Monday Morning in the Gym

This morning, I went to the Gym.  Coach and I talked about how I wanted to add weights and yoga into my routine in the off season, and thought that Mondays and Thursdays would be good ones for that since they are also Mr. Darcy's tennis days.  Whatever I don't get done in the mornings, I can bring the liliputians to the Y for the childcare while he plays tennis and I finish up whatever needs to be done.

Today I decided to do the weights first, which even I knew was a little silly because my muscles would be tired when I got on the bike.  But I was running a little bit behind so I decided to do the weights so if I didn't get to the cardio, I'd do the cardio either at lunch or when Mr. Darcy is at tennis.  Well, I was a dynamo!  Of course, I only did one set of the circuit and was doing less weight with higher reps (15 reps each), but it was day 1 of weight work and the worst thing is getting sore afterwards and not wanting to do it again.  So I was easing in.  I was really surprised at how strong I am though.  With my back I was doing 80-90 pounds, arms were 40-50 pounds, legs were 90 pounds except for my hamstrings which are naturally tighter than all my other muscles so I did those at 70.  Even my hip adductors were at 90.  I felt super strong!  After the circuit, I did a plank, squats with 10 pounds (I could have gone higher but wasn't sure if the squats would affect my calf muscle.), twisting situps with the 8 pound medicine ball, leg raises and another lower ab exercise, and then some more squats and arm raises with a body bar (I went for the medium weight because the light bar was too light, I love it!).  Then I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike in a relatively easy level.  I only got 12.3 miles done, but I didn't want to push the calf too hard it's first day back in the saddle.  I made it through without pain, but stretching my calf out was a little bit painful and now it hurts a little bit too.  But only like a 3 on the pain scale. 

I'll do some more stretching in a little bit, but I was happy with the workout!