Final Valkyrie Week, Day 2 + Mace
I didn’t get the chance to post about this yesterday, because I literally spent all day long trying to fix a fiasco and recover 5 recipes that disappeared like a fart in the wind. In the end I ultimately had to start over again with them and rewrite them, which was trickier than one might think, because I almost never measure anything when I’m cooking, so when I write them for Eat Like a Valkyrie, it’s literally the only copy of the written recipe. I know, it’s terrible, but I season with my heart, I can’t change it.
So let’s recap yesterday really quick before we move into today.
Yesterday was the first day of the final Valkyrie week, and we had Upper Body and Core work. I’ve really loved this month, between the sword drills and boxing and all the core focus, I’ve had rapid loss of inches all over my body and some pretty intense progress in my form, my balance, my muscle gains and the tone that I see all over my body lately. I can see the warrior body coming through the layers of abuse and neglect and I AM HERE FOR IT!
As usual, Upper Body and Core work was a 3×3 round, 3 moves in each round, 3 rounds each. We had some boxing drills and upper body moves with weights, and a lot of core thrown in. For the first time in my entire life, I was able to do a boat sit up; legs straight out in front of me, lay all the way back, and sit straight up. Sam says she sits up out of bed this way and it creeps her husband out because she sits up like the dead. Anyway I can do those, with weights in my hands, and I thought it was wild. My core is so sore from these things yesterday.
The Mace workout is an AMRAP with two moves, a chest press and a squat round, alternating the side the macebell is on, for 15 minutes. It was harder than I anticipated, the weight displacement of the macebell on one side and not evenly distributed definitely caused some compensation in the movements, that I had to be very aware of. I was grateful for my reflection in the window to show me how I was moving so I could correct it quickly and easily. I moved through the workout with really slow and precise motions, checking my engagement was proper, that I wasn’t leaning into one side more than the other, and that my posture was squared off and secure. I’ve been working with 10lb dumb bells for a couple months now, and yet I found the 10lb mace to be a interesting adjustment.
I got through them all yesterday as well as the recipe fiasco. I’m glad I got it fixed, but now I have to figure out how to make the schedule WORK for every Friday, since I’m clearly having issues making that happen.
Today, I woke up with some mild low back pain, I haven’t done core reset in about a week, so I started there, but didn’t find a lot of relief, so I did some spinal mobility as well before I started on today’s workout: Sword Drills and Balance. Which means, sword drills and core. I really love these combination days where we’re doing boxing or sword drills plus core work, I’m hitting so many progress milestones it’s bordering on fantasy land. I made sure I moved slowly through each move and consciously engaged the muscles needed to smooth each movement out, and also make sure I didn’t tweak my back, since it’s achy today. I am in the second week of my luteal phase, so I know that cramps and low back pain are all just par for the course for me at this point, and I’m slowing myself down a little bit so that I can continue but without injury.
I will get into Mace Day 2 in a few hours, being that I’m in my Luteal phase, I know that I fatigue quickly and I don’t want to wear myself out before the day has even started: I have 3 kids to homeschool and a house to run, chores to do, and I need to spend some time studying today too, so I really can’t afford to burn out by working out too hard in the morning. I will likely do this workout mid morning or even after lunch.
I’ve been doing a lot of homework about when the best time to eat is when you’re working out, and I learned some really startling information, startling for me. I’ve always done my workouts fasted, on an empty stomach, because having food in my stomach while working out always gives me the burps or indigestion of some kind, and I hate feeling like there’s a potential for me to puke when I’m trying to workout. But Fasted workouts are bad, especially for women, it leads to hormone imbalances, cortisol overload, and a whole slew of issues that are really difficult to figure out and fix. Oh hey, Hi, it’s me, with all the hormone problems. So I’m making sure that I follow Cassian’s orders and actually eat something before training. Even if it’s just a banana, or some ham and cheese, a few bites of yogurt, I need something in my stomach to start the day with. Research suggests drastic turn arounds in our hormones and in our muscle gains in as little as a week, once you make the switch from fasted workouts to fed workouts. Also recovery time is lessened by over 60%, so like, what the hell, eat the food.
Just another layer of bullshit to peel back, another lie to take off the charts. I swear to the gods, every day I learn about another lie that I was told would help me, when all it’s done is hurt. I promise with my whole ass heart, I’m going to change this crap when I get my CPT. Just one more way to use the sword: hacking away the lies of toxic diet culture and Hollywood body trends and beauty standards to save someone. Maybe that’s the warrior we need these days.
It’s windy as hell outside, so I’m not sure when a walk will happen for Yrsa and I, but we’re gonna try if we can. The weather is so weird lately, one day it’s snowing, the next day it’s 50 F outside and sunny, and the day after that it’s practically a hurricane blowing in off the lake. The warmer it gets though, the more excited I am for morning workouts with the sunrise like I was doing late last summer and early fall. It was beautiful and such a great way to start the day. On that note though, I can’t believe I’ll be coming up on my 1 year of Valkyrie training this Sept. It’s not that far away now that we’re on the other side of Winter and Spring is just around the corner. I’ve never been so committed to anything, except maybe my marriage and my kids. That’s kind of a big deal, ya know?
Anywho, I have recipes to work on and then I have to clean up that entire page because there’s at least 4 weeks worth of recipes that the links are broken on. When it rains it pours.
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