Easy Friday

Easy Friday

I took it easy tonight. A quick 10 minute power burst warm-up on the upright bike. Followed by lower body. I was rocking the heavy weights today. While it was only 8 reps, I was shocked at how easy they were. So I pushed it up by 10-20lbs on the legs. My lower body lunges/squats/running must be really paying off! Even when I was doing the side lunges and squats, but upper body looked pretty muscular. Yay, hot! There is no good way to capture this on my camera at home. There is something about the overhead lighting the gym that just reflects off muscles. I'd imagine that its on purpose, but I can't imagine a gym like mine would be that clever. At all. So its more like coincidence.

Leg Ext(80lb<--!!!)/Leg Curl (100lb<--!!!) x3 sets
Abductor (100lb)/Adductor (90lb) x3 sets
Slow squats/fast squats (20 each) x 2
Slow plie squats/fast plie squats (20 each) x 2
Side lunge + balance (20 each side) x 2
1 minute plank + crunches on ball

I did some stretching and headed home.

I had something thoughts about my run yesterday and tire. Someone suggested that it could be a lack of calories or energy. Kind of like when you run long distance and hit a glycemic wall. I dunno, I guess we'll see. I want to lose weight and still have lots of energy. It's definitely going to take some playing with my nutrition and diet.

On an up note, the past two days I've been mixing Whey Protein with nonfat, plain yogurt after my workout. It's yummy and gives me extra protein in my diet for the day. As a vegetarian, its a constant battle. I ended up using Jay Robb Whey Protein in Strawberry. A half of a packet contains the following: 55 calories, 75mg sodium, 165mg potassium, 0.5g carbs, 12.5g protein, 15mg calcium. I think I may pick up some more at Whole Foods this weekend so that I can do this regularly. It's such a great postworkout snack. And its not a lot of food, so it's not like I'm a beefy man guzzling protein shakes after their workout, or during, or whatever. Plus the shake has a sweetness (from stevia) that means I don't need to use agave nectar. I mean, I love agave as a sweetner, but it's 60 calories per tablespoon.

Anyway, tomorrow morning is the 90 Minute Ultimate Bootcamp Blast which I hope won't kill me. Katie said that she did the Basic and that I definitely should do the intermediate one instead, that I could handle it. But I dunno. It's a full 90 minutes. I can work hard for 45, but twice that is a little intimidating. I contemplated running out there, since its located in a weird place that isn't near public transportation, but given that I don't know what I'm getting into, I think I'm just going to catch the bus. I'm off to bed! Wish me luck!

Kickboxing Trial Class Review

Today I went to a trial kickboxing class at a local martial arts studio. I was psyched up for it because I figured that the instructors were long-time martial arts practitioners and I would get more authenticity to my experience than your average gym. I wanted proper form and a challenging class.

Okay, let me correct that. I wanted the kind of class that breaks you down to build you up. I want to hit 45 minute mark and have to pause in order to combat a wave of nausea. I want all of the muscles in my body to be shaky as they near failure. I want my clothes to be drenched in sweat.

Why doesn't anyone else want this kind of experience? There must be someone. So who is providing it?! And can someone give me their phone number?

So the class was packed. There was a large group of new people, since a new session is about to start and it appeared that a local gym sent a ton of folks over. So the instructor was very careful about explaining moves and stopping to rest. Too careful. I had trouble picking up on the choreography but in terms of challenging me physically? No. The reason I was sweating is because it was like 80 degrees in the studio.

The class wasn't quite what I expected. It started off with some stretching. Followed by rhythmic bouncing, and some simple punches. We dropped down to do push-ups after each little section of punches. Starting with 10 - he dropped a rep each time. We did what he called plyometrics, which really was just 20 reps of different jumps. They were challenging because I'm not used to that sort of high jumping - I liked that part. We did some high knee and buttkick type stuff in between.

Halfway through class we then stopped, everyone got these punching mits - and we partnered up to throw punches. My partner looked a little timid, so I didn't really throw my weight into it since she flinched when I moved my arm. Lovely. When she was punching, her hand didn't hit the mit half the time. The instructors bypassed punching form and technique altogether, but hinted that it was due to the beginners. The best part of this session was when I lay on my back, my partner sat on my lower legs, and I did crunches while I punched up. That was a cool ab exercise. The second half of class repeated the first really, with 4 minutes of jump rope (2 sets of 2 minutes).

In the end I was just sort of disappointed. I asked around about the pace and challenge. The girl who teaches on Friday apparently goes all out with no stopping. The instructor and another student described her as "not caring" that people were new or behind. I like that attitude. I'll pick up on it. I don't need to be coddled. I'm thinking about giving it a try again. It's $12 for the Friday class. But given my mixed feelings on the class in general, I don't know that it's worth it if I'm not going to go with the session in the long run.

Instead I'm looking into my other options. I think I'd like to do the free Crossfit introductory class to sample that. There is also a Krav Maga school out in Malden that I want to take a look at. These are some of the one-time options there, but they appear to have regular classes also. I saw nothing on prices or what they were, however.

4.18.2009 - Women's Only Seminar (12pm to 2pm)

$20 per attendee

This single day seminar will cover defenses versus many common attacks that concern women. In addition it will cover building awareness to avoid a violent encounter and the offensive skillset to bring the fight back to the attacker should that be unavoidable. Invest in your personal safety! No prior experience is necessary.

OR

5.2.2009 to 6.7.2009 12pm to 1:30pm each week

6 Week Women's Only Self-Defense Seminar

This course will be split between Saturdays and Sundays on the following dates: Saturday Classes: May 2nd, May 9th, May 16th Sunday Classes: May 24th, May 31st, June 7th

$99 per attendee

The second one interferes with my race schedule, but perhaps the next time around or over the summer. If I'm going to be strong and fit, I want to my fitness to have practical applications such as through self defense and hand-on-hand combat knowledge. As well as aiding my recreactional pursuits.

My other options are local Bootcamp classes. There are two major groups that run a "bootcamp" class in Boston. One is more fitness/training oriented (Ultimate Bootcamp) while the other is run by former military and to "graduate" the Recruit level course you have to pass the Marine Corp PFT at the end. Wow. Like I was telling Chase, if I can pass the PFT, then screw FitBoot - I'm joining the Marines at that point. So I'm thinking about doing the one-time 90-minute Ultimate Bootcamp Blast class on Saturday. It takes place in Charlestown, which is really awkward to get to. I'll end up bumping my long run for the weekend to Sunday. This is doable since I'm aiming for 18 miles this weekend - the bikeway is only 10-11 miles, so instead of bussing out to Bedford, I'll just run to Bedford and run back. I should be in Arlington around mile 18 and can grab a bus directly back to my house.

So here is what I'm thinking:
Saturday April 4th: Ultimate Bootcamp Blast
Saturday April 11th (alternate: April 18th): Crossfit Introductory Class (depending on when I visit family for Easter and/or if I don't die walking through Roxbury to get to the Crossfit Boston locale - I guess you really do have to be hardcore to do it)

I'm working on setting up the rest of my marathon training schedule now too.