The Row

I caught a smudged pic on my camera phone just before a Friday's workout.  I have a bad habit of forgetting to lock it so I get several pictures of nothing.  In this case, it couldn't have come at a better time.  It was row day in the gym so you get to catch a glimpse of my challenge of the day. 

There was nothing on the workout board so we weren't sure if we would be combining a row with other moves or not.  Turned out it was only the machine that day.  The expectation was 3000 meters in 10 minutes with a slight resting period ever minute or so.  I don't know how long the resting period was.  I only know it wasn't enough! Then when that was done, there was a 3 minute rest and we were back in the saddle and expected to pull out 1000 meters as hard and fast as possible in 4 minutes.  He was feeling generous and gave the ladies an additional 45 seconds.  The display was set and we were off!

I don't know that I've ever heard so many grunts at one time.  I did my share of it.  Sounded like a women's tennis match up in there.  Lol. It was hard but I kept going.  Even had my eyes closed some of the time to discourage negativity after seeing the time on the screen.  At one point I looked at the display and saw that I had less than a minute to go and was short on distance.  At that moment I heard Sgt say, 'If you aren't on mark push to catch up!' And I did.  I dug in and pushed hard with my legs and pulled hard enough to get my wattage over 50% what it had been.  It was hell but guess what? We did it!  Yes we did! I walked away with wobbly and shaking arms and a smile of pride on my face.  Had someone told me that was going to be the workout before-hand, I know I would have thought it impossible for me to complete.  But again, it's that ignorance/blind trust thing I had going on that got me through it.  That and one of my friends from the department was struggling right along side me. 

When I got home, I excitedly told my husband about it and he gave me a hug and congratulated me.  I even had to text a few friends about it.   I won't lie and say I didn't feel the effects of such a workout.  My lungs burned and my still tender shoulder muscles (from the strength training the day before) ached just a bit more.  But you know what?  I was OK with it all because I had met my goal and my reward for sticking it out all week was the long-awaited massage.  That alone will keep me sweating it out for another week.