Leg Day Lovin’

Today was leg day and it just might be becoming my favourite day!  I was able to get new personal bests in my stiff leg deadlift, leg extension, and leg curl.  My routine included:

• Smith Machine Squat – 95 x 12, 105 x 12, 115 x 12, 125 x 12
• Stiff Leg Deadlift – 75 x 12, 85 x 12, 95 x 8
• Leg Extension (machine) – 90 x 10 (twice), 70 x 12
• Leg Curl (machine) – 80 x 10 (twice), 90 x 10
• Barbell Standing Calf Raise – 45 x 20 (3 times)

This time I made sure to include a brief warmup and cool down to hopefully minimize DOMS later on.  I started with a 1000m erg that took 4:15 and ended with 5 minutes on the ARC trainer and a 5 minute stretch.  

Oh, and another one of my coworkers got a gym membership today to join in on the lunchtime workouts.  I guess the endorphins are contagious 🙂 Once again I recovered with a vanilla vega protein shake.  

My plan is to run hills tomorrow on my lunch break and then depending on how I’m feeling maybe hit up the gym after work for a little arm and ab session.  We shall see.  I will post more later! 

Need For Speed

Yesterday I managed to convince my sister to come run sprints with me.  After my progression 6k on Saturday, I still needed to make up the speed workout I missed the previous week.
My sister and I met up for a walk in the morning and after talk of how well HIIT workouts burn fat, I had her on board.  We ended up going to the waterfront path which runs relatively straight and flat and measured out 200m.  

Our workout consisted of 5 x 200m sprints with a 200m power walk in between (no rest).  It was good!  I knew I needed to fit in a speed workout this weekend and having someone join me on these workouts always helps me push that little bit extra at the end.

My sister kicked my butt in the first two, but after that my endurance training kicked into gear and for the last three I managed to knock out the same pace as my first.  We finished off with a 2km cool down run and a protein shake.  I’m hoping that incorporating sprints into my running schedule will help me come race day find that finishing kick.

My sister seemed to enjoy herself and I hope she’s willing to join me again for my next sprint workout.

Today is a rest from running but I did manage to fit in a 5k walk before work.  Today is leg day at the gym so we will see how that goes.  Hopefully I don’t have DOMS for 3 days after this time.

I’ll post my leg workout after lunch.

Leg Day DOMS

Oh Boy, so on Wednesday I trained legs.  The routine included:

• Deadlifts – 85 lb 3 x 12
• Leg Press – 200 lb x 12, 240 x 12, 260 x 12 (2 times)
• Lunges – 30 lb barbell 3 x 12
• Calf Raises – 30 lb barbell 3 x 12
• Dumbbell Shrugs – 25 lb 3 x 12
• Squat (Smith Machine) – 95 x 8, 115 x 8, 125 x 8

Then that afternoon I went for my slated 8 km run.  Wow, did my legs ever feel it!  I ended up going nice and slow at a 6:00/km pace for 6 km and then cooling down by walking 2 km.

Now.. two days later I’m still feeling all the nice muscles in the front and back of my legs, especially around my butt!  I’m not supposed to train legs again until Monday but I’m going for a hike tonight so I really hope these DOMS go away.  Plus I need to go for a 12 km run on Sunday and a 5 km progression run tomorrow.

Whatever, pain is gain right?

Hopefully it all pays off and I get a nice butt 😉