Hey guys!
So week two has really turned into like week four. I’ve been kind of busy and haven’t been keeping up with documenting my fitness lifestyle. But I’ve been nonetheless trying to keep consistent with my workouts. At this point, I try to workout at least four time a week times a week but this week I had to cut it down with two. My workouts have mostly carried from running outdoors to and through Peidmont Park, gym running and weight training and random adventures to Stone Mountain for a morning sweaty hike. This week, I discovered an outdoor half track on the top of the Hilton Hotel downtown which spiced up my normal routine.
The Hilton Hotel Outdoor Track. Downtown Atlanta
For the most part, I’m pretty sure you should be a guest of the hotel for this access, but it was pretty open once you got to the rooftop (you really just need to know what floor to go to). The terrance is a total workout area where there’s a half track along the outskirts of a tennis and basketball court. I was pretty cool, the track even had an incline where I was able to get a more intense elevated workout unlike most outdoor tracks.
If I’m going to take a run outdoors, I usually prefer to go right about an hour before sunset. During that time, I feel safe being outdoors alone if needed, and the sun isn’t beating down on causing heat exhaustion or a need for shade. This night in particular, the sky was beautiful, the air was low on humidity and I was ready for a structured run where I knew exactly how far I was running per interval. I had actually walked to this track from my apartment, which if you look in the picture sits about a block away from the The Bank of America building (the tall pointed building in the pictures) which was about 0.6 miles away. So since I already had my light warm-up walk, once I got here I was ready for the workout.
I ended up running about 2.5 miles that day, ranging from sprints and half mile intervals.
Stone Mountain. East Atlanta
Also during week two, I took a trip out to East Atlanta for a hike up Stone Mountain. Unlike the Hilton where I can easily walk to, Stone Mountain is about a half an hour away from my place in Midtown. And also unlike preferred evening workout time, here it’s good to go early.
Stone Mountain as I referenced in one of my Adventure ATL blog is a single mountain located on 3,200 acres of land. It’s filled with a bunch of historic confederate war facts and the actual mountain is carved showing four of the confederate leaders during the civil war. What the mountain represents is a little backwards, celebrating the wrong side of history, but nevertheless, it’s a great place for a workout.
There’s two ways to the top here — either a skyride up or hiking up the one-mile-boulder. I’m sure you can guess the route I took.
This is a place you have to get to early before the sun really heats up. I met up with my friend Bernice around 10 a.m for about an hour or so workout, hiking up and back down the mountain.
Once we get to the top, we’re usually in no rush to get back down. We just kind of relax, hang out a bit and continue chit-chating on whatever girl talk we need to catch up on. It’s peaceful and surprisingly not too many people are up there.
My Indoor Gym. Midtown Atlanta
Today I worked out in my gym and it felt great to finally get an air-conditioned workout. Seeing that my core workout is usual cardio involves some sort of running, as you probably expect, when I go to the gym, I spend most of my first half on the treadmill. I usually run f0r about twenty or so minutes, making my cardio portion of my workout to be about two-and-a-half to three miles.
My speed usually ranges about from 6 to 6.5 which leaves me running at about a 9 minute mile. Sometime slower depending on my mood.
After my run, I decided that it would be an upper body day. Since I’m not consistent enough in the gym I don’t really have a set arm/leg day. I just kind of go what I’m feeling and usually what I feel like needs the most improvement. In my case, I’m trying to get some abs. I think I have a pretty solid foundation, but I just need to put in the extra work and eat clean for them to start showing up.
I usually take an 10-12 pound medicine ball, lay out a yoga mat, lay on my back positioned at a 45-degree angle and switch the ball side to side. This, I do either do three sets of 33 or four sets of 25.
As far as the lifting goes, I haven’t got much into free weights at this point. I usually do about 50 reps on the chess press and seated shoulder press machine. I don’t want to get too heavy into the lifting until I shed some more body fat. I want lean results, not too bulky.
FOOD!
Yay food! My favorite part of it all! I’ve been trying to eat clean which is sometimes hard and can get very expensive when you’re on the go. While I would have liked this week to be a lot more saving and home cooking, sometimes you just don’t have the time and this week was one of them. While I should start documenting more exactly what I eat, right now here are just a few of the pictures I took to show you just what I’ve been putting in this body of mine.
So here you go guys, week 2 complete.
Update:
And for a usual Friday weighing, I’m sitting at about 148 pounds, three down from last week. Not to bad but still a ways to go to get where I want to be!
Stayed tuned for next week!
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