When Life Gives You Lemons…

Yesterday I took a young client outside to do sprint work.  After a 5 minute or so walking warm-up we started to race doing short sprints.  When you run (or do ANY cardio work) as fast as you possibly can, you go beyond an aerobic zone,  and can only sustain that for seconds at a time.  After each sprint (she won every time!) we walked for about a minute and then repeated.  We did this 8 times, then walked back to her house where we moved on to some muscle overload work.  Sprinting is a great way to work on improving your running speed.  It’s also a great way to get the heart-rate way up,  get your blood pumping and burn into some fat stores.  It is a good workout to do when you are pressed for time, but still want to do something physical that gives you a big bank for your buck.

After an AWESOME  lunch with Rita, celebrating life, picking apart and rehashing The China Study over veggie burgers (Big Bear Brewery here in Coral Springs makes a good one) I met Mitch and we went to look for a small park that my SilverSneaker student Loretta told me about just the other day.  “What, a hill right here in Coral Springs?” I asked, after she told me you can walk or run to the top and look out over “our town.”  I shook my head skeptically, thinking if there were a hill to run up ANYWHERE locally, I would have known about it after all the years I looked for one to train on.  Sure enough, there it was, right on 30th Street near the Sawgrass Expressway.   Only 5 acres, it’s a short climb to the top but definitely some place I will be returning to with sneakers this weekend.  I imagine its also a nice place to watch the sunset…or fireworks!  I have asked many people who have grown up in Coral Springs if they have ever heard of 3 Friends Park and so far, no one has!  If you are local and interested in checking it out, its just south of Sample Road and just west of Coral Ridge Drive.  We actually only saw one parking spot, which was weird.  I believe it was built on a landfill (that’s making lemonade out of lemons!)  and named for 3 friends who would walk together and sit at the top and watch sunsets.  Sadly, they were killed in a plane crash.  I will honor those 3 friends and make use of that HILL–a true gem in a runner or trainers life!  Watch out Jane, we will be doing some outdoor workouts there come fall!

From there we went to donate much needed blood before the holiday weekend.  Both of us are O+ which means we can donate to pediatrics, which also means our donation goes a long way (babies need smaller amounts  than adults when receiving transfusions.  I am happy that this is something Mitch and I do together.  It must give us both a sense of satisfaction and calm as our blood pressure readings were both the same, nice and low at 110/70.

Once again, I love hearing how many of you are leaning into more veggies.   Carol, the skewered veggies make such a nice presentation, right?  I will definitely be making some of those this weekend as we celebrate the holiday.  I will also be trying Rita’s version of hummus with northern beans in place of garbanzos.  Yum.

I’ll be at Tamarac Fitness Center this morning hoping to present one good workout to all before we begin indulging in  the holiday festivities.   See you there—or here.  Stay safe and have a happy holiday weekend.  Though this is far from my favorite holiday, I am always thankful for my and our independence!