At Crossfit yesterday, we did good mornings, Tabatas, and a 6 minute AMRAP of pull ups.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say things like “AMRAP,” you might want to go back in my blog (linked HERE) and scroll down to “Crossfit lingo.”
Good Mornings work your hammies.
You can see what a good morning looks like in the photo. Deceptively simple. Put a barbell behind your head, and then bend down (keeping your back straight, not rounded), then come back up. How far you can get depends a lot on how flexible your hamstrings are.
It was 5 x 5 good mornings – I did it at 35 kg.
This is because there’s a gal in the morning I always check the Whiteboard on, and she did it at 32 kg ;-) I can never really compete with her 99% of the time, but when I can, I do. A little personal competition that I carry out in my own widdle mind. ;-)
We superset this with “rollouts” – which are basically from Satan.
If you look at the photo here, it shows you what someone without a bad shoulder, with abdominal muscles, etc. will do to perform a roll-out. I’m lucky to be able to push the silly barbell out a foot. Harrumph.
After this, we did a 6 minute AMRAP of pull ups.
Because I can’t do a pull up with my body weight where it is, I added a couple of bands. What that means is you loop what are basically gigantic rubber bands around the bar, put one foot in them, and use them to help you lift your weight. I did an assist of something like 45-50 pounds (blue and red bands), and got to 53 pull ups.
Finally, we did Tabata situps.
A “Tabata” is named after the guy who figured out that if you do any exercise all out for 20 seconds, then rest 10 seconds, for 8 cycles (4 minutes), it winds up doing more good than any other method. I was able to average 9 per round (I did 10 one round, 8 another, but 9 all the others) – which I was happy about.
this – of course, after doing TRX in the morning.
Oy! I even got some grocery shopping and about 6 hours’ worth of billable work done yesterday. Yay, me ;-)
So, THIS morning, my hammies feel like lead!
Holy cats! I knew when I did them that the good mornings were very heavy for me. I had to really stabilize my core and my back to do them with good form. I wasn’t particularly paying attention to the fact that this is a hamstring exercise.
Um, I know now . . .
Thursdays are my favorite day.
I try to start out by taking my dog down into the valley, then up the mountain on the other side. A bit of a hobble, with tight hammies. Especially the really steep bits.
This takes about an hour. If I don’t have my act together – because I do a lot of stuff on Thursdays – I miss out. I need to get out of the house before 7 a.m. to do it.
After the hill hike, to the Farmer’s Market.
I love the Thursday farmer’s market, because it’s the one the chefs go to. They come out of San Francisco, Michelin starred restaurants, to get their veggies at our little market. It’s great.
You can always tell an important one, because he or she has a minion running to and fro gathering things saying ‘Yes, Chef!” “No, Chef!” (Yes, really.)
I get a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box there, eggs, and whatever else I fancy. I love the fact that, by picking up the CSA box at the actual market, I can ‘swap out’ anything in the box that I’m unlikely to eat that week.
The market was brimming with berries and cherries this week – I got a pint of the most gorgeous, “bluer than blue” blueberries, and some great cucumbers and daikon for a salad my hubby loves. The rest was the “usual”: lettuces, spring garlic, new red potatoes, mizuno, chard, carrots, etc.
From the market, off to Pelo.
My hammies were so sore, I actually mentioned to the teacher today that I might need to decrease my “Power Number.” How Pelo works is you actually are fit to the bike, and you have a “Power Number” that’s specifically your own, based on your own fitness. That way, you can ride next to someone who is just starting out, who’s riding next to Lance Armstrong, and you can all get the same amount of workout. When she said that we would be doing a lot of “tempo” riding – meaning, cadences over 100 beats per minute – I nearly walked right out! But I persevered, and didn’t even lower my Power Number! Yay, me!
After Pelo, various errands, then time for work.
I’m nearly done with work now – just two more clients to do. But I’m proud of myself and my little hammies, that we not only got down our mountain, up the other mountain, down that mountain, and back up our mountain, but then we persevered during the Pelo tempo ride!
I’m averaging about 16-17 miles each Pelo ride, and about 400 calories. The bikes that are used in Pelo “really” keep track of your calories, because they know your personal perceived exertion (because, remember, you’re specifically geared to them). So the calories always “seem low” compared to the effort you put out, vis-a-vis a “standard” treadmill or spin bike.
That’s because “standard” spin bikes and treadmills are like the sizes on expensive couture dresses – they lie ;-)
Tomorrow’s Friday!
I’ll be going to TRX and Pelo in the morning, and the plan is to take the rest of the day off. My hubby and I were super lucky to wrangle a reservation at The Fork tomorrow – so that’ll start our weekend off right!
How’s by you?