The past week I was down in New York City fulfilling one of my duties as a blogger on CrushingTheCourse.com. CTC is a website run by Gatorade,
Women’s Health and Men’s Health to promote the Urbanathlon series. I took the train down Tuesday night for a day of testing to begin on Wednesday at Peak Performance with Joe Dowdell.
I am not a huge fan of NYC. I love to visit but living there is not on my list of to-dos. I woke up early on Wednesday for a run. I decided to run up to Central park and hopefully run around a little. Holy dodgeball! Running up 6th or 7th ave during rush hour was the worst mistake I could have ever made. Not to mention by the time I got to central park I was already 20 minutes in and decided to turn back. I wasn’t sure what they had in store for me at Peak so I didn’t want to tire out my legs too much.
Ran To Central Park And Back
On my way home, I stopped at Fresh & Co for a cup of oatmeal with fresh blueberries and strawberries. I discovered this mini-chain when I was in NYC back in May. This place is amazing to me because Boston lacks anything like it.
I arrived at Peak Performance at 11:30 am. We started with a few fun tests. Basically, this is standard personal training protocol. They were looking for imbalances in my body, weaknesses, pain, anything that basically would indicate my susceptibility to injury during my training for the rugged 10-12 mile obstacle course.
Some of the tests I knew what they were looking for, like the overhead squat. This movement shows if I have tight hip flexors, lower back issues, rounded shoulders. Since Peak is one of the premier places for training in the city, they of course took it up a notch and had me do many tests I was not used to and had never done like placing my heels up on a higher surface (I don’t know what they were looking for in this).
Overhead Squat Test at Peak
Me and Joe!
In addition to the movement tests, they also took my body fat with a super cool machine and my VO2 max test to determine my cardio levels. You will have to wait and see the results on Monday over at CrushingTheCourse.com. I was nervous for the results myself, would I live up to my website name, “Sarah Fit”???
After the test, I went to Just Salad and grabbed lunch. It was delicious. Again, this is probably something the people of NYC take for granted but it seems like quick restaurants like this are on every corner. There is maybe 1 place in Boston that does this. The bread was gross but everything else was great. I don’t remember what I got but it had pumpkin seeds, butternut squash, grilled chicken, beets and a horseradish dressing. I love how they chop it all up for you too!
I didn’t have any plans until later that evening so I decided to go down and visit the site of the World Trade Center. It was unexpectedly emotional for me since I hadn’t been there since the attacks. I found my way to Century 21 where I bought myself a beach hat to protect myself from the sun this summer! I walked up to soho and shopped around. I found this place called Cupcakes By Melissa and I think I died and went to heaven. This place makes mini cupcakes in ideal flavors like Cookie Dough, S’mores, Mint Chocolate Chip, Rice Krispie Treat and more. I had to buy a sampler pack of 6 because a) you have to buy at least 3 and b) I couldn’t choose which flavors to try. 
The S’mores was probably my favorite with Rice Krispie treat and Cookie Dough coming close. The only one I wasn’t crazy about to be honest was the Mint Chocolate Chip. These may be my favorite cupcake in NYC. They are so small and flavorful that you hardly feel like you are indulging. It just feels right 🙂
Story of my life: Wake up for a run, healthy breakfast and lunch, finish it off with a couple cupcakes.
Have you ever had your fitness levels tested?
It looks like you had a great time in NYC!
I would love to take a fit test like the one you did at Peak Performance. I’ve done the body fat test at my gym with one of the handheld devices, but I’m pretty sure it’s not super accurate. :/
Happy weekend!
yeah, the handheld is not accurate. You need to get someone to use the calipers. This one must be pretty accurate since it is at Peak. Maybe when you come to Boston, I’ll have my trainer do yours? Let me know if you would even have time but could be fun! We’ll have to shoot a fun video too while you’re here.
I think your the perfect example for “fit” =)
Hello there Sarah!
You have been such an inspiration to me. Your videos on youtube are really helpful.
I have a fitness question for you. I’m a tad overweight, and I want to get fit before I start college in September. Should I burn fat for a whole month and then start taking Whey protein powder? Or should I start straight away? I’m afraid that it will make me gain mass in my thighs and arms, or is that just a myth? I think you should write a blog about that, everyone has that thought and they’re not sure if it’s really true or not.
Thank you so much!
I wonder how that super fancy scale compared to one of the consumer scales that you might have at home. Were the numbers even close?
haha, I doubt they are close. I just tried to use mine by the body fat part is not working -- I feel like it used to always say like 14% which was about 4 below accurate
Your wish came true. Freshii is opening in downtown Boston!!!
wooo hoooo! I’m sad I work from home but will make the walk in -- it’s about a mile and a half so I think I can handle it.
I would LOVE to get my body composition tested, but I can’t seem to locate a place in/near Boston that does it…do you have any suggestions? I’d like it to be as accurate as possible. Thanks!
I know a few trainers at Equinox that do it, where do you work out? Most trainers should be able to do it…
So happy to have you in New York, and Baked by Melissa is my favorite cupcake spot in NYC. So glad you got to try it.
They were soooo good! I can’t wait to try more flavors 🙂
Let me know when you in NYC again, love to show you more spots or even running and brunch. That is my favorite thing to do!