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.
