Muscle Up!

As you can see by my lack of blogging, I've had a rough few days. Tuesday I had every intention of getting up early and going running with Terrier, but when I woke up and saw that it was 30 something outside and realized that I needed the sleep, I couldn't force myself up and out of bed. Wednesday I never really had any hope of working out since I had to be at work at 6:30 in the morning and that was too early for me to ever try to workout before. Yesterday I set my alarm, but I think I was wiped out from the extra work I've been doing at my real job and it just wasn't happening either. All day yesterday I felt like I had a black cloud hanging over me because I hadn't worked out. I was really feeling down in the dumps about it. I didn't even take three whole days off after my triathlon for Pete's sake!

Of course, the only cure for this is to get back to the gym and keep working out. So, that's just what I did this morning. Drew got up early to come along with me and he even lifted weights with me too! Today was supposed to be a leg lifting day according to the plan, but in honor of the fact that I have a 10K to run on Sunday, I decided that it might not be a good idea to do that, so I swapped the remaining two workouts for the week. Instead of legs, we did back, biceps & abs.

This was the workout:

Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 25 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 30 lbs
Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 1 set of 15 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
Dumbbell Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 9/10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 3 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Barbell Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 40 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 45 lbs
Reverse Crunches: 1 set of 12 reps / 1 set of 10 reps / 1 set of 8 reps

The pullovers and the pulldowns were just fine. The curls is where it started to get really hard. On the second set of dumbbell curls, I was struggling. Drew told me that I should "muscle up" and use my whole body to get the dumbbell up. So, instead of standing still, I sort of swung my arm back in order to get it to go forward. I'm sure that's not the best form in the entire world, but as he pointed out, if you need to move or lift something heavy in real life, you're not going to be standing still to do so.

The last set of dumbbell curls was impossible. I tried to lift it once and I just wrote "FAIL" in my book. I couldn't do it. But, Drew told me that if I muscled up, I could. And I did! I did three of them. Not a huge success, but still good for my growing muscles. Drew had to help me with the barbell curls too. I was really lucky he was there with me, because he definitely pushed me more than I would have pushed myself.

After the weight lifting, I did some 'fake running', which is what I like to think the elliptical is. Mostly, I really wanted to read my book and the elliptical is a really good way to do so. Drew did the elliptical with me, so we just did our whole workout together. Well, he stayed at the gym and did more cardio, but I had to get home and get to work early. I'm just glad that I'm back into the swing of things. Next week might be more of the same with going to work early, but I'm really going to try to stick with the workouts better!

Weight Lifting
Time: 57:08
Calories: 342
Maximum HR: 154
Average HR: 117

Elliptical
Time: 32:42
Distance: 2.85 miles
Pace: 11:28/mile
Calories: 311
Maximum HR: 159
Average HR: 147