Back In The Fold (Circuit Workout)

After another 2 day vacation from exercise, I was back out there this morning, bright and early at 6:00 am, with the Gazelles. It was really fun to see most of the full gang out there, on a nice cool morning (it was in the low 60's). Of course, I ran too fast in the warmup to Austin High with Amy and Tony (new guy), and it seemed I never really let up until we returned much later.

It was getting light by the time we cruised through the drills, with a group that swelled from our original number due to the folks who drove directly to the track to save time later. The workout was the Circuit, 3-4 x 800m, with fun exercises in between. We were supposed to run the 800's at 5-10 seconds slower than our usual "10K" pace for 800's. Fat chance of that.

Somehow, Amy and I ended up leading a giant mob through the first 800, around 3:45. Then we launched into the circuit. It's been a while since I've done this, due to specific workouts for Indy taking the place of it, and I'd forgotten how tough it is to keep moving through the exercises while you're still winded from the 800's. At any rate, most of the exercises were pretty easy, in their way, except for the Superman jumps and the lunges. Right after the lunges, we had to immediately start running again. My times on the 800's drifted to 3:55 and finally to 4:00 (Alex, or was it Frank?, drug me through the last 800), but I was moving smartly through the circuit in between. My HR actually went down a bit during the running, which was amusing. After we were done with 3 circuits, Gilbert called us over for more fun stuff as a group.

I was still breathing pretty hard, but I was game. We did 1 minute of "Fast Feet," then 2 x 50-75 yard sprints while holding our breath. Then, of course, we repeated Fast Feet and the sprints, finishing off with one final round of Fast Feet. I was pretty well done by then.

Alex, Frank, Joseph and I ran back to RunTex together, too fast again, but we were glad to have done the workout. I did a tiny bit of stretching and hung out for a while talking with the peeps, and then headed home. It was really good to get back in the routine of Gazelles, and now all I have to do is get back on the full schedule with the gym, etc. Hopefully, I'll get motivated!