The Power of Massage

Yesterday I went for an hour long massage to work out the kinks from my 20 miler. I actually felt great before I went in, but I felt so much better when I left! I had no idea how tight my muscles really were until they were massaged back into being relaxed. My legs felt great when I was done! I scheduled a massage for the week after the marathon so I can speed my recovery. I definitely believe in the power of massage for pain relief. I used to go monthly when I was working in an office all day, and it was the only thing that helped my back pain.

Today's run is an interval run with a warmup, cool down, and 6 miles of interval repeats. I'm going to do that in about an hour. I actually made it to the gym yesterday too, which was great! I love my Beachbody workouts, but sometimes, it just feels great to be in a gym! I did a full body circuit that I made up in my head. It was:

1. Chest Press
2. Dumbbell Bent Over Row
3. Bicep Curls
4. Side Shoulder Raise
5. Skull Crushers (for the triceps)
6. Dead Lifts
7. Squats (with dumb bells)
8. V-sit crunches with my hands in the air (not holding myself up)
9. Mason Twists

I did 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise and used a weight that left me feeling tired after each set. I started with a 10 minute jog for a warmup, and then I walked home as my cool down. I did some yoga poses for my stretches at the end. It was a total of 600 calories in an hour!

I'm also super excited about the dinner I planned for tonight. I love Mexican food, so I decided to make some healthy pork carnitas in my slow cooker. I found a recipe on www.allrecipes.com. Here's the link. I also plan to make my own guacamole. I bought some multi grain tortilla chips (which I will limit to one serving!), and I have high fiber tortillas as well. I'm going to skip the cheese and sour cream and make myself a healthy carnitas burrito. Yum!

Have a healthy day!