With Work Travel Comes...

Well it has not been as easy as I had hoped staying to a routine while in Cincinnati for work the last two weeks. I will be heading back to the Chicago area tomorrow afternoon, however I can tell I need some work. With getting up and putting in a full day of training (of which is exhausting in and of itself), then completing work that was missed during the day because of training, on top of completing the "homework" for the training each day...and getting the proper rest, food and summit training on top of that. It has been very difficult and not very effective. It is coming up so quick, and I just need to make myself step up the game.

Interval Training

I have been trying to step up my work outs with interval training on the treadmill. Incline at 20% or higher at 2 minutes at a slow run, 1 minute recover, and then repeat for 20 minutes. It is rediculous...I'll tell you what. I worked with a new trainer, Therese, and she mentioned that I need to work on my breathing to help me with my endurance. Talk about multitasking...make sure my abs are tight, my breathings is on track, jog at an incline without falling off the treadmill...oh..and don't pass out or throw up. Right.....

I'm in Cincinnati for two weeks, so it I'm trying to stay at the same level of training with the limited equipment that the hotel offers. Trying to incorprate push ups, lunges and sit ups in my hotel room. This weekend I am going to try and find a trail that I can train on.

So there is light at the end of this tunnel!

So I finally broke past the stage of not seeing any progress. Well...obviously after 4 months there has been progress...but I finally feel like I am getting to a point where I can see past the pain and achieve a goal I set. I have been working on the stairmaster for the past couple weeks and have not been able to go past 30 minutes on the level I set. For some reason I was able to go for an hour [5 miles] and then run on the treadmill for a mile afterwards. So I'm finally starting to see the light. Two more months...I can't believe it!

Volo Bog

On Saturday I hiked 6 miles around the Volo Bog Forest Preserve with my weighted pack. My pace was pretty swift, however I was struggling with trying to figure out how to adjust my pack correctly. Out of the hundred different levels and pulleys this pack seemed to have...it was amazing it didn't come with a manual. Note to remember for future hikes...stretch the shins! My shins are killing me.

Link to donate online added

For those of you that would rather donate to the society via online, I have added the website that you can donate directly. You can find the link under my profile on the right side of the screen.

Hike at Volo Bog

Sunday May 6th, we met at Volo Bog for our group training hike. I still need to purchase a larger pack as I didn't make it to REI like I wanted to, so I put only about 10 lbs in my camelbak while mostly everyone else wore their new backpacks [some still had their tags on] and put 30-45 lbs in them. A pretty easy 3.5 mile hike total between the two trails, however the idea was just to get used to carrying a weighted pack. Volo Bog, lucky enough for me was only about 10 minutes down the road, where everyone else had to drive between 45 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes. It was very nice of everyone to make the drive up north so I didn't have to drive very far.

Boxing Day

This week we did not get a training schedule together, so I have been putting together workouts from my past training days for substitution.Been going pretty well. Yesterday Reggie took me through a difficult workout and then after that hour was completed he was like..."ok..now 20 minutes of boxing...I'll go get the gloves." (uhh...ok) So needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of that. Only three months left to go, and I still need to step up my game as far as endurance goes.