Category Archives: Fitness

19 days away!

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The City of Oaks Marathon is fast approaching.  Only 19 more days.  I can’t believe it!  I’ve really enjoyed training this go around but after this is all over, I’m switching gears.

I’m going to focus on speed instead of distance.

My good friend, Lisa, has got me started on an awesome Cross Fit cross training plan.  I start off with pull-ups which I’m doing a modified version of on Ron’s Total Gym.

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This week I’m up to 15.  Next I do push-ups and I’m still doing them on my knees.  This week is 18 and they are by far the hardest thing I’m doing.  Then come the crunches, 45 and then I end with air squats, 30.  I do all of this and then rest for 2 minutes.  Then repeat 4 more times.  Tally all that up and you get a whopping 75 pull-ups, 90 push-ups, 225 crunches, and 150 air squats.  Three weeks ago when I started this I could barely walk after the first workout.  I was using muscles that had never seen the light of day before.  It got better and now I don’t get too sore anymore.  However, in that 5th set, I really start to shake.  Lisa swears by this and has seen an awesome speed improvement.

After the City of Oaks, I’m going to give up…dare I say it….INTERVALS.  They have been a lot of fun and I do swear by them to stay injury free.  However, for they next few months to a half year, I want to give just straight running another try.  Oh, I’ll still throw in a few walking breaks here and there, I’m just not going to do any set intervals.

This cart horse is dreaming of being a Thoroughbred!

You know…”In my dreams, I am a Kenyan.”   🙂

Night all!

Motivation!

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I’m always guilty as charged when it comes to slacking on the cross training.  I know I need to but most weeks it is all I can do to get my 3 days of running in let alone thinking about the other 3 or 4 days.

This week has been tough.  Tuesday got here and I didn’t get up early.  Then when I got home something came up and I ended up skipping.  Wednesday morning came and went and Wednesday night was out because Ron and I had planned a date night.  Thursday morning came and I chose sleep over running and promised myself I’d run after work.  I was starved after work and ended up getting something to eat on the way home.  (I had a 2 hour drive home on Thursday night.)  Then after eating, I just couldn’t muster up the motivation to run.  So….Friday is here.  As you can guess, I didn’t run this morning.  However, I did run tonight.

5 Glorious Miles!

It was about 7:15 before I started so I knew it would be pretty dark before I finished.  I didn’t let that stop me.  I put on my reflective shirt and headed out.  The weather was cool and I’m so glad I made it out there.  It really was a beautiful run.

One thing that keeps me motivated to keep running is the hope to be able to lose a few pounds.  I’d actually like to lose about 20 pounds but that’s a whole other blog post.  Another motivation is the fact that I know running is very healthy for me.  It helps to keep my cholesterol down and osteoporosis at bay.  I heard just the other night on the John Tesh radio show that running can add up to 6 years to your life span.

Running with friends is another huge motivation for me.  I love my Galloway group and I love running with friends.  Next month I’m co-leading a Half Marathon Small Group at out church.  That is going to be so awesome!  We’re going to run together for 16 weeks and then run the Myrtle Beach Half in February.  I’m sure our group is going to keep me motivated all winter long. (Yay Mt. Zion friends!)

The number one motivator to me though is most assuredly signing up for races.

You see that 44 and 22 app on my phone?

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The COO 44 is the countdown for the City of Oaks Marathon.  The Medoc 22 is the countdown for the Medoc Trail Marathon.  That my friends is what got me out there running tonight.

I have 3 weeks and 1 day until I’m going out for a little training run.  That’s what I’m telling myself.  Medoc is a full trail marathon but I’m just going out there to have fun and log some miles.  The cut off for Medoc is 7.5 hours.  Even though it is a trail marathon and will be harder than a normal marathon, I’m thinking that surely with my two sub 5 hours marathons under my belt, I should be able to make it before the cut off.  The course is 3 loops and they can pull you at the 2nd loop if they think you won’t make the last loop in time.  That’s my main goal.  I really don’t want to get pulled.  I’ve never had a DNF and I don’t want this one to be my first.

Now for the City of Oaks I have 6 weeks and 2 days to continue to get ready.  For this marathon I really want to give it my all and try to give a strong finish.

So there you go.  The countdown is on.

I, Melissa Cupit, do solemnly swear that I’m up to no good that I will faithfully cross train for the next 6 weeks as well as getting in my 3 weekly training runs.

Happy Cross Training Ya’ll!

Shake a leg for Charles 5k

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What a gorgeous morning for a run.

Many of us from our Run for God small group met up and ran a 5k for a young man who is battling cancer.  I was so excited for everyone.  They have all done so so well and I hope they can see how proud of themselves they should be. 

Here we all are before the race.

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And here are a few action and finishing shots.  We all had a blast.

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I was inspired by everyone’s awesome performance but I half to admit I was awed by Jill pushing their son in a stroller and finishing so strong.  I have been a wimp and haven’t really even tried running with Mason.  I hope this will change very soon.

Now Ron and I are at Lake Benson with Mason.  Ron is shooting for 6 miles in preparation for next week’s half marathon at the OBX.  Mason and I are checking out the swings. 

Could this day be any prettier?

God is good!

Push-ups

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Did you happend to catch Ellen when the First Lady was on a few weeks ago?  Ellen challenged the Mrs. Obama to a

push-up dual. 

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Man!  They are both really in shape!

I can barely do girl push-ups let alone a real one.

I tried to do a cool push-up challenge last year but I didn’t make it.  I probably only kept it up for maybe 3 or 4 days max.

Michelle and Ellen have inspired me to try again.

Maybe one day I can do a pull-up too?  A girl can dream right?!

I’ll say goodnight and leave you with a good quote on goals.

The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them – Og Mandino

Thanksgiving 2011

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I did get in a little Turkey Trot around the neighborhood and sported another of my new Bondi Bands.

It’s my favorite one!

I only ran 3 miles but I did a lot of thinking in those 36 minutes.  My fastest times always averaged 11 minutes per mile and today’s was only 3 minutes slower.  However, I just felt terrible.  My legs felt like lead.  I’ve been fighting so hard to get my running mojo back every since last March’s marathon and it’s just not happening.  Why!?  I’m putting in the mileage.  It’s not getting me anywhere though.  What I deduced is that I’ve got to drop these extra 20 pounds that I gained over the summer somehow.  I’ve got to really focus on my cross training as well.

When I got back in, I made this beautiful pumpkin pie monster and did 30 minutes of yoga.

In the mix:

1 cup almond milk, 1/2 can pumpkin, 1 small banana, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and ice cubes

I got busy cooking after all of that and we had all of the girls’ favorites:

Ham, broccoli casserole, corn pudding, deviled eggs, and mashed potatoes

pumpkin and pecan pies

Since it was late in the afternoon before we sat down to eat, everyone was starved and I knew pictures would not be looked upon favorably.  I didn’t even try.

I did get one good shot of Andie, Jonathan, and Mason however.

I didn’t limit myself today but tomorrow I’m really going to count my calories and focus on dropping this weight.  When I lost it last time I wasn’t even trying.  I just ran and it melted off.  This time, something is different.  I’m running but the running isn’t getting any easier and I’m not losing any weight at all.  I might go back to a vegetarian diet too.  Since I went back to eating meat, I’ve gotten really slack.  Remember all those egg and cheese biscuits I used to get if I had to drive somewhere far for work?  Well now they are often sausage biscuits and sometimes even my favorite Cajun filet chicken biscuits from Bojangles.  I’ve also gotten really loose with my Ben and Jerry’s addiction.  Green monsters?  Not once a day anymore.  They are more like once a week.  This.has.got.to.change.

After cleaning the kitchen, Ron and I were classic couch potatoes.  We watched not one but two movies on demand.  The first one was Larry Crowne.  I liked it.  The second one was Captain America.  I liked it too.

Tomorrow will be continuing to clean and do laundry and then decorate for Christmas.

Goodnight Friends!

Company Mill Trail

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Today was an absolutely gorgeous day here in the heart of Carolina.  After church, I had a lot to do around the house but all I really wanted to do was get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather.

I thought about the State Fair and would have loved it but I knew Ron and Lydia didn’t want to do that.  I suggested Clemmons State Forest in Clayton but Ron wasn’t feeling it.  A few minutes later,  Ron came back
over to me and he said if a hike is what I was looking for then we should go to Umstead.  We invited Lydia but she wanted to just chill after a hard week at band.

I packed a few items for a picnic and Ron filled up the water jug and we were off.

Here are few pictures of The Company Mill Trail at Umstead State Park in Raleigh.  We hiked for right at 3 hours and covered 5.8 miles.  The trail is marked “moderately difficult” and I think they hit it right on.  There were plenty of easy straightaways, but there were a lot of hills and rocks and roots to navigate through as well.

At the end of the hike we enjoyed some sandwiches, pumpkin muffins, and some fruit.  I had the kiwi and Ron went for the green apple.  Did you know you don’t have to peel your kiwis?  You can eat them skin and all.

While we were out, we ended the night with a short stop at Trader Joes.  This apple cider that they have is out of this world.  They only had a few bottles left and the check-out guy said that they had gotten 44 cases in
just last night.  He mentioned that I might want to get another bottle while they were in stock.  (What a great salesman!)

Very, very lovely day.

Now I have to figure out how I’m going to get laundry done this week sometime!

Goodnight Friends!

The Total Life

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My husband Ron has had The Total Gym for a very long time.  I think it might be going on 20 years now.  He uses it all the time.  It’s not the classic piece of home gym equipment that ended up being a place to hang clothes.  Ron’s Total Gym is very well worn.  It even has duck tape in places.

You can catch Ron watching the Total Gym infomercial just about every weekend.  (At times, I think he believes he’s Chuck Norris himself.)  Over the years, the TG has kept Ron very strong!  He swears by it and can move from exerice to exercise on that machine with the ease and gracefulness of a dancer.

Tonight, for some unknown reason, I decided to give it a try.  I’ve been trying to get back in shape and all sorts of ailments have been attacking me.  Foot pain, Shin splints, you name it.  It seems like I’ve been hit with it.

So…the TG and I set out for an adventure.

Ron helped me by showing me all the safety features and led me through what he called a Beginner’s Workout.  On my first exercise, he told me to do a set of 25.  “3 sets,” I asked?  He just smiled and said to do just one for now.  The first 10 or so were so easy I just knew I could have done so many more.  Then it hit me.  It got hard.  Real hard.

He took me through many different exercises and sometimes just told me to do as many reps as I could until failure.  He put the bar on one of the lowest settings.  I know I am so going to feel this in the morning!

It is my hope to continue on with the TG at least every other day.  The workout is only about 30 minutes and I bet it will help me get over some of these injuries.

On the menu tonight was my famous TVP chili and cornbread.

I was a little heavy handed on the cayanne pepper but that was just fine with Ron and me.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be glorious!

After church, Lydia and I are going shopping and them I’m heading out for a run.

Goodnight Friends!