Workouts. I did another Turbulence Training — henceforth TT — workout on Tuesday, which felt pretty intense to me, for all that I am still in the “intro” workouts. There’s one exercise in particular that seems dead easy, that isn’t. It’s called the Stick-Up — you just stand with your shoulders, back, and butt against the wall, with your feet about 4 inches from the wall; raise your hands up like you’re being held up, and with your wrists, elbows, & shoulders held against the wall, slowly slide your arms down to tuck them in a bit at your side; then move them slowly upwards to the stick-up position, again being careful to keep wrists, elbows, & shoulders always in contact with the wall. — 2 reps per set, two sets in a superset. About the 8th rep in, this think would be killing me. Related to the repetitive stress injury stuff I’ve been dealing with since ’94 b/c I’m always sitting at a computer? Maybe….
At any rate, I got pretty wiped out that night, & made the decision about midway through the rowing intervals (3×2:00/2:00r, for a total of 1291m “work” & 968m “resting” = 2259m) that I was going to have an exercise rest the following day. At that point I had rowed a minimum of 5000m for 8 days running, & it seemed like some rest for recovery was in order. I could also afford a day off from rowing & still expect to get at least 25 days at 5000m+ this month, to meet the Concept 2 March Madness challenge.
Indeed, I woke Wednesday still feeling somewhat wiped out, so I think it was a wise decision. Thursday I was back on it, & the day went well. I did a basic morning cardio workout (a little dancing, followed by 3×5:00m/1:00r on the erg), & in the evening after work another TT workout including the intro strength stuff (still mostly bodyweight) plus HIIT intervals in the erg — 3×1:00/2:00r. The HIIT intervals of course always are preceded by a warmup row (5 mins.) & followed by a cooldown (another 5 mins.). So the combination of morning/evening always gets me to my March Madness goal of 5000m for the day as well. My energy was pretty good throughout the TT workout — intense but not exhausting — & I felt pretty good the rest of the evening too. Given how wiped out I was after the earlier TT workouts, I think this means that my muscles/body are beginning to adapt to the greater demands I’m putting on them. Good thing, since future workouts are even more demanding!
Today (Friday 14 March) is a day off for me (I’m staff at a university, & we get one of the Spring Break days off as a paid holiday). Part of how I chose to use it was to do a longer row, which I’ve just completed: 10,000m, only the second time I’ve done such a distance. For company as I rowed, I decided to give a second listen to an interview by Kyle Battis’ with a Burn the Fat Inner Circle member named Rhonda called “Creating a No Excuse Environment.” This is a fantastic interview, with some great advice about setting oneself up for success for fat loss over the long haul. I need to remember, though, to put the water bottle next to the erg before I row, & also to put some socks on the handle against my hand sweat (or find my weightlifting gloves), because I had to stop a couple of times to get off the erg & get these things, even as the clock continued to run. All the same, did the row in 57:57.0, under an hour, but I know I can better my time. My average pace of 2:53.8/500m is slower than I was actually rowing, because of those little breaks. Oh well, next time: I’m probably going to be doing a 10K every weekend to build up endurance & work towards a half-marathon in late April (another Concept 2 challenge).
Info & planning. Meanwhile, I’m starting to go a bit more in-depth in refreshing myself on info I learned two years ago. I’ve started rereading BFFM & will also be rereading my Precision Nutrition materials. I am going to start recording my food intake for awhile to spot for any weaknesses in my nutritional program. I also spend some time researching equipment for strength training. I’m considering getting a Bowflex for that purpose, but not sure I have the room in my apartment for it, nor am I sure it would be wise financially at the moment — having just gotten out of credit debt, I’m wary of putting myself back into it too far. So I’m holding off on that.
But I did order a set of Bowflex SelectTech 1090 dumbbells, which will be an improvement over my present dumbbells because of their “dialup” capacity to change the weight on them quickly for different dumbbell exercises — from 10 lbs to 90 lbs per dumbbell in 2.5 lb increments. That’ll be enough weight also to keep me in good squats for awhile. Along with the dumbbells, a SelectTech 5.1 series bench & a dumbbell rack. A great investment to match my commitment to better health.
