Category Archives: Fitness

Defying Gravity!

I caught this video on Christine’s blog, and, too real. I am guilty of every. single. thing. in this video, including raising money for charity for my hobby.

A sidenote on the fundraising: I hit 40% of my goal this week! At first, I was a bit bummed that I still had a long way to go and that other people had raised more, but then I realized that I have already raised more than $2,000 for the New York Junior League, and that’s pretty awesome.

anti gravity treadmill

As for my actual running, I got to do some this morning for the first time in more than two weeks…on an anti-gravity treadmill. I called my parents this morning on my way over there and told my dad I was getting on the “space man treadmill.”

“What, Theodora? You’re getting on the space shuttle?”

Yes, Dad.

I’m slowly getting better, and my PT at Finish Line, Caroline, said I was ready for the Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill today.

You can read more about the Alter-G and my first experience with it here. This morning, Caroline instructed me to start off with walking a few minutes at 65% of my bodyweight, then run at an easy pace for another 10-15 minutes, and then run at 75% of my bodyweight. It is such a weird feeling! From the outside, it just looks like you’re running, but the way it feels is like a combination of running and flying — running with much of the impact taken off.

I was listening to the hilarious Call Your Girlfriend podcast as I ran, and I was HAPPY and endorphin-wasted. My back pain was relatively minimal. I know I have a long way to go with my marathon training, but I’m really hopeful and thankful for the fab Finish Line for helping me get there. (This isn’t sponsored in any way, nor do I get any kind of special perks for writing about them, I just think they’re awesome.)

Meanwhile, looking into how I can get on that space shuttle…

If you could have any super power (which running without gravity feels like!), what would it be?

New (To Me!) Stretches for Runners

I am so happy to be back to training. Not just because it gives me more to blog about, but it just makes me happy and fulfilled.

Team NYJL

Last night, I trekked uptown to the New York Junior League to meet up with our marathon team for a fun, social run. I remember about 10 years ago, when I first signed up for a marathon (even though I couldn’t run at all…I don’t recommend that) heading out on a “fun run” with the training group and struggling so much through three miles. It’s so crazy how far I’ve come since then.

Shameless plug to donate to help women and children here:

http://crowdrise.com/juniorleaguenyc2015/fundraiser/Theodora

Jess, who’s been coaching me for the past two years, is also our NYJL run coach, which is a wonderful case of worlds overlapping. She’s the one in the front in the middle.

So over the past few years, I’ve accumulated a bunch of knowledge about running (and even have my coaching certification), but Jess works with runners day in and day out and knows a whole lot. So I loved a few of the stretches she had us do.

She also taught us a great dynamic calf stretch:

AND told us to be doing some dynamic warm-ups/cool-downs ESPECIALLY if you’re running in the morning — which I usually do. She said that could also just be walking for 5 minutes. I usually walk to the end of my block (which is approximately 20 feet) and start, but this morning I took that to mean to walk one block on both the front and back ends of my run.

Today’s run:

2 mile warm-up (I didn’t time it)

6 x 400: I ran this on the West Side Highway path. Thankfully there weren’t too many people out, but interval running on a straight path is always interesting. Splits: 7:15, 7:00 7:11, 7:30, 7:35, 7:30.

Tonight at work, I did one of our Pilates workouts. My lower back had been pretty tight before but now it + my glutes really hurt.

I’m going to Epsom salt + Arnica it and hope for the best.

Do you have any fave lower back stretches/ways to relieve lower back pain?

Also, if you are familiar with the Hamptons, do you know of any good running routes around Amagansett/East Hampton? I have 12 miles to cover Friday out there. I’m excited but wondering if there’s any more interesting route than just up and down 27…which is interesting in and of itself!