Sarah's graduation

We went to Sarah's graduation dinner last night which was pretty cool.  It was combined for the Andover and Blaine locations... the awards was cool to see, Sarah's workout partner won the $1000 for women at the Andover location which she figured she would anyway.  Sarah suspects she didn't get credit for a few times she got to class late because she didn't even get called up for the 'top five' and aside from the girl that won, she had really comparable if not better results... she increased her number of pushups in a minute by 47 which is pretty awesome.  I had timed her earlier this week and she did about 62 regular pushups... when she had started ten weeks ago she did pushups off of her knees so that's how she tested.

I've been meaning to post more regarding the kickstarter class... the next day I felt fantastic except for my sore thighs and had almost no desire for coffee, I drank water most of the day.  I had a ton more energy and that lasted at least three day, maybe four or five until I felt 'back to normal'.  I think I'm going to ask if I can attend the kickstarter next Saturday too because it was great.

It seems weird to me how many people talk about making sure my starting physical condition is as bad as possible so that my improvement can be as dramatic as possible.  I suppose it makes sense, it IS a competition, after all.  I'm not going to sit on the couch and eat chips for two weeks, though... but I won't be following strict South Beach.

I went to my regular gym on Thursday and kind of felt like it was a waste of time... my usually workout of just benching, curls and leg curls and then cardio on the bike seems pretty weak now.

Kickstarter class

Well, I made it through the class.

7:30 in White Bear Lake... there were about 15 of us total and three trainers/coaches... Justin (20-something dude), Randy (guy a little older than me?  Mid 40s?) and Jillian (tiny girl).  Justin ran the class... Randy's cool, I talked to him a while when I first signed up.

Justin ran us through about ten minutes of just talking about things, then we did about 20 minutes of strength exercises with the bands and then they helped us wrap our wrists for 20 minutes of kickboxing.  The strength training went fine... there are five different strength levels of bands, color coded... yellow, green, red, blue and purple (ascending).  They told us to take a set of yellow, green and red for the exercises.  First thing we did was shoulder flys... I went with the green bands... two sets of 16, a short rest and then another set of 16... my shoulders were burning pretty good, I haven't done shoulder exercises in many many years.  Next we did some triceps work which was easy for me for my triceps but my shoulder were still burning seriously.   Donkey kicks... and then this bridging thing with the band.  I stuck with greens the whole time and made it through all of it.  We also did squats... which burned pretty good... I have pretty big quads and really don't work them at all at the gym except what I do on the bike which isn't intense or anything.  Kickboxing was a different story.

We started just doing jabs and crosses, then some knee kicks... I started really realizing how uncoordinated I am... then we moved to the heavy bags...

I don't remember doing roundhouses before, but I got the technique down pretty quick... I went first and after the first set of roundhouses, it was my partner's turn... it hadn't clicked in my head that he was holding a squat the whole time I was kicking... so then I had to do that and I was about done... tank empty... but then we had more after that.  I kind of got a focused tunnel vision, not like I was going to pass out, just trying to get from one exercise to the next.  Two jabs, then cross... coordinated knee kick then roundhouse with partner... squats to 'rest'... by the time we were done I really couldn't even lift my arms.

And this is the 'easy' introduction...

I haven't had a workout like that since... well, since I did the Chicago marathon in 2002, probably.  Even that was a very different kind of workout so I really probably haven't done anything like that since football back in 1990...  which is kind of exactly why I wanted to do this.  I clearly don't self-motivate very well... so this class to focus on six days a week for 10 weeks... I expect to be really good for me.  For various reasons.

Registered... and kickstart is tonight

I registered on Aug 31 for the fall class...  Oct 5 for the first session with evaluation and everything and then 7AM on Oct 7 for the first of 70 classes.  I'm going to miss Tue-Thu of weeks 2 and 3 because I'll be traveling for work which sucks... and I'm assuming that I'll be home that Friday early enough to make the 5:30PM class.  

I'm still hovering around 320 pounds.  My right knee hurt yesterday and now this morning my back is sore... hoping I don't hurt myself tonight at the kickstart, Sarah says I shouldn't, it isn't a full class... and I'll be careful.  

Sarah's been looking for a similar class to keep up with her workouts after her challenge is done, but there isn't anything really close.  There's an MMA studio here in WBL, I think it's $50/mo for the kickboxing classes, but I don't think that's really what she wants, she wants to do more Farrell's, the FIT class.  I can understand... when I signed up, the people I talked to were all smiling and clear-eyed and happy... which is totally contrary to every day that  I walk into my regular gym.  It made me want to quit my gym membership already.  I only get there like 5 to 7 times a month, I wonder how much I'll be charged to drop my membership... I should ask.  

Anyway, if Sarah wins the $1000 from her class, I told her she should roll some of it into continuing her classes.  Plus gasoline and Christmas presents (it's right around the corner...).  It would be awesome if we both won the 1000 and were a husband/wife team in the running for the big prize... but that's me daydreaming.  For me, my plan as it sits now is to get back into running after my challenge is done.  With the dropped weight and increased fitness, I should be starting out in better shape than I was when I stumbled through the Chicago marathon in 2002 which would be great... then I could finally actually do the Twin Cities marathon next fall.  My jarhead buddy from college was just lamenting this week that he failed to qualify for Boston when he ran the Ventura marathon this past week.... apparently he had to run a 3:15 to qualify, he did it in about 3:30.  Just awful.  ;-)  Regardless, that would mean 'shaving' three hours off of my last time if I wanted to run Boston in 2015... which would be pretty awesome, really.  One step at a time, though, I need to get through the kickstart class tonight without blowing out a knee or throwing out my back.  :-)