Last winter, I had so much fun participating in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge hosted by Amanda at Run to the Finish. I was so happy to hear there would be a Spring Challenge this year!

Basically, you get points for exercising (1 point for every 10 minutes), points for drinking water and eating lots of fruits and veggies (affectionately coined as “freggies” by the group), and tons of support via private Facebook group.

Most people check in daily, encourage each other, and share successes and failures.

Oh, and there are prizes! Last session, I won ProCompression socks in a random drawing one week, and some coupons for free Amy’s products during a Twitter chat. We all started out as winners this challenge, with free LockLaces sent to all participants!

I’ve just had a pretty successful first week. I did skip a boot camp workout due to a rough workout the day before — gotta listen to your body! I also had to skip a run due to calf soreness, but replaced it with yoga. Another boot camp class was cancelled due to “snow” (that never actually came). But I was still really active!

Monday: Bikram Yoga
Tuesday: Yoga DVD
Wednesday: Bikram Yoga
Thursday: 3.75-mile run, Yoga
Friday: Bikram Yoga, Boot Camp
Saturday: 11.2-mile run
Sunday: Tri class: .75-mile warm-up +  timed 3-mile run + 12.8 miles on spin bike with drills & hills

I really focused on drinking water — at least 64oz a day. I’m not always good about that, but I’ve downloaded an app on my phone for tracking, and the challenge is keeping me accountable. I’m usually good about eating lots of fruit and veggies during the week, but weekends are tough for me. I was a little short yesterday, but made up for it today with a little creativity in the kitchen. Banana pancakes, carrot juice (in my new Blendtec), and spinach-chickpea burgers were all new creations for me today!

I’ll be dialing down the exercise a little bit this week (well, maybe not the yoga) … I’m running the Shamrock Marathon next Sunday!