The Gym Rat Is Back!!!

I went to see Michael Franti and Spearhead play in town last night - and I must say they were absolutely BRILLIANT! It was an intimate setting so perfect for their music. 100% peace, love and granola - I was in my element and danced, sang, and shimmied for over two and a half hours. I am counting that as a workoutI should add! The only down side was I didn't get home till way, way, waaaay past my bed time, so it was a little hard to get up this morning.

When I finally did get my booty shaking bod out of bed I decided I'd hit the gym. For two reasons really. One, I want to tone up a bit and I always drop the gym visits when I get into heavy triathlon training, and two, I wanted to test my legs.

I haven't run since Ironman Coeur d'Alene (IMCDA) and I wasn't sure what my legs would think. I was most worried about my knees as I've had some nigglies since the race and I never have problems with my knees. Of course I've also never run a friggin marathon before so it was likely just some residual grumbling from my body.

I decided to run on the treadmill to test and see if all systems were go. Typically I loathe the treadmill, but for today I figured it would be okay because it would be softer than pavement and it would be flat, which is what I wanted. Plus, if things felt like crud I would just hit the weights sooner.

I hit start on the treadmill then started hitting the plus button to get things rolling. I thought it might be best if I walked a bit to warm up and had intended on doing 5 minutes, but was almost instantly bored so the warm up lasted a long, tedius, painful minute.

I started hitting the button more to try to get a decent speed and finally settled in to a good groove. I was on complete alert for any aches, pains, or greivances my legs and hip area might give me. Every few moments I would do a lower body check...

Ankles? Check. Calves? Ok. Knees? Check! Quads and Hammies? Roger! Hips? No problemo. Lower Back? Excellent! Well then, lets see how long this lasts.

As it turns out I felt great for the entire half hour. I didn't want to push things so thought that might be a long enough time to start out with. I'll slowly increase it within the next few weeks. I was smiling through my entire run because I was so pleased my body had recovered this quickly. I was also pleased I actually wanted to run!

A funny thing happened when I was on the treadmill. In between my body checks I started thinking about the marathon portion of the race. I flashed back to the very end and seeing Michaela and Leslie, then my folks and Greg. I admit it, tears came to my eyes. I was just so damn happy to be finishing strong and feeling great. I'm pretty sure a little spring appeared in my step while I was on the treadmill from thinking about that. It also felt really good to still be super stoked about the race even though it was done a few weeks ago! I truly have no regrets about how things played out.

After my run I did some upper body work. I'd seen an exercise on television and wanted to give it a go. I took an 8.8lb medicine ball and put it on the ground. Then got into pushup position with one hand on the floor, and the other on top of the ball. I did a pushup, then while still in pushup position, I rolled the ball across the floor to my other hand, put that one on top of it, then did a pushup.

What a great friggin chest and core workout! I did three sets of 10, 8 and 10. I really had to push the last two reps on the last set. Yeow! I worked on my shoulders, back, biceps after that.

I pondered doing legs, but didn't want to push things so I only did one set of squats with no weights on the bar. Likely a good thing as I am now feeling my gluteous maxi-maximus. Had I done more I might not be able to sit!

It really feels weird doing such a short workout. I think I was only in there for just over an hour. At the same time I know that I need to watch my workouts right now and not dive back in too quickly. I want to continue building on the strength and endurance I gained this year and don't want to mess it up by starting back in too hard or fast. As much as it pains me to do so!! Ah well, I have plenty of time before the next Ironman to build up!

Peace out my friends! Or as Michael Franti would say 'Power to the Peaceful!!'