Good afternoon, my friends! Before I get into this week’s fitness and food adventures, a couple announcements:
- Thank you so much for the enthusiasm around my Nutrition for Runners program! I appreciate the support so much, and I hope that those of you who give it a shot will find it very helpful and interesting! Just an FYI that there is an option being offered right now that includes both the full program AND the opportunity to have 4 group calls with me and Jason to get your own specific nutrition and training-related questions answered. There are 17 spots left – get them while they’re hot! This personalized package deal won’t be offered again.
- For those of you participating in the Winter Shape Up, I have posted the WSU Week 2 Meal Plan so you have time to go shopping for food this weekend! Enjoy, and keep those awesome updates coming – love seeing how you guys are crushing your fitness, working on intuitive eating, and trying new-to-you meals and recipes! Keep it up!
- Gearing up for the Super Bowl this weekend and looking for some healthy (but crowd pleasing) recipes? Try my Healthier 7 Layer Dip (pictured below and THE best – this is what I’ll be making on Sunday!) and my Pumpkin Bean Dip!
And now, this week! I had a fun week of workouts – after sitting on the couch most of last week because I was sick, it felt good to get back out there this week!
On Tuesday, I decided spur of the moment to try out OrangeTheory; I wanted to get in some speedy running but the sidewalks were a snowy mess. Perfect! They offer a free trial for the first time you go so I gave them a call and was able to get into the noon lunchtime class.
OrangeTheory, if you haven’t heard of it, is a heart-rate based high intensity interval training workout. You spend the hour long class alternating between doing intervals on the treadmill, intervals on a rowing machine, and boot camp type moves on the floor.
I’ve been meaning to try out OrangeTheory for ages so I was glad to finally make it there! I really liked the heart rate factor and the fact that you could see your stats on the board in real time – it helped make sure you weren’t phoning it in. The heart rate doesn’t lie, y’all. ;)
They also send you a follow up email after class with your stats from the workout, which I thought was cool. (Not sure what that broken graphic was supposed to be!)
The class was fun and hard – good sweat session. I liked that everyone of all abilities got a great workout since it’s effort/heart rate based – they have options for walkers, joggers, and runners on the treadmill for each zone they want you to be in, etc. I did find myself getting a liiiiittle bored on the treadmill occasionally (you guys know I’m not a treadmill fan), but overall the instructor did a good job keeping us engaged and mixing up the paces/difficulty. I don’t think I’d sign up for a package here to go consistently just because I love running outside too much, and for indoor classes I’d rather focus more on strength, but on days like Tuesday where it was snowy/unsafe and I wanted a butt kicking workout, it was awesome. Definitely recommend checking it out! I just wish they were on ClassPass. :)
Speaking of ClassPass (<—affiliate link, fyi), I know some of you asked for an update on what my thoughts were on it now that I’ve tried it for awhile. Well, the verdict is that I like it enough to keep doing it on my own dime (they gave me an initial free trial to test it out for blogging purposes)! I’ve crunched the numbers and given the fact that so many of my favorite studios are on there (CorePower Yoga, Edge Yoga, and most recently my old friend Urban Athletic Club’s Georgetown location is now on there – exciting!!), it makes sense financially. So yes, love ClassPass and highly recommend it. It’s awesome – extremely user friendly interface (love that you have all the workout studio schedules in one place – amazing), syncs to your Google calendar (so key for me), and more and more studios are being added each month, so if you’re someone who likes to mix it up like I do, it’s super worth it.
I hit Urban Athletic Club up via ClassPass on Wednesday morning with my friend Kathleen for their lower body class, which was great – we did a fun mix of some of my CrossFit favorites like wall balls, deadlifts (with heavy hand weights), goblet squats, etc., plus some cardio moves and TRX work, too. LOVEEEE their workouts – they do such a great job getting you working hard while still keeping it interesting and fun and super varied. You never get bored!
In running news, I have officially signed up for the Potomac River Running Individualized Training Program! I’m really excited about it and went to my first session yesterday morning – it’s $400 for 4 months and I think it will be really worth it. For the program, we get coached morning track workouts twice a week (Tuesdays are speed days, Thursdays are usually more tempo/hill workout type days) with the group, as well as an individualized training plan and personal support for training-related questions from the coaches. I’ve never really been great about doing speed workouts consistently, and I never really knew what to do once I was at the track and just ended up doing the same thing over and over, so I’m really excited about this. It’s awesome to have coaches telling you what to do and timing your laps – so motivating! After spending the past year running at the same speed for all my runs and not really pushing myself (which was necessary after doing two full marathons essentially back to back), I’m ready to see what I can really do if I’m trying. Talking to Jason so much while writing our Nutrition for Runners program must have inspired me!
On Thursday morning, we did mile repeats. I did a warm up jog of 1 mile, then started the repeats, which just means that you do 1 mile at a reasonably speedy but not I’m going to die speed (they said to build about to your 10k pace), jog a lap to recover, and then do another. I ended up doing my mile repeats at about a 7:30 pace. I did 3 of them, per the coach’s instruction, and then did a half mile jog to cool down, for about 4.5 miles total. Great workout and I felt strong at the end with plenty of gas left in the tank, so that’s a good sign!
It was COLD out there but the sunrise when we were just finishing up our workout was nice. Brrrr – is it spring yet?! I’m totally over the dark and the snow, not sure about you guys…
And that’s about all I have for you guys today! Even though it’s super cold out, I’m still randomly craving smoothies – I made another one for me and Matt this morning, enjoyed with a side of almond butter toast and some AnneTheRD client materials before racing out the door for a client meeting.
This morning’s smoothie featured coconut water, kale, avocado (so good in smoothies), protein powder, banana, and frozen mango. Inspired by the green smoothie I had at Canyon Ranch last weekend. Yum!
I’m off to finish up work and then close down the computer for the weekend. Have a good one! :)
Just went to my first Orange Theory class last week! The treadmill portion was all about inclines, which I loved/hated, it was definitely a good workout. The broken graphic is a breakdown of the amount of time you spent in each heart rate zone, so you’ve got that from your pic of the screen anyway.
Ohhh okay cool. Good to know!
That reminds me that I havent made any almond butter in like 2 weeks! I need to find some more people to sell it to here in Chicago since I moved here recently and am working on making more connections.
The orange theory class is very similar to one they have here in Chicago called Shred415 where you break the workout into 4 15 min segments that alternate btw the treadmill and the floor. Great workout!
There’s an Orange Theory in DC!?
Yep, it’s in Arlington – courthouse/Rosslyn
That class sounds great! Love trying new classes!
That 7-layer dip looks perfect for this weekend! And your smoothie sounds delicious! Have a good few days off! :)
Yum – I love 7 layer dip! I will have to try your version :)
And both OrangeTheory AND ClassPass have finally come to Seattle…I really need to try both!
What brand of protein would you recommend? I have had trouble finding one without sugar substitutes.
I like NuZest! No artificial sweeteners, good ingredient list. http://www.nuzest-usa.com/
I was considering trying ClassPass for a month, but decided to join a gym that’s super close to me instead. Although there are quite a few fitness classes that I am interested in, they are a distance away and I needed something more convenient to consistently go to.
Convenience is definitely the key for fitness!
So glad you checked out Orange Theory! There is one relatively close to me in Austin and it’s on my radar to go. I didn’t know about the free class so good info! Have a great weekend.
Orange Theory sounds great! Neat idea!
Glad you signed up with PRR program! I’m doing the group training and Wednesday evening track workouts at W&L :). At first I didn’t like track stuff, but I’ve come to really like them! The coaches are great! And, yes, I’m with you; pleeeeaaaase no more dark and cold haha!
Finally got to try the kale and mushroom burrito recipe from last week this morning – so good and surprisingly filling!
Glad you got to try out OrangeTheory! I totally agree about wishing they could be added to ClassPass. While it’s not something I’d pay to do EVERY day, it’d be a great workout to throw into the mix every once in a while! :)
Exactly! I would totally drop in occasionally if the drop in weren’t so expensive, too – $30 was outrageous. Guess they really want you to do the packages!
Ah I’ve been hearing so much about Orange Theory lately! I need to trek down from Baltimore to try the DC location one of these days.