Conditioning Workout

I wasn't as wiped out this morning as I was yesterday but definitely feeling the workouts from this week. Since fall football practice has started, I've got daily quotes from Coach Saban to keep me going.

The one from yesterday was "People who try to cope with practice or endure practice usually don't make a lot of improvement." Lesson being, at some point I gotta stop slogging through and start pushing my limits a bit more.

Not sure if I succeeded with that today but I sure didn't have anything left at the very end. There was nothing in the tank for the last set of workouts. For the bulk of the workout I really focused on form and getting the full extent of each exercise and not as much on hitting the proscribed number of reps. With a lot of core and upper body that meant getting my ass whipped in half the time. We'll see if there's any improvement from that effort.

Conditioning Work

After a week away from the delights of conditioning work, I was a bit anxious about the workout today. As I expected, it was rough, but not the whip-my-ass-and-pray-for-it-to-end rough from last month. Hopefully that's because I'm getting a bit stronger and can actually handle the workouts instead of just trying to survive them.

Of course the other factor is that week one is always "easier" in the sense it's about building endurance for the more challenging workouts ahead. And, if nothing else, endurance is one thing I should have a little of at this point. I also made sure to get three meals yesterday. Not great meals but something. That seems to have helped too.

Conditioning Work

This was the last workout of this month's "camp" and, as a result, it was pretty brutal. After a very thorough warm up effort the menu of the morning was a lot of high intensity conditioning work followed by a hard run. The conditioning part kept lengthening as the workout went on. It was not intended to be a pleasant experience.

I started in the hole and didn't make much progress from there. I woke up too early and overtired. I got out to the workout but could feel I was lagging and my right hamstring was not cooperating at all. I got through the warm up OK but on the first set of the "real" workout I could tell I was in trouble. I pushed it as hard as I could on the run but the hamstring was not happy. I battled through the second set and that was about as much as I was willing to push my luck with the leg.

To compensate for missing out on the run I made a real effort to get all the way through the conditioning drills and get some more core work while I was at it. I don't think I came even close to the goal of the workout but I definitely gave it about all I had on a not-so-great day.

Conditioning Work

Had a lot of anxiety about this workout for some reason. I guess it's because I was so worn out at the end of last week. It turned out to be fine but the feeling was odd. As usual, the humidity was more of my nemesis than the routines.

We did a decent amount of work slinging around sandbag weights which gave my obliques more work than they have had in years. That'll be a delightful soreness later. Also did some resistance running with elastic straps. Felt that in the hamstrings and quads.

Conditioning Work

Getting up was something of a challenge this morning and my legs, particularly my quads, were definitely feeling the strain of this week's workouts. Nothing in the realm of injury just sore and tired. Still, I got out the door and to class.

The workout was about as difficult as I expected. My legs warmed up a bit after the first set but every exercise was a battle. And the core work was flat out brutal. I've pretty much given up on making the number of reps and am concentrating on good form every exercise. Which is pretty much kicking my ass.

Conditioning Work

The workout today was intervals which, given my running history, was right up my alley. We did a series of warm ups in preparation for a 40 yard sprint to start and then did a mix of exercises and dashes; very similar to the summer workouts with Coach Dean.

Of course since I was pretty much in my wheelhouse, I pushed it a bit harder than usual. That, added to the core work I'm needing work on and 50 burpees, meant I was a bit more sore after this workout than normal. Of course this was more of the general workout soreness not the specific muscles having issues like the first two sessions.

Conditioning Work

This workout went a bit better than the last one but I still feel a bit scattered in my attempts to keep up. I get a pretty good effort but sticking with each exercise is a struggle and, more often than not, I'm having to ease up to finish the time.

I stayed rather wary of my right hip this time and it gave a murmur now and then but didn't give me the "HEY! Cut it out!" warning like last time. After this one it was pretty clear my quads and butt got a lot of the emphasis of the effort. Not as much upper body work as the previous ones, though.

Conditioning Work

Made it out to the Camp Gladiator workout again. Like the last time, it totally kicked my ass but not in the most positive way this time. During the second set of exercises my right hip decided not to cooperate. I eased back on it but it really wasn't happy with doing the side-to-side work. Not a surprise, really, give everything I've done has been straight on running. Torque is a new complication for my muscles and my tendons.

I tried to keep up by avoiding the exercises that would aggravate it and substituting ones that wouldn't. I did a lot of burpees as a result. But my other issue was that I didn't have the umph this time I did last time. That's not surprising given my body is still trying to catch up with the new workload but it was a bit disappointing.

Conditioning Work

So a friend of mine at work had a free month pass for Camp Gladiator -- one of these currently popular group fitness deals. She spoke highly of the trainers here locally so I figured I'd give it a shot. What I need is something to help me work on my overall conditioning (and strength) as I ramp back up into my full training form. I also could use a kick in the ass to keep onto my routine.

So I went to the 5:30 a.m. workout here in town and there was about three dozen folks there. I was expecting the worst - quasi-yoga self-empowerment yada-yada - but was happily surprised. Yeah, there was a little of that (and a lot of selling the program) but the main focus was staying upbeat and keeping folks involved in the workout.

And the workout was pretty much exactly what I wanted. It was almost precisely the same as what Coach Dean had us do on our conditioning phase without the speed work mixed in. Which is good since I'm avoiding that for the moment in hopes of avoiding injury.

It was also demanding. I finished totally drenched with that quaking feeling in my legs you get when you've worked out probably a little bit further than you thought you could have. There was that tired soreness as well but I knew that was just a taste of what my weekend would be like. Oh well, everybody told me it wasn't going to be easy.