CrazyBusyTown up ahead

Occupant:  ME!!!

Hi all….been away for a bit but I’ve been a busy bee.  And things are just kicking into high gear over the next few weeks.

I’m starting a new round of teaching boot camp this week, and I have a 5:45 AM class and 7 PM class to teach Monday and Wednesday for the next 6 weeks.  Plus this week I have manager hours, clients, and life to fit in.  Monday and Tuesday will be starting off around 5 AM and going until 8 PM without a lot of rest in between!

Luckily things slow down a bit towards the end of the week.

To help with my busy bee life, I bought a new lunch satchel at CostCo yesterday.  SO EXCITED (I get excited easily)

It came with a stainless steel reusable water bottle and an ice pack.  The front has a pocket for holding things like silverware or food that doesn’t need cooling.  Plenty of room inside to pack up yogurt, sammies, salads and fruit to fuel my busy days!

I will be at the gym for hours at a time leading boot camp, working, and probably fitting some workouts in so I need to be prepared with some healthy eats.

My new lunch box will be perfect to help me reach this goal. I’m planning to prep a few meals and snacks tonight for the first few busy days of my week so I can just grab and go in the morning.

QUESTION: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVE ON THE GO COMBINATIONS?

QUESTION 2: LOCAL READERS…ANY FUN UPCOMING RACES/TRIATHLONS/BIKE RACES ETC YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN LATER THIS SUMMER?

I need something to train for and I haven’t found anything that is pulling me in right now.

Off to get some Vitamin D and enjoy some of this weather!!!

You Say It’s Your Birthday?

It’s my birthday too!!!

Yep, today is my birthday…and it is also the 7th anniversary of my husband and I meeting.  Lots to celebrate!

It was a fun weekend filled with work, some workouts, hanging out with friends and fun.

Last night we went out to celebrate my birthday and watch the Blackhawks game since I have to work every night this week.

It was fun and the Blackhawks WON!

We went to the bar where my hubby and I met on my birthday 7 years ago.

Shenanigans ensued!

(Disclaimer:  I am NOT drunk in this pic although it does look like it. Just can’t keep my eyes open to save my life in pics!!!)

My friend Tammy met us out too and we tried to take a nice pic together…

My hubby got me that cute Blackhawks shirt and hat for my birthday.  I’m officially on the Hawks bandwagon!!

It was fun and I’m glad I got to relax and enjoy some of the weekend.  Plans for my actual birthday today include gym time, magazine reading, and then some appointments with clients this evening.

I made a delish cucumber dip the other day I want to share. 

COURTNEY’S EASY CUCUMBER DIP

–Greek yogurt

–Cucumber

–Onion

–Seasoning

–Salt/pepper

–Squeeze of lemon

I had about 1/3 of a container of plain fat free greek yogurt in the fridge so I finely chopped about 1/3 of a cucumber and 1/3 of an onion and added it to the container along with salt, pepper and some garlic powder to taste plus a squeeze of lemon.

Dipped some cucumbers and pita chips in it for a light, fat free and delicious dip that took minutes to make!

Here is my latest favorite snack:

Slice a green apple into thin slices and spread peanut butter in between to make little sandwiches.

So pretty!

Here is Mr. Prince waiting for me on the deck Sunday morning.  We read the paper together and had some coffee while Georgie and daddy were sleeping!

Did you all have a nice three day weekend?

Any big goals now that summer is here??  The pool opens June 7 and I CAN’T WAIT!

Workout Domination

Right now I’m focusing on getting into a good groove with my strength training workouts and I think I have found a good breakdown for my schedule.

Mon-Upper body and cardio

Tues-Abs and cardio

Wed-Rest day

Thurs-Lower body and cardio

Fri-Abs and cardio

Sat-Full body and cardio

Sun-Rest day

I can change it up as needed though…it is flexible.  This week I’m not resting on Wednesday, I’m doing lower body and cardio because I work from 9-7 on Friday and won’t have time to workout.  Sunday is a rest day on the schedule but I may end up doing things like riding my bike or playing tennis.

For cardio I have been trying to do about 45 minutes at a time…such as 30 on the treadmill followed by 15 on the ARC trainer or vice-versa.

So far so good…I have dominated my workouts on Monday and Tuesday!

I have come up with the following so far for my workouts, 3 circuits of each.

UPPER BODY

Jump off and on BOSU (warm up) 12x

Stand on BOSU lateral raises with 10 lb dumbbells x 10

Stand on BOSU front raises with 10 lb dumbbells x 10

Seated shoulder press 50 lbs x 12

Incline chest press 50 lbs x 12

Seated upright row 30 lbs x 15

Barbell curls 20 lbs x 12   (not sure on the weight exactly as it is not a standard bar)

Overhead triceps extension with 25 lb dumbbell x 15

ABS

Rollouts on stability ball/Smith machine  12

Reverse crunches 12

Toe touch side to side reaches 12 each side

Glute bridge 12

Single leg lifts 12 each leg

Planks 1 minute

Decline crunches on bench 12

Woodchops with cable high to low 50 lbs x 12 each side

Russian twists with 8 lb med ball x 12 each side

LOWER BODY

Weighted squats 30 lbs x 15

Side lunges to knee up to reverse lunge to knee up 30 lbs x 12 each side

Glute kickbacks with cable 35 lbs x 15 each leg

Hamstring curls using stability ball 15

Leg press machine

Calf raise machine 90 lbs x 12

Walking forward weighted lunges 30 lbs x 10 each leg

That is as far as I’ve gotten for the week, I am off to do the lower body workout today!  I still have to come up with the full body routine but I will likely be incorporating some plyometrics and sprints into that workout.

I plan to try this plan out for about a month or so and see how it goes.

Any suggestions are welcome for anything I’ve left out.  Nothing specific for back in my upper body routine, I should probably incorporate something for that.

Hope everyone has the beautiful weather that we are enjoying right now…Memorial Day weekend and summer kickoff here we come!

What’s Next?

Hey there bloggies…hope everyone had a great weekend!

I got in my first tennis and first bike riding of the season and we also had wonderfully hot temperatures. 

Sunday started with breakfast, coffee and the newspaper on the deck and ended with 4 hours of Lost series finale.

In between I managed to get my bike out for the first ride of the season.  I missed it!

Took the bike to the trail and did approximately 13 miles in 60 minutes which I was fairly happy with for my first time out on the trail for the season.

I wore my new pink skull bondi band that Molly got me at the half marathon under my helmet and it kept the sweat and hair from creeping out!

TRAINING STATS:

13 miles, total time with loading/unloading bike from car: 1 hr 10 minutes

673 calories, 143 average heart rate, 167 max heart rate

I attribute that calorie burn to the fact that it was HOT outside!

I am leaning towards getting some clip in shoes as well.  I can see now after spin class all winter that the clip in shoes would make such a difference.

So I’ve gotten the half marathon completed, what is next for this Adventures in Tri-ing girl?

I don’t know right now, but I have a few ideas percolating in my head!

Want to stick with me and go along for the ride??

I know I want to focus on strength training and losing some weight for the short term, so I will probably be posting some great workouts here, as well as cleaning up my eats (what’s new).

Hope you will all stick around, I think I will continue blogging at least a few times a week cuz it’s fun!

Courtney

Adventures in Tri-ing

The Conclusion

Did you miss the first 2 recap posts of my half marathon? 

Click Part One

Click Part Two

I left off with the starting line of the 2010 Green Bay Cellcom Marathon.  There were about 7,000 people participating….wow!

I started off running with a friend of my friend’s brother as we were about the same pace.  Molly and her brother took off and tried to beat their times from last year.

As we started off we passed our hotel and I spied my parents standing outside and got to wave hello!

I felt pretty good right from the get-go so I knew I could complete the race.  I had been VERY nervous for this race…more nervous than I was for my triathlon!  I have done a lot of 5k’s and of course my sprint triathlon last year, but never did I have nerves like this.  The combination of my injury and not having run for 2 weeks was weighing on me.  But I could tell right away that I could do it, so I started visualizing crossing the finish line and how exciting that would be!

The water stops were every 1.5 miles so I knew I had some good landmarks along the way.  Sarah and I were running along about a 10:30 pace and went through the first water stop.  The sun came out and it actually got warm.  It was a great day for running. 

I lost Sarah at the 2nd water stop as it was crowded and I actually have to STOP to drink…so I stood on the sidelines.  I don’t know how people can run and drink at the same time.  At the first water stop which was about 3 miles into it, my heart rate was THROUGH  the roof already and that was making me slightly woozy.  I started getting a little worried about that, so I drank a few little cups of Gatorade and felt better and took off again.

Ran into my husband at about mile 4…yippee! (those are tissues tucked into my shirt, not a flower!)

He told me “see you at mile 10” and I took off.  That got me through the next 6 miles!  I knew if I could just make it to mile 10 I would have a friendly face again.

The next 6 miles seemed like a blur.  I walked through each water stop which of course slowed my pace down, but I was able to drink some Gatorade and water, get my heart rate down a bit and stretch my calf.

I kept visualizing the finish line and how exciting it would be, and how proud I would be.

It was getting warm out, and my butt and hamstrings were aching! But I kept going.

My husband met me at Mile 10 and I gave him my hoodie and he brought me some Powerade…yay!  I knew I was almost there, but I was struggling.  He told me I could do it and he would be waiting at the finish line for me.

I came up finally on the split point for the marathoners and half marathoners and knew I only had about a mile to go.  We were approaching Lambeau Field again at this point and could hear the spectators!

I started getting excited to run through Lambeau Field as the final part of our race.

(For those not in the know, Lambeau Field aka the Frozen Tundra is where the Green Bay Packers play and is holy ground for us fans!!)

I crossed into the tunnel and ran out onto the field.  At this point I was being passed by some marathoners!!!  Speed demons!

Here are some pics my hubs got as he waited in the field

I walked the first half of the field just to take it all in and reserve some strength for a strong finish.

Then I took off for the finish line and ran out of the tunnel into the parking lot for the last .10 mile.

I crossed the finish line all alone so the announcer actually screamed out “let’s hear it for Courtney crossing the finish line!”   HOW COOL IS THAT!

Final time was 2:43 which wasn’t what I wanted, but I’ll take it.  I finished!

I got my medal, some water, my t-shirt and found my parents and husband.  I just kept moving because my butt and hammies were so sore.

Found Molly and we took a few funny “after” photos.

Yes, Molly has a tiara on her headband!! LOL!

Here we are showing how we can barely stand up:

I loved it even though it was hard.  Thank you so much to all the encouragement from my blog friends, facebook friends, work and family!  It meant a lot to me and I knew I HAD to finish so I would have a good report.

I’ve been on the Arc trainer once and did an incline treadmill run once this week and there don’t seem to be any lingering ill effects and I am itching to get back to regular workouts.

What’s next?  Stay tuned……

Run Like the Cops Are Chasing You

That was what my favorite sign said during the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon this past Sunday!

There were 2 guys holding up the sign along the path and mind you, they were standing pretty close to some police officers who were standing in the intersection to keep up safe.  HA!!

Another good one said:  “your feet hurt so much because you are kicking so much butt!”  Awesome!!

I can’t say enough good things about the 2010 Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.  There were tons of volunteers and spectators that lined the entire course.  Never ever was I alone at any point on the course.  There were water stops every 1.5 miles and people camped out in their front yards to cheer us on as we ran through. 

In one driveway there was a dj with turntables and speakers, one driveway had a full rock band rocking out, people had water for us.  Mind you…this was all at 8 AM on Sunday!

I wanted to give a quick recap before I move on to the next phase in my life and blog.

Headed up to Green Bay from Chicago on Saturday morning and got to Lambeau Field to meet up with my parents and my best friend Molly (here from New York) and her brother Matt to get our packets at the expo.

Fun and photo shoots ensued!

We hung out at the expo for a bit and I picked up a 13.1 sticker for my car to really encourage me to get across the finish line!

We also got our “official” race photos taken.  Everyone else was acting like it was their senior picture and being very serious.  Of course we had to take it to the next level and act like idiots. Just look at Matt……OMG!!!!!!!

Here is my “running face”

 

HAHAHAHAHA!!!  We were cracking ourselves up.

We split off and we went back to the hotel to check in and get ready for our evening.  We had a dinner planned at the Brett Favre Steakhouse (the WHOLE Green Bay experience!).

Right across from this sight:

Got dressed up and headed to dinner where my family had planned a mini little surprise birthday party for me since we were all together.  So fun!  We had a great dinner and cake.

Plus presents!!  For those that asked it was a Coach purse from my momma!

We went back to hotel and settled in after I got all my stuff ready for the morning:

Morning came early!  I put on the shirt that Molly designed for me.  M&C Embassy is a joke going back to when we were 12…and I absolutely LOVE the pink skull she put on the back of it!!!

Got to the start line and got revved up.  We all made a plan (me, Molly, Matt and a friend of Matt’s Sarah) that we wouldn’t try to stick together…everyone would just run at their own speed.

Part II coming soon!!!  The race…..

Wordless Monday

This will be an almost wordless post.  I finished my first half marathon this weekend in 2:43.  Slower than I wanted, but I did end up having to walk occasionally due to being very sore and a little woozy at points.  But I’m happy with my time and my race.  I had a great weekend with a great caddy-my husband, a mini early surprise birthday party from my parents, my BFF Molly and her family and the awesome race put on by Green Bay. 

I leave you with some pics from the weekend…I promise to post a full race update this week!