30 Day BodyRock Challenge

Have you ever heard of Bodyrock.tv?  Basically it was a site created by a married couple involving HIIT- High Intensity Interval Training.  Zuzana, the wife, did the tutorials and Freddy, the husband, was behind the camera and in charge of the site. Well long story short, over the last couple of years the site changed a lot. It is now Daily Hiit and it is run by Freddy and his current girlfriend.

A few years ago my sister in law was really into it.  She invited me to join her in the workouts. I really enjoyed them. I really loved the way my body was getting into shape with these workouts-they only took around 16 minutes to complete. But I had a love/hate relationship with Bodyrock. I hated the way the site sexualized everything. Who goes around working out in practically their underwear? The names of the workouts can be a little raunchy. It wasn't a very family friendly website.  Also over time they started using more equipment and I didn't want to pay to get equipment.  But I loved how motivated I was by Zuzana and her workouts. I'll admit that her tiny figure intimidated me. One thing I loved is that she made every workout possible. Zuzana showed modifications to the exercises. When I originally started Bodyrocking I had just had a baby and couldn't do very much. It was awesome to see myself improve and slowly be able to do more, to be less modified in my workouts.

My sister in law challenged me to go back to Bodyrock for 30 days (30 workout days, which will be 5 workouts a week).  I decided to take on that challenge. We have not done the workouts in a long time because they have changed so much. I don't like change. When I find something that works, like HIIT, I like to stick with it. I don't like it to be different than what I know. I decided to go through all the older workouts and find ones from when I was doing Bodyrock before. I found a lot of good workouts.

This is how the 30 day challenge will work. The challenge will start on Monday.  Below are links to 15 Bodyrock workouts. The first 15 days we will do the workouts in the order that they are listed, then repeat them again the next 15 days. Each day I will post my scores. I encourage you, if you choose to take on this challenge, to post your scores in the comment section as well. I am hoping to improve my scores the second time around. I will post a before and after update on my body for this challenge.

I want to apologize ahead of time for a)the names of the workouts. I did not create them. and b)if you do the workouts there is a half naked lady in the tutorials. Oh and c)yes I will be recreating some of the pictures in these workouts. I think it is important to show crazy fit vs normal. At this point in my life I consider myself normal size (not fat, not too fit, not crazy skinny).

Here is the thing about HIIT. Because the workouts are shorter, you HAVE to put maximum effort in. I know in the past I have not given my all in these Bodyrock workouts, so my goal this time around is to give 100%.

Here are the workouts:
Day 1/16 Smoking Hot Body Workout
Day 2/17 Sexy Fit Beast Workout
Day 3/18 Wow Booty Workout
Day 4/19 Sweat is Sexy Workout
Day 5/20 Gaga For Tight Booty Workout
Day 6/21 Boom Boom Workout
Day 7/22 Sexy Shape Shifter Workout
Day 8/23 Fit Tight Hot Workout
Day 9/24 Tight Jeans Booty Workout
Day 10/25 Brunette Beating Blonde Workout
Day 11/26 550 Rep Fat Massacre Workout
Day 12/27 Bubble Butt Workout
Day 13/28 Sexy and Jacked Workout
Day 14/29 Real Hot Workout
Day 15/30 Bang Bang Workout

Now you will sometimes need a stopwatch and/or interval timer. I use this stopwatch. And I use this interval timer. Sometimes they have you use a sandbag. I don't have a sandbag. You can do the exercises without the sandbag. My sister in law used to use a huge bag of rice. I also do not have that dip station thing. I use two chairs for that.  I will post more modifications if I come across them.


I am really excited for this challenge.  Now that I am taking a break from running I am ready to tone my body.  If you are ready to take on this challenge, let me know! I would love to motivate you in this endeavor.

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

The 1000 Workout

I haven't run since my half marathon on Saturday. I would like to run, I just haven't had a chance yet.  This morning was not the morning to run.  I stayed up late last night and woke early this morning. It took a while to "wake up". By the time I got around to working out it was 9 am.  I found the following workout on Pinterest:

This was a killer workout. I was not able to do 100 pushups. I did like 25. And I only did 60 walking lunges and 50 hover jacks.  It was hard, but it also felt really good to get a workout in. Now that I am done with my half marathon I am going to focus more on toning my body.

In the next few days I am going to put together a 30 workout challenge.  I hope you will join me in it.

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

Canyon to Canyon Half Marathon

Let me just say that I am feeling pretty proud right now.  I just finished my first half marathon, what I have been training for months for. I'm feeling proud and very, very sore.

I want to go back a little and talk about the last two weeks of running. I went from an elevation of 430 feet above sea level to an elevation of around 5728 feet above sea level. Let me tell you that there is a huge difference between those elevations breathing wise. I can't breathe here! We (my husband and I) had two weeks to train on Utah hills and in this high altitude and it was hard for me.

I felt like it took about 3 miles to get into any run we went on. The hills seemed like mountains compared to what I am used to.  There is no air here! How do people breathe? lol. I am glad we had some time to acclimate to this higher elevation and hills.

On Monday my husband and I went on our 10 mile run (we were supposed to do it last Saturday but our schedule was kind of crazy). We felt pretty good going into the run.  There were some hills and some straightaways.  It took us about 3 or 4 miles to get into our groove. Up until about mile 8 we did alright. Then I must have hit the dreaded running "wall", because I wanted to walk and not run, but my man encouraged me on.  There was a massive hill in the middle of mile 8 and we ran up the whole way, which I was pretty proud about.  We thought we were home free in mile 9, but I tweaked my left knee as we ran over a bridge.  It hurt so bad. I wasn't sure what I had hurt, all I knew was the pain was bad. I thought to myself, "really? I train for months with no injuries, and in the very last mile of our last long run I get injured??!!" I wasn't too happy about that. I also want to mention my husband's knees were killing him. His knees have been bothering him for a while.  So we finished the 10 miles in 1 hour and 56 minutes. I felt pretty good about that.

After running that 10 miles I felt pretty confident about the upcoming half marathon.  I was just a little worried about my knee though.  Within a day my knee felt fine.  My birthday was on Wednesday and my husbands family and I went on a 5 mile hike. I ran some of it and my knee didn't hurt at all. Again, I felt confident about the race.

Last night I laid out all my clothes (my awesome brother in-law and his girlfriend gave me a cool running outfit but I didn't get a chance to run in them before the race, so I stuck with what I have been running it) and packed some gatorade and water. I run with a fanny pack (I know, I'm so cool!) so I put my shot bloks in that with some water, my on-the-go phone charger, my chap stick, and some sunscreen. I went to bed an hour later than I planned on but I still felt pretty good and prepared.

I. Slept. Horrible.  I don't know if it was pre-race nerves or excitement, or if it was an uncomfortable bed, or if it was my stomach (Yesterday I had some digestive issues going on, if you know what I mead. I had an unsettled stomach the whole day, and I think it was something I ate).  I woke up so many times. So did my husband. So going to bed at 11pm and waking up at 4:30am, along with  waking up through out the night, didn't really make me feel too confident this morning.

My husband and I ran the half marathon with one of his brothers and his sister. When I say we ran the half marathon together I mean that his brother and sister ran really fast, and we ran together several minutes behind them. We left the in-laws at 5am and headed up this crazy canyon.  We got there, got parked, and got ready.

It may just be me but when I am nervous, or excited, or like today, nervously excited, I need to use the bathroom. A lot.  So I made a few trips to the port-a-potty before the race began.

We stood at the end of the start.  I guess a gun went off, I wasn't really paying attention. I turned my Pandora onto the Beatles station and started my Endomondo.  We headed out on the road for 1 mile before turning onto a dirt trail.

There was a water station at mile 1 (which is also mile 12 because the race was a down and back run). I didn't need any water at mile 1, I was just getting going.  When we signed up for the Canyon to Canyon half marathon, it was described like this:

"Gentle rolling hills" is an inaccurate description of what we came upon as we ran. Maybe a better description would be:

"You will be constantly running up and down steep hills, crying in pain, wishing you hadn't chosen such a hilly first half marathon. Your body will ache all over and you will want to ask the medic to drive you to the finish line every time you see him pass by. You will become bi-polar, switching from 'you can do this' to 'I can't do this' throughout the 13.1 mile course. You will enjoy it at first, but by mile 8 you will wish you could fly so your legs could get a break. You will see no porcupine, fox, or deer, but you will see some fluttering birds that can be seen anywhere. A tiny little stream can be seen at times if you are a tall person. "

It was hard, I'm not gonna lie. I think that if there weren't so many hills it wouldn't be so hard. And. There. Were. Hills. Monster hills. They weren't rolling.  I didn't take any pictures of the trail but it was hill after hill after hill. And you knew that if it was downhill on the way out that it would be uphill on the way back. Here is a picture from Google Maps:

This isn't quite the whole course. But every time the course does a little turn, that is a hill.  Endomondo said that we went from 5728 feet to 6194 in the course of the race. And with all the hills we had an overall ascent and decent of 735 ft.  There were 3 or 4 steep hills and then I guess there were some rolling hills.

There were actually 2 races going on, a 10k and a half marathon. The 3 mile mark was the turn around point for the 10k. I had a proud moment passing that, thinking of how awesome I was for doing the half marathon instead of the 10k. There was water there and I had some. I also brought water in my awesome old lady fanny pack.

At mile 4 there was a bathroom and we stopped for a minute to use it then kept going.  Unfortunately it was in the middle of a hill and it was hard to get up. I have to mention that I have the best husband ever. He was such a motivator to me. He helped me get up those hills. He took my hand and led me when I didn't think I could go much longer.

It had rained a little this morning before the race and that made great weather for us to run in.  It was cloudy most of the time and a little overcast.  By the end of the race it felt a little hot though. It was a beautiful run, I have to say. The view was spectacular. There were beautiful "rolling" hills all over. There were beautiful trees. We saw a really pretty yellow bird. There were times where we really enjoyed the run, but mostly it was hard and those hills really took it out of us.

We ran down the hills really well. We let them take us. That really helped with our time.  It also felt really windy which was nice because we were so sweaty. That cooled us down. In the last several miles we walked the hills.

There were several people running by us that we went back and forth passing each other. Bran and I decided to pick certain people to pass for good. It took a couple miles to pass some of them. In the end we were able to pass a dozen people which made us feel really good.

I took my shot blocks around 45 minutes in and again at an hour and 50 minutes.  We hit a wall around 8.5 miles. It was really hard from then on.  We hit 10 miles at 2 hours and 4 minutes, a little slower than our last long run, but we still had 3.1 miles to go.

We got excited when we saw the 11 mile mark, but we also knew there was still 2.1 miles to go. My husband kept saying "You are awesome! We are awesome!"  I felt a little tense in my shoulders and decided to stop briefly to stretch out my upper body. As we were walking up a hill my husband said "there's a camera man" so we started running. We were like "We have been running this whole time!" and we ran really well to get cool pictures. Haha.

We were so excited when we got to the 12 mile mark. Earlier in this post I mentioned there was water at the 1 mile mark (which is also the 12 mile mark). I thought it was silly to have water at the 1 mile mark, but I was so grateful to have water at that 12 mile mark. I poured some on my arms and then I drank some.

I was so hot. And so tired. I really wanted to be positive but negative thoughts had come into my mind and I was thinking I couldn't do it. And I was so close! I was super duper bi-polar in that last mile. It was back on the road, and it was flat. No hills. You would think I would do really well. Well I was exhausted. My body and my mind were fighting each other. I would say "Alright we can do this, let's go all the way" and just a few seconds later I would burst out crying and blubber "I can't do this! Carry me the rest of the way". I think I was having a panic attack. My poor husband must have thought he married a nut job because I went back and forth with those positive/negative comments.

It was hard. That last mile was do or die. I kept running but I didn't want to run anymore.  I just willed myself to keep going. That last .1 mile was my saving grace because it was downhill. It helped me to push a little harder to cross the finish.  By the time I got to that last .1 I was crying almost uncontrollably. I had my hand in my face as I crossed the finish line, bawling.  I had so many mixed emotions crossing that finish line: I can't believe I just ran a half marathon.  I am so proud of myself! Oh my gosh, I am so glad that it is over! I CAN"T BELIEVE I JUST DID THAT!! Have you ever seen the Disney movie Tangled, when Rapunzel leaves the tower and she says "I can't believe I did that!" several different ways and with different emotions? Yeah, it was like that for me. And yeah, it was a moment in which I looked like a crazy person. I was like hysterically crying.  My sister in law thought I had gotten hurt or something because of the way I was crying.

It took me a minute to calm down, but after that I was good. I had water and a muffin and I stretched out.  We were all proud of ourselves for completing a half marathon! My brother in law wasn't fairing so well stomach wise, but he ran the race in 1 hour 50 minutes! So awesome! My sister in law did awesome too! And I ran the half marathon with my husband in 2 hours and 40 minutes. I am really proud of that, because I just completed a half marathon.

I don't know in  this moment what other races will be in my future, because I am too sore and tired to think about it. I will post pics from today after I have had some rest.

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

Water Aerobics

I know I said that I wanted to try out new workouts/exercises, and I am sorry it has taken me so long to blog about them.  I have tried several different types in the last couple weeks. I want to start off with water aerobics.

A lot of people have the misconception that water aerobics is for elderly people. I have had that misconception before. Why do people think that? Well truth is that there are a lot of elderly people who do water aerobics. I will tell you why.  When you workout in water you take a lot of tension off your muscles and joints.  Once when I watched a movie about training for a marathon, one of the athlete's broke her foot. She couldn't run for several weeks, but she was able to run in the water because it took a lot of the weight off of the foot.  Basically anything you can do on land you can do in water, without straining your body as much.

Who can do water aerobics?

Young people

Old people

Heck even the boys from 1D can (for all you One Direction lovers out there)

And you can do water aerobics if you are pregnant.

You can take a water aerobics class or do it on your own. You can use equipment or just use your body.  Of course you need to have water (haha) but there are options for that as well.

Outdoor pool

Above ground pool

Indoor pool

or the ocean

I have never taken a water aerobics class. I did it on my own in my pool.  I found several places online with water aerobics tutorials.  Here is a link to a few ideas for a pool workout. 

Water aerobics has a lot of health benefits. As I mentioned before the water takes off stress from your body. In fact, it takes off 90% of your body weight. You can find more benefits here.


I am not a swimmer. I am not a very good swimmer. I had some near death experiences in water as a young child so for a long time I was hesitant to swim around in the water.  Don't get me wrong, I know how to swim.  But I am not a very confident swimmer.

We have a pool where we live and my kids love to swim. Since summer started we have been at the pool every day. I decided to take that time at the pool and improve my swimming. I also decided to try out some water aerobics. Let me just tell you that swimming is exhausting, and I have woken up sore every morning. It may not tone you but swimming definitely works your muscles.

I want to share with you some of the exercises I have been doing in the pool.  We don't have a very deep pool. The deepest it gets is 4 1/2 feet deep.  One thing I do is walk or run around the pool.  It is really hard and you don't go very fast. I will lift my legs as high as I can as I am walking.

Another thing I do is the wave maker. You are in the water and hold on the side of the pool with one hand and the other is under the water against the wall. You kick your feet back (together) like a dolphin. It really works your legs.

I try to do laps around the pool. My arms get tired really fast doing that. Sometimes I doggie paddle around the pool. Other times I swim under water. I haven't done any aerobics with noodles or water weights. I just try to find exercises I can do with my body.

Even though I have woken up really sore every day after going to the pool, I feel a difference in my body. I am not toning it by swimming but I do feel like I am thinning out in places. I also feel like I am working muscles that I don't work when I run or weight lift.

I will definitely add more water aerobics into my routine this summer.

Guest Post from Chub Rub Runner

No matter what fitness level you are at, you can complete a 5k. It is 100% doable.  There are so many couch to 5k programs available for free.  I have a friend who started a blog about her experience with a couch to 5k running program. Please check out her site here. I want to share one of her posts with you. Thanks Stephanie for letting me share your story!

Embracing a Crazy Idea

Let me be honest, I'm 33 years old and I'm pretty sure the last time I ran for any length of time was during a required P.E. class in college when I was about 21 years old. I cannot remember a time in my life when I've been "little" but there have been times when I had great cardiovascular fitness.

Many things have prompted this decision. My 3 young children are the main reason. I want to set a good example for them early on. My husband is another. He will be undergoing his own transformation this year with weight loss surgery.

A few months ago, I decided I was going to run a 5k. I had heard about the Couch to 5k method and found blogs from people like "The Fat Runner" that gave tips on how to modify the workout and what gear to purchase. My husband purchased a book for me by renown runner Jeff Galloway and included a $50 giftcard to Finish Line.

And to make it more tangible I actually picked a race scheduled in October just after my 34th birthday.

Running shoes and socks were purchased. A date was set and off I went.


The First Run

One of my big excuses not to workout outside was the Texas heat. Anyone can testify of the brutality of summers. Just sitting outside makes you feel like you'll pass out any moment. As fate would have it, the very week I decide to begin is the week Summer finally arrives.

I used the official Couch to 5k app to notify me of when to walk and when to run. As I was doing a brisk 5 minute walk warmup, I was dreading the first run. It was going to take every bit of willpower to actually run. The first week calls for alternating 60 second jogs with 90 seconds of walking.

After two reps of this and already feeling a little lightheaded and my legs screaming for relief, I knew this pace would not work. The whole point of this workout is to alternate whatever you're capable of running with walking. I didn't want to go home or sit down so I slowed it down and only did 20 seconds of running.

By the end of the first workout, my feet felt numb and I could hardly lift my legs into our van for the short drive home. I probably shouldn't have drove home. I felt a little lightheaded and my legs were heavy noodles.



I made it home and drank a ton of Gatorade. Put some Icy Hot on my legs. I walked around with noodle legs and the inability to bend my toes up.

But I was proud and hopeful that I'd be able to walk better the next day. My shins were sore but my muscles were already recovering by the morning.

Thanks again, Stephanie! I would love to have more guest posts in the future so if you are interested in being a guest let me know!

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

National Running Day

I ran 4.8 miles yesterday without the stroller. It felt so good! I ran about 2.3 miles and then I ate a shot blok before going on. I averaged a 10:30 min/mile.  It was cloudy and a little windy which is great running weather for this time of year.  I didn't push myself and I need to start doing that.  I would love to be running 10 min/mile by the time the half marathon comes.

Speaking of running, today is National Running Day! Have you had your run today? I don't run on Wednesdays but maybe I will try to squeeze a run in today.  I was on Pinterest this morning and saw a website that offered $20 off of Rock 'n' Roll Marathons TODAY ONLY! So if you are interested in signing up for one you can find the information here. If you know of any other races and running discounts let me know!

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

What's Coming Up This Month

A new month is a great time for setting challenges and goals. This month I am going to focus more on nutrition. I will be posting recipes for healthy smoothies, raw foods, clean foods, etc throughout the month.

Since I am training for a half marathon I will be posting a lot about running, but it is not the only thing I am interested in. I also decided to challenge myself to try new/different exercises this month.  I will post videos, pictures, and my personal thoughts on the different exercises I try out. A few I am going to try are Zumba, water aerobics, and prancercizing (that's right, folks!). If there are any exercises you would like me to try or blog about let me know. I am up for anything!

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

Running With a Stroller

On my training schedule for my half marathon I was supposed to run a 5k today. My sister-in-law is hosting a free 5k next week so I decided to switch around a few things. Now instead of a 5k I was supposed to run 7 miles. That didn't happen.

I have been struggling with running with the stroller. Over the last couple weeks I have figured something out.  A few weeks ago I ran 5 miles. I was home alone with my daughter so I took her in the stroller. After that run my right calve muscle was really sore. It got better as I ran but it was super sore for a while.  Last week when I ran my 6 mile run alone my leg felt fine by the end. After that I had no problems... until this week, running with the stroller.

I have discovered that I run differently when I am pushing the stroller.  I don't use my arms as much because they are pushing the stroller. I am not running as tall. I slouch a little. When running up hills I hunch over the stroller and rely on it to hold me.  I run in some way that either pulls a muscle in my right leg or makes it sore.

Today when I was running I felt that muscle hurting. After running 3 miles I decided to stop. I don't want to injure myself anymore. I don't feel bad about stopping today. It wasn't like my 4 mile run this week when I wanted to end it early.  I felt like I knew my body needed a break. I am going to have to figure out a way to run this next week on my own (until my hubby comes home and can watch the kids). Curse the wretched stroller that changes the way I run!

For those of you who are running, I hope you are fairing better than me. Happy running!

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru

Couch to 5k

First off, I just want to thank everyone who has been reading my fitness blog.  I know it isn't always written well and I kind of go all over the place sometimes. I really appreciate all the support I have been receiving. You all have motivated me to keep going even when the going is rough.

I had a friend ask me if I have ever used a couch to 5k program and I have heard a few other friends talking about doing a couch to 5k program, so I wanted to talk about them for a moment.  I have done several different 5k programs in the last few years.

4 months after I had my son I wanted to get into shape. I used this couch to 5k program. It is a 9 week program that takes you from the couch to running (well jogging and honestly I don't understand the difference) 3 miles.  I really liked it because it started out really slow--running 60 seconds and walking 90 seconds, alternating for 20 minutes.  Honestly, when I started it that was almost more than I could handle. Jogging and walking for that 20 minutes was agony for me. I am sure there were times when I ran less than 60 seconds and walked more than 90 seconds. And I am not sure that I ever finished the program. Excuses always came up to keep me from running. This is a good program if you haven't been physically active in a while.

Last fall when I was preparing for my first 5k race I did this 4 week training plan. I had been working out more regularly and was in better shape when I started this program. Here is what this plan looks like: 

On the first day of this 5k training plan it says "run 2 miles easy". I'm not sure what that means but I know I took many walking breaks. I did stick with the program this time around. I think it helps when you actually sign up for a 5k race and have a date that you want to finish the program by.  I did ok with this program, but I didn't push myself as much as I should have.

Side note--through running for the past 8 months I have really come to find that a big part of running is mental. If I think even a small amount that I will not do well on a run, I usually don't. Even on my 4 mile run on Tuesday I was thinking a little negatively and I did horribly (even though I ran 6 miles on Saturday in almost the same amount of time). My advice to you is to give positive encouragement to yourself and focus on the accomplishments you are making.

The half marathon training program that I am using now has you starting out at a 5k running level (meaning being able to run 3 miles without stopping). I decided to do a 5k training program to prepare for it. this is the program I used to get ready for my half marathon training program. I even found a free 5k to run.  This program worked really well for me since I had been doing P90x prior to starting the training.  I liked that you ran for like 20/25 minutes during the week on on Saturday you actually ran a certain milage.  This last 5k was my fastest one so far.

There are so many 5k training programs out there. Do what works for you. If you are training on a treadmill you can try this couch to 5k treadmill plan. You also don't have to stick to the plan. You can adjust it to work for you. In my most recent 5k training I changed my running days from Mon/Wed/Sat to Tues/Thurs/Sat so that my husband could run with me.  I completely moved the days around in my half marathon training program to work around my family's busy schedule. It is ok to tweak the training schedule. And don't forget to stretch!! That is really important so that you don't get injuries. Stretch really good after you run.  Youtube has a lot of stretching videos if you need ideas.

"No one cares if you walk, they only care that you cross the finish line". It really is ok to not be perfect. It is ok to have set backs. We are only human. We can only do our best, and our best may not be perfect.  I hope these programs are helpful to you. If there are any other questions about going from a couch to 5k let me know and I will do my best to answer them! Happy running!

-Kate, your not-too-fit guru