It's almost Holiday Bootie Buster Time!

This year marks the 4th year for me to participate in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. This annual challenge is hosted by  Amanda over at Run to the Finish.  Every year she changes it up slightly based on participant feedback.

The challenge is all about motivating yourself to keep active, eat healthy, and avoid holiday weight gain! Here are more details from Amanda.

This 8 week health & fitness challenge is meant to help everyone get a jump start on feeling great for the new year or stay on track with fitness/clean eating goals.  It’s a friendly competition to exercise, eat healthy and even do a little soul work. There are different fitness levels, so everybody can compete with a multitude of ways to earn points. {For some reason those points get you moving!!}

When: Nov 17 - Jan 5

Don't delay...sign up before the challenge starts on the 17th.  If you are like me, you'll quickly be motivated to earn those points.  This challenge always provides me with the extra motivation to get my miles in!  There are three different participation levels, costing $16.50 to $43.50 depending on which you choose.  There's great support on the Facebook page from all of the other participants too.

Here's more on what you can expect in the challenge.

2013 will be another chance for the challenge to grow and mature:

• Over $3,000 in prizes again
• Expert interviews with registered dieticians, world class running coaches, Ironman coaches, physical therapists and more
• Weekly emails with tips pulled from the expert videos
• Facebook support group - This group is like no other! Everyone checks in daily and provides a true support system
• Optional 8 week training plan to get you through the holidays

Are you sold yet???? No, did I mention there are awesome prizes?  Well, there are opportunities to win prizes all through out the challenge. Prizes can range from apparel to product samples to GPS watches! Talk about awesome!!!  Click here to sign up and if you do please mention me for your referral.  Whitney Sutherland! 

Tempted by Fate

I recently discovered how to add some lost apps back to my iPhone.  One of the apps that I got reloaded is called Body Fate.  I used the app last week to earn some Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge points for strength work!

Body Fate was developed by Christine Hazelton who is a trainer to the stars.  I'm pretty sure that Dane Cook tweeted about it when it first came out and that is what prompted me to purchase the app. 

I would describe this app as a fitness game.  The developers describe it this way:
BODYFATE is a metabolic acceleration training program, in other words, a GREAT workout. It takes you to an optimum level of fitness while still having fun in the process. Your workouts change every time you use BODYFATE. The program is illustrated with characters and surprises all the way through. Need a little motivation? No problem. BODYFATE will inspire your spirit with positive quotes and affirmations. Hit an exercise that’s too hard or you don't want to do? Pass on it! Keep in mind, you can only pass on a few. Mr. Good Karma will be checking your honesty. And, Karma always knows. You’ll be blown away at how much this tiny little iPhone app can change your life.
The app works with you first completing some information on the Settings tab.  You first enter the equipment that you have available to you.  For me, I have dumbbells, exercise bands, stability ball, kettlebells, and a stationary bike.  Next, I entered my fitness level as either Beginner, Middle of the Road, or Jock.  Finally, you enter a time for the length of the workout.  Then you are ready to Begin Your Fate. 

You will be given several different options for choosing your fate from pick a hand, pick a door, pick a trainer, or spin the wheel of torture!  The game will provide you with an exercise and suggested reps or it could be a timed activity.  You can earn rest or passes to skip an exercise.  The exercises are illustrated via active photos, you simply tap on the photo to see a demonstration of the exercise.  You can also ask for a detailed written description of the exercise that will provide options for making it easier or more challenging. 

My review: I loved the workout that I got with this game.  Within 15 minutes I had worked up a sweat and was definitely getting a great mix of exercises.  I have done a short workout of 15 minutes and a longer workout of an hour with the app.  I would say my hour workout was concentrated with a lot of arm/back exercises and squats.  I had some soreness for the next two days from the squats...I don't know why we runners tend to think we can skip the strength work on our lower body, but I paid for that bad assumption! It was fun to alternate between lots of different exercises and I would recommend you have all your gear out and ready because you move pretty quick between them.  I would like to keep using this app for getting strength work into my life!

Cost: Body Fate costs $1.99 in the App Store.  That's pretty cheap compared to a trainer and is a good option if you are somewhat familiar with the strength exercises and don't need much coaching on form. 

Sunday Funday - Just Keep Swimming

 I love the various holidays because the gym offers free guest days and that saves me $8 to swim with my friends! This week I've swam 4 of the past 5 days and gotten to swim free for 3 of those days.  I love free guest days and I love having awesome swim friends who push me with tough workouts in the pool.  Here's what the last 3 days looked like:

Black Friday Swim - I met up with Kyla after some early morning shopping at 9AM.  The kids swim team was also swimming so Kyla and I had to swim in the open swim area since all the lanes were taken.  We decided on a set of 15 x 100 broken out as 5 x 3 descending on the 2:00 interval.  The sets were freestyle for sets 1, 3, and 5 and IM order strokes for sets 2 and 4.  We did another mini set after that and ended up with a good workout. 

Saturday Swim - Brent joined Kyla and I on Saturday morning and started us off with a 1000 yd warmup that had 400 swim, 300 drills, 200 kick, and 100 pull.  The workout itself was a 200 then 2 x 100.  I did 150's instead of the full 200 and then focused on doing the 100's fast since we did then a little faster than my normal interval.  We did the set as 200, 2 x 100, 200, 2 x 100, 200 for a main set of 1000.  We tacked on some fun 50 sprints on the end with 25 sprint, 25 recover in IM order doing each stroke twice.  It was a good workout and we all enjoyed hot tub time afterwards!

Sunday Funday - Today the Big Fish showed up for our weekly Sunday Funday swim. We had 6 of us in the pool including Brent, Carie, Lori, Jeff, and Scott.  Normally our Sunday Funday is Brent, Kyla, Carie, and I so it was fun to have the others join us.  Unfortunately for me, some of these guys are really fast swimmers so I knew that I would have to modify the workout in order to keep up.  Our warmup included sculling drills and that wore out my arms pretty early on:(  The main set was supposed to be 10 x 150 with odds pull and evens swim building the 2nd 75 faster.  The fast kids were doing these on a 2:30 interval...my normal 150 interval is 3:00.  I modified to do the sets as 125 pull then 100 swim builds.  This allowed me to stay on the 2:30 interval with the group.  We did some more sprint/recover 50's at the end to finish up the workout. 

Whew, 3 days of swimming in a row equals one tired girl but I loved every minute of swimming with my friends.  They are always encouraging and I know I'm getting a tough workout each time. 

For the first week, most of my HBBC points came from my swimming workouts.  I'm hoping to get more runs in this week and hopefully 1-2 swims for the week.  I know I can't swim as much as I did the last few days but the pool is such a great form of active recovery for running. 

Holiday Season Challenges

If you are like me, every year you go into the holiday season planning to get a jump start on new year's resolutions and not gain weight.  Two of our fellow bloggers are here to help!

Amanda over at Run To The Finish is hosting the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.  I participated in this last year and had a great time.  Amanda has established point values for different types of activity and eating habits. You track your points for the duration of the challenge and have the chance to win random prizes.  There are also opportunities to get bonus points by doing fun things.  New to the challenge this year is to select your activity level as either a Builder, Doer, or Advanced.  I was amazed last year to see how many points some people earned so I'm excited to have the levels this year since someone training at a much higher level is going to earn way more points than someone training to maintain fitness.  The HBBC runs November 19 - January 6 and you still have plenty of time to sign up. 

Mary at Fit this, girl! just announced her own challenge today.  Her challenge is called the Reverse Resolution Challenge.  Mary is a fun blogger to follow and I'm excited to try out her challenge this year.  For this one, Mary asks you to commit to two resolutions (or goals) and then select three measurable actions to accomplish during the challenge.  The challenge will run November 1 - January 1 and each week Mary will send out two emails to the participants with helpful tips and ideas for improving fitness.  You commit to report in via email to Mary each week on how you are doing against your goals and action items. 

I think these two challenges will work well together and hopefully provide me with that extra bit of motivation for the next two months.  My goals are to rediscover my fitness and build my long run back up to a 10 mile distance by January.  My second goal is to try to lose 10 lbs by January.  I have definitely let my fitness slip in the last month since completing my half ironman and losing a few extra pounds would be awesome!

If you want to join either challenge, visit the links above.  Both are offering some great prizes and even better the motivation and inspiration to tackle those January resolutions a little early!