Your WOD, courtesy of me!

All right everyone- grab some comfortable workout clothes and a water bottle. 

You might want to add some BCAAs (we all know that I can be long winded 

so you will need the extra energy) because I'm about to 

WORK YOU OUT!!! 

This week I took my kids to Las Vegas to visit my sister and brother-in-law. This was the first vacation that I have gone on since I started clean eating that I didn't pack my own food. My sister keeps a lot of treats on hand, but overall she cooks nutritiously. I made some trail mix and protein balls for the car trip and I brought along fruits and veggies to munch on. It hasn't been a total free for all, but I will admit that I have indulged in my sister's chocolate chip cookies and Dove dark chocolates one too many times this week (Mike just read that part and now I'm in trouble for not bringing him any).  I really wish that I didn't love chocolate so much!

While in Las Vegas, my sister and I walked every morning, which was good exercise for me on this taper week. I also ran two four mile runs and did two low impact tabata workouts. I tried to make up my own tabata workout, based on what we do in Monica's class, but it was kind of a disaster.  I texted Monica and she emailed me an outline of one of her routines and that went much better.  I also had a Pilates outline and I did that one day this week.  Today I did my last "long run" of 9 miles.  I have had a nasty cough and congestion for the past week.  My lungs felt like they were on fire the entire run, however, when I got home I realized that I had done the run one minute faster per mile than the last time I ran it in March.  I don't know what's up with that.  I hope that I get over this cold/allergies before the marathon on Saturday.

Have you worked up a sweat yet?  If you need to burn a few more calories, read on:  

I have mentioned before my love for tabata and kettlebell classes.  I was instructed by Evelyn that I was not to do either one of these classes for the 2 weeks before the marathon.  She texted it to me in all caps, so I decided that I better adhere to her instructions (I will do the low impact version at home, though, because I have issues with obedience and working out).  What is Tabata, you are probably not wondering.  Well, since I am only concerned about you getting in a good workout, I will fill you in.  Tabata is a form of HIIT (high intensity interval training) in which you work at a level 10 for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds.  Repeat these intervals 8 times for a total of 4 minutes.  Burpees, mountain climbers, and running from a bear are all level 10 exercises.  Sometimes Monica will have us do a tabata that exhausts our muscles, such as push ups.  Most classes have 3 tabatas with about 10 minutes of less intensity intervals between.  These intervals include 40 seconds work: 20 seconds rest at a level 7, 30 seconds work: 15 seconds rest at a level 8, and 20 seconds work: 10 seconds rest at a level 9.  An example would be lunges (level 7), lunges with a kick (level 8), plyometric lunges (level 9).  These classes are fast moving and a lot of fun.

I hope that you enjoyed this work out.  You probably deserve a brownie, coke, and a bag of chips, but since I advocate clean eating, you might have to settle for some protein balls and an apple.