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How much of me is fat? 1% less than in October

I went for body composition testing tonight. It has been about one month since I was last tested, and I have been doing the 6-days-per-week workouts for about the last 6 or 7 weeks. I lost just 1 measly pound, BUT I'm down 1% body fat and I lost 4 or 5 mm of fat from the suprailiac (my belly). I'm not 100% confident in the accuracy of the measurements taken by the kid who was working tonight, but if they're telling me I'm losing belly fat, I'll take it!

Today is rest day, no workout for me. It looks something like this...

Weekend update

Friday was the first day that I’ve missed a workout in 6 weeks. That is, I take one rest day per week, and I had already taken mine for last week. Some friends came to town and we saw Rubblebucket at the Georgia Theatre on Friday night. It was a blast, and totally worth the missed workout.
The short video I took with my iPhone makes it look kind of rave-like and dull, but it wasn't at all. There were people in giant socks, dancing robots, and lots of horns and whistling. I guess the video is really only good for showing the giant dancing robots and does not do justice to how much fun these guys were to watch.

Saturday, we took those same friends to IHOP, meaning that I ate my weight in greasy food. The blueberry harvest grain n’ nut pancakes I ate were technically a healthy option, but pairing them with bacon, hashbrowns, and fried eggs… not so much. Afterwards, I decided I’d try to run 4 miles. Yikes. The late night of the concert, the greasy food, and the lack of hydration made this the hardest run I think I’ve ever done. The temperature also had something to do with it. After a week in the 50’s and 60’s, Saturday jumped up to the 70’s and I still tried to run in a long-sleeved shirt and shorts. I got my 4 miles in, but I’m pretty sure most of the people that passed me on my run considered calling the paramedics. My face was beet red and stayed that way for close to an hour after I finished the run. Not pretty. The day was gorgeous though. 

This was my less-than-successful attempt to take a picture while running. Notice the headphone cords in the upper left corner. I was wiped out. I guess didn’t have the energy to even take a decent picture. It took me 39:02 to run that 4 miles Saturday, and considering the stoplights and the fact that I was about to die, that’s not too shabby. 

Sunday, however, was a different story. I tried extra hard to hydrate myself in the morning before attempting 4 miles again. This time around, my goal was not to stop at all during the 4 miles, and not to walk. This meant I had to choose a route where there were no stoplights and no crosswalks. Lots of right turns and repetition made for a less exciting, but also much faster run. In runner speak, that was my “PR” for 4 miles. 

Chataranga pushups are the devil

Last night was Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown Level 1. Relatively light, although chataranga pushups are awful awful awful. I can’t do it at all. I really need to work on my upper body strength.

This video is clearly not traditional yoga, but it’s a pretty good mix of strength training and fat burning, and best of all it moves quickly. When I’m working out to a video, I have a much harder time focusing and putting in all of my effort. My favorite workout videos are short, sweet and to the point. That’s one of the many reasons I love so many Jillian vids. Yoga meltdown and 30 day shred are the perfect length for my at home workouts. 

10k... errr 6 miles

I’m so excited about my latest running feat that I have to write about it right here and now. I just got back from my longest run of all time, a 6 miler in 1:01:57. Not a great time, but hey… I did it! 

I saw the route for the Taste of Athens 10k online and I decided out of the blue to give it a shot. Remember how I was complaining about my calves and ankles earlier in the day? I guess I started feeling better and more ambitious as the day went on.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Taste of Athens route as a solo run like I did today. First of all there was a lot of traffic and many, many intersections. As a race, I’m sure it’s a totally different experience, with traffic being closed and runners on the roads. The intersections slow down my pace a lot, since I end up waiting for traffic lights to change and most of the time I don’t pause the Runkeeper app while I wait. Also, I walked some portions of the route around the 3 and 4 mile mark. I kept thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the entire thing and I would have to find a shorter route back home. But in the end, the shortest route home was just to take the race path anyway. The moment when I realized that was pure frustration followed by my best pace of the entire run. I was stuck a couple miles from my water bottle and warmth and I could either run it or walk it. As cold as it was, I decided to run. 

I’m thinking about running in the Taste of Athens next year, but I’m also considering a few other races in the Charlotte, Athens, and Atlanta areas. Thoughts?

Zumba night

Last night I taught Zumba at Ramsey. Every time I teach, I get a different vibe from my class and I leave thinking how the class went or how I might have done better. The university calendar, the weather, and world events can all have a huge impact on how many students show up to class and how happy people are while they’re there. Last night, a few of my regulars weren’t there (maybe because of the election?) and there were a handful of new faces in the crowd.

 I love having new people in class but it is always hard to make them feel at ease when there are a lot of enthusiastic regulars in attendance, especially toward the end of the semester. The girls that are there every week are ready to go and the newbies are left thinking that they should know what they’re doing already. The thing is, no one has to know anything to get started. That’s the beauty of Zumba, in my opinion. That’s why it pulls in so many people. I give huge cues and make a big effort to show them exactly what to do. In comparison to free week, where 100% of the people are new and there are 130+ participants, these late semester newbies get lots more cuing and attention from me. I think there’s something mental about it though. They feel like everyone there must know what they’re doing. It’s so much easier for them to talk themselves in to being intimidated by the class.

This really strikes me as true in so many other areas of life. Your internal dialog and expectations can have an enormous impact on your performance. I try to really emphasize the “as long as you’re moving, you’re doing it right” speech, but it’s really hard to let someone else know they’re doing just fine without making them feel uncomfortable. I need to work on ways to improve the vibe in classes when folks just don’t seem to be feeling it as much as usual. Any ideas?

Last night, I also wore my Asics Gel Frantic 5’s instead of the Nike Free Id running shoes I have been using lately.

I should just never use my Asics for dance again. They kill me. I never realized how much they inhibit lateral movement until I started wearing lighter shoes. Basically, I need a shoe with good arch support, but a lot of upper flexibility, which is why I’ve been loving my Nike Free’s so much. 

I was hoping to run today, but my calves and ankles are so sore (in a bad way) from teaching yesterday that I may have to do some upper body weight training instead. 

Back at home

This was a phenomenal weekend for workouts, considering the fact that I went out of town, which could have led to complete laziness.

I arrived at my parents’ house on Friday night and we ate out, went to church, and didn’t arrive at home until 8:30 or 9. Good enough excuse to skip the workout right? Nope. I surprised myself and everyone else by doing Jillian Michael’s “30 Day Shred - Level 1” video in the living room. The dogs were especially disturbed by the whole thing.

Saturday was a great run through the downtown of my hometown. I parked at my old middle school and did a few loops around the newly rejuvenated downtown area. The weather was gorgeous and I ran at a pretty decent pace, without too much trouble. I got in just over 3 miles, and my mom and brother came out and biked downtown while I ran. 

Since Saturday had gone so well, I decided to return to downtown and run again on Sunday. This time I got in 4 miles, and I ran almost the whole thing. 

My Runkeeper progress for Sunday

I was so surprised at the ease I had running this weekend. I don’t know if the area I live in is just much hillier than my hometown or if the temperature or time of day had an effect on my ability. It just felt easy, comparatively. Sunday, I even managed to run all of my splits in less than 10 minutes. Unheard of!

A single mile

I ran one short mile yesterday. Just a mile. It went around campus, down the hill by the stadium, past Psychology, and back to Geography. It was short, but I ran the whole time, hills and all. When I got home, I did three sets of 10 pushups each.

It’s not much, but since I’m trying to work out 6 days a week, I can’t possibly go all out every single day and still be a functional human being the next day. 

Speaking of being a functional human, I learned that I passed my written comps yesterday! It took a ridiculously long time to write that paper. I probably worked on it for at least a year, however inconsistently. So, it’s good to be done. 

Running into November

Yesterday’s workout was a 3.25 mile run around campus and downtown. I’m not going to lie. There was walking in those 3.25 miles. The hills are killer. And yet… I definitely feel that I’m getting better, and often the only thing that stands between me and getting some more mileage in is hours of daylight. That’s only going to become more of an issue as fall turns to winter.

I’ve been listening to the second Hunger Games book while I run. It’s great because it’s easy to understand despite all the limits on my attention span imposed by the heavy breathing and the traffic dodging. But it’s also interesting enough to keep my mind off the predictable chanting of my brain: “how long have I been running/is it time to turn back yet??/omg i can’t do this”. 

Sometime last week, I ran to EarthFare, bought some mangoes, and walked home. On my walk back home, I passed these trees that were going to be cut down. 

No clue why. Maybe because they’re easing their way onto the curb and will soon be in the road?

They’re probably gone by now. I’ll have a run back by there one of these days and I’ll post pictures of the aftermath.