Work it Out!

Sometimes animals have a sixth sense. I think Fat Kitty instinctively knows when I’m not in a good mood and he tries so hard to cheer me up. It always works too. Friday night when I crawled into bed exhausted emotionally, mentally and physically, Fat Kitty crawled in between Michael and I to cuddle. He stretched out his whole body to lie in between us. It was so cute. I am such a sucker for that little furball. He was purring and staring up at me lovingly. I fell asleep petting him.

Saturday morning it was 65, sunny and warming up nicely. I headed to the gym first to kick my butt into gear. I warmed up with the plated weight machines and then quickly switched over to the free weights. Thanks Lori for reminding me how much fun they are! Someday I will meet Lori in person and I bet she will kick my ass at both weight lifting and cycling!

I increased the amount of weights I was lifting on every machine. It was time. It’s easy to get too comfortable with the same old routine and weights and then you aren’t getting the same benefits. I have Suzanne to thank for this reminder!
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So that’s exactly what I did. And I FELT it! Ooof! I’ve been getting way too lazy. Doing the same amounts. When I worked out with my friend Robyn on Monday she reminded me of that too. I pushed myself then to lift more.

After that I switched to the free weights and grabbed the 12, 10, and 7.5 pounds weights to do the following routine:

When I do this routine my heart is POUNDING. It was up there pretty high Saturday morning. It felt so good to sweat it out. I added a new move (triceps) and then focused on ab work before leaving the gym:

I spent a decent amount of time focusing on my weight routine Saturday morning before heading home to run the track. It was just TOO NICE out to be stuck on the treadmill.

Gym Stats:
Time: 50 minutes
Calories Burned: 373

The track wasn’t too crowded by the time I got home and down there. It was a nice, sunny day and I just ran as much as I felt like it. I had no goal set in my mind. I hoped that I could run at least 3 miles.

My legs felt good. I often wonder how they’ll hold up after doing a bunch of weights and squats at the gym beforehand. Saturday I did all right.

I ran 1 mile without walking and then the remainder of my run was somewhat slow with some walking breaks. It made my average pace pretty slow but I’m just happy to be out there running again. Speed is not something I’m focusing on right now.

Do you see how perfectly blue the sky is? This is the kinda weather that reminds me that I love Oregon. Of course, ask me again in six months when it’s dark and gray every single day and I might have another answer for you. But summers in Portland are delightful!

I finished up a few more laps around the track and then ran the half mile home. It was a good morning filled with fitness that makes me happy. Exercise really does fix dark moods.

Run Stats:
Time: 52 minutes
Distance: 3.93 miles
Calories Burned: 508 

The rest of Saturday’s agenda: house chores, gardening, and then Saturday night Michael and I have a benefit to go to. More on that later!

QUESTION: What is your go-to mood fixer?