Category Archives: core challenge

core challenge: week 1 day 2

core challenge

I took a day off from running today since I have a race tomorrow.  It’s a low-key 10 miler hosted by my running club. I’m not planning on racing all that hard, but my knees have been a little cranky lately.

The day off was a good thing!

I couldn’t, however, take a day off from the Core Challenge. Had to get this week’s second workout in!

This time, I took to the Internet to come up with a new workout. I found a few quick core videos on SparkPeople.   I started with a 15-Minute Abs Workout which was pretty good. Once I started I learned I was a bit sore from my first workout but I still wanted to keep going.

I followed that up with a 5-Minute Beginner Ab Workout with Ball — I was glad to put my neglected stability ball to use.  I finished with a 5-Minute Core Workout with Ball.

Both ball workouts were pretty fun. I’m definitely going to use it more often!

core challenge: week 1 day 1

core challenge, i like to run.

I couldn’t resist. I signed up even before I saw the cute logo.

Laura at Box, Run, Eat decided to create a Core Challenge for the next month. In keeping with the challenge, I will be adding core workouts twice a week until the beginning of May.

The timing was good for this. I just finished the EA Sports Active “More Workouts” 6-week challenge (uh… in 11 weeks), so I was ready to add something different to my routine.

After tonight’s run (4.5 miles — it was another hot and sticky day. But no hills!), I decided to see how long I could hold a plank. I do yoga regularly and am used to the plank position, but I never tried to hold one for a really long time!

Our core challenge hostess recently held a plank for over three and a half minutes. I had no idea what I could do, so I just set a timer on my phone and went for it. Of course my phone goes to sleep after about a minute and a half so I did lift an arm and shift a little to turn it back on … twice. I did manage to stay up for 3:30 before giving up. I think I could have gone longer, but my socks were slipping. Next time no socks, and a better timer!

After that, I returned to my familiar friend, “More Workouts.” Yes I have completed all of the full-body challenge workouts, but they also have separate standalone workouts that I hadn’t tried yet. I selected the ab workout — on hard. This may have been a mistake, but I just finished the whole challenge on hard!

I skipped the warmup since I had just run, so it was 15 minutes of ab work. We did a few sets of the game’s four ab exercises.

  1. Leg lifts (15)
  2. Reverse crunches (15)
  3. Crunches with punches (16)
  4. Curl ups (16)
  5. Leg lifts (20)
  6. Reverse crunches (20)
  7. Crunches with punches (20)
  8. Curl ups (20)
  9. Leg lifts (20)
  10. Reverse crunches (20)
  11. Crunches with punches (20)
  12. Curl ups (20)

By that last set, there was a lot less ‘up’ in my curl ups!

I’ve got a vacation coming up (that actually might make finishing this challenge a bit difficult), but hopefully it will help me get ready to spend a week in a bikini!

It’s not to late to sign up for the core challenge … just visit Laura and let her know you’re joining us!