Rather than wait for the new year to start, I decided to set a few goals for myself before 2011 ends. Just coincidentally, the first three goals are fitness related:
- Practice yoga at least 3 times a week.
- Get back up and running (literally!) at least 2-3 times a week.
- Hold the plank pose for 2 minutes at a time
I wanted to make sure I had a routine set before the winter started and before it became too cold and dark to motivate myself to get moving. And to keep myself accountable, I’m sharing my progress here as regularly as I can.
Yoga: Because I save my free evenings for the gym, I’m integrating yoga into my morning routine using Mariane Elliott’s 40-minute Heart and Earth Flow from 30 Days of Yoga. At 6:30am. I am SO not a morning person, so this is a significant challenge for me. It means going to bed earlier than usual. It means closing my book and turning out the lights, even when I want to keep reading. But I’ve been doing relatively well this past month and have managed to get up early and practice at least 3 days a week. This past week was tough, but I still managed yoga on 2 mornings.
Running: I don’t like running outside alone in the dark, so the early darkness means that during the week I’m hitting the gym in the evening and running on the treadmill. It’s not my favorite form of running, but I’ll take it where I can get it. The added bonus is that I can incorporate strength training while I’m there, which I definitely don’t do enough of. This past week I hit the gym on Tuesday night for a 30-minute run, and Thursday night I focused on strength-training only. My goal for next week is to do both on both nights. And today I went for an amazing hour-long run with a friend along the Weser. Freezing cold, but the sun and the frost and the fallen leaves everywhere were so so beautiful. I could have gladly kept on running, so I’ll increase my time for next weekend.
Plank: There’s very little progress to speak of with the planks, I’m afraid. Although I reported here that I’d already made it to 55 seconds, I let too much time pass and realized I was back at 40 seconds. Doh! This past week I got back up to 55 seconds, but only worked on it once. By next week I want to have it up to over a 1-minute.
Okay, I’m sure I’ve bored you to death already, so that’s enough of that for now. Happy Sunday!
