Zumba

All of us from Left to Right:
Kim, Holly, Sandra, Jason, Me, Allison



Back in January the club that Jason and I both work for had a Zumba party. I was put in charge of it since I've been teaching Zumba the longest out of the 6 instructors that teach it.

I planned a 2 hour event complete with snacks and lots of prizes!

One girl took pictures of me teaching and just barely sent them to me, here are a few. I'm not sure if I like the look of the mic on the side of my face, either I look funny or like a rock star, not sure which.







I love teaching Zumba and currently teach at 5 different locations on every day except for Sunday. To find a Zumba class in your area just go to www.Zumba.com and then click on Find a class, then put in your zip code.

Starting to get serious

It's the end of February and I'm well on my way to my half marathon training. I was due a 6 or more mile long run by this week. Since I have a small 5K race this Saturday I knew that day couldn't be my long run so I did it today.

I ran 6.5 miles today!!

AND

it felt great. It was one of those days that running just goes well and everything about it feels right.

Next week is 7 miles and I hope I can report great news that time as well.

Far from home

As some of you know I'm training for a Half Marathon. That's 13.1 miles just in case. I only mention that because years ago I wouldn't have had any clue how far a Half or Full Marathon was.

Anyway yesterday I should have ran 6 miles because that's what I'm up to as far as mileage goes. I asked my son, Brenden to run with me. He was more than excited to run and started to put on his running clothes.

I put on my colder weather running clothes since it was only 44 degrees out, this included dri fit long running skins, a sport tank covered by a long sleeve dri fit running shirt, followed by a long sleeve running jacket.

Brenden asked me how long we would be running. I told him I really needed to do 6 miles, but would run however far he felt comfortable and then we could either turn around towards home or call Jason (my husband) to pick us up. I made sure I had my cell phone in my pocket.

Brenden was excited to run with me. So we set out and ran for a while. When I checked my stopwatch it had only been 30 minutes and it seemed like 45 or more. Brenden was a trooper and continued to run. When we got to Coralville we both needed a break and were walking for a short bit. It had only been 42 minutes.

Brenden then decided he was done and we were no where near home.

I then saw a lady who was my boss at Curves. She was in the back of her store loading stuff in her car. She spotted me and said, "What are you doing over here?" Knowing I was far from home. I mentioned to her I was out running with my son and we were going over to HyVee to get a drink of water and then continue running.

She said we both looked worn out and then Brenden said, "I sure am and I'm ready to be done."

So she offered to give us a ride home. So nice of her. She clocked the drive home to see how far we had run. I was bummed to find out we had only ran 4.1 miles since it seemed like so much farther. However I'm glad I was able to run with my son. A special memory.

2011 Winterfest Amana, Iowa Freezer 5K Run

One of my goals this year is to run 1 race every month this year. Here is my race for January:

http://lewisnclark.blogspot.com/2011/01/amana-iowa-winterfest-5k-freeze-run.html

I hope the next race is in much warmer weather.

2011 First on the First 5K--Columbus, Ohio

I went to my parents home in Columbus, Ohio right after Christmas.

While there I received an e-mail from Premier Races that said that they were doing a 5K race on New Year's Day. The weather said it was going to be an awesome temperature of 52 degrees.

So I thought, "What a great day to run and start the year out right!"

So I registered for the race.

As the week was ending the weather wasn't as nice as it has stated it would be on weather.com

By Saturday morning it was pouring rain and in the high 40's. I was bummed out because I don't like to run outside in less than 50 degrees and I can't stand running in the rain. Every person at my parents house mentioned it was raining outside hard. Yes I could see that.

But since I registered for the race I went anyway. It started at 11a.m.

The entire way to the race (which was a half hour North of my parent's home) it poured rain.

By the time I arrived at the race the rain had slowed down a bunch.

I went inside and grabbed my packet complete with my racing number and timing chip for my shoe. Then I just waited around for the race to start. I warmed up and stretched.

By the time 10:50a.m. came along (time for us all to line up) the rain had stopped completely and it was so nice out. A little cold, but I knew once I started running, I would be fine.

Along the way of my 3 miles there was a slight misting thing going on. It felt wonderful.

This was my best race to date because I achieved a Personal Best!

My official time was 28:31 and this means I ran a 9:12 minute mile pace.

I was 4th out of 44 in my age group. #158th out of 537 total people and 52nd out of 298 Women.

The only bummer was nobody came to the race to cheer me on or take pictures, so there are none to post. Either way it was my best race ever and I loved it. I'm so glad I did a race on New Year's Day to start the year out right with fitness goals! Can't wait till my next race.

I registered

I officially registered for my next Half Marathon tonight.

This one is in Columbus, Ohio on May 7, 2010. I'm hoping my sister can run with me.

I'm excited and ready to train so that I can hopefully meet my goal of running 13 minutes faster than my last half marathon time. Ths means I need to run this race in 2 hours 12 minutes or less.

It's launch week at the gym. That means that we (Les Mills Class instructors) are presenting all new music and choreography. I have to learn 34 new songs from three different classes: Body Pump, Body Attack, and Body Step. It is a bit stressful because I am a bit of a perfectionist when I teach. I don't like making any mistakes. I mean, really, people are paying for me to help them get a good workout and the least I can do is present the most perfectly executed class that I can. I probably obsess about this and spend too much time practicing.

One of the things I have learned is the necessity to know my limits. I teach a minimum of 5 classes at week with a maximum of 8. Any more than 8 and I am risking getting injured. I already get out of bed with creaky joints. Of course that might just be my age rather than my activity level. My goal in all of this is to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Races and some random weight loss stuff.

Over the weekend my family and I did another running race. Read about it herehttp://lewisnclark.blogspot.com/2010/10/muddy-monster-in-cedar-rapids-iowa.html

This race was different from anything I had ever been in. It was an off road race. It had Mud, rocks, broken up trails, huge tire ruts, MUD, sand, holes, grass, slippery spots, puddles, MUD.

Ok so I mentioned the mud. Fortunately I tried to avoid mud and puddles as much as possible and only hit a couple spots that made my shoes dirty. This was a hard race for me because

1. Not knowing what to expect, up to this point I have only ran on streets, flat grass or sidewalks, so running off road in all those conditions mentioned above were hard.

2. It hadn't rained in 4 weeks, but the night before this race rained super hard several times so there was mud and puddles everywhere.

3. I was in a costume and had never run in such a thing before. I had some running tights on below the costume, but that made me very hot and during the race I became over heated many times and had to slow down or walk fast.

As a result of all this my time was slower than my last race. I had a time of 31:02 and only placed 6th in my age group. Had I ran a usual time, like 28:02 or better like my last race, then I would have placed 3rd in my age group. Oh well I guess, so great that I finished.

I haven't run much since my half marathon, in fact maybe only twice a week I have found time to run about 3 miles each time. Running is super hard for me. I find it so great to finish, but so hard to do. I am dying each time on the inside with breathing and all the aches and pains that go with running. There are times I feel just awesome when I run, but most times it's just plain hard. I have come a long way with running because I only started running in March and back then it was only a 1/2 mile and then I was done. I slowly worked up to 3.1 miles within 2 months and from there increased it. I have a long way to go before I like running, but it's getting better each week. I just need to remember that getting good at something takes practice like everything else.

Recently I began teaching more Zumba classes. I now teach up to 8 per week. There have been weeks where I have taught 9 but no more of that hopefully. I love Zumba because it is Latin Dance and it's aerobics. You have both mixed. Some songs are all dance and some songs are just aerobic moves and some are a mix, ok most are a mix. Zumba is where I can be creative and if I want to teach an American Hip Hop song, or a country line dance I can, or I can stick to the Latin stuff the entire class. Seems like most classes I have requests for one of the hip hop songs I have taught in the past.

When I started teaching more in September and October I began some bad habits of eating. I started eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and while you would think that with all this exercise that it would be okay to have cake, ice cream, candy and other high calorie food, well it's not okay all the time and that's exactly what I've been doing.

As a result I have put on 9 pounds. OUCH. This is never a good thing and that has to change.

I always have a wake up call when the scale says 145 or higher because I don't ever want to go back to 220 and with the gaining of 2 pounds a week that's where I'll be in a year if I don't stop.

Ok, so now I've written this OUTLOUD for the world to see, so it's time to do something about it.

My goal will be like in the past when I was loosing weight. I will write down what I eat and see where it is that I cheat. I'm pretty sure it's during the middle of the day and later at night, so right now it's later at night and I wanted ice cream badly, but instead I drank a bunch of water and then put a piece of sugarless gum in my mouth. That helps, but the ice cream is still calling me.

Makes me wonder: If I ate right for an entire month and did all this exercise, what weight would I be? And how much better would I feel?

I have been feeling like a slug for 4 weeks and I know it's all about the bad eating. Sugar just brings you down. There is a natural high at first that makes you feel good, but then later you feel like garbage and are down on yourself for two reasons, the weight gain and how you feel.

So it starts now. I'm 145.6 on the home scale as of this morning. I will weigh myself next Sunday in the morning and see what it tells me.

Meanwhile in addition to writing down my food for the week I will make sure I get in 8 miles of running. 5 miles on Monday is the goal and 3 miles on Friday. The reason I picked those days is because both of those days I don't teach Zumba so I have the extra energy to run.

I just signed up for what I'm thinking is my last race this year. A Turkey Trot. It is on November 13th in Marion, Iowa. It is a 5 mile race.

2010 Ponseti 5K Race--Iowa City, IA

Today was a local race right here in Iowa City at the University of Iowa campus. It is called Ponseti Race. This race was to raise money for those who have club feet.http://www.uiortho.com/races/

This race was chip timed so the results are super accurate and there was food at the end of the race (always a plus)!

The picture on the left is me right after I arrived home from the race.

The weather was gorgeous today, started in the mid 60's and was around the mid 70's during the race. Beautiful weather for October and perfect for running.

I felt wonderful the entire race and only had a few moments where I had to talk myself into continuing to run. There were a couple bad hills near the end of the race, one of which was so steep that I walked fast up it.

Even though I felt great I had no idea that I was running faster than usual. My ending time was a new personal best. It was 28:02 I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the time clock at the end of the race and then printed my results and it said the same thing. And to think if I hadn't walked up that last hill I could have had a 27 minute time. In shock still. Training is really paying off.

This next picture is me later in the day at the apple orchard wearing my race shirt. My son Jared took this picture.

Busy Zumba week

This week has been pretty busy and I'm glad it's almost over since I need my Sunday rest day!


On Wednesday I started teaching Zumba for the VA hospital. It starts at 4:10p.m. for a 45 minute class and then right after that there is a 5 minute break only to follow with another 45 minute class.

I thought that maybe only about 10-15 would show up for Zumba at the hospital. I thought this because the Healthy Living Director (who is also a Nutritionist) said that about 8-10 come in for the yoga and strength classes.

I show up early and begin my introduction to my class about Zumba. I usually say something like this:

Zumba is Latin Dance Aerobics. It is for anyone of any age, any aerobic capability and any gender. It takes about 4-6 classes to catch on if you aren't coordinated, but after that you will get it and love it and it will end up being such a healthy addiction that you will want to Zumba every day!

So I start the class with about 15 in the room. Then people just kept on coming in, so much in fact that the Director of the Healthy Living program had to move tables out of the conference room and make more room for us. It was crazy packed in there. We must have had at least 25-30 people in there. They seemed to love it. Many of them took my Zumba business card and e-mailed me the next day saying they loved it and couldn't wait till next Wednesday. Well I can't wait either cause I love teaching Zumba the most. In fact I cut one of my Sculpt classes so I could teach Zumba. I was teaching Sculpt 3 times a week and now it's only two and I got rid of a Step class as well so I could teach another Zumba another time. The only days I don't teach Zumba is Saturday and Sunday.

This week so far I have taught Zumba 9 times and still have one tonight. I just hope my legs don't give out cause they are super tired this morning, in fact I'm laying here with ice packs on the knees and then the ice packs will move to the shins and then to the soleus muscles (mine are always tight my doctor says) and then the ankles. You get the idea. I'm tired, but ready to do it all again in just 8 hours!