0 Hello, Mr. Burpee

Today, I was introduced to a new torture technique exercise as part of The Rock Circuit.  My coach directed me to swap out the squat thrusts (performed as shown in The Rock video) with Burpees for a "change of pace".  While I concede that it is a good idea to change things up after doing an exercise for a while, I was sad to see my beloved squat thrusts disappear.  I was getting really good at them.  That's actually a good sign that it's time to change up the routine--when the exercises become easy.  While these two exercises look very similar, the little jump at the end of the burpee made my legs burn.  I was only able to do 20 of them in each set, but I vow to get better!

This morning's workout was intimidating on paper, but it ended up being pretty fun and only slightly torturous.  It was fun because one of my coach's newest athletes and fellow early girlies, Batty, had the same workout as me.  So, we got to flail around on the sidewalk in the dark morning fog together.

My plan was to run a total of 14 miles including The Rock Circuit, but replace the strides with 3 minutes at 10k effort.  So, here's how that looks:

1. 3:00 @ 10k (distance ~ 1/2 mile)
2. 30 push ups
3. 30 fast one-legged squats (each leg)
4. 3:00 @ 10k
5. 20 burpees
6. 75 bicycles (abs)
7. 3:00 @ 10k
8. 25 fast one-legged step ups (each leg)
9. 35 supermans (or is that supermen?)
10. 3:00 @ 10k
11. 25 calf raises (each leg)
12. 40 tricep dips
13. 3:00 @ 10k
14. 25 lunges
15. 30 feet elevated push ups
16. 3:00 @ 10k
17. REPEAT  steps 2-16 once more

Basically, this is an 11 x 800+ meter workout with a bunch of taxing exercises thrown in instead of a jog rest.  I wasn't quite sure what 10k effort would be, but I averaged 5:50 pace for the interstitial 10k bouts.  More than anything, this was a super long workout.  I was out running on the roads and flopping around on the sidewalk for 2 hours and 6 minutes total.  And, I have another 3 miles to add on tonight for 17 today.  That's a lot of exercise; 2 1/2 hours for the day not including quiet time with the massageball.

I will see this workout again for the next 3 Tuesday mornings, but the running repeats will become longer: up to 4 minutes at 10k effort.  Bring it!