It had been two weeks since my cortisone shot and I’d been on medication for my back for two full days and was feeling much better, so in my mind that meant it was time for a Survival Workout. Not a full blown one, mind you…I’m not a complete idiot…but certainly the things that didn’t require me to pull or lift things towards me as in pole climbing, rowing, pull-ups or biceps curls. To make up for what I couldn’t do though, I decided to do a lot more of what I could. And that would become my first mistake.
I started with dips and push-ups and then headed into the woods for a 60-second Indian run; hopping, jumping and dodging fallen logs and branches. I then kariokied up the steepest hill in the park. It was hot and I could tell I was generating high heart rates and found that I’d reached the middle 160’s by the top of the hill…something I seldom do. I made my way to the pavilion doing log and rock lifts and then I added something new. I dropped down into a squat-thrust position, did a push-up and then while in the ‘up’ position of the push-up, alternated left foot, then right, between my hands five times before doing another push-up and then moving to the standing position again. I did five sets of these and was gasping by the fifth. Clearly, I’d found some new way to torture myself that I was thinking I should just forget. From there, I scrambled up the hill behind the pavilion. When I reached the top and checked my heart rate again, I wasn’t surprised that it was around 180. With an age predicted maximum (220 minus your age) of 163, I was WAY over the top…but it felt great. The rest of the workout was just a lot of dips, push-ups and overhead presses with about 5 minutes of jogging mixed in, but when I reached the car, my arms were trembling in that good way they do when you’ve completed a really tough workout and feel like puking. It was easily the toughest Survival Workout I’d done in a couple of months and I was proud of the effort.
I’ll have to see what tomorrow brings, but the running things I did may inflame the meniscus. It’s been seven weeks since the surgery though, and I really should be good to go. That, and I need to start testing it since the girls want to go to the Adirondacks Labor Day Weekend and I need to find out what I’m capable of. I don’t want to get there and half way up a mountain to find that I’m someplace I shouldn’t be. We’ll see.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150.
Calories burned: 600.
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