Skipping

So when I am out of town and cannot find a running trail, I skip.  It’s a good way of keeping momentum for me and ensuring the running gains are not lost entirely.  So last week while out of town, I woke up 30 minutes earlier to skip.  As I started, I was reminded of the last time I was in the same situation.  You see, I had checked in to the residential gym and while signing in, opted not to use a trainer. I reasoned that I was there to skip for 20 minutes as that was all the time I had, and who needed a trainer to skip anyway, right? 

So I pride myself with doing 1000 skips per session when I do it as a workout and that morning was no different. So as usual I’d do 100 skips and stop to breath, walk up and down the length of the gym to catch my breath and then do the next 100.  

I think I was at 600 when the trainer walked up to me, and first excused himself for interrupting my workout [I was on the pause at that point]. Then he says that he had been watching me and couldn’t help but interrupt, even though I clearly indicated I didn’t need a trainer hehehe.

First, he points out they did have skipping ropes and I didn’t have to bring mine LOL! [when I leave home I don’t take chances and usually carry my own].

Secondly, he points out that even though I was doing really well and had skipped a lot of reps, I was undoing my gains by stopping for long periods so often. He tells me that skipping rope is like running: it needs to be continuous for the duration of the workout. He starts to explain how running works, and I let him know that I am runner and I do understand the logistics. He gets excited and says in that case, I would understand his analogy LOL. Just as in running you do not stop and sit it out to catch your breath but walk, in case your fitness level does not allow for continuous running throughout the route mapped, in skipping it needs to be continuous. When you trip on the rope and stop or feel the urge to stop cos the knees are ‘burning’, you start again immediately. That’s the equivalent of walking in a walk-run situation. So, stop-breath-start. That’s long enough a pause to be effective and enable you to keep going. And you keep at it, and one day you’ll skip continuously for even 20 minutes, if that’s your goal-he says.

Ok, so he asks me to do it that way, and I tell him I only have 5 minutes left of my time. He says that’s perfect, I have to start somewhere, right? Let’s just say those 5 minutes felt like 5 hours of workout with the ‘continuous skipping’ I had just learnt. If I wasn’t facing the clock and keeping time as I skipped, I would have said he’d stopped the clock LOL!  And in those last 5 minutes, I did a harder workout than in the first 15 minutes, and I sure felt the impact, and difference. 

Back to the present, I decided to follow his advice. It sure was a hard 20-minute-workout each time.  I have a long way to go to do a continuous 20 minutes, but if I can run 15 kays without stopping, I can do this.  I just need to practice hehehehe.