Happy Friday!
Wasn’t The Office hilarious last night? Definitely one of the best episodes of all time.
It is Beeee-u-tiful outside today in Southern Ontario! What a mood booster. :) I am hoping to get outside today for a run on my lunch break. Spring is on its’ way!!
I had this great Purple Monster for breakfast:
It included: Spinach, hemp milk, Manitoba Harvest Hemp Protein powder, Amazing Grass Wheatgrass, BEET, frozen banana, tsp maca, ice.
Strength Vs. Cardio:
Yesterday I decided to do my strength workout before my run. I was inspired by our conversation the other day about benefits of doing strength training first or cardio first.
The majority of you thought that you should train first what you want to work on the most. So if I am training for a half marathon, I should run first and ensure that I can run strong.
After thinking about it some more, I decided that variety is best for me right now. Why not mix it up? Some workouts I will run first and some workouts I will strength train first. I think that will keep my body challenged and always guessing. Mind you, I often don’t do both on the same day, but occasionally I do (maybe once a week?).
I also probably wouldn’t strength train on a day that I had scheduled a difficult speed work session. I think that is setting my body up for injury.
Yesterday I decided to try my strength training first and see how I did on my run afterwards. I always used to do my run first and then strength second so this was going to be a challenge for me…
The Strength:
I did the Booty Camp Fitness DVD Advanced level which is a 55 minute full body workout. It includes a warm-up, stretching, leg workout, arm workout, core workout, plyometrics, and a cool-down + stretching. It whoops my booty. After the video I was doubtful if I was going to be able to run, but I was actually surprised once I got going. I decided to start off the run at a really easy pace and see how I felt.
The run:
Mile 1: 6 mph, incline 1% (I felt great so I upped the speed to make it more challenging)
Water break
Mile 2: 7 mph, incline 1%
Water break
Mile 3: 7.5-8.5 mph, incline 1% (very hard mile)
Total time: 26:34
I actually felt pretty loose and my muscles felt much warmer than they do when I normally start a run. I think this is a sign that I need to warm-up longer when I do cardio first!
Another option is to strength train only my arms on run days.
Health News Round-Up
It has been a while since I did a Health News Round-Up! Months, in fact. I thought I would bring it back as a weekly feature to the blog.
Here are some health related posts that I enjoyed reading this week:
- Seven Reasons to Strength Train – Fit Sugar
- When Exercise Goes From Good To Bad – Hangry Pants
- Pros and Cons to Indoor Vs. Outdoor Winter Training- NY Times
- Ginnifer Goodwin Has Big Love For Veganism – Fit Sugar
- What’s Better: Fresh or Frozen Produce? A Quiz – Savvy Eat
- I Want To Go To Switzerland (And Eat Cakelike Cornbread) – Have Cake Will Travel
- The Big Birth Control Question – Healthy Tipping Point
- Is It Necessary To Eat Fruit On An Empty Stomach? One Doctor Weighs In- NY Times
- The 10 Laws of Injury Prevention – Runner’s World
- Mashed Cauliflower Recipe – Health Foodie
- Canadians Are Heavier, Wider, Weaker- The Globe and Mail
- Deb’s Lower Calorie Almond Butter – Via Eating Bender
- Is It Possible To Live Without Genetically Modified Organisms? – A Month Without Monsanto
- Girls On The Run’s Molly Barker – Fit Bottomed Girls
What were some of your favourite stories, articles, or posts this week?
I’m off for a very busy day of work. I hope you have a wonderful end to your week!
Insist on yourself. Never imitate.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wow what a great workout!
I liked this article on Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2244249/
Hey there! I did part of my run first today, strenth trained, and then did the rest of my run. The run after ST was glorious! My knees felt like they could keep going forever. Of course, I didn’t push it…don’t want that pain creepin’ in on me. ;)
I’ve always read that you should strength train before cardio so your muscles are less exhausted and you can lift with better form. However, I’ve always been nervous that I won’t have energy to do cardio afterwards (I’m a cardio junkie) but you’ve inspired me to try strength training first!
PS Thanks for the email response earlier this week. I had missed a couple of your posts and all were very informative and helpful. Thank you SO much for being so inspirational :)
I’ve been thinking about what I’ve read on running and strength training ever since you asked about it the other day, and after a lot of pondering, I’m pretty sure that one article I read on it talked about how running depletes the glycogen in your muscles and would make it harder to strength train after. I dunno, I try to not to do both on the same day because I’m kind of lazy. ;)
You look so happy running. I’d look more like, “Is this over yet??” Last time I strength trained first I felt so much more sore the next day than when I do cardio first. I have no idea why that is. Thanks for the great health link roundup.
Ever since my injury last year (I was off exercise for 2 months), I really appreciate being able to run…if that makes any sense. I am just happy when I can run injury free! :)
that’s funny, these are all posts i read and loved this week too! i really enjoyed the office last night as well…it kinda made me want to have a baby more than usual :) mainly because jim was so cute and i can totally imagine my husband being that adorable and more :)
I loved the birth control question on HTP! I may or may not have read all the comments…
I’m always really sore if I try to strength train before I run. I like the advice of doing arms!
The Office was amaaaaazing!!!!
Thanks for all the cool links! I’ve read some of these but I’ll get to the rest now :)
Hi Angela! Great links and great issues to bring up.
I would love it if you stopped by my blog and read the question I posted in my most recent post. It’s about how the relationships we were exposed to growing up affects our expectations in our relationships now. I thought you might be interested, because part of being healthy includes healthy relationships. Also, I would love to hear more about your opinions on the matter.
Have a great day! You are amazing!
Oh my gosh, when Pam fed the wrong baby I thought I was going to pee my pants!
I’ve been having purple monsters lately with frozen mixed berries (blueberry, raspberry and boysenberry) Yum!
Ooooh I haven’t seen the office yet … we were going to wait and just buy it when it comes out. Now I wish we had just PVRd instead!
I still like weights first, for the stretching aspect you mention. I never warm up enough first otherwise!
I love that your run at a “really easy pace” was 6mph, 7mph, 7.5-8.5mhp! Overachiever!
I say that in the most admiring tone of voice! :-D
hehe…no I meant 6.0 mph is an easy mile for me…the 7-8.5 were NOT easy miles. ;)
I found this interesting: Hard vs. Easy Training.
“If one makes the easy days easy, the hard days can be hard. And race fitness improves. If, on the other hand, easy becomes moderate then hard also becomes moderate. And there is little progress.”
http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2010/02/easy-means-easy.html
Sounds like a great workout! And being able to push thru a run after lifting will make your running even stronger :)
Thanks for the links! Some interesting reads. Summer Tomato does a great weekly link round-up as well- check it out.
http://summertomato.com/for-the-love-of-food-40/
Excellent links! I had read the NYTimes articles on the way to work the other day and found them really interesting as well, in addition to the birth control debate at healthy tipping point. I found the article in the NYTimes about how small changes don’t necessarily mean weight loss interesting as well… yes, it doesn’t speak to all cases, but it was just insightful in the way that it shows how people tend to not really change their overall habits so while they might eat one less cookie, they might have a bigger lunch that day or exercise less.
I am also a cardio junkie. I usually like to get my run in first and then depending on how much time I have, do my strength workout. I find running after doing legs very difficult, but it really kicks your butt!
Something you should try is cardio and strength intervals. I’ll warm up for 1 mile on the treadmill, then do like 1 round of legs. Get back on for 1 mile, then another round of legs, etc. Usually I’ll begin and end with the run as warmup/cooldown. You can do as many rounds as you want, and this workout flies by!!
I always find myself hitting the treadmill first, I feel like if I do weights before, I might be tempted to not work as hard during my run. And since I like weight training better, I kind of look at doing cardio first as “getting it out of the way.” But I’m slowing learning to like it more, and I appreciate the challenge :)