Chariots of Fire July 20, 2011

Chariots of Fire was an Oscar nominated film from 1981 that I found both overrated and terribly boring. Fortunately for me (or unfortunately), today's workout was neither overrated nor boring.

The weather here is incredibly hot and muggy. Today was supposed to be the worst of the week so far. Temperatures were supposed to reach 100 degrees and with the heat index, it was supposed to feel like 115. At 5:30 in the morning, though, it wasn't too bad. Only about 78 and, when I got out of the car, there was a slight breeze.
This should be doable.

I knew things would be tough today when I noticed that Dustin had the tubing out which is never good. Then he told us part of our warm-up would be taking all of our things to the hill. Not only to the hill but to the top of the hill. Our weights, mats, water and whatever else we had. That was going to be quite the workout in itself. So I lugged my stuff all the way up. As an added bonus, I was trying to work through some serious shin splints. I was quite winded when I got to the top but, I must admit, I was warmed up. That wasn't enough though. Ashton had to do some additional warming up with us. Finally we were ready to go and we were split into 2 groups. The first group went down to the bottom of the hill with Dustin. The rest of us stayed at the top with Ashton.

We did 8 sets of exercises with Ashton, 4 on the mat, 4 standing with weights. Then we would repeat. I started with the standing weight exercises. We did walking lunges, squat jumps, walking lunges with a chop, and planks with upright rows. The 20 lb weights really do get heavy and my glasses kept getting steamed up. I also had a pesky mosquito bothering me so maybe it is time to break out the Off. Once on the mat I did v-sit ups, mountain climbers, sit-ups with the weights over our head, and lying on our backs while we did scissor legs.

Now during our exercises I was pretty curious as to what was happening at the bottom of the hill. From our angle I couldn't really see what was going on. So maybe they weren't running up the hill. Maybe chariots at the bottom. Or some kind of sprints. Still I kept an eye out. Finally I did notice the top of a head. It was there and then it was gone. I kept watching and soon I was rewarded. Here the second group came, running chariots up the hill! Oh, you have got to be kidding, I thought. Looking at the faces of the chariot runners, they weren't kidding. Oh, this should be fun, NOT! I could hardly wait for my turn to be in Dustin's group.

Well, my time came soon enough. Dustin told us that chariots was a good exercise for us, and running up the hill was a good exercise for us, so the combination of the two should be really good for us. Dang. I hate chariots, and I hate the hill so the combination of the two should be something I really hate. Now, let me explain that all exercises that are really difficult and good for me I hate. But I know how much benefit there is to doing these exercises so I willingly accept the challenge for my health, dang it. We started by running a couple 7 minute sprints to warm up. Then we would run chariots for a designated amount of time and switch places. At the end we had to run all the way up the top of the hill. The chariots weren't as bad as I thought as the longest run was 45 seconds. They were tough though. The last part, the final run up the hill, was not a good showing for me. My shin splints were hurting badly and I didn't quite make it up all the way. But a combination of running and walking did get me done and our workout was finished for the day. I did take a really long time coming down and getting back to the shelter. I think I was the last one. The humidity was really getting stifling and I was so glad it was over for the day.

Have a good one.