I have an interesting one of these.

A friend of mine was having her bachelorette party this weekend...and her chosen activity was a pole dance fitness class.

I am apparently a "natural" at pole dancing. Can you imagine me doing that 125 lbs ago?? I had enough muscle to hold myself up. Woohoo!

though, at being a "natural"!!

And to think that you never would have discovered this talent of yours without weight loss!!

Amanda - that is fantastic! Love finding unknown skills. I bet you were fabulous!

Last night I was able to touch my forehead to my knees on a forward fold. My knees were jut a little bent, but just barely. I have never been able to even get close before...

I also am past 700 miles on my year to date run-bike miles. More than I did all last year - 2009 ended at 696. Woo hoo!

Yay, Shannon!

Really, Shannon? Both of those are great!

I missed you guys. Threads like this put a big ol' smile on my face.

Bragging rights ~ PR'ed at my 10k race over the weekend by shaving 6 whole minutes off of my previous time (1:07:29, 10:52 average).

I never thought I would see the day where I consistently run sub-11 minute miles!

Fantastic PR, FP! Wowza!

Okay, today I'm going for the "most improved" brag. I feel like such a bragger posting about my triathlon times on like every single thread, but this one is going to be about my improvement over last year on the same race.

Last year's swim: 23:21
This year's swim: 15:46
Improvement: 32% (7:25)

Last year's bike: 1:05:17 (11.4 mph)
This year's bike: 50:51 (14.7 mph)
Improvement: 22% (14:26)

Last year's run: 47:30, but I walked due to stomach cramp (15:17/mile)
This year's run: 37:36 (12:06/mile)
Improvement: 21% (9:54)

That brings my swim time up to the back of the pack!

Woo hoo Jessica!

Oh Yes!! Fabulous Improvement!!

While I'm blasting away PRs, I did a 5k race this past weekend and blasted my 5k PR. Funny because I wasn't very enthused for this race, figured I'd probably be slow, didn't really care about the results (was just doing it for fun), and felt slow in my warmup. However, according to my watch, I finished the 5k in 34:45! My previous PR was 35:30. Gun time official results were 35:23 but it took me a while to get across the start line because of all the people, so I'm going by my watch instead.

Jessica, there's no stopping you! Well done!

You are on a roll Jessica! You go!

Thanks guys! Of course, unlike all of those PRs I just broke, I picked up the weights again yesterday and got my butt kicked.

Way to go, everyone.

Well, I have another sort of strange NSV. My athletic feats of strength have inspired their very own 3FC exercise challenge!

I present you with the "Mandalinn82's Holy Cow Plank Challenge"

MANDALINN82'S HOLY COW PLANKS
Plank (hold 15 sec)
Pushup
Drop to Elbow Plank (hold 15 sec)
Dolphin (while on elbows, clasp hands and push up into a downward-dog-like position) (hold 15 sec)
Lower back into an Elbow Plank
Back up to regular plank and start again!

The goal is to get through 6 without faceplanting, which is my max in a set. Very weird to have my own state be a "goal" in a challenge!

(Oh, and give them a try, they're brutal!)