Running Ragged

So yesterday, as I was pulling one of these at work

Source

I was mentally bemoaning the fact that I've been dead tired all the time lately. I went through the checklist (enough caffeine? 3 bottles of Diet Coke on my desk say yes. Enough food? I won't spell it out, but suffice it to say my caloric intake is fine. Enough sleep? I've been hitting the sack around 11 and waking up at 8 (late) lately. Maybe too much sleep. Enough endorphins? Wait...) and realized that in the last 9 days, I've taught 9 classes. Oh. Oops. Could possibly be the reason I've been having low back issues too, huh? Shocker.

It's been cold and vacation season for all the mothers at our gym, so I've been raking in the over time and doing a little "there but for the grace of God go I" dance every time someone emails with another vomiting child-induced need for a sub. Unmotherhood has its advantages.

You'd think that'd mean that I'd be posting more, what with all the workouts and whatnot, but no...not that good. The last 2 weeks of strength I came up with a chart (Sharpie and pen FTW - I'll post pics later) that was basically an arm move, a leg move, then a combo move. It's a good, reliable format. Not terribly creative, but it works. It's easy to put together in an hour anyway.

For FIT on Monday, we did 2 of the Bodyrock.tv fitness tests - basically, 8 exercises done for 50 seconds with 10 seconds rest. Really it was 20 seconds rest since I made up little cards for everyone to record their numbers on each time. Then between sets we got a minute or two of recovery time. We did each test twice, then did some abs stuff and called it a day.

Action	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Squat Jumps	43	44
Push Ups	32	29
Burpees	18	20
High Knees (count both legs)	102	110
Switch Lunges	43	26
Tuck Jumps	28	38
Tricep Dips	40	36
Situps	28	26

Action	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Mountain Climbers	130	115
Squat Lunge Back & Side Lunge	15	21
Jumpovers	48	42
Pushups	22	15
Straight Arm Plyo-metric Jump	21	30
Monkey Pushup & Jump	15	15
V Glider Corner Slide & Push Up	4	5
High Knee Skip	98	98

Just for kicks, there's my numbers too. Notice the pushups never got better. Gawd I hate pushups. The monkey pushups are le suck as well. However, if I want to get over the Berlin Walls obstacle at Tough Mudder this year, I'm gonna need the upper body work. 

Last night after class I went rock climbing as well (seriously, why am I surprised that I'm so tired??) and practiced pulling up to the last move when my grip was slipping. That's always the hardest move for me...I'm pumped out and my hand is slipping, but I need that one tiny move (usually less than a foot of distance) to get to the end. It's 90% mental until I fall off, so I'm working on getting over that mental block and making the move over and over until I actually do fall. Until then, it's just unfounded fear of failure - the floor is padded and I'm only like 6 feet up, so there's no real risk of injury - just embarrassment or something. 

Anyway, that's what I'm working on - finding the line between mental and physical limits and making sure I'm pushing them both. I feel like I'm stronger than I have been in a long time. In fact, all the climbs I did last night were surprisingly smooth and graceful, which is usually a sign that I'm improving. I'm a fan of that. :-) 

For spin tonight, here's the playlist: 

Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

The Black Keys  -  Howlin' For You

Breathe Carolina  -  Blackout

Lady Gaga  -  Americano

Ke$ha  -  Blow (Cirkut Remix)

Nelly Furtado  -  Maneater

David Guetta - Nicki Minaj  -  Turn Me On (Feat. Nicki Minaj)

LMFAO  -  Sexy & I Know It - (SR)

Kevin Rudolf Featuring Lil Wayne  -  Let It Rock

Rihanna  -  S&M (Come On)

Duck SaucevBarbara Streisand (Original Mix)

Good Charlotte  -  Dance Floor Anthem

Kelly Clarkson  -  What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)

The Veronicas  -  Untouched

Fall Out Boy  -  Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out

That last one has been on repeat for days now. I love it. Love. 

For the profile, it's a pyramid of standing/seated climb that doesn't end til I say it does. Basically just 1:30/1:30, 2/2, 2:30/2:30, 3/3, 3:30/3:30 then back down. I'll probably throw a 30 second push on the end of the 3/3 and a 60 second push on the end of the 3:30/3:30. Normally there'd be a 4/4 in there too, but that ends up being a 60 minute class. There are no breaks, so the hill ends up being 44 minutes for the 60 minute class and 36 minutes for the 45 minute class. It's intense but SO good. 

So that's about it. Lotsa work, but it's paying off. I hope.