As you may know I am raising money for the Ironman Foundation.
I love racing for a cause because I love giving back to something that has given me so much. I am really excited to work with the IronMan Foundation and all the good work they have done and will continue to do.
Each year, a select group of athletes from around the world race on TEAM IMF to support the mission of the IRONMAN Foundation. Together, we share a passion to create positive tangible change in our race communities and prove that “Anything Is Possible.”
Since 2003, over $50 million has been provided through IRONMAN charitable giveback programs including the IRONMAN Foundation to more than 8,300 local, regional, national and global nonprofit initiatives. Through these partnerships, IRONMAN athletes are powerfully linked to the community and together we leave the IRONMAN legacy behind in our race communities long after race day. We #RaceForMore.
In order to raise money for the foundation I am hosting a 5k virtual run.
So here it is Dec 1st and my coworker and I were about to participate in our bi-weekly squatting to the Sally song at work, when she realized her attire wasn’t squatting appropriate. So we decided to do some up-up-down-downs instead of squatting, during the down hold we held a plank.
During lunch we talked about doing planks more and someone mentioned hearing of “Planksgiving” where you do planks everyday leading up to Thanksgiving. But we already passed Thanksgiving….so we decided to do some planks leading up to Christmas.
We started celebrating Planksmas that very day.
I made this graphic to mark off the days for planking. Also, you can really start it at anytime. We started on the 1st, leading us to finish on Christmas, but really the point is to work up to the 5 min plank.
So download it, print it and start planking today!
And follow my running Instagram account to see our progress! @BombshellRunner
I ran for me. I ran because I enjoyed it. I ran to collect my thoughts.
I started running at the athletic club where we belonged. In high school my mom canceled that and I had to run outside on the street. Which I found I enjoyed more.
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I loved clipping on my walk-man, yes that says walk-man, and heading out of the house. There was so many directions I could run, to change-up the scene a bit. My mind would wonder and clear. When it got hard, I would push through and keep going, because I had to get back to the house somehow.
Eventually, it was harder to find the time. We lived where it wasn’t safe for me to run alone. We lived where it was too cold to run outside. Many reasons, well mostly excuses on why I stopped running.
For a while now I have wanted to start running again. I didn’t because I had a mental block. I knew I couldn’t just run like I used, I had to start out slowly, and run intervals. However, I just couldn’t figure out how to start.
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Sometime last October my cousin was talking about how she started this Couch to 5K program. Which I thought was just a name she thought of, cause she is funny like that.
Turns out it is an actual program. Someone sat down and thought about the best way to get people to run a 5K (about 3 miles) in nine weeks time. It is specifically designed for people who have not run in a long time, or have never been running. It is designed for a 30 minute workout, three times a week.
There are a lot of resources out there, some are free, some you pay for. I like this website because he has complied a whole list of resources for you to get started.
In October I joined a gym and I started running. I am too old for running in poor weather right now, so I run on a treadmill.
I downloaded this free app. There was some complications and then the holidays, so I didn’t quite keep on schedule. I still ran, but sometimes I repeated some of the days. I am now on track to be able to run a 5K in two weeks time.
I am not gonna lie. It has been hard. My lungs are not happy, my knees hurt and I need a new sports bra. I have to learn to breathe again.
My run on Monday night was the most difficult yet. I was just sooo tired, Baby Sid is teething, and both him and Ian woke me up a number of times the night before. It was the first time since I started that I had to sneak in a minute of walking during a running interval. Because I felt I was going to fall over.
But here I am now. I am a runner. I run. I run. I run. I am a runner….well almost.
…and you will have walked a mile. And you will be wearing my shoes.
I wrote this post a while ago about how I am going to start taking the stairs.
On that day I took 4,471 steps, which was 1.81 miles.
Since then I have kept track of 14 other days. (I really only do it while at work and there was a few days in there that I was sick and didn’t take the stairs.)
Not including the first day, I have walked a total of 36,682 steps. Which calculates to 14.92 miles, which is about a mile a day. (calculation from steps to miles was from my iPod, so it is really an estimate)
It is still not easy to walk up six flights of stairs but it is getting easier.
I Tri and Craft 