Fartlek and Stripping!

Tuesday night we had another one of our training runs with team in training. The good news is- we weren't doing hills. (Apparently this workout is called "fartlek." Funny name.) The bad news- we were doing 4 loops of the bridle path, most being at 85% effort. Plus, it was raining and the ground was nice and wet and soft. And there were puddles.

Each loop is about 1.7 miles. We did our first loop as a warm up, then at loop #2 we immediately got into our fast 85% effort run. When we got to loop #3, we had a .5 mile recovery, and then 85% from the rest of the loop. Loop #4 mirrored #3.

It was really hard, and I was not feeling it. I was exhausted and covered in mud and rain. I don't even want to go near my sneakers now. I think I definitely put in the effort and earned my post-practice Brother Jimmy's BBQ and beer! Now today I can get to some hill repeats! (San Francisco has a LOT of hills...)

Wednesday- Started out the day with some Bikram Yoga. Finished off the night with Stripper Strength class with my friends Sara and Aleksandra! I really did not know what to expect from this class. All I knew is that it is a serious workout and we had to bring heels. There was a small group for the class (8 or 9), our teacher Kimberly said more people usually show up for the Wednesday class. The class was 70 minutes and we had chairs as props. There was a lot of butt slapping and boob grabbing. We basically slowed down the movements of a stripper dance to get the maximum burn (without removing clothes). It was a serious BURN! I've realized how not flexible I am- I cannot seem to straighten my legs (which, apparently, is an essential skill for a stripper to have). I definitely want to try this class again, and see if I can get my legs and abs strong enough to really be able to do some of the moves. Maybe next time we will have some cocktails BEFORE hand :-) Sara said her favorite part was that she got to use her "mirror face" the whole time without feeling silly.

Off to do hill repeats! Our training schedule has me scheduled for "1 lower loop warm-up (about 1.4 miles), 6-8 repeats of cat hill (ouch) and lower loop cool down."



This should be fun.