The gym's not as crowded as I'd expected though, so I hop onto my favorite Precor and get my two sets in. My inner right thigh seems a bit painful, as if the hip isn't seated properly so I adjust my foot position with each stride until it feels right. My left glute is still sore. Of course. But it's more of the dull ache from exercise than from injury so I move through it, and eventually, as I warm up, it disappears.
The hill gives me 3.88 miles and intervals gives me 4.18 miles for a nice sweaty total of 8.06 miles. I know I'm suppose to go slowly during the valley portion of intervals, and then run like mad at the hills, but I just go as fast as I can for the entire set. I find myself really hurting for the first 15 minutes but then I catch my 2nd wind, and by the 25 minute mark, I'm cruising along at a decent clip. And as I've mentioned before, I never cool down during the Cool Down phase. That just seems like a waste.
I'm very pleased, especially with the tell-tale rivers of sweat pouring off my face and into my hoodie. I'm so eager to get my Leg Workout done that I rush over to the Smith because it's vacant, figuring I can Cage Stretch later. Plus, I'm wondering how last night's Cardio Kickboxing Class at UMAC will impact my workout today. Honestly, because I don't jog or run laps during the warmup, or do jumping jacks or burpees, or anything else that will impact my knees, I can't really give an honest assessment of the cardio aspects of the kickboxing class. But what I can do, I really enjoy.
Sick to say, but being able to knock out 30 pushups in 2 minutes (or as many as you can do) and then doing an additional 27 more with hands position outward, then another 20 "touching ear to shoulder pushups" is a lot of fun. My husband says he was struggling to keep up with me. But he was just coming out of a tae kwon do class as well. I also really enjoy punching and jabbing, and kicking the big heavy bags. Of course, my favorite drill is doing 4 punches or jabs, followed immediately by 2 push ups. My husband and I alternate smacking the bag and I literally bounce up from the push ups to get as many rounds in as possible before the 2 minutes is up. Fun! Fun! Fun!
Today's Total Workout:
35 min hill = 3.88 miles + 35 min intervals = 4.18 miles = Grand Total 8.06 miles
Smith Squats: 12 @ bar / 5 x 12 @ 95 lbs
Smith Dead Lifts: 5 x 12 @ 95 lbs (these were really hard today!)
Cage stretch & kicks (my hamstring is still a tad sore but better than yesterday)
Torso Twist: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs (not doing abs today because we did abs last night in kickboxing)
Seated Leg Extensions: 5 x 15 @ 45 lbs (I still suck at these but not horribly so)
Seated Leg Curls: 3 x 12 @ 90 lbs (it takes me a lot of self-control with this because my impulse is to smack the weight back and that's probably not good for the equipment)
Mat Stretch (better than yesterday but not 100% yet)
At the end of Mat Stretch, I usually sit with my legs straight in front of me and I bend slowly at the hips to press my face into my knees and reach my hands past my toes. Today, I feel something unexpected. A stitch in my right side, just under the rib cage, suddenly contracts into a full-force muscle spasm. I've never had an abdominal muscle spasm before. It's not exactly painful, but knowing that the muscle has knotted is unpleasant and I have to sit upright and concentrate on relaxing before the spasm dissipates. Good thing I decided not to do abs today!
The scale reads 107.8 lbs before I hop into the shower. My skin is really bearing the brunt of this sudden winter weather. It looks like peeling white paint and flakes off everywhere regardless of how much moisturizing cream I slather on myself. Loofahs and pumice stones barely exfoliate enough to make any impact. Even my trusty Amlactin cream seems to be failing me. I get home just as cold rain starts to fall. The temperature drops from 40°F into the low 30s, so snow is imminent.
My back starts to knot up and I dig out my handy Knot Buster, a small wooden object that looks like two doorknobs. I got mine over 20 years ago in NYC at a small corner health food store. It works like magic but you have to put some muscle into it. Just put it between your back and a hard stable surface like a door, or the floor, and roll it over the knot. You use your own body weight to press out the offending spasm. The only thing better would be a professional, i.e., a beefy masseuse with magic fingers.
My home scale reads 105.6 lbs which seems reasonable. I'm guessing that the 18.7 BF and 52.9 TBW are somehow inversely related to each other (the more water, the less body fat if your weight stays the same). My weight fluctuates on a daily basis so what I do is look at the entire week and do a quick average to see if I'm gaining or losing. The 38.5% muscle and 4.6 lbs bone readings seem consistent. But there's nothing like fearing another power outage to make you work out like there's no tomorrow!
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