Hey friends, how are you doing? How was the weekend? I know I have been in and out a lot lately, I am going to try and be a bit more consistent in posting this week–we will see how it goes, okay? So, the biggest news this week is that I finished my 30 day lift challenge, so let’s see how it wrapped up with the Weekly Wrap Up shall we?
Week of 4/20-4/26
Monday: Week 4, Day 1 of my challenge was an upper body workout. We warmed up with a squat, lunge and push up combo followed by A LOT of planking. Then I did 5 super sweaty sets of upper body moves like barbell bench presses, cable flys, dumbbell presses, T bar rows, curls and skull crushers and then topped it off with 4 sets of 4 dumbell glute exercises. As if that wasn’t enough, I did a 20 min HIIT run on a 10% incline and then I was DONE. Like, stick a fork in me, I’m done. SO TOUGH, but so good!
Tuesday: I did a new ab warm up that was super tough with 11 different movements each done for 20 seconds ending with a 2 minute plank at the end of each of 3 rounds. Then the focus was all on the lower body. 5 rounds of 9 movements like lots of step ups, single leg work, lunges (oh the lunges!)! I finished this workout with 15 mins of running in the high 8s. I’d be lying if I said it was easy, it was anything but.
Wednesday: Same work out as Monday with the upper body focus but the lower body focus moves changed and I did 3 sets of step ups, leg presses, lunges, and stability ball glute squeezes with leg separation. Then I did a 20 min HIIT run at the end. I switched my run and did the 1:1 intervals instead of the 10% incline hill intervals. Neither is easier, I just mentally needed something different.
Thursday: Same workout as Tuesday with 15 mins of steady state cardio at the end. I wanted to use the stair climber but it was being used so I ran in the high 8’s on the treadmill and wanted to cry my legs were so dead, but I got it done, it wasn’t pretty though!
Friday: Same upper body as earlier in the week but the glute section changed again and I did 100 reps of squats, reverse lunges, dumbbell lying glute raises, dumbbell donkey kicks and lying body weight sidekicks at a 45 degree angle. At this point, I was exhausted but still had to do my cardio portion but ran out of time so I had to do it when I got home. 20 mins of HIIT running with 1:1 speed intervals. Afterwards, I showered and decided to get my feet in shape. I had a new pair of my favorite summer sandals delivered but needed to do something about my toes.
Yes, I am always THAT pasty white, but my toes usually look MUCH better than that (even runners can have semi-nice nails!! HA!) I did my first Jamberry pedicure and I LOVED how it came out.
I went to bed tired from all the workouts this week, but excited that I got through the final week!
Saturday: We woke up, took Ashton to soccer and then ran around until lunch time. We hit up a local farmers market where I got these beautiful flower bunch!
They are called Ranunculus flowers and I quickly went home and bought a package of 50 bulbs of them because I loved them so much. I want to plant them in some planters so I can have cut flowers in the house all summer!
After this, we stopped in and had drinks and a snack at a local bread/bakery and checked out an exhibit I took part in (more on that later this week) and then went to a kid’s festival focused on healthy eating for kids. They had a lot of great activities for Ashton. he colored his own bookmark.
Painted a point and then planted his very first flower in it!
Worked on his hand/eye coordination while calling out all the colors to us!
Then he played in the jumpy house for about 20 mins.
It was an awesome morning. We got home, ate lunch and then Robyn left to get his haircut and Ashton went down for a nap. I had to take my “after” pics for my 30 day challenge so I did that and since the challenge was essentially over, I opted for a run during Ashton’s nap. I popped up the Bruce Jenner interview on my iPad and ran 7 miles at an 8:22 pace.
I now know without a doubt this challenge made me stronger. I haven’t run more than 2.5 miles in 30 days so to be able to bang out so many miles at this pace without any hard effort shows that the strength training I have been doing made me a stronger runner too!
After Ashton woke up we took him to the park where he played and also started to learn how to ride his new Spiderman bike we got him for his birthday. Next up, a video from a super proud mama!
Sunday: A day of rest. I took Ashton to visit my Mom and sister in Western MA and we spent a few hours laughing and playing and grabbed lunch out before we headed home for his nap. When he woke up, we went grocery shopping and then played until it was time for dinner. The weekend felt like it was over in the blink of an eye, but I guess every weekend is pretty much like that!
So, there you have it folks, the Weekly Wrap Up! I am done with my challenge and I got some great results and gained SO MUCH strength. I am so glad I took on this challenge and really gave it my all. I learned a lot about what I am capable of and it gave me so much more confidence in the weight room. I am excited to continue with my weight lifting but also building running back into the mix. My plan is to do these lifting workouts on M-W-F and run on T-Th-Sat moving forward. I think that will balance out well. I loved the lifting but doing it everyday long term is just not realistic for me, I missed running too much!
Well, that’s it friends. I hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week ahead of you and I will see you on Wednesday!
A shout out to my friends who raced this weekend! Lauren who ran the NJ Marathon, Julia who did her first full marathon at Big Sur, and Kendra who completed her first half marathon!! Congrats ladies, you are rockstars!
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Question of the day
How was your week? Weekend? Who raced? What’s on tap for you this week?
