Five for Friday

1. Thursday was my Friday this week, I have today off!! Even better, we’re not traveling, so I have the day to enjoy right here in town. That doesn’t meant I don’t have things to do though. On my list: post office to renew my passport so I can run the Detroit Half Marathon, a little SoHo shopping (I try to avoid the area on the weekend), lunch with April at Tu-Lu’s, maybe a stop at the Farmer’s Market, hopefully a little reading and who knows, maybe even a visit to Red Mango! I am very much looking forward to today, and hoping it won’t rain much. I truly think it’s essential that we all have a mental health day every once in a while to recharge. So important.

2. We’ve been hearing a lot over the past few years about the risk of concussions in sports and the high numbers of concussions that go undiagnosed, in both professional and school sports. There are a lot of people and organizations are trying to protect athletes from concussions in many ways, more recently Dick’s Sporting Goods. Earlier this week they announced a new CSR campaign called Protecting Athletes through Concussion Education (PACE) that will fund testing of athletes in over 3,300 schools nationwide. The program will test athletes at the start of a season to create a baseline picture of their neurological functioning so that if the student is diagnosed with a concussion (or one is suspected), they can perform the test again and compare the results to see if there is any damage. You can read more about it HERE. The takeaway is that for every pair of shoes bought at a Dick’s store or online, every check-in on Foursquare, or whenever someone shares info on the program on Facebook or uses the hashtag #DSPACE on Twitter, the company will pledge $1 to the program. So, start tweeting!

3. Do you know about GOOD Magazine? They have really thought provoking and interesting stories on topics like health, food, design, technology and more. Recently, they’ve held two design competitions that look at how we buy food – a new food label and the SUPERMARKET of the future. I find it really interesting to see what people come up with and wonder if we’ll ever see these ideas put into play.

• Supermarket WINNER and SUBMISSIONS
• Food label WINNER and SUBMISSIONS

4. Now, I haven’t checked this out yet, but New Balance has opened an “experience” store in the Flatiron district. The website doesn’t say much about what the experience is, and they talk a lot (exclusively) about dropping batons around the city on their FB page (I have no idea what this means), but I think I’ll check out the store soon and see what it’s all about.

5. Speaking of stores, have any of you New Yorkers reading this been to either of the Athleta stores that opened uptown? I wish they had opened one below 57th St, but from Fit Chick In The City’s review, I know I need to visit one of them soon. I mean, have any of you heard of in-store alterations at a fitness wear store before?

• What are you up to this weekend?
• If you had a free day to do whatever you want, what would you do?
• What does your dream supermarket look like?
• Have you been to the New Balance Experience Store or either of the Athleta stores? What do you think?

************

Wednesday’s workout -

• 3 mile run
• 125 ab exercises
• 2x15 squats
• 2x20 lateral arm raise
• stretching

Thursday’s workout -

• 4 mile run
• 100 ab exercises
• 2x20 resistance band woodchops
• 4x10 monster walks
• stretching

Today’s workout -

• Stretching. Rest day.