Three Things Thursday

Well, hello! I've been bad about updating this little piece of Real Estate over here. I've been busy! In typical Erin fashion, I can't say no to anything which has resulted in being on the go from 4 am to 7:30 pm most days, only to shower, scarf down dinner, walk the dogs and do it all over again the next day. I'm not complaining though - I enjoy being busy, especially when I am doing things that make me happy. And, with Dan in season right now, it gives me something to do since he has long days on the golf course coupled with a lot of travel in the Fall.

So, quick update:

1. This week wraps up my 3rd month of Camp Gladiator Boot Camp. I honestly never thought I would love it as much as I do. Had I not won a free month in the first place, I never would have even tried it out. The workouts legitimately kick my butt (last night we did over 500 squats in the workout - no joke) and I have a lot of fun with them- part of that is due to the trainer - she comes up with some rock star workouts. I typically do boot camp 4 evenings a week on top of running, and I've really started to notice a change in my body. New muscles! I also really enjoy Camp Gladiator for the social aspect. I have met some great people. It's been really interesting to meet people from different fitness backgrounds - I've self admittedly always been a running snob so it's been good for me to see that running is not the only way to be fit. I've even been convinced to try a Piloxing Class tomorrow evening. Who am I?
   
   
2. I'm teaching now! Admittedly, for awhile now I have been feeling kind of blasé about my job. Not because I dislike it, but I began to feel like I was stuck in a bit of a rut - same thing every day, not challenged as much anymore, and beat down by the politics and red tape involved in a government job. Yet, when looking at other employment options there wasn't anything I found that provided the stability, salary or other benefits that I have at my current position.
   
   So, I began to look inside the organization to see how I could use my skill set in a way that would excite me. And, I was lucky to find something - turns out we have a Wellness Committee and they were looking for people with a vested interest and experience to jump start some programs for our new City-Wide Wellness Program. Since I already lead a Tues/Thurs morning run group that I am passionate about, my idea was to start a beginning running program for City employees (similar to Couch 2 5k program) to train participants for a November 5k. So, I am now teaching a Tues/Thurs run group during lunch for employees, as well as a Core Fitness Class on Fridays after work called "Healthy Happy Hour."
   
   This is all volunteer but it's really good for me. I tend to keep to myself at work, so this allows people to see a different side of me and gets me out of my shell to get to know other people in our organization. Plus, it's truly rewarding to watch people meet their fitness goals and change their lives - that's the best thing about it all.
   
   
3. Running - it's happening, though it's not been my focus. The past two weeks I've finally got my mileage back up in the mid-50's, but it's been nothing spectacular. I am not following a plan, and so if I miss a long run (or several) it's been no sweat off my back.
   
   Right now I've really been enjoying pressure-free running. Over the past few years, I have sacrificed my my body, and my heart for this sport and if I were to be honest, I do not always feel like it was worth it. Since I don't plan on having children, I am calling this training cycle my "maternity leave from running" and took advantage of the opportunity to try out other things.
   
   How does this bode for my Fall marathons? We'll see. I'm doing enough other training where I am not concerned about my fitness level or ability to complete a marathon. The big question mark is my speed, and in that case you get what you put in - and my effort level can be best described as "half assed" most days (yet, I go give 110% at boot camp every time, so it's all about attitude for me right now... and I've clearly proven to myself that I don't have the desire to let Garmin paces dictate my life right now).

That's all folks! I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

Camp Gladiator Games 2013 (Pre-lims)

I came, I saw, I conquered. Well, not really. 

As I mentioned in my last post, last Saturday I was headed back to improve my times in a nationwide fitness competition, the Camp Gladiator Games, to try to place in the Top 50 and advance to the finals where I would compete for money.

And, damn it, I gave it my best effort. Saturday I re-tested in all 6 events and improved in all 6 events (even the bear crawl which I initially didn't think I improved in). But, my best wasn't enough and I just missed the cut.

As competitive as I am, and as frustrated as I am that I did so well in some events but so abysmal in others, I am proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new. Until a few months ago, I had never done half of these activities, and if nothing, I learned there are definitely DIFFERENT types of fitness. I may be able to do an Ironman or go run a marathon, but I sure as hell can't run 100M fast and I sure as hell suck at the bear crawl.

Thanks for my expert photographer and awesome husband for taking the time out of his morning and coming out to cheer me on!

100M Dash: This was my worst and the most frustrating event for me. People I beat by several minutes in the mile, just cleaned my clock on this event. I had the hardest time going from a standstill to full out sprint. I felt like I needed a running start :)

If it looks like I am in pain, it's because I was.

 400M Run Carrying 50pd Sand Bag. This, and the mile, were my best events. I had hoped my high scores in this would carry me enough to overcome my scores in the other events, but no such luck.

Agility Cones: This was a very technical timed event. You had to shuffle back and forth (DQ if you cross legs or turn body) and turn over and put up the cones 20 times. If the cones touched the white line at all you were DQed. I did much better than I thought at this event.

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The Bear Crawl dragging 50 pds the length of a Football Field: This was another disappointing event for me. I have endurance and strong legs so I really thought I would do well in this event. It was much harder than I thought it would be. There was definitely a technique to be successful at this that I did not master despite 3 attempts. 

Hating life.

 Sandbell Toss the length of the football field: This was another technical event that was much harder than it looked. Also, another event that hurt me as I needed to be a good 10 seconds faster. There were several rules (i.e. had to be a chest pass, feet could not leave ground while throwing) that I became so focused on not breaking that I wasn't taking advantage of my full speed and strength.

Suck it Sandbell!!

Mile Race: This was the one event I was excited about -even though in my running mind racing a mile is still wayyyy too short - but I knew it was really the only event that I was somewhat comfortable with and might have a chance to excel. 

Finally leading the pack at something! :)

I am excited to come back next year and try my hand again now that I know what to expect. I do think that there is also some strategy to it all and I became such an eager beaver that I just wanted to try everything over and over that I wore myself out by the end. There were several opportunities to test and re-test so a lot of people would come and only test in 1 or 2 events and then come back another day when rested to do others. I have such an endurance monster mindset - all or nothing I guess - that I thought nothing of trying to cram my best efforts into all events on the same day. Heck, I warmed up 4 miles before the event even started. Maybe not the smartest move, but I am not always the brightest ;)

Thanks for reading!

Three Things Thursday

Since I have four unfinished posts sitting in my "draft folder" with about a 2% chance of getting finished, I'll just roll with the "Three Things Thursday" List...

1. Yesterday morning at approximately 6:45 AM in Austin, I bear crawled across the length of a football field (goal post to goal post) dragging 50 pounds of weight that was harnassed to my waist. Actually, I did this twice. This was after racing a mile, running the 100 M dash, running 400 M while carrying a 25 pound sand bag on my shoulders, attempting to be graceful and quick doing the agility cones and doing the sand bell squat, toss & run (twice) the length of the football field. Add all of this to the list of shit I never thought I would do.

2. The aforementioned was part of a competition I am competing in. Yesterday and Saturday are the preliminary rounds, and if I can finish in the top 50 nationwide, then I will advance to the finals in September and compete for money. My system was completely shocked yesterday, and I was thrown completely out of my element. Gold star to me for trying something new but this stuff is A LOT harder than I thought it would be. I consider myself fit, but holy cow, there are some super athletes competing. Humbled and a bit deflated describe how I felt leaving yesterday morning. The good news is that I can go back on Saturday and re-test to improve my times, and I am hell bent to do so to see if I can make it to the Top 50 (which, I would really need to bring my A++++ game on Saturday). The finals are a lot more endurance based (i.e run a 5k carrying a 25 pd sand bag on your shoulders,) so if I can make it there, I think I may have more of an advantage with my endurance background.

Also - side note - my 100M Sprint time was embarrassing. Especially since I consider myself a strong runner. I got my a$$ kicked. WTF. I am well aware that I am not a strong sprinter, but I had hopes I could at least compete in this. The frustrating thing is I wasn't smoked when I finished but I didn't feel like I could have gone much faster; I could have kept running at the pace for at least another 200 meters. I guess I'm just missing that fast twitch muscle speed.

3. I currently do not have a marathon training plan. I scrapped the plan I was using; the high mileage wasn't working for me this time around, and to be honest, I had other things I was having more fun with than running 70 miles per week. My current mileage is pretty low (for me). I'm running around 40-45 miles per week. I'm supplementing my mileage with boot camp and swimming. For example, yesterday, I ran 7 miles (broken up as 4 miles in the morning, 3 in the evening), competed in above mentioned events in the morning, and did a hour boot camp class in the evening (running 3 miles beforehand). I am counting this all as time on my feet, even though it's definitely not all running specific (we do a fair amount of running in boot camp but it's mostly sprints). I have no idea how this will plan will pan out for me come marathon time, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing so I'm not really concerned (right now anyways!).

Happy Thursday!