Yoga!!!

Sorry about not posting last night.  It just got too late, so below is both yesterday's workout as well as today's.

YESTERDAY:

This was a day that would be a whole new experience.  I had previously signed up for a yoga class, but still didn't want to give up on my lifting since it wasn't my day off.  So I gambled and did both.  I went to the gym about 3pm and assumed I'd be out, showered, have eaten, and rested by 5:30, ready for my yoga class at 6pm.  Well, it turns out it was 5pm when I left the gym, so I hurried home, munched on some peanuts, changed clothes, and ran over to yoga thinking "Oh God, this is going to be bad!"  It turns out it wasn't as physically bad as I thought it would be.  It was a one hour class offered for free by a med student at school who recently completed her yoga training class and needed to fulfill so many classes before getting a position.  About 40 minutes into the one hour class, I was beginning to feel the burn.  My legs were getting a little shaky and I definitely couldn't hold the positions as well as some of the others.  I'll attribute that to having worked out beforehand.  Overall, though, I enjoyed the class and will definitely go again if it's offered in the future.  If I find a cheap yoga studio or place in the meantime I'll see about doing that too. 

Reps & Weights:
Warm up: Elliptical; 1 mile forward, 0.2 mile backwards, 0.2 mile forward, 0.1 mile backwards (heart rate up to ~155/160)
1.  Bench Press Machine (3 sets of 10/10/7 reps with 90, 110, 120 lbs)
2.  Leg Press (3 sets of 10 reps with 170/210/230 lbs)
3.  Sitting Leg Curl (3 sets of 10 reps with 90 lbs)
4.  Sitting Leg Extension (3 sets of 10 reps with 90 lbs)
5.  Sitting Calf Extentsion (3 sets of 40,40,30 reps with 80 lbs)
6.  Pectoral Fly Machine (3 sets of 10,10,8 reps with 100,120,140 lbs)
7.  Back Leg Extension (3 sets of 10 reps with 90,110,130 lbs)
8.  Adductor (3 sets of 10 reps with 150 lbs)
9.  Abductor (3 sets of 10 reps with 95,95,85 lbs)

** Stretching **

10. Crunch Ups (4 sets of 10 sit-ups and 10 crunches)
11. Side Plank Twists (15 reps on each side)
12. Military Press (3 sets of 10,10,9 reps with 60 lbs)
- Cool Down:  Treadmill; 1.0 mile run, 0.5 mile walk
- Yoga: 1 hour


THEN TODAY

Today I woke up and definitely felt some tension/soreness in my legs, which I didn't feel last night.  The lifting and yoga certainly did a good job of working my legs out!  Today thankfully was an upper body day, so my legs got a bit of a rest in that respect.

Reps & Weights:
Warm up: Elliptical; 1 mile forward, 0.2 mile backwards, 0.2 mile forward, 0.1 mile backwards (heart rate up to ~155/160)
1.  Dumbbell Press (10,10,9 reps with 55 lbs/arm)
2.  Bicep Curls (10/5&5/5(5) reps with 30,30,30(25) lbs)
.....** Repeat 1 & 2 for a full three sets

3.  Gravity Rower (10 reps with 50 lbs)
4.  Horizontal Overhead Lat (10 reps with 40 lbs)
5.  Trecip Bench Dips (30 reps)
.....** Repeat 3-5 for a full three sets

6.  Pull-Down Triceps (3 sets of 10,10,6 reps with 60 lbs)
7.  Vertical Overhead Lats (3 sets of 9,10,10 reps with 60,50,50 lbs)

**Stretching**

8.  Crunch Ups (4 sets of 10 situps & 10 crunches)
9.  Side Turns (16 reps)
10. Military Press (3 sets of 10,9,5 with 62.5 lbs)
11. Pectoral Fly (3 sets of 10 reps with 90, 110, 130 lbs)
Cool Down:  Treadmill; 1.0 mile run, 0.5 mile walk

I've been happy to add the treadmill into my workouts.  It's the first step to getting back out onto the road.  I won't push it any further than the warm up or cool down for now, but when I feel comfortable with it, I'll get on the road and start testing it out a mile at a time.  I haven't decided what to do for shoes just yet (go with a new pair of running shoes or dive into the Vibram Five Fingers), but I should at least go check out some shoes here soon since I've already stepped up onto the treadmill. 

I've also been doing some reading on how to transfer your metabolism from a high to low carb-to-fat ratio (teaching your body to prefer burning fat over carbs).  I got the idea from a video I watched from Tim Van'Orden, the guy that runs RunningRaw.com.  The benefit to this option is that while fat offers less energy punch per unit, it is essentially unlimited.  You could run for days on the fat on your body if your body is ready to burn it.  On the other hand, most people will "bonk" after 2 hours of carb burning because that's about as long as the reserves in your body last.  So naturally, as many of you would notice for yourself, switching over to fat burning is really only advantageous for endurance athletes; people who train or race for over two hours).  While it would make no sense for me to switch for the spring triathlons, it will certainly help for the marathon and half Ironman races next year.  I'm going to keep looking into it and hopefully come next spring start working on it in preparation for those races.  I must admit, it's fun learning how your body works and how to manipulate it to perfect what it is you want to do.  I'll keep you posted on what I find. 

Tomorrow will most likely be a mixed lifting day.  I got bored again today with the upper body workout, so I know I shouldn't do that one again.  Based on that fact alone, I may take it as a sign to take some time off of the upper body lifting focus; it's not like I really want to add bulk anyways.  We'll see.

Ciao!