First Time In Awhile For Back-To-Back Runs

In hopes of taking advantage of my gym membership, I went to the gym again today. I want to start hitting ~15 miles per week and doing more strength training. The only way to do that is to show up and do the work.

WARM-UP

Started out with the usual 1 mile warm-up at 1.0 incline. I didn't try to push the pace. All I had to do was get the body warmed up. This usually means a battle with the body. The body knows it's running and wants to go faster. The mind is the smart one and tells the body to simmer down, the fun will start after the warm-up.

After the warm-up, I walked for a couple minutes to regain focus of what I planned to do for the main workout. I was planning on only doing a couple miles. Figured this was a smart plan, especially as I haven't ran back-to-back days in a long time, and I don't need to go crazy with miles (yet).

Also, I was finally able to figure out how to get a picture of the workout summary!

MAIN WORKOUT

On to the fun! Because I knew I was only planning on 2 miles, I divided up the run into sections. I've always found if you're able to change how you think about the total distance you want to run, the easier it is. For this run, I told myself if I'm able to do the first mile at a good pace I will kick it up a notch and finish the last mile at a great pace. As usual, the body responded and I was able to do each mile as I hoped for.

COOL DOWN

It felt really good to get the cool-down mile in after having hit my target pace. I could tell my body was a bit on the tired side, but that's good. It wasn't so tired I had to force myself to finish my cool-down though. By the time my cool-down was done, I felt my breathing come back down to a regular pace.

STRETCHING

My body wasn't feeling really tight or too tired after the run. I hit my basic stretches to help keep things loose and threw in a few extra types of stretches since I knew Tuesday was going to be an off-day. I hold each stretch for about 30 seconds. The entire stretching session usually only takes about 5 minutes.

WEIGHTS

Today, I focused the weights around my legs. I don't do too many different types of workouts for my legs. I hit a few of the major ones to help get the job done. I don't use heavy weight either. I focus more on control and wanting to finish each rep and set.

LAST MILE POWER SONG

Today's LMPS was Feels Good by Gorillaz Inc. It felt appropriate. It always reminds me of my high school track coach who would run with us. During the run he would shout out 'feels good' at random times and we would have to all respond with 'feels good'. Fun times!