Indoor vs. Outdoor Running

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First, I am so excited for all of us who are doing the 30-day Squat Challenge that starts today! This first one is a simple start with six reps of each then we will kick it up tomorrow.

I promise to only bring this up like 2-3 times per week for the rest of the summer, but running outside is one of my absolute favorite things to do in Michigan. These country roads are wonderful to forget it all and let my feet take me away. 

Runs are a bit different inside to outside, of course, but I really did not realize how different they were until this year when I started focusing more on run times and muscle groups worked. It also helps that I am running farther and faster this year... Well, that was until we got up here. I think that everyone knows the main difference in indoor running verses outdoor running can be the hills that nature offers compared to the flatlands of those air conditioned treadmills. These hills here have KILLED my run time. Really. Each mile averages are about 90-seconds slower than ones back home. 

Another part of outdoor running that seems to make or break a run is the weather. Sure, rain is a nuisance and one of the reasons my run time has so rapidly declined, but wind has another big part in running. No matter where you run, chances are you will face wind resistance at some point. This can make a run that much more difficult to get through compared to inside when temperature, running conditions, and wind are always the same and usually a happy medium. 

To combat the difference of indoor vs. outdoor running ultra runner, Michael Wardian, recommends always keeping your treadmill at a 1.5% incline or higher. This will replicate the difference wind resistance can make when running outdoors. As much as we all may hate it, it is also smart to increase that incline a few times throughout your run to replicate the energy exertion of hills. 

Something else quite interesting about indoor vs. outdoor running is the muscle groups we use. When running on a treadmill we are mainly using our quads since the belt is giving all forward momentum we need. Unlike treadmills, the ground gives us no forward momentum, thus forcing us to use the hamstrings and glutes far more. This is super important for those who are use to running indoors to note since changing and running outside could cause injury. Not only is the ground much less even than a treadmill, but hamstring injuries can happen when changing from indoor to outdoor running since they are not use to working quite so much. 

Strangely enough, just after reading about all the differences of indoor and outdoor running, the hubs ran outside for the first time in a while and tore his hamstring. He is a pretty fast and strong runner and is now having to do therapy to get that hamstring back up to working order. 

The moral of that story would be to not push yourself too hard when changing up a run. Listen to your body, watch your surroundings, and you should be good for both indoor and outdoor workouts! 

July Squat Challenge

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Goodness, can you believe the month of July is almost upon us?! I have decided to make July my get my bum in shape month. How, you ask? Well, with squats, of course! In the month of June I did my fair share of squats and have already started noticing a change in those upper thighs and the bum area. There are tons of different types of squats to do and each work a different muscle. Most every squat will work the glutes, hamstrings, quads, inner thighs, and even our calf muscles! Working all these areas instead of the bum alone is how so many people achieve that gravity defying, bikini loving bum!

For July's squat challenge, I decided to go with one of the Fit Sugar squat workouts. This one os pretty incredible since it combines five different types of squats for an all-around workout and some serious boredom fighting. This one also has break days and gets us up to 200 squats by the last day!

Some of the before and after photos from squat challenges are simply incredible. Those alone, without even adding in the strength component give me reason enough to get those squats going! 

Tomorrow will be the first day of the squat challenge since it is the first of July and July 30th will be the last. I am so excited to start this challenge and complete it all with you! Happy squatting :D

This Week in Workouts: A Week of Running

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So, did anyone else notice a strange lack of post on Friday? Me too. Turns out that the article I wrote ahead of time and scheduled to publish did not actually get scheduled to publish. By the time I noticed (Friday was quite the busy day), it was far too late to post anything of use to anyone. Instead, that post will be up next week for your internet perusal and viewing enjoyment. For now though, we can talk about this week and the not one, but two 4-mile runs I went on. 

Running outdoors in Michigan is one of my favorite things to do, even though the hills are completely butchering my run times... I am currently 2-minutes slower than my average time without hills. Whaatt?!!? Now I understand why so few run the San Francisco Marathon. 

Other than running, we were able to visit this awesome restaurant in Grand Rapids which was quite awesome. The whole place is HUGE with beautiful indoor and outdoor seating. I wanted to sit outside but it is Michigan in the summer and everyone else had the same thought I did. Instead, we sat inside and got to listen to The Mainstays, a 90's reggae band that was playing while we were there. Afterwards we were able to walk around Grand Rapids, in the Amway Grand Plaza (most beautiful hotel ever), and over four bridges spanning the Grand River. Yea, we got our steps in that day! 

The days of the week got a bit jumbled in my mind this week. Although I know what workouts I did, I have absolutely no clue which days they were done on. Yes, there were three days of running, two runs were 4-miles and one was 2.5. There was yoga on one day and bum workouts on another (all links to videos listed below). My main break day was the one with lots of walking, and I am not sure about the other day of the week... It went into a black whole where some of my memories seem to find themselves. Maybe I ran, maybe I did another workout, or maybe I sat at my computer watching YouTube videos where the only workout was the formation of my laughter. Who knows. 

Hopefully though, I will remember to log all my workouts next week so this silly day-missing does not happen again. If you have any ideas what I did on this lost day, I would be so happy to hear them. Your guess is, quite literally, just as good as mine :)

The first bum workout I did. Pretty great! I was definitely feeling it by the end and this one turned out to be a great warm-up for the next. I would definitely recommend doing these two together!

The second bum workout I did. This Cassey Ho workout has been featured on the blog before, mainly because I just love it.

This yoga flow was my first time following anything by Leslie Fightmaster. Really, the main reason it caught my eye was her name- someone on yoga being names "Fightmaster" just makes me laugh :) But seriously, this King Pigeon flow is great! 

Yoga for Super Hero Strength came next. Because really, is a home workout complete without some Tara Stiles? 

This is just my apology for skimping on posts this week and letting my brain fall into a black hole where no memories of workouts can be found. Happy Sunday! 

Stitch Fix, Love it or Hate it

After reading this blog post on Pumps and Iron and all the blog posts from PB Fingers, Fitnessista, and Pumps and Iron (again) about their trip to San Francisco with Stitch Fix, I decided to try it out. If you do not know, Stitch Fix is a clothing delivery system for women and has almost every blogger remotely into the fashion world going crazy. Pretty much, you go onto their website, take a style diagnostic, put in your sizes and preferences, and your appointed stylist picks out frocks for you to wear. Said frocks are shipped to your door and you decide what stays and what goes. 

Every Stitch Fix costs $20 and whatever clothing you decide to keep, you buy minus that amount. Honestly, I am a bit confused as to whether you pay that amount no matter what, or if you get a $20 kick-back for buying their goods. If anyone knows, please enlighten me. 

I am a sale queen and consider buying things full price to be for suckers, I opted for the least expensive in every category. Meaning, there is no sense sending me $200 jeans, they will be shipped back immediately with very little chance of actually being tried on. I know, it may sound a bit cheap, but I love brands like J. Crew and Banana Republic and am able to get jeans for less from them, so why pay more? 

Whoo, back on track now... My first fix came just last week in a pretty box with beautiful wrapping and a nice note from my stylist along with recommendations of how to wear each item and with what. Inside was a pair of SUPER CUTE emerald/blue-ish jeans that fit like a glove; two tank top blouses, one with a feather pattern and one with honeycombs, a maxi dress, and earrings. The jeans and feather tank I loved, everything else was the worst thing ever. Dramatic? If you saw them on me, you would agree. 

After taking off the maxi and honeycomb top and immediately deciding to send them back, I thought, and thought, and thought on the top and the jeans (the earrings were a no-go since they cost $60?!). In the end, I decided that $58 for a tank top (no matter how cute the feathers are) is just too much, and $99 for the pants that are very similar to a pair I already had was just silly. 

I am ok with paying a bit extra for good quality and completely understand the mentality of paying a bit more for something to last a bit longer, but none of these items seemed to be much better in quality than Kohls. The prices, however, were way higher. 

For that reason and for the fact that there is no way to shop a sale with Stitch Fix, I have decided to be the first blogger in history to give them a not-so-sterling review. Yes, it is a wonderful idea to have someone pick out clothing for you and send it to your home. And yes, the process was quite easy and wonderful. But in the end, paying $20 plus the price for overpriced clothing that is not such great quality was not a happy process for me. 

After this fail, I went to J. Crew and purchased three outfits for the hubs and two for me for a total that was less than the Stitch Fix total?!!!??! Gotta love J. Crew sales!