Hot Mamacitas

This is THE workout group!  The one I've been talking about so much lately!  We are missing a couple of us but I am so glad that we got a picture!  These are TOUGH chicas!  They are AMAZING women; despite the fact that I have given them REALLY bad nicknames for this blog.  But they have influenced my life in ways they may never comprehend.  I SO look forward to these workouts!   

K-Lo.  She ALWAYS knows when I need a little boost.  She compliments me and encourages me.  I look up to her SO much! 

Foxy.  This chica is amazing!  She is a certified personal trainer and she makes sure that we are doing things correctly and helps modify moves to be either easier or more difficult!  YAY!!  She's also 20 weeks pregnant and looks flippin awesome!

Hibiscus. My beautiful Hawaiian friend!  She loves pink as much as I do!  She is so accepting of EVERYONE and always has the most beautiful smile on her gorgeous face!

Fashionista.  Fast friends this girl and me are!  She is so sweet and she makes THEE YUMMIEST TREATS!!!  {she brought my favorite tomato mozzarella & basil "salad" to a bbq just cause she knows I LOVE it!!}

Idahomie.  We "Idahomies" stick together out here in the sticks of Missouri!  I wish I was able to go workout with her and K-Lo in the mornings, but they workout RIGHT when Travis is at PT!  BUMMER! 

Rock & Ruler.  This Mama is urban chic and has ALL the cool gadgets!!!  She knows ALL about any baby/family/home related product you can think of and my go to girl when I need to know the run down!

Eskimo.  Not sure she loves the cold as much as I do but I have high hopes of the two of us in Alaska someday!  I envy this girlie.  She's got one heck of a food storage

Cali Queen.  My beautiful neighbor, who just had a baby 4 weeks ago but could strut her stuff at the beach and have heads turning!  She is so sweet and lets me ooh and aah over her sweet girl to my hearts content!

Wonder Woman.  I'm pretty sure she's one of the toughest girls around.  Former military and has some real grit!  She works out a lot and takes her kids right along with her every step of the way!  I need some of her strength, I think she has some extra she could spare me!

Xena Warrior Princess.  The ruler at the cross fit gym!  This girl puts us to shame!  She knocks out pushups {not the sissy girlie ones that I do} like it's child's play.  She in seriously. one. hot. mama!  Someday I'll be just like her. ... someday.

Sass-a-Frass.  She is so much of what I  hope I am or am trying to be!  She is so confident and spunky and fun.  She makes me laugh and is so amazingly strong. 

Who do you workout with?  Getting a group started is easy peesey!  Start telling your friends, talking to people at church.  Set a date and time and start showing up.  Some days it may be just a couple people {we have those days} and then there are days when there are TWELVE of you!!  It's a perfect way to make friends and get great workouts!

Lunge Challenge

Don't sacrifice FORM!!

Realistic Goals

 What are YOUR goals?  I love goals.  When I have a great goal that I'm working toward, I am EXCITED about working toward it!  I don't drag my butt out of bed; I jump up rearin to go! A REALLY good race is one that I love {it could be for the scenery, who I'm running it with or the cause the proceeds go to}.  Setting goals like swim suit season or fitting into a certain size dress have never done it for me.  What goals work for YOU?  What are you working toward RIGHT NOW?!

Making Headlines

For the past few weeks, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we have been meeting at the track on post to walk.  This group is the same group originally started months ago as a circuit group led by K-Lo {she's seriously awesome}.  But she's been SO busy the past few weeks and hasn't been able to come {she's not slacking though, the girl still works out TWICE a day}.  The weather is MUCH warmer now {today we should hit 90°+} so we decided to start meeting at the track on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays!  I put together some awesome running workouts but I realized that more people were interested in walking.  So the workouts I've been putting together are mainly walking workouts with different body weight moves {lunges, high knees...} alternated with walking every 100M.  Occasionally I will have jogging or running sections too. Then at the end we do a bonus round of legs, core or arms.  It takes us about 1.5-2 hours to get through everything since we have a bunch of kids with us!  But we get a good workout and everyone can work at THEIR level and still get a good workout!

We have had more and more people coming!!  Today we had the most show up at the track.  There were 7 of us!  It is seriously so great to have friends to work out with and I KNOW that you all can find a group of friends to workout with!!  It is so good physically and socially!!  Take the initiative and be the one to coordinate a group, don't wait for someone else to do it!!

Today I was approached by Jena Goldberg.  She is a columnist for The Guidon, the newspaper here on post.  She is working on an article about working out as a group and motivation.  She is going to come to our next session {Wednesday} and take pictures and talk to us about our little workout group!!  I am SO excited!  I am REALLY hoping that we can get ALL of us there!!!  Seriously!  How COOL is this?!!!  HERE is a link for one of her previous articles.

I have to give kudos to EVERYONE in our group.  This is not put on by just one person!  We have all taken turns putting workouts together.  We all motivate and push each other.  I am so excited to be part of a group like this.  Some of my dearest friendships have developed through miles of walking/running with amazing women.  This is no exception.  I have made some GREAT friends here and I am loving our workouts together!

Single Leg Trunk Rotations

Don't forget to keep your core engaged during these core workouts!!

Wrinkles in my Brain

I remember learning that the wrinkles in your brain come from long term knowledge.  Is that true?  Well, I have been adding a lot of wrinkles to my brain lately.  Studying for this Personal Trainer Certification is TOUGH!  I just finished reading Chapter 4.  I have A LOT of studying to do before that all becomes permanent knowledge, covering things like the different systems in the body {Nervous, Skeletal, Muscular, & Cariorespiratory}.  But I've learned some pretty cool stuff already! 

Part of my studying today is going to be going through these first 4 chapters and reviewing.  So I am going to list just a few noteworthy things as I go through the book.  I'd love to be able to post all my notes but {among other reasons} I'm pretty sure that would bore you to tears!   

* About 33% of adults are estimated to be obese.  16% of teens are considered overweight.
* Today people live a less active life, due to working in offices, longer work hours, more technology, and an overall lack of "need" to be active. 
* This inactive lifestyle is leading to not only weight gain but injuries.

*Every system in the kinetic chain {nervous, skeletal and muscular systems} has to work together to produce movement.  If one isn't working properly {due to injury or any other factors}, movement is hindered. 
* I need to memorize the bones in the skeletal system {oh boy}
* I also need to memorize the muscles, their origin, insertion and functions {triple oh boy}!

I feel like my brain is going to explode!  Some days it's not too bad and I feel pretty confident but then others I look at the bones I need to know and the muscles and I swear I give myself an ulcer!  Travis is the best though.  He encourages me and keeps me focused on why I am doing this.  He is going to give me a blessing too, that always helps!  I am just going to keep plugging along and do my best.  And in the end... it will all be so worth it!

PS.  I am so stinkin excited for the next chapters!  Once I get this base knowledge down I will move on to the training part!!  Next up... Assessing the client!!  I will try to post some ways for you to assess yourself!  And then it's all about Training Concepts!  AAAHHH!!  Isn't that sweet?!

Story Time

Pain in the Butt

Yesterday Alyssa and I met at the track for a GREAT workout!  We tried to get it started but WB would have nothing of it!  He said he was "freezing" so we decided to head over to the gym and I hoped and prayed he would cooperate so we could get in a decent workout!!  We guesstimated on the distance and I'm pretty sure we undershot BUT we did get a good workout.  I don't know about her but my b-hind is KILLING me today!

Here is our ORIGINAL workout.  {Since I'm not sure what our exact distances ended up being}

Warm up - .5 mile
Easy Stretch
Lunges - Walk - Lunges - Walk {100M each}
400M run
High Knees - Walk - High Knees - Walk {100M each}
400M run
Butt Kickers - Walk - Butt Kickers - Walk {100M each}
400M run
Iron Mikes - Walk - Iron Mikes - Walk {100M each}
400M run
Cool Down - .5 mile

Core:
Superman - Slow & Controlled 10x
Bridge - Slow & Controlled 6x - Fast for 30 seconds - Slow & Controlled - Fast for 30 seconds
Metronome - 10x each side
Plank Lift - lift one leg for 10 seconds & then switch - 3x - rest - repeat
Side Plank - 30 seconds each side - repeat
Pilates 100

Good Stretch

Let me know if you don't know specific moves and I will be sure to post the detailed instructions for you! 

Family Involvement

I am ALL about getting others involved with your lifestyle change!  Eating better.  Working out.  It's ALL so much easier and more fun when you have others along for the ride too!!  

To Race or Not to Race?

I recently found out that the Dam Races might not happen after all this year.  It's kind of a spendy race at $30 for the 5K.  So there is talk of having a family reunion that weekend instead.  Don't get me wrong, a family reunion will be great!  But I was really looking forward to running in the Dam Races again.  I hadn't completely decided on which race but it would have been the 5K or the 10K {which is the same price as the 5K}. 

The Jackson Hole Half is my favorite race of all time.  But I feel completely unprepared for it.  I keep telling myself that it would be worth it even to WALK half of it but I got my PR there last year and I REALLY want to beat it.  2:00.48.  POINT FOUR EIGHTHS of a second!!!  That's all I needed to break the 2 hour mark!  That kills me!!  But I know I'm not there.  Could I get there by then?  I would like to say YES.  I have 7 weeks until race day.  My miles aren't entirely off.  But...

I didn't get in any good runs this past week.  And it's proving very difficult to get the right number of miles in.  A jogger stroller would be Heaven sent but the one I REALLY want is too spendy for the next long while and I don't want to get a cheaper one because I know it will mean I'll never get the nicer one.  Plus if I wait until after I finish my personal trainer certification, that stroller will be a tax write off!  So until then I continue to run on the treadmill.  It's getting more and more difficult as those miles get higher up there.  Definitely not my favorite way to run! 

It helps my training significantly when I have a race to work toward.  I haven't ran a race just for me nearly 8 months!!  I have no idea where my race pace is right now.  I have no idea what kind of goal to put on myself.  I want to race to enjoy the race but the Cooke Competitiveness gets me calculating and I don't know if I could take it easy. 

So I continue to try and train, even if it isn't consistent enough.  I still have a little while to decide for sure before I have to pay dues.  But apparently I'm still struggling to find what I'm working toward right now.