velocitysports

I give me 4 hours

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Today's workout was 3 rounds of:

40m standing long jump
100m walking lunges
20 kettleball swings with row
20 burpees, or alternately 20 squats and 20 pushups
20 swiss ball rollups

The 40m standing long jump was down and back along the turf. We had the option of taking a large step, then doing a squat, but I liked the idea of working on my standing long jumps. I remember in eighth grade being able to jump the farthest in my class. I did so well at the standing long jump that my teacher felt I was cheating (or that the person measuring my distances was retarded and didn't know 64" from 74"). I had to show her that, yes, I could jump 6' in the standing long jump. Helps to weigh 20 pounds lighter than your peers.

I managed the first two rounds of standing long jumps in 24 jumps. The last one I was trying for fewer, but didn't make it.

100m of walking lunges were done down the track and back. Our warmup sprints are normally 40m long, so that we have space to slow down, but no need for that when doing lunges. I managed to follow Kris' pace when doing the lunges, but my steps are sufficiently shorter such that in 10m I was already a foot or two behind him. My 100m of walking lunges ended up being around 12 more lunges than Kris.

Kettleball swings with a row were done single armed. A normal swing brought the kettleball to chest level, where it was pulled to the chest in a path parallel to the ground, then pushed back out straight, before swinging back down. The trick was to keep the elbows up.

I did the burpees as squats and lunges when my form was so bad on the first two burpees that I feared injuring myself.

The swiss ball rollups were the abdominal exercise. Starting in a plank position facing the floor, with two hands on the floor, and the swiss ball under the knees, roll the knees to the chest (and the ball to the feet), then back out.

To say this workout was easy would be a complete lie. I thought my difficulties were with being tired from yesterday's practice, but Kris said he thought the workout hard, too, so not just me. Of course, when I couldn't lower myself to sit down gracefully (onto the toilet, into the car, or on the train), I figured it was harder than I first realized.

I wonder when I'm going to be sore. I say 4 hours.

Push jump up run

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Today's workout was three sets of

Sled push
25 box jumps
25 push ups
25 barbell V-ups
Run 6 lengths

The sled push was bending over and pushing a weight sled (with weights!) down 20m, turning around and pushing it back 20m. I had a 45 pound weight on my sled. Kris had 55 pounds or 70 pounds, I think 55, with a token extra 10 pounds.

There's some technique to the sled pushing. The handholds are about 8" from the ground, so you're at an angle when you push. You can honestly just walk the sled down, or you can push off hard, bringing your knees to your chest as you push hard and quickly. I did the latter for five lengths total, but did walk it down one length to count my steps on walking. When I push walk the sled, I have over 30 steps to push. When I go all out and push run with the sled, I have 17 steps to push. When I go my normal speed, I'm about 21 steps to push.

Somehow, the more intense effect seems smaller than the relaxed, "lazy" effort.

I did the box jumps at a lower height than I normally would do. My knees have been bothering me as of late, and I chose not to tweak them by landing at a higher height that would require more knee bending with weight. I'll be starting back up the "Sky's the Limit" vertical leap training, not because I'm working on increasing my vertical (though that will be nice) but because my knees felt the strongest after completing that program. Even Kris agreed when he said, "I didn't feel like I jumped any higher, but jumping my normal height was easier."

I did the pushups modified from my knees. I feel the strength building in my chest, so I may need to go back to regular pushups soon.

The barbell V-ups were done with the full barbells, though with no weights. Lying supine (on your back), the bar was lifted so that the arms are perpendicular to the ground. Then, moving the barbell slightly (maybe 30°?) back over the head to start a V-up, the bar was moved back toward the abdomen, keeping the arms straight, as both legs are brought up straight to a vertical position (so the barbell nearly touches the knees, legs pointing stright up). The legs are brought back down so that the feet are about 6" from the ground, and the barbell extended back (eh, over shoulders/head). That's one. Do 25. I did only 15 in a set.

Each length when running six lengths was 40m. I had new shoes, so ran it at a quick pace, so as to test out the shoes.

Ooooooo, were they comfy!

We had five minutes at the end of class, so we did additional ab work on swiss balls.

Wednesday's workout

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Whenever Kris and I decide to go to the lunch class at Velocity, I'm always a little worried. Work has a way of taking over a day, as I well know, with lunch time as the most vunerable.

So, when Kris wasn't at class at 12:00 noon, nor at 12:05 pm, nor at 12:07 pm, I was (reasonably) concerned. He did show up, and, boy, was I relieved.

Today's workout, on top of yesterday's workout, was:

6 sets of 8 squat throws
6 sets of 6 single leg box squats (each leg, so 12 in a set)
4 sets of 8 dumbbell curl to press
3 sets of 10 deadlifts

The squat throws were as they sound. Start with a medicine ball on the ground, holding it between two hands when standing in squat position. Jump from the squat positing, lifting the ball and throwing it into the air as you jump.

The box squats were regular single leg squats, but done while standing on a jump box, to allow a greater depth in squatting, without causing the knee to go too car over the ankle (an act which puts too much strain on the knee joint).

Dumbbell curls were normal curls, fluidly followed by a press. I used only 10# weights. It was a good weight.

The deadlifts are what taxed my hamstrings. Basically standing with only the bar (but what a heavy bar it was!), bend over at the waist, pick up the bar and, keeping the legs straight, stand up.

We played Calvin ball after the workout. My team lost again, but at least it took us a while to lose, thanks to Kris. He may be short, but at least he knows how to play the game.

Tuesday's workout

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Today's workout was three rounds of thirty seconds of the five stations of:

pushups
supine rows
jump rope
ball slams
partner swiss ball pass

The pushups were normal pushups. The supine rows were the same as last time, as were the ball slams and jump ropes, all normal. The partner swiss ball pass was differencnt, though, a new activitiy.

Two partners lie on the ground, in a line, with their heads nearly touching. A swiss ball, the big inflated, exercise ball starts between the feet of one of the partners. She lefts her feet up, to move the ball to her hands. The movement continues, and she passes the ball over her head to her partner's waiting hands.

The partner then passes the swiss ball to his own feet, which are lifted up toward his chest. After passing the ball to his feet, the partner then lowers his feet to the ground so that the ball touches the ground. He then lifts the ball back up to his hands, starting the sequence again.

When the ball is with the partner, the person without the ball is to keep her legs straight and lifted 6” - 12” from the ground.

For the most part, the workout was doable, even at a higher intersity. I was excited to be able to complete the workout without stopping more than twice.

After the workout, we had more than five minutes left in the workout out, so the coach suggested we play calvin ball, er, mud ball.. The coach picked two people to pick teams: a 6' 10" guy, and a 5' 3" woman. The 6' 10" began by selecting the 6' 3" guy for his time. The 5' 3" woman chose the 5' 2" for her team. The trend continued with the tall guy picking the 6' woman in the class, and the short woman chosing another short woman. The tall guy selected the short guy remaining, who was only 5' 11". I was selected by the short woman to round out the short women vs the tall men team. As I was picked last, I couldn't help but think, "Oh, for the love of ... don't pick me."

Unsurprisingly, we completely crushed. No, we were worse than crushed. That game was so bad that the other team managed to pass the ball back and forth among themselves six times (for a win) in less than 15 seconds in most cases. Heh, "most cases." The five pushups we had to do for losing took longer than losing the game in the first place.

Even 5 on 4 when the coach joined our team didn't help, we were that bad.

Next time, I'm sitting out again.

Going to be more sore tonight

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In continuing with the pain of movement from yesterday, I went up to Velocity Sports at lunch today for another workout. If I keep this up, those extra 20 pounds my knees are complaining about should be history in about 124 days, give or take 2 days Gee, and only 21 days to make a habit. Joy.

Kris didn't go today, something about "work" and "projects" and "sleep." In reality, I think he wanted to mutter "world" and "warcraft," but stopped when he saw the look in my eye. Who needs daylight to work? That's what evenings and nights are for.

The workout was as always, a long warmup followed by a workout. This particular instructor is a big fan of the 3 rounds of 5 exercise stations, each station for 60 seconds, 45 seconds and 30 seconds for the first, second and third rounds respectively. Today's stations were:

Squat jump with weighted ball
Pushups with one arm cross stand
75% running on the track
V ups
Supine row

The squat jumps were with a medicine ball: I used the eight pounder, having learned my lesson last week with the ten pounder. From a squat position, with the ball resting on the floor, held between both hands, stand quickly, moving from a half squat position into a jump, lifting the ball overhead in the jump. Land SOFTLY, and return to a squat position.

Pushups with one arm cross stand started with a normal pushup, but from the top of the pushup position, rotate the torso 90°, lifting one arm up to the ceiling, and looking up at that hand. Basically, in to a cross position. Hold for a count of two, then return to the pushup position, then lower back to the floor. Repeat, rotating the other direction.

Supine row was done with a barbell on the rack about a yard off the ground. Lying underneath the bar, reach up and grab the bar. Then, keeping the body straight, in a sort of reverse pushup, pull the chest up to the bar. I managed maybe three in the first round, before the instructor suggested I bend my legs, in order to maintain good upper body form. Made it much easier.

With the progression of the three rounds, I did progressively better, as I figured out what I was supposed to be doing, and how to do it. I managed in the second and third rounds to keep the two guys in my pod from passing me in the 75% runs by actually running at my 75% effort level, instead of just running with no focus. I think one of the guys was a bit annoyed that he couldn't pass me. Felt good to annoy him.

I also managed to increase my supine rows from 8 to 10 by the third set, which isn't bad, as I had half the time to complete that number in the last set, when compared to the first set.

So, I did okay in the workout. The warmups were more interesting to me. They're usually a workout in and of themselves. This particular instructor's workouts always seem hurried, like he has so much he wants to get in that he rushes everyone. I felt the same way last week, too. He doesn't wait for the slower people, to the detriment of their warmups. Like my warmup.

However, today, he pulled out the ladder, so I lined up first in line when he moved to it. No way was I going to be behind someone who slowed me up on these things. I hadn't forgotten how much I really like warming up with ladders, and by golly was I going to be first!

And, by golly, was I happy I was. Most of the class (read: all but one other person besides me) were inexperienced on the ladders, expressing beliefs that the instructor was making up the ladder drills to do. He wasn't. I recognized all of them, but one. I also surprised the heck out of him, when I followed him through the ladder, as quick as he had been, with fluid motion that clearly indicated I had done ladder work before. I even accelerated a few steps after the end of the ladder, broke down my run, and turned back to run back to the starting line.

Only to wait for the other 9 people in class to go through the line.

Probably good that I had to wait. I would have tired myself out too quickly without the rest.

What I found interesting about this particular part of the warmup was the lack of experience on the ladders that several seemingly athletic people in the group had. I would have expected them to have ladder experience. Or at least more coordination at learning new skills than they had.

What I also found interesting was the lack of speed one of the other women had. I expected to have difficulty keeping up with one of the athletic women in the class, during the 100% acceleration part of the warmup.

I didn't.

Maybe she doesn't have that first five steps quickness. Maybe she's injured.

Maybe, just maybe, I psyched myself out unnecessarily. AGAIN.

I don't know. I just do know that my 100%, inspired by a desire to keep up with her, was faster than her 100% for those two warmups.

And yeah, I'm being stupid. They were WARMUPS. Yeah, yeah.

After the workout, which was done by 10 until the hour, the instructor offered "mud ball," which is a game of passing a swiss ball (those are the 36" inflated exercise balls) among team members, without travelling or handoffs. Six catches makes the other team do six pullups.

Given my experience last week, I declined to play, opting to stretch out my right hamstring, which has been giving me problems when I don't stretch it out regularly. I was very glad, two minutes into the game, that I chose not to play.

The first incident had one classmate lunging too far to block a pass, and flying with the ball in front of him onto a wall mounted rack, puncturing the ball, and bouncing him back. Not five minutes later, two other classmates were jostling for the ball, and went over, landing on the wall, bouncing off, landing on the swiss ball and sliding off, all while missing the sharp corners of a jump box by maybe 2". Maybe.

During the game, I saw with some satisfaction, more of the frustration I had last week, of some people playing under certain expectation of play (a restart after a contested play, no travelling, more than 6" passes that look like handoffs, things that annoyed me last week). I commented to another classmate sitting out that the rules are so ill-defined, no one should be surprised at any contest. She said, yeah, we kinda make them up as we go along.

"Mud ball? Bah. We should call this Calvinball."

Is back

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Let it never be said that I don't pick up words and phrases from the people around me. Hi, Andy! /me waves!

I have to admit, I had a bit of stage fright as of late. Something about, oh, not being able to see, realizing the world is right outside my door, holy crap, Alex has me on his blog roll, all of that sort of nonsense stuff. When I realized (and, yes, even I need reminding sometimes) that this is for me, consistency is the key, blah, blah, blah, just write already, well, then, yeah, the words just came spooging out, sorta like this. Yeah, like that.

Went to Velocity this morning. Ooooo, boy was that a good thing to do. No, no, not because I exercised, not because I spent time with Kris, no, no, no. Because of the HUMOUR value.

Read: new guy today.

So, the morning workouts are led by Breanne. People come to the morning workouts not because they fit into their schedules, but rather because they're hard. As in HARD. These workouts break people. I've lost count of the number of new people who come to the morning classes, break, and switch back to the noon, afternoon or evening classes. Yeah, yeah, how would I know about that? I've caught up with some of those people in the evening classes when I've missed the morning workout and still needed a workout to do.

You know, when I'm bored.

Today was my first day back in about six weeks. I had been gone so long that my name had been removed from the roll call. A new guy was also there, standing tall, chatting up all the regulars I recognized: the employee, the older grey-haired guy, the macho younger guy who puts on too much bravado, the well-balanced thirty-something guy who works hard and Kris. New Guy was talking to everyone, quite jovial. I leaned over and asked Kris, "Is Breanne going to break him today?"

"Probably," he whispered back.

We started out with the jump rope: warming up by jump jump jumping. I don't know why anyone even bothers to try to keep up with Kris and his jump roping. Do I need to tell you people he can jump 240 steps in a minute? How about his record is over 11000 jump in a row? That it took him about an hour to do? Yeah, the man can jump rope without stopping and without faltering for an HOUR. Just don't try it, okay?

Some people tried to keep up with him. I just tried to jump.

Tried, because some bug kept buzzing around my head as I was jumping. It was incredibly annoying, especially since it started biting me after a few moments.

After a few moments, Kris saw it, too. He stopped jumping and took a step towards me, just as Breanne stopped jumping and started reaching to me.

And I realized that the jump rope was smacking in the top of the head.

I had selected a rope so short that, even though it was clearing my head, it was only barely doing so. The "bug bites" were the rope catching in my hair, and yanking them out.

A lovely welcome back.

So, off to the track we went to continue the warmups. We run down, back, down at a 50% effort level, back with toe-touches and scales. Shuffle down with side shuffles, back with more side shuffles, run down, back, down at 75% effort. Back with more leg stretches, some hand walks to stretch the hamstrings (I swear, all of my instructors know that my hamstrings are killing me, so they work extra hard to help me stretch them!). Along the wall, side stretches, leg swings, back on the floor for stretch twists and mountain climbers, back up, line it up again.

We're all warmed up, so time to run down at 100% effort level. This is where the new guys ALWAYS shine, and New Guy was no exception. This is when the chest thumping starts: a 100% warmup becomes a race. EVERY guy here has done it (except, maybe Kris and the Old Guy, and that's only a maybe), and probably most of the women (including yours truly).

[switch to present tense, it works better]

So, we line up, Breanne makes the calls, "set... go!"

And we're off.

I always work on those first 5 steps. Those are most critical in ultimate, so those are the ones I worry about, I train hardest for, I concentrate on form with. I'd rather be quick than fast in ultimate, so those first five steps, oh, THOSE are the ones where I exert the most effort. THOSE are the ones I care about. THOSE are the ones you'll lose me on if you're not looking.

Oh, poor New Guy. He doesn't realize this.

All he knows is some chick is next to him for those first five yards. How dare she? And the scrawny guy next to him is as fast as he is, if not faster. Oh, he can't stand this.

He starts tensing up and running faster. To his credit, his form does not suffer. He leans from the hips to go faster. He leans forward. Faster. Faster! FASTER!

Until he leans too far forward, and face plants.

I run by, not quite sure what to do.

I want to ask him if he's okay.

I want to tell him not to be a putz, to run within himself, it's a WARMUP not a race.

I want to burst out laughing.

Instead, I do none of this. I let up on my sprint, run by him, give Kris a "whoops" look, like I did something wrong, and finish my sprint. I say nothing as I look back, realizing the guy has fallen and jumped back up immediately to finish the warm up run. Kris looks at me. "Man down!" he hisses. I struggle not to giggle.

Most of us say nothing, but Breanne asks if he's okay. He is. We're all impressed that he popped back up after his spectacular splat. I make some comment about the track jumping up to bite him. We have two more runs to do, we line back up.

New Guy isn't as fast as he was before. I'm ahead of him after my first five steps, and never look back.

[back to past tense]

Today's workout was 4 rounds of:

Sled pull
20 Bradford press
20 box jumps
20 situps
100 rope jumps

Note: Bradford was an asshole.

The sled pull was down 40m and back, dragging the sled with weight. I started with the sled and 45kg, but couldn't lift my knees high enough with the weight, and my knees started hurting. I dropped back down to 25kg, which was light in effort, but good for the knees.

Bradford presses are done with a barbell resting on the shoulders, on the top of the chest. The bar is lifted over the head and back down behind the head to pause on the shoulders. It's lifted up again, back in front of the head, and down to pause on the shoulders at the top of the chest. That's one.

The box jumps were done as an explosive move. One foot on at box (12" or so), other on the ground. Explode up, driving with the top foot up hard and jumping up. Switch feet in the air, landing with the other (previously grounded) foot on the box, and placing the first (previously on the box) foot on the ground. That's one.

The situps were normal.

The jump ropes were normal, preferably with a rope long enough not to pull your hair out on each round.

Instead of progressing through the workout at my own pace, which is admittedly a plod, I went through at Kris' pace. instead of completing 20 of an exercise (or 100), I'd complete as many as I could as Kris did the full number. Keeping up with Kris (at least TRYING to keep up with Kris) is motivating. I'm sure my heart rate never dropped below 120 the entire hour. May not have dropped below 140 for most of it.

Continuing the go-go-go idea of changing things up to fix things, I'm working at the Starbucks over by Kris' work today, seeing if working from a different location will help me be productive. If this post is any indication of productivity, I think this new location is working.

For today anyway.

VS newsletter: Confidence and Comparisons sermon

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Velocity Sports sends out a newsletter on a semi-regular basis. Today's sermon was about confidence:

Confidence and Comparisons

Hey everybody! I love this subject. I am passionate about it, and if I could teach
anyone anything, it would be this. Confidence is there for the taking. You can't
order it on-line, but if you have the courage you can find it. That's right, I
said courage. The number one enemy of confidence is fear. Oftentimes we are afraid
of failure, embarrassment, inadequacy, harm, and at the end of it all we are often
afraid that we just aren't good enough. So, how do we protect ourselves from these
fears?

Confidence is a passionate belief that one can be successful. I cannot stress enough
that confidence is a belief.

Begin with a commitment, a commitment to confidence. Decide that you truthfully
want to be confident. This is harder than you think. It feels good to get angry,
be afraid, and to lose control. In fact, it is a lot easier than being confident.
Confidence is hard work.

Let's first start to feel confident right now. Think about your greatest accomplishments.
Remember your greatest plays or moments. Seriously, stop reading this, close your
eyes, and watch the ESPN highlights of your greatest moments. Can you feel that?
If you are anything like me, you heart rate just sped up. I can feel energy coursing
through my body. I am literally excited right now. I want to run out and do something.
You can use this process to build your confidence. It is called visualization. You
can do it before a game, or at night when you put your head on the pillow.

To build the strength of your confidence, learn what you need to know to become
and expert at your sport. Then, commit to becoming better at those things. Learning
builds energy and confidence. Make an action plan to become better. If you are reading
this, you have likely already made one action plan. You have become one of the thousands
of Velocity Sports Performance athletes across the country. You are putting in hard
work on a regular basis to become more athletic. Good for you. Give yourself credit.

What else can you do? Come up with plans for the things you want to accomplish.
As you are doing these things you are taking responsibility for yourself. That is
empowering! Also give yourself credit for all that you do. Are you a good brother
or sister? Are you a good son or daughter? What could you do to be a better one?
You laugh, but it feels good. It will also let you answer that question with a
yes. What question? Am I good enough? It is the question we are all battling with.
The answer is yes, and we've got to get better at giving ourselves credit. You can
apply it to sports and to life. When you answer that question with a yes you are
building your belief in yourself.

Trust the hard work that you do. When faced with the nerves of an event or game.
Understand that that nervousness is your body getting ready. It is supplying you
with so much energy it is tough to sit still. Sometimes it feels like butterflies
in your stomach. This is a good thing! It means your body is ready to give its best.
Now that your body is ready, rely on the work that you have done. Trust that you
are as ready as you can be at that moment and go for it. There is no more time
to worry about "Am I ready? Am I good enough?" Have faith in yourself! Answer the
questions with a yes. Believe that you can be successful, and you give yourself
the best chance to be just that.

Finally, don't compare yourself to others, or wait for success to make you confident.
Simply strive to be better always and give yourself credit for that. If you compare
yourself to those around you, you can get lazy or depressed. Remember that whether
you are the best or the worst, get better! You can't always win. If you wait for
success to give you confidence, then what will you do when you lose? What will
you do when you are not in first place? How will you become confident in the face
of the biggest odds? Michael Jordan missed more last minute shots than he hit, but
all we can remember are the ones that he hit! Be the same way! Be confident always.
It feels good.

My Looft moment

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Back in sixth grade, we had to do presentations about South and Latin American countries. The presentations were to be fairly elaborate: each pair of students presenting on one country would have a six foot table, from which they were expected to dress up in locally culturally appropriate garb, and present the highlights of the country's unique culture.

At that time, I was fascinated about Costa Rica, and incredibly excited about the assignment. I was one of the very first people to sign up, without any hesitation.

At the end of the day, I went back to the sign up sheet to see if anyone had signed up with me, finding my classmate Kimberly Looft was my partner. Kimberly was one of the cool kids, so hey, this was great!

When I went over to talk to her, I overheard her saying to someone else, "I signed up with Kitty. I'm going to get an A!"

I don't know if I walked away, or continued to walk up to talk to her, but I do remember becoming very annoyed at Kimberly.

I kept the annoyance throughout the project. Instead of leading the project development, I followed. What do you want done? I'd do the minimum effort needed for the task athand. If she wants an A, I thought, she'll earn it.

The only serious effort I put into the project was to research (before the Intarweb™, people!) and prepare local, mid-millenium, interesting foods. I made a strange corn tortilla-like pancake, and an interestingly tasty bitter chocolate drink (this, when it wasn't uncommon for me to eat two pounds of chocolate in one sitting).

The food may have been the only thing that saved our grade, as our table was disappointingly empty, as I didn't decorate it. Especially compared to the Mexico table next to us, which had flags and music, and food and maps and colors colors colors.

We earned a B on the project, which affected my overall grade of an A not at all. I don't know if it adversely affected Kimberly's grade.

Today's workout at Velocity Sports made me feel like Kimberly.

The workout was:

16 runs
100 pullups
16 runs
200 pushups
16 runs
300 situps
16 runs
400 squats

This workout was done with a partner. Each activity could be divided in any way the partners wanted, 50/50, 60/40, etc.

When the workout was described, Kris immediately called out, "I'm partnering with Breanne!" We all laughed. I figured I'd partner with someone else, but Kris surprised me and asked if I would be his partner. "Keep it in the family!" he says.

So, we started out. Sixteen runs, 400m each, no problem. 100 pullups? Uh, okay. I did 10, Kris did 10. I did 10, Kris did 10. I was doing my pullups assisted, with a band. Kris did pullups for real. A real man.

I barely squeaked out my 50 total.

Sixteen runs, I did my eight, though more slowly than Kris did his eight.

Two hundred pushups. That's 100 each, if we go 50/50. Oooooookaaaaaaay.... 10 for me. 20 for Kris. Oh, yeah? 20 for me, 20 for Kris. I tried upping my numbers from 20, but it just wasn't happening. I dropped back down to 15, then 13, then 12. Kris stayed strong, letting us split at about 47/53.

Sixteen runs, with Kris' fitness kicking in. He did nine, and I did eight, before I realized he said, "meet you down there," and not "mumble you down there."

Whoops.

300 situps? 150 situps for me? No problem. I started with 20, to which Kris answered with 30. Oh yeah? I did 35, and Kris answered with 35 back. We were flying through this exercise.

For the first 100.

Fatigue set in and we started slowing. Around 160 I was feeling Monday's abs workout. Around 220, I was back down to 15 situps, not stopping even though I was really slowing down. I wanted to give Kris as much rest as I could, which was easy (just keep going) and hard (just keep going) at the same time.

When I stood up to run my eight laps, nausea rolled over me and I almost sat back down. Kris must have sensed my wooziness (yes, a real word), as he ran 10 of the laps, for my 6. The knot in my knee didn't help.

Neither did the hamstrings, which were strung tighter than a bow string.

Kris and I threw down the gauntlet on the squats, being the last partner sets, and determined to jump up to finish second. 30 squats for me, 30 squats for Kris, 30 squats for me, 40 squats for Kris. Down. Up. Down. Up. Keeping form but going fast, 35 squats for me, 40 squats for Kris, 30 squats for me, 50 squats for Kris. 35 squats for me, more for Kris. We cranked them out, finishing the workout only 3 minutes late, and second overall (not that it was a contest or anything, but the workout was supposed to be done as fast as possible without losing form).

My legs hurt. My arms hurt. My stomach hurts. My head is starting to hurt. I have a train ride and a 45 minute walk home left to do before I can rest.

Maybe that walk will make up for my Kimberly moment earlier.

Monday's workout

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Somehow I managed to wake up this morning to go to class with Kris. I think it's the first time in about a month I've managed to go. Given how much I hurt this afternoon, I'd have to say I shouldn't have waited so long.

This morning's workout was three rounds of:

10 squats with weight
20 each leg of inverted hamstring Ts to one legged sprinter's stance
30 GHG situps
8 x 50 runs

The 10 squats with weight were standard squats with a weighted barbell across the shoulders. I managed just the barbell in my squats. At least it was the heavy barbell. The squats were lower than Kris normally goes, but my normal depth, with hamstrings parallel to the ground.

I should have realized when Breanne emphasized the hamstrings in the first exercise this was going to be a hamstring focused workout.

I couldn't really figure out how to name the inverted hamstring Ts to one legged sprinter's stance exercise. Start standing on one leg, bend over at the waist, keeping the upper body straight, to touch a cone, forming a T with the outstretched arm and the backward leg. Then, stand up, staying balanced on one foot, bringing as the back leg forward, knee up high. The stance is very much like a sprinter's running stance with the high knee and opposite arm up. That's one. Do 20 on one leg, then 20 on the other leg.

Phew!

The 30 GHG situps where on the back extension machine, but face up. The situps are supposed to be from way low (Breanne does a backbend to where she's nearly looking over backward at the floor), all the way up. The closer the two machine pieces are together, the harder the situps are. I moved the two pieces close. The situps were hard.

My only thought on the 8 x 50 runs was, "Thank goodness they weren't supposed to be 8 x 50 meter sprints." My legs were tired after the third round.

Kris managed four rounds during my three rounds, but I was happy to finish the three rounds in the class time.

I took the train back south to Sunnyvale after class. I had breakfast/brunch/lunch in downtown Sunnyvale, and spent some time working in the morning at a cafe. I couldn't justify staying longer than an hour or two, though. I felt I should buy more food to use the wifi longer. I was probably fine, as I've seen people site at that cafe all day before, and there were other people there before and after me. I didn't feel comfortable with it, though. Maybe I'll check out the library later this week.

I did see one of my city's councilwomen meeting with various men at the cafe, listening to them for over an hour. I was impressed.

After a while, I decided to head home. I packed up my bag and headed home. The walk home is only 2.4 miles, but my bag was way too heavy. I had reduced the weight before leaving this morning, but just didn't take enough weight out. I'll need to reduce even more. Maybe carry 2 magazines or a tech book, not both?

Walky walk

Blog

I dashed up to Velocity Sports today. Last week's migraine, coupled with Wednesday's flu, knocked me out sufficiently that my 12th new year's resolution of exercising 30 minutes six times weekly was in serious danger. I didn't want to go this morning and have my butt handed to me by Breanne, but I still wanted to go to something. Lunchtime seemed better than the evening, so, off I went.

I'd like to say I try to keep an open mind with instructors who aren't Breanne. I do try. But, darn it, the classes just aren't the same with the other instructors.

We started with an abbreviated, short distance warmup. Instead of lots of jumping jacks, followed by 40 yard sprints of various, increasing speeds, alternating with dynamic walking stretches, we did shorter distance (15 yard) skips and jumps. It didn't feel as thorough as our normal warmups, but we also didn't have any all-out sprints, so the warmup seemed okay.

The workout was 2 rounds of

  • One legged squats with weighted ball toss, which the instructor called get-ups.
    With a partner, each of us would do one legged squats onto a jump box, alternating throwing and receiving a medicine ball at the top of the squat. So, holding a medicine ball, do a one-legged squat, stand up, throw the medicine ball sideways to your partner, do an unweighted one-legged squat, stand up, receive the medicine ball back from your partner. We did one leg for a minute, then the other leg for a minute.
  • Farmer walks
    With weight plates, one in each hand, walk 30 yards, set the plates down and do 5 push ups. Pick up the weight plates again, walk back 30 yards, set the plates down and do 5 burpies (stand, squat, hands on floor, thrust legs out behind into a push up position, do a pushup, pull legs back up to a squating position, spring up into a jump, repeat). Pick up the weight plates again, walk back 30 yards and do 5 V situps.
  • Squat throws to bear crawls
    For the length of time another group was doing the farmer walks, take a weighted, non-bouncy ball and, from a squat position, push up and throw the ball as far as you can. Then, squat down, putting your hands on the ground, crawl hands and feet to the ball. When you get to it, stand up, pick up the ball, and do it again.

After the two rounds, we also had bungee cord sprints, where we ran forward 10 yards with a bungee cord strapped to our back, touched a cone, and ran backward to the starting point. We sprinted forward and backward for a minute each.

Because we had an extra minute, we also did wall squats, while singing happy birthday to another person in the class. I tried to have everyone "sing" a shreekenade, but everyone sang in key.

Except me.

I should be embarrassed.

I wasn't.

I stopped by Kris' work on the way home and "convinced" him to head out for a coffee, while I had a hot chocolate. It was pretty wonderful, seeing him during the day.

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