Hey friends! I am LOVING reading your comments over on my National Running Day giveaway post from yesterday! It sounds like you guys love running for many of the same reasons I do. Here are some of the biggest reasons you guys are noting, because they are so inspiring I want to share! 🙂
Running makes you feel:
- Bada$$
- Strong and confident
- Calm and centered (a lot of you said running was a sort of therapy for you – very true for me, too! Running is awesome for stress/anxiety relief.)
- Happy! Many of you mentioned making good friends through running, like I have!
- Like a better parent/friend/spouse/etc.
- Like you can do anything if you try hard enough
- Endorphin high-tastic
Running also shows you a lot of things that translate into normal life, too, like:
- When the going gets tough, you are strong enough to push through
- If you put in the work, you will see results
- You can do more than you think you can
I also loved that many of you called running “active meditation” – or your “me time” to just think and slow down (figuratively, not literally!).
Anyway! I celebrated National Running Day on Tuesday morning and this morning – not yesterday, actually, because of my track group workout schedule!
I had a really strong week at the track. I feel like over the past few weeks all my track work since January has finally started to pay off/really click, which is awesome. On Tuesday, our workout was six 1,000’s (2.5 laps around the track). The last half lap we jogged back to the start, then rested for a few minutes in between sets. I was doing my laps between a 1:38 and 1:45 the whole time, which is great for me. Hizzah! (Pace/distance/time on the watch below doesn’t include the half lap jogs or the warm up and cool down I did – just the time for the six 1000’s.)
I was WIPED after that but super proud. As for today, we had a rainy morning to work with, but it was a lot cooler than Tuesday which was nice. Today’s workout was a 20 minute “whistle fartlek” – so basically after warming up for awhile (we do a bunch of warm up drills on Thursdays), we ran for 20 minutes straight and when the coach blew the whistle, we sped up significantly. When they blew it again, we all slowed down to a more casual pace. Even with the slower jogging portions, I still had a great average overall pace for the 20 minutes. Yay!
This was my last tough workout before the Seattle half marathon next weekend! I’ll be joining my track group next Tues/Thurs but the coaches will have me keeping things nice and low key. It feels really good to finally have all these early morning track workouts start to pay off – hoping it translates into a new PR next weekend, too!
As for yesterday, I got my yoga on with my friend Karen! I enjoyed sleeping in a bit in the morning, then headed downtown to work out of the UberOffices. Karen and I met up post-work for the 6:15 “yoga lab” class at Epic Yoga in Dupont via ClassPass.
Yoga Lab is one of their more advanced classes, and it’s not a normal flow class but rather a workshop of sorts. I’d never been before so it was fun to mix it up! We worked on hip openers and on inversions. Yay handstands! I did gymnastics as a kid so I always enjoy these. 🙂 Not sure why my arms are so bent – I think this was right before I came down? I’m going to make sure next time I consciously keep my elbows locked out a bit more, though!
Karen and I headed over to the Dupont Teaism after yoga for some din din. Chicken curry, yes please! It was dark and hard to get a good photo but it was delicious. Great catching up with Karen, too. 🙂
I’ll be doing a fair amount of yoga over the next week as I taper for the half marathon. Looking forward to getting in some nice stretching time! I haven’t been great about getting my ohm on over the past few weeks, oops!
Have a great day, my friends – and if you haven’t entered my National Running Day Brooks shoe giveaway yet, do it! You have until Friday. 🙂
