Morning Run

Yesterday afternoon I arrived at the gym feeling a bit tired.  Probably leftover from the super busy weekend.  And then I saw all the upright bikes were taken.  Gah!  So I rode a recumbent instead, which turned out to be a nice change of pace.  I had to use my glutes a lot more.  After the bike I did chest/triceps/core.  I was feeling spiffy so instead of normal planks I did ones with arm raises.  I didn't count reps, I just did them for 40 seconds, my normal plank time:

that's not me.  but i bet you knew that ;)

This definitely made for a challenge.  I finished up with some stretching and then went home to zone out until bedtime, I was tired as heck!

Today, Tuesday, was a busy day.  I had a PT appointment after work so I decided I should maybe do my run in the morning before work.  This way I wouldn't stress about it all day, worrying I wouldn't fit it in.  Also, the forecast was for another hot day, another reason to run in the morning.  I set my alarm and decided I'd make a game-day decision.  When my alarm went off I groaned.  But after a bit of self talk - mostly, "If you don't get up and do it now it might not happen today" - I managed to get up and head out the door.  It was chilly but not freezing.  I ran 3 miles and felt pretty good.  This is only my second pavement run in the Brooks and things seemed to go smooth.  I finished in 33 minutes, my normal/good time, which made me happy.  I stretched after the run but boy were my muscles tight!  That's the biggest drawback of exercising in the morning, you're just not all loosened up like you are come afternoon.

After my PT appointment I went to the gym to do weights.  I did a quick warmup walk and then headed to the weights - back/biceps/core.  I am really focusing on keeping my shoulders down, which is not easy.  I need to strengthen my mid-back.  After weights I did a quick stretch (and still felt a bit tighter than normal, I blame the morning run) and then headed home to my kiddos. 

I am tired.  Tired, tired, tired.  It's 9:30pm and I really want to watch Mad Men but I think it'll have to wait until tomorrow.  Incidentally, this is already week 3 so next week will be a recovery week.  Still haven't decided exactly what that will look like but I'm thinking maybe drop 2 levels for the bike and do walks instead of running.  For weights I'm thinking one light set instead of three.  We'll see, all I know is that I'm liking this recovery week idea.

I realized I never really commented on my weigh-in last Friday.  Up .4 pounds.  Two words: menstrual. cycle.  Enough said.  Oh!  I forgot to mention - I signed up for another event.  And this one is coming up in less than two weeks!  But I'm out of time so I'll have to share all that exciting info tomorrow.  Night everyone.