This week I had the opportunity to try out a new, trendy workout called Surf Set.  To give you a little idea, picture a surf board with three small bosu balls under it.  You can stand, sit or lay on the board depending on the exercise.  The workout emulates surfing!

The class I took was in NYC.  It was about 40 minutes of intense balance/ core work.  Going from a laying position and “paddling” and then quickly jumping up when you were ready to “ride the wave”.  We did squats, push-up, sit –ups,  one legged balancing moves as well as some yoga moves  all on the board.  Needless to say I have not sweat that much in a while and my lower abdomen is quite sore today!!

Our friends from the lake are the creators and founders of this company.  It has really taken off in the past year.  You can look at their website for more information. (http://www.surfsetfitness.com/)

I highly recommend this workout.  Not only was it fun and different but also just a fabulous workout!  If there is one near you…DO IT!!

xoxo

Granite Girls

It was a beautiful day in the Charm City this afternoon.  I took a jog around the harbor on a route similar to the one we took during our launch event.  Drew Vogt did a run/bike circuit up north in Hereford.

We are making progress with our donation from the money raised during our event.  A portion of the proceeds are going toward the Snyder-Anderson Memorial Fund  (http://www.anderson-snyder.info/).  Josh Snyder and Norman Anderson graduated from Hereford High a few years before several of us on the Baltimore team, and we’re proud to help this organization.

Additionally, we are working with an American Legion chapter to help provide general living supplies to families of wounded vets.  More to come as we finalize this portion.

Keep those workouts coming, and enjoy the week.

-Team Baltimore

I was lucky enough to go to Occidental college last night to watch some of the fastest distance runners in America race. Really cool to see some of these races and get to watch many of the future distance running athletes who will represent the USA and other countries in this years’ Olympics. One guy in the video ran a 3:36 1500m (equivalent to a 3:55 mile). About 90 minutes later, he ran a 13:12 5k (3.1 miles). We got some work to do…cause he is British!

Hope everyone is having an awesome Saturday! I woke up early and went to a Soul Cycle class in West Hollywood. It is a spinning class mixed with a dance club. Lights are flashing, music is pumping and loud, instructor is beyond into it…definitely appropriately titled. About 40 riders for the hour with no ventilation or air. So lets just say I was not dry at the end of the class. Great workout and a lot of fun.

After cleaning up and fueling up, we went to Sunset Ranch up in the Hollywood hills for a hike in order to see the city and the Hollywood sign. Gorgeous day out and a pretty good hike.

 So after we got up half way, we figured we might as well keep going all the way to the sign.

Hike was with some friends out here in Los Angeles (Sarah, Julia and Cody).

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Well, its Friday again!  I haven’t talked to everyone since my half marathon.  Despite my training not being as rigorous as I would have liked it to be, I had a great time!  I came in at 2 hrs and 56 sec.  Not great, but I’ll take it!  It felt awesome to get back in the racing environment.  I started off slow and a bit more cautious to not wear my self down but around mile three I was feeling great so amped it up.  The route was beautiful–a lot of quick, steep, hills but we ran along the water and past some beautiful homes most of the time which made it go by a little faster.   In the miles that got a little harder…for me it was mile 7 to 9…a quote that I actually saw on Pinterest would pop into my head…. “Someday I won’t be able to do this.  Today is not that day.”  Something about those words have really stuck with me and is the perfect beat in my head when the miles got long and pushed me to catch up to the person in the distance.  It helped!

Well, another half under my belt.  Whenever I get done with a race it makes me want to go sign up for another right away!  I haven’t decided which one yet, but there are a TON to choose from during summers in Minneapolis : )  Any suggestions??

Happy Weekend!

After mild recruitment from a co worker of mine and, I admit, some genuine interest, I agreed to go to morning Yoga at 6 a.m.  I was not exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but it turned out to be a great experience.  The session I attended was a Vinyasa flow Yoga class which means “breath synchronized movement”.  There is a certain rhythm to the yoga as each pose leads to the next in methodical fashion. I also found that the breathing (hence the name) was increasingly important as we progressed through the class.  Our instructor coached us through the breathing, which proved to be very helpful for me.  Overall it was a great start to the day 

Left to Right: Co worker and Head Lacrosse Coach, the Yoga instructor, and myself

Quick post for Day 186 to fill in for Team Wednesday since he is currently dealing with races, finals and getting ready for graduation.

I ran 5 miles in the morning followed by an ab workout and a 35 mile bike ride up the coast  into Malibu on the PCH. Great workout in the 75 degree weather.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick

Today’s Blog is a very special guest! He is Donna’s official work out buddy!!

Today started like most other weekdays at 6:20am with my workout buddy, Donna.  We meet in the parking lot at the Y for our daily workout… Either swim, bike or run!  Today was a swim day and we weren’t the only ones… the pool was packed, but we found our lane and got in a quick 30 minute swim before we had to get to what we call “Body by Scotty”! Today is Tuesday, so we had our appointment with our trainer Scott.  He knows how to leave us feeling our workout!  Lots of legs, plenty of planks and some stirring the pot….all in all a great sweat and great way to start the day.

xoxo

Granite Girls

Hello fellow 365-ers! Happy Monday!

I just got back to LA from my hometown of Milwaukee, WI where I spent a great weekend with family and friends.  While I was there, my mom and I celebrated Mother’s Day by running Milwaukee’s lakefront bike path.  The path runs along over five miles of beautiful Lake Michigan coastline and was bustling with mothers and their children out enjoying the spring weather.  Like me, my mom is a relatively new runner, but what she lacks in experience she makes up for in enthusiasm.  We’ve run a few short races together and they’ve all been really great.  It was wonderful to see her and a great treat to go out running with her.

Because of travel complications, I missed out on my usual workout today (though I definitely did some intense running from Concourse A to Concourse G changing planes at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport) so I’ll have to go double hard tomorrow.  This Sunday I plan on running 20 miles in preparation for my marathon, which is only 3 weeks away!!

Happy workouts everyone!  See you next week

Today, as many members of Team Baltimore headed home to enjoy Mothers Day, we all had our own separate workouts.

Today Stacey Vogt did a training circuit using the rowing machine, treadmill and elliptical. She did two 10 minute intervals on each machine.

Mike Kirby got in a dual workout today. He started the day off with a nice lift and later went for a 2 mile run around Baltimore.

With the beautiful weather we had here in the Baltimore area, I went out for a 24 mile bike ride.

It was a great, relaxing weekend for Team Baltimore and we hope that all the Moms out there had a great Mother’s Day!

Have a great week everyone!

Crazy to think that we are just about at the halfway mark for the 365 Day Challenge. The even crazier part is looking at the amount of things that we’ve accomplished as an organization Keep up the great work and remember that We Are One.

Saturday’s weather was not ideal for beach volleyball but that didn’t stop a few of us from the Santa Monica Track Club. After our normal Saturday morning long run, we met up at Venice Beach and played some friendly games of volleyball that quickly showed all of our natural competitive sides. After the games, we did some calisthenics on the beach. Very active day with very awesome company.

The Cornell Crew team travelled to Worchester, MA for the Eastern Sprints. They must qualify for Nationals by coming in the top 9. They are racing as I type this so send fast thoughts their way.

Also, the Celtics won in a nail-biter. Lets go Boston!!

AR. NF. NR.

Nick