Lower body difficulty

Training update:
Weights - Super Body Sculpt (FIRM)
Run - 6/24 2.0 miles

The strength workout was a bit of an eye-opener. First of all, I blasted through the upper body just fine and made note of where I needed to increase the weights. Then the workout moved on to lower body. In this workout, they are done in two distinct sections so that you can do either one for a short workout, or the whole thing for a longer one. Anyway, the lower body workout got to me. I was doing ok with squats but when we got to the leg press, I was dying. I picked up a fairly heavy weight (probably low end of 'heavy' when I was fitter) and did the first set. My right knee was making a little noise, so I slowed my tempo below the instructor and then kept track of how many I did so that I could match it on the other leg. I managed 12 to her 16. The workout then moved on to dips but I had to rest. I let that section go by and rejoined for lunges. When the second set of leg press came around, I almost opted out again but then decided that doing it without weights was better than standing there staring at the tv. That's when I realized why all the lower body work is so hard for me even though my lower body should be in better shape that the rest of me due to biking. All the lower body moves involve lifting both my weights AND my body weight. I'm 30 lbs heavier than when I last did some of these workouts! That's a hell of an extra barbell on my shoulders (or my ass)!! Once I realized this, I felt a little better about myself. I also realized that I was purposely not pushing the lower body that hard knowing that I still had a run to do and that we were biking Saturday morning.

So the run went fine. I was actually walking a tad slower than usual, but for whatver reasons, my normal 'power walking' speed just felt too fast. Maybe it was because I'd already done the weight workout? Either way, I kept my running intervals above 6.0 mph (up to 7.0 mph by the last one). I also created my cheat sheet for the 22/8 walk/run workouts which start next Tuesday.