Category Archives: Plank

Back, Butt, Core, Fitness, Plank, Running

A Lighter Week in Anticipation of the Big Race!! (5/4 – 5/10)

May 10, 2014 Kim 39 Comments

This week was a much lighter kind of week for me because I wanted to rest my legs as much as possible since today is the big day!!!

Sunday 5/4 – 44 plank on stability ball with knee to elbow.

I did all 44 with my right knee and then switched and did 44 more!!

Just holding plank on the stability ball was hard – pulling my knees in was brutal!!!

Monday 5/5 –44 supermans on stability ball with alternate leg lifts. A right leg lift with superman and a left leg lift = 1 rep.

ready - the easy part — ready – the easy part

This was a walking day – 5 miles at 7.5% incline in 75 minutes. I wanted to do something but nothing too challenging!!

Tuesday 5/6 – 44 medicine ball crunches on a stability ball.

Pilates was a good choice for a workout that wasn’t too difficult – Burn and Firm Pilates.

Wednesday 5/7 – 44 reverse crunches with the stability ball under my legs.

Not gonna lie – just holding onto the ball was a challenge!!!

And, because I was super excited about the new shoes I received on Tuesday (I won some Mizuno Hitogamis from Jacqueline @ Skinny Chick Blog), I had to get a run in.

Just 3 miles nice and easy (25:25) with another 0.75 to cool down. I think I’m going to enjoy these shoes for lighter runs/speed work.

Thursday 5/8 – 44 hip raises on stability ball.

This is one of those moves that seems like it will be easy but you will definitely feel it after a few reps!!!

I took the day off from working out – trying to rest my legs some and I knew that I was going to spend about 4-5 hours on my feet cleaning and ironing at our venue so I decided to skip my normal workout.

Friday 5/9 – 44 stability ball squats – barely touch the ball with your butt and come up just a few inches so that you are in a squat the entire time – OUCH!!!

Saturday 5/10 –44 crunch reaches. I needed something quick and easy and this was perfect!!

Today I will spend most of my day here –

The race starts at 6:00 am and hopefully I will be done before 4:00 pm but no matter how long it takes –

Happy Saturday!

Kim

Back, Fitness, Plank, Running, Treadmill

Decisions

March 15, 2014 Kim 33 Comments

Today’s 44 was a great move but it was HARD!!! I did an elevated plank with a KettleBell row.

Just holding the one arm plank was a challenge and then rowing with a 20 pound KettleBell made it really hard!!!

Great – now Hunter is going to be off balance!!! Oh, well, he had already done 50 push-ups so he was tired!!!

I also ran today. The Saturday challenge for #HappyFitMarch is to run a mile and compare it to the previous Saturday’s times. I have been counting my first mile the past few weeks but I think that the next 2 weeks I will count my last miles since I prefer to start out slower and then speed up.

Today I did the same thing that I did last Saturday – timed my first mile out of a 10K.

Last Saturday’s times –

Not much different but…..

Making decisions is sometimes hard. I’m usually a fairly decisive person and don’t tend to dink around with things. However, sometimes I have a difficult time with things that seem like they should be no big deal.

I feel like I go back and forth in my mind over something that in the big picture doesn’t even make that much difference.

But then I always go back to the fact that even small decisions can have a big impact later on down the road.

I think that for me the little things that seem inconsequential can turn into a big deal.

Are you a decisive person or do you go round and round when making decisions?

Happy Saturday!!!

Kim

BOSU, Core, Fitness, Plank

Favorite Traditions

December 29, 2013 Kim 59 Comments

Today’s 44 was another plank variation – using my BOSU!!! I flipped the BOSU over and did a plank with my toes on it. Then I alternated stepping my feet off and back on.

My arms were shaking by the time I finished all 44 reps – between holding plank (2:10) and the balance challenge from using the BOSU upside down – this was tough!!!

I know that everyone develops their own traditions over the years – some are passed down from generation to generation and others are new. I thought today I would share a few of our favorite Christmas traditions.

1. Since we have trees in every room, we use the tree in our down-stairs living room to put presents under.

sometimes the presents go around more than under

2. We open presents on Christmas Eve and we always just do 1 at a time. I like doing it this way because we can actually watch everyone opening their gifts and take time to really appreciate all of them!

Hunter's big gift this year was a keyboard!! — Hunter’s big gift this year was a keyboard!!

I might be as excited about this one as Hunter!!! Maybe I can learn to play again, too!

Jordan is into all thing Medieval – like weapons!

Jordan with 3-D glasses – nice!!! Funny, no pictures of me – I have the camera(s)!!!

3. On Christmas Eve we use our raclette grill and have a fun contest! We all cook shrimp, chicken and steak and vote on the winner in each category and the over-all. It is fun to make different seasonings and marinades.

There are times that Hunter will put some of each seasoning in his mixture – fun times!!!

Jordan and Chris were the top winners this year. I didn’t get a single vote!!

4. On Christmas morning, we get to check our stockings!! We always have stockings in our upstairs living room.

This tradition has changed as the boys have gotten older. Now they get dressed first (notice how Hunter went with red & green?!) and I’m wearing my sweaty running stuff because I had already gotten in almost 6 miles! Still a fun tradition!!

5. We always have Reindeer Bread for breakfast after stockings!

I think a lot of people call this Bubble Bread or Monkey Bread but in our family it is Reindeer Bread no matter what time of year we have it!

So, just a few of our favorite ways to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

What are some of your favorite family traditions?

Happy Sunday!!

Kim

Core, Fitness, Plank, Shoulders

We Baked (sort-of!!)

December 24, 2013 Kim 45 Comments

Today I tried a new to me move for my 44. I saw a similar move somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) and changed it up just a bit to make it work for a 44.

I did a plank – right arm reach forward – right hand touch left ankle – plank – left arm reach forward – left hand touch right ankle for each rep. (the pictures will make more sense)

This is another one of those moves that about half-way through I started thinking I should have timed it to see how long I was in the plank/downward dog position – oh, well I didn’t care enough to start over!!!

My neighbor’s daughter who is visiting for Christmas came over to workout with me – we had decided last night at the Christmas Eve Eve party

to get together for our 2nd annual Christmas workout!!!

She was up for any type of workout so I pulled out one from the summer (Pyramid Boot Camp) and added a little to make it really tough!!! In the summer, we just did 10 exercises up the pyramid (10 reps each) and then back down. Today I added in 2 more moves so we did 12 up then back down.

230 squats (+ more for the squat w/back kick that I added)
110 push-ups
130 lunges each leg
30 burpees
plus all of the other stuff which I didn’t calculate

It was a good workout. We ended with a max plank hold (arms extended) – we made it to 3 minutes and called it good!!!

I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned more than once that I don’t bake. I love to cook but baking…..However, yesterday morning I pulled the boys into the kitchen and we baked (our version!).

The boys unwrapped the kisses and put them on the pretzels – I know they enjoyed it!!

We also made Rice Krispy treats, a simple chocolate candy that I’ve made for years and some brown sugar oatmeal cookies (I really did bake these!).

It is so much more fun to do stuff like that when the boys help out!! And, Jordan did most of the clean-up – BONUS!!!

Happy Tuesday!! Merry Christmas Eve!!

Kim

Core, Fitness, Plank, Shoulders

A Fun Competition

November 29, 2013 Kim 48 Comments

Today’s 44 was a single leg plank with a quarter turn to switch legs. (Basically it was just a way to stay in plank for a long time!!!)

I counted each turn as 1 rep so technically I only did 22 planks with each leg!!!

And, Stacy and I are fixing to head out for another freezing cold 8 mile run!!! (21 degrees) I don’t know how some of y’all do this every day – the cold is miserable!!!

Yesterday as part of our Thanksgiving feast – we did 2 turkeys. Chris did one in the turkey fryer and I roasted one.

one fried - one roasted — one fried – one roasted

The fried turkey is one the left and the roasted turkey on the right. I told everyone they had to vote for their favorite because everything should be a competition!!! (pretty sure I won – at least in my mind!!!) It might have been a tie because turkey is turkey!!!

OK – no more stalling – out to the arctic!!!

Happy Friday!!

Kim

Day With KT