Rest & Recovery

The week after Bryce I felt I'd been hit by a mac truck I did nothing.  No, that's not true.  I hobbled around like a drunken sailor, iced my legs, soaked in Epsom salts, foam rolled and ate like... like... well, like I just ran fifty miles.  Cookies.  Cake.  Carne Asada.  I worked hard at replacing calories and taking care of my body.  By Saturday the swelling and bruising were gone and I mostly wasn't limping any more.  I was also itching to move my body.  I hit the gym Saturday, Monday and Wednesday.  Monday I actually got up early in an attempt to hike, but I just wasn't ready so after 3/4 miles I left Corner Canyon and went to the gym.  Then there was my epic fail of a bike ride on Tuesday.  Overall, I've been doing great.  I have been sleeping in a lot.  I visited the chiropractor and massage therapist which was miraculous!  I'm really looking forward to running, but I'm trying really hard to be patient.  My IT bands are still tight, so I want to give them plenty of time to chill.  Soon enough.  The mountains aren't going anywhere...

Jeff, killing it, as usual.

 Hike.  Psych!

 Oh yeah, and my nails are dropping like flies!

Fabulous Flex Friday

Back and shoulder day rocked my world! I have gotten so much stronger. I actually lifted (just over) my body weight today.  I did two sets of 135# dead lifts! I also tried two new moves, military press and wide grip upright rows. I loved the military press! That one will definitely be added to my weekly routine!

Dead lifts

Pull ups

Barbell shrugs

Close grip seated cable rows

Machine lat raises

Standing barbell military press 

Wide grip upright rows

Back extensions with 30# kettle bell

Hanging leg lift

20 minutes elliptical

There it is! 135# of total body strength!

And no gym session would be complete without me flexing it up in the locker room afterward!  

Happy flex Friday all!

Time to rest up for a nice morning trail run!  

Transformation Tuesday

Today I woke up pretty sore from an intense chest day yesterday.  I was planning on just doing a few easy treadmill miles and maybe a couple glute exercises. But, then I remembered that another mom from my girl's school invited me to join her in the Powerflex class at 9am.  Well, who am I to say no to a good workout?  So, I ran two miles on the treadmill, went to class, then ran another two miles.  Class was an ass kicker for sure.  Low weight, high rep, high intensity for an entire hour.  We did (I use the term we loosely, I skipped more than a push up or two) 126 push ups, tricep dips, lunges, etc etc.  It was a fun change, but I prefer to lift heavy and run far!

And, since this is transformation Tuesday and I'm feeling especially proud of the progress I've made in the past few months, here is a jewel of a transformation picture for you.  The left picture was after an entire year of running.  I'd done my first race, a half marathon and had already signed up for my first marathon in the Fall.  On the right, fast forward nearly two years, two marathons, two 50k's and countless other races later.  Let's also not forget all the diet changes and weight lifting!  Go me!  Look, I have a two pack!

2 miles

21:50

10:55 pace

2 miles

21:56

10:58 pace

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.

Butt & Biceps

Yesterday I decided to focus on a couple areas where I'd love more muscle.  Butt and biceps.  I'd like more butt for more power when running, plus if you've ever seen my butt you'll know it's almost non-existent.  Hey, it runs in my family.  What can I say?  Then biceps.... well, who doesn't want bigger guns?!  Tell me that?  

The workout:

Leg curls

Standing Glute machine

High narrow stance leg press

Barbell curls

Machine curls

Bicep cable curl drop set to muscle failure!

10 minutes elliptical

Post workout pump worthy of some gym selfies!

Daily Mile & Lift

Leg Day & Flex Friday, both!?  Oh boy!
Leg extensions
Sumo barbell squats
Leg press (I did 2 sets with 208#!)
Sitting calf raise

1 treadmill mile 11:48

Jeff squatting what I call an impressive amount of weight, and what he calls, "Not even that much."  Nuts!  His head is cut off because I was trying to be stealthy.  HA!

Happy weekend! 

Flex Friday

This week of vacation has been really nice. Not only have I been able to get lots of runs in, but Jeff and I have gone to the local gym twice and I went to yoga this morning with my father in law!

Daily Mile & Lift

First things first, my amazing husband got me this kick ass t-shirt and shorts from Flag nor Fail  for Christmas.  The t-shirt says, "Never catch your breath."  YES!  I love it!

Now, on to the other good stuff!  I had an huge PR at the gym tonight!  I pressed 95 pounds on the decline bench press!  I only did two reps, but still, that is huge!  I am so super pumped about that!  When I first started lifting last year, I could only bench 30 pounds.  Jeff and I went to his gym.  I did a little running on the treadmill and we did chest and I threw in some squats for good measure.  They have a v-squat machine that I had never tried, but loved!

The routine:

Decline bench press

Incline bench press

High and low cable fly 

Bench press drop set

V-squat 

And because there is never anyone in the ladies locker room at Jeff's gym, I took advantage and snapped a couple of selfies.  The quads are coming along nicely.  

1.25 miles

12:28

9:58 pace

1 mile- alternating walk/run

13:29

WOD

Monday:
stiff leg dead lifts
overhead dumbbell press
incline bench press
leg press
lat pull down
hip abductors & adductors
close grip tricep dips
pull ups
4 sets of 8-15 each

20 minutes on the elliptical

Tuesday:
Katherine and I were originally going on a trail run today, but it didn't work out for her and is probably best as my knees are hurting a bit.  It also looks like the north pole outside today, so I wasn't motivated to run in the snow by myself.  Here is what I did instead:

I modified this just a bit, because of my sore knees.  I did any squats very minimally and replaced lunges with high knees.


This afternoon, Jeff was home early so he and I hit the gym together.  I figured I had better add this on to today's workouts! Here was our evening routine:
Incline bench press
Incline dumbbell press
Low cable flies
Wide grip Hammer Strength press
Tricep pull down
Bicep rope hammer curls

Yoga

Today I went to yoga class at the gym again.  I'll tell you what, this was no sissy yoga class.  We did more push ups than I have ever done in any yoga class, and after doing as many push ups as possible last night, I was cursing the instructor!  Plus we did loads of plank and lunges.  At one point she was giving the class a pep talk, "You feel like you want to give up, like you can't do any more, but you can!"  I found it humorous, because however much I was cursing her (not only did I do push ups last night, you may remember that Jeff and I did biceps/triceps on Wednesday) the thought of quitting never entered my head.  "Of course I can do eight more push ups," I thought.  I guess when one trains for endurance sports one does not simply quit because it's hard.  Rather, we do these things because they're hard.  I thoroughly enjoyed class and am planning on trying to make it to ass-kicking (or maybe I should say arm-kicking) yoga much more regularly!