exercise for the week & wedding details

Yikes, could I have been a worse blogger this week?!

Life has been crazy (in a good way!) and super busy...I haven't had much time for myself, actually, and didn't devote a whole lot of time to exercising, either. This semester is starting to wind down, and exams will start soon which will equal me needing to commit to training for this half-marathon more, otherwise with studying, wedding planning, holidays, family, and friends, I can easily come up with excuses to not exercise.

Workouts for this week included:

1. A wonderful strength training sesh lasting 30 minutes (330 cals, avg HR of 137). Some of you may know that this past spring I took a hiatus from strength training for a couple of weeks for very silly reasons. Big mistake! Strength training is so important for sculpting feminine muscle, raising my hypothyroid-induced slow as molasses metabolism, and just making me feel great. I feel just as good after a good strength workout as I do after a long run. I only strength train on average once per week at this point, sometimes 2, but would like to make it a habit to do it twice per week...that will be my goal for this coming Thanksgiving week!

2. A spinning class at Gold's. Hmm...what to say about this. Well, I used to take spinning classes here and there back in highschool when I was a member at the Y, so I've had some experience with it. I've been wanting to get back into it, but after this, I realized it's just not for me. The instructor was great, actually, probably the best group fitness instructor I've encountered. I also kept my heartrate up and burned a good amount of cals (563 in 50 minutes). But OUCH! was I sore the next day...and not in a good way! The seat was killer. I know you can get things like padded seats or whatever for spin, but also I was just pretty uninterested the whole time. I felt restricted being in a seat. At least when I run, even on a TM, I can feel my whole body moving. Thanks, but no thanks.

3. A 5-miler on the TM (it's been so cold this week!) in 47 minutes! That means I maintained an under 10-minute-mile pace the whole time. My HR was at an average of 150 bpm, and I burned 603 cals.

4. On Saturday, the fiance and I helped my BFF Chelsea and her husband Justin move into their first house! We helped move them out of their condo which happened to be on the 3rd floor, so lots of steps + lots of boxes = my workout for the day! And by the way, their home is just beautiful and perfect for them (not to mention a mere one-minute commute to work for her...lucky!).

5. This evening I felt so run-deprived. I had planned a Friday evening run, but as I was getting ready to walk out the door, clad in workout attire, we got invited to go to dinner at Luna Maya with some friends of ours from church who we don't get to hang out with too often. Luna Maya is a deliciously authentic mexican restaurant that I am in love with! Anyway, I knew I had to get some running in tonight, but it seems whenever I try to workout on Sundays, the Lord tries to tell me "no, rest!" because I get to the gym and then just feel crummy all over! Still, I was too stubborn to not do anything, so I managed to get out 2.5 miles sloooowly, plus another 25 minutes on the elliptical. Overall, it was 50 minutes, 590 cals, with an average HR of 143.

Now let's get to the good stuff...wedding details! If you are one of my bridesmaids and are just finding this out for the first time from this blog, please do not feel offended...I have been so busy that I haven't had time to announce it to everyone, but not only did I find the dresses, I purchased them yesterday...for a mere $30! I found them at H&M on accident, really. They are absolutely adorable--bright, royal blue, raw silk dupioni-like fabric, mid-thigh length with a big fun bow on the left rib cage. Woohoo! Pictures to follow.

Even more exciting was our engagement photo session this afternoon with our fantastic photographers! We had been looking forward to this for so long. We met up downtown and worked our way down Granby Street, then went over to the Pagoda's Japanese tea gardens. Brr...it was definitely chilly, in the 40s, and I didn't want us to wear jackets in the photos so we braved the cold! We had an amazing time and got into a lot of interesting poses for the full 2 hours we were shooting (read: dark alleyways, fire escapes, and nearly falling off of docks!). Hopefully I can post some of the pics on here when they are made available in the next few weeks.

How do you plan on "battling the bulge" this holiday season?