Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sweating Out A Hangover

Hit the 10 minute mark today...and with a hangover no less! Got to World's later than usual today but rather than the typical mid-day weekend rush, it was oddly empty. Must have been because all of Portland seemed to be out last night and probably hadn't gotten up yet....or more specifically, they didn't have a dog to wake them up!

I was going to give myself the excuse of being too tired and dehydrated to attempt a run but I knew I couldn't admit to that on here. So, after a quick stretch of my achy muscles I grabbed my earphones and chose a treadmill in the front row. I knew I'd push myself harder there since people could more easily see me haha. I don't ususally workout with earphones but the treadmill minutes seem to go by faster while watching TV. I started with a 2-minute walking warmup at a 3.5 mph pace and a level one incline, then brought it up to a 5 mph pace and cranked out 6 minutes straight of running! I continued to do my run-walk routine until I had done a total of 10 minues of walking and 10 minutes of running and ending at a level 3.5 include. Now, this may not seem like much if you are a runner but to me, its HUGE!

I felt great when I was done and was ready to embark on my usual weight routine. I call my workout today my "random legs day" because there isn't really a theme to it. Its the day where I fit in the muscle groups that don't really go with any other workout. On the agenda was the standing calf machine (3 sets of 12), inner and outer thigh press machines (3 sets of 12 each), and my favorite, the on-all-fours glute press machine (4 sets of 8, switching between bent and straight leg presses). I typically do 3 sets of 12 reps for most exercises, increasing and decreasing the weight based on what feels right on a given day. If I'm feeling super energetic and strong then I'll do a heavier weight and fewer reps but today was more about detoxifying than anything else!

Once done with legs, I moved on to abs. Today I kept it simple and just did incline crunches (2 sets of 20 straight-up crunches and 2 sets of 20 side-to-side crunches). Then I moved over to the stretching mats and finished with some planks (1 minute straight plank, 1 minute right side, and 1 minute left side). Ending with the straight plank, I moved into chaturanga and finished with an upward and downward dog to stretch it all out. Leaving much more refreshed than when I arrived, I stoped into Whole Foods for an electolyte-filled coconut water, delish!

I'm starting to feel good about this whole running thing. Tomorrow I'm going for 12...

1 comment:

  1. That's killer! Running with a hangover? I could barely manage running to class with one. Have you ever tried an incline leg press?

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