Workouts 5/3 – 5/9

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Happy Mother’s Day to all you mom’s and mom’s-to-be! Special shout out to my saint of a mom. I’m so happy I get to spend the day with her. Last I heard she wants us to go on a family run before brunch, sounds good to me!

Here are my plank-a-day photos for Jen’s challenge. The first 7 days were full plank variations and now we are moving into forearm planks/variations. Because I’m writing this on Friday I’ve only done Sunday – Friday of planks.

Plank challenge

Sunday: oblique twist; Monday: leg raises; Tuesday: Shoulder taps; Wednesday: Donkey kicks; Thursday: Arm & leg extended; Friday: Basic forearm plank

Sunday: Wings For Life World Run (11.6 miles). When I say I was not prepared to run that far, I mean I was NOT prepared to run that far. I took 2 naps and spent most of the day on the couch compression-wearing and eating. Just goes to show how a gradual build-up to long runs is the smart way to approach training.

Monday: Yoga at Rina Yoga. I had the opportunity to try out a new-to-me yoga studio in Miami courtesy of PeerFit. PeerFit is a ClassPass-like system in Florida that is affiliated with SO many studios, some of which I haven’t seen on the ClassPass list (although I haven’t used ClassPass). This was a pretty easy class with lots of stretching, which is all I wanted to do.

Tuesday: Off. I expected to be ready to run but my legs were still sore from Sunday. I had an exam this morning anyway so resting/being lazy for the rest of the day worked in my favor.

Wednesday: Spin. Last Spin class of the semester! I took it really easy and just told everyone to crank up the resistance ;). If I didn’t have to teach I probably would have taken the day off again.

Thursday: 5 miles. My legs felt mostly normal and I did a lot of foam rolling after the run.

Friday: 5.5 miles. I did one last run around campus before leaving. While I love my running routes in Miami, I’m super excited to be able to run in NYC this summer.

workouts

Saturday: Off.

Happy Sunday! xo

Defining “Out of Shape”

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In the blog world it seems like everyone is afraid of losing fitness. Not necessarily afraid of taking one rest day (I think/hope), but afraid of “losing” the benefits from training hard. I get that. It can be frustrating when a certain pace used to be easy and now feels challenging. It can be frustrating when a certain weight in the gym used to be a piece of cake and now it’s hard to lift up.

To avoid just preaching….an 8 minute mile is now fast for me, where in high school that was slow. 10 pound dumbbells are my bicep curl weight now, but I could easily use 15 pound dumbbells last summer. Does the fact that I can’t run as fast or lift as heavy now mean I’m out of shape? Should I be upset that I can’t do those things anymore? I think we (myself included) need to start looking at the bigger picture and stop placing such an importance on maintaining a certain level of fitness.

Thanks to Amanda for letting me Think Out Loud!

Thinking-Out-Loud2

Out of curiosity I Googled what regular ol’ people (aka not bloggers or fitness professionals) thought it meant to be physically “in shape.” The most common answers, other than “there’s no one definition” and a few aesthetic descriptions, were eye-opening. I read forums and comments on posts to make this list…

-“Being able to walk up the steps without being out of breath”
-“Being able to do what I want or need to do without a problem”
-“Having a healthy relationship with my mind and body”
-“Performing daily tasks like walking to work and carrying groceries easily”
-“Keeping bone density and flexibility”
-“Running when I want, practicing yoga when I want”

90% of what I read said nothing about running a certain distance or speed, lifting a certain weight, doing crazy inversions or the like. The definitions weren’t based on a number. They were holistic and definitely refreshing to read.

The blog world can throw a lot of things out of perspective, but it’s not just all online. For example, just last week someone at the gym who recently ran the Boston Marathon told me she felt “out of shape.” This was one week post-race. Luckily I’m in a place where I can roll my eyes and laugh to myself. I know her standards out of the norm.

defining out of shape

I’m sure I’ve written something before about feeling out of shape, but I’m making a conscious effort to put my standards into perspective. No, I can’t run a super speedy mile but I can run. No, I can’t lift super heavy but I (try to) lift. Just because a workout that used to be easy for someone (me) is now hard does not mean that person is out of shape. Maybe out of practice, depending on the exercise, but not out of shape. I think some people get anxious about taking time off from exercise because they don’t want to “start from scratch.” Over the years I’ve distanced myself from that mindset, which I’m not saying is inherently good or bad. It’s just healthier for me, especially since I’m not an elite or getting paid to perform at a certain level.

So while our definitions of in shape and out of shape are very individual, I hope we can all stop exaggerating the terms to mean something they’re not. A week or more off from exercise is not the end-all-be-all. So what if the first few workouts back are more challenging than normal? There are more important things that we I should be worried about.

What does being in or out of shape mean to YOU?

Wings For Life World Run

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35 countries. Six continents. 70,000 runners. One cause. One winner.

On May 3, 2015 at 11 a.m. UTC (aka 7 a.m. EST) I, along with more than 70,000 runners, took part in the Wings for Life World Run, the most interesting race concept I’ve heard of to date.

A quick explanation in layman’s Emily terms:

-There are 35 global races that all start at the same time. While the race in Florida started at 7 a.m., the races in California and Japan started at 4 a.m. and 10 p.m., respectively. I think I had the ideal starting time!

-Everyone keeps running until the “catcher car” passes you. Once that happens, it’s like you crossed the finish line and your race is done.

-The catcher car starts driving 30 minutes after the race starts at a speed of approximately 9.3 mph (increasing every half hour).

-After you’re passed, you’ll wait for a bus to take you back to the start line.

All of this happens at the same time across the world and the last woman and man standing running are declared the Global Champions. Additionally, there are champions for each individual race.

Now onto my race experience…

There were only two races in the U.S., Santa Clara, CA and Sunrise, FL. Sunrise is a good 45 minutes from where I live so I left my place at 5:15 a.m. and got to the start/finish village around 6:15 a.m. where I hung out at the Puma tent and did all the basic pre-run rituals (obligated selfies, port-a-potty stop, triple checked my shoelaces, etc.). Puma has entered into a global partnership with Wings For Life and they provided me with the chic, sporty race day outfit. I don’t dress that well on my own. Oh and another cool fact: 100% of the entry fees go toward finding a cure for spinal cord injury. If you are interested in donating or learning more about spinal cord injury check visit this page!

I didn’t know what to expect going into the race and with my excellent math calculations I assumed I would get in about 5 miles before the car caught me. Joke’s on me…

Since it was a global run, the course was marked in kilometers. Thankfully they listed the miles equivalent underneath or else I would have had to run with a calculator. I actually kept forgetting it was marked in kilometers. A few times in the beginning of the race I saw a marker and thought “oh ANOTHER mile marker, awesome!” and then see that it wasn’t a full mile and cry.

I felt pretty strong the entire race. The heat got to me a bit but it wasn’t as bad as I had expected. I was just not mentally (or physically) prepared to run as far as I did. I hadn’t done a longer run in a few weeks so it was a shock for my body.

I got to the 10k marker and there was no catcher car in sight. Then I got to the 15k marker and still no car. I ended up texting my mom asking her to track the car for me. I got to 17 km (10.5 miles) and started walking on and off until I was passed at 18.73 km or 11.63 miles. I was very happy to be done :) I don’t know my official time yet but the lady next to me had 1 hour and 38 minutes on her watch, which would equal about 8:27 min/mile.

We (the group of runners in my general vicinity and I) were in the middle of nowhere and had to wait 25 minutes for the bus and water. Not the worst thing in the world by any means, especially considering the cause we were running for. The bus ride was a quick 5 minutes back to the start where there was food GALORE. Unfortunately it was not gluten-free food galore. There was even a “Flour Power” food truck…definitely not GF flour. I did grab a banana before heading out and stopping at the market to buy ALL the food. Ok, not all but a lot.

It was a pretty good Sunday if you ask me! Special thanks to Puma and FitFluential for the opportunity to run.

This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of PUMA.