Total Body Tone [TIU]

Happy Halloween!! I LOVE Halloween -- I love finding the perfect costume, getting dressed up and seeing what everyone else has cleverly thrown together. Which is why I'm super disappointed that I've pretty much missed Halloween this year. Last weekend's wedding and this weekend's camping trip have knocked out both Hallo-weekends, and tonight is 'madly prep for the camping trip' night. There are tons of errands to run, firewood to obtain, bags to pack and food to prep so that we can get out of here in a timely fashion tomorrow. Last year we didn't prep properly, spent 3 hours running around looking for a fire pit (we went to three home depots. THREE) because the one we had ordered off Amazon got rerouted due to Sandy and we needed something to cook on, didn't end up leaving until almost 10 PM, arrived just before midnight, and had to set up our tents in complete blackness because they turned the lights off at 12. I was thisclose to turning around and going home. But I didn't, we had fun, and I learned my lesson: advanced planning! So here I am now, sacrificing my Halloween to make oatmeal cakes so I don't starve to death. Sigh. At least I got away with wearing my Ninja Turtles shirt to work today.

Only a little bit of time to work out today due to the afore-mentioned errands and baking, so I did a quick toning routine in the 20 minute intervals my oatmeal cakes were baking in. Routine is from ToneItUp, a special Halloween workout.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 5. Busy busy busy!

Sore Areas: Hamstrings, a little

Yesterday: Short jog

Environment: indoors, at home, on carpet, oatmeal in the oven...

Workout
Equipment: None!
Work Time: 35:00

	Goal	Actual*
Exercise Name	Reps - Weight [type]	Set 1: Reps - Weight [type]	Set 2: Reps - Weight [type]	Set 3: Reps - Weight [type]
Crab Walk	8 steps forward, 8 back x4	8/8 x4	8/8 x4	8/8 x4
Plank Pike-Ups	20	20	20	20
Lunge + Twist	20/side	20/side	20/side	20/side
Bridges [slow]	20	20	20	20
Spider Pushups	10	10	10	10

*Color key: green = accomplished goal, blue = exceeded goal, yellow = did not meet goal

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 5
Stretch Time: 0:00
Total Time: 35:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 2
Sore Areas: Hamstrings

Comments
Workout wasn't as hard as I was hoping to get, but something is better than nothing! And those spider pushups were killer in the moment although they didn't leave me sore the day after.

Distance Run - 3.65 mi

Kickball day! Which means no time for a real workout, but since I'm still working off the massive amounts of butter I ingested over the weekend (and I slacked yesterday) I need to do *something*. So, I'll run to the kickball fields! They're less than 2 miles away, but if I turn right instead of left and head up the hill before I go down to the fields, plus run a bit beyond and come back I can stretch that to 4, which is a completely reasonable distance for a proper workout.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 3

Sore Areas: Hamstrings

Yesterday: Happy hour!

Environment: outside!

Workout
Equipment: None!
Work Time: 33:00


Distance: 3.65 mi
Time: 33:00
Avg Pace: 9:02/mi

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 4
Stretch Time: 0:00
Total Time: 35:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 2
Sore Areas: Hamstrings

Comments
My hamstrings were much sorer than I originally thought they were, which meant I was not moving nearly as fast as I had planned. That, coupled with the fact I got out of my house about 5 minutes later than I should have meant I had to cut the run short since I wanted to make it to kickball on time. Oh well, at least I got in something.

I laugh sometimes though - 3 years ago or so I would have considered running 3 1/2 miles a massive accomplishment. Back then, 3 was pretty much the norm, and more often than not I took a puppy playtime break about a mile in (we would run by the park and he'd get so excited!). Now, I'm disappointed in myself if I don't make it at least 5, but 6 is better, and more often than not I'm the one dragging the pup through those last miles. Sometimes I get distracted and run more, although 10 is my max and I've only done that a couple of times (I have better things to do than devote that much time to running, thankyouverymuch).

25:00 Incline Treadmill + Butt Tone

Still having weird outside-the-shin issues that I blame on that drunken Satuday hike. So, obviously, to test my theory, I'm going to do a incline treadmill workout. If I can feel those muscles hurt, that's what I'm going to blame. If not, well, blame the gremlins?

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 3

Sore Areas: pseduo-shin splints

Yesterday: Biking. Cardio!

Environment: indoors

Workout
Equipment: Incline Treadmill

Minutes	Intensity: MPH	Incline: ° [time]	Total Distance (mi.)*
0:00 - 3:00	3.5	6.0 [1:00] 12.0 [1:00] 18.0 [1:00]	~.18
3:01 - 5:30	3.0	24.0 [1:00] 30.0 [1:00] 6.0 [:30]	~.3
5:31 - 8:00	3.5	6.0 [:30] 12.0 [1:00] 18.0 [1:00]	~.44
8:01 - 23:00	3.0 [2:30] 3.5 [2:30] x3	24.0 [1:00] 30.0 [1:00] 6.0 [1:00] 12.0 [1:00] 18.0 [1:00] x3	~1.26
3201 - 25:00	3.0	24.0 [1:00] 30.0 [1:00]	~1.36
Total: 15:00	3.26 [avg]	18.8 [avg]	1.36 mi [1200 vert. m]

Toning Bonus:

Exercise	Reps
Bridge	30
Side Leg Lift	20/side
Side 'Clam' Lift	20/side
Bridge + Sway	30
Table Position Hamstring Curl	20/side
Table Position Leg Raise	20/side

Blogilates - Perky Butt + Long Lean Legs
Blogilates - What Makes You Bootyful

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 1
Sore Areas: none

Comments
Well, either it wasn't the hike or the walk worked out the last of the soreness, because my legs don't hurt at all. A little bummed though - I would have thought my hamstrings would have hurt at least a little bit. Especially since the two mini butt workouts I did were killer - I could barely bridge by the end! Better luck next time, I guess.

40:00 Bike

This past weekend a bundle of friends and I rented a cabin down in the valley to drink and be merry. We hiked, we hot-tubbed, we drove 40 minutes to find whipped cream... it was great! I even got to bring the dog along -- he met his very first deer. Wanted very much to chase it down, sadly he was leashed and that was definitely not going to happen. What, dog, did you think you would do if you actually caught up to said deer? Probably be kicked in the face.

We even got an actual 'camping-like' experience in that when we returned from our zillion mile hike the power had gone out. It wasn't even raining or anything! Such is life on a mountain, I guess. The neighbors were like 'oh no worries, this happens all the time!' Thankfully it came back on before I had to work Sunday morning (gross).

On our way home we stopped by a winery for a few hours which is, apparently, a Thing. I guess I've never really considered it before, but it never occurred to me that driving to a winery and hanging out was a viable Plan for an afternoon. Like, I understand showing up, doing a tasting, maybe getting a tour or something, buying and leaving, but lounging around on Adirondack chairs with a picnic is weird to me. Maybe it was just cuz I had to DD. Dislike, but someone's got to do it.

But the time I got home last night I was so exhausted I didn't even make it to halftime of the late football games! 9 PM bedtime for this girl. Even dog was tired - I went to take him out for his bedtime walk and he looked at me like I was insane. But the weekend was most excellent, I was really happy with the way all the food turned out and it was great to hang out with my friends in the woods.

Monday was back to my usual self and trying to work off the immense amount of beer and wine and food I ate all weekend, except for the fact that hike left me with sore... shin splints? Ish? Like, outside of the shin splints. To the bike!

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 4

Sore Areas:outside shins

Yesterday:driving, wine-ing, french-toast-ing

Environment: Indoors

Workout
Equipment: Stationary Bike
Level: 16/15
Work Time: 40:00

Minutes	Intensity: RPM	Total Distance (mi)
0:00 - 3:00	70 [lvl 16]
3:01 - 5:00	80 [lvl 16]
5:01 - 6:00	90 [lvl 16]
6:00 - 6:30	100+ [lvl 16]	1.84
6:31 - 19:30	Repeat 0:00 - 6:30 x2	+ 2.00 = 3.84 + 1.99 = 5.83
19:31 - 22:30	75 [lvl 15]
22:31 - 24:30	85 [lvl 15]
24:31 - 25:30	95+ [lvl 15]
25:31 - 26:00	110+ [lvl 15]	+ 2.03 = 7.86
26:01 - 39:00	Repeat 19:31 - 26:00 x2	+ 2.01 = 9.87 +2.03 = 11.90
39:00 - 40:00	40 [lvl 15]	+ .1 = 12.0
Total: 40:00	3:20 min/mi.	12.0

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 3
Stretch Time: 0:00
Total Time: 60:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 2
Sore Areas:  Salves, still

Comments
Not my best bike of all time, but not too bad either. Got the extra burny-ness from the increased level for the first few rounds -- I doubt I'm allowed to go back to straight level 15 now that's I've started doing 16. You can tell the difference though, there's definitely a lot more effort involved and getting to the same RPM is Hard.

Probably should have stretched some... oh well!

5.5 mi Hike

No gym today - I'm in the mountains! Sort of. Or a valley. Not really sure which. But my friends and I rented a cabin in the Wilderness and decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather (and the fact the government reopened, thus reopening the national parklands) to go for a hike. Or a walk. Depends on how you look at it.

We started off strong -- had a nice mimosa breakfast, loaded up a backpack with beers, and set off for the trail! According to the map it was only like a mile, maaaaybe a mile and a half away. We could totally walk there, do the 2 mile trail around the woods, then walk home. Easy! Aside from the fact there are no sidewalks in the woods and we were walking literally down the middle of the road (CAR! *scatter*), getting weird looks from all the locals, everything seemed great. We did lose a party member about 150 yards from our front door, but hiking isn't really her thing, so we pushed on!

Fast forward an hour: we still hadn't reached the trail head. So much for maps.We also hadn't counted on the fact we were walking up a mountain. Slowly. Walking. So slowly.

We did eventually find the trail head, but at that point we were Done. And we still had to make it back. And the trail was closed! Regardless, we figured we were There so we should at least set foot on the trail -- we walked it about a tenth of a mile, climbing over felled trees and down a creek bed (maybe the trail blockade was right?) and actually ended up running into the Appalachian Trail. We took photos, someone explained to me at length that people actually do walk the trail for weeks at a time, setting up their tent wherever (why would you do this?). Like, on the side of the trail. Or in the middle of the trail. Am I the only one that thinks that's weird? What if there are other people and you're all camped out in the middle of everything, takin up all the space? How rude.

After we found the App Trail we turned around and booked it home so we'd make it there before dark. We made it, only to find out that we didn't have any electricity. So we ate chips and salsa on the patio until it came back and we could check on the crock pots. Not a bad day.

We mapped our walk when we got home and discovered it was actually over 2 miles from our cabin to the trail head, give or take. Plus whatever off-roading we did on the trail. And it was nearly 1000 vertical feet. No wonder we were tired!

Blogilates - Abs/Cardio

Yesterday was a rainy, disgusting fail. Didn't get up early to do my abs like I promised myself, didn't work out after work since I was full of sore and crabbiness. But, some days you just need a rest, right? Right.

But today was infinitely better - I worked from home! I love working from home - it lets me get so much more done over the course of my day. Since a lot of my job involves solving other people's immediate problems, if there's a period where there aren't any problems I don't have much to do. When this happens in the office, I stare out the window or try to stealthily check Facebook (or update this blog...). When it happens while I'm at home, I Get Shit Done. Laundry, dishes, dog-walking, post-office-ing, and working out! Today I decided that whenever I got bored, I would do one Blogilates video. By the end of the day, I had managed to do like 6 of them. Saved me the time/effort of actually going to the gym and meant I made it to the bar before the Bears game started. Horray!

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 3

Sore Areas: Upper back.

Yesterday: Does flipcup count? It's kind of like wall-sitting...

Environment: Indoors. Dog gets really excited every time I get up because he thinks we're going outside. Sorry dog! It's monsooning!

Workout
Warmup: none
Equipment: none
Work Time: ~45:00

Blogilates - Spring Fling 2: Fat Loss! [10:00]
Blogilates - Abs All Night [5:00]
Blogilates - Corset Workout [10:00]
Blogilates - Intense Ab Workout [10:00]

Blogilates - 100 Burpee Burnout [10:00]

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 3
Stretch Time: 0:00
Total in-Gym Time: 0:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]:4
Sore Areas: Traps/neck, lower back

Comments
Ok, so 5, not 6, but still a good workout! Although I meant to do more - I was aiming for one an hour. Stupid work got in the way. Those burpees were especially hard - I have a blister on my hand from  my hardwood floors! And today I'm super sore, maybe the intense cardio death workout I had planned for today will have to change...

Blogilates - Upper Body

I spent a solid two hours explaining to my sister about how surprisingly effective Pilates is as a workout while we were drinking last week, so I've got to continue putting my muscles where my mouth is. I've decided that if I manage to work out 5 times a week, I can do upper body one day, lower another, cardio twice (maybe with toning!), and maaaaaaybe a plyometrics workout. Abs I'm going to try and fit in whenever I have cardio days, because those need the most work. Well, abs and triceps. And whatever the areas around the bra band are. And... probably some other stuff. More cardio!

Originally I had planned to do some lower body lifting today, but I'm sorer that I thought from yesterday's extravaganza so I'm switching lower and upper body days.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 2

Sore Areas: Hamstrings/Quads

Yesterday: Bike + Tone

Environment: Indoors. Barefoot! Need to vacuum again. Gross.

Workout
Warmup: 
Equipment: Dumbbells [10 lb]
Work Time: ~45:00

Blogilates - Bikini Blaster 7: Back & Shoulders
Blogilates - Arms on Fire
Blogilates - Never Ever Getting Back Together
Blogilates - Primadonna Pushup Challenge

Blogilates - Backless Dress Workout

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 3
Stretch Time: 0:00
Total in-Gym Time: 0:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 2
Sore Areas: Upper back

Comments
This was my attempt at getting through the workout regime for Oct 10, but I got to the primadonna challenge and it was like NOPE, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. So I subbed in the backless dress w.o. instead, which is super easy and one of my favorites. Still makes you burn though!

Again, I didn't get in an ab work today. Fail whale! I need to fit that in since I haven't done it in for-ev-er. Tomorrow it shall be done! Even if I have to do it in the morning. Ick.

39:00 Bike + Tone

It's been a CRAZY few weeks, which explains why I haven't been able to post much more than what routines I've been done. September was a ridiculous work month - damn the end of the fiscal year! We had a deadline to move our entire application from those servers to these servers, which I was primarily in charge of. Thank Zeus it went off mostly without a hitch, and they seem to be running along just swimmingly now!

Of course right after I did that I toddled off to Munich for Oktoberfest, and let's be honest -- there wasn't a *ton* of exercising going on there. I did manage to walk a few miles every day though, that counts, right? Right!

I have to be in another bikini in t-minus 11 days, which means I'm going to make working out a priority this and next week. It'll be tough -- I've got a wedding to attend this weekend and it's BF and my anniversary, but I think I can work off the beer weight in time. To get started: a biking and toning workout originally inspired by ToneItUp's 'Itty Bitty Bikini Cardio'; at this point I feel like I've amped it up to the millionth degree, so I almost consider it allllll mine.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 4

Sore Areas: calves, joints

Yesterday: 10 cramped hours on an airplane - yuck!

Environment: Indoors, surprisingly warm for October...

Workout
Equipment: Stationary Bike, dumbbells - 15 lbs
Level: 16/15
Work Time: 60:00

Minutes	Intensity: RPM	Total Distance (mi)
0:00 - 3:00	79 [lvl 16]
3:01 - 5:00	87 [lvl 16]
5:01 - 6:00	95 [lvl 16]
6:00 - 6:30	103+ [lvl 16]	2.21
<BREAK>	Side Lunge - 12/side Dead Lift + Bent-Over Row - 15 x 15 lbs Upright Row - 15 x 15 lbs	✔
6:31 - 9:30	79 [lvl 16]
9:31 - 11:30	86 [lvl 16]
11:31 - 12:30	95 [lvl 16]
12:31 - 13:00	103+ [lvl 16]	+ 2.19 = 4.40
<BREAK>	Bicep Curl + Shoulder Press - 15 x 15 lbs Tricep Dip + Kick - 10/leg Pushups - 12 Plank + Tucks - 40	✔
13:01 - 16:00	79 [lvl 16]
16:01 - 18:00	85 [lvl 16]
18:01 - 19:00	95 [lvl 16]
19:01 - 19:30	103+ [lvl 16]	+ 2.14 = 6.54
<BREAK>	[Side Plank + Arc Touch - 30 Starfish Side Plank - 10] - each side Plank + Spiderman Tuck - 20 Curtsy Lunge - 10/side	✔
19:30 - 39:00	Repeat 0:00 - 19:30 [lvl 15]	+ 2.05 = 8.59 ✔ + 2.07 = 10.66 ✔ +2.11 = 12.77 ✔
Total: 39:00	3:03 min/mi.	12.77

Post
Energy Level [1-5]:4
Stretch Time: 10:00
Total Time: 75:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 2
Sore Areas:  Hamstrings

Comments
Totally crushed it! I thought I would struggle because of all the crap I've been doing for the past couple days, plus I haven't done level 16 in... oh... about forever, but the first two circuits were awesome! The third didn't go so well, which I why I dropped down the resistance for the second time through. But even on my 'normal' resistance I pushed and got higher distances than usual - horray!

My only fail on the day was that I had intended to do some ab work after my cardio, but I was just too exhausted. I'll have to fit in in another day! Must be done!

The day after my legs were unsurprisingly sore, so I'll focus on upper body.