Last night marked the start of the Striders Marathon Training program. I arrived around 6:30 to engage in cheery talk and general frivolity but was greeted right away by Miram with a very scary "I'm gonna kick your ass tonight, Vic." I realized then and there that this was going to be serious business.
The SMART and the SMART Lite schedule called for Boot Camp Scedule A. Holy crap!!! I think the last time I worked out like that acutally was boot camp back in 1988. It went (was supposed to go) something like this:
- 2 mile warmup - I guess I started a bit ahead of the actual measured starting line because I did 1.83. I did 12:45 for mile 1 and 12:25 pace for the .83.
- Silly walks - no problem.
- 400m interval - 10:33 pace. Hard running. About an 7 or 8 out of 10 on effort.
- Squat thrusts with burpees, 12 reps - Whoever was standing behind me may have gotten a mid-summer half moon as I don't think my shorts were tied. I knew there was a reason I was on the back row.
- Chinups, 2 reps - I found out I can't do a chinup so I just kind of hung there for 5 or 10 seconds. Actually, confession time. I already knew I couldn't do a chinup.
- Ab crunches, 30 - Completed, no problem.
- Pushups, 12 - I stayed on my knees to try to be able to complete the pushups. I did 8.
- Body-weight squats, 24 - 24?!?!?! I did as many as I could, I'm losing the ability to count at this point in the workout.
- (Here's where the fun begins) 400m interval at 8 out of 10 effort. - 10:31 pace. "Ok, workout over, right?" No, we're about 1/4 done.
- Squats, back extensions, pushups, lunges (OUCH!!!), dips - I'm just trying at this point to hold my form for the few of each exercise I can do. I was pleased with my pushups. I pushed through 8 again, on the knees, and kept good form.
- 400m interval - 10:51 pace. I'm done at this point. Just trying to hang on but I ran all the way through the end of the 400.
- Halfway done. Back to the top.
- 400m interval - 11:13 pace
- something, something. something... - don't remember much here.
- Last 400m - 10:34 pace. Happy with this one.
After the last 400, Cassie was trying to say something to me. I said "Huh?" She said it again. I said, "I'm sorry." I don't know what was up but I guess that part of my brain that takes words and assigns meaning to them was without oxygen for too long. I'm just now starting to be able to carry on a conversation with my co-workers.
I have a lot of work to do. No, I didn't do every single rep but I worked hard last night. The toughest part was running the 400s tired. When I finally got to my car and sat down my quads just cramped up. My shins and lower legs were twitching all the way home, thanks to those Silly Walks. By the way, Matt, you looked silly doing those things. :)
It's just not fair that I only got 3.3 miles in the log for this workout. I felt like I ran a hard half marathon. Still, this BEST thing about it was working out with the Striders. It was all good times with good people. And lil' ole' Miriam, you did kick my arse!!!
4 comments:
Your an inspiration Vic!
Hanging w/ the SMARTie boot camp is no small feat. For the record, I couldn't do any chin ups last year either, but tonight (my 1st boot camp of the season) I'll try again.
Hope to see you out there tonight without the moon! :-)
Way to go Vic! That sounds like one heckuva workout. and I'm guessing there was more than one person who didn't get in 100% of all the reps on that.
It's hard enough doing all the squats, chinups, pushups, etc. without also throwing quarters into the mix.
Did you breathe once you were finallly done?
Yeah, pass on the moon :-)
The boot camps are way hard, amongst the toughest workouts we do. However, I think you'll find they do not get tougher as the reps and distances go up, and Thursday is usually less taxing than Tuesday for the same workout.
On reps, think of it as a timed deal - you do as many reps as you can in the time allotted. There's one that I've *** never *** been able to do the full allotment. No, it's not the chinups, I can do those :-)
Many a time I've been doing a boot camp routine and thinking what on Earth am I doing here. You fight through and enjoy the true satisfaction of having accomplished something special.
Steeeve
Vic- u wuz workin' hard!! Great job!!
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