I'll be officially MIA until the new year. My plan for the holidays is to eat reasonably but not restrict myself... make sure the indulgences are to a minimum. I will have my resistance band and running shoes with me at all times. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
Woo hoo for 2011! It's going to be an amazing year!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sore Muscles!?!?
I moved on to the next variation in phase 1 of my workouts. It's still the same exercises, and I do five different ones each day. Friday included deadlifts, lunges, crunches on the ball, shoulder press, and lat pulldown. Instead of only two sets, this week I did three. The cool thing is that I built my weight up over the previous exercises, so I did three sets at what previously would've seemed like a really heavy weight. I'm up to 95 pounds on the lat pulldowns, which is a big improvement for me! I used 20 pound dumbbells on my lunges, and I can certainly feel that in my muscles today. A good feeling, of course!
The main philosophy in this book is that you should workout major muscles groups and the smaller ones (like biceps and triceps) will be included because of the type of exercise you're doing. So the lat pulldown grabs onto the biceps, and when I do pushups, it hits my triceps too. What I like the most about the workouts is that they're short and focused. It makes it much easier to stick with it.
As for running, I do that on my non-lifting days or really whenever the spirit moves me. I now use 6.5 mph as my warmup speed on the treadmill and go up to 6.8 - 7.2 mph for my workout speed. There is nothing like the accomplishment of improved fitness... I love it! I haven't chosen a race for next year yet, but I think I'll stick with some shorter ones in the winter. I'm up in the air on what else, but I will definitely continue trying to run faster. Fun fun fun!
Enjoy your holiday season!
The main philosophy in this book is that you should workout major muscles groups and the smaller ones (like biceps and triceps) will be included because of the type of exercise you're doing. So the lat pulldown grabs onto the biceps, and when I do pushups, it hits my triceps too. What I like the most about the workouts is that they're short and focused. It makes it much easier to stick with it.
As for running, I do that on my non-lifting days or really whenever the spirit moves me. I now use 6.5 mph as my warmup speed on the treadmill and go up to 6.8 - 7.2 mph for my workout speed. There is nothing like the accomplishment of improved fitness... I love it! I haven't chosen a race for next year yet, but I think I'll stick with some shorter ones in the winter. I'm up in the air on what else, but I will definitely continue trying to run faster. Fun fun fun!
Enjoy your holiday season!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Update!
So I've done a few weeks of the new workout, and so far, I like it. I would say it's a little light on the intensity. The workouts in phase 1 are only 30-40 minutes long, and I'm much more used to putting in an hour or more. I'm pretty sure it gets tougher as you go on, and I have taken advantage of the extra time by throwing in random cardio workouts. I tried Zumba for the first time last week and had fun! I burned over 700 calories in an hour too... so not shabby at all!
My phase workouts consist of 5 exercises each workout done twice through. I'm in the higher weight, lower rep portion of the workouts so I've gotten my weights up pretty high. I'm enjoying that piece of things. Given that it's the holidays too and life gets hectic, it's been nice sometimes to get in and out of the gym in 45 minutes. The first exercise is a lower body one (squats or dead lifts). The others are a variety and include things like pushups, pullups, lunges, ab stuff... all reasonable stuff. I'm looking forward to phase 2 and ramping things up.
Also, on the running topic, I came in 2nd in my race! So exciting!!! My time was 24:50 which is a 5K PR for me. The woman who won last year won again... now I have someone to chase after. It was super exciting to see my name on the results webpage as placing. That is a first time for me. Woo hoo!
Hope everyone is surviving the holidays!
My phase workouts consist of 5 exercises each workout done twice through. I'm in the higher weight, lower rep portion of the workouts so I've gotten my weights up pretty high. I'm enjoying that piece of things. Given that it's the holidays too and life gets hectic, it's been nice sometimes to get in and out of the gym in 45 minutes. The first exercise is a lower body one (squats or dead lifts). The others are a variety and include things like pushups, pullups, lunges, ab stuff... all reasonable stuff. I'm looking forward to phase 2 and ramping things up.
Also, on the running topic, I came in 2nd in my race! So exciting!!! My time was 24:50 which is a 5K PR for me. The woman who won last year won again... now I have someone to chase after. It was super exciting to see my name on the results webpage as placing. That is a first time for me. Woo hoo!
Hope everyone is surviving the holidays!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
What I'm Up To Now
I haven't been around in a loooong time... well I've been around reading blogs, but haven't written. I previously wrote about running without a purpose, and my sister was nice enough to send me a book to give me some new purpose! It's called The New Rules for Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler. It has ~6 months worth of progressively more difficult lifting workouts that you do 3 times per week. I just started on phase 1 and I love it! It has me eating 2100 calories a day (it actually wants me to eat more to maintain, but I cut a few hundred for "weight loss.") Phase 1 includes leg exercises like squats and deadlifts, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, some abs... it's a good workout and it gives me plenty of time for running!
Before I move onto running, I have to say I'm super excited that my sister sent me this book. For one, it's a great book and I love the workouts. Two, she has really gotten into working out this year and is getting healthy, and I'm so excited that she's doing so well. I view the fact that she'd send me a workout book as a true change for the healthier side of life!
As for running, I'm doing really well! My average pace is getting quicker and quicker. I ran 3.3 miles in 26 minutes over the weekend, and I felt great! I'm pretty sure my jog pace is now 9 minutes per mile, so I can pick it up in the 8 min mile range pretty well. I signed up for a 5K this weekend and I can't wait to see how I do. It's been a while since I did that distance so I'm going to go out and push it. I signed up as an Athena as well, which means I'm in the category of women who weigh over 150 pounds. I weigh slightly more than 150 so I will take it! Last year's Athena finished in 26 minutes... hmm, I wonder if there will be other fast Athenas out there! I'll report and let you know how I did!
Have a healthy rest of your week!
Before I move onto running, I have to say I'm super excited that my sister sent me this book. For one, it's a great book and I love the workouts. Two, she has really gotten into working out this year and is getting healthy, and I'm so excited that she's doing so well. I view the fact that she'd send me a workout book as a true change for the healthier side of life!
As for running, I'm doing really well! My average pace is getting quicker and quicker. I ran 3.3 miles in 26 minutes over the weekend, and I felt great! I'm pretty sure my jog pace is now 9 minutes per mile, so I can pick it up in the 8 min mile range pretty well. I signed up for a 5K this weekend and I can't wait to see how I do. It's been a while since I did that distance so I'm going to go out and push it. I signed up as an Athena as well, which means I'm in the category of women who weigh over 150 pounds. I weigh slightly more than 150 so I will take it! Last year's Athena finished in 26 minutes... hmm, I wonder if there will be other fast Athenas out there! I'll report and let you know how I did!
Have a healthy rest of your week!
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