I am no poet

My least favorite of the HAWMC prompts yet. I have to write a haiku. About my "health focus" which I chose to define as fitness. Ugh. Why me? I like to think I'm a decent writer, but I don't like to be limited to 17 syllables total. Just a heads up, I'm only going to try this once before I give up and move on to more exciting things--and trust me, they're very exciting!

Keeping fit for me
Means putting in the effort
Never giving up

Okay, yeah that was lame. One more try. Then I'm done.

Pushups, pullups, run
Strength training, crossfit, sweat, tears
To achieve my goal

Both are mediocre. The second a little less so than the first. I almost started one that looked like this, but it was extremely sub par.

The gym is my home
My home is just for sleeping
Workout, sleep, repeat.

Now you see why I'm not a poet. Because I'm just oh so profound. Not. Moving on!

Yesterday was quite the amazing day, if I do say so myself. Well, despite finding out that one job that I applied for is "On hold," because it's a government job. Great. But that didn't really put a damper on my mood. The morning started off with a breakfast, digestion while weeding through emails and reading blogs, then a run down at the Rivanna trail. I swear I saw an actor there. Who's that guy that looks like a more rugged version of Patrick Dempsey? Or like a mix between Patrick Dempsey and Hugh Jackman? Maybe I'm just thinking of one of those two or I was so dehydrated that I started imagining things. But call me convinced! Maybe that's what motivated my exceptionally quick/steady pace for the 4 miles I ran.

Ignore the "5th mile." I stopped right at 4. But look at those negative splits--dang!

Did I mention it was cold and windy on this run? Half of it, I was running into the wind--so gross! I had to bust out my UA ColdGear and leggings for this run. It wasn't around 55* when I first got to the trail, and it's fairly shaded too. But at least it's relatively flat, which makes me a very happy camper! By the way, I love that I am able to show you my runs in chart form. So great!

Next up was a long day of opening shipment at work which means first dibs on all the super cute clothing! Which reminds me--a couple of nights ago, I had a nightmare that I went into my review at work and got fired! So odd, seeing as I'm one of the most exceptional employees at the store. Needless to say, I bolted right awake after that. However, seeing as my review was the next day, that is not how the review went at all! Phew! In fact, I mentioned the dream to my managers and they laughed. So yes, work was easy--the other nice thing about working on new stock is that generally you're in the back with another associate, so you get some quality catch-up time. And I happened to be back there with one of my faves that's also on the management team.

The entire time though, I was looking forward to a special gym date. Six o'clock rolled around and I headed out the door to meet up with this familiar face at the gym for a leg workout:

Toni! Aka my Stepmom!

Haven't worked out with this badass chick in forever! She was the one driving all my motivation back at Gold's. And a great sounding board for advice, etc. Of course, she loves the camera (aka my iphone) and more so taking pictures than having pictures taken.

Repping my old high school track team!

Toni likes to joke that I can "get low."
(Un)fortunately, no squat pics were taken.

Leg extensions.

At this point my poor legs were dying.

Resting mid-set.

And off to do some posing! Toni is 16 weeks out from her next bodybuilding show! It's the Linda Murray show which is somewhere down in the Hampton Roads area, I believe. You best believe I will be there with bells and whistles and glittery signs to support her!

Already pretty darn jacked and only going to get more so!

Then we decided to have fun with the iphone cam one of the trainers at Total Performance and have him swing some bells for our kettle bell swinging friend up in New York. He snatches like a pro.

Getting ready...

The swing...

And the snatch! What a champ!

Next up was my turn. And by that, I mean I played around with the baby bell. Please note: I've never done this before and was using the lightest bell, which meant there was no way I could harm myself. Except my ego by showing you these pics.

Terrible form.

I'm just so fast, they couldn't capture my swing.

And the snatch!

Is this right? I'm so weak. Please no more pics.

 And that wasn't even the highlight of my evening workout! A couple days ago, the gym was empty except for me and the trainers (who were in their office) so I decided to work on my kipping pullups. And I think I managed to eek out a few! I told this to Toni, and she insisted on filming this. I still have some work to do, but they are much better than I was previously able to do. Also, I'm kind of shy trying things that I'm not great at when there are people in the gym, so having the gym to myself was a great help. And having Toni there was even better. For your entertainment:

A valiant effort if I do say so myself! And to end the evening, of course Toni and I had some "mother-daughter" pics to take!

Our respective competition poses.

I really just wanted to look gangster.
Toni said she doesn't know how.

Is there anything new you have learned to do in the gym in the past few days/weeks?
I swear, kipping pullups really are easier than traditional pullups in terms of upper body strength. Those suckers use your whole body, really!
Have you had any quality time with a good friend you have/have not seen in a while? And are you as terrible of a poet as I am?