velocitysports

Bioengineered for this

Blog kitt decided around 10:45 on 26 November 2008 to publish this:

This morning's velocity had all of the characters from Monday with one switch, we swapped out Jennifer for a quick Asian dude I've seen at various classes. Oh, and I learned the name of the guy whose name I couldn't remember on Monday. It's Greg, not David. I have no idea where David came from. Maybe Pickett.

First Velocity in a week

Blog Instead of being asleep at 10:23 on 24 November 2008, kitt created this:

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.

Cannot lift my arms

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 10:58 on 12 November 2008

This morning's workout was 20 minutes of as many rounds as we could possibly do of:

5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

Velocity exhaustion

Blog Posted by kitt at 10:03 on 7 November 2008

Today's workout was 15 minutes of intense "how many can you do" exercises. In paricular, we had:

5 minutes of squats
4 minutes of box jumps
3 minutes of split squat jumps (lunge jumps)
2 minutes of kettle ball swings
1 minute of jumping rope

We had a minute or so rest between each of the exercises, which isn't really enough time to recover. I didn't manage nearly as many as I was hoping to make in the various exercises, not by a lot. I did manage 150 squats in the five minutes, which was the fewest number in our group. I barely eked out those 150 squats, determined to finish that many because it was 3 rounds of 50.

Both Kris and I had problems walking out of Velocity, our legs were so exhausted. I think I will be deliciously sore tomorrow.

With the jumps

Blog Posted by kitt at 13:38 on 22 October 2008

This morning, three rounds of

2 x 20m walking single arm overhead lunges
20 single arm overhead squats
20 weighted squats
20 squats
200 jumprope jumps

I suck at the single arm overhead anything. Paul was there.

Vanity birthmark

Blog Posted by kitt at 21:57 on 20 October 2008

This morning's Velocity was three rounds of:

40m standing long jump
40 side to side bench jumps
20 pushups
20 GHG situps
1 suicide

The standing long jumps were done down and back 20m, with the start of the next jump beginning with the end of the previous jump, no break, using the momentum of the previous jump to set the spring of the next jump.

The side to side bench jumps started by placing both hands on the end of a weight bench, facing down at it, standing on one side. The jumps were done by jumping over the bench, landing on the opposite side of the bench and using the landing to spring back over to the other side.

My biggest problem with the side to side bench jumps was mental. I had to convince myself that I could actually make these jumps, even though I watched Kris clear the bench by a foot or so. My biggest worry was clearing the bench, which caused me to jump farther and farther away from the bench. By jumping farther away from the bench, I had farther to jump to clear the bench, causing me to jump exactly the right distance to not quite clear the bench.

I ended up with a pressure scrape down the side of my leg, and an 8" bruise on the side of my leg. It's not deep, but wide, and looks like a raspberry birthmark along the side of my leg.

I clearly need more vitamin K.

When I showed it to Kris, Breanne saw it and gave me a look like, "How uncoordinated can my clients be?"

We all finished the three rounds in about 30 minutes, giving us a ten minutes to do n burpees on the nth minute, resting for the rest of the minute. When Breanne first described it she said "pushup" instead of "burpee," and we all thought, "How easy!" When she corrected herself to burpee, we all groaned.

1 burpee, rest the remaining time of minute 1.
2 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 2.
3 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 3.
4 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 4.
5 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 5.
6 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 6.
7 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 7.
8 burpees, rest the remaining time of minute 8.

I managed to the the 8 burpees in 30 seconds, though Kris did them in 20 seconds. My hamstrings, however, were shot, so I stopped for round 9, but did do round 10. Another woman at class today, one who grew up in Chesterton (to my delight, all of the women in class today except Breanne were from Indiana, the Chesterton woman having lived the closest to my hometown) also skipped the 9th round, and did the 10th round.

My hamstrings are shot.