Many of my fellow bloggers post weekly training summaries. For various reasons, I've never followed suit - but this week I am going to experiment!
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| Let's see how this goes... |
Stationary bike - 10 minutes to warm up
Lift - 55 minutes, as follows:
3 sets of 8-10 reps for each of the following:
Chest press with barbell
Romanian deadlifts
Bicep curl with barbell
Tricep kickbacks, one arm at a time, with dumbbells
Shoulder raise with dumbbells
Assisted pull-ups
Single-leg squats with dumbbells
Squats with barbell
Seated leg curl
Hanging leg (i.e. "Captain's Chair") raises, front and side
After being on vacation for a week, this was the first time I had done any lifting in 10 days. My muscles felt good after the extended rest. However, my hands were another story. Wow, did it hurt to do the deadlifts and the assisted pull-ups! I got some hefty callouses and my fingers swelled up. It was difficult to put my rings on afterwards.
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| Everything is AWESOME. |
Again, after being on vacation, this was the first time I'd done any yoga in over a week. It felt really good to stretch everything out, especially after the lifting session yesterday.
WEDNESDAY
Plan: Zumba class, 55 minutes
Actual: Run 4 miles on treadmill
I love Zumba so I was disappointed to learn that this week's classes were being cancelled due to instructor availability.
I am horrifically behind on reaching my monthly mileage goal for November. At the time, I'd only run about 12 miles during the entire month-to-date! Therefore, I decided to knock out a few miles in place of Zumba.
My legs felt good. This is not surprising given how little I've been running.
THURSDAY
Plan: Lift (same workout as Monday)
Actual: Rest
My monthly visitor showed up. I was stricken with cramps, overall lethargy, and fatigue. I know exercise is supposed to help with this, but I had zero motivation to push through. I opted to take a rest day. After I got home from work, I enjoyed laying on the couch under a blanket.
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| Everything is AWESOME. |
FRIDAY
Plan: Yoga class, 55 minutes
Actual: Lift (repeat of Monday's session)
Normally I attend a yoga class every Friday which starts at 12:05 PM. However, I had a team meeting from 11:30 AM to 12:00 PM on Friday which ran a few minutes long. In lieu of rushing and showing up late to class, I chose to do the lifting workout I'd skipped the day before. My hands felt much better today.
SATURDAY
Run 8 miles on treadmill
Winter showed up in Chicago!!! Starting on Friday night, the entire Midwest was under a winter storm advisory. We got pummeled with freezing rain which later turned into snow. This was followed by a sudden drop in temperatures to the teens, with real-feel temps in the single-digits.
Translation: No running outdoors for me. I don't particularly enjoy doing long runs on the treadmill, but I didn't feel like battling those conditions.
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| Everything is AWESOME. |
45 minutes on stationary bike
I was torn on whether to do an at-home yoga video, ride the stationary bike, or try to knock out a few more miles on the treadmill. I'm leaving tonight (Monday night) to go to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, where I will have limited gym access. Since running and the yoga video do not require gym access but the stationary bike does, I chose the bike.
The ride felt good. I enjoyed the burn in my hips and glutes, which are areas I am always trying to strengthen.
ON A RANDOM NOTE...
I usually don't listen to country music AT ALL. This changed a few weeks ago when I watched an episode of Jimmy Fallon featuring Carrie Underwood as a guest. She performed her song, "Smoke Break."
I like it!
It's the first-ever country song to earn a spot on my workout playlist. (The one exception would be The Eagles' country-tinged early songs - but I consider The Eagles to be a classic rock band, not country.)
Things are changing around here in all different ways, eh?
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Linking up with HoHo and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap.
I also like Carrie Underwood's "When He Cheats"--you can just feel the anger in that one. Makes me move fast!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, "When He Cheats" is intense! I actually wonder if it creeps Mike Fisher (Carrie's husband) out!?!?!
DeleteI kind of like the recaps like this :-)
ReplyDeleteDo you come up with your lifting workouts on your own or are you following a plan? Do you do the same one every week? I noticed you don't have a lot of back exercises other than the assisted pull-ups. Any particular reason for that?
Yay, thanks Erin!
DeleteI come up with my lifting workouts on my own. I don't do the exact same workout every week, but in general my philosophy is to work each major muscle group in some way.
Interesting feedback about the back work. I focus a lot on my hips/glutes because of my ongoing IT band issues, but for everything else I consider one exercise to be sufficient. Plus, I figured the combo of the deadlifts and the assisted pull-ups would do it. But it sounds like you think I could use more back work? Any favorites?
Rows of all kinds! Especially bent over barbell rows or rows with the cable machine. Also, straight leg deadlifts (aka Romanian) work your glutes and hamstrings, not your back. If you can, try negative pull-ups, too. That's when you jump up and grab the bar and lower yourself down. Make sure you're using your back muscles and not your shoulders. That was my weak spot for awhile but I've finally figured it out.
DeleteI know you once mentioned wanting to be able to do a pull-up and I've found that you need to do a lot of back exercises to get there.
Hehe, love the Eagles! They are "classic" rock to me too. Anything from before me I consider classics, but I've slipped and called songs from my childhood good classics too. When did that start?
ReplyDeleteGreat question! I've thought many times about what constitutes "classic" rock, as well as "oldies." It bugs me to no end that songs I listened to in high school are now being played on the "oldies" station. =(
DeleteI was out of town this weekend, but I'm not gonna lie: I was kinda bummed to not be here for the snowstorm on Saturday because I like running in those conditions - it makes me feel so hardcore! But I imagine I'll have plenty of opportunities to do that later this winter :)
ReplyDeleteBethany @ Accidental Intentions
I know you were feeling under the weather last week, so I am glad to hear you made it out of town! That's a good sign. =) And yes, not to worry, you'll have AMPLE opportunity to run in winter storm conditions in the coming months. Your hard-core-ness will never be questioned!!!
DeleteNice workout week. I try to do some upper body lifting 3x a week and yoga 2x a week. The stationary bike occasionally to loosen my legs after running. Happy Thanksgiving and have fun in Pittsburgh!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pete! Wow, I've never thought about doing the stationary bike after running to loosen up the legs. I may have to give that a try! Happy Thanksgiving to you to and way to go on your fabulous performance at the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot over the weekend!
DeleteI'm not a huge fan of country either but every once in awhile a song is just too catchy :)
ReplyDeleteCountry music is a whole new world in which I have almost no insight! The Carrie Underwood finding may be opening up lots of brand new horizons. =)
DeleteLooks like you had a great week of working out. The closest county music gets to my playlist is Kid Rock! I do enjoy country every now and then with I'm out and that's what my friends want to hear. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThanks Diane! Kid Rock is quite the entertainer, isn't he? Good for you for going along with the flow when your friends want to hear country music. It's nice to get a taste for the different genres here and there, yes? I hope you have a great Thanksgiving week as well!
DeleteLooks like a fun busy week! Happy Thanksgiving
ReplyDeleteThanks Deborah! Happy Thanksgiving week to you too!
DeleteI'm not familiar with Blown Away so I'll have to find a YouTube version of it and listen. =D Thank you, extended breaks can be such a godsend, both mentally and physically! Yes, the snow came on so suddenly that nobody seemed to be prepared for it. Usually I like to ease my way into the winter, not get slammed with it overnight! LOL
ReplyDeleteLove the variety of your workouts. I get stuck in a rut and don't do enough cross training with my long runs. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Denise! Admittedly, I've had a number of injuries over the years from not varying my routine enough - so diversity has become a big focus in my workouts! But it was mentally very tough to do when I wanted to focus on running! You too?
DeleteYou have a lot of variety in your training. Something I definitely need to improve upon. I just run and sometimes ride my bike. Sometimes as in once a month if that often. I like most of Carrie Underwood's stuff. I listen to a variety of music.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debra! I have had injuries in the past from not varying up my routine enough - plus I get bored of doing the same thing after awhile. But it's mentally tough because running has been my focus for so many years, that I'm challenged in working out in ways OTHER than running, ya know? Yay for a variety of music to keep things interesting, too!
DeleteOhhh I love that song. Nothing wrong with country. I'll be over a week since we're on vacation when I get back to my strength training at the gym. I'm still running but no S T. Be interesting to know how that first workout back will be. Thanks for linking up with us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting the weekly link-ups, it's great to see all the recaps!!! I hope you are having (had) a great vacation - your pics on Instagram all looked so fun! Cheers to your first post-vacation strength workout feeling really good after taking the break!
DeleteUh oh! What are you going to do about that monthly mileage?! Let it go?! :) I know you are getting a lot of miles in tomorrow! Safe travels!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I knew it would be a lost cause in November since I was on vacation for 10 days and then in Pittsburgh for a week. Sigh. It's a good thing I banked some extra miles in the months beforehand to hopefully still meet my original yearly goal! Thanks and I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving too!
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