Last week I pushed myself through a crazy fitness challenge called a Dry-Tri. The workout is below, but the idea behind it is that you’re completing a mini triathlon but on just land and you can do it just about anywhere. It was insane, breathless and horribly challenging but I did it.
In the blogging world they say you should solve a problem. You should provide your readers with solutions to everyday things (food, information, how-to’s). I’ve been rocking a lot of that but today I wanted to just share a story.
If you follow me on twitter and Instagram, you know I love lifting. Weights are my staple workout, my go-to. I also enjoy running but on a small scale. I rock 2-3.5k most weeks and that’s about it.
One of my best friends though is the opposite. She’s a ninja (literally!! She competed in worlds two months ago). She doesn’t run, lifts weights kind of but thrives more on interval training and obstacles.
A month or so ago, she completed a Dry-Tri at the gym she went to. She told me about it, and I have to admit, at the time, it sounded practical. Terrible but practical.
And so, the itch to try it begin.
The more I analyzed the workout though, the more it sucked haha
For starters, I haven’t used a row machine in six years. That just made me honest to god nervous. The repetitions looked hard but mainly because most of my workouts are strength based and thus are 6 reps and under. I figured I could muscle through, but it would suck.
And then the 5k to finish. It’s not like I’ve never done a 5k run before (check out how I learned to run here) but it’s normally really hard and I’ve never done one already tired.
But every so often, I do want to push myself. To see what I can do.
Since I don’t have a rowing machine, another of my friends (from the barbell balance) and a fellow personal trainer let me borrow her studio so I could complete the row and bodyweight stuff.
Really, I came in sweated, half died on her floor and then quite literally ran out of her house lol She got a good laugh watching me suffer while she sipped on her coffee
So, the day came, I had slept like shit the night before (yay kids *eye roll*) but I was ready to do it. You can check out a video summary of how I felt about the workout below but honestly- it was hard.
The row took me longer than anticipated. I expected 8 minutes and it took a full 9.5. It was hard, I was tired. I jumped into the bodyweight stuff and just did. I remember being super effing breathless and everything was fatiguing so I had to take mini “shake it off” breaks.
I was literally gasping. The squats and burpees were the easiest but the effing step ups were eye twitchy. I wanted to make sure I was activating properly and thus I didn’t rush them as much as I should have.
After going through everything twice I grabbed my sunglasses and got outside.
The first 1.5k of my run was BRUTAL. I couldn’t breathe, had a stitch in my side and seriously questioned if I would be walking the 5k.
I slowed down, took a moment and tried again. I did this three times and by 2.3k I had my breathing. I focused on belly breathing and from there it was easy.
The last half of the run was the easiest part of the workout because I could breath. The downside was that my glutes were super tired and so my knee started to bug me.
I finished the workout in 50 minutes and 9 seconds.
I got back to my friends house (to grab my stuff) and promptly stated if I ever wanted to do random challenges again to tell me I was an idiot haha.
But there is a point to the story. The workout was hard, I wouldn’t recommend it personally. And it was completely out of my element/style.
I don’t enjoy workouts that leave you that breathless, gasping and half dead on the floor. I believe workouts should make you feel better, not worse and that you do not need to push to max every day. Period.
But I’m happy as f*ck that I did this. I’m proud of this.
In fitness (and in life!) you need to push yourself. You need to test yourself and figure out what you’re capable of. To do that, you need to step out of the comfort box. It sucks and it’s hard but it’s also where most of the best things occur.
If you want new or better results, often you have to do things you don’t like. It’s just the way it goes.
For me, I needed to do this for myself. I wanted to know I could push myself that way when needed. It gives me an idea of my overall fitness, and my strength to endure.
I don’t think you need to do this exact workout to be a badass. But I do think you need to pull up your big girl pants and push yourself out of your comfort zone to truly see what you can do. You’d be amazed at how badass you really are?
Stay fit friends.
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