I almost didn’t type this post. Not because I’m not in the mood to blog or anything. Come on. When does that ever happen to me? I almost didn’t type this post because my upper body is sooooo S-O-R-E. I worked it good this morning!

For a long time I feel like I just went through the motions of my strength training. I went in and did challenging workouts – kind of hard not to challenge yourself with a workout beast – but I never felt like I pushed past my comfort zone. I guess it makes sense seeing as I have focused a lot on running and training for different races, like my first 5K, my first 10K, and now my first half marathon (Savannah RNR, baby!).

The thing is, I love strength training. I get pumped up (ha!) to see my strength increase or to leave a workout with my muscles shaking.

Yes, I ask random gym folk to take pictures of me…

So, I decided to do something about that this week. Instead of sticking with the two full body workouts I have been doing, I broke it up a little differently.

• Monday = Legs / Shoulders / Abs
• Tuesday = Back / Chest / Biceps / Triceps
• Thursday = Full Body (my own circuit, Group Power class, or Physique 57 DVD)

With this breakdown, I can still train my legs lighter to keep them fresh for running, but have the time and energy to up the intensity of my upper body training once a week without feeling rushed to get through a full body workout. I really like splitting up my workouts like that so far this week! Here’s what they looked like:

Legs (3 x 12-15) / Shoulders (3 x 8-10) / Abs (3 x 25)

Upper Body (all 3 x 8 where the last rep or two was HARD)

Check out how I create my strength training plans!

Splitting up the workout like this gave me the chance to take more time for rest periods and to up the weights on a lot of the moves. It felt fantastic! And I’m still feeling it now.  

For some cardio action today, I decided I didn’t really feel like the elliptical so I held off until the afternoon. I actually really enjoy splitting up my cardio and strength training if I my schedule allows it because then I feel I can give more to each workout.

When Peter got home this afternoon, I headed to our basement gym to spend some quality time with Cathe – one of the all-time best DVD trainers around.

I popped in her 40/20 HIIT workout which features a 25 minute workout including a warm-up, 16 interval drills, and a cool-down. It’s short and to the point, but man will it get you winded! You do a different plyometric style drill for each round – working hard for 40 seconds before taking a 20 second rest and moving to the next exercise. I feared the tuck jumps would cause a heart attack from the pounding it did in my chest. Yowza!

Hopefully these challenging workouts will help me sleep like a baby tonight! I’m determined to not get behind on sleep again. I don’t foresee many naps in the near future, after all.

• Do you like lifting heavier weights?
• What is the weirdest place you have asked someone to take your picture?

Ahhhh, the joys of blog updates and CSS coding. If you visited earlier and happened to get my lined background showing behind my text (making things very hard to read), please forgive the coding updates. Things should all be in working order now, without any random headaches or a need for “may cause seizures” warnings. Thank you for your patience!

Let’s do lunch, shall we?

One of the best parts of having a toddler to feed is having toddler inspired food. Snack plates for lunch yesterday and grilled cheese for lunch today!

Although not just any grilled cheese. I don’t really do the two plain slices of bread and floppy square piece of “cheese” thing. I need more substance (and nutritional value) to my sandwiches than that. And so does this wee one.

I made us amped up grilled cheese sandwiches using fresh bread from the grocer bakery (aka ingredients I can understand – whole wheat flour #1), slices of sharp cheddar (not fake squares of congealed “cheese”), thick tomato slices, and a hefty spread of hummus.

Not your typical grilled cheese, because it’s even better! Simple and satisfying. Just like childhood.  

My recent food choices aren’t the only things reminiscent of childhood. On the way to our family gathering for Labor Day this weekend, we had to drive through a small town, country area that had house after house after house on land with pastures full of cows, horses, and the occasional chickens. It quickly sent me back to childhood.

When growing up, I used to regularly go horseback riding when visiting my grandparents in the North Georgia Mountains and would always dream of growing up and having my own stable with horses. I would live in a large estate and get to ride my horses every day.

I remember whenever we would drive up to my grandparent’s house we would pass by similar places and I would easily spend the hour car ride daydreaming of the day I could live in such a place. Clearly this was before I understood that pesky little thing called money. But it was always so fun to daydream! And I found myself doing the same looking at all the land with horses on the way to my sister-in-law’s house on Sunday.

It’s funny how our dreams change, huh? Now I don’t aimlessly daydream about such things. Instead I dream big on trusting that God has a plan for me and going after my passions. I dream about being a good mother to my children and having a strong family unit in our many years to come. Still mighty good dreams to have, but it sure was fun going back to that childhood innocence of dreaming looking at all the horses. Although now I know I wouldn’t want to own horses. I have enough trouble as it is trying to get my dog to love me!

Sigh. One of these days I will get you to love me, Roxy. I will!

• What was one of your daydreams from childhood?
• What food from your childhood do you still love?