I definitely know that I've been working hard on the bike for a few days straight now, but I felt surprisingly good this morning. I set my alarm a little earlier to make sure I had plenty of time to get the workout in (and I'd like to slowly eek my wake-up to 4:30am as I'm pushing it a bit with the 5:00am time - I'll leave it at 4:50 for a few days, then move back another 10 minutes incrementally until I get to 4:30....), and while I was cold and really didn't want to get out of my warm bed, it was easy to get rolling once I finally threw the covers off and got moving.
The workout is structured really well - you warm up on the bike (duh), then continue to warm-up on the floor with squat thrusts. Those of you who know me know that I love working out. I really do. I love everything about it for many, many reasons. But .... I hate squat thrusts. Hate. Them. It's not that I find them particularly difficult, I just feel like a clutz doing them for some reason (I blame being tall - too much leg to throw around that quickly!), and when I start to get a little tired, then I really feel like a spaz, flinging my legs back, heaving them back in.... Ugh. Not a picture of grace by any stretch of the imagination. So when we finish off the set of 10, I think "Thank god that nonsense is over! Hopefully he doesn't have any more of these later in the workout..." Yes, you know what's coming. At that moment he of course announces that we have 2 (or was it 3?) more sets of 10 to complete this floor session. GACK! I was damn happy to get back on the bike. :)
We then tackled single leg drills, squats/lunges/squats, super spin sets, core work, tempo sets, squats/lunges/squats, power sets, core work, and then "burnout" sets (both on and off the bike) complete this great little 90 minute workout (about 50m of bike time, 40 of off bike time). It's solid hard work both on and off the bike, and it's really, really fun. And during the power set I saw a max power of 432W!!!!!!! That is a beast of a number for me, so while it was fleeting, it was pretty cool to see. Now to just to be able to hold even 1/2 of that for a length of time.... :)
While I ABSOLUTELY had the requirements for the Squat/Plank A Thon covered with the workout itself, I chose to do it anyway after I finished. So I tacked on 40 squats and 1:10 plank hold for good measure. My legs are pretty toasted.
I am already discovering a few benefits of this challenge, in addition to the new friendships being formed as mentioned in the previous post. I have been having some issues with insomnia lately (some personal stuff flying through my head at night keeping me awake until WAY WAY WAY past my bedtime), and that was slowly driving me batty. Since the challenge started I now sleep like the dead. THE DEAD. If I can make it to 9:00pm it's a late night for me, and I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow. Bliss. I also wake up feeling great. I am AWAKE and ready to go, which means I'm really sleeping well. I also feel a little leaner already. I don't have anything really to lose, other than those 5 vanity pounds that everyone always has, but I think I'm dipping into those vanity pounds already. I'll take it!
Tomorrow is an easy day with an 80 minute aerobic base builder on the schedule, which will be refreshing after the last 2 tough workouts. I'm feeling good about the rest of this week until we get to Saturday, which is a 3 hour ride - it's been a while since I've been on the bike for 3 hours, so this could be interesting. I really like the 2.5 hour workout Troy has on the schedule, and for the extra 30 minutes I'll tack on an episode of Weeds, which should do the trick...
Happy Wednesday Everyone!
3 comments:
god girl. i gave away all of my spinerval dvds. all i do now i ride rollers. i like to do intervals at the gym, like, 5 on the treadmill for 5-10 minutes, stop, lift weights, run again, etc. circuit training is the best but man, when its 50+ degrees outside, i am on the bike outside. i love reading about your w/os tho. thanks for the props on my blog too. xo.
Wow, Michelle, I could've written that blog, your experience was so similar to mine, especially how you feel doing squat thrusts :) I'm not exceptionally tall, 5'6", but I feel totally spastic after 5 or 6 reps.
I hear ya Judi - last week was REALLY crazy warm up here so it was somewhat crazy to be riding indoors. But - I have to be DONE with my workout by 6:30 so typically start before 5:00am - sometimes earlier. It's pitch black at that time - outside just isn't going to happen, regardless of the temperature.
I am dying to get rollers someday though. They scare the crap out of me but I know they would be an amazing tool!!!! One of these days I'll pull the trigger. And line my workout area with pillows. :)
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