As I suspected

One of the trickiest parts to completing the Half Marathon Circuit Challenge last night was keeping the dang instructions dry enough to read.

Observe


But after the first time through I sorta remembered what was up next.

The entire thing, mentally, felt like a rough interval workout. Here's how I describe those...

• 1st repeat - holy shit, this soooo blows and is it me or is this much harder than last time? no way will I get through all of these in one piece
• 2nd/3rd repeat - huh, maybe I will remain intact
• 3/4 of the way done - really??? another??? hanging on by a thread here peeps.
  
• last repeat - done? guess that wasn't so bad after all

Back to last night. Warmed up nice and easy with about 10 mins. of jogging and then got to 6 "100m" repeats. I use the quotes b/c I wasn't at a track and I wasn't paying close enough attention to my Garmin. The sprints ranged from 21-28 secs. and 102.5-126 meters but hot damn did they ever warm me up!

1st mile @HMP: 7:29
Took off like I was shot out of a cannon, never have my weak pacing skillz shone through more brightly.

20 burpees - you suck burpees, I don't like you, I don't like how it feels you're sucking everything out of me
70 ab crunches
40 walking lunges
70 low back extensions
20 push-ups
30 one-leg squats (15/each leg)

2nd mile @HMP: 7:42
Better on pace but still hard to gauge as I'm running into a massive headwind on the way out and scoring a sweet tailwind on the way back

30 bench dips
30 high bench step ups (15/each leg)
100 jumps
60 cross-body swings (30/each leg)

3rd mile @HMP: 7:50

20 burpees - I still don't like you, I don't like your family either. You're a brute.
70 ab crunches
40 walking lunges
70 low back extensions
20 push-ups
30 one-leg squats (15/each leg)

4th mile @HMP: 7:50

30 bench dips
30 high bench step ups (15/each leg)
100 jumps
60 cross-body swings (30/each leg)

5th mile @HMP: 7:41
This is surprising, I thought I was barely moving and the fatigue was setting in & fast.

Took a sec to stretch out some and then ran for another 20 mins. or so, real sleazy (slow + easy) like.

All in all, I really dug this workout. I've always been a huge fan of boot camp stuff and that's exactly what this felt like. It'd feel like I had a slow leak for a bit and then I'd hit a huge surge and then I'd just be. I will undoubtedly do this again, maybe early next week. Now that I know the individual exercises better and the feel of it all, I think it'll go more smoothly and perhaps I won't have to tuck the explanation sheet down my sports bra again. Ugh.

Thanks for the inspiration Jill! Any other good stuff like this you have tucked away, send it my way.