Tag Archives: strong sexy spring runner challenge

Strong Sexy Spring Runners Challenge: Week of 1/16 Check-In

I haven’t forgotten about my Strong Sexy Spring Runners Challenge, I promise.

I’m working with Jaz to come with some content for y’all, and we’ll have another post later this week.

I think, though, going forward, I’m going to start sharing my workout plan every week and how I did to keep myself accountable. Last week, I was a fail and did not prioritize my workouts and so not many of them happened. I’ll never meet my goal if I don’t get my ass in gear, so I’m going to do just that.

For those of you who don’t care to read the whole thing and just want to check in, I’m going to do the check-ins every Monday like this and give you a chance to check in until midnight EST on Tuesdays, k?

Planned:

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Actual:

Sunday: 3-mile recovery run (check)

Monday: Xtreme Abs

Tuesday: rest. As planned. I have no problems with taking rest days.

Wednesday: more rest. Not planned. I don’t even like calling unplanned rest days as such, because it makes it sound more dignified than it is and that I’m listening to my body or something. The only “listening to my body” I did last week was “happy hour is awesome.” Fail.

Thursday: same thing. More unplanned rest.

Friday: 3-mile run. It wasn’t the tempo run I was supposed to do earlier in the week…but it was a run.

Saturday: 6-mile run with Leticia + Jess’ core workout (which I LOVE)

This week:


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In case you can’t see that…

Sunday: 3-4 mile recovery run (err, fail again. This is getting embarrassing…)

Monday: Strength train. CHECK! I went to Jaz’s sports conditioning class tonight and was handed my ass. We started the class off with a little obstacle course which included BEAR CRAWLS. If you’re unfamiliar with them (like I was before tonight), you crawl on your elbows with your ass as low to the ground as possible. It works most muscles in your body, but primarily your core. It also left me with some nice, sexy mat burns on my elbows. We did a few different circuits tonight, and my other favorite exercise was the plank-to-push-up move.

I also did about 5 miles walking over the course of the day looking at apartments (I’m moving at the end of March and looking early to get an idea what’s out there) and walking back and forth from boot camp. I went to the gym to “make up” my recovery run, and 2 miles in, my phone went flying off the treadmill and I hit stop instead of pause and decided to just screw it, knowing that I had a lot more walking and boot camp ahead of me.

Tuesday: rest or 3 mile tempo run

Wednesday: 6x400m repeats with 90 seconds recovery

Thursday: strength

Friday: rest. I’m probably not going to take tomorrow as a rest day, but given that Saturday and Sunday are run days, I’ll probably take Friday as my scheduled rest day still.

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And just some not-that-pretty-but-very-tasty food: maple roasted Brussels sprouts with broiled soy maple salmon. I got really burnt out on salmon while losing weight because it was one of my restaurant go-tos, but I still make myself eat it every once in a while since it’s so good for you. And I know this isn’t much food, but I ate this at like 9pm when I wasn’t really hungry any more. (I also had a nasty coconut milk + protein powder shake/drink when I got home because protein within 30 minutes of working out is good for your muscles, or something.)

How’d your strength training go last week? And what foods do you get burnt out on?

Strong Sexy Spring Runner Challenge: Get Fast, Get Toned

I don’t know if it’s the dawn of a new year (cheese alert!) or being back on a training plan, but I’m just as motivated to stick to a sweat schedule and eat right as I was when I started down this crazy path almost three years ago. (Keep reading, there’s something in it for you, too.)

I left work at 7:30 last night and only grumbled a bit on my freezing walk to the gym. I had a 40-minute tempo run on my schedule, and I was excited to tackle it, even though I knew it would kind of suck. It’d been months since I’d done speed work. I did 4.37 miles in 40 minutes and got so hot that the walk home in the freezing cold barely bothered me. (Honestly.)

I got home and scoured my nearly-empty refrigerator for something to eat.

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I wish I could say I found this lovely spread, but this was from a brunch Emily on Sunday that I just found on my memory card.

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Me, Emily, Liz

Back to last night.

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I was determined to follow this whole Eat In [More] Month thing. My kitchen was pretty bare, so I went for spinach feta eggs. (Ingredients: spinach, feta, coconut milk for a little fluffiness and awesomeness.)

My breakfast and lunch were a giant Eat In [More] Month fail. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail and all that.

Tonight, I left work at a decent time and headed to boot camp. You might remember I did this runner’s boot camp last year. I really liked it, but it kicked my ass so hard that, basically, I was afraid to go back after two sessions. I loved it because Jaz, the instructor, is incredibly intense, but also HILARIOUS. So while I wanted to die doing her class, it was hard to hate her. I’ve seen her around town at a few fitness events (and I saw her cheering at the NYC Half last year, which nearly melted my pumping heart), and we were supposed to work together to put on an event last year, but it ended up falling through.

Anyway, a lovely lady named Sara new of my love for Jaz, and asked if I’d be interested in figuring out some way to collaborate to help out both Jaz and me. I like to help out people I like…and myself…so I was all about it–with one condition: that there be something in it for you all, too.

With that…

the STRONG SEXY SPRING RUNNERS challenge was born!

What I get: free classes twice a week from now until the D.C. Half on March 17 and a customized training plan from Jaz. I’m going to take measurements and stuff tomorrow so that I have a baseline to measure against.

What I’m personally looking to get out of this: helping an awesome woman get more people to get into her classes and get stronger, hot abs and an even hotter PR come March 17. I’m also hoping that strengthening my core will help with lower back pain.

But you don’t really care what I get out of this, do you? You want to know what you get out of it.

So, this challenge is really geared towards those preparing for spring races, but really anyone can do it.

For NYC readers: Jaz is offering a great discount on her classes, which are usually $24/session. If you email her at pace4success at gmail dot com and tell you are part of the Strong Sexy Runners group, she will offer you a deal for $300 for 10 weeks of 2 classes per week, $270 for 9 weeks of 2 classes per week; and $240 for 8 weeks of 2 classes per week–for classes up until March 7 (10 days before the DC/NYC Halfs.) Also comment and let me know you’re in…and let me know if you want to meet up to take a class!

For non-NYC readers: leave a comment telling me if you’re interested in participating. I’ll have check-ins weekly that you will check in to by commenting about your strength workouts, and your comment will count as an entry for giveaways that I will be running. Jaz will also be sharing weekly strength tips for runners.

And if you’re so inclined, I’ll be hashtagging this thing with #strongsexyrunners.

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And dinner was awesome. (I’ll be posting more of my meals again as I start cooking more again.) I made a variation of orecchiette with broccoli rabe. My differences: I used whole wheat shells instead of orecchiette, chicken sausage, spinach and added in some chicken broth while cooking the sausage.

Whoa, you got all the way to the end? Good job.

So, are you in? [Or are you out?]

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