How is May Already Over?!?!

Is it just me, or did this past month go by super quickly?!? Before I know it, the summer will be over and I’ll be starting my final semester of university. I’m going to attempt to hold on to every inch of summer I can!

This past month was interesting, as it saw the rehab of knee, which meant no half-marathon. This made me kind of sad, because this is something that I worked really hard towards and it flopped. That being said, I know what I did wrong and what to fix going forward. Enough about my knee…below is what my month looked like!

Total Mileage This Month: 14. Not much I can do about this unfortunately. Though I feel that June will definitely be higher.

Best Performing Blog Post: Ironically enough, the best performing blog post this month was April is Done! I guess you guys like to read about how the month has looked as a whole.

How was the Strength Training this Month: Like I said on Monday, I wish I made more strides in the strength-training department but everyone’s bound to have off-cycles. I’m looking to make crazy gains in June so watch out!

Cool Products I Tried this Month: I posted this on Instagram a bit ago, but I’ve fallen in love with Clif’s Nut Butter Filled Bars. I’ll probably be doing a review on them in the near future, so keep your eyes pealed.

The coconut almond butter is my favourite flavour, but they have a hazelnut one that tastes like Nutella. Mmmmmm 

Cool Things I did: Treetop Trekking hands down. Read my review for it here.

So much green space! The actual area where the treetop trekking takes place is just beyond the trees. This photo doesn’t do it justice, it’s huge!

What cool products did you guys try this month? Anything I should try/do a review on?

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

 

 

 

 

End of 6 (?) Week Workout Cycle

So I kind of dropped the ball on this. I have a calendar that I write all my workouts in and when my workout cycles start/stop. I totally didn’t pay attention to the fact that my current cycle ended three and a half weeks ago…woops. On the upside, I get to cycle in pre-workout again! Anyways, without further ado, here’s what I’ve been up to the past while strength training wise. Keep in mind my knee is still healing, so my stats aren’t nearly as high as I would like them to be.

 Leg & Shoulder Day

Name of Exercise	Start	Finish	Increase
V-Squat (legs)	140lbs	160lbs	20lbs
Standing Calf Press (legs)	75lbs	140lbs	65lbs
Hip Adduction	190lbs	210lbs	20lbs
Hip Abduction	210lbs	220lbs	10lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press	30lbs	45lbs	15lbs
Standing Shoulder Press	55lbs	80lbs	25lbs
Dumbbell Lateral Raise	20lbs	45lbs	25lbs

Leg Day was tricky due to my knee. Half way through the cycle, I had to change up my workout in order to accommodate my injury. Also, with some of the shoulder exercises, they felt kind of awkward on my rotator cuff so I couldn’t cover as much ground. I also learned that doing dumbbell shoulder press and standing shoulder press in the same day REALLY tires out your shoulders…probably won’t do that again.

Back & Bicep Day

Name of Exercise	Start	Finish	Increase
Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown	75lbs	140lbs	65lbs
Concentrated Bicep Curls	20lbs	30lbs	10lbs
Barbell Deadlift	90lbs	100lbs	10lbs
Barbell Preacher Curls	35lbs	50lbs	15lbs
Low Row	70lbs	140lbs	70lbs

My deadlift had next to no improvement because of my knee.

Chest & Tricep Day

Name of Exercise	Start	Finish	Increase
Incline Bench Press	40lbs	55lbs	15lbs
Assisted Dips	70lbs	30lbs	-40lbs
Cable Flyes	17.5lbs	29lbs	11.5lbs
Tricep Kickbacks	15lbs	30lbs	15lbs
Dumbbell Bench Press	25lbs	35lbs	10lbs
Tricep Press	100lbs	120lbs	20lbs

 

Totally underestimated how hard incline bench is.

I’m really proud of how far my dips have come! I think I could definitely do one unassisted; I just question how many I could do. I had the same issues with the tricep kickbacks as I did with some of the other shoulder exercises. It feels really funky on my rotator cuff for some reason. As a side note, the weight on the cable flyes is per arm and not cumulative.

This next cycle, you guys will see me do a bit of a switch up. Rather than do a 5 x 5 style, I’m doing a 3 sets of 10-15 reps and different exercises. I only plan on hitting each muscle group twice rather than three times, because some of my gym sessions take way too long and with summer schools starting soon, I need to conserve time.

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

April is Done!

The hardest month of my fitness journey is done! If you’ve been following along with my blog for the last little bit, you might’ve heard about my recent injury. Needless to say, it’s been tough to navigate. Despite that, I still got some decent mileage in, some great workouts, and wrote about some pretty cool stuff. Here’s what the month of April looked like for me:

Total Mileage: 45.7mi

This definitely had the potential to be higher if I hadn’t injured my knee. That being said, I think this is still pretty good. I found some cool trails and started to get the hang of taking gels and chews while on the run.

I also mastered the art of selfie-ing mid-run!

Best Performing Blog Post: Half-Marathon No Longer

It sucks that I had to write that post, but it’s good to share not only all the good stuff that happens with running and weight lifting, but all the bad as well.

Favourite Product This Month: Clif Shot Energy Gels

Like jam in a packet.

Favourite Strength Training Exercise: Although it’s a part of my abbreviated leg day, I love doing lying leg curls. It’s a great way to work your hamstrings, and you can do it unilaterally or isolaterally.

Worst Thing That Happened This Month: My meniscus tear. *insert crying emoji here*

 

How was the month of April for you guys? Anything exciting happen?

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

The New (and not so improved) Leg Day!

As you guys probably know, I tore my meniscus eight days ago and am on a strict, “don’t do anything that will aggravate it”, plan for the unforeseen future. The desire to run and deadlift is strong, but I know that going against the doctor’s advice isn’t going to do me any good. As some of you have suggested, I’m going to take this time to really dial in on my nutrition and work on my strength training.

Since I can’t work my left leg, I’ve decided to change my leg day to accommodate the injury. Rather than just skipping leg day altogether, I’ve decided to change my routine from unilateral movements to isolateral movements so that I could still gain strength in my right leg. Once I’m healed, I’ll continue to do isolateral movements but use both legs so that the strength will eventually be back to normal. I’ve only done a leg day twice since the incident, but this is my current plan:

-Glute Pedal (5 reps for 5 sets with 1 min rest in between)

-Hamstring Curl (5 reps for 5 sets with 1 min rest in between)

-Seated Calf Press (5 reps for 5 sets with 1 min rest in between)

I tried to do a lateral cable leg raise, however I still feel some strain in my knee since I have to stabilize myself while raising my right leg so I’ve decided to omit that. You win some, you lose some!

In addition to the above exercises that I’ll be doing on leg day, I also have the physio exercises that the doctor prescribed to me:

-Quad Sets (Held for 6 seconds followed by a 10 second rest – 8-12 reps total)

-Straight-Leg Raises to the Front (Raise 12 inches from the floor & hold for 5 seconds, then lower – 8-12 reps total)

-Straight-Leg Raises to the Outside (Raise 12 inches from the floor & hold for 6 seconds, then lower – 8-12 reps total)

-Straight-Leg Raises to the Back (Raise 6 inches from the floor & hold for 6 seconds, then lower – 8-12 reps total)

-Straight-Leg Raises to the Inside (Raise 6 inches from the floor & hold for 6 seconds, then lower – 8-12 reps total)

-Hamstring Curls (Lying on the floor – 8-12 reps)

-Standing Calf Raises (Hold for 6 seconds – 8-12 reps)

-Half Squat – 8-12 reps

I’m hoping that I’ll soon be able to workout like I normally do, but good things take time. Wish me luck!

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

End of Week Check-In (Week 10)

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these! I think a mixture of blog scheduling and my own schedule had something to do with that. This past week has been so challenging. Final exams are around the corner, (literally, my exam’s on Thursday) and I’ve had a ton of papers due this whole month. A well-planned week can only get you so far before you have to cut something out. After Thursday passes, I should be back to normal again, so I’m just trying to hang in there! Without further ado, here’s what this past week looked like:

Monday

7.6mi run with an average pace of 10:59/mi and a moving time of 1:24:08.

*I talked about this run a week ago on the blog…it was actually supposed to be longer, (13.1mi), but if you read the blog post, you’ll discover why it wasn’t.

Tuesday

Rest Day.

Wednesday

Back & Biceps:

-5 min warm up

-Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown: 110lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Concentrated Bicep Curls: 30lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Deadlift: 100lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Barbells Preacher Curls: 40lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Low Row: 105lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Bicep Curls (machine): 70lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

*This day was awesome! I was super happy with my deadlift results since it’s such a difficult exercise.

Thursday

3mi Progression Run with an average pace of 9:40/mi and a moving time of 29:11.

*I was super wowed by this. I don’t think I’ve ever run a pace this quick for this duration of time. Maybe this is a sign of things to come!

Friday

8.5mi run with an average pace of 10:53/mi and a moving time of 1:32:32.

*Since it was Good Friday and Daniel had the day off from work, I got to run part of this run with him, (his knee started bothering him so he stopped early). I forgot what it was like to run with someone!

Saturday

Chest & Triceps:

-5min warm up

-Assisted Dips: 50lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Cable Flyes: 27.5lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Tricep Kickbacks: 30lbs @ 17 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Dumbbell Bench Press: 30lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

*There’s a few things worth mentioning for this workout. One, I felt HORRIBLE going into it. It was just one of those days where I wasn’t into it and it was definitely reflected in the results. I didn’t do any incline bench press since the only incline bench was constantly in use, (with people working in with each other no less!), and my dumbbell bench press weight had to be knocked down 10lbs since I had zero energy. Not super happy about that. Just as a side note, the weight for the cable flyes is per arm and not cumulative.

Sunday

Rest Day.

Not the greatest week, right? It happens. School is clearly my priority and if I have to drop some runs/workouts in order to feel better prepared for my exam/finish a paper, so be it. That being said, I’m very excited for the end of the semester so I don’t have to do that for a bit.

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

 

End of Week Check-In (Week 8)

This week was an interesting one, haha. On Monday, I decided to take my interval workout to the track at my gym. Mid-interval, I felt a breeze on my right mid-thigh. Once I stopped that particular interval, I looked down and noticed that there was a tear about two and a half inches long along the inner seem of my leggings. Reluctant to stop and go home due to my wardrobe malfunction, I continued to run which caused EXTREME chafe on my thigh. I literally thought I was going to die from the pain. Since walking was extremely painful as the chafed area would rub against the fabric of my shorts/pants, I had to rearrange my workouts until it healed. I’m fine now, (it actually scarred), but here’s what I managed to squeeze in this week:

Monday

Interval Run (Chafe Day): 3mi with an average pace of 10:25/mi and a moving time of 31:14.

Tuesday

Rest Day.

Wednesday

With the help of some gauze and medical tape, I was able to get in a leg/shoulder day:

-5 min warm up

-V-Squat: 140lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 30lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Standing Calf Press: 75lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Standing Shoulder Press: 55lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Hip Adductor: 190lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 20lbs @ 16 reps (1 min rest between sets)

*I talked about this briefly on Instagram, but after having issues lifting the barbell over my head for my standing shoulder press, it suddenly dawned on me that I should use a squat rack. A huge world of a difference! I also wanted to use the hip abductor machine, however it was in use and wasn’t in the mood to set in with someone.

Thursday

Back & Biceps:

-5 min warm-up

-Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown: 75lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Concentrated Bicep Curls: 20lbs @ 25 reps (1 min rest between sets)

-Deadlift: 90lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Barbell Preacher Curls: 35lbs @ 20 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Seated Row: 70lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Bicep Curls (machine): 50lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

Friday

Rest Day.

Saturday

Rest Day.

Sunday

Chest & Triceps:

-5 min warm-up

-Incline Bench Press: 40lbs @ 10 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Assisted Dips: 70lbs @ 25 reps (1 min rest between sets)

-Cable Flyes: 17.5lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Tricep Kickbacks: 15lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Dumbbell Bench Press: 25lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Tricep Press: 100lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

3mi Run: average pace of 10:17/mi with a moving time of 30:51.

Since my thigh’s feeling good, I’m pumped to go hard this week. Like I said last week, I decided to combine my leg day with my shoulder day since they were both relatively short and would buy me an extra rest day. I really want to up my mileage this month, so I might try to get out there and run a couple extra miles, even if it’s on the treadmill.

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

March is a Wrap!

How is winter done already? That rattles me for sure. That being said, I question if winter’s actually over; we got quite a bit of snow yesterday in Toronto! Ugh.

The month of March was decent for me. I had to skip a race, (read this to see why), and missed about a week of training following that. Missing training sucks, (as I’m sure you guys will agree), and the longer I can’t train, the worse I feel. Anyways, this is what I’ve been up to this month:

Total Miles: 46.7

Not as high as I would like. I didn’t have a goal for the year in terms of mileage, but crushing last year would be nice, (and is definitely doable). I think that I might try to up the mileage in April and see how it feels.

Favourite Strength Training Exercise: I actually just started a new cycle which haven’t logged on here yet, but my favourite exercise is probably Incline Barbell Bench Press. I actually started doing this by fluke: my boyfriend and I were going to do just a normal barbell bench press, but there were no benches available except for the incline one.

Stuff to Look Forward to In April: Warmer Temperatures!

New Things I Tried This Month: Clif Shot Energy Gels (super tasty – review to come)

Like I’ve said before, super delicious and pretty much tastes like jam.

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

Mid-Week Check In (Week 6 of Half-Marathon Training)

This week has probably been one of the laziest starts ever! A mixture of homework and scheduling issues has caused me to push my two rest days to the front of the week. Is it just me, or am I the only one that hates starting the week on a rest day? I feel like it gets me off to a lazy start for the week. Seeing as I really have only done one workout thus far this week, I’ll just outline it below:

Monday

Rest Day

Tuesday

Rest Day

 Wednesday

Legs/Shoulders:

-5 min warm up

-Dumbbell External Rotation: 30lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between reps)

-Calf Press: 215lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between reps)

-Shoulder Press: 65lbs @ 22 reps total (1 min rest between reps)

-Barbell Squats: 120lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between reps)*

-Hip Adductor: 205lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between reps)

-Rear Deltoid: 90lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between reps)

-Hip Abductor: 190lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between reps)

*I should note (as per usual) that the weight of my barbell squats doesn’t include the bar.

Shoulder Press is probably THE MOST frustrating exercise this cycle next to bench press. I’ve been doing a machine shoulder press, but I feel like I haven’t made huge strides and I just find it an overall difficult exercise to execute. Maybe I have weak shoulders? Maybe my form’s not great? I’m not too sure. I plan doing a comparison post so you can see how far I’ve come from week one to now. I change up my workouts to keep my muscles guessing, so next week is the start of a new cycle. Stay tuned!

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

 

End of Week Check-In (a month into half-marathon training)!

As the weeks go by, one thing that I notice is that my interval days feel 10x harder than they did when I was training for a 10k. Obviously, that’s because the difficulty scales with the distance, but it can get really challenging some days! That being said, I had a pretty good week and was able to complete all my workouts despite having some pretty sore legs towards the end of the week. Here’s what I was up to:

Monday

6mi Run – 10:57/mi avg pace with a moving time of 1:05:50.

Tuesday

Shoulders:

-5 min warm up

-Dumbbell External Rotation: 20lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Shoulder Press: 65lbs @ 16 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Rear Deltoid: 90lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

Back & Biceps:

-5 min warm up

-One Arm Bicep Curls: 35lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Back Extension: 190lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Standing Barbell Curl: 60lbs @ 20 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Roman Chair: 55lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Hammer Curls: 35lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Lat Pulldown: 85lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

Wednesday

Intervals (Tempo) – 3.7 mi with an average pace of 10:54/mi and a moving time of 40:22.

Thursday

Legs:

-5 min warm up

-Calf Press: 200lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Squats: 120lbs @ 21 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Hip Adductor: 175lbs @ 25 reps (1 min rest between sets)

-Hip Abductor: 175lbs @ 25 reps (1 min rest between sets)

*this workout was probably the hardest leg day I’ve ever had. My legs just felt like spaghetti…it was brutal.

Chest & Triceps:

-5min warm up

-Assisted Dips: 70lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Bench Press: 50lbs @ 17 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Tricep Press: 120lbs @ 25 reps (1 min rest between sets)

-Pec Fly: N/A

-Dumbbell Tricep Extension: 45lbs @ 25 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

-Chest Press: 95lbs @ 23 reps total (1 min rest between sets)

Friday

Rest Day.

Saturday

Rest Day.

Sunday

Intervals – 2.3 mi with an average pace of 10:11/mi and a moving time of 23:25.

*I got to try out the indoor track at my new gym! I love it. It’s rubberized, so it reduces some of the impact. It wasn’t too busy either since I went just after 11:00pm. It was perfect!

I have a lot going on this week, so I’m really hoping that I can maintain my schedule, however it might be a challenge. Stay tuned!

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

 

 

 

Product Review: Vega Sport Performance Protein

Price: $49.99 CAD

Remember when I said that I went to GNC and they had a BOGO sale? This is what I went to purchase. As you can tell from some of my other product reviews/my Instagram, I’m definitely a fan of Vega and use their products often. While I’ve had their all-in-one shakes before, I’ve never tried their Performance Protein. My usual criteria when purchasing a protein powder are flavour, (I usually buy chocolate or vanilla, I never get too fancy), calories/serving and what’s actually in the powder itself. If you’ve ever used Vega before, I’m sure you can attest to the fact that they always load their products up with a variety of beneficial things. The Performance Protein is no different. Here’s what I thought of it:

-I got the chocolate flavour and the container says that the protein powder has tart cherries in it so I expected more of a dark chocolate flavour, however it resembles milk chocolate more so (not a complaint, just an observation).

-It has 6g of BCAAs per serving which is AMAZING for runners and weightlifters alike.

-It tastes good in shakes, milk, and water as well. This is important to me, because I wouldn’t want to buy a protein powder if I can only mix it in one thing.

-Mixes really well, (no clumps).

Verdict? Another pat on the back for Vega. This stuff is delicious. I never would’ve thought that I would love a vegan protein powder as much as I love Vega’s.

 

Running Fast, Lifting Heavy Approved: Yes

 

-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy

 

P.S. Have something you want me to review? Write it in the comments!