Category Archives: strength training

Lifting Move of the Week: Deadlift/row combo

Dark and rainy this morning. I drove to the gym, although it was certainly warm enough to bike. I just don’t ride in the dark (or rain)

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Deadlift/Row	3 set of 8 at 65#	Full body
Barbell Chest Press (close grip)	3 sets of 10 at 45# (yay!)	Chest
Dumbbell Pliet Squat	3 sets of 10 with 40# DB	Lower body
Horizontal Wood Chop	3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30#	Core
2-point row	3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs (50# total)	Back
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Triceps Pulldown	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Triceps
Good Morning	3 sets of 10 at 45#	Lower back and hammies
Bent lateral raise	3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total)	Shoulders

It was so humid today that we were all sweating at the gym. I was thinking how sweaty I was feeling and then somebody else mentioned it, too LOL!

I came home and made some protein waffles topped with apple cranberry topping.

Looks good, no? Oui!

Lifting Move of the Week: The Deadlift Row Combo!
Have I done this one recently? I can’t remember LOL! I have talked about this move before while I was doing NROLW, but kind of forgot about doing it and just started bringing it back into my routine. Now I remember why it is one of my favorites! It’s a whole body exercise. What you do is basically a stiff-legged deadlift and instead of standing back up again, do a row with the weights and then stand up.

You can use a bar or dumbbells for this. When pulling the weight up for the row, be careful not to pull too high up towards your chest or you will activate your shoulders instead of your back. We don’t want any injuries 😀

Good stuff.

I made bread yesterday, so I wanted to have that with lunch. I decided to make a pressed sandwich with the waffle iron. Good for so much more than waffles! Did you know that you can cook bacon in a waffle iron? It’s true!

This was cooked chicken, laughing cow, and a bit of blueberry jam. Very tasty. I think I could have let the sandwich get toastier, but it was nice and warm.

The pink item of the day is for Jody and Ish. Pink nose!

Very productive day at work. Actually it has been a very productive week so far (I just typed ‘fat’ – Freudian slip?). Break time was a protein latte and a Luna bar. Oatmeal Raisin

I do like the Luna Bars.

It was so warm again this afternoon. In the 60s! I was able to go out before dinner and work on the new side garden bed. One of my goals this month was to get that 10 foot section tilled and removed of grass, which I finished up today. That’s some good exercise. I also will have some blooming photos on Friday, if you can believe it!

More chicken for dinner. This was an apple chicken sausage from the smokehouse. Too bad we didn’t have any buns. I like these a lot.

I can’t believe how dark it gets early now. It feels so much later. And of course it will only get worse next week after DST clock change. It’s Halloween week, so we were watching some TV after dinner:

Snack of some dried fruit. We had a coupon for this brand –

Dang these are good!

I am not particular with too many brands. Usually store brands are fine with me on most stuff, and even with coupons it can still be cheaper to get store brands versus name brand. However, I am willing to try anything with a coupon pretty much. I will say this is good… really good!

Question: Are you a coupon clipper?

No-added sugar and a new toy on its way!

It was just warm enough to bike to the gym today! Low 40s, although I had to wait until it was light enough to bike safely (safety first!). I haven’t been on my bike since last Wednesday. I miss it.

The iron:

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Deadlift	1 set of 10 at 65# 1 set of 8 at 75# 1 set of 8 at 85 # 1 set of 6 at 95 #	Lower body
Dumbbell Pullover	3 sets of 10 with 25# DB	Back
Dumbbell Chest press	3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Chest
Cable Squat to Row	3 sets of 10 at 60#	Full body
Captain’s Chair	3 sets of 10	Core
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves
Prone Cuban Snatch	3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs (16# total)	Shoulders
Triceps Kickback	3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Triceps

Yes! I did a chest exercise today. I cannot do any fly-type exercises yet, but I was able to do a chest press with the dumbbells. It was really easy with that weight, but no pain, so that is good. Any heavier and I felt a twinge. I refuse to push that. Patience grasshopper…

As I biked on home, I stopped in the little park. The ride home is full of traffic and not my favorite part, but I do cut through this park and enjoy it. The mums are blooming:

I spotted the pink item of the day: flowering kale (which really just says garnish to me and not garden)

Today was to be a no-added sugar day. I started off with almond joy oats (sweetened only with banana and I used unsweetened coconut).

When I do a no-added sugar day, that also means no stevia (and I don’t use Splenda anyway). I do allow myself fruit and dried fruit that is not sweetened. Got right to work today. I keep looking around for a job that I can do and move about as all this sitting is getting to me after 2 years. Even just a part-time where I am doing more movement.

Lunch break! You must try this – I mixed a wedge of laughing cow with 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa. So good! It made the quinoa creamy and cheesy (duh). Tasty. Roasted turkey breast on the side from the smokehouse.

We are getting a weather warmup this week. Tomorrow is supposed to be 68 degrees! I really want to bike, but I have a run on the schedule as I am supposed to do a 5K this weekend.

Speaking of missing the bike, I ordered a new toy that should be here in a month or so:

A bike trainer! We are bringing the bikes inside and setting them up on these trainers. There is also a block for the front wheels. That way I can pedal away to my heart’s content and not have to use the stationary at the gym (which I dislike very much). John is getting one as well, so we can still ride together on weekends, although not to cupcakes unless they are homemade (which they might well be).

Afternoon protein latte and a red pear for a snack:

With lots of cinnamon. I eat cinnamon in copious amounts just because I love it. Kind of like hot sauce.

Speaking of hot sauce, I incorporated that into dinner! This was a Morningstar chick’n patty. I stopped eating meat analogues a while ago, but John had bought these and it sounded kind of good to me, especially buffalo style!

Blue cheese laughing cow on that patty with hot sauce. Pretty good! I do have to say that I hit my sodium quota for a week today!

So today ended up quite a good food day overall in the plan. No-added sugar and weight loss portions (as Steve likes to say).

When I want something sweet on these days, I go to a standby of dates. That will be tonight’s snack with a few almonds.

Tomorrow I will post the recipe for quinoa cakes.

Question: What indoor exercise do you do in winter? loaded question, yes…)

Hot 100 update

It was so cold when I got up this morning. I just could not make myself bike to the gym – it was 25 out! There was a layer of frost to be scraped on the car as well. Brrrrr…… Sometimes I feel guilty driving the 2 miles to the gym.

I warmed up with treadmill walking and then set to work.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Squat	1 set of 10 at 45# 1 set of 10 at 55# 1 set of 8 at 65 # 1 set of 6 at 75 # 1 set of 6 at 85#	Lower body
Deadlift/row combo	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Hammies and back
Reverse crunches	3 sets of 15	Core
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves
Lower Back Extension	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Low back
Upright row	3 sets of 10 at 30#	Shoulders
Cable curls	3 sets of 10 at 40#	Biceps
Triceps Pull down	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Triceps

My shoulder/biceps is doing a little better with the rest, ice, and heat I have been doing. I can do chest pushing motions without weights and no pain, so hopefully I will be back to doing pushing exercises in a week or so. I know my chest muscles won’t wither away, but it feels funny to leave those moves out.

Onward to breakfast! Banana cream of wheat topped with homemade fluff and 5 toasted pecans. So good!

My Hot 100 Update for the week:

Maintain my weight. I am going to have to go to weight loss mode.
No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day! Not in stores yet.
Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. Did the home duathlon. 5K coming up next weekend!
Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least. Did 4 days – yippee!!
Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on. Been visiting.
Do one no-added sugar day each week. Done.

Actually did really well except on the weight front. I need to buckle down and get back into losing mode. I actually ate well this week except for snacky Wednesday, so hopefully I can tweak things a bit more as I get my exercise program figured out.

I worked this morning for a couple hours, then took a break for lunch. I didn’t really want a cold lunch, but these berries were on their last legs – so I made my cereal/yogurt/berry mash:

Then it was more work. I was getting annoyed at the doctors a little today. One of them set the recorder on one side of the room and proceeded to walk around shuffling papers and such while dictating. Do you know how hard that is to pick out words? I had to stop for a while and go out to the library for my sanity. While there, I spotted my pink item:

I did not get this book out, but I noticed the color.

I did, however, get these out:

Let’s see, a book on dieting, a Stephen King book, nonfiction about a cholera outbreak, and a running book. Quite the range, eh? This is my brain all.the.time.

John made lattes when I got back:

which I paired with a Balance bar while reading the paper.

Finished out my work day and did an experiment for dinner. Sweet potato quinoa cakes!

I will post the recipe for recipe Tuesday. They are good as a base for adding things to. Liked topped with jam (weird for dinner, I know). John dipped his in maple syrup!

Pixie shot of the day. We got these sheer curtains and Pixie likes to sit behind them. I think she believes no one can see her, but she can see us:

Silly girl. She is cute, but not too bright.

I am currently blogging with a decaf skim latte:

Me and John time before he goes off to poker. Then I get to watch scary movies on TCM – Hammer Horror during October on Fridays! 😯

Question: Do you like scary movies?

Lifting Move of the Week – Front Raise

I woke up this morning and had a quick Luna Bar before biking to the gym. It was just getting light out.

I thought them temp was supposed to be in the 30s, so I layered up and biked. Turns out it was 29 😯

Quiet gym today. I think it will get less and less crowded as the year finishes out.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Stiff-legged deadlifts	3 sets of 10 at 80#	Lower body
Seated Lat Row	Reverse pyramid of 1 set of 4 at 85# 1 set of 6 at 70# 1 set of 8 at 55# 1 set of 12 at 40#	Back
Pliet Squat	3 sets of 10 with 40# DB	Lower body
Front Raise	3 sets of 12 with 8# DBs (16# total)	Shoulders
Horizontal Wood Chop	3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30#	Core
Good Mornings	3 sets of 10 at 45#	Low back and hammies
Biceps curls	3 sets of 10 with 30# EZ curl bar	Biceps
Bench Dips	3 sets of 10	Triceps
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves

John texted me that he got a late start, so I filmed a video today. I keep trying to get the good morning, but it is really hard to find a place to put the camera and get everything. Once John got to the gym, we headed out to Cool Beans. Chilly ride, I have to say!

My wheat bagel:

Good company while reading the paper:

The sun was shining, which was nice, but it was still a cold ride home. Probably not too many breakfast rides left for the year.

Lifting Move of the Week: The Front Raise. This is a shoulder move, and more specifically, an isolation move for the front (or anterior deltoid for those that want to know). It is important not to use a heavy weight for this one. Other than it being really hard – you certainly don’t want to hurt yourself. Raise the weights straight up in front of you to 90 degrees and lower down. Don’t push off or use your back to lift the weights. If you are doing that, the weights are too heavy. I am using 5# DBs in the video and usually use 8#, but not much more.

The face in the video is probably why not many people talk to me when I am lifting. I look pretty serious

Lunch time today included baked clam strips. They were toasty warm, which was nice after trying to warm up from that bike ride this morning!

Did you know that today is Love Your Body Day? I will shout out now that I love my thighs! They do everything I ask of them and more. They are strong and carry me through life.

Snack time:

John made up brownies last night from a mix. I was doing a no-added sugar day and boy was it tough not to eat one! But, I knew they would still be there for today.

I kind of was snacky today. I had some cereal:

I spied my pink picture of the day while John was doing laundry! This is his basket:

It looks more pink in person. Must have been the lighting.

Cooked up some chicken for dinner. I found out that the chicken sold at our local smokehouse comes from Georgia. WTF?? Not all of the meat is local from there, so it will be on to plan B (one of the other smoke houses).

Question: What part of your body are you loving today?

What to do now?

Back to lifting today! I woke up and my legs were maybe a squidge tired from yesterday, but I really wanted to get back to the weights, so I went. I just lightened up the lower body stuff.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell deadlifts	3 sets of 10 at 65#	Lower body
Dumbbell pull over	3 sets of 10 with 25# DB	Back
Captain’s Chair	3 sets of 10	Core
Stationary lunges	3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 35# plate	Lower body
Face Pull	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Shoulders
Lower back extension	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Low back
Hammer curls	3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Biceps
Nosebreakers	3 sets of 15 with 25# bar	Triceps

Did you spy the biceps move in there? I never work my biceps anymore because of the workout they get with chest and back moves. However, with my shoulder issue, I still can’t do pushing chest exercises. I did try the pec fly machine today, but that hurt as well. Boooo…. Just needs more time. So, that meant some biceps work.

This was just a short weight workout today and no cardio. Then it was to home and a warm brekkie!

Cream of wheat cooked with banana and egg whites and topped with a measured tablespoon of peanut butter. I am actually pretty good at eyeballing that, but I have to tighten up the eating now that I am done with all that endurance stuff for the year, pretty much.

Now I am feeling a bit at loose ends. I have a couple of 5Ks to do this year, but all the big stuff is done and I don’t really have anything to train for. Earlier in the year, I had that same issue of no real training goal and I started running a lot like I had something to do and I really believe I was starting to stress and over train. So I scaled back some. Of course, then I got injured so that threw any plans out of the water for a few months. 🙄

I don’t know why I feel the need to train for something. Maybe it gives me focus or some sort of time goal. I know I need to work more on periodization, but it is always hard for me to scale back. Guess I gots me some thinkin’ to do.

Lunch time and I had an egg hankerin’! The leftover broccoli from yesterday’s dinner somehow didn’t make it into the bags going to the parent’s house (sorry Mom!) 😈 So, I chopped it up and put in in my omelet with some laughing cow. With a comice pear on the side.

I haven’t felt all that hungry today. Unusual, but it is a nice change. I had my afternoon latte with 1/4 scoop of whey protein in it.

Work for job #2 was slow in the afternoon, so I went out for a short walk. Nice fall day. However, that does mean working tonight.

We cooked up some pork burgers for dinner. I melted some Cabot on there. And fresh cut pineapple with toasted coconut. It was tropical, I tell you!

Tonight is stretching, doing RICE for my shoulder, working, and sneaking in some football watching with a snack.

Pink item of the day (which I forgot yesterday!) My bike/lifting gloves:

Taper week begins

Monday and happy Columbus Day! We had a nice day yesterday. My uncle and his family came up to visit, so we had dinner at my parents house. A good visit was had and it was a nice rest day for me, and I only had to work half a day!

This morning, I was up raring to go and biked to the gym. Chilly, but still doable right now. Last lifting session of the week pre duathlon.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Split Squat	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Lower body
Dumbbell pull over	4 sets of 12 with 25# DB	Back
Barbell stiff-leg deadlifts	3 sets of 10 at 75#	Lower body
Decline sit ups	3 sets of 12	Core
Upright row	3 sets of 10 at 30#	Shoulders
Triceps pull down	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Triceps
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves

I am having some soreness in the front my shoulder with any pushing activity, so I am laying off any chest exercises for a while (probably 3 weeks). That is quite annoying. I think it is tendonitis/bursitis. Anyone have any good chest exercises that don’t have a push component to them? Maybe I need to start some chin ups again.

I was going to run on the treadmill, but then I thought I would wait until later since it was going to be nice out. So – I biked on home for breakfast!

Banana custard oats topped with nut butter and jam. This is now classic Lori for brekkie!

I put my head down today and just worked, worked, worked. I wanted to finish up as early as I could. I actually was a little surprised that there was enough work for both jobs, since the clinics were closed today. I’ll take it, though!

Lunch break. Guess what is back in the house? Tuna. Yay… maybe not so ready for it after all LOL!

Well, I did get some more lemon pepper, so it was all right. Sunchips on the side in the super noisy bag. Did you know they are going to discontinue the eco friendly bag on all but the regular chips because too many people complained about the noise? Lame…

I was having some nut issues today. John made me a latte in the afternoon, which I paired up with this:

I finished up work at about 4 pm, which was awesome! I decided to go out for a run and asked John if he wanted to go down to the track. I just wanted an easy 2-mile run as part of my taper.

Pink item of the day! My and my trisuit (aka Triscuit) ready for the run.

Amazing how I can bike outside all summer and still be pasty white. 64 degrees out, baby! I was ready for that 😀 My legs felt a little stiff, but likely due to the lifting from this morning. John did 3 miles, he passed me a couple times on the track.

This week is the taper week. Weather looks like it should be passable for the duathlon on Sunday. The week will look like this:

Sun: Rest day.

Mon: Lifting, 4 mile bike ride, 2 mile run.

Tues: 5 mile bike ride, 2 mile run.

Wed: Rest day, walking.

Thurs: 13 mile bike ride (if no rain)

Fri: 2 mile run.

Sat: Rest day

Sun: Duathlon!

Dinner time when we got back from the run.

I managed to snack on a few handfuls of peanuts.

I probably ate close to 2 ounces. Ooops. So much for not snacking before dinner! I made a pressed sandwich with chicken, laughing cow, honey mustard and apples. It was good. I should do that for a recipe post tomorrow.

MNF tonight and I am done with work for the day! John and I are going to sneak out for some coffee before he goes to play poker.

Lifting Move of the Week – Plie Squat!

Thank you all for the kind anniversary wishes! I know I have said this before, but even though I don’t have tons of material things and wealth and all that, I am very rich in other ways, family being one of them.

I headed up to the gym today and it was somewhat warm. That good fall kind of warm.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Stiff-leg deadlift	3 sets of 10 at 75#	Lower body
Dumbbell Chest Press	3 sets of 12 with 20# DBs (40# total)	Chest
Seated Lat Row	Pyramid of 1 set of 12 at 40# 1 set of 10 at 55# 1 set of 8 at 70# 1 set of 6 at 85# – D’oh!	Back
Plie squats	3 sets of 12 with 35# DB	Lower body
Horizontal Wood Chop	3 sets of 10 (each side) at 30#	Core
Nosebreakers	3 sets of 10 at 30#	Triceps
Reverse fly on bench	3 sets of 8 with 12# DBs (24# total)	Shoulders
Lower Back Extension	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Low Back
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves

We flipped bagel day this week to be on Wednesday, so John met me at the gym and we biked the rest of the way to Cool Beans.

I was happy to have bagels a day early!

Sesame seed deliciousness!

I was tired biking to and from bagels after the strength workout. I even had a protein drink beforehand, but it still is just tiring to do cardio on those days, but what are you going to do?

Lifting Move of the Week: Plie Squat! Yes, I did a squat move last week, but this is a fun and non-intimidating exercise. It is like a dumbbell squat, only your feet are pointed out and you have 1 dumbbell between your legs that you lift. Make sure your knees and toes are pointed in the same direction. Same other rules as the squat apply.

I like this move because I can feel my inner thighs working a lot more. This is one move where I can still feel the difference in leg strength due to my herniated disk (6 months later, thank you).

Got right to work when we got back from the gym. I need to play a bit of catch-up because I knocked off early last night so we could have an evening together with dinner and coffee out.

Lunch time:

4-day-old leftover pizza. Very gourmand, I must say… I really felt protein deficient from this, so I had one of these:

Today has been a calorie creep kind of day. Know what I am talking about?

I had a bit of dark chocolate:

And then a latte. I’ll have to do a little picture demo of our cheapo machine for these. 😀

Just so darn hungry. All this will show on the scale for the monthly wrap up tomorrow, but these things happen.

John grilled up some boneless pork chops for dinner. Yum! It’s a nice change from chicken

Must get this posted and get back to work!

I have a brick scheduled for tomorrow, but we are supposed to get inundated with Irene rain, so it may be at the gym again. Sigh… better change the batteries in my mp3 player for that.

**Attune Munch Granola Giveaway ends on Thursday!**

Lifting Move of the Week: The Squat

Happy Hump Day to all! It’s Wednesday, so you know it is the Lifting Move of the Week! Since this is an important exercise, I am just basically going to talk about this by itself today.

Here was my workout this morning:

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Squats	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Lower body
Seated Lat Row	3 set of 10 at 55#	Back
Barbell Chest Press	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Chest
Planks	3 sets of 75 second holds	Core
Alternating reverse lunges	3 sets of 15 each leg	Lower body
Ahnold Press	3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total)	Shoulders
Good Mornings	3 sets of 10 at 45#	Low back and hammies
Triceps Kickback	3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Triceps

I haven’t done the planks in over 2 weeks and I could feel it! Again, someone felt the desire to talk to me while I was doing them. Saying they looked harder than pushups. Good thing I was looking at the floor so he couldn’t see my eyes roll…

Anyway, as you know by the title, the Lifting Move of the Week is: The Squat!

I was a wee bit hesitant to actually post a video and talk about the squat because there certainly are strong opinions about it and what is “right” and what is “wrong.” With squats, there can be some variety of the minutae because of different body types, but there are some general things to do or avoid.

Some people say they can’t do squats because of knee problems, but truthfully, good squat form does not put that much pressure on your knees. Most people tend to squat too far forward. When you are doing a squat, you should be able to wiggle your toes and lift them off the floor at all times. If you cannot do this, then you are putting too much pressure on your knees. Think of sitting back onto your heels, as those really are what drive the force of the squat.

Knee problems with squats also can occur because you don’t go deep enough. This means your legs never get to parallel or past.

Source

This actually is okay if you have the chair in front of you to support your forward weight. I see a lot of people, guys especially, load up the barbell and partial squat. I die at how their knees must feel stopping at that point fully loaded. When you stop part way down, this is what causes the greatest stress to the knee instead of passing through this point to where your muscles take over.

So, here is my version of the squat. I wish I could have had a different camera angle because you can’t see my feet and it does not look like I am going past parallel (which I am) , but I had to use what I could attach the camera to for this. Maybe when I get paid to do this, then I will get a fancy set up

Notice that my lower back does round a tiny bit at the bottom. This is referred to as butt wink. And hooray thinking of the Google hits I will get with this post. After doing much reading, I don’t mind the rounding when I go past parallel for 2 reasons. One, it is just really hard to keep your lower back arched once you go past parallel, which I think is a function of the way I am built. The other is that when I try to keep that arch in my lower back, then I tilt forward too much and go off center as my hips rise faster than the rest of me, which is not good either. Personally, I would rather just have a little bit of rounding and stay stable. Again, just my opinion. (This video also gives me some things to work on with my squat that I don’t see from viewing myself in the mirror.)

Maybe someday I will get to this:

The most important thing with squats is form. It’s better to do 1 perfect squat with no weights than 20 done poorly with heavy weights just to say “I squatted my body weight.”

If you want to see the perfect example of squat form and how easy and free they are, just watch kids.

Source

They squat naturally ass-to-grass without thinking about balance or anything like that.

** I am not a doctor, personal trainer, or other person of degreed knowledge. Take any of my musings with 2 grains of kosher salt and do your reading**

Lifting move of the week – Triceps Pulldown

Yay- the return of lifting. I missed it. My last session was last Monday! I drank some protein and then biked a cold ride to the gym. I don’t think it was quite 50 degrees. Must remember to put on one more layer nowadays.

I was ready to throw around some iron.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Stiff-legged Deadlifts	3 sets of 10 at 75#	Lower body
Dumbbell Chest Press	3 set of 15 with 20# DBs (40# total)	Chest
Lying Leg Press	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Lower body
Seated Lat Row	Pyramid with 1 set of 12 at 45# 1 set of 10 at 55# 1 set of 8 at 70# 1 set of 6 (barely) at 85#	Back
Reverse crunches on a bench	3 sets of 15	Abs
Front Raise	3 sets of 12 with 8# DBs (16# total)	Shoulders
Triceps Pulldown	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Triceps
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves

My gym was a little less crowded today. Think the college kids went back to school. Funny note, I was talking to a couple women today that said they missed me last week. I told them about my ride on Sunday and one asked “How many days did you ride to do 62 miles?” LOL! I said one and I thought she was going to fall off of her piece of equipment.

I biked home pretty hungry. Banana custard cream of wheat with the yin and yang of PB and Jam!

Time for the Lifting Move of the Week! I need to record more videos as this was the last one of that big recording day I did 😀 This week’s move is the Triceps Pulldown. This is using my favorite piece of equipment – the cable machine. Using the rope attachment, lock the pulley up high. Then pull down keeping your elbows tucked into your sides and keeping your abs tight. It is tough to keep your elbows from moving.

Lunch break today was an open faced tuna sammie and a delicious plum!

After an hour, I was feeling hungry again, especially for protein, so I had a Balance bar.

My little butterfly friend was hungry as well. I think he is single handedly going to suck this plant dry. This picture was taken through our new windows, too!

I’m loving the new windows 😀

John brought me a latte and I took a break from work to enjoy:

After I finished up work for the day, I was ready for my football dinner We biked to Rockhill Bakehouse. That actually was not my first choice, but the original place changed their hours to lunch only. It is pretty cool today, so I was in the mood for some soup! This place serves local products, so we are free to choose anything on the menu!

This was a pork and apple soup. Served with a sampling of breads. (I thought of you, Jody!)

With organic coffee on the side.

Yum! We couldn’t dilly dally too long because it gets dark earlier now. We did stop on the way home and buy tickets to the Irish Fest this weekend! Two of our favorite groups are playing, Gaelic Storm and Lunasa. Yay!

Now it’s getting warmed up at home. That was a chilly ride home. Tomorrow morning will be in the 40s for our bagel ride tomorrow morning. Frost advisory overnight, can you believe it?

Looking for some inspiration? Go head over to Kim’s blog and check out her recap of her first 1/2 iron woman race she did on Sunday. Take my charity ride and precede it with a 1.2 mile swim and then follow it with a 1/2 marathon. Unbelievable!

Question: Are temps falling where you are?

Laboring on Labor Day

I took a day off blogging yesterday! I didn’t have anything interesting to say, really, and I worked,so figured I would just not post. Today is also work day for me, but I get paid a little extra 😀
My gym was open today, but open later. I, however, was up at my usual time. So I decided to eat breakfast before my workout instead of moving everything up an hour.

Banana custard cream of wheat! Topped with honey fluff. I promise the recipe will be posted on Tuesday.

I biked off to the gym in some chilly weather today. Full tummy, which was a little weird, too.

I went for a massive (for me) lifting session since it is the last one until after my Charity Ride (6 days!!)

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Squats	3 sets of 10 at 45#	Lower body
Dumbbell Pull Over	3 set of 15 with 20# DB	Back
Barbell Deadlift	3 sets of 10 at 65#	Lower body
Incline chest fly	3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Chest
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 110#	Calves
Captain’s Chair	3 sets of 12	Core
Face Pull	3 sets of 12 at 30#	Shoulders
Straight Arm Lat Pull Down	3 sets of 12 at 50#	Back
Alternating Side Lunge	3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DBs (30 total)	Lower body
Good Mornings	3 sets of 12 with 35# bar	Low back and hammies
Triceps kickback	3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (30 total)	Triceps
Push ups	3 sets of 10	Chest

** Note to self. Do not do push ups at the end of the workout.**

I was. wiped. out. after this workout. I came home and had some cafe au lait, showered, and got to work!

Other people laboring on the holiday are window people. They did not quite finish up the capping on the outside of our house, and they arrived bright and early this holiday morning to get it done! Now that is dedication to the job, don’t you think?

Lunch time was some of my yogurt/berry/cereal mash. I keep wondering if I will tire of this, but I never do.

The strawberries taste excellent as well.

Work ran out for a while, so I was able to do some garden work. Removed a couple plants I decided I didn’t want anymore and figured it was a good place for my new rose bush! (I also need to divide sedum later this fall).

This bush is going to do a late bloom, too, and I am pretty excited about that. I can’t wait until it appears in the Friday What’s Blooming!

I have been toying with the idea of going through the Master Gardener program for the county. I just need to make sure I have time to do the volunteer work the position requires (like being at the county fair, community gardens, schools, etc). Not to mention sitting through the training courses.

Time for snacks!

Check this out. The rumor is that we are going to have early fall color around here and it will be super bright. The tree across the street has already flipped over!

No other tree is like that around here. Isn’t that weird?

Dinner time arrived. I have been super hungry the last couple days. Not sure what is up with that. Annoying, though. I did eat an apple while waiting for dinner to cook. I mixed up some ground turkey with minced onion and seasoning. Then put it in muffin cups and topped with BBQ sauce. Baked for about 30 minutes and I had little turkey muffins!

Tasty. I wanted to go the whole meatloaf route with bread crumbs and egg, but I got going on it too late because of work.

After dinner was some coffee roasting (Guatemalan):

Now we are going to do some coffee drinking! Hope you are having (had) a relaxing holiday!

Finding Radiance

Trying to live a fit life loving food, cycling, gardening and everything in between!