Category Archives: Strength Training

During my half-marathon training, I’ve been trying really hard to keep up with strength training as well. It’s not easy. After running four days a week, the last thing I want to do is lift weights. Sometimes it’s because I’m tired, sometimes it’s because I’m lazy but usually, it’s because I’m afraid of getting sore. If I wasn’t training for a race, I’d embrace the soreness, but when I need to run a certain number of miles the next day, the last thing I want to do is run on tired legs. So, I’ve been kind of half-assing it. I’ve been lifting twice a week, but not for a very long time and not using very heavy weights. Until tonight.

For the past few months, I’ve been doing workouts from the Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises. I decided to switch it up tonight and do a different Women’s Health workout instead – The Women’s Health Best Workout for an Hourglass Body. I’m not sure if certain body types respond better to certain moves as this workout implies, but I figured that out of all the possible body shapes (on WH, they list pear, curvy, straight and athletic, although I’ve also seen apple in other magazines), I’m definitely hourglass shaped (larger chest, smaller waist, larger hips), so I figured I might as well give it a try.

This was hard! Puke-worthy, even. That’s a good thing and no, I didn’t actually puke. It was nice to feel like I was actually doing something though, instead of going through the motions of weight lifting like I normally do without gaining any results. The hardest move for me was the pushups on the ball with the leg lift, the easiest the glute bridge with tricep extension. I probably am going to be sore tomorrow, but I don’t think I’m doing my long run until Sunday, so I should be fine by then.

While the workout made me feel like I was going to throw up, dinner did not. I stopped at the grocery store after the gym. I didn’t really have a list, but I had one recipe in mind for dinner and picked up some staples that I knew we needed. After eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the past few breakfasts, I knew that I really needed to pick up a few things, even if it meant going back later this weekend for a bigger shopping trip.

Even when I follow a recipe, I tend to make a lot of the same things – soups, stir fries, Mexican casseroles – but tonight, I made something really different. I made Zucchini Grinders.

I looked for whole wheat sub rolls, but Kroger didn’t have any so I just bought regular. White flour is not going to kill me. I sauteed the zucchini in PAM instead of butter but other than that, I followed the recipe. This was really good. I was worried that the bread might get soggy but it didn’t. On the side, I had sweet potato rounds. I thought about doing fries, but rounds are a lot easier to cut, so I went that route instead. I cut up a large sweet potato and coated it with 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp cumin and some red pepper flakes. I baked them at 425 for about 35 minutes.

I’m off to relax and watch some episodes of Breaking Bad.