Thursday, July 2, 2015

Fitness Friday-Add Weights!!

First things first. I found this push up challenge and decided we as a family should compete.
Results:
Adam-40 which puts him at Good for his age
Kinzie-36 which puts me at Good as well..I have to note though that I didn't do modified pushups on my knees like it suggest, I did the whole SHEBANG!!!!
Elijah-20...which puts him at fantastic :).

Moving along. I have joined a running group, which I LOVE. I never wanted to join before as I thought I would hold them up or I would trip on the others (I'm a close runner) or it would be too much of a commitment. NOT TRUE!!

I have run three times this week with this fun groups of girls and every time I have loved it. We run from 4:45-5:45 or 6 in the morning so that we beat the heat and mosquitoes. There are normally anywhere from 4-6 of us so we tend to break off based on pace. If one breaks off though she has to have a buddy!! They never run the same trail twice but they know the area so well that in the midst of our in depth conversations they will say "right Kinzie" or "at the next speedbump turn left" and then carry on. I have learned so much about the 2 in the group I already knew and then have made quick friends with the 2 I didn't know. This week total we have hit a little over 17 miles and I swear it went by super fast.

I have also added on people to my circuit training and weight room days so I hardly ever work out alone anymore which is honestly part of the fun...catching up and sharing life.

So back to the title of this post...ADD WEIGHTS. I started really picking my runs apart to see how well I would do on hills, where I hit my stride and how strong I finished. I looked back over all of my runs since I started long runs last August. I noticed a period of about 2 weeks where all of a sudden my splits (average pace per mile) went from being 11 to 13 minute miles down to 10 minute miles. Looking back into my workout planner I saw that those two weeks are when I started lifting weights.

I also noticed that back in December my times got ever better, dropping down to 8 and sometime 7.5 minute miles and that is when I started lifting heavier but doing smaller reps. ITS AMAZING how our body works. The stronger and leaner I got the better athlete I became...I mean that is such a "DUH" statement but it really helped me see my need for weight room days. A lot of women are scared to lift and if they do they lift light. I totally think you should start light but then GO FOR IT. Add weights onto the bar, into your squats and lunges. There is hardly any bodyweight movement that you can't add weights onto.

I also noticed that in my splits my first, middle and last miles are always my best times. I tend to let my mind wonder or my conversation with a friend slow me down unless I am being intentional. This morning I knew that my great conversation with Leianne, plus the fact that I had no clue where we were half the time had slowed me down so I sprinted the last 1/4 of the mile just to make sure my heartrate was soaring. Then I went and lifted weights with several other friends...the results? I have been HUNGRY all day...not like I "love food so I am hungry"....nope, my stomach is churning and gurgling hungry...I keep doing small meals with lots of water but 6 miles plus lifting has made me RAVENOUS.

An easy weight routine to start is to take 5/8/10 lb dumbbells and do the following:

40 squats (let dumbbell touch the floor)
30 lunges (hold dumbbells in your hand)
20 russian twist (in sit up position/ feet up off the floor/ one weight in your hands, twisting from side to side as you let the weight touch the floor on each side as you go)
10 pushups with rows (lift the black up to your shoulder from push up position)

Do that 2 or 3 times and you have a pretty good full body workout going on!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Who remembers these red, white and blue babies?




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