July 8 2009 – Plyometrics 3.
We had to cancel the private class we were supposed to have tonight so I was able to get home early and get to Plyo before it got too late. I learned from last week that when it comes to Plyo or other cardio type workouts that I cannot eat before no matter what. So tonight I had a light snack of fat free jello pudding and set about the workout with a vengeance. One thing I have learned is that I take this quite seriously and once I get in my zone I am quite a focused individual. Some may call it angry, I call it attentive. I have always had a very difficult time working out with people unless I knew I was the best. This is a bit weird considering during the 80’s I spent a lot of my workout time teaching and leading aerobics classes of one kind or another. Anyway, for whatever reason once I get into the gym I leave my sense of humour in my pants and develop a frightening degree of focus. Maybe it is a fear of appearing silly, maybe it is a fear or not being able to perform, whatever it is I think it’s probably a deep seated fear of something and I combat it with a surprising lack of patience.
The workout was hard, harder I think than previous weeks. I think it’s mostly because I am pushing myself harder, squatting deeper, jumping higher etc. but whatever it is my heartrate this evening was up over 150 for a significant portion of the workout. There is a section called run squat jump turns or something where you are supposed to start with your leading hand on your leading shoe and jump 180 degrees. I wasn’t even able to reach my foot last time but I did today! The other significant difference was in the full squat jumps where you have to touch the floor with both hands beside your feet then jump up into a full stretch. For the first time tonight I was able to touch the floor before extending and jumping. These may not seem like earth shattering things but each improvement I make and every improvement I feel is like a major achievement to me especially considering that I thought myself to be in pretty good shape when I started this thing. I am just cooling down after finishing, Nicole is out for a walk since Mr. Angry didn’t want her making fun of me on the treadmill as I sweated my ass off  wearing only my underwear and a heart monitor. I must have looked like an epilleptic pot roast. So I am off to mix a recovery shake, some fruit, some protein powder and some juice and settle in for a couple of hours of telly.
Hint for the day:
Relax, you will live longer. You will also not look like an angry swollen stuffed tenderloin in Haynes.