Weights session

Yesterday I had my usual Friday morning session with Krissi. I am sure that part of the reason that I enjoy this so much is that I expect to enjoy it. It's certainly not because of the way I struggle during the session or my muscles hurt afterwards.

Krissi's home studio is up two flights of stairs. I'm not game to catch the lift up unless I have my bike with me, so I dutifully struggle up the stairs each week. Usually I have a few creaks and aches on the way up, but yesterday everything felt fine. Why then, was I struggling for breath when I got to Krissi's door? A similar thing happened to me at work the other day, but that was three flights of stairs. I was puffing away as I went past all these people's workstations, trying to regain my breath and stop blushing at the same time.

To add insult to injury, there's another flight of stairs to get to the actual studio. I followed Krissi up, listening to her complain about how hard the stairs are some mornings. I had a little inward chuckle as I followed this amazingly fit woman up the final flight of stairs. Mind you, Krissi had competed with a team in a 12 hour mountain bike race over the weekend, so I think she had a valid reason to complain yesterday.

I started off on the exercise bike, as we discussed the benefits of those amazing bandaids for blisters. For the first ten minutes, which is meant to be a warm up, I'm able to talk. Once we get to the intervals I rely on Krissi to do the talking while I do the sweating. Krissi told me all about the bootcamp session that I missed. I'd heard TB's version of the scavenger hunt as well. It sounded like a lot of fun.

I sweated so much that I figured I could finish PT after the cycling. I suggested it to Krissi. Her solution was to turn on the fan. Trainers!

For a change I did dead lifts. Getting the form right was quite a struggle. When Krissi demonstrated her back was like a lever, dead straight. My shoulders went over straight away. Krissi gave me a few tips on technique and I managed to keep my back a lot straighter. It helps that Krissi has a picture of the perfect guy on the wall for me to look at. When I started, the bar felt quite light, but I had to put it down after six reps. I did two sets of 12 reps altogether, before moving on to chest presses. Same bar, same weight, 10, 8 and 10. A couple of sets of jack-knifes, one minute plank and I was done. Phew!

I've packed my running gear for Melbourne .. just have to get out there tomorrow morning. :-)