Time stands still while planking, 9 mile tempo and my spring FAVORITES.

I fell out of the habit of doing planks again for the last few weeks so I got to it again yesterday.  The kids did a fabulous job keeping me entertained for those LONG 90 seconds where it felt like time stood still:)

After they completed their planks (aka laying on their stomachs) they wanted to show off their huge muscles.  NBD.

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Andrew and I did our run together again.  I had a tempo on schedule and was going to do an 8 mile tempo but then once I got to 8 I decided I wanted to do 9 like I did last week and see if I could beat my time.  Last week 9 miles @ 6:51 average pace and this week I did 9 miles @ 6:45 average pace.  Improvement.  I usually choose my tempo workout to be around the pace I want to do on race day so hopefully race day pace will be faster now;)  Sometimes I wonder if the treadmill is as effective as doing speed work outside but I have realized that as long as I am putting in a hard effort into the workout and seeing improvements, it is doing the job I want it to do.

1.5 mile warm-up, 9 mile tempo (without stopping… two weeks ago I swear I was stopping every mile for a break), .5 mile cool-down.

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Saw Megan there while she was on the stair climber and I was pretty jealous of her Jurassic Park tank.

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Below meal brought to me completely by Costco:)  Bagel + rotisserie chicken + cheese + spinach + raspberries.

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I’m sure Beretta really appreciates the makeshift scarf that Brooke puts on her daily.

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We made it out to the lake to throw a few rocks.  I love seeing the mountain’s reflection in the lake.

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The tramp net is up and we are all happy about that!  I don’t think they are ever going to get off of this thing during the summers.

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The kids decided that playing steam roller would be the perfect activity for our family night.

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Andrew won as the steam roller in case you are wondering.

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For dinner we made a Chipotle style burrito bowl and it was so good and so filling.

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We also had a few of these with salsa.  If you haven’t tried hint of lime yet, try this now.

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Andrew with two of his kids:

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For the family night lesson we talked about gratitude (we are all working on this one:) and then the kid’s decided on getting a hot chocolate for our treat.  Sounds good to me!

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And popcorn late at night.

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Happy Birthday to the most amazing Dad out there!  LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!

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I mentioned the other day that I would share a few of my favorite spring finds (I’ll be showing you my favorite spring finds from Thred-Up in a few weeks) so here ya go:

*Moto Leggings will forever be a favorite for me.  Forever.  They are so comfortable and adorable, take my word for it.  So many great colors right now too!

*As far as dresses go—>  here, here, here, here and here are my favorites (my mom picked out two of them for my bday:)  As you can tell, I am all about COMPLETE comfort when it comes to dresses:)

*Just bought this anthem split-neck tee in selby stripe.  I’m in love.

*Also, I just got this crewneck tee for my bday and it’s a current favorite.

*White skinny jeans are a favorite each spring for me!

*Love this eyelet popover and this linen striped popover too!

*I’ll be living in my three favorite sneakers this spring!

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How often do you plank?  Have a specific routine… I would LOVE to hear what you do!

What are you doing for your Friday night?

How often do you the tempo run?  They are a once a week thing for me lately and I’m liking it.

Favorite type of chips?  Anyone else love salt and vinegar chips like me?

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53 comments

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Happy Birthday to your dad! I hope that he is continuing to feel better every day.

Thank you for mentioning that you sometimes have to take breaks during tempo runs. I am the same way but often feel like I’m the only person out there who is NOT strong enough to just run the workout all the way through. I totally get that we should choose paces/times that are challenging but doable, but some days a pace that should feel doable is not doable and those breaks are necessary.

Like, last week it was in the 80s during my runs for the first time in a while and my body definitely felt it and reacted to it! My heart was jumping out of my chest and I took a short break halfway through because I felt like I really needed it!

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My husband and I started a Thursday night plank-off contest last night! I made it 3:10 haha. Decent for just having a baby ;-). I’m excited to start doing those again, I’ve been avoiding core work until I knew my muscles were ready. Motto leggings=always a yes. I have like 5 pairs now. They’re the perfect pants.
I’m doing my second tempo run of this training cycle on Sunday–8 miles. I’m nervous, my first didn’t go as planned and my splits were ALL over the place. It’s totally mental–my track workouts are going amazing. For some reason I’m scared of tempos! Maybe I need a good playlist or something.

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MOLLIE… that is awesome!!! 3:10… way to go!!! I am so glad you love the motto leggings too, I can’t get enough! Good luck on Sunday, you’ve got this!

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Kettle brand or Cape Cod brand chips are my fave. I like sea salt or barbecue. Mmmmm!

I’ll be laying low tonight. I had the flu all week and tomorrow I have a 10k trail run so I want to get some solid rest.

I love those mountains reflected. Reminds me of my trip to Banff Canada last year.

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Thank you for introducing me to Roolee long ago. I have become a frequent buyer from that site! :)

Tempos are once a week for me, too. As for Friday night plans, I’m going to hang out with my niece for a while (she is 6 months old and SO adorable), and then I’ll probably relax and get to bed early. Thrilling, I know.

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Planking………lately? Not so much. Just like you, I fell off. BUT back in the day I could hold a plank for 8 minutes…..yes, 8 minutes. Thinking back I have no idea how I did that but trying to get on that level again soon.

Friday night plan is my parents taking my brother and I (and my boyfriend) to dinner for Valentine’s Day. I recently moved out and I think they miss me almost as much as I miss them ;)

Not a big Chip person, honestly. I would choose sweets over chips/salty snacks any day :)

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EIGHT MINUTES… that is incredible! Oh I am so happy that you get to go out with your parents, brother and boyfriend for dinner. I am sure they miss you big time!

I agree sweets> salty snacks!

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My core routine is 10 by 12 (10 different core moves with 12 reps each move) followed by Russian twists. It burns but the variety keeps me engaged.

I love a good tempo- with a job change and different life stress, I haven’t been hitting workouts as hard as I would like, but I figure that this life-tempo will train me just fine for the upcoming race ;)

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Hello! Happy Friday. Quick question – I like the dresses on Roolee, but I am hesistant to buy because I don’t know how they fit, the return policy, ect. Do you find that their dresses fit big/small/true to size. What size do you wear (don’t have to answer that if you don’t want) because at some places I am a small but most places a medium! Thanks!

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Hey Kelly! I hope you are having a fabulous Friday! The dresses for me fit true to size/a little big. I wear a small in everything from their (except the leggings feel like they run a tiny bit small so I am usually a medium and sometimes a large in those). The dresses they have tend to go for the loose style anyways so if I were you , I would go for the small. Let me know how it goes!

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Thank for answering this, I was just looking at the moto leggings and wondering the same thing! Putting them on my spring wish list now.

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Happy birthday to your Dad!!

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Salt and vinegar chips are my favorite!

Man, I am so ready for spring! We haven’t really had any snow here in DC, and I don’t see the point in cold weather without snow. If I can’t frolic in the snow, then I want to frolic in the flowers, darn it.

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so pure barre is the only reason I keep up a plank routine! otherwise I would never do it lol. have a great weekend and happy birthday to your dad!

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Happy birthday to your Dad!! That is really a sweet picture:)

I plank at least twice a week, and I like to do 45 seconds to one minute planks x 6. Tempo runs are once a week for me too according to my current training plan.

Friday night will be of Cross Training and then having a yummy dinner.

My favorite chips are potato chips (with any flavor), and plantain chips. If you haven’t tried plantain chips yet, I recommend you the ones from Trader Joe’s. I also love Doritos but my stomach can’t handle them at the moment.

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I hardly ever do the plank and I know I should – my core is awful! This is definitely something I’m going to start working on, thank you!

This evening I’m off out for my Grandma’s birthday – she’s 93! Every single birthday for the past 8 years she has asked to go to the Harvester, so that’s where we’re off to this evening! Happy birthday to your Dad – I hope he has a wonderful day!

I don’t really do tempo runs – the schedule that I have doesn’t include them. I do internals and Fartlek training instead but I don’t really do tempos. I should probably start doing them but I really don’t think I could hold them for 8 miles – I’m not too sure how you do that but I am seriously impressed!!

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Every weekday morning, after I do my workout I do a 5-minute plank routine. Three 1-minutes planks with tricep dips in between, then two 1-minute side planks (1 minute on each side).

The only type of chip I can eat is salted. Flavors kind of gross me out (tastes fake to me).

Have a great Friday!

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Have you tried the Hint of Jalapeño chips? They are very tasty, too. I am also a huge fan of salt and vinegar. . . especially being pregnant right now. I crave them. :-)

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I haven’t tried those ones yet.. I guess I will be going to the store today:) Congrats on your pregnancy and go get some salt and vinegar chips asap!

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So many birthdays!

I’ve actually fallen out of doing core work as well. I need to get back into it. I actually have a long tempo this weekend which is intimidating.

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Um, your Costco bagel sandwich looks AMAZING. Why have I never thought of that before?! Also, the picture of Brooke & Knox by the water is gorgeous; you need to frame that!

I don’t plank nearly as much as I should. When I used to be a personal trainer I would have plank challenges with my clients all the time and those were some of the longest planks ever, because I couldn’t let me clients beat me! I think the longest I ever did was 5 minutes.

Tonight Chris and I are going to have dinner at my parents house because my mom is making stuffed shells and she is very excited about it.

Salt and vinegar chips are for sure my favorite…I think the brand I like is some like blue mountain or something like that?

Happy birthday to your dad! Hope you have the best weekend!

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I love the family nights you’ve been doing! My little guy is just a baby now, but I would love to do something like that when he’s older. Do you follow some sort of guide for the lessons, or just choose them based on where your kids are / your current family needs?

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HEY CHRISTINA!! We are loving family night! So Andrew and I basically talk each weekend about something we and the kids need to work on or something that would help our family to grow stronger together and then we teach the lesson that week! SO far so good… usually they just remember one sentence from the lesson but they love the family time and treat of course and hopefully as they get older they will remember more and more. Good luck!

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Happy Birthday to your sweet Dad! That pic of you two is so great.

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Thank you Michelle, it’s is my favorite:) I hope you are having a beautiful day!

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Why oh why does time stand still (or move infinitely slower) during hard workouts?

I did a rowing machine/ thrusters with a barbell workout the other day. It was ROUGH and it felt like I was taking hours and hours. By the time I finished and glanced at the clock, it hadn’t even been 15 minutes!!!

I guess that’s one way to make the days longer — right? Just plank your way through them. It’ll stretch each day to a month or more!

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Like you, I fall in and out of a plank routine. A few days ago, I decided to plank again and see how long I could hold it for and surprised myself by going 3 minutes! I’ll take it. ;)

Salt and vinegar chips- yes please! Mmmm. Now I’m seriously craving them!

Friday night plans? I’m meeting with some ladies that I lead a girls Bible study with and we are going over our plans for next week. Once I get home, we will probably watch something and I will,
most likely, eat my weight in popcorn. ;) Hope you have a great weekend Janae!

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Happy birthday to your dad. I hope he’s feeling stronger each day.

I LOVE salt and vinegar chips, my husband hates them. Have you tried salt and vinegar popcorn – if not, you must. It’s also a good combo on cucumber slices. Soak them in white vinegar and then salt before eating.

I’ve been planking about 3x a week. 2 sets, 1 minute each: forearm planks (prescribed by PT – he prefers that over straight arm) and side planks. I tried them on the Pilates Reformer yesterday, um – ouch. You think your strong until you try something new.

I usually get up early on Saturdays so I don’t have big plans for Friday night. I should at least figure out what I’m making for dinner!

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Hint of Lime are the BEST EVER!!!!!!!!! I can just sit there and eat the whole bag. That chipotle bowl looked awesome by the way! :) Have a great weekend Janae!!!

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I NEED to plank more! I go through phases of doing them religiously and then not doing them at all! I hate salt and vinegar chips ehh.

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Hint of Lime chips are soooo good!

Do you follow some type of ‘lesson plan’ from somewhere for your lesson nights? Or do you just make it up as you go? I would love to find some material to use for our kids and gratitude is something we are really trying to teach right now.

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Hey Erika!!! For most of our family nights we kind of go off of what our kids (and we need) the most that week. Right now, we all need to work on gratitude. We don’t necessarily follow a plan but we just talk with them and tell them stories (they remember the stories the most). We remember to include the topic we learned about in our family prayers together each day to kind of remind them (repetition is the best teacher right?!) and go from there. Some of our lessons we do get from our church… they have a million different family plan lessons and ideas:

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-home-evening?lang=eng&old=true

Thanks and I hope you have an amazing weekend with your family!

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Post idea: since I just caught up and saw the post where you met your sister at the gym for 37 minutes of chatting, I would love to hear more about how she manages her days with 5 kiddos!

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GREAT idea! I will send this to her for her next guest post sometime this month or the start of next week! Thanks Crystal!

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HBD HRG dad!!!! Hope you are feeling more like yourself. Best wishes for an amazing year ahead!

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Thanks Caroline… he is reading the comments today:) We really appreciate you!

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Time really does stand still during planks! Ugh I struggle with them so hard!

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Happy Birthday to your dad! Hope he had a nice day and a wonderful egg free birthday treat! Lots of awesome people were born this week! My “baby” turned 12 on the 15th. He’s my #4 so that time FLEWWWWW by!

planking-yes. I also like to do Dolphin pushups which is plank on your forearms, up to downward facing dog, back down to plank.

I ended up with a great tempo run on Monday with short sleeves!!! then a nice tempo-ish run again on Thursday.

Friday evening was physiotherapy then watching High School Basketball.

Have a GREAT weekend!!

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Happy Birthday Mr. Janae’s father! I hope you’re feeling better.

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I don’t do planks as often as I should! Oops. And tempo runs: I am better at doing them when I have something to train for, otherwise my runs are just long runs or easy runs. That is the most fun for me!
Friday night: dinner and watching Finding Dory…………….haven’t seen it yet!
And chips: I think the hint of lime is too much of a “hint”…………those babies are loaded with lime! I liked the tortilla chips they made a few years ago that were pepperjack……………they didn’t last long;( Tortilla chips are my favorite kind of chip, but I prefer the Snyder’s brand (the pretzel folks). They have some really good ones!

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And I hope your dad’s birthday is great! February birthdays are the best! And so are dads!

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Happy Birthday HRG dad!! Hope you had a blessed day!

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I totally agree with you on the planking – I usually only do sets of 30 seconds, but it always feels like forever!

Happy birthday to your dad!

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Hint of Lime chips are the best!! :) I’m sure you’ve been asked already, but where did you get your floral sleeved shirt? It is SUPER cute and just what I’ve been looking for.

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HEY SHAWNA!! I got it from this store about two years ago… they have really cute stuff!

http://soelboutique.com/
Have a great weekend!

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Just plank with your kiddos and they’ll never grow-up, it must be some sort of Neverland alternate universe!

I’m with you, Salt & Vinegar chips (Miss Vickies) are the greatest, nothing else compares. Too many times I’ve eaten way too many and made my mouth hurt…it’s a problem. Have a great weekend!

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For the moto leggings: do they run fairly true to size? I am a textbook smedium (not always a small not always a medium) and never know what size to order

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I start with 1 min regular plank, 30 sec on each side plank, and about a minute on a backwards plank (stomach facing up, elbows on ground). Then I’ll repeat this or add time as I’m getting stronger!

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For planks my GOAL (emphasize on GOAL! lol it doesn’t always happen)….is 10 minutes of planks (not all at once) 3 or 4 times a week.

So I do 3 minutes of forearm planks (1 min each side, and then 1 min flat on both arms), 3 minutes of full arm planks (same thing but on your hands), and then for the last 4 minutes ( I take a break between each minute of these) I do other random ones I found on the internet. One of my favorites where I feel the burn is when I’m on both forearms, then you alternate legs with a side step out ( horizontal out, tap your toe. So not a leg lift, you go out instead).

I also love this one! It’s hard! http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Core-Exercise-Up-Down-Plank-Variation-16501736

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Your Chipotle style burrito bowl sounds delicious! I l love the hint of lime Tostitos chips, but my hubby isn’t as big of a fan so I haven’t purchased them in a few years.

Last fall I started doing five-minute planks every day and it’s helped strength my core so much. In fact, I have a lot less back discomfort after runs now. I do two minutes with straight arms, then transition to one minute on each side, and wrap it up with a final minute on my forearms. I always make sure to do them in front of the TV so I’m distracted and the time goes by quickly!

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Salt and Vinegar chips are the best. I also love Olive oil kettle chips with salt.

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I never do planks.. oops? I just don’t like them. For two months in college I did a 1-2 minute plank, 20 sit ups, and 10 push ups every day…. at the end I had a six pack! But once I stopped following that it went away, haha !

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