Wall Sit Torture

Yes it may look like an innocent red, plastic plate, but it can take your wall sits to a whole new level! 

Last night our strength trainer told us that he was lying in bed the night before thinking about how he could make the wall sit harder. Gee, thanks Omar! 

At the gym they have these flexible, plastic discs called gliders that we've used to make push ups more intense (do you sense a trend on the trainers wanting to make things harder?!?!) last night we used them to make our wall sits nearly unbearable! 

You could do it at home with a plastic or paper plate. Get into your wall sit - legs should be at a 90 degree angle, back & shoulders against the wall, looking straight ahead. 

Then step your heel onto the plate - only one heel as I assure you your feet will go right out from underneath you if you attempt both. Also only your heel should be on the plate - it does no good to have your entire foot or front of your foot on the plate. 

We did this exercise in a sequence of other squat exercises, holding this position for 1 min at a time. If doing alone, hold on one side for 1 minute, rest 30 secs - 1 minute, then switch sides. We did 4 minutes total - 2 minutes each leg! 

Feel the burn! I sure do today doing this again long enough to take these pictures! 

Summary Saturday

Ugh! This week was not a good one for me for training. I really dropped the ball. It goes to show that my training is really a 2 person job. I need my hubby around to help keep me on track - not that he has to be my cheerleader to get me out the door - he is just so great about being available to help with the boys so I can stay on my schedule. He left on Sunday for a work conference until Friday. That was 5 naps & 5 betimes I did myself this week. The getting ready for school, preparing meals, taking walks to the park, etc. are the easy part with toddlers - getting them ready for naps & bed is a whole other ball game - an utterly exhausting one!

Enough complaining! Here was my pitiful week in training:

Training

Sunday -  started to rearrange the bedrooms to get ready for the big boy beds to arrive. Although not an official workout, after about the 8th set of stairs I did carrying bed parts down to the basement storage I started to feel it so I'm calling this a stair workout day!

Monday - Nothing :-(

Tuesday - Nothing :-(

Wednesday - National Running Day (See my post here about NRD) - run 4.2k of hill repeats strength training - upper body & core, I'm pretty sure I did close to 200 push ups. I need to work on my plank. I can barely hold it for longer than a minute!

Thursday - Nothing :-(

Friday - Nothing :-( I was going to go on a run when the hubby came home, but I was exhausted from going on a pre-school field trip with the twins that morning.

Saturday - I got to sleep in on a Saturday for probably the only time in the next 4+ months. The hubby and I signed up with some other people from our running group for The Moon in June 10k in Burlington, Ontario. I'll do a race recap in another post. It was fun! I have never ran that late at night before and I realized I had never raced a 10k so I have a new personal best time of 57:20!

At the Starting Line!

Web Find

I was on the search for something for the twins to make for Father's Day. Last year we made these cute hand cards and picture frame. I think I may do the pictures again (if I can find my letters - they are some place) as it would be cute to see them as they grow through the years. 

We made these little cards as well last year. 

Searching Pinterest for ideas for this year I came across this car shirt. Daddy wears it and the boys can play cars on his back giving him a nice "massage"! There is a printable template here at The Blue Basket

The Blue Basket: Car Shirt

Goals for this week

• Get completely back on track with training now that the hubby is back in town
• Schedule my gait analysis with the certificate I have from a silent auction
• Plan a fun Father's Day for the hubby!

What plans do you have for Father's Day? Do you do homemade gifts or store bought?

Have a great week!

National Running Day

I know I'm a day late, National Running Day was yesterday June 5th. But in my defense I didn't run until last evening, I'm a single Mommy this week, and does "national" mean the U.S.? because I'm currently living in Canada! :-)

I always chuckle when I see "Today is National _____ Day" posts on Facebook. They are usually silly ones like National Peanut Day or National Wash your Dog Day. I've never participated in a National ____ Day. But I am all for a National Running Day. I have a babysitter planned for every Wednesday so I can run and the hubby can golf. I was really looking forward to the sitter coming so I could get out and run since I missed the group run and workout on Monday night due to the hubby being out of town.

Of course one of the twins had to have an epic meltdown when the babysitter arrived and used every heart wrenching plea in the book to get me to stay: "Mommy I NEED you!", "Mommy I will miss you!" "Mommy please don't leave me!", etc. Ugh! 

I finally left the house and a short while later got this nice note from the babysitter! She may have been lying just to make me feel better (although she assured me when I got home she wasn't - he really did settle down) but I don't care - it made me feel better and helped me have a good run! I swear 3 is the new terrible 2!

My National Running Day/Night run was a short one of 4.2k (2.5 miles) of hill repeats followed by an upper arm and core workout. I'm pretty sure that I did close to 200 push ups last night! I feel ok today, but tomorrow I may need a straw to get my coffee up to my mouth! 

The slogan of the gym we strength train at is "I Train my Body for Function not Fashion"! I love it! Of course I'm not going to complain if I start getting the look of toner muscles and my clothes fit a bit better, but I do all this running and strength training to feel healthy physically and mentally!

Did you get out for a run for National Running Day? What other National ______ Days do you celebrate? 

Summary Saturday

Happy June! I really like the month of June - Last day of School, Summer officially begins, and the weather isn't quite too horribly hot yet.

We have been having some pretty amazing weather her in the Toronto area - a true spring I would say. We started our week out with a Geocache adventure (see my original Geocache post here) and hike. I sought out a cache in a trail area I often run in as it dips down quite below street level and has a river/creek that runs through it. I thought the boys would love it. Unfortunately we couldn't find the cache. It was suppose to be in-between the upper and lower trails. Both the hubby and I scaled the hill and couldn't find it. The GPS kept saying we were right on top of it, but we couldn't see it. It's possible someone took it or it was misplaced - but the online log said it was last found on May 20th. Bummer. . .

The boys were tired from the walk down (we should have brought the wagon with) so we need to abandon our search and head back to the car. We went the opposite direction of the car and came out of the trail in a different neighborhood. Ooops! Instead of going back in with two tired and hungry toddlers I decided to run on the street back to the car and pick them up. I got quite the unexpected workout in that day!

Hike & Geocache find attempt

Training

Sunday -  60+ min hike and 2k run to fetch the car for tired & hungry toddlers :-)

Monday - run = speed work 15 min WU, 3 min fast/2 min cool down, 15 min CD
strength training =  intense leg workout! I'm pretty sure we did about 150 squats - half of them holding a 20lb weight in each had, 5+ minutes of wall sits holding the 40lbs of weight, & stationary lunges! Ouch!

Tuesday - 60 minutes of much need restorative yoga

Wednesday - run = hill repeats 20 min WU, 3 x 75 second hills, 20 min CD
strength training = upper body & core
Pub Night - some would call us a breakfast (on Saturdays) and happy hour group with a running problem! I just call us fun!

Thursday - Took the boys to the fitness gym's outdoor pool for the first time. While it wasn't an official workout - we all fell asleep very quickly at bedtime. Swimming, fresh air and the hot sun was a perfect combination to wear us all out!

Friday - Another trip to the outdoor pool. This time the hubby came with. During the mandatory 15 minute break the kids had to take out of the pool I swam laps. Whew! I'm out of shape for swimming! It was only 15 minutes, but I feel like I ran a 5k! I don't see a triathlon in my future any time soon!

Saturday - 16k long run - which according to our watches was actually closer to 17k (10.5 miles). It was hot and humid when we stepped out the door. Something we will have to get used to training in the summer months. Ugh! I don't like humid running weather.

Web Find

I follow quite a few fitness and running Mommies on Instagram. One in particular @hausofgirls posts a miles challenge each month. I've never officially participated, but I saw it exactly on the 1st of the month so I thought I would give it a try. This month is #56milesinjune - They can be running or walking miles. I put in 10.5 already and will our mileage getting up there this month I think 56 miles will be no problem. Click here to follow Haus of Girls - Fit Family on Facebook. 

Goals for the Week

* Survive the week with the hubby traveling Sunday - Friday for work

* Research some Father's Day crafts for the twins to make

* Finish some looming projects - hang pictures in my craft room, display summer bucket list, get twins' big boy bedrooms set up

Do you have any mileage goals for the month of June? Any ideas for me for Father's Day crafts?!?! 

Have a great week!

Summary Saturday

I'm a day off! Eeek! Not a good start to my weekly summaries! It's been a busy weekend. My Mom has been visiting since Tuesday and the weather has been gorgeous so we have been outside a lot! 

Training

Monday - run: 40 min run with hill repeats. Elizabeth Primrose came out to discuss running form for our running group. Click here for the recap on that. 
strength training: legs, lots of squats & lunges!

Tuesday - off day - drove my cousin & his wife to Buffalo airport and picked up my Mom

Wednesday - run: 40 min run with hill repeats with my Mom! We did hill repeats again because I only got one set in on Monday night because of the running form part. 
strength training: upper body & core. Tonight was low weight, high intensity circuits. My Mom joined us and did great! 

Thursday - off

Friday - 7k easy run

Saturday - 12k long easy run

Web Find

We hosted a few running friends over for Saturday night steak dinner (when we are home on Saturday nights we cook steak). I was looking for some spring/summer recipes. Of course I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I found a great recipe for a hummus layered dip I want to share. It's really easy and the flavors make it taste like it was so much harder to prepare than it really was. I highly recommend it!

Layered Hummus Dip from therightrecipe.org

Layered Hummus Dip Recipe

Ingredients

16 oz container of your favorite hummus - I used a roasted garlic flavor
equal amounts (I did around 3/4 cups each) of diced tomatoes, diced red onion, chopped kalamata olives & diced cucumber
1/4 - 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
tablespoon fresh dill 

Directions

Spread the hummus evenly on a platter - I used a cake stand like the picture from therightrecipe.org. Mix tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives & cucumber in a bowl. Spread evenly over hummus. Sprinkled feta cheese crumbles over top then fresh dill. I cut off a couple sprigs of the dill and used a kitchen scissors to chop the dill over the dip.

Serve with pita chips! Enjoy!

Goals for the Week

* I really need to get my nutrition back on track. My Mom is a healthy eater, but I feel like we drank more than usual - toasting her visit and the fabulous weather we were having. 

* With not feeling the greatest last week I did not wake up before the boys any morning. I really enjoyed that time so I need to start that again.

* Run again on my own on either Thursday or Friday. I have been only running 3 days a week since that's all the group meets for - but running this Friday morning with my Mom felt really good. I also know that will benefit my training for the marathon.

Do you have any weekly food traditions like Meatless Mondays or Saturday night Steaks? How many days a week do you run when training for a long distance race?

Strength Training

It is more than acceptable to be just a runner! I was for a very long time. However, if you do any research on long distance running you will undoubtably read that your endurance and speed will improve if you add strength workouts to your training schedule. I added strength workouts to my training in January of 2012. I strongly believe that those workouts along with my consistent running with the group have made my running so much stronger! Since starting the strength training I took 8 minutes off my half marathon time, 5 mins off my 30k race time, and nearly 10 lbs off the scale. It's hard to argue with those results!

The group I run with worked out a deal with a crossfit gym in Oakville called Primal Athletics. It's a bare bones gym with nothing more than barbells, bench presses, & pull up bars. But it has two amazing coaches that have tailored two workouts a week to our running group. On Monday nights we focus on legs and Wednesday nights we focus on upper body and core. 

strength training workout - I'm in the blue!

Each workout is 45 minutes. The gym typically puts it's members through a warm up time, but our group runs for 40-50 mins prior to the session so we usually get right into the work out. At first we mostly used our own body as resistance. It's amazing what great of a workout you can get with nothing more than your body! Squats, lunges, plank, push ups, wall sits, etc. As time has gone on and we have gotten stronger we have added weights in. 

Example of adding weight: 

beginner me - wall sit with just my body
stronger me - wall sit holding a 15 lb weight in each hand 

beginner me - walking lunges with just my body

stronger me - walking lunges holding a 25 lb plate

beginner me - squats with just my body

stronger me - squats holding a 35 lb kettle ball

How many reps do you do?

Remember, getting up to these weights has taken me over a year of doing this strength training 2 times a week. Some weeks days feel better than others and I can push myself a bit farther. At the end of the workout I feel amazing! I sleep better and overall feel so much better about myself. I have really accomplished some great for just me! Which as a Mommy to twin boys is a great thing to have 2 days a week! This strength training as really strengthen my running. My legs don't get fatigued nearly as fast as they used to. I also feel that it has kept me injury free. . . KNOCK ON WOOD!  An added bonus is that I notice my physical appearance toning. My arms, back and chest are not quite as flabby as the couple years post twins. I'm working on my belly, but that's being done with nutrition. You can do a million sit ups and still not get a flat belly -it's a fact! Belly fat isn't lost in the gym, it's lost on your plate. What you eat and drink effects your belly fat. My plan is to work on that this summer and fall leading up to Chicago Marathon with the nutrition plan from one of the coaches at this gym. 

I would not do any of these kinds of workouts if it wasn't for this gym or going with my running group. I am someone that needs peer pressure and accountability to motivate me. I'm so thankful to have the running group and the coaches at Primal to do both for me! 

Do you do regular strength training? Have you always with your running? What benefits do you notice?