Occasionally I have taken a closer look at some workouts (not races) with a Case Study post. This one is about today's workout. I do my long cardio workouts on Thursdays because I have my entire morning free, but the weather outside was truly horrible (cold, raining, and very high winds). So I decided to slog it out at the Rec Center where I work, and to avoid spending the entire experience miserable, I would get onto a variety of machines or areas and split up my cardio into segments. Hence what would become: the Rec Center Pentathlon. Five events of varying lengths, taking about 3 hours of time to complete.
Event 1: the five-mile walk on the indoor track. This indoor track overlooks the two gyms at the Rec, and is 14 laps for one mile. Got my clicky counter from the front desk and went to work. Whenever I entered the smaller gym the temperature went up about 10 degrees, which added a "fun" element to the experience. I knew this would be by far the worst part of my workout, which is why I did it first. Walking around the track offered little by way of entertainment, beyond passing people who were walking slower than I was. I didn't even have music. It was a valuable experience, though, because I was able to practice grabbing and returning my water bottle to its shelf next to the track without breaking stride. Also I had negative splits and felt extremely smooth.
Event 1 Time: 1:05:30
SHORT BREAK for water refill and Fig Newton (today's refuel of choice)
Event 2: 100 floors on the stepmill. I wanted a number of floors that seemed doable, but impressive. I knew this would be my highest heart rate of the day (about 155 average) so I wanted to get it done second. And it's a Matrix machine so I got to watch more "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" on Netflix.
Event 2 Time: 26:30
Event 3: 10 miles on the stationary bike. This is hardly ever a part of my fitness routine because I find it too easy cardio-wise (heart rate around 130) to be worth the time, but in a pentathlon, sometimes you just gotta fill in with random crap. Plus I needed an easy segment at this point. More Netflix.
Event 3 Time: 39:00
SHORT BREAK for water refill and Fig Newton (these things are flawless for workouts)
Event 4: one mile on the treadmill at maximum (15%) incline. I figured I could go as slow as I needed to. And boy, did I go slow. Heart rate was in the low 150s anyway. Finished "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" at the very end of this section.
Event 4 Time: 26:00 (plus 1 minute to get the treadmill back down to 0% for the next patron)
Event 5: two miles on the elliptical. I didn't want to do too much on this machine because I do it all the time, but I knew two miles would get me to 3 hours for the total, so I threw it in there. Started "Hey Qween" on Netflix, but there were no awful Republican men around to look disapprovingly at me about it. Darn.
Event 5 Time: 22:00
TOTAL PENTATHLON TIME: 3 hours flat. Felt amazing at the end. Diversifying the workout was the right choice, and it's definitely one that people should utilize. Sometimes it's intimidating to think "oh god, I have to do (insert time here) of exercise," but if you break it down, it's not so bad. If your goal is to work out for an hour, you can split that into two or three different machines. Have fun with it. And hope for better weather next week!
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