Speed it Up

I felt shockingly good last night at the gym.  I say shockingly because I didn’t really feel like it as per typical of my afternoon slump that wants to trick my brain into thinking that exercise is crappy and something I most definitely do not want to participate in.  Yes, most days I fight that horrible 2-4 PM slump where I literally have to will my body to stay awake, stay focused and stay motivated enough to drive myself to the gym.  Since I have created a pretty solid almost 2 year habit of going to the gym after work most days the gym wins out.  I know I really must not be in the right frame of mind to gym if I skip it.  This has probably only happened a couple times in two years.

Anyhow, back to yesterday. I got to the gym with the intention of running a 5k. Seemed like a good time to do that.  And then post 5k I was meeting a friend, Michelle, to do a chest and shoulder workout as per her request.  I’m pretty easy when it comes to workouts, someone suggests what they want to do and ususally I’m on board for it.  About 4:15 or so I jotted down a little workout.

I got to the gym and immediately got on my treadmill.  I started out at a 6 mph pace, thinking that I could go down if I felt like it. But after a first couple brutal minutes, it always takes my brain a few minutes to adjust to the idea of running), I started feeling much better. So I bumped it up to 6.1 for a while.  When I hit the 12 minute mark I was like, you know what I’m actually feeling great so let’s bump it up some more, 6.2 here I come.  I ran for a while at 6.2 and starting do mathematical calculations in my head.  At this pace I’d be close to a 30 minute 3.1 5k time.  But because I ran for 12 minutes sub 6.2 (30 minute 5k pace) I’d be a little short and therefore I’d have to bump the speed up at some point to compensate.  Yes, these are the calculations that take place in my brain.  At some point I upped it to 6.3, and that still felt okay, so 6.4 I went for a little while.

As I got closer to the 30 minute mark, around 28 1/2 minutes I realized I’d probably be a tiny bit shy of my 30 minute 5k mark so I did what any obsessive goal driven person would do I went to 7 miles per hour on the treadmill.  What the hell, let’s run this out.  So for about a minute and a half I finished off at a 7 mph pace which is a real sprint for my short little legs and I of course succeeded in my sub 30 minute 5k time.  It’s nice to crank out a few of those on occasion.  Lately I’ve been running at a 5.8-6 mph pace on the treadmill, NOT in line with a 30 minute 5k, so it’s refreshing to know that when conditions are right I’ve still got one in me.  I felt great.  The treadmill shut off. It automatically presets to only do a 30 minute run before it shuts down. You literally have to manually make it go to 60 minutes before you run if you desire longer than a 30 minute workout. 

At this point I got a text from my friend Michelle saying she was almost there and she was going to warm up for a couple minutes on a treadmill so I decided to just start the treadmill again and finish out another 9 tenths of a mile so that I had completed a total of 4 miles. So yes, a total of 4 miles in around 38 minutes and a few seconds.  And the funny thing is I felt amazing afterwards.  Guess it’s not that funny since it’s all them endorphin’s pumping thru me.  

We then hit up my chest/shoulder workout and it was good. I felt it. I went heavy.  I pushed myself and made the most of the exercises.  I’m kind of a strong girl really. I often forget my own capabilities.  I logged about 45 minutes of weights and finished up the night just shy of an hour and a half workout and right around 600 calories burned.  I will take it.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, successfully managed to avoid the pastries and cookies that my brain was telling me I wanted. I did get a jar of peanut butter which is always quite dangerous but it’s still a better option than cookies.  I ate me some peanut butter. Probably too much but whatever.  Then Chris & I cooked stuffed bell peppers for dinner. So delicious. I don’t cook as we all know but there are a few things in this world I will help prepare.  Stuffed peppers are one of those yummy exceptions.  FF ground turkey mixed with onions and tomato paste spooned inside bell peppers and baked in the oven.  So good. And healthy. And perfect.

Pretty much an evening exactly the way I like it. And now today the sun is shining. I feel good. I feel happy.  All good things.  Tonight I am going to work up a heavy and hard killer leg workout. That is my focus tonight.  I will do a warm up 2 mile run. I like how I’m expanding my warm up runs from 1.5 to 2 miles.  I might try and go a smidge faster but we will see. 2 mile run and then it’s going to be brutal leg day. I honestly need a really good brutal leg day.  I haven’t had one in a while so tonight is going to be perfect. I feel really good right now so of course this sounds like an amazing amount of fun at this moment in time, but I am certain later that slump will kick in and try to convince me that I don’t want to do a heavy leg day. But whatever.  I will.

I don’t think I have much else on the agenda to talk about today so I am going to call it at this. Be back tomorrow to talk about leg day… eek.