Positive Stubbornness

Bedtime snack aka 6th meal of the day





This is what happens when you try and photograph an elliptical while using it. Can you make out the 202 on the right? That's strides per minute. I averaged 179 over the 30 minute span.



Ironman Prep Day 2

Stubbornness

I was proud of myself today. I woke up at 3:23 am with a splitting full skull and neck headache, realized my Advil were out in the car and stumbled to the kitchen for 3 aspirin and then back to sleep. I’d hoped by the time my alarm sounded at 6:15 that the headache would be hidden. Nope! But I got up anyway and logged 30 minutes on my elliptical followed up by 3 sets each of shoulder crunches, reverse crunches, and mini crunches. Then I went and got the Advil and took 3 which I never do, always only 2. Didn’t work! I ran behind schedule, dropped C off late and arrived at my service appointment late too. Getting out of the car at the dealership I promptly realized my carefully packed cooler bag with my 3 out of the house meals was still sitting at home 40 minutes away.

I could have rolled over and kept sleeping this morning, but I’m stubborn about my goals and commitments so I did my cardio anyways. I could have gotten frustrated when I forgot my cooler and eaten something regrettable, but I didn’t. I scrounged up a single serving pack of raw almonds and some protein powder from my purse to bridge the gap till I could retrieve my cooler. When I got back to school I still had my headache and tried for 2 more Advil, no dice. Actually, I still have that headache now as I’m typing this. I still went to class and I still went to The Rec immediately after to try my first workout from my new coach/nutritionist. I’m proud that I choose to be positive when I could have easily gone the opposite route.

When I first saw the workouts from my coach I got hung up on how different they were than my own. I’m ALWAYS doing something in the “man cave” at The Rec, always in need of a rack, the Smith, or free weights. Today doing hamstrings I did not set foot in there once, I began with a quick warm-up, 7 min on an elliptical and then went straight to the “giant set.” It was comprised of dumbbell push-ups, wood chopper deep medicine ball squats, and side planks. Sounds innocent enough right? Haha, no. You do them all back to back no rest and repeat the whole shebang 3 times. Now that will get you warmed up ;) I ALWAYS involve some form of walking lunge in my leg days, usually a 40 or 50 lb barbell on my shoulders. Nope! I was only holding 10 lb dumbbells today, but I was lunging differently, really stretching and focusing on the hip flexors. Plus, the reps per set were high. I then moved on to high rep sets of hamstring curls, wide medicine ball squats, a final set of walking lunges, and 30 more minutes on the elliptical.

This workout seriously kicked my ass despite being so different from what I usually do. I knew it early on because I normally think while I work out, not today. I wound up having the same song on repeat for my entire resistance set (Technotronic Pump the Jam) and the same song on repeat for my entire cardio set (Cascada Everytime We Touch). I am very much a music person for training. I need a song that meets my mood and artificially jacks up my energy level when it isn’t really there. What that song is varies day to day and I normally do listen to more variety in a session, but today I was so focused on just hitting it hard that repeat it was. I started smiling when I bent down to position myself over the dumbbells to start the giant set with 25 push-ups and the throbbing loud beat of Pump the Jam came on in tandem with my headache pulse. Odd as it sounds, it hit the spot and did the trick ;)