Fitness recap: Ten K’s, yoga and bouldering

I thought yesterday was June 17, but it’s today. Which means it’s mine and The Guy’s 9 year dating anniversary!

Scott nancy 2005I’m so glad he kept bugging me to date him, look at us now — down here in California almost a decade later, still happy as ever.

My hip flexor (or muscle around that area) seems to hate it when I run “long distances”, so I’ve been taking it easy ever since I noticed pain when lifting my right leg up the stairs. I wasn’t sure whether or not yoga aggravated it, or doing more running than usual. I have never in my entire life ran a double digit run before last week, and hello two 10km runs? After my second 10k in two weeks, I’ve decided to stop running half way through last week to heal it, and do more yoga and bouldering. We’ll see how it goes—I better not lose my rhythm when I get back into running, I hate starting over.

yoga selfieI posted this yoga selfie on Thursday. Apparently it’s winner winner chicken dinner, not wiener wiener. ;)

Monday June 9: 75 minutes of “noon” yoga, and three hours of top roping (climbing) with Ellen

Tuesday June 10: 6.12 mile run in 1:05:36, I thought I was at the 10km mark but that’s 6.21. Gah!

Wednesday June 11:  2.5 mile run in 23:47

Thursday June 12: 75 minutes of power yoga, and 1 hour of bouldering

Friday June 13: Off

Saturday June 14: Off

Sunday June 15: 2 hour walk with The Guy & Alfie

Tone It Up, Flamingo DuffleI bought this gym bag on a whim after a late night YouTube watching session with the Tone It Up girls (I’m not a member). But I loved Katrina’s pink bag better than my reusable grocery bag. I spent way too much money on it, but I bought it anyway. Hope it arrives soon.

I’ve been eating clean for the last 3 weeks, mainly due to the fact that I was pigging out, and not working out frequently which made my clothes ill fitting. If you’ve been following me on instagram, you know that I’ve been making The Guy and I morning smoothies every single day. Skoop must have noticed my #smoothie pictures and contacted me asking me if I’d like to try out their product.

skoopSure why not. I’m brand new on taking superfoods, or even powdered drinks after a workout. I normally come home and grab a handful of nuts or fruit, after a workout and be set.

Skoop mixingGotta say, I didn’t have high expectations for this as I’ve never been one to put added powdered stuff to my drinks after a workout. Mainly because I’m lazy and the fact they all leave a funky after-taste. I was definitely skeptical of running my morning smoothie with Skoop. I tried out the Chocofresh and definitely was surprised. Typically I use Trader Joe’s pure unsweetened cocoa in the smoothie, which leaves a bitter after-taste. But this one left a fruity chocolate taste to the smoothie. I made one for the both of us, and have been adding a scoop of skoop (ha!) to the smoothies every morning. Unfortunately though, the bag costs $65! As much as it says the product is good for you, I definitely cannot afford that. Too bad, as it’s absolutely delicious.

Skoop smoothieI should start drinking this moreso after my yoga and bouldering sessions rather than first thing in the morning. But it’s honestly so good, I can’t wait til the afternoon to have one.

Here’s a bit more information that was shared with me in the initial e-mail:

Skoop is an organic non-GMO superfoods powdered formula, rich in antioxidants, adaptogens and probiotics. It’s non-allergen (no dairy, soy, gluten) and great for fighting inflammation, stress and bad gut bacteria. It’s a wonderful post workout drink because it’s so alkalizing in the body and helps promote a quick recovery.

There are no mysterious fillers or “potion” like concoctions hidden within. It’s clean, organic and all non-GMO. Plus 10% of every bag is donated to a national non-profit that provides fresh produce to children in schools. It’s basically buy one, give one. It’s a great mission and we’re looking to really do some good here!

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Fitness Recap: Crushin V2’s and 3’s

climbing selfieFor the past 2 weeks it doesn’t seem that I like to blog on Friday’s and Monday’s anymore. Oops.

Yin yoga last Tuesday focused primarily on the lower half of the body, holding deep poses for an unlimited amount of time. It felt uncomfortable, and what I thought was painful. However the yoga teacher talked us through the deep stretches, saying pain, and sensation are two completely different things. The mind gets busy, starts analysing the sensation you’re feeling and overcomplicates it. She said we needed to calm our minds, and embrace the sensation.

The sensation is your body telling you something — warmth, cooling, pain. Your thoughts convert the sensations into feelings of perhaps, pain. You think you need to “get out” but perception is how you view it. You have to quieten your busy mind. Which is easy for me to do if I’m hanging out in savasana mode (aka adult nap time), but when you’re in a deep ass stretch and your hips are angry, your mind clearly perceives it as pain. It wasn’t overbearing but I did need to take a lot of deep breaths. When the class was over, I felt incredible. If I dare say so, it was the best yoga class I have attended. Ever.

Little hippy-ish, but I went with it. Even though my mind kept telling me to get my legs the eff out of that pose. I’ve been enjoying yoga before I head into a bouldering session. It just elongates the body and loosens up the joints, muscles and especially my hips (my right one isn’t so flexible).

Monday June 2: 75 minutes of “noon” yoga, then 2 mile run in the evening in 19:11

Tuesday June 3: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 1 hour bouldering, where I finally conquered that orange V2 route!!!

Wednesday June 4:  National Running Day!

Thursday June 5: 75 minute power yoga & 30 minutes bouldering

Friday June 6: Off

Saturday June 7: 3.6 mile run with The Guy! (outdoors!)

Sunday June 8: Off

Sheena asked me what I was doing for National Running Day which happened on Wednesday June 4. Since I’m getting more into running again, I thought I’d challenge myself and go for my longest run of my entire life. I did a trail run back in 2010/2011 that was 9km long, and I knew I wanted to get into the double digits eventually (ahem a few years later). I didn’t care that I needed to stop 53 times, nor did I care how long the dang run took me. But I wanted to do it. So I did.

 A few #SpiffykermsStyle outfits that I thought I’d include in here too:

A running at the gym sort of attire, primarily to wick sweat away from my body and keep me as content as possible. Lululemon run swiftly tech tank, gap sports bra, MPG leggings, Ironman Canada socks, and some Mizuno sneakers.

workout gearWhat I wear to yoga and bouldering. Since I don’t sweat like a beast as when I run, I can wear regular cotton bottoms (from Lululemon) and a racerback, also from lululemon. Bra is… same gap one. Recycle-cycle!

Isn’t it funny when your boulder problem is now a warm up? Last week I posted about an orange V2, and I hop on it no problem and complete it. Then I worked on this yellow one, which didn’t take much effort (a few tries in back-to-back days and I got it). I need something harder :) Maybe I’ll hop on a V4 this week.bouldering, climbing, climb, V2, V3

Let me know what you’ve accomplished last week, or what your goals are for the upcoming week.

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Fitness recap

I have been far too lax on my workout routine, so much so my tight pants have started to remind me that I need to do more exercising and not just fiddle around at the gym and hope for the best.

fitness recapThe other week I’ve decided to write down my athletics in a notebook to keep myself accountable. If I see a day where I didn’t get the recommended 30 minutes of exercise per day, I don’t beat myself up over it. I just walk Alfie extra long on his business-duty for the evening.

Each week, I’ll do a fitness recap on my blog — Tuesday seems like a good day as any? I’m missing my CrossFit weekly workouts that I used to do. I’m scared of re-joining. It’s been since January since I have done a WOD and I’m just a wuss right now.

bouldering, LaSportiva, Katana'sI got a membership to Planet Granite climbing (which has CrossFit & Yoga classes!!!) gym this weekend, so I’m heading down there a few times per week.

Alright, getting’ into it. This one will be a little longer because I kind of want to backtrack at my workouts. Then we’ll be back to a regular weekly schedule.

Friday May 16: 2 mile run

Saturday May 17: 3 mile run

Sunday May 18: 2 mile run

Monday & Tuesday May 19-20: Off

Wednesday May 21: 3 mile run

Thursday May 22: Climbing for 3 hours with Ellen!

Friday May 23: 2 mile run

Saturday May 24: Bouldering for 2 hours

Sunday May 25: Hiking up some mountain, for 2 hours in some random city

You may notice I don’t like to run more than 3 miles at a time. In fact, 2 miles is my sweet spot.

RunAfter a long long break from running, I can fully run 2 miles without stopping again. 3 miles, no way buddy. I have to stop about 3-4 times in that last mile. Wish I wrote down my times. I’ll do that this week, to keep track. Still definitely nowhere where I want to be. I do recall one of my 3 milers finishing at 31:30, which is not cool in my brain. When I was running with my friend Tanya back in the day, we were running 27-28 minute 5k’s. That’s where I want to be, and I want to start running slower, for longer distances. That’s where my mentality issues kick in. Oh negative talk.

I have a huge love/hate relationship with running.

post run faceThen people tell me, if I hate it so much why do I keep doing it? Plain and simple, I actually crave it. It’s easy for me to jump on the treadmill and go — but it’s hard for me to maintain any length of distance. I hate that it’s hard, and I hate that I get so winded after 2-3 miles. So if I truly hated it, I clearly wouldn’t do it, would I? That’s just silly. For instance, I despise biking. It hurts my you-know-what, so I never ever go to spin classes nor do I own a bike. My husband makes up for my lack of bikes though ;)

Planet Granite BoulderingI’m heading back into the climbing gym later this morning so I can work on getting some strength back. I can top rope more difficult routes fine, it’s just the bouldering strength I’d like to have back, and it’d be nice to be able to do my party trick again ;)

Come back tomorrow, because I’ll be posting something I’ve never done before! Ooo!

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