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Today's Velocity

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 20:42 on 12 September 2007

After almost sleeping through today's Velocity (Paul really needs to start coming to these things - he'd get a real kick out of having his butt kicked by Bryanne), I hurriedly dressed, ate and dashed out the door with Kris to arrive at class late, but still during the warmup. We had one new new guy today, and two I didn't recognize. New new guy isn't a fast runner, so he's lucky he wasn't in Brynne and Heather's warmup group. Bad enough to have you ass handed to you by the old one, but by two girl's, too?

Maybe the old one (me) was bad enough, but I beat him by only a couple yards. Brynne would have beaten him by 10. Heh.

Today's workout was:

4 minutes of alternating with a partner:
Sled push down 20 yards and back
Step ups.

4 minutes of alternating with a partner:
Sled push down 20 yards and back
Bulgarian split squats (one leg backward, elevated on a block, squat one
leg)

2 minutes of alternating with a partner:
Sled pull down 20 yards and back
Squat jumps.

2 minutes of alternating with a partner:
Sled pull down 20 yards and back
Lunge jumps

We weren't told originally the time for each set, so we figured we went until someone puked. The workout was hard enough that some people almost did.

Ar the end of class, I wrote "go until someone pukes" at the bottom of the workout whiteboard. I wrote it in Bryanne's handwriting, and did a completely passable job. When Kris commented it was pretty good, I explained I use to practice other people's handwriting styles in college. Heather turned to me and smiled. "Of course, you did."

Indeed.

Last

Blog Instead of being asleep at 20:58 on 5 September 2007, kitt created this:

This morning's VS workout was designed to "make up for no workout on Monday" by combining most of Monday's workout with part of today's normal workout, which means half upper body and half lower body.

8 Runs
4 Runs with medicine ball
8 Runs
4 Runs with medicine ball

1 set of 21 reps, followed by 1 set of 15 reps, followed by 1 set of 9 reps of:

Ball slams
Pull ups 
Push ups

4 Runs
2 Runs with medicine ball
2 Runs
2 Runs with medicine ball

I was okay on the first runs. Not fantastic, but okay. I tried an all out sprint today on the quad. It was okay, but still off, so I didn't try more than two. Entertainingly enough, even without trying I managed to "win" the race. Clearly I picked the right group to boost my ego.

The downside of the workout was that we all started at the same time. With eight of us trying to use the limited supply of weighted non-bouncy medicine balls, as well as the three pull up bars, I ended up having to wait for the equipment. I finished the workout last, which was actually okay, as Kris was able to run next to me on the last runs. I really like when he runs next to me: he's quite inspirational.

210

Blog Instead of being asleep at 11:21 on 8 August 2007, kitt created this:

I went to Velocity Sports this morning without Kris. He's taking the week off, so, if I was going to go, I was going to go by myself. So, off I went by myself, and, what do you know? This morning at VS, I did 210 pushups. Sure, I did 210 situps, too, but I'm more amazed at the 210 pushups.

The workout was a progression of pushups and situps such that the total number of the two done in each round was 21.

So, the first round was 20 pushups and 1 situp. The second round was 19 pushups and two situps. The third round was 18 pushups and three situps. The rounds continued until 1 pushup and 20 situps.

So, yeah, pushups. Can you say, "Not my forte?" Because I can. Bryanne warned us that at the end, we'd be wishing for more pushups and fewer situps. More pushups? Not likely.

Around round 6 or 7 I did figure out that I needed to rotate the position of my hands to change which muscles are used for the pushups. The first five or six rounds I did with the my hands in the normal, straight position and exhausted the chest muscles associated with that position. I noticed on some sets Bryanne rotated her hands in, others she rotated her hands out. When I duplicated this rotation, I was able to continue much stronger than I expected to be able to continue.

I'm thrilled to say, I was able to do the last five rounds with full pushups, not the wimpy from-the-knees pushups I had been doing in the previous rounds. Sure, it was only 15 from the feet, but that's 15 more than I expected to be able to do.

Especially having done 195 before those 15.

And Bryanne was right. At the end, I was wishing for more pushups and fewer situps.

Yoink!

Blog kitt decided around 17:15 on 23 April 2007 to publish this:

So, today at Velocity Sports, we hooked up to the sleds, but not to push or pull them. Instead, we used them as anchors. Kris has used the sleds before in a workout. I hadn't, and took a while to figure out the harness. It was a chest harness with the hook in the back, and broad straps along the shoulders.

Unfortunately, when I put it on, all you could see was boob. It was like my breasts reached out and smacked the casual observer who looked in my direction. Even Bryanne looked at me and inadvertently said, "Whoa."

Using the sleds as anchors, we attached ourselves to long bungee cords, sprinted forward twenty yards, touched the ground, ran backward twenty yards, repeated for four reps, then did 20 pushups, the whole set then repeated four times total. The sprint forward was easy until the last five yards, the run backward even easier. I don't run backward particularly well, so I enjoyed actually being able to run backward for once.

After the first set of four reps of four sprints plus pushups, we were to do another set with situps instead of pushups. Kris commented that he didn't feel the bungee cord was providing much resistence, and asked if he could run to the wall, another five yards beyond our current stopping point. Bryanne suggested, instead, that he move the sled back three yards, so that he feels the resistance sooner. He shoved the sled back. Bryanne added more weight to the sled since Kris was going to be pulling it more, and we lined up to run again.

When we start these runs, I'm usually able to keep up with Kris for the first run or the first few steps. As we started on the first sprint, Kris was on the far side, Bryanne in the middle and I ran on her other side. We ran the first twenty yards together until a "GAK!" and Kris disappeared from our peripheral.

The bungee cord had provided Kris more resistance than he had realized and, in a cartoon dog reaching the end of his leash moment, when he reached the end of the cord, it stopped, and he did, too. Quite suddenly.

We had to stop for a long time, unable to do anything but laugh.

Sans Kris

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 22:24 on 19 January 2007

For the first time since we started working out at Velocity Sports, I went to class without Kris. Kris has been several times without me, because of illness and injuries on my part, but I hadn't gone without him yet (mostly because our routine includes his driving us home instead of my taking the train back home). Tonight was double train: an easy way to use up that 10 ride ticket.

I'm definitely not comfortable with my hamstring yet. There's a fine line between strengthening my hamstring and reinjuring it: I want to be as close to that line as possible, I'd much rather not cross it.

So, imagine my consternation upon realizing today's workout was all about legs and, in particular, hamstrings.

I had to skip the running parts, instead biking for a small part of the aerobic exercise I'd prefer to be doing.

After the workout, Derek handed me a bag of ice to put on my hamstring on the "drive" home. Instead, I stood at the front desk and spent a couple minutes shoving the bag down my pants.

I'm sure that was good for business.

I walked to the train station, with the bag in my pants. Since I arrived early, I sat to wait for the train, not quite realizing the bag was open. When the train arrived fifteen minutes later, I stood up to discover my pants were sopping wet, in the exact pattern that screamed to everyone looking at me, "Look! I peed my pants!"

A lovely ride home, that was.

Pop goes the hammy!

Blog kitt decided around 20:16 on 5 January 2007 to publish this:

As usual, we went to Velocity Sports tonight for our Friday night date, er, workout. We warmed up as usual with the rollers, followed by various warmup exercises including jumping jacks of various forms, 50% sprints, and walking, dynamic stretches.

The bulk of the workout consisted of sprints. With eleven people in the class, the instructor, "the short white dude," had to compensate by having us do shuttle relays. Two groups of four offset one group of three, as we did alternating shuttles. I was matched up with another regular, one who regularly matches up with another regular, so I wasn't sure how I matched with him.

When we started the sprints, he was consistently finishing the 20 yards sprints 2 yards in front of me. Sure, it was less than two steps in front of me, but that distance frustrated me, partially because I knew one of those steps was from the start: he started before the returning sprinter crossed the line. The other step was because he was faster than I. So, I kept trying to run faster and faster and faster.

The third set we did was my closest step. The continual sprinting was wearing him down, but helping me out. Yay, ultimate.

Fifteen yards into the sprint, I felt my left upper hamstring pull. I immediately started slowing, but the next step caused a full POP! as my hamstring gave way. I stumbled the last three steps to the end of the sprint, and hobbled off the track as I tried not to vomit, nausea overwhelming me.

The pull/strain/tear was right at my sit bone, much higher than my usual hamstring injuries, so it's going to take some time to figure out which muscle this is, if it is even the hamstring.

All I'm thinking about at this moment is how do I heal and recover to rock at the tryouts this next season?

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