FitBloggin’ 15: conference recap

It’s crazy to think that the Sweat Pink team has been attending and speaking at FitBloggin‘ for the past four years. And with each year that passes, it just seems to get better and better.

This year’s conference was in Denver so we packed our bags, sweat pink laces and tanks, a bunch of SOS Rehydrate (gotta stay hydrated for all those sweaty workouts!), and most importantly our lungs (hellllooo, altitude).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liz and I flew in on Thursday afternoon and met Alyse at the Westin Downtown (tres chic). Since there wasn’t really anything on the schedule aside from check-in, we used the day to catch up on work emails and practice our talk for the next day – which was on how you can be the blogger that every brand wants to work with.

Thursday evening we grabbed happy hour + apps at Corridor 44 and then dinner at Rioja. Rioja was the bomb – ordered gnocci with sweet corn and mushrooms and an avocado and citrus salad (#yum).

Friday morning, I got up around 5:15 am and went immediately downstairs so that I wouldn’t wake up the other girls. I went downstairs to get some work done (playing some major catch-up, y’all!) and in hopes that I’d also find some coffee. I planted myself in front of the hotel’s Starbucks, only to realize it wouldn’t open until 6am (#fail). I kept a close eye on the time and the Starbucks counter and at 5:59, lined up with my cash in hand ready to pounce on my caffeine fix.

After getting the caffeine pumping through my veins, I went to wake the girls for our 6:30 am ass kicking bootcamp with Erin. Being a little early meant we had a chance to catch-up with #sweatpink friends and sip a few more drops of coffee before the ass kicking began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did frog leaps, mountain climbers, push-ups, squat jumps, lunge jumps and all kind of fun things with the HumanX resistance bands (holy, moly, my triceps are SORE).

 

After bootcamp, we grabbed a quick bite and more coffee (naturally)…and then headed to workout #2 with Cathe Fredrich. Cathe warmed us up with some aerobic style movements that left me questioning my own rhythm and coordination and then led us through a few circuits using resistance bands, paper plates (in place of gliding discs) and our body weight.

 

After our bodies were sufficiently whooped (2 hours of strength training and cardio will do that to a person), we grabbed smoothies at the Silk booth – and while they were good, I couldn’t help but want to grab control of that blender and whip up some magical smoothie goodness for everyone….I’m kind of a big deal when it comes to making smoothies, you know. 😉

After smoothie’ing it up, we headed over to #sweatpink sister Tasha Edwards & Kelly Espitia’s panel discussion on body love. Sitting in on this panel and listening to all of these incredible women (and the one amazing man) share their stories – their triumphs, challenges, and hilarious stories about body image, weight and self love – I felt so inspired to own (and love) my own body for all of its flaws, imperfections and perfect parts. Also, I discovered I have a major #ladycrush on Tasha. I’ve always crushed on Tasha on social media but spending time with her….straight up crushing. She not only has an amazing presence – these eyes that really look at you when she’s speaking but she’s also hilarious, honest, authentic and endearing…oh and one hot mama!

Anyway, after getting all teary eyed and inspired, our session was over and it was time for lunch. And I was…starving. My favorite part about lunch was Alyse’s plate (I’ll let her tell you why).

And then it was time for our talk.

And while I was a little nervous about admitting my obsession with swiping right (why oh why can’t married people play on Tinder too???!?!?!!), our talk ended up being a super interactive session with so many amazingly smart bloggers. Everyone was sharing tips, asking questions and learning from one another. We couldn’t have asked for a better session…thanks again to Melissa, Coco, Jenn, Katy and others for sharing so much incredible insight with us!

After our session, we headed back up to the room so we could decompress a little. Alyse used the opportunity to take a powernap and Liz and I headed out for a run in search of awesome murals. We knew that there was an awesome mural somewhere northwest of us so we ran a little over 2 miles over the bridge and landed in a pretty industrial part of the city. Realizing we weren’t in the right spot for our mural, we kept moving and guessing where it might be. Eventually, we saw a couple of young dudes hanging out outside of an art gallery and asked them for help (have you seen this mural?…). They pointed us in the right direction and we were off again…

And we found the mural mecca. And it was incredible. And we took all the yoga photos. And then we took more.

 

And then we had to run back because we were about to make ourselves late for Ignite speakers. 5+ sweaty, high altitude miles later, we were back at the hotel and in a mad dash for showers.

We made it to Ignite just as they were getting started and saw the most AMAZINGLY cute video about a bear and a mouse told by a little boy. The Ignite speakers rocked the house…probably my favorite line of the whole night came from my #ladycrush Tasha who said, “I like salad. You like salad. Why can’t we be friends?” 

We made it through all of the speakers and then ducked out to find some food (I think I was hangy’ier than the pregnant lady at this point). We ended up going back towards all the amazing murals and feasting on delicious kale salad, Brussel sprouts and tacos at Los Chignones, a super hip Mexican food joint. I had a cucumber mojito too…and that made me pretty happy. 😉

By the time we made our way back to the hotel, it was quarter to midnight…what the.…so we all crashed out. My alarm woke me up at 5 am and I quickly showered, dressed and packed my bags so that I could be ready to roll as soon as my Glider Yoga class was over.

I got the room all set up and my amazingly strong 6:30 am workout crowd started to pour in.

At first they all stood in the back of the room looking at me and the gliders set up in front of them with trepidation. I beckoned them all to come join me, grab some gliders and get their butts kicked. And I kicked their butts (and mine) and then I kicked their butts some more. It was awesome. I loved seeing all the fabulous #sweatpink’ers in the front row – rockin’ the gliyo workout – special shout-out to Carrie and Jill for taking the dead front and center spots.

After a tough hour long Glider Yoga class, I said my goodbyes and darted off to the airport….only to miss my flight by a hair and have to sit through an incredibly stressful standby situation. That said, I’d do it all again in a heartbeat!

Big thanks to Roni and the entire FitBloggin’ crew and my #sweatpink family for another incredible year and for helping me get in SO MANY minutes for the #1millionminutes challenge! WOOT WOOT!

Can’t wait to see y’all in July at BlogFest (its gonna be EPIC!).

Stay sweaty friends!

XOXO

Jamie