Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Week 3/17 HM Training - Run #2 10K

I'm not liking this hot, sluggish, and slow theme that's developing here in the last few weeks - Oy! :(

Today's run was a "got it done" run. Period. Blah!

To begin, I did go to that "Rock Bottom" class last night. You might recall that last week, when I tried this class for the first time, I really liked the substitute instructor. It was an excellent class which is why I went to it again last night. I recall that she laughingly noticed that everyone, except for me and another club member, lined up at the back of the studio, as far away from the front as possible. "We call you wall huggers!" she told them.

Well, last night I learned why everyone heads as far back as they can ...

In walks this very, very lean, lithe young woman, the regular instructor. She picks up a barbell with a huge amount of weight on it, and then takes us through our paces. I soon realize that this class is not about fitness; it's about torture ... no one wants to be near the Evil Task Master.

She literally handed my ass to me. Seriously. On a silver platter, too ... Every muscle south of my waist was screaming by the end of the class. Did I mention how lithe and lean she was?!?! She didn't look like a body builder, and I still don't understand how it was humanly possible for her to do all the exercises and repetitions that we did with the weights she used, but holy cow! That little creature did it all. A-maz-ing!

I have never had a fitness instructor focus on the shins before. But Evil Task Master did. She chatted a little bit while we did it, explaining how we forget about them when we start running outside in the summer, but how important this exercise is for strengthening the shins:

1. Stand with your legs slightly wider than hip distance apart.
2. Keeping your heel on the ground, lift the front part of your foot. Put it down. Repeat on the other leg. Keep repeating back and forth. Speed it up. Slow it down.
3. The trick to it is ... keep your body still. Do not swing your hips at all. All the work must be down south of the knees ... the rest of the body keeps balance and as still as possible. No rocking.

As soon as I left the class and arrived home, I knew I was going to pay for this workout dearly in the morning.

I did not take Angus and Wallace with me today - it was way too humid and hot for Angus and I didn't have the heart to leave him alone so I left Wallace at home, too. It was the best decision. Even though I headed out for my run very early in the a.m., it turned out to be very hot and humid anyway. The dogs would have been miserable.

I can say that because I was miserable. I just kept telling myself that it was all about mileage and not speed. I don't recall 10K ever feeling sooooooo loooooooong before. This is when I am happy to run music because I really needed it today. I started concentrating on music lyrics as a way of distracting myself from my challenging run. I didn't care about listening to the birds or hearing my breathing. I just wanted the run to be over with. Seeing the "10" appear on my Garmin was an extremely happy moment for me! :)

Needless to say, I skipped the "Body Sculpt" class offered today. I did it last week, but my body could not go for a third round this week. :(

I did go to my Kundalini Yoga class - "True Authentic Self." My body screamed at me for most of the class so it was hard to connect with my chakras. :) As always, all the poses we did worked the areas of my body where I needed it the most. It wasn't easy for me to hold the poses for as long as I usually do, especially the ones using quads and glutes!

Whose bloody idea was it again to do these workouts during Phase I: Road Work of my training program? If you see her, smack her!

12K tomorrow morning. I have had great luck for the last two weeks with my "Thrill Hill Thursdays" so I'm off to bed now to sleep, rest my body and tackle training again in the morning.

Wish me luck! :)

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