Fitmapped– Your GPS and Yelp for Fitness

Oh the sweet glorious weekend is finally here!

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Last night Meg, Lauren, Theodora, Bo and I toasted to the weekend with dinner and drinks at BLT Fish followed by drinks at Lillie’s Bar in Union Square. It was such a fun evening with Bo’s parents who are in town for the weekend. We enjoyed delicious food at BLT Fish while talking about everything from running to work. Due to my crazy travel schedule it had been over a month since I saw Meg and Lauren; a far change from this summer when we basically saw Meg on a daily basis!

Before meeting Theodora for happy hour at Raymi, I had the pleasure of having my hair done in a work conference room. Yup, pause on that statement for a moment. Long story short, one of co-workers asked me why I don’t wear my hair wavy more often since it’s now longer. I looked at her with a clueless look and basically admitted to not knowing how to use a curling iron properly. She offered to do it anytime as she loves doing other people’s hair and based on her gorgeous hair she knows her way around a curling iron. Therefore, last night a 6pm, after sending my last work email, we converted one of our work huddle rooms into a makeshift salon. One small mirror, a can of Fekkai hair spray and my Conair curling iron were all she needed to take my hair from stick straight to beach waves!2013-02-22 18.20.242013-02-22 18.45.08

Now that we’ve covered my lack of curling iron knowledge, let’s talk about something I know a little bit more about – workout classes! One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is take advantage of work out classes around town that I rarely have time to squeeze in during the week. Whether it’s a relaxing yoga class at Equinox on a Sunday after a week of running or a cardio class at Uplift, I normally go to at least one class each weekend. But, how do I make sure that the class is worth my time before investing the time and money?

There is a new website on the block that can help you find your next favorite class if you’re based in New York City or Los Angeles. Fitmapped is a new website and app that combines GPS capability, Yelp, and the fitness studio’s website into one place!

FiTMAPPED - Your GPS For Fitness

Let’s say that you live in Gramercy and know that you want to take a yoga class within a 1/2 mile of your house on Saturday. You need it to be at a studio where you can pay by the class and you want to read reviews ahead of time.

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Within second, I have the 2 studios that fit my requirements, along with the ratings for their classes!

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Not too shabby, eh?  They also have a blog which features weekly fit deals so you can find the best classes for your budget around town!

In order to get the most out of the sit, they ask users to give back by reviewing classes and using the app to check in on Foursquare and Facebook to make it a more interactive experience. Overall this is a great site which I have already used numerous time in just the past few weeks! Check out the site and let me know what you think! Hopefully you’ll find it as helpful as I have! Let me know if you have any feedback and I’ll share it with the team! Their goal is to grow the site and your feedback will help the team make it the best site possible for NYC and LA based fitness nuts!

* Full disclosure- I’m a FiTMAPPED FiTREP, which means that I get to try out complimentary classes and use the FiTMAPPED website.  However, as always, all reviews are my own!

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Say It, Do It: 2/18/03

In 28 days, I hope to cross the finish line of the 2013 NYC Half Marathon with a huge smile. I hope to finally achieve the half marathon PR I’ve been working to achieve for the past few years.

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Each half marathon something different has happened along the way to make that goal a distant memory whether piss poor training, excessive heat, excessive cold, or just an off day. At about this point, during any other training cycle, I would be a bit worried about my training to date.

I have only done 2 true long runs to date, 6 and 8 miles in distance, both along the West Side or East Side highway of New York which means that they were perfectly flat. I’ve traveled to 5 destinations in the past 6 weeks to St. Croix, Paris, Geneva, Geneva, and Puerto Rico, each of which has been less conducive for half marathon training than if I was in New York City.

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But, among all this travel, I’ve also learned a bit about myself. I need exercise to be happy. I need some semblance of healthy food to feel good. Therefore, even though I fully believe in enjoying myself on these trips which were taken for a mix of business and pleasure, I also have returned from each trip without gaining weight or feeling the vacation glutton. This weekend, while in San Juan for a much needed and very relaxing girls’ weekend away to celebrate Theodora’s 30th birthday, I worked out 3 times. Just like I try to do at home in New York City, I started out each day in a healthy manner, sipping multiple cups of water and enjoying a healthy breakfast.

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Except for today, I didn’t start drinking beach or poolside until later in the afternoon. This decision tends to serve me well for more than just the health and waist line benefits. If I know I want to last until the wee hours of the morning whether bar hopping or dancing, then I can’t day drink. Day drinking for me results in an early alcohol induced bed time due to heavy eyelids.

While in New York City I’ve fallen head over heels for Barry’s Bootcamp, an investment choice Bo and I made after we parted ways with our personal trainers. Barry’s has been a far more economical decision and their early hours have allowed us to enjoy 5am workouts together before sharing a coffee and commute to the office. This workout however has done something for my running that working with a personal trainer never would. It has helped me realize that I do have the power and strength to push my body to new limits in regards to hills and speed. Don’t worry, my rose colored glasses don’t have me thinking that I can maintain a 8:15 pace for 13.1 miles including 6 miles of hills in Central Park. No, my friends, I’m not drunk or delusional. But, what is does mean is that hopefully when the going gets tough during the half and my quads are starting to scream or my lungs are short of breath, I’ll remember what jogging on an 11.0 incline for 2 minutes feels like and realize that I too will survive this momentary pain. Bo and I have learned to push ourselves from a cardio standpoint more in the past 6 weeks just after 7 sessions at Barry’s Bootcamp. The combination of this, along with running and our boot camps we do together at the gym or that I’ve done while traveling, have left me feeling stronger than I’ve ever felt from a mental standpoint.

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This strength helped me push through running Mount Saleve with Renaud last weekend in Switzerland and now I am going to apply that strength to the next 28 days of half marathon training. While the first half of the schedule has barely been that due to my travel and a short lived cold I’m looking forward to immersing myself in training these next few weeks so I can feel physically and mentally prepared for Harlem Hill and the 3 rolling hills of Central Park come March 17th.

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So, now it’s time to commit to this week’s workouts. Just like the past few weeks, this week will continue to be busy at the office as I continue to find my way in this new role. Therefore, I’m going to focus on morning workouts but will put in italics any evening workouts I hope to squeeze in as well.

Monday: 9 mile long run in Central Park so I can remind my legs and body what the constant hills of Central Park feel like after a few weeks away.

Tuesday: 5am Barry’s Bootcamp with Bo+ yoga with Theodora after work

Wednesday: 5 mile run before work along either East River or in Central Park

Thursday: 5am Barry’s Bootcamp

Friday: 10 mile long run in Central Park before work as my in-laws are in town this weekend and I find it easier get my long run out of the way when friends or family are in town. This also allows for more evening enjoyment of the vino type because let’s get real, I don’t do my best long runs dehydrated.

Saturday: Short shakeout run followed by either an Equinox or Uplift class

Sunday: Rest day

Also, as I’ve received a few questions about it, I’ll address our Equinox membership. I’ll be honest, right now both Bo and I have questioned our membership to Equinox more than one time. But, at the same time, especially during the cold winter months or stifling heat of summer, knowing that there is a treadmill or indoor workout option, is reason enough to keep our membership. After calculation, even my January membership paid out just based on the number of times I went to Equinox and I traveled more in January than I ever expect to travel again.  In addition, we both start triathlon training in the next few weeks which means more spin and swimming, both of which are part of our Equinox membership.

 

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35 Minute Full Body Workout

This morning I had plans of re-creating last week’s Barry’s Bootcamp workout in the hotel gym. Unfortunately, even though the hotel has a huge fitness center including 10 treadmills, every single one was in use this morning when I arrived around 6am. I guess the early bird gets the worm here in Switzerland! Instead of waiting around for a machine which is definitely not my style, I created my own workout that I knew would leave my muscles quivering while also allowing me to break a much needed sweat.

I switched my music to my sprint playlist which included some of my favorite Ludacris and Outkast songs of the past and got to work. Be sure to choose challenging weights for this workout, especially for the last 2 sets. I used 12 and 15 lb weights for the first 2 sets and finished with 17.5 lb weights! Needless to say, I’m starving for breakfast but feeling awesome!

I hope you like this workout as much as I did!

No Machines Needed Workout

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