Getcha some!

Could this day be any better?  Hope that you are loving this 65 degree, blue sky weather as much as I am.  The marathon team and other fellow runners met bright and early at New Balance of Knoxville this morning for our weekly training run.  I decided to do 8 miles and they all felt great.  I had a good interval pace going on and the weather  complimented it perfectly.  After my run, I headed to the gym to go to my biweekly kickboxing class so that I could get an upper body work out.  Much to my surprise, we did way more cardio and kicks than we usually do and my pitiful legs were screaming for mercy. 

To make it a completely non-sedentary Saturday, my friend Laura called me after the gym to invite me to go walking on the Townsend bike trail with her and her 2 year old.  We did a little over 4 miles and since we pushed a stroller, we got an even better workout.   The best part?  I do not even feel tired or sore and I virtually almost did a half marathon today. I'm improving! And, the weather could not have been more perfect and this day has just been great.   So, getcha some!   See below for a few pictures from the run this morning.

Knoxville Track Club at NB of Knox

The team and myself.  Representing the Big Orange.

The elite front of the pack passing me and their second loop.  One of those runners is a two time CHKM winner.

Dreams with a Deadline

Goals. We all have them, or at least know people who have them.  Today, Chris O'Hearn put it in a new perspective and said that goals are simply dreams with deadlines.  Such a gem of a quote.  After meeting with him on Monday, I realized that a lot of the goals I have set for myself are mostly set for the approval or acceptance of other people.  So I've spent the last couple of days revising my goals and thinking of goals that are for myself without worrying what anyone else says or thinks.  So the next time you set a goal, just consider it a dream with a deadline. 

Today, I met with Chip for our weekly training session and boy, am I feeling it!  We did a lot of strength work and even brought out the TRX suspension system.  My poor arms are so sore it even hurts to drive, but can't wait for my arms to start looking cut!  They are getting there.  After my workout, I went on a nippy 3 mile walk with my momma on Townsend's bike trail.  It was super cold at first, but warmed right up once we started moving.  Tomorrow I am loading up my boxing gloves (pink ones of course) for my weekly kickboxing class, and will also train with Phil Bevins at Parkwest Therapy Center.  I'm so excited and as of right now, I weigh less than I did when I started high school.  Woohoo!

Kids Run

If today was any colder, I may have gotten frostbite, but it was a blessed day indeed.  The Covenant Health Kids Run was held this morning at the Knoxville Zoo, so Ashley and myself bundled up to go volunteer.  Upon arriving, we saw a "field mouse" scurry across the road while parking, so that sort of kicked off the entire day.  We got to meet and greet hundreds of kids who were all in their biggest coats and ready to race for one mile.  Ashley and I found a niche by the photo op section where families took photos with the mascots.  The team and I even joined in on the action.  Before the start of the race, Missy introduced us all and led all the kids and their parentals in a warm up dance:

The Biggest Winner Team

Flexing my muscles with Eddie Rabbitt.

Knees, toes, knees, hips, move a little, have some fun.  Warming up!

After such a fun morning, I headed home to Townsend and went on a 3 mile walk with my mother.  My lovely mother also went grocery shopping for me today so I have my meals for about the next 2 weeks.  Thank you Momma!  If you have not already done so, go register for the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon.  And don't forget that the day before the marathon, the kids will have another run where they too will finish on the fifty yard line at Neyland Stadium and get medals.  Get the whole family involved.

"You look like a Christmas cookie"

Eating out was a success.  We ended up venturing to Texas Roadhouse and I ordered a nice 6 ounce filet but requested that it not be seasoned or marinated.  My side items were a plain baked potato with baked beans.  My levels of self control were definitely tested, but I was so proud of my own willpower.  Thank the good Lord that I have a strong support system like my best friend Ashley because she wouldn't even let us bring the bread to the table.  And since she is a vegetarian, she also had to be picky when ordering her food, hence her order of a sirloin kabob minus the sirloin.  She also took the adventure to Townsend with me to go "hiking", but the road was closed, so we ended up doing a brisk walk on the bike trail.  Based upon her red leggings and green socks, I informed her that she looked like a Christmas cookie.  The photo below is Ashley with her precious outfit.

 She was definitely styling.  Today was also a super exciting day.  I woke up early to get to the gym to kickbox, only to find out that I had mixed my days up and there was no class.  Sad day.  I ended up going to the dietician's office to weigh myself and as of today I have lost a grand total of 25 pounds.  Yay me!  After that, I drove over to Runner's Market to see what sales were going on and to buy some Clif bars.  At 11, I had another training session with Chip.  We hit the ground rolling and it was a great workout!  I even met a famous person today; Anthony Toribio, who is a defensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs was working out today and spoke to Chip during our session.  Too cool!  It was also discovered today that I am gaining some nice muscle in my arms and legs.

 I was reading Julie Morris' blog today about how great it is to find a support system who will be a constant motivation and backbone in your life and I am so blessed to have Ashley to support me emotionally and Chip to push me physically.  Definitely would be 25 pounds heavier without them in my life.  So find someone who will take your fitness goals seriously and someone who will encourage you to give your best even when you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It is totally worth it, because YOU are totally worth it.

Don't Kill Yourself

It is always inspiring when your marathon coach emails you to tell you good luck on your 5k today, and then ends the email with "don't kill yourself".  Thank you, Missy Kane.  Yes, I managed to do a 5k this afternoon.  My time was not up to my standards, which only means I'll have to work twice as hard next time.  Thankfully, a girl from Townsend was there to meet up with me and I ran with her for a while until she just took off.  She was nice enough to come back and run with me to the finish which was so incredibly kind.  After the race, the sweetest man came up to me to ask me about my time and offer some words of encouragement.  He mentioned how he used to be approximately 150 pounds heavier and that he has used running to get back in good shape.  Such an inspiring and motivating story.  Loved him!   Even if it wasnt my best race today, at least I exercised....without killing myself.

Now, I'm off on another "adventure".  My very best friend and myself are going out to eat.  At a restaurant. Ever since starting this program, I have had no desire to eat restaurant food so this is going to be a challenge.  Luckily, another dear friend who has lost around 60 pounds works at the place we are going to, so I am counting on his expertise to guide me in making a good food choice.  This trip will be a good test of self discipline and self control, so it is kind of a big deal for me.  No worries, because I'm hardcore, and no, I won't kill myself.

Hoop there it is!

Hello bloggers!  What a productive past couple of days it has been.  Tuesday afternoon our wonderful team appeared on Live at Five at Four, and we were great.  We looked spectacular and we all had some weight loss.  I haven't enjoyed these snow days too much, but it was back to the grind today because spring semester began for me.  I have a pretty challenging schedule, but I have full confidence that I'm gonna nail it.  This morning I woke up and packed my lunch as if I was starting Kindergarten.  I had my snacks, and my sandwich all tucked away in my Vera lunchbox and I was off for my big day.  Following a long day at school I headed to the gym.

Spent the first hour at the gym doing my usual kickboxing class.  Loved that of course.  Then I marched down to the basketball courts and asked if I could play the next game.  The boys willingly let me and I took pride that I was the only girl among the group.  I contributed a few points here and there for my team and even managed to nag a few rebounds.  I haven't played ball since the 6th grade, so its good to know I still have some game.  Basketball is really a tougher workout than you might think because you are constantly running and moving.  After I wowed the gym with skills that could rival Pat Summitt, I went to our group session with Chris.  Another fabulous night of his motivational words and encouragement.  We did some tough exercises with the stability balls, and worked a lot of our arm muscles.  Overall it was a great day, and I hope yours was too.  So, stop reading this and get out and move :)

Boston Bound

The snow is still pouring down.   It is really amazing how as a child I would wish for snow all the time, but now that I'm an adult and actually have things to do, I just wish for summer.  I missed my training appointment yesterday due to inclement weather and I had planned on going to kickboxing this morning, then to film with Missy Kane for her Fit and Fun tv show.  Thanks to the snow, all of these things were nipped in the bud.  Hopefully some of the snow will melt and I can make it out for our appearance on Live at Five at Four today.

See that?  That is my confirmation email for volunteering at the Boston Marathon this year.  The most famous marathon in the world falls on my birthday weekend, so I thought it would be a great thing to apply for.  I set my alarm to get up early just so I could have dibs on being on of the first applicants.  I was number 14.   Go me!  But volunteers get a behind the scenes view of how everything works, and they also get to see the elite who run in the front.  Every volunteer gets to go to the post race party and they even get an Adidas volunteer jacket.  I love the idea of all the race perks, but no sore legs.  I will know on March 18 if I got picked or what I got picked for.  Hopefully in three months, I'll be Boston Bound. 

Top of the morning to y'all.  I went to the gym today for a class called Body Combat.  Told you I would!  It incorporated a lot of the kickboxing punches I have been doing, but added some self defense and karate in too.  Our instructor Jackie was the absolute stuff!  So much fun and kept us all motivated.  And of course, I saw the sweet little lady who convinced me to go too.  I really need to get her name because I feel guilty calling her sweet little lady, but for now, that is what she will be affectionately referred to as. 

Tomorrow I am meeting Chip for a training session if the weather will allow it.  Praying for strength since my body has had four rigorous past days.  I go back to school this week too so I am anxious to see how I can adapt to going back to a set schedule each week.  I know that with dedication I can make it happen and come April 3, I'm going to be unstoppable at the marathon.  Check out the pictures below for some snapshots from our training session with Chris.

                             This is the classy way to do a crunch.

                             Pam, myself, Katherine, and Jules. 

Feeling a little down this week about yourself or your body?  Read Psalm 45:11  and Psalm 139:14.  I read those two verses today and they were a little pick-me-up for my self image.  Remember that God created the world and saw that it was good, then made us and saw that it was VERY good.

Non-Sedentary Saturday

Okay, I'm not going to lie.  I had to be at the Health Shoppe in Suburban Plaza today before 8am.  But when I awoke to see that it was 7:19 and snowing outside, I was very much tempted to crawl back in bed and just blame the weather.  None of that nonsense!  I took a shower so fast, the water did not even have time to get warm, then threw on any clothes I could find and had to drive like a grandma to avoid wrecking on the icy roads.  Finally made it and was so excited that almost the entire team was able to make it.  Did I mention it was snowing?   We walked carefully down to the greenway, which was made visible by footprints left by the front of the pack.  Our team did our own thing and just went at our own pace.  I was a little worried at first because so many cars were sliding on the roads and we were running right beside them.  Obviously, we lived to tell about it.  No snow is gonna stop the biggest winners from "losing".  Afterwards, we had a nice little time of fellowship at the Starbucks next door.  Join us next week for our training run!

It was snowing so hard!

The infamous slippery road.

Trying to get warm at Starbucks.

Following the 6 miles of our training run, I headed to the gym for my kickboxing class.  I was so excited to use my new pink gloves and everyone commented on how my nails, wraps, gloves, shirt, and shorts were all pink.  Apparently they were uninformed that pink is my signature color.  I was grateful to spend an hour punching the bag and releasing some stress/energy.  The sweetest little lady in my kickboxing class has convinced me to go back tomorrow to the Body Combat class.  Not sure that "combat" is a word in my fitness vocabulary, but we will see!  Looking forward to it.

Tough as Nails...Pink Nails!

Woo this morning was a meeting with the wonderful Barbara Foster, the dietician at Covenant Health.  Today's meeting had a much better vibe and not as much tears/kleenex.  As of today I have officially lost 21 pounds.  Go me!  Ms. Barbara said she was very proud of me for sticking to my meal plans and for having such huge success.  She even gave me a Bruce Pearl shoutout.  See below.

Hey Bruce, I really wish your team was #1 like me.  Anywho, so following that, I decided to try a new group fitness class today.  Kickboxing.  I've participated in some forms of TurboKick before, but I have only ever kicked air.  Today I wrapped my hands and put on some boxing gloves to kick/hit/punch/jab the bag for about an hour.  Afterwards, I traveled down to Dick's Sporting Goods to purchase some pink gloves to take to classes from now on.  I figured that my gloves had to be pink since they were covering up my beautiful pink nails, and of course pink gloves match virtually  my entire wardrobe.  So good ole Kelsey has been a tough little gal today.  Now it is my time to unwind and relax because I am being treated to a one hour full body massage today.  Yay :)

These are SO me. 

2011: Bring It On!

To me, New Year's is just another day.  I rarely make plans for New Year's Eve, and I would not dream of making any kind of resolution.  But since starting the Biggest Winner, we have been talking a lot about setting goals.  Obviously, my ultimate goal would be to drop down to my target weight and win this competition, but we have been taught to make smaller goals that all lead to the bigger picture.  So I began a list of things I would like to accomplish.  You can call them goals, resolutions, or crazy ambitions but these are things that are important to me.  As follows:

1.  Run all the way up Chesnut Hill.
2.  Weigh less than 200 pounds.
3.  Be comfortable wearing a sports bra and cutoff shirt to the gym
4.  Ride 50 miles in one day on my road bicycle
5.  Complete a half marathon in less than 2:30
6.  Be forced to buy a complete new wardrobe
7.  To climb the Alpine Tower
8.  To be able to do a training run with friends Tahnee and Jaena.
9.  Run a 5k in under 30 minutes.
10. Be the Biggest Winner.
I know that with time and training, then my effort will pay off and I can slowly start marking these goals off my list.  I'm not stopping til I have completed all 10 of these goals.  Can I do it?  Yes. I. Can.

Chimney Tops

This photo does not even begin to do my recent adventure justice.  One of my closest friends from high school, Emily Holloway, came to visit me and after a super girly day of shopping and manicures, we decided to have a sleepover.  After a night of girly fun, we woke up and decided to trek to the mountains and do a little hike.  We settled on hiking the Chimney Tops since it was only 4 miles round trip.  Longest 4 miles of my life!  More than half of the trail was covered in slippery ice and we were constantly gasping and squealing when we would slide.  After a long 2 miles, we finally made it to the rock face in which we had to climb to actually see the view.  The above picture was taken at the bottom of the rock, and we managed to make it halfway before calling it quits.  We still had a spectacular view and the pride of a job well done on climbing dangerous mountains with fresh manicures.  By the time we made it down to our car, it was almost completely dark and we had bruised butts. Overall it was a great trip and we were so blessed to have fun while exercising.  Look on for more pictures from the trip.

Climbing back down the rock face.  Notice pink fingernails.

Resting a little over halfway there.  (And waiting on Emily to climb up)

My attractive bruise the next day after falling.