Weekly Rundown- Feats of Strength
Whew. It was quite a week! Because I had to rearrange my running schedule AGAIN, this week was heavy on the strength workouts. My son came to the gym with me twice (!) and there were some interesting revelations… but before we get into it, thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s just see how it all played out… Sunday New Year’s Day! My son and I had talked about going to the gym, but spontaneously decided on New Year’s Eve that neither of us felt like it. So I did Caroline Girvan’s “Brutal Leg Day” workout from her Tempo Week. I’m not sure if it was that much more brutal than her Iron Series leg days, but it was hard. Monday 4 mile run on legs that felt like lead. Tuesday I ran 3 miles in the morning… and then- very exciting- my son and I FINALLY went to the gym together! Part of the reason we were having trouble making this happen is that we seem to have very different fitness goals. He doesn’t prioritize legs, while I don’t see the point of schlepping to the gym if I’m NOT going to do legs. He wants to bulk up and I don’t really care what my body looks like anymore- I just want to run injury-free. I finally agreed to do it his way, and this was a “push” day. We warmed up with some cable flys, then did bench press, incline press machine, overhead press with dumbbells, lateral raises, skull crushers and tricep extension. Ahem… ouch. Wednesday Since yesterday was “push” day, today was “pull” day. We hit the gym AGAIN and did a cable lat warmup, then lat pulldowns, seated cable row, rear delts with the cable, trap shrugs, and bicep curls. So… my son chided me for not working hard enough. He always does his last couple sets to failure and couldn’t believe I wasn’t doing that as well. That’s why he prefers to use machines and cables and not as many free weights. He pointed out that if I’m doing bench press or squats with the bar, I’ll obviously always stop when I know I can get the bar back up safely. With the machine or cable, he’ll always end when he can only get his last couple of reps halfway. My son wanted to give me a training plan, but I had to negotiate a few points. Just like we did with bench press, where we fin0shed on the machine, I pointed out that I could do squats but then end with the leg press machine and work to failure. He agreed to that. Then, I questioned the reason for some of the exercises we did and he said he does them to make his shoulders more broad. Strangely, my fitness goals have never included “have broader shoulders.” Keeping this in mind, we came up with a tentative schedule for me. My two best days to go to the gym are Tuesday and Wednesday. Not ideal, but Tuesday I’ll do upper body. I’ll combine the push day and the pull day, and leave out some things I don’t think will help me. Wednesday I’ll do legs, and then a third strength day at home (on Fridays?) with things I don’t need the gym for- like bulgarian split squats or bicep curls. Speaking of bicep curls, my son said I’m doing them wrong (SIGH!) He challenged me to do them without moving my upper arm AT ALL, and it was really, really hard. I thought I was good at these, but apparently not. One more thing. I LIKED going to the gym and working super hard. I realized that doing “pretty hard” strength training is just kind of uncomfortable and boring for me. But doing REALLY hard strength training is actually kind of… fun. Wait, did I just say “fun?” Yes… I did. It was fun and it made me feel great. Thursday After all that, I needed a leg day. I repeated Caroline Girvan’s “Brutal leg day” workout because… why not? Friday Enough of all this pushing and pulling heavy stuff around! I did a nice 4 mile run. Saturday Day off! Well… other than going to work and HOSTING THE DREADED BIRTHDAY PARTY. Thanks so much for all the encouraging comments on my last post. You guys were right! No one cared that the house wasn’t perfect. And I forgot- these are band kids. Band kids are nice, and slightly nerdy. No one did anything stupid, and there were no trips to the ER. They jumped on the trampoline, painted rocks, ate pizza and cake, and just hung out. Most of them stayed past the original end time, and everyone seemed to have fun. Hooray!!! I was really happy for my daughter, but the best moment for me was when everyone was gone and I could change into my pajamas and snuggle on the couch with my cat. An introvert to the end. Sunday You may have noticed something missing this week- a long run! The last two weeks I did it on Wednesday, but had to move it yet again because this Wednesday I worked in the morning. So on tap for today- 15 mile run. One last thing I have to mention. After months of complaining about the weather, I can finally report that our weather has been BEAUTIFUL. Well, this is our time- if you don’t like the weather in South Florida in January, then you definitely shouldn’t live here. It’s been upper 50s/low 60s overnight, and 70s-low 80s during the day, and the humidity is down. I love it. What’s your favorite month, weather-wise? – I might be the only one who says “January.”