I May Never Wash My Hair Again and Post Work Work-Out Done

Another Monday in the books.

• Wake up and realize it’s Monday: Check
• Get through work:  Check
• Post indulgent weekend sweat fest:  Check

Since I let myself rest this morning after a long weekend and day of travel, my workout was postponed until after work.  While I always prefer to get my work out in first thing in the morning, I always find that I am mentally more in the zone for afternoon work outs.

I’m sure it’s a matter of having more fuel and water in me, not to mention just being awake.  Either way, working out in the afternoon isn’t always a bad thing.

Workout of the Day:  1 warm up mile (9:08) 100 push ups, 200 sit ups, 300 squats, 1 mile finish (8:12)

Because I wasn’t just waking up, I wasn’t as concerned about having these miles be slow and easy, which made it kind of fun.  I am growing to love short speed work outs.  And as for the strength training, I broke it down the same way I have been:

• set of 30 of each
• 20 of each until I reach 90
• 10 of each
• then 5 sets of 20 sit ups, 40 squats

I find that the ONLY way to complete this work out is to split up the exercises up into manageable sets.  Give my other muscles time to break while I’m focusing on another muscle group.

I may never wash my hair again . . . 

Since I got my sweat on POST work. . . I needed to build in time to take a second shower  before eating.  If you know me, I am NOT about taking time to get ready twice in one day.  Oh no.  Well today I tried a new-to-me method for my hair, and quite frankly I may never wash my hair for real again.

To start this story, I forgot a hair tie AND head band for this workout.  Not cool.  I HATE when my hair is in my face, but I pulled through and just got it done.

Well, this left my hair (especially around my neck) NICE and sweaty.  Oh yeah.

Call me gross, but I was not down to wash my hair tonight.  Pizza night was far more important.  So, I put dry shampoo in my hair (I used Panteene Pro-V), brushed it through, then put it up in a pony tail to shower.

When I got out, I quickly blow dried my hair with a half round brush (round brush would probably work even better) in 3 different layers.  And seriously, within 5 minutes, my hair had more volume than it did BEFORE my work out.

 

Maybe I shouldn’t wash my hair anymore.  I am open to this idea.

Question of the Night: Dry shampoo?  Do you wash your hair everyday or like to be a little sick-o like me? 🙂

 

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Chicago Love Recap: Running

Thank you all for being so understanding on my mini hiatus from blogging this weekend.  It killed me to not be able to talk about how excited I was for WEEKS leading up to it, but I couldn’t ruin the big surprise so I’m actually proud I kept my little mouth shut!

There is SO much I want to share with you all, but I figured since I kind of try and call this a healthy living blog, that I’d start with the healthy aspect of my weekend away: Running.

You all know me.  I have a tendency SOMETIMES to be a fair weather runner.   It’s something I am constantly working on, but my weather sensitive little body makes it tough.

Well this weekend I toughed through it.  Twice.  In rain and tornado threatening weather.  Yup.  I sure did.

Saturday Morning’s Run

Some of you probably know I lived in Chicago off-and-on for 8 years.  From 18 to 26.  As you could probably guess, there were some HUGE life events that happened during that time.

• I moved on my own for the first time
• I graduated college
• I moved BACK home for grad school
• I met the love of my life
• I moved in with the love of my life
• I got engaged with the love of my life

Just to name a few.  Zach and I have such amazing memories in this city, and I know that a piece of my heart will always remain there.

Well — Saturday morning on my solo run, I decided I needed to take my run down memory lane.  And that’s exactly what I did.

I started out my run heading straight to Zach and I’s old home.  A very cute, refinished apartment in Wicker Park that was perfect for our first home together.

Once I ran past our old home, I turned past the old high school I worked at (Roberto Clemente High School), and ran down Division to check out our old stomping grounds.

It was SO great to see that most of our favorite spots were still up and doing well.

• Laticia’s Bakery, where we used to get our Saturday morning coffee and muffins
• Division Street Pub, where we went OFTEN after work, and after we got engaged 🙂
• Jerry’s Sandwiches, our favorite sammie stop and where we got dinner the night before my first half 🙂
• Violet Hour on Damen, where we celebrated our engagement
• Big Star on Damen, hello tacos
• And of course small bars, Milk and Honey cafe, Alliance Bakery…all of our favorites.

It meant so much to me to be running in the old neighborhood, to see all these old favorites and retrace the steps that I took SO many times training for my first half.

I’m also glad I spent this run solo.  Talk about making a run fly by.  I was so stuck reliving so many amazing memories that I had no idea I had finished well over 4 miles in under 9 minute pace.

Thank you altitude boost!

Sunday’s Run

Sunday’s run was a bit of a different story.

The boys wanted to get a little sweat on after an indulgent weekend, and of course I’m never one to turn down a run…so we headed out, per my request, to one of my favorite runner friendly areas in our old neighborhood.

Humbolt Park.

I was a little anxious about this run, knowing that I was running with some speedy boys and this was my 6th day in a row of running…but I actually found myself surprisingly comfortable most of the run.

The park is full of beautiful bodies of water, old buildings, and tons of runner friendly terrain.  3.75-4 miles FLEW by…but that could have been because I was literally flying (for me) with these boys.  We guessed that our pace was about 830…and with HUGE wind gusts and tornado threatening weather, I’d say that’s pretty darn good.

This was a very humbling (pun intended) run for me.  I started it SUPER anxious that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the boys…but I actually ended up kicking it into gear and speeding up for the last 1/4-1/3 mile and knocked out some SPEEDY negative splits.  It got me thinking that maybe I should push my speed a little more while I’m not working on distance and see what I can do.

So…

Two very different, very enjoyable runs that reminded me of why I love this city, and why I never travel without my running shoes.  Never.

Question of the Afternoon: Where’s your favorite place that you have EVER run?

Back To Normal Business

Good Morning, Happy Monday, and happy back-to-normal for this girl.

Thanks so all the crazy weather back in Chicago and the Midwest, Zach and I didn’t make it home until pretty close to midnight last night.  Needless to say we are EXHAUSTED this morning and will likely have a couple early-to-bed nights ahead of us after a long fun weekend and late Sunday night of travel.

This Morning:

While I would have LOVED to get a good sweat fest in this morning before work to start off my week, when my alarm went off I KNEW it wasn’t going to happen.  Didn’t even hit snooze.  Just reset for 715.

I skipped my normal rest day last Friday because I REALLY wanted to start the weekend of indulgence off on a good note, and I wanted to run my old home.  So my body is a little more exhausted than normal.  Then add the traveling and lack of sleep?  Wasn’t going to happen for this lady this AM.

But, I brought my workout clothes with me here to work and am telling myself that I am going to fit in a good strength work out this afternoon.

After 6 days of running in a row, some strength training might feel good on these little muscles of mine.

Workout Plan For the Week

Since last week and last weekend were so weird,  I didn’t exactly follow my last work out plan to a tee. And you know what, I was A-Ok with that.  I never missed a day of sweatin’, and I actually got my butt OUTSIDE for 3 out of my 6 runs.  Considering I ran in what was almost a tornado in the midwest yesterday, I am patting myself on the back.

But for this week, I am going to PLAN to have it a little run heavy to finish out the POTM and try and get as close to my  initial goal of 1,000 miles for 2013 as I can.

• Monday: STRENGTH training (plan: 10 minutes treadmill, 100 push ups, 200 sit ups, 300 squats)
• Tuesday: 4 easy miles
• Wednesday: 4 speed miles
• Thursday: 4 easy miles + short strength training routine
• Friday: 2 miles shake out
• Saturday: 2 miles (hopeful) and skiing
• Sunday: 5-6 miles.

So that’s anywhere between 20 and 24 miles for the week, with two strength routines built in.  I currently stand at 65.5 miles for POTM, leaving 35.5 miles left for the month.

Gotta keep up the pace but I think I can manage it 🙂

Alright guys 🙂 I’ll be back later this afternoon to start the recap posts of this weekend.  I think my first one is going to have to be about my runs…because let’s be real.  We all love chatting about new runs and work outs, right?

Question of the Morning: PLEASE tell me about your weekend, or just your life in general 🙂  I miss everyone and feel SO terribly out of the loop 😉