But first, a long-delayed Empress of Dorsa update:
Words today: 0
Manuscript total: 140,258
^ As you will notice, the 2nd draft of Empress of Dorsa is currently longer than the total length of Princess of Dorsa and I still have a ways to go. It’s still shorter than Soldier of Dorsa, which clocked in at about 200k, but it could still wind up longer in the end.
Have you thought about the fact that we’re about to hit the one-year mark of the pandemic?
I’ve thought about it. It’s funny to look back at the past eleven months and realize how we’ve all gone through the various stages of grief in relation to COVID-19 and are now at a point of weary acceptance. Back in the early days, I was writing posts like this one, when lockdown still had a sense of adventure to it. I was still thinking I would get to go to my grad program graduation ceremony, if not in May 2020, then at least by September. And when I got hired on as a middle school teacher in June, I thought there was still a possibility of going back to school by January.
I’m at a point where I accept most of it — the mask wearing, the social distancing, the lack of hugs from friends — but
the weight gain has been driving me crazy.
Before graduate school, I was working as a personal trainer at a commercial gym. I’m not sure I would say “I was in the best shape of my life,” because I’m still a woman in my 40s who isn’t the athlete I once was at the age of 16 or 17, but I was pretty darn close. When grad school started, I accepted I would gain some weight and lose some of my hard-earned muscle definition. But I thought, “I’ll take it off again as soon as I’m done with grad school.” In January, I even signed up with my buddy S. for a Spartan Race in April 2020. I had my eye on getting fit again by the onset of summer.
Alas. Those innocent days before the pandemic, when we could go to the gym practically any time we wanted to.
It turns out I’m really lazy without the gym being open and without LT saying, “Wanna go boxing on Saturday morning?” (We froze our boxing membership when the gyms in San Diego closed for a second time in the fall.)
And it’s not like I don’t know how to workout at home — I do! Hell, I was a personal trainer, remember? I’m perfectly capable of working out at home. So every day, I would tell myself, “After school today, you’re going to do a [ fill in the blank ] workout.” (HIIT, long run, upper/lower body, core, etc.)
And every day, I would find an excuse not to workout after all.
When my bathroom scale informed me back in early December that I was officially the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life, I freaked out. I told myself it was time to Get Serious. I started using MyFitnessPal again and made an effort to break my newly acquired DoorDash addiction.
Meanwhile, LT, me, and a friend of ours started a group text thread which mainly consisted of trying to get each other to join various Zoom workout classes.
Our friend is REALLY into those. Me … yeah, not so much.
Even with some positive peer pressure working on me, the combination of laziness and exhaustion stopped me from exercising after school with them.
LT informed me: “You are a morning person. You need to work out in the morning.”
“But I write in the morning,” I argued, somewhat whinily.
She continued to tell me that and I continued to say I had to protect my writing time.
“Besides,” I said, “my contract hours are technically 7:15am to 3:15pm.”
Now, keep in mind: The first class I teach isn’t until 10am, the earliest meetings I have never begin before 8am, and when I do finally teach, I’m often still wearing pajama bottoms … yet nevertheless, I was still holding to some strict notion of being a good employee, which meant I had to be in my desk doing school stuff by 7:15am, emailing students and lesson planning and all the rest of it. I’m a goody-two-shoes, what can I say?
This month, when the number on the scale still hadn’t changed, I finally started working out in the mornings. Now I write from 5:30 to 6:30, workout from 6:30 to 7:30, shower, and “do school” from 8:15 to 4:15. Don’t tell my principal.
“You were right,” I told LT. “I’m a morning person. I love working out in the mornings!”
You know what LT said, don’t you?
Smugly: “I’m always right.”
Being a woman in my 40s — almost my mid-40s, actually (why is this happening??) — I’m not losing weight as quickly as I could’ve ten years ago, but it IS slowly coming off.
Slowly.
My home workout routine (in case you find it useful)
I have minimal equipment.
A yoga mat, a crowded garage, an exercise band that has seen better days, an app called Seconds, and three sets of dumbbells: A 20 lbs. set that LT got me for Christmas, a 15 lbs. set my mom just got me for Valentine’s Day, and a 10 lbs. set that I got when I had to admit that I’ve degenerated to the point that sometimes even 15 lbs. is still too heavy.
Mondays = S.I.T. (sprint interval training — more on this below)
Tuesdays = Leg Day
Wednesdays = Recovery day — my writing group meets at 6am and there’s no time for that and a workout. I generally get in a quick walk around the neighborhood and that’s it.
Thursday = Pull Day (back and biceps)
Fridays = S.I.T.
Saturdays = Push Day (chest, shoulders, and triceps)
Sundays = Something fun and active (hiking, basketball, Pilates on Zoom, long walk, etc.)
More notes and specifics
Sprint Interval Training
This is a subset of HIIT (high intensity interval training). I read about SIT here and was especially drawn to its reputation for being both more effective and efficient than HIIT. I’m all about effective and efficient. This is how I structure mine:
For about 7 minutes, I walk-jog to an access road in my neighborhood that is uphill. That’s my warm-up.
I do six sprints at maximum speed for 30 seconds each. In between, I walk back down the hill for three minutes.
Then I walk-jog home. That’s my cool-down.
The whole thing takes about 35 minutes. It kicks my ass every time.
Muscular Endurance, not Hypertrophy
On the days that I’m resistance training, I don’t really have high hopes that I’m going to get my muscle definition back any time soon. With nothing but dumbbells, a yoga mat, and my garage, overloading my muscles enough to spur true “gainz” is unlikely. I’m doing mostly circuit training-style workouts with weights that are just beyond my comfort zone. TBH, it almost doesn’t qualify as weightlifting. It’s more like cardio that includes dumbbells.
Core
Just in case you thought I forgot about core, I include core exercises each time I do resistance training.
That’s it — oh, except one more thing!
Guess what?! Because I apparently don’t have enough to do, I’m going to be a track coach! I’ll be coaching the sprinters, both boys and girls, at the high school (I am at a charter school where the elementary, middle, and high schools are all on the same campus). We have a small team — like, REALLY, REALLY SMALL, like I have FIVE count them FIVE kids to work with — but I couldn’t be more excited about it.
Uhh… anybody know sprint mechanics??
Just kidding. Sort of.
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