Friday's Fitness & Fuel: Sunshine & Rainbows

Are you willing to fight for your dreams?

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows-It's a very mean and nasty place, and it don't care how tough you are...It will beat you to your knees and leave you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's all about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done~Rocky

If I am going to fight, I need to refocus on the two F's:

FITNESS-I don't have a problem working out. I really do love it. All of it. Cardio-weights-whatever. I love the way I feel after a good workout. I just feel like I am off track and all over the place. I finally logging some good running the last 2 weeks (although yesterday's rain derailed my running plans). This was actually a relief since my toes are still all red and irritated from my sock fail on Wednesday. So I hit the gym and decided to brutalize my legs for an hour. 20 minutes on the Cybex ARC trainer doing hills with 70lbs added resistance. Then I did a quick leg workout Tabata method-which took around 40 minutes.
What is Tabata?
Tabata (aka 4 minutes of hell) was developed by Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., a former researcher at Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya
Tabata Protocol is an interval routine developed by the head coach of the Japanese speed-skating team. It's called a protocol because Tabata and his team took the speed-skating coach's workout and studied it to quantify just how effective it really was. The workout consists of 20-second "sprints" interspersed with a rest period of 10 seconds. You can pretty much "Tabata" any cardio workout--or even most resistance exercises.
Today's workout was strength training and not cardio based so I applied Tabata to reps.
Max reps for 20 seconds/10 seconds rest. 8 rounds for each exercise with 1 min recovery between sets.

1. smith squats 60lbs  
2. forward lunges, left leg 15lbs DBs  
3. forward lunges, right leg 15lb DBs  
4. high knee jump rope  
5. backward lunges, left leg 15lb DBs  
6. backward lunges, right leg 15lb DBs  
7. jumping squats  
8. belt kicks

So my legs are feeling the love today. Nothing like a little soreness to know that you hit those muscles in a way that they needed to be hit. Call me a masochist, but I really do love the way my body feels after a really good workout.


Another day of rain today so no Friday morning run with the BOB Brigade. Instead I am heading to the gym for some quality time with the iron, a little cardio and if time allows-POOL TIME!

I am going to sit down this weekend and take a long look at my fitness goals for the next month or two and write up a plan of action.

One part of my plan of action is participating in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge being hosted by RunToTheFinish! Y'all know how I cannot resist a challenge~especially when there are cool prizes involved!! The Challenge runs from 11/20 through 1/7 so if you are interested in participating, check it out!

 

FUEL-This is the one place I have been lazy. I know what to do. I know how to do,  I just have not. Halloween is done and over but this was just the kickoff party to months of celebrating with food! We've got Thanksgiving, my anniversary (yes, this is a Holiday!), Christmas Eve & Christmas Day (2 distinctly separate holiday celebrations in my family), New Years Eve & New Years Day all still to come. I have been quite lax with my nutrition lately and have been allowing too many "treats". I think having a clear race schedule is causing me to do that -I seem to be at my best when I have a goal and a focus. Even dreaming of getting abs like EMZ has not been pushing me to eat clean BUT-I am not gonna throw in the towel, I know how important a clean diet is for overall health and wellness. Never mind my goal of having those amazing washboard abs and running in a teeny-tiny sports bra & race bib once warm weather arrives. I also know that leaning out a bit is going to give me some speed so...
It's back on the EC wagon for me! It's really all just a matter of planning for me. If I plan things out, I stick to it. No plan, I'll eat whatever. I have a big dry-erase calendar/schedule of my workouts so now I just need to get the old "menu plan" back up on the fridge!

So my weekend plans include making plans: running & workout schedules, food plans and menus.

What are you fighting for?
What is keeping you fit?
What is your fuel?