Weekend Warrior

Working out on the weekend is normally not something I do. I make a deal each week with myself that if I exercise every day Monday through Friday, I can take both weekend days off. (The exceptions are when I'm in the middle of half-marathon training months, where I swap out my Friday workouts for long runs on Saturdays.) Besides, by the time Friday afternoon rolls around, I've generally already accumulated 7-8 workouts that week between teaching classes and my own workouts. Another reason I don't like to workout on weekends, at least in a gym, is that it just reminds me of WORK, so sometimes it's more just that I need a mental break from exercise or planning workouts.

However, this past Saturday morning, I tried out a boot camp at Survival Fitness in Carmel. (survivalfitnessgym.com) One of my personal training clients takes boot camps there and encouraged me to try one out with her--they offer your first class for free. Not gonna lie...I was a little nervous! Boot camps are a lot more scary when you're not the one controlling the class content! Plus, I think the element of surprise is what makes boot camps so appealing...you never exactly what's in store, but it's guaranteed to be high-intensity cardio and strength. It was actually a lot of fun though, and I would definitely go back. While I wasn't very sore on Sunday like I thought I might be, it was a great workout! We were all dripping sweat within the first 10 minutes, and anytime we got a "break" from the circuits to go run outside I was overjoyed at the chance to let my heart rate fall from "verge of exploding" to just "high."

I realized how good it felt to not have to be the one planning out all the circuit stations and keeping track of the class time, but more than that, it just felt good to be able to push and challenge myself without thinking about anyone or anything else. Doing this on a semi-regular basis would be a great idea for my own fitness. It was also fun to experiment with different kinds of equipment. Survival Fitness had what basically look like gymnastics rings that you jump up and grab onto, and then use to do a pull-up. They also had a brand new line of equipment I had never seen called the "Roc-it" machines by Hoist. Google them for yourself, because they're pretty hard to describe, but basically no matter what muscle group you're targeting, your whole body is moving to involve the core, even though you're still sitting down. I got a couple new ideas for my own classes too, for equipment we already have, like performing a wall sit with your feet on an upside-down BOSU.

So, on to my second workout of Saturday. Yep. My mom and I had already saved that date to do a 10-mile walk together for our mini training. All in all, the walk was uneventful. Our pace was really steady at 15:00 min/mile; we finished at 2h 33m counting a mile spent in the Ritchey Nature Preserve on gravel and mud that really slowed us down. Mom had already done the full 13.1 miles on a treadmill a week ago, but it was good for me to see that I can in fact walk that distance on our target pace without killing my ankles or shins (or dying of boredom). It was a good experience for her to see the differences between a treadmill and walking outside on varying inclines and surfaces. None of my joints were sore on Sunday either, just some lingering burning on the bottoms of my heels.

Now that I've assured myself I'll be ok walking 13.1 miles, I'm onto worrying about the weather for race day. April hasn't been very conducive to doing anything outdoors (especially for over 3 hours), so we'll see what May 7th brings!