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JD Sports Knows the Way to This Girl’s Heart

I’ve been doing my best the past two weeks to find my strength training mojo. There was a time when I was happiest in the gym lifting weights. Lately, I think it’s a good day if I drop and do 15-20 pushups and squeeze in my 5 minute workout.

Luckily, the gang at JD Sports knows the way to a girl’s heart. While I’m loyal to Mizuno these days for all things running, as soon as JD Sports offered me a complimentary pair of trainers, I knew I wanted to finally try the Nike Free shoes.

Drag to spin

Over the past year I’ve seen the Nike Free shoes everywhere from Instagram posts, my friends, magazines and almost every department store. I resisted buying them as my closet is already filled with multiple pairs of shoes for both running and lifting, but I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to treat myself. JD Sports offered 10 different Nike Free 5.0 colors but I knew immediately I wanted the grey, vivid white and pink model. The more subdue colors mean that this shoes can be used for cross training at home or the gym just as much as it can double as a touring shoe when we explore new cities.

Nike Free 5.0

Part of the crosstown running range they are super breathable due to the full mesh body and only weigh 8.2 ounces and is very well cushioned. Super flexible, this is the perfect shoe for packing as you can actually roll it or smush it to make more room in your suitcase! I loved the cushioning when doing jumping jacks, burpees and even short sprints during my workouts. Overall, the shoe is great except for one issue – the sizing. It is definitely not true to size. I messed up the UK to US conversion, ordering a size 12 and they actually fit when I wear socks. Clearly they run a bit small as I normally wear 10.5 or 11.

Thank you JD Sports for letting me test out the shoes I’d been dreaming of and motivating me to start doing strength training. It’s 10x easier when a cute pair of shoes get to be worn for the workout!

Don’t take my word for it though – for just $8.00 JD Sports will ship just about anywhere in the world including Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, and the US to name a few! But, for a limited time, they are offering free international delivery when you spend £75

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Thirty Minute Arms & Abs Workout

Happy Wednesday friends!

Bo and I just finished enjoying our first sushi takeout dinner since he moved to Geneva! In New York City, sushi dinners complete with Friends on in the background was a party of our normal life. We probably ordered sushi at least 2-3 times per month. But, in Geneva it’s hard to find fresh, reasonably priced sushi. We discovered Sushi Shop recently and fell in love immediately. Their rolls are creative and bursting with unique flavors!

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Before leaving the office tonight I stopped by the gym for a quick but sweaty 30 minute workout. My goal was to focus on my arms and abs during today’s workout as I have a tempo run tomorrow morning. This workout was easy to follow and efficient but had my arms burning in no time! The workout is exactly 30 minutes long as the cardio/arm portion is 27 minutes and the ab portion is the final 3 minutes. You can choose your own cardio option, either do the same thing each set or something different. I did 1 minute on the rowing machine for a total of 9 minutes by the end of the workout. But, feel free to do mountain climbers, burpees, sprints, jumping jacks or your favorite cardio burst!

30 Minute Abs & Arms Workout

In case you have any questions about the exercises, here are links to each of them:

bicep curls – seated overhead press– chest press – hammer curls – tricep dips – upright rows– plank – Russian twist

Keep in mind, the goal is quality not quantity for the number of repetitions during each minute.  I hope you all enjoy this workout as much as I do!

Have a great rest of your week!

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ashleyd /

Berlin Marathon Training – Week 8

With 7 weeks of training between now and the Berlin Marathon I could not be more excited. This training recap is my first one dedicated to Berlin! The triathlon is over so now all my focus is on preparing my body to meet or exceed my pace goals on September 28th.  After a lapse in training during vacation I came back to Geneva last week ready to put in the effort. My body thanked me for the break and responded with strong splits during every run. Last week was, dare I say it, perfect week of training. I slept at least 7 hours each night, I practiced yoga once, I got back in the habit of doing weights and core work, I logged each of my runs, and I ate well. Here’s a run down of what workouts made last week so successful!

Monday: Sweet, beautiful rest day including 10 hours of sleep!

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Tuesday:

Morning: This week’s speed intervals were longer than normal but I felt strong during the entire workout! 1 mile warm-up, 2×1600 (7:43, 7:48), 2×800 (7:48, 7:41), followed by a 1 mile cool down.

 Evening: 2 hours of intense power yoga including 8 crow poses!

Wednesday:  I knew I wanted to do some weights at home but couldn’t settle on one workout. After skimming my Pinterest workout board I ended up doing 1 round of Julie’s 30 minute living room workout and two rounds of my favorite 5 minute strength workout!

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Thursday: In between hospital visits and a few work conference calls, Anne helped take my mind off Bo’s surgery through ALL the workouts! We started the day with an early morning 6 mile tempo run including 4 sub 9 miles. We had so much fun chatting and catching up that the run flew by and before I knew it we were at our turn around point! The weather was so nice, that we biked 14 miles through Geneva to enjoy some sightseeing and mountain views! By the end of the day, between walking to the hospital and around town we logged 3 miles of walking too!

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Friday: I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a truck after all our activity the previous day. This called for an active rest day including 3 miles of walking, foam rolling and some evening stretching.

Saturday: A near perfect, strong 15 mile long run. 

Sunday: I spent most of the day cleaning the house, taking care of Bo and catching up on work. Around 5 I was super antsy since I hadn’t left the house so I did 30 minutes of random weights and core exercises including lots of pushups, planks, dips, and arm exercises.

I feel really confident about the next few weeks of training as we don’t have any travel planned due to Bo’s surgery. While work is going to be pretty busy I have no excuses for missing workouts.

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