Experimenting - Food and That Thing with the Funny Name

This week sort of got away from me in terms of finding time to write, but I really wanted to report back on Wednesday's workout & sort of a download on the rest of the week's goings-on.

The plan was a gym workout on Wednesday & Thursday (excellent timing for the two coldest days of the week!) but Thursday's workout was scrapped early Wednesday when I found my coworkers had planned a farewell dinner for me.  My last day isn't until next Wednesday, but with the normal month-end hectic schedule it was the last chance we'd have before then.

I've been experimenting this week with eating a bit more - about 200 more calories a day - which worked out well since I was for some reason feeling really hungry all week.  I had a pretty normal breakfast & light lunch Wednesday and started feeling hungry again in the late afternoon.  Knowing I had to was going to hit the gym, I grabbed a 240-calorie protein bar about an hour before leaving the office.  That's a bit of a high-calorie snack for me, but strength training + growling tummy = quitting my workout before it's finished, so there you have it.

I started off with 20 minutes on the bike - about 5 miles - then did weights (biceps, triceps, core & chest) and decided to bookend my weight training with some more cardio, so I hopped on the treadmill for another 10 minutes.

Bosu Plank

Two things:  1) I found the gym's Bosu Ball and did a new exercise using that.  My iPersonal Trainer app often assigns me activities using this thing, but I've never had access to one before, so i was pretty excited about it.  I tried Bosu Planks and plan to try some others next time.

2) I've been reading a book on improving your running training (more on that another time) and learning about some different ways of doing speed workouts.  The one with the funny name - FARTLEK - is actually a thing - it's Swedish or something and it means "speed play."  I decided to try it out on the treadmill where it seemed safer and I could easily control my speed without having to stare at the Garmin.  This was, in fact, kind of fun!  I started out with an easy 5.0 mph speed to warm up for a few minutes, then periodically changed up the speed.  5.5, 5.8, 6.0, 5.2, then 5.5 again, etc.  My mind began to wander, as it often does while running, and I remembered my miles challenge for 2013.  Specifically, my mother assigned me 20 miles, even more specifically, 20 miles at a sub-11-minute pace.  I'll have to check the logs, but I've gotten only 2 or three so far at that speed.  I'd planned to run just 10 minutes but realized if I settled in around the 5.8 mph pace I might get another one in before the end of January! Sure enough...

I don't know if my mother is a regular reader of this blog (thought I suspect she may be), but I'm happy to report another sub-11 mile for her.  So mom, if you read this, this one was for you!

Well, you can't really see the time... but if you squint you can see the bottom of the 0 in 10:30... 

Well my time is up, it's time to get ready for an evening out with my dear husband... so the rest of the week's activities will have to wait.

To be continued...