New fitness challenge!

I promise I have another product review coming up, but I felt compelled to post.....

I have mentioned this a few times before while I was training, but I'm taking the winter off from long-distance running.  I'm going to be doing speedwork and short (up to 3 mile) runs to keep myself in good running shape, but I just can't bring myself to run 10 miles in the cold.  I will be picking it up again in the spring, probably going for a 5K PR early in the year and then doing Broad Street one last time in Philly.  But for now, I'm focusing on strength and yoga, which brings me to...

The Core Fusion Fitness Challenge!!

This one is funny, because it is born out of complete and utter laziness.  I was sitting on the couch this evening, dreading going down to the gym, and looking for something fun to do.  I remembered Rachel mentioning Exhale Spa's Core Fusion a few times, and I happen to have a friend who works at Exhale who swears by the classes as well.  I remembered that Rachel said there was a way to do the real classes online on Yoga Vibes (as opposed to their DVDs, which are in 10-minute segments).  I decided I'd go for it today, and bought the 14-day pass for their class (using the 20% off coupon code from Rachel's post, of course).  And....






 It was HARD.  Super, super hard.  I only made it 12 minutes into the 1 hour video, and I thought I might die.  Holy mountain climbers!  I had to skip ahead to another part of the video to even finish up a respectable 20 minutes.  And I'm pretty sure I'll be sore tomorrow.

And thus, another fitness challenge was born.  I obviously need to work on my strength training, and this is the perfect opportunity.  Here's the plan:

- Three times a week: Core Fusion Cardio (as much as possible)
- 1-2 times a week: Run - speedwork and/or "long" (up to 3 mile) run
- Once a week: other strength workout or yoga

This will continue until at LEAST the end of December, when I hope to be able to finish the entire 1-hour video.  I would like to keep going through the end of January to see better results, but we'll have to see how busy everything gets!

So.....let the challenge begin!!

P.S. Love, love, LOVE the Glee Christmas episode!!