I am a work in progress...

...I have to work everyday to achieve my goals. My weight goals, my training goals,  and my race goals. Right now since my training for a 10 miler and half marathon is a couple weeks away and it is bitterly cold outside (I am a wimp) I have been focusing on my weight. I have struggled with my weight my entire adult life. I was the super skinny high schooler who didn't have to work out...but then college happened and the freshman 15 or 30...opps! I didn't even know what happened...I was truly blind to it. I was the person who looked in the mirror and didn't see it or denied it so long I accepted it. I didn't even know how to work out...really it's true!!!

Then I after I had my son...my body changed and I was super heavy...for my height. I was uncomfortable and I was pushing 160 at 5 feet tall. So I started to change and I did every diet in the book...not even kidding! So I yo-yo'ed for years! A couple years ago I hit an all time high of 172 (omg I just typed that for the world to read) and about the same time I discovered really working out and eating healthy, no diet..just food! Fast forward to today..I am healthy and I tend to stay between 127-130. Which is my healthy happy weight.

So what do I do to stay active and maintain my weight during the winter months? Well, I spin! I have been riding outdoors for a couple of years thanks to Van...she helped me overcome my fear of riding on the road. But I  am new to Spin (thanks, Jen)! I love it! It could be the company or teacher..but it is so awesome.

 I do run outdoors when it is above 32 degrees but if not I find myself on the dreadmill, I mean treadmill. I also do a abs class after spin and I struggle thru...but it feels great!

What do you guys do during the winter months to stay active? Do you struggle to stay active? Do you have winter goals?

Team Bouncing Buns - CancerThon Cycling Event Jan 25, 2014

A few weeks ago, after our usual Wednesday morning indoor training ride at our local bike shop, Santa Fe Trails Bike Shop, Brendan (he's the owner) mentioned that the CancerThon was right around the corner. The bike shop has been organizing this event for the last 19 years.

Here's the low down: one member of your 3 person team riding around on a 400meter track with other cyclists during a 6 hour period on January 25 while raising money for the American Cancer Society. Did he say January 25? It's frigid cold in January and that is why we ride indoors. Riding outside sounds completely insane in January. Oops, I just said the word insane that must mean the BB ladies are IN. 

Registration is complete. The Bouncing Buns
will be participating in our first group
cycling event.

Week 3 of my IM training plan calls for a 2-hour endurance ride. This is perfect! I can get my ride in, ride for a great cause and I would have full sag support. However, did I mention that it's insane to try to ride outdoors in January in Kansas? More on that later...

Right before the CancerThon, we made a substitution for our team. Leandra would be cycling instead of Shelley (swim meet conflict). Leandra, in my opinion, has one of the coolest bikes ever. It's totally old-school with bottom tube gear shifters,  it's bright neon yellow (I love bright colors because it's easier to spot from a distance) and the bike is just the perfect fit for Leandra. I'm so glad that she was willing to fill in for Shelley. After some brainstorming, we decided each person would ride a total of 2 hours and we came up with the following schedule:
Van: 10am-12noon
Leandra: noon-1pm
Jackie: 1pm-2:30pm (Jackie is in Week 1 of IM trng & needed a 90min ride--see "About Jackie")
Leandra 2:30-3:30pm
Jackie 3:30-4pm

An hour before the event start, I was so focused on making sure I had my helmet (it's been awhile since I've had to wear it because of all the indoor riding) that, as I backing out of my driveway I realized that I had forgotten to put my road bike on my car rack. Yikes, this is not starting out very well.

Once I reached the event location, I gathered all my gear and headed to check-in. After check-in, I realized I had another problem--I left my bento box on Celo (he's my triathlon bike and I ride Celo 99% of the time). I decided not to ride Celo for this event because I thought it might be a little more trickier to handle with all the turns. For nutrition during my ride, I was planning on eating 2-3 mandarin oranges (my stomach does not do well with gels) but without my bento box, I didn't have anywhere to put my oranges. As Brendan waved everyone to the start line, I stuffed one of my un-peeled oranges in my jacket pocket.

The weather was fairly warm (in the upper 30's) for this time of the year, but still cold. However, the wind was wicked. All I could think of was how insane this was. Turn 2 and 3 was straight into head wind but I found relief from the wind at turns 1 and 4. At about the hour mark of riding, I spotted a friend coming to watch her husband race. As I passed her on one of the laps, I yelled "Amber, can I ask I favor?" She yelled back "Yes!" When I passed her on my next lap, I handed her my orange and asked her to peel it. On my next pass, she handed it back to me. I was so thankful she was there to help because it was going to get ugly if I didn't get some nutrition other than the water I was carrying on my bike.

As I approached my 2 hour riding mark,  Leandra was waiting on her bike in the pit stop area. I yelled to her that I had one lap to go.  After 2 hours of riding and cranking out 30 miles for our team, I pulled into the pit stop area behind Leandra. I was finished and now it was her turn. Go, Leandra, go!

Pit stop, rider exchange area

Go, Leandra, go!

It's crazy how quickly an hour goes by when you are watching someone else ride! Before we knew it, it was Jackie's turn for her first of two rides. She quickly put on her cycling gear and headed to pit stop area. I, on the other hand, sat back in the comforts of a warm blanket and chair and cheered on. Go, Jackie, go!

Jackie whizzed by on her super fast bike

With about hour left in the CancerThon and Leandra back out on the course for her second ride, two Bouncing Buns ladies surprised us. Thanks for the awesome sign, Jenny B and Evelyn! It definitely helped put that extra P-E-P in our pedaling.

3 BB girls + 6 hours = 91.53 combined miles ridden for a great cause. Maybe it wasn't such an insane idea after all. AND...to top it all off, our team won 1st place in the Women's Division.

Sporting our cool trophy and door prizes.
Thanks Santa Fe Bike Shop!!

Week 3 of my IM training is now in the books with Sunday being a rest day--yay for rest days!

Week 4 is a recovery week with fitness tests scheduled in the 3 disciplines. Stay turned for my results...

Meet Jackie

I am finding that writing my own introduction is much more difficult than I realized.  Where do I start?  I believe the first things a person reveals about herself are what she considers most important, and I’m not sure what that is for me.  Maybe I should start with the fact that I have an undergraduate degree in English and a graduate degree in counseling, so I spend a lot of time analyzing things.  Maybe I should tell you I am a stay-at-home mom who has been married for 20 years & we have 2 children; our daughter is in high school and our son is in 2^nd grade.  Maybe it’s most important, in terms of this blog, that I’ve completed a handful of sprint triathlons, a duathlon, a half marathon, a couple of 10Ks, and lots of 5Ks.  Maybe that’s about all of the background info you need for me….

Coming in for the second run of the Dog Days Duathlon.  Biking's my favorite.

I joined this group when it first got started & have enjoyed so many training sessions and racing events with our group.  I have lots of stories, but there are a couple that really demonstrate my philosophy for training/ racing.  Last year, I completed my first half marathon & it was truly something I never thought I would do.  There were just enough ladies in Bouncing Buns who had completed half marathons or were confident that they could do it, that I decided to try it, too.  I found a great (free) training program online, printed it out, and followed it closely.  Before race day, I posted on a fitness page on Facebook that the Finish line would be my reward for completing all of my training runs and strength workouts.  Another lady on the page commented that I had it wrong:  The Start line is the reward.  The Finish line is the cherry on top.  That really clicked with me.  My goal for every race is to cross the finish line with a smile on my face & know that I took time to really enjoy the course.  The scenery, the other participants, and the volunteers are all things that I want to remember.  So far, that has always been true.  Blah, blah, blah, I always try my best, yada, yada, yada.  Consequently, I’m not fast.

Enjoying the course... within reason.  Mud is not my favorite.

Last summer, I saw a friend at the start of a local 5K.  She is a person who truly loves running.  She loves to get out on the road, enjoys the sounds of nature, and uses running as “down time.”  I find that remarkable, because I am not that type of runner.  I jump on the treadmill when conditions aren’t ideal, I prefer loud, fast-paced music in my ears, and I use running to cancel out my love of food.  She told me that she thought I was a competitive person, probably from the many, many, many pictures I post of myself at races around town on Facebook or Instagram (If I’m going to run, all of my friends are going to know about it).  I am a little bit competitive.  I am a lot stubborn.  I use races as a way to get myself to work out.  An event that is just slightly out of my reach is the best.  I like to work a *little* harder, but not too hard.  Failure is not an option.

Finishing the Olathe Medical Center Women's Triathlon.  Downhill finishes are my favorite.

I am just beginning my training for Ironman Kansas 70.3.  If I make it out of the lake under my own power (swimming is my weakness), I am hopeful that I will cross the finish line while the timer is still there & if I don’t have a smile on my face at that moment, it won’t be far away. I will finish this post with one last story.  At a triathlon last fall, I was nearing the end of the 500 yard (meter?) swim and was flipped over on my back.  I could hear a woman’s voice off to my left, so I used her to keep me on course.  The rope was to my right & with her voice on my left, I knew I must be okay.  I called out to her and we chit-chatted for a little way.  Turns out she was encouraging a friend she was racing with who had fallen behind.  So, if I can carry on a conversation during an open water swim, you know that (1) I do enjoy the course and (2) I am not a very good swimmer.  Maybe that is what I should have started this post with….

MLK 10K+5K

Martin Luther King once said, "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." Today, the staircase represented the hills of 20th Street. Sure, I've run them many times before. But today would be the first time I've run two long runs within a 3 day period. 

The goal of my long runs in this build phase of my IM training plan is maintain good form while trying to stay in zone 1 and 2. In essence, this means I have to learn to slow down my pace a bit in order to keep my HR in zone. Saturday's 8.35 mi long run called for a 1:30:00hr run. I ran the first 3 miles on the treadmill to warmup and then finished the last hour by running a sand pit loop (.3mi) course many, many times for 5:35miles.  By the time I was done, my legs were tired and my right toes were crampy but overall, I felt really good. 

Sand pit running with Jane and Mary. We dedicated this
run to #megsmiles

Sunday was a rest day and I took full advantage of enjoying the rest day with my family by doing activities outside of training. My husband and I shot a round of skeet  (he's an avid hunter and gave me a shot gun a couple years ago for Christmas), took the kids to bowl and then finished the night by playing family bingo at the local eagles club with some friends.

Bingo means serious concentration

Today, some of the BB ladies (Jane, Tacha and Mary) were meeting to run a 10K. If I had a choice between running a long run by myself or running with friends. I will always choose running with friends--for me it's both mentally and physically easier to run with friends than alone. So, I jumped on the chance to run with the BB ladies. However, taking this opportunity meant I had to rearrange my training schedule for the week and use this as my long run. My original schedule had me running my long run (1:45:00) at the end of the week. Knowing that the ladies were running 6 miles and I need to get in at least 9 miles, I decided to start my run a few minutes before them. I ran a loop so that I would be able to meet up with them on 20th Street. At my 2 mile point, I finally found them. Boy, was I glad to see them! We ran the entire length of 20th Street from Eisenhower to Spruce which is a little over 6 mile roundtrip with a steep staircase (ie. long hill climbs) going both ways. Step by step, one foot in front of the other, we ran at a strong pace up each staircase. It's an amazing feeling when you realize that taking a step at a time is so much easier than to think about how difficult it is as a whole.

Jane and Tacha rockin' one of many hill climbs

As we neared the finish of the 10K, I cut off and continued running to get in the last bit of my mileage. 

Week 3 long run - complete!

After some stretching and a shower, I am off to meet with my strength trainer, Spence of Warhorse Trng. Week 3 is going to be a great week!

Who are the Bouncing Buns?

Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; a fortunate mistake. Specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. If you ask me to describe the Bouncing Buns Fitness Group, serendipity quickly comes to mind. 

We are a group of friends that was brought together through serendipity. We have a common goal of wanting to live the healthiest, fit life possible while setting a good example to our children. We are all different shapes and sizes. We are walkers, sloggers, runners, cyclists and swimmers. 

We train together, we race together. 

We share our successes and our struggles. 

We encourage and we support. 

We are the Bouncing Buns <3

Meet Van

(Over the next few posts, we will introduce you to our bloggers)

Hi there,
My name is Van (pronounced Von but I'll always answer to Van). I'm a 38 year old wife to an awesome husband (who is active duty Army) and a mom of 2.

As I child and into my early adulthood, I did not participate in any sort of physical activity outside of mandatory PE classes in school.  Organized sport? What IS that? To me, it was something someone else did, not me.

By the time I graduated from high school I was at my heaviest weight.  I made my first  "grownup" commitment that summer to lose the weight and become fit. It's been a long journey with lots of bumps in the road but with the support and encouragement from many, I am finally in a good place.

From L-R: Summer after I graduated from high school;
6 months after the birth of my second child;
present day picture of me

Fast forward to Fall 2008, the Army brought my family to the mid-west and I had to opportunity to get back in touch with some army wives from past duty stations. A conversation with these ladies during one particular swim lesson for our kids ended up with a decision to complete a sprint triathlon the following Spring. What? Triathlon? Are you crazy? You don't even know how to swim and you don't even own a bike!

Well, I did complete the triathlon in the Spring of 2009 and I have since gone on to complete more sprints, an olympic and a half ironman distance triathlons. This summer (June 8th to be exact), I will be competing in Ironman KS 70.3 and I'm looking forward to bouncing my buns :D

New Year's Commitment 5k Shadow Run

A Shadow Run for Bouncing Buns DC

January 1^st, 2014

After I, Sunny left Kansas and settled in DC I was missing my BB girls from Kansas. I was already running with Ginger (a friend friend who lived in the area) and a few girls from my new neighborhood so I started Bouncing Buns DC!

I knew the New Year’s Commitment Run in Kansas was coming up and I was jealous I couldn’t go…so I quickly texted a few of the BB DC girls that I knew were in town for the holidays to see if they could run a 5K with me on New Years Day. Ginger was available! Yah!

So we set out to shadow run with KS BB girls! Although, our weather was absolutely beautiful! Both Ginger and I had gotten new cold weather running gear for Christmas and we both were sweating bullets it was so warm…sorry to brag KS BB girls!

It was great to have our first BB DC sorta organized run…and I am hoping to have a lot more in the very near future!

Meet Sunny

(Over the next few posts, the bloggers of this page will introduce ourselves. Again we have  Sunny)

Hi there! Below is me…Sunny and as you can see I haven’t always loved running…I loved the part where the run was over…done…finished! I am dying in this picture!! 

But I wanted to show my children that I was an active and strong mom. I started doing it for them and I encouraged them to run with me! I also wanted to show my husband I could run and set goals to reach! I run for them, with them, and because of them! I try to stay physically and mentally in shape to be the best mom, wife, and friend I can be! J

I ran for years and hated it…every step, every sloppy stride…then I met these ladies.

Bouncing Buns 1st Annual Turkey Trot 5K - 2011

They started encouraging me to run faster, train harder, and have fun. It wasn’t until I ran a half marathon (worst race ever, but couldn’t believe I actually did it) and the Army Ten Miler(best race ever) that I started to love it.  

Crawlin Crab Half Marathon with Bouncing Buns DC

Army Ten Miler with Bouncing Buns Kansas gals

I have many new goals in the new year of 2014 including The Cherry Blossom Ten Miler and another half marathon. I also have a few fun runs with fellow Bouncing Buns girls!