Physical Wellness: Marathon Training Week 12 Recap

Sunday:  14 miles @ 9:36 pace. Felt strong during this run. I was nervous after balking the previous week and not getting the 13 in

Monday:  Arms and then attempted speed work until I realized that schools are back in session so football practice is going on after work. So I have officially moved speed work to Tuesday AM

Tuesday:  I learned that I cannot run on an empty stomach. I got 2 miles of speed work before my growling stomach took me back to my car and back to my apartment for breakfast. I thought I would give the fasting running a shot. I cannot do that. Lesson learned.

Wednesday:  Legs and abs

Thursday:  Defend Lawrence 5k and 30 minutes of yoga

Friday:  I lifted things and put them back down and I don’t really remember what I did.

Saturday:  Becoming a rest day for me. Plus I needed a day of locking myself in my apartment and not speaking to anyone. I worked a huge event for work Friday night and being around that many people for a couple of hours…I just needed to have some silence and not be around people.

I also learned this week that if I ever do a marathon again, I need to make sure that not only do I plan out my long runs but I plan out my miles per week. I can see now that it would have been really useful. I think I will do that for the rest of my training but I definitely wish I would have done that from the start.

Occupational Wellness: Be a Rockstar Job Seeker

Behind physical wellness, occupational wellness is probably my most blogged wellness topic. I blame it on the fact that I work in a career center so I’m surrounded by, well, job and career stuff. In fact, I also am a blogger over at NACE and wrote a post up a few weeks ago centering on a conference I attended. Which is great Vanessa, but why do I care? Oh you don’t, I’m just telling you about it. And trying to give a little bit of justification behind why I blog on work place stuff so much. Oh, and I have a degree in what is essentially work psych (industrial and organizational psych). Ok, get to the topic at hand!

Right then, big surprise that I bookmarked THIS article from LearnVest a while back detailing traits that you find in fearless job hunters. I love that – they aren’t classified as “successful” but rather “fearless”. I won’t harp on the obvious ones, we all know that networking is beneficial. Got it. But I wanted to touch on a few of my favorites, show how maybe I implemented them in my job search and maybe help you job seekers out there implement these as well!

My favorite is actually the last one – learning from each letdown. I’ve said it many times, the job search process is stressful and emotionally draining. And it is painful to get rejected. Multiple times. In a day. And some of those wounds can sting for a long time. I think I just recently got over getting rejected for a wellness position down in Florida and that was 2 years ago. But learning from letdowns does make you better. I learned from my interview in Florida time you are around people, you are being interviewed. And letting your guard down or trying to sneak a yawn in b/c you slept poorly b/c you were so nervous the night before counts against you. And not being able to make small talk at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, can kill the interview for you. Those are hard lessons that I learned and it helped me prepare for the interview I had in Kansas. I didn’t make those mistakes again and I ended up getting the job.

Lesson 3 is also great – having passion and purpose. It draws me back to that TED Talk with Mike Rowe about bringing your passion with you instead of following your passion. And sometimes, especially for new job seekers, you may not always know what your passion is. And it may change as well. I entered my job search passionate as all get out about wellness. I ate, slept, breathed wellness. And now I analyze data for a living…and I love it. But that doesn’t mean that i left behind my passion for wellness. It is still right there with me. I got involved in different groups, I started this blog…have a passion and make sure you have a purpose.

Ok, one more…this blog is getting long….let’s briefly talk about confidence. Now the article is saying to be confident but not arrogant, but what about the people who it is more like be confident and not quiet? I think in my interview in Florida, I held back a lot of my knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs for you I/O-ers) but when I got to my Kansas interview, I was able to present my KSAs in a respectful and humble way that didn’t have me looking like an egotistical maniac. Whatever end of that spectrum you are on, it’s a fine line without a formula but I’ll say this – if you have proof or data of some kind that can back up your statements, that makes it better.

So there it is, a long blog grazing the topic of being a fearless job hunter. Are these types of topics relevant or interesting to you? Is there a certain dimension of wellness that you want to hear more about? Let me know!

Physical Wellness: Marathon Training Week 11 Recap

Sunday:  I was slated to do 13 miles. I woke up at 5 am to run and it had been pouring all night and it was still just dumping. I made it 7 miles before I called it quits in hopes to spare my feet some unnecessary blistering. No dice, I got home and my whole right sock was bloody. I was (and still am) disappointed that I didn’t suck it up and run the 13 miles, but I also know that running in shoes that are absolutely soaking wet isn’t the best thing. Big picture

Monday:  Arms in the AM, Speed (work) in the PM. I ended up doing 6 miles of speed work (I usually do 4-4.5 miles). I tested out ENERGYbits during this run (which you can read about and enter a giveaway HERE).

Tuesday: I’m not sure what happened this day but I somehow I missed out on actually getting a workout in…I biked to work (did 4/5 days last week) and walked to a meeting…I really have no idea what happened.

Wednesday:  Squats and abs in the AM, tennis in the PM

Thursday:  5 miles with run club which was really cool because we had a photographer following us taking pictures to use for the shop and for the Kansas Half Marathon. So I’m basically famous in Kansas now.

Friday:  Abs and calves

Saturday:  Rest day. I really appreciated this day.

It was a rough start to the week, but there were gems of workouts in the mix. I’m now in uncharted territory with running and training.

Giveaway! ENERGYBits

A few weeks ago, ENERGYBits contacted me to see if I was interested in receiving a sample of their product. I agreed and offered to do a review of their product on their blog. I had heard good things about EnergyBits so needless to say, I was excited for the opportunity. I received the sample and it took me a week to even try them. I don’t have a sensitive stomach, but I was worried about trying something new on a long run and it not sitting with me well or that if I used the EnergyBits during one of my evening workouts, I would be up all night like I am when I consume caffeine. But Monday evening came around I needed to some serious energy to get me through a grueling speed workout. Since I only ran 7 miles on Sunday, I decided to push and do 6 miles of speed work. By the time I got home from work on Monday, I wanted to crawl into bed and not hit the track. So I decided to try the ENERGYBits and see how they worked.

And wow. I felt great and usually I’m dragging myself off the track. I didn’t feel like I rapidly hit an energy high and I didn’t feel like I crashed after the energy either. I felt steady during my entire track workout. I’m not sure how long the energy lasted because like I said there was clear energy high or low. One thing that I will have to continue to test out is how I sleep after taking the ENERGYBits. This was my first try with them but my sleep was restless. I was also dehydrated. So it could have been that.

Here is basic information about ENERGYBits:  Based in Boston. Protein. Steady energy w/o sugar, caffeine, chemicals, etc. Just one ingredient – 100% organically grown spirulina algae. ENERGYbits are only available at ENERGYbits.com, and Jonathan (their Community Manager) has let me know that he’d be happy to share more info on their sample program – you can email him at jlevitt@energybits.com BUT in addition to that, he is offering a special giveaway to my readers! Giveaway will be open until August 20!

 All opinions are my own. To enter the giveaway, click the link below! Good luck!

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Physical Wellness: Marathon Training Week 10 Recap

Sunday:  12 miles at a 9:16 pace. This was my first running carrying not only hydration with me but also nutrition. It went well. I was really pleased with the run. I was about 1/2 mile away when a huge storm started rolling through. Literally right as I walked in the door to Eric’s, it started pouring outside.

Monday:  Arms/shoulders + speedwork. I tested out a new speed set and I’m not sure how much I liked it. I did my usual base mile of warm up 400, sprint 100 jog 100. Then I tried a new ladder. I did sprint 100, jog 100; sprint 200, jog 200; sprint 300, jog 300; sprint 400, jog 400 and then down the ladder again. And then my usual finish up mile of sprint 100 jog 100 for 1200 and a cool down 400. I racked up 4.5 miles with this workout but it was tough a grueling. The heat, my legs were sore, my body was fatigued….but I got it done.

Tuesday:  60 minutes of tennis

Wednesday:  ab/core work; legs

Thursday:  5-6 miles with run club (didn’t track)

Friday:  ab/core work

Saturday:  rest. Second Saturday in a row taking a rest day. Now that I’m getting further into my marathon training, I am seeing the value and need of a true rest day. Unfortunately for me (spoiler alert for next week), this rest day didn’t yield great results.

Overall, my body was beat up this week so the workouts were a bit “lax”.

Spiritual Wellness: Passion

As I am typing this, a storm is rolling through. I love storms. When I know I’m missing a storm because I’m at work, my whole being just aches. I love the thunder rolling through, the cracks of lightening dancing across the sky, the feel of the air, the smell of rain. It’s weird because it wasn’t until I moved out to Kentucky for grad school that I really fell in love with storms. Sure I went storm chasing in Iowa, but in Kentucky, I fell in love with them. I let go of my fear of storms and started to appreciate the beauty that they bring. Obviously, the have the potential to bring destruction as well…but, I still can’t help but see the beauty in storms. The aftermath, not so much but during…

I’m not always sure how to write “Spiritual Wellness” posts because as I have said time and time again, I’m not religious. But last week at work I was listening to an amazing podcast from NPR:  Ted Radio Hour about success (it’s an old one, so if you are looking for it, you will have to go back a few months). It was amazing. Mike Rowe (the guy from Dirty Jobs) said something in his snippet of the podcast that felt so profound to me, that I wanted to share it, but I wasn’t sure the right context. Perhaps “Occupational Wellness” would have been more fitting…but I digress.

Mike was talking about the workers he meets on Dirty Jobs and that the people who seem the most happy and most successful in their lives aren’t the ones who followed their passions but are the ones that brought their passions with them in their lives. My little story above discusses how much I love storms, but I am never going to follow that love of storms into a career, but I bring my love and passion for storms in every state I live in and town I visit. I think that sometimes, especially for new professionals, it can be hard to land that dream job and so being able to bring your passion with you to your first job/career can help guide you instead of just following your passion.

This could all just be me. I was known in grad school for reading a theory or concept and just latching on to it and not being able to drop it. Sometimes I get tunnel vision when I read something that I relate to or have an opinion about.

What are your passions? Are you following your passions? Or bringing your passions with you?

Physical Wellness: Marathon Training Week 9 Recap

Sunday:  11 miles at 9:42 pace. This run hurt. I had beat myself up on this run before I even started. The miles did not click by. I looked at my watch and I was 3 miles in, I looked at what felt like 20 minutes later, and I was at 3.25 miles. This went on for the entirety of the run. When I just had 1.23 miles left of the run I had truly beat myself up. I sat on the curb and questioned why I was running this insane distance and why the hell I was going to run 26.2. I got myself back up and finished the run but it was difficult.

Monday:  Bench press (4x45lbs, 8x65lbs, 8x70lbs, 4x75lbs), Bicep curl (4x15lbs, 4x20lbs, 4x20lbs), Tricep Extension (8x25lbs, 8x30lbs, 8x35lbs), Shoulder press (8x15lbs, 4x20lbs, 4x20lbs) Arm Raises (8x 2.5lbs, 8x5lbs, 4x10lbs), Bosu Ball Pushups (10, 10, 10)

Monday Speedwork:  Warm up 400, 12xSprint 100, Jog 100, Sprint Ladders (Sprint 100, Jog 300, Sprint 200, Jog 200, Sprint 300, Jog 100, Sprint 400, Sprint 400, Sprint 300, Jog 100, Sprint 200, Jog 200, Sprint 100, Jog 300), 12xSprint 100, Jog 100, cool down 400. Total 4 miles

Tuesday:  1 hour of tennis

Wednesday:  Squats (4x45lbs, 8x65lbs, 6x85lbs, 4x95lbs), Hanging Leg Raises (22), Incline sit-ups (30), Leg Raises on bench (30), something else that I don’t remember what they are called (30)

Thursday:  4 miles with run club

Friday:  Incline Situps + Russian Twists (10xbody weight, 10x10lbs, 10x25lbs), Leg raises on bench (30), Penguins (10 each side w/ 35lbs – 3 sets), side twists (30x20lbs, 30x25lbs, 30x30lbs), Flutter Kicks on Bench (30)

Saturday:  Rest day