The break

Training last night was weird.  After two years and three months with Scott every Tuesday and/or Thursday night at Aspen, we begin our 12 week hiatus as of last night.  That may not seem like a long time to some people but to put that in perspective, I’ve been training with Scott and Molly longer than I’ve been married.  So yes, last night felt like a weird break-up of sorts.  You know that "we’re just going to take a break but we’ll stay friends and figure things out after a summer apart" conversation you used to have in high school and college?  It felt like that.  For a second I wondered, what if he really doesn’t take us back in September?  What if his schedule gets so full with people that want and need his help that he doesn’t have room for us again?  In my heart I know that Scott will always make room for us and I’m just being weird but the thought was in the back of my mind, regardless.  I can tell he is worried about us and the thought of 12 weeks apart.  I don’t blame him at all.  We haven’t been doing so well lately under his wing so why wouldn’t all hell break loose without him?  Because it can’t!  This needs to be a positive time to recommit and focus.  Even though we won’t be physically training with him every week, we do have weekly homework assignments, which is awesome.  Each Friday I will send Scott an update on my weight, activities for the week, problems, triumphs, etc.  He will also be checking our bodybugg food log.  He has an assignment as well.  Each week, after he receives our updates, he has to update us on baby Raegan and send us super cute pictures of her.  I figure that’s fair so we don’t miss out on all the adorable baby stories and him gushing in proud papa mode. 

I’m sore from nose to toe today.  Warrior Monday, Tuesday training and two hours of cardio makes for some aching butt, abs, thighs and shoulders.  Wow!  I have Warrior tonight and the heat index is supposed to be between 105-108 degrees.  Lord have mercy that’s hot!  I’m trying to figure out how I can attach a Gatorade IV to my arm before we start tonight.  Monday night was brutal and during the warm-up I was debating whether or not I was going to survive but I kept pushing and really liked it.  It’s a lot of functional strength, full body training.  And lots of running.  Like do one minute of jumping jacks, run 100 yards to the other end and do one minute of mountain climbers, run back to the original end and 1 minute of jump squats, run back down for tire jumps, back for planks…repeat until legs are burning and you’re gasping for air…then just continue repeating until Todd says you can stop when the hour is up.  Then the cool down was a half mile jog.  Yeah, you read that right, the cool down.   Oh, and we use these little torture devices called Bulgarian bags!  I had never even heard of these things before Rob and the boys became involved at ICE.  According to Wikipedia, The Bulgarian Bag was invented by Ivan Ivanov around 2005. Ivanov, a former Bulgarian Greco-Roman Olympic athlete, was working as a U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling coach at the Olympic training center and was looking for a training tool that would allow his wrestlers to improve explosive actions and dynamic movements involved in pushing, twisting, swinging, pulling, bending, rotating, squatting, lunging, and throwing.  Ivanov was inspired by the tradition of shepherds performing strength acts with sheep and goats on street fairs in his native Bulgaria. The shepherds were often forced to carry lambs and weak sheep around their shoulders when they were wandering with their herds, and were showing off their strength at festivals. Ivanov based the design of his tool on the body of an ovine and saw its use as a modern interpretation of the old tradition.  How wacky is that?  I guess I better get used to the sand-filled tire that’s a mock sheep because I will be doing this every Monday and Wednesday night at Warrior.  I will be swimming, biking and running on the other days to prepare for my triathlon.  Only 73 days away or something like that.  Yikes, stripes!  

Bulgarian bags