Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I had some really good days and some really lazy days last week. The nice thing is, I’m not training for anything so I’m okay with that. I really enjoyed the workouts I got in and I took it easy when I was tired.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: P90X abs and push-ups.

Tuesday: Rest Day.

Wednesday: Today was a busy one. I was up right away when my 5:30 alarm went off and got in my P90X ab ripper workout before heading into D.C. for my second week with the November Project. We ran the steps of the Lincoln Memorial mostly nonstop with quick “breaks” where you found your group of four and did five push-ups and five burpees. I book-ended the day with another tough workout doing a late evening Barre Ride at Revolve DC.

Thursday: Rest Day.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: I started my weekend off right with a tough one-hour Body Ride up at Revolve. This class was awesome and seriously kicked my butt. My arms were shaky all day from the weight portion!

Sunday: I was up early, but ended up spending a lazy morning on the couch before running errands making Sunday another rest day.

Footprints: Workout Recap

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I’m a bit behind with my Monday morning recap, but better late than never. Last week was a hodgepodge of activities as I get back into working out, but don’t have anything I’m training for.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: 75-minute hot yoga class at Dancing Mind Yoga.

Tuesday: P90X Abs and push-ups.

Wednesday: I tried out a November Project group workout at the Lincoln Memorial. It was legit. Check out my recap if you’re not familiar with it.

Thursday: Body ride spin class at Revolve.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: Hiking – 8ish miles at Great Falls along the Billy Goat Trail. More to come on this, but it was one heck of a workout day for me!

Sunday: Rest Day – although I was on my feet for a few hours in the morning volunteering at the U.S. National Road Racing Championships followed by an afternoon of vacuuming the car and apartment, laundry and other cleaning. Sometimes I feel like that kind of stuff should count for working out!!

Just What I Needed

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

For the first week after Marine Corps Marathon I went into recovery mode and exercised very little. I spent a lot of time stretching, foam rolling, icing and heating. Then another week went by and I still hadn’t gotten myself out for a run. I did do plenty of spinning, yoga and strength training though, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

At the start of the third week I felt fully rested and recovered, picked out some winter/spring shorter races and was ready to get back into full-on working out. For some reason, though, I still didn’t feel like running.

Lingering disappointment hangover from MCM? Fear I’d lost my fitness during my two-week run hiatus? Just being lazy? No more daylight after work? I don’t know. Whatever it was though, I was in a funk and I needed to bust out. An early-morning Wednesday workout with the November Project did just that!

Last Wednesday I saw a tweet about the November Project and clicked through to learn more. It sounded awesome. Then I saw that a DC group had started up. Even better! Over the weekend my latest issue of Runner’s World arrived featuring the November Project on the cover. Read the article if you haven’t already, you won’t regret it. Now I had to try this out.

The November Project is a free, grassroots workout group started in Boston by two former college athletes looking to stay in shape through the winter. Now it’s blowing up. It’s roughly an hour filled with a hard workout, hugs and a few curse words.

I showed up at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday morning at 6:30, and it was everything I expected and more. An obvious newbie, I was greeted with a hug and introduced myself to a few others there…more hugs.

Close to 40-50 people showed up to sweat, shared some hugs and dropped a few F-bombs. About 10 people were given tennis balls that instructed them to do push-ups, burpees, squats or sprint to Abe! If you didn’t have a tennis ball, you started running what they call Lincoln Logs – up to the top of the steps and back down to the reflecting pool. When you finished your tennis ball workout, you started running, handed off your tennis ball to someone while introducing yourself and they were off to do the workout.

Doing some push-ups... photo stolen from the Nov. Project DC Facebook page

Doing some push-ups… photo stolen from the November Project DC Facebook page

I had a blast and found myself smiling through parts of it even when I was exhausted. I lost count, but I think I completed 12-13 Lincoln Logs, 30 push-ups, one sprint to Abe and about 30 burpees. We wrapped things up splitting into teams for a relay race and taking a group picture. It was so much fun and just what I needed to start enjoying running again!

Post-workout group photo from November Project DC Facebook page

If you live in D.C., check it out for yourself next Wednesday, 6:30a.m., on the steps of the Lincoln. I already can’t wait to go back. Hope to see you there!