Day Twenty – Wh'chupto? (Mon., Mar. 23rd)

Today’s Schedule:
• Stretching (1/2 hr)
• Bike Ride (10 miles, 1 ¾ hrs)
• Massage
• 60-Minute Cardio
• 2-on-1 Training (1 hr)
• Gym Boot Camp (1 hr)

Up and at ‘em for another week. Usually I’m excited when I see a Bike Ride on the schedule, but after Shella’s and my very windy walk above Santa Monica beach on Sunday, I was praying that the winds will have died down. But, NOOOOO, the wind was against us coming and going. What torture! Usually I can go at a pace that I can burn calories and enjoy the scenery, but this time I had to keep my head down to avoid sand being blown in my face, large patches of sand on the bike path, and dead palm fronds all over the place. The wind was brutal and I struggled to go more than 8mph at any point. You know that I always try to go a little further in each bike ride, but this time it was not possible. I barely made it past the Santa Monica Pier, or 5 miles, and decided to turn around. The wind on the ride back on the beach was a bit more in our favor, but heading up Washington Blvd to return to the gym was a friggin’ nightmare. The entire boulevard was like a giant wind tunnel and we were going against it. I hope that never happens again ‘cause I’ve been loving the bike rides but this one was awful. It was even worse than passing the stinky beach that one time.

Back to the gym for lunch, a group session with Claire, and then a massage. I’m always excited about getting a massage (can you tell?). I’m not sure what’s up with my left shoulder, arm, and fingers. The tingling is still bothering me and no matter how well Nina massages them, the discomfort won’t go away. I’m on the verge of calling a chiropractor. My whole left side is bothering me, actually. Blisters on my left foot, cramps in my left butt cheek, and the tension or soreness in my left shoulder which seems to be contributing to the tingling. It’s like my left side is out of alignment with my right. What a nuisance.

After an hour of cardio, Eric (v’ball player) trained Brian and me partner-style. As a reminder, partner training, or 2-on-1, is when one trainer works with two campers and gives each basically the same exercise, and perhaps one of the two campers will get additional weights or reps because of his or her ability. After seeing Ryall Graber’s video of her back/chest/shoulder workout, I wanted to work on back today, so Eric obliged. One of the exercises was standing on one foot holding free weights and doing bicep curls up to shoulder presses. Yikes! Another that I hadn’t done before was lie down on the Bosu ball, hold a small medicine ball straight behind my head, then crunch up with the ball to reach Eric’s had in the air. I did it! I’m very pleased that I’m increasing the amount of weight that I can lift (nothing like I’ve seen Jeni lift, but it’s more than I did nearly three weeks ago). I’m also pleased with my improved stamina. I still have lots of improvement to come, but it’s satisfying to see that I am improving each week.

Following this was a Gym Boot Camp. This was meant to be Marco’s session but he was out sick today (hope you’re feeling better…we all missed you!), thus trainers were moved around a bit today, and I was with Schuyler’s group. Schuyler’s bark is a lot bigger than his bite, but that doesn’t mean his bite is small. He had us doing drills on the mat, on the spin cycles, and this contraption called Jacob’s Ladder. I had never done some of the exercises he had us do, and guess what…I had NEVER BEEN ON A SPIN CYCLE before! Our group first had to do bear crawls and crab walks. I gave it a shot, but the weight on my left shoulder made the tingling shoot all the way down my arm this time so I wasn’t able to perform the exercise as planned. Rather, I crawled on my hands and knees forwards and backwards on the mat while Divya and Maxime showed off and did them properly ;-) I couldn’t put the palm of my left hand flat on the mat, because bending at the wrist is what caused the problem, so I looked kind of lopsided as I crawled on the fingertips of my left hand and a flat right hand. Our next group of exercises included the rope pull, which I don’t mind, and this Jacob’s Ladder thing….it’s like a ladder that you continuously have to climb and I’m not sure how to describe it and THANKFULLY time ran out before I had to get my arse on that thing. I have a feeling my left shoulder would have made it problematic anyway. After a killer wallsit for two minutes (no, I could not hold it for two minutes without breaking), we jumped on the spin bike (made sure I found one with a cushy seat!) and went at it. Maxime, our theatre star-in-the-making, wrenched her ankle soon after starting. Maxime, are you OK?! That was kind of scary! For myself, the spinning wasn’t as bad as expected…took a minute or two to coordinate myself on the spin bike. I don’t think I like the bending over part. For you regular spinners out there…doesn’t it hurt your back? We rotated again and finally the hour was over. Phew!

Happily on the way home, I was thinking that I didn’t really have anything interesting to say, but I WAS wondering how YOUR workouts are going. So many of you have said that you’ve started working out again. How’s it going? Are you making improvements each week? Are you seeing results? Please let me know! These workout shenanigans are much more fun if we’re sharing the effort, don’t you think?

Busy day tomorrow: Beach walk, abs/core, swimming, 1-on-1 session, and another boot camp. Gosh, it’s nearly a 12-hour day tomorrow! Not 12-hours of working out, but 12 hours away from home. Must get to bed early. I hope you’ll have left me notes about your workouts so that I’ll be inspired for tomorrow. OH! ALSO! I’m getting measured tomorrow. I hope it’s good numbers!

Hope your work week has started well. Happy Tuesday!