Making It Happen

I accomplished six miles on the treadmill yesterday followed by an intense strength circuit training session.  Today I clocked another five miles on the pavement and rounded it out with a Jillian Michaels six-pack workout.  I still have some work to do to make the scale go down, but I'm willing to invest the sweat equity in myself to make it happen.

Weekend Running

  

Lk Union

Green Lake

I've been keeping up on my promise to myself to run longer distances.  Saturday I ran the perimeter of Lake Union, which is a nice 6.5 mi run.  Including stretching time, the whole thing took about 70 min.  I've done the lake before, but this time it felt easier - I didn't have the overwhelming urge to just stop and sit in the middle of the path.  Sunday I met a friend at Green Lake for a late morning run.  I arrived 15 min before our meeting time and decided to do the inside loop before my friend arrived.  It's a 2.8 mi track, which I accomplished in 23 minutes.  Go me.  We did the outside 3.2 mi  loop together at his pace (and as you know, gents tend to run faster than ladies), and finished in under 30 min.  It's the little things. :)

After grabbing some lunch, watching my dad tinker on my car, and freezing my butt off, I returned home and rounded out the workout with a little bit of Jillian.  I'm almost to the point where I don't hate life while trying to get through the side plank knee lifts.  Yesssss.

PS - I didn't take either of these pics, just pulled them from the magical world of the internets.

My Current Obsession

I am totally into this.  I started off barely able to finish a 30-minute beginner session.  I kept with it, doing the workout every other day.  Now, a week and a half into it, I'm totally rockin' the moves.  I am a girl who hates working my abs, but this video switches up the moves so often that I never get bored.  She's seriously good stuff.

A New Technique

Are you one of those girls who gets bored doing any one work-out too long?  Do you start to dread the work-out you once looked forward to after it stales?  You're in good company, gals.

I've  been traveling for over a week and am missing my work-out buddies who keep me entertained on my runs.  Luckily, the places I've been staying have had work-out facilities I can hit in the mornings, so I haven't had to try to hit the pavement in this east coast heat wave.  The challenge has been the boredom.  Even with my ipod, I don't have as much fun as when I'm with my running group.

Luckily, I've come up with a solution that I just may carry over into an early morning workout routine.  I run for 5-10 minutes, then go do a set of weights.  I usually start with my tricep/bicep switch-off, doing 4 sets of 10 reps each, then back to the treadmill for another 5-10 minutes.  Then it's back to the weights for 4 sets of 10 reps focusing on chest and back.  Back for another 5-10, and then focusing on shoulders and squats, and then round it out with another short run.

On opposite days, I've been doing 20 minutes on the treadmill, sandwiching a single abs work-out, which has been working out great.

The reason I like this is it keeps me sweating, keeps me focused, and keeps me from getting bored.  It's also easier on my poor knee, which I'm trying to save, but without compromising my cardio.  The funny thing is, the weights seem like a break from the running, but by the time I'm done with my weight sets, the running seems like a break.  It's a great system.

If you try this routine, post a note and let me know what you think.

ab workout ideas

I need to mix up my ab workouts.  Lately I've been doing the wii hula hoop, which has helped a lot, and then the old standard planks - 50 sec straight on and then 50 sec for each side, 50 regular crunches, 50 side twist crunches on each side, and then from my back I extend my legs and draw a circle in the air with my toes, not quite touching my heels to the floor at the bottom of every circle, 25 in each direction.  So that's all well and good, but I need more.  I need a switch hitter to my standards so I don't dread them.  I also don't want them to be too complicated or using machines that everyone uses and I can never get to. 

Today at lunch (just 30 minutes from now) I'm going to try out the captain's chair for a little switch-up.  Shape Magazine's Oct issue (also the inspiration for this blog) had an article on how to work out your abs effectively, and the captain's chair was one of the exercises.  I'm going to try some of their tips and see where it gets me.  This will probably only be a lunchtime one because after work the gym is packed and I'm not in the business of waiting for machines.  Any other suggestions?