Total Body Lift

Pretty consistently this is the time of the week where I don't wanna do anything anymore. Don't want to devise a new workout, don't want to cook anything, just want to curl up and wait for the weekend. And I haven't even done much this week! Lazy panda, over here. Perhaps I should think about using some of my early-week energy to map out workouts for later in the week when I don'wanna.

Luckily, the internet is full of people that will plan for me! Today's workout comes courtesy of the Fitnessista as part of her 'Winter Shape-Up 2013' series.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 3

Sore Areas: None.

Yesterday: Beer, No exercise

Environment: Indoors

Workout
Equipment: dumbbells - 15lb
Work Time: 34:00

	Goal	Actual*
Exercise Name	Reps - Weight [type]	Set 1: Reps - Weight [type]	Set 2: Reps - Weight [type]	Set 3: Reps - Weight [type]
Lateral Lunge R + 2 Jump Lunges + Lateral Lunge L	10 rounds	12 rounds [start R]	12 rounds [start L]	12 rounds [alt. start]
Pile Squat + Bicep Curl + Overhead PressL)	15 - 15 lbs	15 -15 lbs	15 - 15 lbs	15 - 15 lbs
Single-Leg Bent-Over Row (L) + Squats + (R)	12/side [alt] + 15 squats - 15 lbs	15/side + 15	15/side + 15	15/side + 15
Plank + Knee Touch	15/side	15	15	15
Supermans	20	20	20	20
Bridged Chest Press	15 - 15 lbs	20 - 15 lbs	20 - 15 lbs	20 - 15 lbs
Pushups	12	0	0	0
Abs: On-elbow knee tuck + extend + life	20	20	20	20
Total time		11:00	12:00	11:00

*Color key: green = accomplished goal, blue = exceeded goal, yellow = did not meet goal

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 4
Stretch Time: 8:00
Total Time: 60:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 1
Sore Areas: Upper quads/Hip Flexors, Upper Back

Comments
Whoops. Totally forgot to write the pushups into my book, so those fell by the wayside. Fail...

But aside from that, I actually felt really good after this workout! I think I found all the right weights/reps for the exercises I was doing, which doesn't happen too often. Definitely felt some burn/fatigue by the end, but in a good way.  Totally probably might have burnt off that Potbelly's sugar cookie I ate earlier (my undoing, EVERY TIME). Also I'm slightly worried my triceps aren't getting enough action -- going to have to look up some tricep moves and work them in in the future. Almost the weekend!

Distance Run - 6.5 mi

Originally hailing from the Windy City, I'm not what you would call 'accustomed' to 50-degree January afternoons. Subzero temps, sloppy sleet (only when not hailing, naturally), and massive winds? Streets and sidewalks so covered in slush and salt even my dog doesn't want to go outside? That's January, through and through. So when the universe decides to gift me with a warm spring day in the middle of winter, as it did yesterday, I feel downright guilty for not taking advantage of it.

Since dog hasn't gotten a good run in a few weeks, I decided to take him out for a spin. Although the sun had set by the time we got out of the house, there was a nice warm breeze and enough moisture in the air to make me think of proper Spring [random aside: what is it with people and the word 'moist'? You find some who shudder at the mere thought of the word. And if you ask them about it, the only real defense they can ever give is that the phrase 'moist panties' is downright cringe-worthy. Oh, so your first association with this arbitrary word is B-level romantic literature? Because mine is with delicious baked goods. Who wants a dry brownie? No one. Ever.

Clearly it's 'damp' you should be avoiding. When is 'damp' ever a good thing? Damp socks are the worst, damp towels probably mean you're cleaning, and damp pants? Sorry you were running late and had to get dressed before everything took its proper turn through the drier. Not the best way to start your morning, am I right?

/rant.]

What's even better is I actually remembered to time myself properly this time! Well, sorta. According to my watch, Dog and I covered 6.5 miles in 61 minutes. Not too bad, especially considering there were a myriad of stoplights and an inquisitive dog 'forcing' me to take breaks. I'd say there was easily 2-3 minutes of downtime, so I'm giving myself a pace under 9:00/mile, which I'm perfectly content with. Dog seemed to enjoy it too, though he was definitely slacking towards the end...

Quick Total Body Lift

Such a fun weekend! It was my mom's birthday, so my sister and I joined her in Minneapolis to watch the baby sister's Cyclone gymnasts team take on the Golden Gophers. They lost, sadly, but there was some mad home court advantage going on -- 9.8s being out given to the Minnesotans like candy. Bah humbug.

But it was a most excellent weekend regardless -- saw the fam, had some good food and good wine, and a most excellent frittata Sunday morning. Middle sister and I even got in a bit of a workout Sunday morning -- she was curious as to this Blogilates thing I've been following, so we did a couple videos together. Pajama exercise for the win!

As usual after a decadent weekend I'm eager to get back to the gym and get back on track. Unfortunately, as always after an out-of-town weekend I have 6 million (margin of error: 3%) domestic chores to take care of. I'm out of clean clothes, there's no food in the house, and whatever my dog shredded all over the carpet needs to be vacuumed up (I think it was a cork... maybe a bone... possibly both). Not to mention the disaster in the kitchen or the 6 days of snow detritus that's been tracked across the floor. So... instead of a real workout, I'm going to take care of business and slip in this strength training quickie. I'll save the origin story for another time, but it's mostly a custom job that I use to supplement cardio sessions when I'm falling short on lift days or, on days like today, when I want to do something good for me but don't have a lot of time.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 4

Sore Areas:  None! A little stiff from the 5 hours I spent on a plane yesterday (thanks for the delay, Mother Nature) but nothing major.

Yesterday: Brunch. 5 hours on an airplane.

Environment: indoors -- weather can't decide what it wants to do. It might be slushing? Freezing rain? Who knows.

Workout
Equipment: none
Work Time: ~20:00

	Chest [reps]	Legs [reps]	Abs [reps]	Back [reps]
Round 1	Pushups [14]	Squat + Kick [28]	Stability Ball Situps [28]	Bent-Over Row [28 x 10lbs]
Round 2	Pushups [20]	Side Lunge [20/leg]	Side Plank + Toe Tap [20/side]	Upper Body Supermans [40]
Round 3	Pushups [16]	Alt. Front Lunge [16/leg]	Plank + Leg Lift [16/leg]	Standing Shoulder Blade Squeeze [32 x 10lbs]
Round 4	Pushups [16]	Sumo Squat [32]	Russian Twists [32]	Lower Body Supermans [40]
Round 5	Pushups [22]	Low-Half Squats [6 sets of 8]	Mountain Climbers [50]	Combo Supermans [50]

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 
Stretch Time: 
Total Time: 

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 
Sore Areas: 

Comments

15:00 Jump Rope

Very little time to workout today -- it's 'Prom' night! No, not actual Prom -- it's my company's annual Winter Gala. Every January they rent out a museum for us to frolic about in; we get dressed up super fancy and drink their booze whilst trying not to ruin the priceless dinosaurs or diamonds or canoes or whatever. There aren't a ton of opportunities in my life to actually wear a shiny dress, so I always enjoy the excuse. This year I ordered a new dress, which is currently sitting at the FedEx store, conveniently located on my route home from the office. Inconveniently, my wallet is sitting on the table at home and the FedEx guy needs my ID to release my package. So I have to go home, come back, AND get prettified before 8 PM, which isn't going to leave a lot of time for exercise. If I manage to squeeze in 15 minutes, it's going to be this 15 minute jump rope workout from the Women's Health Big Book of 15 Minute Workouts.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 4

Sore Areas: Legs hurt, but I think they're bruised and not actually sore

Yesterday: No exercise, four-more-years champagne

Environment: indoors - FREEZING. Coldest day of winter thus far.

Workout
Equipment: Jump Rope, 5 lb dumbbell
Work Time: 21:00

Jump Rope

Minutes	Jump Type	Speed
0:00 - 1:00	two-foot jump	Moderate
1:01 - 2:00	single-foot jump [:30 R / :30 L]	Moderate
2:01 - 3:00	two-foot jump	Moderate
3:01 - 4:00	single-foot jump [:30 R / :30 L]	Moderate
4:01 - 6:00 4:01 - 5:00 5:01 - 5:30 5:31 - 6:00	two-foot jump two-foot jump butt-kicks high knees	Fast Fast-ish Fast-ish Fast-ish
6:01 - 7:00	two-foot jump	Moderate
7:01 - 8:30 7:01 - 8:00	double-under jumps	Fast
8:31 - 9:30 8:00 - 9:00	two-foot jump	Moderate
9:31 - 11:30 9:00 - 10:00	Jumping Jacks	Moderate
11:31 - 12:30 10:00 - 11:00	two-foot jump	Moderate
12:31 - 14:30 11:00 - 12:00	'Jogging'	Fast
14:30 - 15:00 12:01 - 14:00	butt-kicks [:30] high knees [:30] x2	Fast
14:00 - 15:00	two-foot jump	Moderate
15:00 - 16:00	single-foot jump [:30 R / :30 L]	Moderate
Total: 15:00 16:00

Ab bonus!
Blogilates 'Plank Workout for Flat Abs and Toned Arms'

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 4
Stretch Time: 15:00
Total Time: 40:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 0
Sore Areas: None! Surprisingly.

Comments
Couple things ended up happened -- first and most importantly, I decided to stop by FedEx before I went home just to see if I could get my package without my license, and the guy at the counter totally accepted my work badge as a valid ID! Win! So since I didn't have to trudge all the way home and back, I got to spend a little extra time at the gym -- I threw in the ab workout I skipped on Thursday to the end and took the opportunity to do some extra stretching.

Turns out I suck at jump roping. Or, rather, I suck at jump roping fast. I can keep my little moderate pace forever, but the second I speed up I start whipping myself with the rope. Not fun. So instead of speeding through 2 minutes, I added some butt kicks and high knees. Then the double-under jumps were a disaster, so instead of struggling through them for 2 minutes and spending most of that time tripping over the rope, I gave up after 1 minute and moved on. I added in more single-foot jumps later to make up for it. I also got bored 'running' so I went back to the butt kicks/high knees, which I figure are pretty much the same but harder.

Also, I somehow ended up doing 16 minutes instead of the 15 it was supposed to take. Don't really know how that happened, honestly...

{EDIT} -- the first two rounds of single foot jumping were supposed to be :30 each, not a minute. So I feel less bad about having to cut that minute in half and do :30/leg twice because after :30 my calves were ready to fall off

Blogilates - Full Body Focus

Am I the only person who thinks making decisions is taxing? I spent a solid (read: embarrassingly long) chuck of time today trying to figure out what to wear to a formal work event tomorrow and now I want nothing more than a nap. Sheesh.

As a result, I don't have the mental energy to pull together a workout for today. I'm going to be lucky if I manage to drag myself to the gym. My original plan was to make some modifications to a workout I did awhile back that involved interspersing lifting exercises with jumping rope. I wanted to modify it because I feel almost like I've gotten into somewhat of a lifting-moves rut. Like, seriously, I can't come up with anything better than squats with an shoulder press, maybe a lunge or two and some dumbbell rows? Apparently not. Not today anyway (although I did see a girl at the gym this week doing some squat while front/side dumbbell lifting thing that looked mad hard, so I'm going to have to work that in at some point in the future). Throw in my constant fear that I'm working all the same muscles in all the same ways all the time (re: squats and lunges) and the result is that I've changed my mind and am going to go in my new favorite not-quite-convinced-it's-a-real-thing-yet workout: Blogilates! I'll jump around tomorrow...

However, in the (granted, short amount of) time I've been working with the program Cassey Ho puts together, I've noticed one thing: girl loves her some lower body workouts. If you browse her channels, it seems like 4 out of every 5 videos is dedicated to having a perky butt or long lean legs. While I can't deny wanting both of those things, I do also have arms that could use some work and a back that is punished by sitting in a desk 9 hours a day. So I'm switching out some of the extra booty work suggested for today's workout and subbing in back and arm videos chosen completely at random. Because that's always a good idea.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 3

Sore Areas:Nothing beyond the usual.

Yesterday: No exercise. A couple beers.

Environment: Indoors. Super cold. Forgot sweatpants. Eff...

Workout
Warmup: 
Equipment: None!
Work Time: 1:00:00

JaNEWary Full Body Focus - 1/24 [Modified]

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 3
Stretch Time: 0
Total in-Gym Time: 0 -- done at home

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 1
Sore Areas: Back, a little

Comments
Lost my gym motivation at some point in the middle of the afternoon when I also decided I didn't want to cook dinner. I blame work. Luckily, boyfriend offered to bring home salads so I didn't have to make anything. So while he did that, I decided to go home to take care of the pup, and then do this workout at home. It was immediately difficult, as usual, but I'm not feeling a lot of post-workout soreness. I might have been slacking -- it's been known to happen when I try to work out at home. Didn't help that boyfriend came home about halfway though with my dinner; it kind of killed my momentum, and I definitely cut the last ab workout short out. There was salad to eat!

Lesson learned: even if I'm working out at home, pretend there are people judging me. No slacking!

20:00 Stairs + 20:00 Bike

Laundry is the worst. Honestly. Somehow, I always have a mountain of it, and, on the rare occasion where I get it down to nothing I realize that as soon as I take off whatever I'm currently wearing there's going to be more to do. A vicious cycle, to be sure. And what's worse, since I've been neglecting Mt. St. Laundry recently, I ran out of 'good' bras! Anyone else have 'good' bras? The select few that you've stumbled upon over time that actually do what they're supposed to do and keep everything strapped down? I have, like, three. The other 47 in my drawer? Functional, but I probably shouldn't jump rope in them. Although sometimes I do anyway. Whoops. That's Future Britt's problem.

Anyway, since everything clean was also stupid, I ended up going low-impact yesterday. The stair stepper, which I've recently discovered is a bitch and a half and therefore probably really good for me, and the ol' stand-by stationary bike. I'll get back to jumping up and down later this week.

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 4

Sore Areas: Legs hurt, but I think they're bruised and not actually sore

Yesterday: No exercise, four-more-years champagne

Environment: indoors - FREEZING. Coldest day of winter thus far.

Workout
Equipment: Stair Stepper, Stationary Bike
Work Time: 40:00

Stairs

Minutes	Intensity (steps/minute)	Total Distance (floors)
0:00 - 1:00	51	~5
1:01 - 2:00	60	~11
2:01 - 3:00	69	~18
3:01 - 4:00	78	~26
4:01 - 5:00	91	~35
5:01 - 7:00	101	~55
7:01 - 17:00	repeat 1:01 - 6:00 x2	~95 ~135
1701 - 20:00	60 forward [1:00] side step - L [1:00] side step - R [1:00]	~141 ~147 153
Total: 20:00	76.5 [avg]	153

Stationary Bike
Program: Random
Level: 15

Minutes	Intensity (RPM)	Total Distance (mi)
0:00 - 5:00	70-75	~1.3
5:01 - 10:00	~95 [:20] ~30 [:10] x10	2.6
10:01 - 15:00	70-75	3.75
15:01 - 20:00	~95 [:20] ~30 [:10] x10	5.25
Total: 20:00		5.25

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 4
Stretch Time: 10:00
Total Time: 60:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 0
Sore Areas: None! Surprisingly.

Comments
Everything I've heard about the stair stepper is that it's a total butt burner, but after awhile it wasn't my butt that was tired, it was my quads! Butt still isn't sore even the day after. Must look into this.

Also the stair stepper at my gym is stupid -- it goes by 'levels' which correspond to an awkward number of floors per minute, which in turn equal 10 steps per floor. For example, level 9 is equivalent to 5.1 floors per minute, which is the same thing as 51 stairs per minute. Why 51 and not 50? Hell if I know. Then while levels 10, 11, and 12 are a fairly normal 55, 60 and 65 stairs/minute, 13 decides to be 69 instead of 70. WTF? Why can't I just plug in nice round numbers for how many stairs I want? Plus the machine maxes out at a paltry 101 (...) steps/min, which is why there's an awkward 2 minute interval in there. The idea was to do all one minute intervals topping out at whatever level was closest to 110, but I never got that high. But by the time I figure out it wasn't going any faster I was already like 20 seconds in so I just rolled with it.

23:00 Run + 13:00 Row + 13:00 Bike

Kind of copped out of a cardio workout yesterday 1) because my obliques were still killing me, and 2) because I had a killer stew recipe I wanted to try that was going to take upwards of 2 hours. So I jumped up and down a bit, but not as long as I should have. As a result, going to try to hit it hard today. And it's Saturday! I never remember to work out on Saturdays. Win!

Pre

Energy Level [1-5]: 4

Sore Areas: Obliques, legs

Yesterday: Wine, short cardio session

Environment: indoors

Workout
Equipment: Treadmill, Rowing Machine, Stationary Bike
Work Time: 48:00

Treadmill:

Minutes	Intensity: MPH	Incline: ° [time]	Total Distance (mi.)*
0:00 - 3:00	6.0	2.0
3:01 - 5:00	7.0	2.0
5:01 - 6:00	8.0	2.0
6:01 - 6:30	9:00	2.0
6:31 - 9:30	6.0	2.0
9:31 - 11:30	7.5	2.0
11:31 - 12:30	9.0	2.0
12:31 - 13:00	10.0	2.0	1.53
13:01 - 14:00	4.0	2.0
14:01 - 16:00	4.0 side shuffle [R -1:00] side shuffle [L - 1:00]	2.0
16:01 - 19:00	4.5 backwards [1:00] side shuffle [R -1:00] side shuffle [L - 1:00]	2.0
19:01 - 22:00	5.0 backwards [1:00] side shuffle [R -1:00] side shuffle [L - 1:00]	2.0
22:01 - 23:00	5.0 backwards [1:00]	3.0
Total: 23:00

*Note: 'Total Distance' is distance read off the treadmill, values starting with '~' are calculated post-workout based on speed, values without were recorded in real time.

Row:
Level: 8

Minutes	Intensity: min/500m	Total Distance (m)
0:00 - 3:00	2:33
3:01 - 5:00	2:13
5:01 - 6:00	2:03
6:01 - 6:30	1:50-	1440
6:31 - 9:30	2:33
9:31 - 11:30	2:13
11:31 - 12:30	2:03
12:31 - 13:00	1:50-	2880
Total: 13:00	2:13 [avg]	2880

Stationary Bike
Level: 14

Minutes	Intensity: RPM	Total Distance (mi)
0:00 - 3:00	67
3:01 - 5:00	77
5:01 - 6:00	87
6:01 - 6:30	100+	1.7
6:31 - 9:30	75
9:31 - 11:30	85
11:31 - 12:30	95
12:31 - 13:00	100+	3.58
Total: 13:00	~85 [avg]	3.58

Post
Energy Level [1-5]: 2
Stretch Time: 10:00
Total Time: 65:00

Day After
Sore Level [1-5]: 5
Sore Areas: Hamstrings. Walking is a chore.

Comments
Biking was harder than was strictly necessary -- maybe I did more this week that I originally thought. Legs are shot, stairs are almost out of the question.