Under Armour

Friday Five – Great cause, Burpees and other stuff

January 31, 2014 by Michelle 17 Comments

Hello Friday!

Coffee cup in hand and dog by my feet and a little this and that coming your way….

Stop Stroke Shuffle — Dani over at Weight Off My Shoulders is hosting the Stop Stroke Shuffle 5k virtual race. Dani is once again representing Tedy’s Team at the Boston Marathon and raising money for the American Stroke Association. Proceeds from this virtual race will go towards Dani’s goal of raising $5,000. I plan to run this in honor of my grandfather. Click on the cute medal below to join in!

#FFBurpee 1000 Burpee Challenge — OK I’ll admit this is a tough one for me….I loathe burpees! They’re hard and truthfully I’m not very good at doing them, but they are effective.

FitFluential is teaming up with Under Armour for this challenge – the goal is to complete 1,000 burpees by February 28th. No that’s not a typo…1,000! Need some extra incentive? How about a complete outfit from Under Armour…not to mention the positive effects on your physique! Check out the details HERE and join me (I’ll need the encouragement 🙂 )

Race Bait & Switch — Have you ever registered for a race only to have the race director announce just days before the start that there’s now a pace restriction? Yep! When I registered for this 5-miler last month there was no mention of needing to maintain a particular pace, yet in the race director’s email yesterday he casually mentions that they’re facing time constraints and runners should plan to maintain a <9 min pace or drop down to the newly added 5K. Not cool in my book! I had already decided to take a pass because this head cold has made speedwork non-existent.

Super Bowl — As a diehard football fan I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that Super Bowl Sunday is just days away. I still haven’t gotten over my beloved Patriots’ u-g-l-y loss in the AFC Championship game. But, we do love football in the RWA household so I will be making jambalaya for the event (it’s tradition), and cheering on the Seahawks! Any traditional Super Bowl dishes in your house?

…oh and don’t forget the Bulu Box deal ends today!

Filed Under: #FFBurpee, Friday Five, general musings, race, Under Armour

Monday Motivation – Fall Training Begins

July 15, 2013 by Michelle 5 Comments

The fall race schedule is shaping up to be a busy one – let the training begin! #AllforFall

What will you start today?

Filed Under: #13in2013, #IWill, fall racing, half marathon training, Monday Motivation

Missed goal – #WhatsBeautiful Update

June 7, 2013 by Michelle 14 Comments

As you know I’ve been participating in Under Armour’s “What’s Beautiful” campaign. I’ve been hard at work on my stated goal:

“Focus on speedwork, strength training and core work so I can own new PRs for the 10K and the half marathon; and most of all, be a stronger version of myself!”

My first chance to achieve part of that goal was running Boston’s Run to Remember…. but I fell short of my target by 2 minutes.

My stomach went south around mile 8 and despite my best effort I couldn’t overcome those lousy two minutes!

So what do you do when you fail to reach your goal?

Have a pity party? Question how hard you trained? Take time off? All of the above?

Well I’m having none of that! I’m choosing to …. Assess, re-group and get going! While I’m ticked off that I missed my goal, there are some good lessons to take from the race and training cycle to help fuel me as I get ready to go after my goal again:

During this training cycle I ended up not running enough longer runs with RP miles – in part because of the timing of other races I had on the schedule and because of a cranky ITB
Once I started paying attention to the strength exercises Coach Bennett gave me for my IT, the IT became a non-issue in my training and in the race.
Looking at my splits I can see that my time on the track is starting to pay off.
While there was more core and strength work during this cycle, this is still a weak link for me.

So as I go after my 10Ks this summer and start training for my fall half marathons, I WILL:

Put in more long runs with RP miles
Keep doing the exercises my Coach gave me
Continue to hit the track and hills for speed
Be consistent in my core and strength work
Find new nutrition game plan – while I treated every long run as a dress rehearsal for my races in terms of fueling something’s going terribly wrong on race day. So I’m starting from scratch here – I will keep a food journal and go back to trying new options pre-run. I will not let my stomach derail another race!

So what do you do when you fail to reach your goal?

Filed Under: #IWill, #WhatsBeautiful, goals, lessons learned, refocusing, Uncategorized, Under Armour

Under Armour Challenge – #WhatsBeautiful

May 8, 2013 by Michelle 4 Comments

Under Armour just launched their third What’s Beautiful campaign and I’m very psyched to be a part of it through FitFluential.

Under Armour’s What’s Beautiful is all about pushing limits and redefining the female athlete. This is for women who want to push past where they have been before — To put a goal out there and then go after it in a big way. It’s easy to get started, just declare your goal on the What’s Beautiful site and then get to it! You stay accountable and get extra motivation by accepting challenges and interacting with other participants. You can also team up with others who share similar goals for additional support and motivation.

My What’s Beautiful goal is:

Focus on speedwork, strength training and core work so I can own new PRs for the 10k and half marathon; and most of all, be a stronger version of myself.

For added motivation I also created Team Core Strength for anyone who wants to make building a strong core a key to their overall success – you can join my team here!

You can also keep up on what’s going on by following along on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #IWILL #WHATSBEAUTIFUL.

Are you ready to set some new goals or re-up your current ones? Join us as we redefine the female athlete. #IWILL.

Filed Under: #IWill, #WhatsBeautiful, FitFluential, goals, motivation, Team Core Strength, Under Armour