My Half Marathon Row - What Your Body Can Do When You Channel The Right Inner Voice

Eat Better:
Tell me these grilled sweet potatoes don't make you want to run and start the grill right now! Yum!

Grilled Sweet Potato Instructions

Move Better:

Tabata is a format where you perform an exercise for 8 rounds, or 4 total minutes, of 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest. Recently I did a Tabata workout where we did 4 exercises. We counted our reps every round and our score was the lowest amount of reps we did in the 8 rounds of that exercise. Let me explain. So I began with push ups. I did 8 rounds of just push ups, each round was 20 seconds long with 10 seconds rest. Here's an example of how many push ups I did each round: 15, 13, 16, 14, 15, 13, 14, 14. So my score would be 13 as that was my lowest amount of push ups during the 8 rounds. Then I repeated the same thing with squats, sit ups and burpees. My total score was the lowest amount of pushups + lowest amount of squats + lowest amount of sit ups + lowest amount of burpees in a round. No equipment needed and a great butt kicker! Try it! Record your score and then repeat this workout next month and see if you can improve! Or, find a friend and try and beat one another's scores!

Amy's Corner:

The 2013 CrossFit Games concluded yesterday with 2 insane workouts consisting of heavy deadlifts, weight 1 legged squats, handstand walks, muscle ups, deficit handstand pushups and heavy overhead walking lunges. All this is incredibly impressive and inspiring...but what's really impressive is this the conclusion of several days of very intense workouts! Just one of these workouts was rowing a half marathon for time - 21,097 meters. I walked into the YMCA on Wednesday last week expecting to row a for some active recovery....thinking 2,000-5,000 meters sounded good. As I neared the 2000 meter mark I realized I felt good enough to go to 5,000. When I hit 5,000 I told myself just 5,000 more and a 10k row would be an awesome workout! Stretch out afterwards and be on my way to go about my day. However, when I hit 10k some crazy voice in my head told me that if I could just get to 15k I might be able to row a half marathon...something I'd told myself was completely insane and that I'd never do after watching the CrossFit Games announcement.

 

At 12,000 meters I wanted to quit. It was the farthest I'd ever rowed. Good enough. At 15,000 I wanted to quit. My glutes and low back were on fire, my thumbs had blisters and my heels were raw. At 17,000 meters my upper back was exhausted from the many pulls it took to get to that point and everything in me just wanted to stop. All I had for a distraction was a muted tv on CNN or a blank wall. No music. No one cheering me on. No one who cared I'd been on the rower for over an hour....which being on any exercise machine for over an hour is just plain crazy if you ask me!

 

But that crazy voice told me I was close...too close to quit. And that's the voice I chose to channel.

 

At 1 hour and 37 mins I finished the entire half marathon. Shaking, sore, blistered and pretty darn proud I got off that rower, stretched out and went about my day...in flip flops because of my raw heels and walking a little funny from a sore butt :)

 

It's amazing how mental exercise can really can be. Especially when you're on your own. We can be our own inspiring coach or we can be the downer that decides quitting is the best option. And there's a constant struggle between those two voices, isn't there?
 

I challenge you to channel that inner voice, the one that doesn't let you quit. And more than that, I challenge you to ignore that inner voice that wants to give in. Your body is capable of so much more than you can imagine...get out of your own way and just see what can happen!

 

Upcoming Events:

July is coming to an end and with it my August Facebook Group is fast approaching. It's an great opportunity to invest only about $3/day in yourself...less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks! You get 24/7 access to a trainer (me!), daily workouts that include written instructions and a video with all modifications, motivation and accountability from a hard working group of almost 20 people cheering you on as you reach your goals and nutrition tips! If you need a 30 minute or less daily workout to do right at home that will get your to your goals, this group is the way to go!

 

$99/first month

$75/month or $150/month thereafter

Email me at AmyDrefke@gmail.com for further details and to sign up today!