Expectations

As a reminder - I'm riding in the Palmetto Peloton Project's Stars and Stripes Challenge this memorial day to help raise money for Cancer Research and support.  If you can, I'd love it if you would help sponsor me.  The majority of the money stays in the Greenville Area locally to help with Cancer Research, the rest is donated to Amgen to help Cancer patients and survivors.  You can support me by making a donation on their website (https://secure.p3ride.org/donate/index.php?eid=1) and selecting "Brian Lube" in the drop down list of riders.


I've found it more and more difficult to blog after every workout.  It's not that I'm not going out and riding, in fact last week I managed to not only do one of my best runs ever, but I was on the bike for almost 100 miles as well!  It's more that I don't want to just post up "went for yet another 31 mile ride today" or something minor.  I feel like I need to write about more than just what I did, but how this journey is changing and how I feel.  That said, I had a fantastic run/walk last week, where Rob Dempsey from HISRadio really pushed my limits.



It was interesting, because I didn't intend to work as hard as I did there, and I really didn't expect to be running with Rob that evening at all.  I had emailed out to our Big Losers group that I was planning on doing a run/walk that evening, as I knew that I spent too much time on the bike and that the 5k was about 3 weeks away.  I got there, and Rob was just running up, and I saw a few others already out walking.  I let Rob know that the others were out on the course, and I set off to catch them.  A few minutes later Rob caught up with me, and it ended up that only two of us were really able to run that evening (a few of the others have had foot/knee issues that make them unable to run at this time).  Thus the two of us take off around the outside loop of Brookwood church.  Rob gave me some awesome advice on how to work on my pace, and he was encouraging me to push a little longer than I thought I could go.  The end result was a 1 mile lap that was faster than I've ever run, and a renewed sense of heightened expectations for myself.

Listen to my conversation with Rob and Kristen on their highlights page!


Expectations are always a weird thing to me.  Typically they are pressure that I feel from outside forces, but I am always my own worst critic.  I feel like I can do more, be faster, work harder, be stronger.  Although it seems strange, I also tend to put artificial limits on what I can do, or should be able to do for longer term goals. At this point in my journey, I see that there is nothing beyond my scope of vision that I cannot accomplish if I put my heart into it and let God determine the pace.  I may not compete in an Ironman tomorrow, but if I keep working at it I know I can.  Right now my focus is on SCTAC tomorrow night, and experiencing that level of group ride for the first time.  After that is the 5k at Eastside YMCA to cap off the end of this 12-week warm up to the rest of my life. In May is the Stars and Stripes Challenge by P3group and Amgen to help raise money for Cancer Research.  There will be new events and new challenges that I will be training for, but as long as my focus is on my journey and I let Christ be the focus and the glory, I know that all things are possible.

RBL Boot Camp #2 - It was so brought.

This morning was the second of the Rob's Big Losers BootCamps.  This time we were at the Adam's Mill YMCA center, and this time it was outside.  I felt like I was in 5th grade again, having a field day (in every sense of the word!)

We started out doing some warm up exercises, and they were okay.  Then we moved into a "field games" exercise.  During this we had several stations set up, and for the first round we did each station for 2:30.  The stations were as follows:

• 4-corners station:  In this station was set up in a square, where we started at the first cone.  
• run from first to second cone
• side step to the third cone
• back peddle to the last cone.  
• Kettle Bell station:  At this station we worked in pairs.  The first person would run up to the kettle bell (about 15 yards away) and do hip thrusts, then run back and tag the second person.  
• Medicine Ball Station:  We did side extensions, swinging the medicine ball from bottom one side to top the other 4 times, switching, then tossing the ball to our partner.  
• Ladder Drill:  We ran through the ladder doing different drills along the way, the drills were
• Straight through
• Double step
• Straight through
• Side Step
• Straight through
• in and outs
• Punching Station:  At this station we did punching drills, including hitting some punching targets from time to time.  The last minute we did uppercuts the whole time.

After we completed all the stations, we repeated them but this time for only 1:30 at each station.  A couple of the stations were modified for the second time around.  The 4-corners station had high steps and then 5 jumping jacks when you reached the second cone, and sprinting from the third to fourth cone instead of back peddle.  The medicine ball station was squat tosses the second time around.

At the end of the stations, we lined up in two teams, shoulder to shoulder.  From there we handed a medicine ball down the line, and the person at the end of the line had to run the medicine ball to the other end and start the ball going again.  Once the person that started the ball had run to the beginning of the line, the whole line had to move to the other end of the field (maybe 30 yards) and do the drill again.  We had a friendly competition between the teams as we went (but my team won!)

The last event was a water race.  We had buckets set up maybe 20 yards apart, one empty and one full.  We were then given an 8oz plastic cup and lined up, again in the two teams.  We had to go one at a time to the full bucket, fill the cup, and run back to fill the empty bucket.  The first team to fill the bucket "won".  It was a really close race until team 1 accidentally knocked their "fill" bucket over!  Our team had planned to help them after we filled ours, but once we had filled the bucket Rob ran over with team 1's "full" bucket and helped them out.  Notice that my team won again ;)

After we were done with the games we did a round of cool down and stretches, then gathered for prayer and had some fellowship time.  Lisa had said we should all gang up on Rob, so he started to run away.  I decided to give chase and eventually "tagged" him!  If anyone should happen to have a photo of that, I'd love to get a copy.  After the stressful week that I had with all sorts of personal hurdles that I managed to jump knock over, this was just like being a kid again.  It was 1000% what I needed to refuel me.

I can say for absolute certainty that everyone that showed up today was 100% a winner.  We had a fantastic time with a bunch of courageous folks that have started a fantastic journey together.  I cannot imagine a better way to spend the first gorgeous spring weekend than outside, being active, with great friends.  The 5k is just weeks away at this point, and I look forward to seeing everyone again, and it not being "the last time".   I wonder if Rob has "reunion" workouts for all the RBL Alumni that everyone could get together and have fun?

Shipped off to Boot Camp!

Okay, full disclosure:  I went Rob's Big Losers Boot Camp, not an actual military establishment.  Today marked the end of Week 5 of our 12 week Challenge with Rob Dempsey's "Big Losers", and this week's agenda was to attend the boot camp.  So the pack of us all assembled at the East Side YMCA in Taylor's SC and went through the paces.  A good majority of the "Losers" showed up for the workout, although a few had to miss it for family reasons.

Gonna make you Sweat!

We started out with a warm up that consisted of walking and running some laps.  I haven't spent a lot of time running since I had the issues with my feet a few weeks ago (and that was the beginning of Week 2!), so it was a good test of how I'd do.  I was happy that I was able to "bring it" through the warm up, and get plenty of time at an accelerated pace.  I need to schedule with myself some time to actually run a few miles to see how my feet will handle the 5k in 7 weeks.

After the warm up, we did a cross training routine that included 8 stations.  We were set into groups, and went through the routines.  We started on push ups, and continued through a kickboxing station, rowing, jump rope, stepping, more kickboxing, squats and jumping jacks.  Every 40 seconds (times varied, but not as much as the 1 song challenges during Friend Raiser!) we changed stations.  I think the only stations that didn't challenge me during the sequence were the step station and the kick boxing, although I definitely felt a workout during those. I wish I had brought my lumbar belt for my water bottle, so I could get more hydration as we went along, though.

After we finished several rotations (I'm not sure if we started or complete 4 full sets), we had a cool down period for a few minutes while we moved into the group workout room, which was set up with floor mats.  Here we went through an abs routine (youch it was a good workout!) as well as a Yoga class.  Yoga is definitely not on my top 5 things to do, as many of the poses put a lot of strain on my joints.  It also reminds me that I have a lot more work to do in my overall fitness.

At the end we gathered up and had a group photo shoot.  Afterwards I was tired, but it was a great time and I had fun in the larger environment going through the workouts.  We have another Boot Camp closer to the end of March, and I'm looking forward to seeing how I do on that one as well.

Click on the Y to see all the photos!

Friday 2/3 - Crosstraining workout

Woke up this morning feeling definitely under the weather.  Sore throat, stuffed up nose, etc.  "This morning" also was several times before my alarm went off.  Got up and took some medicine, and vegged most of the morning trying to rest.

Christy had her Wellness Works appointment at 1, and I figured if I was going to get any workout done today I should go with her, and crash afterwards.  I went through 2 reps of my strength training, about 15 minutes on the recumbent bike (I really like the Cardio Theater!), and then took a walk/jog with Christy around the track outside (since it was nice out).  My foot was still a bit sore afterwards, but overall I felt well.  Hopefully I can shake the rest of this cold pretty quickly so I can get more workout time in.

The weather doesn't looks favorable for a ride on Sunday, have to see what happens.  Have my 1 mile run tomorrow, too.

Thursday 2/2 - Crosstraining

The foot is feeling a lot better, especially since I got some new shoes!  That said, tonight I have scheduled to work out with Nina, my wellness Coach.  I went into the gym, and she had me go around the outside track and do some crosstraining routines.  I have to say that skipping rope while running around a track isn't my personal favorite, but it definitely got my heart rate up.

I did enjoy the medicine ball routines, though.  Especially the football routine where we ran with it down the track and rolled it back to each other.

Coming down with a cold, but hopefully I can push through it enough to get a workout done Friday.