Daily Mile

Today was my only run all week.  With a twinge in my knee last week, I just wasn't willing to push it.  Now, I'm feeling great!  Katherine and I went and hit up the Olympic Oval since it was all of 15º outside.  She planned a lovely little speed work meets push ups kind of workout for us.  We had a blast and we had the place totally to ourselves for most of the time.  Bonus!  We could be as loud and obnoxious as we wanted without worry!  The track at the Oval is 442 meters, which is just over a quarter of a mile.

Here's the low down:

Run 4 laps warm up

Run 4 laps race pace

Run 1 lap cool down

Push ups 20 real push ups 20 modified push ups (Katherine stuck with the modified push ups)
Plank 60 seconds

Side plank both sides 30 seconds

Run 4 laps warm up

Run 4 laps 1/2 lap sprint, 1/2 lap easy pace

100 crunches

100 Russian twists

50 Bicycle crunches 

25 Squats

25 Squat kicks

Countless epic high fives to running buddy interspersed accordingly

Go Katherine!  Get it!

 I'm thinking 38 push ups for my 38th birthday.  I've got time...

Running finished!

Crunch time!

Squat it out, ladies!  

The view from the floor.  It's a huge building!

Yeah, we were tired.  And happy.

Okay, now I know we've never fooled around on a run before *cough cough* but we saw this Christmas stuff and couldn't resist!

Today was a lot of fun!  I kind of forgot that I used to like sprinting.  I can haul ass pretty well on the super short stuff.  We will definitely be doing this again!

4.668 miles

Not really sure about time or pace.  The GPS on the Garmin doesn't work indoors.  Next time I'll have to use a stopwatch!

Family Firsts

My step-mom, Laura, has been on a journey this year to lose weight and become healthier.  She's doing an amazing job and has lost about 25 pounds.  My dad got her a treadmill and after much use, they decided to sign up for 5K together!  They did the Savannah River Bridge Run together today.  I talked to them both afterwards and it sounds like they both enjoyed it!  They finished in about 55 minutes.  I am so very proud of Laura and my dad!  It sounds like there will be more 5k's in their future!  Hooray!  Maybe some day we'll do one together!

Beautiful Laura

 My Dad

 Run.  Walk.  Crawl.

 Finishers!

 And, as they both pointed out, they weren't last!  

Congratulations again Dad & Laura!  Love you!

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!!!

WOD

Yesterday I felt amazing.  Even better, I'm starting to see my hard work paying off.  I can lift more and am seeing more muscle definition.  I'm feeling really strong and positive.  I haven't run at all this week, but as it's been about 7º out when I would go running, I'm not really all that sad about it.  I think come spring I'll be ready to kill it on the trail.

Weight lifting:
Stiff leg dead lifts with shrugs
Incline dumbbell press
Upright row
Skull crushers
Leg extension
Leg curl
Wide grip tricep dip
Pull ups

-20 minutes elliptical

Ab workout:
100 Russian twists with 10# weight
100 crunches
1 minute plank
100 bicycle crunches
50 Spiderman planks
25 side plank right
25 side plank left
25 hip thrust with 10# weight
50 reverse crunches

One month belly fat difference.  Who wants to go bikini shopping with me?

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

Sunday Fun-day

This morning Zach and I headed up to the pipeline in Millcreek.  I wanted to go up out of the bad air we've been having.  It was a beautiful morning, and not too cold.  I was feeling really good and pretty speedy, as well!  Zach is faster than me, so I thinking knowing this helped light a little fire under my ass.  Zoom!  Zoom!

Look at the sky!  It was just amazing!

Say cheese, Zach!

The clouds were stunning!

Hello Pipeline!  I love you!

8.45 miles

1:31

10:46 pace

Week in Review

Monday 5.1 trail & road miles

Tuesday 5.4 trail miles

Wednesday Weight lifting- shoulders

Thursday 11.1 road & trail miles

Friday Cardio Boot camp 30 minutes + Abs

Here is the funny thing about this Cardio Boot Camp DVD.  It's from 1999 and it's exactly the same as all these "new" HIIT and Tabata workouts.  Plus, the chick has a killer accent, so it's a good video.

Saturday HIIT & Tabata workout 45 minutes

Sunday 8.45 trail miles

30.05 miles total this week.  Not shabby for someone who's "not running much."  Ha!  It was a great week and I totally didn't intend on not having a rest day!  I guess I'll have to make sure I get a rest day in next week!