I Run Like A Girl

Today, I’m coming to you with a fresh blog idea: sharing my week of workouts. I want to start periodically sharing what a typical week of exercise looks like for me as it brings me back to the roots of this blog. Flashback to my marathon days when I used to tell you guys about every single run. 😉 

It’s been a minute since I’ve talked about anything fitness-related here because, frankly, it took me a looong time to figure out how exercise fit into my life. After my last marathon in 2019, I knew in my heart that would be the last one (I had done 6 up to that point). I felt burnt out and started to feel the strain on my body from years of running (which contributed to my minor but permanent back injury). That led to my journey to find a new, sustainable exercise routine for my long-term health. 

It’s taken me years to develop a positive relationship with exercise again, but I’m now at a point where I do genuinely enjoy working out. I love not following a training plan or feeling pressure to reach certain milestones. For the first time in a while, workouts bring me joy and stress relief, which I believe are more important than the physical results. 

My workout philosophy is focusing on overall movement. I try to strike a balance between strength, cardio, and flexibility – all in low-impact forms. I’ll also include walks in my workout summary since I one-hundred percent believe walking is exercise – walking is simply so, so good for us.

If you’re wondering about this blog’s name – I Run Like A Girl –it’s here to stay! I love the nod to my early running days as running shaped my life in so many ways. I also believe the name is a sweet reminder to never stop chasing happiness.

On that note, here are the workouts I did this week. Thanks for taking time to be here today!

Monday: lower-body HIIT workout 

I started off the week with a lower-body HIIT workout at home. I love growingananas YouTube channel for HIIT (high-intensity interval training) – her videos are easy to follow and she doesn’t talk to you which I really like as I can think about other things without the added noise. This workout had weights, but I opted for no weights and it still left my legs sore for days!

Tuesday: 45-minute outdoor walk

I was so sore from Monday, that I decided to skip a traditional workout the next day. Instead, I took a 45-minute walking break in the afternoon on the track at Golden Gate Park, which is a convenient 5-minute walk from my apartment. I used to walk on this track almost every day when I lived in the Haight previously, and I’m so glad we live close by again! I really enjoy walking on tracks because I don’t have to navigate traffic and I can focus on whatever I’m listening to. 

Wednesday: Cardio arms workout + 1.5-hour outdoor walk 

The next day, I felt recovered and was ready to party! I started off with a cardio workout first thing in the morning focusing on the upper-body as I wanted to balance out my lower-body workout from Monday. I turned to BurpeeGirl’s Youtube channel – I recently discovered this channel, and I’m still deciding how I feel. I like her low-weight / high-repetition style which I prefer for arm workouts, but the cardio was a little too relaxed and I barely broke a sweat during this routine. 

Nevertheless, this got me moving a lot, and I’m trying to appreciate workouts even if they’re under my body’s limits. The old me thought a sign of a “good” workout was feeling completely wasted afterward, but I’m trying to undo that thinking.  

In the afternoon, I took a 1.5-hour walk in Golden Gate Park while talking to my mom on the phone. Time flew by, and by the end of our conversation, I logged 5 miles – I was very happy about that. 🙂

Thursday: REST

Between a busy day at work and not feeling motivated to work out – I opted for a rest day today. 

Friday: Yoga sculpt + 60-minute outdoor walk 

Friday morning, I rolled out my yoga mat and did one of Kaylie Daniel’s yoga sculpt classes on Youtube. I love Kaylie Daniels and I’ve been following her for years. She has such a chill personality and I honestly want to be her best friend. Her yoga classes are creative and challenging with a focus on strength (the “sculpt” part of her class). 

This class had lots of twisting – I did plenty of modifications since twisting is not easy for my back. But overall, a yoga class felt good after a rest day as my muscles were feeling tight. 

I also took a 30-minute walk on the track to clear my head after work. Joe and I then did a 30-minute walk after dinner to watch the sunset from a viewpoint. We did some major climbing as anyone who’s visited SF knows the hills here are no joke!

Saturday: Vinyasa yoga class 

I started off the weekend with a yoga class in the Sunset which I found on Class Pass. The class was slower-paced and felt more like a stretching session, but it was just what I needed after a harder workout yesterday. I stopped at a bakery afterward which was a cherry on top. 

Sunday: Zumba class 

I tried something new on Sunday – a Zumba class! I’ve been wanting to check out the free Zumba classes at Golden Gate Park, so I hit up Rene and we took a class together. The class played Latin music and taught salsa-inspired dance which meant some challenging footwork. Overall, the class was a fun cardio workout and left me tired by the end. I do enjoy dance fitness classes, and I will probably be back for Zumba, especially since it’s free. 😉