Two Ears One Mouth

Do people ever say to you, "You look normal"? Let me explain... Ever since I first started actively working on this personal training thing, I've had my doubts. Not necessarily about my ability to learn and apply the information but in my looks . Whether or not we want to believe it, the fitness industry and fitness world can be incredibly superficial. It can also be a place that fosters learning, support and encouragement. I was 19 and at least 40 pounds lighter than I am now when I first thought about becoming a personal trainer and even then I didn't think I was fit/pretty/fast enough to do it. So I didn't. I settled for my degree in Communication which has gotten me...um... well what it didn't (or at least hasn't yet) get me was satisfaction or a sense of purpose. Years later I finally decided to jump into this new career despite my doubts because I did have a support system who encouraged me it was possible. Who encouraged me that I did have k...

Happy Thanksgiving Week friends! Is everyone getting as excited as I am??? Ok, we know I'm never actually excited about the holiday itself as evidenced by this post , but this year I'm super excited for a couple of days off. I've been working like crazy! But to the point of today, I wasn't tagged to do this but read it on Run Eat Repeat and decided to copy because sometimes I can't come up with ideas of my own. So, behold! 4 Fun Facts Four names that people call me other than my real name Nazie  Sunshine  Mrs. Marshall (it's still weird and not my "real" name yet) Champ Four jobs I've had Cashier Vet Assistant Admissions Rep Intern Four movies I've watched more than once Troy Good Will Hunting Mr. Holland's Opus Wedding Crashers Four books I'd recommend Bossypants The Lovely Bones Seriously...I'm Kidding Basic Black Four places I've lived New York Maryland Texas Kentucky Four places I...

RCM Training (aka Me) had a big weekend! One of my many activities included speaking at the How to Festival hosted by the Louisville Free Public Library . My friend Amy put me in touch with the lovely library folks and they asked me to give a presentation on How to Train for a 5K. I was really excited. So much fun presenting at the #SWHowToFest today! Recruited some new 5k-ers! #RCMstrong #RCMtraining A photo posted by Rennay Cooke Marshall (@rnay225) on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:58am PST So in case you missed it, here are my 5 tips for getting to your first 5K... 1. Figure Out Your Why • Answer the question: Why do I want to do this? Think about what you want to gain and what you’re willing to sacrifice. • Exercise can’t be done for somebody else 2. Pick a Course that Plays to Your Strengths • This is directly related to your why. • What kind of atmosphere works for you? A fun run? A smaller yet more competitive field? A large family-friendly event with l...

I think just about every blogger writes some tips for staying healthy and not gaining weight during the holidays so I thought I'd join in on the trend this year. I don't know about you, but I'll take all the help I can get! RCM Personal Training (aka me) produces a monthly newsletter and guess what was found in November's edition? Check out my top 3 tips for making it through holiday dinners and parties. Then hop over to big time runner and blogger Run Eat Repeat for some of hers as well. 1. Fill Your Plate Yes, you read that correctly. A lot of times in our attempt to stay in control of our food we put an unrealistically small amount on our plate and praise ourselves for the empty space. Unfortunately, you're usually still hungry! Putting only a meager amount of your favorite foods on your plate will leave you unsatisfied and likely lead to overeating when you go back for seconds, pick at leftovers after dinner is over or give in to temptation and overcom...

Woo hoo the marathon was everything I hoped it would be! Wait, no it wasn't. I didn't actually do it. Allow me to explain... I'm still not entirely pleased with myself or the experience and it's for entirely vain and ridiculous reasons I've yet to overcome. In layman's terms, I have a big ego. To make a long story short, I dropped down to the half marathon (which is still a really long way!) and walked with a peg leg until yesterday afternoon ish. Prior to this race I didn't actually know where Savannah was (read how unprepared I was here ). We hit the road for what would become a 6+ hour drive to Atlanta Thursday night where we stopped for the night and I crashed on a friend's couch before getting up Friday and making the 3-4 hour drive to Savannah. We passed actual cotton fields and trees that looked like they were still in early October instead of November by their color and abundance of leaves. It was also very flat and very straight the ...

Starts November 30th; Winner announced December 21st Everybody stresses between Thanksgiving and Christmas and as life quickly gets in the way, our voluntary activity level is usually the first thing to suffer. The goal of this challenge is to remember that being active is a lifestyle and not necessarily a specific workout plan. Think ahead and plan to do what you want to do when you can do it. So how does it work? You set your goal. This is not a one size fits all program. Weight loss is extremely personal so the focus of this challenge is consistency and building activity into your everyday life. The great part is this can integrate into other challenges you might be a part of or just give you incentives to keep doing what you already do! Goals must be activity based and easy to track (i.e. run 3 days per week, be active for 30 minutes per day, etc.).  Your goal can change week to week but must be set by Saturday at noon  Your success in meeting your...

You all seemed to love my marathon bucket list post and that is awesome because now I know who to call to join me at which race. And who to tag along with. So thanks for that :) via One race that was missing from the list but will hopefully  be no less awesome is the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah marathon that I'm running this weekend! via When I was working at the running shoe store I met one of my very favorite people, we'll call her E for identity protection although you can just read her blog and you'll learn everything about how awesome she is. Anyway, we were hanging out at work during a particularly slow period and somehow she happened upon this race and revealed that it would be taking place on her birthday. Now she is younger than me but a much more accomplished runner so she quickly signed up and then decided to recruit friends to come along. We were close to renting a van, gathering anyone who could be gathered and driving down to make this t...

I know the title can be misleading so to clarify, this is a bucket list of marathons I'd like to run. Not just a really long bucket list. I'm keeping it to a top 10 because any list longer than 10 is just too long. This post was inspired by my new blog friend Eat Pray Run DC . If you haven't read her blog, you should, because it's prettier than mine. Anyway, here we go, in no particular order... 1. Marine Corps Marathon People who have run it never shut up about it so it must be great. Plus it's in DC and hello, Marines. Ooo rah. via 2. New York City Marathon Since I was born in New York and lived there for a bit it holds quite a place in my heart. It's another one of those epic races people can never say enough good things about. My only hesitation is that I'll really need to get over that thing I have about bridges. (get it? "get over"...bridges...) via 3. Boston Marathon - as a charity runner of course Let's get one th...

It's that time again! Time for me to point out my own brilliance in the form of my best tweets from October. If last month's list didn't inspire you to follow me, maybe this month will do the trick. I have been a tweeting machine! I've suddenly become concerned that I swallow water too loudly at work #officeproblems #irrationalfears — Rennay Cooke (@Rnay225) October 1, 2014 #colleague made the mistake of asking about my #marathontraining ...I think I kept it under control #possibletmi #wordvomit — Rennay Cooke (@Rnay225) October 3, 2014 #masterchefcanada is the most polite #cheframsay inspired things I've ever seen. — Rennay Cooke (@Rnay225) October 4, 2014 I'm SO SORE! Thanks (the sarcastic & the totally genuine kind) to my trainer @Rnay225 Hit her up for affordable, quality personal training! — Jess of Team Awesome (@_J2) October 5, 2014 This is actually a retweet but I never back down from shameless self promotion. ...