The Sweet Spot

I've finally found the sweet spot in my workouts, the three days on and one day off is working perfectly. My legs feel fantastic and last week I was able to push out 6 quick miles (for me) on my 3rd day. My lats and biceps were pretty sore today from yesterdays workout but because of the way this week lays out I had to get a gym workout in today. Here are the details:

Cardio: Run on treadmill for 15 minutes @ 1.5% incline with varying speeds. Average speed was probably right around 7.4mph. 5 minute cooldown

DB Chest press on stability ball: 3x10 @ 22.5 (I wanted 27.5's but they were in use as were the 25's. I can do 30's but it's hard to get them up on the ball without a friend).

DB shoulder fly: 3x10 @ 10lb dbs (still getting my right shoulder back in shape, at least the pain is gone).

Tricep kickback with pronation: 3x10 @ 12.5lb db

Cardio: HIIT sprints for 6 minutes (alternating 1 minute @ 6.0, :30 @ 10.0). 3 minute cooldown

Tricep dips 3x10 bodyweight
Vogue press 3x10 @ 15lb db
Pushups: 3x10

Cardio: Elliptical for 15 minutes. Varying ramp and resistence (between 7-11).

Tonight for dinner I made the delicious Pulled chicken in the crockpot. I just eat mine out of a bowl since I'd rather have baked sweet potato fries than a bun. I also sauteed some squash, zucchini, and mushrooms in a little olive oil and then drizzled some balsamic vinegar over them. So ono!

I have a late morning run planned for tomorrow morning, not sure how far I'm going to go. I'm thinking 4-5 miles since Wednesday is an off day again.

Productive Sunday

I admit I didn't sleep much last night, maybe six hours total. This is not adequate for my body so I was hurting today. DH and I left early this morning and stopped by Starbucks, we went down to Husky stadium again today for picture day. Admittedly we didn't stay for player pix....we just went to upgrade our seats finally. They are pretty great, I don't know how these two seats were still available. We did some grocery shopping on the way home and then I forced myself to the gym (I took yesterday off and it was much needed as my legs were SOOOOOOOO sore). They felt great today though and I was not mad at my decision to get to the gym (despite how tired I was). Here is my workout

Cardio: HIIT 24 minutes.
0:00 - 5:00 7.0mph
5:00-6:00 8.0
6:00 - 7:00 6.0
7:00 - 8:00 8.0
8:00 - 9:00 6.0
9:00 - 10:00 8.0
10:00 - 11:00 6.0
11:00 - 11:45 9.0
11:45 - 12:45 6.0
12:45 - 13:30 9.0
13:30 - 14:30 6.0
14:30 - 15:15 9.0
15:15 - 16:15 6.0
16:15 - 17:00 9.0
17:00 - 18:00 6.0
18:00 - 18:30 10
18:30 - 19:30 6.0
19:30 - 20:00 10
20:00 - 21:00 6.0
21:00 - 21:30 10
21:30 - 22:30 6.0
22:30 - 23:00 10
23:00 - 24:00 8.0
5 minute cooldown

Pull ups: 1x10 @ 30lbs assist. 2x10 @ 50lbs assist for negatives.
DB curls: 3x10 @ 15lbs very slowly/concentrated
DB pullovers: 3x10 @ 20lb db
Y's T's and I's: 3x10 @ 5lb dbs
Cable curls w/ rope attachment: 3x10 @ 50lbs

Tonight for dinner I made the chicken and spinach cheesy stuffed shells again, they were excellent. DH and I had them with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

Slacker!!!

I've been slacking big time the past few days. Not really super busy, just not into blogging I guess.

Wednesday's run:

Yesterday's workout:

Cardio: 10 minutes + 3 minute cooldown (roughly a 8:20 mile)

DB front squat 3x10 @ 17.5lb dbs
Romanian deadlift 3x10 @ 25lb dbs
Plie Squat with calf raise 3x10 w/ 30lb db:

Cardio: 10 minutes of hills @ 8:30 mile pace. 3 minute cooldown

Sumo squat and leg raise 3x10 with 30lb barbell
Toe touch 3x15
Ball twist (3x15

Cardio: 18 minutes on the elliptical plus 5 minutes cooldown.

5 minutes of stretching

I thought when I went out for my run this morning that I would keep it slow, my quads were tired like crazy. I kept glancing at my Garmin and making myself back off. I'm happy about these splits but I wish I could have gone slower (I couldn't make myself). I will probably pay the price tomorrow but fortunately it is an off-day. I think this 3 on, 1 off schedule is perfect for me.
I'm really looking forward to sushi tonight with DH! I haven't had sushi in far too long. I wanted to go see The Time Traveler's Wife but he suggested we go next weekend instead since we have a busy day planned tomorrow. We are going to the early Husky football practice at 8:45. Get some errands done and then we are going to the Taste of Edmonds in the evening with some friends (DH's bff from KINDERGARTEN and his wife...they've been friends for 31 years)

Another day at the gym

My eye is still all gross but it seems to be healing a little bit more. I feel like I've been so busy lately but I honestly don't know what I'm so busy with. Does that make sense? I ate most of the usual suspects today. Dinner was a new recipe for chicken enchiladas (I've been burnt out on the one I used to use). I found this simple recipe on Jenna's blog and ran with it. The only change I made is that I used 2 4oz cans of green chiles (one inside the enchiladas and one on top). What can I say, I love green chiles! I also used 9 whole wheat soft taco sized tortillas. I love the Safeway Select enchilada sauce, it is so good and was the perfect amount.

Here is my workout for the day:

Cardio warmup: 8 minutes run (avg pace 7.0mph)

Dumbbell skull crusher (on incline bench) 3x10 @ 12.5lb dbs
Push press 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Push ups 3x10

Cardio burst: 8 minutes (avg pace 7.5 mph)

Cable crossover 3x10 @ 12.5lbs each side of the machine
Dumbbell frontal raise 3x10 @ 15lb dbs

Cardio: 22 minute run varying speeds between 7.0mph and 8.5. Average pace ended up being 7.8mph. 5 minute cooldown

Crunches 3x20
Stetched out for 10 minutes or so afterwards.

I'm going to go finish up Season 2 of Entourage and read a little more of my book. Nite!

Sunday run

I admit, I had a hard time getting the shoes on and heading out for a run this morning. I finally just put the new shoes on and took off. I ran some pretty nice splits today, not quite negative splits (hill put me a little down). The 'skid' is still sleeping so I can't get upstairs to upload the Garmin so here are my stats:

Time: 43:44
Miles: 5.37
Calories: 578
Average Pace: 8:08

From my memory, I will update with the actual numbers...

Mile 1: 8:40
Mile 2: 8:20
Mile 3: 7:55
Mile 4: 8:08
Mile 5: 7:47

I stretched out really good after my run, I'm trying to make this a habit since I've been bad about stretching and as I start ramping up for a half marathon next spring I need to make it a habit NOW. I'm enjoying a nice Green Monster right now to refuel my body and then need to shower and go to Costco.

Behind schedule!

So this morning I got up at 7 and was going to be off and running to get in a gym session before meeting my friend Debra for some shopping at the outlet mall. I went to put in my contacts and found this...I've never had this so it freaked me the F out. Excuse the extremely attractive pic LOL. It's bloody all the way up. I waited until 8 and called my eye doctor and found out that I shouldn't be freaked and it should heal on its own in a few days. Whew. I don't mess around with my eyes.


So I got out the door an hour early but still got in a full workout! Here is what I did:

Cardio: 5 minutes warmup on treadmill (roughly .8 miles with my cooldown).

Pullups 3x10 @40lbs assist
21s 3x10 @ 30lb barbell

Cardio: 5 minutes on treadmill (roughly .9 miles with my cooldown)

Superman: 3x for 1 minute count
(Superset) Dumbbell hammer curls 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Crunches on stability ball 3x25

Cardio: 5 minutes on treadmill (roughly .9 miles with my cooldown)

Bentover DB row 3x10 (each arm) @ 25lb db
(Superset) Flat bench crunches 3x15

Cardio: 15 minutes on the elliptical

I came back home to shower and have a Green Monster and headed off to meet Debra. I didn't end up buying much, I got some new running shoes at the Nike Outlet since they had the shoes I'd been looking for in my size. The only size 9! All the others were either 12's or like 5/6. I also got DH some dri fit socks, hopefully those will help his feet along with his new Skechers steel toe work shoes. His feet have been killing him for awhile now. They had so many pairs of Nike Tempo shorts in so many colors, they had my purple ones but only in Large or X-Large. BOOO I would have bought some. I was hoping to find a rain jacket for running and a warmer pullover but I didn't like the colors they had. I am going to buy those online since the Clearance prices online are very comparable to the outlet store. We wandered around a bit and then headed to Bob's Burgers and Brew for a late lunch. I had a cajun chicken wrap and fries (and a lot of water) which really hit the spot. I was STARVING, all I had after my GM was an americano lol.

So I'm just relaxing now, see my super sexy sweats lol (the bottoms are actually the VS Pink Huskies capris from last year, I don't like the latest ones. :().

I am so excited for football season...I am watching a 'classic' game on Fox Sports right now (Oregon State/Washington from 2000, which I was at of course). I also watched the first press conference of the season online yesterday. What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment?

Leg day!

Today was leg day at the gym, here is my workout:

Cardio: 15 minutes on treadmill avg pace 7.5mph. 5 minute cooldown.

Double Leg Lift 3x15
Calf raise with stability ball 3x15
Reverse lunge with dumbbells 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Booty blaster on stability ball (can't find my link to it grr) 3x15
Stability ball pass 3x10 my abs were still sore from Tuesday so these were killer.

Cardio: 15 minutes on treadmill avg pace 7.5mph. 5 minute cooldown.

All the typical food for today, for dinner I didn't feel like doing much since I was only cooking for me. I sliced up a zucchini that I desperately needed to use, also about five jumbo mushrooms. I sauteed those in some olive oil and seasoned with black pepper and cayenne pepper. I then cooked up a box of Annie's shells and cheese and threw a can of tuna fish in. I ate about half the mac n cheese and tuna with a healthy portion of hot sauce (gotta have hot sauce on mac n cheese).

I finished Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum novel last night, Finger Lickin' Fifteen. It was very funny, almost back to her usual. I have to admit, I'd like to see her mix it up and have Stephanie finally pick a love interest. Lula was hilarious as usual, there could have been more Grandma Mazur too. But overall plenty of laugh out loud moments.

I'm going to watch another chick flick tonight, this time Confessions of a Shopaholic. I've already seen it but had put it into my Netflix queue anyways for fun. I really enjoyed the Shopaholic series of books (even though Bex is an idiot). So I already know that it is light, humorous, and something to veg out to.

I did like Bride Wars last night, again just something light to veg too...totally unrealistic but you can just drone out the real world and use it as escapism.

I've got a lot on my mind right now so it's nice to escape in a dvd or a book. I'm also starting a new book tonight, I can't wait to curl up in bed with it. I hope Cooper joins me (Jada won't sit still she just wants to rub on the book and stand on me). The book is A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand, this is my first book by her so I'm curious if I will like her writing. Has anyone read any of her stuff? I love to chat about books. :)

It's amazing what a good run will do....

for one's mood! It's gonna be a quick one tonight, I just popped Bride Wars into the DVD player and am going to watch that. I'm a single lady until Saturday, gotta enjoy my time! I went to dinner tonight with one of my BFF's, Michelle. We did Indian. Yum yum, split an order of vegetable samosas, and I had baigan bharta and roti. Sooo yum. I wanted to lick the little dish clean.

Did a run with the 'skid' today. Temps are sooo much lower than last week. Last Wednesday our high was 103 in Seattle, today it was barely 70. My body was in heaven, I even ran in a long sleeved shirt today because the 62 at noon was FREEZING to me. I loved that we did negative splits, what a great workout.

For lunch I had mongolian grill leftovers from last night (brown rice, chicken, tofu, a million veggies).

One of my fave stores just started carrying Chobani, I picked up a couple of things of it last night and will be sure to give my opinion. I'm a total Fage girl out of necessity so we'll see how it compares. My mom said she much prefers Fage to Chobani so we'll see what I think.

Okay, I'm going to kick back and watch this movie. :)

Happy Birthday to Me

So today is my 31st birthday...I don't feel any older, and quite frankly feel younger than I did when I was 21. I'm in a lot better shape, y'all I wish I had my old pics somewhere. I think around 2001 I gave up on dropping the weight and trashed all my old pictures. I'm glad I didn't give up, I don't know when it hit but in May of 2006 was when I had my weight loss epiphany. I never thought I could control my portion sizes...one day I said 'f' it and started going to 5-6 smaller meals a day. That did the trick for me, I stopped feeling hungry and overindulging. At the peak I know that I weighed 178lbs, this was in 2000. I could have weighed more but that is the highest I ever knew of. In 2001 I got down to 155lbs with exercise alone. But I couldn't ever break the plateau. Between 2001 and 2006 I hovered between 155 and 165lbs. On May 14, 2006 I weighed 165lbs. By late Summer 2006 I was down to 145lbs. PORTION CONTROL was my friend. In the Fall I got engaged to the hubs but I was feeling a plateau, I had lifted weights a lot in high school so I started adding weight training back into my routine.

By the time we were married I'd gotten down to 135lbs and felt great. I don't really consider myself to be in a 'maintenance' mode. I honestly don't want to necessarily lose weight. I want to get stronger. I want my muscles stronger for lifting and running. I want my mind stronger for learning. I try hard to keep my nutrition in line because I straight up feel better when I eat better. I know that the number hasn't really changed on the scale over the last 2.5 years but I see the differences, I feel the differences in my performance.

So yeah, that was one big useless tangent. LOL. I guess it was just a recap of where I am today...

For breakfast this morning I had a big Green Monster. Same ingredients as yesterday. I have a small sample of PB2, how should I use it? I was thinking in a Green Monster, or maybe mixed with some greek yogurt and puffins? Any ideas?

For my snack I had greek yogurt, pb puffins, kashi heart to heart, and strawberries.

For my lunch I am going to eat leftovers of the delicious cheesy chicken shells from last night.

I have an amazing workout planned for after work, I wrote it all out even! Here it is, obvi weights could change.

Cardio: 5 minute warm up on tread (varied speeds)

Dip assist machine 3x10 @ 30lbs
DB Shoulder press 3x10 @ 25lb dbs

Cardio: 5 minutes gradually increasing incline @ 7.0mph

Leaning lateral raises 3x10 @ 10lb db
Supine chest press 3x10 @ 25lb dbs

Cardio: 5 minutes of speed intervals (7.0 for 40 seconds/9.0 for 20 seconds repeat)

Frog crunches 3x15
Bicycle crunches 3x25

Cardio: 15 or 20 minutes of moderate running (7.0mph or so). Depending on how much time I have and how I feel.

I almost forgot! I have a couple of new songs on my little iPod Shuffle too, I love when a new song comes on. Here are my new faves:

• El Gitano Del Amor by Latin Soul Syndicate
• Love, Sex, and Magic by Ciara (feat. Justin Timberlake - yum)
• Whatcha Think About That by The Pussycat Dolls (feat. Missy Elliott)
  

Okay I'm going to go make my lunch in a few! Have a good afternoon all!

Happy Rest Day

So I've been doing a 3 on, 1 off rotation with working out lately. I think this is best for my body, after that 3rd day of exercise I need to rest my legs. I didn't do a dang thing today and loved it. I had this rather scary looking Green Monster this morning.

Don't fear, it was delicious. I bought a huge thing of Strawberries at Costco yesterday so we are eating a lot of them right now. In the GM was:

1 cup of Cow's milk 1 scoop Optimum Nutrition vanilla whey protein powder 1 TB Trader Joe's raw creamy Almond butter 5 strawberries 1/2 frozen banana 4c spinach 1/2c frozen blueberries 1.5c crushed ice

I just haven't really been feeling like taking pics of my food, I think it makes me self conscious. Maybe more than 4 people would read my blog if I took more pics, what do you all think? Though, I eat the same stuff most every day so it really isn't exciting. I'm much better about workout blogging than food, which is true to form because I'm a good exerciser but am pretty lax about my nutrition.

For my morning snack the strawberries made another appearance....

1/2c Fage 0%
1/2c Peanut Butter Puffins
1/2 Kashi Heart to Heart cereal
6 sliced strawberries

I was starvin marvin' by lunch time...

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Lunch was a wrap:
Morningstar Farms tomato basil pizza burger
1 Flat Out wrap
1c spinach
1/2 tomato
1 Laughing Cow Light Swiss

All grilled up because it sounded freaking good...served along side a handful of riceworks sweet chili brown rice chips.

Afternoon snack was a Kashi Honey Almond Flax bar (my least fave of the Costco variety pack, but DH won't touch 'em so someone has to eat them while he gets the nummy Trail mix ones...how is THAT fair?) and a big juicy peach.

For dinner I tried something new, I went out on a limb that the 'skid' would eat it but he isn't a super picky eater so I wasn't too worried (DH said he thought he'd eat it). Thanks to Danica for this delicious recipe! I only had a 10oz package of frozen spinach so I went double chicken (DH is a huge carnivore and I need the extra protein on my rest day). OMG, so delicious. I ate two of the shells along with about a cup of steamed broccoli and cauliflower. The 'skid' actually said (unprompted) 'This is really good!'. So two thumbs up for Danica's recipe. I used Newman's Own marinara since I haven't been to Trader Joe's in a few weeks.

I plan to eat a serving of Dreyer's Tart Honey froyo later. I picked up a tub last week because all Dreyer's was $2.99 at Safeway. I really like this but I don't like that the honey is a swirl, I wish it was more mixed in. There's definitely a tart lemon taste (which isn't suprising because there is lemon juice concentrate in the ingredient list). It doesn't compare to my fave froyo with coconut but it will do for a treat, it's a lot cheaper.

picture courtesy of Dreyer's

Okay I'm off to get some laundry done and to read some more of the latest Stephanie Plum novel, Finger Lickin' Fifteen. It's hilarious!

Quick Sunday post!

Last night was really fun, DH and I went out to dinner and to the theatre. We saw Catch Me if You Can, I've never seen the movie or read the book so it was all new viewing for me. Overall we both really liked it.

Dinner was amazing, we went to Palisade. I hadn't been there in YEARS. It was just as good as I remembered (if not better). I forgot my camera, which bummed me out because the restaurant is beautiful. We started with drinks, a lilikoi mojito for me and a mai tai for DH. Then we split a calamari appetizer, unlike a lot of restaurants they use big strips of calamari. They soak it in buttermilk and then do a very light breading. I loved the wasabi aioli they served for dipping, even DH liked it (and he isn't a fan of wasabi). After that we made the fatal mistake and went for the seafood chowder. It was delicious but soooo rich. For entrees DH had a big NY strip steak with mushrooms, mashed Yukon Gold potatoes, and asparagas. I had crab and mac nut stuffed prawns. They served it over summer veggies (delicious) and mashed potatoes (I had like 3 bites). The prawns were so much bigger than I thought they would be, I think there were six and I was able to eat 4.5 (and all of my veggies). This is so rare for me to feel full like that, I'm normally the bottomless pit. I think the richness of the food just did me in, I don't normally eat really rich foods. Sooo delicious though!

After dinner we had time before we had to head downtown to go for a walk around the marina, I think this really helped me digest so I didn't fall asleep during the show!

This morning I got up for a good workout. It was already hot and I didn't want to deal with it so I did a treadmill workout.

I did a variation of this workout from Fitness magazine.

Minutes	Pace
0:00–10:00	Warm-up jog; worked my way up from 3.5mph to 6.5mph gradually.
10:00–10:20	Sprint at 9.5 mph
10:20–11:20	Jog at 6.5 mph
11:20–14:00	Repeat minutes 10:00–11:20 twice
14:00–17:00	Jog at 6.5 mph
17:00–27:00	Run at 7.5 mph
27:00–31:00	Jog at 6.5 mph
31:00–35:00	Run at 7.5 mph
35:00–39:00	Jog at 6.5 mph
39:00–55:00	Repeat minutes 31:00–39:00 twice
55:00–60:00	Gradually slow pace to cool down at jog/walk

This ended up burning 700 calories for me with the cooldown, I varied incline between 1.0% and 2.5%.

After that I had to go to Costco to get more spinach. YUM!

Saturday....

Ugh, I woke up with a pounding ass headache this morning. I tried to get it to go away naturally but it just wouldn't go. I ended up heading out for my run, which quite frankly sucked (I slept later than I wanted and it was already hot in the sun plus the headache). Here are the stats, I'm too lazy to upload and quite frankly it is one of my slowest runs in 5 years. I originally wanted to do a 6.75 mile loop but knew my headache would prevent that.

Time: 41:04
Distance: 4.5miles
Calories Burned: 478
Best Pace: 7:38
Avg. Pace: 9:07

I came home and treated myself to a huge Green Monster and shower. LOL.

I then went for a much needed pedicure and manicure. I'm now back home eating some lunch. I had some leftover Sloppy Joe's (without a bun, just the meat and veggies) and some sweet potato discs. I finally gave in and turned on the oven, I had to have them. Seasoned with some Johnny's Seasoning Salt and cayenne pepper.

I'm just relaxing and enjoying a little Beverly Hills 90210 on the SOAP network.