Running Power Hour

Guess what today is?

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Well, sort of.  It's the first day of pre-planning for teachers, which means that I get to sit in faculty and department meetings all day.  I'm actually pretty ready to get back to school and excited for the new things I'm doing this year!

This weekend, my friend Krista shared a running strategy with me that she and her husband use to get out and moving a couple times a week.

Neither of them are really "runners," but they want to run for exercise.  One of them will bring their phone with them and play a "power hour" mix on YouTube for them to listen to.  No, they're not taking shots.  They use it as a walk/run interval timer!

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They start out walking for the first minute, run for the next minute, then alternate until they've gone the distance or length of time they've wanted.  When she told me about this, I thought it was the perfect idea for anyone interested in starting to run.

We tried this method out both Friday and Saturday morning this weekend to get in some exercise before our full days of wedding events!  We were all able to keep up with each other, and we had a great time jamming out to the different songs that would come on during the power hour we found.

I highly recommend this method to anyone trying to develop a running routine.  It'd also be great for doing speedwork intervals on a training run.  After a YouTube search of "power hour", here are some ones I found that sound fun to me:

• Power Hour Zone has a bunch of power hours featuring different genres/time periods available in 4 parts.  Perfect for getting in workouts of different lengths!
• Disney/Pixar Power Hour-who doesn't want to run to a few Disney songs in their lives sometimes?
• 2000s Decade Hip Hop Music Video Power Hour-sadly, this series of videos is not available on mobile devices, but I really enjoy this mix and thought I'd include it!
• Links to a few different power hour playlists
• And just for kicks, here's a Virginia Tech Football Power Hour!  Not so good for running, but I get goosebumps watching it!  Let's Go Hokies!

Question for you: What unique strategies do you use to motivate yourself to exercise?