Oh My, Michael

Today's workout is something called the Filthy Fifty. Think of a dozen evil exercises, and do about twenty of them each. Yikes.

Luckily, I missed yesterday's workout. A deceptively simple one called "Michael". The buttercup version looks pretty darned easy.

Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 Meters
10 Back Extensions
20 Situps
(from http://forum.brandxmartialarts.com/)

Easy peasy, right? Riiiight. Just you try it.

Well, in another stroke of luck, my brother also needed to do this workout today. He joined me. He's an absolute monster and can do the full workout:

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

So we go to the gym. We compared notebooks and it looked like my times from the last attempt were pretty close to his. Nice! Of course, he's doing a bigger workout, but I'm pudgy and unfit so it's fair.

I ran the first 400 m. Felt pretty good. Ran at 8.8 kmph which is an improvement over my last run at 8.5 kmph. 8.8 kmph = 5.46 mph = 10.97 minute miles. At the end I walked for a minute, and by then brother was done with his 800 m.

Back extensions were awesome. I think they're fun, and am sorely tempted to do 20 and then just do 10 situps. V. naughty.

Situps sucked, but so very much easier than last time!

Second run, less fun this time. Went down to 8.5 kmph. Again, walked a bit at the end.

Back extensions still fail to feel like exercise.

Situps sucked so much more. Still did better than last time where I failed partway through. At this point I'm panting hard. Not gasping, and not puking. Both are positive points. Brother seems to be hurting a similar amount, so I taunt him when I finish a couple of seconds ahead of him.

Third run. Not pretty. 8.2 kmph, then 7.9 kmph, then 7.5 kmph, then walk with a stitch, and finish last 100 at 8.5 kmph. Pretty close to gasping at the end, with a wicked stitch. Walk for a moment, and leave the treadmills a mere moment before brother does.

Back extensions become a lovely rest time. Love 'em. Brother suffers mightily during them, so as I leave to do my situps, I mock him again. Luckily he was tangled up on the back extension rack and couldn't reach me to hit me.

The situps went better than the second round, but I had to grunt on the last ten to finish. How ladylike! I did finish a few moments before brother.

All in all, I improved my time from last time by over a minute a round. Yay! Brother did well too, wasn't a personal record, but it was a highly respectable showing.

He also gave me a ginormous compliment - he said it looked like I was really working hard. That's nice to hear - I don't want to waste my time out there, and it's fun to have someone notice. He also gave me a molasses cookie, which was awesome.

It was really fun to do the workout with someone who knows what's going on, and has an idea of how I feel. Even though my workout was a much easier version of his, I was proud to even remotely keep up. I could have done even better for time if I hadn't taken a minute at the end of each run to recover a bit, but I'm still pleased with how I did.

Let's see how Michael the Third goes when it comes back up in the queue. Will have to invite brother along again and see how we both do.