In Shape / It's Life

I Did a Week of Two-a-Days and Survived

“You’re crazy.”

“That’s insane and impossible.”

“Why tf are you doing that.”

Those were just a few of the responses I received when I told my friends/family/strangers that I wanted to do a week of working out twice a day. As a full-time employee with a social life, it does seem pretty impossible.

But, YOLO.

I wanted to challenge myself both physically and mentally. I wanted to prove that I could do “anything I set my mind to,” or whatever Disney told me growing up.

The rules were simple: One week doing two workouts a day totally at least an hour and a half (so two 45-minute workouts, or one hour and one half hour). I made a schedule and found a lot of free or new classes in Houston to try. I picked a week where I was relatively light on evening events, which was tough. I wound up picking a Thurs-Wed, rather than Sun-Sat. I also convince my workout buds to rally and join me at different things throughout my schedule.

I knew it would be tough, and, to hold myself accountable, I chose to blog about it. Here’s how it went.

Thursday

Morning: Boot camp

I’ve been doing a four-week boot camp with Camp Gladiator, and this was my last week. I hadn’t been as committed as I should have been. The outdoor strength and cardio workouts are hard. I only mustered up the motivation to go once or twice a week. I worked too late earlier in the week and missed a class I had planned on going to, so this morning I pulled myself out of bed at 5:45 a.m. to make the brutal, hour-long class.

Evening: Yoga

When I said brutal, I wasn’t exaggerating. A combination of not enough sleep last night, the still-dark 6 a.m. workout, and running my ass off made me tired af by noon. I rethink my original plan to run after work and instead opt for a 30-minute yoga sesh to end my first day of two-a-days. I found this wonderful yoga account on YouTube, and chose “Strength and Flexibility.” I’ve never done yoga outside a class, so this was different, but still challenging and exactly what I needed after this morning’s ass kicking.

Friday

Morning: Abs

Woke up early (again) and I was still so sore from yesterday’s AM brutality, and originally I had planned on a quick run, but in anticipation of the cardio I had planned for later, I consulted Pinterest for a half hour ab workout. The one that I did wasn’t that challenging, and at the time I appreciated it. Then I did 10 mins or so of stretching.

Evening: Cycle

Hurrah! SoulCycle is in Houston now, so I thought I’d give myself a treat with the first $20 class at 5;30. It was tough, and honestly p similar to Revolution Studio, and it made me just wish I was there instead. Overall great workout, and I was sweaty and tired af after.

Saturday

Morning: Cycle

Clearly didn’t think this one through because back to back cycle classes like this is really hard on the butt (and legs, and arms). I tried my hardest to do the class to my full power, but it was HARD.

Morning: Yoga

Post cycle, I headed downtown for a free 9 am Hatha Yoga class in the under appreciated downtown park. It. Was. Heaven. Lots of stretching and balance, but not a lot of strength which was so appreciated because walking was hard after those two cycle classes. Now that my two classes were done by like 10 am, I had the whole day to recover (and nap).

Sunday

Morning: Yoga

13231102_10206279034684674_951370165_nYikes, love Black Swan for a challenge. Hate it after days of weights and cardio. I still think I did well! It was HOT, so I worked up a sweat. I immediately re-metabolized any calories I might have burned at brunch at Black Walnut.

Evening: Cross trainer

I was going to go on a run around the neighborhood, but it was stormy. I instead hit my gym’s best location in Sugar Land and hopped on the cross trainer. Boy, it was hard to find motivation, but some jams helped me to stay on there for 40ish minutes.

Monday

Evening: Cycle

Oops. Gave myself the morning to sleep in, but I did so knowing my gym had two classes I could make in the evening. Also packed extra protein in my lunch to help me last the straight, sweaty hour and a half. Cycle was a 45 minute interval class.

Evening: Body Pump

This was my first body pump class in a WHILE (and I still knew the track and all the songs — dang Les Mills, change it up more). Was V sore after this.

Tuesday

Evening: Run

13250467_10206279033204637_147319189_nThis time, the over sleeping was accidental. Mad at myself, but forced myself to leave work right at 5 to make it to Discovery Green yoga early so I could run. DG is not really a track, but you can get a good 4-5 laps around the water and playground stuff. I also never realized how beautiful the park is!

Evening: Yoga

DG’s yoga is so weird. This one was focused on core and lengthening. Also, lots of balancing. Turns out, I was having a very off-balance day.

Wednesday

Morning: Strength

Finishing my last day of the week of two-a-days strong! Sort of. Since I didn’t feel as much of a core workout as ideal, I did the ab workout from pinterest again.

Evening: Cycle

May as well wrap this week up with a tough workout like it how it started. One sweaty honor of cycle later, I’M DONE!

Final thoughts

  • OK, that was not at all as hard as I thought it would be. It makes me think that I have NO excuse not to work out every day ONCE a day.
  • Dang, when you workout this much you have a lot of laundry and showering to do.
  • I’m constantly hungry. Eating healthy was hard.
  • I never got bored? Really surprising. But I managed to mix up the places and types of workouts really well! Plus, I found all the free things and treated myself on some things too.
  • Buddies were nice. Any time I could get a friend to join me, the time flew by!
  • Classes made me work harder. Held me accountable.

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