Run dates and trisets, love!

<Editor’s note – this turned into a doozy of a post so I broke it into two, I apparently had a lot to say today! I promise to be more succinct tomorrow. hehe>

Ah, today was “run date” Thursday.  <—I like the sounds of that!

Which actually turned out to be a run date for two since my sis is battling a shin splint issue and wanted to rest up for a better run once healed (smart move, sis).  So we nixed our planned run date and instead, I ran with Scott which I still very much consider a run date, oh la la. 😉

We ran the same route from Monday which is about 4.5 miles or so. And I fought myself. Notsomuch physically this time, but mentally. I realized about halfway through that I wasn’t trusting myself to let my body do the work. I was holding back. When I told Scott how I was feeling, he simply said “I trust you. You are so strong. Let your body take over. And if you won’t let it, lean on my faith in you and just run.”

Um hello, could he have said that anymore perfectly or what?? But he’s right. I need to trust myself.  I have no idea why I’ve suddenly lost my trust in my ability to run, to let my body do the work, but I totally have. I don’t find myself distrusting my body when it comes to weight lifting, spinning, or anything else. Just running. For me, running is so much more about mental toughness to me than physical toughness. I’ve got to strong-arm my brain into letting it go and just running. Freely. Letting my mind wander (and not to the “man, I want to die, this run is just not happening for me today” place).

Interestingly, right after we had this little revelation, we were running up a small hill on the return loop of our route, and suddenly the wind was at my back again (it was in my face on the way out), and it felt as though God had placed his hand ever so gently on my back and pushed me up that hill. It was almost like I was weightless. It gave me this incredible sense of peace, something I have never felt so deeply. It was kind of amazing. Almost like He was putting a comforting hand on my back to say “yes, you can do this. Trust it.” Seriously, unreal.

So now that I’ve figured out what my running block is, it’s time to quit talking about it and just get back to being in the moment. Just running to run. And trusting my body to lead the way.

**********
Trisets Thursday (sorry, couldn’t help myself – this one doesn’t sound quite as “cute” as “run-date Thursday” does, huh?)

Since I work from home on Thursdays, I have more leeway to get in lengthier or more involved workouts since I have more time in the AM and in the PM, a luxury I don’t have during my commuting days. Fingers crossed that that changes at least for next week – hello, school vacation week (ala no traffic!).

So one of the things I decided this week was to switch up my “plan” a bit from the original thoughts I shared on Monday. Given how sore my legs were after last week’s leg workout (woopsie), and given how much I’ve wanted to focused on getting my running legs back, I decided to opt out of a dedicated leg workout for this week. Instead of weights (as originally planned), last night involved Core Fusion Pilates Plus which is mostly core focused but also includes quite a bit of leg work so I’ll “count” that towards a leg workout for the week. It was awesome – and totally killer to do while my husband cooked dinner. My stomach was growling SO loudly by the time I finished up at 7:45. Oy.

So anyway, for my last weight workout of this week, I decided to group shoulders/bi’s/tri’s into a triset series. A triset is basically three exercises done back to back, three times. Sounds confusing but once you see how my triset workout panned out, you’ll see what I mean. This is still very much an endurance-style weight workout (low weights, high reps), but it gets your heart rate up a bit too which I dig – annnd you can work multiple body parts this way, pretty efficiently (I also dig this style of training big-time for leg workouts…a thought for next week, perhaps?).

Biceps/Shoulders/Triceps – Triset-style <—say that one three times fast, heh
(all sets done at 15 reps per exercise unless otherwise noted)

Triset #1: barbell curls @25 lbs; tricep dips (body weight); shoulder press – alternating w/dumbells @12.5lbs

Triset #2: hammer curls @17.5 lbs each hand; lying tricep extensions w/barbell @ 20 lbs; front raises w/dumbells @10 lbs

Triset #3: concentration curls @17.5 lbs each hand; tricep pull-downs with stretch band; shoulder press w/barbell @20 lbs

Holy crap.

Let’s just say that I do not anticipate being able to lift my arms over my head tomorrow morning very easily – should most certainly make for another bad hair day to say the least. 😉