Tag Archives: Weekday Runs

Explore

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Healthy Living, Running

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I consider myself to be a generally adventurous person. Ok, no, you won’t see me jumping out of an airplane anytime soon, but I definitely enjoy experiencing all that there is around me, from new food to new friends to new hikes and locales.

To this day, some of my favorite adventures are those that I make up right in my own backyard. While on my nearly-daily morning run yesterday, which took me around the lower loop of Central Park (have you heard that one before?) I got to thinking.

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I’d run that very route probably hundreds of times to that point. More than three years, and at least 2/3 of the mornings, I’ve woken up, thrown on my sneakers, and made my way uptown about a mile to the entrance of Central Park — either on 59th and 5th by the massive cube of an Apple store, or to the opening at 72nd and 5th in order to window shop the Madison Avenue boutiques.

While monotonous, I for the most part enjoy the routine of what I do. Sure, there are mornings when I get the ugh-this-again? moment; but all in all, it’s kind of nice to have a reliable route that requires little thought or effort (save, of course, for moving and sweating for all of 50 minutes).

Each morning, I know I’ll come upon one of my favorite views in New York City: this slight hill where the buildings and trees collide.

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What really makes these mornings so enjoyable, however, is that every now and then, you stumble upon the game-changer. This week, I traveled a new route — quite literally the road less traveled.

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Quiet.

Lush.

Deserted. (No, don’t worry mom, not so deserted that it was unsafe.)

And then, I saw this (queue some sort of angelic background noise here).

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This has been sort of a doozy of a week, but here, I find myself practically knocked over the head with instant zen. Here is where life is. This is where I can think. Please don’t make me leave!

The moral of the story is simple, my friends. You don’t have to veer too far from your comfort zone. Your route doesn’t have to change all that much. But even if it’s for a moment — for just a quarter of a mile, or 3 minor minutes — explore.

  • How often do you try to spice up your route?
  • What’s the best discovery you’ve made while exploring lately?

Home Fitness Giveaway: Premium iBodyFit Account!

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Healthy Living, Running, Yoga

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After a delicious morning run with @beth1126 on Tuesday, which took us around the lower loop of Central Park and around my new favorite (very short) path at the very southeast side of the park…

Picture 8…I had only three options on Wednesday morning.

For context, this is what I woke up to.

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And that’s making it look like a walk in the part, so to speak.

Like I said, on rainy mornings in Manhattan, there are only three options:

  1. Suck it up and take a run — not happening, given how hard it was raining outside. This was no drizzly Wednesday. 
  2. Goodnight! How nice does it feel to doze on back to dream land to rain pitter-pattering on your air conditioner?
  3. Get the hell out of bed and do some much-needed strength training. Use the excuse to stay indoors and work out other parts of your body. It’s all part of the equation, after all.

So, can you guess which one I chose on Wednesday? Ding ding ding! No. 3, folks.

Fortunately, I had the perfect excuse to actually get my butt out of bed on Wednesday morning: a new workout regimen I’d been dying to try from iBodyFit trainer Franklin Antoian.

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I was lucky enough to meet Franklin two different ways in recent years. The first was while working at Zeel. During Zeel’s earlier days, before it was exclusively an on-demand massage service and when we offered physical training sessions, Franklin was what we called a “Zeel provider.” As former content manager/editor for the burgeoning website, Franklin contributed to our blog — The Daily Zeel — on a regular basis, offering his fitness and wellness expertise.

The second time I met Franklin (again, via the Web) was through FitFluential — a wonderful network of healthy living bloggers, of which I am a proud participant. That was our most recent interaction, and I’m so glad to have reconnected. Franklin was kind enough to offer me the opportunity to check out his online training program. I eagerly accepted.

What I love about iBodyFit is that the model is based on an exercise mentality I’ve adopted myself. Exercise shouldn’t be difficult, and it shouldn’t be expensive.

As Franklin writes, “We try and make it a little bit easier with free online workouts and exercise videos.” If you’re a Premium member, you can also enjoy diet consultation and online personal training. Intimidated by gyms and trainers? Or, just lazy like me? Then this one is definitely for you.

Wednesday’s workout consisted of the following 10-minute workouts, and I hope to continue checking out the videos over the next few potentially rainy days.

  1. 10-Minute Total Body
  2. 10-Minute Arms
  3. 10-Minute Butt and Thighs
  4. 10-Minute Abs

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What I enjoyed most about the iBodyFit methods: the variety. I loved that I could focus on different, pointed areas of my body, and that I didn’t have to hop around from YouTube video to YouTube video to determine which workout to try next. iBodyFit was simple and intuitive, offering a suite of exercises right at my fingertips. And the best part? Franklin is totally willing to work with your needs, which in my eyes is personal training at its best.

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Interested? Franklin was also kind enough to offer one of YOU the chance to sign up for a complimentary Premium account.

This includes:

  1. Unlimited access to all online workouts
  2. Unlimited access to all online exercise videos
  3. Access to the iBodyFit30 Challenge
  4. Yoga and Pilates
  5. Running plans (1 mile to marathons)
  6. A custom diet
  7. Trainer support (they’ll help you find the right workout for your fitness goals, plus you can ask any fitness questions you may have)

The giveaway is simple: Help Franklin and I spread the word that you don’t need expensive gym memberships and boutique urban classes to get in shape and, more importantly, to feel good. Can you? Sure! But it’s just not a must. Your living room may be your biggest asset — even if it’s just the small space between your television and coffee table.

To enter: Tweet at @ibodyfit + @runforglitter using the hashtag #fitnessmadesimple. Tweet anything! Say hi, leave a comment, tell us a knock-knock joke. Each tweet will get you 1 entry, up to a maximum of 3. Entries are valid until Sunday at midnight; I’ll announce a winner on Monday morning.

Good luck!

Oh, There You Are, Motivation

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Healthy Living, Running

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Finally, I woke up with the actual desire to get out of bed, brush my teeth, get dressed, grab my keys, walk out the door, and put one foot in front of the other — hopefully at a pace that’s faster than speed walking. I wasn’t promising myself anything, though. I know what my body has felt like on pavement as of late.

Naturally, this would happen on the one day this week I intended not to run. On Tuesday, the day I had planned on banging out 5 miles around the lower loop of Central Park, I forgot to set my alarm (or, I reset my phone, and didn’t think that’d reset my alarm too), and wound up waking up late. Wednesday, I had every intention of “sleeping in” until 7:30 in anticipation of this evening’s ever-feared boot camp class with my colleagues.

But when the body beckons — and the sun beckons — you to run, you listen.

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And so, although I managed to stop myself after 3 miles with the hope of “not overdoing it” before a 60-minute training session with weights, I nevertheless will have officially worked out twice in one day as of 8:30 tonight. Wow, somewhere, a pig must have lept over the moon. Swine are on the fly. Watch out now.

Like I said, Wednesday’s run was short and sweet, taking me from the immaculately kept Madison Square Park…

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…to Union Square, where the Farmers’ Market was well underway…

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…and slightly east to Gramercy Park.

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The sun was shining…

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…and the flowers, while out, were definitely beginning to wilt now that they’ve blossomed and are ready to return to the earth.

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Really, it couldn’t have been more perfect, and I once again enjoyed trying out my new Reebok ZigCarbon sneakers along the way. As with last time, I actually felt more spring with every step — and it’s not just the time of the year. I’m really starting to like these kicks.

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I know: I probably could have used two hard-core workouts in less than 24 hours after last week’s, and this weekend’s, birthday festivities — and by festivities, I mean Carvel cake, champagne, and the birthday cake Oreo’s I’ve been wanting to try forever.

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My 26th birthday was of course the appropriate occasion to not only test out my fantasy cookie, but to eat an entire box. (Ok, exaggeration; but 7 of us did crush the entire thing before dinner even began.)

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These people can eat.

On the bright side — on the summer conscious side — I also know how to manage my nutritional intake after a doozy of a weekend like that. On Sunday night, for example, I committed to dinner at my mom’s house; my mom is far more likely to cook me up a healthful meal of grilled shrimp and salmon than I ever would within the confines of my small Manhattan apartment.

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The bonus: She even added in a homemade sidedish of cauliflower and onions.

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Yea, I guess I”ll keep her around.

This week was more of the same, making sure that all my meals were full of veggies and greens.

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In the end, there’s little more you can do than that after going all out for a couple of days. As runners, we understand extremes. Some mornings, we run far. Some mornings, we run short. Some mornings, we don’t run at all. And on mornings when we’re training, we run farther than perhaps we’d consider ideal.

It’s all part of the process, and food plays into the equation. We can’t live on a diet of “normal,” “healthy” foods every day, can we? Well, I guess the answer to that is yes. But it’d be boring, if you ask me.

A few exciting activities coming up as the week presses on:

  1. Bootcamp tonight. I’m returning to the same class I spoke about last month, which I went to with my colleagues and managed to be unable to walk after that. So, stay tuned for comical tweets about my hammies.
  2. Running with @beth1126 tomorrow morning. I’ve been itching to run with a friend since all the motivation drained from my soul last week, and as usual, Beth has agreed to be that buddy. She has also been warned that I will be in post-boot camp condition.
  3. DC pathways. Ok, so sometimes, these aren’t my favorite. But I am excited to escape the city, enjoy some suburban air, celebrate this “exciting time in my life,” as everyone has been telling me, with Noah’s best friends, and run along the canal. It’s spring, so I’m sure to swallow a couple of gnats if I’m lucky.
  • When you have a “rough” weekend filled with food and alcohol, how do you get back on track?
  • What great fitness plans do you have for the rest of the week?
  • The double workout whammy: a do or don’t?