Now that I’m running again, I know it’s important that I continue strength training. Those of you who’ve been hanging around a while may remember that strength training has never been my favorite thing. But in the past few months of doing the Body Rock/Daily HIIT workouts, I’ve actually come to really like it. Trust me, I’m as shocked as you are.

The workouts are intervals that mix plyometrics and strength training. Depending on the day, I’m jumping around like a lunatic in my living room or doing squats until my glutes are about to ignite. Well, not just squats, but you get the idea. Most of the workouts have 4-8 different moves. You typically do each move for 50 seconds work/10 seconds rest, and move through the circuit 3 times. The nice thing is that the workouts are really quick, but also (according to Manfriend) effective. That means keeping in them in my routine as I get back into running is definitely do-able.

For instance, this morning’s workout looked like this:

I used my (pink!) sandbag for everything but the pushups, which I have filled with about 12-15 lbs. of rice. I don’t know. I’m a total weirdo. Somehow “sandbag” translated to “rice” for me. And yes, I am a lightweight and this is about as heavy as I can go. Whatevs.

This workout is a little deceptive because it doesn’t seem that hard–I mean, 8 sets of 8? I can do 8 of anything. But you have to find your sweet spot with the weight so it’s challenging enough. The whole thing took me around 25 minutes, and I rounded it out with one quick round of this plank circuit.

I’m sure my abs will look like this just as soon as I quit the PB pretzels.

At any rate, I figure if I keep myself accountable by proclaiming it to the 4 people who read this blog, that I’ll be more likely to actually stick with the strength stuff and not running myself into the ground. I will say this, though: I’ve noticed that my friends who consistently strength train don’t get injured. Specifically, Paula and Michelle. Paula is great with keeping up the Crossfit even during her training, and girlfriend logs more miles than anyone I know. Michelle is basically the queen of cross training and does both spinning and weight workouts while she’s training (and pregnant!). So when I grow up, I want to be like Paula and Michelle.