Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Mixing It Up

So, for the last (almost) year, running has been my only flavor of exercise. I still love it, don't get me wrong, but I decided to introduce something a little different into my routine. I've been hearing rave reviews about the kettlebell and decided to give it a go. I bought a 10-pound kettlebell yesterday and a 54-minute workout DVD that several people recommended. I was ready to go.

Tonight was my first workout with The Biggest Loser's trainer Bob Harper and "Kettleball Cardio Shred" and, well...he kicked my rear! I couldn't even do several of the exercises which is a little disappointing - I felt like I was in pretty good shape. Burpees? Wow!

So now, I enter Phase II of my fitness efforts - core strengthening. I'm not giving up running (don't worry, LuLu didn't win that one!); I'm going to add this a couple of times a week to (hopefully) make me a stronger, faster runner.

I'm going to hold off on a complete review of "Cardio Shred" until I give it a few more times, but the learning curve is pretty quick thus far. Bob explains the exercises well and allows plenty of reps to practice before moving on to the next exercise. I was sweating within the first 10 minutes so I'm pretty sure my heart rate was getting up there. I do think my kettlebell is a tad too heavy for some of the exercises and I'm going to try to get a 5- or 7-pound bell for those exercises.

MORE WATER UPDATE: Today is Day 10 in the More Water - Less Dr. Pepper challenge. I'm down to two Dr. Peppers per day and so far, have managed to get down at least 64 ounces each day. I'm hoping that in 13 more days, I'll be ready to move to just one Dr. Pepper per day and maybe even increase my water intake. Not going to get crazy just yet; that's still two weeks away.

Oh, and I'm planning to run my second 1/2 marathon Saturday. Who would've thought?

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