Soldier Strength & Lulu {Run} Love

We finally reached the end of our Soldier Strength-testing challenge in the office (based on the APFT), having to reschedule our “final” fitness test a few times. After weeks of focused office tabata sessions, a collection of at-home strength workouts and a successful few months of racing, it was time to re-test the limits!

I knew a few things to be true: my arms are stronger, thanks to more consistent yoga and the occasional “Do Push-ups!” voice in my head; my core will do planks any day, but ask of it sit-ups and you’ve gone too far; my legs ran above and beyond all Spring-racing expectations, but they are demanding the “rest” they earned.

With that knowledge in the bank, here goes nothin’…

Reminder: what does the APFT consist of?

2 minutes – as many push-ups as you can do*
2 minutes – as many FULL sit-ups as you can do*
2 mile timed run – just, go.

*There is no wiggle room – we have created videos showing the proper way to complete each exercise in order for it count! This will be harder than you think, trust me.

Last Friday was our designated “test” day but, for various reasons ,we ended up only doing the push-ups & sit-ups. The run was left to do on our own; well, for other various reasons, this didn’t happen for me & these legs, before the deadline.

For a substitute score, I took the last two miles from our Tuesday night lululemon group run**. While it was a far stretch from my first round, it was still good enough to earn me the full 100 points. Win!

First & Final Counts:

Push-ups: 22, 39     Sit-ups: 35, 35     2-mile Run: 13:20, 15:03

At least my arms had something to say. I hear you – more yoga, less skipping yoga! Got it.  My legs just took this round for what it is.

Did you try the AFPT? Scores? It’s an interesting fitness challenge, and if nothing else it has reminded me to keep strength training front-of-mind. It makes a difference!

Which leads us to a **Tuesday night workout…

Georgetown lululemon Run Club – Tuesdays, 6:30 PM

This week included a pre-run Crossfit workout, courtesy of fellow ambassador Chris McQuilkin (Crossfit Dupont). We used the (steaming hot) upstairs studio space to do the following – squat holds, planks, bear crawls & lunges.

Twenty minutes, and a few shaking muscles later, we ran. 5.6 miles (an extra mile tacked on here from my journey to the run) – 46:00 – along Rock Creek trail, the waterfront & around the monuments. The scenes of this route never disappoint; Anne always grabs some quality, and  sneaky, photos to share the views.

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What does your summer strength-training routine look like?
I’ve been relying on chatarangas at Studio DC, office tabatas and these mini CrossFit (weight-free) workouts to do the trick. So far, this recipe is satisfying!

Why My Arms are Currently Dysfunctional

With only two weeks left in our office’s Soldier-inspired  strength-testing challenge, my arms have fallen victim to repetitive improvement attempts. I haven’t been as diligent as initially intended, but push-ups have happened and lactic acid has made frequent visits. This week has been especially brutal, as outlined below:

Tuesday morning happened to be the day I returned to the morning routine –

~20+ – “real” push-ups (until it hurts)
~20 – drop to the knees and continue
60 second plank holds, x 3

Tuesday evening happened to be the night that Chris, of CrossFit Dupont, joined us for a run, and threw in a surprise workout when we got to Lincoln! What did he have in mind for us? Push-ups. And stair-repeats.

Full-pushups: do as many as you can before needing to rest
When you rest, run the stairs (i.e. keep moving!)
Do more push-ups
Run the stairs again

This sequence repeats until you’ve done 50 full push-ups. Stacy & Chris got ambitious on us, and went for a different kind of arm-tester:

Want to join us for a workout-date with Lincoln?
Updates comin’ at ya, right here!

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As luck would have it, Wednesday’s office Tabata session happened to be push-ups. We do 20 seconds on, 10 seconds “off” (x 8). For that 10 second rest we pushed back into Down-dog. My arms were shaking after that 4 minute attack.

As last night’s Buddha B class would have it, chatarangas were handed out in spades. Holding up the umbrella to ward off the rain after class didn’t seem like a priority.

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It may only be Thursday, but I’m calling “time-out!” today. My currently dysfunctional arms have earned their break, and my rested running legs could use some attention! Balance, I’m looking at you.

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What muscles have you (over)worked lately?

The brain counts, too, if you’re in the countdown-to-weekend mode!

This Week’s Missions of Success

It’s been an interesting week here in my world; routine took a vacation and I had some business to tend to. I’ve been on an event-planning team for the past two months, and yesterday was our peak.

This is an area of work that is relatively new to me, but I love the challenge and the reward of a successful day. There is still a lot to be learned!

We made it through the day with happy kids, and a mission accomplished!

I capped the day off with a leisurely walk down to Dupont, seeing as my legs and feet had no interest in doing anything that required real energy. This lovely scene greeted us at the park – thank you, DC.

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With no segue way, the other highlight of my week was an impromptu boot-camp class on Tuesday. My usual response to strength-training is that I have little-to-no discipline when doing my own workouts. If you take me to a boot-camp class, I will do everything asked of me and soak up every second of the burn. Tell me what to do, and I’ll gladly ask it of the muscles!

Kate & I returned to the Tuesday night boot-camp at the Georgetown lululemon store, for round 2, and Sgt. Ronald was unable to make it. We sat around, stretching and chatting for at least twenty minutes. Finally realizing we were on our own, with one other gal, we decided to go take the Sgt’s lessons and work with it.

Lunges, squats, burpees, core, step-ups, hip work and a few more lunges later, our workout was done. Our muscles weren’t shaking quite as badly, but that was the idea. Wednesday morning brought sore legs, hips and abs. We’ll file that under another mission, accomplished.

As it turns out, I just like to have a group in place before the motivation sets in. If a Sgt is dishing out the pain, that just bumps up the lactic acid dosage!

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What missions did you accomplish this week?

The Boot-camp Burn

The last time someone told me to do exercises that would generate large doses of lactic acid was at mile-high altitude. Those Warrior workout days at Qi are too far behind me; I had this stark realization last week when I did 40 lunges (20 per leg) at the end of my walk, and was sore for days.

Whoa.

There was once a time when these muscles put up with 100 squats, riding a seat-less bike and 2-min plank holds. Where did that go?! Must get it back. Boot-camp burn, come to me!

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Thursday’s lululemon group run hit the 5 mile mark, heading down to the gorgeous Georgetown waterfront and up the trail, around the Washington Monument.

Running and chatting, keeping the effort at bay and enjoying the miles, led us straight into the store and ready for the next workout. We had a run-club visitor – Ronald – who was ready to really make us sweat. He offered a 30-min workout, to which I almost choked laughed and suggested, “Um, maybe just 15?”

Just  15 minutes?

Never doubt a personal trainer, in the Army, who runs in combat boots.

Six of us stayed around for this butt-kicking workout. Three minutes into it, we were all walking with hands on our heads, sweating, and breathing hard.

What gets the heart rate going UP that quickly?

Lunge across the room, twice.
R-leg Lunge, Squat, L-leg Lunge, Squat-jump* x 10 (work up to 10 jumps, increasing by one each time)
10 push-ups
Lunge across the room.
Lobster-crawl across the room (Works the Core & Back, like whoa)
15 Burpees
20 Squat Jumps

Stretch it out.

*This was the most challenging part; those squat jumps get harder and harder with each one-jump increase. Try this.

Ronald does a ONE HOUR {FREE} Bootcamp class at the lululemon Georgetown store on Tuesday nights. I have absolutely no idea how I would survive an hour, but I will try. If you’re up for the challenge, come join us! Be ready to sweat, and feel that Boot-camp burn.

Then, if you can still move one foot in front of the other, join us for the run on Thursday to shake it out…

Strength Testing, Soldier Style!

Aside from Sunday’s 10-miler being my third race in as many weeks, there was another prominent reason behind my decision to give the legs a “racing” break – they had already put in their sprinted miles for the week!

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Friday kicked off our inner-office challenge; we’re all aiming to pass, and then improve on, the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). Soldiers are required to take this at least twice per year; we have two employees that are currently in the Army (Reserves) and this was their brilliant idea. To give you an idea of how things go around our office – nobody had a second thought. OF COURSE we should do this, go all out, and see what we can do!

It will be an 8 week challenge, and there are incentives. We’re all in a raffle to win an iPad just for participating.

What does the APFT consist of?

2 minutes – as many push-ups as you can do*
2 minutes – as many FULL sit-ups as you can do*
2 mile timed run – ALL OUT.

Points are awarded by age group + gender,  and the respective predefined standards. Up to 100 points are available within each test, and there is a “max out”. You must receive a score of at least 60 in each category to “pass” a real APFT.

*There is no wiggle room – we have created videos showing the proper way to complete each exercise in order for it count! This will be harder than you think, trust me.

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My baseline scores won’t be going into any record books, but I know where I stand and I’m ready to put in the work for improvement over the next 8 weeks. I knew these first two tests would be rough after two weeks off of yoga (ahem, my only “strength training”) and no real preparation:

Push-ups: 22
Sit-ups: 35

But the run? I was ready for THAT.

Ladies of WCS, ready to get this 2-mile run on.

…and, we’re off! “Coach” Kate gave me 6:45 pace! DO IT  to go off of.

The three of us stuck together for most of the run. Dale (in blue) pulled ahead with about .25 mile left, and there was no catching him…

…but we could chase him!

2 miles*– 13:20 – avg 6:40 pace

*Our course was actually a little bit  short, so our times were calculated for the remaining distance based on our pace.

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Now, who else is IN? Ready to test yourself? You’ll need a partner for the sit-ups, but the other two exercises can be done on the honor system (we’re watching you…).

Strength Testing – Soldier style –  is in motion!

A New Barre: Wednesday’s Variety

The muscles were treated to a double dose of variety yesterday; an early morning yoga hour and a late evening spin-barre retrial*.

The “Sunrise” yoga class at Stroga is finally living up to its claim again. It’s dark when we go in, and looks like this by the time we lay in savasana.

Spring, I can feel you! HURRY UP.

I woke up and stretched with an hour of vinyasa – much needed by this point in the week, as usual.

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The day’s next sweat-date would include something these muscles haven’t experienced in well over a year*. Spin-Barre is offered at the new Revolve Spin studio in Arlington (Clarenon). These glutes haven’t seen the seat of a spin bike since their Warrior days (which I miss – nobody will make you sweat n’ snake like a Qi Mountain-Ryders class), and the “barre” portion could substitute for the ballet class I missed this week.

*Flashback! First spin class, ever.

The studio was quiet when I arrived (one class was in session), way too early, so I snapped a few pics. I also marveled at the fact that they give you things for free! Things like real cycling shoes (see below), a towel for wiping the inevitable sweat fountain from your forehead, and lockers to keep all of your stuff.

In other places, this may not stand out. But in most DC gyms/studios, you pay for everything but toilet paper and bathroom privileges.

Yes, I’ll take a pair of spankin-new shoes, thank you very much. How kind of you!

Great photo by Jess!  Schwinn spin.

Does anyone else internally chuckle and say “Hah! Youuu think that’s a Schwinn….” ? Anyone? Brad Pitt, at his finest.

Schwinn spin bikes, similar to a “tri-bike” in my mind (see aero-style bars), clipless shoes provided for free, and a schedule of classes that includes some variety?

Well done, Revolve! I had a good sweat.

Something to note – this was not actually the Spin-Barre class I thought I signed up for. 1) There is no barre. So….there’s that. 2) We did strength-exercises with weights and a squishy ball – nothing that resembled ballet in the slightest.

So if you sign up for Spin-Barre, keep those points in mind! It was still a good workout, but just not what I expected.

Either way, huge thanks to the crew for reaching out to some locals and getting the word out! I never would have ventured out to Clarendon otherwise, but it felt good to get back in the spin game.

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What’s adding some variety to your weekly routine? Are you a spinner? Or Barre-lover (looking at you, Jess S!)

Yoga: Things That Might Make My Arms Fall Off

There was once a time when I frequented the studio. I  rolled out my mat on most days of the week, trying to fight against my inflexible genetics to “further my practice”, and ultimately stand upside down without support (that’s on most people’s bucket list, right?). I started a 25-day challenge (prompted by Sassy), and ended the month of December with an entirely new outlook on this bendy-posing thing.

That month changed a lot of things in my mind, and I never looked back.

When we boomerang’d to DC, my running was much more of a priority – train, meet Kate in the mornings, get across the MCM finish line. We hit the mat at Stroga once – maybe twice – per week, and that was that (though Beth’s classes are arguably a two-in-one – she will not leave you with any energy to spare).

Now, I currently have three purchased groupons / holiday-deals for three different studios. Suddenly this week, my old habit resurfaced. I took a tally and have a total of 20 classes to use, with a variety of options.

Winter, you are the perfect yoga friend – cold air, dark mornings and evenings, and eventually snow? I’ll venture inside to my mat more often, thanks.

So, what was different this week? Well, my arms will be the first to tell you that we’ve stepped it up! We started with a Sunrise Yoga (6 a.m.) on Monday morning, and the triceps, biceps and shoulders have been sore ever since.

This class just happened to include quite a few chatarangas, and chataranga push-ups (down & hold/hover, back up in to plank – repeat). We then happened to have a Push-Up Tabata session at work. And my arms happened to turn into jelly.

Next: a double-class on Wednesday (6 a.m. Sunrise Yoga, 7 a.m. Power Hour Yoga), and another Sunrise class today.

My chatarangas, side-planks and down-dogs may have hard my arms screaming, but that just means they’re still breathing – still attached! That also means we have a long way to go, right? Strengthen up!

Those 20 classes will be checked, and my bendy-poses will be better because of it.

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Just because it’s my favorite…

What’s making your muscles speak up this week / weekend?

Yoga Adventures: Working on the Fly

Last night I got my weekly reminder that the arm muscles have been comparatively neglected since we moved; I still have yoga dates, but I have not filled the Warrior workout hole. Those classes challenged my muscles in a totally different way, building a strength base that these arms, legs and abs haven’t seen the likes of since.

Instead of adding to that base, I focused my energy on mileage instead – you know, there was that whole ‘MCM training’ thing going on. Yup, it was worth the effort – but it did leave some of my yoga protesting the neglect.

We won’t even talk about the hips; they’re not happy about this, either. I hear you.

My muscles & joints do still get a weekly dose of this practice, but it feels different with the above-mentioned absence of a strength component. My arms shake in a side plank; I can still hold crow, but I can feel it working; I can barely get the toes to latch around my calf in eagle (on a good day).

All of this said, I tried a new studio last night with a friend. The Studio DC schedules mostly Vinyasa/Flow classes – heated or unheated, and at every level. We joined the “Vinyasa 1.5”, with a room temperature of 74-78* (not heated) and pose variations for levels 1-2. I love these classes because they hand out a challenge if you’re willing to take it.

I like to take it.

After letting my shoulders scream in downward dogs, chatarangas & cobra –> upward-facing dog for the first half, we finally got to stand. Then those standing poses led right back to arm-balances. No, muscles, you do not get a break!

We began a series I’ve only tried & completed once before: Eka Pada Galavasana, aka Flying Crow Pose. Standing, and casually crossing your legs the way a guy would on the couch, but without the seat (and with your arms oddly sticking out, totally normal).

{This is obviously not me; image source} Simple enough. Balance, and then get ready to fold. Once your hands touch the ground, you’re all set up for crow – with your legs slightly confused by their positioning. It’s okay, just go with it.

I let my hands touch, bent the elbows and trusted my balance.

Then? This happens:

And I just hung out, totally baffled by my arms cooperating, my legs contortioned and my head not slamming into the ground.

Maybe after a few more tries, I will actually fly…

…and post pictures of my own success, not a stranger’s. Give her a round of applause, these pictures couldn’t have been easy to shoot!

I may not be as strong, but I’ve still got something there. That’s all I need to know! I can work with that. In fact, I now have 10 days of unlimited yoga (for only $10!) to that studio. Flying will get that box checked!

*****

On a side note, searching images of yoga poses might make your muscles and limbs jealous. They might be slightly shocked at the capabilities of certain yoga masters.

*****

What’s missing in your routine right now?
Who else is trying to fly (it’s hard, right?)?

Yoga a la DC

Luckily yoga is a loyal friend, one that doesn’t seem to mind when I’m fickle and inconsistently return the favor. Luckily I snatched a Stroga coupon two weeks ago, and Meghann reminded us all that this is National Yoga Month!

All things come together; I ignored the possibility of getting soaked, and I had a date with my loyal cross-training companion last night.

Stroga was a brand new studio in the summer of 2010, right before we headed out to Colorado. I purchased a coupon for 5 classes, went with Kate, and was surprised by what a ‘normal’ yoga class felt like (I had only done Bikram before that). Little did I know where I’d be by the next time I showed up to this studio; Denver has a powerful yoga community, and thanks to lululemon, I let it work its magic.

Now, back in the District, it seemed appropriate to have my first-yoga-date with this studio. It also helped that their recent Groupon was $29 for ten classes.

I know. DEAL!

They also offered another 10-pack for only $39 on the first day you use the Groupon. Stroga, you know where your power works. I’m IN.

The space alone is mesmerizing; it’s open, light, airy & any time you look up you’re instantly distracted by the ornate ceiling.

I chose the “Vinyasa Flow (all levels)”, solely because of the time (7 – 8:15) and the fact that it would allow a leisurely stroll before & after. City living is synonymous with walk-ability in my mind; if I can walk, I will.

*****

Not only has it been two weeks since my arms have chataranga’d or my legs have held a Warrior in any form, but also since I’ve stretched in any real capacity. I had low expectations, but that’s the point of getting on the mat. Meet yourself where you are, and go from there.

It was definitely a different vibe than the Denver teachers that I’m more than used to; but without different styles, instructors and class-types, where would the challenge come from? Mix it up: check!

While the muscles and I were tight at first, I fell right back in my groove and loved the ebb & flow of going through every classic pose – lunging, to standing / balancing, to back + core work. It was all thrown into the mix, and I am feeling every bit of it today.

Sore, relaxed, stretched & happy.

I have 19 more classes to get my yoga on, DC + Stroga style.

*****

National Yoga Month Tip: individual classes at studios can be expensive, and add up quickly! Look for specials, first-class-for-free deals (a lot of studios do this), FREE podcasts (e.g. Dave Farmar), and/or a lululemon store near you (they have at least one free class per week)!

Roll Call: Who’s Here, What’s Missing

June, you are quite the wildcard. Somehow you’re almost over, and my muscles have no idea what just happened.

Last thing they knew, I was sticking to my training routine  – running, strength training & trying to maintain my affair with yoga.  Each muscle showed up to their respective classes, every time I asked them to. We pushed through a race, and then…um…did a few other things that hurt:

Next thing I know, it’s been almost three weeks since:

I’ve straddled the Ryder bike, worked the muscles to their absolute limit, and left a gym thinking “Gah that was crazy, but so fun.”

I’ve done a run longer than 6 miles; I’m not even sure the legs would take the invitation if I offered it.

I’ve rolled out the mat, stretched in a forward fold, attempted a hand-stand or strengthened the hips with warriors or pigeons.

Geeze.

*****

Absent: all of the above.
Here: biking, hiking & easy running.

I think it’s been necessary for me to step back, relax a little bit and take in this summer season (which I’m currently in love with). But, all of a sudden I can feel the strength slipping away, the flexibility in poses is gone, and my distance needs a boost!

I’m not always in my ideal work-out balance, but I’m working on it!

This week I dove back in, and this morning’s Ryder-Warrior workout was a clear indicator that I’ll need to build back up. We had weights, we did up to 500 reps of certain exercises (which is brutal, btw), we rode with and without our seats (of course)and my arms may not be able to hold a fork by lunch.

I am in charge of the dinner menu tonight for Anne + me, so at least I can choose light finger foods if needed. Yum!

*****

On an unrelated note, who will be in Boulder for the Fitness Health Blogger’s Conference (FHBC) this weekend? Let me know, I’ll see you there!