Trying to Work Hard

I started out the morning with a walk outside while the sun was rising. I should probably get up slightly earlier, though, because I didn’t make time to read the Word. I did at lunch, and Ezekiel is definitely interesting, but it’s not quite as practical as Proverbs and Psalms as a start-of-the-day read. I walked all the way through Cooks, going up and down each parking lot and road, and it was 1.10 miles, it took 18:37, and I burned 91 calories. My pace was 16:59 mph. Yesterday I walked all through Moores and McKays, and they are 1.65 and 1.47 miles respectively. That took me 57:16, was 3.11 miles, I averaged 18:26 mph, and I burned 260 calories. It’s kind of funny to see how many calories I can burn while walking vs. running.

Besides that slow walk, I took yesterday off, going to church, running some errands, sitting by the pool, and reading the paper. So today Will gave me a good workout:

1. 6 altitude drop wall squats with a 5-second violent stop at the bottom
2. 50 quick body-weight squats: Finish all the way to the top, and think about pulling your knees up or pulling your body down, whichever works. I don’t know if I succeeded on this one; I was trying to think about that, but then I thought afterward that maybe I was supposed to have been using my hamstrings more when I was definitely using my quads significantly during both exercises.
• Repeat both together 6 times.
3. 6 standing altitude drop front deltoid raise: 3-lb dumbbells, doing 6 with one arm and 6 with the other. I definitely didn’t do altitude drops. I forget what they are, and I didn’t remember that part. I did front deltoid raises.
4. 50 quick towel curls: Keep the towel between your hands taut the whole time.
• Repeat both together 6 times.

I ran into Lisa as we were parking, and she and I got to talk while I was working out (she was just there because Jacob and Abigail were at tennis lessons). She talked all about her racing; she’s doing awesome this season! I listened but still focused on what I was doing, trying to remember everything Will had said to do. The only thing I wasn’t focused on was thinking about running while doing the lower-body workout. I didn’t really want to think about it, so I didn’t. I was thinking about swimming while I was doing the upper-body workout, though.

I talked to Will about some of the problems I've been having. Here was his advice: Relax. Take a few days off to see if you really love it. You're not compelled to ride tomorrow—it's not a matter of life or death. Take some time look back and see where you've been and where you were; compare it to now, how you've improved, how you haven't and why, and how you'll get to where you want to be.