Okay, boys and girls, fitness fanatics of all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, and hairstyles, I have moved my blog over to WordPress. Come check out all my latest ramblings at my new home on the internet:

http://frealfitness.wordpress.com/

What a way to end my Workout Streak. I had originally wanted to get to 100 consecutive days or more, but last week something happened that would mean the end of my workout streak at 86 days.

Last Tuesday while working out at the local community college here in Palau, a woman named Elizabeth, who we see all the time while working out, came up to us. She invited us to participate in the Adventure Race that was set for that upcoming weekend. I have always wanted to do an adventure race. I remember adding to my Life List and wondering how that would ever happen. I couldn’t see how or when it would ever work out, but here was my chance.

Shauna and I jumped at the opportunity. So what that it was only 5 days away giving us no time to train for it. We do our WOWs five days a week and then throw in other workouts the other two days of the week. I was sure we could handle it. I loved feeling like our workouts keep us ready to go, so no opportunity has to be missed. So what that we didn’t have bikes. We’d wrangle some up from somewhere.

You might have to Google-up a map of Palau to get the full impact of what we did, but here’s the breakdown.

The race began at 6:30 in the morning with a total of 9 two-person teams. Two all female teams, three mixed teams, and 4 all male teams. For the first leg we kayaked 10+ miles in the open waters from Airai to Melekeok, through the waves caused by reefs and some swirling waters.  We both tweaked our left shoulders part way into the kayak portion, making it even harder. We wore shorts and swim suit tops and that caused some pretty bad abrasions on my back by the end of our time on the water. That took us just under 4 hours of paddling. It was exhausting and we were hot and tired  . . .  and dead last.




We made quick work of the transition area and overtook one team on the hike. This portion of the race took us up a ancient stone path (a trail made of big, moss-covered, muddy rocks) to the top of a hill, along a dirt road, to a paved road, then through a war monument in the jungle. Then it got really fun. Time to hike through the jungle. There was no trail to follow. We had to find and follow a trail of pink ribbons tied to bushes and trees. This was my kind of hiking – through ankle high bushes and ferns, then through taller bushes, ferns and trees, then sloshing and slogging through mangrove swamps. We finished our hike around Melekeok in about an hour and a half and were on our bikes at noon.

Noon in Palau is hot!!! No, I mean, it's FRICKEN HOT!!!! All week we’d had clouds and rain, but not on race day!! Oh no! Not when we wanted and needed it the most! The skies were blue, blue, blue and the sun was hot and searing! I’d guess the temps were in the 90s and so was the humidity. Of course, the good old sun burned at its brightest every time we were climbing the hills.

We rode our ill-fitted, rental mountain bikes for 32 agonizing miles aorund the island of Babeldaob. My bike was supposedly a 12 speed, but only 5 of the gears worked. Shauna’s bike was too long for her making her have to really lean forward for the whole ride. Her upper body looked as if she were doing a plank for 4 hours. Imagine how that must have felt.




We passed 4 other teams on the bike ride portion, but it wasn’t easy. It meant climbing torturous hills and pedaling when others were resting in the shade or pushing their bikes up a hill. Now these hills wouldn't have been nearly as awful back home, but the heat and humidity make everything here harder, longer, and twice the effort. In the end, nine hours and forty minutes later, we were actually the 2nd team to finish. Not bad for being in last place after the first part of the race. A couple of teams bailed somewhere out on the bike ride. Two other teams didn’t finish in tact – one of the partners left the other somewhere back on the route.

This is the hardest thing I have ever put my body through. EVER!!! There were moments of utter depletion, times where I just wanted to throw up, and a whole lot of pushing through the pain. I knew two things for sure with every pedal stroke of that bike. First, that I was getting worked and felt like giving up. Second, that there was no way I was going to quit.

The official name of this race was the Long Haul on Honto,  but I think our friend Rene, a fellow participant, captured it all when he called it the Tour de Pain.

Shauna and I were both so worked, so sore, so depleted afterward, we just couldn’t work out the next day. It was all I could do to do a tiny bit of stretching and a couple of balance postures for all of 2 mintues. I may have ended my workout streak sooner than I had hoped, but what a way to end!!! I made it to 86 days and then ended with a BANG!  I’m so glad I did this race. I feel like I can do anything!!

Sorry for no photos from the event. We brought a camera along but were working too hard to use it. We were Team Non-Stop and that's pretty much how we approached this race.

One of the greatest things for me is seeing someone reach their goals, achieve something great, reach beyond themselves and live one of their dreams! Even better is when I can help someone get there, to be even a small part of them achieving something great. It's the reason I loved coaching for so many years. It's what I love so much about doing this fitness thing that I do.

One of my workout friends (someone I used to workout with in the wee hours of the morning, someone who now does my WOWs) - Paula, wrote to me awhile back asking me to help her train for a Half Marathon. Well, she did it. - she didn't just dream it. She trained and she ran the Half Marathon. And today, I thought I'd share her email with you.

Dear Rachel,

The half marathon was last week, and a real blast! Thank you so much for your encouragement and training program.

Steve and I both ran it -a bit more painful for Steve as he stopped training and his knees let him know it. It was harder than I thought but I'm looking around for my next one to aim for - I'm hooked.
Before the race I was thinking I'd go for a Marathon next, but after the race - NOOOO! Let me get a couple of halfs in and get my fitness to the point of loving it the entire way...Then we'll go for a full. A couple of friends and I are thinking Paris marathon in 2011.

The best thing I go out of this experience is a love of running and a true commitment to doing it regularly.
Take care,

Paula


What's your dream? What's on your Life List? What's your adventure to experience, your Everest to climb, your challenge to overcome? What's holding you back? Go for it. You can do it!!!

I just got an email from, my workout buddy, Laura, back home. She said she started working out with a friend and got to play “Rachel the evil trainer who pushed her ass to the limit.” I think that “Rachel the evil trainer” has a nice ring to it. Don’t you?

Today, Rachel the Evil Trainer did her workout on her favorite 10 second hill. That’s a hill that takes me 10 seconds to sprint. And  today, I pushed my own ass to the limit – and Shauna’s too (she kept saying I was trying to kill her). We alternated rounds of hill sprints (5x, 4x, 3x, 2x, 1x) with some other fun ways to get up the hill.

I am a big fan of hill sprints  . . . and more. Hill sprints aren’t just for the professional athletes. They ought to make regular appearances in your workout routine. And by regular I don’t mean once a month or once a year. You don’t need some big fancy hill to get a ton out of a hill workout. Your muscles can really only perform at their total max for about 10 seconds. A hill that takes that long to sprint is of perfectly respectable size. Sometimes I include longer hills, but mostly I do the shorter ones.

Sprinting hills is a fantastic exercise for your whole body. It’s a serious, fat-shredding activity. It’s great for the heart, the legs, and even the upper body if you are really pumping your arms. Hill-sprinting gives you a great workout in a short time, making it a great choice when you’re strapped for time. But wait, there’s more. Sprinting hills kicks your metabolism up making you burn calories for hours afterward.

Ahh, but sprints aren’t all you can do on hills. Walking hills at a good high tempo is a great exercise, for those who can’t do high impact exercise. Here are a few other ways you can Get Up that Hill.

• Backwards sprint or walk
• Bear Crawl
• Warrior Walk
• Frog Hop to Sneaky Lunge Combo
• Side Squat Step
• Skip

Give them a try along with your sprints and you’ll reap some serious benefits. You should also feel like dropping to the ground in a heap, if you do them right. Hill sprints and other hill-work is simple, but certainly not “easy.” Oh no, if you do these right you should feel pretty worked. Hill workouts are tough. You may feel as I did today – like my 10 Second Hill killed me. Not to worry, I came back to life within the hour!

Picture this scene. You take a shower and as you are getting dressed or drying off, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. Okay, let’s get honest here. First of all, you know you do more than “catch a glimpse.” Let’s call it like it is. You look and sometimes stare at and examine yourself in the mirror.



As you do, you see it – a chunky, flabby belly. You grab it and pinch it, trying to decide if it’s more than it was yesterday. You suck your gut in and wonder if you could actually get through a day like that. Then you realize that breathing is not optional, but an actual necessity, and rule out the “suck it in all day” alternative.

Here’s what happens next to those who don’t want to just settle for living with belly fat. The thought that enters their heads goes something like, “Hell, I have to do something about this! I’m going to start doing crunches and sit ups for real!” Okay, those may not be your exact words, but I bet I’ve gotten kind of close.
Why is it that we think that that answer to belly fat is to do ab exercises like crunches and sit-ups? Sorry, folks, but that just isn’t the answer to your problem. The fat on your midsection didn’t get there because you weren’t doing enough sit-ups and crunches. So it’s no surprise that more ab work isn’t the way to get rid of it.  Excess fat comes from taking in more calories than we are burning.

If you want to lose that belly fat, you’ve got to burn more calories than you are taking in. That’s it, plain and simple. I know, it sounds just too simple. Or maybe you were hoping for some easier solution. You don’t need some new gizmo or gadget, a new book, or dvd series. Here’s the way to get rid of that belly fat.

• Make some changes to your eating. Start with eating real foods instead of processed. That means fruits, vegetables, whole grains. It means avoiding the stuff that comes premade in a box, bag, or carton. Here’s a great rule to follow – eat real food and not too much.

 

• Do real exercise. Real exercise is challenging, pushes you to your limits, makes you really exert yourself. Burn those calories. If the workout is easy, if you don’t find yourself tempted to quit, if you don’t find yourself out of breath or breaking a sweat, it just doesn’t fit in the category of “real” in my opinion. So get real. Go out there and run, sprint, jump rope, do kickboxing – something that is high intensity, something where you push yourself past your comfort zone. Got the idea? Now keep that up for a good 20-40 minutes a day.

And just to make things perfectly clear, I am not against ab exercises, crunches or sit-ups. I do them every single day, as part of my WOWs and on my own. I don’t do them to lose belly fat though. I do them so I’ll be strong and healthy. A strong core section is vital to my health and fitness in so many ways. I can do abdominal and core exercises everyday and still have belly fat though. Core exercises like crunches and sit-ups build strong muscles. High intensity workouts are the way to uncover them and keep you from cringing when you see yourself naked in the mirror.

“I don’t want to do no wussy, foo-foo yoga!” Yep, that was my attitude years ago. I wasn’t interested in twisting and contorting my body into strange and silly pretzel-like poses. Then I blew my kneecap into two, and my attitude changed.




Yoga was on my rehabilitation program. At first, I was like a teenager – full of attitude and turning my nose up at Yoga. Then I tried it and immediately ate my words. Those goofy pretzel-like poses are fricken hard. Even now, years later, I can feel my legs trembling and shaking as I work up quite the sweat going through a yoga workout.

Though I don’t do yoga nearly as much as I did back in my rehab days, it is still a big part of my workout life. Today I am on Day 72 of my Workout Streak. I’ve been working out, on purpose, every single day, not getting to the end of my day and trying to figure out what thing that I did might count as a “workout.” (Hmm, I ran to the bathroom, I walked to the refrigerator, and I squatted to get something off the bottom shelf. That counts as a workout, right?) Now, I don’t go all high-intensity everyday. That’s just not good for your body. I do my WOWs  five days a week then I go easy for a couple of days and do a lighter workout to let my muscles rest and recover. And this is where yoga comes in.



I was so sore after this last week’s set of WOWs, yoga was just what I needed. The first day I put in my Yoga X dvd (part of the P90X series with  my buddy Tony Horton) and just did the first 30 minutes. It’s work, but not high-intensity, hands-on-my-knees, gasping-for-my-next-breath work. It made my muscles less sore, my mind more calm, and left me feeling really refreshed (after my shower). The nest day I did the full hour and a half of Yoga X.

Working out, being fit, and living healthy has to be at the center of our lives, not out there on the if-I-can-squeeze-it-in fringes. Your day should not be complete without some exercise and fitness – everyday – 7 days a week. That is if you are going to be for real about your own health and fitness and life.

Yes, take rest days. But rest doesn’t mean sitting on your ass doing nothing. Rest is doing something different, something low-intensity. This could mean doing yoga, going for an easy jog, going for a hike or a walk, or going out for a paddle (stand up paddling or sitting in a kayak). Of course these are just a few ideas.

You don’t need two days completely off, two days living as a couch potato. If you are for real, and want real results that will last you for the rest of your life, then fitness has to become a real part of every single day, in one way or another.

 

If you did Thursday’s Workout, you know what this means. I don’t think I will look at a Jack the same for quite some time. Before we began Fast Flips (after we had already powered through our Card Stations), I used the Power of the Force (see Star Wars 1977) to make sure Shauna got all the Jacks. Apparently I need to fine tune my Jedi skills just a bit. Shauna was the flipper of only 3 of the 4 Jacks in the deck. That’s means that by the time we were done with our 10 minutes, we had both done a boat load of Wacky Jacks and Jumping Jills (and we didn’t take any breaks either. We flipped fast and did our exercises fast) and Shauna got to do 35 Burpees while I only had to do 25. (Author’s Note: I just found out, as Shauna read over this post before it hit the web, that she actually did 10 Burpees every time. Seems she’s a bit of an over achiever. She requests proper acknowledgement of all 40 Burpees she did.)

Core Cards was a tough 10 minutes, but only because I made it tough on purpose. In all I did 44 In and Out Plank Hops and 55 Crunches. After the first few minutes I was hurting and so tempted to let my form go a little bit. I made myself jump my feet as far under my chest as I could and all the way out to a good solid plank for the In and Outs. The Crunches were even more demanding. It’s easier just to do a full sit up, then you go past that “max effort” spot. So I did what Shauna said looked like I was praying to the Sit Up God. I made myself keep my eyes focused on the sky directly above me. That keeps me from sitting up all the way. I keep my lower back on the ground and really do a good crunch.

So be tough on yourself! Don’t let yourself cut corners or take the easy route just because something is a bit uncomfortable or takes more effort.  Demand your own personal best. Be willing to push past your comfort zone to get the best for yourself. Remember you get out of it, what you put into it. Thems is the facts, in every area of life, whether we like it or not.

Wusses and those who take the easy route don’t get the good stuff!

Shauna and I just spent 5 days on an island called Yap. It’s one of the four states that make up Micronesia. It really was an amazing trip, filled with kayaking through mangroves, snorkeling with sharks, hiking along ancient stone paths that connect villages, and searching for foods that would work with our commitment to a healthy, vegan lifestyle, and seeing a culture I doubted really existed. This place was for real. They have giant stone money all around the island. A chunk of the people dress in the western style of the US and the rest do the traditional Yap thing – that means just a skirt or loin cloth. That means bare-chested women and exposed butt cheeks on the men.

So last night we boarded the plane headed back to Palau and I couldn’t help but think about birds – like the ones that brought down that US Airways plane. I’m aware every time I get on a plane that something could happen and my life could end right then. So there we were, the engines powering up for take-off and I’m thinking “What if I die right now?”

You know what? Though I have a million more places I’d like to go, things I’d like to do, and people I’d like to spend more time with, I wouldn’t be hurling toward the ground with a pile of regrets about the life I wished I would have lived, things I wished I would have done, things I wish I would have tried. I felt good, knowing I’m living my life to the fullest right now. I’m good with where I am and with how I’m living. I wouldn’t change anything. So live. Live now. Live big. You have no guarantee of a tomorrow, a next year, or the years after retirement. You have today, this moment, this breath. Do something everyday that leads toward your dreams.

So here I am in a place called Yap. It's part of the Federated States of Micronesia (just Micronesia for short). Good luck finding Yap on a map. If Palau is a dot, then Yap is like the pixel that makes up the dot. Anyway, a geography lesson wasn't really what I had in mind for this post.

We're here for 5 days to celebrate Shauna's birthday. This would be the easiest time not to workout. That's how it is for all of us, right? Well, I'm just here to report that I am working out and keeping my streak going.

We got here on Friday and the weird sleeping (or non-sleeping) patterns left us feeling drained. So the workout was in our hillside cabin - hindu squats, hindu pushups, captain's chair swings, bananas, and dead bugs.

Saturday was kayaking -- paddling against the wind is a workout!

Sunday - dip flips, hking all over town, and vertical leg holds to leg lowers.

Monday (today) - a 4-5 mile run around Chamorro Bay (4x), then an hour and a half hike through the jungle and over some hills.

Working out while on vacation --- It can be done.

Today was one of those days. The one where you wake up in the morning and just don’t feel like going to work out. Weird, huh? Especially since I was so jazzed about this workout less than 12 hours before. Everything changes when it’s 5:30 in the morning, it’s still dark outside, and, for some reason, the regular rooster symphony here in Palau isn’t going full blast yet. Somehow those roosters make getting up easier when they are out there battling for cock-a-doodle-doo supremacy here in the tropics.

Anyway, I got up despite how I felt and got myself dressed and ready to go. And, just as I knew would happen, once I got going, the workout was great. Sometimes it’s just getting there that is so hard. That’s the battle ground. Win that one and the rest just flows.
I really pushed myself, trying so hard to beat last week’s reps on the 30/30 I-Go-U-Go.



I did on the Lateral Leaps. I got as high as 35 this week and did no fewer than 34. Ouch! I really felt worked – like I really pushed hard. My not wanting to workout feeling this morning was all gone. It disappeared as soon as I got there.

Shauna and I did Power Wheel Crawls instead of Wheelbarrows.


Frog Hops with Narrow Legs

I increased my distances on the Power Wheel Crawls (instead of Wheelbarrows) and on my Frog Hops and held each handstand as long as I could. I’m so glad I got my butt out of bed this morning. When all was said and done, I felt great after the workout – totally energized, ready to take on the rest of my day, and not a bit like I had when my alarm went off. And now here I am, going strong at Day 59 of my Workout Streak. 59 consecutive days of working out. I can see day 100 around the next bend!

Bonus Material : While we were doing the Upper Body I-Go-U-Go activities, I used the time while I was waiting for my turn to snap a photo of Mr. Barefoot Runner. He’s almost like our Workout Buddy. We see each other every day at our morning workouts. He shows up and runs around and around the track for about 30-40 minutes – barefoot while we do our WOWs.