Blistered, but not broken!

So after hunting around for a good secondary cardio workout, I decided today to return to my good friend the erg (indoor rowing machine). I've spent quite some time bonding with that piece of equipment over the last 4 years, and today was a bittersweet reunion. Bitter because that workout kicked my butt. Sweet because that workout kicked my butt.

I couldn't decide on a workout to do, so I mixed it up with 10 minutes of 1 minute hard (under 2 minute split time), 1 minute rest(whatever I could manage). Then I did a solid 20 minutes at my 5K pace, which was pretty darn good cardio. The erg is actually a great workout for taekwondoists. I found this out when I didn't totally suck returning to tkd after my first rowing season in HS, but in a weird way it makes sense. The erg works all muscles in the body, but focuses on the legs, like tkd. It's a mixture of anaerobic and aerobic, like tkd. It often deals with short sprints of all out effort...like tkd. And while the effin' thing gave me blisters since my formerly calloused hands have gone all soft and manicured, I definitely think I'll be adding it back in on my off-running days. Its the only workout I've found that burns more calories than running, and it has a strength training element built in since every stroke is essentially a dead lift on crack. Not sure if I'll do it every off-day, I'm contemplating bike machines too, but its definitely going to get a whirl at least once a week.

Speaking of strength training, I also started my 100/200/200 program today. Ouch. I'm already feeling it in my abs, which might be from the erging too, but it definitely did not help to drop and do like 5033454 crunches. Push-ups wasn't as bad as I thought, but I need to work on form a LOT. Overall, I'm feeling that nice tightness in my legs and back that says, hey, you worked out. I love that feeling.

Who knows, 6 weeks from now I might actually start feeling like an athlete again. For now, I'm beginning to feel like a return to glory might just, maybe be possible. But until I find out, I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

W3D2 tomorrow. So pumped.