Do you Strength Train?

When I first joined the gym back in July I was really excited to get started on strength training again. I mean, we all know that muscles require more energy to maintain, right? So that means our resting calorie burn increases the more muscles we have. We also continue to burn more calories, for a longer time, after a stregth training workout than we do after a cardio only workout.

But I've stopped. Why? I'm scared. Scared of what you ask? I'm terrified of that "bad run". I know it's inevitable. I know bad runs happen and I know I'll just push through it. I've done it before and I know I can do it again. But here's the thing ~ I've been enjoying running so much and I have felt so great that I'm afraid of being sore. I'm terrified that if I'm sore after strength training that it will somehow ruin running for me. How's that for some backwards thinking, eh?

The gym has been closed since Thursday and isn't open again until Tuesday. My husband left for a trip Thursday evening so I've been stuck all weekend with no child care options. That equals an unhappy mama with dead logs for legs. I decided to do a quick kettlebell workout yesterday. To be perfectly honest I almost felt guilty for calling it a workout because I wasn't at it very long. Twenty minutes, tops. It's been quite a while since I've used my kettlebell and Oh Holy Hell, Mother of George!!! I forgot how sore I get after using that thing!! I'm walking around like an 80 year old woman today!! You should have seen me trying to go potty this morning. It would have been entertaining, I'm sure. You know, if I were into letting people watch me pee. Which I'm not. Unless you are a little boy ~ that I've birthed. Then I have no choice. They just follow me....sigh.

Sorry, got distracted. Anyway, so I'm sore as all get out this morning and ya know what? It feels great!! It feels so much better than the dead legs I had yesterday. I've found that if I go more than a day or two without working out my legs they start to feel like dead logs. I don't like that feeling. I want to feel my legs. I like knowing the blood is actually moving around in there.

The gym is still closed and I won't be running again until Tues, so I'm not concerned about having to run while sore, but I'm not afraid anymore. I actually think a good run right now would help me. Maybe I'd come back walking like I'm only 60 instead!