April 2017 Goals

Fitness and Nutrition

CrossFit Goal: 62/200 WODs. I did 13 WODs this month, including the Loganville Lockdown competition with my girl Amy.

This is me during every workout ever - shirtless, tummy out, mouth wide open.

Austin's Lady Bird Lake

It was definitely hard to find time to workout on tour - mainly because I had to ask permission to do anything. The more I travel for work, the more I realize that traveling for work isn't really my thing. This coming from a person who has been traveling for work since 2012...

The good thing about traveling for work when you manage to carve out an hour to do something without your colleagues is finding local running routes. The Driskill Hotel had these nifty little running maps of Lady Bird Lake. I got lost getting to the lake so I ran about an extra mile.

Life Lately

I tweaked my back something fierce a couple of weeks ago and I've been taking it easy easier and focusing on getting back in tip top shape. That means less CrossFit, more walks, and some quality time with Frank since I got back from Phoenix last week.

reunited and it feels so good

Another Hotel WOD

My best friend got married over the weekend. I hadn't worked out since Sunday at Flywheel and I was beginning to feel gross with myself. We were staying at the Hilton in Westchester and Hiltons tend to have good hotel gyms. My room was conveniently located across the hall. I grab some 20# dumbbells, took them outside of the sliding door, and hunkered down for a very hungover road WOD.

Throwback Thursday: Vacation in Naples

Throwback to the time my dad and I went to Naples, Florida for our father daughter vacation.

It was an awesome four days at the beach.

Got some treadmill time in and attended a group fitness class.

Discovered Publix key lime pie. I eat it every week now that I live in Atlanta.

One of my favorite hotel gyms of all time.

Hotel Handstand Practice

What do you do when you have a huge hotel room at the Hilton? Practice your handstands.

This video captures the end of my practice. I finally stayed up there but I still look sloppy. Really excited to keep working on this.

Sunday Funday: My New Home in Atlanta

On Thursday around 2:45 PM, I got into my car and started driving south. I arrived at my boyfriend's parents' house at 10:20 PM on Friday night. There were multiple Dunkin Donuts and bathroom breaks plus a night at my beloved Hilton Garden Inn, but I am now officially an Atlanta resident.

I'm all moved in and I signed up for my new box yesterday. I had some time to kill before I needed to pick up my mom at the airport so I drove over to CrossFit IDentity. I met two of the coaches, Victor and Ryan, and had a look around. I bought my membership within 10 minutes. Ryan graduated from PT school and moved back home today, but I am excited to meet the head coach Keith later this week.

I got a quick workout in the hotel this morning. Obviously another Hilton Garden Inn. One mile warm-up on the treadmill, starting with an incline walk and then working up to an all out sprint. Then 2 rounds of 10 squats with 30# dumbbells, 10 deadlifts with 30# dumbbells, 5 man-makers with 20# dumbbells. Just a little something to make up for my utter lack of movement during my epic drive down here.

WODs on the Go

So I'm in Colorado for a leadership journey and I have entirely lucked out with my roommate Kristen. She's based out of our San Francisco office and she's a CrossFitter! We were so excited when we found out that we had that in common. Kristen goes to Diablo CrossFit, which happens to be where Alessandra Pichelli trains. My name is Alessandra, her name is Alessandra. I'm 27, she's 27. She holds a special place in my heart.

Kristen and I have been committed to exercising during this trip. We spent the first couple of days at a YMCA in Granby, Colorado. This is the mountains and there was snow. As much as I would have liked to run outside, I value my ankles too much and didn't want to fall off a cliff. Instead we did 100 burpees for time and both finished under 10 minutes. My time was 9:26.

Trip to Tulsa and CrossFit T-Town

I was in Tulsa this week for a conference. I extensively researched CrossFits in the Tulsa area in advance and decided that I wanted to drop in at CrossFit T-Town. I called ahead and spoke to owner/coach Christina Merlo about dropping in and she made me feel completely jazzed about coming by. I pretty much couldn't have cared less if I made it to the conference sessions, but I was getting to CrossFit T-Town if it killed me. (The sessions turned out to be pretty neat too and I attended every single one I signed up for.)

Quickie in Houston

Greetings from Houston! I'm back down in the greatest state in the nation for the Latino Summit. We spend three days exploring our Latino identity and Latino leadership. And yes, I get paid for this.

I got in a quick workout tonight in the hotel gym even though I'm feeling pretty meh. Early flight, limited sleep, lingering stomach troubles, and buffalo chicken rolls aren't really conducive to feelings of awesomeness, but if I am going to be tired and bloated, I might as well not be fat.

I'm in the room getting changed for the gym
while most of my friends are still back at the bar.

Feeling gross is no excuse to lie around like a fat kid.

The gym is on the fifth floor of the JW Marriott and has some nifty views of the Galleria. I love the Galleria; it's one of the most beautiful malls I have ever seen and as a Long Islander, I know my malls.

I did a quick 1.25 mile run on the treadmill, alternating between sprints on an incline, walking on an incline, and running 9ish minute miles (depending on the song.)

You can't tell what this view is of at all in this photo, but take my word for it.

Oh hey. I've been up since 4:45 AM. No worries. I'm solid.

I really wanted to get into the weight room, so after breaking a sweat, I headed over to play with the boys. I started off with some squats with the bar. Had I been alone with more free reign of the gym, I would've experimented with adding weights to it, but three of the guys from my conference were in there, and I decided not to make an ass out of myself. I did three sets. Then I grabbed some weights for presses, bicep curls, and lunges. What I really needed was 15 lbs weights for the presses and curls, but alas, there were only 10s and 20s. I used 10s for the arms and 20s for the lunges.

I did 130 lbs on the leg sled before calling it a night. I was back in my room by 11 PM, which is good because I promised to get up early for yoga tomorrow.

Planning and Still Failing

Sometimes you can plan ahead and still fail.

This past week I was in San Diego for work. Yay San Diego! Many of you know what my profession is, but for those of you who don't, I help a non-profit create new regions around the country. I travel each month for meetings, but I was out in San Diego for a week of team building, community involvement, and immersion in the city's educational landscape. Long hours as you can imagine.

the great looking pool I never got to get into

It was an amazing week, yadda yadda yadda, lives were changed, impact was made, and yet despite my best efforts, I never once exercised. The hotel had a gym and the weather was perfect for running. This June Gloom business is basically a race director's dream by the way.

When I packed to come home, I put all of my clean workout clothes in my carry-on. It was full of things I didn't wear.

more clean clothes for CrossFit!

Sometimes these things happen and you have to move on. Despite my sedentary lifestyle, I am down 10 lbs from the beginning of May. I think making better food choices (like avoiding the leftover potluck on the 9th floor) have been paying off. That, and a massive amount of coffee.

Hotel Gyms

Greetings from San Francisco!

My team has a requirement that we only stay in hotels that have gyms. Who am I to argue with such a policy? In order to take advantage of this perk, I've decided to stay on Eastern Standard Time for as long as possible.

5:45 AM taking photos in the bathroom because my roommate is still asleep

I got down to the gym to find both treadmills and one elliptical in use. No big deal because I dislike treadmills anyway. I woke warmed up on the elliptical for ten minutes and then did some lifting. My plan was to alternate 10 minutes of cardio with three sets of arm exercises but then a man appeared and hopped on my elliptical seconds before I was about to get on.

The annoying thing about hotel gyms is that everyone tries to workout at the same time. You should have seen the gym when my 350 person team descended upon Miami. It was a large gym but it didn't stand a chance.

I used 12 lbs and 10 lbs weights for my arm workout. I did a set of shoulder presses with the 12 lbs and then another set with the 10 lbs immediately after. I did the same for biceps curls, followed by tricep kickbacks with 7 lbs weights. I repeated this twice, realized my elliptical machine had been jacked, and then switched to some half-ass crunches.

I finished up my 30 minute workout with a few sun salutations and was showered by 6:45. Good day.

Taking Care of Business

Greetings from somewhere in New Jersey! I'm on my way to a conference in Philadelphia to reunite with some of my favorite colleagues from around the country. A fun fact about me is that I love traveling by Amtrak and sometimes think about just purchasing a ticket as an exciting way to spend a Saturday. It reminds me of fun times in high school, drinking gin and tonics out of Nalgene with my roommate, as we traveled from Wallingford to Philly and back.

unidentified bruises

I am in desperate need of a detox to reset my taste buds and sloth-like body. I've been craving carbs, sugar, and MSG like nobody's business. It's no wonder after the past week. I started my day off with a dirty chai latte. Not paleo at all, but a better choice than yesterday's pizza, peanut butter cup, Chinese food fest.

Long weekends are dangerous as I tend to see them as an invitation to behave badly. This, coupled with Valentine's Day and volleyball Wednesday, has really set me off my game. And I found myself wandering out of Windsor Court in the wee hours last week. As far as benchmarks of poor decisions and sadness, being lost in Windsor Court is almost up there with losing your pocketbook and pregnancy scares. For those of you who are not familiar with Windsor Court, it is an apartment building in Murray Hill, a neighborhood in Manhattan. Windsor Court and its neighbor the Rivergate, are home to recent college graduates as well as the confused residents who remember when they didn't share walls with drunken twenty-somethings returning home from theme parties. Nothing good happens there, but they are perfect places to take down targets born in the nineties. Not sure what I was doing there, and I'm pretty sure I do not want to know. I blame Harding's. It is way too close for comfort to my old apartment.

I think I clean up nicely.

I may have gone out a few too many times recently, but I have been putting on real clothes. And I fit into my jeans so not all is lost.

And by real clothes, I mean ripped jeans and cowboy boots.

The hotel we're staying at has a gym and I brought my gear. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the gym on the hotel website, but I'm hoping for a treadmill and a full set of weights.

Houston

My team flew to Houston today for essentially a multi-day meeting. I'm somewhat under the impression that we could have accomplished the same outcomes via video conference, but it's fun to see everyone and I got paid to sleep on a plane.

We're at the Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel conveniently located mere steps away from the Houston office. It's a pretty nice set up and it has a gym.

the gym at the hotel

Chunkie McChunkster inhaled 10 ingredient fried rice and crab rangoon last night even though she already had dinner... twice. In an effort to fit into my jeans, I tried to keep myself in check today. Target meal replacement shake in the AM (they're knockoffs of Slim-Fast and taste so much better), a pear, a grande skinny dirty chai latte from Starbucks, and then 2 shrimp tostadas slathered in cheesy and guacamole goodness with a side of rice at 100% Taquito. I mean, I tried, but when everyone is going to 100% Taquito, I have trouble asking for a salad.

After taking pictures of myself in my room, I made myself go to the gym. Somehow, I got my own room even though I am just a manager and single rooms are usually reserved for managing directors and above. I do not know how this snafu came about, but I am not complaining... except when I remembered I get scared  staying in hotel rooms alone and compulsively check the bathtub because I read and watched The Shining.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill alternating the speed and incline. Starting with a 6.5 incline and 8.7 might not have been the best idea because after 1/2 a mile, I thought I was having that heart attack my psychiatrist is always warning me about. I did a little shoulder and bicep work before calling it a night and returning to my room. Aveda products in the shower but I can't find the bathrobe.

the gym is FILLED with reflective surfaces!

I have a lot of posts I could write this week and I am relying on y'all to vote for one in the comments section below. If you don't vote, I'm not posting, and I'm taking my coworker out for margaritas instead and not telling you about it.

You options are:

1. Why I am a proud owner of new hockey skates

2. The time I finally got to go stand up paddleboarding

3. The Yonkers Marathon

4. The Staten Island Half Marathon

Too Many Fitness Enthusiasts

This morning I woke up and headed to the hotel gym and found it packed. I figured my colleagues should be in bed after partying at the CHCI event last night, but the damn overachievers beat me there. And I walked in at 6 AM.

Since no one seems to lift, I took over the weight bench.

I performed chest presses with 20 lbs and 12.5 lbs weights. I did chest flys with 12.5 lbs weights. I also did shoulder presses with the 12.5 lbs, tricep kickbacks with 7.5 lbs, and squats with 20 lbs.

Then I went for a 1.5 mile run outside near the other hotel.

Sofitel Hotel Workout

My dad and I got into DC late last night. We had a delicious midnight meal at Old Ebbitt Grill before I passed out in my comfy bed.

I didn't get up until about 9, although I woke up at 8. The SO FIT gym was said to be located on level B. I got dressed, grabbed my Oxygen magazine and my headphones, and headed on down only to discover that the gym is under construction. It's been temporarily relocated to a conference room.

Given what it is - gym equipment temporarily housed in a conference room - the space is alright.

I spent about 10 minutes warming up a 9% incline power-walking with short bursts of jogging. I did two rounds of varied squats with an 18 lbs body bar, chest presses with both 15 and 20 lbs dumbbells, and shoulder presses with 10 lbs dumbbells. I flirted with the idea of doing planks with a medicine ball before deciding I was done with my quick workout and needed to get. Y day started.

My dad and I hit up the George Bellows exhibit at the National Art Gallery and made a visit to the United States Botanic Garden, where he got lost. We're now sitting in the lobby of 675 E Street NW, waiting out the storm. A nice woman who lives here let us in, and good thing too because I saw the Starbucks umbrellas sail down the street and almost hit a car.

Look at that amazing French manicure.