I Joined a Gym

I am Joram and I joined a gym. There is a gym just down the road from my work, so the location is very convenient. I paid for a full year membership and with that, I also get a key to the gym, so I can workout even after hours. I don't really have plans for that, but I might do a morning workout sometime in the future. I got a quick tour of the gym today, it's not much, but it seems to have plenty of things I need for weight training.

I wrote down a little plan for my workout tomorrow, but I have no idea what I will be lifting. I haven't lifted free weights in such a long time, that I just don't know what my capabilities are on the weights. I think I will be spending the next few weeks just doing several lifts way below of my potential.

I plan to go lift weights at least twice a week. I am still uncertain how I will be able to schedule this around all my other plans - running and biking. I know I reduced my running to three times a week rather than four days. I was thinking that on my easy run day (Tuesday), I will also lift weights and on lift weights on Friday also. My plan kind of looks like this;

Sunday - long run
Monday - rest
Tuesday - easy run/weight training
Wednesday - bike
Thursday - tempo/speed run
Friday - bike/weight training
Saturday - rest

I think it looks good. I mix the weight training with some aerobics and I get two day off too! I'll see how this schedule works over the next few weeks. More muscles please.

2nd Quarter Music

Here are the albums I've listened to for the 2nd quarter of the year;

Jason Mraz - We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things
Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Billie the Vision... - I was so unpopular... (Band name and album name is long!)
Mariah Carey - EMC2
Maroon 5 - Song About Jane
Usher - Here I Stand
Leona Lewis - Spirit
Madonna - Hard Candy
Spice Girls - Greatest Hits
N.E.R.D. - Seeing Sounds
The B-52s - Funplex

My top pick from this last batch are Jason Mraz and Billie the Vision.

Seafair 1/2 Marathon

Last weekend was the Seafair Half Marathon. I got the opportunity to be one of the first people to run across the 520 floating bridge! Even thought I have ran a half marathon before and I've been running since, this was a harder run for me. Maybe it was because I have ran a half marathon before, so I wasn't just trying to finish, but trying to finish at a faster time. Another thing that was constantly on my mind coming up to the event was the heat wave that came to Seattle. We were in the mid-50's then suddenly the temperatures shot up to the high 80s - the overnight low for last Saturday was 63!

Well, even with the heat and the extra pressure I put on myself, I did manage to finish the half marathon with a time of 02:13:43.1 (10:13 pace). A 20+ second pace improvement! That time surely surprised me, there were a few things that I wasted time on - spending too much time at the water stations and all the extra time I spent on the hills on the 2nd half of the race - I still finished strong. Anyway, enough reminiscing about the past event, my next big event is 5 months away.