Treadmill Ladder Circuit & 26th B-day Weekend

By Lee Funke

Published 4/21/2016 • Updated 11/27/2020

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I had the BEST b-day weekend ever! I got to spend it with my favorite people eating and drinking really good food AND the weather was beautiful! What more could you ask for? MKE has an amazing restaurant scene AND Man Candy just moved to the Third Ward so all the good stuff is in walking distance. Because I’m in the mood to write (WHAT?!) I’m going to tell you all about my weekend. PS: I snapped all of this and didn’t save any of the photos (I’M AN IDIOT), merp.

Thursday

Lin and I made the 5 hour drive from Minneapolis to Milwaukee last Thursday and sang our hearts out the entire time (5 whole hours and I’m not even lying). If you follow us on Snapchat (FitFoodieFinds) you 100% understand this video…if you don’t, now you just think we’re weird.

We met Man Candy at the Milwaukee Brewing Company to pick up some “Gin Barrel Aged O-Gii” for Milwaukee Day (4/14 because the area code is 414). It was only an hour wait…good thing we bought 7 bottles. Can I preface the below selfie really quick? (Yesterday) Hey Mark…I’m going to need to you take a selfie of that beer we bought…I’m low on photos for the blog. Didn’t even have to ask twice.

Out of a million and one restaurants…we decided we were craving WINGS. Points East Pub in the Lower East Side is the place to go for really good wings in Milwaukee. Blue Cheese > Ranch. Who’s with me?! Don’t worry- I also ate all of the celery that the wings came with. Gotta get your veggies in some how 😛 

Friday

Friday was super chill. We had a lot of leftover groceries from recipe testing that we brought with us, so we made a GIANT scramble for breakfast. After that Lin and I did THIS WORKOUT (what this post is actually suppose to be about) and then headed to the Third Ward to work for a bit while Man Candy worked from home. We cuddled up at my favorite Milwaukee coffee chain- Colectivo to also work. We both got iced lattes with an extra shot, please.  We met Man Candy at The Milwaukee Public Market (MY FAV LUNCH PLACE) for lunch. It’s one of those places that is a MUST when someone from afar is visiting.

Lin and I split 2 sushi rolls and chicken pad thai from Thai-Namite. Num num num. We picked up assorted beers and ciders, because post market we went to go check out Man Candy’s new pad in the Third Ward. Since we moved him the next day, it was just a blank apartment with nothing in it. PERFECT for cold beer on a Friday night (song reference?). 

After all of those shenanigans…we decided Linley needed to see Lake Michigan, because that’s one of the best parts about Milwaukee. We walked down to the lake and oooed and aaaed over the Milwaukee Art Museum. I CAN’T WAIT TIL SUMMER.

Friday night was REALLY fun. Linley left Saturday morning so we used Friday to celebrate my birthday. I LOVE small plates because I like a little taste of everything, so that’s what the three of us did for dinner. It was the BEST triple date EVER. We ended up going to Ginger (which is actually a tapas/drag queen bar). IT WAS DELICIOUS. We split a bottle of wine and ordered as many small plates as we could eat. Post dinner we walked to Bugsy’s, the funnest speakeasy bar in Milwaukee. We met up with some of Man Candy’s friends and proceeded to dance the night away. There just so happened to be an acoustic 90’s cover artist playing live music. MY DREAM. He played my 2 favorite songs in the whole wide word- Mr. Jones and Meet Virginia. If you’re ever at Bugsy’s…I HIGHLY suggest the Moscow Mule. 

Saturday

Saturday was a WHOLEEEE lotta moving. We started the early morning off with a delicious breakfast at Cafe Benelux. MORE COFFEE PLEASE. It’s one of our favorite breakfast spots in MKE, so it was a great way to send Linley off to the Twin Cities. I got the American breakfast (was craving BACON). After that it was GAME TIME. I love to hate moving…but that’s how we spent 10 hours of our Saturday. I was the master UNPACKER and took it upon me to sort the kitchen 🙂

Saturday night was the fun part. Dinner at Riverfront Pizzeria. The best part about Man Candy’s new apartment is the LOCATION. You can calk to so many different restaurants! EAT ALL THE PIZZA and DRINK ALL THE COCKTAILS. After 10 hours of moving I seriously felt like I could eat an entire pizza myself. Good thing I left room for DESSERT…because who doesn’t deserve dessert during their birthday weekend?! 

Sunday

Sunday was a much needed chill day and my B-DAY! We started off with pancakes and a boat load of coffee at Zak’s Cafe. It was Milwaukee’s first really nice day, so we sat outside. I couldn’t believe we were the only ones taking advantage of the weather! Post Zak’s we went on a nice long walk around MKE before we realized we were exhausted. NAP TIME.

By 3PM we were hungry again, but this time we decided to walk to the Market and pick up food to GRILL. YAS. Can you say bacon-wrapped chicken breast, red potatoes, and asparagus? The ultimate b-day dinner! I’d never made bacon-wrapped chicken breast before…and I have to say it was a successful attempt and super easy. We used our new Fuego Element Grill, which was super straightforward to put together and really easy to use! Did I mention…super sexy?

Because every dinner deserves dessert…FROYO IT WAS! MyYoMy! We split a big ol’ cup with loads of toppings.

Holy man I just gave you a play by play of my entire weekend. HOW ABOUT THAT? This post was originally suppose to be all about this Treadmill Ladder Circuit that Lin and I did on Friday and it just blossomed into a whole lot of words. I guess I can give you the run down on this workout real quick before I let you go.

This is a workout Man Candy and I have done before and one that was inspired by my home gym PEC. It’s a mixture of incline sprints and a full body circuit. The image is pretty self-explanatory and the circuit can be switched out for other moves! ie: if you don’t have any equipment…you can switch them out for bodyweight exercises. Also- if you don’t have a treadmill…you can just time yourself and run outside for the allotted time! It should take you around 50 minutes…depending on how long you break between sprints and circuits. 

Note: this past weekend I used the elliptical because of my broken foot. It’s non weight bearing and safe for me to use!

Happy Friday!