My new toy... & Rev Abs winner!

Last week my mom called. My christmas present was delivered. It came in too big of a box for her to want to wrap under the tree & she thought it was too heavy to lift. So.... she called me & told me to pick it up, I could have my christmas present early!

You know what that is!!! My new bike trainer!

I was so excited & with the drama continuing between Kevin & I, I decided to take a shot at putting it together myself yesterday.  Decided against figuring out the whole how to put a bike on it part until today.

my beautiful white & pink specialized dolce elite!

After a few tears, and a u-tube video search I managed to get my bike on the trainer, without the man! HA, take that! I then rode for 43 minutes while watching my DVRd Desperate Housewives from Sunday night. This thing is gonna be awesome. It wasn't too loud, it was a nice smooth ride, and will certainly make improving my cycling over the winter much easier! One question, am I supposed to be shifting gears to make it harder at times? I can't wait to actually try out one of the spinervals dvds i have!

Running? I didn't go again today. The knee is starting to feel better, but my anterior tib is tender. I've been wearing my compression socks and it seems to be helping, oh and using that foam roller. I'm going to aim for my tempo run tomorrow, hopefully all goes well!

As for the Rev Abs

Lucky girl is.....

Amber @ This is the life!

She will get the complete Rev Abs package! Amber please email me your address to sgrigely at hotmail dot com & I'll ship it right out to you!

Don't forget Mike's giveaway at 26.2 is my cooldown for an Ipod shuffle HERE

Rev Abs Review & Giveaway!

A while back I was given the opportunity to review the new Rev Abs work out program. Originally, I wanted to do the 90 day program, show you my before vs after, get you all excited about the product, then giveaway the system to one of you. Unfortunatley my half marathon training, and personal life drama derailed that plan. Instead of waiting for me to finish the program, I decided to share with you what I think so far, and allow one of you to join me in the revolution.

I have always been disappointed in my midsection. One of my favorite saying was always "Theres Abs in there somewhere!" I know that core strength is so important in running, and especially swimming, so I really wanted to attack this over the off season to be stronger come spring/summer.

Rev Abs was created by Brett Hoebel, who is brazilian martial artist with a killer 6 pack. He also knows what hes talking about. He has an undergraduate degree in premed in Biomedical Science and has completed post graduate studies in functional strength training, nutrition, yoga, and holistic health. He has certifications in personal training, nutrition & lifestyle coaching, metabolic typing nutrition, C.H.E.K. holistic kinesiology, and hatha yoga. 

check out this video on Rev Abs

What I like?

• The variety. There are 7 DVDs and 2 of them have 2 workouts on 1. You follow 2 - 45 day plans that are mapped out in the kit on an easy to follow calendar.
• The easy to follow materials. Theres a booklet with more information on Brett & the Plan. They explain commonly used terms in a small glossary, They give other tips & tricks, then have you follow through a fit-test to complete pre & post Rev Abs
• The extras. It came with a set of body calipers to measure body fat & a tape measure to record inches. We all know this is a great way to track progress. They also strongly suggest taking pictures (I had Kevin take these for me).
• The workouts. They were definitely challenging & didn't contain the typical Ab moves you see in most videos. They were mixed up with new moves and showed ways to adapt them easier or harder depending on your level. The music was good, and the energy of the people working out (& Brett), was motivating(although there was this one girl who made ridiculous faces the whole time).
• The Ab angles. This program targets your Abs in 6 different angles, as opposed to the typical 2 in most programs. 1. upper flexion 2. lower flexion 3. double flexion 4. side flexion 5. twist 6. back

What I didn't like

• The nutrition plan. I don't like to follow any program's 'set' nutrition. The calorie totals were pretty low for someone who works out hard (around 1000). In my opinion, you need proper fuel to keep your metabolism going, especially when training or working out hard.  Some of the recipes looked good, but I have yet to try any.
• The video length. Since I wasn't using these videos as my sole workout, I felt like they were a little long. If I spent an hour or so at the gym in the morning, I don't want to spend 45 more minutes when I get home sweating it up before bed. For me, I would prefer around 20-30 min. I guess I could just cut short on the last round. 
• Jumping jacks. I know there are only so many ways to get your HR up, but seriously everytime I jump in my house my wine cabinet shakes & makes me nervous. I did the jumping jacks adaptation & was ok. I would prefer just a straight out strength video. Screw the cardio.

Overall? I think its a good addition to my workout regimen to help me build some core strength, but I'm not a hard core follower that will follow the plan to a "T". I'll leave that to my brother & P90X (which by the way is sold by the same company that sells Rev Abs).

Want to win a Rev Abs package and work your way to a slimmer midsection? I have one Rev Abs set to give away to a lucky reader!

How to win

leave a seperate comment for each entry

1. Be or become a follower of my blog

2. Visit the Rev Abs website HERE and tell me what you like about the program

3. Follow Rev Abs on facebook HERE and let them know I sent you!

4. Follow beach body on twitter @beachbody

5. Follow Running to Health on facebook HERE

6. Post this to your blog, facebook, or twitter (1 entry each)

You have until 12/14 to enter, good luck!

That time of year...

WOW! I cannot believe I am over the 100 follower mark! Thank you everyone for visiting my blog, welcome new followers. I really appreciate every comment, support, and advice that you give me along the way!

Its the time of year again creeping up that I hate. Winter. I probably shouldn't live in New England, but unfortunately moving will never be is not right now an option. Kevin likes snowboarding, and all things winter, and I don't think I'll ever successfully drag him away. The thing I hate right now? Waking up to darkness, going to the gym in darkness, and returning from the gym in darkness. I hate that it doesn't start to get light until about 7am. It makes it soooo hard to drag my ass out of bed and get moving. I am imagining soon it will be dark when I leave work, and I will want to immediately want to get in pajamas and take a coma on the couch. I need to figure out a way to beat this since my race training will be throughout the winter. I've heard rumors that there is such thing as a clock that wakes you up with sunshine, not sure how I feel about it or if it really exists. What do you do to keep doing through the depressing darkness?

My speedwork run was awesome yesterday. The first speedwork that I didn't die need an unauthorized rest. I was supposed to do a Rev Abs workout when I got home, but I got home from work late and was not motivated at all. This morning I skipped a cross training session (my legs are still feeling sore!), and I'll do the Rev Abs tonight. I did my first video monday, and as far as fitness videos go, I was impressed! First of all, the Rev Abs guy, Brett Hoebel, has an AMAZING & I mean FREAKING AMAZING set of Abs. WOW. and he was energetic and kept me going the whole time. I was pretty impressed, not to mention tired by the end, and I burned a little over 300 calories, sweet! I'll keep at it, sticking to their schedule as best as I can. I'll be the Rev Abs review for the average person who has a life and can't dedicate it to one workout religiously.

Don't Forget!

My CEP giveaway is ending soon, actually today! Make your final entries HERE & I will pick the winner out tomorrow! Good luck!

Post Run Treats

I had a good night sleep, and was better hydrated this weekend for my long run. I mapped out a 10 miler starting at Walgreens. Usually, I start from my house, but I have some yucky hills around there, plus ending near Walgreens would allow me to pick up my prescription and a post run treat at Starbucks. Do you give yourself any rewards after a nice, long run? I went with a non-fat pumpkin spice latte, YUM.

The run went well, I was by myself again, brain was all over the place thinking things out and looking at all the leaves falling and halloween decorations out for trick or treating tonight. My knees were a little achy (reminding me of why I need to do my strength training). I wore my new pink running skirt, pink CEP compression socks, a short sleeve shirt and arm sleeves, and don't worry, I remembered the glide this week. The running skirt was awesome! Not sure how flattering it was, but I thought it was cute & isn't that what matters? I saw a friend's mom who was out for a walk & I said hello and waved, don't think she recognized me in my running get up. My badass Oakleys can be a little misleading. As I was struggling the last 3 miles or so, I made a deal with myself. If I finished in less than 2 hours, I would go home and buy some new Bondi Bands. I really wanted those damn things, so I pushed through to finish in 1:57:40 @ 11:45 pace, which is almost exactly the pace I was scheduled to run today.

After stopping for my prescription at Walgreens (plus a cool Halloween decoration that I had seen out on my run that was 50% off), and Starbucks for my latte, I can home excited to buy my Bondi bands! Then as I was checking my email, I saw that Road Runner Sports is having a special 25% off for VIPs today only. Hmmmm super tempting. I went to the site to check out my sneakers, and saw they have a pre-order for the Asics GT-2160 10.5 wide in a color besides blue! Stupid to be so excited? Maybe, but they have had nothing but blue in wides FOREVER. I filled up my "shopping cart" with sneakers, socks, sport beans, running pants, and a sports bra. I haven't clicked buy yet.... I am still contemplating. The Bondi Bands however, I picked out 3 for me & 2 for my sister as part of her christmas present (hoping she is not reading). Those I ordered since I made my goal fair & square.

I'd KILL to have Abs like these!

Another exciting thing, is that I was recently given the opportunity to try out a new workout system from the makers of P90X & Insantiy, called Rev Abs. It's a 90 day program with 8 different DVDs to work primarily on core strengthening, but overall strengthening as well. The best part is, they also gave me a set to giveaway to one of you. I'm going to take my pre- Rev Abs measurements & pictures today & begin the program on Monday. I figure it will be a perfect after work stress reliever, & since most of the DVDs are 40 min or under, it won't take up too much of my night. I'll post some updates along the way as I try things out, and at the end of the 90 days give a full review with before/after pictures. Then we will have a giveaway so one of you can see what you think.

My plan for this weeks workouts is:
Monday: AM- elliptical @ gym, PM- Rev Abs Total Strength & Mercy Abs
Tuesday: AM- Speedwork Run  PM- Rev Abs Fire up your Abs
Wednesday: AM- elliptical  PM- Rev Abs Power Intervals
Thursday: AM- 5 mile Tempo run  PM- Rev Abs Total strength & Mercy abs
Friday: AM- off  PM- Rev Abs Fire up your Abs
Saturday: Rev Abs Power Intervals
Sunday: Long run 9 miles

Wish me luck on sticking to it! Have a fun & safe Halloween! Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!