Fitness Model Day – Danskin Sports Bras

December 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment

10849955_725984670830502_834625735480259426_nA few weeks ago, I was hired to shoot for Danskin. I’ve known about Danskin for their dance attire for years, but I didn’t realize until I was called to attend the casting that Danskin now has a line of athletic wear. Incredibly unexpected – especially with being so close to the holidays, I was thankful for the booking!

On most shoots for a brand, you’ll find yourself modeling most, if not all, of the line. You will change dozens of times, have your hair and makeup sometimes changed, and will execute dozens of fitness moves and stretches. It’s a long day, but you are constantly moving, thinking on your feet, and onto the next thing – so the shoot often flies by. Mad props are always given to the hair and makeup stylists for making me look fresh, awake and energized 7 hours into the shoot. I also always rely on lots of water, coffee and snacks to keep me going. I should probably mention I was up at 4am to coach clients before the shoot, and then dashing to coach after – so the team that kept me looking fab and fresh went above and beyond the call of duty on this one! Looking good when you’ve been up and working a 16-hour day is no easy task!

10389227_725984707497165_3207036411883445646_nSo if you happen upon Danskin activewear, look for my face on the tags, perhaps in the ads, on the wall, or in a magazine or billboard. The jury is still out on exactly where the photos will be used, but definitely on the tags.

Much thanks to an amazing team, Carrie at MSA Models, and the other model, Desiree.

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Resolution Road

December 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment

img_6959-editI cannot believe how neglected my blog has been the last few months. I am changing that, starting NOW. For some reason it became less of a priority, which isn’t like me. Even when I am super busy, I alway make time for my blog. No excuses. I’m back at it.

It’s the time of the year when everyone is extremely busy with holiday parties, gift shopping and wrapping, baking, end of year work responsibilities, kids home from school for Winter Break, travel to see family – this time of the year is often one filled with love, laughter, and a whole lot of things on the calendar. It’s also the time of year many folks start thinking about the new year, and the new hopes, dreams and goals they see with it. And that’s where I come in.

I am a firm believer that we can all turn over a new leaf, set new goals, and choose to change habits TODAY. We don’t need a fresh month or new year to finally make ourselves do something, but that seems to be the trend. As you probably know, New Years brings with it more fitness, weight loss and physical goals and resolutions than anything else. Sure, there are people who set career goals, finance goals, travel goals, etc – but fitness is the overwhelming winner of resolutions.

It never fails that the first few weeks of the new year my email and my phone will be filled with inquiries from new people with big goals. I love those emails and calls. I am excited to meet new people, hear about their goals, and discuss how I can help them. It’s part of what I love about what I do – helping people achieve something for themselves that betters them and their quality of life. The excitement, motivation and energy each person brings with their call or email is something I wish I could bottle and save for them. It’s infectious. And yes, out of all the messages, calls, meetings and even a few weeks into training, a certain percent of those hopeful, motivated New Years Resolution clients fall of the face of the earth. The motivation and focus slip once they realize how much effort it takes to train or eat the way they need to, or they become impatient when the scale doesn’t show a magical number within the first week, and so on. The excuses start rolling in, and I know it’s a matter of time before they are off the Resolution Ride, and they will move off my roster. Look at the gym on January 1-5 compared to February 1-5 and you’ll see just how few people stuck with their plan for a month. One month. Thirty-one days, people.

I don’t think any less of the people who can’t commit to their training goals than the ones that do. I get it. It’s hard. It’s also really frustrating to continue that cycle of training/dieting and falling off the wagon. I want to hug and shake and give a pep-talk to the people who fall off. I know that progress takes time, and it takes WEEKS to form new habits, and a lot of work, focus and persistence to make the changes often necessary to achieve goals so momentous that they are saved for the New Year.

I know how hard change can be, but the hardest part is starting. I know I can help people who are willing and capable to make their health and goals a priority. I know anyone can make the changes they desire – but it takes a hell of a lot of willpower, support, knowledge and the acceptance that not every day will be easy for feel good. If say you don’t have time, I will call you out. Bull shit. You have no idea what I’ve made myself accomplish with VERY little time. You have no idea how many clients have succeeded with their goals while juggling an incredibly busy, stressful schedule. Yes, change often involves struggle and some setbacks, but again I will call you out. A setback or struggle doesn’t ruin all the progress or make you a weak person or a failure. It makes you human, silly. And if you find a trainer or gym hard to afford, I suggest you check out how much you are spending to eat out, have drinks with friends, and on medical bills. If you cut back on eating and drinking out, that’s money and calories saved. We almost always eat a better diet when preparing our own food. Cocktails with your girlfriends or with the guys at the bar add up pretty quickly. And if you get yourself healthier, in theory you’ll be spending less money on doctors appointments and medications.

So if you are looking to 2015 with fitness-related goals, be prepared to work hard and to also be in it for the long run. Look towards April, and what goals will be accomplished by then, not January 15th. A ton of progress can happen within four months, but very little will show for it the first two weeks. But the only way to get to April and those goals is to stick with the plan every day between January 1st and April 1st. I wish everyone with high hopes and big goals all the success in the world. There is no better gift to yourself than health, self-confidence and strength. And if you need help, there are tons of great trainers, gyms and programs out there in every city. The road to progress can be hard, but it is never impossible.

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The Balance Beam

November 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment

img_6690-editI am asked all the time by my clients, family and friends how I balance my coaching obligations and my own training. My response is always the same: it’s a challenge and a balancing act. In fact, I have had to change my own personal goals this year to accommodate my coaching – which has been fine. It’s my choice. My own experiences with balancing work and running made me think of my clients and everyone I know balancing their careers and everything else in their lives.

Balancing training for a goal like a marathon is all about choices. I suppose it’s like anything in life. There are some folks who will prioritize a specific running goal above almost all else, while others barely train and hope for the best. Many of us fall somewhere in the middle. We’re smart enough to know you can’t cheat your way through marathon training, but also have other priorities and the marathon doesn’t make the top of the list. Running is something many of us do, and we are indeed runners. However that’s usually not the only thing we are or identify with.

So how does one balance goals if priorities swing one way or another?  Perhaps some years personal running goals need to take the back burner while something else moves to the front. Or perhaps the type of running goal you have changes – maybe you want to try an indoor track season or an Ultra – both completely different sports from the marathon. If I had all the answers, I’d be bestowing that wisdom upon you right now. Instead, I’ll admit I struggle to keep my balance sometimes. The silver lining is that when my own goals need to take the back burner, it’s usually because I am helping others achieve their goals – which is a pretty awesome job.

If you find yourself struggling to keep balance, figure out why. Perhaps you have been training for marathon after marathon, signing up and training for the next the minute the current goal is history. It’s natural to burn out, both physically and mentally. I’ve been there, and hard as it may be, sometimes a break is the best thing. The thing to keep in mind is that the marathon will always be there, whether you come back to it in one year, five years or fifteen years. Yes, your body may react differently to training if you wait fifteen years, or it may be extremely frustrating to build back fitness you know you had a year ago, but our bodies and minds are pretty darn amazing, and will indeed bounce back.

Personally, I am struggling with that right now. This past year I took off from pretty much all of the training I had done the last few years. No track work, tempo runs, hill repeats – none of what I had been doing to make me “fast.” (My fast is turtle pace compared to some and probably speedy compared to others, so I think it deserves quotations.) Instead, I focused on Ultra Marathon training, which made sense with my coaching schedule. It was incredibly easy to tally up high-mileage weeks, all done at an easy pace. Ask me to run a 6-minute mile, and I would be left dry-heaving on the side of the road. My body had changed, thanks to what I’d asked it to do. Yes, I’d run 15 miles per day, 6-7 days per week and feel great. But could I race a 5K with any dignity? Nope. But that kind of training fit my schedule best. It was the easiest choice – which I realize as I say that sounds pretty insane. Like me, you may find yourself training the way that best fits your current life – be it work, family, etc. The hard part is then trying to change that.

How does someone go from running easy 90-100 mile weeks to suddenly asking their body to run “hard” again? It’s incredibly humbling to be huffing and puffing to run at your marathon goal pace from a year ago. But again, our bodies change based on the training demands. Can I get my body to run 7:05s for 26.2 miles again? Absolutely. Would it take a lot of work and patience? Sure. But it can be a goal if I decide to work for it.

I suppose I have two points to this blog:

  • As long as you give yourself the time and the proper training, you can change your running goals and absolutely succeed at the goals you have carved out for yourselves. Try something new. Aim for that PR, that BQ, that OQ. The worst that happens is you fail. And so what? It’s not like you are losing a cash prize if you don’t achieve your race-day goals, right?
  • The second is that I am excited as an athlete to switch focuses and see what I can do with shorter distances. It will be a challenge to balance coaching miles and training miles, but it’s all about choices and priorities. It may mean I need to be creative with my quality workouts and my rest days. But just like anyone with a job and other things in their lives, it’s all a balancing act. I’m never going to be training full-time, so just like you, I need to be both focus and ambitious but also flexible.

If you have tips for how you manage your training, race goals and life – please leave a comment. I know I could use any tips – and I am sure I am not the only one!

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Post-Marathon Blues

November 13, 2014 by Leave a Comment

img_6945Post-marathon time is often a time of riding the high of your accomplishment, reflecting on what went wrong and what went right, resting those tired legs, and perhaps deciding to retire from said marathon distance or perusing for future races. You may also find yourself feeling a little lost without all those training miles, and perhaps still eating all those yummy carbs. It’s natural after your 26.2 mile journey to go through a few weeks of transition.

Despite your enthusiasm to get back out and running, allow your legs to rest. Even though you may feel decent, many little micro tears in your muscles are healing. Your body and brain will thank you for the break. A few weeks of rest or easy cross training is the best thing you can do for your legs.

Spend this time going over your marathon experience. There are lessons that can be learned from every marathon. I find the greatest lessons come from the marathons that disappoint than those that go according to plan. Mistakes are the greatest learning lessons, as long as you LEARN from them. Perhaps you didn’t take the proper taper, or you wore something new on race day and it backfired, you made poor fueling choices, or you abandoned your plan and took the early miles too fast – those are all common mistakes, and mistakes that shouldn’t be made twice.

The “off-season” can be a great time to work on your weaknesses. Strength training, rebooting your nutrition, shedding a few pounds, rehabbing a nagging injury, trying a new sport or hobby – don’t view this part of training as a bad thing, it’s the chance to improve.

If you are eager to sign up for a new race, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to recover and build some base mileage before hopping back into intense training. Being too eager can increase injury risk. Your body and brain both need to be on board – not just your brain. When searching for a race, think about what you loved about your recent one and what perhaps you wish it had. With all the race options these days, you are bound to find the perfect fit. When searching for your next race, think about your goals and how to find the perfect complement to your needs, goals and race-day dreams.

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Healthy November Challenge

November 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment

img_6899-editI announced on Facebook last week that I am making this month “Healthy November.” I set myself some rules, and am posting my progress, struggles and tips. If this sounds intriguing to you, come join along!

November is the beginning of holiday parties, comfort food, and hibernation. Some of this is thanks to daylight savings, post-marathon recovery (for runners), sweater season, and often holiday parties and the feasting that seems to never stop once we hit Thanksgiving. Statistically, Americans pack on those most pounds between Halloween and NYE. I decided that instead of embracing those desires to stay inside and eat cozy food, I would make the month of November the opportunity to reboot my relationship with food and hopefully hit December with a bit more self-control and in better shape than most years.

Therefore, I have given myself some nutritional rules and guidelines for November. I am giving myself a few “cheat days” – Thanksgiving Day and the weekend of the Philly Marathon. I figure it would be too cruel to give up Thanksgiving, and I need to be properly fueled for my 26.2 mile journey on November 23rd.

My rules: Nothing out of a box. No artificial sugar – the exception being GU for mid-run fueling. No grains, bread, pasta, pasta, pancakes, or rice – the exception being oatmeal. No chocolate, ice cream or beer. No juice – unless it’s V8. I CAN eat – all the fruits and veggies I want, dairy (but no ice cream!), beans, meat, nuts, wine, hard liquor, coffee – and that’s it.

So far (it’s been less than a week!), I am doing great. I miss my many carbs, and have to plan meals and shopping. Eating out is a challenge, but not impossible. I am finding it hard to get in all my calories, so weight loss may be super easy. I try to get some protein in every meal. Greek yogurt has become an even more important ingredient in my daily diet. Avocados, olive oil and peanut butter have been my source of fat. I find myself sometimes itching for a sweet snack, but otherwise my cravings have been few and far between.

I encourage you to make your own “rules,” and follow them. Find modifications for the month that can work for you. Then stick to it. Write them down so that they are clear. Take it a day at a time. It can be overwhelming to think about an entire month without a bagel.

A few tips: when shopping, stock up on lots of fruits and veggies. Avoid most aisles in the grocery store. At home, prepare a few homemade soups and keep healthy snacks handy. Budget a little extra time to wash and slice fresh food, and to cook. Find foods you really like that fit into your rules and eat them often. This isn’t a diet, so much as a temporary “reboot month” – so you aren’t giving up anything forever!

My goal is to get to December feeling good. I hope to feel a bit more energized, strong and perhaps without the few extra pounds I seem to find between Thanksgiving and New Years. I am sure I will still bake lots of goodies in December (I always do!), but I am hoping I won’t be tempted to graze on them the way I have in the past. I want these cold and nasty months to be the opportunity to continue improving health and fitness – not to take steps backwards. With any luck, I’ll get to 2015 in better shape than I currently am (weight training – let’s do this!), and faster than I currently am (goodbye Ultras, hello 5Ks and Half Marathons!), and nutrition is a huge part of those training goals.

Feel intrigued and want to join along? Come join me and let’s do this! You have everything to gain and nothing to lose!

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