The Vampire Diaries Workout Playlist

You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

Tightrope - Walk the Moon

Keep Together - Hunter Hunted

It Love It (Original) - Icona Pop

Let It Go - Dragonette

Feel So Close - Calvin Harris

New Phone Means New Fitness Apps!

I purchased the HTC One last Thursday when I made the change from ATT&T to T-Mobile to save $60 on our monthly bill. Since then I have gone install crazy trying to find the most useful applications to monitor and reward my fitness activity since my Wannabe Hubby shot down my own reward program citing that the plan was too expensive for this year. This is not a slam - it is just a fact. Buying a house bankrupts you, just saying ;) All that being said the following are the apps I have found I enjoy used and easy to use.

Fitbit - It is no secret that I love Fitbit's website and tracking device. While you cannot sync to your Android phone (boo iPhone!) It does tell you how many steps taken, floors climbed, miles traveled, calories burned, hours of sleep, food plan, and water consumption since your last sync in relation to your goal. Allowing to plan accordingly throughout the day. You can log activity that cannot be measured with the wireless tracking device, you can log food, you can add weight tracking information, you can log water, if you have friends on the site it shoes you the ranking, and you can log sleep. So all in all pretty dang functional and the ever present practice about being mindful of your health. You can view my profile and add me as a friend HERE.

Nike+ Running - It's no secret I love their site and use my iPod Nano in conjunction with the site. While I don't use the Android Application to log my runs - since I have my iPod - but I do use it for the widget that shows how many miles total I've run and how many days since my last run. A nice way to motivate myself. Additionally it compares your most recent with your last run to see how much shorter/longer you ran and the time difference. If you have a goal setup it will also show your percentage to goal.You can also set up a run reminder in case you just can't muster the motivation on your own. The profile page shows all your stats that are available on the site but it is nice to carry those stats out for motivation or bragging rights ;) You can also view your entire activity history. I have not added any friends on Nike+ but it shows you comparative stats with your friends as well. You can view my profile and add me as a friend HERE or search for Rookie_Runner.

Nike Training Club - Okay so I log my walking and my running, but how do I log all my other training efforts or plan them? Using this! There are tons of workouts to choose from and you can select your activity level and time or focus group making this an easy addition to any cardio workout. You can log in with your Nike+ Account if you have one to add Nikefuel to your account for more than just running. You can save workouts you really like so they are easy to find again for the next time and it will also track your progress. You can view my profile and add me as a friend HERE or search for Rookie_Runner.

Nexercise - I love being rewarded for fitness. I use the Nike Apps to monitor my runs and workouts and then I manually log them to earn rewards - you don't earn as much for manually logging them but I don't want to run with my phone since it's not as practical as my iPod Nano. I could theoretically have the app running in the background while using Nike Training Club - if that works I will re-post with the update. As a note - you have to log the activity within two days it will not let you post further back. You earn trophies which can boost your motivation and again serve as bragging rights if you've enabled the social aspect but adding friends. You can earn rewards 1 of 2 ways. Through mPoints which you get by logging exercise, by viewing advertisements, taking short surveys, fulfilling basic achievements, or sometimes completely at random for logging in. You can spend these mPoints on sweepstakes, gift cards, or charitable donations. You can also earn rewards through Pocketchange which you earn by logging in and logging activity that can be used towards gift cards - these are a little harder to earn but the rewards are better since ad viewing doesn't come into play at all. You can add me by posting a status to Twitter asking for friends and commenting below with your Twitter name so I can accept the invitation.

Fitocracy - I love making fitness a game.  You can select quests to complete to earn more points from them and "level up" There is no rewards system in this game so unless your highly competitive you have to bring your own motivation but it is definitely self-satisfying to bump levels. You can add me by searching for me as Rookie_Runner.

Charity Miles - This app just makes you feel horrifically guilty if you skip a day of walking, running, or cycling. You earn 10 cents per mile for biking and walking and runners are 25 cents per mile You can select from a number of charities. I tend to always donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society due to a close relative who has Stage 4 Lymphoma. I would also consider the following charities in the future - Stand Up To Cancer, The Nature Conservatory & ASPCA. I love their motto - Because changing the world is a team sport. You cannot add friends with this application.

LA Fitness Mobile - I use this app because this is where I have my gym membership and it lets me know the class schedule and if any classes get cancelled to save me the trip .This is a just a useful tool. It can also set reminders to your phone to attend a class thereby holding you accountable to attend. You cannot add friends with this application.

Fitsby - Compete with friends by how many times you check into the gym .This is a lot like GymPact in that you can make a wager where the winning party earn the pot and the loser pays into it if they cannot keep up the bargain. However, you have the option to enter free competitions - not as motivating but again like a game so this might be enough motivation for some people.

Active - This application doesn't monitor or reward fitness in any way but you can view feeds of local activties (categorized by interests you select) that are close to you. They also feature articles about the topics you selected. This is great because you can filter out activities you don't have an interest in and you can save articles you enjoy to peruse again later. You cannot add friends.

DietPoint - Also not a fitness application but what you eat plays into how healthy you are. I like this application because it comes up a week long plan for what to eat and after answering a few questions tells you how much weight you can expect to lose over a period of time. You're limited in which plans you choose if you want to keep it free but they are a number of free options that are just fine. Also if you go pro it will auto make a grocery list for you but honestly unless you're supremely lazy there's no reason you can't slip through the days to determine how much and of what to buy. You cannot add friends.

Lose It - Food diary that allows you to select a weight loss goal. This is a nice application because you ca pair it to Fitbit and there is more uploaded food information on Lose It so you're not constantly creating foods if you don't always buy name brand or you eat out a lot. You can search for me by me email address but please PLEASE do not spam  me. You can comment below if you would like to add me.

30 Minute Run & Tuesday Night Zumba & Reward System?

Okay so first things first, I took a week off from running because I was very discouraged by missing race registration. That being said I created a list of Rewards for making it to certain mileage points. However I will go on about my run first :)

Its was a very humid afternoon, I would've waited to go later but I knew I was going to do Zumba with my Bestie and you can't do anything after Zumba except die (which I did). Below is the graph of my run. You can see I started strong but I just go so tired at the end I ended up walking most of it.

My average pace for the first mile was 12'57", for the second mile it was 14'21". My overall average pace was 13'55". The most glaring contributing factor was skipping a week of running and the heat. I have learned for me the optimal time to eat before a run to not get an upset stomach is 6 hours. Most people have a light snack to amp up before a run but I seem to get to nauseas when I try that. I suppose I'm better running on empty and replenishing anything I've lost afterwards.

I went to Zumba with Kathy and while it's fun the consistent on part of my toes is kinda painful. I'm working through it but I think my running shoes aren't good for this kind of exercise but oh well not buying separate shoes for that. I kinda want to check out the WG LA Fitness to see how theire instructors are since they have a class every day. Will post with further information.

My current running mileage (Im not using my FitBit walking mileage only Nike+ Running Mileage to be fair) is 34.34 Miles. This list is only eligible until the end of the year. New year starts and I have to start all over again. Okay, so these are my tentative mileage rewards I have set for myself (to be reviewed by Orin sometime this week):

• 50 Miles - A New Book ($10 value)
• 75 Miles - Trip to the Orlando Regional History Museum ($10 value)
• 100 Miles - Cooling Towel ($20 value)
• 125 Miles - Sports Ear Clips Head Phones ($20 value)
• 150 Miles - See a Movie ($20 value)
• 175 Miles - OPI gelcolor Nail Service @ Ulta ($25 value)
• 200 Miles - Hour Massage @ Ultimate Orlando Massage ($40 value)
• 225 Miles - Dermalogica Medibac Clearing Skin Treatment @ Ulta ($65 value)
• 250 Miles - New Running Shoes ($100 Value)
• 275 Miles - Wifi Aria Wireless Scale ($130 value)
• 300 Miles - Nike GPS Watch ($160 value)
• Bonus 300 Miles + Gym Visits 3x a Week - Disney Annual Pass ($470 value)



Clermont Waterfront parkrun - Weekly Free 5K Timed Run

Okay I ran in my first timed race this weekend and while I was nowhere near head of the line overall, in fact total of runners were 54 and I was in 41st place, 27th place out of the ladies, BUT I was second place for women in my age category. I completed the 5k in 41"42. I really needed the little encouragement to keep going. Below is my Nike+ recording of the run.

You can see I started out really strong and then truly fell off, I burned out all my energy trying to stay ahead of the teenagers and the triathletes, I was really tempted to push it but it wasn't worth it for having to walk so much at the end. However my overall pace was 13"30 which makes me really happy. My splits were this: First mile 12"04', Second mile 13"34', third mile 14"38'. While it was sad to see so many people pass me I do have to remember most of them have been running considerably longer or are considerably younger so I am not disappointed. You check out the results page for yourself here.

My experience was Parkrun is good, you run around a beautiful waterfront lake view and everyone is friendly and considerate clapping and cheering on until the last person finishes regardless of time, age, or ability. I felt welcomed and supported. While I was there I spoke with someone about the West Orange Runners Meetup and I joined this morning. :) Looking forward to making new friends.

Losing Motivation & Ramen=Bad

Okay so by now most of my friends already know that I missed registration for The Glass Slipper Challenge due to waiting on housing stuff so that's three races I have missed already. I'm starting to feel like running towards a pace is a waste of time until things are settled down, maybe wait to register for anything until the end of 2014 to race in 2015. I'm still going to follow the most up to date training guides as if I am still running to really deep condition myself so it will be easier for me next year. All that being said I'm really sad about missing registration it was closed before 6PM on the first registration day.

In any case I ran today because I didn't run yesterday because I was having a bit of a pity party which really isn't a big deal I'm just very anxious.

Anyway without further ado this is the graph of my run. I hate that Nike+ on the graphs doesn't show the second decimal, bah, I ran 2.19 miles.

I made the huge mistake of eating Ramen noodles 3 hours before running. I thought that would be plenty of time to digest but evidently my stomach is too sensitive to exercise with that anywhere in my digestive track. I was fighting puking the whole second half. But I didn't really lose energy, I just made a bad judgement call on my refuel. All that being said I still increased my average pace to 13'45" which is a great accomplishment.

Furthermore, I really enjoyed the night run. 8PM seems to be the perfect time to run - it's still light out but its cool and no real sun and the breeze felt terrific. I wish I would've remembered to run with my watch today but oh well, I'll run again tomorrow and see how I do. And yes I know I'm not supposed to run two days in a row but I missed my other running day and will complete all three days this week. I will just have to not push the envelope tomorrow so I don't get muscle soreness. Speaking of, soaked my legs already and getting ready to enjoy a post workout sherbet as my reward for increasing my pace and completing the training even though I won't be running any races.

Speedwork, Fastest 1 Mile

So I've decided that from now on Sunday I'm going to dedicate myself to working towards my fastest mile. The weather here in the Sunshine State is humid and sticky but all of it makes it worth it when I click end workout and it tells me I have a new personal best. You can see I couldn't keep the super pace I started out with all the way through, at about the half mile mark I needed to walk some. It probably didn't help that I thought since I was just going to do a quick run, less than 13 minutes, that I wouldn't need my water bottle. I probably would've had a faster time had I stayed hydrated, yes even in that short of a run. :) You can see I completed my mile in 11'31" which is my fastest time to date. Go me!

How Many Calories To Eat?

This is a great tool for anyone who is starting a weight loss plan if they don't have something like the FitBit to do it automatically for you. For our frugal friends this little calculator tells you your most basic caloric intake needs and then offers scenarios on how active you are. Click HERE to go to Running World's Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator.

This calculator provides the number of calories you need to MAINTAIN your current weight. After calculating your BMR decide how quickly you want to lose weight by determining a calorie deficit. The simplest diet usually says a 300 calorie deficit which is easy to maintain by cutting back on 1 snack and jog/walking a half hour.

If you're impatient like me you may be tempted to try losing weight very fast with a 1000 calorie deficit - this is very rigorous and hard to do and certainly won't be recommended by a healthcare professional. If you want to lose quickly set the limit to a 500 calorie deficit and be sure to tone up at the same time to avoid excess skin!

According to my results below since I am moderately active to maintain the weight of 133.2 pounds I would need to eat 2189 calories per day, however since I am trying to lose weight I would subtract 500 from that number and that is my new caloric intake budget. See? Easy as pie.

My results are below:

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is 1412 calories per day. That's the number of calories you would burn if you were completely inactive.

But, since you aren't completely inactive (even using this tool takes some energy), you'll need to consider how active you are when determining your total daily calorie needs. Based on the data you entered, here are your calorie needs for the following activity levels:

1694 Calories · Sedentary · You do little or no exercise.

1942 Calories · Lightly Active · You participate in sports or light exercise 1-3 days per week.

2189 Calories · Moderately Active · You do moderate exercise or play sports 3-5 days per week.

2436 Calories · Very Active · You exercise hard or play sports 6-7 days per week.

2683 Calories · Overly Active · You exercise very hard daily and have a physical job, or do two workouts per day.

4 Mile Run With Hydes Update

Okay these are the stats from today's 4 mile run with Hydes. Our average pace was 16'23" and we completed it in 1 hour and about 6 minutes. Being that last week when I ran with her we completed 3 miles in an hour I feel I need to give her a nice round of applause. WAY TO GO HYDES! For this run we used her interval timer and ran for 30 seconds and walked for a minute. I know right now I'm at a 1:1 ratio but I didn't want to push her beyond her ability and get injured. It won't be long and she'll be where I'm at :)

Reflections about this run. Wearing all moisture wicking clothing helped considerably more than I ever dreamed. I full recommend the sports bras ($8 sale), compression capris ($17 sale), and semi fitting racerbacks ($10 sale) they have in their collection (and on a steep sale until June 19th). Other Reflections about this run include wow I can breathe just fine all the way through this - my respiration while running has deeply improved but my legs started to feel the burn really early - maybe around the 2 mile mark? But it wasn't bad enough for me to stop but it was enough to notice. Perhaps I need to work some strength training in on my legs. After I do the treadmill make up on my individual run I will peruse the leg weights machines and see which is the best fit for me and find out which ones I can even operate!

Below is the image from today's run. You can see I broke with the pace at the end and just went for it when the timer told me there was only 100 meters to go. I felt really good after this - almost like it was a warmup - I still had so much energy left over!

The splits worked out like this. The first mile's average pace was 16'36", the second mile's average pace was 17"13 (-4% change), third mile's average pace was 15"30' (+9% change), and the fourth mile's average pace was 16"13' (-5% change). I love that we ended better than we finished. I am so proud of Hydes.

I was going to re-run this to see how I did but when I started I accidentally had the machine set to hill climb and I decided to leave it, 2 miles in I was exhausted and I didn't care about anything but downing a gallon of water and going to bed. For the future, I will make sure the incline is not set to hill climber. All that being said  my average pace was pretty amazing so instead of redoing the 4 miles I will just use the stats from the hill climb run to gauge my progress this week from last week.

My splits were as follows: 1st mile 13"26 and the 2nd mile was 13"12. I did marginally better in the second mile.

To the left are my predicted splits. My goal this week was to finished 4 miles with an average pace of 14 minutes per mile. Using the data from my run this afternoon I'd have finished 4 miles in 57'1" for the sake of simple math we'll say 57 when divided by 4 is 14.25 or 14'15" So it appears I was closer to my goal earlier this week when my average pace was 14"01. I'll chalk it up to already having exercised, doing leg weights, and deciding to do a hill climb. Let me know in the comments section if I should give myself a pass this week and day I made my training goal due to these factors ;)

Below is my snapshot of the week's progress

This week I earned a few Nike+ Trophies: Bronze Trophy for running more than 15 miles in a month, Double Shot for running twice in one day, Nike 5k Fuel for earning over 5k Nike Fuel Points, Exercising 4 weeks in a row. On Monday's run I earned fastest mile and fastest 1k. During this mornings run I logged the longest workout, the furthest mileage in single workout, must runs in a week, and most calories burned. 

You can see on my progress report that my Pace is a little steadier now - not as all over the place and my average pace for the week overall was  about 15 minutes per mile and that most of my runs were done in the evening and on a treadmill. 

By the way, Spinning classes at LA Fitness are terrible - the instructor is great even if he does look like Ken Doll but the machines are so hard by butt and pelvic bones are still crying when I sit down almost 24 hours later - which trust me had NOTHING to do with the workout intensity. Also, spinning before running should've been duh but I wanted to try out the spinning class as a cross training alternative but my butt would never agree to that kind of torture. lol.

30 Minute Run & Pacing Realization

Okay so as you can see at least for 2 miles I'm devastatingly close to my 14 average pace - the question remains is whether I can do that for 4 miles and surprisingly I think I can. I ran with a very specific pacing method today to try and prove a point to myself. At the beginning there's no point to push the envelope and run out of steam to seal the deal at the end no matter how good you feel 10 minutes in you won't feel the same 20 minutes in and especially when its minutes to go. I was on a treadmill due to the very in-climate rainstorms we've had daily now this week. I walked at speed of 3.5 for 2 minutes and then jogged at the speed of 5 for 2 minutes. When I was jogging yes it was hard and I definitely counted down every half minute until it was over to get to the walking part because I used walking as a reward for jogging. My splits per mile were this: 1st mile average pace 14'21" 2nd mile 13"28. Yes that's right folks I finished strong and NOT dead on my feet. You can see I stayed fairly consistent doing my best not to budge from the designated pace I set for myself.

All this being said, if you look at Monday's post you know I pushed it harder at the beginning because I was aiming for fastest mile and fastest 1k but my average pace was about 10 seconds longer overall and I had to finish considerably slower than I had started but I suppose I had something to prove to myself on Monday. So walking more and running less actually improved my average pace.

The only problem I'm finding is when I'm not on a treadmill how am I supposed to gauge how fast I'm going consistently? I mean I can click the power button on mu iPod Nano and it gives me my current pace and I know for a speed of 3.5 that's 17 minutes per mile and a speed of 5 is 10 minutes per mile but as a matter of consistency all the way through 2 minutes that is not a feasible option so my trail running will never be as good as my treadmill running - what a bummer. At least it would be without the Nike+ SportWatch GPS Powered by TomTom (I want it in black and blue by the way) Or you can pull more specific stats from the Nike+ site.

30 Minute Run - 2+ Miles Yay!

Okay this is from my first 30 minute run this week. I pushed the envelope a little harder because I wanted to beat my previous best 1k and best mile, which huzzah for me, I did! My best 1k is now 7'51" and my best mile is now 12'52". I actually managed to jog for about 5 minutes before I got winded and it was all downhill after that. So moral of the story is, don't burn it out all at once I probably would've had a better overall distance in that 30 minutes had I not tried going for fastest 1 mile and 1k. Oh well, you live you learn. :) You can see in the chart below exactly where I pushed it and where I walked.The parts where it was green I had the treadmill at about 5.5-6 mph and orange at about 4.5 and the red 3.5.All that being said I'm still proud of myself jogging for 5 minutes straight is a bit of a major accomplishment for captain huff and puff over here. :)

5k Take Two Weekly Progress Report Update

Okay so I re-ran my 5k on the treadmill at the gym. To be fair I had never done any of my running training on the treadmill before and I found it easier to push myself because I could see all the stats in front of me so I was encouraged to push in a little harder if I knew I was going to get to a mile marker to get there quicker. I don't know how I could possibly simulate this effect on a traditional run other than those super expensive GPS watches that you only expect to get during Hanukkah from your loved one. I followed a method that seemed to help me keep pace. I walked for 2 minutes at 2.5 speed and then jogged for 2 minutes at 4-5.5 depending on my energy level. I should clarify the only time I pushed it to 5.5 was at the tail end to finish strong. My legs were a little wobbly when I got off the machine but after about a half hour my legs were up to the challenge of getting in my car and driving home with no problems.

This is my new Predicted Splits based off the data from this workout. It predicts that I will run 10 miles in 1hour, 36 minutes, and 21 seconds which is 23 minutes and 17 seconds better than last week. But let's take a look at my Week 4 Training Goals that I wanted to meet by end of next Saturday. It predicts I will run 4 miles in 59 minutes and 2 seconds which to make make easier is 59.03. When divided by four is equal to 14.75 which means 14'45" minutes per mile. My training goal was to to do 4 miles with an average of 14' per mile. I only need to improve by 45 seconds to increase this goal so I met my week to week goal I set last week.

This is my updated Progress Report to show my run for this afternoon. I won a few trophies this week, The Double Shot for doing 2 Runs in the same day, 3 Weeks in a Row for logging a run every week for three weeks, 3 Times a Week for running three times this week. I also reach some new personal bests which you can see on the Current Stats Page :) I will update my FitBit Numbers at the end of the night since the day is not yet over.