Inspired to Blog

On days like today, when I had a really good workout, I get inspired to get back into this blog.  It really couldn’t be a better time for it, because I just started a training program with AGTri Coach Mike Galvan to get ready for the Mighty Hamptons Tri in September.  I’m excited to actually properly train for an Olympic tri this time around.  I think the most notable things are that I’ll actually be doing some bike and brick workouts (my first brick workout was this past Wednesday, which was REALLY tough) and receiving consistent and good swim instruction, which I really need.  I’ll also be accountable to someone for my tri-specific workouts, so I won’t be able to wake up in the morning, decide I don’t want to swim or bike and go to bootcamp instead.  Hopefully I’ll be able to document my weekly workouts on here instead of falling off the blogging wagon like I’ve been consistently doing…oh you know, since I started blogging.

Consistent tri-specific training requires that I cut down on bootcamp a bit (which makes me sad b/c I’m obsessed), but for at least the next month, I plan to go 3 times a week on Monday and Friday mornings, and Wednesday evenings.  I used to only go to morning bootcamp at 6:30 am but now I’ve kinda gotten into the 7:30 am class.  The extra hour of sleep is wonderful and given all the training I’m doing outside of bootcamp, I haven’t been running down there so I don’t need to get in early enough so I have time to get all the way home and shower/change etc.  Plus one of the girls in 7:30 am is super fast and I figure if I spend my time chasing her, eventually I will get super fast too.

Today’s 7:30 am class was a killer.  We didn’t do a ton of running, which is fine because since Monday, I ran 3 times plus during my brick workout.  We did however, do a TON of strength and core.  Some of the highlights:  

We did 4 sets of 25 pushups with 4 laps between each set, which sounded totally okay until I realized that added up to 100 pushups.  On set 3, I tried to drop to my knees because my arms and pecs were tired, but of course Alex gave me crap for it, so that plan was foiled.  We also did sets of 50 situps with Russian twists and sets of 40 throwdowns where you open and your close your legs at the bottom.  Those always hurt like a mofo for me.  My legs are too heavy to be throwing around.  One other thing we did was jumping pull-ups.  Basically you jump onto the monkey bars and pull yourself up over the top of the bar, with an underhand grip.  These had to be my absolute LEAST favorite exercise for the longest time.  I just couldn’t pull myself up to save my life.  Now, I can consistently get my chin up over the bar and lower myself down slowly.  Doing the exercises that were impossible when I started at bootcamp (even though freaking hard still) really make me feel like I’ve accomplished a lot since I started at warrior 1.5 years ago.  

Tonight I have a swim workout at 8pm with Coach Mike.  Swimming is by far my worst sport and sometimes I feel like there’s no hope for me to get better.  But I have come a long way---I feel much more comfortable in the water, and like my stroke actually moves me through the water instead of struggling with each pool length.  So I’m trying to trust Coach Mike when he says that I’ll continue to improve with more practice and instruction.  Fingers crossed.

Till next time.