I've been eating primally for nearly two months now - loving the menu, and how it makes me feel. But now it's time for me to get real about fitness. Mark's Daily Apple just kicked off its inaugural Workout of the Week series. Great! I thought. This week's was:
50 meter sprint
10 jumping squats
10 pushups
Basically, do the above as many times as you can, in 12 minutes.
I got psyched up yesterday morning. Today's the day! I thought. I put on running shoes (I don't own Vibrams yet and the grass was unmowed and soaking wet...hardly ideal conditions for my out of shape booty to try out barefoot running). I put the exersaucer on the back porch for my 8-month old daughter. I set my three-year-old daughter up with instructions to play on our back yard's playground while I did my thing. I counted the paces around my yard to approximate the 50 meters. I even downloaded a free stopwatch app on my Droid and called it up for a 12 minute countdown. Boy, was I going to milk this workout.
Then I ran. The first sprint was great, the set of jumping squats was appropriately challenging. I even cranked out 10 pushups. Then I sprinted again, and the second set of jumping squats was already so much harder.
Y'all, I made it through just two and a half minutes of the prescribed 12 minutes before I needed to get a break. Workout of the Week? More like Wuss of the Week!
But today I take comfort in the fact that I'm a bit sore - in a good way. I also take comfort in the concept of once weekly sprinting. ;-)
The thing I love about AMRAP (as many reps as possible) workouts in a prescribed amount of time is that you really can tailor the intensity based on your fitness level. If you needed a break after two and a half minutes, there is no shame in that. Take a rest. Then, try to do another set. Recording your results and then trying the same workout several months later is a great way to see your progress. If you only got one set done in 12 minutes, then that is your result. And it's great. If you try slowing down your reps, you'll be less tired. You are only competing against yourself, so set your own pace and then surpass it next time. Good job for getting going in the first place. Primal fitness is fantastic and lots of fun. Plus, pretty soon your daughter can join you!
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