Sweaty Weekend

Nothing like a sweaty weekend to get me in the right mindset to start the Focus T25 workout this week (it arrives Tuesday, ahh!). 

Last week I had happy hour plans with a girlfriend that got interrupted by a last minute late work meeting. Rather than huff and puff through traffic, I suggested that we meet up on Saturday morning instead for some "stair fun". Sorry to my friend Sarah who doesn't realize what I mean by "fun". It's usually somewhere between "How?" and "Lady, you're crazy."

I knew about a great set of stairs tucked back behind my alma mater, but if you don't know where to find great stairs in your city you should check out this website and enter your city + "stairs" in the search box.

http://www.communitywalk.com/

Having a 10k on Sunday morning I didn't want to go crazy hard on the stairs so I brought along 5lb dumbbells and a 20lb kettlebell to super-set the stairs with both leg-focused and arm focused exercises (only legs featured below)

Here was the workout - obviously your # of stairs and rounds may vary! 

Examples:
Kettlebell Swings

Squat Press

On Sunday I ran my first race since the Portland Marathon in October of 2012. I decided to do the Bridge to Brews 10k only two weeks ago and didn't do much training. When I signed up for the race I had only logged 3 miles in the entire year of 2014. 

I had a goal of 55 minutes and just barely missed with a sweaty time of 56:28. 

Mentally, I feel like I did better with no training than I would have done a year ago in the thick of running 100 miles a month. It was something about the way my new quad and calf muscles approached the hills that powered me through. I tried to start out quick and realized that my best bet was to warm up for two miles and kick it up when I felt a little more comfortable - and that's exactly what happened. Plus a good playlist and making new friends never hurts!

Who's ready for a pedicure?

Go check out some 5k's or 10k's in your area that have a beer-sponsored after party and tell me you didn't have at least a little bit of fun!

An Easy Weekend Recipe to Try + 10k

Oh hey, did I mention that I'm running a 10k this weekend? You know the one I've hardly trained for?

If you read the introduction post you know that I used to be a pretty serious runner.

For four years straight I ran 100 miles a month - every month. No exceptions. 

I always said that it 'kept me accountable', but really what it did was held me back from discovering the amazing world of fitness that I now understand to be weight lifting, high intensity training and dance class. It also kept me from that thing called 'balance' that I try so hard to achieve in my life these days.

Here in 2014 I've only ran a total of 14 miles (hello, it's April!) and I have a simple goal for the 10k - to finish under 55 minutes.

But today isn't all about me - it's about you too!

Yesterday I had a reader ask about a healthy breakfast idea so I want to send you into the weekend with a simple three ingredient recipe from the archives that you can try, no experience necessary.

You'll need:

Veggies (any kind you want - 1 cup per serving)
Eggs (2 per serving)
Chicken Sausage (1 link per serving)
7 minutes to prepare, 3 minutes to devour it maybe that's just my time

Let me know if you try it this weekend by tagging @JessiFitPDX in your instagram food photo.

Wish me luck on the 10k and do something for yourself this weekend!