changing things up
This morning, I went out for a nice 4 mile run as soon as I woke up – at 6 AM. Yes, it was early for a girl on summer vacation with no (current) children, but I’m a morning person so it just works.
And I’m glad I did. There were some pretty ominous looking clouds to the east + north of me during my run, but since they were east + north, I wasn’t too concerned about getting poured on. Of course, as I was walking to cool down, there was a flash of lightening, so I ran back to my house and got inside just before the skies opened and started pouring down rain. Whew.
I am still doing my 4 minute run/1 minute walk thing, which I’ve found to be extremely helpful at keeping a decent pace while giving me sufficient rest time, especially since I have been having some major leg issues. I do my 1 minute walk first, and as soon as I start running, my right leg tightens up really bad. I can’t tell if it’s my sciatic nerve or IT band bothering me. I’ve never really had sciatic problems, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind since I’m pregnant and sitting much more than usual. But, I’ve also dealt with plenty of IT band issues, they just usually only bother me around me knee, not my entire leg. But, since I feel like my calf is cramping up, I’m thinking it’s really my sciatic nerve. Boo.
Although I dealt with it yesterday on my run with Matt (even though I was sufficiently warmed up – we walked a mile before running 1.5 miles), today I had absolutely no problems! I’m attributing it to the fact that I’ve rested more the past few days and also switched up my strength training regimen.
Since my leg started bothering me about a week ago, I decided that maybe I shouldn’t lift my legs every day (I was previously doing a push/pull 4-day split). So, I changed my strength training to an upper body/lower body 4-day split, allowing my legs a little more rest between workouts so that maybe they don’t cramp up on my runs anymore. It seemed to work today!
So, here’s what my current training “schedule” looks like:
|
DAY |
MON |
TUES |
WED |
THURS |
FRI |
SAT |
SUN |
| Strength | Upper (heavy) | Lower (heavy) | Rest | Upper (light) | Lower (light) | Rest | Rest |
| Cardio | Run | Run | Rest | Run | Run | Run | XT |
On my heavy lifting days, I am doing either 4 sets of 8 reps or 3 sets of 10 reps; and 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps for my lighter lifting days. Upper body involves 2 exercises each for chest, back, and shoulders, and 1 exercise each for triceps and biceps. With my lower body workouts, I also include abdominal exercises, which includes my #Fitblog Planks Challenge, which I’ll get to in a second.
I am currently not planning out distance or times to hit for my runs since I’m not sure how my body will feel on any given day. If I feel good, I’ll go a little farther; if not, I’ll keep it short + sweet. Right now, I’m just trying to maintain my current level of fitness, so I’m happy if I can just get out and run!
#Fitblog Planks Challenge
The challenge is going alright. I’ve cut back to doing planks 2 days per week instead of 3 – really, because I forget to do them over the weekend! But, again, I’m just trying to maintain right now since I’m obviously not going to have six pack abs for several more months!
The 45 second holds went OK the past 2 weeks. Honestly, I’m finding it harder to hold the planks because of my shoulders, not my abs! I can get 2 sets in just fine, but that third set KILLS my shoulders. So, I’ve been scaling back my third set to about 30 seconds, since I can’t hold it much longer than that without my shoulders giving out on me.
I’m pretty sure I’m not going to achieve my goal of holding a plank for 3 minutes right now, but I’m just happy to be doing a little somethin’ somethin’ for my abs!