weekend workouts

Saturday was an absolutely perfect day to run.  Typically, I run almost first thing in the morning – or at least I used to before M came along.  Now, I wait for her to take her morning nap before I sneak out to get my long run in.  Of course, she had absolutely no interest in taking a nap in her crib meaning I had to wait until a little later in the day to get my run in.  Luckily, that meant sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s – perfect running weather!

I decided to go 8 miles with the last 2 miles at or below race pace (8-minute miles).  I actually think I need to change my predicted race pace as I am starting my runs at race pace and finishing 10-15 seconds faster than race pace.  The run felt amazing!  My legs felt fresh + light from having an unplanned rest day on Friday.  Plus, it never hurts to get a “Damn, girl!” with a half-mile left in your run from a random high school guy.  Perfect way to push me those last few minutes.

Mile 1 = 8:01
Mile 2 = 7:52
Mile 3 = 7:28
Mile 4 = 7:48
Mile 5 = 7:57
Mile 6 = 8:07 (uphill + against the wind)
Mile 7 = 7:45
Mile 8 = 7:30
Last 0.2 = 7:11
Total = 8.2 mile in 1:03:43

Some day I will be able to run 8 miles in under an hour…

Since I missed my planned lifting day on Friday, I decided to hit the gym Sunday morning.  MacKenna was cooperative and went down for her morning nap right at the time the gym opened – perfect timing!  I did NROLFW workout 2A, my 3rd workout in stage 2.  Stage 2 is much harder than 1 for sure and definitely is killing my legs!  Thankfully, I wasn’t too sore from my run the day before.  I also added some negative pullups, inverted rows, and situps at the end since I am really trying to focus on (finally) being able to do an assisted pullup and get my abdominal strength + endurance back.

After lifting, I decided to do a quick 20 minute HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout on the treadmill.  Right after I graduated from college, I worked at a corporate fitness center.  While I was there, I was able to teach a ton of group exercise classes, one of which was a treadmill class.  It was like spinning, but BETTER!  I mean, a group exercise class focused on running?!  How can you go wrong?!  This workout definitely had me sweating toward the end.

Adjust the speeds and inclines to your fitness level.  I love quick, intense workouts!

The rest of my Sunday was spent cleaning the house – something that hadn’t been done well in several weeks, and playing with MacKenna.

Oh, and rewarding myself with this:

Don’t worry, Matt + I split it before dinner and it was fabulous!  I can’t tell you the last time I had McDonald’s, but I will never pass up a McFlurry or Shamrock Shake!

What is your favorite group exercise class?