My Favorite runDisney Training and Inspiration

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I am sorry for the radio silence this week. Everything went wonderfully for my 28th birthday party out at the beach with family and friends. All the fam from out of town got home safe and now, our house is empty again. this week has been filled with cleaning, putting things back where they belong after the small renovation (pictures coming soon, I promise!!), and, of course, training for the half marathon!!!!

There have been a few things that have helped keep me on track and keep me inspired that I thought you may want to hear as well. First off is this in depth run calendar by Jeff Galloway. There is a calendar for every race, even the Dumbo, Goofey, and Dopey races have schedules and recommendations for how to run. Unfortunately, they only have calendars for 2014, so don't try to download it to your Google or icloud calendars, you will be sorely disappointed. But, it is a great resource for a beginning runner or someone who wants to decrease their race time since there is a separate training option for that. 

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Next up is the Mickey Miles Podcast. This is one of the things that inspired me to first run a Disney race and has kept me inspired ever since. Most of the episodes are listener questions being answered by veteran runDisney half and full marathoners. This is the best thing ever for a first time half-er who has about a billion questions about racing and runDisney racing. If you are thinking of running a Disney race (or any, really), I would highly suggest listening to this!

A Challenge for the Week

Happy Monday! Today we have the first challenge for all those who have decided to take part of the January/February Slim Down Challenge... And even for those who have not. Yes, usually we have one day challenges on P+K and even a few month challenges, but weekly challenges are very rare (barring last week's, of course).

So, this week is something that you may be able to do already, or, you may need to work up to. Two minutes is a long time to hold a plank pose and it will work a lot of muscles. Planks help the core, back, arms, and legs get lean and gain muscle. These are a static workout that will seriously have you shaking by the end.

If you laugh in the face of two minute planks, try two minutes of plank rolling instead. Or, you can even try plank on the forearms. You can even do this in a two legged plank pose. Just split the time so you are half with the right arm and left foot on the ground and half with the left arm and right foot on the ground. No matter which way you swing it, this is a great challenge for activating that core and getting a fast whole body tone.

When doing plank, be sure to keep your arms directly under your shoulders legs straight, and head up in line with the spine. You want to also make sure that you are keeping the back straight and bum even. Raising the bum up too high will bring you to down dog and work way different muscles. Letting the bum sink down will compound the vertebrate in your lower back and bring a lot of pain. Keeping it straight will make sure that you are working the right muscles without injury.

I cannot wait to hear how this goes for you!

This Week in Workouts: I Conquered Everest

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Happy May the Fourth! Today will be another lazy day for me since yesterday night was the Expedition Everest 5k Scavenger hunt. The race was great, but that is all I will say for this week's workout sum-up. I promise not to hoard this info all to myself though, trust me, there will be a blog post all about it in the next few days.

As for this week, things were pretty awesome. I tried my first ever Orange Theory class, which you will also hear about in an upcoming post, and got in some massive workouts. Ha, I am not sure why, but the day that I did the Orange Theory class, I woke up with the most sore bum ever. What is really odd about this is the day before was a rest day. Must be all that running catching up with me. Pun intended. Now, let's talk workouts. 

Sunday: 4.5 mile jog

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: Orange Theory and a randomly sore bum followed by a 15-minute AMMAP treadmill workout. This AMMAP was simply, run as many miles as possible in 15-minutes. I ran 1.75, sore bum and all. 

Wednesday: Rest day

Thursday: This Ali K. yoga flow with the hubs. It is great for intermediate yogis and has some fantastic core exercises! 

Friday: Walked around Disney!! And tried to get over being so ridiculously sore. It's like every part of me was hit by a train. Note to self, drink more water. 

Saturday: Expedition Everest 5K obstacle course followed by a scavenger hunt and late night partying!!! It was so fun and I cannot wait to talk about it on the blog this week.

This Week In Workouts: Running

Happy Sunday all! I hope your weekend has been wonderful. This weekend I picked up a new book series, so all my spare time has been spent reading it. Book one was finished last night and book two started. Once I finish book three, I will be sure to tell you the book and my thoughts!

The hubs has also been pretty sick this weekend with that bug that seems to be hitting 60% of us. So, it has been a stay-at-home couple of days as well. Thankfully, I am not sick and have been able to kick up my running a bit this week. Next week my cousin will be introducing myself and her sister to Barry's Boot Camp down in Miami. Needless to say, this week has been filled with a bit extra cardio in preparation. The cardio has also been spurred on with a fun new app I got called Nike+ Running. I know, it has been around forever, but I just started having fun with it this week... More info on that to come in the future!

Sunday: My first Pure Barre class where my legs and back and abs were sore for two days.

Monday: My first Nike+ run of 4-miles followed by eating soup... It has been a cold week in Florida

Tuesday: Another Nike+ run of 3-miles followed by this detox yoga flow which I loved after a run.

Wednesday: This Power Vinyasa Yoga flow by Ali K. It was great! You will be about 3/4's of the way through before it feels like 10-minutes have passed!

Thursday: Another 3-mile Nike+ run and the first one I tracked! Whoohoo, tracking! It worls pretty great :)

Friday: Rest day which was meant to be another 5-mile run but I found a book and read through the run. What can I say, I am a story addict.

Saturday: Late night AMRAP kettlebell workout from Pumps and Iron that left me dripping sweat after 15-minutes (photo above). I was part-way through number eight when that glorious timer went off. This was followed by a nice full-body yoga flow from Tara Stiles. Then more reading, and bed much, much later.