Will spin for Spudnuts...

My husband will be the first to tell you, as healthy as I try to be with my food (most of the time), I have a serious sweet tooth.  I always have.  Sugary and dessert-y over salty and savory every time.  I've mentioned in previous posts how much I love Spudnuts, which are basically doughnuts made with potato flour.  They are slightly healthier than your typical fried delightfulness, but oh-so-yummy.  We try to keep our indulgence to a minimum, but today after my husband and I spent 2 hours at the gym, one hour doing weights and one hour of spin class, I talked him into stopping by The Donut in Pocatello to pick up a dozen of these babies to take home.  Believe me, it was tough, you know, talking him into it. ;)  As you can see, I have a preference: the chocolate and coconut Spudnut...mmmmm.

What are your indulgences?  Are you more likely to treat yourself on days when you work out hard?

I'm thinking that after I run the Pocatello Marathon in September, I just may eat two or three of these! After we run the Ogden Marathon in May, my husband wants to dive into a burger at 5 Guys. ;)

Spin class and an 8 mile mountain hike!!

This morning while my husband went off to work for just a few hours, I went to the gym and did a spin class.  Spin class with my favorite instructor, Misty, is an instant mood-booster for me.  I'm not sure what it is exactly about the way she teaches, probably a combination of the music she chooses, the way she gives the instructions and the fact that she pushes us hard from the minute the class starts, right up until the end of a full hour, that I always feel like I've had the BEST workout at the end of her class.  Last night my husband and I went to the gym before doing the weekly grocery shopping, and we took a spin class with an instructor we hadn't had before.  She didn't get the class going until 15 minutes past when it was supposed to start, then I could barely understand anything she was saying into the microphone.  I still got a decent enough workout, just because I've learned how to make it harder for myself, but she ended the class 10 minutes early so we could do some ab-work.  Don't get me wrong, it's always good to get in a little core strengthening, but when I go for a cardiovascular workout, that's what I'm looking for.

Anyway, today's class was great, and I came home in a good mood and excited for my husband to return home so we could go out for a hike.  As you can see in the above photo, there were storm clouds hovering and we had a few intermittent sprinkles off and on, but the temperatures stayed in the 50's and every once in a while the sun even peeked through the clouds for a moment.  We hiked a trail called the Valvehouse Trail, and we went out and back for a total of about 8 miles, which took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  On the way up, I could tell the steady incline was giving me a great workout.  On the way back down, we even ran parts of the trail.  It made me realize that if I was to get into trail running, or if I wanted to do any trail races in the future, I'm definitely going to need to spend lots more time running trails.  It's tough!  I was afraid of losing my footing, there were pretty decent sized rocks all along the way, not to mention mud and even some snow up at the higher elevations.  This trail is part of the route that makes up a race called the Pocatello 50, a 50 mile trail race.  It was gorgeous up there, so peaceful and serene.  We saw lots of animal tracks and scat, including deer, moose and even mountain lion, eek.  Sometimes I get a little nervous about traversing these remote types of areas, but I'm not too worried with my husband there leading the way, and pepper spray and a gun in our backpack...just in case. :)

Mid-week workout, spin-style!

I warmed up this morning with 20 minutes of Pilates.  Then, since I had to catch up on Monday's episode of "The Voice", I did 30 minutes on the elliptical followed by 40 minutes on the stationary bike.

After lunch, my husband and I took the little guy to the gym, where the boys played basketball while I did a spin class.  Well, it was supposed to be a spin class, according to the schedule, but when I got there the spin instructor and the kick boxing instructor decided to turn it into a circuit, since there weren't quite enough people to do 2 separate classes.  We began with 20 minutes on the spin bikes, then we jogged through the hallway to one of the big workout rooms where we did kick boxing moves combined with plyometrics for about 10 minutes, then we jogged into the basketball gym where we had to do two running ladders, then jogged back to the spin room and back on the bikes for another 20 minutes, then repeated the whole cycle once more.  Hardest.  Workout.  Ever.  But I loved it. I know, I'm sadistic.  I was wearing my heart rate monitor for the whole hour long class, and my heart rate hovered around 175 for most of the time and actually went up to 189 (that's very high).  After my class was finished, I went and relieved my husband of "daddy-duty" so he could lift some weights, and I played some hoops with my little buddy for about 1/2 an hour.  Then we all went swimming, but I spent most of my time in the hot tub soaking my muscles.

Still on the agenda for tomorrow: a nice, long run with my husband.  :)