Amy Reinink

This morning, for the first time since before ski season, I packed these in a bag:

I’m still fighting a killer ear and throat infection, so I’ll just be kicking. But today, I will swim.

I know it’s been a few days, but can I tell you about my most recent group run last Tuesday?

I want to tell you about it in part because it was the first run in a long time during which I saw the number “seven” on the pace portion of my Garmin. Like, in the minutes part of it, not seconds.

I also want to tell you about how good it felt to run really hard, and to feel like running really hard a few other times in recent weeks has led to measurable progress. It was my fourth run with the Hampton Roads Runners group that meets in front of the H.K., my favorite seafood restaurant in Virginia Beach (which happens to be across the street from my house). Here’s what those runs have looked like:

March 27: 36:27, 8:52-minute miles.

April 3: No Garmin. By rough calculation, 8-minute miles and change.

April 17: 34:58, 8:23-minute miles.

April 24: 33:38, average pace of 8:02 min/mile. The last mile was 7:43-minute-mile pace. And overall, that’s not eight and change—that’s eight and “just go ahead and keep those two pennies.” The last mile was a pace of 7:45-minute miles.

I’ve been pretty uninterested in pace in recent months, so it came as a surprise to me that I cared so much. But it was incredibly motivating to see that putting in just a little bit of work could yield real, measurable payback.

I’m in D.C. this week, and I’m sure the hills will wipe the motivated smile right off my face when I venture out into them tomorrow. But for now, I’m still kind of riding on the high from last week.

What’s motivating you this week?

Really, I can’t blame people for staring.

In my TRX class, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays in my local gym, it’s totally normal to see up to a dozen adults standing around what looks like a huge swing set, except instead of swings, there are long straps with handles at the end. Those insane adults are usually hanging from those straps by either their feet or hands, and are assuming postures that look like typical workout moves—planks, chest-presses, squats—except made more difficult by the fact that one or more of their limbs is suspended in the air via the straps.

For example, in most classes, we do side planks, in which we put each foot into a strap, then hold a plank position while balancing only on our forearm or hand.

Photo credit: TRX.

I can’t blame other gym-goers for staring as they walk by our studio.

Kids, I have been *obsessed* with this class ever since starting it in January. It’s unlike anything else you’d do in the gym (well, unlike anything else I’d do in the gym—if you do stuff like this, I would like to work out with you). The suspension training engages every muscle in your body in each movement, since it relies on gravity and your own body weight to make each move harder.  And it’s easy to adapt. To make a movement harder, you just increase the angle by walking your feet in or out. To make it easier, you walk your feet the other way.

This guy has made the row much, much more difficult with an insane angle. Photo credit: TRX.

As you can tell from the photos, if you have your own straps, you can do this anywhere. I do not have my own straps. They cost between $150 and $200. My birthday is May 20. Juuuust sayin’ …

But seriously: This is an incredible workout. Like many once-injured runners, I’m kind of obsessed with core strength, stability and balance, and TRX improves all of the above. Plus, it’s really fun! When’s the last time you hung in the air like a little kid on monkey bars? (If you regularly hang in the air like a little kid on monkey bars, I would like to hang out with you).

Have you tried TRX? What’s your take? What’s your favorite TRX move?

Full disclosure: I got this workout move from Kelly Osbourne (I KNOW).

But I couldn’t resist sharing it here, because it’s a killer, and is so simple! It’s called the wobbly push-up, and involves placing a Body Bar on top of a BOSU (blue side up); getting into push-up position with your hands grasping the bar; and doing a push-up, trying to avoid emptying the contents of your stomach and/or falling sideways on your face while you do so.

Photo credit: SHAPE magazine.

The move was outlined in a SHAPE magazine feature a few months ago, and I’ve been doing it and adapting it (try lifting one leg and adding a tuck for five reps) ever since.

Have you found a workout move that kicks your butt in the best way possible? Share it here by posting a comment below.

Stay tuned for stories about my most recent run with my new running group, and about my new workout obsession, TRX!

When we first moved to Virginia Beach in January, I posted a few photos of the beach near our house, where I enjoyed slow, solo runs on the hard-pack sand. The main obstacle was protecting my face from wind-burn as the brisk, icy Bay breeze whipped across it. When I’m in D.C., running up a difficult hill on city streets, I fantasize about the simple beauty of this run.

Fast-forward to this past weekend, when that same beach looked like this:

Warm sunshine and 80-degree temperatures led to huge crowds at my formerly private beach. Huge crowds led to chopped-up, loose sand—a far cry from the hard-pack I enjoyed all winter. And chopped-up, loose sand led to a need for some adjustment on my part.

I spent the first mile cursing the ground slipping away under my feet, and internally complaining about how if I’d known the sand would be like this, I would have chosen a different route. In short, I spent a lot of time wishing my run was more in line with my expectations, and less like it actually was. I sorted through my mental playlist of favorite mantras, but they fell flat. I thought about turning around and heading home, trying again the next day.

Then, I decided to lose the mantras, the expectations and the other internal chatter, and just try to put one foot in front of the other. I did that for a minute, then another minute, and then suddenly, it was time to turn around.

This wasn’t a new life lesson for me, or a novel thought. But it was a nice reminder that when you think you can’t go on, you can usually get pretty far by the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other.

So this new running group I’ve been palling around with every Tuesday night has runs throughout the Virginia Beach area—sometimes, two or three runs in various places in a given day. Last night, I decided to meet the group for its 6:30 p.m. hill workout at Mount Trashmore, which is literally the only hill in town.

(By the way, Mount Trashmore isn’t a dis, but is the actual formal name of a park built around a 60-foot hill created by compacting layers of solid waste and clean soil. I love this about Virginia Beach—that it’s unpretentious enough to have a park named Mount Trashmore.).

I got there a little early, and was stunned to see literally dozens of runners waiting at the foot of the hill, none of whom I recognized from my Tuesday-night runs. There were moms with baby joggers, gray-haired guys stretching out, lanky-looking dudes wearing Newtons. The Newton dudes were bouncing on the balls of their feet, like caged jungle cats waiting to pounce on something. This was going to be interesting.

The hill consists of one short, steep slope and another long, gradual hill, and rather than running what I consider a hill workout, in which one sprints up a hill, then jogs/limps the flats or downhills, the group seemed to be running the loops at a somewhat consistent speed. The leaders (the Newton guys and a few others) were planning to do one warmup lap around the lake, then do six or seven hill loops, each one a little more than a third of a mile. I haven’t really run hills since moving to Virginia Beach (most of my workout time in D.C. so far has been spent skiing the hills, not running them), and my quads and lungs reminded me of that fact fairly quickly.

After the first lap, I fell in with some very chatty women about my age. I’m not one of those people who detests chatting while running in all instances. But in this particular instance, I sort of needed to just put my head down and push through it. I probably should have fallen back a little, claiming exhaustion (certainly the case) or a nagging pain. Instead, I wheezed out responses (“Ima freelancewriter. Healthandfitness. Yeah. Izzz fun. Heh.”), and tried to turn questions back to them as soon as possible (“Whaddyou do?”).

I stopped after about four laps, per my plan. A group member waiting at the top of the last hill gave me a high-five. Then, this conversation happened. And like Kim Kardashian declaring she’d like to run for mayor of her hometown, Glendale, I am not making this up:

Him, grinning: You should look at what you’ve got on your shoulder.

Me, noting the giant booger smeared on my Brooks half-zip: Ha! That’s awesome.

Him: Don’t congratulate me. I didn’t do it!

Me: Nope. Just congratulating myself. That’s a good one.

Him: (Silence as he waits for me to do something about it).

Me: Welp, see you next time!

I tried, kids. And actually, it wasn’t too bad for my first time. I’d certainly go back again, but might tailor the workout to more of what I was looking for: Hill sprints, followed by downhill jog/limps. Maybe while wearing headphones, so I can wheeze and blow snot-rockets to my heart’s content, and maybe with plans to stick around and chat post-run. Maybe also with plans to change into a clean shirt.

Happy weekend!

*Editor’s note: The editor apologizes for her recent, unexplained absence from this blog. She is hoping that all of her virtual friends will do the thing that her best real-life, in-person friends do: Forgive her, and smile at her in a way that says: “You don’t have to tell me about your bad day. Would you like to go get some ice cream?”*

Last night, I enjoyed my third group run with the Hampton Roads Runners, the running group that meets across the street from my house every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for a 4.2-miler through my neighborhood. I had decided before the run to take it easy, and to run by feel, judging as I went whether I was going too hard.

Early in the run, that meant 8:30-minute miles with the guy leading the group. The route is flat, and I felt strong and energetic, and who was I to judge that?

Later in the run, that meant telling the guy—who did his best to adjust his pace to my failing legs, despite clearly wanting to run closer to 8-minute miles—that I felt terrible, and needed a break. Then, it meant stopping and leaning over in the universal sign for “Just stretching! And setting a new lap on my Garmin! Nothing to see here!” and waited to catch up (catch down?) with the next group. I enjoyed what felt like a much slower, chattier pace with some new friends, and finished feeling great.

Here’s the funny thing: My Garmin tells me that my pace was actually a totally consistent 8:23-minute miles for both laps. I attribute this consistency in part to the magic of the group run. Had I been running with just one person, stopping would have been a zero-default action that would have bummed me out for the rest of the run. As it was last night, I had lots of different pace groups, and lots of friendly faces to welcome me, before finding myself alone again—which is just how it is with my running group in Silver Spring.

Back at at H.K. on the Bay, the seafood restaurant where we meet for drinks and fish tacos after each run, I had the loveliest evening chatting with my new running buddies about races and work and the way the neighborhood comes to life in the summer. As I left, I thought about how lucky I am to have running as a way to make even the newest, strangest place feel like home. I’m still looking forward to reuniting with my Silver Spring running group when I’m back in that neck of the woods in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I’m feeling a little more settled in Virgina Beach.

Have you joined a running group as a way to make new friends, or to find a sense of community in a new place?

Longtime readers may remember that a couple years ago, my obsession with sports psychology led me to put together an inspiration board full of photos, race ads and magazine cutouts that motivated me to run.

My inspiration board, circa 2009.

The content of the board has changed since then, from Marine Corps Marathon ads to photos of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to quotes about working through injury, depending on my training goals. I disassembled the board before moving it to Virginia Beach, and noticed today that it’s still almost empty, except for some remnants from the ski season.

My current inspiration board: Full of opportunity.

My first impulse was to frantically page through the latest issue Runner’s World while eating my steel-cut oats this morning, looking for ads for the Philadelphia Half-Marathon, or the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, something, anything to fill the empty space.

Of course, I had it all backwards. I’m now kind of excited about the blank slate. Because the motivation board isn’t about creating goals, but about reminding yourself of what motivated you to get through your last long run, or what gets you to jump in the pool rather than turn around and hit the sauna. Since I can’t pin Eminem and Nicki Minaj to the board, it will have to remain a work in progress for now.

Do you have an inspiration board? If so, what’s pinned to it?

I am halfway through a “fury drill,” throwing one jab-cross combo after another at a pad while screaming at the top of my lungs, when I realize Krav Maga’s power.

Krav, the official hand-to-hand combat system for the Israeli military, is marketed as a way to get in shape and to learn self-defense techniques for practical, real-world scenarios. When I took an intro class at Krav Maga DC’s Chinatown gym, I learned that it’s also a great way to relieve stress. Who doesn’t feel a little better about her work day after beating the crap out of an inanimate object?

The Krav class is one of many cool assignments I’ve gotten to do for work recently, and I wanted to dedicate the rest of this post to lessons I’ve learned through writing those stories. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed experiencing them!

Story:  What to expect at a Krav Maga class, Washingtonian Well+Being blog

Takeaway: Your voice is your most powerful self-defense weapon. Your attacker will want you to be as quiet as possible. My instructor for the Israeli martial arts class uttered a low, guttural noise when he threw punches—I plan to emulate that noise if I’m ever fending off an attacker. Also, sometimes, it helps to punch something with all your might while screaming at the top of your lungs.

Story: Go easy on yourself: Cutting yourself a break once in a while can help you cut weight, WeightWatchers.com, March/April 2012

Takeaway: I’m pretty big on the topic of self-compassion, especially in terms of its role in working toward ambitious goals. This reminded me to make sure my self-talk is stuff I’d say to a good friend. (Things I would probably not tell a good friend—or a stranger, for that matter: “Good luck trying to keep up with that new running group after eating all those molasses cookies this weekend!”)

Story: Mind games: How honing your mental game can help your weight loss, WeightWatchers.com, March/April 2012

Takeaway: You can work on your mental game all the time—even when you’re doing mundane housework, like emptying the dishwasher. If you can keep your mind clear of inner whining while you’re folding the laundry or restocking the silverware drawer, just imagine what you can do at mile 19 of a long run!

Story: Tabata: The four-minute fat-burning workout, Washingtonian Well+Being blog

Takeaway: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is everywhere right now for a reason: It makes for a really good workout! I haven’t done a full Tabata circuit since taking this class, but I have incorporated short bursts of intense activity into my regular lifting workouts, doing 30 seconds of hurdles or box jumps in between traditional strength-training.

What new activities have you tried recently, and what have you taken away from them?

After a fun, fast group run on Tuesday night, we gathered at H.K. on the Bay, our favorite seafood restaurant, to do what runners do. That is, to sit around in our own sweat; drink wine and beer to further dehydrate ourselves; and talk about all the races we want to do. The following race lineup represents my wish-list for 2012. It’s not a workable race calendar just yet, but it could easily become one.

• Frederick Half-Marathon, Frederick, Md., May 6. I’ve decided to wait until the last possible minute to sign up for this. I have a bunch of travel and some other obstacles between now and May 6. But if I can manage to squeeze in a few longish runs between now and then, I’ll totally be there.
• The 29th Annual Jack King Ocean Swim, a one-miler on June 24 in Virginia Beach, Va. I haven’t been in the pool since before ski season. This might inspire me to get back in.
• Chris Greene Lake Cable Swim, Charlottesville, Va., July 14. I’ve done this before, and wasn’t wild about it—a cable swim in a lake was too much like a pool for my liking. But it’s close to lots of good camping, and could make for a nice combo weekend.
• Allen Stone Run-Swim-Run, Virginia Beach, July 21. 1K beach run, 1K ocean swim, 5K boardwalk run. How awesome does this sound? It’s like a triathlon, without the certainty of me getting passed by hundreds of weirdos in pointy bike helmets as I slowly pedal along on the mountain bike I rescued from a Dumpster!
• Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend.
• Daiquiri Deck Tropical Splash Open Water 5K Swim. Oh, how I love this low-key open-water swim in beautiful Siesta Key, Fla.! I’m going back for thirds after enjoying the swim in 2010 and 2011.
• And finally, the Philadelphia Half-Marathon on Nov. 16, the only one I’m actually signed up for.

Have you done any of these races before? Any thoughts, positive or negative?