Been busy and have LOTS of news!

Hey everyone!

Long time, no see. Sincerest apologies for my garbagey blogging attempts lately. Turns out these entries take more time than I thought.

I have also admittedly been less than committed to my home workouts. FOR. SHAME.

I have been going climbing though and I did spend the earlier part of this week on the road, which made it difficult.

BIG NEWS 1:

I GOT A NEW CAR! I am not really one for a flashy car. Or flashy anything. My favorite cars are ones that look totally normal on the outside and are knock your socks off nice on the inside. My first car (the one I drove until about 4 days ago) was a 1999 Jeep Cherokee Limited. So from the outside looked like your generic All American box on wheels, but inside had a killer two tone leather interior and a good deal of wood panelling.

I wanted the same general idea for my new car - a nice but not flashy car with a great interior, switch to a manual transmission, and better gas mileage. Those parameters along with the necessity of AWD landed me in Subaru Outback territory. Unfortunately, finding a Subaru Outback Limited with a manual transmission that is NOT turbo (premium gas? no thanks) and less than 55K miles (I like to keep cars for 10 years) is next to impossible. But I did. The downside was that my dad and I had to drive all the way to East Texas to pick it up and then drive it all the way home (which I, realistically was happy to do :) ). Moral of the story is, my dad is easily the most generous person I know with both money and time and willingness to involve himself in what could have been a logistical nightmare.

Turned out not to be a nightmare. And the car is beautiful. My favorite parts are: how smoothly it runs, leather seats with seat warmers, and an EPIC sunroof. The car itself is also really big, 18 inches longer than my Jeep, but to drive it is more like a Honda. It has a great balance of agile handling and cushy suspension. Also, because the space behind the back seat is so huge, both dogs can be back there behind the partition comfortably without my having to deal with them tromping all over the seats. Win!

Here are a few photos:

Drivers Side

Radio controls and such.

Front seat from the other side.

Sunroof goes all the way over the backseat. Awesome. With the roof closed and the cover open, it feels like driving outside, except it's quiet and peaceful :).

Blocked MKBDad's face out because I didn't ask his permission to put it on here. Oh, and yes. It was overcast. And yes, my eyes are pale blue. So yes, I was squinting in the photo like a 5 year old :).

So jazzed here, so thumbs up photo of me in drivers seat HAD to happen. Again, squinting. And asymmetrically, too hah.


BIG NEWS 2:

I GOT A JOB! I got a job doing marketing and community outreach at one of the largest chiropractic practices in the state of Georgia. I start next week and I could not be more excited to combine my existing skill(z) with the message of wholesome/natural wellness. WOOHOO!

The workout for today is the one I set out to do in my last post but never completed, because MKBBF and I decided to go climbing last minute instead.

As a refresher:
The Trainer Who Loved Me Workout (revisited)
Then:
5 rounds of 10 seconds rest 20 seconds maximum effort skipping
50 Sasha Swings for time
x2 rounds

So I've got: a staggeringly generous dad, a loving boyfriend, 2 smooshy face dogs, a sweet car, a job that means something to me, and academic success.

Damn. I am SO. Lucky.


ROCK!

*******UPDATE*******
I completed The Trainer Who Loved Me workout in 27:37 with all unmodified exercises and pushups. The first time I did this workout took 33:43.

SWEET

Thursday is my Friday

Hey everyone! First thing's first. It's MKBLittleBrother's Birthday today!!!!!! Happy 18th birthday Valdezie. I always wanted a younger sibling and you are everything I could have hoped and dreamed for and so much more. I hope you have a fantastic day and don't get slapped by any strippers on your inaugural trip into one of those sleezy places. Better yet, avoid them and save your money to buy . . . pretty much anything else :). I LOVE YOU!

PS - Holy hell. My little brother is legal. I think I just had a heart attack.

Anyway, Thursday is my Friday so I'm going to do two workouts today to amp up the momentum for the weekend. I have my teeny bikini's hanging up in my closet so every time I go to pick out clothes I get a little bit of motivation to workout. Today I'm having a bit of a hard time getting started, so I hung it up on the door where I can always see it. It's working - so after I finish this I'm going to hit it :).

Workout 1: Hot Warrior Workout
1 min jumping jacks
1 min shadow roping
5 rounds
8 minute abs
1 min jacks to mini straddle jump
1 min shadow roping

Workout 2:
10 100 lb dead lifts
10 pull-ups
10 Sasha Swings
x 5 rounds

As always we're racing the clock so time these!

Also, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and purchase the Dip Station Zuzana uses in her workouts. I have been using bar stools to do the exercises for 3 months now, and I think I'm ready to commit the hundred bucks and do the exercises exactly the way she does.

Oh, and the car dealer in Charleston we had arranged to pick up the Subaru Outback from? Sold the car out from under us. Sleezebag.

ROCK!

*******UPDATE*******
Workout 1: Hot Warrior Workout (old scores are in parentheses)
Lunge Forward & Backward and Sandbag lift - I used 25 lb bar for these (18 lb sandbag before)
L - 20/12/13 -45 total (18/14/14 -46 total)
R - 15/12/11 -38 total (14/11/11 -36 total)
Core Splits 19/20/20 -59 total (18/16/16 -50 total)
Dynamo Push-Up 16/14/14 -44 total (15/12/13 -40 total)
Sleeping Crab (I did these wrong the first time I did the workout - didn't realize you're supposed to lay all the way back down each rep)
L - 13/13/14 (Zuzana's score: 13/13/13)
R - 12/13/14 (Zuzana's score: 14/11/12)

Pretty proud of this improvement. I stayed right with my old number of reps for the Lunges and I used 7 more pounds of weight. I did 9 more reps of Core Splits, 4 more reps of Dynamo Push - Ups, and beat Zuzie in the Sleeping Crab Exercise. SWEET!

I wound up doing jumping jacks for both the first set of jumping intervals and the second - primarily because I forgot I had said I was going to do the jump mini straddles. OOPS!

I did write down my reps for today, because I haven't in awhile. The jumping is just supposed to be at moderate pace - not super intense - the point is just to keep the heart rate up and get a good sweat working :).
Round 1 - 66/66/65/66/66
Round 2 - 68/67/70/65/67

Total: 650 + 16. You can do the math - I'm not writing that number on my blog :).

For whatever reason I usually do more jacks in the second round. Maybe it's because those fast twitch fibres are activated from the first round. No idea.

Workout 2: MKB Deadlift Grip Challenge -
Time: 18:48

Can't believe I finished this one - after the end of the second round of deadlifts I almost tapped out - then switched mentality from racing to finishing the workout at an even tempo and minimizing rests even if just to do a single.

Hands and forearms: firebombed.

Hallmark Monday!

*******EDITED*******
Hey everyone! It's that day again. The day when girls with (bad) boyfriends who don't appreciate them every other day of the year get flowers and candy. Fortunately, MKBBF is great with the appreciation all year. In fact, I can honestly say I don't know anyone more thoughtful than he is.

This afternoon two random girls in my Biochem class were talking today about "what love is". So I thought I'd share the most recent manifestation of love in my life. My next car is going to be a 5spd - this is relevant I promise. I've wanted one for a long time, and through a variety of circumstances it is coming to fruition in the near future (obvious manifestation of love/extreme generosity: dad buying me a Subaru Outback :D). Trouble is: I haven't driven a 5spd since last summer, and that was only on the flat flat highways of Wyoming and Mississippi. Read: where it's just like an automatic once you get into 5th and are cruising. Before that I hadn't driven one since high school. So I'm relearning how to drive a bit before I get my new car a) so I can get it home and b) so I have enough know how to practice safely. Here's where the love comes in.

Love is: your boyfriend patiently teaching you how to drive a 5 spd, on hills, in Atlanta, on HIS car in such a way that you don't lose your mind and he doesn't lose his. Awesome.

You can keep the mystery franken sweets and the 2 days from dead roses, and I'll take "our kind of love" any day :).

I'm not a super mushy girl, so I enjoy the fact that he's not worried about a weird and contrived "holiday". I'd rather hang out on the couch with a homemade paleo dinner watching Away We Go wearing one of his sweat shirts than dealing with oppressive romance and overdosing on pinks and reds.

BodyRock is not doing any workout today at all - but I feel ready to go after yesterdays light effort.

Without further ado- todays workout:

Set timer for 32 sets of 10 seconds rest 20 seconds effort. You'll do 20 seconds of each exercise and four rounds of the whole thing for 16 total minutes of part 1.

Part 1: Look Good In Your Jeans Workout
50 lb back squats
50 lb squat pulses
Mountain Climber Sprints
Triceps Push Ups
Mountain Climber Sprints
Jump Lunges
Low Lunge Pulses (L)
Low Lunge Pulses (R)
X4 rounds.

Part 2:
Same jumping intervals as yesterday - 2 rounds

Part 3: 8 minute abs - link in yesterdays post

Part 4:
Same as part 2.

ROCK!

*******UPDATE*******

Back Squats 12/7/6/5
Back Squat Pulse 15/18/18/20
Mtn Climber Sprint 53/44/40/43
Triceps Push Ups 13/12/14/14
Mtn Climber Sprint 50/40/46/42
Jump Lunges 15/13/13/13
Lunge Pulses: no score - the object is just to keep doing little pops and finish the entire interval- not to go super fast.

I finished all the jumping and the 8 min abs without stopping sooooo yay for that. The 8 minute abs are SUCH a burnout. I think I'm going to incorporate them into my daily routine for a while. I'll let you know how it goes :).