The Paddy Melt Challenge

In November I did a one week exercise and nutrition challenge called Thin for Thanksgiving.  It was fun and having accountability is always a good motivator.  I also had great results so when my friend Astrid announced she was holding another free week long challenge called The Paddy Melt, I jumped on board.  One of my cousins is also doing the challenge, so that's been fun.  Monday and Tuesday were hectic, so I didn't make it out to run or to the gym, so it was actually perfect timing.  I did these at home HIIT and Tabata workouts at home.  They are really great fat burners, and although they're not my favorite (I'd rather hit the trails) I know they're a good addition to an overall strong body.  

Monday

Tuesday

Training Week 2

Monday 3 road miles + weight lifting -legs
Tuesday 15 min elliptical + weight lifting -shoulders, back, biceps
Wednesday 3 road miles
Thursday 6.31 trail miles
Friday weight lifting- chest
Saturday 12.7 trail miles + 13 min HIIT routine

Sunday  13 min HIIT routine (I've joined another week long challenge, but that's another post!)

Weekly total 25.01

Training total 49.68

Week in Review

Monday Chest & Triceps + Stair mill
Tuesday 8.26 trail miles
Wednesday HIIT
Thursday Whole body weight lifting + 30 min elliptical
Friday REST
Saturday 8.36 trail miles + Leg Day + 1 mile walk treadmill
Sunday REST

16.62 miles

WOD

My workout today.  Enjoy!

WOD

This morning I got up early and did a 20 minute HIIT routine before heading to the gym for chest day.  Jeff ended up getting off work really early, so we went together.  I love having the help on chest day!  I did three sets of 65# on the incline bench press today!  Go me!

10 minute treadmill walk (Walk!? What does that even mean?)
Incline Bench Press
Dumbbell Press
Hammer Strength Iso Lateral Wide Chest Machine (say that five times fast!)
Incline Dumbbell Fly
Barbell Front Raises

I had a realization today that I haven't really been working my shoulders much.  I mean, they get worked when I do other things, but I haven't done much shoulder specific work.  I'll bet you can guess what I'm doing tomorrow...

Daily Mile & Lift: Tear shit up Tuesday

Since Katherine couldn't go for a trail run on Tuesday I had a hard time convincing myself to go alone.  Then I figured, screw it!  That's why I'm taking this winter easy.  So I went to the gym and did the gnarliest back day ever!

Four sets each of the following:
Dead lift + Shrug (with a dead lift PR of 115#!)
Pull Ups
Wide lat pull downs
Single arm bent over rows
Narrow seated cable rows
Upright rows
Barbell biceps curls
Wide grip seated cable rows
Back extension holding 35# kettlebell
...then on to abs
Hanging leg lifts (4 sets of 10)
Russian Twists (2 sets of 50)
Crunches (2 sets of 25)
Bicycle Crunches (2 sets of 50)
...then a two mile run on the treadmill
2 miles
19:53
9:56 pace

Yes, I was sore and tired today.  Yes, I still did a small workout this morning.
3 sets of "Fitness at Home" and the pyramid ab workout.

 I'm ready for a killer leg day tomorrow!  Lift heavy ladies!!!

WOD Part 1

Yesterday morning I had the "brilliant" idea that I'd do a little cardio before heading to yoga.  Well, it turns out that I was still sore from my back workout on Wednesday, so I actually quit half way through the fitness blender video, doing only one round (8 minutes) before deciding that I wouldn't make it through yoga if I kept it up!  So, I opted for some ab work instead.  Then I headed to yoga which was an ass kicker, as usual.

WOD

With both a two minute warm up and cool down, the Cardio Strength workout I did today took my half an hour.  Then I did 300 Abs.  Love it!  Now, it's your turn...

Week in Review

Monday REST (I think? Vacation muddled my brain!)
Tuesday Beach run 8.44 miles
Wednesday Jan 1st-HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Full body weight lifting routine & because I am a total dork...

Thursday HIIT & Abs

Friday Leg day + 1 mile treadmill run
Saturday Trail run 5.87
Sunday REST

Weekly mileage 15.31

Week in Review

More like weeks in review. Here are the past two weeks:

Week of December 16th
Monday: HIIT, 3.5 mile road run, 1 mile treadmill run, chest day
Tuesday: 4.52 mile trail run
Wednesday: HIIT
Thursday: full body weight lifting routine
Friday: REST
Saturday: 2.25 miles treadmill, chest day + v-squats
Sunday: rest day, flying to Florida!
11.27 miles total

Week of December 23rd:
Monday: 3.48 miles
Tuesday: 3.03 miles, chest day
Wednesday: REST Merry Christmas!
Thursday: 10 mile beach run
Friday: yoga, leg day
Saturday: HIIT
Sunday: 5.03 mile beach run + Abs, chest & triceps
21.54 miles total

Daily Mile (and Lift)

Today it's been dumping freezing rain and snow all day.  I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill (and actually enjoyed it) and did a nice full body routine.  To tell you how much it snowed while I was in the gym, I came out and immediately got my van stuck in the parking lot in the snow and had to call Jeff to come and bail me out!  

Feeling strong today!  Here is what I did:

Deadlift

Decline bench press

Overhead dumbbell press

Lat pull downs

Lat raises

Barbell bicep curls

Barbell skull crushers

Single arm tricep cable pull down

Overhead dumbbell press

Decline bench press, that's 75 pounds!

Deadlift 115 pounds, that's 87% of my body weight!

Plus, my sweet jaunt on the treadmill.  Last winter I actually ran in the freezing rain!  It sucks.  This was better.  There might not have been dirt, but there was definitely sweat!

3.01 miles
30:01

9:58 pace

Plus I did another quarter mile walking cool down for a total 3.2 in 33:11

Oh, and I know you're absolutely dying to know what I did yesterday, so here it is!

How'd you get so Fly?

This afternoon I joined Jeff at his gym for chest day.  I love lifting with Jeff!  I can push harder and heavier than when I'm by myself without worry I'll drop a barbell on my face.  

Incline bench press 60#

Bench press 60#, 65#

Dumbbell fly 15#, 20#

Low and high cable fly 

Tricep rope pull down

1 treadmill mile
10:47

Oh yeah, and I did this little workout, by Astrid, when I got up at 6am this morning:

 (three times through)

Today was an awesome day in workout land.  I can't wait for trail run Tuesday tomorrow!

Week in Review

Monday Weight lifting: full body

Tuesday Trail run 2.07, HIIT fitness blender video: abs & butt, weight lifting: back, Treadmill run 1.2

Wednesday Rest

Thursday HIIT cardio crusher, abs, fitness blender video

Friday Weight lifting: legs, elliptical

Saturday HIIT fitness blender video

Sunday Tabata

Total miles: 3.27 (This makes me laugh out loud!)

Total awesomeness: 100%

Saturday Night Special

What does a thirty-something year old mother of three do on a Saturday night, you ask?  This insane, hour long workout video is what.  And bonus, my legs weren't even wrecked from leg day on Friday!

Do this, I dare you!

WOD: HIIT time!

My Day yesterday:

This one took me about half an hour.  It's a good workout.  When I see "wall sit" I hear Jim Carey as the Grinch saying, "loath entirely!"  Yeah, I hate those things!  

Too Cold Tuesday

Today Katherine couldn't run due to other obligations, so, despite not wanting to at all I bundled up and headed for the hills.  Honestly, it was brutal.  My toes and fingers were totally frozen and painful.  Plus, after about about half a mile the trail was totally choppy and hardly runnable.  First I told myself I only had to run three miles, then at one mile in, I said to myself, "Self, this is why you wanted to take the winter off from race training.  GO HOME AND WORK OUT IN THE WARMTH!"  So, I did!  I ran two miles in the brutal cold and then went home and did a HIIT workout!  The HIIT workout was much more enjoyable if we're being honest.  

Yeah, it was cold.

I wasn't sorry I wore this mask I used to wear snowboarding.

I love my Kahtoola microspikes!

I love Corner Canyon, but I also love sweating!  Brr!

There were more deer tracks than human tracks!

It was so beautiful, but did I mention how cold it was?

It was a little rough going.

Then, home in my nice warm house I got nice and hot doing this lovely workout!  Yay for heaters!

2.07 miles

31 minutes

14:58 pace

WOD & My Push Up PR

Friday I went to yoga.  I always go to yoga thinking about how it'll be an "easy" workout and good relaxation.  I always end up with muscles shaking, threatening to fail and thoughts of hatred running through my head.  However, when it's over I'm always glad I went.  It is  relaxing, just not until I'm laying in corpse pose wondering how I made it through the entire hour without collapsing on the floor!

Then, I had a small moment to spare before taking the kids to acting class, so I busted out this little beauty.  It's only fifteen minutes long, but don't let that fool you.  I was wishing for it to be over by half way through!


Today I slept in, looked outside at the frozen tundra and decided to throw on my kicks and head for the TV.   I did another workout by Fitness Blender.  Let me just say that the title is more than accurate.  They didn't throw the word brutal in there just to make it look tough.  This was a bitch!  I was huffing and puffing and near muscle failure by about three minutes in.  These guys do not fool around!  Brutal HIIT Ladder it is!  Then, I tried their Abs Boot Camp, which was great!  But, now for the truly exciting news!  This morning I decided that it had been quite a while since I had tried real push ups.  I was up to 10 "real" not "girl" push ups a few months ago.  Well, you'll never guess how many I can do now.  Go ahead, guess.  Did you guess TWENTY?  Because if you did, you're right!  I did 20 push ups!  Go me!!!

Week in Review

Considering I've been sick and had quite a bit of asthma trouble this week, I managed a pretty damn good workout week!  Now, to just incorporate a bit more yoga and my cross training for the winter plan is shaping right up!

Monday- Sick
Tuesday- Sick
Wednesday- 3.6 miles + Pyramid ab workout
Thursday- WOD* + Plank Challenge
Friday- Weight lifting, leg day + 300 Abs
Saturday- HIIT & Tabata workout + Pyramid ab workout
Sunday- 5.25 miles

*Thursday WOD
-50 side jumps
-50 jumping jacks
-50 reverse plank crunches
-50 crunches
-50 walking lunges
(three times through)

HIIT it hard, ladies & gentlemen!

Katherine and I got together this morning and did this little gem of a workout & the pyramid ab workout while the kids watched cartoons. A perfect Saturday morning, if you ask me!

Happy Birthday Speedy K!

Tomorrow is my (Get a load of this acronym we came up with! B.A.R.F. best adventure running friend!) BARF's 30th birthday!  So, of course we had to have a birthday adventure run to celebrate!  Katherine picked me up right after I took my kids to school and I gave her a bit of a running present and we headed to the mountains!  We went to Millcreek Canyon to run the Pipeline trail.  It was a gorgeous day!  It went back and forth between snowing and sunny and we enjoyed every minute of it!

I made Katherine this visor/birthday hat, but it wouldn't fit over her beanie, so I had to switch it over while she drove.

Aromatherapy bath salts for that hot bath after our snowy run!

Tennis ball to roll the glutes.

Every trail runner needs a bandanna.

Pipeline, here we come!

Katherine got a few birthday wishes from other hikers and runners!

Birthday party, Renee & Katherine style!

Happy Birthday, my wonderful running friend!  Adventures would be much less fun without you!

Then, of course what did we do after, but the WOD from our Thin for Thanksgiving challenge!?  Thirty minutes of HIIT, or high intensity interval training.  Yeah, we were beat after!

5.3 miles 

1:09 

13:01 pace

Plus 30 min HIIT