Bye February!!

I am so happy to see February go. It was a busy and overwhelming month for me. Between several projects at work and managing my parents' health, the month flew by. I accomplished a lot this month, but my biggest accomplishment? Completing the 1000 push-up challenge, though! When I first signed up for it, I truly didn't think I'd get it done. Even though I didn't always want to do my 36 daily push-ups, I didn't want to skip a day, because that meant double the push-ups the next day. Interestingly, as the days went by and I did my pushups, I felt myself becoming stronger, and the pushups felt less difficult. I was also able to increase the weight on my bench presses every week, which was really exciting.

Will I continue to do the push-ups? Yes, but not the volume we did this month. I have to admit that the DOMS never went away. My plan is to do 25 pushups 3x/week after I run. Hopefully, that will be enough to maintain the strength I built this month. We'll see!

Weekly Rundown

Sunday: Trail Sisters run 6 miles/36 pushups

Monday: Auxiliary strength/Yoga with Adriene/35 pushups

Tuesday: Fluid running/35 pushups

Wednesday: trail run 7.33 miles/35 pushups

Thursday: Auxiliary Strength/Yoga with Adriene/35 pushups

Friday: Treadmill speedwork/5.3 miles/35 pushups

Saturday: Yoga with Adriene/35 pushups

Monthly totals:

Running miles: 74

Pushups: 1000!!!!

After our beautiful taste of spring last week, winter returned with a vengence and I'm not exaggerating when I say that! I woke up Sunday morning to 23F, but with gusty winds, it was a feels-like of 5F. I met with 4 of my Trail Sisters at the preserve where I normally run. We ran the main trail, and for the most part, the trees provided us some protection from the wind. No deer sightings--I'm sure they were hunkered down out of the wind--but a light dusting of snow made for a pretty morning!

Monday's strength workout was a repeat of the previous week's. I was not feeling it this week. Most of my lifts were unchanged from last week or in some cases, I dropped the weight.

Set 1 (E2MOM x 6 minutes)

-Dumbbell Deadlifts: no change in weight or reps this week

--round 1 choose a weight at which you'll hit failure between 8-12 reps: 55# each hand 10 reps

--round 2 drop weight, rep until failure: 50# each hand 10 reps

--round 3 drop weight, rep until failure: 45# each hand 10->12 reps

Set 2 (E2MOM x  6 minutes)--same scheme as above

-Barbell lunges

--65->60 #8 reps per leg

--45->55>60>55# 8 reps per leg

--40->50>55>50# 12 reps->8 reps per leg

Set 3 (E2MOM x 6 minutes)

-Dumbbell Strict Press

--20# 10 reps

--15>20# 10 reps

--12->15>20# 10 reps

Set 4 (E2MOM x 6 minutes)

-Bent over barbell rows 

--65>75# 8 reps

--60>70# 10 reps

--55>65# 12->10 reps

We finished up with a Tabata of battle ropes. That was hard but fun!

Wednesday was cold--it was 26F when I hit the trails. The sun was out, but there was a brisk wind that made it feel much colder. I had the trails to myself, save for a few groups of deer. The trail conditions were abysmal. Last week's thaw made the trails muddy, and now that it is cold again, the footprints and fat tire tracks are frozen into the trail. This made for some very uneven and treacherous footing. I stumbled once, but fortunately was able to stay upright. I kept my eyes to the ground after that!

Signs of spring were everywhere, and I made that my focus for this run. Lots of birds were singing, including the evil red-winged blackbirds staking out their territory along the lake. The ice is thawing, too. Come on, spring!

Thursday's auxiliary strength followed the same format as Monday's. 

For each movement listed: E2MOM x 6:00

Each set should take 40 seconds or less, rest for the remainder of the time.

Set 1: Choose a weight at which you'll hit failure at 8-12 reps

Set 2: Drop weight, reps until failure

Set 3: Drop weight, reps until failure

Movements: 

Bulgarian split squats: 1 KB in each hand, 25# x 8 reps, 20# x 8 reps, 15# x 12 reps

Dumbbell (one in each hand) bench press: 25->30# x 10 reps, 20->25# x 12 reps, 20# x 12 reps

Barbell hip thrusts: 165# x 10 reps, 160# x 10 reps, 155# x 10 reps

Pullups: banded sets of 5

Sprints:

E2MOM x 12 minutes

12 mountain climbers

8 hang DB (20#) snatches

6 squat jumps

With the early morning light, I was so tempted to bundle up and run outside! But I've committed to focus on speedwork on the treadmill, and I've been pleased with the results. Plus (TMI), I want to wait until the portapotties are back on the bike path. Soon, my friends, soon! For Friday's speedwork, I did pickups, 4:1 for a total of 10. Since I started doing these, my runs have been much stronger. 

Off the road...

We celebrated my youngest son's acceptance into medical school on Sunday, taking him, his girlfriend, my oldest, and his wife out to dinner in the city at Bixi Beer.  Such a fun night with good drinks and food--and oh, the company! I was so happy and insisted on a photo before the hubs and I headed back to the 'burbs. The kids? They went to a fundraising event where my youngest son was tasked with creating a cocktail using the sponsor's bourbon. Ahh, to be young again!

How was your week? Are you seeing signs of spring in your area? Do you have any good news to share? 

It's the end of the month, and on Monday, I'll be sharing my reads for February.  It was a busy month for me, and I didn't read as many books as I would have liked, but I read some good ones!

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown.