Physcial Activity

I’ve Been Down & Out

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 13 Comments

It’s been a full week of nothing. Well, nothing but feeling absolutely miserable. I think I had every symptom in the book: nausea, head ache, sort throat, stomach problems, light headed, dizzy….did I mention nausea? I seriously wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get better. It started Nov 12th and I only started to feel better yesterday.

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a break from running/working out for this long but my body had some other plans for me. I would start to feel better and then BAM…all the symptoms would hit me hard for hours on end. It sure isn’t fun being sick and trying to take care of two little girls on your own since my husband was away for 5 days.

Monday night I had planned to do some baking but all that happened was cooking up some home made chicken soup and laying on the couch next to the fire watching a show. I was getting annoyed with feeling ill so before bet I did a 1:25 minute plank since I stopped doing them last week.

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Yesterday, I decided to go to yoga class at lunch. As I ventured off to studio in town, I wasn’t sure how I would feel but I was determined to go and enjoy it. Luckily, most of my symptoms were gone yesterday but my stomach is still yucky today. Yoga class was GREAT! I even managed to hold the “birds of paradise” pose for the first time on both legs – this is progress!

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I was hoping to get back to the 21 day fix with my co-workers today but I’m not sure if my body is up for that…I did bring my running clothing to work as well. We’ll see what happens.

How’s your week going?

Anyone else sick right now? Sure hope you don’t get what I have.

 

 

Summer Fit Gear Exchange {Canada}

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 3 Comments

One thing I love about the blogging community is how motivating it can be. A group of fitness/runners/healthy living bloggers are excited to share the Summer Fit Gear Exchange {Canadians only} lead by Brittany at Running Mama Journey. Check out below how to participate!

Summer Fit Gear Exchange 

Are you interested in a summer fitness gear exchange?  

To help fellow fitness enthusiasts reach their goals?  

To make new online friends and motivate others?

Blogging friends, join us to help keep other fellow fit Canadians motivated and excited about fitness and feeling good about where we each are on our path to living a healthy lifestyle.

“Gear” can be anything from: clothing, water bottles, food, head bands, hair clips, rehydration tablets, speed laces, notebooks, DVD’s, yoga accessories. Basically, you should find out what the person is into or share some of your favourite go to’s! Really, the items are endless that you can get.

Interested in participating? Here’s how it works:

  1. Fill out this form to participate.  You’ll need to fill it out by June 7.
  2. Look for an email from me by June 10th with your pairing. It will also be fun if we commit to following all the participants so as part of this initial email I will include participants usernames for the various social media platforms.
  3. Email your partner by June 15th. This is the person who you’ll send “gear” to.  Get to know them a little! Introduce yourself.
  4. Don’t forget to send a little group love! Tweet, instagram, Facebook message not only your partner but @runningmamajourney and some of the others included in the email you received.
  5. Shop and have fun! You should spend $40 on the gear (this can include shipping costs roughly $10).
  6. Send your partner their gear, and include a motivational note. Ship package so that your partner receives their items by June 26th.
  7. If you’re a blogger, please write a Summer Fit Gear Exchange post to be live on July 6th. I’ll aim to have a link-up on my site just prior to this date.  Lets work together, and if you do not have a blog don’t worry! You are welcome to email mymamajourney@gmail.com to share your post (2-3 paragraphs and pictures showcased throughout the day on July 6th on http://runningmamajourney.com/ ).
  8. During the month, and when you promote your post on social media, please use #SummerFitGearExchange

Sign up and you will receive an email soon.

Hope you will join us, Piper 🙂

Have you ever done a fitness gear exchange? Or other exchange?

Upper Body Workout: Arms

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 18 Comments

Lately the only upper body workout I am doing is picking up my 30 lbs 2.5 year-old and carrying multiple grocery bags/backpacks at the same time! So really, I am lacking in my upper body workouts big time, whomp, whomp 😦

I’m not very good at monthly challenges even though I start out pretty solid so I’m hoping in June I’ll sick to it a little more. My plans are to do these along with my running plan and PT exercises for my hamstring and glutes.

Plank Challenge:

plank 30 Day challenge

I would love to be able to hold a plank for 3 minutes plus! So…bring it on June!

Arm workouts:

Tone arms in 7 days

Pretty basic – works for me!

And I’m sharing this last one because it made me laugh 🙂

arm workout

Do you do much upper body work outs?

What’s your favourite arm workout?

Do you plank? How often?

Don’t forget about my Cordskinz giveaway here!

Images/workouts found on Pinterest. I’m not a fitness training, personal trainer or Doctor. Please consult the professionals before starting any new workouts.

Gym Workouts & Hamming it Up.

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 6 Comments

I’ve been doing my best to stay positive even though I’m not allow running right now! Yup, I’ve gone from running 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k each week for a full week to running 5-8k and now I’m not allow to run!

Why – well I’m still having pain in my hamstring after I run, even on the treadmill. My physiotherapist said that my hamstring can’t take the blunt force of running at the moment therefore I need to focus on strengthening my muscles. Specifically, my hamstrings, glutes and lower abs.

I can bike, swim and power walk outside and that’s what I’m doing.

Fast legs on stationary bike

Fast legs on stationary bike

I managed two sessions at the gym over the last few days while visiting family/work meetings. For both workouts, I did the following:

  • 10 minutes elliptical
  • 30-32 minutes on the stationary bike
  • PT exercises (Bridge, Lunges, Hamstring Curls with a band and Bird/Dog ab exercise)

And to be honest – my glutes are killing by the end of my PT exercises, so … it’s working! So far, I’m okay about not running but that might change next week when I can’t get to the gym at all. Let’s hope my little power walks will do it until June 3rd when I see my physiotherapist again. Or, maybe…just maybe I’ll jump on my old bike and go for a bike ride – this might not be pretty!

Until then…I’m trying to enjoy the sunlight and hamming it up {getting my hamstring stronger}.

The winner of the Canadian Reebok Spartan Race giveaway is:

Winner: Victoria  (I’ll contact you asap)

Today I decided to go for a power walk at lunch and it took everything in me to not lean forward and propel myself into running mode!

Nice little 4k runch - I mean walk.

Nice little 4k runch – I mean walk.

After my first kilometre, I decided I wanted to see how fast I could walk a km and this is what happened:

1 km – 9:22

2 km – 9:09

3 km – 9:04

4 km – 8:50

Negative split, right?

Total: 4 km in 36:27 {9:05 pace}

I threw in a few hills along the route. Not bad for power walking!

How have your workouts been going?

How fast can you walk a kilometre / mile vs running?

Stationary Bike or Real Bike?