time to make the donuts

for some reason, i always think about this crazy dunkin donut commercial when i wake up super early to train. actually, it first started when jc and i owned our personal training business and had to get up at 4:30am. i don't remember if it was me or jc who started saying it's time to make the donuts, but it would always make us crack up, even at that god awful time of the morning. this morning was no exception. i didn't sleep well at all but that's always the way it is when i've had a weekend filled with lots of running and cycling. it is really hard to come off of that high. it just means i will be hitting the pillow way early tonight.

 so not having slept that many hours, i decided to mix up the workout this morning like i used to do for many of my clients back in the days of body by design (that was the name of our business). i decided to do a weight training/abs/cardio circuit for an hour. my goal is to work efficiently and hit all the major muscle groups with compound exercises. compound exercises are one's that use more than one specific muscle group. for example, push-ups, instead of tricep kickbacks with a dumbbell. push-ups work your chest, shoulders, back, triceps and core muscles to help stabilize your lower back versus the tricep kickback with a dumbbell that only works your tricep. obviously, the push-ups are the harder exercise to do. that's the ticket here. so here's how it works...i did a set of abs to start off, push-ups, a combination of a bicep curl and shoulder press with dumbells, seated dumbbell rows for back and then headed outside to crank out a 1 mile run. i did the weight circuit 3 times and did 4 miles total with a faster time on each mile:
mile 1- 7:56 (let's call that the warm-up mile)
mile 2- 7:33
mile 3- 7:27
mile 4- 7:13
i wasn't trying to kill it on the runs. i just ran what i felt was a comfortable pace. i hope i feel that comfortable for 13.1 miles come sunday. all in all, it was a fun workout and sometimes it's good for the brain and the body to do something different.

tomorrow is triathlon tuesday and thankfully the cold temps are holding off so the pool is in no danger of being closed in the morning. the rest of the week is questionable as a cold front will be moving thru on wednesday, which doesn't make me too happy. anyway, i'll start tomorrow morning off with making the donuts a nice run, then hit the pool for about an hour, bike when i get back home, then off to work.

here's to a good week ahead...much love an peace out!