Let the Training Begin!

Actually, it began some weeks ago and I have been too busy recovering from the sessions to update the blog! And astounded that I forgot or failed to post the rest of the story from last fall! To make a long story short (and it is a LOOOONGGG story!) - 6 of us took in the Last Chance Tri hosted by the Mattoon YMCA in October - while the swimming was in an indoor pool, the bike route (nearly 13 miles) was all but 4 miles into a stiff headwind in already brisk weather! It was brutal!

I've signed up for a twice a week TRY challenge class at the Vincennes YMCA - Wednesday nights a fun assortment of spin, core, running, and aerobics while Saturday mornings we swim and usually 1 of the other activities. While there are other places to swim, I must have not only lifeguards but instructors to keep me headed in the right direction. For example, I had forgotten that I was supposed to be bubbling out while my face was in the water so that I could breathe in during the time my face is turned up - Sandy was onto that in a flash and it was amazing how much less difficult it was when I wasn't trying to blow out AND breathe in during the same nanosecond! No illusions of ever being a particularly great swimmer, but less fearful of the water every time I get in the pool!

My criteria for making the trip is that the temperature has to be above 10 and the roads have to be clear - so I missed last Wednesday (too cold) and Saturday (6" of fresh snow overnight). Tonight we did the accursed spin bikes for 20 minutes (I went 5.6 miles!), then 'ran' for 20 minutes (I did 1 lap jogging 1 lap walk for 6 sets - so a mile, then walked briskly the rest of the time), then 10 minutes of aerobics with weights (thank goodness there was a set of 2 lbs left!) and 10 minutes of core to wrap things up.

I was feeling fairly good about my 'stick to it'-iveness until we were in our 80th minute (core) and 'wrapped it up' with 25 ab crunches (in a row!, then bent up one leg and lifted the other 3" above the floor and did 25 more, then switched legs - that's 75 ab crunches! Then we did 30 second planks (front, right and left) and then (when I thought it couldn't get worse!) we did only 20 of some type of torture that involved laying on our backs with our legs together up in the air (making an 'L') and by some mysterious gyration we were supposed to raise our hips as well! Our instructor (who can talk while doing these things!) suggested we could do an ab crunch at the same time!

It was a full 90 minutes and it took 2 bottles of water and 4 granola bars on the drive home to give me the strength to stagger into the house and a desperately needed shower!