seven things, seven days:
1. My birthday week was lovely, and it was so nice to receive cards and flowers in the mail and SO many messages on social media. Lots of ❤️
2. Pure Barre is opening in West Des Moines (actually, in Clive, but who can keep track of these suburban boundaries!)
3. I bought a GORGEOUS midyear planner from Day Designer (the packaging alone made the price point worth it!), and I LOVE the reminder and tips emails they sent that coordinate with use of the product starting on June 1.
4. I haven’t shopped at Sephora in a couple YEARS… but their birthday gift was better, and I guess Ulta doesn’t have exclusivity on one of my brands anymore.
5. Why so many businesses mess up employee development — my company uses a strength-based development program and monthly assessments, but development is often not referred to until the annual review. {via Entrepreneur}
6. There’s so much of me in this article: The Rise of Run Rage {via Runner’s World}
7. So… this is 40!
The Niagara Falls International Marathon is 20 weeks away, and I have my plan mapped out from various training programs across the internet. I found one that has 3-4 days of running and incorporates my love of cross-training for a total 6 workouts a week. I’ll be trying to stay on plan for most of it, with some two-a-days as my body (and schedule) tells me that I need another day of rest — or for the days I go to my run//yoga club.
Check out this course map! Niagara Falls International Marathon Course Map
I think I’ll struggle most with the intensity of my cross-training days though, since I still want to do some CrossFit-type workouts. It will be challenging, but I’ll need to back out of any super high-intensity WODs that I cannot scale for the next 20 weeks. Also, Monday is called for a Rest Day throughout the plan and I REALLY like my low-impact spinning classes on Monday nights. Might just alternate rest days every other week. I’m a work-in-progress!
MONDAY: Rest Day
TUESDAY: My training plan called for 20 minutes of cross-training, but I scheduled another rest day because of my Wednesday workout plans.
WEDNESDAY: Restorative yoga practice at lunch time for an hour; we focused on some core work, and the session felt a lot more intense than usual. After work was my weekly run//yoga club with the lululemon crew at Urban Elements (seriously, if you’re interested in joining this group, send me a message!). It was a warm one! We did a quick 3 miles (9:30/pace) and 75 minutes of hot flow yoga with a LOT of hip opener exercises.
THURSDAY: Rest Day / plan called for 20 minutes of cross-training but Wednesday was enough!
FRIDAY: Three miles before breakfast (uh, that was dumb). I don’t know how it happened, but MapMyRun told me that I ran that first mile at 6:19 (I didn’t run with my watch, so was not replicated); altogether average pace over three miles (3.02) was 8:28. OK. I think I’ll run more at 6am, eh?
SATURDAY: Did a 20(ish)-minute cross-training workout that really burned, adapted from a Runner’s World program:
1 minute of squats
3 sets of biceps curls (10# x 12 reps)
1 minute of jumping jacks
1 minute of mountain climbers
1 minute of static lunges (alternating)
30 seconds of weighted “car driving” (10#)
1 minute of burpees
1 minute of front kicks (think: kickboxing; alternating)
1 minute of plie squats
3 sets of triceps extensions (this was actually really hard for me at 10#, so I did 1 set of 12; then alternated reps of 6 with following movement; followed up by a 12-set of flies)
1 minute of squat jumps (doing in the attic was fun! LOL)
1 minute plank
#dead
SUNDAY Eh, sometimes the rain and humidity come along at the same time, and you’re all NOPE. I had a small window where I could get out between finishing a major paper and having dinner with friends, but I flaked out on my run. Meh.
Total Runs: 2
Total Miles: 6.02
Training for a Fall Marathon? Share your link in the comments, so I can follow along on your adventure — and we can commiserate together in our long-run weekends. 🙂
