Marla Zwinggi, Editor of Ohio Sports and Fitness, has been talking about doing a piece on the Survival Workout since we first met. “You really need to do the workout first,” I’ve told her…and she keeps saying she will…but I’m not getting any younger. Finally, I convinced her to join me and she showed up in my drive ready to go Saturday morning.
We arrived at my starting point and I gave her a brief explanation of what we’d be doing…and how hard it might be. The trails were sloppy and semi-frozen with a couple of inches of new powder from an overnight dusting. I told her boots were an option, but we both chose running shoes…our first mistake.
I told her to start with push-ups. “I can do regular push-ups, John. How many should I do?”
Now…I’d already said everything is “too exhaustion”, but I know from being with her before, comprehension is a problem. “Until you can’t do another one,” I said as I began to rip them off. She dropped down and began counting, but as she approached her exhaustion point, started making some weird, high-pitched wheezing sound. I chose to ignore it…for now.
I moved to my rowing log and after completing 15 lifts, let it thud to the ground. “Can I try that?” she asked.
“You can try anything…once,” I said “but you’re not going to be able to move it. I’m a beast, you know.”
She gave me a ‘I’m not a girl’ look and bent over to give it a try. That ‘noise’ came from her gritted teeth…but the log stayed where I’d left it. I promised I’d find her something she could lift at our next stop.
She was game for everything and filmed many of the moves. We did high skips, dips, overhead press with rocks and logs and she never complained…not that I thought she would. She has a long history of distance running…and runners are not wimps.
“Let’s do some picnic table hops,” I said as I brushed the snow away to evaluate the slipperiness of the bench. It looked okay, but I went first to be sure and found that the grip was good. After sixty seconds, I leaped down and turned to her. She approached with trepidation.
“I…I…don’t think I can do this,” she said, a little panic in her voice. Sometimes I push people…sometimes I don’t. I size up the person and the situation and determine whether I think they can safely do something. She was clearly afraid…but I KNEW she could do it…and I pushed her. Once up and over the first time, she seemed to relax…a little…and continued with some of the worst example of bounding I’ve ever seen. I didn’t have the camera on her and she wasn’t willing to let me film her trying a second time, though I think she surprised herself with how well she did once she got going. She would later admit that this was the toughest part of the workout.
We karaokied three quarters of the way up a steep hill and walked backward up the last 50 yards. I was ahead of her and had to constantly warn her not to walk into the ditches on the side of the trail. People come with all levels of training to the workout…but I don’t normally have to teach them how to walk. Marla was…well…special.
When we arrived at the swing set and found it covered in wet snow, I knew climbing the poles was out, but as I cleaned my swing, she followed suit. She was ready to sit on hers when I stopped her. “Did you really think we were going to be swinging as part of the Survival Workout?” I asked.
I hooked my feet on the swing and placed myself in the push-up position. I brought my feet forward towards my chest and raising my butt in the air, finishing the move with a push-up. She tried…and loved it. “Wow…can I feel that in my abs,” she said after doing a dozen.
Clear Creek was in our path and the water was running high…and cold. The rocks were protruding…but not by much…and were slippery. I went first, finding the high spots on the rocks and getting my feet wet…but not soaked. Marla followed…but seemed to be clueless about looking for the high points. Her feet were submerged, wet…and cold.
We did some sprints across the field as we approached the car and I aided her in some chin-ups on the tree branch before punching out our final set of push-ups. Exhausted, she suggested I start the car. “It could warm up some so I could dry out my feet…and that would be the nice thing to do.”
And that would have been the nice thing to do…but completely out of character. “Quit whining. Get in.”
We returned home to some fresh baked pinole. She asked me about it and I mentioned again the book ‘Born to Run’ and how I’d suggested she read it. Of course she hadn’t yet…and probably wouldn’t. “I really don’t read, John,” which kind of had me wondering…she was an editor, and all.
“Are you going to be putting this in your blog? You better be nice to me,” she said. And I have been.
I managed another 90 minutes on the bike later that day and combined with the first full Survival Workout in over a week, I was quite exhausted by the end of the day. As always, I work harder when I’m with someone and I was feeling it.
Survival Workout: 90 minutes. Bike duration: 90 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 for SW and 120 for the bike.
Calories burned: 750 for SW, 1250 for the bike.
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