Bench Press PR and a Group Run in Central Park

Rawr! I felt fierce on Friday. After a long day at work, I was really looking forward to putting in a good work out. I didn’t have time to do a full work out, but I wanted to do a solid one.

After foam rolling for 10 min, I did my squat warm up sets and then bench pressed. I warmed up, then I did 3 reps at 80 lbs. It felt good. I felt strong, but I was a bit worried about not being able to finished the 4th rep. I tend to stay on the conservative side, because I don’t have a spotter. If you fail on a rep in bench press, then you need to do the roll of shame to get yourself out of it if you don’t have a spotter. I’ve done that when I was too ambitious, so it’s not really that big of a deal, just a little embarrassing. But because I felt so good, I decided to see if I could set a new 1-rep max at 85 lbs. I tried it last year and failed.

Boom! I did it! A new PR for 1-rep max at 85 lbs. I was extremely proud of myself. Bench pressing is the hardest lift for me in terms of gaining strength. I worked hard last year to reliably lift 80 lbs (I achieved it in spring, did a 5-rep max in June, and then miserably lost strength for the rest of the year). I think the extended time off was a good thing for me. My body seems to fatigue and plateau so much sooner than most people.

Saturday morning I went out to a group run with NYCRuns and The Running Company. Every Saturday at 10 am there are three runs: 3.5 miles (10:30 pace), 5 miles (8:30 pace) and 7 miles (7-7:30 pace). I opted to go with the 5-miler group even though I was going to run more slowly. I ended up running by myself around the reservoir in Central Park. You might wonder what’s the point of going out for a group run then. I don’t need people to run and actually I like running alone, but I knew that I would be tempted to skip out on a run or cut it short on a really cold morning if I were truly by myself. Plus, they were offering me hot chocolate after the run.*

I did 5 miles in Central Park at about a 9:53 pace. The pace would have been closer 9:40 pace if it had been for me lost during the last mile and helplessly loping along until I found a landmark I recognized so I could go back to the store.

My mile splits