Tabata, n.

def., latin for "beat DOWN."

Today the plan called for either rest, or cross-training, and I opted again for a lifting workout.  I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep this up, but four days running, two days lifting, and one day of rest seems to be working okay so far.

What I did:
-warmup with inchworms, spider-walks, box squats, around the worlds
- practice cleans

Coach has a nefarious plan to turn us into Olympic lifters.  Not going to happen!  This is supposed to be our light week because next week we are going to do something called a 1-rep-max, which the Internet tells me is a way to

- 3 x 5 squat, very light, with full depth
- 3 x 5 bench, at about 80%
- Tabatas: 4 minutes - alternate crab walks and push-ups
- Tabatas: 4 minutes - alternate windshield wipers and what I'm going to call single-leg seesaws -- balance on one leg, keep hips square lean forward bringing trailing leg to parallel behind you, repeat.


Can we talk about Tabatas?  These are high-intensity interval training sets.  We did 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, 4 times, for each set.   All I knew was that my buddies who Crossfit never shut up about HIIT and Tabatas and how they're more fit than cardio bunnies and eat free range organic unpasteurized bears for breakfast, etc.

Tabatas are evil.  EVIL. I finished feeling energized, and spent, and mystified that I was breathing hard from lying on my back swinging my legs from side to side (the windshield wipers.)

Interesting read today: Caitlin writes about tattoos, musing aloud why they have become more common among active women.

My off-the-cuff take on it is that a woman who is active, who has learned her physical limits and how to push them further, is less likely to adhere to beauty standards that admonish her to be small, delicate, ornamental and perform traditional femininity.

Once you get past that, well, ink is a great way to embody non-traditional beauty.  It's not just that it's not traditionally feminine that makes it appealing, I think, but that it is permanently so, a way of marking one's defiance of a certain set of norms.

Of course, if they keep it up, tattoos will come to signify, "middle-aged female athlete."

(Which is not only great, but think of all the bros with those barbed wire tattoos!)