Yoga Day 21

Today was technically the last day of both the 21-day yoga challenge that I was signed up for and the 30-day yoga challenge videos that I was actually following.  I'm thinking I'm just going to keep going with the yoga challenge because, let's face it, yoga is awesome and challenging me to do yoga every day is a little like challenging a puppy to enjoy belly scratches every day.

Running Day 35

Just when I thought there was a long enough break in the rain to run my mile outside, it started pouring again, grrrrr.  So my mile was run on the treadmill tonight.

Yoga Day 20

Yoga for better sleep.  Probably not necessary but greatly appreciated after a couple of back-to-back 6-day  work weeks.

Running Day 34

I wanted to run outside tonight but by the time I got stepped out my door, it was raining so I went to the gym instead.  Which was fine because it meant that I got some weights in as well but it was a rough mile on the treadmill.  One of these days I'll learn once and for all to not eat within a couple of hours running.

Yoga Day 19

Dancer pose today!  Balance!  Stretching!  Strength!  It's got it all!

Running Day 33

I like to plan my trips to the gym around tv programming.  It's true and I'm not ashamed of it.  There are a few things that are primo for watching while working out.  Action movies are one of them.  Tonight's 2.5 miles was run to Red.

Yoga Day 18

IT band yoga tonight - wooooo!!!  A lovely complement to my running.

But tonight I want to give a shout-out to my beloved Mommy who is doing her own yoga challenge which is pretty awesome.  I speak from experience when I say I know it's not easy to get excited about working out but it tends to pay off in then end and I am super proud of you, Mommy, and pumped that you are joining me in yoga-ing daily!

Running Day 32

Got my run on at the gym tonight with 2.5 miles which was a mix of running and inclined walking.

Running Day 31

This morning, I got the gchat message I've been waiting for for a while now: Meaghan asked if I wanted to run the Color Vibe 5k in Gainesville in October!  To which I answered basically, "OMG YESSSSSS!!!"  I may or may not have proposed such an idea to her about a year ago and she may or may not have totally not been into it, but alas, she has come around!  It's. Gonna. Be. Awesome.

In other news, I ran 3.25 miles tonight on the treadmill.  I'm trying to do longer runs (by longer, I mean actually more than a mile which is my daily minimum; still not "long" runs as determined by a marathoner) in preparation for my 5k next week, but also because that is likely what I will transition to after the big streaking challenge is over: going from daily at-least-one-mile runs to a few miles each run, a few times per week.

Yoga Day 17

Today's yoga was workplace yoga - basically stretches that one can (and should) do at work, especially if one sits at a computer for most of the day.  Soooooo, not only did I do my daily yoga at work this morning, I made Dawn do it too - muahahahahahaahahah!  She was totally not into it at first, but when she was done, she felt better so my coercion was justified, right?

Yoga Day 16

Today was sun salutations which can be a bit of a necessary evil sometimes.  Usually you use them to warm up and all which is great but they can be hard depending on how quickly you do them and for how long you hold certain parts of it.  Still, I'd rather do sun salutations than, say, team sports.

Running Day 30

I registered for a 5k for the 4th of July.  For the record, the 4th of July is also the last official day of running streak I'm currently working on.  I'm really hoping to keep up the momentum and continue with the good habits I've been creating but I don't think I will continue running every day.  But that discussion is for another time.  In any case, I registered for the 5k to finish the streak on a high note (hopefully).  

In other news, for today's run, I wanted to try out a new route so I went to what I thought was a running trail but really turned out to be more of a really rough bike path.  Fortunately, there were no bikers and it was certainly wide enough to run on, but the terrain of the path was quite rough indeed and I will not likely be going back.  Ah well, it was good to try out and I got 2 miles out of it so all's well that ends well.

Yoga Day 15

Today's yoga was a pretty easy flow which was good since I was obviously not in the whole workout frame of mind as evidenced my today's run.

Running Day 29

I made it to the gym today to run but I was so not into it.  I mean, I ran my mile+, but then I was out of there. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Yoga Day 14

Have I mentioned to you guys that I love yoga?

Running Day 28

So I'm not quite sure how far I ran today because I went to the Royal Palm Beach Village Commons Park which is really new and thus there is no satellite view of it on Google Maps with which I might digitally figure out my route nor does the park have any mile markers.  But I did a 3+ minute warm-up walk and then jogged a 14-minute loop so I'm thinking I got about a mile and a half or so.  In any case, it was certainly at least a mile.

Yoga Day 13

Today's yoga was restorative and if you read my preview post about my busy morning, you know that that is exactly what I needed.  Hopefully a good 8+ hour restorative savasana tonight will help, too.

Running Day 27

This morning was graduation and I was running around for about 2+ hours but by running around, I mean speed walking and generally on my feet so unfortunately it didn't count as my daily run.  So despite my achy and tired legs, I just stopped thinking about it and went to the gym anyway and got in 1.3 miles.

Yoga Day 12

Today's yoga was headstand!  This is something I've been working on and I was able to hold it for longer than I have been before today.  I still can't quite straighten my legs all the way up in the air, when I'm inverted, but I'm getting there!  I can definitely do a headstand and handstand against a wall but freestanding is the dream.

Running Day 26

Busy day today but I got my one mile in, nonetheless.

Question

So according to Blogger analytics, I get a good number of hits on my blog every day, but aside from my mom and sometimes my dad (Hi Mommy and Daddy!), I'm not sure who my other readers are - would you care to reveal yourselves?

Yoga Day 11

So remember how yesterday, my shoulders were super sore?  Yeah, they're still sore and today's yoga was all about shoulder strength...awesome....  But still actually awesome :)

Running Day 25

2.5 miles tonight - boom!

Yoga Day 10

Today's yoga was all about twists which was cool.  We spent a good amount of time in downward-facing dog which is cool, but it requires a good bit of shoulder strength to stay in for any length of time.  So after that and my workout prior, I was a little shakey, just lifting my arm to peel my post-workout banana.

Running Day 24

I got in my mile this morning.  I actually ran it without any music or TV or anything to distract me.  I didn't actively choose that, but there were a couple of guys in the gym, doing maintenance and they were chatting with me a bit while I was using the weights so I turned off my mp3 player and never got around to turning it back on.  It was interesting, I listened a lot more to my breathing which was a good experience.

Yoga Day 9

Tonight's yoga was a good complement to my run.  It was energized and strong but still a good way to finish off a day's workout.  I'm really loving these yoga videos.  It's usually about 15 minutes of yoga which is just enough to feel like yoga but not so much that I feel like I'm doing 2 workouts with my running.  I can dig it.

Running Day 23

You guys.  I could be wrong but I may have had a bit of a runner's high tonight on the treadmill.  Exciting!  I was just running along and thought, "Yeah, I can keep going, nbd."  It felt pretty good.  I am finding that it does seem to help to stretch out a bit a few hours before my run.  There's actually quite a bit of research/controversy about whether or not stretching help with running, when one should do it, if one should do it, etc.  I lean toward the no-stretch immediately before running, and maybe afterward (lately I've been doing yoga after my runs so that usually takes care of my stretches).  The theory is that your muscles are like rubber bands and you want them to snap around really quickly when you run but if you stretch them out first, they won't snap as well.  This is not to say that you shouldn't warm up first - I generally walk for at least a couple of minutes before I start running.  Anyway, there you have it...not that you were necessarily curious in the first place....

Yoga Day 8

I really needed my yoga this morning.  I considered putting it off until I got home tonight but decided to go ahead and I was glad I did.  I felt a lot better afterwards.

Running Day 22

I got my run on this morning at the gym after some weights.  I'm not gonna lie, I have a bit of a hard time convincing myself to work my legs when I know I'll be running a bit anyway.  I usually just try not to think about it and just do it.

Yoga Day 7

I just noticed that I numbered the last couple of yoga days incorrectly, so I will fix that momentarily.  Today's yoga video was working on splits so that was pretty neat.  I'm ok, but still a far cry from full split.  Once I tried doing splits up a wall and it was cool because you can use your arms as leverage to get a better stretch in your front leg and push down a bit on the split without the full weight of gravity pulling you down - does that make sense?  It does to me....

Running Day 21

Tonight I ran 3.1 miles altogether in 37 minutes which is pretty good.  If I take out my warm-up and cool-down, I get 2.7 miles in 30 minutes which is pretty rad as well.  I'm definitely getting better, faster, stronger - if only just my willpower to keep running/jogging rather than walking.  I'm also finding that I miss the elliptical and the bike.  I mean, I don't miss them so much as I miss the mindlessness they take.  I'm sure that sounds like less of a workout but I'd rather take my mind off of exercise as much as possible.  Unless it's yoga, I suppose, because let's face it, half the point of yoga is to focus on yoga-ing.  I'm also missing the low-impact of the elliptical and bike.  Running is hard.  It's good for you, but sometimes I can really feel it in my joints, my ligaments, all that fun stuff.  Not injury-incurring things, just parts that are working on getting stronger.

Running Day 20

Halfway through the challenge!  Still going strong with at least one mile per day!

Yoga Day 6

This morning Sara and I went to yoga at the library but alas, we had a substitute teacher again.  Apparently, the regular teacher will be out the rest of the month.  Oh well, I've got to work the next couple of Saturdays anyway.  Perhaps this will get me to cultivate a better home practice.

Yoga Day 5

Mmmmm yoga.  I'm finding that my daily yoga is like my reward for running my daily mile.  Today's video was actually yoga for runners so that was cool.  Tomorrow is library yoga - yay!!

Running Day 19

Oh man, running today was so much better than yesterday.  Yesterday I felt stiff and awful running.  Tonight, I felt much looser and more with it.  Far better feeling.  Maybe the stretching at work helped.  When we get new books, we put them on the bottom shelf of the book truck and we each review them to see what we've got and I like to sit on the floor and stretch while I do it.  It's usually just some forward folds and hip openers but man did I want to break into full pigeon today.  I resisted that urge, but the mid-day loosening up perhaps helped me run my 2 miles tonight.

Yoga Day 4

You. Guys.  The videos from that new yoga challenge are so much better!  It's still not quite the same as what you'd think of with a regular yoga class and I think part of the reason I like it better is the teacher is way better.  The ones I was doing were a teacher just sitting there awkwardly, instructing the model who was there actually doing the poses whereas these new ones are just the teacher doing the yoga poses with you.  Fun stuff.

Running Day 18

Just pounded out another 10-minute mile.  I'm beginning to wonder if the route I'm running is actually one mile or a bit shorter because I have yet to be able to run a 10-minute mile on the treadmill, but I can run it on-ground.  Perhaps one mile on the treadmill is a bit longer than an actual mile?  I've measured my route on Google Maps and such a few times to check it.  Perhaps next time I drive it, I'll check it that way.

Yoga Day 3

This morning I did the yoga video that was automatically sent to me and it was better than the one from Day 1, but still not quite as yoga-y as I'd like.  Now, if you're being picky, you could argue, "But Katy, everything is yoga."  Yeah, I know, but I like a good asana practice, you know, something that looks like yoga.  And it just so happened that later today, I stumbled upon a couple of other yoga challenges with daily videos which seem promising.  One is the 30-Day Yoga Challenge which began June 1st and I kind of wish I had known about May 31st so I could have been doing that one all along.  The other is Yoga Journal's Fitness Challenge which seems pretty rad.  I'm thinking maybe I'll pick up on the 30-Day Yoga Challenge from their Day 13 video tomorrow and go back to the archived Day 1 on July 1st.  Assuming that the videos won't all magically disappear at 11:59pm on June 30th.  Of course, the other option is to stay my course and begin an entirely new challenge when my current challenges are over.  Thoughts?

Running Day 17

I tried something new on the treadmill this morning.  The treadmills at the gym at my apartment show your running progress in quarter-mile laps.  So after my first warm-up lap, I increased the speed by 1/10 mph every minute.  So when I hit 4 minutes of running, I went from 5.4 mph to 5.5 mph.  I know it sounds like no big deal, but it actually kind of helped to break up the mile (which really shouldn't be too necessary as it took all of 10 minutes 45 seconds to finish, but whatever) and the longer I went, the faster the laps went by as well.  It wasn't easy, to be honest, but I think I'll try to keep doing that and maybe get faster and better along the way.

Running Day 16

One mile.  Eleven minutes.  Boom!

Yoga Day 2

Ahhhhh, yoga.  So good.  I went to my regular library yoga class tonight.  Though, my regular yoga teacher was not there :( there was a substitute teacher.  She was ok, but I'm looking forward to Priyanka coming back.  Hopefully she'll be back Saturday!

Yoga Day 1

Today was Day 1 of the 21-Day Yoga Challenge.  So a couple of weeks ago, I signed up to get daily emails with a yoga video from the challenge.  When you sign up, you choose Beginner or Intermediate level.  I've been doing yoga off and on for about 10 years, and a bit more into it in the last year or so, thus I feel pretty confident in my choice of intermediate videos.  In any case, I was pumped to try out my new yoga mat and kick off the 21-day challenge with an awesome quick yoga sequence.  I was rather disappointed.  Today's sequence was boring and almost not even really what I'd call yoga.  I checked multiple times to see if it was really the intermediate level.  So fingers crossed that the videos get better but at least tomorrow I have my regular yoga class so even if it's lame, I'll still get my yoga on.

Running Day 15

I managed to stop in at the gym tonight for 1.5 miles - staying strong!

Day 14

Ooof, you guys.  Today's mile was tough.  I drove back to West Palm Beach today but was very tired and really had to drag myself to the gym.  But, I prevailed and got my mile in and that's what counts.  Now I'm ready for a shower and a good night's sleep back in my own bed.  The 21-day Yoga Challenge begins tomorrow!  Ooohh, quick question: would you rather see one post with both running challenge AND yoga challenge or 2 posts per day, one for each challenge?  I'm leaning toward 2 posts - thoughts?

Day 13

So this morning, Meaghan and I ran a mile from her house to Vine Bread & Pasta (a tasty bakery), had a croissant/banana bread/madeline, then walked back to her house.  It was pretty awesome.  So that was my run.  I was also able to schedule a massage at my very favorite Florida School of Massage - amazing!  Finally, I got to see Justin, Clinton, and hang out with my family.  A very successful, albeit long, day indeed!

Day 12

This morning I came up to Gainesville and surprised my ALF people with cookies!  I love and miss you guys dearly!  I also got to hang out with my parents a bit and enjoyed some delicious local food: Reggae Shack and Tasty Buddha.  Oh man, do I miss Gainesville food.  I'm also hoping to hit up Bahn Thai and Marco's Pizza before the end of my trip.  But that's not what you are here for, dear reader.  You are here to read about my running progress.  After all that deliciousness and catching-up, I ran a trusty old 3.3-mile route through the heart of Haile Plantation.

Ah, and in case you were wondering when you'd start hearing about yoga, on my trip up this morning, I stopped in Orlando and bought an awesome new yoga mat for my home practice.  I'm pretty pumped about it.

Day 11

I got my mile in this morning!  Tomorrow I'm heading home to Gainesville for the weekend and I'm hoping to run with some friends on some familiar routes.  Fingers crossed for decent weather!

Day 10 - National Running Day!

Happy National Running Day, everyone!!  That's right, today is National Running Day and what does that mean?  Well...not much really.  But it is my 10th straight day of running and that's pretty exciting!  In honor of National Running Day, I decided to run a 5k (on the treadmill).  For those of you who aren't too terribly familiar with common race distances - or the metric system - that's about 3.1 miles.  Pretty rad, huh?

Day 9

Another day, another mile!  And some weight lifting.

Day 8

Just got back from the gym.  And 2.25 miles - what?!  Pretty rad.  Keepin' it going!

Day 7

Another day, another mile!  That makes one whole week of this challenge - pretty exciting, guys!  This week's total (running) mileage was about 11.5 miles.  That's almost a half marathon.  In a week.  Slowest. Nearly half. Marathon. Ever.

Day 6

Who just ran a 10-minute mile?  I did!!  That may not sound like a big deal to most, but I promise you, it's kind of a big deal to me.  Progress!