Deth

It has been months since I’ve used the assault bike. There have been various reasons why I haven’t used it, but the main one is how I pour sweat when I’m working out. The bike is in the dining room on the carpet. I would rather not stink it up. Well, sweat is the reason, but it was more than I would rather not have to be going in and out of the garage dripping sweat. The steps are somewhat slippery when they’re wet. The bright sun coming in through the large windows in the garage is also nasty for my eyes adjusting to the lighting changes.

Early this morning, I did my strict presses, and they didn’t go too well. I wasn’t expecting them to, but I still tried. They’re at a weight now where I feel like I can succeed or fail depending on the day. My neck is stiff as hell along with my shoulder today, so we know where that went. It’s one of those times when having years of experience and realistic expectations is really helpful. In the past, I probably would have been super disappointed.

It was a cool and rainy day. Most of today was a lazy sort of day, and I dicked around most of the day doing nothing. It’s good to have some days like that, though. I knew I wanted to do a WOD but nothing I looked at piqued my interest. Next week’s WODs look to be mostly not ones that would work well for me. I also wanted to work around my stiff neck, so I didn’t want the high rep of going overhead. I had looked at today’s several times, but their alternative to running is rowing for calories. If there’s one thing about WODs with rowing in them, it’s the fact that I hate rowing for those because I just do not have a feel for where that is. At least when it comes to distance, I have a good idea where I am. I am unable to see the screen without stopping and putting my face practically up to it due to my vision.

Later this afternoon, I took one more glance at today’s WOD. That was after I had mostly written off a WOD for today and I saw the bike option. The lightbulb above my head lit up then. “I haven’t used the bike in ages,” I thought. Today would be a perfect opportunity to get an assault bike WOD in. It wasn’t a good start because I just was not able to see the numbers on the screen with the dust and the way the light was reflecting on it. But at least I just have to slow down on the bike to lean forward enough to block the light. Molly came home just in time to watch the screen for me, so that worked out even better.

All in all, it was a pretty good WOD for me. I paced the bike well and was truly happy with how that portion of the WOD went. The sandbag ground to overhead went well. I chose those instead of the barbell or double dumbbell snatches because of my stiff neck. I could just drop the sandbag, and that’s precisely what I did when I wasn’t cycling. Especially in the earlier rounds, it took me more time to walk in and out of the garage than it did to do the sandbag portion, since that was a ladder starting with one rep. I’ve said it before, our setup isn’t perfect, but we’re fortunate to have what we have. I mean, we’re on the same page. Our dining room has the runner and bike in it!

I felt like I got more out of this WOD than many of the workouts that they have been programming recently. It was a good day.