The Medicine Ball and the Softball

Tomorrow I am looking forward to going to a strength training/aerobic class called Fierce. My friend Michelle has been telling me about it for a long, long time. A few weeks ago I finally gave in and attended and have gone every week since.

I arrived at 5:30 AM for some kind of group exercise class that I really had no idea what it was about other than its name. Michelle bailed on me that week (she was too busy vacationing at the Happiest Place on Earth) and I felt a bit like a lost and confused puppy wandering around the SLAC.

Eventually I figured out where I was supposed to be when I happened upon a group of women attached to the TRX gizmo looking like a tangled mess of marionettes. The class that morning was sparse, consisting of just myself, 3 other women, and the class instructor.

Now, I consider myself to be pretty darn strong. My thighs are the diameter of prized ham hocks. I do regular strength training. I can even do real pushups. And I'm tough. I have done a 100 mile mountain bike race afterall. I was not afraid of the TRX and all its menacing straps nor the other class attendees, in fact, I was prepared to be completely unimpressed.

The following 60 minutes I ate my words and then puked them back up. We moved from the TRX machine to the Pilates ball where we had to do Plank in 30 different flavors: plank jacks, plank with sliders on our feet, plank with sliders on our hands, plank with weighted balls arching this way and that, mountain climbers . . . Just to make it more fun, there were jumps and leaps and squats and running up and down the stairs. It was a new level torture I did not know existed.

I have heard the term "shred" used before. This is the first time I experienced it first hand. The next few days my core burned. I was rendered handicapped, I had to roll out of bed because my abdominal muscles had been so completely destroyed I couldn't even sit up. Three days later I still couldn't run.  It was entirely too painful.

Obviously, I had to go back to Fierce for more.

The next week I show up and the instructor has set up stations for everyone with the equipment we'll need for the workout; bosu ball, resistance bands, sliders, and a good size medicine ball. The instructor looks at me and recognizes me from the week before. In her bustling around she picks up a little ball, maybe the size of softball and exchanges it for my medicine ball. In front of the entire class.

Everyone had a big, heavy medicine ball for the days workout except for me and my tiny little 3 pound bean bag. It was like the dunce cap of fitness classes. I felt like I was back in my Junior year of high school in AP History when our teacher wrote everyone's test grades on the board and I always had the lowest one . . .

I told Chad about it later that night. It was embarrassing  He attempted to be comforting when he commented "yeah, but you were the only woman." Unfortunately, that made me feel worse as there were only women in the class! Even Michelle got a big giant medicine ball (I already knew she was stronger--she has big guns and all--but it still burned!).

Tomorrow morning I will be working with a little underweight bean bag, but I am making progress. My goal is to eventually graduate to a full size medicine ball this summer.

Races:
5/3 River Bank Run 25k, 5/11/13
Lumberjack 100, 6/15/13

Training Schedule week of Dec. 10:

Monday 12/03	Bike: 50 min Intervals in the indoor trainer
Tuesday 12/04	Run: 1 mi wu, 3 mi tempo, 1 mi cd
Wednesday 12/05	Bike: 50 min intervals on the indoor trainer
Thursday 12/06	TRX Strength Training / Run: 4 miles
Friday 12/07	90 minute computrainer ride
Saturday 12/08	Run: 6.5 miles
Sunday 12/09	REST

Running Mileage Total: 15.5 miles
Total Time on Bike: 1:40:00 (hmm, I should try and squeeze in an extra hour somewhere)
Total Approx Training Time: 6:15:00

wu = Warm Up

cd = Cool Down

Self-Evaluation, Week of 12/03:

Monday 12/03	Bike: 50 min Intervals in the indoor trainer	Overslept . . .
Tuesday 12/04	Run: 1 mi wu, 3 mi tempo, 1 mi cd	5 miles--no temp, just easy running.
Wednesday 12/05	Bike: 50 min intervals on the indoor trainer	Umm, I think I got in 30 minutes.
Thursday 12/06	TRX Strength Training / Run: 4 miles	Finally--Did one workout right this week!
Friday 12/07	Bike: 90 min Computrainer Ride	Went shopping in Glen Arbor. Shopping counts as exercise, right?
Saturday 12/08	Run: 6.5 miles	Spent the day in the car to go see the US Women's Soccer team defeat China at the Ford Field! USA! USA! USA@
Sunday 12/09	REST	Make-up 6.5 mile run around Bear Lake.

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