My Hardest Workout Yet

Fresh from vacation, Laurie was admittedly ready for a challenging workout Tuesday evening.  And put together a grueling program she did!  I sweat-soaked two shirts, required half a gallon of water, and burned over thirteen hundred calories in what was my hardest workout to date.  As I stood at the cooler filling my water bottle fifteen minutes before the scheduled start time, a rip-roaring, ready to go Laurie told me that we were ready to start and, as I was last to arrive, I almost felt as though I were late.

A new warm-up exercise—always difficult—of ten squats, ten pushups, nine squats, nine pushups, all the way to down to zero, made me think of a tortuous Marine boot camp activity, and left my arms feeling dead.  It was to be a long workout…

Our circuit training was marked by two halves.  The first half included stations working the chest, abdominal obliques, hip abductors and gluts, lats, and biceps.  Upon completing a round, we did a four minute HIIT on the stationary bikes, followed by a cool-down lap on the track.  After three rounds of this, I was sucking down water and desperately refueling with my emergency orange.  But we were only half way done.

The second half switch brought in the weight machines: leg press, triceps on the cable machine, abs, standing rows, and the converging chest press.  After each and every station, we jogged a lap on the track.  I made it harder by completing the reps without hesitation and popping up to run my laps.  If there was a bottle neck on a station I would re-rack weights to prepare machines for others in order to keep my heart rate up.

The result was a dog tired Mark, soaked on the outside, dehydrated within.  As the group was ending, Laurie was going to finish with a jog up Hell Hill, and gave me the option to skip it.  I’d never skip a moment working out with Laurie—not just because I’m tired, not if I’m upright—and knowing I had to truly earn the next day off, I completed my hardest workout yet trudging up that terrible talus.  I had a nice muscle-developing soreness on my day’s rest, and a wonderful feeling that I’m developing headway, and getting stronger.  I can’t wait to see what Laurie plans next!