Alternatively titled, "Is There An Elephant In The Room?"

Were one to have taken, oh, say, a year off from speed training and circuit work, one should seriously consider NOT doing BOTH on the same day...

Or one might end the day in a considerable amount of discomfort.  Hypothetically speaking, of course.

I seem to be speaking hypothetically a lot recently.

I had a pretty standard circuit workout I did before the ankle disaster of 2010, and since then, I haven't done it once.  The result?  A weak core, arms without much strength, and no speed in running.  Blah.  So I decided to return to the circuit today (it was dark and raining, so no running outside).  It doesn't SEEM like it should be that hard.  Really, it's pretty simple.  But for whatever reason, it always kicks my booty.  Here's the workout (which happens on a 0.1 mile indoor track with 4 corner workout areas):

• Step 1: Stretch
• Step 2: Warm up lap, jog.
• Step 3:Fast mile: Can't fall over at the end, but should be close.  I don't mean speedy, I mean almost your fastest mile possible. 
• Step 4: Cool down lap, slow jog
• Step 5: Corner 1: 2 chin ups
• Step 6: Run 3/4 lap
• Step 7: Corner 4: 25 crunches
• Step 8: Run 1/4 lap
• Step 9: Corner 1: 5 pushups
• Step 10: Run 3/4 lap
• Step 11: Corner 4: 10 shifty leg things... I'll get back to you with a real name for them.
• Step 12: Run 1/4 lap
• Step 13: Repeat steps 5-12 x4 for a total of 5 times through the whole circuit.
• Step 14: Cool down lap (and I usually do a slow cool down 30 minutes on the bike afterwards)

At the end, you've run 2 miles, done 10 chin ups, 25 push ups, 125 crunches, and 50 shifty leg things.

I judge improvement by speed... Today I clocked in at 23:49 from the start of the fast mile to the end of the last 1/4 lap (the warm up and cool down laps don't count).  For my time to count, I have to get in good chin ups and real pushups before I can move on... no cheating.  I'm pretty sure I've clocked in as fast as 19ish minutes, but I have mixed the exercises up a bit so I don't remember if that was exactly the same circuit...

Anyway, it's a buttkicker, and now my arms hurt... a lot. 

Aside from that, check out what was at my door when I came home today!

I'm going to take it to my bike shop tomorrow to do a pseudo-assembly and make sure the frame is the right size.  If it is, they'll go ahead and build it, and I'll be on the trails by this weekend!  Bliss.

On that note, I'm off to supervise the baking of chex mix while watching The Biggest Loser and reading a lawsuit about Seinfeld.

Peace out,
Kari