Monday morning I had an appointment with my DR. She knows that I’m a big runner and she mentioned something that I found very odd.
She said she read an article in Redbook entitled What Cardiologists Tell Their Friends. One of the things was that repeated excessive effort can overstretch the heart muscle causing micro-size tears – damage that is often seen in marathon runners.
She said that the heart is a muscle like any other muscle and shouldn’t be worked every day.
In my mind, this goes against everything I’ve ever heard!!!
I’m not sure how I feel about the article and my DR’s thoughts on this subject – I like to workout at an intense level every day and can’t wrap my head around the fact that this could be damaging the very muscle I’m trying to make stronger.
Have you ever heard anything like this? What do you think – is running doing more damage than good?
I have no plans to quit running and pushing myself – it makes me feel good to workout hard almost every day!!
Even though I was on a little vacation this past week, I still wanted to get in a good week of workouts. It was fun to just mix things up and do a variety of things using what I had available!!!
Sunday 7/13 – 44 cat-cow with a crunch.
downup and crunch
Not sure why I don’t do this move more often – it was nice especially after spending a chunk of the day cleaning the venue!!!
Monday 7/14 – 44 Jumping Jacks with tucks.
This was a great way to get my heart rate way up!!! And, since I had to get a lot done before leaving for my trip, I only did my lifting workout – Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 2.
Tuesday 7/15 – 44 incline sit-ups and 44 incline crunches. The fitness center at the hotel had one of my favorite pieces of equipment from years ago so I made good use of it!!!
all the way down (shoulders off bench)all the way up – touch feet
Personally, I think the full sit-ups are easier than the crunches!!
hold with upper body off benchup just to the point that you can still feel your abs contracting
Stacy and I did a nice 7 mile run – LOTS of hills!!! I also did a bunch of push-ups on the incline bench and a long squat series with 2, 30 pound dumbbells.
Wednesday 7/16 – 44 hill repeats. During our run Tuesday, we had to run up this killer hill to get to a gorgeous park. I decided that it would make a great 44 to run up and down it!!
hard to see how steep it really wasnear the top
Umm…this was a tough workout!!! (Stacy decided to do her own indoor workout inside of running up and down the hill.)
Not super fast but that’s because there was no possible way to get up that hill fast!!! Even on the downhill part, my heart rate never fully recovered! Not sure I would repeat this exact workout!!!
So, you can tell that I’m sweaty and we are in our hotel room – I actually did this after our run!!
We just did an easy run – both of us were sore from our previous workouts!!! 3 miles up the hill from yesterday and around a gorgeous park followed by 3 miles of walking — it was great to just walk for a change!!!
Friday 7/18 – 44 alternating hamstring curls.
c url leftcurl right
I did these Friday night but Chris took the pictures for me this morning – I figure it still counts as keeping up with my daily moves even if I don’t get it done until 10:00 pm!!!!
Saturday 7/19 – 44 back extensions with ball pass.
I think this only weighs about a poundup with arms in frontbring arms behind and hand ball off to other hand
I only did 44 total but I did reverse the direction of the ball pass so that I did 22 each way. I know my low back is an area I don’t work often enough!!
And, I did my favorite lifting program – Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 3.
Overall it was a decent week of working out – a little lighter than normal in some ways but fun to do some different things!!!
This week the daily moves were all doubles! Since they were side-lying moves, each one had to be done on the right side and the left!!!
Sunday 7/6 – 44 side lying scissors (legs move front to back while stacked).
I counted a rep as moving the leg from front to back and back to front. And, even though the video only shows one side, I did a 2nd set of 44 on my other side.
And, since I took Saturday off, I got a nice run in.
10 miles in 71:04 +1.3 easy miles.
Monday 7/7 – 44 side lying double leg crunches.
readyup
And after 44 on this side, I flipped over for 44 more.
side 2crunch
This is one of those moves that starts out fairly easy but after a few reps gets harder and harder!!!
For my workout I did Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 2. Then I pulled out a DVD I haven’t done in a long time – Shape Sculpt Your Abs. This was 45 minutes of cardio (with lots of ab work) plus 3, 15 minute ab sections – I should do this more often!!!
Tuesday 7/8 – 44 side lying hip abduction (top leg).
readylift – heel should point slightly up
You can see why these were nice – I could keep my eyes closed!!!
gotta work both sideslift
By the end, my hips were burning!!!
This was another run day.
11 miles in 83:30 + 0.7 miles super easy.
Wednesday 7/9 – 44 crossed leg crunches (on your side, of course!!).
the set-upcrunch
This move is great for your obliques. Having your legs crossed and lifting them also gives you a bit of hip work!!
gotta be equalup
I think that I got this move from one of my TaeBo workouts.
This was a double workout day – lifting and running!!! Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 3.
12 mile run in 86:35 + 2 easy miles.
Thursday 7/10 – 44 lower leg lifts.
readylift
You can see that it isn’t a big lift but after about 10 you will feel each lift!!!
Don’t want to be unbalanced!up
I decided that after a couple of back to back longish runs, this should be an easier day. So, a really old workout came out – Denise Austin Fat Burning Yoga. I enjoyed the strength and stretching after all the lifting and running!!!
Friday 7/11 – 44 double leg lifts and pulls with band.
start – the easy partpull legs in opposite directions
The main thing is to keep tension on your legs even in the start phase!!!
ready for side 2pull
And – another double workout day – I’m sort of liking lifting followed by a run!!!
Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 1
A hard 8 mile run in 52:39 followed by 2.5 easy miles.
Saturday 7/12 – 44 Side plank hip drops.
readydownready for 2nd sidedown
I enjoyed the side-to-side moves this week!!!
I think my running for the week was just over 40 miles which makes me happy!!!
I have always been one of those people who loves summer and heat!!!However, in the past couple of months I’ve started noticing that my body doesn’t tolerate heat the way it used to.
I used to be able to lay out for hours without ever getting in the pool!! The summer I was pregnant with Jordan, a good friend and I spent many hours together at the pool. She was always amazed at how seldom I got in the pool.
And, running in the middle of the afternoon on 100+ days in west TX never phased me. Many of my runs happened in blazing temps all the way through my 20s. (Then I wised up a bit.)
Back in May, the day of my 50 mile race the temperature climbed into the mid-upper 80s during the race. I truly thought that my body was handling the temperature and sun OK and that I was staying hydrated.
Until, it wasn’t!!! I still don’t know if I had heat exhaustion or what but when I quit sweating, felt dizzy and sort of cold even with the temperature I knew that wasn’t right.
I know I’ve mentioned many times that the beach is my happy place. But, this summer I’ve done most of my laying out on our back deck with a big fan blowing on me because I can’t handle the heat!!!
Friday, the boys and I did the 6 mile race around our lake.
Jordan is right behind me in the light gray
I struggled the entire race and even though the pace was slow for me, when I finished, I thought (for the first time in all my years of running!!!) that I was going to puke!!!
I actually felt crummy and had a hard time taking deep breaths for several hours after the race.
I know that I’m at an age where my body is changing some and that might affect my heat tolerance. I still love summer but the heat and direct sun are better in small doses and not when running!!!
Has anyone else experienced major changes in how their body handles heat? Do you know why?
You know I love all of my fun fitness “toys” but I also love doing bodyweight moves!! There are so many options and moves that work every single muscle group!!!
Sunday 6/29 – 44 alternating star jumps (right – left = 1 rep).
This move was super fun!!! I will definitely add these in to other workouts!!
Monday 6/30 – 44 Y squats (squat while keeping arms in a “Y”).
readydownside view
Keeping my arms up made this squat a challenge!!!
I’m still loving my current weight lifting program – Chalean Extreme – Push Circuit 3.
And, I ran – shorter than some of my runs last week!!
6 miles in 41:50 + 2 easy miles.
Tuesday 7/1 – 44 push-ups with cross body mountain climbers.
readydownright knee in and overleft knee in & over
This was a fun way to jazz up push-ups!!!
This was another running day!!
12 miles – 92:02 + 2.25 easy miles.
step left over rightdownstep right over leftand lunge
I really enjoyed this move – it was great for toning and also good cardio!!!
This was a lifting day – Chalean Extreme – Push Circuit 1 and the Ab Burner workout – fun!!!
Thursday 7/3 – 44 “waiter” single leg dead lifts. (Keep one arm behind your back while doing dead lifts on opposite leg.)
ready for right legdownleft legdown
This was a fairly light day of workouts because I chose not to get up super early!!!
Tae-Bo Ab Boot Camp – since I haven’t done this in awhile I feel sure that I will be sore in the next day or two – score!!!
Friday 7/4 – 44 plank forward walks. Starting in plank walk right hand front, left hand front, right hand back, left hand back then switch lead hands for 1 rep.
This was hard – a lot of time spent in plank!!
Then, the boys and I did the 6 mile race around the lake!!!
getting ready to start
For some reason, I struggled through the entire 6 miles!!!
My time was 44:50 which should not have felt as hard as it did – 3rd female finisher.
Hunter finished in 52:40 – he did awesome and loved the race!!!
Jordan’s time was 53:57 – he had a rough time near the end but still did a super job!!!
A right and a left counted as 1 rep. This was another fun move – I enjoyed the body weight moves a lot this week!
This was sort of a lighter week of workouts but I think I needed it based on how I felt during the race yesterday and most of the rest of the day after running!!!
