Sometimes you think you will die…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Malin

Slowly but surly I’m preparing for the 1/2 marathon that is coming up in May and I have the best coach one can wish for. Not only is she great to hang with but she also won the iron man and has run a numerous marathons and I am all about learning from the best. Every monday at the bus stop we plan my week ahead and now it is starting to get intense or I am more out of shape than what I like to admit!

Anyhow I made into the gym not realizing it was actually still nice outside but I had my mind-set on running my first 4 miles of the week on the treadmill and had already planned on increasing the speed by 0.1 every minute for 6 minutes then to bring it back down to 7.0.

Sometimes when I wake up I just know that the body is not how I would like it to be and today was that day. My legs were heavy almost like I had added extra weight to my wrists and it was a 33.41 agonizing minutes of pounding but I knew I was not going to die so I pushed and I pushed and you know what…I was right, I did not die this time either!

Suck it up and keep on pushing!

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Malin

How crazy can life be, really…

…so what is going on? Well let me tell you, one of my dearest friends are moving to Switzerland. This is a family that came to the States at the same time as us and our kids are like sibling so it is with a sad heart I see them leave but we will send them off with a party to be remembered . So with this coming up this weekend there is a lot of things that need to be organized and this is at the same weekend as i have my mid-term exam for my NASM PT-Certification. I am not doing this by myself as we (everyone that is coming) all chipping in and I am also asking for help from the professionals. So last night me and Freddie had a wine/sushi tasting with some fabulous wines that my good friend picked for us…I know life is hard, right?!

So while this is happening life is flying by my window, just like it does when having kids as well as keeping up with my own fitness, classes and studying. So this morning I went for my run before teaching my 10am class and yes I am finally back to running after months of a knee issue but l will confess it is not a walk in the park. As I am was coming into my final leg of my 3 mile run this morning everything is hurting and that is when I am thinking of Knut (my son) who got up at 5.20 this morning to go skating before school. I was thinking about the girls I train every day and when they leave the gym you can tell they haven’t participated in a fashion show. So how am I suppose to justify to anyone to keep on going if I would give up? So there I am, at my final leg and I am thinking to myself “suck it up and keep on pushing” and as I am coming up on my driveway I not feeling so great. I have done it before and learned from my mistake and this time I went to the side of the house where I almost barfed….but just almost 🙂

…but all this it’s a “good” crazy and even though it stresses me out I would not want to change a single thing because the people that surrounds me are truly amazing and keep on inspiring me every day.

This is Anna and Ellie who kicked ass earlier on this week…way to go girls!

For all of you lot who missed out on a kick ass workout!

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Malin

Yesterday we had a great workout session that was a combination between legs and upper body, almost like a combination between last weeks leg and arm workout and let me tell you I am in pain today!

We started out with warming up the hips by walking sideways with a rubber band between the legs and a medicine ball in the hands.

When the 10 steps was completed we did the “truck driver”… and no I did not scratch my belly or reached for a giant soda but twisting the medicine ball 180 degrees with the hands straight in front. The warm up continued with 10 single leg squats to warm up the rest of the leg…

The serious business started with leg extensions and I don’t think I ever will enjoy them because they are so unbelievable painful and this was combined with shoulder presses. My last set I picked up the 25 pound dumbbells and it was heavy… but be damned if you give up even though when the shoulders are screaming!

The next exercise we did was the leg press and with the combination of the leg extension we worked the entire upper leg so when we moved on to the next circuit the legs was very pre-exhausted. With the barbell we did a sumo squat with an upright row and as always when it is heavy I always count by five to make it more manageable and I think all the gals I workout with know how to count to 15 in swedish…haha.

As figured it was not only the legs that was working it was also the arms and shoulders so the combination with push up from the TRX with 2 hip abductors in-between each push up. The last set I did I completed the push ups on pure will!

But the workout did not finish here we still had a long way to go as we moved back working the hamstrings while doing the romanian dead lift (RDL) with a very, very heavy barbell (at least for me).

The RDL was mix up with reverse flies and I like to mix them up sometimes using the dumbbells and sometimes using the machine as the mechanic of the movement changes as well as how I actually work the same muscle group.

The last and final circuit of the day was hamstring curls combined with weighted walking lunges and it was a challenge just trying to stay up right and not losing the balance.

The legs were wobbly when I left the gym and I do feel sorry for my friend Heidi who had to go into an important business meeting and was probably walking a little bit funny but I bet her head was clear, bright and sharp as a knife!

Be careful for what you wish for…

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Malin

We finally arrived in my hometown Örnsköldsvik it’s a little of a tongue twister for a novice and although it is hard to pronounce it is a stunning small town on the east coast in the Baltic sea.

Last night at 10pm when I put Mira to bed she was crying that she didn’t want to go to sleep when it was morning…the picture is taken at 10.40 at night and the sun has just disappeared behind the mountain.

I did my best last week but even though you do your very best it is easy to keep on doing things you are used to so after my fist week in Sweden I was longing for some good old soreness. So I rang my sister-in-law to see if she could set me up with her TRX trainer and so she did. Both yesterday and today I was hanging in the cord off the ceiling in the Pilates Studio that was very peaceful and nice but yet energizing.

The class was very different from the training I normally do with Jonathan although most of the movements was the same as we do over at the warehouse. Here we worked different tempo and it was intense in a different way to what I am used to. Johanna was a great instructor as she was both very inspiring as well as professional and I am for ever grateful that she would fit me into her class in such short notice.

http://www.pilatesstudio.se

The rest of the afternoon we went to visit my aunt and in the car over there the tiredness and the pre-soreness pain was creeping up on me and I know that my run tomorrow will be a though one!

Knut by the sea

Fast and furious

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Malin

If I didn’t knew better I would have thought it was winter all over again when I stepped outside this morning to send the kids off to school. I guess this is the ind of days when you are happy you actually have a gym membership because running outside in wind, rain and cold is never appealing. When I came into to lifetime fitness I thought I would give it a try to see how long of a distance I could run in an hour. The thing was that my hamstring was about as tight as they come after the kick as workout from yesterday. After running two miles in a decent tempo my legs had it but I managed to push myself for another 2.3 miles before I gave in and gave them a 7 minutes rest. The last 10 minutes of my cardio I did a sprint interval at a speed of 10.5 30 sec on and 30 sec off and when I was done I was finished!

After I picked Mira up from school we went to an old friend of mine for lunch and a good long chat while Mira was playing with the cuties Maltese puppy!

And now we waaaaaant one 😉

Me and woods

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Malin

I went for a 8k run this morning it was warm, long and hard but still absolutely beautiful. My legs were a bit stiff from yesterdays workout and I will admit that I am not the best to make sure I stretch out properly afterwards. So when I had about 2k left my hamstrings was screaming and the only thing I wanted to do was to lay down in the green grass and let my hammies relax but I kept on going because I knew the feeling of completion when I finally got home is unbeatable!

You are only as good as your last game!

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Malin

I mentioned last week that I was on a roll with my running and that I had my fastest run ever, 10K under 48 minutes and it felt goooood. The thing is that we always tell the kids, especially Knut as he is doing travel hockey and soccer that we are very proud of them and we think that they are awesome and we let them thrive on the moment. But as soon as the moment is over we also tell them “you are only as good as you last game”. I can pat my own back a million times but that will take me nowhere, it is time to get over myself so I’ve set a new goal!

I am going to run 10K under 45 minutes! Yes, I know it is 3 minutes faster and I know it will not happened this week but I am aiming for end of April. In fact I went for a run this morning. My plan was to run 6 miles but after 3 I knew I wasn’t able to keep the same tempo for another 3 as I am still very tired from yesterdays crazy workout. But I don’t give up that easy so instead of keep on running I started doing sprints at 9.5 m/h for a full minute (I was running for about 1.20 minutes in total) and then I walked for 30 sec for another two miles.

I’m not completely satisfied with todays work even though I worked my ass off. I guess I can for sure stop patting my back now as I was not even close to personal best but I will look forward and focus on my new goal!

My arms are falling off!

Video

Today we worked upper body and I think everyone was in the same mood as the weather outside as the rain has been poring down for the last couple of days, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t worked hard.

We started out with some basic abs/shoulder work; Leg raises, crunching with the legs up into the air, plank to push up and push up everything done for 30 second with no rest 3 times through.

Then we moved into the serious stuff…

You start by stretching your backside and then you walkout your arms out in front of you and hold that position before walking your feet back into the stretch again. We did this for about 5-7 reps and finished in a 30 second plank before turning around and did the same thing back.

Then we did a 6 exercise circuit were we mixed arms and cardio and let me tell you, I love when John mixes in the cardio when we are working with weights. We stayed at each station for 30 seconds and then we have 15 seconds to move to the next one before it started. After every finished circuit John gave us a minute break. (We also did ropes with both arms, it’s a killer)

To bring the heart rate down and give the screaming arms a rest we went back on our mats to work on our abs again, we kept on working for time instead of reps.

As John was having us do “Bear walks” and “Crab walks” Amy shouted out…We are not teenagers, we should not be doing this!!” But even though they don’t look that hard they are very deceiving, ask anyone of the gals!

After this craziness we went back on arms/cardio with the same setup of 30 seconds on and 15 second off…

To be perfectly honest…if I can do anything by tomorrow I’ll be surprised. I think I’ll have to go for the stairmaster because I have nothing left in my arms and it’s only 2pm!!

As requested, My Blue Danger…

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Malin

I have been asked where I got my “Blue Danger”. I actually got them from Road Runner sport, a store I really recommend if you are buying shoes and want to have them fitted. You start begin with standing on some kind of electronic surface that measuring the pressure of your feet. Then they let you run on a treadmill and they study your stride and how the foot touches the ground. They also take into account if you have any issues i.e. knee problems, hip, back etc. then they will bring out shoes that will match your requirement. This is by far the most comfortable shoe I ever owned but no one have ever before checked out my feet either!

Funny enough both Laura and me has very high arches and these shoes was just the best fit for both of us!

Mizuno Wave Inspire 9

I don’t do breaks!!

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Malin

So I have decided it is not the spinning dude that is the problem it is the songs he put in the speakers! Out of the entire hour I recognized two songs and I tell you, I am not a teenager anymore, I am 34 years old and have trying to keep up with whatever songs that’s been playing on the radio. Maybe it is because I’m foreigner; hmm I don’t know, going to have to ask the ”wife” 😉 .

But the class was definitely better this time around. He was telling us when to dial it up, when to do sprints and so on which was also needed because the songs did not make any sense. My other issue was that he kept putting on this weird songs for his so-called “brakes” that made me feel like I was back in junior high doing a slow dance at the monthly school dance, how are you suppose to spin to that?! I did my best and kept my heartbeat going for the hour and I came out on the other side with not a great workout but an ok one. But I’m seriously thinking about doing something else on Tuesdays or he needs to update the music.

After the spinning class me and Laura went upstairs to catch up on the treadmill and check this out, she got herself a pair of her own “Blue danger” so you better watch out for that blue light that will be pass you by when you’re out on the tracks, it’s either me or Laura you just have to figure out which one 😉