First Velocity in a week

Kris and I went to Velocity this morning. I haven't been in over a week and a half. I think Kris went maybe twice last week, one of his absenses being completely my fault. Not that he wasn't happy to return to bed and sleep for another hour or so.

This morning there were 7 paying customers for a full house of people warming up. Aside from the usual suspects of Breanne, Sandie, Kris, Bill and me, we also had Darlynn, who is becoming a regular, Jennifer, whom I met just today, Joe, Kris' coworker who is good natured about my unsubtle hecking and a 7:30 regular whose name I've forgotten - maybe David?

After jumping jacks and armcircles and squat warmups, I was tempted to line up so that I was warming up in Jennifer's line. She reminded me of a high school softball or volleyball player, the way she carried herself, and I was tempted to race her in the warmups.

For about 2 seconds.

They're warmups for a reason, to warm up, not to go all out and pull a muscle so that you're out for the offseason and out for the Speed Camp coming up that you really, really want to go to.

Besides, I warm up slowly, usually taking about 30% longer than everyone else to complete the length of the track in my warmups, and prefer to be in the last line so that I don't block anyone else behind me on the warmups. Since Jennifer lined up in the second lane, my racing morning was over.

Sorta.

Today's workout was:

10 runs 50m
10 reps push press
10 reps overhead squats

8 runs 50m
15 reps push press
15 reps overhead squats

6 runs 50m
20 reps push press
20 reps overhead squats

4 runs 50m
25 reps push press
25 reps overhead squats

The runs were done on the track, running down and back.

The push presses and the overhead squats were done with the same weight, for me the beginner barbell. We practiced with dowel rods before actually starting the workout, to make sure we had good form.

Because I was sharing a bar with Darlynn, I opted to run after my push presses and squats. So, while she and the rest of the group ran their ten lengths, I was pushing and squating by myself in front of Breanne.

Can you say "one-on-one training?"

Can you say "requires perfect form?"

Yeah.

Fortunately, my squat form was pretty good ("That's the best I've seen this morning, Kitt!"), so I was only self-conscious, not self-conscious and squating poorly. The trick to good squats, I've recently realized, is to keep your heels on the ground. Tipping forward is a lot harder when your heels are firmly planted on the ground. ("Good form, Kitt! You're getting stronger. Good depth. Good squat!")

I managed the first two rounds without difficulty, but was running out of time before Darlynn returned on the third set. I cut the push presses short, doing only 10 in the 20 round, and doing two sets of 10 for the squats instead of one set of 20. I did make up the missing 10 push presses in the last round, though.

Since I was running last in each round, I was usually running by myself. Except for one point in the eight lengths running, I ran my lengths very strong. I kept my knees up, my stride long, and my starts quick. My knees were tweaking funny when I jogged, but running was fine, so I kept up the pace.

My last round of four lengths happened to coincide with Kris' running of four lengths, as he was out for a good 10 minutes in the early rounds. I was about 15 meters down the track on my first length when he started his first length, and managed to stay in front of him the whole time. I have to say that today was the strongest I've run at Velocity, with that ending proving that I stayed strong. "Just couldn't catch you," Kris muttered under his breath as he walked by me back to his bar.

Yep, much more satisfying than racing Jennifer.

I finished up my missing pushpresses and put the bar back, just in time for the three rounds of two sets each of 20 crunches on swiss balls. I managed two sets (so 80 crunches) in the time it took everyone else to do the three sets, so I stopped.

Though slower through the exercises than everyone else, I was actually very happy with how I did in this morning's workout.