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morning warrior

Morning Train (via Doug Letterman)

Every week, we're highlighting one of the great minds and bodies in our Social Workout community. This week's "Featured Body," the champion of 2009's Feats of Summer Challenge, the indomitable msh258. Look for her workouts on the homepage all week.

Sunday, 10pm: I better get my behind to bed! I have to wake up early for Trainer Mike!
10:30pm: Why am I not falling asleep?! What am I gonna have for lunch tomorrow? Shit, I have to wake up early to make lunch! Ugh. I need to sleep.
11pm: Man. Tomorrow's workout's gonna suck if I don't get enough rest.

Text to Trainer Mike: "Do me a favor. Don't let me slack tomorrow -- I need a good workout bad!!!"
Reply: "k"

Monday, 1:30am: Crap! Did I oversleep?! I have to see Mike! What time is it?! Oh...damn...I have a few more hours....
3:30am: Oh no!!! Did I oversleep?! Oh....ok...another hour.
4:45am: Time already? How the hell am I gonna make it through this workout...

Morning workout are hard for me. I have to trek from Queens to Manhattan, and even if I would have gotten enough sleep time-wise, I get so anxious that I'll oversleep that I get HORRIBLE rest. Anyways, I got up at 4:45am to have enough time to prep a wild lunch (pan-seared cod with cajun-spiced zucchini & red peppers) and get myself to the gym with enough time to warm up before my session with Trainer Mike. A wild meal of cod and a smoothie with raspberries, pineapple, sesame and flax-seed later, I was out the door, on the always-busy 7 train.

I got to the gym, changed, and was on the bike by 6:40. I started with 10 minutes on the bike to ease into the morning (level 12 hill intervals) and then convinced myself that if I actually wanted to be AWAKE for the session, I'd have to get my blood pumping a bit. So, I hopped on the stairmill for 10 minutes (level 11 intervals).

Trainer Mike was ruthless this morning -- at least I know he takes my texts seriously! We started with variations of step-ups onto the bench alternated with ab exercises. Then we moved on to walking kettle bell swings with alternating arms and about a trillion lunges. From then on, it's all kind of a blur...though I do remember that we did leg raises, one-leg deadlifts with the kettle bell, assisted pull-ups and dips (with 80 lbs counterweight...which means I can now do about 1/2 my weight...ugh), tricep kick backs, dips off the bench, pec flies, and so forth. Trainer Mike was thrilled that he got my heart rate up to 165 at one point, since he "complains" that it's near impossible to get me there anymore. HAHA I make my Trainer actually work for his money!

Feralicious Challenge update (including today):

• General Exercise: 6/20
• Eat Wild: 16/12
• Ritual & Rhythm: 2/3
• Cardio Unplugged & Sprints: 195/300 and 2/30
• Push-ups: 240/1000
• Sit-ups: 400/1000
• Pull-ups: training to get to 1!
• Dips: training to get to 1!
• Squats: 160/1000
• D.I.Y Feral: I used up 3 of my "open meal" passes...so I really only have one more left for the month. Since I want to use it after the 1/2 Marathon at the end of the month, I'll be eating entirely Paleo other than that.

I'm contemplating a second workout later to make a bit of a dent in my 1000's and maybe do some yoga. Well, I'll see if I feel up to it after work.