Good morning! It seems Friday snuck up on me again. The week started out a little low, but things have certainly turned around. I hope things are going well for each of you, too.

Even though I had a couple of unplanned rest days earlier in the week, I still embraced taking a rest day today. My body hurts! A lot more than I anticipated too.

While at the studio for the radio show with Dr. Fitness & The Fat Guy yesterday, they let me take home a few workout DVDs from a variety they had received. One of the videos I grabbed was Jari Love’s Get Ripped Revved To The Max workout.

I had heard of Jari Love before, usually positive things, so I thought this DVD sounded good and ended up popping it in for some weights yesterday afternoon. I hadn’t done any strength training all week and didn’t have time after my treadmill interval run in the morning, A “heart-revving” circuit workout sounded like a perfect option.

And, oh goodness it was! The entire workout consisted of compound movements that worked the upper and lower body simultaneously with some balance moves thrown in for an additional challenge. I feel like I spent thirty minutes straight in either a squat or lunge position. Well, except for those few minutes switching between push-ups and tricep dips with no stopping. Ouch!

The video definitely did some things differently than I am used to in weight training, but different can certainly be good. Switching things up works! It also helps keep my attention, which can sometimes be hard for me with my workouts. I think something else kept my attention too, though. I kept thinking two of the backup-exercisers looked so much like some of my blog friends!

One of the chicks looked almost exactly like Paige and another looked like my favorite twins – Jolene and Jess. It was kind of creepy!

at the Healthy Living Summit with Paige on the far right

That isn’t the first time things like that have happened though. I see people who remind me of blog friends all. the. time. Occasionally I will even dream about you guys! I vividly remember one dream I had where I was on a cruise ship. I was walking around sad because I was supposed to be there with Peter, but for some reason he couldn’t make it and I decided to still go. I remember thinking how much I missed him and how boring a cruise could be alone…but then I stumbled into a large group of bloggers for a blogger vacation.

I can’t remember who all was specifically in the dream, but I know there was at least 50 of us and we were hanging out by the pool with some margaritas…then all went down a water slide. Now, how awesome would that be to happen in real life?! Although if any of you plan a cruise vacation, you better invite me. Should it offend me I wasn’t originally invited in my dream? Haha!

So, yea. I guess you all are always on my mind, even when I’m sweating it out or sleeping. It makes sense when you see pictures of people regularly and connect with them multiple times a day. Or when you just love your blog friends so much. 

• Do other people remind you of blog friends? Ever dream about blog friends?
• Ever done a Jari Love workout?

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?