Super Set Me!

This morning Drew and I slept in a little bit, had breakfast in bed, and then headed off to the gymnasium. We had a big day of workouts planned, so it was good that we had breakfast beforehand.

I started a new week of Weight Lifting (Week 5 already!). This week is all about Super Sets. That means that you should perform 1 set of the first exercise (Exercise A) and immediately perform a set of the second exercise (Exercise B). Then you can take a rest interval. The book explains that, "Your body can adapt to a certain training routine in approximately 2 weeks. This means that you will get little or no results if you do the same workout longer than 2 weeks in a row." So, as a result, you have to switch things up a little bit.

Here is the workout from today:

A) Leg Extensions: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 13 reps @ 60 lbs
B) Leg Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 115 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 115 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 3 sets of 15 reps @ 20 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown (triangle bar): 3 sets of 15 reps @ 60 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Flys: 1 set of 15 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 12 reps @ 10 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 10 lbs
B) Dumbbell Bench Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 20 lbs
*****
A) Crunches: 3 sets of 15 reps
B) Ab Bench Crunches: 3 sets of 15 reps

On my first leg press, I realized that my left hamstring still hasn't recovered from last week. I'm thinking that maybe next time I'll lower the weight slightly on the leg curls in order to have a shorter recovery period. I think I'll still get a good benefit even if I lift 5 pounds less each time.

Everything went pretty well. Luckily, the weight room was pretty quiet so it wasn't a big deal to be using two pieces of equipment at essentially the same time. I was always a little worried that someone would sneak in and take the machines that I was using, but it all worked out.

After the weight lifting, I headed over to do some cardio. I happened to spy a new piece of equipment that I hadn't seen at the gym before! It was a computerized spin bike. As soon as I saw it, I felt like my entire winter just got a lot better. I know that the spin bikes are better than the cardio bikes, but I never really wanted to use them because I really like to know how far I've gone and I also like the fact that you can program the cardio bikes. Well, everything I liked in a cardio bike has now been delivered in a spin bike!

So, I hopped on. I didn't love it. I played around with a lot of the settings and tried to figure out which settings I thought I would like best. There are spin class programs that you can do or you can do a more customizable program. The internet says that there are about a million combinations you can do, so it seems like perhaps if I mess around with it a little bit more, I can find something that I like.

The thing that I don't really like is the part where you get out of the saddle (in the spin class program). Somehow that seems really unrealistic to me in my regular bike riding, but I can understand that it is making my legs stronger for training purposes. I also always feel like I should keep a 90+ cadence and having a lower cadence makes me feel weird too, like I'm cheating somehow.

After testing out the bike for a bit, Drew and I hit the pool again for another of our swimming lessons. Although this isn't much of a workout for me, I'm really enjoying it. Drew is definitely improving, but he definitely still has a long way to go. He gets tired really easily after swimming one length of the pool (18 yards). We did work a lot on kicking today, which I think was really helpful. It's definitely the case that he has a lot better form kicking or swimming when he's taking it a little bit slower than when he's racing and rushing.

We did a couple of races where I would give him a (huge) head start and then try and beat him down the pool. I beat him in the kicking races, but didn't quite make it (I was one stroke short) in the swimming competition. It's things like that that make it really fun to get in the pool with him. And I hope that he likes it too.

Weight Lifting
Time: 37:15
Calories: 299
Maximum HR: 162
Average HR: 132

Spin Bike
Time: 29:24
Distance: ~8.5 miles
Pace: 17.35 MPH
Calories: 357
Maximum HR: 180
Average HR: 167

Swimming
Time: 28:00
Calories: 181
Maximum HR: 159
Average HR: 119