RnR: Week 1 Day 4

Week 1 of training is half way over and I have been tweaking the routine according to what my schedule has allowed me to. Today is scheduled for a 3 mile run + strength but this will have to move to Friday since I did 5x800 interval training a.k.a fartleks this afternoon. My pace time for the intervals are: 5:07, 5:31, 5:27, 5:26, 5:26 for a total of 4 miles and then added another extra easy mile @ 11:34. I did a total of 5 miles @ 54:10. I am careful not to overdo it when I am doing intervals or fartleks because for some reason it messes up my left shin. I could feel a little soreness and the leg felt a bit heavy while running but it didn't bother at all. I followed it up with a nice stretching right after the run and iced it when I got back home.

I added another 12 minutes or so of weight training before heading back home for dinner. I could have added a couple ab crunches to my repertoire but the machine got stuck somehow.  Here's what I did:

• Chest press 30 lbs 3x 10 reps 
• Lat pull 50 lbs 3x 10 reps
• Bicep Curl 20 lbs 2x 6 reps

Then before heading to bed, I did a 20-minute yoga from Exercise TV On Demand called Zen In Your Den by the same yogi from last night named Jennifer Galardi. She did an even simpler and gentler movements on this one compared to Yoga Refresh. This one's definitely a nice way to ease into a relax mood before bedtime.

It was another busy day today spending all afternoon bonding with my little miss. I took her to the movies to watch Monte Carlo then hang out for awhile at Santana Row. It was a blast but totally wore me out by the time we got home. One thing that still amazes me is how exercise changes my mood. No matter how tired I get if I just get my butt off to workout, even a short easy one, I always feel like a million bucks afterwards.

RnR: Week 1 Day 3

W1D3 is supposed to be 5 x 400 5-K pace intervals but will have to move it to Friday since I ran a hard 5 miles yesterday. A friend and her little 9 month old also visited late in the afternoon for a dip in the pool so I was preoccupied prepping up for our little rendezvous. We had dinner by the pool and took the kids, her baby and my little miss, for a swim. It was a bit cooler and breezy compared to the last couple days but manageable and we had a lot of fun in the water.

So, all that fun stuff drained some of my energy. I wasn't planning on working out today anyway but felt like doing a quick and simple exercise before calling it a night. It was very tempting to just crawl in bed at 9PM, which by the way is definitely not my normal bed time, but I sucked it up and went ahead for a quickie. I found this 30-minute yoga routine on Exercise TV On Demand called Yoga Refresh by Jennifer Galardi. The routine is very simple and easy to follow which is perfect for a yoga noob like me. I felt refreshed and re-invigorated 30 minutes later. I like it a lot and will try to incorporate more yoga in my fitness schedule.

Off to bed now. Namaste.