Hiroko Nishimura

Hiroko Nishimura

a writer with brain injury helping you get sh*t done.

Week 1 | 12 Week Fitness Challenge

Posted on Author Hiroko NishimuraPosted in Challenge, Health1 Reply

After re-reading “The 12 Week Year” by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, I decided to embark on a 12 week fitness challenge to get back into shape after childbirth. Here’s how week 1 panned out.

Week 1 Workout Plan

My goal of this “12 week year” is to run 3 miles in one run. To achieve this, I made a weekly plan.

  • Run: 0.25 mi run x 2
  • Stationary bike: x 3
  • Plank: Every day
  • Walk: Every day

Week 1 Workouts

  • Monday: Walk, Plank (20 sec)
  • Tuesday: Walk, Plank (20 sec), Bike (15 min), Run (0.25 mi)
  • Wednesday: Walk, Plank (20 sec), Bike (15 min), Run (0.5 mi)
  • Thursday: Walk, Plank (30 sec), Bike (15 min), Run (0.25 mi)
  • Friday: Walk, Plank (30 sec), Bike (15 min)
  • Saturday: Walk, Plank (30 sec)
  • Sunday: Walk, Plank (30 sec)

Workout Totals

  • Run: 0.25 mi run x 2, 0.5 mi run x 1 ✅
  • Stationary bike: x 4 ✅
  • Plank: Every day ✅
  • Walk: Every day ✅

Conclusion

  • Weight Change: 0 lbs
  • Waist Change: 0 inches

The first week started out pretty well! I was intending on starting slow, but 0.25 miles was a lot shorter than I expected (just 3 minutes or so!), so I managed to fit in a 0.5 mile run. I think this will adjust week 2’s running goals!

Planks went from 20 seconds to 30 seconds. When I started a few weeks ago, just 10 second was very hard, but now 20 seconds is a breeze, so I can really feel the difference there! Hopefully next week, I’ll be going from 30 seconds to 40 seconds!

I continue to walk 2~8 miles a day, going out at least once a day with the baby. When we have help, I try to fit in a quick stationary bike ride.

I joined Strava, and figured out I could do a few challenges every month. I’ll see if these challenges will motivate me to run/walk more in December! It’s a little annoying that data doesn’t auto-sync from my Apple Fitness app to it (I have to manually sync), but I like the data it generates!

According to the app, I logged 34 miles of outdoor walks over 13 hours and 21 minutes, 1 hour of bike riding, and 0.76 miles of running over 10 minutes this week!