Rise and shine

Yesterday I went to yoga again. It's amazing how good of a stretch I get there. Some of the postures really require a lot of muscle strength, too.

This morning, I managed to talk myself out of talking myself out of working out. I got there early and again there were people there. Two already when I got there and there were four when I left. I ran a measly mile on the treadmill. It was still below freezing this morning, so I'm still not up to running outside yet. I'd be looking at some big problems with asthma at those temps. I could tell the mile went easier than the one last Friday. I'll work on getting up speed on that one mile. However, I already hit in the 180's bpm during the run, so I have to take it carefully. It would be cool if I could get that mile down under 10 minutes. It would make it easier to break the 30 minute 5k mark this spring.

I completed 1B6 out of NRoLfW this morning. I did end up sore after Friday's 1A6 workout and I'm feeling my lunges already. Deadlifts were on the menu today. I think I need to do more of a squat to grasp the bar. I felt like I was doing more of a straight legged deadlift. But, I guess I'll have to pay attention to the mirrors to make sure.

After the weights, I did the stretch trainer. I used the yoga breathing and got a much better stretch.

All in all, I was done in about an hour. Not bad. I had thought the 3-set portion of NRoLfW would take too long, but it seems like it will be ok. Of course, I know the exercises better now, so maybe I stay on task better. I'm pretty good about keeping the 60 second rest between sets. Although, on lunges, I take a short break in the middle.

Woo hoo! Back on the wagon.

I got up early again today, although a snooze-button-hit later than Wednesday. I got to the gym, ran a mile, then did NRoLfW 1A6 (I think). I feel so great today!

I was really worried about getting up to work out today. In fact, I lost some sleep over it. The strange thing is that I was alone at the gym on Wednesday. Someone was pulling into the parking lot as I was driving away, otherwise not a single soul. Today, however, there was already someone on a treadmill, and as I kicked out my mile, people kept coming. Soon, there were eight (!) people in the gym. Strange. The weather wasn't different, so I don't know why the difference. Maybe people don't want to work out Friday evening so they go in the morning??

Regardless, it was a good workout. I definitely need to run more when the weather gets nicer. My heartrate got way too high during that measly mile. There is no question that running is much harder for me than the elliptical.

I've been looking over the lists of 5k runs in the area and have added some to my calendar. I've got to decide specifically which ones I want to enter. That should help me kick my running into gear.

I wasn't as sore today from Wednesday's workout as I had anticipated. I had a mild amount of soreness yesterday, but I had expected to be waddling today. I guess that's a good thing!

Early morning workout

I managed to get to bed at a decent time last night so I could get up really early to work out this morning. We're talking pre-5AM!

The workout went well. I did 10 minutes on the elliptical as a warm-up then did Workout 5B of the first stage in NRoLfW. (Geesh that book has a long name!) Even though it's been way too long since I did one of those workouts, I completed it with the same weights as last time.

Running with the hubby

We left the kids with the grandparents this weekend and had some alone time. Since I do the packing, I packed running apparel and shoes and insisted we go for a jog Sunday morning. How nice! It was windy and the area we jogged in wasn't the nicest, but it was nice to be out with my hubby getting some exercise!

Need to get it going...

I've been so tired and out of the habit of running and working out that I've been slacking lately. We did go on a bike ride yesterday and I went to yoga class again. So, I'm not a total loser. I wanted to get up this morning to go work out, but I just couldn't. 4am was simply too early. Maybe it won't be when I'm rolling along, but for now I think I shouldn't delude myself by thinking it's going to happen.

Yoga!

Yesterday I went with a friend to a beginner's yoga class. It was nice. I was glad I hadn't lifted weights beforehand, though! I think I'll try to make that a regular item.

Spring actually *is* coming!

Finally, a spot of nice weather coincided with me having enough time to squeeze in an outdoor run!! I'm sooooo excited! It was about 51F (11C) during my early evening run today. I forgot how much I enjoyed running outside. It is so much nicer than the treadmill. That is extra-true because lately, I haven't found anything very good on the TV while on the treadmill. The other nice thing about today's run was that there was very little wind. Here on the plains, the wind is probably the number one factor whether it's an easy run or not. I definitely felt my decrease in mileage I've had lately, but I got through around 31 minutes without much trouble at all. In fact, I could have done more, but I could tell my knees where slightly week. Actually, the one, if I may borrow a term from the Brits on the C25K forums, was a tad niggly. So, I decided not to push my luck and stop. I don't need to aggravate that again!

Running outside is so freeing and refreshing. There is so much to look at and I always have my path wander around aimlessly. I don't plan it out in advance, so it's always a surprise!

My heart rate showed my resting lately. I had a max rate of 187bpm and an average of 169bpm. Not great, but I was so excited about running outside that I barely noticed it.

Welcome back, runner's high!

No knee pain??!?!?!

Wow. Yesterday's workout kind of surprised me. I had forgotten that, although the rep count goes down to 10 for most exercises, the sets go from two to three! I still upped the weights for most of the exercises. I held steady on the weights for the step-ups. Even with the squats and step-ups and running warm-up, I don't feel anything funny in my knee. I'm hopeful!

My warm-up was a mile of 5.0-5.5-6.0 mph on the treadmill plus a total of 0.4 miles for walking. Since I'm not feeling my knee problem, I'm going to increase the distance next time. I'm looking forward to the weather improving so I can comfortably and safely run outside!! Spring is just around the corner!