Soaked

My day started off on a cold and wet note, as I made the decision to bike to school even after my roommates told me that it was not only going to rain, but that the temperature was going to drop significantly. I made it about 50 feet before the rain started, but I thought I could make it to campus before the rain really picked up. Not so much. I was absolutely soaked, and I had only my umbrella to keep me dry as I walked from my bike to my class. Thankfully, my day only got better from there.

Workout

As you have probably noticed, I like to swim on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I get out of class at 1:45pm, and since I am already on campus, I figure that I can just knock out my workout for the day before heading back home to get work done. Today was clearly not one of those swim-friendly days, so I was forced to settle with a different form of exercise.

I elected to take a 6:30pm Body Pump class at the gym. I haven't taken a Body Pump class in weeks, probably even months, and I knew this would challenge me. And, it did. There was a new release two weeks ago and it is tough. The bicep and lunge tracks are always difficult for me, but today was especially tough. Though that might have been because I haven't worked my muscles in that way in quite some time. During the lunge track, I felt as though I was back in my volleyball element with a move called the plyometric straddle jump. Try and visualize this one with me.

• Straddle the bench
• Chest up, abs braced
• Jump up and land on the bench with soft knees
• Explode off the bench - get some air time!
• Land straddling the bench

It looks like this, but EXPLODE with your arms too - like a star jump (Source)

Try it sometime, I guarantee you will love it! Well, I can't guarantee you will love it, but it will probably make you smile while doing it. I followed my Body Pump class with 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill. I covered 1.38 miles while reading a book for fun. It might be my last time to do that for a few weeks!

And now I am off to hopefully be extremely productive on the homework front. Normally my crazy week is the last week of class, but for some reason, next week is my crazy week. So my weekend will be filled with lots of paper writing, reading, and studying. Not ideal, but we're on the home stretch! Just a few more weeks, and there's lots to look forward to this summer!