Amy Reinink

At the 5K I jumped into last Friday, my quads issued a stern reminder that if you don’t use your ability to run hills, you lose it (and those hills only equaled a total elevation gain of 272 feet—yikes!). My natural next step? Register to run the hilliest race I know of on my birthday, of course!

I won’t be racing the Capitol Hill Classic 10K by any means—6.2 miles is still the upward range of my “long” runs, and the hill for which it’s named is a killer even in the best circumstances. But we don’t get any better by practicing that which we’re already good at, do we?

Read this blog for long enough, and you’ll start to notice a pattern. Girl runs. Girl gets hurt. Girl limps back to the pool. Girl rekindles her love for swimming, and spends months basking in the glow of being good at something, of doing an activity her body seems made for, of engaging in the outdoors in an interesting and different way through open-water swimming. Girl recovers. Girl realizes she can do other stuff again, and leaves swimming in the dust. Girl blathers on about how she and swimming are like Ross and Rachel, and wonders if they’ll ever just get together, already.

Finishing my most recent open-water swim, a 5K in Florida in October. I can count my swim workouts since then on one hand.

So the fact that I got in the pool on Wednesday without being injured is pretty notable. Could it be that I’m learning moderation, and realizing that swimming as hard and as long as I possibly can will only lead to burnout and an inevitable swim breakup?

Maybe. It could also be that Katie asked if I wanted to meet for a swim, then have lunch, and that sounded good to me.

No matter. I got in the pool. I kicked about a 2,000-yard workout (kicked only, because I have a killer ear infection). Afterwards, I got out, had lunch, did some work, and started thinking about getting in the pool again. Progress.

Keeping me motivated is this year’s version of #50KinMay, the Twitter challenge that helped get me through the toughest part of Great Chesapeake Bay Swim training last year. This year, we’re calling it #SwimInMay, to reflect that fact that many of us partaking in the challenge are simply not in a place where we’re looking to swim 50K in a month. And you know what? It was really satisfying to post my measly 2K kicking workout after I completed it!

Friday would have been my dad’s 77th birthday. I celebrated with my running buddies by cooking, baking and eating his favorite foods—lobster bisque, blueberry pie, Coors Light and Peter Pan peanut butter, to name a few—and by remembering all the qualities that made him a great dad.

There are many, many qualities to list, but the one that I want to talk about today is the fact that my dad never missed a single one of my swim meets, or cross-country meets, or anything that meant a lot to me. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of swimming in my beach-club swim league, and finishing a 25-yard race to see my dad standing by the edge of a pool with a warm, dry towel ready for me to step into. He always wore the wide, easy smile that makes me a little weepy to conjure now, and always gave me a big hug once I was wrapped in the towel.

This was taken at my wedding, where he wore the same smile he’d greet me with after one of my childhood swim meets.

He would always say something excited and nice about my performance, and always homed in on what was really important by asking if I’d had fun. It’s hard to imagine feeling more safe, or more loved.

In 2010, when I found the Daiquiri Deck Tropical Splash Open Water 5K Swim in Sarasota, just south of my parents’ home in Florida, my dad made the trip to come see me, though it was tough for him to spend the morning standing and walking and otherwise out of his comfort zone considering his wide array of health complications. He hung pictures of me finishing the race on the wall of his pool room. He was as proud of me at 30 as he was of me at 7.

Same deal in the 2011 swim, when more health complications made the trip an even tougher one for him. Through a combination of his will to make it to the finish line and my mom and Steve’s ingenuity (tactics included catching a ride from a beach buggy across a long expanse of sand), he was waiting there at the finish line with a smile and a hug.

He can’t be there physically to offer comfort and congratulations anymore. But I know that for the rest of my life, I’ll reach for that feeling of love and support from those childhood swim meets when I need encouragement and motivation during a tough race, and will rely on him to be a silent cheerleader whenever I need it most.

In other Motivation Monday news: I ran a 5K on Friday. I know—I was surprised, too! I accompanied a friend to the the White Oak Classic 5K, held at 11 a.m. Friday for FDA employees. On account of the fact that I am not an FDA employee, I bandited the darn thing. We had a covered a lovely, easy first mile together in 8 minutes, thanks to the long, steady downhill. It was hot and sticky, but who cared about that? Not me! At least, not until I realized the course was out-and-back, meaning I’d have to come back up during the last mile. I started the race looking for a good, hard run, thinking I might surprise myself with my time. I finished the race grateful I wasn’t the guy getting loaded into an ambulance with heat exhaustion.

Baseball fans (and anyone who likes rooting for the underdog) may want to check out this in-depth interview with Colorado Rockies pitcher Jamie Moyer, who at 50 is the oldest player in the major leagues. His story about overcoming addiction to get where he is today is both inspiring and heart-warming.

What’s motivating you this week?

This morning, for the first time since before ski season, I packed these in a bag:

I’m still fighting a killer ear and throat infection, so I’ll just be kicking. But today, I will swim.

I know it’s been a few days, but can I tell you about my most recent group run last Tuesday?

I want to tell you about it in part because it was the first run in a long time during which I saw the number “seven” on the pace portion of my Garmin. Like, in the minutes part of it, not seconds.

I also want to tell you about how good it felt to run really hard, and to feel like running really hard a few other times in recent weeks has led to measurable progress. It was my fourth run with the Hampton Roads Runners group that meets in front of the H.K., my favorite seafood restaurant in Virginia Beach (which happens to be across the street from my house). Here’s what those runs have looked like:

March 27: 36:27, 8:52-minute miles.

April 3: No Garmin. By rough calculation, 8-minute miles and change.

April 17: 34:58, 8:23-minute miles.

April 24: 33:38, average pace of 8:02 min/mile. The last mile was 7:43-minute-mile pace. And overall, that’s not eight and change—that’s eight and “just go ahead and keep those two pennies.” The last mile was a pace of 7:45-minute miles.

I’ve been pretty uninterested in pace in recent months, so it came as a surprise to me that I cared so much. But it was incredibly motivating to see that putting in just a little bit of work could yield real, measurable payback.

I’m in D.C. this week, and I’m sure the hills will wipe the motivated smile right off my face when I venture out into them tomorrow. But for now, I’m still kind of riding on the high from last week.

What’s motivating you this week?

Really, I can’t blame people for staring.

In my TRX class, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays in my local gym, it’s totally normal to see up to a dozen adults standing around what looks like a huge swing set, except instead of swings, there are long straps with handles at the end. Those insane adults are usually hanging from those straps by either their feet or hands, and are assuming postures that look like typical workout moves—planks, chest-presses, squats—except made more difficult by the fact that one or more of their limbs is suspended in the air via the straps.

For example, in most classes, we do side planks, in which we put each foot into a strap, then hold a plank position while balancing only on our forearm or hand.

Photo credit: TRX.

I can’t blame other gym-goers for staring as they walk by our studio.

Kids, I have been *obsessed* with this class ever since starting it in January. It’s unlike anything else you’d do in the gym (well, unlike anything else I’d do in the gym—if you do stuff like this, I would like to work out with you). The suspension training engages every muscle in your body in each movement, since it relies on gravity and your own body weight to make each move harder.  And it’s easy to adapt. To make a movement harder, you just increase the angle by walking your feet in or out. To make it easier, you walk your feet the other way.

This guy has made the row much, much more difficult with an insane angle. Photo credit: TRX.

As you can tell from the photos, if you have your own straps, you can do this anywhere. I do not have my own straps. They cost between $150 and $200. My birthday is May 20. Juuuust sayin’ …

But seriously: This is an incredible workout. Like many once-injured runners, I’m kind of obsessed with core strength, stability and balance, and TRX improves all of the above. Plus, it’s really fun! When’s the last time you hung in the air like a little kid on monkey bars? (If you regularly hang in the air like a little kid on monkey bars, I would like to hang out with you).

Have you tried TRX? What’s your take? What’s your favorite TRX move?

Full disclosure: I got this workout move from Kelly Osbourne (I KNOW).

But I couldn’t resist sharing it here, because it’s a killer, and is so simple! It’s called the wobbly push-up, and involves placing a Body Bar on top of a BOSU (blue side up); getting into push-up position with your hands grasping the bar; and doing a push-up, trying to avoid emptying the contents of your stomach and/or falling sideways on your face while you do so.

Photo credit: SHAPE magazine.

The move was outlined in a SHAPE magazine feature a few months ago, and I’ve been doing it and adapting it (try lifting one leg and adding a tuck for five reps) ever since.

Have you found a workout move that kicks your butt in the best way possible? Share it here by posting a comment below.

Stay tuned for stories about my most recent run with my new running group, and about my new workout obsession, TRX!