Ridin bikes and stackin wood
The hardest part of HIIT training (or working out in general) is keeping my brain from talking me out of working hard. Two childhood experiences help me with this.
Childhood experience #1
I spent two summers on long distance bike trips. The first summer we biked around the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, the second summer was across northern Minnesota. I had never spent any time in backwoods country type settings before, the terrain was beautiful. The bike trips were offered through our local YMCA youth camp. We carried all of our supplies with us on these trips: tents, sleeping bags, clothes, cooking supplies etc. We would bike by day, and camp at night. Often times we would bike 50-70 miles a day. Just like BodySHED bootcamp, there was nowhere to hide on these trips. We all biked together as a group, in a single file line alongside the highway. You had to keep up with the group, or you were left behind. Didn’t feel like biking that particular day? Not really an option. Ready for a break? Had to wait until the group was ready to take a break.
Childhood experience #2
Every fall my father would have a few cords of wood delivered to our house in preparation for winter. We lived in the city, but he liked to have a roaring fire at all times in the living room fireplace. My job was to transport all the wood from the driveway to the side of the house… around 20 yards away. Neatly stacked of course. This usually took me all day. Again, it did no good to stop and look at the woodpile. The only way to get through the job was move from point A to point B as fast as possible, take short breaks when needed, and then get moving as fast as possible again.
These experiences taught me that sometimes in life you just have to put your head down and work hard. You don’t ask the bike trip leader how many miles left to go. You don’t count how many logs are left to move. It doesn’t matter what the answer is. I am often tempted to ask Katie how many HIIT intervals we have left, but I don’t… because I know that it is out of my control. It is what it is.
I am certainly not the fastest moving person working out at The Shed these days. But I find I burn more calories when I just put my head down and try not to think about how much time in the class is left, or how many reps we have already done. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Good things happen when you work hard!
February 7th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
I gotta say, reading these blogs gives me the encouragement I need to keep coming to the classes – You are right, head down. Work hard. It pays off! Thanks for writing these!