Tag: exercise

I know, I know – I’m going on vacation so exercise? really??

Unfortunately, yes.  I am getting married next year, and I really love eating so exercising is a must.  But since I will be staying in air B&Bs the whole trip, without access to a gym, my trainer and I came up with a no-gym/no-equipment solution.  Here’s the schedule we came up with:

Day 1	WK1	Reps	WK 2	Reps
Escalating Density (12 min) (meaning you do five reps of each exercise and then repeat until the 12 minutes have expired – if this is too easy, increase to 15 minutes)		x5		x5
A1.) Push Up, which is pretty self-explanatory
A2.) Split Squat: This is essentially a stationary lunge.  If anyone is familiar with Barre3, this is basically the same thing as carousel horse.		x5 per leg		x5 per leg
A3.) Reverse Crunch: lay down on the floor so that there is no space between the floor and the small of your back. Then raise your legs so your body is in a v shape and lower them slowly until you feel your abs catch.  Raise them to the starting position and repeat.		x5		x5
A4.) Reverse Lunge		x5 per leg		x5 per leg
Day 2	WK1	Reps	WK 2	Reps
Escalating Density (12 min)		x5		x5
B1.) Squat Jump: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Start by doing a regular squat, then engage your core and jump up. When you land, lower your body back into the squat position to repeat.
B2.) Partner Towel Row: so you can only do this if you are traveling with a friend, but the idea of this exercise is that your partner provides the resistance by holding one side of a rolled towel while you stand face to face with them and pull the other side of the towel as though doing a row.		x5 per arm		x5 per arm
B3.) Shoulder Taps: begin by taking a plank position. Then lift one hand to the opposite shoulder (i.e. the “tap”) so that you are in a one arm plank, and then place it back down so that you are once again in a two arm plank position.  Then lift the other hand to tap the opposite shoulder.  Repeat.		x5 per arm		x5 per arm
B4.) Reaching Single Leg Dead Lift.  For those familiar with Yoga, this is similar to warrior three.  The starting position here is standing on one leg, which is slightly bent. As you bent forward at the hips, move your arms directly out in front of you, and raise your non-standing leg to create a straight line from your fingertips to your left toes (i.e. parallel to the ground)		x5 per leg		x5 per leg

I will also – hopefully – be running while on vacation.  My fiancé and I are running our second Marathon in late October, and if I come back having failed to run, he will finish the race embarrassingly far ahead of me.  I’ve posted our training schedule below, if anyone is interested.

I know running sounds horrible to most people.  And it really did to me for the longest time.  In fact, I quit sports in high school because I loathed running.  Had you told me then that I would one day fall in love with it, I would have laughed in your face.  But, after graduating college, running kept me sane.

I had a really hard time my very first year out of college.  I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (although let’s face it, I still don’t), but back then I had no direction, no plan, leaving me feeling utterly lost.  I had moved home to live with my parents, none of my friends lived in my home city anymore, and I did not have a job, so I spent the year working for my dad – who worked mostly from home. Needless to say, I almost never left the house.  Except to run.

My littlest brother was in his last year of high school, and he forced me out of my house to go on runs with him.  Eventually, he talked me into running a half-marathon.  After running that race, I was addicted.  So much so that I signed my fiancé (then boyfriend) up for the next year’s half.  Although he was not pleased about it – he hated running more than I ever had – he soon learned to love running just as I did.  All it took was for him to realize that running never gets easier – you simply get better at it.

 

Week	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
1	Rest	3 miles	Cross Train	3 miles	3 miles	Rest	6 miles
2	Rest	3 miles	Cross Train	3 miles	3 miles	Rest	7 miles
3	Rest	3 miles	Cross Train	4 miles	3 miles	Rest	8 miles
4	Rest	3 miles	Cross Train	4 miles	4 miles	Rest	9 miles
5	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	5 miles	4 miles	Rest	10 miles
6	Rest	3 miles	Cross Train	4 miles	3 miles	Rest	7 miles
7	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	5 miles	4 miles	Rest	11 miles
8	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	5 miles	5 miles	Rest	12 miles
9	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	5 miles	5 miles	Rest	13 miles
10	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	6 miles	5 miles	Rest	14 miles
11	Rest	3 miles	Cross Train	5 miles	4 miles	Rest	10 miles
12	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	6 miles	6 miles	Rest	15 miles
13	Rest	5 miles	Cross Train	6 miles	7 miles	Rest	16 miles
14	Rest	5 miles	Cross Train	7 miles	8 miles	Rest	18 miles
15	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	6 miles	5 miles	Rest	12 miles
16	Rest	6 miles	Cross Train	7 miles	9 miles	Rest	20 miles
17	Rest	5 miles	Cross Train	6 miles	5 miles	Rest	14 miles
18	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	5 miles	4 miles	Rest	8 miles
19	Rest	4 miles	Cross Train	3 miles	2 miles	Rest	1 mile
20	Race Day!!