Growing up I was a tomboy. I had some female friends but I felt closer to men. I had a better understanding of men. In recent years that’s changed and I have many more women in my close circles. What does this have to do with anything? It’s Olympics time and I am all about the girl power representing this year.
First of all, let’s talk about team USA which is comprised of 262 men and 292 women. That’s right. More sporty ladies are competing in Rio then our brethren. Now let’s talk about Saudi Arabia. They sent 4 women to the Olympics, one of which is competing in weightlifting. Ayesha Al Balooshi i I support you for being a bad ass, weight lifting woman in a country where that is surely frowned upon.
Please note that Al Balooshi was actually on the UAE team.
In the women’s 400 meter Saturday night Katinka Hosszu not only smashed her competition but she smashed records and is now the world record holder for the distance. No big.
In women’s cycling, while I was all about Maura Abbott taking home the gold…
She was bested in the very last less than minute but Anna van der Breggen and the follow pack and ended fourth. I still think Abbott’s a badass for holding tight and climbing 2000km hills in the lead two.
Tonight is women’s gymnastics and I think we all know how the world feels about the USA team.
Sunday is the women’s marathon. I admit I will be shocked if someone from Team USA wins, but I am team Desi Linden all the way (ok and Team Cragg and Team Flanagan).
What I am saying ladies is that if you aren’t watching the Olympics you should start because our #girlsquad is crushing.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that I love working out. I love the adrenaline. I love the endorphins. I love the people you meet. Tonight I finally went to a free outdoor class from Mountain Athletics/November Project. You want a summary?
Meet up with my friend Dani who is just the most delightful human and the reason I finally made it to one of these.
Find the pole that signifies where to meet up.
A stranger comes over and hugs me because that’s just what they do at November Project.
Everyone introduces themselves and what they are training for.
Warm up (I remember nothing but there were lots of burpees).
During legs I notice a little girl watching us so when I finish I ask if she wants to learn what we are doing. She is mildly interested and then we race up a hill because she likes running.
Abs – plank, side plank, butterflies, jog around the park but none of this matters because Emily joins us for the entire ab set and says awesome things like I can see the moon, I’m tired but I can keep going, I’m going faster than you and I’m a superhero. She is the very definition of #littlebutfierce.
Workout done – cool down.
The workout and the people were definitely great but Emily reminded me why I want to train people. She’s curious, confident and wants to workout with these adults that she doesn’t know. It’s infectious. And that. Right there. That is what I want to do with my life. I want to work in fitness with children. I don’t want to be a gym teacher. I want to be outdoors or doing special programs with kids. I have no idea how one does that but it was likely the greatest moment of my year.
If you are signing up for the Bucktown 5K make sure you use my code RAMSWGAG3 for a little something extra in your goodie bag.
Last week and continuing into this this week I have been trying to step outside of my box and have had some adventures with Nike. Nike is huge in Chicago. They offer free classes at their training center, free group runs with their running club and free events. Quite frankly if I didn’t love my gym so much I would ask myself why I am paying when I can do all these great workouts for free.
Speaking of my gym, last week Nike rolled into Enrgi to let us try their new cross training and running sneakers: I am not quite sure if I loved them or not but they are nice and light which is delightful! They stopped by for a special warrior class at Enrgi where we got to try both sneaks.
Saturday I finally joined NRC for a long run. The efficient side of my brain has a hard time traveling south just to run back north and then south again but since I have more flex in my schedule I figured why not. We headed south from Nike for an 8 mile run and views I don’t always get to enjoy. I definitely enjoyed this run (especially since a friend joined me) though we ran a bit faster than the anticipated 9:30 pace… So by the end I was trying to focus on other things so I wouldn’t slow down.
Last night I attended a football Inspired class designed for draft week (sliders, med balls, farmer walks, superman push ups, deadlifts, sprints and all the fast feet you never knew you wanted). The class was part of an Instagram contest and while I didn’t make it to the final round I did get a nice lil draft week tee (which I quickly sweated through) and got some nice sprints in! The downsides to this event was that we had to be at the new Michael Jordan store (apparently they use their workout area upstairs to train high school athletes in poorer neighborhoods…thumbs up!) by 6:30 but the class didn’t start until closer to 7:30. I had to get a friend to cover my class that night and I could have actually taught it. They did win me over though with their locker room which was loaded with our tshirts and the frees to wear.
I said I probably wouldn’t do this type of thing again, but let’s be real… I would!
I have nothing witty to add for a title… oh dear! Am I that tired? The answer is yes. It might be time for a mid-morning nap… or soon a lunch time run, but instead I need to power through the work day. And I must say that powering through these days is much easier now that it’s warm again. I didn’t quite realize how much the winter was getting to me until it was sunny and I felt like an entirely different person.
So here is your run down from me:
Saturday:
Since I am not training I decided to venture into some new territory and I joined City Fit Girls for a 3 mile run. I would say I am an averaged pace runner and on Saturday we ran a bit slower than my usual, but it was really great to meet new people and give group running a shot.
If you are a lady in Chicago looking for a new run crew I highly recommend this group. They started in Philly and are newer to Chicago, trying to build a following, but such a nice group of gals! Plus… who doesn’t love meeting new friends that have the same interests as you (running and donuts). Right now their Saturday runs are monthly and while I likely won’t be able to join again for awhile since marathon training will be in full swing soon, represent for me!
I am planning on finally joining Nike for an 11 mile run this coming Saturday so if you are in Chicago and looking for some free run training come join me for that!
Saturday night was an adventure in Logan Square for a friend’s 30th birthday and I came home to a very exciting shipment from RAM Racing! All of the hot chocolate swag that you could ever dream of was waiting in that box including discount codes for the 2016 RAM races. If you are signing up for any of the races below, use my code: RAMSWAG3!
Sunday:
Guys… I took a legit rest day. No working out. I usually take a recovery yoga class as my rest day but I have found that the new instructor likes to add a little more work, which is fine, but does not qualify as a rest. So instead I cooked up a storm doing meal prep for the week and then joined two of my favorites at the dog beach for a sunny, puppy filled afternoon.
Monday:
OMG WHY DON’T I TAKE REST DAYS MORE OFTEN?!?! I taught at Coop Monday morning and headed to HardPressed in the afternoon where I was actually able to make gains on my weights and I felt great! OMG PLEASE TAKE REST DAYS IF YOU DON’T ALREADY.
That being said… I followed up HardPressed by taking 500 Calorie over at Enrgi and combined they kicked my butt into Tuesday. I don’t necessarily recommend going hard twice a day, but quite frankly when you are trying to fit in a bunch of things into your schedule, sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles.
And belated Happy Easter. I could give you a run down of my weekend which included a brutal 11.69 mile run (the first 6 was great, the second almost 6, not so much…. this is why recovery is important kids) and a class with my gal Brittany over at Studio Fit… but instead, I will just give you this video from this 9 year old phenom.
Happy Monday y’all. I know we all have different beliefs when it comes to training and that’s just fine. Some of us like running, some of us like barre, some of us like heavy lifting. I think it’s no surprise that I like heavy weights. While I think it’s perfectly fine to lift light if you are somewhere like barre, I am pro progressively increasing weights throughout training. But…. to each their own. And that brings me to this Huffington Post article.
No matter what, let’s love our bodies and let’s stop shaming those who do lift heavy or have muscle (and the same is true for those who don’t). Let’s just stop shaming. Full stop.
There is a lot going on in my life right now. Which is true of basically everyone. And as much as I feel like a lot of things are falling apart, a lot of things also seem to be coming together. So to focus on the good…
1) I am pleased to say that I was chosen as a RAM ambassador this year which means that I will be repping the race series and Fleet Feet at various expos.
2) I’ve been picking up lots of shifts over at Coop. All this running around has me somewhat exhausted but I am gaining valuable and awesome experience. I work in Downsize which is a program for folks who have lots of weight they want to lose. I have a few regulars who are awesome and strong and have beautiful form. In the past week we’ve also had some newbies: one woman who has never worked out before and a 62 year old woman who doesn’t need to lose weight but wants to. They both require lots of attention and modifications but they are both trying so hard and I respect them so much for joining the program. This all means that I need to look up some more modifications of course, but it’s pretty darn cool. I only began my fitness journey a few years ago but it’s easy to forget how it feels when you start. It’s hard. It hurts. It’s somewhat embarrassing. But that all goes away so fast.
If you had asked me a few years ago where I’d be in a few years this would not have been the answer but I’m so glad it is.
Granted my weekend wasn’t an actual marathon. It’s been very important to me to cut back on my workouts this year so when training season is upon me I don’t freak the heck out about cutting back, but somehow I still want to do all the things so I attempt to.
So let’s give you Chicago living peeps a weekend review of where I was.
Friday Athlete MARS –
This is a class at Enrgi Fitness. It’s offered to members and has been moved to just a Tuesday night slot which I am super bummed about, but the class itself… is totally worth it to take. You really focus on mobility with things like bear crawls, gecko walks and catburglers/hand stands. We also had some play time on the monkey bars so of course we all left class with ripped up hands.
Saturday Run –
I wanted to do a long run but I was teaching over at COOP in the morning so I ran as far as I could to COOP, until I realized I wouldn’t make it in time because I left too late and had to hop in a cab.
COOP –
Like I said up there, taught two classes. One might say, but Tahnee, you taught you didn’t take, why was this tiring… well y’all… when you teach a class, you need to be on. You need to be energetic, you need to demo, and in these classes they ended each section with 30 seconds of burpees and since I didn’t want them to focus on how many burpees they were doing, I did them right along with them. I didn’t keep count, but that was two hours of class, 8 rounds of 30 seconds of burpees in each class. I’ve done more at one time, but wait this was not the end of my workout day…
i love that they drew a picture of a slightly larger runner. all body types can run! Fleet Feet
I did not work out here. I just ran over to see if they had any deals since their Old Town location just re-opened. I only bought a few socks but the place was hoppin!
We got to try each of their studios for a very low price which is one of the many reasons why Sweatworking is so darn awesome. My reviews:
HIIT –
Meh. I don’t know how you comfortably fit 30 people in there. I found the space uncomfortably small, far too hot for me and with the fun club like purple lights, I couldn’t figure out which weights were which. We rowed (on their beautiful water rowers) and ran (on their beautiful woodway treadmills) and did some floor work. The poor instructors mic went out so I couldn’t understand a damn thing she said. Her energy was good but even prior to that I found the mic either too loud or too close to her face as it gave her that weird lisp that somehow these mics give people? Overall class was fine but nothing I would drop my gym membership for.
Pelaton –
This was my first time on a Pelaton bike and those things run so smoothly that it’s lovely. They also have your resistance on the screen so when they tell you to turn the knob you actually know what you are doing and feel it as opposed to my normal where I am just turning the knob and have no clue what’s really going on and just hope I do it correctly. The downside to this class? I was hitting the bar that raises and lowers the seat so I tried to move it during the second song and my seat ended up dropping all the way down. I couldn’t get it back up and class just wasn’t long enough for me to want to waste time calling the guy over to have him fix it. I.e. anytime I was sitting down my legs were going way too high and it felt like I was riding a bike for kids. If this ever happens to you, fix your damn bike seat.
Yoga-
Namaste.
this is an actual imprint of my shirt on my yoga mat because i was THAT sweaty Don’t forget the Sweatworking swag! free class at Studio Three, discount at Sprig, Mama Chia, Luna Bar and all the water and Vita Coco my dreams and heart could handle Sunday TRX Training
I was definitely nervous as this was my first certification, or really qualification, class. What I did not anticipate, was basically doing TRX moves for 8 hours. This was a 9-5 training and we learned some cool things in regards to cueing TRX (moves were pretty standard and that’s fine as this was a level 1 course). We sat a bit, but we were also up quite a bit either cueing and fixing our partner or on the trainers themselves. When I got home that night, instead of going to a friends for Oscar fun time as I was straight up exhausted, I could barely walk.
Luckily, I spent Monday and Tuesday in the Recoveri Normatec boots at Enrgi and things feel mostly back to normal.
So yeah… sometimes your weekend is a sprint and you do the thing and then color and sit around. Sometimes your weekend is a marathon and when Monday rolls around you just want an extra day to nap.
How were your weekends? Or rather, how is your upcoming weekend since I failed at posting this earlier this week.
I am going to open this discourse by stating that while I am an ACE certified group fitness instructor I am in no way, shape or form a nutritionist.
Everyone has their own beliefs when it comes to dieting and healthy eating and what works for some does not work for all, however when someone tells me they are having a cheat day it makes me want to lose my effing mind.
You see, most of these people say they have a cheat day once a week and then eat 6,000+ work of calories on that one day. What in the heck good does that do for you? None. Zero.
My personal belief to eating is this: eat healthy and in moderation and if you have a craving for some “bad” then eat it. 80/20 rule y’all. Having one day a week where you go hog wild is terrible for you and living in a world where you are restricting yourself like that but letting yourself go crazy one day a week just teaches your body nothing.
How did I lose weight? I measured. I weighed things and ate portion sizes. I am also a vegetarian so I don’t eat meat. I did eat an excess of chips and sweets because I love them. Until last summer when I had a revelation that I was doing all these awesome things for my body in terms of working out but I wasn’t fueling it for that, so I cut back on processed foods and sugars and really concentrated on eating more whole foods. But I still eat things like donuts once in awhile. Why? Because I am not a monster! This winter I have gone a bit more hog wild and haven’t been as diligent about what I am eating and I keep telling myself to get back to the good food because I just generally feel better, but I will still not consider anything a cheat day.
Using the word cheat is like cheating on your health. It’s like saying I want to be better but not really because I am willing to cheat myself out of living a healthy, moderation consuming life. If you are like me and don’t have a stop button on snacks, then either buy them in small portions or just say ok I am only going to eat the things that are truly worth it (have I talked about donuts enough in this post?).
Using the word cheat is like saying I am going to get out there and do something new for the first time, except it’s not going to be something new at all, it’s just going to be something that I haven’t done in awhile and I will most likely invite all of my friends.
Using the word cheat is like calling yourself a cat lady when you only have one cat and no cat paraphernalia.
Just saying, don’t cheat yourself out of health by having a cheat day. Cheat your way into health by staying truth to healthy eating while occasionally eating that thing that you really want (it’s a donut, right?).
End of rant.
*Thanks to the internet for letting me steal all of these pictures and a special thanks to OMG Cats In Space for just existing.
*Thanks to Stan’s and Firecakes for opening locations near my house and for making my commute home dangerous. If you would like to sponsor me, I would be ok with tha.t
It was 50 degrees on Saturday which for those of you who don’t live in the midwest or on the East Coast, that was a heat wave for us. This meant that everyone, including myself, was out running. I had a 6 miler. Not my fastest, not my best, legs tight and sore, but 6 miles done nonetheless. I spent the rest of the weekend making up for it by eating all the donuts, oreos, pizza and other bad food I could shove into my mouth. Soooooo back to the grind today which means back to regular workouts and back to limited sugar and not processed foods. Let’s take a minute and pour one out for our beloved icky for you but delicious tasting friends.
And here is the changes part of this post… I know I lost weight, I know I am healthier, but thanks to Facebook’s remember these moments pics today I saw one from three years ago and thought good lord…
Quite frankly it’s a bit difficult to even look at this picture. I shouldn’t hate it because I am still mostly the same person, except now I am thinner and find joy and fun in working out. I shouldn’t hate it because due to this being my old physical self I pushed to find a new physical and mental self that I like better, but something about it just makes me sad.
TrainerTLace 