I absolutely LOVE LUSH COSMETICS!  Lush is a company based out of Canada that sells fresh, handmade cosmetics and skincare.  They have more of a focus on skin and bath items, but they have recently started to get into makeup/cosmetics.  I’ve always loved their bath bombs and body soaps.  The stores are awesome, you can go in and they just cut off a piece of soap for you at the size you want.  I also love their solid shampoos (Karma Komba is my favorite) My favorite bath bomb is Sakura.  The stores are very smelly (good smelly!), so it can be overwhelming.   I’ve also ordered things online since I don’t have a store super close to me (about an hour away).  Recently, I’ve been trying to go more natural with my skin care routine.  I’ve used Proactiv for years, but I don’t think I really need it anymore.

After a horrible allergic reaction to toothpaste and later lip balm… I’ve been trying to use things geared towards sensitive skin.  Lush’s Angels on Bare Skin cleanser and Eau Roma Water toner are awesome!  I know I will use these for a very long time because I just love them.  My skin is so soft after using this cleanser.

I also LOVE their face masks!  The only downside is you have to buy them in a store.  They are made with fresh ingredients and have a quicker expiration date.  The last time I was there, I actually bought two so I could freeze one.  This is my favorite mask.

I’ve also been using Cetaphil to wash my face.  This cleanser does not foam (which is good for me because I think I am allergic to a foaming ingredient!).  Now that I am used to it, I really like it.

I also use Neutrogena moisturizer.  I’ve been using this dark circle treatment for awhile (I have hereditary dark circles) and I think it helps… ?  I use the retinol serum in between my eyebrows and on smile lines.  I’m paranoid about wrinkles!  If I feel like I’m going to get a pimple, I still use my leftover 3rd step from my last Proactiv kit.  It is a benzoyl peroxide lotion that works but bleaches all my towels.  I switched over to white towels a long time ago!

What skin care items do you love?  Are you good about removing your makeup every night? I am obsessed with going to bed with a clean face. I never forget!

We checked into our hotel Saturday morning, and drove to the expo in the afternoon.  We didn’t know, but Andy Potts was there for a meet and greet!  He is a pro triathlete and won the race on Sunday.

After the expo, the boys had to get their bikes into the transition area.  Amy‘s husband Matt raced too so I was super lucky to have Amy with me all weekend to walk around and worry with while the guys raced!

There was a lot of rain leading up to the race, so it was crazy muddy!  I got a ride around so I didn’t have to mess up my TOMS

On Sunday, we got to the race very early.  Matt’s swim wave was at 8:00 and Colby’s was at 8:30.  Colby was worried that he was the second to last swim wave because we knew it was going to get hot later in the day.

At the finish line!  You can see Amy cheering Colby on in the Tiffany blue/green shirt… she bought it for the Nike Half and thought it was too green!  I wanted to make sure to get a good picture of him at the finish, so he didn’t really see me until I took the picture.

As you can see, he had a GREAT race!! His goal was 5 hours and he was thrilled to go under 5!  I checked my phone compulsively during the race, but some of the half way marks didn’t show up.  He was so fast on his bike, I missed him at transition 2!  The weather did get really hot and sunny later in the day.  He said the run was really difficult because of the heat.  He was a little sore after the race, but was able to run 3 miles with me yesterday morning.  I can’t believe how his legs are in such great shape!  He was curious as to why his swim time was a few minutes slower than expected, but after looking up the pro’s times, they were slower too.  He thought it must have been a little longer than 1.2. Oh well, he still went under 5 hours!

At dinner that night… he has given up drinking soda since January so he was very happy to have cherry coke Sunday night!  He deserved it

(PM workout)

I asked Colby to run 3 easy miles with me outside.  His legs were sore but he was okay going slow with me.  We walked a little too.  Tonight, I did something I haven’t done in a longgggg time… I went to a SPIN class!!  Two years ago I tried to get into spin, but I just couldn’t.  My new gym has all  RPM (Les Mills spin class) and they have a 30 minute class two times a week.  Tonight they had the 30 minute class and CXWORX was right afterwards.  I really loved it!!  30 minutes was just enough, because I’m not sure I could have done much more tonight.  Spin is just so hard when you aren’t used to it!  I loved that it was in a separate spin room and it just had such a cool atmosphere.  I really liked the instructor too!

I made an awesome smoothie this morning after my run.  I haven’t made a smoothie in a few weeks so it tasted great.  Chocolate Vega protein, Silk almond milk, PB2 powder, spinach, frozen banana, frozen strawberries and chia seeds! YUM!

Big Ironman review tomorrow!

From my Exercise Log…

May 27-June 2, 2013

Monday: BodyPump (taught track 4) and 2.5 miles outside

Tuesday: off

Wednesday: shortened BodyPump at home 

Thursday: 2.5 miles on TM

Friday: BodyPump (taught tracks 6,7,8,9,10)

Saturday: off

Sunday: BodyPump at home 2.5 miles outside

Last week I had after school commitments Tuesday-Thursday and I really tried to fit in a few short workouts.  Friday I taught the second half of BodyPump at the gym and it went really well.

 Ever since my training two weeks ago, I’ve been working towards taping myself teaching an entire class for my BODYPUMP certification.  Les Mills requires you to submit a film of you teaching an entire class in one take.  I went for it this past Tuesday night after a long day of school and everything was going soooo well.  I was using my iPad like the instructor told us to use for filming.  I was in the middle of lunges (track 7/10) and the instructor watching my iPad told me it ran out of space and stopped!!! I was so mad! It was going so well!!!  So I’m going to try again soon but with an actual digital camcorder so I don’t run out of space!

I found this bright pink running skirt at Target last week and ran in it a few days ago.  It is really comfortable and looks good too!  I don’t know why it took me so long to try out running skirts!

PS it was my blog’s 2 year anniversary on May 21, but I think I was so tired after the Pump training weekend I forgot!  Two years ago I started my blog after just completing my first full marathon.  I also joined a gym soon after and started taking BodyPump classes.  I never would have thought I would be teaching them now!

Colby’s half-Ironman is this weekend!

We always talk about our favorite pump instructors from the dvds and her favorite is the very pretty Jericho.  I told her I don’t have long flowing red locks to leave down for the workout  Jericho is all over everything Les Mills lately and I opened up my new BP 86 DVD I got the other day and she was inside too!

Since I passed my initial training, I can now get all the new releases and the new 86 just came out this week.  I am trying not to look at it too much.  I don’t want to get confused because I still need to tape my full 85 and submit it to Les Mills to be officially certified! I’m hoping to get that done in two weeks

My hamstrings were pretty sore from teaching my friends yesterday, so I decided to do an easy 1.5 miles on my treadmill to loosen up my legs, then I did the ab tracks from both 85 and 86 (kinda disappointed with 86 abs..) and practiced the 85 cool down again.  I almost have it memorized but I just think it is in a strange order. Then I did my 20 BodyFlow DVD from my Pump kit.

Last night we went to Bonefish Grill for the first time with Colby’s brother and it was amazing!  We are seafood fans and this restaurant was great!  We shared their bang bang shrimp appetizer and I had a really good house salad.

Then I had their salmon special with goat cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts and lemon basil sauce.  I substituted the potatoes for their quinoa salad with tomatoes and edamame.  Everything was really good and I would definitely go back!

We also went to see Hangover 3, which was good but never as funny as the 1st movie.  Hope you are having a good weekend! I am co-teaching pump again tomorrow morning

I passed my BODYPUMP Initial Training!

Seriously, I had the best time this past weekend.  It was amazing and I’m so glad I pursued becoming a BODYPUMP instructor!  I went to a YMCA about 30 minutes away this past Saturday and Sunday from 8-6 (we got out early both days though!) and pumped my little heart out all day long

Right away, I hit it off with a girl named Kerry that lives fairly close and has also been taking pump classes for years.  There were 10 of us total and 2 were guys.  A few of the people already worked at this YMCA and were going for the certification.  This gym is just getting BODYPUMP, so they are hoping to release it within the next month.  One of the other girls already teaches a bunch of Les Mills classes like Combat, Attack and CXWORX and she was great.  I asked her about the CXWORX certification because that is my other favorite class and she said one of the toughest things was holding a 5 minute plank! Ouch!

I didn’t take many pictures that weekend (I was working hard!) but I did take a picture of our Sunday schedule.  Saturday started off with introductions and then our instructor  Adam (he was amazing!) taught the full 85 release.  I went into the weekend having all of the choreography memorized, except for the cool-down.  I believe I was the only one that memorized everything but I had the time at night to practice the weeks leading up to the training and I really wanted to know as much as possible.  We did a technique class in the afternoon breaking down every single move in Pump.  This was tough because you were holding moves for a long time as Adam came around to check our form.  We taught our assigned tracks at the end of the day with another full run of 85.  Sit down lessons to go over Les Mills’ method of coaching and teaching filled up the rest of the time.

I came home tired Saturday, but my muscles felt surprisingly good.  I was really just sore in my butt and I think it was from all the jump squats off the bench! Sunday was the big day where we had to present our assigned tracks once in the morning and at the end of the day.  I was assigned to teach triceps and “shadow” biceps.  Since the girl that was assigned biceps didn’t come, I offered to teach both.

I taught #5 and 6

Sunday afternoon we did a BODYPUMP challenge that was so much fun.  Basically, we teamed up with a partner and we did stations.  Each station was two different pump exercises but with 50-75% more weight on the bar than normal.  It was about 50 minutes and was pretty tough.  I would really like to do this again on my own!

Rewarded myself with some sushi Sunday night

I ate tons of these Vega all-in-one nutrition bars over the weekend because I couldn’t really blend up a smoothie at the training! They are delicious, have 15g of protein and I’m so glad Vega sent me a couple boxes! I will be posting about them in the future with a giveaway!

Now I have 60 days to submit a video of me teaching a full BODYPUMP class with at least 5 participants.  I’m hoping to do this within the next three weeks while it is still fresh in my head!  I found this tanktop at Target today that I think looks Pumpish with red(ish) and black colors…

Hopefully I will look the part when I submit my video!  I taught 4 tracks tonight at a class at my gym and shadowed the rest.  My muscles were still really tired from this past weekend!  I taught warm up, squats, triceps and biceps tonight.  I’m hoping to do more next week!!

]]> http://pink-runner.com/2013/05/22/i-passed/feed/ 8 holly9874 pass day2 Picture 5 sushi vegabar tank http://pink-runner.com/2013/05/14/preparing-for-my-big-les-mills-weekend/ http://pink-runner.com/2013/05/14/preparing-for-my-big-les-mills-weekend/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 01:51:53 +0000 Pink Runner http://pink-runner.com/?p=2720 ]]>

Tonight was my first time on stage teaching BodyPump!! My new gym (I love it there!) had a 6:30-7:30 BodyPump class tonight.  All of the instructors have told me I should try to teach my assigned tracks at a class before the training weekend.  I love knowing most of the instructors and everyone is so nice!

The instructor tonight had me shadow her tonight on stage and I taught my tricep and bicep tracks!  Everything went so well and the only weird thing was dealing with the microphone! I forgot that most of my tricep track has me laying down on the bench so I wasn’t used to dealing with the microphone.  I’m sure I will have lots and lots of practice this weekend!

I couldn’t believe how many calories I burned tonight!  This might have been my highest burn for just doing BodyPump.  Sometimes I burn more if I run before class, but I didn’t run tonight.  I think I was nervous and maybe my heart rate was a little higher than normal?

Can you believe I got up to 185?!?! It was during lunges, of course!  Those jump squats are killer and always get me into the 170′s, but tonight I put both risers under the bench and it was extra high.  At the gym, I’ve been putting one riser under the bench and at home my bench is different and not as high.  I figured I might as well put both risers under the bench tonight because I’m sure I will have to do it that way all weekend!

I ordered some new protein because I was almost finished my other Vega protein.  I’ve been trying to make a protein smoothie after tough BodyPump workouts.  I had the Vega Energizing Smoothie mix before in chocolate and I really liked that.  This time, I ordered their performance protein that is the third step in their nutrition program (recover).  I got this one because it had almost double the protein for the same amount of calories.  Since I don’t really eat meat (just seafood) I really need to watch my protein intake, especially with all this BodyPump training!  I tried this tonight after my big class and it was good!  I just had it with some Light Chocolate Silk Soy Milk and PB2 powder.  Yum

I’ll try to post this weekend, but I might be too tired Saturday night! Hopefully I will do a big review on my Les Mills BodyPump training Monday or Tuesday after I’ve recovered!

Look what I got in the mail!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, I decided to just go for it and hopefully get certified to teach BODYPUMP

I haven’t blogged this week because I’ve been busy at school and practicing BodyPump as much as possible!

A few weeks ago, I started asking a co-worker that teaches BodyPump about the certification process.  I started googling and finding blogs that reviewed the grueling two day initial training weekend and instead of getting scared… I got excited.  I contacted a local gym and quickly met with their group fitness instructor.  Les Mills offers 2 day workshops to get certified in their classes in various locations.  There was one offered very close to me May 18th, but Colby has a sprint triathlon that weekend.  The next one within driving distance was 2 hours away and at the end of August after my next school year would already begin.  Colby told me to not worry about his race and to do the training May 18/19 at the location only 20 minutes from our house.  I know, he’s the best

So I signed up and I go to the training next weekend!!!!!!!

I will be using the 85 release (thank goodness!) and was assigned to teach triceps and biceps at the training.  Triceps aren’t my strongest muscle group, but I’ve been working out non-stop and trying to get used to heavier weights.

My current weights (if anyone cares!) are below.  I use three weights and I keep track of them by saying small, medium and large.  Small is 1kg/2.2 lbs, medium is 2.5 kg/5.5lbs and large is 5kg/11 lbs.

Warm-Up: Medium+Small

Squats: Large+Medium+Small … but I think I’m ready to move up

Chest: Large

Back: Large+Medium

Triceps: Large

Biceps: Medium+Small

Lunges: Large

Shoulders: Medium

Core: Large

BodyPump instructors, any weight suggestions?  I’m scared I’ll be on the smallest weights that weekend but I’m trying not to stress!

Oh yeah, the training is 9   1/2 hours both Saturday and Sunday  I’m so excited!!!!

]]> http://pink-runner.com/2013/05/09/bodypump-instructor-training/feed/ 13 holly9874 BPKit Picture 5 Picture 4 http://pink-runner.com/2013/05/05/nike-womens-dc-half-review-part-2/ http://pink-runner.com/2013/05/05/nike-womens-dc-half-review-part-2/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 12:00:54 +0000 Pink Runner http://pink-runner.com/?p=2703 ]]> The first part of my review can be found here.

The race course was AMAZING for someone like me that loves to run FLAT courses!  There was so much to look at along the race, I really didn’t need any music.  This was the first race I ran by myself without an iPod and it was kinda refreshing.  I’ve been doing a bunch of my training runs without music, so I was used to it.  I started out running faster than expected, but that is normal for a race.  So when I was in the 8′s for my pace, I didn’t get too excited.  The only downfall of the race was some Garmin-drama… but what race isn’t complete without a little drama from the watch we all depend on so much?? (Well, I do!)

We went under a large highway tunnel (I think during the first mile) and everyone lost satellite reception on their GPS watches.  The tunnel was dark and pretty long, so I took off my sunglasses.  There was someone on a drum set and it was LOUD… too loud for me, especially when we had to run right past him.  When I got out of the tunnel, I saw the satellite message on my Garmin, slightly freaked out and then knew my first mile would be off.  It beeped at 8:08 soon after the tunnel.  Then I realized it was about 0.14 mile off from the mile markers.  It wasn’t a huge deal after that.

After I hit the first mile marker, I realized I was running just under a 9 min mile pace.  I figured if I felt comfortable, I should just keep up my pace.  After I hit the second mile marker right around 18 minutes, I tried to hit the third at 27.  When I did, I made the decision to try to hit 9:00 minute miles at every mile marker.  Since my Garmin was a little off, I tried to just use it for the pace and do my 9 times tables in my head when I hit the mile markers.  I started getting really excited around mile 4 or 5 when I was still holding this and felt fantastic.  This is not how I was running for my long training runs. I was struggling to hold 9:30s before!  I do think doing some mid-week speed work on the treadmill helped me a lot… and wearing my walmart super-tight, old lady compression socks to bed all the time helped too!

Around mile 9 I looked behind me and saw the pacer holding the 2:00 finish sign and I started thinking.  I picked it up just slightly to get a little more ahead of the pacer.  I had a lot of time to think without music! This was also the first race where I read all the spectators signs and noticed everything around me.  It was refreshing!

Around 9.5 miles, I started feeling the first signs of tired legs.  I turned around and saw the 2:00 pacer group getting closer to me.  My 10th mile was a little slower and I just couldn’t pick it up at that point.  The pacer group passed me and I tried to not get upset.  I knew I was still going to have my best race time, because my last half was a 2:07!  I thought, maybe I’ll get a 2:02! That would be wayyyyyyyyyyyy better than anything I ever expected for this race!

Well, wouldn’t you know it but around mile 11 or 12 we got near the finish and it was an out and back.  Just before that, I had stopped at a water station and gotten my 3rd cup of water.  I only took water because I knew I wouldn’t be a fan of the Nuun and didn’t want to upset my stomach at all.  The other two water stations (There were a ton but I skipped most of them) I just slowed down a bit for second while I gulped what I could.  At the station near 11, I stopped to a fast walk and probably walked about 20 seconds and I finished the whole cup of water.  Soon after that, I ran past a large group of spectators and heard Colby yell my name.  I knew I could pick it up for the end, but didn’t want to fall apart too close to the end.  When I had a mile left, I started looking at my Garmin and realized I was still really close to going under 2:00!  I picked up the pace and started regretting that last water station.

The last stretch of the race was deceivingly long, but I just kept pushing and hoping I could keep that clock in the 1-hour range!  I looked over to my left and past the standing spectators was Colby running!  I motioned over to him 2 with my fingers to say under two hours!!  He just pointed to the finish and I knew I had to pick it up!!  He was really worried about not finding me at the finish line, so I knew he was just trying to keep track of me.  I crossed the multiple mats and clicked my Garmin after the last one.  It was 2 seconds longer than my official time of 1:59:56!!!!! I COULDN’T BELIVE IT!!! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could go under 2 hours for this race!  I had even said to Colby before that I didn’t know if I could ever go under 2 hours.  I was on cloud 9 and my stomach was great! I didn’t throw up at the finish line like my last race!! (full marathon last spring… throwing up Gatorade everywhere… nasty)

I picked up that blue Tiffanys box from all the guys at the end and was practically jumping for joy.  Colby was still following me on the outside of the race area until the fence ended.  There was lots of bananas, bagels, Luna bars, etc and we even got a big Tiffanys bag to put our stuff in!  In the finishers area, there was a tent to buy even more finishers gear… so I got in line with Amy and Colby.  Amy did 1:56!! She is so fast

I ended up getting a finishers sweatshirt and put on my necklace in line.  We also got Tiffany blue finishers t shirts that were really cute.

They had areas where you could take your picture, so Amy and I had a short photo session.  I think both of our eyes are closed in this picture, but hey! We were tired!  There were also hair and makeup stands from the sponsor companies, but I was super salty and in need of a shower!

Silver finishers necklace at the top of my collage  Overall, great race!  Besides running my best time, it really rejuvenated my love for running.  The course was FLAT, the weather was perfect, it was a BIG exciting race and super girly.  I will most definitely enter to race again next year!  Although I don’t have any plans for upcoming races yet, I think I will be focusing on shorter/faster runs this summer!  In the past I’ve been so obsessed with mileage I think it will be a nice change to shorten things up and try to work on this speed that I might be gaining!

I also have BIG fitness news coming up soon!!  I have a different kind of goal that I made a quick decision to go for last week.  Can you guess what it is by looking at my Exercise Log??   :)    :)    :)