a while back. They are made by one of my favorite workout guys, Tony Horton, and they give you five ten-minute workout videos. They are AWESOME if you don't have a lot of time, and if you do... then you just do more then one. If anyone wants them, I have the ability to get them to you at a... 100 percent-off discount. hahaaa. <3 Tony Horton also makes Power 90 AND my all-time favorite, P90X (which is an extreme workout... noted by the 'x' lol). Why do I sound like an infomercial? Either way, I've tried a lot of workout videos, and these are my favorites. :D

At the moment, I try to get in three runs a week, and a workout video or two every night. It's been going pretty well... I'm so excited to be fit, guys! Between that and lifting 50-pound boxes all night at the warehouse, I think my upper body is in the best shape it's EVER been in... because I am a ridiculously weak person if I'm not working out. lol ;)

Happy work outs!!!

(I think Active Trainer has a calendar we can use, I just can't get it to embed in the blog. BUT, it tracks a lot of neat things... like the fitness calendar Cool Running has, Funder!)

It's working!

My arms are getting bigger! Like, muscly bigger! Also I lost two pounds, which hopefully means I lost more than that because I gained some muscle at the same time.

I've worked my way up to cardio twice a week - elliptical or treadmill. This is about the fifth time in my life I've tried to start running (or even jogging!) and I always hurt myself by pushing too far, too fast. I am going to religiously follow the Couch to 5k guide this time. It'll take me longer than 9 weeks, because I am only planning on running 2x a week. If I can tolerate more, I'll do 3x a week, but I have got to allow myself time to heal. I am no spring chicken ;)

And I have officially moved up to the "big boy" weights. The big bar that you see people stacking plates on actually weighs 45 lbs, so I wanted to get to where I could lift about 60 lbs before I tried to use the big bar. My gym has two racks of "small bars" with weights permanently attached, ranging from 20 to 100 lbs. I am not particularly ashamed to admit I started squatting with the 20 lb barbell - because yesterday I squatted 70!

I CAN DO ITTTTTT

Well, maybe I can do it.

I have a hard time getting motivated about fitness. I keep such rigorous training schedules when it comes to my horse, but as for my own cardio and weight work, I totally fail a lot of the time. Most of this stems from the fact that I'm in the barn somewhere between 4am and 6am, and I usually don't get off work until 5pm or 6pm - by that time, I'm usually exhausted and not too much in the mood to work out. This is changing now that the weather is improving, but still, it's hard. I keep starting the One Hundred Pushups and Two Hundred Situps Challenges, but I keep failing to follow through with them, so I keep starting them over again. Next week I will get back into it on Monday, and I seriously do mean to do it this time. I hope.

But. I AM taking a new direction with my focus. Last week my running schedule went all to pieces, so I picked up again this week anew with a different tactic - go slow. I have a tendancy when I'm running to push myself way harder than I should, and it exhausts me to the point of muscle injury - which, obviously, means time off. It's also hard to get motivated when I'm hurting and tired. My new tactic is just to add the teeniest bit more to every workout. I started again with a half hour brisk walk, then added the full brisk walk down to the trailhead and back - about 40 minutes roundway. Today, I went the full brisk walk to the trailhead and ran for half a mile, then brisk walked back. By doing this, I keep myself from hurting AND can do a little bit every day, keeping myself motivated and setting a steady routine at the same time. Tomorrow, I'll bump it up to running 3/4 of a mile, then give myself a day off Sunday, and continue on to a mile from there. I hope to be running several miles a day after a long and gradual increase.

I really love running once I actually get into it. I just have to, you know, find the energy after a 12-hour physical labor day, you know.

I think I wouldn't be worried about my fitness if a) I wasn't trying to bump my horse up to Training level eventing and b) the clients here didn't bring me cookies and candy and Dunkin Donuts every day. I've put on a smidge of weight and I DON'T LIKE IT.

This is me nearing my thinnest and most musclar last summer, and the summer before:




I hope to get back there soon.