As we get farther into the year and the New Years Resolutions start to fade into the background, it’s even more important to keep your fire lit and your passion for a healthy and fit lifestyle burning strong!

Yes, it’s easy to slack off and let other things get it the way of our goals. But those resolutions are still there, they are important, and they are reachable. If you let your fire die down, time will go by quickly and all of a sudden it will be the end of year and you’ll find yourself far from where you want to be.

It’s time to ignite that fire again and find our passion to keep going! Whether you’ve been going strong or need to recommit…a brand new month is upon us. You have a chance to keep pushing, or to brush off the past and keep working towards your goals.

We are lucky! We’re already surrounded by people who challenge us, push us, motivate us…people who help us keep that fire bright and encourage us not to give up on ourselves.

Take a moment to think about the goals you set for 2017. Think about what you are doing to reach those goals and the changes you need to make to continue to work towards them. We have personal goals, family goals, fitness goals…and for most of us, of course our fitness goals center around running!

We know that out of all the things that influence our running, strength training is one of the biggest factors that will impact our health, fitness, and performance.

Runner-specific strength training is one of the best things we can spend our valuable training time doing. Fortunately, we don’t need to train like a bodybuilder to get the benefits. A little strength work goes a long way towards getting stronger, staying healthy, and racing faster. Strength work is ideal cross training, with the one of the primary benefits being injury prevention.

In addition to getting stronger, preventing injury, and working towards our running goals….daily exercise can give us more energy, better moods, weight loss, less stress, and a more healthy and fit body!

Ready to get to work? Let’s see what’s on tap for March!

The March schedule is very similar to past months with strength work on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We are adding a new yoga routine to the mix for Wednesday, and keeping Saturdays and Sundays for long runs, active recovery, yoga and stretching. There is also an additional March Challenge that throws in a little ab work on Wednesday and Saturday.

Here’s the set up with links to the “how to” videos for each page:

• Monday – Arms & Core
• Tuesday – Legs
• Wednesday – Yoga Poses for Runners
• Thursday – Hips
• Friday – Core
• Saturday – Long Run + 7 Key Stretches for Runners
• Sunday – Active Recovery / Yoga for Runners – your choice / Rest – links for yoga below

Yoga for Runners – “Unknot Yourself”

Yoga for Runners – “Tight Hips and Legs” 

The Modern Mom Hips and Donkey Kicks routine have been very helpful for strengthening our hips and core and seem to be popular in past months so although they are not on the calendar for March, I will throw them in the mix as bonus work. We also have some new videos to add in as well so make sure to check our daily “pinned post” at the top of our group page each day.

Planks have always been one our staple exercises and we’ve done them consistently for a long time so we are taking a small break and they are not included in our regular calendar BUT they are part of this month “extra challenge” and you’ll probably see them pop up as bonus work throughout the month.

Challenge: This month “extra challenge” is AB work YAY! Spring time is right around the corner with summer following soon after so let’s make a commitment to work on our core and get our mid-section in shape for sunny bathing suit weather! The challenge is included on our March calendar and I will also include them in our daily posts.

As always, we will have other things to keep us excited and challenged throughout the month. Look for speed work, running drills, food challenges, and other fun stuff. I hope to add a new Racery to the mix as well.

Our March 2017 Challenge Calendar is below. You can find a PDF copy of the calendar in our Strong to the Core files so you can print it out, put it somewhere you will see it each day, and cross off the days as you go.

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Don’t get comfortable Crew. 

Don’t be content with where you are today.

Be utterly relentless when it comes to smashing your dreams and being successful.

Be stronger today than yesterday. Stronger every single day!