Accidental Workout

My last workout of the day happened by accident, it started around 4:00 PM after getting a bit of rest following Liz’s ass whooping.  I had a few errands to run today all of which were within walking distance from my house.  So I decided I would do them while walking Benny, I started out headed towards the nutrition shop, also known as Arlington Nutrition Corner, it was a good mile and half to the shop, I picked up some protein powder, and a few protein bars.  It didn’t weigh much, probably a pound or two.   I brought a messenger bag with me, so I packed all the items in this bag, which was about 2 lbs worth of products.

From the shop I walked half a mile to the pet food store, to pick up some dog food.  I grabbed some other items as well, probably ended up adding another 1 lb of stuff to my load plus the 15 lbs of dog food.  This is when the fun began.  I walked another mile and a quarter with this bag of dog food, shifting from side to side, from my hands, to my shoulder, to underneath my arms. 

While walking it struck me how much harder this walk was carrying 18 lbs of extra weight.  I can’t imagine how much harder it was carrying 100 lbs extra.  How quickly we forget…

From the pet shop I walked to the farmers market, and then to the bank.  When I got back home, I had walked over 3 miles, and my undershirt was soaked with sweat.  I’m sure the heat today helped, but I wasn’t expecting my errands to be my extra work out of the day.

It made me realize that I should do more of this, it allowed me to save quite a bit of time, because I didn’t have to just walk the dog after doing what I needed to do, it also made me think I should get a weight jacket, so I can use it to walk with Benny. 

Double Day

I started my morning off with a workout with Ali at Washington Sports Club.  It’s been quite some time since my last bit of work with Ali, so I was excited to mix it up.  I like his training style, he dictates a quick tempo, and mixes it up frequently which keeps my mind on the task at hand instead of the remaining reps or workload.

We started off with some two handed rope work.  The rope at Washington Sports Club isn’t very long which allows you to cheat the rope work and use only part of your body.  In Malibu the rope that Sam used was so long that if you didn’t use your entire body you couldn’t get it moving.  After about 5 minutes of varying rope maneuvers we moved to the studio to do some boxing. 

The last time I put the gloves on was back in the early part of August, so my punches were sloppy.  I wasn’t using much of my body; I wasn’t turning into my punch.  The work did get my heart rate up, but I didn’t feel strong or powerful at all, it just shows that as you shift the focus of your work in a particular area that you can’t maintain the muscle memory in others. 

From the boxing we did a few movements on the TRX including a jump lunge, it wasn’t hard but just required coordination that I don’t have, apparently I’m still trying to figure out my equilibrium and sense of balance at this weight.   

Ali also had me do a couple of circuit routines which incorporated the video of the work below.

We finished the workout with a good 15-20 minutes of boxing, kicking, and elbowing, a “nice” way to start the hump day.

At 1:30 PM I had a session with Liz.  When I showed up I was expecting to do some power lifting, and a short Metcon as the WoD, but Liz had other ideas like another back to back WoD.  The kicker was that the warm-up caused me to break into a heavy sweat, which meant I got three WoDs.

The warm-up was focused on volume training, which included 3 ring-rows, 3 push-ups, and jumping rope every minute on the minute for 10 minutes.  I was surprised that my ring-rows and push-ups maintained their form for the entire 10 minutes.  During the jump rope in the second half of each minute I was moving well, and tried to do several double unders.  I am so close to doing double unders, that I can sniff it like a dog saying hello to another dog, you know sniffing ass, I think at this point it’s more mental than physical, when I get the rope moving fast enough my jump timing misses, and if I do get the rope past my feet with proper timing I am so focused on the one double under, that I don’t get the rope around for a second double under. 

After a bit of stretching the first WoD included a ladder of work, starting at 10 reps then moving down each set 1 rep until you reach the number 1.  The work involved two exercises Kettle bell Swings with a 53 lbs kettle bell, and walking lunges where each rep was counted after doing 1 lunge per each leg.  This work of the day took me 8 minutes and 51 seconds. 

This type of work is physically exhausting for the first 4 sets, then when you get 5 you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and eventually when you get down to 2 reps, and 1 rep you are flying through the work.

The second WoD which I started after 5 minutes of stretching which followed the first WoD, Liz had me do 5 rounds of 6 hang power snatches at 75 lbs, and 10 step ups with two 30 lbs kettle bells, each individual step up counting as a rep.   It took me 5 minutes and 40 seconds. 

By the end of our session, I was literally lost for words, I was trying to tell Liz how to bill me for our next workout and I couldn’t find the words.  I knew I wanted to say something but couldn’t even mumble sounds to suggest my thoughts.

When I got home I did feel fantastic.