Addicted to Exercise

As it turned out, my legs were a little more tired after Saturday’s run than I thought they were.  I stuck to my plan and pushed through it, though.  Since I wasn’t going to run on Tuesday, I decided to run the seven-mile loop and then head over to AHS for some circuit and core work.  I could tell my legs were tired during my lap around Town Lake.  I ran slowly, and by the end some of my demons had caught up to me in my mind and I felt downright bad.  I still wandered over to AHS for the other workout, though.  I was early, so it was a while before people started showing up.  I joined a few of them for a couple warm-up laps.  Then when Gilbert arrived he sent us off to do our usual circuit training exercises with only one lap between each set.  I did like four sets of those and then a bunch of core.  The very last thing we did was the fast feet, and I was terrible at that as usual.  The final one was three minutes long, and I was barely moving at the end of it.  It was a good amount of exercise for the day, even if I didn’t feel good.  I’ll gather it all up and move on from there.

All right.  I’m a little tired now.

I felt a little bit guilty about not running for a few days while I was on vacation, so I figured doing a wicked core workout last night would make up for it somewhat.  It was intense, but I really didn’t feel any effects of it when I woke up this morning.

I got to RunTex a little bit early today so I could get an extra little bit of warm-up running in.  It was fairly cold out there, and I wanted to test out my legs anyway.  I did about a mile and a half, and by the end I felt nice and warm.  Then I joined the group for the official warm-up run over to AHS.  We went the longer way, and that all felt good.

From there it was the usual circuit drill with one lap between each set of the exercises.  I was thrilled with how graceful I felt on the laps today.  After four sets, we switched over to medicine ball exercises, and that’s where my workout from last night caught up with me.  We did a lot of sets today, and the side-to-side motion especially just ate me up.  I had really hit that hard last night.  After that we did a couple sets of fast feet, and there I hit a new high score on my heart rate monitor.  Heh!

I took the long way back to RunTex and ended up with around eight miles in all for the day.  I did a handful of stretches, and that was that.   I feel a little of that tiredness that you get from a good workout, but other than that everything’s working at 100%.

This morning, the group had options.  After the long version of the warm-up run over to AHS, I elected to do the circuit training with 800 meter runs between the sets of exercises.  That was pretty fun as usual.  What was really different, though, was that it was light outside.  It was really strange to be able to see everyone’s faces out there!  I found that I had no sense of time either.

My legs were somewhat stiff, especially on the lunges and step-ups, so I’ll do some extra stretching and all tonight.  We got to do several sets of medicine ball throws and even some pull-ups for good measure.  I joined a few other people for the long way back to RunTex, so I ended up with well over seven miles for the day.

This morning, I met the group for a trip to AHS for some fun exercises.  We started with taking the long way to warm up followed by several laps around the track.  All in all, it was about four miles or so.  We skipped the usual drills and went straight into a round of the circuit exercises.  That all felt pretty good, and just as I was finishing, we all got herded over to the inside of the track.

I kind of lost track of time there with all the bouncing around, but it felt like all fun and games until that hopping on one leg part.  That is always tough.  We had a few trips back and forth on the grass holding our breath, some leg lifts and turns, and even some fast feet for good measure.  I finally got a lesson in how to do the fast feet correctly, so now I have something to practice.

A few of us also took the long way back to RunTex, so I ended up with around seven miles for the day.  We found a car key on the trail near the 0.75 mile marker and turned it in.  Hopefully it found its owner by now.

This morning, Gilbert was having a circuit and core workout at AHS, so several of us were tasked with running the seven-mile loop, but with a stop at AHS to work in some exercises. I arrived a couple minutes late just in time to see the group leaving. That was different. Usually they don’t get started right away like that. So it turned into a little test to see when I would catch them. I estimated it would be right near AHS, but I reached them a little before that. The exercises there were fun. I got to do a couple sets of medicine ball throws before we did the usual leg lifts and fast feet. I still don’t do the fast feet correctly, but I was surprised to see how high my heart rate gets doing it even badly. I joined a fairly big group for the remainder of the run, and I was happy to have a little slower pace there to make up for catching up at the beginning.

My leg still felt a little tight, but it was all right. I’m sure now I can safely run on it, but I’m still running easy until Thursday this week. Tonight I did an hour of core, so I am nice and tired now!

I think the original schedule had a pace run for today, but Gilbert called an audible and sent us off to do a circuit training workout instead. We took the long way around to the AHS track and went straight into the routine. Today is was 800 meter intervals mixed up with the usual step-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, back lifts, wall squats, lunges, and pull-ups. That was fun and felt pretty good. My legs were still a little tight today, but they were a lot better than the last couple days. After a few rounds of that, we added in some medicine ball crunch/toss stuff and moved over to the big red square for some more core exercises. My legs were really tight on the fast feet, but otherwise things felt fine. I took the short way back since I had to get to a meeting, and that was it for today.

This morning was supposed to be a hill workout, but since most of us were tired after the hard week last week, we got to do an easy circuit day instead. We took the long way to the AHS track and did a couple rounds of the normal circuit routine. That felt pretty good. I was definitely feeling a lot better than I did right after Saturday’s run. We did some core and balance exercises before leaving, and then since it was getting late most of us took the normal (short) way back to the store. (Where does the time go?) I did a handful of stretches, and that was it for the day.

The original plan for this morning was to do the normal long warm-up toward AHS, but we couldn’t do that. Lots of the trail was underwater. So, we took a detour along the north side of the trail. It was pretty strange to see and hear the rushing water and see just how high the water level was. We all eventually made it to the track, and we skipped the drills to go straight into the circuit routine.

Today we got to enjoy the usual exercises plus all my favorite medicine ball throwing ones. I kind of lost count, but I think I did four complete rounds of step-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, back raises, wall squats, lunges, pull-ups, and medicine ball throwing with 400 meter runs in between plus the running portion of another one before time was called. From there, we did a little bit of core and balance, but it was getting late so that section was a little shorter than usual.

The cool-down run back went well. My legs are really feeling good these days. Tomorrow calls for an easy run and weights, and I’m looking forward to that.