Doing Strong Things

The artic temperatures are continuing here in Chicago.  Our apartment is freezing.  I still haven't warmed up from when I got back inside after yesterdayday's trip to the gym.  But I made a lot of tea.  And despite telling myself yesterday that I wasn't going to go outside today, I did.  I can't give up on the marathon training already on only Day 2.

I was about to stay inside and do a Nike Training Club workout, but they all seemed to require a medicine ball and/or dumbbells, which I don't have at my apartment.  So I decided to get bundled up and make the trek to the gym again.

My intention was to do at least 4 miles like yesterday.  (Even though I am saying that my official marathon training has started now, I decided the first 2 weeks I'm not going to have a specific plan, but try to run at least 30 miles each week to build up some endurance again and get in the groove of running most days a week again.)

So I started out the same way - 7.0 on the treadmill and increased by .1 each time the song changed.  When I got to 4 miles, I was still in the middle of Teenage Dream (at 7.8 speed) and I decided to be strong and keep going until the end of the song.  Well, the song ended and I was at about 4.15 miles, so I decided to be even stronger and go til I got to 4.25, and even did my obligitory increase in speed for that last .1 of a mile.  After I finished, I felt way better than I did after yesterday's.  Who knows why, but I did.

After I ran, I did:

3 sets of

10 x squats with 8 lb. weights

10 (each leg) x lunges with 8 lb. weights

And then this for core work:

50 regular crunches

35 side crunches on each side

50 regular crunches

10 V-ups

1 minute plank

So neither of those segments are very hardcore yet, but I'm working on it.  I am not very strong, but I will need more powerful legs if I'm going to run on the hills of Cincinnati.

Who watched The Bachelor last night??