Well hello Friday. It’s
that time again. That magical day known as Rest Day. Because sincerely by body needs it today. But
I will let you in on a secret, Sunday is also going to be a rest day and I will
tell you all about it in a minute. But
first, oh but first lets back er up to last night. Off to the gym I went. I decided to forgo the quick mile warm up run
because A. I got there too late to run and B. lots of running in my future and
doing an extra mile was just not necessary. Instead I went directly into boot
camp class.
I would like to talk about boot camp class for a
moment. It honestly is a great way to
finish out my workout week because let’s face it I’m going on day 6 in a row
and my actual motivation is lacking and I certainly am not creative enough to
come up with any sort of plan all on my own.
So this class, in all of its holy terror is probably exactly what I
need. The class is only supposed to be ½
an hour but because she always over plans and expects too much it ends up being
about 45 minutes which is fine. Typically
I don’t settle for a 45 minute workout as enough but on Thursdays it’s
okay. And so long as I burn around 400
calories then I do think this is enough.
Boot camp went like this:
4 rounds of each
of the following:
100 battle rope slams
1 minute rowing (on row machine)
100 Mountain climbers (with plates) The plates on your feet
to slide make it much harder!
1 minute spin bike (standing up run!)
100 Jump ropes
20 Box jumps
30 lemon squeezers
2 times down and back plank drags
Can I talk about plank drags. It’s hard to explain them but I am going to
try. You set your body in a plank
position. But your feet have those damn slide
plates on them. You then get to literally use the strength of your arms to
crawl across the room and back again. 2 times.
You are literally pulling the weight of your entire body around the
damned room. It’s awful. I typically try to go balls out as fast as I
can to get the shit over with. Its
brutal. Your core is on fire because it’s
pretty much a combo of intense core work with upper body shoulders mostly. Either way you slice it, it is brutal. Now these exercises are things that probably
on my own I would never do. This is why
it’s good to take things like boot camp because hello, I am not EVER intentionally
dragging my ass across the floor in such a fashion. Some of the other ones I don’t mind so much
but the intensity is always high in these workouts and thus the 400 calorie
burn. This workout, done 4 times, was just enough for me for the night.
And I felt good enough and like yup, I can move on because
well I have a killer tomorrow planned.
But in the meantime, Spartan race released some official photos
yesterday from the race. There were some
of me and I made these lovely little collages.
So let’s just talk a second about these photographs. Because it’s one thing for me to take selfies
and flex and get you the best angles and lighting etc. Yes, I know I have muscles and even selfies
eventually will start to show differences and changes. But it’s entirely another story when someone
else is capturing you, especially in movement, not picking out your best
frames. Not posed, etc. It’s entirely
something else to have someone capture a moment in time that is not
staged. These are those photos and
sincerely I was impressed. And happy. And shocked in a way too. First, the one where I am crawling over the
latter. Um, my backside looks way better
than I realized. I see a photo like this
and think I look pretty damned small really.
And good. And yet, strong. Those are strong fierce runners legs. Not weak little chicken legs. The same goes for my legs in that leaping photo. They are “thick” yes, but they look strong
and muscular and that’s really the most I could ask for.
Now let’s look at that Spartan leap photo for a second.
Because my jaw dropped. This was not
staged or posed. This was seriously me
just trying to survive. The running
build up, the leap and then the eventual jump into the mud pit. First off, holy hell they captured the exact
moment and it was epic! But with that said,
do you see my upper body? This is not
doctored, this is not me intentionally flexing.
This is real life, body in movement and I look ripped! I was so impressed by how strong I actually
looked in these. All that definition. I
am not trying to gloat or brag. I’m just shocked! Even my chest looks like is rippling muscles
out of it. Ha Ha. But honestly this is not a waify going to
break kind of girl. This is hard earned
badass fit Emily. Oh and did you see
that calf muscle popping on that jump photo.
That is a runners calf if I do say so myself. It’s just a real honest to God good feeling
to see yourself in a different light than you typically view yourself. I know I am strong and fit, but like everyone
else I suffer from body image issues and that former fat girl who lives inside
of me. It is a long slow process my
friends of coming to terms with your own identity. Plus I don’t ever want to be one of those conceited
bitchy people. I don’t think I am. I will never forget the girl I have
been. In fact my own body will never let
me forget her because of the permanent issues I have as a result. I.E., a VERY saggy loose skin bottom half of
my stomach. Kind of a constant reminder that
I have been thru a shit ton in my life.
Oh and the really empty saggy boobs as well.
Oh, speaking of boobs.
I came to a sad realization the other day. I keep buying B cup bras because I think
somehow I am a B cup. Well, I have been a B cup. But all be damned if there isn’t
WAY extra space in those B cups. I am
sadly seriously an A cup at this point in my life. Not that it totally matters because I own so
many B cup sports bras that there’s no way I’m not wearing them. There will just have to be empty air in
there. But I really am an A cup at this
point. But hey, at least I have a killer
upper part of the boob. My pecs look
pretty good.
And just so we are all clear, not that there was ever any
confusion. All of these muscles were obtained the good old fashioned way. Thur hard work, consistency and 2 plus years
of lifting. No magic pills, no anything
else. Just real hard work. Anyway. Moving on.
Here’s the other idiotic thing I decided to do
yesterday. This is the post I did about
it.
So Saturday I am running an evening half marathon. Sunset on the Spring water Half. It starts at
6 PM I believe. My plan had me running
16 miles so we were going to do a 3 miler beforehand. Somehow Chris got the crazy idea yesterday
that perhaps we could do another half marathon in the morning. There is a half pretty close to our house, in
Albany which is like 20-30 minutes away at 7 AM. We talked about it, we debated and ultimately
I just decided what the hell, let’s go for it.
So we signed up for a second half marathon for tomorrow. One at 7 AM and then one at 6 PM. This should give us some time in between to
recover and eat and refuel. Boy I hope
this isn’t a shitty horrible idea. But I
read some articles online that made me feel more confident about it. That apparently doing 2 runs is a great
training tool and it will help build endurance, etc. That this is actually a tactic that lots of
runners use. So this convinced me.
But seriously, 2 half’s in a day. I have no illusions that
the last half of the second half is going to be ROUGH. That there probably will be walking. That my time will be shit. But oh well, right? So long as I don’t injure myself then it will
be okay. That if I have any inclination
of true pain that I will stop and walk. But I’m also secretly excited to take
on the challenge because I’m crazy like that. Because I thrive off of pushing
the limits. That I keep pushing myself
and moving forward. Plus I honestly
think I can do it. I feel like my
fitness is at its all-time peak and that this is the best shape I’ve ever been
in. It’s just another one of those crazy
adventures that someday I will look back on and go how crazy and cool was
that? I kind of live my life for those
moments. Those moments of crazy/cool
experiences. Even if it’s an epic fail it
will be an experience. But I just don’t
think it’s going to be. If I didn’t feel like I could accomplish it, I wouldn’t
do it.
Honestly I just want the test at this point to see how ready
I am. Where I am really at. I will be 5
weeks out and it is a good judge of how much work I still have to go. It’s not a full on test because I am still
only running 13 miles at a time. BUT it’s
a crazy test unto itself. It’s still
26.2 miles in a day. Spread out. I think it’s good. Wish me luck though, it’s going to be interesting
for sure!
So that leads me to this morning.
And here we are.
Happy. Reasonably terrified and reasonably excited. Just sitting in the in-between trying to
mentally prepare myself my crazy tomorrow.
I realize I am a bit bat shit.
Yes. I know this. But this is
what I love about the life I am living. I get to be bat shit and do crazy cool
things. Eek. I am sure come Monday I am
going to have a lot to say about all of this.
But this is why I also plan on resting Sunday. Nothing for this girl. I think running 26.2 miles over the weekend
is more than enough. Today I rest.
Sunday I rest. If it both excites you
and terrifies you it might be worth doing. Yup. Yup. That’s where I am at.
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