Wednesday Workout Update

I'm mixing things up a bit with my workouts this year, and so far I'm enjoying the new additions.  I'm biking a couple days a week using my new (to me) exercise bike - right now I've been doing 20 minutes at a fairly fast speed.  I figure that breathing heavy will help with my running, and even though I'm using the same legs for biking as I do for running, it feels like my muscles are getting a different workout, which is good.  An additional bonus is that the iPad covers the readout screen, so I don't keep looking at it to see how much time has elapsed.  And?  I'm getting to watch some TV shows that I haven't seen (currently watching Go On).  The only downside to the bike is that Paco loses it when I start pedaling - barking, whining, yipping - needless to day, he now gets to spend some time locked in his crate while I bike.

Another thing I've added to my workouts are planks - my friend Wendy is hosting a Planks-A-Lot challenge for January, and I figured this would be good for me.  Monday was the first day and she had a 15 second plank on the schedule...easy-peasy, right?  I've held planks for much longer than that!  But as I discovered, it's been a while since I've done them, and my abs let me know they weren't in tip-top shape.  Glad she suggested doing this - I definitely need them!  Here's the cute schedule she and her daughter put together:

I added my running and biking schedule to it, just to keep me organized.

As for running, it's going well.  Last Thursday Erica and I increased our distance by a little over half a mile, to run 2.6 miles.  We started at 5:50 am and it was literally freezing.  As much as I complain about running in the heat, I have to say, it's hard to get out there in that kind of cold weather, and takes a while to get warmed up once we start running.  There seems to not be a lot of happy mediums when it comes to getting some decent running weather in Texas...sigh.

On Saturday, we ran 5 miles with quite a few people from our running club - we met at our local running store, as the owners had offered to do a training program for the upcoming Armadillo Dash half marathon, which is two months away.  We weren't sure what to expect and I was a little concerned that a bunch of young, speedy runners would be there and I'd be the doddering old person lumbering after them - seriously, in this college town, it's a real possibility - but it turns out there was a nice assortment of runners and it was a good run.  Well, until the last half mile, when it started raining.  It was already cold; add the rain and brrr!  Glad I packed dry clothes to change into afterward!  Anyway, we ran doing 2:1 intervals and I felt great...so good, in fact, that I willingly changed my schedule because of forecasted heavy thunderstorms, and got up super early on Monday to run - who am I, making sure I get my runs in?!?

This coming Saturday we have 7 miles on the schedule, and I'm looking forward to it; at this point, the intervals seem to be working with both the physical and mental aspect of the long run, and I'll take it.

P.S.  In case you missed it, I have another book giveaway going on - this one is about doing what you love to do for exercise...you know I can get behind that!  Click here to enter...winner will be announced on Friday.