Today is National Running Day! I plan to run during my lunch break to celebrate the fact that I just signed up for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon. Select Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series races are up to $20 off today only (Pacific time), so if you’re on the fence, sign up!
Monday: I ran the .7 miles to the yoga studio for the one-hour Monday morning class. We held lunges for what seemed like 10-15 breaths, then held warrior for about the same. Later that night, I joined my running group for a 3-mile run followed by dinner at Fat Cat in Uptown.
Tuesday: I put on my running shoes and stepped outside to see it was starting to rain. Maybe it will stop soon, I thought. So I started running around the block. It didn’t stop. I got about half a mile in before abandoning my plan to run.
Wednesday: 1.21 miles and 30 or so minutes of yoga at home. I searched for a restorative yoga class on Yoga International’s website and found a 40-minute class. In the beginning, the instructor says you will do a “couple” of poses. I found that strange because the video is 40 minutes. But she’s right, you do only a few poses, but you hold them for a long time. The video has the least amount of talking of any online fitness class I’ve seen. I ended up not holding the poses for that long, because I wanted to do core work and some cat/cows. I also added a downward-facing dog (adho mukha svanasana), upward-facing plank (purvottanasana), bound angle pose (baddha konasana), and seated forward fold (paschimottanasana).
Thursday: Yoga session at home using this Yoga International video called Stretch and Strengthen: A Balanced Yoga Practice in 40 Minutes. I added bicycle crunches, cat/cow, wide-legged forward fold and happy baby. I also tried forearm balance once.
Friday: I woke up too late for the morning yoga class at the studio. Oops! I took a quick break during the workday — when the rain stopped — for a 1.12-mile run around the block.
Saturday: Wanderlust 108 Chicago! The event featured a 5K, yoga and meditation. I ran the 5K with two of my running group mates, but we skipped the rainy yoga.
Sunday: No exercise, unless you count walking around the River West area before attending Yoga Alliance’s the Future of Yoga in Chicago event.
