Working Hard

I've been working out a ton lately and it's finally catching up to me. I've been putting in some doubles and just this week I worked out 3 times in under 24 hours. Not just running, but I'm incorporating a lot of cross training and lifting again into my routine. I'm so much happier since I rejoined the gym and am able to do more than just run. My body clearly hit a plateau with a straight year of only running and I needed to change things up. I've noticed a lot of changes with the cross training/lifting and a lot of my little aches and pains have gone away. My hip and sciatica bothered me for the longest time but these pains have slowly gone away. I really think it is due to using other muscles and strengthening those not used when running. I kick myself for missing out on a year at the gym. So, back to the point...I've been feeling a little lot worn out lately. Well this morning when I hopped on the elliptical for a 5 minute warm up before lifting, I noticed the display said my heart rate was 126. Whoa! I had pretty much just rolled out of bed so I wouldn't expect my heart rate to be much higher than normal. My resting heart rate is 48 and I struggle to get my heart rate up when doing cardio as it is. If I hit 120 during a hard effort I'm happy. Apparently, my metabolism sucks but my heart is very efficient!! I wasn't sure how accurate the machine was so I jumped off to take my HR myself and it was indeed high. Now, this didn't stop me from lifting and then running, but I did find it interesting since I've been feeling so beat up lately. Not sure if you know, but you can monitor if you're body is recovered by your resting heart rate. If you take your heart rate first thing when you wake up and it's elevated, this is a sign of over training, sickness, not recovered, etc. I guess it's a good thing I'll be relaxing here in a week:

Looking forward to some runs in the warm weather we're having this weekend. Going to be close to 80! It will get my body used to running in Jamaica. The place we're staying at has a huge open air gym and a track!! I plan to work out each morning so when I drink copious amounts of champagne I don't have to feel guilty about it!!