Guinea Pig Workout Week 2 - by Carrie Adamson

My second week of training is done. The main lesson learned; listen to your trainers, they know their stuff. I am getting in a pattern of the workouts, although Alan says not to get to comfortable because he will be mixing it up.  I come in and get stretching and on to my workouts.  Monday and Friday were lower body and Wednesday was for the upper body.  I did everything in four sets on all days.  On my leg days I think I get through the squats and walking lunges with relative ease, but they were the first two exercises of the morning.  It is the ones with the Swiss ball that I begin to really feel the burn in the workout.  The hamstring curl one I think is still my toughest to get through sets three and four are painful.  The opposite exercise for my quads I feel I do pretty well, but the balancing on the Bosu ball makes me think this is a trick exercise because it feels like it works my entire body.  Having the Wednesday workout focus on upper body worked out perfectly because it was after my hard track workout from the night before.  Of the two workouts I would say I like the upper body a little more so far, but only because I can more readily see the results of the work.   But I know the lower body workouts will pay off in my running performance. 

Again I got to end my week of training with some soft tissue work by Alan on Saturday.  I had been struggling with a cold all week and got through the tough workout sessions, but didn’t run for a few days.  I decided to still get the recovery part of my training in even though I was feeling under the weather.  Before my massage I had some head congestion with a stuffy nose, but no fever.  I remember Alan saying that therapists are taught not to give massages when the client has a fever, all the tissue work and trying to fight off the fever is too much for the body.  I didn’t have a fever, so I thought I was ok to go forward with the massage.  Of course during the massage it felt good with Alan paying attention to muscle areas that I worked hard during the week.  Even for a while after I was feeling pretty good, but around 6 PM I took a nose dive and felt the worst I had the entire week with this cold. I am recovered and back on my training schedule. More to come next week!