Challenge Day 5: Troy UltraConditioning 5.0 - Ultra Total Body 12/6/12

TP data of the workout

I thought I was getting pretty good at Spinervals workout until I had the first exposure to Ultra Conditioning series with 5.0. Good thing that I bought the 5-pack when it was Flash sale!

Anticipation

It was good to hear reports of who juggled days and downloaded Challenge schedule two days too early as well as people who did on the scheduled day earlier than my afternoon. Karen in Scotland reported basic equipment needs and I knew my StrEndurance D setup would be sufficient. From earliest reports, I thought it would be something like Competition 11.0 - Big Gear Strength with Team Excel; workout on and off bike come alternatively. Several reported they were barely walking the day being after Threshold test. I thought my legs were in good shape, although I had rough second half main set with chest pain due to cardiac drift yesterday. When I heard animals in the pack reported (namely Shaker and Alan), it started to sound like a serious workout. Also reported was the slower than StrEndurance-pace squat thrusts. I thought, well, if it is slower, I may just be able to keep it up. I quickly read Michelle's blog and thought this girl sure likes to work out. She is so enthusiastic and that is just cute.

Playing with devices and shoes

Several friends reported they decided to pause the device one way or another. Many with dedicated Pain Cave with limited space reported that they needed to modify placement of things. Also commented it is a good practice for transition for tri and having fancy shoes. Cleda hated this transition part and it complicated even more because I play with two devices. I decided Garmin would probably not mind lengthy floor portion as long as my heart rate is being read. Several people stopped to give accurate on-bike speed, but I thought having a lap data should suffice. I am glad I went that way; heart rate data during off-bike portion is quite interesting and how intense off-bike portion is. My beloved DigiFit is not as tolerant when it loses sensor connections. So I decided to pause it for off-bike. One of the new experiences for UltraConditioning was this transition; shoes and devices and moving to weights part of the living room, while Coach times and hurry up our effort. One time I managed to “End Workout” on DigiFit instead of just pausing and end up creating two files for the workout. URGH.

Warm up while watching Coach's Notes and Technique portion

It is mandatory for me to watch Coach's Notes before each workout. For warm up for sure, but also to understand Coach's intention (who just announced publicly his engagement and will be a married man on the weekend! Congratulations!). I figured watching Technique portion of the DVD is important as my unpaid personal trainer (aka Husband) and I agree, performing weight exercises with proper form is essential. Here I saw push-up is done on BOSU. We have one sitting around in the house. That might make easier/harder on push ups. So I hopped off the bike and got it set up. My eyes got wider when I saw the intensity is displayed at 9.8! Without looking at the official intensity meter online, I loosely recalled this is probably pretty close to 26.0 or even 13.0. Also noticed was this version of squat thrust (burpee) has a jump at the end! :-0 This is what my formal trainer, Greg, had me do and I was so glad that that particular program ended. I thought I would never have to do it again now I got rid of him. WRONG.

So the workout starts

On-bike portion starts out innocently; universal big 15, 30 sec. warm up. But I didn't get that THREE sets of ten jumping burpees. All I recalled was somebody was glad that it was in earlier stage of the workout (but it came back again! :-0). Heart rate is way up and then I realized what Mary was talking about with TT all over again. I believe there were five reps to bring up to threshold. I was happy that my heart rate actually went higher than my AT, but on the third rep, I felt a tiny cringe on my chest. I learned from yesterday and dumped overprepared huge jug of water on my head. Boy, that felt good. So I was able to move on. YEY. Rest of off-bike portion went without too much trouble. I was even pleased I could actually do side plank with upper arm extended. Thanks to StrEndurance! I was grinning thinking Coach must have been reading all my whining about StrEndurance in Engage Phase. On-bike portion continued to be something that Coach Troy from yesterday in 27.0 said we should not be doing (he said at least one day easy day, possibly two, but that is Challenge, I guess) and by the time jumping burpees came back, I was just about tripping myself during the transition. I also could not remember last time I came this close to puking. (And there was no instruction as far as which direction this time.)

Afterwards

I commended people who completed the workout before they went to work. I was so glad that I didn't have to; I would be rolling around in classroom trying to figure out which part of the room I should be throwing up. Husband called and had to listen to me going on about the workout. I didn't even feel like I can drink recovery drink (EAS Myoplex). Almost two hours after completion, I decided that I can eat, but I had no brain left. I just kept reading everybody's workout reports for the day and watched Robert Irvine saving a couple of restaurants. Another day of Challenge in the bag.