Friday The 13th is Still A Friday

Interval 7 and Interval 8 today 13Sep2013

I keep having to remind myself that today is Friday the 13th. Because otherwise it's just Friday, and that means Double Cardio, and boxing. Yay! And truly, I hate cardio. You'd never catch me in a Zumba class, or running on a track, and certainly not stationery biking. Nope. But put me on an elliptical that doesn't hurt my knees or ankles, is structured so I don't get a back ache because I can't quite reach the handles, and pump up some great tunes on my iPod and well... I've become addicted to something I don't really like to do. Addicted as in I don't feel good unless I've managed to get a few Double Sessions in during the week. Maybe it's the adrenaline rush, or the endorphins that kick in during the last few minutes of the 2nd session.

Whatever it is, it's enough to keep me coming back each week even though I berate myself during the first 5 minutes of every 2nd session. Why am I doing this? I feel like such a slug. And then 10 more minutes have passed and my speed is up, and the ache is gone from my glutes. It's apparently not enough for me just to do 35 minute cardio warm ups during the rest of the week. I need to have at least one and optimally two Double Cardio sessions. Preferably back to back. None of this "do some cardio warm up, lift weights, stretch and then do some more cardio". I'd be too bloody tired to do cardio at that point. And because I hate doing cardio, it'd be easy for me to walk away. Which is why I do it first. Can't get around it -- just go through it.

In the locker room yesterday, I accosted the gal I've seen boxing the Nexersys. She's doing the Intermediate Level and is annoyed that the machine isn't reading her Power Kicks and Knee-Ins. She's taller and bigger than I am, but says she's too short to properly knee the correct pads. Uh oh. I'm going to have troubles once I advance to the Intermediate Level. I ask her about the Follow Me jab and cross because I know I'm doing something wrong because my accuracy isn't improving much. She tells me that the instructional video on the Training Segment (which I can barely hear unless I'm standing tip-toe with my head up against the screen) says that the jab and cross are for the opposite arms. Seems counter-intuitive. She's also a black belt in TKD (tae kwon do) from the same school my son and husband are enrolled in. Seems like she'd know how to knee-in and elbow jab, but I don't put much stock in TKD black belts.

I also saw a gal who works in the Child Care Room out on the gym floor so I stopped to say Hi to her before showering. She hasn't worked out all summer and she's bemoaning how hard it is to start again. "You make it looks so easy," she says to me. I'm a bit perplexed by this comment because I'm not exactly sure what looks easy. "You're here every day!" I reassure her that it's because I don't think about it. I just do. If I thought about it, I'd never get out of bed. This reminds me of a PDF booklet I'm reading by James Clear called Foundations of Strength that has a chapter entitled "The Difference Between Professionals and Amateurs". He quotes Chuck Close, "Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work." It's not really telling me anything I don't already know, but it's nice to have one's beliefs expressed in a more formal way.

After cardio, I do a few stretches in the Cage, and then a few Mat stretches because yes, I'm wearing those day-glo running shorts with the wide leg openings. Today, I put a band-aid on my finger and one on my knuckle before wrapping my whole fist in half the orange boxing wrap I bought last weekend. I'm glad I cut it in half because it's a tight fit into the bubble-gum pink sparring gloves. But it's only my right hand, because I punch harder with it. My left hand has just the glove to protect it, and it's enough. I speak briefly to VR, one of the ladies who works the front desk. She tells me that a lot of people have trouble with the Follow Me program because when the avatar lights up, you naturally use that side of your body to punch or kick it. And that's not always what it wants you to do. I make a mental note to look up the Nexersys online to see if there's any better information available.

What I discover is that the Follow Me Avatar program is bizarre in asking you to first jab with the right hand, then cross punch with the same right hand. In past kickboxing classes, you jab with your left and then cross with your right (the power hand). Or vice versa, using both hands to deliver blows to the face. Again, my accuracy is best in the 2nd round although my power is way up. I've probably not paced myself too well, because in the Sparring program afterwards, my power is down although I still cannot figure out why since the station repeatedly buzzes me for Hitting Too Hard. Maybe it detracts points for that?

The gym scale reads an odd 107.6 lbs. Something must be wrong with it. I've sucked down most of my water and sweat is literally dripping off my nose. My home scale reads 107.0 lbs. Okay, that seems right. But even though I drank my 25 gms of protein as soon as I hit the car, I'm ravenous when I get home. There's not a lot of stats to put into this blog entry on Fridays but here's what I've got, plus a few pics I snapped of the Nexersys screens:

Friday the 13th Work Out:
35 min Interval7 = 4.52 miles + 35 min Interval8 = 4.47 miles  Grand Total = 8.99 miles Wahoo!
Cage Stretch with Heel Dips and Calf Raises
Mat Stretch with 10 DBPUs and splits, etc
Nexersys Avatar programs: 3 rounds Beginner Follow Me
3 rounds Beginner Sparring