Good morning babes and happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderfully active weekend! It’s been a while since I’ve posted a virtual coffee date and the last one was so much fun. So, today, I thought we’d get caught up over a virtual cup of coffee! I’ll be sipping on a Vanilla latte (my fav).
If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you all about my latest sweat date with the Dallas Fitness Ambassadors at Strong Fitness. This was the first group workout I’ve done with them since tearing my ACL. I was so wrapped up with Ironman training earlier in the year that I didn’t have very much spare time for funsies like this. Post Ironman I was all kinds of beat up and honestly, I was a bit scared of doing one of these group workouts not knowing how my knee would hold up. Since we decided not to operate and reconstruct my ACL I’ve realized that I just need to get back out there. I’ve been incorporating more and more weight bearing exercises the last couple of months with the help of my knee brace. So, I thought it was about time I came out of my shell and had some fit fun with the girls again. I’m so glad I did too! This event was so much fun!
Strong Fitness is a Crossfit style gym. They offer much more than crossfit though. For our workout we did some interval work mixing things up between cardio on the bike and treadmills with TRX workouts and free weights. It was very similar to what we’ve done at Orange Theory Fitness and Beyond 500. I really love these interval style gym classes! Lizzie lead our class and really had us sweating. Seriously, I was already sweating during our warm up. They outfitted everyone with a heart rate monitor which displayed our heart rates live throughout the workout. I was in Zone 4 in the first fifteen minutes.
We began with intervals on the treadmill, mixing it up between periods of jogging, sprinting and walking. Then we moved on to floor work. Doing mountain climbers and Burpees. I hate burpees! I hated burpees to begin with, but I especially hate them now. It was really hard to get down on the floor and pull my knees up to my chest with my knee brace on. After the first few, I switched to a modified burpee that allowed me more flexibility with my knee. I was pretty proud of myself for doing them at all tough. Lizzie was great at giving us modified versions of each workout so that we could do them at any fitness level.
After the floor work we moved on to the spin bikes, one of my favorite activities! Again, we mixed it up doing a high cadence spin on low resistance, high cadence sprint with high resistance, and then taking it all the way back down to low resistance at a slow cadence for recovery. We did about 3 sets like this before moving on to the TRX bands.
Now, by this point I had sweat dripping down my back, into my eyes, and onto the floor. I was so tired already and could tell I was getting a great workout. The TRX portion of the workout was probably the hardest. Not just because I was tired but also because, well TRX bands require a lot of stability and support.
We alternated between squat jumps, chest press, low rows, and knee tucks. This whole portion of the workout was so challenging for me. Squat jumps are really hard for me to do because of my knee. Again, I had to move to a modified workout for the squat jump to put less pressure when hitting the ground. I also found it really hard to do the knee tucks. Not only do I have a really weak core, but my knee brace got in the way again. Just like with the burpees and mountain climbers. I was at least able to do the chest press and low rows without any modifications but my arms were sore for days because of them. I guess that’s the point of a good workout, I am right?
Overall, it was an incredibly challenging workout. Not challenging in a bad way, but challenging in a good way. This was my first time doing workouts like these since my injury and I think its important that I learn how to stay fit without an ACL. Just like training for Ironman, I need to learn how to push myself in a safe way and build my strength back up, even if that means modifying an exercise so that I can do it safely.
I’m so grateful to Strong Fitness and coach Lizzie for ensuring that their workouts are inclusive for athletes with injuries and all fitness levels. It really helped build my confidence to be able to get a good workout in and hang with the rest of the group. Not to mention I learned a lot about how to modify certain exercises. I can now take that knowledge into the gym with me anytime I need it!
Post workout we had cold pressed juices from Substance Juice to re hydrate us. They also brought mixers for mimosas which were delicious! I spent some time chatting with the ladies from Substance juice and learned that Megan is actually a registered dietitian. It always makes me feel better when I know a company is operated by someone with a REAL nutritional background. Megan told me that they also offer delivery for their juices through Ubereats which is amazing. You can get anything delivered these days which leaves little room for excuses when making healthy choices.
If we were having coffee today, I’d also tell you that I finally committed and signed up for a couple of races to end my year! My husband and I worked the Wounded Warrior Half Marathon for Nuun Hydration a while back. The kids are on summer break and we thought it would be fun to take my daughter along with us to the race expo. Boy, did she fit right in! She was busy talking to all the vendors and getting freebies. She even signed us up for the St. Jude 5K in September. Little did she know she set me up for a race entry shopping spree.
After that the gears in my head just started spinning out of control. I signed up for That Dam Half in October and figured, “What the heck! Let’s do a full too”. So, I signed up for the Dallas Marathon in December also. That’s pretty much how my brain works all of the time. Why sign up and train for one race when you can fit so many into one training phase?
As if that weren’t enough. I worked the TWU Pioneer Power Sprint Triathlon at the end of July. That was a pretty fun race. Check out the highlight video I made.
While there, I was chatting with the race director and found out they’d purchased the Cooper Sprint Triathlon previously own by the Cooper Institute. It’s now called the Craig Ranch Triathlon and owned by Dallas Athletes Racing. I’ve heard really great things about the swim and bike course for this race. The gears in my head started spinning again! It’s clearly a problem people. Can you guess what I did next? You betcha! I signed up for a sprint triathlon in September. This triathlon is more just for fun considering I haven’t done any real triathlon training since Ironman in April. I just had the sudden urge to swim, bike, and run after attending the TWU Power Sprint. I blame it on Dallas Athletes Racing. I mean, their races are always so well run and such a good time. C’mon their official slogan is “A workout and a party” How could I not sign up?
If we were having coffee today I ask all about what you’ve been up to and what’s on your upcoming race calendar. So, be sure to share with me in the comments!
Happy Running,
Priscilla
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if we were having coffee this morning, i'd tell you that i had a great time at Strong Dallas too…also, i will add that I signed up for the Tough Mudder Race (and m little nervous).
Dixya how exciting! I have never done a Tough Mudder but I hear they pretty challenging and super fun.