Thank you so much for all of the congrats! As you can tell, I’m excited for it all.

Yesterday I completed my first full strength training workout. I have been doing Slim in 6 as a light circuit workout, but it didn’t do too much in the weights department. For my first session, I turned to my favorite instructor – Cathe Friedrich. I have many of her DVDs, so it took a bit to decide on which one I wanted to try first.

After thinking it over I decided to err on the side of caution and picked one I remember being more basic and slow-moving. Cathe’s Push Pull workout.

Basic and slow-moving are good things when starting back with weights. I also made sure to choose much lighter weights than normal. At the end of my workout I felt as though I could have gone heavier on most everything. It made for a good workout to ease back into weights, but I can already tell I will be ready for slightly more of a challenge tomorrow. Today I hit up the treadmill for my next C25K workout – alternating 90 seconds of jogging with 2 minutes of walking. While completing the intervals, I rocked out to my new best friend: my playlist (which syncs up to the treadmill). And don’t worry…I stepped on the sides to snap this picture before ending my cool down.

I can see how working out with music is addictive. Right now, I have around 170 songs in one massive playlist. Each new song that comes on gets me all pumped up. Aerosmith revved me up this afternoon. In fact, I felt so great the temptation to do longer running intervals snuck up on me. I do feel like I could have handled it physically, but I also believe in sticking with the plan.

I am physically fit. I believe I have a strong base in fitness knowledge, especially related to topics such as strength training. I also recognize that I fall into the novice running category. Even though I feel good, I don’t want to push things too fast. Couch to 5K is a successful program for a reason. I’m not going to mess with it. I can have a hard time sticking to plans. I like switching things up and coming up with my own versions. When I know what I’m doing, I’m cool with that. I don’t know enough about my running abilities yet to do that though. So I will keep it simple and follow along. No need to jump the gun!

Question of the Evening – Do you like having a plan to follow?

Tags: fitness, strength training, workout DVDs