Shanon the Spartan

Yesterday's Girls on the Run 5K was a blast.  What a wonderful organization I am so honored to be able to support such a worthy cause. Today I had a meeting after work and I planned on getting home around 8 or 8:30 so I expected it to be a rest day, so when I got home before 7 I decided I had to take advantage.  I grabbed the leash, grabbed my dog and we took off on a gentle 2 mile run/walk.   Did great even though I was a little sore from yesterday.   My dog isn't great at running with out you know, stopping and sniffing, and trying to go the other way sometimes since he's you know, a dog...and we still finished in less than 1/2 an hour. Tonight I'm reviewing my original training plan and adjusting it from the 3 months I had expected and make it a 6 - 8 week plan instead :) Wish me luck!

One day...I made it one day into my regular blog updates before I forgot I set up the blog. One week...I made it one week into my training plan before life happened and I fell off the wagon.  Well, not completely off the wagon, but I certainly wasn't checking off all of my workouts the way I had planned. So, back on it we go.   Tomorrow I am running a 5k with Girls on the Run as a Sparkle Runner.  What is Girls on the Run ? GOTR is an organization that works to inspire young girls through programing that culminates in a 5K run at the end of the program.  What is a Sparkle Runner?  A Sparkle Runner is an adult volunteer who runs with the 5k to help cheer the girls along their way.  Each girl has a running buddy, but sparkle runners are running without a specific running buddy to help cheer the girls and run with girls who may be separated from their buddies for safety purposes. This will be my first year serving as a Sparkle Runner but I love the idea ...

It's always important to start with a benchmark so you can measure progress.  This evening I started my training after work with a couple of benchmark workouts.  My results follow: Current Weight 180 pounds 2.4 Mile Run/Walk - Total time 32:12, average pace 13:09, fastest mile 12:13 1-minute timed workouts:  situps - 15  high knees - 90  jumping jacks - 62  pushups - 17 How long to hold full plank - 33 seconds How long to hold modified plank - 50 seconds (on knees) arm hang - 7 seconds How much weight - 10 rep bicep curl - 15 pounds I also started working my way towards 100 burpees by May 31.  Today I started with 10 burpees (2 sets of 5) that you can check out in the video below. This is totally my favorite running shirt - it 100% expresses exactly how I feel about running :) 

Once upon a time I had a blog that was active and I did a great job of posting regularly.  Then life happened and I got out of the habit.  Now that blog sits sadly, rarely getting updated.  If you are curious about my past feel free to go check it out  Modern Meets Traditional  so neglected I only just realized that the custom images I paid to have uploaded to my blog design are no longer available so it appears I will need to give it a face-downgrade in the near future! I am normally a fairly active person.  A few years ago my husband and I set out to live healthier and loose some weight and I lost about 15 pounds that stayed off for over 3 years.   Then in January of this year I started having some problems with my feet, life got busy, and I went through a bit of an emotional funk.  These forces combined and translated into me gaining back 10 of the 15 pounds I had kept off for over 3 years.  Last year my husband discovered Spartan...