Holly's on a mission...

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Every day is an adventure in some new ache. My right shoulder had been giving me trouble for a couple of days to the point where I’d let a survival workout slip. I didn’t want to miss another and decided maybe I needed to work through it. I started with my 40 push-ups, which seemed to loosen things up and then headed down the bridle trail to find rocks and logs to lift. I thought I’d compensate for not lifting as much…should that prove to be the case…by doing extra step-ups and hill climbing. I reached the cabin area, hooked my bands to a tree limb and did my upper body workout without difficulty.

I’m still holding back somewhat on the sprinting and jumping since my knee continues to hurt when I go into a deep squat. I did climb the hill behind the cabins, which continues to be the most intense part of the workout because of its steepness. It’s so simple…I just have to walk up, grabbing roots to keep from slipping back down, but taking 2 minutes to reach the top and generating the highest heart rate of the workout during the climb. When my knee is completely healed, I’ll do it two more times during a workout, mixing it in between sets with the upper body to keep me moving and spread the load to the different body parts.

I managed to put in 200 step-ups and climb two extra hills during the workout and my legs were feeling the effort when I returned to the car for the ride home. Holly was coming out of the house as I arrived and announced that she was going to the park for a one-hour hike if I cared to come along. She’s been trying to put in an hour a day since I told her how successful Jeff has been since starting my program four weeks earlier. “He’s now lost 20 pounds and is doing it all by hiking an hour a day at the park. Of course, he’s also doing the step-ups and walking off-trail to make it more challenging,” I concluded.

I went with her, but was quite fatigued from my workout and was happy when she said she’d walk alone and I could hike into the marsh with Dakota and wait. I breathed heavily as I climbed the trail leading to the marsh, which is just reaffirmation of how tough my earlier workout had been…a good thing. I may try another run tomorrow because I’ll be limited on workout time. It’s the track Conference Championships and Marie is gunning for a couple of really fast times.

Survival Workout duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 600