Fab Fit Squad

As I train for the Miami half marathon a good friend of mine and an amazing marathon coach, John Furey has told me the secret to running an injury free marathon is cross training and intervals.

I know interval training has been around for awhile and people have been doing them, but are you really getting out of your comfort zone! Really pushing yourself to that 9-10, when you push yourself to the limit. So.. why do we do it.  Interval training helps:

• boost performance, by making the heart become more efficient at pumping blood
• helping increasing our tolerance for lactic acid burn
• we can increase our intensity in a short amount of time without risk of burning out or injury
• most importantly we BURN MORE FAT!!!!  You read correctly… We burn more fat!!!

So I have know this for years, but have I really pushed myself to the 9-10 zone!!! Honestly speaking I think I have been hanging out in the 7-8 zone. So I have been cheating myself of all of the benefits. Okay let me be honest the benefit I really want is FAT BURNING. Okay I’m training for a half marathon, I’d like to be able to be able to cross the finish line on my own 2 feet and not be dragging ass! So.. interval training will be my friend 2x/week until January 31st.
Now my interval will be a combination of cardio machines and metabolic circuits using only my bodyweight and light weights. Check out this one below.  If you have bodyweight circuit that you would like to share tell me about it, just write below in the comments

So, my first week went well..and the second week is going well. I just need to complete my last long run 5 miles for the week.

Now you may want to know what one of my interval cycles looks like.

• 2 minute warm up
• 1 1/2 min sprint
• 30 sec rest
• 2 1/2 min sprint
• 1 1/2 min rest

Repeat 5 times (should take you 30 minutes.
This can easily be done on any piece of cardio equipment, I did this on an elliptical.

Now here’s the plan for my third week  — November 22.

Monday — intervals and strength
Tuesday — 3.5 miles
Wednesday — rest
Thursday — Turkey Trot (4miles)
Friday — rest
Saturday 6 miles

1. How do I stay in shape? I LOVE variety. During the off-season I will workout 4-5 times per week and each day I like to do something different. For cardio workouts I will do the elliptical, stairmaster, kettlebell workouts or run outside if its nice. Also I like stringing intense bodyweight workouts together to create great interval cardio and strength training workouts. I lift 3 times a week by doing a full body workout including core training. Every 4 weeks I mix up my strength training workouts to keep my body guessing.
2. What is my fitness philosophy? I believe anyone can get fit and you don’t’ need to spend hours at the gym. Working out alone isn’t going to give you the body that you want. You need to watch what you eat. 80% of my weight results come from my diet. Also you need to commit, the perfect body doesn’t come without hard work! If you are willing to be in the work like I said anyone can get fit!
3. Supplements? Just say no!! Most women only need a good multivitamin and calcium. All weight loss supplementation should come from a good diet! Like I stated its commitment. Your perfect body does not come in a bottle!! You earn your perfect body with hard work! If you feel that you need to take something, please seek medical advice from a medical doctor.
4. How long do I work with clients? I love introducing people to fitness and helping them meet their fitness goals. I want to be clients to be independent so feel that they can workout on their own without my assistance.
5. How many times a week do I work with clients? I let me clients make that determination. When you are a beginner exercisers some need that extra push and want to workout 2xs/week while other just want a weekly touchbase to help them stay on track.
6. Why did I become a personal trainer?Like many of you I had a 40 plus hour a week job, I flew 100k miles per year, eating out 80% of my meals. Guess what I gained weight. Although worked out when I could I couldn’t get a handle on my weight. Then I meet a great personal trainer who become my mentor, Mike D’Angelo. Each training session was like a learning session , I asked him a million questions during our workouts that he said why didn’t I become a trainer. So here I am.  Taking my passion and turning it into a career.

My husband and I have been talking about running the Falmouth Road race for years and we DID IT!!! It was 7.2 miles of FUN.  The entire course was lined with cheering fans which was AWESOME, especially when this woman at mile 5 told us all that it would get better if we smiled. Which made everyone around us smile. Along the course there were numerous musicians playing motivational songs. Best of all was following a gentlemen who was dressed like David Lee Roth circa 1984.

The race was so well organized, while you did wait in line it was only because you were waiting with 10,000 people to get on the bus to the finish line and to use the portapotty prior to the race. Typically a race thins out once you get to the 1 mile mark, but no so much with this one because the course is so tight.

Best of all is that I enjoyed training with my husband, this was the first time we have ever trained for an event together and it was so much fun to spend quality time training together and yes we crossed the finish lines together. This year we finished the race in 01:16:09. Now I have a number to try to beat next year. Fingers crossed I get lucky in the lottery. In the meantime I’m looking for a new goal. Any suggestions?

Today is our last big run before the race. We will be running 6.2 miles. The humidity is suppose to break or it will be a long, hot sweaty run. If you are in Boston and want to tag along meet us on the river. BTW have I told you that the race doesn’t allow headphones so we have been training without our ipods. I thought it would be hard, but not so much. You really get into a nice rhythm listening to your footsteps and your breathing its kind of meditative.

<a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge/868124900372960214″ mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge/868124900372960214″>Kim and Philip 6.2 miler</a><br/><a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge” mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/ma/mid-cambridge”>Find more Runs in Mid-cambridge, Massachusetts</a>

My husband and I met 15 years ago at a Falmouth Road Race race party. A mutual friend invited us and who knew 15 years later I would be sitting here married to Philip and planning to run the Falmouth road race.  Philip and I are not sentimental l people at all, but every year we have talked about running this race when we hit a milestone in our relationship. On August 9th it will be 15 years that we have been together. Needless to say I am a little SHOCKED at how fast time goes by and he is still the first person that I want to talk to when I get up in the morning and the last person I want to talk to when I go to bed. Enough sentimental stuff… So, we have been training for the road race since mid June, slowly building up our mileage.  We have 2 weeks to go and today is a milestone run, 5.5 miles.  In 2000 I ran the Tufts 10K and that was the last time I ran for more than 20 minutes on a treadmill. So today is our first LONG run. (more…)

Okay maybe you aren’t up for an Oscar or maybe you may never be, but we all have our events that we need to be Oscar ready for.  When I’m getting ready for a fitness show I rely heavily on itrain to give me the extra boost and motivation and I need to get them through a workout. My favorite one is itread #13 — sprinting is awesome and a bootie kicker.

Yes, they all say I’m naturally thin and I don’t have to do anything but chase around my little dog that fits in my purse.  But the latest Victoria Secret models to grace the runway admit that before the show, they watch what they eat and amp up the cardio.  So, models are human and that with a little diet and exercise you to can be a supermodel! Okay may its just in the privacy of your own home!  When I feeling down and need a little boost, I listen to RuPaul’s song supermodel and instantly I’m transformed into America’s Next Top Model.

What transforms you?  Do you have a power song, phrase or an outfit that makes you feel like a supermodel? Tell me, I would love to hear about it.

So, I’m 4 weeks out from my show.  What does that mean? Crunch time!! So I’m up to 60 minutes of cardio.  How many of you are cardio queens, you know who you are.. you can stay on a piece of cardio for more than 60 minutes and not have it feel like sheer torture.  How many of you don’t even do cardio or maybe for 20 -30 minutes, but you are reading People magazine or a book and not breaking a sweat.

For me I hope from machine to machine to break it up.  I know how important cardio is, but I HATE it!!!

With that said, I’m not doing intervals…

Please start slow, trust me it will come and its just as effective.

This can be done on any piece of cardio equipment or on an outdoor track.
Start with a 5 min warm-up

Week 1:  sprint for 30 sec then rest for 90 sec do 5-6 sets
Week 2:  decrease the rest period by 30 sec do 6-7 sets
Week 3:  now sprint 30 sec and rest for 30 sec do 7-8 sets
Week 4:  stay the same but increase the number of sets to 8-9 sets

Do this 2-3 times/week and let me know how feel.  For those of you who feel the same way about cardio as I do, you will find this definitely keeps you moving!

The only thing you need is some good tunes on your pod!  Personally I’m trapped in the 80’s!