Still on the right path

Yesterday's Girls on the Run 5K was a blast.  What a wonderful organization I am so honored to be able to support such a worthy cause.

Today I had a meeting after work and I planned on getting home around 8 or 8:30 so I expected it to be a rest day, so when I got home before 7 I decided I had to take advantage.  I grabbed the leash, grabbed my dog and we took off on a gentle 2 mile run/walk.   Did great even though I was a little sore from yesterday.   My dog isn't great at running with out you know, stopping and sniffing, and trying to go the other way sometimes since he's you know, a dog...and we still finished in less than 1/2 an hour.

Tonight I'm reviewing my original training plan and adjusting it from the 3 months I had expected and make it a 6 - 8 week plan instead :)

Wish me luck!

If at first you don't succeed

One day...I made it one day into my regular blog updates before I forgot I set up the blog.
One week...I made it one week into my training plan before life happened and I fell off the wagon.  Well, not completely off the wagon, but I certainly wasn't checking off all of my workouts the way I had planned.

So, back on it we go.   Tomorrow I am running a 5k with Girls on the Run as a Sparkle Runner.  What is Girls on the Run? GOTR is an organization that works to inspire young girls through programing that culminates in a 5K run at the end of the program.  What is a Sparkle Runner?  A Sparkle Runner is an adult volunteer who runs with the 5k to help cheer the girls along their way.  Each girl has a running buddy, but sparkle runners are running without a specific running buddy to help cheer the girls and run with girls who may be separated from their buddies for safety purposes.

This will be my first year serving as a Sparkle Runner but I love the idea and am so excited to run in my sparkle cape and to carry my scepter (That's right, I get a scepter) I even have a pretty plastic Tiara to wear!  Of course I'm also a little nervous, these girls have been running almost every day for the past 3 months in preparation for this race--I hope that I can keep up! :)

If you happen to miss me

And given that I just realized that my custom blog design in dead and that I need to change it to a blogger supported template I doubt many of you do....

I started a new blog to chronicle my spartan race training this summer (and possibly beyond)

https://spartanshanon.blogspot.com/

Training Day 1

It's always important to start with a benchmark so you can measure progress.  This evening I started my training after work with a couple of benchmark workouts.

My results follow:
Current Weight 180 pounds
2.4 Mile Run/Walk - Total time 32:12, average pace 13:09, fastest mile 12:13
1-minute timed workouts:
 situps - 15
 high knees - 90
 jumping jacks - 62
 pushups - 17
How long to hold full plank - 33 seconds
How long to hold modified plank - 50 seconds (on knees)
arm hang - 7 seconds
How much weight - 10 rep bicep curl - 15 pounds

I also started working my way towards 100 burpees by May 31.  Today I started with 10 burpees (2 sets of 5) that you can check out in the video below.

This is totally my favorite running shirt - it 100% expresses exactly how I feel about running :) 

Spartan Training Underway

I am normally a fairly active person.  A few years ago my husband and I set out to live healthier and loose some weight and I lost about 15 pounds that stayed off for over 3 years.   Then in January of this year I started having some problems with my feet, life got busy, and I went through a bit of an emotional funk.  These forces combined and translated into me gaining back 10 of the 15 pounds I had kept off for over 3 years.

Last year my husband discovered Spartan races and completed his first Trifecta.  I am NOT a runner.  But I do enjoy race environments.  I also like being outside in nature and did a 5k Viking Dash Trail Run once that was fun.  So I told my husband I would do a sprint if he could get our friends to join a team (all while thinking there was no way that my friends would do it).   Of course I was wrong, one of our friends joined in immediately.

So in July, right before my 33rd birthday I will be competing in a Spartan Sprint in Fort Knox, KY with my husband and some friends.   Because I am in decent but not great shape it is time to start training, and what better way to start training than to hold myself accountable by documenting my training on this blog.

So today I started training! 75 days to go :)