Sigh! After such a fun and exciting week last week, this one felt a little blah. It wasn’t bad, but trail adventures and travels were replaced with things like trips to the dentist and extra hours at work. Oh well- football playoffs are keeping the excitement alive, for now. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s get into it!
Monday
My son went back to school, which is always hard for me. Adding insult to injury, he left for the airport at 5 am. Luckily my husband LOVES going to the airport and will always drive people there and pick them up if he possibly can- so after saying goodbye, I went back to bed and slept for two more hours before getting ready for work.
This meant I had to run later in the afternoon, but that’s okay- our cool and beautiful weather continued and this 4 mile run felt pretty good.
Tuesday
Gym day! I get done with work at 2 pm on Tuesdays, so I have time to go to the gym before going to pick up my daughter. It’s pretty funny how many ways I’ll try to convince myself not to go, though. I’m feeling tired- maybe I should go home and take a nap instead! (Ha- nice try.) Maybe I could go a different day… Friday? (No, you’re going today. Shut up.). It’s really hard to work out later in the day- but somehow I did it.
It was leg day, which was grueling while I was there. But I felt great afterwards.
Wednesday
I started the day with a 4 mile run…
and then took my daughter to school, went to the dentist, did my shopping, all the while arguing with myself, because it was push/pull day at the gym. Once again I didn’t want to go, but if I’m going to go to the gym, it really has to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Once I convinced myself to go and finished the workout, again I felt amazing. I just don’t have the equipment at home to work out as hard as I do at the gym. Hopefully next week I’ll remember this and won’t have to go through the mental gymnastics to get myself there!
Thursday
Caroline Girvan and I have some unfinished business, because I never finished her Iron Series. I had three workouts left, and I figured today was the perfect day to knock out Day #28, glutes. I HATE her glutes workouts- so many hip thrusts. But I can cross that one off- hooray.
Friday
After all that strength work, I did a 4 mile run that felt like a vacation.
Saturday
Day off! I worked in the morning and then settled down happily to watch football. I wish the Dolphins were still in it, but it’s also fun to watch when I don’t have a strong preference, and can just enjoy- hopefully- a close, exciting game.
Sunday
On tap- 16 mile trail run. My long runs are getting to the point where the distance is slightly scary. AND, after all our cool weather, the temperature and humidity are spiking up- by the end of this run it will be almost 80 degrees. (Seriously? Wasn’t it in the 40s last weekend???) Good thing I have my double bottle hydration vest.
Do you prefer to work out first thing in the morning? If you do it later in the day, is it hard to convince yourself to do it?
Are you watching football today? (Go Bengals!)
50 Responses
I’m definitely a morning workout person–trying to motivate myself later in the day is a challenge! When I read that you went back to bed after saying goodbye to your son, I thought–I would have gone for a run! LOL I’m considering adding a day of that Caroline Givran strength work into my regimen. We’ll see what SJ has planned for me now that my heavy strength cycle is done.
I love watching football this time of year, no matter who’s playing because the teams are all so good! Plus, living in Chicago, the Bears are hopeless. I was happy to see KC win last night. I hope the Bengals win today. I’d love to see them play against KC–2 really good QBs!
YES! It looks like the Bengals will win. I was also rooting for KC. And I ended up going to bed before the end of last night’s game because it was late, and the game was not exciting at all. But lots of good football this weekend.
I definitely and am early morning runner — even before coffee! It takes a lot of commitment for me to stick to a plan to work out later in the day.
Good luck with your 16 miler!
I’ve got a dentist appointment this week ….
Yep, I run before caffeine. Unless I have a race- then I have caffeine first!
I am also too tired in the afternoon to workout. 16 miles is a lot of mileage! Looks like your training is going really well. 80 degrees is very warm for me to run in as well. I will be in Miami in a few weeks and hope you have one of those cold spells that weekend 🙂 Great job getting to the gym!
Okay, I’ll hope for cold for your visit! February is usually pretty nice.
Pre-pandemic, I only worked out at night (6:30-8pm). I don’t know if it was the close-knit group or just being part of my after work routine, but it was just what I did and what I knew. 3 years later (and post injury), I’m having so much trouble getting back to that (or even just after work); I’m going to try lunch workouts this week to see if it works better haha! As always, so impressed by your discipline!
Okay, I’ll be interested to hear how the lunch workouts go! I think I would spend the entire morning trying to come up with excuses not to do it.
I always work out first thing in the morning, although there were times in my life when that wasn’t possible and I worked out later in the day. I am a morning person for sure.
Your husband is like my dad – he will ALWAYS pick someone up/ drop them off at the airport!
People like your dad and my husband are invaluable- I certainly didn’t want to drive to the airport at 5 am!
As you know, I’m an early riser. Probably 95% of my workouts are done before I even have breakfast (caffeine is, usually, a nonissue, LOl). I fell asleep on the couch last night and woke up at 4:00. After brushing me teeth & climbing into bed, I almost just got back up because I had a tough time falling back to sleep. Key word: almost 🙂
It’s funny- I like caffeine (not coffee, tea) but I don’t have it till later in the morning. A morning workout wakes me up enough!
It is is working out… yes to the AM (not before coffee) but running in the winter NO lunch but mostly after work… Have no choice.
I am envious of that blue sky.
Things are pretty cloudy with snow on the way!!
I might complain about the heat, but I’ll never complain about the blue sky. I remember those gray days of winter up north!
I’m pretty good about working out whenever, but it’s always satisfying to get it done in the morning. Unless I’m tired. Like today. But it’s a rest day today anyway! Nice job convincing yourself to go.
I know it’s hard to say goodbye to your son, but it’s the natural way of things. You raised him right!
Thank you Judy! Yes, I have to remind myself that he needs to go- it would be very worrisome if he decided to live at home for the rest of his life.
100% if I have to workout later in the day then half the battle is making myself do it. Of course I have my days where I’d rather stay in bed than get up before everyone else, but at 6 AM I never have the distraction of “oh but it’s so nice outside” or “but there are so many other things that I could be doing right now”.
The “one million glute thrusts” workouts aren’t my favorite either;-) There aren’t too many of those but when they happen it’s memorable.
Yes, I think we’ll all remember those glute days. I don’t have any of them left in the Iron Series, which makes me very happy.
I definitely struggle to motivate after work! Caroline’s glutes days- SOOOO many hip thrusts, I know its great for runners, but it gets kinda boring to be honest. But I can check out and look at Instagram, haha 🙂 Still a fan of Iron Strength, but the Fuel series might be too much cardio for me. I like the simplicity of Iron Strength.
Yes, I don’t want any cardio in my strength workouts. Iron Strength isn’t perfect (too many hip thrusts, ha ha) but it really fits in with running pretty well.
Yes, morning workouts for the win here. The longer I wait to run or workout, the less likely it is to happen. Back in the day when I worked in an office, if I wasn’t at the gym at 5am it had to happen at 6pm. I well remember those days when I badly wanted to drive right past the gym and skip it! Enjoy that lovely weather while it lasts.
Oh, it must have been SO hard to go to the gym at 6 pm after work. But 5 am is also hard.
For home workouts I like doing them first thing in the morning, after coffee, but when I did my knee rehab I had a routine of doing it after lunch which worked well. I think creating a routine and keep with it really helps. When I’ve gone to regular gyms in the past, I’ve really struggled to make myself go there, although I know I’ll feel great afterwards! Oh and I love leg press machines!
I probably should try hip thrusts. I don’t really know what they are but will look them up. Everything for the glutes!
Oh yes, if you want to work your glutes, do hip thrusts! I agree- the important thing is getting into a routine. Going to the gym in the afternoon is new for me, but hopefully after a few weeks it’ll be routine and I won’t have to think about it so much.
For day 28 on the Iron series my notes say “too many glutes!”. I think it is clear what I think of her one body-part days!
I am NOT a morning person, so I rarely work out in the morning. I am definitely a person who does it after work and before dinner. Because it’s *mostly* routine for me, I don’t really have a hard time convincing myself to do it. I tried to do a yoga class at 6:30 in the morning once and I did go every week, but I was soooo tired all day long. I pretty much gave up on morning exercising since then.
That’s interesting! It works out SO much better for me to do it first thing. And, I’m very happy to be done with all those one-body part days- my two remaining workouts are full body, hooray!
I definitely prefer a morning workout, though I will sometimes chase the warmer weather and take a runch 🙂
I’m enjoying the football playoffs even though my home team never made it – rooting for the Bengals today!
16 miles – wow! Hope it was a good run!
Well you picked the right team! Next week’s Bengals-Chiefs game should be good.
a lot of strength workout, which is great! how did you transition from running to focus on strength? I don’t like it but I know I have to do it.
I always workout in the morning or it won’t happen.
Great question. I started doing strength training because I had a TON of injuries. Then I found out that lifting heavy is good for your bones, so i started going to the gym. I still don’t lift “heavy” compared to a lot of people, but I’m working my way up to it. I still would rather run, but at the age of 56 I can’t get away with that.
I find it hard to work out later in the day, but if that’s the only time available, I’ll do it. I much prefer to get up at 5 AM to fit in a workout before clients (like tomorrow morning).
Yes, we’re watching football this weekend even though I really don’t care who wins at this point.
5 am is hard for me these days… i go to bed too late. But yes, I would almost always vote for getting up early and getting it done.
Any time other than morning is tough for me to workout. It’s definitely a mental game and I do push it off until I just don’t do it! Funny you mention about your long run mileage. I was looking at my plan and I have 18 miles up next, and then 20 after that! How did I get to that already?? eeek.
Wait, what? Football is on? haha, nope. We only watch the Ohio State vs U of Mich game and the Super Bowl!
I used to only watch the Super Bowl, then I realized the Super Bowl is more fun if I watch the playoffs leading up to it, then I gradually got into regular season football. I REALLY got into college football when my son started at Baylor.
First thing!! If I don’t do it first thing, I dread it all day even though I actually LOVE working out **shrug**
Yes, I’m the same way. Well, I don’t “love” strength training, but I do love running, and there’s a part of me that will dread that if I have to do it after work.
You had a pretty good week and kudos for “talking yourself” into doing your workouts 😉
I definitely like to get exercise out of the way in the morning (mostly so nothing else can get in the way)… if my day is fairly open, I usually have no problem motivating myself in the afternoon, but since most days are usually “planned out”, I like to take care of exercise first thing.
Yes, that’s another good point- if you leave it till later, unexpected things can crop up and interfere with your workouts.
So often it is getting into exercise mode that feels the hardest. Once I put on the shoes and hop on the treadmill or head out the door, it’s not so bad (and I almost always feel better for doing it). Why is it so hard to work up that motivation?
I like the feeling of being done in the morning, but my best performance is definitely early evening. I find it too hard with the kids getting older, though, and “needier” at night since they’re up so much later. And, as you point out, getting it done early in the day helps prevent needing to make excuses all day long.
I also don’t like the feeling of it hanging over my head all day- if I do it in the morning, then it’s done and I don’t have to think about it again. But it’s true that everyone is different as far as energy at various times of day- some people really do have more energy for working out later.
I prefer to workout in the morning because then I only need to shower once. I hate showering twice in a day! And I am less likely to talk myself out of it – I, too, can be really convincing later in the day. 😉 But I have had to become more flexible. Like last Friday, I had an 8am call so a morning workout wasn’t going to happen. Instead I did it at 3pm. And then I did not shower since I knew I’d be running in the morning and I wasn’t horribly sweaty.
Question about the Caroline Girvan workouts. I know this varies from person to person, but do they make you sweat A LOT? I am thinking about trying to go to my work gym 1-2 times/week to do a strength training workout, but I can only do this if the workout doesn’t leave me dripping with sweat. And usually, dedicated strength workouts don’t make me drip with sweat like a run or HIIT workout might? Or I sweat to the extent that I could use some baby wipes or something like that and go back to work without showering… I’m just trying to figure out how to get one more workout in/week and doing it mid-day would be so optimal!
I was wondering when Paul was going back. 🙁 I imagine the house feels extra empty without him!
And yes, we watched football yesterday. I was happy that the Bengals won! I like the story of their QB, Joe Burrows. My husband is a big sports guy so explained to me that he basically wasn’t going to play if he stayed at OSU, so I believe he went to LSU and then was a total star! I thought that was a cool story!
I’m pretty sure the Iron Series workouts will NOT make you sweat too much. There’s no cardio, it’s all strength. But some of her other workouts (I think maybe the Fuel series?) do have cardio and I would imagine those would leave you sweaty. So don’t do those if you don’t want to shower!
Thank you! This is so helpful! I figure if I can just get one more workout in on my “in office” days then I can feel better about my workouts? I know I need to be gentle with myself, but I kind of hate that I end up working out every day Friday through Monday, then do nothing besides walking for the next 3 days! I am going to try these out, maybe starting next week!
Alright, I’m looking forward to hearing how it works out for you.
Why is it so hard to convince our brains that doing something NOW will have a good result? And yet it is so hard!
I love that your husband enjoys taking people to the airport. That is honestly adorable. My husband would never go to the airport at all if he could help it. One of the arguments I remember most from our pre-marriage days was me asking him to pick me up from the airport, and him not wanting to because there was some football game on, and I felt extremely hurt and he felt extremely put out. It all worked out okay, and I won in the end.
Ha, that is a funny story!!! From now on whenever I get annoyed with my husband I’ll remind myself “But at least he likes to transport people to and from the airport!”
Unfortunately my team (NY Giants) lost on Saturday night so that was sucky, BUT I take joy in knowing that Tom Brady will not be in Superbowl, lol.
While I definitely prefer working out in the morning before logging into work, occasionally I do love lunchtime workouts or the rare after work workouts.
Yes, I’ve noticed that you sometimes do workouts later in the day! You’re a warrior.
We’ve heard rumors that the Dolphins are interested in Tom Brady (noooooo!)
I am also a morning person. I get tired at work to try or think about running after work. I did chuckle at you trying to convince yourself not to work out. You didn’t try hard enough. JK.
Ha ha! Yes, next time I need to try a little harder.