Sore, Head To Toe

    I survived Christmas weekend without doing myself damage. Yes, I did take Xmas off from working out, and allowed myself some indulgence in sweets, but it was Xmas, dammit. As a preemptive strike I made sure to eat very healthy in the days leading up to the day of recklessness (okay, not so very reckless, but definitely a tad naughty), consuming mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and chicken breasts, all prepared simply and cleanly. My weight has been hovering around 162 these last few weeks, and I am not all that sure I want to be any lower. Granted, I am sure Christmas has made that concern a non-issue.
    I have been really pushing my strength training, since I am limited to how often I can swim or run. This week the pool is closed, so no swim until the 31st, which makes me sad, but I think my shoulders can use a brief break. I want to be running more, but am trying to remain cognizant of optimizing my running time without over-taxing my knees. Today, I am sore from head to toe from my last two strength workouts.
    Sunday I gave my legs the night off, since I had been pushing them rather hard all the previous week. I did a 90 minute upper body workout that left me trembling and queasy. It was great. Using resistance bands, hand weights, kettlebell and medicine ball I worked arms, shoulders, back and core in what is kind of my standard strength workout these last few weeks, with at least one set of each exercise done to absolute failure. I followed with a spinach, chicken, avocado salad for dinner.
   Monday, Christmas Eve, I got a bit of a late start since I had been doing all my Xmas Eve-y stuff all the live-long day. Then I hopped on the treadmill running half a mile at 5 mph, and 3/4 mile at 5.5 mph. My legs were feeling great, but I started having exercise induced asthma issues and instead of fighting it I decided to get off the treadmill and focus on strength training. I did 3 sets each: wide legged squat, one-legged squat, split squat, deep squat with slosh tube, leg lift, prisoner squat, squat with 15# medicine ball swing, side step with resistance band, calf raise, jump squat. Then I switched to ab work on the floor with medicine ball and slosh tubes: 10 exercises x 20 reps x 3 sets. The whole workout had me emitting whiny, little noises and making disturbing faces. Dinner was spinach, chicken, avocado salad and a spinach/banana/blueberry, peach/mango smoothie. I do love being capable of working myself to near collapse all on my own, without any witnesses but for my concerned dogs who think I have gone a bit loonie.
    This week will be a challenge to get my workouts in. There is still much festivity-ing left in 2012, and it has been such a grand year that I feel the need to see it out with good cheer, and welcome in 2013 as The Year of grand Adventures.