A Perfect Weekend and Plan For The Week

Happy Last Day of March Everyone 🙂

I gotta tell you, yes it’s always a bummer to wake up and start Monday morning — looking back on an amazing weekend tends to ease the pain just a bit.

Ashley’s Perfect Weekend

Friday Night:

The worlds BEST tortilla chips: Whole Foods homemade

Good cold beer

and a night with my BF, Leonardo.

{JK honey — but seriously.  Leo, call me}

Saturday:

20,000 feet plus on the slopes

A relaxing early evening in hotel including snacks + hot tub.

Then an evening out with friends until far too l ate with good food, good drinks, and good company.

{sorry I didn’t get pictures.  i was too busy enjoying the evening. . . happens sometimes}

Sunday

A perfect ski breakfast with lots of healthy fats, carbs and protein.

A quick circuit workout followed by a few more hours on the slopes

Tons of walks in the sunshine with the pup

An evening with another good friend, Will.

More peanut butter

Lots of coconut water + lemon to rehydrate

a homemade pizza night with the hubby

With the final cap of the weekend being some experimenting in the kitchen.

This really was my perfect weekend, and yes I may have played and worked hard {and payed for it}, but my goodness it was an amazing weekend.

Zach and I went to bed right around 10 PM last night so by the time my alarm went off this morning, all of the rust from the weekend felt like it had been washed off.  Yes, I allowed myself to sleep in after an indulgent weekend.  BUT I did get in a good 20 minute yoga session, and have plans for an AWESOME outdoor run tonight to enjoy the weather.

Plan for the Week

I ended last week feeling strong and confident, and want to roll that into this week as well.  Here’s my plan to do JUST that :).

• Monday: AM yoga + PM run
• Tuesday: AM Strength session
• Wednesday:  Speed work run
• Thursday: Walk with the Pup
• Friday: Hill/Interval treadmill run
• Saturday/Sunday: SKI one day/Run one day

As always, I leave room for flexibility because, you know, life happens :).

Goals

I have a couple goals this week.

• HYDRATE!  Never be without water and constantly be sipping.   This is always difficult for me — for whatever reason.  I get full easily and when I drink a ton of water, I get a “water baby” and am miserable until it goes away {a water baby is that slushy belly you get after drinking lots of water}.  With that said, I KNOW I feel better overall when I drink water, so I’m going to stick to it.
• LESS PROCESSED FOODS:  I have gotten back into a bar kick lately.  Now, I’m not damning bars, but let’s just say the processed nature of most grocery store bars scare me.  So, I know I need to chill out a bit.  My plan for the week is to eat more real, natural foods — less prepackaged foods with ingredients I am not familiar with.  I’m starting this plan off with homemade granola bars that I’ll be sharing with you all soon 🙂
• Continue the walks with Gus as much as possible! Gus and I both enjoyed our evening walks, and I want to keep this trend up as long as the weather is cooperating.  It’s great for digestion after dinner and just fresh air 🙂

alright my friends, that’s all I’ve got for you today :).  Hope you had a GREAT weekend and have a great Monday to start the week!

Question of the Morning: TELL ME ALL ABOUT YOUR WEEKENDS!  Did you run/race?  See friends? Tell me 🙂 ❤

I Already Miss The Slopes

Happy Monday — comin’ at ya from the  office desk before the work week begins.

My brain may still be on the slopes though ;).

Zach and I were so lucky to get a quick weekend away in Winter Park this weekend.  Earlier in the season, as a season pass holder, Zach picked up a “Vintage Pass” which gave us 10 “points” to spend for nights at their hotel at a very discounted rate.  A weeknight = 1 point.  Weekends = 2.  So when you’ve heard me talking about Zach and I staying up in the mountains this winter, that’s where we’ve been.

This past weekend we used up the last of our points, but let me tell you with the conditions we had yesterday, we went out in style.  The snow was soft thanks to the previous days storm.  The sky was blue and the sun was right.  Zach and I were lucky enough to be able to lap some slopes without problem and generally speaking stay away from the crowds.  Not-a-bad-day.

In general, our weekends in the mountains include long days of skiing, afternoons of snacking and board games, dinner and an early night to sleep.  All to repeat the next day 🙂

Last Night

Thanks to easy road conditions, Zach and I were able to make it home in record time last night to relax and watch some hockey (His RedWings were on) and college basketball.  Zach and I did a friendly bracket just between the two of us so we’ve been having fun following the games, without the pressure of serious money or stakes on the line.

I was not feeling cooking, and have been on a major Greek kick lately — so decided to go easy last night and pick up a Mediterranean dish from out local grocer.

As always, it didn’t dissapoint and Zach even agreed that it was quite tasty.

We were super cool kiddos and in bed before 10.  Just my style 🙂

This Morning

I woke up with my body extremely exhausted and a slight twinge in my throat, so I decided to postpone any work out until after I was out of work for the day and slept in.  If you’re keeping track, that’s almost 10 hours of sleep last night.   Ski weekends take it out of this girl 🙂

With that said, I am planning a yoga class tonight (maybe even a hot yoga class) and some good workouts for the rest of the week, so don’t you worry 😉

Question of the Morning: Tell me all about your weekend!  I feel disconnected from all of you!

Workouts I’ve Been Loving

For my readers who have been around awhile (Thank you <3), you know I tend to go through phases.  With food.  With TV.  With life.  With exercise.

For a LONG time — I’ve been living within my obsession with running.

 

From November until right before our honeymoon, I was running 6-7 days a week.   Normally somewhere around 3-6 miles.

Running will likely always be my passion.  It challenges me in a way that I haven’t found elsewhere, but also keeps me interested.

 

With that said, my body and mind made it very clear that I needed to find balance recently.  And that’s exactly what I’ve done.  So I’m here to share with you all some of my new favorite work outs and routines that have been making me feel better than I have in ages.

Schedule

First, I want to discuss my schedule.  The key to my schedule at this point is variation.  Currently, any given week looks like:

• 3 days of running
• 2 days of strength/yoga class
• 1 day of cross (lately skiing)
• 1 day of rest/walking

This is working great for both my mind and body.  I no longer feel run down or dread my morning routine.  As the weather get’s better and Spring shows it’s beautiful head, I imagine more outdoor activities will take place of those cross training/strength days.

Yoga Classes

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  I cannot express enough the value of yoga as a balance to any other work out routine.

 

I recently bought a 30/30 pass at Kindness yoga which includes 30 days of unlimited classes for 30 dollars.  How awesome of a deal is that?  While I have this special, I am absolutely taking advantage of classes whenever I can.

Now I know many of us cardio junkies feel like yoga isn’t a “true” workout. . . but just like with any other exercise, Yoga is what you make it.  I will challenge ANYONE to go to a Yoga 2/3 class (3 is routinely the hardest yoga class studios offer) and NOT be sore the next day.  Seriously.  I know that when I was doing yoga 5-6 days a week I had more definition in my back and arms than at any other point in my life.

Now that’s not to say yoga is always about the burn.  Yoga is also meditative and brings along with it the mental challenge.  As a distance runner, this is just as important for me.  Running is 90% mental. . . and yoga CHALLENGES me mentally because I just can’t naturally stay in the mindset for 60-90 minutes.  Focusing on poses and my breathing are great cross training for my running.

Yoga has one downfall for me.  Classes are expensive.  A few tips:

• Find a new-to-you studio.  Most offer great deals like first week free, half price, etc.
• GROUPON!  Always have great deals
• Online (youtube) FREE yoga routines.  There are some GREAT ones that you can do from home.

Skiing

 

If it’s got to be cold, then you might as well find a way to enjoy it.  And honestly, there is NO better way to do that than hitting the slopes.

 

There is something about fresh mountain air that makes skiing, a VERY challenging sport, seem totally worth while.

 

While not everyone is lucky enough to live in the mountains like I do. . .  if you ever have an opportunity plan a trip to the mountains and TRY OUT SKIING.  There is no other cross training like it and it WILL change your life.

There is nothing that makes my legs more sore than a 9-4 day on the mountain.   Besides maybe a race, but that’s another story.  Challenging your legs, core and arms for an entire day on the mountain will leave you exhausted in the best kind of way, and READY to enjoy the post ski beer + food!

 

If you don’t live in the mountains or don’t have the ability to ski, that doesn’t mean you can’t try and enjoy the outdoors and snow.

 

Snow shoeing!  A seriously TOUGH and awesome work out.  Hello half the WORLD is covered with snow right now — and these things are super cheap to rent if you don’t want to buy them.  I promise you it will be a challenging but rewarding work out and will make the snow seem a little more worth while 😉

 

And snow walks/hikes.  I have found that in many parts of the country there are dedicated Winter trails or hikes to take advantage of.  As long as your equipped with your winter gear (hat, gloves, under layers + good coat and pants,  + water resistant shoes)

Nike Training Club App

For anyone who has a smart phone, download this APP now.  Seriously.  It has motivated me in ways that I haven’t been to try new things in a long time.

 

The app is easy to use, functional, and has a GREAT variety of different work outs.  I challenge anyone to download the app and not at least find a couple routines you love.

 

Elements about this program I love:

• It’s high intensity.  I am CONSTANTLY out of breath with this one.
• And it coaches you on the moves.  Each move has a video attached to it to show you correct form.  This is KEY.
• The variety!  Seriously there is something for everyone.
• Teaches you new moves!

Some of my favorite moves:

• PLANK WORK!  Side plank, forearm plank, full plank, plank with rotation. You name it — you get it.  Plank is SUCH an amazing full body exercise and hello quick and dirty.
• Lunges/Squats:  I hated the sound of these words for a long time, but somehow Nike has brought them back into my life.  Hello AWESOME for running
• Push ups — OUCH.  Enough said.  But at least it gives you variety.

While I did many of the moves I practice using the NTC app BEFORE finding it, there is no measure for the importance of the moves being done in a routine.  Not only for safety, but also for getting the best bang for your buck.  These programs range from 15-45 minutes and trust me, they know what they’re doing.

And that, my friends, is just a few work outs that I am enjoying!  Doesn’t seem like the snow and cold are going away anytime soon, so I hope you’re able to use some of these work outs to add some variety to your routine!

Question of the Afternoon:  Your favorite outdoor snowy activity.