Running and then blogging about it
Weights 4

A New Approach to the Ultimate Hard Body

By Colleen @colleenalicia · On November 17, 2013

Earlier this year, I spent a lot of time going back-and-forth as to whether or not I was officially running, or at least trying to run.  You may remember that I declared that I was giving it up, only to be in the physical therapist’s office a while later, running pain-free.  This back-and-forth actually happened far more than I blogged about, until finally I got tired of it and decided to shift my focus altogether.  Instead of stressing out about whether or not I can run for ten minutes at a time yet, I’m putting my energy into a different (but parallel) life-long goal: get the Ultimate Hard Body.

I’ve lived my own version of the Ultimate Hard Body lifestyle for quite some time now, however I have to be honest and say that this lifestyle is predominately based on doing whatever I want and calling it UHB (Ultimate Hard Body).  Do I want a doughnut right now?  Hell yes, as long as it’s a UHB doughnut.  Do I want to eat three pounds of Thai food before a two-hour Biggest Loser cardio session?  Obviously, eating right before you workout makes you burn double calories, which is quintessential UHB.  I now recognize that this way of doing things will only get a person halfway to the Ultimate Hard Body, and I’m ready to go all the way.
It started back in August, when I met with my friend Niven, who had been working out a lot in the past year.  She told me about this trainer she was seeing, and how she was going to do a fitness competition.  I knew nothing about the world of fitness competitions, but I was intrigued, so I went to see the trainer.  When he asked if I would be competing I said I hadn’t thought about it.  But within a few weeks, I realized that if I was going to spend all this time lifting weights, I wanted to win at it.  My coach told me he could have me ready within a year.  That sounds like a long time, but what you all might not realize, is that I was actually starting out with very tiny muscles, so it made sense.
I’m about three months into this new kind of training, and it’s been pretty interesting.  People keep asking me why I haven’t blogged about it, and I tried to tell them that it was because the blog is called “Running and Then Blogging About It,” and this is NOT running.  But the truth is, this blog was inspired by the dream of attaining the UHB, and so I can’t justifiably omit this aspect of training.  In fact, the original URL of the blog is uhb-etc.blogspot.com, which stands for Ultimate Hard Body, etc.  It turned out to be a terrible URL to tell people about, which is why I’ve changed it.  However, I still have an obligation to blog about all UHB efforts.
The real reason I haven’t been blogging about it, is that I’m used to composing my blog posts during my workouts.  This works with running, and not with weight-lifting.  Especially when I was marathon training, I would literally have hours where I would actively search for things to think about to distract me from running, and my blogging was one of those things.  Getting the UHB in this style, I have to actually think about what I’m doing while I’m doing it, and it doesn’t take very long.  I can get a full workout in within 30-40 minutes, and the whole time is spent shuffling weight plates around and trying to avoid eye contact at the gym.  If you consider all the time it takes to make protein shakes and eat properly, I also have much less time to blog.
So there you have it: what I’m doing with my body now, and why I haven’t told you about it yet.  There’s way more to talk about in this regard, but I’ll break you in easy, and just leave you with a sneak peek at my progress:

If you follow me on instagram (colleenalicia), you’ve already seen this, but let me just re-emphasize how small my muscles were to start.  Really small.  This is like, at least five times their original size.

Share Tweet

Colleen

I must confess, I started running at a very early age. Sadly, my runs were unblogumented until around age 23, so you'll have to use your imagination for all the runs I went on before that. Running has always been my go-to sport, but sadly, I spend a good amount of my time with chronic injuries. I have learned to entertain myself athletically with other pursuits such as kettlebell, yoga, and bikini competitions, when I can't run. In addition to my unique talent for working out and then blogging about it, I am an amateur puppy stylist and photographer, television enthusiast, and I'm usually CPR/AED certified, but I would still prefer if you didn't pass out when we're together.

You Might Also Like

  • Weights

    Weight Room Anxiety

  • Weights

    Coming Soon: Bodybuilder / Gymnast Abilities

4 Comments

  • Hamza Malik says: November 17, 2013 at 1:36 am

    Good for you Colleen! Although I’m not into the protein shakes and what not. My theory is eat and then lift your ass off at the gym.

    Reply
    • Colleen Smith says: November 18, 2013 at 3:27 am

      Thanks Hamza. Good theory, although I’m actually trying to lift my ass ON, if that makes any sense to you. But the eating part, I’m totally on board with.

      Reply
  • aly jones says: December 11, 2013 at 12:03 pm

    Great Effort Colleen..!!! I bet if this is the way you are going to show your concern for exercise and workout you will surely be the owner of Ultimate Hard Body and yes these protein shakes would surely help you out during the workout sessions, you can prefer post and pre workout supplements, they will help in enhancing your energy levels during workout.
    Keep it up..
    Thanks
    Reference: http://usplabsdirect.com/jack3d-micro.html

    Reply
  • albina N muro says: January 15, 2014 at 8:27 am

    No matter the level of runner, a running injury is a possibility. Logging so many miles does a number on a runner’s body. When that injury does present itself, address it promptly and allow for a decent recovery. Germaine Zinck

    Reply
  • Leave a reply Cancel reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    About Me

    I’m Colleen. I started this blog when I was 23 years old and training for my first marathon. I was single, semi-employed, generally directionless in life, and had a lot of free time on my hands. I have a lot less free time now, but I still love to come here and dump my rambling, unedited thoughts after a workout or race once in a while.

    Older Posts

    November 2013
    M T W T F S S
     123
    45678910
    11121314151617
    18192021222324
    252627282930  
    « Oct   Dec »

    © 2019 Colleen Clancy. All rights reserved.