Up and At Em

Even though it's a holiday, I decided to tackle my workout as early as possible this morning to get it out of the way, leaving the rest of the day free for family time and more activities like these...

My husband is a great photographer by the way.  These photos are his handiwork.  They had so much for drinking water from the hose and splashing each other.  Don't worry, it's a hose designed for drinking out of when camping.  It's safe.  (I asked!)

We raised the basketball goal a couple of days ago and they are loving it even more now that it's more difficult.  In fact, I think it's time to raise it even more so they can give the ball even more air. Check out these ballers.  

My workout today was another cross training one.  I love running but I also love mixing things up a bit and today, I succeeded at keeping myself interested and helping the time fly by.  It was the butt-kicking workout I was looking for...short and sweet too!

I began with one easy mile on the elliptical, followed by another mile where alternated 20 second sprints with 10 second recoveries.  I finished up with a moderately challenging mile before tackling one round of each of the following routines:

Found here.

I liked the concept of both of these routines, and liked the exercises, but did find myself frustrating with having to keep looking to see what was next.  I like simply organized circuits that are easy to remember so you can maintain your rhythm instead of stopping to check and see what to do next.  Something more like this...

 Which kind of workouts do you prefer?  

The rest of today is dedicated to family time.  We're hoping to squeeze in a bike ride, some pool time, and some yummy food.  I'm thinking about trying these out...

I found the idea here.  

Like my favorite front desk guy told me at the gym this morning, "Enjoy the day now.  You've earned it!"  Here's to enjoying this Labor Day holiday.

Let the Fun Begin!

I'm so pumped.  Today starts my 10 week training plan for the half marathon.  Yippee!  Mondays are set aside for cross training on my plan.  I've noticed in the past that my running speed and ease improves when I am intentional about including plyometrics and weight lifting in my training plan.  Todays workout started like this...

I also made sure to include some upper body strength training in the form of lots of chest and back exercises.  I know it's a stretch, but I'm also going to include cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming the floor as part of my training today.  You all know cleaning the shower involves some elbow grease, right?

Make it a great Monday!

Dropsets - Lower Body Style

Yesterday, my workout included dropsets for the upper body so today it seemed like a given to continue the dropset trend with the lower half of my body.  Like I said yesterday, to do dropsets, I pick a weight that is challenging, one that would fatigue me in 10-12 reps.  When I feel like I can't do any more reps at that weight, I quickly lower the weights and crank out as many as I can at the lower weight.  I then lower the weight again and keep pumping til I can't complete any more with good form, which means it's time to lighten the load again.  I usually continue this process until I have churned out 40-50 reps. Today I was going for higher reps with a moderately heavy challenge so I cranked out 50 reps on each machine.  The machines I used included:

• leg press
• leg extension
• leg curl
• leg adduction
• leg abduction 

I finished up with 20 minutes on the elliptical, at a steep incline at a challenging level, stopping every 5 minutes to do the following circuit, holding 15 pound dumbbells:

• 30 squats
• 30 deadlifts
• 30 lunges (15 on each leg)

My legs felt like they got a great work and I left the gym energized for the day.  Hope you got your day off to a great start with a workout as well, or you're planning to squeeze it in as your schedule allows today.  Happy working out!

Fitness Friday

Today's workout was taken in part from a  blog I frequent.  She has some really good, easy circuit workouts on her site and I figure, why reinvent the wheel?  I loved the 2 I tried today.  Instead of doing several cycles of each, I just did one time through each of the following workouts.
 

  

I really enjoyed both of them but decided to avoid boredom and repetition, why not mix a couple together.  It was a plyometric success. 

I followed up the circuits with my MuTu core exercises and a 5 mile EASY run.  My legs are pretty beat so EASY was just what the doctor ordered.  The weather was beautiful for a run and I wish I could say the run flew by, but it was a little trying with the wind at times.  I sure am glad I stuck it out and completed my plan for the day.

Now off to tackle the rest of the day.  Did you hear Wild Caught Salmon is $7.99 at Whole Foods today only?  I'm planning to score some of that deliciousness later this afternoon.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.


Make it a great day!