Iron Power is On

Just in the nick of time for the week things got interesting. And by that of course I mean workout stuff. I had an amazing workout last night which I will talk about in a minute but let me share my very thrilling news for today.  Tonight is the return of my beloved Iron Power class.  A class I took religiously twice a week for over a year.  When Amanda left the gym so too did Iron Power.  My class was no more. I have missed my class.  It is preposterous to me that a gym does not have a strength training class.  And yet we had a million boot camp circuit style classes but not a single one focused solely on lifting. I have been bummed about this for months.

With Amanda getting the new management position at the new gym, she gets to teach classes once again and fill in for instructors when they are gone.  This morning I got a lovely text indicating that she was going to be teaching tonight at 5:30 at the new gym. Iron Power. I was happy. I am happy. This is exactly what I needed.  While I have had some solid workouts this week, I am ready tonight to simply be told what to do.  Iron Power was a great class because it hit all the major muscle groups and worked them hard and efficient.  It was wonderful.  I have missed it. By joining the gym this weekend I am now ready and available to take the class tonight. I am pretty sure the universe knew what they were doing because that sounds about perfect to me for the night.

Last night I actually felt really good. I had intended to do a 2 mile warm up run on the treadmill but honestly I was feeling great.  I also had a little time to kill and for the hell of it I wanted to push myself just a little bit more.  So after 2 miles I just kept running. And I bumped my speed up to 6.5, which is pretty high for me. It has been a long time since I’ve ran at this speed. Yes I have in my life but this was a while ago. I ran a full 3.1 (5k) in exactly 29 minutes 30 seconds so a pace of 9:30.  Slowly but surely getting a little better.  My body is getting much more conditioned to this. I felt great, happy and alive. The way I am supposed to feel with a run.

After my 5k, I headed down to the weights for leg day. I had already worked up a pretty solid sweat from running which I swear helps tremendously in keeping my heart rate up while lifting. Thus more calories burned. This is one of the main reasons I always start with a little cardio.  I had a solid workout plan for the night.

I actually started with the third set of exercises on the list because that is what machine was available first. Plus heavy squats are better done with the freshest legs anyway.  I didn’t do extremely heavy squats, just ones that I knew I could squat really low. The focus for me last night was deep low squats.  Really trying to get my booty down to the ground.  Okay not really to the ground but as low as I could go.  With that said I loaded up a barbell to 135 pounds and squatted my butt down low.  I did 10 regular squats and ended up doing a pulsing low squat of 10 each round.  Good times. My ass was on fire at the end of that set.

We then moved over to the smith rack for round 2 of exercise (the first set on the list)  These were some pretty tough moves as well.  Medium weight deep squats consisted of 50 pound barbell squats where the goal is to sit down on a medicine ball. Yup, the goal is to get your ass to touch the medicine ball so you know you are going low enough. This provides a very deep squat and is utterly effective. These were actually fun and I will have to work them into leg day in the future again.

Set 3 (the middle set on the list) was probably the easiest round because it was the last I took it a little bit easier.  Let me say step ups are brutal but that depends on how much effort you are putting out.  For instance step ups can be the worst exercise in the world when I do a higher step and higher weight.  There is the small step and then a higher up step that I normally use.  If I want a brutal workout I use the higher step 2 with a 40-50 pound weight.  Depending on the severity of torture I want to endure.  Last night I went light.  I just used the small step and 40 pounds so it wasn’t too awful.  But like I said, last group of exercises and my legs were hurting.  What was fun was the smith rack leg press.  This is a different angle of leg press. Fairly straight up and down. You lie below the bar and push it up with your feet.  Leg press style. I wasn’t sure exactly how much weight to load on there.  I started with 160 pounds and did my first rep of them. I had written down 15 presses but honestly I quickly realized it was just too damned light for me.  I did 20 of them no problem.  On my next set of them I added another  90 pounds to it so I was at 250 pounds and in all honesty I still think it might have been slightly too light because I still did 20 reps of them. 

General rule of thumb is if you can do any more than 15 reps you are probably going too light.  10-15 is the range you want to hit.  But I also didn’t want to keep loading the machine up because honestly I had to unload it every time to accommodate the people who were working out with me.  But it was refreshing to realize that I am capable of a lot. I was pretty much dripping sweat the whole time.  I finished my evening with 700 calories burned which is a very solid night for me.  90 minutes, 700 calories is perfect. 

I thought there was potential to be sore from this workout but I didn’t feel anything last night and slightly disappointed I didn’t wake up feeling anything either.  Of course as the day has progressed on thus far I am starting to feel it a little bit and because I am gluten for punishment I kind of love the feeling. My quads and my ass are starting to feel the burn or pain. 

Which comes full circle to my excitement over Iron Power tonight.  My legs are kind of burning and I’ve had two crazy killer workout nights in a row and for the most part am excited to have someone else lead me for a change and kick my butt.  It’s refreshing every now and then. Don’t get me wrong I have really learned to appreciate the art of preparing my own workouts and kicking my own butt. I have found a general love for it to be honest.  But even the most motivated driven person needs a night off now and then.  Plus I need a bit of a break from running, given the sore in my legs that is forming a nights rest might not be uncalled for.  Of course my interpretation of rest is something entirely different.

My “rest” is hopefully get to the gym and get in at least a 10 minute -1 mile- warm up run before Iron Power and then in Iron Power there will definitely be leg tracks and squatting.  And then hopefully it my legs can handle it at least a 1 mile run post Iron Power.  And this is what I consider a good light night.

I really shouldn’t push myself to do a 30 minute run tonight and without the option of Iron Power that was exactly what I was going to do tonight. I have been feeling really good with my running but at some point your body does start to revert and go backwards and needs a day of rest.  I realize I have been hitting the running kind of hard anyway.  Saturday was 2 miles, Sunday 7 miles, Monday 4 miles, Tuesday 3 miles. If I can just manage an easy 2 miles tonight I won’t be too upset about it.

Generally I have a plan for the remainder of my week that looks like this;

Tonight: Iron Power, 2 mile run.

Thursday: 3 mile run. Back/back/triceps workout

Friday: Rest day with perhaps an hour of Barre class in the evening at the new gym that I am interested in trying. This is active recovery. Lower key, no major warm up or sweat. Still my rest day

And either Saturday or Sunday it is my intent to do a long outdoor run.  I do not have a race this weekend but I plan to get in at least an 8 mile run if not maybe 9 miles. We will see.  The following Saturday is a half marathon so it’s not unrealistic to do a 9 mile run this weekend.  And the opposite day of my run I will most likely do at least an hour of strength training but then again I might not, who knows.  Either way it all looks like a solid plan to me.

For the time being, today, I am beyond thrilled for the return of my beloved Iron Power tonight. I cannot wait. This is exactly what I needed.  Thank you universe.