From Dragging Ass to Kicking Ass

Week one of my #5kADay challenge was a success! Despite unforeseen schedule shifts, energy dips, and the everyday curveballs of modern-day motherhood, I didn’t miss a single day. In fact, I went above and beyond, trading in my Sunday walk for a hike. There was a close call, a day that would’ve been so easy to skip, but I didn’t.

On Friday morning, when instead of going for a run, I took advantage of my husband having the day off and went to a yoga class on the North Shore. After class, I went about the rest of the day, figuring that I could run in the afternoon during the baby’s nap. Counting on nap time to do anything is a gamble, and it was a gamble that I had lost, as she ended up taking a snooze in the car on our way home from our family outing. Le sigh. Plan B was to hit the treadmill after putting her down for bed at 7:30; but by 5:30pm, I was dragging-ass hardcore. Not only was I exhausted from my new early morning wake-up routine of getting up at 5:10am, but I was also on my period. (Ladies, I know you know what I’m talking about. #TheStruggleIsReal) I knew that if I waited until then, that there was a good chance that I flake. I entertained the thought of missing a day, or even two, essentially shifting my plan from #5kADay to #5x5k, aka 5 5k’s per week for a month. Didn’t have the same ring to it. Plus, I knew what I was doing: bargaining. I’m sure there are people who could just take the day off and get right back into it the next day. But I know myself. If I skip a day that wasn’t already a scheduled as a rest day, and I would inevitably end up watching a whole week of missed workouts go by. That’s my pattern with exercise AND diet. So, I nipped it in the bud, making the decision to work out right then. It was too hot and humid to take the kiddo outside for a run, so I asked the hubs to report for solo daddy duty so that I could go down to the gym. An incredibly supportive husband, he was on it. Then I was off! While I had scheduled an easy run/walk for that day, I wanted to get back to the fam in time to join them for dinner, so I ended up running. Fast. I worked with intervals and ended up running my fastest 5k of the week, with my fastest mile split at 8’49”. When I got back upstairs, I felt reinvigorated. After putting the baby down for bed, I was still feeling motivated, so I cleaned up the kitchen and put away 2 loads of laundry that I’d neglected since the day before. Then I did 17 minutes of core work. It felt sooo good to know that I had almost talked myself out of my mission of the month, but stopped the self-defeating self-talk in its tracks and went on to kick some major ass. Now, THAT’S what I call major gains. You may not be able to physically see them when you look in the mirror, but the micro-shifts made in the mind set you up for success in the long run by reframing how you see yourself. I went from someone who could talk myself out a workout fairly easily to someone who made it a non-negotiable. It was that kind of turning point.

Since then, I’ve continued that trend in the days that have followed, not only with my runs, but with my cross-training, as well. Even if it was the end of the day and I really didn’t “feel like it”— I still did it. I made a point to commit to at least 5 minutes of whatever I had on the books for that day. Without fail, I’d end up going on for 15 or even 30 minutes. Because I did that, it doesn’t occur to me to miss a workout, because I SHOW UP. Now, there may come a day when I can only squeeze in 5 minutes of crunches here or 5 squats there. But I will still do them. Again, because I SHOW UP.

Here’s how I plan to show up this week:

Monday 7/8: 5k Run/Walk + Strength Training

Tuesday 7/9: 5k Run + Core

Wednesday 7/10: 5k Run + Strength Training

Thursday 7/11: 5k Run + Core

Friday 7/12: 5k Run/Walk + Strides360 (Speed & Agility Training Class)

Saturday 7/13: 5k Run + Strength Training

Sunday 7/14: 5k Walk + Core + Yoga Class

All right, y’all! Here’s to another week of 5k-a-day fun… and then some!

Marathon Prep: Training to Train #5kADay

After scouring the inter-webs for the best marathon training program I could find, I’ve selected one from Runner’s World. Like most marathon training programs out there, it lasts 16 weeks, which seems like a short amount of time to me— but what do I know?! Anywho, this particular program is designed to prepare one to run a sub 4:30 race. While there were plenty of other programs designed specifically for first timers and beginners— which I obviously am— I also wanted to challenge myself. (As if running a marathon for the first time isn’t enough of a challenge in and of itself!). Based on my 10k and Half Marathon times, the sub-4:30 seemed attainable. However, since the half, I haven’t been lacing up with the same consistency. Okay, that’s an understatement, as I’m pretty sure I didn’t go for a single run during the entire month of May. Sure, there were a few workouts that included a few bursts of running here and there, but that soooo doesn’t count. Especially when it comes to cardiovascular endurance. The first half of the month, we had guests in town from the mainland for my daughter’s first birthday, so that kept my energies focused elsewhere. Then I came down with the flu, which knocked me out for several days. By the time I was feeling better during the last week of the month, I found myself feeling zero motivation to run. Excuses, excuses— I know. I just could NOT get my ass into gear.

Fortunately, things started to turn around in June... a little. The general recommendation is to increase mileage by no more than 10% each week. So, the first week I ran once. The second week, twice. The third week, I felt a dip in my mojo and ended up skipping all of my scheduled workouts, except for two walks and one run on Saturday. (That was the day I decided to sign up for the marathon.) By the fourth week, I was back up to two runs and two walks. All runs were about 30 minutes or 5k, whichever came first. That makes for a total of 6 runs for the month. Not great, but definitely an improvement over May!

During the month of June, I also began to get back into resistance training for 20-30 minutes once or twice a week. I also went back to my fave Fit4Mom class of all time: Strides360. It’s a 60-minute running-based speed & agility fitness class. (Think Stroller Strides on steroids. To all of my mamas out there, I highly recommend that you check it out!) I also treated myself to a gentle 75-minute hatha yoga class on my off-day. (That class is now my weekly Mama me-time!)

Now that July is here, I have a new plan: 5k A DAY! It’s my way to train for the upcoming marathon training, which I’ll begin the third week of August. While most days will be running, some days will just be walking, or a combination thereof. For example, this morning was Day 1; I went for a 2 mile run with half mile-ish warm-up and cool-down walks. Here’s what the whole week looks like:

Monday 7/1: 5k Run/Walk + CardioCore

Tuesday 7/2: 5k Run + Stairs

Wednesday 7/3: 5k Walk + Core

Thursday 7/4: 5k Run + Strength Training

Friday 7/5: 5k Run/Walk + CardioCore

Saturday 7/6: 5k Run + Strength Training

Sunday 7/7: 5k Walk + Yoga Class

So, that’s WEEK ONE of the “pre-season”. Now, let’s train for the training!

Started From the Bottom (of a tub of ice cream) Now We're Here

Last Friday, I skipped my fifth workout in row. Instead of crushing my scheduled cardio circuit, I crushed nearly an entire half gallon of ice cream. #becausegoals. Granted, this feat didn’t happen in one sitting. It took several trips to the freezer over the course of the day (and night) to polish off that bad boy. As I stared into the bottom of the empty carton, a wave of disappointment rolled through me— I reeeeally wished there was more ice cream. #realtalk. It was at that very moment that I came to terms with how far off-track I had allowed myself to wander. After all, it wasn’t just this single indiscretion that derailed several months of healthy eating and exercise habits. It rarely ever is just ONE thing that does it. I didn’t fall off the bandwagon as much as I gradually slipped closer and closer to edge, week after week, until my feet were dragging in the dirt as I clung tightly to the tailgate and the notion that I was still all-in, “just taking it easy for a bit”, but nope. In that instant, I realized that the bandwagon was long gone and I was left face down in the mud.

At that point, it would have been easy to just say “screw it” and surrender into a downward spiral of no f**k$ given. I’ve gone that route before. Maaannny a time. But not this time. Instead of staying down on myself, I got up the next morning, laced-up for an easy 3-miler, then signed-up for the Honolulu Marathon.

In the words of Big Sean, “Last night I took an L, but tonight I bounce back”.

To keep myself accountable, I decided to blog this shizzz. So join me on my journey across the finish line as I share my story as an upper 30-something mother, wife, Yoga Teacher, Fitness Instructor, defected brewvangelist, and wannabe marathoner living in Honolulu, where #itsAlwaysSommerTime.

And just so we’re clear: I vow to keep it real. I will NOT sugarcoat this shit. I am prepared to share the highs, the lows, the wins, and the blows. You have my word.

Now, let’s hit the ground running.

In Love & Light,

Sommer Nicole Elias

In Memory of the Finest

"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour." - Winston Churchill

On a long holiday weekend, it's quite common for my morning classes to be a bit busier than usual.  After all, why wake up early to go to a 6am yoga class when you can sleep in and catch a class at 8 or 9:30am?  I embrace such days as an opportunity to connect with those early bird students in our yoga community that I might otherwise not meet.  One moment of connection stood out in particular, albeit brief in exchange.  Bright-eyed and fresh-faced, a lovely young lady met me with a smile, enthusiastically exclaiming, "Happy Memorial Day!"  I didn't know what to say back to her.  Reflexively regurgitating ones greeting is the norm, but not in this case.  Rather than attempting to rephrase her salutation, I just smiled and said, "Good morning".  I guess the phrase "Happy Memorial Day" seemed to be a bit of an oxymoron.  After all, it is a day a reverence and reflection, honoring those who gave their lives for the sake of protecting our freedom and our own lives. In that, I suppose, there is joy; and mine is owed to those who were willing to forsake their own. It is for this that I am truly grateful for their sacrifice and also inspired by their selflessness.  It causes me to call into question my own selflessness, or rather, my lack there of.  For the older I get, the more selfishly set in my ways I become.  The only thing I doggedly defend on a day-to-day basis is my own comfort!  If called upon, could I -- or WOULD I -- make that ultimate sacrifice?  I don't know. Perhaps one cannot truly know until the choice is imminent.  And perhaps it may never be my lot in life to be faced with such a choice.  I do know that I'd make a shitty soldier, as the very sight of blood makes me queasy. And I have to close my eyes even during the most subtlety violent movie scenes to avoid a visceral response.  I once fainted watching Twilight.  Yyyyyeah. It's like that.  

So, again, I don't know...  

What I do know, is this: I am kind. I am compassionate. I am loving. I am one who cannot help but to see the good in all, to include those who do not see the same in me.  I am inspired to be a light for those who might feel lost in their own shadows.  Those are my talents, and therefore, the gifts that I have to share.  It is my duty to share them wholeheartedly, yet always acknowledging that I am only able to do so because of those greater sacrifices made by considerably braver beings.   

So, today, as you celebrate the holiday with your picnics and parties, I invite you to do so with a deepened sense of appreciation and respect. Enjoy your time with your loved ones, just remember what it's for.  And might you look into the eyes of your friends, family members, and even strangers alike, remembering that the blessing that is today is a gift from the heroes of the past.

While I understand that Memorial Day is not Veterans Day, I still believe that one of the greatest ways to honor the deceased, is to care for the living.  Bullets2Bandages is a mission-driven, socially conscious apparel and accessories company founded to give thanks to those who continue to fight for our freedom, as well as veterans and their families, as their charitable donations to such causes exceed 50% of the organization's net profits.  With Father's Day fast approaching, a personally engraved bullet bottle opener is the perfect gift for your personal hero.  You can check out the products and learn more about B2B via their website:

www.bullets2bandages.org

Cheers to you all, and may you have a reverent holiday.  Peace be you.

Sommer (aka @thebrewvangelista) 

a lesson in her-story

Yesterday's assigned task for my coaching apprenticeship was to share my story. MY story. My STORY. Hm.  Kinda looks and sounds like MYSTERY. Double hmmmmm...  

A thinker of too many thoughts, I'm left overthinking: what does that mean, really?  A collection of words conveniently forged into articles and anecdotes that are meant delineate my life experience?

Surveying the manifold roads, paths, and off-trail expeditions that have led me to this very point in my life, it seems as though I am witnessing the myriad memories of many different women in a multitude of lifetimes: fairytales and horror stories, from tall tales to the mundane of the day-to-day. So many births. Deaths. Rebirths.  These countless chapters, on-going and overflowing into a vast variety of volumes.  And yet, the story is one.  I remember so vaguely these many storylines that they no longer seem to be my own. Like a bedtime story my grandmother once read to me as I drifted into a sweet slumber.   It's through this fogged filter which I reminisce, seeing only that nothing is as it was.  Nothing ever WAS as it was.  Forsaken by my fragmented fantasy, the accuracy of actuality is lost to the years, as do the diluted details of a dream that inevitably evaporate upon waking.  Fleeting imagery, faintly familiar, yet a fraction of the full story, most of which is forever forgotten.   I am left with a handful of pickled remains I've picked to serve as a meager means to justify the choices I’ve made, to include those I’ve avoided to make. Yet this is my story.  Yet this is my story?  How can this be?  Through lack of clarity it is clear that her-story is but half of the whole of history. How hollow is the frame...

Still and all, I am blessed to be both the writer and the written, to include the as of yet unwritten. Be that as it may, if charged to summarize the sum of the parts perverted by my punctuated perception, I find the abstract to be a more honest and somehow succinct characterization of my life than an abridged account of the meaningless minutiae and cherry-picked particulars posing as the all-in-all.  And it would go like this:  

There once was a girl who loved the world so much it broke her heart.  
Again and again, it shattered,
and she was scattered, 
until nothing was left but a lonely fleck of fairy dust. 
For years and forever, 
this spectacular speck would dance alone.
Aimless and free, 
she floated along the enigmatic unfolding of the unfamiliar, 
pausing only for a taste of the fleeting felicities of the flesh.   
Each diversion, 
merely masking aversion to the security she had never known.
But she was light as breath!
And equally as intangible.
Seamlessly, she slipped through the fingers
of those sifting through the sands of time.  
For there was no form to be felt by the hand of the man; 
the many they that were the he would be left grasping for air,
as yet another frivolous flight of fancy
would finally assume the form of the familiar.  
It was all the same.
Novelty lost, despondency found.  
Drearily, she drifted,
alone again.
At home without a home again.
She cried until she laughed again, 
frolicking and flitting about, 
like nothing had ever happened.
Until one day the dancing made her dizzy.
So, she decided to laze in her daze for awhile.  
It was there, it was here, 
whilst steeped in stillness, 
that she was moved to make roots in her quiet nest of rest.  
From a speck to a seed, she grew. 
She blossomed!
Her reach stretching higher and wider
than her solitary speckle could ever span,
until she enveloped it all and was enveloped by all.  
No longer a passive piece in a vacant hole, 
now at peace with the whole she was, 
she is.
And I Am.

That said! I understand that this is a far too oblique allusion to serve as my copy and paste "why I want to be a coach".  I wasn't even going to share it, but but when I sat down to write, that's what came out.  And it was from the heart. I shall continue to compose a more bullet-pointed presentation...

As for yesterday's workouts, I took a wonderful yoga class with lovely Nicole Kellne, and I rocked my zumba step for an entire episode of The Big Bang Theory. Before all of that, I taught a yoga sculpt class, during which I wore my heart rate monitor. And guess what?  I totes burned nearly 550 kcal!  #likewhoa! My shake of the day was chocolate with iced coffee and coconut water.  Today, I've got a Piyo workout on the books and I'm currently treating myself to a greenberry shake.  (Tastes like Fruity Pebbles!)  

Cheers to all of you.  Peace, love, and alllllll that other good shit ;)

#TheHiLife

We've been living here on Oahu now for just over three weeks.  All in all, it's pretty dope, even with the unseasonably hot & humid weather we've been experiencing. Eh. Another excuse to crack open a beer and live in a bikini, which is exactly what we did today!  After I taught a badass C3 (advanced power vinyasa yoga class) at CorePower Yoga in Kahala, the hubs and I headed out to Kailua in effort to beat the heat.  Along the way, we hit up Whole Foods to pick up some bites and brews, then headed out to the beach for a lil fun in the sun.  (Who ever said that pizzas and bikinis don't mix?!  Pshaw.) Back in San Diego, I could drink IPA's all day, but in this kinda heat, I find myself craving a crisp and refreshing lager.  Lucky for me, Maui Brewing Company makes a damn fine one.  And even though we ended up getting rained out, it was a perfect #sundayfunday on island.  After all, the beer was safe.  And that is what really matters.