When Wednesday and Friday come about, it is about getting up early … sometimes more than usual … for many of the peeps it is early enough to get to the 10th and N Street corner for the 5:30AM run group, for others its the 6:00AM run group, and other opt for the straight suffer at 6:25AM on the West Steps where we either do the workout there (Wednesday) or we meet there and run to another nearby location in Downtown (Friday).

Today we did the usual with the two running groups, then at 6:25AM gathered before departing to Cesar Chavez Park on J Street. There we did one of the ultimate challenges. We did the Burpee-a-thon. That is 7 minutes to see how many burpees can be completed. Today’s group ranged from 70 to 100 burpees in the seven minute time period.

If you missed out on this mornings workout, there was some major news discussed with what is going on with 9RUN6 … we are adding more days of the week once August rolls around. Here is what the new August schedule will look like, starting August 1st.

Mondays – 5:30, 6 and 6:25AM at McKinley Park … the group will always meet in front of the McKinley Public Library located at 601 Alhambra Blvd, Sacramento. This will be a mostly running group … Think easy group running with a lot of conversation. At the end of each workout we will be doing a runners specific workout that will help with strength and flexibility. A little history regarding 9RUN6, McKinley Park is where it all started back in 2014!

Wednesdays – 5:30, 6 and 6:25AM at 10th & N Street / West Steps of the Capitol. 5:30 and 6:00 AM are the running groups. 6:25AM at the West Steps for the workout.

Fridays – 5:30, 6 and 6:25AM at 10th & N Street / West Steps of the Capitol. 5:30 and 6:00 AM are the running groups. 6:25AM at the West Steps to meet up before we depart for the destination set announced on our Facebook and Twitter pages on Thursday.

Saturdays – 7AM at locations to be announced each week. With most people in the group training for either Urban Cow and / or the California International Marathon, we will be doing long runs. Individuals can decide their paces and distance, but this gives us a little more motivation to stick to a training plan when there is a specific meet up time and place. This can also be a way to meet some new people who cannot make the week day workouts.

Along with getting more opportunities to workout during the week, we have created a Google calendar that is on our website under the CALENDAR tab. CLICK HERE to check it out. Upcoming races in the Sacramento Area will be posted on there as well, which will be “target” races for the group.

So share away with all of the fun, FREE, fitness gatherings that will be starting August 1st! Get the message out and lets grow the group! Because we all know that 9run6 is good for you.

When Wednesday rolls around, we get excited for the 5:30,6 and 6:25AM times to come. Not only do awesome things happen during the workout because everyone pushes through the workouts, but awesome shit happens too! Like handstands … not everyone but we did have someone pull off a handstand. Kalliah who joined us for the Saturday 9RUN6 special edition, made her first Wednesday workout showing that she was a boss and did handstand shoulder taps.

The workout started off with the first group throwing down 3.4 miles, which was beast mode style for this group, who usually gets just under 3 miles. However, today we threw down the hammer and smashed the run and got 3.4 miles in.

With McRunner joining the group before we picked him up at the Tower Bridge, the 6AM group got our self to a different route getting in about 2 miles.

Then here we were at the 6:25AM on the West Steps where we ended up doing the deck of cards workout from hell! This is where each card has a different exercise and rep count written on them. From traveling burpees to jumping jacks and everything in between, the 9RUN6 peeps crushed it for 30 minutes.

To close off the workout, it was a Wednesday Sprint Day type of day with 4 hard sprints around the West Lawn. Damn these awesome folks did some work and left that shit on the pavement.

Good job everyone and see you on Friday!

Don’t forget to vote for 9RUN6 in the Sacramento A-List Best Boot Camp category.  To vote just CLICK HERE.

So rarely does the group gather on weekends, but today was a little different. It started off with people planning on doing some hill sprints which created for a group wide post on the Facebook machine as a call to action for anyone interested in coming out for a workout.

Today we some regular faces of 9RUN6 and then also welcomed a new face to the group, welcome Kalliah!

When 7AM rolled out, I said to the group that gathered at the Big Lots Parking Lot in the College Glen neighborhood of Sacramento, let’s roll, too bad for anyone late. We made our way up over the Watt Ave. American River Bridge onto the north side of the American River for a 2 mile warm-up, going out 1 mile on the paved surface and returning back on the horse trails just to mix it up.

After getting back to the south side of the American River it was time for 15 hill sprints. The group divided up into 2 groups alternating turns to allow for more room up the hill and for more recovery time. The sprint was about 15-20 seconds long, which is perfect for hill sprint workouts.

As the sprints started to make our legs wobble and our heads hurt to keep track of the sprints, we used pebbles and rocks from around the river to count the number of sprints completed.

With 15 sprints done it was time for a cool down, we opted to do 5 minutes easy out and 5 minutes easy back staying on the south side of the river.

All in all an awesome workout to start off the Saturday morning and weekend. Perhaps more weekend workout meet ups might be in store. Maybe even ones that include beverages and brunch, post workout. Stay tuned.

Oh and if you haven’t heard we have been nominated for Sacramento A-List Best of … Best Boot Camp. So PLEASE PLEASE give us a vote! Click on the badge below, and if you are willing share it with all of your friends!

It started with a special request last week on our 9RUN6 Facebook Page by Kaila, where she asked if we could do some stairs. So like any other workouts we like to help cater to the group.

So yesterday this photo came out onto our Facebook and Twitter post …

After the 5:30 and 6AM run groups, we met at the west steps and then headed over to the controversial steps at the Sacramento Convention Center that are closest to the loading dock area. The reason they are “controversial” is because sometime last year, we were kicked off the stairs and Brad 1.0 got a little heated ending our workout yelling the words to the guy who asked us to leave with “You’re a liability”.

The workout was simple in theory … 20 minutes of going up sets of stairs to just go back down them, then repeat. The first grumbling of the workout was by Kaila who asked for stairs … after some quick banter, the workout began.

At some point during the workout, she diapered, we thought maybe to get some Starbucks for the group, but that wasn’t the case. She just had to go do stuff.

We continued to go up and down, up and down the stairs until the 20 minutes were completed. With sore quads and calves, the crew made it back to the West Steps where we wished one another good jobs and have a great weekend.

If you want to know why running stairs is a good workout, check out this Runner’s World article from 2014. CLICK HERE.

 

At 9RUN6 we never say good bye, even on days like today when someone in the crew leaves to another city for work. Today we said “Until next time”, to Alexia who has been working out with us since 2014 after running her first half marathon in San Francisco at the Nike Women’s Run.

In honor of her moving onto a new job in Yuma, AZ we let her decide the workout. She got creative and drew up her own workout for the group. Today was one of those bust your ass workouts which was pretty tough. While some were able to finish, others didn’t, and some like myself cheated to get through the workout. Rather than writing a workout summary of today, I am going to change it up a bit to get a more appropriate “Until next time” post …

I (Chris) have had the honor to know Alexia for a very long time, I have seen her grow as a youth soccer player, where I first coached her in the Olympic Development Program when she was about 12 years old or so. Our paths then crossed when I was an assistant coach at CSU Stanislaus, where she was dynamic player for the women’s soccer team there. After a couple of seasons working there, our paths crossed again not as a player-coach relationship, but this time as fellow assistant coaches at Delta College in Stockton, where we both took on coaching jobs with the women’s soccer team there.

After leaving Delta College to pursue my professional coaching career with the Sacramento Republic FC, where I coach now, our paths crossed again as friends and fellow running enthusiast at 9RUN6.

Over the course of the last couple of years, we would run with the 9RUN6 group as well as schedule other runs on the weekends and non-9RUN6 days to workout. Those runs also ended up including conversations about career paths and life. During those runs we would talk about how to move up in the beautiful game which both of us are privileged to call a career. At some point in there we discussed about making moves when the game allowed us to in order to reach our goals and dreams within our careers.

I even had an opportunity to chat with the athletic director at her new college where she is going to be the head women’s soccer coach when they called her references. It is amazing how this fitness crazy group has allowed us to help one another stay connected and provide one another with opportunities to chat about career moves.

As a young adult, Alexia is far ahead of many people her age as she takes a major step in her career in Yuma, AZ. I cannot share how happy I am for her and how honored I am to have been a small part of the process.

Alexia, I know that the group is sad to see you move to another state, but we are all excited and proud of the leaps and bounds you have made over the last couple of years. I mean you worked in different roles through the course of your time when you started with 9RUN6 and you even finished your masters program while staying fit!

Oh and let’s not forget to mention the running badass that you have become crushing your half marathon PR and running your first marathon … not only did you run your first marathon, but you qualified for the Boston Marathon in that marathon to boot!

We wish you the best of luck in Yuma and expect to see you at a workout when you come back into Sacramento. So until next time, take care of yourself and continue to do awesome things in running and coaching!

During today’s morning workout, we had some fun and played while getting fit! We also celebrated Katie‘s birthday. We love it when members of the 9RUN6 fam make it a point to come to a workout as part of their celebration for their birthday.

We typically theme the workout around the age that someone is turning for our birthday workouts, however today was different for a couple of reasons. Katie doesn’t typically attend Friday workouts, due to work. However, this morning she made it a point to attend. With that being said we didn’t have time or the knowledge that she was going to attend until the last minute. I think this was done as a surprise so that we couldn’t configure some sort of difficult workout based on her age. For Katie it was a little different because she already has a workout themed for her. It is called the #ThanksKatie workout. The workout consist of a ladder workout where we start at 1 set of runs then workout up to 12 broad jumps and work back down with each number between 1 through 12 being a different exercise.

17 peeps came out to celebrate and join in on the fun. Along with the liquid awesome pouring aka sweat dripping, there was a lot of fun conversation and welcoming of new faces from the Fitfam6 crew, along with the regular David we saw his kids and wife (Paula) out there today. So Paula has earned her right to get a shirt tagged … now if she would only bring one. On a side note, we (I) question how much Paula really runs, because her shoes are so clean (see photo below) … jk …

After the workout, we headed over from the IMAX theater area to the nearby Starbucks for a cup of coffee and tea. Our time together is more than just working out it is a celebration on occasion because we do have fun and enjoy each others company.

During the walk back to where most people park their cars near the running group meet up location of 10th & N Street, the idea of having some brunch after a workout was thrown around … so be on the look out for an upcoming event called “Burpees, Beer and Brunch” … of course this event wouldn’t be limited to beer … I mean any beverage would be approved.

Awesome job today everyone! Good luck to everyone running a race this weekend. If you’re not racing, then enjoy your weekend with a run.

9RUN6 is more than just a fitness group or another running group. We like to have fun at our workouts and have created some long lasting friendships. We contribute to helping Sacramento a better place to live, work and PLAY. Yes, we like to play during our workouts. From running the streets of downtown with sub groups making excursions to trail running on the weekends and grabbing a beer at local breweries like Yolo Brewing Company, we enjoy what Sacramento has to offer.

All of us work here in the Sacramento area, we all live here in the region and we come together on Wednesday and Friday mornings and sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays to PLAY.

When Wednesday and Friday mornings come around there are a few times where the snooze button is hit, we look forward to getting out with our friends at 5:30AM, 6AM and 6:25AM at the corner of 10th & N Street, the West Steps or some other various locations around the downtown Sacramento area.

This morning was one of those mornings where we gathered and played … Again … yes, running and working out it playing for us!

The workout this morning was a new version of deck of cards. Each card had a various movement on it from traveling burpees, to lunges to the oh so dreaded Bojan. When someone pulled a Bojan, everyone stopped their current movement grabbed a partner and did 10 under and overs while the other person was going from downward dog to push up position.

So I challenge all of you who have not come out to a workout or a run to come out and PLAY with us. Give it a chance, if you don’t enjoy yourself then it is on you 🙂 because we love to have fun.

Be part of something here in Sacramento that makes our beautiful city a better place to live, work and PLAY.

Oh and today’s workout was so awesome that one of Katie’s contact lenses decided to pop out of her eyeball to join in on the workout.

 

Okay It’s July 1st, can you believe that the year is half way complete? Well we can’t either.

Alright let’s start with the first shout out of the 2nd half of the year. The dude that post the “Set your alarm and #BeThere” stuff on Facebook and Twitter failed to just do that … ME!

Apparently, I was really tired … not an excuse, but a moment to be called out on Social Media, Strava and via text … I anticipate more call outs for this missed workout … Looks like the new workout that was planned for today, will be saved for next week, if my dumb ass can get up on time …

 

Luckily, Brad 1.0 took the lead today. Taking the group through a 55 to 5 workout. So THANK YOU BRAD! Also a shout out to McRunner for taking the photos today.

Don’t forget Monday is a donation / free 5-miler in the beautiful River Park neighborhood. If you missed that post CLICK HERE.

Today was another one of those challenging workouts that we have visited before. The ones where partners are selected and workouts challenge each person, while working as a team.

After the 5:30 and 6AM groups got their run on, it was all about the West Steps and getting through the workout. We welcomed some young faces to the group today, since it is summer break 1/2 of the FitFam6 crew came out to represent, while others who have been coming out consistently pushed one another through the workout. It was short of half assing it through a workout, everyone busted their bottoms to get as much of the workout as possible.

Also some folks got their new gear tagged, which has been long overdue. The 9RUN6 logo is like a badge of honor, when someone feels the time is right to bring some gear out to get the logo spray painted onto their gear, then it is earned. We as a group have not set a rule of such, but rather each individual sets their own standard of earning their 9RUN6 logo.

aWEsome job everyone! Continue to kick ass the rest of the day like you did this morning!