Most of the time, we are the only thing standing in our way. If we can get out of our own head and give ourself a chance to get past the negativity, we can do amazing things. We can reach our goals and soar beyond our own expectations.

When we were young it was easy to believe we could do anything we wanted. We had no fears, no self doubt, no little voice inside our head telling us we would fail. Why is it that when we grow older, we have no longer believe? Past set backs leave us doubtful and insecure.

Being secure and believing in ourself and our abilities doesn’t mean we have to be boastful or cocky. Quiet self confidence is one of the most attractive qualities in an athlete. And you are an athlete.

This week there is no negativity or self doubt allowed. You’ve seen almost all of our May workouts and you CAN do them. Believe in yourself and let’s have a kick ass training week!

Day 7 exercises:

• Warm UP – Jumping Jacks or jogging in place – 25 reps or :30
• Fitness Blender – 100 Squat Challenge (follow along with the 8 minute video below)
• Wall Sit – :60
• Plank – :60

Today’s workout should take you about 12 minutes total. You can do it before your run as a great warm up or after as long as you pay close attention to your form. You can break it up and do a morning run then afternoon strength, or you can bust them out in the same setting.

Either way, believe in yourself and push through with ZERO self doubt.

Speed Work: Chase Your Dreams!

Don’t make me regret giving you speed on Monday! If you raced or ran long this weekend you need to put a couple days in between these “effort” workouts and your speed work which is another “effort” session. You can run…just take it easy and enjoy some time on your feet without expectations on pace. Then come in strong on Tuesday or better yet, on Wednesday with fresh legs!

I know which workout you should be doing and so do you. Believe in yourself and DO NOT pick the easier workout just because you’re being lazy. Pick the workout that suits your distance goals and current level of ability.

Remember that speed work is not just about getting faster. Speed work also gets our body ready to run longer and feel better doing it. That means that even if you don’t care about getting faster YOU should be doing speed work. If you want to finish a longer distance race, YOU should be doing speed work. If you just want to finish stronger and feeling better after finishing your next race…YOU should be doing speed work. EVERYONE should be ding speed work!

If you’re not injured, pick a workout and go out there and CHASE YOUR DREAMS!

Option 1: 5K – 10K Training

Half or Full Marathon Training

Grab your best running friends and let’s log some miles Crew! Our best running friends make the miles click right on by so a two hour run seem like no time at all!

Can’t wait to meet Wendy for a long run tomorrow morning with a bunch of our Jax Crew! Then we get to do it again on Sunday as our newbie Nicole is continuing on her marathon journey and going for 12 miles! Just saw another newbie Martina is running her first marathon on Sunday and that is super exciting!

What else is going on this weekend? Are you racing? Logging miles with friends? How far are you going? Do you have your plan ready and your running clothes laid out?

Can’t wait to see all the pictures and hear stories about how you spent your weekend. We are runners so…I know there’ll be lots of miles logged and lots of juicy stories between friends!

I think it’s kinda fun to tally up our #CoreCrew miles and see what we run as a group over the weekend so when you’re done, comment on this weekend’s daily post with your mileage and let’s see how high we go! There’s too many of us for me to go through all the weekend’s post looking for numbers so post in both places or at least on our pinned post. 🙂

We are 117 members strong now and I think we can hit 200. What do you think??

Every mile counts so….

Let’s Run Crew!

Day 5 exercises:

• Warm up drills – Legs swings, hip hurdles & lunge matrix
• Long Run
• Wall Sit & Plank – :60 each
• Legs up the Wall
• Roll and Stretch! – 7 Key Stretches for Runners

Day 6: Active Recovery & Yoga for Runners

• Active Recovery – Short, easy run, swim, bike ride, brisk walk
• Yoga for Runners – Options below

1. Yoga for Runners – “Unknot Yourself”
2. Yoga for Runners – “Tight Hips and Legs”
3. Yoga Poses for Runners

Need to switch up the days? Of course you should make long runs work around your personal schedule. We don’t care when you go…just go!

Oh and of course it’s Cinco de Mayo, so run hard…or run long and easy, then go eat some tacos and drink a margarita or two….cause you earned it! 🙂

Today’s workout is SUPER short but it is not easy! This ab work will test your resolve and your core! You may not be able to get all the way through it…in fact if you can you are a total badass!

This is a 4 minute killer ab workout. It will also involve your arms and legs. These girls are young and strong, but by the end of this month, we WILL be able to get all the way through these 4 minutes right along with these gymnasts. For now, do what you can. Get a minute or two minutes, then rest and get back into it. Or do the first minute, then start it over and do the first minute again. Whatever you do, DO NOT just skip it because you think it’s too hard.

Bring your inner Jedi, give it your all your effort and lets feel our abs burn! 

One :60 Plank and one :60 Wall sit and you are DONE with Friday!

Cinco de Mayo is Saturday and if you’re like me…tacos will be devoured. Put in the work today so you can eat those tacos with a little less guilt tomorrow! 🙂

Happy May the Fourth Crew! Stay Strong!

Day 4 exercises:

• Uptown Abs
• Plank – :60
• Wall Sit – :60
• ROLL & STRETCH! – 7 Key Stretches for Runners

Uptown Abs – Uptown Funk!

Home you had a great semi-rest day cause it’s time to get back to work on our arms and abs!

We’ve got some more great workouts to follow along with and the best part is that these workouts will hit ALL of our upper body. The standing abs routine gets all sides on our core and the tank top arms hits our arms, shoulders, chest and back!

If you’re still sore from Tuesday (like me) then just take a deep breathe and power through it. You’ll be glad you did!

Great workouts don’t have to take tons of time and todays is no exception. Our standing ab workout will take 10 minutes and our arms will take another 9 minutes. Add in one :60 Plank and one :60 Wall sit and you are done. An entire upper body workout with our favorite wall sit in just 21 minutes. You can make 21 minutes for you right? I know you can!

Just like our Tuesday Brutal Butt and Thighs workout, follow along with the video and keep your motions controlled and purposeful. Don’t go faster than the video…no need to rush though it!

Here we go!

Day 3 exercises:

• Fitness Blender Standing Abs
• Fitness Blender Tank Top Arms
• Plank – :60
• Wall Sit – :60

Fitness Blender Standing Abs

Fitness Blender Tank Top Arms

For our new Crew members, if you’re unsure about how to perform a plank or a wall sit correctly and want to get the most out of these exercises, please watch the videos below.

Plank: The following video is a great tutorial on planks for beginners. If you can’t hold a plank for :6o yet, that is ok. Shoot for :30, take a break for a few seconds, then finish the other :30. This exercise will get easier but you have to try!

Wall Sit: The wall sit is a great exercise to target our entire thigh area, our quad, our inner thigh, the back of the leg, the hamstring, and our glutes. Find a wall, come into a squat position with your feet out in front of you. Align your knees with your ankles and push your weight back into the wall here. Make sure that you’re digging through your heels as you’re in your squat position and that your legs are a 90 degree angle. Same thing as the plank, this exercise will get easier as you get stronger. Do your best!

It’s Day 1 Crew let’s kick it off right by firing up those hips and glutes! This is gonna burn so good!

Tuesday will be our longest workout of the week but our hips and glutes need it. This is an area that causes us a lot of problems…and most of us don’t even know it.

Did you know that there is a high correlation between knee pain and weaknesses in our hips and glutes? Weakness in this area causes us to run imbalanced which throws off our gait and sends our entire lower body out of wack. The pain that comes from this very often shows up in our knees!

I had an article sent to me today that debated the correlation between hip weaknesses and knee pain. It’s a common prescription for runners with knee pain to work on strengthening their hips, but experts are also ruminating over the thought that runners with knee pain stemming from other issues may compensate by altering their gait which in turns causes hip weakness. Hmmmm…

The article goes back and forth over this issue but in the end, the studies suggest that the sample size isn’t large enough to make a final decision. They can’t say for sure if hip weaknesses cause knee pain, or if knee pain causes us to alter the way to run which causes hip weaknesses. But as I think about this “problem” I have to think that either way, if our hips and glutes are stronger, this solves both of these scenarios.

If weak hips cause knee pain, strengthening our hips will make the pain stop. If knee pain is causing hip weakness, then strengthening our hips will help us stand taller and and straighter which will give our entire body more balance which has to be a good thing right?

With so many people suffering form what is commonly known as “runner’s knee” and many of those runners finding improvements through strength training, why wouldn’t we want to do the extra work? Not only can it help us battle those aches and pains, but hip and glute strength helps us run stronger, more balanced, and ultimately gives us more power and therefore more speed! No brainer! 🙂

Tuesday’s workout will take 30 minutes. Plan it out to make sure it happens. This is our longest workout of the week and we’re doing it early in the week to ensure we have time to recover before weekend long runs and races. Push through it then give those hips and glutes a good long stretch!

Day 1 exercises:

• Fitness Blender Brutal Butt and Thigh Workout
• Wall Sit – :60
• Glute Stretch – :30 each
• Pigeon Pose – :30 each

Fitness Blender Brutal Butt and Thigh Workout – You will see lots of familiar exercises in this workout but instead of breaking it into our own sets we can follow along and get it done in one shot. No breaks…push through it!

Wall Sit – This will be tough after the brutal butt and thigh workout but you can do it. :60 minimum!

Finish with some good stretches for those burning muscles!

Glute Stretch

Pigeon Pose