September 2016 Challenge: Earn Your Body

We are runners! But we know that running alone isn’t enough. In order to get faster, fitter, and healthier…we must also get stronger!

Adding a strength routine to workout regime will help you put up faster times, avoid injuries, and tone those areas that running doesn’t reach. Ready to commit and make September your best month yet?

With everyone back to school and busy lives…we’re going back to the basics and revisiting some familiar exercises from challenges of the past. But just because we’re going back to basics doesn’t mean you don’t have to work hard….

It’s time to Earn Your Body!

Let’s get healthy and reach our running goals by working towards overall health AND have the added benefit of looking better too! It takes hard work, commitment, and dedication to have the healthy, fit body you want!

If you’ve been with us for a while, this month might resemble a past challenge…and you’d be right! We are going back to a popular month from 2015…with a few small changes. These exercises are perfect for runners who want to build strength in our arms, shoulders, back, abs, glutes, and legs…but you have to be willing to work for it!

As always, we will have daily bonus workouts but this month they will be a single move that will hopefully be new to you. I will work hard to find new exercises to keep things fresh so if you find one you like and want the group to try, please send it to me.

Here’s the September nitty gritty…

No rest days this month. Each day we will be working hard towards that healthy, fit body we all want AND that will get us closer to our running goals. Even though we won’t have a “rest day”, we will still have our dedicated long run day which will include our 7 Key Stretches for Runners and planks but no other strength exercises. The rest of the week will consist of just 3 exercises + planks each day making it time sensitive and doable for each of us.

Monday: Abs / Shoulders
Tuesday: Legs / Stability
Wednesday: Arms / Back
Thursday: Legs / Stability
Friday: Abs
Saturday: Long Run + Stretches & Plank OR Arms / Back
Sunday: Arms / Back OR Long Run + Stretches & Plank

This month we are doing less exercises per day…but we are doing more sets. We will start with 2 sets of 10 for the first week, but will start moving up quickly. Set aside the time to get it done each day and commit to eating healthy, working hard, and staying consistent. It’s the only way to earn the body you want and to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself.

As always, I will continue to harp about stretching and adding in some Yoga for Runners, rolling, eating well, avoiding overtraining, consistency, and probably a bunch of other stuff. But I promise it will be in the nicest way possible. 😉 We are runners…so everything we talk about centers around being better at what we love.

I will never claim to know everything. I’m far from perfect…I’m not an elite runner and I am always striving to improve too. As you get to know me, I hope you’ll see that my harping comes from love, and from the desire to help you be your best! Don’t be shy about calling me out or adding in your voice…I need motivation and accountability as much as you do and am always ready to learn new things about the sport I love!

Racery: This month we are breaking into teams again and running the Blue Ridge Parkway! This is a fun, free virtual race that will encourage you to run a few more miles than you normally would and help your team cross that finish line! The race is 466.3 mile race from Waynesboro to Cherokee and we have 120 days to complete it. But with teams of 5, we should be done in no time! Here’s how it works:

Sign up by submitting your name and email.
The race will start the day after at least 20 people have signed up (the quicker you get people to sign-up the quicker it starts!). Hopefully we will be able to start Thursday, September 1st.
Run anywhere (seriously, anywhere).
You track your activity by a GPS watch, app, sundial, change in the tides, or any other means.
Reply to a daily email with your activity (yea! you’re smokin’ fast!).
Your place on a map is plotted instantly (you get a really cool avatar!).
Your total mileage, runs/week, and miles/week will be tracked.

There are a few guidelines…

We rely on the honor system… you don’t have to use a device to prove your miles — a good map suffices.
No step counting, please use intentional miles
Only running miles please! (NOTE: miles on a racer’s personal log are for all races they are in, over all sports)
Please attribute your mileage to the appropriate day — don’t combine mileage from multiple days.
Please only backdate mileage for a race up to two weeks in the past.
Miles submitted after the race ends will not count toward race leaderboards.

Ready to sign up? Click here and let’s get the teams ready! We need at least 4 teams of 5 before the race can start.

Below is our September calendar. Questions? Ask away! You can tag me in our Facebook group, Strong to the Core, or you can private message me here. You can find a PDF copy of the calendar in our FB files if you’d like to print it out and keep it handy.

Let’s get started! It’s time to earn our body and get stronger, faster, fitter, and healthier! 🙂