I’m writing this on the train from Portland to Seattle. No wireless internet on the train, of course, so I will have to post it later today. This will be my first “time away from home” on the PCP. I have to go clean out a house that we used to own up there – long story. Anyway, there’s a bunch of furniture in the house that I need to pick up and bring back to Portland. So instead of renting a truck and driving both ways, I decided to take the train up and bring my bike with me. It will end up being a whole lot cheaper (a grand total of around $250 for the train ticket, truck rental, and gas home vs. over $500 for a round trip truck rental for the time I needed!), plus I get the added benefit of the bonus exercise of riding my bike all over Seattle. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. So far it’s been partly cloudy all day, but no rain. Hope it stays that way!
This morning I actually got out of bed early, drank about half a glass of smoothie (left over from last night’s nighttime snack) and hit the park for my jumps and pull-ups. Once again, my jumps were total crap! Not as bad as yesterday, but considering the fact that I was in a decent frame of mind, wasn’t feeling rushed, was basically alone on a cool morning at the park, I just don’t get it. One the plus side, I rocked the pull-ups pretty well. I did one set of 10, then one set of 8, then did my jumps, then went back and completed a set of 9 and then 7. So, not all in a row, but hey, I did a set of 10 pull-ups! Just that in and of itself would have seemed impossible to me just a month ago. When I got to the park (around 7:15 am) there was an impromptu aerobics/training class going on under the pavilion, which was kind of bizarre. 3 women and a trainer doing their exercise thing to the tuneful accompaniment of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. Which begs the question, why do all exercise routines or music played by personal trainers to “pump you up” have to be absolutely horrible? I mean, really, people, there’s GOOD music out there that energizes and inspires. Anyway.
Getting my PCP on in the next few days is definitely going to be a challenge, what with all the work I have to do (and friends I want to see – I have the feeling that at least one alcoholic beverage has the potential to be consumed – no beer, though!). However, I will do my best to keep it on the straight and narrow. I have all my accoutrements with me (rope, resistance band, door anchor), and there’s a park pretty close to the Seattle house, so I’m not really all that worried, but still it might be a challenge to fit everything in. Wish me luck!
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HI Jeremy: i was thinking tonight about your jump rope woes. is your rope the right size for you? Is it too short, too long? I noticed in the beginning for me i held my rope by the handle where it touched the rope, making it very short so I tripped often. Now I hold the handle by the end and things went a LOT smoother. Also I noticed, for me anyway, that i had this tendency to want to speed up through my sets of 100 so I had to concentrate on finding a pace and sticking with it. And then I notice when I jump that my feet sometimes point out, hence clipping the rope, so that's another one of my jump roping "ticks" I must manage while jumping.
ReplyDeletealso ... and this might be more pro-action than you wanna take on, maybe there is a jump rope expert you could ask for their advice and tips? I know in our town the local rec center has a jump rope program for kids and the woman who teaches it is like a world reknown expert: http://www.mollymetz.com/
Maybe there is someone close to you that can advise?
If you really want to get some feedback on your rope take a short video of you jumping and I can tell you if I see any problems.
ReplyDeleteIf things continue the way they have been, Patrick, I will do just that. I don't have a video recording device at the moment but I need to get one anyway.
ReplyDeleteMel - I don't think the rope length is the problem. In the beginning, I came to the conclusion that the standard rope was just a hair long for me, so I tied a knot in it to shorten it, which worked. I do think, however, that someone should make special jump-rope shoes, with extra cushioning but NO tread for the rope to get caught on!