Monthly Archives: January 2015

Getting to a 5 Minute Plank

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One of January’s Challenges is to hold a 5 minute plank.  Minneapolis Running retweeted a link from a local blogger who initiated the challenge.  The Right Fits blogs about running and fitness in the Twin Cities and beyond.  She laid down the challenge in her first post of the year and a Facebook Event. She kindly offered a “training” plan to get there in 1 month.

I must admit, it seems a little daunting to think about holding a plank for 5 minutes… I know people who can run a mile that fast!! Or do 100 burpees… but holding one position.  That’s a challenge.  I’m actually 3 days in and I was pretty shaking at the end of today’s 30 seconds.  And I feel like I’m in decent shape! We must find our weaknesses, expose them, and fix them!

Here is the plan:

planking2015

 

30 Day Fitness Challenges has pretty much the same formula and an app to go with it! A quick search for 5 minute plank apps produced a couple that do a 5 minute workout moving through different plank positions, but only 1 that I saw that might actually work for this challenge.  Check it out here, I downloaded it on my phone. It has additional plank exercises that I don’t see a way to actually skip or remove but it has a timer on it and it is a pretty straight-forward no frills app.

In a text format the workout goes:

  1. 20 seconds
  2. 20
  3. 30
  4. 30
  5. 40
  6. Rest
  7. 45
  8. 45
  9. 60
  10. 60
  11. 60
  12. 90
  13. Rest
  14. 90
  15. 90
  16. 120 (2 minutes)
  17. 120
  18. 150 (2:30)
  19. Rest
  20. 150
  21. 150
  22. 180 (3 minutes)
  23. 180
  24. 210 (3:30)
  25. 210
  26. Rest
  27. 240 (4 minutes)
  28. 240
  29. 270
  30. Rest
  31. 300 (5 minutes)

2015 Challenges Ready to Go!

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Welcome to a new year!! So much happened last year that wasn’t planned or expected that it is hard to imagine what the next year will bring!  But like last year I’ve decided to break down the year into 12 (ok 18) manageable 30 day challenges.

Last year was a successful year and I really liked some of the challenges.  This year I’ve got 18 Monthly Challenges I want to complete and 9 other year long goals.  First the larger goals:
  • Run more than 2014 – So I need to run 341 miles (.9 miles a day)
  • Bike more than 2014 – So I need to bike 1,372 miles (3.8 miles a day)
  • Go on a short backpacking trip – we’ve talked about trying to go as a family, but I definitely want to try and get up to Superior again.
  • Get stronger by going to Solcana regularly and completing other challenges below!
  • Finish 12 Books I’ve already started.  I have a lot of unread books in my Kindle library.
  • Be Tab/Inbox Zero at the end of each quarter.  I’m already starting really far behind!
  • Read the Billy Graham Devotional Plan at YouVersion.com
  • Become more flexible by doing mobility daily. From the Ready to Run Book complete at least one mobility exercise.
  • Go on 2 kid-less dates each month!
Some of those will take more work than others to accomplish. But things like running, biking, Solcana, and the Bible plan are already pretty routine for me, so listing them is more of a just needing to express them than something new to change or do!
Now for the exciting part! The Monthly Challenges for 2015!
January – Unfriend, Unfollow, Unsubscribe – After doing this last year I got rid of a lot more than 30 items, friends, or newsletters.  And it gave me the motivation to keep doing it sporadically throughout the year.  Time to do it again!! The less stuff that I have to click archive or scroll past the more free space I’ll have for important things.  And it makes me more careful about what I subscribe to or follow.
I’m also going to do a 5 minute plank challenge.  At the end of the month I should be able to hold a 5 minute plank!
February – Read a Poem a Day – I downloaded a great app last year and I also ended up buying a collection of Maya Angelou book for the Kindle so I’ll have lots to choose from.
Write a couple of poems!
March – Declutter! Time to get rid of some crap! I mean used wonderful stuff! This felt really good last year.  We got rid of a few boxes of stuff! Similar to the online decluttering, it is hard to stop once you start!
I also want to get out on the bike and start riding it!
April – 30 Days of Biking – Need I say more? Get out and ride.  It will be a challenge to ride to work most of those days! But we don’t have any spring break plans yet and since I won’t be traveling internationally for work I won’t have that excuse!
May – Daily Yoga – Already have an app for that! I might be so flexible from doing mobility that I won’t need it, haha! This will be good for me to slow down during a stressful time of year!
I’m also going to try to drink only water for the month. I might need to add some electrolyte’s but we’ll see how straight water goes!
June – TED Talk a Day – I might regret this one in summer, but it will be a good chance to expand my learning and hopefully find some really good ones along the way!
Last year’s push ups every day went really well, so more pushups! . I’ll need to decide on a set number to do or something like the 100 push-up plan. A college buddy just did an insane pushup challenge and he looks pretty cut from it!  He did the total of month x day + 14 so 1/1 was 14 pushups and 12/12 was 158.  He said he did over 42,000 pushups for the year! I’m not that crazy!
July – Take a Photo a Day – July should be a good month to take some nice pictures! I’ll only be limited to where we go!! I want to try to be creative or at least get some nice pictures!
August  – Be Outside Every Day for 15 minutes or more.  As school starts back up it will harder to get outside and enjoy the gorgeous August weather!
September – Read a Proverb a Day – you can’t ever get enough of the Wisdom Book and it is setup perfectly to read a chapter a day!
October – Run or Bike Daily – before the weather turns it will be good to try and force myself to get out every day.  The only challenge might be over fall break if we travel again!
November – NaNoWriMo – I’m writing this with trepidation…  I didn’t finish last year’s write a thank you note a day, so how do I expect to write 1,600 words a day? I don’t know…  Hopefully I’ll come up with some ideas to write about!
I’ll also revist the Plank Challenge for January and see how it goes…
December – Write/Read About Advent – As we ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus I can passively read or I can do some reflection and writing on the topic.
So there we go… I don’t have any races scheduled for the year, but I’m sure we’ll do Powderhorn 24 again.  I’m thinking about signing up for some type of race series so that I’ll have some motivation to get out and run on  a regular basis.  Team World Vision is doing the same half-marathon at the beginning of August so I’ll probably do that.
What are your plans for 2015?