Weekly Workouts: 4/29 – 5/4

After wrapping up my winter/spring race season with Boston, I realized that I needed a little break from a dedicated marathon training schedule. Since I don't have another full distance race planned until Labor Day weekend, I have about a month before I need to be married to a training plan again, and I decided that this would be a good time to focus on building up a bit more muscle. I had really good results with the Shortcut to Size program last summer, despite only making it about 50% through the 12 weeks, so I am giving it another shot this year. Week 1 is under my belt, and I had definitely forgotten how simultaneously challenging and rewarding this program is. I'm excited to see what kind of gains I will make over the next three months!

Monday, April 29

Strength:

Shortcut to Size Phase 1, Week 1 Chest, Triceps, and Calves
Medium Grip Barbell Bench Press: 1x15 @ 65lbs, 3x15 @ 80lbs, 1x5 @ 80lbs
Dumbbell Incline Chest Press: 3x12 @ 30lbs, 1x7 @ 30lbs
Dumbbell Incline Flyes: 3x15 @ 25lbs, 1x12 @ 25 lbs
Cable Crossover: 3x15 @ 22.5lbs, 1x8 @ 22.5 lbs
Triceps Pushdown: 1x15 @ 22.5lbs, 1x10 @ 32.5lbs, 2x12 @ 27.5lbs, 1x8 @ 27.5lbs
Skullcrushers: 3x15 @ 40lbs, rest pause set 8 @ 40 lbs
Cable Rope Overhead Triceps Extension: 3x12 @ 22.5lbs, 1x8 @ 22.5lbs
Standing Calf Raise: 3x30 @ 75lbs, 1x20 @ 75lbs
Seated Calf Raise:  3x25 @ 70 lbs, 1x 9 @ 70 lbs

Cardio:

Off

Tuesday, April 30

Strength:

Shortcut to Size Phase 1, Week 1 Back & Biceps
One-Arm Dumbbell Rows : 1x15 @ 20lbs, 3x15 @ 35 lbs, left arm 1x11 @ 35lbs, right arm 1x13 @ 35lbs
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown:  3x15 @ 70 lbs, 1x13 @ 70 lbs
Standing Pulldown: 3x15 @ 70lbs, 1x15 @ 70 lbs
Straight Arm Pulldown: 3x15 @ 35lbs, 1x8 @ 35 lbs
Barbell Curl: 1x15 @ 30lbs, 3x15 @ 40lbs, 1x5 @ 40lbs
Incline Dumbbell Curl: 3x15 @ 15lbs, 1x11 @ 20lbs
Seated Inner Biceps Curl: 3x15 @ 15lbs, 1x11 @ 15 lbs

Cardio:

4 mile run @ 8:17 pace

Wednesday, May 1

Strength:

Personal Training Session: Legs
Superset:
    Clean & Jerk to Shoulder Press to Back Squat to Shoulder Press: 3x10 @ 65lbs
    Sumo Squat: 3x10 @ 95lbs
Superset:
    Leg Extension (Feet Wide): 3x10 @ 55lbs
    Leg Extension (Feet Close): 3x10 @ 55lbs
    In Place Lunges: 3x10
Lying Hamstring Curls: 3x15 @ 40lbs
Seated Calf Raises: 3x20 @ 45lbs

Cardio:

3 miles @ 8:14 pace
15 minutes Stairmill level 12 intervals

Thursday, May 2

Strength:

Shortcut to Size Phase1 Week 1 Shoulders & Traps

Dumbbell shoulder press: 1x15 @ 15lbs, 3x15 @ 20lbs, 1x9 @ 20 lbs
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3x15 @ 12.5lbs, 1x9 @ 12.5lbs
Front Cable Raise: 3x15 @ 7.5lbs, right arm 1x6 @ 12.5lbs, left arm 1x5 @ 12.5lbs
Rear Cable Delt Flyes: 3x15 @ 27.5lbs, 1x9 @ 27.5lbs
Dumbbell Shrug: 4x15 @ 50lbs, 1x12 @ 50lbs

Muscle and Fitness Hers Crush Ab Flab
Stability Ball Roll-In: 3x20
Stability Ball Finger Tap: 3x20
Scissor Kick: 3x25
Medicine Ball Wood Chop: 3x10 @ 8lbs
Medicine Ball Twist on Stability Ball: 2x20 @ 8lbs
Pulse Side Plank: 2x20
Hip Stretch with Forward Reach: 3x20 @ 8lbs

Cardio:

15 Minutes Stairmill on Level 12 Intervals
Box Jump Tabata

Friday, May 3

Strength:

Off

Cardio:

Boxing

Saturday, May 4

Strength:

High Octane Cardio with personal trainer
Circuit #1: One Minute of Each Exercise
    TRX Mountain Climbers
    TRX Ab Roll-Out
    Kettlebell Single Arm Swing Switch
Circuit #2: One Minute of Each Exercise
    TRX Jackknife
    Pulldowns on the rope climb machine
Circuit #3: One Minute of Each Exercise
    TRX Pullups
    T-Bar Rows
    Step Ups
Finsher: 2 sets of suicide sprints

Cardio:

3 Mile Progression Run: Mile 1 @ 8:30, Mile 2 @ 7:24, Mile 3 @ 7:17

Sunday, May 5

Rest Day

Painstorm!

My sister Mindy, and more recently my sister Miranda, have become CrossFit addicts. The other day, they were talking about a WOD that had really pushed them. The workout was called Painstorm, and between the crazy name and not wanting to be left out of the sister workout chatter, I decided to give it a shot today and see if I thought it was as awesome as they both did.



The verdict? It’s definitely a great, challenging full body workout. While I can’t see myself giving up my running or the style of lifting I have developed with my trainers to start exclusively doing CrossFit, I do enjoy throwing in a CrossFit-type day every other week or so as a replacement for my regular strength training routine. The fast pace and constantly changing exercises keep both my mind and body engaged, and I like that most of the workouts can be completed within about 30 minutes.

After the gym, I had some grocery shopping to do, and since I wasn’t coming directly home to eat, I tossed a sample packet of MyoFusion Probiotic Cookies and Cream protein powder into my gym bag. I’m sort of picky about the taste of my protein powders, and I didn’t have high hopes for this one since I was not a huge fan of the old line of MyoFusion protein powders. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It was sweet, but not overly sweet, it mixed easily with ice and water in my shaker bottle, and the tiny cookie pieces made me feel like I was having a more decadent treat than just a simple protein shake. The nutrition info isn’t too bad either. Normally I would choose something with fewer calories and carbs per serving (MRM All-Natural Whey and Dymatize Iso 100 are two of my favorites), but I can see myself buying this in the future for a once-in-a-while treat.

Nutrition from Netrition.com

Time to clean up the mess from dinner and settle in to watch some college basketball. Go Duke!!

Finding Food, Fitness, and Fun on the Internet

I have been completely devoid of creativity the last few days. I always turn to the internet for recipe and workout inspiration, but usually I like to put my own twist on things. Not this week; this week, I don’t want to have to think at all. I want every last step plotted out for me. Luckily, there are a ton of brilliant bloggers out there who make it easy to do a quick search and find exactly what I’m in the mood for when it comes to both food and fitness.

Food

• I saw this Sweet Potato, Sausage, and Sweet Potato Hash from So Good Paleo on Carrots’n’Cake and made it the very next day. It was healthy, simple, and flavorful, and the leftovers tasted just as good as the dish did on the first day.
• Whenever my husband and I go out for Chinese and there’s Mongolian Beef on the menu, it’s his first choice, so when I saw a crockpot version on Very Culinary, it was a no-brainer. I used about half the cornstarch the recipe called for and replaced the white wine with chicken broth because I didn’t want to open a bottle for only a quarter of a cup. I ate it over roasted spaghetti squash with some onions and peppers, and it was a big hit with both me and Cesar.
• I made these scrumptious Cake Batter Energy Bars from Chocolate Covered Katie. I didn’t use the sprinkles, so mine are nowhere near as cute as hers are, but they taste fantastic. I don’t think they are going to last very long in this house because I find myself cutting off tiny pieces pretty much every time I walk by the refrigerator.

Fitness

• During the first few intervals of this Treadmill Torture from One Fit Foodie, I was thinking to myself that the recovery periods were longer than necessary; then I got a little deeper into the workout, and I quickly realized I was wrong. As much as I love distance running, I also really love spending less than 25 minutes on the treadmill and still feeling like I got in a quality workout. This routine definitely gave me that feeling of accomplishment.
• This Burpee Blast Upper Body Workout from JillFit.com pretty much rocked my world. It was 20 minutes of intense, focused, heart-pounding, muscles-on-fire awesomeness. I will be using the Compact Chain concept that the workout utilizes when I come up with some of my own workouts in the future.

This song has been the soundtrack for much of the time I’ve spent in both the gym and in the kitchen this week. I’m a tiny bit obsessed with it at the moment.

Sometimes I really wonder how I ever survived without the internet…

Upper Body Workout and Baked Fresh Fig & Ricotta Oatmeal

I had a wonderfully relaxing vacation in Minnesota with my friends and family. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone and bid farewell to sleeping in as late as I wanted and to eating all the things I can’t get here in Florida, but one thing that made it a little easier was knowing I would be able to get back to one of my happy places – the gym! I decided it was probably wise to ease myself back into training mode, so I came up with this simple workout that allowed me to get in the 5 miles called for on my marathon training plan as well as hit my upper body a little bit.


While completing this workout, I ended up running 5.25 miles in just under 40 minutes, and I used an 8lb medicine ball for the situps to make them a bit more challenging. The first few rounds were pretty tough, but I liked knowing that each subsequent round was going to be slightly easier. By the time I got to the last round, it felt like a cake walk!

When I got home, I helped myself to a serving of this tasty baked oatmeal.

Fresh Fig Baked Oatmeal with Ricotta

Makes 6 Servings

130 grams fresh figs, chopped
1 ¾ cups rolled oats
¼ cup buckwheat
¼ cup pepitas, toasted
¼ cup shelled pistachios, chopped & toasted
¼ cup walnuts, chopped & toasted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves, ground
1/8 tsp salt
12 packets of Truvia Natural Sweetener
2 tbsp Ideal Brown No Calorie Sweetener
¼ cup egg whites
¼ cup fat free ricotta cheese (I used Calabro)
1 ½ cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of your choice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray an 11x7 baking dish with non-stick spray.

Place the rolled oats, buckwheat, nuts, baking powder, spices, Truvia, Ideal Brown Sweetener, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine.

In another bowl, combine the ricotta cheese, almond milk, and egg whites. Whisk until the ricotta is incorporated into the liquid.

Scatter the chopped figs in the prepared pan. Spread the oat mixture over the top. Slowly pour the wet ingredients over the oats, ensuring that all the oats are evenly soaked. Bake for 30 -35 minutes until the oatmeal appears set.

Calories: 238
Fat: 10g
Carbohydrates: 37g
Protein: 10g
Calculated on Sparkrecipes.com

The oatmeal is sturdy enough to be cut into squares and eaten out of your hand, however, when I was shopping at Trader Joe’s in Minnesota, I came across this jar of awesome deliciousness.



So this morning I warmed up a portion of oatmeal in the microwave and combined it with a sauce comprised of fig butter, fat free ricotta, and unsweetened almond milk. The result may not look all that appealing, but it tasted fantastic!



I love baked oatmeal. It is relatively simple to make, it can be customized based on the fruits and nuts that are on hand, and I can make it over the weekend and have breakfast ready to go all week. I'm going to be sad tomorrow when I finish up the last bit of this combo!

Elliptical Intervals & The Beyond 300 Workout

Today at the gym I decided I wanted to do whatever I felt like instead of sticking to the schedule I had set for myself this weekend. Running is always my first choice for cardio, but since I didn't want to do my intervals, and I’ve been making a conscious effort to not run too many “junk” miles, I chose to spend a little bit of time on the elliptical.  I tend to get really bored just pedaling along steadily, so I came up with a plan to pass the time.


In addition to breaking up the monotony, I like incorporating forward and backwards motion because it works both my quads and my hamstrings, and completing the last five minutes without holding on increases the engagement of my core. My legs were definitely burning on the last few minutes of high resistance! 

After hopping off the elliptical, I decided to tackle a The Beyond 300 Workout I found while I was perusing old issues of Muscle and Fitness Hers.  The workout, which I followed exactly, is this:



The workout, which was designed by Julie Lohre, is supposed to be timed and completed with as little rest as possible.  In the magazine, she says that her record is 22:39.  I had a blast with this!  It went by quickly (it took me 29:31), my heart rate remained elevated, and I felt like I got a great full body workout.  I highly recommend giving it a shot if you are looking for something fast and fun to do in the gym.

The rest of the day will probably be spent trying not to eat all of this deliciousness at once (the recipe made four loaves twice this size):



I whipped up this Cranberry Pumpkin Spice Loaf from Ingredients of a Fit Chick last night, and it is so, so, SO good.  If you like pumpkin, you need to make this ASAP!

The Perfect Storm

So far, this week has been the best workout week I've had in a while.  It definitely helped having Monday off for Labor Day.  I was able to get in an open water swim, do all of my bike rides on my bike outside, and I've gotten in all of my weight training for this week.  It's ironic that this week turned out so well considering I was having such a hard time figuring out what I was going to do.  In the end, I moved a few workouts around and here are the results:

Monday: 40 mile bike ride - 1 hr 54 min; open water swim - 20 min
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: AM -- full body strength training incl. abs- 45 min; 30 min speed work on treadmill, 30 min hill work on treadmill
PM -- 7 * 12 50s (84 laps), 30 sec between each set - 1 hr 14 min  --- this is my longest continuous swim workout .... EVER
Thursday: AM -- 20.2 mile bike speed work - 1 hr 1 min 30 sec (ave speed - 19.7 -- fastest average speed for this workout that I've been doing for about 1.5 months now); 4 mile brick run - 29:36 -- 7:23 min/mi pace.  Fastest 4 mile brick run after the 20 mile speed work.
PM -- full body strength training incl. abs - 1.5 hrs.  I kind of messed this up because I was only supposed to do 2 sets of about 10 different exercises and I for whatever reason I did 4 sets of about half of them before I realized I was doing too many. 
    * The strength program that I'm following right now is Mark Allen's 12 Best Strength Exercises.  I'm currently in phase 3.  I'll be making 4 changes.  1) on day 1, I'll be doing pull ups instead of lat pull downs; 2) on day 1, I'll be adding reverse flies; 3) on day 2, I'll be adding back extensions, and 4) I'll add some form of sit-ups to day 1 and 2.
  
I missed my tempo run tonight because I spent too much time on weights due to my mistake.  I'm going to do it in the morning and swim tomorrow night, though.  If everything works out, the only workout I'll miss this week is tomorrow's bike ride.  If I can wake up early enough tomorrow, I can get in a little before my run.  I won't be upset if I miss it all together, though.  I do have a century ride to look forward to on Saturday with an 8 mile brick run after and a 22 mile run on Sunday.  I don't think missing a 50 min easy bike ride will make or break my training.   

It's a pleasant surprise when unforeseen changes in plans turn out for the better.  The changes from this week gave me a chance to get the rest I needed to push harder and get over the plateaus that were beginning to make me dread too many of my workouts.  My enthusiasm for training has been revived and I think the next few weeks will be much better.     
 

Holiday Weekends Rule & Shortcut to Size – Phase 1 Reflections

Wow, what a great weekend! 
Saturday night was date night at Renzo’s – this Tropical Mango Salad was amazing, as usual.

Sunday morning I met up with Maria to accompany her on her brick workout.  It was my first 20 mile run since before the Fargo Marathon; we did the first 14 miles outside on Bayshore and Davis Island, went into the gym and biked for 30 minutes before hopping on the treadmill to finish the last 6.  Despite the fact that I haven’t run that far since May, I was confident in my ability to cover the distance, although I wasn’t sure how quick it would be. I was pleasantly surprised when we maintained an 8:10 pace outside and finished the 6 treadmill miles under 8 min/mile. I’m really getting antsy for race season to start so that I can get a better feel of where I am in terms of being marathon ready. After stuffing my face with oatmeal and egg whites at brunch, cookies were made.

These two looked on longingly.  Their cuteness was rewarded with a few peanut butter chips; who could resist those sweet faces??
And today was the best day of all….I spent a few relaxing hours at Pass-a-Grille Beach with the husband.

And then ate my favorite fish, grouper, at Sea Critters Cafe. It was so yummy.  There was not a single speck of fish left on that plate when I was done.

Returning to real life tomorrow morning is going to be rough.  And speaking of real life, let’s talk about how I’ve spent my last four weeks in the gym.
Last Thursday marked my completion of Phase 1 of Bodybuilding.com’s Shortcut to Size strength training program. For a complete description of the program, go here.  In a nutshell, the plan consists of three phases, each of which is made up of four one-week microcycles. Week one starts with low weight and high reps; each week the weight increases and the reps decrease, with week four being very heavy weight for very few reps.  Additionally, the last set of every exercise is followed by a rest-pause set for weeks 1 & 2 or a drop set for weeks 3 & 4.  The program also includes a nutrition plan, but I chose to ignore that portion and stick to my regular eats.
Things I Loved:

1. All body parts are hit in four days of training.
2. Nearly all of the exercises are relatively standard weight training exercises, so I didn’t need to constantly refer to my phone in the middle of my workout to figure out what I should be doing.
3. The variation in some of the exercises as well as decrease in the rep ranges kept the workouts from feeling stale.
4. The challenge of increasing the weight I was lifting each week kept me motivated to push hard.
5. I had a love/hate relationship with repping to failure on the last set of every exercise.  It was definitely not pleasant in the moment, but it kept my heart rate more elevated than my normal strength training, and it made me hurt in that “I totally killed it at the gym today” kind of way that I love.

Things I Didn’t Love:

1. Weeks 1 and 2 are very time consuming. It takes a substantial block of time to complete 15 reps of 3 – 4 sets + a rest-pause set of 9 different exercises.  When I added on the running that I needed to get in, I was sometimes spending over 2 hours in the gym.
2. Other than some of the abs exercises, I haven’t done a single body weight exercise in a month.  I never thought I’d say this, but I miss doing good old pushups and pullups!

Results:
Unfortunately, it never occurred to me to take measurements before I started Phase 1, so I can’t give specific details about my progress in that regard.  I am going to take my measurements before starting on Phase 2 tomorrow so that I will be able to more carefully measure my progress. In terms of strength, however, I achieved new PRs on virtually all of the exercises in the plan.  It will be interesting to compare how the weights I am able to lift during Week 1 of Phase 2 compare to what I started with on Phase 1.
Overall, I have been a huge fan of the program.  I like having a purpose for each of my strength training sessions, and I felt like this was a well-rounded plan that hit my entire body. It’s also a hugely challenging program; I left the gym after every session feeling wiped out, and sometimes my muscles would hurt for 3 days after a workout.  It’s definitely created with the goal of putting on muscle (hence its name!), so if you’re only looking to maintain what you’ve already got, this is not the plan for you.