hiit workout | Love & Lunge

I am literally counting down the minutes over here until the weekend. It’s 9 days until my half and I’m taking this last weekend to celebrate before I start tapering. That means partying it up for one of my Philly girls’ birthdays with some of my girlfriends and getting my rest on, two things that I’m very much a fan of.

This week has been tough workout wise. I’ve started coming up with new routines for myself on days where I’m not running and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t kicking my own butt. I’m working on incorporating the training I learned from getting my NASM certification to build a solid plan for myself to really start seeing results. I built a pretty solid foundation with the BBG and I’m ready to turn it up a notch.

Which means more food, which really means more pancakes. And that, my friends, is one of the best things in the world.

Along with switching up my workout routine a little bit, I’ve been trying to get back to kickboxing. I’m going to be 100% honest with you guys and let you know I haven’t been to kickboxing in probably a good three weeks and it wasn’t because of lack of motivation.

I started resenting the instructor. I know that sounds really dramatic, but hear me out. The class schedule for the kickboxing gym I attend has a 5:45 am class, a 10 am class (which usually conflicts with meetings for me), a 4:30 pm class (still working), and a 7:00 class (I’m just not a night time workout type of girl). Now, I’m a morning person, but 5:45 means I have to get up at 5:15 to get ready and drive all the way there and that just isn’t something I’m willing to do the 3 days a week they list that as an option. Instead, I had just been going once a week to the 5:45 am class.

Now if I’m getting my butt up to go to class at 5:45, it had better be a good one. And this class just continually was not. We spent the first 15 minutes warming up, the next 10 punching the bag, the next 20 doing ab work on the floor, and the final 15 cooling down. So basically my heart rate went no where and while my abs were getting a kicking workout, that’s not why I paid the big bucks to go to a kickboxing gym. I went to BOX. To hit the darn bag. To get out that frustration. Finally, I realized it wasn’t worth it for me to be getting up this early and for me to be upset about it, so I stopped going.

Enter Wednesday.

I had an early morning meeting at 7:30, so instead of waking up and hitting the gym at the crack of dawn, I opted to sleep in and fit my workout into my lunch break. I realized that there was a kickboxing class at 10am that I could swing, so I laced up my shoes and headed out.

This class was just what I needed. We spent an appropriate amount of time warming up and then we got down to business. There were burpees. There were laps around the gym. There were squat jumps. There were intervals of speed punching and power punching. And at the end, I was out of my mind tired and sweaty, and I loved it.

But more than anything, I loved the mantra that the instructor kept instilling in us. “Why are you here” she was say over and over as we punched the bag. And it got me thinking. We’re all working out for different reasons, but something brings us to the gym every day. Something lights that fire that says, it’s time to do something for yourself. Going to the gym is a very selfish activity, but selfish in the best possible way.

The best part about the “why are you here” question? If you don’t like the answer, change it. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: not everyone works out the same way.

If you hate running, don’t run.

If you hate circuit workouts, choose something else.

If you hate working out alone, go to a class.

You have a million options and maybe you just haven’t found the perfect one for you yet, but when you ask yourself “Why are you here” and finally get that answer you’ve been looking for, you know you’re doing something right.

And I’ll leave you with an obligatory picture of the Boo getting her speed on. I have been taking her on runs lately since the weather has been so nice, and good god is she improving. Literally break neck pace over here.

-sj

Before we get to the hot topic I’ve been waiting to discuss, let’s do a little recon on what’s been going on over here in busyville. I got back from sweet home Chicago late on Tuesday and needed some time to decompress. That time relaxing was quickly cut short by a whole slew of work projects that came into my inbox rapid fire. By the end of the week, I was spent. But, between all of my 7 am meetings and multiple trips to and from FedEx Kinkos, I still managed to get a solid workout week in:

Monday: 3 mile run and 45 min. Ryder Class at CorePower (if you have the chance to take one of these…ooph, do it. The bike tilts 20 degrees each way so you really have to engage your core to keep it steady. It’s no joke. Also, shout out to my bff Heather who taught one kickin’ class)
Tuesday: 45 min cardio, 30 min legs
Wednesday: 10 mile run: 7.5 in the am, 2.5 at lunch
Thursday: 45 min cardio, 30 min arms
Friday: 1.5 mile warm-up, 3 miles of speed work (800 repeats at 6:39 pace), .5 mile cool down

Mileage total including Sunday’s 6 mile run: 24

Super glad to be home and even more excited about the weather actually turning around. More nice days means more time outside with the Boo playing her favorite game of fetch.

20160326_132623 (1) — She clearly knows how to work for what she wants. What a ferocious beast.

But enough about my workout week and the cutest puppy in the world, let’s flashback to Monday’s Bulls game. I hadn’t been to a Bulls game since I was a kid and was really excited to get to spend some time with my family and watch some good ole fashioned bball. There’s something that’s always more exciting about actually being at the game, so I was pumped. I was pumped until the family in front of me sat down.

It was a dad who had brought his tween daughter and her two friends. I didn’t think much of it when they first sat down, but as the first period started, it seemed like this was going to be a very interesting game…for their phones anyway.

Throughout the entire game, four whole periods of Bulls v. Kings action, the girls and the father sat on their phones. It was incredibly distracting and just downright sad. One girl, I kid you not, spent the first three periods coming up with a caption for her Instagram post. She would click on her picture, rotate it around, type something, delete it, and turn to her friends to ask for advice, then turn back to her phone only to type and delete caption after caption over and over. THREE PERIODS THIS LASTED. THAT’S 45 MINUTES OF DEREK ROSENESS.

And it didn’t stop there. They were constantly on Facebook and Snapchat as well. The worst part of the latter was that they weren’t even documenting their experience on Snapchat, they were watching their friends Stories. If they had any care about the game, they sure as hell didn’t show it.

I had a great time at the game and the Bulls won, but I walked away with a strange feeling. Why couldn’t they get off their phones? Do I spend that much time on my phone? How do I make sure I am living life in the moment and not so distracted by this mini-computer in my hand?

Now I’ve never been shy about my love of social media. I even dedicated a post to it recently, but I think we need to take a minute to remember that social media isn’t everything.

On one hand, it can be great. I love scrolling through my Instagram often for motivation, inspiration and the like, but on more than one occasion I have found myself comparing who I am to someone else. They could be faster than me, be able to lift more than me, be thinner than me, be more muscular than me, it doesn’t matter. It trips me up though and can often make me think I’m not working hard enough. What I’m failing to remember though, is that everyone is more than what they show on their social media page.

Social media is a great way to get to know one aspect of a person. The beauty of it is that you get to choose what you put out there and what image of yourself you want to give off. But that also makes it very one dimensional. Next time you’re clicking through someones page, remember that there is more to them than meets the eye just like there is more to you. Like I bet you wouldn’t know I had a pretty stellar passion for opera in high school and college? That’s something about me that just can’t be learned from looking at a snapshot of a motivation quote I posted or a picture documenting my run, but it’s something that defines me.

Here’s some vocal stylings if you care to listen:

One last thing, remember to live life as it’s happening. I took one picture that bulls game and every snap I sent was before the starting buzzer. I wanted to enjoy the time with my family and show little snippets of what was going on with my friends, but once the playing began, it was phones away and time to get down to business. I’m going to make a concerted effort to use my phone less now because I know there are so many things I’m just bypassing because I’m too busy looking down and that just isn’t fair to anyone.

Was this picture of Benny the Bull worth it? You better believe it was.

Main takeaways:

-Never compare yourself to one aspect another person chooses to put out there. You are so much more than one thing.

-Pay attention to the world. You will regret living a life tied to a screen, I promise you this.

-sj