Category Archives: Work It Out

EKAM Yoga

I’ve had a complicated relationship with yoga over the years. I always loved yoga and my body definitely reaped from its benefits, but I had a hard time finding a studio that I could call home. When I lived in LA, Liberation Yoga was my go-to for a while but when I moved to back to Orange County 5 years ago, I found myself bouncing from studio to studio but never really feeling a connection. Until I stepped into EKAM Yoga.

EKAM Yoga is a small studio located off PCH in Newport Beach. The studio is small with just one room to practice in, but the warmth and friendliness you feel when you walk in can’t be beat. One of EKAM Yoga’s main objectives is to foster a strong sense of community in all of their classes which I love.

When I practiced yoga in the past, I always would go maybe once a week, maybe skip a week here and there and then go again, but since I started taking classes at EKAM, I’ve been craving my weekly yoga sessions. I’ve even been going 2-3x as week, which is totally unheard of for me. But honestly, I feel SO much more grounded and relaxed after practicing at EKAM, which I love.

I also think that yoga has been a great compliment to running and crossfit. I love the intensity of those workouts and I think having yoga to balance that is great. Besides, a lot of the vinaysa classes have been kicking my butt!

If you are an OC local, I can’t recommended EKAM Yoga enough. The instructors are lovely and the classes are appropriate for anyone at ANY level (believe me, I’m not flexible at all and I feel comfortable there). And if you are not in OC and haven’t found your “yoga home” yet, keep looking! The right studio is out there and when you find it you’ll be so grateful that you did.

Running Playlist

2 Replies

Finally a post about running! After December I found myself plagued with a minor knee injury followed by getting hit by a cyclist, so my running was a bit sporadic at the beginning of the year. But now I’m happy to say I have my running mojo back, and have an awesome running playlist to boot!

90% of my runs are usually with the Englishman or friends so I don’t normally listen to music, but there are those few times when I do just crave a quick solo run, and that’s where the running playlist comes out.

I know people say all the time that music can affect a workout, and I totally believe it. When I put on my running music I’m energized and ready to take off. And since some of my running goals this year include getting faster and setting some PR’s in shorter distances, this playlist is perfect. This also reminds me that I need to start up my track workouts again.

This running playlist contains a few songs that are on the higher end of the BPM spectrum, which is why they are in the middle. I typically take a couple of songs to warm up, and then if I’m doing a tempo run, I play these songs to really get me moving.

This particular running playlist runs for an hour, but when I’m in the mood for a quick down and dirty run, I’ll usually just play a warm up song followed by some fast BPM songs and then a cool down. If you are in the mood to get your heart rate going, this playlist definitely delivers! All of these songs can be found on iTunes as well.

If you couldn’t tell by this playlist, I definitely have an eclectic taste when it comes to running music, but that’s what makes it more fun!

What’s your favorite song to run to? My current fave is Blood Sugar by Pendulum.

End of 2013 Track Workout

2 Replies

Since 2013 was a big year in running for me, it was only fitting that my last workout for the year was a run workout. Increasing my speed is something I want to focus on in 2014, so I decided to do an end of 2013 track workout to close out the year on a high running note.

I’ll be honest, for a brief moment I toyed with the idea of running 13 miles to say goodbye to ’13, but since I haven’t run 13 miles consecutively since May, I figured that wasn’t the best idea. So to the track it was!

This track workout is a ladder workout with two fast 200 meter sprints at the end. Given the fact that I had just done roughly 100+ squats at crossfit the day before, my legs were definitely feeling this!

This workout is perfect for a track, treadmill, or even just outside your front door! That’s the beauty about speed work; it can be done just about anywhere.

I covered a little over 5 miles doing this workout with an average 8:10 pace. Even with the recovery intervals, this workout definitely keeps you moving!

Cheers to a great year of running and even more great runs in 2014!

Beginner Yasso 800s

2 Replies

Even though I’m not training for anything in particular at the moment, I am still running, going to crossfit and getting speed work in. This week I decided to do a beginner Yasso 800s workout.

If you have been reading running blogs/magazines/message boards, chances are you have heard of the famous Yasso 800s. The theory is that whatever time you run your 800s in is your predicted marathon time. So if you ran your Yasso 800s in 3:30, your marathon time should be approximately the same (if on a relatively flat course).

Since I have no plans to run a marathon anytime soon, I just used the Yasso 800s as another way to get some good speed work in on the track. The original Yasso 800s are 10 rounds, but since this was my first stab at it, I decided to go for 5 rounds, with a 400 meter recovery in between.

Let me tell you, these are no joke! It’s a great speed workout and can be done on a track or on a treadmill! I covered 5 miles with my workout, but the beauty of the Yasso 800s is that you can do as many as you want.

I’ll definitely be repeating this workout in the future, and will hopefully be adding more rounds!