What do you get when you combine several thousand people focussed on fitness, the most beautiful concert venue in America, and bumpin’ music (and then beer and food)? Fitness on the Rocks! It is the largest group workout that has ever been organized that is taking place at Red Rocks on July 21st. Oh, and it’s FREE! With my grad school budget (read: no money) free is the magic word.

There is something for everyone: yoga, turbo kick, boot camp and Zumba.  Stay for one class or stay for them all. And after you are done working out, grab some beer and food from local Denver food trucks and other vendors. I can’t think of a better way to spend my Saturday morning.

 and again, it’s FREEEEE.

The same people that put on Fitness on the Rocks also put on bootcamps, Zumba, and other classes (soon to be cycling classes too!!!!!) in downtown Denver called Fitness in the City.

Make sure you register soon before the classes fill up! So who will I see there??

I realize that the title of this post may have many of you tilting your head to the side saying “huh?”. I bet you look like this:

Your daily dose of the most magestic dog ever. You're welcome.

Let me explain. Last night I set out on an easy little jog around my new neighborhood. During the three miles at 9ish minute pace I started thinking about the sprint triathlon I have coming up in three weeks and I began to get scared. Really scared.

You see, for the past year I have focused on long distance endurance events where I never worried about speed or finishing time. I rarely ever pushed the pace. During ironman training when my effort got too hard or my heart rate got too high I simply backed off. But with a sprint, you bring the intensity the whole time. Balls to the walls.

The only experience where I really pushed hard was the Broad Street 10 miler where I both peed my pants and threw up at the finish line from running the last mile so hard. To be fair, my sisters engagement party was the night before and I may have had a little too much to drink. And I didn’t have a chance to use the bathroom before the race. But point is that I’m not used to being uncomfortable while racing or training. I need to become comfortable with feeling uncomfortable if I want to increase speed and become a better athlete. This ain’t Ironman training no more.

So last night once I spent 3 miles scaring myself about a sprint tri, I used my 4th mile to test my ability to be uncomfortable. My run already felt strained as my legs were sore from the many hill repeats we did at the spinning certification class in Sunday. I reset my Garmin to 0, and promised myself I would run as hard as I could until I heard the 1 mile alarm go off.

I started to run fast and immediately felt like I was going to die (exageration for drama but I did feel pretty bad). I felt like I couldnt hold the pace anymore and looked down at my watch which said .17 of a mile. Then I had this train of thought… “This is stupid. I cant do this. Im going to slow down. NO. Keep running hard. Oh my god this hurts. Thats a cute dog. Im hungry. Deep breaths. This is what the sprint is going to feel like. Pretend you are winning. Pretty flowers. Im hungry.” And then I heard the 1 mile alarm go off.

1 mile PR!

That is a 5 second PR for the fastest mile of my life. It hurt physically but was a huge win mentally. I can push my speed to the point of uncomfortable and as long as I stay mentally strong I won’t slow down. This being uncomfortable thing is new for me and Im not sure I like it but I know it will make me a stronger athlete.

How do you guys stay in the zone when you are pushing hard to the point of being uncomfortable? Does “Call Me Maybe” help? Because it totally helped me. Don’t judge.

As I sit here and type this I am about to fall asleep on my keyboard. This past weekend was INSANE. I didn’t stop until my head hit the pillow on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Phil and I moved into our house on Saturday! We had wonderful friends help move the heavy stuff and then it turned into a backyard BBQ with 3 dogs running around, burgers on the grill, a fridge full of beer, and beer pong. Nothing was unpacked, boxes were everywhere, but I was so happy that our friends got to see our new house! We still have a ton more to do before we are fully settled in.

I think the pups were pretty tired too.

sleeping on the patio table

 On Sunday Phil and I were both up way too early (5am to be exact) to go ride bikes. Phil did the Denver Century ride because a weekend of moving without riding your bike 100 miles would just be too easy. And I headed to Fort Collins for a 9 hour class to become a certified Spinning instructor! The class went by really fast and it included two 1 hour spin sessions. I learned a ton and I am excited to start teaching! One certification down, one more to go before PT school starts in August!

I didn’t get home from the class until after 7pm and then Phil and I went to Home Depot (again) and unpacked more boxes before crashing into bed at 10pm.

I wish the boxes would just unpack themselves. Lazy boxes.

I can’t believe I have been in the Mile High City for 6 months already! I feel like it was just yesterday that Phil and I crammed most of our stuff in a Uhaul trailer and lugged that sucker clear across the country.

Meeting friends quickly as well as having many visitors throughout the 6 months has made the adjustment to moving much easier. People in Colorado are very welcoming and friendly- my kind of people! I was homesick at first for sure – and sometimes still am – but being surrounded with amazing people makes it easier.

Colorado friends!

East Coast visitors!

Making the move thousands of miles away from DC also had its hard parts. The hardest being a plane ride away from my family and best friends. I missed a few engagement celebrations and drunken nights. Luckily for me I have the best family and friends ever and they always drunk dial me so that I stay in the loop- oh, and they all made plans to visit.

Other than being far away from many people I love, a hard realization when you move (or get older in general) is that many of your friendships change. Some for the better, some for the worse. When I left DC there were some friends that I knew no matter where in the world I was, we would remain close at heart. And 6 months later, with thousands of miles in between us, my best friends are still my best friends- different time zones and all. (Thank you gchat, skype, Facetime)

 The hardest friendship changes to grasp are the ones where you put forth an effort to keep a close friend and that effort is not returned. Good friends while close in distance, but not from afar.

The most pleasant changes are those where you brace yourself to drift apart from someone and yet it doesn’t happen.

Many of my friendships changed within the past several months and while at first I was bummed that a few close friends and I drifted apart, I realized that my strong friendships are even stronger than I imagined and for that- I am one very lucky lady.

Here’s to many more happy months in Denver!

As a break from the swim, bike, run routine I decided to focus on strength training for a bit. Last week I finished phase 1 (of 3 phases) of P90x and I can see very visible differences in my body already- mostly in my arms/shoulders and abs.

P90x is a DVD home workout…but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Phil did a few of the workouts with me and we both agree that it is really, really hard. In fact I still can’t do all of the ab exercises without taking a break! The DVDs are mainly lifting workouts and since I don’t want to look like a body builder I used weights where my maximum reps would be somewhere between 12 and 15 (usually 5-10 lb weights depending on the exercise). Phil used heavier weights so that his maximum reps were 8-11.

The P90x plan also includes following a nutrition plan. Phase one calls for very little carbs and a massive amount of protien. I’m not one to follow a diet (if you tell me I cant eat something, it is all I want to eat) but I did lower my carb intake and really up my protien intake.

I’m happy with the results of Phase 1 for sure. The only thing that surprised me was that I gained weight instead of losing any. It was only 3 pounds and I cant argue because I see a six pack forming and I actually have bicepts and tricepts now. I’ll take the muscle gain as a win.

Phase 2 starts today and I will have to adjust the plan a little bit since I have two triathlons to train for- one sprint and one 70.3- in the next couple of months.

Its nice counting reps instead of miles for once! But now I’m looking forward to counting a little bit of both.   

Ps- I’ve been living in Denver for 6 months already- can you believe it!? I’m going to give a 6 month run down later this week. Moving across the country taught me a TON.

I rode my bike twice last week. TWICE. My road bike once and my tri bike once and guess what? I HAD SO MUCH FUN. Especially on my tri bike because I was decked out in my pink and black TriBella race kit riding my pink and black bike with my pink shoes and a huge grin on my face. I attracted a few looks from fellow triathletes also riding in the park…probably because they were mad that their race kit didnt match their bike.

Being back on my bike made me miss racing. ALOT. This lead me to sign up for the SheRox sprint tri in July. I haven’t done a sprint since my first ever triathlon and I am curious to see what I can throw down. Sprints hurt in a much different way than an Ironman. Sprint = high intensity for a short time. Ironman = low intensity for a looooooong time.

When I looked at the results from last year I noticed that I most likely would have placed in my age group. I told Phil that I would be pumped if I placed in my AG next month, but I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself and quickly dismissed the idea.

Phil told me that I need to go into this race with the attitude of winning because as soon as I let that competitive side go, I’ll throw in the towel. While I think he is right in many aspects, I have a hard time being a cut throat competitive athlete.

My plan is to go into this race with the mindset of pushing myself as hard as I can from beginning to end. I’ve never pushed my pace on the swim…I always hold back during the bike…and I always try and keep my heart rate down for the run. Not this time. I’m going at it 100% from beginning to end.

Depending on who shows up to race that day and how well I can keep the intensity up, my finishing time may earn me a trophy. And if not a trophy, a shiny new PR and a new love of the sport.

What do you guys think? If you thought you had a chance to place would you shoot for that? Or just be happy with whatever happens?