The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for the ‘Let’s Get Pysical’ Category

Happy Friday! Hope you all had a wonderful week. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Let’s Get Physical Friday here. Don’t worry, I’m still on my path to get fit. My gym membership ran out a couple of weeks ago, so no more classes and inside workouts. It’s finally nice enough to get outside and get stuff done. I am now running 2-3 weeknights and 1-2 times on the weekend and do some arm and ab workouts at home, along with my squats. The two months in the gym helped me mold a routine that I am now loving.

For the past two weeks though, running has had a new meaning for me. I no longer run for myself. I am running for Boston.

And I’m not the only one! Isn’t that shirt awesome? Click the picture to check them out at Ruffles With Love on Etsy.

I have been sorting out what I wanted to do with this post for two weeks now, partly for the running angle, but also the news angle. I will always be a news girl, so stories like this are always in m heart.

I still consider myself a newbie runner. I’ve never even come close to running a marathon. I ran cross country in high school because I needed something to keep me in shape for basketball. I’m still stoked to get under 30 minutes in a 5K…. which I crushed twice this week But, I am a runner. I love to run. I love competing against my records. I love people watching in the park while I run. I love seeing the same people out running every time I go. I love finding new paths to run. I love to turn on my Pandora radio and just go. Those are all things that I have come to expect with running. Throw on a pair of shoes and I’ll find what I’m looking for and maybe more. What I didn’t expect was heartbreak in the running community.

Along with identifying myself as a runner, I’m also a journalist. So this story hit me from two different angles. We were in our afternoon meeting last week, when a guy rushed in and said he heard there was a bombing at the Boston Marathon. At first we didn’t think it was true. None of us had received alerts, and you know we all sign up for everything possible! Several people immediately pulled out their phones and within seconds, it seemed, we had live coverage from Boston. NBC took over from local coverage and we all watched, stunned at what was being reported. I produce our 6pm newscast, which is strictly local news. National news comes on after us, so we rarely report out of the tri-state. Not the case Monday. We had several stories on Boston, as well as a live press conference with the President. After six years in the business, you never know what to expect. The shock that hit us Monday didn’t leave the newsroom all week, and even this week, we are still talking about it and digging for more information on how and why this happened. The next day, new information is released, we hear stories of heroism. Then we see possible suspect pictures. Then Friday, I woke up to several alerts on my phone about a shootout and I couldn’t turn myself away from the TV all day. Luckily I’m in a business where TVs are everywhere. Friday night, as the capture of Dzhokhar was going down, I was shopping, with my Sirius radio tuned into a news station and my ear buds in my ears. With events like this, no matter how far away you are, in the news business, you are impacted. Someone at home will know someone there. Someone nearby will be impacted, bringing the story close to home.

I met some of those people last week. There’s a running club in Huntington, called the Huntington Road Runners. Even though I consider myself a runner, albeit a newbie, I had never heard of this group before. Last Tuesday, while covering local angles of the Boston Marathon Bombings, we ran across an event this group was holding. A local 2.62 mile run around Marshall University. I found out several people involved in the group, and in the run, have run in the Marathon before and two of their own were in it this year. They came home safely. For some reason, I had my running clothes with me that night, and I decided to take part. I know that I’m not up to running club standard, but I wanted to do it for others, and I wanted to be part of the running community on this night. I think more than anything, I was nervous about running with a group. I run by myself. I am very competitive, so I am constantly working to beat my personal records and time and shave off seconds from nearly every run, and continue to add mileage. But running with others?? One thing I learned: There’s a bond in the community that can’t be broken.

Before the run, we all gathered for a quick speech, group prayer and a lighting of a blue and gold candle, Boston Marathon colors. It was very moving, even though we were hundreds of miles away from the scene. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to finish the whole run. A crazy summer-like storm was rolling through and lighting up the sky, and I ducked out after one mile since I still had quite the commute. But that was all I needed. As we all started running, there were several people in the area who started clapping. It was an amazing experience to be part of, and not one that any of us did it for ourselves.

I’ve heard of several runs like this that have happened across the country in the past two weeks and would love to hear from you if you took part in one!

I’ll leave you on some amazing words spoken by the young man who put together the 2.62 mile run: We will still run, but we will not run away.

To check out my pictures from the group run, follow my on Instagram @kariannalysis.

Happy Friday friends! Hope you’ve had a great week! This week was spring break at Marshall University, so the Rec Center had limited hours and no classes. BUMMER! But I did some fun stuff. Got in a great interval workout on the treadmill and two other days of getting in quick mile runs and arm workouts. I feel like I am getting guns. Get your tickets ladies and gentlemen!

Now we all know that even though we really want to work out and find and make the time to do it, we don’t always have time to get in a long workout. As much as I love to run, I don’t always have time for 45 consecutive minutes to work out. Sometimes I just have a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening. So it’s always nice to have those quick workouts.

My favorite quick workout is the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It’s a 20 minute workout that mixes up cardio, abs and strength. As many times as I do it (which is 2-3 times a week), it still kicks my butt.

But even as much as I love it, I have to change my workouts up.

Some things that I do every night, no matter how much time I have, I always do 50 squats, a little bit of abs (whatever I feel like that day…. sometimes they are crunches, and reverse crunches, and the bicycle, or whatever else sounds fun), and some pushups (these vary from 10-45 depending on how my arms feel). I can get that done in 5-10 minutes and always feel great after it.

So where is the best place to find a quick workout? Where’s the best place to find anything? Pinterest! Duh!

Here are some quick workouts I’ve found recently… hope they help you out. I plan to add them in on days when I don’t feel like doing much, but know I need to.

Tight Cheeks Workout

Brazilian Butt Lift

10 Minute CrossFit

Tone Arms Fast

 Kettle Bell Workout

Soooo there’s a few for you to choose from. Click on the picture and it will take you to a link with more info (if it’s not on the picture) or the website where it came from. Enjoy! Let me know if you try any!!

Soooo Happy Friday! Hope you are having a great week. This Friday’s post is going to be short and sweet, like my workouts and my mood this week. Yesterday I compared myself to grumpy cat.

This has been a week of ups and downs for me. I did Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Saturday, Sunday and Monday. By Monday, I felt like it was getting easier. Normally I do it only once or twice a week. I think if I did it for 30 straight days, I would definitely feel it.

Tuesday I got sick and couldn’t work out. I was in bed for 12 hours.

Wednesday…. well Wednesday we tried something different. We tried a Yoga Body Burn class. It was the first yoga class my workout bud and I took at the rec center at Marshall. We had hoped that Body Burn meant Power Yoga. We were wrong. This was very mind, body and soul, but it was a good workout. We focused on balance. Here are some poses (click on the photo to check out where it came from originally):

While it wasn’t what we expected, the class actually went very well. I have done a couple of DVDs and online videos, but nothing in a real class setting. I was nervous at first, but by the time the class was over, I felt very comfortable and relaxed. Now that it’s been a couple of days, I’m still having a love/hate relationship with this class. I felt great, but I am not sure if this calm and collected suits my personality. I normally do high impact exercises that boost my mood. I was calm, but then felt like I fell into a well and couldn’t get out of it. I am absolutely not throwing yoga out the door, but will need to mix in some other workouts if I stick with it in the future. And the class is only offered on Wednesdays, which I normally spend with my friend and here babe, so we may have to change our schedules a little to work yoga in a little more.

Thursday, I was super lazy. I got in some steps at the mall, then all I wanted to do was sit in bed and watch Psych and knit and work on my blog. So this week Tuesday and Thursday are my days off. I have to work late tonight, so I will either get in a late workout when I get home, or a double long workout Saturday morning.

I think the thing I learned this week was that I definitely like high impact, high calorie burning exercises. I love the feeling after a yoga workout, but can’t rely on that for a mood boost, which I count on after workouts. I am too high energy for my own good.

I also think when I’m in the need for yoga, I may work in the Jillian Michaels yoga DVD. It was one of the first workouts I did when I decided to get fit this year and love, love, loved it. Do you guys have any yoga suggestions for me?

Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but it’s been a rough week for me! Saturday and Sunday, I had pretty good workouts at home. Monday I went to a class and Tuesday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. But then it all went downhill. Wednesday, I couldn’t get full. I was starving. Maybe it was because I had 900 calories left over on Tuesday, or maybe I just love food too much. Thursday, I took the night off to get my hair done (I’m a blonde now). And tonight I will be on the road all evening, so no workout again. Hopefully I can get back on track tomorrow. Maybe a little something will be better than nothing.

But when you have bad weeks like these, we all need some motivation. I have found a lot of motivation the past couple of months on instagram. I am constantly saving pictures and making them my background. This is my current phone background:

I absolutely love this shirt and will have it soon!

Today I wanted to share some other motivations I have found lately. Save them on your computer, or phone, print them out, just keep at it! Happy Friday!

Happy late Friday friends. Like every evening this week, I’m getting a late start at dinner and my evening routine. I had two late evenings at the gym, followed by a motel stay and random snow, dinner with a good friend, and watching the nation’s top high school basketball recruit in the country. My earliest night home was this evening, at 8 p.m. Needless to say, the blog has taken the brunt of my late evenings.

Tonight I am here to talk about one of the things in my previous paragraph: THE GYM.

Growing up and playing sports, I spent quite a bit of time in the weight room. I learned the ins and outs of the weight machines, and was a master at holding a chin up. But other than some weights to bulk up my 90 pound frame, that was all.

The summer before my senior year I won a pageant and part of my winnings was 3 months at our local physical therapy center AKA gym. There were a couple of treadmills and some weight machines, but once my free time ran out, I was done.

In college, our gym membership was part of our tuition. I was spoiled by Ohio University’s rec center AKA Ping. They had several basketball courts where I played intramural ball, class cage rooms for racket sports, a free weight room, a machine room, a climbing rock, and an indoor track on the third flood that overlooked it all. My love for the gym came and went. But now that I am an adult, I wish I would have taken better advantage of it.

As an adult, I’ve done some pilates DVDs (gifts from my dad for my college graduation) and some random online workouts when I felt like the winter was getting the best of me. The only regular exercise I had was walking with mom, or a friend during the warm months. So for about 3.5 years, I had sporadic exercise at best.

Last summer, my cousin and I decided to sign up for the Color Me Rad run in Columbus. Problem was, neither of us had run a 5K in years. I was afraid to run after tearing my ACL in high school, concerned that I would tweak it once again and I did NOT want to go through that pain EVER AGAIN. But we both used the Couch 2 5K program, got in shape and did our race. Luckily, it was nice out, so all of our training took place outside. It was months of work for a 30 minute race (30 minute’ish). I didn’t want to lose all my progress, so I continued to run outdoors until it was too cold and I didn’t have daylight when I got home. I don’t get home until after 7:30 every evening, so for several months, I only see sunlight on my drive in and through the window at work. I am too big of a chicken to run at dark.

So I asked my parents and brother and husband for money for my birthday so I could get a membership at the gym at our hospital. Unfortunately, it was right around the holidays and I only went four times in that month. Not worth the $40.

I did nothing the entire month of December, then turned over a new leaf in January when I got my FitBit. I did some Jillian Michaels yoga in my bedroom and found some Wii Just Dance videos on YouTube and saved them to my favorites. But I wanted to continue to expand. I did a little research into some classes that were offered in the town I worked. There were some yoga classes and some Zumba classes… but not many I could take with my work schedule. It all goes back to me getting off work late.

Then I had the bright idea that I should check out Marshall University’s rec center. A friend ended up giving me and a coworker two free weeks to test it out and we are loving it so far. We started on the treadmill, did a little biking and elliptical work, did the arms and legs machines and this past week did a Zumba class. The gym is very similar to OU’s with lots of options. They even have a pool. After two weeks, I am in love.

But, I’m a cheap skate. I don’t like to spend money. I just want to run and I will be happy. I can do several workouts at home and have found a lot on YouTube. So, we will continue to go to the gym for the next few chilly months, then I’ll get back to running outdoors when the chill breaks.

Pros of the Gym:
*Workout options
*Encouragement from the hundreds of others working out at the same time
*Being able to watch others and learn new workouts
*Having a workout partner (I think this is easier to do at the gym because you can both do the machines at your own pace and strength and not worry about running in public and leaving the other behind)
*Working out with a TV (I so love the TVs on the treadmills, bikes and ellipticals)

Cons of the Gym:
*Price
*Finding the time  – I feel like since I pay for it, I need to get my money’s worth
*Working out late = Eating late
*Worrying that you look like a fool (this doesn’t bother me too much, but I think it takes time to work up the courage to try new things)

My pros and cons kind of weigh each other out I think. I always feel great after leaving the gym, but hate not getting home and eating until 9. I also hate having to pay for things, that because of my schedule, I can’t do for free – like running.

What are your opinions? Gym or no gym?