The Firewood Workout

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The downside of the cooler weather (that I was just so excited about) is that we go through a lot of firewood. Our wood stove is pretty awesome and most of the time that's all we use to heat the house. Tom and I usually move firewood together because it goes much faster with two people, but he's been busy with work the last few days.

This morning I spent a few minutes trying to get the Polaris to start (it doesn't like the cold), and made a few trips from the wood pile to the front porch. I hardly ever drive the Polaris, so I had fun once I got the hang of it.

I started with this:

And stopped when it looked like this:

It took me three trips and almost an hour to fill the thing, but at least now we're set for a while. My arms are tired, so I think it totally counts as a workout. ;)

Buddy and I took my new shoes (Mizuno Wave Rider 18s) our for a quick couple of miles this afternoon. I didn't want to do too much since I ran 13+ miles in the last two days, and am getting ready to jump back into training mode tomorrow.

My shoes match my hat. I didn't even notice until after I got home.

After our run I hit the mat for day 2 of Yoga Camp. It was a longer video than usual, but it was just the right combination of relaxing and challenging for me today.

If you're doing yoga camp, don't freak out when you see how long the video is (51 minutes). It sounds like it is the longest of the entire month, do what you can, accept where you are. I still fall out of balancing poses all the time. Enjoy the time you're taking for yourself and remember that you're not supposed to be an expert - it's day 2!

Are you a matchy-matchy person when it comes to workout clothes? I am not, it sometimes happens, and sometimes I clash terribly. 

Get Out and Do Things

I ran with a new (to me) group this morning. I always get a little nervous just showing up places (new running groups, yoga studios, etc), but I'm trying to make myself get out and do things from time to time. This group meets at 7:30am (ewwwwww), but they're about 15 minutes closer to the house than my usual group.

It was a little tricky to find where they meet, but I managed to get there before they all took off. Everyone was really nice, and explained the route to me.

There was another new woman who I started out running with, but neither of us knew where we were going and we were quickly losing sight of the others. She told me to go ahead. I felt bad leaving her, but she had her headphones and seemed perfectly happy to run on her own.

I did a little speedwork to catch up to a couple of people and chatted and ran with one older man for a while before he told me he needed to slow down and that I should go on. They have water and gatorade set up about 3.3 miles from where they start (they take turns putting it out every week), and some of the group waited there to make sure I knew where I was, which was nice. Then they were off again. Some took what is about an 11 mile route, and others went on one that is 13+ miles.

A few of us turned around at the water stop and I ended up running back with a man and his dog in total silence. Not really my idea of running with a group.

They run around a reservoir, which is very pretty (I forgot to take pictures), but there really aren't any mid-pack runners for me to run with.

My usual group starts together and ends together and you can always find someone to run with at any pace. There's more of a community feeling than with this other group. I know part of that feeling is because I'm new to the group, but if I hadn't made an effort to catch up with people, I feel like I may have been left behind.

After I got home, I lounged around with Buddy and some coffee before tackling the enormous pile of dishes in our kitchen. I was doing so well keeping up with the dishes until this week and then we were out of clean plates...

Yoga Camp officially kicked off yesterday, but Adriene understands that people might not be at their best on New Year's Day, so the yoga actually started today. It was a pretty relaxing video, which worked out nicely since I've been doing a lot of running the last couple days.

Do you ever run with a group?

Are you good at mornings? I'm not.

A Fiery New Year

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Happy New Year!

We celebrated the new year with some friends the traditional way: by lighting a giant bonfire of Christmas trees collected from surrounding neighborhoods. 

Buddy was more than ready for bed by the time we got home. He doesn't stay up late.

I woke up this morning and couldn't find my Moov anywhere. I shook out my clothes that I wore to the bonfire, and then checked the bed. It was all tangled up in the sheets. I don't know if it got hooked on something or if I took it off in my sleep, but at least I found it.

We'll see if it happens again.

My running group has a New Years day run every year, so I drove down to join them. They're reasonable, and don't meet up until noon. We had a really good turnout, I think there were around 40 people in the group photo before the run.

I bought myself a FlipBelt the other day and hadn't tried it out yet. I put my phone in at the start and it didn't budge the entire 7 mile run - no bouncing! It might be one of my new favorite running accessories. And now I may actually run with my phone like I know I should - safety and whatnot.

I also got in three 30 second planks as a part of my 100 days of fitness challenge. Everyone was being a bunch of overachievers so I didn't just do the bare minimum. That's the good version of peer pressure.

Buddy got a new chew toy from Tom's parents for Christmas.  I think it's safe to say he likes it!

I love when he holds things with his paws like that.

How did you ring in the New Year?

Are you participating in any challenges to jump start 2016?

New Year, New Hair, New Shoes!

Buddy was extra stressed out this morning. It's a really rough life. 

I got some end of the year bookkeeping done this morning and then I was off to get my hair cut. It's been driving me crazy for about a month, so I finally made an appointment. I like making hair stylists a little nervous by having them cut 7+ inches off my hair. I'm sure they've had people freak out before.

I may have gotten new shoe envy when Tom was looking at/ordering shoes the other day and ordered a pair of my own.

They were on sale! And my pink Wave Riders are just about at the end of their life anyway. I can validate new running shoe purchases all day long.

But seriously, look how pretty they are!

So pretty.

Somehow, Tom's shoes haven't made it here yet, even though he ordered his first and we ended up ordering them from the same site. Sad.

George, one of my Insta-friends (what I just decided to call my Instagram friends, is that a thing?) and fellow Nuun enthusiasts, decided to host a new years 100 days of fitness challenge and invited me to participate. The goal is to keep each other accountable and get at least 30 minutes of some kind of activity every day. Most days my training plan will easily have this under control, but it will help keep me from being a running couch potato.

He's also throwing in a few 30 day challenges as part of the bigger challenge. Our first 30 days will be a plank challenge, which will probably be good for me since I hate any and all core work.

Aaaaand Yoga Camp starts tomorrow too! I'm going to do all the things. It's totally going to work.

Probably.

I hope you have a wonderful New Years (but not so wonderful that you don't feel good tomorrow)!

What are/were your New Years plans?

Do you make New Years resolutions?

Needs More Stickers

I had a really good run today!

I feel like I haven't said that in a while, but there it is. Maybe it's the cooler weather, and maybe it's the fact that I ran with music for the first time in a long time, but it was great!

I was less excited by my pace, but I had to remind myself that I haven't been very consistent with my running for the last month. My pace will come back, I just need to get back into a routine. I hear patience is a virtue or something.

Speaking of routine, I got my new training log today! I'm all set for New Years now.

It needs more stickers.

I'm getting geared up to get into training mode again. There are a couple of different training plans I've been checking out. The mileage for a half seems like nothing after training for Steamtown!

I really liked this Vega recovery supplement this summer, and I also grabbed a little pre-workout energizer to try out.

Our Blue Apron didn't get here today. The delivery guy allegedly couldn't find our house, despite the fact that they've delivered here before. I'm hoping it's a new driver. They have claimed to not be able to find the house before, but it's hard to believe since we live in a world with GPS and smart phones.

Fortunately, the ice packs that Blue Apron uses stay frozen a suspiciously long time, so everything should be fine if we get it tomorrow.

This is the depressed dog I get to hang out with when Tom leaves the house.

Buddy is just a little obsessed with Tom.

Do you have a go-to source for training plans?

Do you use any supplements or protein powders?

Wintery Weather

It snowed last night!

Ok, so it mostly sleeted and made a mess around the neighborhood, but that's a step toward some actual winter weather! I'm not complaining. I've been waiting all summer/fall for some cooler running weather. Bring it on!

We spent the morning waiting for the building inspector to come, and after several hours we found out he had his schedule all messed up and would come in the afternoon instead.

Tom is on the hunt for some new running shoes, so we took a bit of time before lunch to check out a few stores around us. The holidays must have wiped everybody's stock out, because there were hardly any options.

Then we had to rush home to eat some lunch before the inspector arrived. On the bright side, we didn't have to rush to get lunch eaten. He was late again. But at least the rough plumbing inspection is done and now we can move on to the next step.

With a half hour before sunset, Tom and I hit the road for a quick run, and managed to avoid the icy patches.

After laying around for longer than I should have post-run, I did a little yoga (with Adriene - she's my favorite). I was really sore after Sunday's yoga class and run. I'm not sure if it was just the yoga class (which was challenging) or the combination of a tough class followed by a run, but either way, the only thing I wanted to do yesterday was some really gentle yoga/stretching.

I still find it a little strange that I like yoga all of a sudden, but I'm just going with it.

My mom gave us more Blue Apron for Christmas, which we're really excited about! I had so much fun with the recipes last time. I can't wait to see what we get this time around. Our next box will be here tomorrow! For tonight though, we're planning on Chinese food, which I'm also excited about. :)

What's for dinner at your house? 

Are you excited for winter weather?

Moov NOW Review (Finally!)

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Oh man, remember when I got my Moov NOW and I was all like, "Yeah, I'll totally get a review up for you guys"? Yeah, that was a while ago. I'll go ahead and blame the holidays even though ours was pretty low-stress.

The Moov is super cool.

What? You wanted more than that?

Ok, fine.

The Moov NOW is part activity/sleep tracker, and part personal coach. It is NOT a pedometer. That is one of the main complaints I have seen about it. But it also doesn't claim to be a pedometer, so really people just need to do a little research before they buy things. Other people have somehow lost the pebble/sensor out of the band, which baffles me because I've been wearing mine for weeks and it has never once fallen out.

Here's an example of the activity screen. I was clearly a sleep glutton the other day.

The Moov comes with 2 bands, because you wear it on either your wrist or your ankle, depending on the workout.

Wearing it on your ankle will cause your friends to crack jokes about house arrest. Just a heads up.

It keeps track of most activity, though things like yoga don't register as "active minutes." What I really like are the running features. There are different interval options to work on speed and cadence and you can also just set it to "open training" and check out your stats after the fact.

You do have to have your phone (and their app, which is free) with you for running workouts, which is sometimes a pain for me, but definitely not a deal breaker.

The little coach chimes in with pace and distance from time to time, and lets you know if your impact is too high. Mine always is on the downhills, I haven't figured out how to run downhill gracefully yet.

Here's my (slow) run from Sunday:

If you're doing one of the interval workouts, the coach lets you know when to start, stop, if you are off pace, and it even gives little updates so you know how far into an interval you are. This is really nice when doing the speed endurance training because the intervals are just long enough for me to start wishing they were over. Knowing how much more I have to do definitely helps. Also there's no way I do intervals on my own out on the road, so this is really handy.

I have also used the 7 minute+ workout, which runs you through 3 sets of jumping jacks, squats, planks, lunges, push ups and crunches.

The Moov keeps track of your reps for you, and most of the time, I've found it to be pretty accurate. There have been a few times that it randomly decides not to count some of my jumping jacks (as though I am somehow doing them wrong - they're jumping jacks for crying out loud!), but it's right most of the time.

Here's an example of the details it gives at the end of the workout from a few weeks ago:

I actually built up some arm strength when I was doing this workout consistently for a few weeks, but started slacking off right before Christmas. Oops!

One thing I love about the Moov is that it doesn't have to be charged. My Fitbit was constantly dying on me, and don't even get me started on their screwy charger! The Moov takes a little coin battery and is supposed to last about 6 months. I haven't had to replace mine yet.

There are other features that are totally wasted on me, like swim and cycle "coaching," and cardio boxing. The swim and cycle are just open workouts, not guided coaching, that's why I used quotes. The cardio boxing pretty much requires that you have two Moovs (one for each wrist), and that just seems excessive to me.

The Moov is very cool overall, and you get what you put into it. It can be a passive activity tracker, or you can use it to its full potential, and use the coaching features. It doesn't remind you to work out, or set a schedule for you, but we're all big kids, we don't need that much hand holding, right?