Fair?

Is it fair to count my challenge successful so far? So far, between my two blogs, I have written every day. Done, fair, check. I ran Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Each of my four runs was 30 minuets on the elliptical. I feel very successful. I had a bad ankle sprain at the end of the summer (while on my 10 day backpacking honeymoon) and I have finally recovered enough from that to really start running again. I am starting my 30 day challenge of running basically from zero and I don't want to re-injure myself (my ankle or any other part of me).

Here I am, elevating my sad sprained ankle on Isle Royal.

 

Can I have recovery days and still count this month as 30 days of running? I am torn. There is part of me that says of course recovery is part of training. However, if I have recovery days then I am not running for 30 days.

Do recovery days count? Does 30 days of running need to be 30 consecutive days of running? Should I take recovery days and add them to the end of the challenge as extra running days (like how extra snow days can get added to the end of the school year)? What do you think?

What a Morning

Wow! What a wonderful morning. I'm only working a half day today, so this morning felt like a Saturday morning. Dave and I slept in. I had a light breakfast (small bowl of yogurt with granola). We went to the gym and hopped back on those elliptical. I did an interval workout and listened to Pomapamoose on Pandora. Dave set his elliptical to fat burner and watched Myth Busters. We got home, showered up, and ate salad for lunch. We made our salads with baby beets, feta and sesame seeds on baby greens and spinach. Now I'm finally at work and I got in right in time for lunch break. (I am a substitute teacher, I never know what kind of a schedule I will be walking into.)

Hope your morning was a good as mine. If you need something to pick up your day check out Pomapamoose on YouTube. Lots of the stuff on the Pandora station could be considered to mellow for a work out, but I think it draws a really happy mix.

Cross Training Ideas

Amanda had some great ideas yesterday. She used to be a runner but she has bad knees. She now swims and uses programs like Body Rock TV and Zuzka Light. I've used a similar (but less intense  program - 8 Minutes in the Morning. These programs that Amanda suggested are free online and hardcore.

I like Zuzka Light better so far for a couple of reasons. First, she does the whole workout and she posts how many reps she was able to do of each move, so you can try to beat her time. Second, the camera angles are more focused on the workout and less on her body.

Body Rock TV posts more frequently (5 days a week as aposed to 3). Don't get me wrong, their workout are great and equally as hard as Zuzka's. Its just the nearly porn-like camera angles bother me.

With all that said, I am dressed for the gym and waiting for Dave. We are going to hop on the elliptical again tonight. I'm going to pocket this idea away for a cross training day.  

www.youtube.com/user/ZuzkaLight
www.bodyrock.tv 

Motivation

The day was a success. In the morning, Dave and I ran for 30 minutes on ellipticals. We cleaned the apartment  Finally in the afternoon, I spent Small Business Saturday shopping with Amanda, a friend from college. As much as I would love to tell about my small business finds they were Christmas gifts and on the off chance that someone I know actually reads this... you'll have to understand my discretion.

While Amanda and I were out shopping, our last stop was the Running Room. I was inspired. If I am able to complete my 30 day challenge to run (or do some other type of exercise), I am going to give myself a shopping spree at a running store. This will be perfect because of the timing. Dave and I have realized that in just over 30 days it will be the New Year. This is when the rest of the world will be making their resolutions and this is when the gym is likely to become crazy busy. If we run on ellipticals - consistently - between now and the New Year we will be ready to run outdoors just when gyms are overrun. It will be the perfect time to get some new winter-friendly running gear.     

Thanksgiving Resolutions

Well folks, its the day after Thanksgiving. My husband and I got to spend time with both of our families yesterday. We ate good food, had good drinks, and we were merry. It was all that the day was supposed to be. We also both pledged to each other that we would be more healthy. Who needs to wait for the New Year? You might have noticed that there are 30 days of the holiday season ahead of us. I feel another 30 day challenge coming on.  

My new and improved 30 day challenge is: to be impressive. I want to challenge myself to be impressive for the next 30 days. A few years ago I created a life mission that all boiled down to one word: action. So, in following my life mission I will be taking action and in following with this blog's inspiration I am going to focus on 30 days of action.  

This time I'm keeping my 30 day challenge small and action oriented. My goals are 1) 30 days of running and 2) 30 days of blogging (on this blog or on pedersenteaching.blogspot.com). That's it. Now in order to have 30 days of blogging I will have to do things to blog about, but that's where the "be impressive" part will come into play.