I have a confession to make. I have not been doing my 10,000 steps a day lately. This all started when I lost my Fitbit. When I didn’t have it, it was pretty much impossible to get my steps in for the day (my phone counts my steps, but I don’t always have my phone with me). I started to not really look at my Fitbit app, even when I got my replacement. There were plenty of days where I looked at the app first thing in the morning (to turn off the sleep tracker) and didn’t look at it again until bedtime (to turn on the sleep tracker). I didn’t look at how many steps I was getting in for the day, but I know that I was not getting close to my goal.
I was in such a habit of not thinking about getting in my steps that I wasn’t doing them. The only 10,000 step day I had since getting my replacement was when I was at Disneyland. It’s pretty easy to get in my steps there. I average 3,000 steps in an Orangetheory workout, but I wasn’t doing the work to do the other 7,000 steps.
But on Monday, I had my workout early in the morning (and got about 3,000 steps in) and with all the games in my improv class and walking around doing errands I got another 2,000 steps in. So I decided that it was time to start taking charge again and making sure I do my best effort to get to my goals each day.
I managed to get my 10,000 steps in on Monday. And yesterday, I was back at my old routine of doing steps in place before work while catching up on my DVR. And I got my 10,000 steps in again.
I’m really hoping that this will be the start of the trend of hitting my step goals. When I first got my Fitbit, I was obsessed with not missing my goal every day. I remember the first time I missed my step goal and how upset I was. But since I’ve lost my Fitbit and have had a couple of weeks where I didn’t get my step goal, I’m much calmer about this all. Of course, I want to reach my goal every day, but if it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen. It’s not the end of the world.
I’m not sure how much getting my steps in helps my weight loss efforts, but I know that it can’t hurt. And the more healthy routines that I can build into my life and don’t have to really think about, the better.
I think part of the motivation that got me back into my steps was the fact that I was invited to be a part of a bunch of step challenges this week. I don’t care if I win, but I want to at least try to be in the top half of the challengers.
So, thank you to my friends who invited me to a challenge this week. Because of you all, I’m back on track.
I’ve been enjoying the Fitbit I got earlier this year ever since I got it. There was only one day that I missed getting my 10,000 steps in for the day and even then I was pretty close. I’ve worked really hard at getting in all my steps for the day and have been very happy that while sometimes it’s isn’t easy, it’s not nearly as impossible as I thought it might be.
I had been enjoying all of the challenges and social things that Fitbit offers and most days I checked my progress throughout the day to make sure I was on pace to hit my goals.
While at ENMNCon, I was able to reach my goals the first two days of the conference. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. But on Saturday of the conference, I was too busy to think about checking the app on my phone to see my progress. When I got into my car to head home, I finally checked and realized that there were very few steps recorded for the day. I then looked at the middle of my bra where I keep my Fitbit device attached and realized that it wasn’t there!
My first thought was to look around and inside my car to see if it just fell off. But the app was also showing that it was searching for the device and wasn’t able to connect so I knew that it couldn’t be that close to me. There was no way to drive all over town to look for it, so I just drove home and hoped that somehow I had forgotten to put my Fitbit on for the day and I would find it at home.
I got home, my Fitbit wasn’t there, and I had to come to the realization that it must have fallen off at some point that day and it was lost. I emailed Fitbit support and didn’t have high hopes on a good resolution. I had recently emailed them to get a new clip because my old one broke. And they sent me one at no cost and the day I lost my Fitbit was the first day I used the replacement clip.
So my email to Fitbit was more about how the replacement clip was likely defective and I wanted to let them know about it. They emailed back pretty much right away and let me know what time my device connected with my phone last. I thought back to that time and it was while I was walking near Hollywood and Highland. There is no way that someone hadn’t picked up the Fitbit and took it or that it was run over by a car. I knew it that I had to get a new device.
But fortunately, Fitbit let me know that there were going to send me a new replacement device at no cost! It was going to take a little over a week to get it to me, but that’s better than me paying $100 for a new one! I’ve heard of other friends getting a free replacement device, but I thought that since I had just gotten a free replacement clip that there was no way they would now send me a device. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong!
It did feel weird not to have my Fitbit on me. I tried to do as many steps as I could, but I wasn’t able to get a decent count of them (my phone tracks steps, but I don’t aways have my phone on me as I’m walking around my house. Finally, on Monday my new Fitbit arrived!
It’s a different color than my old device, but I was able to get it set up pretty quickly and got started back at my challenges right away! I probably won’t win challenges this week because I pretty much missed all of Monday, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get back to my 10,000 steps a day streak! I’m excited to be back on track with my steps and to have all the steps counted (and not just counted when I have my phone).
It’s so funny how much I didn’t care for Fitbit the first time I had it, but when I was without it last week I felt lost. I’m just glad that I have it back and I’ve gotten proof that Fitbit really does care about their customers and has awesome customer service!
Posted onApril 15, 2015|Comments Off on Giving Fitbit Another Chance (or Doing Laps Around My Living Room)
I’ve previously written about Fitbit on here. I had a pretty bad experience with them and I returned the Fitbit I bought then almost right away.
I was ok not having a Fitbit for a while. I had used a pedometer in the past and it wasn’t something that really excited me.
But lately, more and more of my friends have been talking about competing against each other on Fitbit. I learned that I could use the Fitbit app and have my steps counted by my phone. So since that was free, I did it.
But I realized that all the steps I take at Orangetheory didn’t count since I wasn’t holding my phone while I worked out. So I started looking into getting a Fitbit device again.
I looked at the ones you wear on your wrist, but it didn’t seem right for me. First, I already wear a watch so I didn’t want something else on my wrist. And secondly, it probably wouldn’t count my steps on the treadmill at Orangetheory because I have to hold onto the treadmill (balance issues).
So I decided on the Fitbit One. It’s pretty small and I can either wear it on my pants on in the middle of my bra (I’ve been going with the middle of the bra choice since it’s totally out-of-the-way).
During my workouts at Orangetheory, I’ve been putting it on my pants since my sports bra goes up much higher than a normal bra.
It’s nice to count all my steps during the day. And the app on my iPhone is super easy to use and read.
But what I’ve been loving the most about Fitbit this time (besides the fact that it’s working and syncing perfectly) is the social and competitive aspect of it.
You can be friends with different people on there and see how you rank against each other over the past 7 days. Since I just started using the Fitbit, I’m pretty low in the rankings but I’m moving up.
And through the app they also have a bunch of different challenges that you can do with your friends. Right now, I’m doing a weekday challenge with 9 other people (including my agent). But over the weekend, we did a weekend challenge.
I didn’t win that one (and I don’t think I’ll win the weekday one either), but I had a lot of fun doing it. And it’s really motivating me to get as many steps during the day that I can. I’ve been doing laps around my house between customers at work or while I’m watching tv shows that don’t need that much attention. And since I live in such a tiny house, my laps are only like 5 steps each way.
But every step adds up and since Saturday (when I got the Fitbit), I’ve hit my target of 10,000 steps each day! And all of those steps equal more calories burned, so it will be helping me to reach more goals. This is all wins for me.
Are any of you on Fitbit? I’d love to have more friends to compete against!
This past Saturday was the Hollywood Half 5K. This was my third year doing this race, and you might remember that last year the race didn’t go so well for me.
Even though I’ve been doing lots of treadmill training (and it showed in my last 5K), I was still so nervous going into this race. I knew that the hills that were added last year would still be there and those hills were the worst part of the race for me last year.
But I tried to stay positive. Lots of my new friends from my Tone It Up group were doing the race as well and we had plans to meet up before and after the race.
The day before the race, I went to go pick up my race number and other race things. I did meet up with one TIU friend, so that make the craziness of the expo a bit more fun. And as I always do, I took a selfie in my car with my race number.
With an early wake up time in the morning (4am), I made sure I put together my race bag the night before. I don’t think I’ve shared what’s in my race bag in the past, so here it is.
I attach my race number to the hip pack. In one pocket, I have my sunglasses, house/car keys, chapstick, and ID/money/credit card. In the other pocket, I have my headphones and phone (the phone isn’t in the picture since I used it to take a picture). I’m looking into upgrading to a race belt, but right now they are all too small for me.
As soon as my alarm went off at 4am, I was up and ready to go. I carpooled to the race with a TIU friend and we met a bunch of our other TIU friends near the start line.
A few minutes before the race was supposed to start, we split up to go into our corrals. There was 1 friend in a corral with me, so I got her to take a quick pre-race photo for me.
Since the race starts in waves and we were in corral 10, we had about 20 minutes between when the race started and when we actually started. By the time we got up to the start line, the sun was coming out.
My friend in my corral with me had planned to stick with me during the race. It was her first 5K and she wasn’t sure how fast she would go. But she was really fast! We were only together for the first half of a block and then I didn’t see her again until we met up at the finish line!
The race started pretty ok for me. The first part of the race has a slight decline and then you turn around and go up a slight hill. My hips were feeling it right away, but I kept on going. And I noticed that while I was getting passed a lot, I was also doing some of the passing.
I had set my phone to track my race time and it gave me a little notification when it claimed I had gone a mile (it’s a bit off so I was about 40 feet from the first mile marker). But even with the app being a bit off, my mile time was a lot faster than I expected it to be. I tried to not get too excited and kept focusing on the race.
Toward the halfway point of the race, there was the big hill of the race. This hill was one that I was swearing under my breath during last year. But this year there was a distinct different. I’m guessing it’s because of my treadmill training at Orangetheory. I’m used to doing crazy inclines on the treadmill without being allowed to slow down. So on the big hill, most walkers around me were slowing down but I was maintaining my pace (and passing them!).
Before I knew it, I was getting ready to take the final turn before the finish line. I grabbed my phone out of my bag so I could stop the clock on my phone to see my unofficial time. And I glanced at the phone and all I remembered was that it was saying 53 minutes and some number of seconds.
I crossed the finish line, stopped my clock on my phone, and something happened because the time was erased from my phone!
I couldn’t do anything to bring the time back on the app, so I knew I’d have to wait until the official times were posted. So I walked to where my group was meeting so we could take a post race photo.
And of course I needed a photo with my new race bling!
After taking our photos and chatting about how our races went, we went over to the timing board to see the official times. Everyone in my group had a PR! And when I looked at my time, I thought I was imagining things.
My time was 53:52.8! My time at the Hard Rock Cafe 5K (my previous PR) was 56:52.9! I can’t believe that I had a 3 minute improvement over the past few months! Honestly, I still can’t believe I did that.
My ultimate 5K goal is to get below a 16 minute mile. That’s the requirement for races at Disneyland. And while I don’t know if I will ever do a 10K or a half marathon, I’d love to do a 5K at Disneyland one day.
After we all celebrated our PRs, the TIU ladies and I went out to breakfast. I figured such an awesome race meant that I could splurge a little on breakfast.
Over breakfast, I just kept thinking how grateful I am that I have these awesome ladies in my life. They are such great motivators and I know that they will help push me to my next 5K goal. I’m hoping a bunch of them will do the Hard Rock Cafe 5K with me this fall.
And as soon as I got home, I had to add my latest addition to my medal wall.
My wall is starting to look full now, but I bet I can fit at least 4 or 5 more medals on there before I need to build an extension (or more likely, have my dad build an extension).
Overall, I’m so glad that I didn’t let my nerves get in the way of me having an amazing race. And now that I have my new PR in my head, I can focus on the steps I need to take to get another PR in the fall!
It was another 4 workout week at Orangetheory. I’ve pretty much decided that on Mondays, I’m going to do morning workouts (unless I already have something scheduled in the morning). It’s just easier for me not to have to drive home in rush hour traffic and there’s no reason why I should have to save my afternoon on my day off. Plus, morning workouts allow me to do fun things like Disneyland on my day off!
I’m still struggling with getting my heart rate to get up in the mornings, but that makes me feel like these morning workouts are needed. I need to be good with working out anytime during the day.
My biggest focuses right now in my workouts are to keep increasing my weights and treadmill speed. I haven’t been in a plateau, but I know that I can’t restrict pushing myself due to the fear of hurting my hips.
I’m having an ok time with using at least 15 pound weights for everything. For chest and shoulder work, it’s still tough. Especially when we have longer sets (like 10-15 reps each round). I’m getting really fatigued but I’m trying to not go down to lower weights right away. I’ve been doing alright with that. I’m pretty much not reducing the weight I’m lifting until the 3rd or 4th round each time.
Where I’m having trouble is pushing myself beyond the 15 pound weights. I know that for some things like squats that I can probably start using the 20 pound weights. But I don’t always grab for those. They just seem so extreme somehow to me. But I’m aware that I’m not reaching for the heavier weights now so hopefully the next time I have the opportunity to use them, I will.
As far as speeding up on the treadmill, I was able to keep my pace at 3.4 miles an hour during all 4 workouts. On my Saturday workout, it was definitely a struggle because my legs were tired (plus it was a hill day which doesn’t make things easier). I have no plan to move to 3.5 miles an hour anytime soon. 3.4 miles an hour still seems really fast to me.
But the other change I’ve been working on making on the treadmill is my walking speed between blocks. For the joggers and runners, when they get to walk they are told to put the treadmill at 3.0 miles an hour. Since that has always been so close to my walking speed, I would lower my treadmill speed to 2.0 or 2.5 miles an hour when I walk between the blocks. But I’m trying to go to 3.0 miles an hour between blocks sometimes. When we’ve just done a crazy hill or all-out (where I’m at 15% incline) I still need the super slow speed to cool-down. But if I’m not beyond exhausted at the end of a block, I’m really trying to only go down to 3.0 miles an hour.
These are all good progress steps in my mind. I’m much happier with the progress I’ve made with the weights than the progress I’ve made on the treadmill. I’m not sure why that is, but I just feel like my treadmill work is still such a struggle (the hip pain doesn’t help). Maybe I’ll feel better about it in a few weeks when I have my next 5K. I have no idea if I’ll PR again, but I feel like it’s a possibility because I’m doing faster treadmill workouts at Orangetheory now than I was doing before my last 5K.
I’ll just have to wait and see what happens at the 5K.
This past Saturday was the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. You may remember that I PRed on this race last year. I also recently learned a lot more about the charity that this race helps out, My Friend’s Place.
I’ve never done treadmill training prior to a race before. All my walking training has been on city streets, and I don’t do that too often. It’s not super safe with traffic and the sidewalks (if there are any) aren’t too even. So for all my past races, I hadn’t training probably as much as I should.
But this time, I’ve been spending about an hour and a half each week on a treadmill (1/2 of an hour-long class 3 times a week). And while those treadmill segments have been tough on me because of all the incline work we do, I’ve never gone into a race feeling this prepared.
But I had never really been this nervous either. My last race was back in June for the Culver City 5K, and that was my worst 5K time ever. But that was also a race that I did before I started at Orangetheory.
Packet pick up on Friday was very easy. It was the same place it was last year, so I was able to get in and out in less than 10 minutes (not easy to do when you are at a major tourist attraction in Hollywood). I got home and got my bib number ready as well as a shirt that I bought just for this race.
I also went to get my usual race bag ready. When I went to grab my personal heart rate monitor, I saw this.
I haven’t used it in a while since I use the heart rate system at Orangetheory. I’m sure that all it needs is a new battery, but I wasn’t going to run around town trying to find a watch store that was still open. So I decided to download the Map My Run app on my iPhone and use that to time myself (more on that in a minute).
I set multiple alarms for 5am, because I’m always nervous that I won’t wake up. Except this time, I woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep. I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to sleep anymore around 4:45am and started to get ready.
It was an easy drive in the dark to get to the race start. I parked, and by the time I was on the street, the sun was coming up.
I thought that I would be alone for this entire race, but a fellow blogger, Anne, decided to start the race walking with me. We got started pretty quickly and I felt like we were going a good pace. Anne stuck with me for about the first 10 minutes, but she had planned on running, so after 10 minutes she said that she’d meet me at the finish line and was off.
I was in a groove during this race. I had added some new songs to my race mix on my phone and I was keeping up with the pack of people (not getting passed every second like last year).
Then, all of a sudden the Map My Run app spoke to me over my music. It had said that just over 17 minutes had passed and I had done 1 mile.
I was shocked! At Orangetheory I average about 18:45 a mile. But I thought that maybe I was going a lot faster than I thought. But then about a minute later, I passed the 1 mile marker.
I was confused, but I kept going. Each time the app talked to me, I was averaging about a 17 minute mile but I wouldn’t see the official mile marker until about a minute later. I didn’t know if the course was long or if the app was off. Either way, I was making great time and I wasn’t hurting nearly as much as I usually do.
The halfway point was great to see. I was thinking of this race as about 2 treadmill sections at Orangetheory (since I’m on the treadmill just about 30 minutes each class). As I turned around and walked the other direction, I realized just how many people were still behind me! This was not at all like last year where at the half way point I was in the last 5 people and the van to pick people up was right on my tail.
I got closer and closer to the finish line and again at the 3 mile point, my app told me that I had done 3 miles well before I saw the official marker. But I knew that the finish line was close and I hurried up.
I crossed the finish line and looked at the timer on the app. It said 56:53 and that the race was 3.36 miles. I was really confused about the distance listed. I ended up finding someone who had a GPS watch and asked him what his watch said the distance was. He said it was 3.11. So clearly, my app was off and all my mile times it was telling me was wrong.
While I waited for the official time to be posted, I tried not to be mad and just look at the awesome medal I earned!
When my official time was posted, I did the race in 56:52! That’s a huge improvement for me! About 10 minutes fast than my 5K in June and just about a minute and a half faster than my old PR!
I was so happy to have a new PR, but I was pretty pissed about the app lying to me. If I try to use it again for another race, I might just ignore the distance it says and just look at the stopwatch feature since that was pretty accurate.
I found Anne at the finish line and she got a PR as well! We took some victory pictures and then we each had to head home (I was in serious need of a nap).
When I got home, I took a quick shower and noticed that even getting home I was not feeling as sore as I usually do. I normally have issues with my feet and hips hurting after a race, and the only pain I was feeling this time was some tightness in my legs and the pain from a massive blister that pops and shredded the skin (it looks super gross and I will spare you all from having to see a picture of it).
Even now, a few days after my race, I’m not feeling my usual pain. Seriously, my Orangetheory workouts have been paying off! Even if the scale isn’t going down the way I feel it should, the non-scale victories keep showing up! If I’m able to do more races without my usual pain, I might consider doing more races or even thinking about trying for a 10K one day (I had really given up on that dream).
While I’m still a little down that I was so excited to hear on the app that I was doing 17 minute miles when that wasn’t true, I’m trying to only focus on the positives. And what made me smile even more than getting a PR that day was putting on all the medals that I’ve earned over the past 2 years and seeing how far I’ve come.
My medal holder is starting to look full, but I know that there is room for whatever races I end up doing next year.
Posted onSeptember 29, 2014|Comments Off on Getting Closer To The Leaderboard (or I’m Almost In The Top 5)
Instead of focusing on my week of workouts at Orangetheory, I want to focus on what happened on Monday.
As I mentioned last week, there are now Monday challenges every Monday. And it’s my plan to do the challenge each week (I will be doing one today).
I missed the very first challenge because the trainer forgot to do the challenge in my class (it was a new thing so I’m not too upset). The second week I did the rowing challenge. And I walked in this past week with every intention of doing whatever challenge happened.
Then I found out what the challenge was.
It turns out that the challenge this past week was a treadmill challenge. You had to be at 15% incline (which is what I do when I do the “all out” segments on the treadmill) and you had to be at 6 miles per hour for the speed. And the goal was to be on the treadmill at that speed and incline as long as possible.
That’s not a reality for me.
I’ve been doing 3.1 or 3.2 miles per hour most of the time. Sometimes I can push myself to 3.3 or 3.4, but it’s tough. And as soon as I hear what the challenge was, I felt defeated. There’s no way that I can run at 6 miles an hour.
In class on Monday, we had a unique treadmill workout. The first and last segment were each 7 minutes long and we had to be at a push pace (which for walkers mean about 6% incline). For those 7 minutes, we were supposed to go as far as we could go.
The first 7 minutes I made it to .392 miles. I thought that was pretty awesome. Between the segments there was some regular interval work on the treadmill and then it was time for the next (and last) 7 minute treadmill segment.
I started at 3.1 miles an hour. I like that speed because it means if I maintain that for an hour, I can do a 5K. And my goal is to get my 5K time to an hour or less.
Then I decided to see if I could make it to .4 miles in those 7 minutes. So I decided to increase my speed every minute. I was fine up until 3.6 miles an hour. That was tough, but I felt like I was cutting it close to my goal of .4 miles.
So I decided to increase my speed every 30 seconds for the last 2 minutes. And shockingly, those last 30 seconds I was going 4 miles an hour! I can’t maintain that for very long, but I did it!
Those second 7 minutes I made it .408 miles.
I finished up the workout and while I was so proud of what I had done on the treadmill earlier, the challenge was still making me feel defeated. I joked to everyone that I will go 1 second on the challenge.
Finally, it was time for the challenge. I started to bug the trainer that it was completely unfair that there wasn’t a walking option for the challenge. After bugging him and the owner, they decided that my challenge would be 15% incline and 4 miles an hour.
The fact that I had just done 4 miles an hour on the treadmill for the first time in forever seemed to be fate.
I got it in my head that maybe I could make it a minute. So I decided that unless I fell off the treadmill, I was going to stay on there for that minute no matter what.
The first 15 seconds seemed easy. Then my legs started to feel like lead. But I was so damned determined not to quit until that one minute mark had passed.
As soon as the clock passed one minute, I thought for a moment about going more and then my hip popped out (it happens quite a bit and pretty regularly during workouts). It was clearly a sign that I had done all that I could do for that challenge.
I ended up making it 1:02. That’s passed my minute goal.
The next day, the results were posted. I didn’t make the top 5 for women, but I was only 30 seconds away. And shockingly the men did not do as well as the women. On the men’s top 5, I was tied with #5!
I tried to see the lesson in this. Obviously, I shouldn’t feel defeated until I try something. But I feel like there’s something more.
I’ve been looking at these challenges as something to do for me and not to be competitive. But both weeks I have not been that far away from making the top 5 list. If I really tried to push myself and not just do it to do it, I might actually make the list soon!
So that is my intention for the challenge today. I’m going into it with the mindset of a competitor. I want to see myself closer and closer to making it onto the top 5 list. And I know that sometime soon, I will be there.
Before doing my recap of my first week at Orangetheory, I want to mention that today is the 8 year anniversary of my hipsurgery. Each year that passes is a huge milestone for me because since my surgeon discovered the same defect in my left hip, he said I wouldn’t make it more than a few years without needing my next surgery. While I’m definitely in more pain this year than I was last year, I’m still not to the point where I need my next surgery. And I think that my first week of my Orangetheory challenge proved that I’m tough and my hip is still strong!
I was very nervous going into the first week. Like I had said before, it’s been a while since I’ve done 3 tough workouts in one week. Honestly, I haven’t done that since I was skinny. But I tried to go into the week with a positive mind and think that this is a challenge and I need to prove to myself that I can do it.
Before going to my first workout, I took a series of before pictures (part of my deal is to have before/after photos as well as photos after each workout). I shared my before photos on social media and got a pretty positive response from people. They were proud of me for starting a challenge and they were cheering me on.
Fortunately, that first workout was similar to the other workouts I had done at Orangetheory. So that helped with the nerves and I was able to get a good strong workout in for my first day.
My workout on Wednesday was a bit tougher. I was still a little sore from Monday (although nothing like my very first workout). So I took a painkiller and went to class. I was able to really do some good work on the rowing machine (something I had never used before going to Orangetheory). And during the treadmill segment, I did my fastest mile since December! That was pretty amazing!
And since I have to take a photo after each workout, I decided that I want to be creative with the photos. It wouldn’t be fun if every photo was just a sweaty selfie. So I got one on the rowing machines with the trainer from that class, JZ and the guy who help set up this challenge for me, Jonathan.
Workout 3 had a new challenge for me. Since it was on 4th of July I couldn’t take my usual afternoon class. I had to go in at 8am. And since my body takes a while to wake up and not feel stiff, I had to wake up earlier than I like to. But that’s ok. I was able to get my workout in before having fun that afternoon (I’ll post about that tomorrow).
I challenged myself even more on the treadmills on Friday. During the treadmill segment, there are 3 levels that you workout on. You have your base pace which is something you can do for 30 minutes, you have a push pace, and you have an all out sprint. For runners, you increase your speed for push and all out. But for walkers (like me), you increase your elevation on the treadmill. During all out, walkers are supposed to be at 10-15% incline. I usually have it at 10%, but this time I went for 15% and was able to do it!
We also had a 5 minute distance challenge. I knew as the only walker I was not going to win that challenge, but I decided to see what I could do if I only had to do it for 5 minutes. I went faster than I had before and was able to do a quarter-mile in under 5 minutes! I’m usually walking at a 21 or 22 minute pace, so a quarter-mile in under 5 minutes is pretty amazing!
Friday’s photo was all about the TRX straps. I had never used these before Orangetheory and to be honest, I was intimidated by them. But by using them (as well as some of the other equipment available), I’ve realized how strong I really am!
After working out 3 days in the week, I really felt it by Friday afternoon. And I’m glad I had the weekend off. But now it’s time to start week 2 and see what else I’m able to push myself to do!
Posted onMarch 7, 2014|Comments Off on 5K Update (or Why It’s Not A Goal For This Year)
I had a friend ask me recently when my next 5K would be. They had read about all the 5Ks I had done last year and wondered if I was going to set a new 5K goal for 2014.
Before this year started, I had signed up for 2 5Ks. I signed up for the Hollywood Half 5K again because I had a great time at that race last year. I also had signed up for the Bad Prom 5K because it was cheap when you did it super early.
Yesterday, I got an email that the Bad Prom 5K was cancelled, so I’ll be getting a refund for that race. So as of right now, I’m only doing 1 5K. I’m thinking about doing the Hard Rock 5K again (if they have it again), the Universal Studios one for the 4th time, and the Culver City one since it’s in my neighborhood. And I’m thinking about also maybe doing the Christmas one again (but I really hope that it wouldn’t rain again).
If I end up doing all of those, I’ll do 5 this year. I think that’s pretty awesome, but I’m not going to hold myself to that. If I can’t do one, I’m not going to beat myself up over it.
While I do enjoy doing the 5Ks, I’ve realized that they are not my favorite thing. I will always do some of them, but I don’t feel the need to push myself to do more. If there’s a race that I feel passionate about the cause or it sounds super fun, I’ll do it. But I don’t want to force myself to do them anymore.
When I had set my goal for 2013, walking and doing those 5Ks were a majority of the exercise I got. But since I’ve discovered SoulCycle I’ve found that I love doing that workout. So 5Ks have faded a bit into the background for me.
Also, those races are expensive. Each one is about $30-40. I do dream of doing the Disneyland 5K one day, and that one is even more expensive. So I’m choosing to be more selective in order to do that.
As of right now, my first race is about a month away. I haven’t trained for it as much as I did last year, so I’m a little nervous about it. I’m going to get a ton of walking in soon when I go to New York with my sister-in-law. Hopefully that will help. And I’m going to start training for it in my neighborhood as well (somehow, this next race has kind of snuck up on me).
And of course, as soon as I do my races, I’ll post my photos and stories on here! But don’t be surprised if I don’t have as many stories to share this year as I did last year.
Posted onNovember 12, 2013|Comments Off on 5K #8 (or I Conquered The Big Hill)
This past Sunday was 5K #8, the weSPARK 5K at Universal Studios. This was my 3rd year doing this race, so I felt pretty prepared for it. This was also the end of my crazy 2 weeks doing 3 5Ks.
On Saturday after my work shift, I drove out to the valley to pick up my race number.
I noticed while I was picking up my number that the race course was different from the past 2 years. This year, I wouldn’t get to walk past Bates Motel/House (where I worked at Halloween Horror Nights for 3 years). There was also some changes to the giant hill. The start/finish in the past were right next to the hill, so you went down it at the start of the race and up it at the very end. This year, the hill was toward the end of the course. You went up it and immediately down it toward the finish line. Also, in the past there was a flat street that you walked on in the middle of the uphill, this year it was during the downhill.
I was a little annoyed by the course changes, but since I knew this course had the hill, I wasn’t planning on worrying about my time so much this race. I got my PR a week prior and this time all I wanted to focus on was taking one break on the uphill (the last year I took 2 breaks).
The morning of the race was very cold, but bright and sunny.
I knew it would warm up quickly so I wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt or long-sleeved shirt. Before I knew it, the different groups were getting organized by the starting line. I found the area for 5K walkers and got a quick before picture in.
The race this year started by going next to the LA River. It isn’t very pretty, but it’s relatively flat. Next we went past Amblin/Dreamworks. There were security guards yelling at everyone that there were no pictures allowed, so I couldn’t get a picture of the E.T. crossing sign like last year.
Next, we headed to the backlot sets. We went past the courthouse from “Back To The Future” and there was one of the DeLorean out there for a photo-op. There was a huge line, so I took a photo while walking past it.
We did more walking around the backlot and sound stages (I was focused on walking and didn’t take any pictures for this part). And before I knew it, the giant hill was approaching.
It starts out like this.
You go around a corner and think you are getting close and then there are about 4 sections that look like this.
It was a much longer hill than the past years (due to not walking through the Bates Motel/House section). We also walked up to the top of the hill instead of stopping toward the top where the finish line used to be. My hips were killing me and I was pretty out of breath, but I kept going. And before I knew it, I saw where everyone was turning around. I seriously appreciated the cheering section at the top of the hill by the water station. I turned around to go back down the hill without ever taking a break!
On the way back down, I noticed a golf cart heading by me. Lea Thompson, who was the celebrity who started the race, was in the back of the cart and waved right at me. Of course I took the opportunity for a picture while I walked behind her.
I’m kind of curious to see how the official race that was taken at this moment will look.
We walked through the little Europe section and I knew I had to be close to the finish line. I looked at my watch at realized that I was going to finish either right at or right under an hour. That’s significantly faster than I though I could do with the hill.
Finally, I made it to the end! My watch said 59:37, but I know that I started it a little early and stopped it a little late. So I went over to where the printed official race results were posted (which, by the way, I love that this is being done at the race now).
59:27! Another 5K in under an hour! It’s only about a minute slower than the Hard Rock Cafe 5K and that one was on a very flat course!
I got a quick victory photo with my medal.
I’m so happy that I got 5K #8 done and with an amazing time! My next (and probably last) 5K for the year isn’t for a few weeks, so I have time to recover and hopefully get a bit faster. But for now, here’s to #8!
Giving Fitbit Another Chance (or Doing Laps Around My Living Room)
