“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”
– Juma Ikangaa, Tanzanian marathoner

After my 3 crazy workout day on Tuesday, my hamstrings were screaming at me yesterday so I took the day off.  This morning, I was adamant to get back into it so I went to the gym.  Having arrived earlier than I had anticipated I broke one of my most important cardinal rules:  SPACE OUT SPINNING CLASSES AT LEAST 3 DAYS APART!

As soon as I sat on the bike, I remembered why I made that rule and knew I’d regret it all class.  Luckily, we had a lot of standing songs so it got better….  My hamstrings felt tight but nothing too crazy and riding felt good.  By the time I was done, I was drenched!

I then went upstairs to do my weights workout. It’s not often that I do spinning and weights right after, it not only makes for a long time at the gym, but my body’s not as rested for the weights, so my numbers always go down a bit.  I think because of my day off yesterday I felt more rested than usual, but boy was I wrong.  While I had a day off from working out, I didn’t get home from work until 11pm so mentally, I was beat.   It was hard to concentrate on what I had to go so the workout took a lot longer than I had planned:

Group 1:

1. Chest – Standard Push up –10+8/4+8 Wasn’t able to get that 10 up today…I tried, but my back was doing all the work instead of my chest and shoulders so I went on my knees to keep going.
   
2. Back – Wide Front Pull up – 8/10 I don’t know why but I put the pull-up machine at 60 today instead of 70 and was able to crank 8 out…it was pretty hard at the end so I took it back to 70 for the second set.  I could feel my hamstrings here too…so funny how every part of the body tries to help out.
3. Shoulders – Alternating Shoulder Press – 10/8 I upped my weights to 25 pounds today…cause I’m crazy and because I wanted to live dangerously!  My right weight did come close to falling out of my hands at 10 so I stopped.  My forearms were on fire since I’m still not using my thumbs.  

Group 2:

1. Chest – Military Push up – 3+6/2+8 Damn it, I couldn’t go up one here either…I think I need to hold my horses and be happy with the fact that I can do 3 to begin with, but it’s hard to not want to do more.
   
2. Back – Reverse Grip 45 degree pull up – 12/12 It’s funny that you only realize how much your whole body is involved in these exercises when something’s tight.  My hamstrings were killing here….and my forearms…
   
3. Shoulders – Dumbbell Upright Ts – 12/10 Still stayed at 10 pounds…still struggling to hold the weights up with my fingers after 10…but it’s a great exercise for my shoulders, it works every angle!
   

Group 3:

1. Chest – Wide Push up – 12/10 My wrists were hurting here on the first round and when I looked, I had them in a weird angle since I’m using weights to press into them.  As soon as I let go of the weights, the push up seemed so much easier since I wasn’t going as low.  I’m sticking with doing them on the weights, I get a better range.  Now I just need to work on getting off my knees!
   
2. Back – Lat Pulldown – 6/6+6 I’m sticking with lat pulldowns.   I upped the weight to 90 pounds at first but could only do 6 reps and I wasn’t getting the bar as low on my chest as I could have liked.  I took it down to 82.5 pounds on the second rep and then took it down even more to 67 pounds so I could keep going.
   
3. Shoulders – Lateral Raises – 15/14 It’s so hard to hold these weights without my thumbs, my fingers and forearms are on fire and I’m using 12 pound dumbbells.  I might try to up the weights to 15 pounds next time but I’ll make sure to wear steel-toe boots!
   

Group 4:

1. Biceps – In & Out Bicep Curls – 12/12 Yeah there was no way I was doing 15 reps today, I have no idea how I did it last week.
   
2. Triceps –Chair Dips w/ ball – 15/10 My triceps were feeling really weak today and I was taking way too long at the gym so I decided not to do side tri raises.  The chair dips felt good though and I didn’t fall off this time..always a plus
   

Group 5:

1. Biceps – Crouching Cohen Curls – 8/8 Back down to 8 reps only here today…I’m blaming the spin class earlier!
   
2. Triceps – Tricep Extension– 12/12 I had to focus on keeping my elbows in here, they kept wanting to splay outwards!  

Group 6:

1. Biceps – Hammer Curls – 8/8 I expected my right elbow to try to push to the right again but it didn’t!  I’ll take that as a sign that my right is getting stronger.
   
2. Triceps – Tricep Pulldown– 12/12 Since my triceps were so tired today, the pulldown with 12.5 pounds was a nice way to end.  By the last few reps it was challenging too so I’ll take it.
   

Phew…I was beat by the time I was done… but was really glad that I had come and pushed so hard.  Sometimes, a great workout is the best thing you can do for your body and your sanity, and today was one of those days for me! 

38 down, 142 workouts to go…