Good morningggg friends! It’s humid and rainy here in NYC, so in lieu of an outdoor run and partially because my calves are a bit sore, I hauled it to the gym this am for a strength workout. Or maybe just so people at my gym don’t forget my face now that it’s Summer. One or the other.
I have reallllly come to love these interval workouts this past year and look forward to my strength days almost as much as I do a good run. I did a little over an hour of intervals including the following exercises:
- assisted pull-ups and dips (FYI: dips are my nemesis. hate them!)
- maneater burpees (no this isn’t my nickname — my older trainer upstate used to call them this! jump to deep squat, leg thrust, pushup, repeat)
- regular push-ups
- cable back rows
- kettlebell swings
- kettlebell circles (circling a kettlebell around you while balancing on one leg — great for balance, shoulders and leg)
- ball wall throws into squats (personal fave)
- dumbell jumping jacks (I used 5 pounders)
- lunges, both jumping and walking
- planks & other ab exercises
On the 2-3 days a week that I do strength workouts instead of running, I generally include all or most of these exercises. I’m trying to do more upper body and less heavy lower body stuff the next month or so before my marathon, so as not to tire out my legs completely. Need those puppies to stay fresh!
So, let’s back up a bit to last night, which was an adventurous evening for me and one of my bffs (let’s call her U30, as you’ll be seeing her around this site on the regular and that’s a work nickname to which she already answers…I think my friends who will continue to make appearances on RTA will probably all need nicknames at some point): our first Juicing Date. We were probably way too excited about this, considering we started Wednesday morning with lots of exclamation point-riddled emails referencing our upcoming evening.
Annnnd it was a huuuuuge, messy, wonderful, epic success that will certainly become a regular part of our routine from now on. I mean, just look at this fun and tell me you don’t suddenly have a new agenda for girls’ night:
We decided we needed to have wine in honor of this inaugural event, as it’s entirely appro: wine started as grapes and went through this whole squeezing and stomping and extracting process too, so a cheers was necessary. I’m sure you can spy a little berry-dappled glass tucked into that pile of produce up there. 🙂
Yessss. What a beauteous, colorful, disastrous, delicious mess. We laughed ourselves silly doing this and were instantly hooked. Such girlie juiceheads.
Our first juicing attempt was totally fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants in terms of components and measurements (read: we chose things we liked and paid absolutely zero attention to the proportions). I swung by this amazing little indoor produce stand by my apartment and picked up mass amounts of produce for just $17! If you live in or near (or happen to ever find yourself in) Hell’s Kitchen, you gotta check out Stiles. It rocks.
Our concoction included the following (measurements unspecified — let’s just say “lots of” each):
- kale
- spinach
- apples
- pears
- beets
- carrots
- cukes (short for “cucumbers,” as I’m sure you can guess…or not…)
- ginger (way overboard on this root, but it adds a spicy little kick!)
- lemon juice (we added this at the end)
We were pretty darn thrilled with our end product, which sort-of resembled a thin sherberty fruit punch when we mixed it all together (especially because of the punch bowl effect…huh, weird how that happens):
We transferred it into travel containers and both showed up to work with our juice & smug feelings of superiority about our healthy creation. (Just kidding. Kinda.)
Little wine glass making another surprise cameo. He gets it.
Juice endeavor, take 1: huge success. Stoked to continue creating these fabulous mishmashes of all things good for you. Hey, you never know — maybe one day we’ll figure out a good use for all the blood-red beet juice I managed to drip everywhere. (Yarn dye? War paint? Suggestions welcome.)
My juicer: the Breville Juice Fountain Compact. As this is my first experience with a juicer, I really don’t have anything to compare it to and I’m happy with it. It’s quick, efficient, well-made and pretty easy to clean. Works for me. AND it was given to me by my mom’s lovely best friend (who treats me as though I were her own daughter), so it juices with love. Can’t beat that. 🙂
Question: Do you juice? Any good combinations you’ve concocted?
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I do not juice but I make smoothies in my travel blender. Looks good though! I try and strength train along w my yoga at least twice a week while I’m in the higher miles!
I just got to experience our juicer for the first time this morning and LOVED it! This morning was carrots, beats, an apple, pear and left over side salad (for real). I was seriously impressed!