I’ve had three really great workouts in a row and am hoping for a fourth this afternoon. For the past few weeks I’ve been struggling with my workouts. I’ve been doing just enough to maintain my fitness which equates to three workouts a week. My norm is 4-6 workouts a week. Prior to this week it’s been taking a lot of energy to get myself to the gym and then I haven’t really felt good about my workouts.
Something has changed this week! Sunday, I did about 1.5 miles outside in the pouring rain and it was cold (I’ll talk more about this in another post). I wasn’t too thrilled about it in the beginning but afterwards was a different story. Although I looked and smelled like a wet dog, I felt pretty amazing and quite proud of myself and my fellow runners.
Monday, I was back to my my more recent normal self not wanting to workout. So I didn’t.
Tuesday I had to workout in the evening because I have to be at work before the sun comes up. During the day, I made a conscious effort to fuel my body more efficiently. The afternoons I find myself struggling…tired, lack of energy, etc. This time at around 2ish, I took a walk to revive my energy. Drank some green tea and ate half a yogurt and a clementine. On my drive home from work and approximately 1 hour before my workout I ate a Larabar. I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I ran a total of 3.5 miles. The first 2 miles I ran at a 10 minute pace. Then next 1.5 miles I did intervals: 4 x 400 meters in 2 minutes or under with 200 meter recovery jog in between. I finished my whole run in just under 35 minutes. I stretched for a good 10 minutes afterwards.
Wednesday I was up and at the gym bright and early. I did a 10 minute warm-up on the arc trainer. Then trained (weights) my quads and abs. My quad workout included 3 x circuits of the following movements:
20lb DB step-ups on weight bench (12 reps each leg)
30-40lb Barbell front squats (12-15 reps)
No weight two legged bench jumps (15 reps)
I rested 1-2 minutes between each circuit. After I finished my legs I used the stability ball and did 2 sets of crunches, obliques, and then did hanging straight leg raises. I did 15 reps for each movement. After abs I did 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, Aerobic program, levels 8, 9, and 10. Stretched!
Thursday I ran on the treadmill again. I did a total of 5 miles in 52 minutes. My first mile was my warm-up and I walked for .25 of a mile and slowly jogged the rest of the mile. Miles 2-4 I ran at a 9:40 pace. Mile 5 was my cool down and I ran that at a 10:20 pace. Overall I felt great during my run, except my knee was aching for the majority of my run and it moved up my leg to my hip/pelvis area…hmmm.
Today, I plan on hitting the gym again. I’m going to focus on my glutes, hamstrings, calves, and abs. Easy cardio, maybe on the stationary bike or arc trainer.
You might have noticed that most of my workouts this week have been cardio and lower body focused. About a week ago, I went to the doctors about my right shoulder. It’s been aching off an on for a few months and it is sore when I lift. The doc seems to think I have a bit of tendonitis in my right bicep shoulder area and have been ordered to rest my upper body for 3 weeks. No lifting whatsoever. However, he said I can still do cardio and lower body workouts as normal. So there you have it!
Hope everyone is having a good Friday!
Imagine my surprise after learning some interesting things about Mel over at 2nd Chances to see that she nominated me as a Beautiful Blogger. I had to read over it a second time to make sure I read it right, lol! I’m still very new to the blogging world and haven’t really gotten my name out there that much. So I was pleasantly surprised to see my name :) Thanks Mel!Seven interesting things about me:
1. I’ve been to Australia two times in the last five years. Each visit I stayed for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. My sister lived there for several years so was lucky enough to have a place to stay. I experienced a lot of firsts during my visits there.
2. In the last five years, I’ve discovered that I’m a very sensitive, emotional, and passionate person. Way more than I ever thought I was. These are all things that at one time I might have considered incompatible with the rest of my traits. However, now I know they are highly positive and important qualities to have.
3. Farting jokes still make me laugh uncontrollably. If I hear someone fart I can’t help but laugh. I also have what some may call a strange fascination with my poop and its correlation to my health. I’m very regular and look at my poop every morning. I have called my mom and friends to share with them any amazing poops that I may have experienced. No joke! I even encourage them to look at their poop every time they go.
4. I yawn A LOT when I get nervous.
5. When it comes to sports/athletics I love being trained. I feel like I do my best when I have someone telling me what to do. I’m not saying I don’t do well on my own because I do pretty good. But I love soaking in as much of someone’s knowledge as I possibly can.
6. I’m an avid reader. Fiction is my favorite, but I will read just about anything.
7. Every time I step outside when it is dark I look at the moon and the surrounding stars. No matter what phase the moon is in, its beauty never fails to amaze me and it always makes me smile. It’s the simple things!
Passing the Beautiful Blogger torch to…
Jamie – Sweaty Hugs
Amber – Robles Family
Jess – Fit Chick In The City
Breathe! You’d think I would remember this just by looking at my own blog title. However, this past week breathing in the literal sense of the word has been a challenge for me. I feel like some pretty big and exciting things have been set into motion in just the first two weeks of 2010. Last week, things were moving pretty fast and all I could think was that I wanted it to slow down some. This week things have slowed down and all I want is for them to speed up. Confused much?!
Throughout this week, I’ve had plenty of signs from God urging me to slow down. Yesterday was the most dramatic of examples…on my way home from work, mind you I was in rush hour traffic and it wasn’t any different than any other trip home. No matter what I did I would get stuck behind the slowest person whether it was in the left lane or the right lane. I couldn’t win! To make matters worse I was trying to get back to town to meet up with my mom in order to make it to my sisters graduation on time. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to my mom’s house to find out she had already left. She was worried she would be late and left with good reason. However, at the time I was pretty angry that she left without me because I felt I had to perform some ENORMOUS (exaggerating of course) feats just to get there sort of on time. My mom happened to call at the same time I pulled up to her house and an angry conversation on my part ensued. So SORRY Mom, I’d forgotten what age I was! I rushed to my place so that I could go the bathroom and freshen up quickly. On my way home a rock hit my windshield and left a nice chip. At that point I was pretty enraged, embarrassingly so. I wanted to cry but couldn’t. I got home and channeled my three year old self and threw a mini temper tantrum which may have included slamming my car and house door, throwing my water bottle in the sink and throwing my lunch box on the floor. The funniest part about my temper tantrum is that I couldn’t throw it with reckless abandonment. I wanted to throw my lunch box but only tossed it a few inches because I knew my glass mug inside could break and the honey bottle could open and then the stickiness would be everywhere. My tantrum was pathetic compared to the doozies I proudly threw in my early years…LOL! That realization along with the fact that I was lucky enough to not have anyone witness my embarrassing behavior was enough to calm me down. The rest of the evening went just fine, I made it to my sister’s graduation with plenty of time to spare. Even my day had been fine. I’m not sure what got into me in those 2 hours.
My longwinded point is that I know God was urging me to slow down that things were ok and that I would have plenty of time to be there for my sister, but I just didn’t want to listen.
One of things I want to work on this year and for the rest of my life is to slow down, breathe, and enjoy and appreciate every minute of my life. Time moves so quickly on its own that I don’t need to waste my time wishing for the day to be over or being impatient for that party, trip, dinner plans, etc. that I have planned on the next day, week, or month. Those events will come but I want to be present in the now, fully take in every emotion I feel, to see and feel the little things. Because in essence those are the moments that make me feel the happiest and calmest.
I’m not saying that I won’t have anymore freak outs, because I will. But I’d like to be more aware of those moments when I’m heading in that direction and be able to remind myself to slow down and BREATHE!
