The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Soldier of Steel™.

Last week, the movie buzz was all around Spirit of the Marathon II, and I was so lucky to have caught the sneak preview of it one week prior. It was so neat to get to see runners just like me achieve their marathon dreams! I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the feeling of crossing the finish line at a marathon never gets old, no matter how many times I get to do it.

The “stars” of Spirit of the Marathon II were actually ordinary runners who were featured because they were fit. But this week, my former Beachbody coach Brett published a really interesting article on Action Hero Workouts – basically, how actors/actresses get in shape for superhero roles. We all know that the “perfect” bodies we see in the media are frequently retouched/enhanced – but at the same time, the actors/actresses work really hard for those enviable bodies. I had always assumed that actors playing X-Men or similar roles must work out all day every day in preparation, so I was intrigued to see some details in Brett’s post about what routines the actors follow. For example, for Channing Tatum’s role in Fighting, Brett noted that he only did a three-days-on, one-day-off cycle of 30 minute workouts. Obviously those would be 30 pretty intense minutes (similar to Insanity, no doubt), but still, 30 minutes is pretty quick and manageable for anyone with a busy schedule!

But while I really liked hearing the general workouts that the stars used to get ripped, I wanted to learn more about exactly what they do. It’s all fine to say that the workouts included moves like jump squats, dead lifts, and situps, but how many sets? Are we talking light weights/high reps or heavy weights/few reps or something in between? I wanted specifics!

So when I heard about the Soldier of Steel™ workouts, I was pretty intrigued. Basically, in preparation for the Man of Steel™ movie, trainer Mark Twight was tasked with transforming dozens of cast members’ bodies for their respective roles. Not easy, when you consider that everyone’s body responds differently to different exercise! While functional fitness (i.e., how well can you actually perform is paramount for real soldiers, in this case, Mark had to make everyone’s bodies look totally ripped for the magic of Hollywood. But when I saw the lineup of exercises he used, it was clear that he didn’t go for form over function – this workout is absolutely full-body and going to get you into incredible shape.

Video source: Soldier of Steel™

The basic moves contained in the workout are almost all ones I’ve encountered in standard Crossfit classes, and come down to this:

• Air squat
• Bear crawl
• Box jump
• Burpee
• Dead hang
• Dead lift
• Deck squat
• Farmer carry
• Floor bench press
• Frog hop
• Forward leaning rest (aka – plank)
• Goblet squat
• Man-maker (aka – pushup with single arm row)
• Mountain climber
• Plank pull (aka – inverted row)
• Pull up
• Push press
• Push up
• Proper push up (aka – pushup with hip bridge/arm release)
• Situp
• Split jump (aka – lunge jump)
• Walking lunge
• Wall squat

In case you don’t know all those moves, though, you can check out training videos on the Soldier of Steel™ website. I really liked that each move is demonstrated in its own short video clip, so you can check out the ones you don’t know and skip the ones you’ve already done a million times. (Hint: you probably don’t need to watch the situp video; just know that it requires you to come all the way up rather than just doing a crunch.)

Unfortunately for my travel routine, the exercises do require some equipment to complete – and not all hotel gyms have a plyo box, barbells, or pull up bar. The official guide notes that 80% of the workouts can be done without any equipment at all, but I think you can probably get closer to 95% completion by substituting stairs for a plyo box (just make sure you are starting on a landing or at the bottom, not midway up!), and loading up a lat pulldown bar with 1.5x your body weight so you can use it as a stationary pull up bar (hint: the curtain rod and shower rod in your hotel room are not that strong). And of course, for barbells, you can always substitute dumbbells in each hand (each with half the weight of the total barbell) – which can actually help make sure you’re better balancing your reps between arms anyway, as long as you’re not cheating on form as a result. (Here’s a great post on the cons of subbing dumbbells for barbells, but my take is that something is better than nothing.) In the end, I actually thought the workout was surprisingly doable for me on the road – which means I’m much more likely to stick to it.

But the best part of all? I’ve written in the past about how I love planning and scheduling my workouts for the week, because then it’s psychologically tougher for me to skip one if I’m not feeling it. Like the Beachbody Insanity/P90X workouts, the Soldier of Steel™ transformational workout has a calendar of exactly what you’re supposed to do each day. But unlike Insanity (which I got sick of when it took me away from the group fitness classes I love taking with my friends), the Soldier of Steel™ calendar includes at least two hours each week of the cardio workout of your choice. Flywheel junkie? Zumba queen? Go for it! I love that those are mixed in with the strength training workouts that are the base of the program, so you’re following the new routine but don’t have to give up the workouts you already love. This is basically how I write marathon training plans as well (incorporating non-running workouts into the program),   since it helps provide balance and prevent the mental burnout that will kill you in a race when you’ve trained too hard to enjoy it anymore.

If you really can’t stomach the idea of completing giving up your regular workout regimen to switch over to the Soldier of Steel™ workout, my friends over at Throwback Fitness recently posted about the Tailpipe. Also created by Mark Twight, the tailpipe is another high-intensity cardio circuit that’s quick enough to be tacked onto the end of your other regular workouts, kind of like a Rachel Cosgrove “finisher.”

What do you think of the Soldier of Steel™ workout, and do you have any questions for the creator, Mark Twight? This Thursday June 20 from 3pm-4pm ET, Mark will answer workout questions on Twitter via @NationalGuard using the hashtag #TwightTakeover. Personally, I’m psyched about getting to talk to the actual creator and see how I can better tailor the program for my own goals. (And perhaps sneak in some questions about how exactly I train to fly like Clark Kent… kidding!)

What a whirlwind (long) weekend!

Friday was fairly low-key until the evening, when I ushered a friend off to a second date that I later found out went fabulously well. Following my pep talk, I stayed to hang out at the bar (Valhalla – one of my favorite beer bars in the city) for an hour or so, and then it was off to my friend Jon’s “Influencers” cocktail party.

Jon is one of those people who seems to know anyone and everyone, and a few years ago, he began hosting dinner parties that brought people with very different backgrounds together. Termed the “Influencer Dinners,” he extended invites to people from many different industries but who were at the forefront of their field – and I was very pleasantly surprised when I received an invitation. The events have grown in popularity (to the point where who knows if I’d still make the cut as influential enough!), and now that the invites are so coveted, Jon follows each Influencer dinner with an open cocktail party where anyone who’s attended a previous dinner is welcome to come mingle.

My crazy schedule has prevented me from going to the Influencers’ cocktail parties in the past, but this time I made it a point to show up, and I was so glad that I did! I met so many fascinating people and made a lot of great contacts that I’m excited to work with on various projects in the upcoming months. One of those I met on Friday was Jeff Pulver, the co-founder of Vonage and a huge “influencer” (to use Jon’s term) in the tech community. Jeff is currently organizing The State of You conference, which is kind of a TED-like event that focuses on health, wellness, fitness, and food. I had already heard of it through FitFluential and was dying to attend, but unfortunately the timing didn’t work out – it’s this Tuesday and Wednesday. Huge bummer, but I already had some other crazy things going on early in the week (hint, hint: foreshadowing)…

After a super-productive Saturday morning getting errands done, I finished up my last one by heading down to the bike storage room in my apartment, retrieving my bike from where it had been gathering dust for 2+ years, and taking it to the bike shop across the street to get my tires filled up. Although I hadn’t ridden it in a while (I went on a Colorado biking adventure in September but hadn’t ridden in the city since taking a “How to Ride in Manhattan” bike class a few years back), the cliche about never forgetting how to ride a bike was true. Cruising through traffic with less difficulty than I would have thought, it didn’t take me long at all to reach the east side of Central Park, where I was meeting Ashley for our grand adventure.

Ashley is moving to Switzerland in less than a month (in fact, she’s leaving on my birthday!), and so has been organizing lots of one-on-one friend dates to spend time with us before she goes. Two of the items on her New York bucket list were going biking and visiting the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, so we decided to combine those on what turned out to be the most perfect sunny summer day. After renting a Citibike for Ashley, we circled Central Park (lazily skipping the Harlem Hills in favor of the 102nd Street transverse), exited at 72nd Street to head for the West Side (me pointing out all my favorite places in my ‘hood), and then glided down the West Side Highway to the Village and our ice cream reward. Our goal wasn’t fitness; just a cool adventure and lots of time to catch up with each other as we cruised around. Sometimes, the best kind of workout is the accidental one where you’re having so much fun you forget you’re sweating!

The other best kind of workout = anything with ice cream at the end!

Since I didn’t know how much energy I’d actually expend doing semi-leisurely biking, I had also booked a Flywheel class at 5pm with Jen to get my workout in for the day. But when I arrived back home at 3:45pm already exhausted and pretty sweaty/gross, I wished I hadn’t been quite so eager. I considered skipping, but since I had already paid for the class and Jen was counting on me, I didn’t want to bail. Plus, despite how much I go to Flywheel in Dallas, I had actually never been to a Flywheel Upper West Side class – pretty silly given that it’s where I technically live! I dragged myself over to the studio, started pedaling, and was shocked in the second song when the instructor revealed the Torqboard and I saw that I was only one power point behind the top female. The New York Flywheel scene is supposed to be super-competitive (more so than Dallas, which isn’t surprising given the general tendency of New Yorkers to be super-driven and Type A), plus I had already been bike riding outside for hours (albeit at a leisurely pace). How was it possible that I was doing so well? I decided that I owed it to myself to push hard and try to beat the girl in front of me – and beat her I did, winning by a solid 5 points. Furthermore, I got one of my highest Flywheel scores of all time! It seemed that it was just a red-letter biking day for me :)

Sunday was a little bit more low-key. Although Jen and I hit up a Kripalu yoga class at Athleta in the early morning and I followed it up with my first Refine class in several months, the rest of the day was spent brunching with girlfriends, relaxing on the Megabus to Albany (well, relaxing until it turned out the driver didn’t know where he was going and had to request passenger assistance), and then taking both of my parents out to dinner in Albany for Father’s Day. My parents are divorced but I’m really lucky that they’re still on good enough terms that I don’t need to split time between them at holidays or for visits upstate! We had a great time.

Happy Father’s Day!

And this morning, I really needed both of their full support – because I headed up to Saratoga, New York to buy my first house! My brother had called me a long time ago when the townhouse next to him went up for sale at a great price, but when I learned it was a short sale (aka the-longest-kind-of-sale-there-is), I didn’t hold out much hope. Sure enough, although I put an offer into the bank in February, it’s taken all this time just to get it to go through. The road to ownership had plenty of difficulties along the way (an inspection that turned up some issues I wasn’t thrilled with, an owner who refused to vacate on time, and even the keys to the house going missing after we had completed all the paperwork), but I’m now the proud owner of a great little three-bedroom condo right next to my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. Woo hoo!

Pretty flowers already hanging by the front door thanks to my kind realtor!

Why yes, I did reward myself with ice cream – haven’t you learned how to get me to do anything? This particular flavor happens to be titled “No Regretzel” and is from the most amazing convenience store in the country, Stewart’s Shops.

I’m going to be traveling a lot over the next few weeks (a wedding in Aspen this weekend and a fourth of July vacation in the Hamptons, sprinkled with my usual Dallas business travel), but I’ll be back up to Saratoga on July 11th for a combined family birthday party and champagne toast to my new house. Of course, it wouldn’t be me if I weren’t also combining that with a wedding on Saturday night and a race on Sunday – I’m planning on running the famous Boilermaker 15K on Sunday July 14th! I’m definitely looking forward to another whirlwind weekend upstate soon :)

Want to stay in bed longer? Here’s what I’ve been loving, laughing, and getting intrigued by all week long. Now cozy up with your laptop/iPad and enjoy :)

CAREER

I work from home most Fridays; here are Ten Tips for Working from Home that help me get more done.

When I am at the office, it’s often just back-to-back meetings… and I can’t actually start getting work done until the meetings end at 5:30pm. Stop Meeting and Start Working really resonated with me!

Not so lucky (or unlucky) to work from home? You can still Up Your Office Efficiency with this article from LearnVest.

Great week for Learnvest – they also interviewed some awesome entrepreneurs on some tips to Be Career Fearless.

Create Your Ideal Work/Life Balance: Nobody Else Will. Great advice.

If your current job has you burned out, I really liked the four-step process of How to Break Out of a Career Rut in a Month.

The Skill Every Aspiring Professional Must Have (Hint: It’s Not Knowing How To Code). I’m working on it!

PRODUCTIVITY/SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

How to Organize Your E-mail Inbox. Pretty much exactly my system!

Last week I shared a piece on how beer makes you more creative. As a follow up to harness that, here’s how to combine the powers of coffee & beer to do your best work.

3 Motivational Mind Tricks Designed To Power Progress, via @FastCompany.

Want something a little less scientific? Here’s a wonderfully rambling piece by Penelope Trunk on why you ought to do the first thing on your to do list first.

HEALTH/FITNESS

Men, you need to understand this about why we order salad at restaurants: why one calorie for her is half a calorie for him.

Lots of controversy lately on the efficacy of vitamins. I once overdosed on Vitamin A by mistake (multivitamins combined with a ridiculous amount of pumpkin/squash/carrots, because it was fall), so I don’t generally take vitamins anymore. And now the New York Times says that a-okay – yay!

I use My Sleepbot to track my sleep (you can’t improve what you don’t measure!), but the true question still remains – Can You Catch Up on Lost Sleep?

How much of what your parents told you was crap? Gosh, mom, you totally fleeced me!

27 Simple Health Tips for Entrepreneurs, From Entrepreneurs.

I’ve been doing more yoga lately just because I’ve been craving that kind of good stretching. But maybe it’s more than that: When it Comes to Our Brains, Study Suggests Yoga Trumps Running.

TRAVEL

Embarrassingly, I need this guide at times. How To Travel With A Friend And Not Kill Them.

Hotels are starting to get rid of room service? I say, good riddance – it’s just as easy to use Seamless or Grubhub to get your food delivered by restaurants that are in the sole business of cooking delicious food.

Great interview with The Points Guy about the big business behind airline loyalty programs.

I’m a huge fan of hotel room workouts (because you can’t count on any specific equipment at a hotel gym, so this roundup of tips on exercising in your hotel room was quite helpful.

If your problem is less about the place to work out and more about the time, Nerd Fitness did a great comprehensive article on How to Stay In Shape Despite Working Weird Hours.

MISCELLANY

31 Great Quotes About Being In Your 20s.

Tomorrow I’m headed to upstate New York to buy my first house – and just in time, I read 5 Reasons to Own Rental Property While You’re Young. Woo hoo!

I had never heard of the term “digital sharecropping”, but Copyblogger perfectly explains why it’s The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Online Marketing Efforts. Glad I recently switched to WordPress so I own my own content!

A few years ago, my friend Jon Levy invited me to a dinner party. Now his monthly suppers have turned into a New York networking phenomenon that’s become the hottest ticket in town! I feel so lucky to have been a guest at an Influencer dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed the company I met at last night’s cocktail event.

Finally, this video had me laughing quite a bit: How to help sufferers of “Bitchy Resting Face,” a tragic reality for millions of women.

Like this post? Want more fun articles in real time? Follow me on Twitter or become a Facebook fan to get similar stories all week long.

On Saturday night, I was already feeling the soreness from my Apogee Life Fitness Festival workouts that morning. Those classes were no joke! Before I went to bed (super early – bliss!), I canceled my registration for an Uplift bootcamp on Sunday morning. Instead, I was pretty pumped that I would get to attend Wanderlust’s Yoga in the City Event in the afternoon. Stretching out my muscles couldn’t come at a more perfect time!

After an amazing brunch with Ashley, Theodora, Jen, and Gia (they all made it to Uplift beforehand – oops!), Gia and I split off to head over to Wanderlust. The event was being held at Pier 45 on the Hudson River, but no cross-street was given. Since we are apparently directionally-challenge, we took a cab about a mile south – only to find that Pier 45 was actually back up in the 20s where we started! Oops. You would think that after all the time I’ve spent running on the Hudson River Greenway I would know which pier corresponds to which street, but that wasn’t the case at all.

As it turned out, the festival was situated in a pretty great location just north of Chelsea Piers. While walking up there, we passed a mini food truck court I didn’t know about that was in Chelsea Piers and featured some yummy-looking barbecue! I made a plan in my mind to head back and visit after working up an appetite at Wanderlust – but that plan was later foiled when I saw how much yummy food there was provided by vendors at the festival. Awesome!

Since Gia and I had missed the start of the first class, we decided to wander the vendors and take pictures while waiting for the next class to begin. First, though, we had to check in – we were told by one of the vendors that they were only giving samples/goodies to Wanderlust attendees, and so we needed our wristbands before we could do anything else. This made perfect sense to me at the time, but I was a little disappointed later than most of the vendors actually didn’t seem to be enforcing this – which led to long lines and big crowds, particularly when bikers and parents with strollers would stop to get samples and clog everything up. But I also recognized that it was good publicity for the vendors to be able to market to more than just the festival attendees, so I couldn’t really fault them for that! There also seemed to be plenty of samples to go around; it was more just the wait to get them that was an issue.

We tried various flavors of Evolution Green Juice (I loved them, Gia wasn’t a huge fan), and then headed over to the Luna Bar tent. Luna Bar is one of my favorite kinds of bar snacks, so I felt a little bad sampling when I already knew I liked them, but… YUM! I especially loved the Chocolate Dipped Coconut snack flavor, and was very excited when that was the flavor I won from the vending machine of various types and flavors. (Though I have to admit, this same vending machine had been featured at Workout in the Park this year, so I kind of knew how to game the system and get my favorite!)

After a stop by LYFE Kitchen (look for more on them in a future post), Gia and I headed over to Sweetriot – the chocolate company that had partnered with Wanderlust to invite me to the event. Sweetriot had sent me a ton of chocolate bars which ended up being among the best chocolate I’ve ever had – I particularly loved the flax seed bars because they were so filling, although now I’ve tried the coconut bars and they are so creamy that it’s a tough call which I like better. The staff at Sweetriot was just as sweet as their chocolate, and I took a cute pic with the inspiring picket signs they had for decoration:

Gia had to run home to her adorable kids after this, so I was soon on my own. Where to go and what to do? My phone was now starting to get a bit low on juice from all these pictures (and all the tweeting/texting I was doing to entertain myself – I am terrible about becoming a phone addict when I’m flying solo!). Luckily, there was a fix for that too. At the Health Magazine-sponsored tent, they had cool phone chargers embedded in planters of fake grass. And while I waited for my phone to charge, I was given plenty of Aveeno sunscreen (to help prevent a burn once I went out into the sun for yoga), and got to take a picture as a pseudo-cover model for Health Magazine. Two birds with one stone!

Finally, it was time for the main event: the yoga! I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t tough at all to find ample space on the grass, and while I had originally been disappointed that the event required registration and a few friends got shut out, I realized now that it prevented the event from becoming overwhelmingly crowded. The organizers’ decision to only allow regular registrants to pick one session to practice yoga also seemed to help with the crowding. I had pictured yoga mats being an inch or two apart, but in fact, I had one to three feet between me and the people around me. Even if I tried to do some crazy balance pose and fell over, I wouldn’t land on top of anyone! The organizers had also laid down thin yellow ropes to block off pathways through the event, which I thought was brilliant. It made it really easy to get to and from your spot without disturbing anyone else.

Right after taking this pic, I successfully stretched into a full Warrior 3 and held it with no problems. Woo hoo!

The class I took had a very different flow than most of the yoga sequences that I’ve done before, and I found that the instructor had different terms for some of the poses. For example, instead of referring to downward dog, she called it “Adho Mukha Svanasana” (the Sanskrit name) – so I was constantly having to look around to see what other people were doing. Luckily, it seemed like a lot of other people were doing the same. While the event was definitely geared toward more-serious yogis (there were some incredible feats of flexibility, balance, and control from some participants!), I was very happy to find that the event was low-key enough where casual and infrequent yogis didn’t feel out of place. The instructor had a wireless mic so that she could walk around and give corrections, and she had a cadre of helpers doing the same. I had my alignment gently corrected once, and I thought that was so great! I was in the back row so I would have assumed they wouldn’t get to me at all; it was nice to have a small enough event where everyone got a tiny bit of individual attention.

And as far as the setting went? It felt amazing to be doing yoga outside in the sunshine, with the Hudson River just a hundred yards away as our backdrop (the class was set up so the students faced the river while the instructor faced the city). The grassy meadow provided a really soft surface on which to practice – the only downside being that it did curve into a slight hill in certain spots. The instructor was great about recognizing this, though, offering modifications to the postures for anyone who was positioned on the hill instead of flat ground. While the sun’s rays made me a bit hot at times, generally, I found it to be such an amazing place to practice yoga. NYC doesn’t offer residents that many places to “commune with nature” and the Hudson River Park was such a peaceful and perfect spot! I couldn’t help but think this was how yoga was meant to be.

Thank you to Wanderlust and Sweetriot for the opportunity to attend all three yoga sessions at this great free annual event!

This weekend, I had the opportunity to go to not just one, but two all-day fitness festivals here in NYC! Small wonder that I am so sore and tired today, but in a good way – they were fantastic :)

On Saturday, I had been invited to check out the first annual Apogee Life Fitness Conference. The three-day conference had mostly lectures, trainings, and certifications on days one and two, but day three was back-to-back workouts from 9am to 6pm. With three rooms in play, each hosting a different instructor every hour, there was always something to pick from!

For my first class, I went to Threshold Fanatical, with three totally ripped guys from ZFanatical Fitness. (Note: I picked the class before I saw the instructors, but with that kind of eye candy around, it was definitely great motivation to work out!) Their structure was ten minutes of all-out focus on one muscle group, then a quick rest before going onto the next muscle group. For the ten minutes, we’d do about four to eight different exercises in sets of ten, then jog in place for a few seconds before repeating again – five times. It was crazy intense (I’d put it on par with the Insanity DVDs I’ve tried), and the the best part was that like Insanity, all of it required no equipment whatsoever! I spoke with the owner of ZFanatical, Gene, after class, and he told me that they have workout videos, a book, and a nutrition plan. Given the no equipment-nature, I could definitely see myself getting these DVDs for hotel workouts while I’m traveling. I also liked that the ZFanatical guys were big on motivation, and used visualization techniques as part of the cooldown. As Gene told the class, “Exercise can’t be mindless – you have to focus on your goals.” Love it!

This was not a press shot, nor was it retouched (I have no idea how to do that). I took this pic myself and this is really how they look up close and personal :)

Next up, I headed to “Kickhopping” with Fitness the Wright Way. Although I thought this class would mostly kickboxing with a few dance moves, it turned out to be the opposite – much more focused on dance than on boxing. However, it was while sweating during burpee sets in this class that I realized the one “downside” of this festival: every instructor wanted to absolutely kick our butts so that we’d think their workout is the best! I started to wonder if I’d be able to make it through the full day of workouts. Again, though, the instructor’s motivation helped me to keep pushing: “If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.” True story.

After a fifteen minute water break (yes, please!) and some exploration of the booths of health/fitness vendors that had set up, it was onto class three: the Get Fit Challenge. I wasn’t quite sure what the Get Fit Challenge involved, but I liked their bio on the Apogee Life website so I decided that was good enough for me. The warmup started out easy enough – some squats, kicks, jogging in place, etc. But after a few minutes, the warmup was over – and we found out what we were really in for.

We partnered up and grabbed plates. By the time my partner and I got over to the stack, there were no more 10lb plates left, so we got a 25lb plate instead. This would prove to be my undoing. The workout? 30 minutes, as many rounds as possible (AMRAP, in Crossfit terminology) of the following:
-50 squat thrusts
-50 bent-over rows
-50 walking lunges (weight held overhead)
-50 halos (around your head)
-50 reverse woodchops
-50 situps (yes, holding the weight)
-50 plate push downs

Now, since this was a partner workout, we got to trade off after 25 reps each (or sooner, if we got tired – sometimes we switched to sets of 10 or 15). But still, that is a killer workout! I found the squat thrusts and the walking lunges to be the toughest, and by the end, I was barely able to get through 5 lunges without sacrificing form. Meanwhile, because we were using a 25lb plate instead of 10lb plates like everyone else, we only managed to get through 2.5 rounds in 30 minutes, while others racked up 5 or 6 rounds! In the end, though, we were rewarded for our efforts – the generous instructor awarded us second place based on the heavy weights we used! We won cute t-shirts… and a whole lot of muscle soreness.

I was really psyched for the next 15 minute break, but it went by all too quickly. Was the time really up already and it was time for our next class? I had planned on going to “Bootcamp Elite” with Jessie Green, but decided that there was no way my quivering muscles could handle another bootcamp. Instead, I headed for VBarre – a workout I’m quite familiar with. VBarre is definitely a good workout, but I thought the light weight / high-rep approach might be more feasible than the high-intensity / heavy weight approach I had been using thus far. Nope! I ended up having to drop out after about 10 minutes – my legs were literally shaking so hard I could barely walk. Yikes!

I realized that while the conference was amazing (and I can’t wait to go back for the winter version in December), there was a fatal flaw in how I appraoched it. Every instructor was trying to prove that their workout was the best and most effective – so every workout was a total workout where I sweated to exhaustion. Like running a marathon, this is definitely an event where you need to pace yourself, and I hadn’t really planned for that. Next time around, I’ll plan to go easier in the early workouts (I was trying to do everything all-out), and perhaps also do a bit of carb-loading beforehand for this bootcamp marathon :)

But before I left the event, I really wanted to check out one more class: Rachel Buschert‘s F3 Core Metrics. I knew Rachel originally from watching her hardcore performance in the Insanity workout videos, and I had also heard about her excellent reputation as a trainer in NYC. She even won season 1 of Fit or Flop! As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait for class time to meet her – instead, we chatted in the hallway along with the ZFanatical guys during my now-empty 1pm time slot! I really love the camaraderie of most people in the NYC fitness scene, and how everyone is generally so friendly and open to sharing with others. This conference was no exception – it offered an amazing opportunity for fitness professionals to network, while also allowing regular exercisers to chat with their favorite instructors. Both Rachel and the ZFanatical guys were incredibly nice to me, and I was really impressed with how they took the time to answer my questions.

I apologized to Rachel that I didn’t think I’d be able to handle taking her class after everything I had done that morning, but she totally understood, and was nice enough to explain to me a bit more of her fitness methods so I knew what I was missing. She told me that her programs (Core Metrics, which is bodyweight only, and Lift & Lean, which uses weights) are based on combining total body plyometrics with core work. Rachel believes that it’s really important to do workouts that are balanced between anterior/posterior work – so if you do lots of crunches, you also need to do lots of supermans to balance them out. Except Rachel calls them “superwomans,” which just made me love her even more :) I sat in on Rachel’s class for a few minutes before heading out for the day to rest up and refuel, and it looked awesome. If she ends up teaching at the Apogee winter conference, I’m definitely going to prioritize her class and maybe have it be my first of the day. (Hey, organizers, can you schedule her at 8am sharp so I don’t miss anything else resting up for Rachel?)

In all, I had an amazing time at the Apogee Life Fitness Festival, and my only regret was that my friends had been too swamped to join. It was really tough trying to do all these brutal workouts back-to-back, although I did enjoy it more than Workout in the Park, where each workout is only 15 minutes and seems to be targeting beginning exercises. Ideally, I would bring friends to hang out with in between workouts, and perhaps do every other workout (or drop out halfway through a class) instead of going all-out back-to-back-to-back.

So who’s in for the winter 2013 conference??

Disclaimer: I received a free ticket to the Apogee Fitness Conference as part of my affiliation with FitFluential LLC in exchange for posts inviting readers to attend and a post-event recap. All opinions stated in this post are my own.

Want to stay in bed longer? Here’s what I’ve been loving, laughing, and getting intrigued by all week long. Now cozy up with your laptop/iPad and enjoy :)

CAREER

5 Reasons You’re Miserable at Work and What to Do About It may sound like a real downer of an article, but it was actually surprisingly optimistic and solutions-oriented. We all have our bad days!

The MBA Rapper: Strategy by Day, Hip-Hop by Night. I went to college with this guy!

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Wide Achiever? Some great career-pathing tips in here.

I’m starting a book club at my office, and our first book is Lean In (yes, cliched, but it’s a great read and its popularity makes it an easy way to gain traction). But to set our discussion apart, I want to steer the discussion toward Shine Theory: Why Powerful Women Make the Greatest Friends.

The 10 Productivity Problems Your Company Is Ignoring. Accepted lateness is one of my pet peeves (and yet, I’ve started doing it too!). It can be hard to get a cultural change happening, but I agree that everyone should work on these things.

PRODUCTIVITY/SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Manage your energy and Rearrange Your Day for Maximum Effectiveness. “Leverage the Lulls” is such a fun mantra to repeat to myself, and yet it’s also exactly what I need to start working on.

Does Drinking Beer Make You More Creative? I’m all for anything that encourages more beer consumption! Can we get some in my meetings? :)

It’s easier to change if you take baby steps. So Pick 5 Little Things To Change Your Life Today.

Use groupthink to your advantage – social proof works! Behavior change: How do you get people to do the right thing?

I loved this article from Greatist on why we procrastinate, especially this quote: “Do you know when people display the highest degree of creativity? …it’s when they make up excuses to postpone doing the things they should.”

HEALTH/FITNESS

Think you’re fit? The World’s Healthiest 75-Year-Old Man can probably kick your butt in his workout!

One of the best “why I run posts” I’ve ever read! My Running Evolution, by Ashley over at Healthy Happier Bear.

Heading inside to run now that it’s getting hot? 8 Treadmill Habits To Avoid At The Gym.

Here’s a great step-by-step checklist to help you lose weight or reach any other goal you want - How I Finally Faced My Weight & Debt Problems.

Into science and data? This piece on the effects of Ramadan fasting on weight/body composition is really interesting. I found it especially fascinating to see how the unintended side effects of fasting impacted men and women differently!

I’m a big believer in workout variety, and I was especially psyched to see this collaborative article from two of my favorite sources, Ari Meisel and Greatist. Want to Fend Off Disease? Mix Up Your Workouts!

This was hilarious, and yet also kind of insightful. I Tried Gwyneth Paltrow’s Diet and a Got a Rash on My Face.

TRAVEL

HUGE news – B6 adding a new service class?! Airbus FAA filing reveals how JetBlue will offer mini-suites & divider.

Finally! I proposed this back in college for my airline management thesis, and it’s so cool to see that it’s now being implemented! The new luggage that wants to talk to your iPhone. (But please, Apple worshippers, remember that Android users actually outnumber you and that you ought to develop an Android version.)

World’s most beautiful airports welcome flyers with innovative design. A friend and I were just discussing how sad it is that JFK is the entry point for visitors to New York City, and how we really ought to be making a better impression – I’m shocked to see any parts of it on this list.

Productivity Lost Due to Powering Down Electronic Devices? Agree, agree, agree. It sucks when the FA is making me turn off my laptop right when I’ve finally achieved flow and am GSD.

The future of hotel tech! Aloft’s Smart Check-In Program Is Gaining Serious Momentum. I hope it gets rolled out to other Starwood brands, stat!

Is this the tech utopia hotel we really want on our holidays? Yes, yes, and yes please. See my article in last week’s Links I Love on must-haves for the millenial traveler.

MISCELLANY

How should you choose your goals and what if others don’t like them? Great food for thought here - Life, Love, Lower Learning.

31 Great Quotes About Being In Your 20s. Honestly, I am loving my 20s (and yet am not scared at all of my 30s – I don’t see why age has to define us), but some of these are still spot-on.

Like this post? Want more fun articles in real time? Follow me on Twitter or become a Facebook fan to get similar stories all week long.

Saturday’s Rock N Roll San Diego was one of the best I’ve been to a long time. I was really impressed with the array of vendors and brands there to represent, which included many of my favorites (hi, Westin!). But one of the booths offered something even more special than socks or protein bars – the promotional booth for Spirit of the Marathon II: Rome Marathon.

Both Blake and I had entered a lottery before the race to win tickets to see a sneak preview of Spirit of the Marathon II before it came out in the theaters on Wednesday June 12, and when we won, I was ecstatic. I had blocked off June 12 on my calendar for months because I couldn’t wait to see the movie, and now I was going to get to see a sneak preview? Amazing. We were told to go to the booth at the expo to pick up our tickets, and that we’d have a choice between the 3pm and 6pm screenings. We planned to hit the matinee, then go to an early dinner at 6pm and get to bed.

When we got to the booth, however, we met the amazingly sweet producer Gwendolen, whose excitement about the movie was palpable. Gwendolen chatted with Blake and I for a while about the movie and the differences between Spirit of the Marathon II and the original Spirit of the Marathon (which I didn’t love on first viewing, though it’s grown on me through numerous rewatches after I bought the DVD). When Gwendolen heard that it was Blake’s first marathon, not only was she incredibly supportive and excited, but she offered Blake a copy of the original Spirit of the Marathon DVD to watch and get her pepped up for the race! I had originally planned to bring my copy of the movie (but had forgotten it when I packed the week before), so I was so excited that we’d get to see both the original and the sequel.

But as far as Spirit of the Marathon II went, Gwendolen also filled us in on another secret: while a lot of runners were opting for the matinee, the evening show was actually going to be a red carpet affair, complete with the stars of the movie in attendance! Despite the fact that neither of us had packed anything other than jeans, we couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that. We gratefully accepted our tickets for the evening performance, and while Gwendolen assured us that it was totally fine (and even encouraged) to show up in running clothes, Blake and I hit the mall where I picked up a cute dress to wear for the occasion. (Coincidentally, the same dress that Ashley raved about on her blog a few weeks ago!)

We arrived early at the theater and got to talk to the two featured runners who were in attendance, Cliff and Julie, in addition to chatting a bit longer with Gwendolen. The lobby was beautifully decked out with huge life-sized photo placards of each of the featured runners, and it was really neat to see Cliff and Julie next to their press photos. Julie confided that she actually hadn’t seen the movie yet herself – what a cool experience for us to not only see the premiere but also the stars’ reactions to it!

We then headed into the theater and took our seats. I spotted a few familiar figures in the audience – there was a guy that I recognized as a Rock N Roll bigwig of some sort (having seen him in the VIP tent at Rock N Roll USA in DC), and then there was a blonde woman who I swore that I knew. Oh my gosh, I realized, it was Deena Kastor, Olympic bronze medalist and American record holder for the marathon!!! I have never really been much of a celebrity person (seriously couldn’t identify Justin Bieber in a lineup if my life depended on it), but apparently that doesn’t hold true for running stars. JP and Blake later teased me for how starstruck I got, though I maintain that I approached her very calmly to tell her how much I admired her and what an inspiration she’s been to so many marathoners. I didn’t ask for a photo because I didn’t want to embarrass her (no one else even seemed to recognize her or be approaching her at all), but five minutes later, many people started going up and posing for pics with her, and I regretted trying to play it cool :) (Luckily, I got my chance to snap a shot with her after the movie; unluckily, my phone’s SD card chose that exact moment to stop working and so I don’t have the photo until I can hopefully get Verizon to do some digging and recover the data.)

But from the second the movie started, I forgot about everything else and was rapt. Within the first five minutes, I had already started tearing up – and I definitely cried at least a dozen more times throughout the movie. As with the original Spirit of the Marathon, the producers did such a phenomenal job capturing the emotions that go through a person when you’re about to run a marathon. The setting of the sequel, in Rome, was also amazing and awe-inspiring – I was there for just one night on vacation in February, but I loved it and promised myself I’d go back at some point. But as far as the movie, just the cinematography alone made me really want to go run the Rome Marathon too. Who else wants to come?

Gwendolen had told Blake and I beforehand that the sequel was done very differently than the original. The original Spirit of the Marathon movie had the audience follow the featured runners chronologically from training to race day, the sequel started out on race day to show each runner and then flashed back to tell their story and show their preparations. While there were times when I was so caught up in the race day moments that I almost wished we didn’t have to break away for back story (I was so excited to see how the runners would do on the big day!), overall, I think I really preferred this approach, since it got me caught up in the race day excitement and emotions right from moment one. I definitely cried more in this than in the original!

My favorite storyline in the movie was that of Julie, whom we had met earlier at the expo and before the premiere. I’ll let you hear about Julie’s incredible story yourself when you see the movie, but her race day demeanor reminded me so much of my own happy-go-lucky approach to marathons. In fact, Blake leaned over at one point in the movie to say “oh my gosh, Laura, she is so you in ten years!” I couldn’t deny it – we are definitely cut from the same cloth, and I thought it was just so awesome that I got to meet her in person and see her on the big screen.

In all, I just LOVED Spirit of the Marathon II, and would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. It’s an incredibly inspiring, beautifully-done movie, and if you aren’t already a marathoner, you will definitely want to become one after seeing this!

What: Spirit of the Marathon II: Rome Marathon Premiere
Where: Select cinemas nationwide
When: Wednesday June 12
Cost: Depends on your cinema’s pricing, but make sure you buy tickets in advance – this is already selling out in some places!

Giveaway!
Gwendolen offered to provide me with a very special giveaway for my readers: a signed DVD of the original Spirit of the Marathon! Since the contest is ending on the premiere date of Spirit of the Marathon II, you won’t receive it until after the premiere, but the movies aren’t sequential and can be seen in any order. I’d love for the winner to tell me how they thought the two movies compared to each other – personally, I found the cinematography in the sequel to be just stunning, and I found the stories slightly more compelling. But both will definitely have a special place in my movie collection!

I’m trying out Rafflecopter for this giveaway, so leave a comment telling me your favorite tidbit of inspiration for someone about to run a marathon, and then using the widget below to enter. You can also earn extra entries by following me on Twitter and Facebook, and by tweeting about the giveaway (up to once a day).

Contest will run through Tuesday June 15 at 11:59pm ET, at which time winners will be chosen by random drawing. Winners will be announced on this page (if you leave your email/Twitter handle, I’m also happy to notify you that way), and they will have one week to email me in order to claim their prize. Contest entry is open to all entrants regardless of residence.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yesterday happened to be National Running Day, and today is the third anniversary of the day I broke the world record, so I think it’s an especially fitting day for me to finally post this year’s Vermont City Marathon race report. On May 25 2008, the Vermont City Marathon was my first marathon. I was terrified going into the race – would I be able to finish? – and got through it by “running to the ice cream,” as it said on the signs that my family and friends made. But that day turned out to be more than just about the completion of the goal. It got me hooked on a sport that I never would have believed that I could do, and showed me just how powerful the human mind can be relative to the comparatively-weak muscles that most people believe are the most important thing to train. I now go back to Vermont every year on Memorial Day weekend to serve as a pace team leader for the 4:30 group, sharing that lesson of mind over matter with other runners. This year’s race was fantastic as usual – here’s my report.

Although I usually carb load for the Vermont City Marathon at American Flatbread (aka the best pizza I’ve ever had anywhere in the country), this time, a group of us decided to go for some more traditional spaghetti. Fiona, Steph, Shaya, my mom and I all headed for Bove’s. The food wasn’t quite as delicious as the hype around it being featured on the Food Network would make you think, but it had a great atmosphere (cozy, divey, and packed with marathon runners), extremely large portions, and insanely cheap prices. We’d take it!

This big glass of wine cost just $3.75! We definitely weren’t in NYC :)

But the conversation at dinner kept coming back to the same thing – how was the weather going to be for the race the next day? I had just done a miserably rainy race the week before in Ogden, but it seemed that I was carrying a rain cloud with me wherever I went, because it was supposed to be quite cold and pouring rain all day. Exactly the opposite of all the sunny and hot Vermont City Marathons of years past! This time, I had packed a few warmer things to wear, but I still wasn’t thrilled about the idea of shivering in the rain. Furthermore, as a pace team leader, I knew I would have to be upbeat and cheery throughout. The rain had gotten me down the week before, and I was under a lot of pressure not to let that happen in Vermont!

I headed to bed super early, in a bad mood about the impending race but at least happy to get a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while. While the rain was pounding hard on the windows when I went to bed, I definitely slept like a log – because apparently my mom got up in the middle of the night to turn off an errant phone alarm, and I didn’t even stir! That’s not like me at all – while I’m not necessarily a light sleeper, things like alarms usually wake me up right away. And apparently a good night’s sleep is all it takes to improve my mood – because I bounded out of bed a completely changed woman. It was going to be a great race day!

I headed off to the start garbed in an Athleta tank top, my pacing tank top and a waterproof jacket over the top, and a pair of brand new Reebok capris. Who says you have to try stuff out before a race? Either way, my racing outfit was a lot better than the week before, when I had shivered through the Ogden Marathon. I had also thoroughly wrapped my phone in a Ziplock bag, to prevent it from getting wet. Since I wasn’t going to be listening to music while pacing and therefore wouldn’t have headphones snaking out, I knew that my phone would be secure and safe from the rain too :)

Normally, when my mom and I arrive to park at the start, the $5-per-car parking lot is packed. This year, though, not only was the lot empty, but there was free street parking still available. I realized pretty quickly that everyone was trying to wait till the last minute to get to the start (to avoid being out in the rain and the cold). As a pacer, though, I needed to be there at 7am to collect my sign and also line up for our pace team photo. Bummer! I ended up even more annoyed when I got to our designated meeting place and we didn’t get the signs or take the photo until 7:30am, because other pacers were checking bags, using the bathroom, etc. That was really frustrating – there is nothing I hate more than an artificial deadline. Aren’t we all grownups and able to arrive somewhere on time or suffer the consequences? Despite being out in the cold/rain, though, I was still in a surprisingly good mood. I wore my rain coat right up until a few minutes before the start, which helped keep my body temp up, and my mom stood with me and shared her umbrella, so I didn’t get too wet either. I looked totally ridiculous standing in the crowd of runners not looking like a runner myself (aside from my pacer sign that I was sticking out from under the umbrella), but I was at least totally comfortable. Gotta start the race right!

Co-pacer Jen looked a heck of a lot less ridiculous than I did

Although the course was exactly the same as years past, the starting chute had changed so we were lined up on a side street instead of down the main road. It really didn’t matter, but it did feel very different, and I felt like I couldn’t hear as much from the announcers and didn’t get quite as hyped up? Or maybe that was the umbrella blocking the sound! Either way, the start was a little bit more anticlimactic than in years past. I was just excited to have a great co-pacer with me. While last year Jen and I had kind of done our own thing, this time we coordinated right from the start, and we ended up running the whole race together.

The first few miles started out pretty much the same as always – making friends with the runners around us, letting people know our pace plan (this year I planned to go for dead even splits – no banking time at all), and generally keeping the chatter up. I was so happy about the way Jen and I tag-teamed off each other to keep the crowds inspired – she’d yell “one mile mark right up ahead!” and then I’d yell “woo hoo we’re right on pace!” I was planning to clock splits based on the time when we hit each mile marker (4:30 finish would be 10:18 per mile), while Jen was estimating that by not running tangents we’d finish around 26.5 on our Garmins and so was looking for 10:10 splits based on Garmin miles. At first I was worried we’d get confused, but it actually ended up working out just about perfectly that we had different ways to measure the miles – and since we were next to each other and in constant communication, we were able to strike a good balance between the two.

By the time we were headed for our first pass on Church Street (~mile 2.5), I had all but forgotten the rain. The crowds were still out cheering (albeit from under umbrellas), and even the drag queens didn’t miss their chance to dress up and cheer us on. Thanks, guys! Meanwhile, the outfit I picked turned out to be just perfect, temperature-wise, and the jacket was keeping me comfortably dry. I was especially in love with my new Reebok capris that I had gotten from their upcoming fall line – they were so soft, but also totally comfortable and absolutely chafe-proof. Perhaps I should run in capris more often instead of skirts? As far as other less technical “rain gear,” Jen and I debated ditching our trash bags, but decided to keep them for a few miles more in case the rain picked back up. It was turning out to be a pretty nice day for a run!

We passed the announcer’s tent, getting a nice cheer from them as we went by, and then headed out toward the Ethan Allen Highway. In past years, this long unshaded out-and-back has been kind of a pain with the sun. This year, though, it was perfect – no sun, surprisingly little wind, and a great chance to see all my friends ahead coming back the other way! They all looked strong and I hoped they would be able to keep the pace and PR. As for our group, we were almost exactly on pace – we had picked up an extra 30 seconds in the first few miles (meaning we were ahead), but I figured we’d most likely drop it when we got to the Assault on Battery and slowed down for that monster hill – and then we’d be exactly on track. Either way, with 18 miles still to go, there was plenty of time to adjust back and be a bit slower!

Jen and I took turns motivating and cheering as we headed up the slight hill at mile 8, and it passed by faster than in past years. (Mentally, that is – I don’t think we actually took it fast.) With that over, the next long hill to look forward to would be the Battery – and then that would be the last real hill of the race. In the meantime, we headed back to Church Street and down a big hill for the southern loop. I was a little concerned about my knee – the Runner’s Knee injury I sustained during Ogden was still plaguing me a bit, and I honestly probably shouldn’t have been running on it – but since this was the only big downhill of the race, it seemed to be okay. Nothing a little more rest wouldn’t fix after my last two marathons of the season were over!

We turned onto First Street and soon reached mile 10. Dou-ble di-gits! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.) While there were tons of spectators out, I was a little saddened to see that my favorite musician was not there. Every other year, he’s been there crooning “Run, run, run awayyyyyyyy”, over and over and over until I literally do want to “run, run, run away.” This year, he was replaced by a band playing “Sweet Caroline” – so I hid my disappointment by shouting the “ba ba bas” as loud as I could. Gotta have my musical fun somehow!

From there, we headed to our first gel station at mile 11 – and I was so psyched for the fuel. I had opted not to pack any gels of my own, since I knew the course was well-supplied and I didn’t really have any pockets. I gratefully picked up a vanilla Gu, as well as an orange slice from the unofficial aid station just beyond the gels. After a short neighborhood loop passing Lake Champlain, we cruised up a very short little baby hill (“only about 30 seconds from bottom to top!” we reminded our group), down the quick bike path through the woods, and burst out into the clearing where the halfway point of the race lay. Looking at my watch, I was pleased to see that we had timed it just about perfectly – crossing in 2:14:40. Almost dead even on 2:15! Jen and I felt confident that we’d lose the extra 20 seconds in the second half of the race.

Following the bike path along the water turned out to be more of a challenge than we thought – the wind was whipping in our faces, and everyone tried to avoid the ankle-deep puddles on the already-narrow path. Going single-file, we didn’t do a ton of talking for a few miles. But almost before we knew it, mile 15 was upon us – the start of the Assault on Battery!

I had been telling my group over and over how magical I find that hill to be, but I was a little worried when I didn’t hear the Taiko drummers in the distance long before I approached, like I usually do. Had they not come out because of the rain? Never – turns out that they were still there in full force; they had just put plastic bags over the drums to keep them from getting wet, and the bags muffled the sound a bit. They still beat a great rhythm for us to go up the hill, but unfortunately, I just wasn’t feeling this part of the race quite as much as in years past. I kept a smile on my face and a steady pace, but I honestly struggled a bit more with this hill than I usually do – getting super winded at the top. I was so glad to have my co-pacer there to keep pushing the pace for that quarter mile ascent!

When we reached the top, we hit the aid station almost immediately, and I grabbed a cup of Skittles for some extra sugar to recover. But ew, they were soaking wet and pretty gross! I ended up tossing the candy aside and having Gatorade instead. In the end, I subsisted the entire race on just that one gel from mile 11 and some Gatorade – a bit less than I normally eat, but surprisingly okay.

Mile 16 marked the final slog away from the finish line – and it was around here that it finally stopped raining and even started to get a wee bit sunny. Was this going to be a hot race after all? Nah – it ended up getting a bit misty later, but no worse weather than that. We had really lucked out with much better conditions that we had predicted the night before! Jen and I kept rallying our group, chatting with different runners at different points, and I was especially impressed by a guy about my age who was running his first marathon – in a big baggy cotton sweatshirt. That couldn’t have been comfortable with the rain early on! But he was getting through it like a trooper, and I was glad he was sticking with it.

In general, I was really happy with what a big group we had all through the final miles. Normally we start with a very tight-knit group that starts to dwindle as the miles progress, but this time around, we had a huge group around us at all times (apologies to those behind us!), so even though I didn’t know everyone’s names like I normally do, the energy level was high. Again, I was just so thrilled with how Jen and I were able to tag team off each other. It is such a pleasure to run a race with a great co-pacer!

Just after mile 18, we headed out of the neighborhood for good – and then it was on to tiny little Leddy Park, where I knew more snacks awaited us. I told everyone to expect candy and Oreo cookies (as per usual), but this year, there were only gels and orange slices at the aid station. I chose another orange slice but skipped the gel – I was still feeling pretty good, and decided that I preferred not to waste my calories on something like a boring gel pack. Post-race pizza, bring it on!

After crossing a parking lot, we came to a short “trail” section (trail in quotes because it was so short that I almost feel like I can’t call it that). We had about 100 feet to go through the woods before bursting back out into a neighborhood, and I could have guessed ahead of time that the dirt trail was going to be muddy as all heck. However, here is where the incredible organization of the Vermont City Marathon shows just how wonderful they are: they had volunteers every few feet along that stretch with rakes, scraping over the footprints to smooth out the course and keep it in good running conditions! In all the marathons I have run, I’ve never seen that tactic used, but it worked beautifully – we all had a smooth, solid surface for our footfalls, and I didn’t worry about tripping or slipping one bit. Well done, VCM! (Foreshadowing: if only they could have done the same at the finish…)

One final neighborhood stretch took us to mile 20, and then it was quickly onto mile 21 for a short but steep downhill and then the final turnaround. Four miles to the finish! Looking at our watches, Jen and I realized that instead of losing the 20 seconds we had earned in the first half, we had actually done the last 9 miles about 5 seconds fast each – so we were now a full 60 seconds ahead of where we wanted to be. It may sound like nothing, but we’re both pretty big perfectionists about our finish time, so we tried to slow down about 10 seconds per mile on the final stretch. That seemed like a reasonable amount to still be even pacing (not a drastic slowdown), but also help us to achieve our pace team goal. And all the runners around us were glad to get a little bit of a break when their legs were screaming at the end of the race!

The final miles didn’t go by easily (my dumb knee was acting up after the mile 22 downhill), but I had fun introducing myself to runners on the bike path who seemed to be on the verge of giving up – and then convincing them to join our group and stick with us. “4:30, coming through!” Jen kept yelling to the spectators, inducing a round of cheers, and it definitely seemed to help the tired runners to feel like they were part of a larger group and therefore couldn’t just drop back because they were tired. Thanks to VCM’s awesome bibs that featured people’s names in big block print, I also took to calling out the names of those we passed and inviting them to come run with us. It worked a lot of the time, and I was thrilled to see our group growing instead of shrinking.

It was mile 25 that turned out to be the most weather-impacted of the entire race – despite the fact that it had long since stopped raining. The road that we finally turned onto from the bike path turned out to be a tiny bit flooded, and Team in Training coaches we saw kept warning us to move either let or right to avoid the worst of the puddles. It was definitely still possible to keep our feet dry, though we did weave a bit of a zigzag pattern in our attempts to do so :)

Finally, we reached the grassy finish chute, basking in the crowd’s applause as we approached mile 26. Although I used to hate that the VCM course design weaves you through crowds for so long (nearly a half mile) when you’re expecting the finish to be right there, I have grown to love it. There are so many races where I’m just exhausted from mile 25 to 26, going kind of slowly, and though I pick it up when I get to mile marker 26, I often realize I could have sped up sooner. Here, the crowds are cheering you on for that entire difficult part. And I always think it must be so much fun to be a spectator right at the 26 mile mark, to see the runners’ eyes light up as they realize just how close they are!

Although the finish chute had started out grass (so comfy to run on in the nice weather!), the final 0.1 miles turned out to be pure mud by the time we got there – yikes! Since we were a few seconds faster than we hoped to be anyway, we were able to daintily pick our way through the mud without any slips or falls – I shudder to think how gross it would have been if we had actually fallen.

But as we approached the actual finish line, I was really not pleased to hear how the announcer called us out to the crowd: “And here comes the 4:30 pacers… well, they are only a little bit behind!” I immediately realized that he thought we were late because of the clock time (4:32), whereas we had started two minutes after the starting gun and therefore were actually a bit early. Jen and I both bobbed our pace signs at him and pointed at our watches, but he didn’t correct his mistake – which was kind of a letdown. I don’t want to be called out in front of hundreds of people for failing when actually, I had done a near-perfect job!

And near-perfect it was: our final finish time was 4:29:21, or 39 seconds early (1.5 seconds per mile). I would have liked to be a bit closer, but general pacing guidelines say that you should finish within 60 seconds of your target time without going over, so we had done just that. Three cheers for a fantastic finish on a not-so-auspicious race day!

Race stats:
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 4:29:21
Pace: 10:17
Overall place: 1795/2608
Gender place:728/1212
Age group place: 182/273

I heard that the Wanderlust Yoga Festival sold out before many of you could sign up – and I’m so sorry to hear that! But as luck would have it, I was just invited to another all-day fitness event in the NYC area this weekend – the Apogee Fitness Conference. Tis the season for getting in shape!

Apogee is a fitness company that provides both business and technology solutions for the fitness industry. Their website has a library of fitness videos that you can purchase which then stay in the cloud for you to watch anytime, anywhere – perfect when you’re constantly on the road like I am. Most workouts seem to be $9.99, which is pretty reasonable, and they list what equipment is needed right on the workout homepage before you buy.

However, what Apogee contacted me to discuss was not the video library, but a cool in-person event in NYC! This weekend, from June 6-8, Apogee is hosting their biannual three-day fitness conference. According to their website, the goal is “to allow participants to experience, educate, and engage with fitness experts, professionals and enthusiasts.” The first two days are focused on workshops for professionals (which is a great way to learn more in addition to networking with other fitness pros). The third day, though, is open to all and features a full day of awesome workouts – kind of like the Workout in the Park event I went to a few weeks back.

But unlike Workout in the Park, which had short 20-minute classes, Apogee is featuring full 45-minute classes – so participants should really come prepared to sweat! Since I just ran my last marathon of the season yesterday (race report for Vermont coming Wednesday, race report for San Diego coming Friday!), I’m looking for ways to motivate myself to do marathon-length workouts on the weekend. This seems like a great bet to get me working out for hours but having fun while doing it! I love getting to try all kinds of different workouts, and I’m particularly excited for all the options that Apogee is offering. Check out this great schedule:

(Click to enlarge)

As a special bonus for 50by25 readers, Apogee provided me with a discount code to share with all of you. All-Access Workout passes retail for $99.99, but are currently on sale for $49.99. That’s already a pretty great deal, but if you use my discount code of apogee201350, you’ll get an additional 50% off – meaning you get a full day of classes (up to nine 45-minute classes) for just $25. Compared to the normal $32 price of just one boutique fitness class in NYC, this is an amazing deal!

Anyone else want to come with me? I haven’t figured out my exact schedule of classes to take yet, but it seems like there’s plenty to choose from. I’m looking forward to packing some protein bars and going all day :)

What: Apogee Fitness Conference
Where: Jacob Javits Center, 655 W 34th St, New York, NY
When: Training/workshops on Thursday June 6 and Friday June 7; workouts on Saturday June 8
Cost: $99, discounted to $25 for 50by25 readers
Registration: apogeelife.com/registration

Disclaimer: I received a free ticket to the Apogee Fitness Conference as part of my affiliation with FitFluential LLC in exchange for posts inviting readers to attend and a post-event recap. All opinions stated in this post are my own.

Want to stay in bed longer? Here’s what I’ve been loving, laughing, and getting intrigued by all week long. Now cozy up with your laptop/iPad and enjoy :)

This week, I’m testing a new format and ascribing categories to the links I’m posting – though of course, many span multiple categories! Do you like this category approach, or do you prefer the random miscellany? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

CAREER

Four Steps to Find Your Career Path, from Oprah Magazine. I don’t know that I’ve yet figured out exactly what I want from my career, but I do think this has some great points about figuring out your passions and following them!

Although the title sounds harsh/depressing, 5 reasons you’re miserable at work and what to do about it actually has some great ideas to pull yourself out of a rut – one that isn’t necessary caused by being in the wrong job.

I definitely worked this weekend – did you? It’s crazy how we take work everywhere we go, and I can’t say that I’m quite at the point where I can just say “screw work” and refuse to answer. How the Smartphone Killed the Three-Day Weekend.

19 Signs You Are Burned Out (And Probably Need A Vacation). But does that vacation come with a smartphone? :)

Incredible analogy via @MissyTitus, and I think if you read nothing else in this post, you should read this. “Why do women try to get ahead by pulling men down?”

PRODUCTIVITY

Spend time wisely: How to focus on the things that matter. Comprehensive and insightful!

Fascinating studies on self-confidence! Is being delusional a good thing?

I’m all about efficiency, so I really love these 10 Tips to Help You Carve More Time Out of Your Day.

Why, yes, I do read everything I can find on productivity – but I use a simple Excel workbook for my various to-do lists. I definitely agree that simple is the way to go! 7 Mistakes You’re Making by Overthinking Your Productivity.

Speaking of simple: 9 Rules for a Simpler Day.

Why you should put yourself in uncomfortable situations. I think I’ve gotten good at doing this with travel – but now travel doesn’t make me uncomfortable! Perhaps I need to start mixing it up again more – you don’t grow until you push yourself.

Oof, another great wakeup call here! Probably something I need to pay more attention to at times, especially when the bar is set low. Are You Choosing to Be Average?

HEALTH/FITNESS

Sitting Is Making Us Fat and Achy. Not that we didn’t know that already, but this includes some good tips on what you can do to fight it.

Ever wonder why your race has “unofficial results” and doesn’t get “official results” posted until a few weeks later? Here’s some fantastic information from the Vermont City Marathon on race results and why it takes so long to make them official.

As it turns out, I’m totally all Type A (personality and muscle fibers)! Why You Can Run 10 Miles But Get Winded Walking Up Stairs.

TRAVEL

Does Having Kids Mean You Can’t Travel? I totally believe in making conscious choices instead of excuses, whether it’s about travel or anything else.

Riveting, but I wouldn’t suggest reading if you are currently traveling. (Never mind that I’m writing this post from a plane.) The Plane Was About to Crash. Now What? (PS – if you enjoy this, I’d highly recommend Crashers by Dana Haynes as an excellent novel.)

Eight trends that define the rise of the millennial traveler. Yes yes yes to speed and connectivity – now will brands start complying?

MISCELLANY

Doomed to Be Single? 5 Reasons Millennials Worry. I’m not necessarily worried, but I thought this was some really interesting psychoanalysis.

Finally, for a laugh: “I’ll find a way to win at yoga class” – um, heck yes I will! Sh*t Your Fitness Instructor Says, from the Intel at Barry’s Bootcamp.

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