Monthly Archives: April 2011

Family BFFS and Race Schedule

By Posted in Running, Swimming Tagged , , , 37 Comments

I got a lot of requests for my actual race schedule so I thought I would share that with you guys.

This is all while I’m back home and there are a few more that I haven’t looked at exact dates for but I know I’ll be doing them.  Mostly open water swims because it depends on currents and all that jazz…not that I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I washed out to sea.

May 22: Williamsburg Half Marathon

May 28th: Elizabeth River 10k

June 4: Norfolk Zoo 5k

June 19th: Jack King Open Water 1 Mile Swim

oh hey father and I have kinda done this race like 5 years in a row.

July 4th: Mount Trashmore 5k

just because it came from this race and I know you love it.

July 5th: Summer Series I Count down Race (This is pretty neat that they start the clock at an hour and you pick when you think you will finish about 4 miles.  So if you are running an 8 minute pace it would take you 32 minutes and you would leave when the clock gets to 32 minutes)  This is more of a fun time more than a race.

July 12th! Summer Series II This is going to be the bomb.com.  Do you know why?  It’s my 21st birthday.  There is relay road race where you are randomly assigned two other people.  The people on my relay better realize we are wearing 21 crowns and sashes.  Oh yes and the best part is there is free beer at the end.  Could my 21st work out anymore perfectly?

July 16th: Allen Stone Run-Swim-Run.  This is my big race of the season.  1k run on the beach followed by a 1k ocean swim then 5k on the boardwalk.  Last year I won first for females…this year I’m hoping to do the same.

This is where this photo came from

August 6th: Greenwich 2 mile open water swim

uncle, father and I. I've done the race since I've been 18...they have been 18 quite a few years longer...

August 13th: Mud Run 8k.  Another fun run full of muddy obstacles and muddy joys.   My dad and I do it as a team.

Enjoy the water on my camera screen. Matt, dad and I

August 20th: Surfers Healing 5k

Then off to cross country season

Question for you:

  1. What races are you doing this summer?
  2. Is your family your BFFS and biggest supporters?

Guest Post: Becca@I Heart Eggs

By Posted in Food, Guest Posts Tagged 14 Comments

Hi!

I’m giving you guys another break from pancakes and running and my daily life and giving the floor to Becca. Becca is seriously one of the most inspirational woman that I have ever stalked (um blogging does that you know) so I was thrilled when she wanted to show how seriously amazing she is.  Anywho-I’ll get off my own blog.

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On Season Vs Off Season

Hi everyone, I’m Becca and well, IHeartEggs?

Anyway! When Hollie put out a call for guest bloggers I told her to hit me up if she needed someone still and well, here I am so I guess you can assume how that went?

If you’re not familiar with my blog (… you SHOULD be) I’m a figure competitor/pretend foodie/hot mess but the biggest thing you should know regarding that is I never want to compete if it doesn’t allow me to be “normal”.

While I know that “normal” is all in how you perceive it, to me it means life still needs to be fun. I don’t want to spend every spare moment I have slouched on the couch because I’m so tired/hungry/cranky I can’t be seen in public, or that I have to live on chicken and broccoli or tilapia and green beans for 6 meals a day, everyday, all day.

My intense desire to be a fully functioning member of society meant a lot of trial and error with coaches and trainers, and unfortunately I learned many lessons the hard way.

Generally speaking a figure competitor has two phases to the year:

Prep: When you’re dieting, doing more cardio, still training, working towards a show date. Usually 12-20 weeks leading up to a contest


Off-season: the rest of the year. You’re still probably working towards a show, but in a different sense. This is a time to relax on cardio, put on muscle, refocus, grow. All the good stuff.

I’ll be the first to admit that transitioning from prep to offseason is hard. Mentally and physically. The first time I “pretend” prepped for a show just to see if I could do it I had a very restricted diet, no choices, a TON of cardio and when I ended that it was like I was set free. Suddenly I was allowed peanut butter, bread, a cheat meal.

Oh and how I cheated.

The end result? I gained back everything I lost… and then some. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t pretty.

So when I was shopping around for a coach to train for my first show I was very cautious, and thankfully found my coach Dr. Joe who has a very sane approach to dieting. No foods are off limits, and prep became a lifestyle, not a “diet”.

Focusing on the lifestyle aspect of it and not eliminating foods made transition to the offseason MUCH easier this time around. Yes, it was still scary, but since I wasn’t deprived during my dieting phase, I didn’t feel the need to stuff myself full of the good stuff.

This enabled me to back out of a diet, which while it’s a necessity for figure competitors, can be applied for ANY type of dieting to find your maintenance, or “happy place” if you will.

Slowly reincorporating foods over time, increasing the protein/carbs/fat or calories equally and steadily while slowing down on cardio will prevent the rebound effect which is all too common when people come off a diet.

We all know that losing weight isn’t that hard after all, it’s KEEPING it off that is the challenge right?

What a figure competitor looks like on stage is not a maintainable body, but by slowly coming off the diet you can prevent excess weight gain. The mental aspect of this is hard, you get softer, a little “chub”, but in my offseason I was able to comfortably maintain 10 lbs over my stage weight while having a big weekly cheat meal and little treats on special occasions.

I choose to make my competing my lifestyle, I do plan meals, weigh food, tote meals year round, but it’s how I enjoy living. Yes, I do go out in the off season for dinner with friends, and I will have a glass of wine, but having such a balanced, somewhat “extreme” healthy lifestyle has completely changed my life.

And there you have it, my views on offseason and well, how it relates to real world dieting. I fully believe you need to make a lifestyle change to see lasting results, no matter what your goals. Going full out, crazy fad diets, extreme cardio will get you nowhere but miserable. Making small changes, continuing to live your life, making your workouts (whatever they may be!) fun and exciting is the best way to make progress.

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Question for you:
1. Does your diet/routine change throughout the year?

Mine does with swimming and running.  When I’m running 50 miles and swimming 12 hours weekly…I need to eat a little more then when I’m laying in bed in the off season…more pancakes that is.
Hollie

PS: Write a story about your life and email me at lolzthatswim@gmail.com

Artichoke Hearts and Burnt Waffles

By Posted in Breakfast, Food, Running, Swimming Tagged , , , , , , , , , , 18 Comments

So I have gone to comment on a few blogs lately and it has said “comments closed”  Is that happening to anyone else?  It’s really bothering me.  It’s like a tease.

You know like that whole being a foodie thing where you have to wait to eat your food so you can take a darn photo.

Um my butt is starving and not really wanting to wait for my darn camera to load and take the perfect angle shot.  No thanks.

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Anywho today was my last 6:00am wakeup call for high school.  Next week I go in at 10 and then I’ll be done.   After my getting ready I treated myself to a nice burnt waffle.  No really burnt lemon waffles are delicious but then again I’m a weirdo and love burnt things.

burnt waffles are seriously my favorite...I leave them in and let my waffle maker beep at me for a few minutes.

After school today I made myself some eggs and artichoke hearts.  I’m addicted and love artichokes.  Maybe I was pretending it was an artichoke quiche…who knows…

Eggs and artichoke...who craves that...

I was going to run right after my high school watching today but it started monsooning outside.  Seriously it was windy, rainy and all that jazz so I decided to wait.  I absolutely hate working out after 3pm so it made me a little antsy-Okay a lot. 

Anywho-it wasn’t bad and I had to chunk my running and swimming back to back.  It went by quickly though seeing as swim practices are normally two hours and I was at the gym for about two hours.

Dinner today was a lovely date with a swimming friend of mine Jenna.  We went to the union, which I haven’t been to eat in forever.

San Fernando wrap=melted chedder cheese, broccali, rice and peppers all wrapped up.

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I didn’t have too much of an exciting day sadly, except, I’m so mad Alex didn’t go home on ANTM.  She was so close.  So.Close. 

No thankyou.

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Questions for you:
1.       I know a lot of people are doing races this weekend, are you?   
2.       How did you veer from your typical schedule today?
I did my running and swimming back to back from 4-6.  Blech.

The Bomb.Com of Days

By Posted in Breakfast, Food, Resturants, Running Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , 35 Comments

Let me tell you blogging world.  I don’t normally brag about how I had an amazing day and this certainly isn’t the greatest day of my life but it was extremely good.

First I woke up this morning and noticed three things were lacking, my knees didn’t hurt, my swimmers ear was gone and my head cold from changing climates (somehow southern VA and Norther n NY don’t have the same weather) had gone away.

So I was already overjoyed.  Then after checking my mail, I received a package from Kaila@Healthy Helper Blog full of bars.   She is either awesomesauce or psychic because there are about 1000 bars in here (did I mention I’m a bar whore?)

Thanks Kaila! 

Today I ran 9 miles in the heat of Upstate.  I was able to run not only in a tank top but spandex as well.  Go figure.  Well when I got back, I was terribly hot.  I ran in the same outfit I’ll wearing at Flower City to make sure no chafing and burns would occur.  Last long run until Sunday.

I apologize in advance that I thought it was acceptable to take photos with giant sweat marks.

Yes I drink 2 pitchers of this daily. (From target Strawberry-Orange-Banana drink packets are the bomb.com)

But not really from the container...

It was also Christmas because my compression sleeves came in. 

I did shower and put on real girl clothes today I swear!


Today I promised Kelsey I would take her out to dinner at Lobster hours so that is what we did (because her birthday was a week ago).  Other then the beautiful weather, the easy going classes and delicious noms, it was a rather uneventful (but amazing day).

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What I ate Wednesday:

I have never participated in this trend and very rarely even post half of my eats of the day.  But just for you guys-I’m diving right in.

For breakfast today, I decided to amuse you with cinnamon French toast bagel thins.  I don’t really keep bread in the house because I don’t eat sandwiches and when I do..I have two pieces and the rest goes bad.  So basically buy a loaf for the one time a month I’ll eat a sandwich.

I make my cinnamon raisin French toast bagels like normal French toast then top with chocolate peanut butter.  Yes it is nomtastic.  What is your favorite type of peanut butter? 

For lunch, Kelsey and I went to the dining hall.  Seriously, how she puts up with me so much is beyond me.  I’m trying to use the meals and so is she so it works out well.  I had a salad with mixed dark greens, strawberries, oranges, olives, blue cheese, and banana peppers.

I also had a flatbread sandwich with roast beef, spinach, tomatoes, mozerella cheese and crushed red peppers.

Then for dinner I had catfish, a baked potato and this salsa that comes with the catfish.

Doesn't this tater look like Mr. Potato Head? I almost couldn't eat it...

And cake batter ice-cream (which is not chocolate so I’m okay.)

Why they gave me two spoons...I don't know.

Speaking of the chocolate project-I’m at day 8 now and I haven’t craved any candy bars or pure sugars of any kind.  Although I would like a rather large piece of cake but that will have to weight.

Well loves I’m off to watch America’s Next Top Model :)

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Question for you:

Why was your day awesome? 

Big Birthdays Ahead.

By Posted in Food, Swimming Tagged , , , , , , 29 Comments

You guys have a pretty swell vocabulary yourselves.  (I’m secretly glad that you use awesomesauce and bomb.com because I want to spread the love to everyone)

Alex uses “blao” meaning any curse word imaginable.  I have the mouth of sailor and probably should begin that one.

Shanna-I also use Meep.  Some people think I’m a sheep though hehe.

Chuck-I will forever enjoy using twinnies/twinnsters/twinnzies and any sort of meaning of the word twins.

Callie-redikulous is one of my favorite skits.  Infact, I’m going to post a link so everyone can go look.  Callie brought up a good point in that I also spell things really funny but we didn’t even get into that.

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For Triple Tangent Tuesday today, I just thought I’d let you guys know it’s my brothers birthday.  Um-my family is celebrating two big birthdays this year.  I’m turning 21 and Matt’s turning 18.

But I think he will be carded more than I am...

To continue on Tangents of Matt, he will be attending the US Merchant Marine Academy next year (also in NY state) and hopefully we will be competing in our collegiate cross country together.   We are kind of like the bomb.com besties crazy running fashionistas.

Who knows why my dad runs with us...



So Happy 18th to my wonderful brother.  My how things have changed.

I think I was 13 and Matt was 10 on Halloween.

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Today I made my favorite waffle.  The Bacon Spinach waffle.  Yes, this is my favorite as dark chocolate orange are my favorite pancakes.

Incase you really didn’t think I was going to wear colored leggings two days in a row, I promise I’m more obsessed with them then pancakes.  That’s a dirty lie but they are fabulous.  (Sweater Banana Republic, shorts hollister, belt thrift store ($1 steal!) and leggings target.)

I don’t really take any heat from anyone because incase you are totally shocked I already march to my own beat and so when people ask me what I’m wearing it normally goes something like this:

Hollie uh what are you wearing?

Well I’m wearing pants for once-I’ hope your satisfied.

You’re wearing blue leggings.

I see you are majoring in eyesight.  I’m Hollie (insert my last name here) and that’s how I roll.

Then they laugh and say something along the lines of you are the Lady Gaga of campus. 

**I never know if that’s a good or bad thing.  But like I said I march to my own beat and I’m pretty sure most people know me as the leggings girl or something along those lines.  I’m not really cocky I swear, I just use that excuse to get away with all my “quirks”. 

My typical quiche was for lunch as always.  I actually had a cauliflower quiche which was interesting and I couldn’t really taste the cauliflower.

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Today I decided to take a day off running and swim a straight up 3000 yard swim.  I’m not too sure why I decided this was acceptable but it was nice and distressing.

My chocolate challenge for nutrition is going well.  I haven’t had any intense cravings yet, but I’m sure it will come soon.  We had nutrition class today and someone had forgotten, um this has been on my mind all month of when to start.

Question for you:

  1. 1.        Do you have any quirks?
  2. 2.       I’m in desperate need of guest posts for Friday.  So if you have a story, career choice, sport choice, food choice, want to take up some blogging space on my blog please please please email me.  lolzthatswim@gmail.com.