Monday, April 7, 2014

Sweaty Weekend

Nothing like a sweaty weekend to get me in the right mindset to start the Focus T25 workout this week (it arrives Tuesday, ahh!). 

Last week I had happy hour plans with a girlfriend that got interrupted by a last minute late work meeting. Rather than huff and puff through traffic, I suggested that we meet up on Saturday morning instead for some "stair fun". Sorry to my friend Sarah who doesn't realize what I mean by "fun". It's usually somewhere between "How?" and "Lady, you're crazy."

I knew about a great set of stairs tucked back behind my alma mater, but if you don't know where to find great stairs in your city you should check out this website and enter your city + "stairs" in the search box.


Having a 10k on Sunday morning I didn't want to go crazy hard on the stairs so I brought along 5lb dumbbells and a 20lb kettlebell to super-set the stairs with both leg-focused and arm focused exercises (only legs featured below)

Here was the workout - obviously your # of stairs and rounds may vary! 








On Sunday I ran my first race since the Portland Marathon in October of 2012. I decided to do the Bridge to Brews 10k only two weeks ago and didn't do much training. When I signed up for the race I had only logged 3 miles in the entire year of 2014. 



I had a goal of 55 minutes and just barely missed with a sweaty time of 56:28. 

Mentally, I feel like I did better with no training than I would have done a year ago in the thick of running 100 miles a month. It was something about the way my new quad and calf muscles approached the hills that powered me through. I tried to start out quick and realized that my best bet was to warm up for two miles and kick it up when I felt a little more comfortable - and that's exactly what happened. Plus a good playlist and making new friends never hurts!

Who's ready for a pedicure?

Go check out some 5k's or 10k's in your area that have a beer-sponsored after party and tell me you didn't have at least a little bit of fun!

 photo JessiFitPdxmesig.png

7 comments:

  1. Congrats on the race!
    Also, stairs are the bane of my existence but I need to do them more often.

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  2. where is my invite to sweating and brunch?!

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  3. Well done on the race, girlfriend! I'll join you virtually for a pedicure after my 10K (not a race, just part of the training) this weekend :)

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  4. I've done those stairs!!! And they're brutal! And I'm so jealous of your Bridge to Brews - I've always thought that sounded so fun. Maybe next year I'll man up and do it.

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  5. I need to buy a set of kettlebells asap. But honestly, I don't think I could watch a lot of the first guy's videos. His voice!! What weight do you think is good to start out with? And seriously, I still cannot believe your current weight. You don't look like it at all!!

    And you're such a badass! Congrats on such a good race! Sam wants to sign us up for a 10K that's in February of next year, and I haven't said yes yet haha

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  6. Stairs and I don't get along, not only can I not move up them faster than a snails pace I also trip up them rather frequently. Congrats on your race! My friend has been trying to talk me into running a 5k with her for a few months now, I laugh at her. This girl and running, just no. I'd love to be able to.. but eh.

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Flex for me!