RTB: Reach the Beach Relay 2012

And we’re already 1/3 of the way through February! 

I’m such a sucker for the seasonal cups at S-bucks!  I’m still plowing through some gift cards leftover from Christmas, so I don’t feel as bad purchasing coffee (and sometimes breakfast) lately. 

I’ve been “Crossfitting” for  2 months now and still love it!  Especially now that I’m on longer sick or have flashmob rehearsals, I can get to Crossfit more .  I went 4 times last week!  This week I’ve gone Monday night, tonight, and planning to go tomorrow.  Usually I love the Saturday morning workout, but this Saturday won’t work. 

At Crossfit we all have notebooks where we write down our workout everyday and what our weights/reps/times were so we can look back at our progress.  It’s also helpful to figure out what weight to start at when you haven’t done a particular move in a while.

I’m getting stronger!  I’ve set personal best records on my weightlifting skills, and even went down in resistance bands on pull-ups!  If you can’t do pull-ups on your own yet, you use a resistance band tied onto the bar that you stick your foot in to take some of the weight off your body.  The thicker the band, the easier it is.  I started with a green band, and now I’m on the blue! (that probably only makes sense to other Crossfit people)

Moving on…

I have another fitness venture on the horizon though…



Reach the Beach Relay Massachusetts!! 

I’m actually part of a fabulous Blogger Team and we’ll be Reaching the Beach on May 18th-19th.   
This is a 24-hr, 200 mile relay starting at the Mount Wachusett Ski Area and finishing at Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA! 

There are 12 of us, and we each run 3 legs of the race, some are as short as 2.8 miles and others as long as 8.3 miles. 

Here's awesome team I get to be a part of:
The official New Balance blogger team: "Off Balance" 

Tina -  Carrots ‘n Cake
Theodora – Losing Weight in the City
Anne – Fannetastic Food
Monica – Run Eat Repeat
Elizabeth – On Tap for Today
Ali – Food Fitness Fashion
Sarah – Sarah Fit
Ashley – A Healthy, Happier Bear
Patricia – Run Foodie Run
Melissa – Fitness NYC
Gretchen – Honey I Shrunk the Gretchen
and ME!

Not gonna lie, I’m ever so slightly intimidated by the fact that many of those women are much more experienced runners than me. Plus, I haven’t been out for a run in months!  However, I’m more excited than anything and I know I can get back into running shape in no time!

I am actually really interested in how I will combine my training with Crossfit.  I’ve heard more than once that my Crossfit training can definitely help with my running without having to actually train for the running as much as I normally would.

I can definitely see how Crossfit will help me, BUT I know myself and I know I need to get my long run stamina back up.  Currently, my regular gym membership is frozen because I wanted to focus my time and $$ on Crossfit so I don’t have access to a treadmill…fine by me.  I’m probably going to slowly ease back into running outside when the weather will allow. 

Ironically, this past week we’ve had more running drills working into our Crossfit workouts and it felt nice to get outside for some 400m or 800m sprints!  Well I’d call it more fast-paced running than “sprints” ;)

I can’t wait!  I’m excited to run at night, excited to have some quality girl bonding time in the van, and can’t wait to relax on the beach when it’s all over!!

My eats lately have been completely random and not too interesting.  Still trying to up my protein intake, and lower my carb intake but sometimes that just doesn’t work out…
and that’s totally okay too.

A super fast meat sauce:  lots of garlic, onion, ground beef, splash of red wine, crush tomatoes, and fresh basil.


Served a top a bed of baby arugula and spinach fettuccini.

The theme around here lately has definitely been FAST and easy!


I whipped up a pan grilled burger (just ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper)
Served with sliced, and sautéed Dijon Brussel sprouts (my current favorite way to eat Brussels!), and thin slices of sprouted wheat bread.  Ketchup not pictured.     

Current Obsession:

So good…SO good!  It’s like a chewy coconut almond cookie!  It's great for a sweets craving, especially at work.  

Well we’ve covered the “F’s” today:  February, Fitness, Food, Fun…and hey, tomorrow is Friday!! 

Have you ever run a relay before?? How do you best train for these, when you only have about 6-8hrs between runs??  Did you follow a specific plan??