My rambles on health & fitness. Recently injured training for my first marathon and now taking a break from running. Tough Mudder survivor. Bootcamper. Boxer. Paleo and Gluten-Free.
Deeper thoughts on my blog: http://lisabyrne.me
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Day 7 of #21DayAssKicking
If you’re wondering what this is all about, flip back to my intro post.
I was planning to run again today but there’s ice and snow on the ground so Lee and I took to our basement - home gym (which is luckily fitted with a heavy bag, weights, pull up bar and mini trampoline so we can make a good workout from it).
Day 8: Bootcamp Again.
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Day 6 of #21DayAssKicking
If you’re wondering what this is all about, flip back to my intro post.
Took today to cool down with a little yoga instead - and dragged Lee with me again, solid boyfriend!
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Day 5 of #21DayAssKicking: Intense Abs
This says it all, just do it.
If you’re wondering what this is all about, flip back to my intro post.
If you’re wondering what this is all about, flip back to my intro post first.
Yeah, so here’s how a “Barre Ride” goes down…
I signed up for an introduction month at Revolve in Clarendon to throw something different into the mix for the next few weeks. Revolve is an “indoor cycling studio” so when I reserved space for my first class I didn’t think to read class descriptions - spinning is spinning, right? Yeah, um, no. Not that I’m complaining but this totally caught me off guard!
Following 40 minutes of hardcore spinning we dismounted our bikes and thus began the madness. Next I know we’re barefoot gripping our saddles for a never-ending series of ballet plies (basically squats only people try to look more elegant) - on our toes, off our toes, with a ball between our legs, with small weights in our hands….Yup, then some planks and a stretching finale. And finally release from jail.
It was pretty fabulous actually and I know I’m going to feel it everywhere tomorrow - more that the usual spinning class that rips your legs and butt apart, this one really murders them.
If you’re wondering what this is all about, flip back to my intro post first.
Back to Bootcamp this morning…at 6AM. This time the cardio drills (after every 4th station) included boxing gloves and a heavy bag - two of my favorite things :) That said, nothing’s too appealing at the crack of dawn.
We boxed the heavy bag, we lunged with a 40 lb. vest on, we did step up’s with leg raises, chest presses, burpees with a half-moon exercise ball above our head, bear crawls dragging a weight bag, kettle bell swings and arm raises, multiple ab killers…and a half dozen other stations I can’t even name.
But you know what? By 7AM I was ready to take on the world. Damn it felt good to be alive.
Day 4: Back to spinning!
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Day 1 of #21DayAssKicking: BOOTCAMP
If you’re wondering what this is all about, flip back to my intro post first.
Brutal. I think my friend Vanessa summed it up well when she asked “do we have to pick up our own vomit too?” I talked the talk all day and come 7pm it was time to walk the walk…or run three flights of stairs 4 times in between 4 sets of various vicious leg, arm, and ab numbing exercises. Oh, and some boxing drills to complete the assault (on oneself).
I felt sick. I felt fabulous. 20 more habit-forming days to go…
The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come - James Whitcomb Riley
Day 2: 3 Mile Track Run (a stretch given I’ve ran twice, for 2 miles in the last 2 months since recovery).
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January was for clean eating, February is for ass-kicking. I tried to get back in the bootcamp game and lasted a week before I was hit with chronic hives - WTF? Yeah, still trying to find the root cause of those. Anyways, I allowed it to deter me for a while but it looks like I may spend more time than expected trying to sort that out - so it’s back to the grind, hives and all.
We hear so much about how it takes 21 days to form a habit, right? Well, taking that to heart, I’ve drawn up a 21-Day Kick Ass Plan to get back in the game once and for all. Yes, it looks extreme. Yes, I know I don’t need to do something every day for life - that’s why I ended up with achilles tendentious the first time. But I have to do something drastic to kickstart my body into believing in me once again! So I’m going to do SOMETHING, every day for 21 days - no excuses, no exceptions, no bullshit. I’ve got a 10-miler in April and my first half marathon to conquer in May, the time is now.
This ass-kicking includes hourly bootcamps and spin classes, 3 weekly runs (outdoor track and trail), and a little yoga and boxing drills. I’ve scheduled a lot of it in the AM so if something crops up I can still make up for it in the evening. I’m okay if I go off schedule, DOING SOMETHING COUNTS, I just need to visualize a plan to get motivated.
So, it’s Day 1 of #21dayasskicking (yes, I’m going to tweet and tumble this daily to hold myself accountable, first up this evening is bootcamp (indoors, thankfully!)
Tough lesson learned this week as I attempted to get back up on the treadmill for a short run ‘post’ achilles pain. Seems it’s not all that post. It felt fine walking but on mile three of my run I had to stop and limp back to my apartment. I chatted with @GrantHillFit about it and he shared some of the most informative content around the subject via a post by Sock Doc (which you can find here). Here’s my current analysis of my own situation…
I’ve overtrained. My Dad asked me that very question last week and I shot him down. How could I be over doing it if I was following a strict marathon training plan written by a seasoned professional? Never mind the boxing and yoga, that’s not causing a pounding to my calves, we’re just looking at the running here.
Perhaps it’s not so much the distance but the speed I am pushing myself at. Sock Doc’s article taught me the difference of training in the aerobic state versus the anaerobic state. Now I have no idea what state I’m in as I’ve never actually worn a heart rate monitor. Yes, yes, it’s just been ordered along with my Nike+ GPS SportWatch so I can figure this out. But my guess is that I’m spending too much of my workout time in an anaerobic state, coupled with the fact that marathon training requires 4 weekly runs and now averages 20-25 miles per week (with 107 days to go). That’s a lot of pounding. A part of me hopes I’m wrong, I don’t want to run slower. But I do need to figure this out and get it sorted, we’re on a schedule here!
Have you ever dealt with achilles tendonitis? Is it caused by gait as someone mentioned? I hate the thought of that, rethinking how I move…
Last Sunday I ran 9 miles (per my training schedule) and felt some soreness in my achilles for the first time. I skipped boxing Monday to take a rest day and ran 4 miles Tuesday morning — much to my regret.
I spent the next three days limping around. Research and advice from more seasoned runners identified it as Achilles Tendonitis, something that can go on for days, weeks, or months…a scary thought. I opted to stop my runs immediately and took to daily ice packs.
Happy to say after three days of full rest (okay, so perhaps some abs and planks) I thought it best to ease back in with a boxing class before I hit the track again. On Saturday my schedule only allowed for the KICKboxing class so I gave it a whirl…and man did I get my ass beat. I thought the boxing class was rough, but this was vicious. Twice during the class I almost walked away to vomit, yeah, it was that bad (or good depending on how you look at it).
I awoke this morning and cried in pain! I couldn’t fully stretch my legs, as in I couldn’t fully straighten them to walk. There’s something so glorious about that pain, you can only understand it if you willingly put yourself through it! When you are in that state you know it’s only going to be worse the next day…so I went to yoga to stretch it out, and then back to kick boxing for another hour of glory. No pain no gain, right? ;)
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