The Sprunge Workout

SPRINT + LUNGE = SPRUNGE

My usual Saturday sprints got pushed to Sunday by sleeping late after my rock show on Friday night, and then my Sunday workout was undermined by an overwhelming desire to stay in my robe and drink a cup of chamomile-anise tea. (Look at that! Rock and roll and yucky weather busted me out of “health jail” for the weekend!)

But today, I woke up before the alarm, wiggled into my snuggly Under Armour cold weather gear, and went to the park with Dave for Saturday Sprints Done on Monday Instead™.

This workout is a stellar combination of gut-wrenching sprints and glute-busting lunges. Yeeha!

Warmup
toe walk, heel walk, high knees, butt kicks, side shuffle, front skip, back skip + 5 inchworm pushups + 500m jog

WOD
6 rounds:
100m sprint
walking lunges, # equal to the time it takes to sprint

My times/# of lunges: 19 /19 / 18 / 19 / 19 / 19

Hell, yeah! How do you like the one little 18 second sprint I snuck in there?! I tried my damnedest to hit 18 on the subsequent rounds, but no dice!

About halfway through the lunges on round 5, I remembered the aftermath of the last time I did this workout: I had trouble walking down stairs and sitting back into a chair unassisted for a few days. I keep waiting for my glutes to start seizing up!

I have finally FINALLY evened out the strength in my legs! We Roller Derby skaters circle the track in a counter-clockwise direction, so on every curve, all of our weight is on our left foot, while we cross over with our right, then we push really, really hard with the left foot behind the right. Like this:

Photo from Rock and Roller Derby

At the end of practice, we always skated in the opposite direction for a few minutes, but those few leisurely laps couldn’t undo the imbalance of the hours of skating and sprinting in the other direction.

My left leg was significantly stronger than my right, and it showed in my walking lunges. When I stepped forward with my left leg, I could easily touch my right knee to the ground without wobbling. But when I stepped forward with my right, I had a devil of a time getting my left knee low, and I would teeter-totter and lose my balance if I didn’t move quickly enough to the left step.

This morning I was rock solid on both sides.

I match! Could this mean that eventually, my chubbier left arm will mirror the sleeker right? I can only keep working and keep hoping.