Resolution Champions: Katie, Week #3

by Katie Henry; Senior Marketing Campaign Manager

If you missed Katie’s first post about her resolution, read it here!

I Love Schedules!

I happen to love schedules. I love planning timelines, deadlines, and guidelines for every facet of my life. So when I decided to go for the Broad Street Run, it was only natural to find and set a training schedule. Now remember, I’ve never really run for distance in my life, so I did a trusty Google search to help me find some sort of training schedule to follow.

My Training Schedule

I ended up liking the first result of the search, Hal Higdon’s website. I’m going to be completely honest here, I had no idea who Hal Higdon was until I sat down to write this blog post; it turns out he’s a pretty cool guy. More importantly, he’s definitely a good resource–having participated in eight Olympic trials, run 111 marathons, won four masters championships, written 36 books, and contributed to Runner’s World for longer than any other writer. On his site he has training programs for basically every race distance and skill level. Below is the training schedule I decided to loosely follow: the novice 15K/10 Miler program.

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51127/15-K-Training-Guide-Novice-Program

I also checked out a few more websites’ training schedules just to make sure Mr. Higdon was not off-base. As with most athletics, there are a lot of different approaches and strategies, but many schedules followed a similar pattern. Each stresses the importance of certain elements in one’s training program such as rest days, cross training, and the “stepback weeks,” as Mr. Higdon refers to them. This will thankfully allow me to take a break every few weeks in order to gather some strength to push my running to the next level.

Just kidding…I hate sticking to workout schedules!

While I love making schedules, I have always found it extremely hard keeping to workout schedules. It’s not that I dislike working out. I happen to love the feeling after a good workout, and even more so, the feeling when you can start to notice your body getting stronger and leaner. I just have this really bad habit of making up excuses: “it’s too cold out,” “the gym is so far away,” “I hate driving places after work,” “I don’t have time,” and my personal favorite, “I don’t feel like getting sweaty and messing up my hair.”

The only time I have really stuck to a workout program is when I have been held accountable for my results. Every summer throughout college I had a workout program to get in peak shape for volleyball season. Each week we were required to submit a workout log to our coach detailing our progress on how our workouts were going. Even though I complained every day I worked out, I completed the program to its fullest extent every summer. My journal is what kept me focused and dedicated to my routine.

In order to run this 10 miler I knew I needed something that would keep me dedicated to my training schedule…I am hoping that’s where these blog posts come in (I knew there was a reason I agreed to this). On top of writing updates each week, I told everyone important in my life; my family, my friends, and my boyfriend, that I was attempting to run 10 miles. I even convinced my boyfriend to run with me (but more on that later). Even though it’s only been two weeks, I am pretty proud of my progress so far. I have managed to stick to all my allotted runs and strength workouts.

My Strength Workout

My strength workout just kind of fell into my lap. Right after I agreed to run the Broad Street Run as part of our Go for YOUR Goal campaign and blog, I signed up for the Runner’s World email newsletter. A few weeks later, the “Nike’s Strength Workout for Runners” was the featured story. It’s a 15 minute, total body, body-weight workout designed for runners. I briefly scrolled through the workout online and thought to myself, “This is perfect! It will be quick and pretty easy.” Well, needless to say I was wrong–again! This is an intense workout. By the end of the video I had muscle groups burning that I didn’t even know I had. Below are some of my “favorite” moves.

It was during this plank move where you have to fully extend your arm above you and then curl it under you, that I realized I wasn’t going to be able to bend side to side for the next few days.

The last five minutes are an arm circuit series that you can do with either your sneakers or two pound weights. I opted for the sneakers. You may be like me and think, “oh she’s just holding sneakers…no big deal”…TRUST ME, you will feel the burn.

Despite yelling incredulous, exasperated phrases at my ipad screen throughout the majority of the 15 minutes, I knew I had found a good strength routine. I encourage you to check it out: http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/nikes-strength-workout-for-runners

Is there a resolution you are still trying to achieve? Do you have a new schedule or a fitness routine you are trying out? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at marketing@mfps.com or chat with us on social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, or via email at marketing@mfps.com!

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