Gym Recap

Since Jeev couldn't make it today, I asked him to tell me specifically what to do today in his absence. Amazingly, he actually gave me a very detailed workout. This is what I did:

Treadmill: 2.25mi, 36.5min, 272cal
I did a warm-up of .25 miles then alternated .25-mile "laps" of 4.2mph and 3.5mph.

Exercise: reps x sets [weight]

Push-up position rows: 16x2 [10 lbs/arm]
Push-ups: 10x2
Squats: 12x2 [with 12-lb bar]
Medicine ball slams: 15x2

Pretty good work-out over all.

By the by, Nutrisystem is going pretty well so far, though I foresee today will be a Hungry Day.

Gym Recap

Elliptical, 30 minutes, 360 calories.  Kind of intense.  This is the sort of elliptical machine where when it makes a jump in resistance, I am stopped cold for a second.  But I made it.  And sweated mightily.

Aaaaand forgot my toiletries.  So guess who got to bathe with hand soap!  Hooray!  Gah, I feel so gross.  On the bright side, somebody forgot their conditioner in the shower before me, and I know people who only use conditioner (no shampoo), so maybe that helped a teeny bit.  Either way, I put my hair up in a ponytail today.

An hour on the bike is hard on the butt.

Activity: Stationary bike
Time: 61min 20sec
Distance: 24 miles
Calories burned: 1155

Tired now.

meh

1. Ran on the treadmill: 2.27 miles, 40 minutes. Pain in my right calf during, and pain in the ankle later on. The machine said I burned 81 calories; MapMyRun says 174. Whatever.
   
2. Universal Soldier: Regeneration has taught me that the only colors in Russia are white and navy. What a terrible movie, but I'm not sure why I'd expect much from anything starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
   
3. I always feel so miserable after working out, no matter what I do. I don't know why that is.

Slogans and Quotes

I so need this shirt.

I was going through my Self magazines yesterday and actually jotting down things I wanted to remember and/or check out later. Like One More Mile, above. I sweat so much when exercising (or doing pretty much anything, really), that this shirt is perfect for me. One day I might even buy one.

Some quotes I particularly liked:

"You are only one workout away from a good mood."

"Sweat is fat crying."

"You won't get the ass you want by sitting on the one you have."

I've been hitting the gym regularly. One particularly awesome victory was going a full 20 minutes on the stair climber. Sure, it wasn't the fastest 20 minutes ever, but I started at level 1 and ended up pumping it up to level 7 well before the end. So there's that.

Striving for escape velocity

Gah, my muscles are killing me from yesterday: arms, abs, legs, butt - you name it, it's sore. So today I went in for my regular cardio. 20 minutes on the ArcTrainer (240 calories) followed by some messing about on the inclined treadmill. I'm not sure how long I was on it because I kept changing programs, but I know I burned 300 calories total, so it was probably in the area of 25 minutes total. I did a little running, finding a steady 4mph pace not too bad, but quickly discovering that I cannot run at 7mph. Well, I probably could in short bursts - like while tumbling down a flight of stairs.

Today's Cardio Cinema movie was Little Nicky, which I haven't see all the way through but looks basically just like every other Adam Sandler film ever made.

PT Session

Finally had another session with Jeev today. (He cancelled again yesterday.) This was definitely a full-body workout, full of running and push-ups and squats and planks. I did real push-ups and never again will I take girly push-ups for granted (though Jeev tells me we're all done with girly push-ups - more's the pity). The planks weren't normal ones either: once I was pulling on a weight with each arm, then later I was kicking each knee up to my shoulder. So it was pretty exhausting, but I made it. More importantly, I did three minutes straight on the endless ladder machine and didn't die! Which led to a strange conversation:

Me: I don't think I've ever done 3 minutes before.
Jeev: Actually, you did, a while back.
Me: Oh yeah, but I think I died.
Jeev: Yeah, you did.

Anyway, I did another two minutes later in the workout and while I was panting pretty good, I didn't die then either. Life is good.

Another conversation snippet, because it made me feel a little better about myself:

Me: Are the exercises getting harder or am I just having an off day?
Jeev: The exercises are definitely getting harder.

Grumpy

I'm feeling a bit grouchtastic this icy Monday morning. I spent the last week sick as a dog (a sick dog), with fever and runny nose and congestion so bad I felt like I was drowning. I even missed a day of work, which pretty much never happens. Saturday night was my first sleep without NyQuil since the whole debacle began.

So today I had a session scheduled with Jeev. My first time back to the gym since I got sick. I'm still not 100% but I'm no longer feverish and I really need to get back to my normal routine at some point. Anyway, I'm warming up, and about 5 after 6 I went out to my car to check my text messages. Sure enough, Jeev wrote to postpone until tomorrow. Dang it! Oh well. I used the inclined treadmill for a half hour and burned 320 calories while watching Walk the Line. So it wasn't a completely wasted effort. But it still annoyed me.

Bouncy

My thighs were still killing me so I decided maybe some thigh-heavy cardio might help. So I popped into the cardio cinema to use the stationary bike for a while. The final tally was not so impressive:

40 minutes
13.5 miles
125 calories

I kind of take issue with that last one but I honestly wasn't working (or sweating) that hard, so maybe it's true. Well, it's better than nothing, right?

Oh yeah, and the movie today was The Big Bounce, which was pretty lame, but not as bad as Tuesday's selection. Two for the Money is one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. I had not idea it was possible to make sports betting any less interesting, but this film managed it somehow.

Almost, but not quite

So I showed up at the gym despite a crappy night's sleep due to pain and congestion. I sucked down the DayQuil and ibuprofen and drove on over. Only to discover, ten minutes after my PT session was supposed to start, that Jeev was home with a fever. Turns out his 5am text to tell me never went through. So I didn't do much: about 5 minutes on the ArcTrainer, 5 minutes of running on the treadmill at 4mph, a couple minutes on the inclined treadmill while waiting for Jeev's text messages. Sure, I could have stayed and worked out, but honestly I feel terrible and the last thing I need is to get sick before my big weekend with the house to myself.

Hunger Pangs

Today at the gym, I did my regular cardio: 20 minutes on the Arctrainer (264 calories) and 30 minutes on the inclined treadmill (310 calories). I attempted a few minutes on the stairclimber but holy crap did that suck. So I'm not even counting it.

I did not hit the drive-thru for breakfast this morning, but I did scarf down my breakfast sammich and banana pretty quickly, and dove into my lunch for my granola bar only about an hour later. I'm still hungry, despite having just eaten lunch (small piece of leftover chicken, orange, and small yogurt), and I'm seriously considering eating the granola bar I found in my desk drawer.

But, dammit, I did not stop at the drive-thru for breakfast. And that is a huge accomplishment.

Slips, Trips, and Falls

Today we were supposed to focus on lower body, but Jeev tells me everything is lower body from your head's point of view. Um, yeah. Anyway, there was a lot of subliminal core work, like side lunges while hefting a 20-lb weight and toe touches on a knee-high step. I fell while doing the latter, and again while doing stair runs, but I'm totally fine. You can't be as klutzy as I without learning how to pick yourself up and keep moving. The stair runs were timed for the first time: 34, 31, and 34 seconds, respectively - that last one was the time when I fell. Not bad. I also did forward and backward lunges over the step, which were the bane of my existence not too long ago, and while they were hard I was way better at them than I ever had been before. The session ended with a couple of plank positions, which I held for 30 seconds each without any trouble at all, really.

So I think I'm improving, at that my endurance is increasing. But for some reason I've been in a foul mood all day and going to the gym doesn't seem to have helped that any. I want my endorphins, dammit!

Victories

I made it! Five straight days of getting up at 5am and going to the gym before work! Granted, today I had to talk myself into it and even then only struggled through twenty minutes on the ArcTrainer (260 calories), but hey, I did it!

This evening I bought some more workout clothes. Man, watching myself struggle into a sports bra was one of the more depressing sights of my life. So fat! But I needed more clothes to keep up with my increased schedule. I don't like to re-wear something without washing it, though occasionally with shorts that's what I'd had to do. But (hopefully) not more, provided my husband can keep up with the laundry.

I'm supposed to go cycling with a friend of mine tomorrow, but I haven't heard from her in a few days and so I'm not 100% positive that's still happening. Otherwise, the next four days will be a sort of vacation from the gym: Sunday will be resting, then Monday and Tuesday I'm traveling to upstate New York for work. It's just a single overnight, so I won't have time to do much other than work, sleep, and fly. But I'll try to at least keep my eating under control while I'm away. I've been horrible about that lately. (And by lately I mean my entire adult life.)

Oh hey, I never wrote about yesterday's training session. It was one of the more diabolical set of exercises, including one-armed plank positions while pumping a weight with my free hand. That took some serious figuring before I could pull off the position without falling over. I'm not sure if coordination or strength is the bigger problem, but man do I have trouble balancing with a lot of these moves.

Despite the discouraging shopping trip (shopping for clothes has always been one of my least favorite activities, just below going to the dentist), I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now. Let's see if I can keep that up.

Gym Recap

Day three of getting up at 5am and I seem to be doing more or less okay. I had my training this morning and hot damn was it hard. Like, far harder than I'd expected. I'm not sure if that's because it was so early and my muscles aren't used to actually doing anything that soon after getting up, or if things were genuinely more difficult. Either way, it was tough but I made it.

My coworker is trying to convince me that it's really worth it in the end. I don't believe him, but I did concede that I can lunge and squat far better than I could two months ago. So there's that.

Since we had to reschedule yesterday's session to today, I'm seeing Jeev again tomorrow morning. He said we'll be working more on strength training on my legs, which is nice - today was mostly upper body and cardio.

Gym Recap

So I figured it would be better to alter my sleep schedule entirely rather than resetting my alarm every day, so I am now getting up at 5am and hitting the gym before work. Today is day two and I feel better today than I did yesterday. Jeev had a final exam today so he missed our session, so I went into the cardio cinema and watched Roxeanne for a while. I'd forgotten what a funny film that is. I'll have to rent it sometime. I don't know how many calories I burned - I did four minutes on the ArcTrainer, about ten minutes on the treadmill at 2.5mph (both while waiting for Jeev before I learned he wouldn't be showing up) and thirty minutes on this weird elliptical-ish thing that I suppose was something akin to a NordicTrak. I didn't set anything (it was too dark in there to see what any of the buttons did anyway) but it wasn't very hard. Better than nothing, though, right? Jeev rescheduled for tomorrow morning, and that will be the real test: can I handle a full day of work after a full training session? We'll see!

Gym Recap

Lordy lordy. Jeev got a second job so we're moving my sessions from Monday and Wednesday at 4pm to Tuesday and Thursday at 6am. Today I went for a dry run to make sure I could even handle getting up another 45 minutes earlier. I did my usual cardio: 20 minutes on the ArcTrainer followed by 30 minutes on the inclined treadmill. Dunno how many calories I burned because I accidentally cleared out my stats on the treadmill before looking at them. That's easy to do - if you press the "stop" button twice they're gone for good, and since the touch pad's responsivity is pretty inconsistent, it's easy to think you hadn't pressed it when you actually did.

But anyway, I made it. I'm super tired and my tummy was kind of unhappy because I forgot to eat something before I started working out, but I still did my workout without any trouble. I'm hoping with this new schedule it'll be easier for me to hit the gym more days a week. My goal is five - every workday - but we'll see. All I know is that lately, when I get off work, the last thing I want to do is make another stop before going home. This way I'll have gotten the gym out of the way before I even show up at the office.

Gym Recap

I hit the gym this morning before work. This was my first time going to this gym before work, and it was fine. I did my regular cardio: 20 minutes on the ArcTrainer (267 calories) followed by 30 minutes on the inclined treadmill (338 calories). The latter I did inside the Cardio Cinema, where they were showing The Goonies. It's been ages since I last saw that movie, to the point where there were several lines I didn't remember at all. Adding to the entertainment were the subtitles, which often amusingly edited the fast-talking, grammatically-incorrect kids. Now I need to pull out the DVD and rewatch it while I'm not drenched in sweat.

The workout overall was good. I went mostly because my butt was super sore from Wednesday's session, and I figured some extra walking would help work out some of the pain. I don't know that it did, necessarily, but I'm going to tell myself it did and that I'd be a lot more uncomfortable if I hadn't gone.

Gym Recap

Leaps and landings! Leaps and landings! Oh! My! God!

So yeah, I'm really super sore now, and Jeev suggested I wear my brace again on Monday since we're going to be doing more leaps and landings. Guh.

Notable exercise of the day: sitting on a chair and attempting to stand up one-legged. Insanely, maddeningly difficult for me. Of course, after the first set, Jeev put down one of those foam pads that he has me do balance work on, just because it evidently wasn't hard enough. Good lord that was tough!

Gym Recap

In addition to the regular regimen of squats and lunges, Jeev had me run three laps around the parking lot. And I didn't die! In fact, it wasn't too bad at all. I also used a rowing machine for the first time in my life. Nice.

I purchased 36 more sessions with Jeev; I've made a lot of progress, and I think with his help I'll be able to go far beyond where I was before the accident.

In related news, my favorite hiking buddy will be back over the holidays and we're thinking of hitting the trails while she's in town. I'm looking forward to it!

Occasional Gym Recap

Today I asked Jeev, under the assumption that I get back to going to the gym four days a week (a rather serious assumption, to be sure), how long it would take me to be able to run a 5k. He said three to four months, which sounds ridiculously optimistic to me, but it also means I have a goal to work toward.

And man, did I work today. High-knee jogging in place, jogging on the treadmill at various speeds (but only for, like, 45 seconds at a time), kettle ball swings, jump-squats, bouncy plank positions, and more. I definitely feel worked out (or perhaps just over) tonight.

My food habits are gradually increasing, but it's been tough due to an often crippling bout of depression. I think I'm coming out of it, but it's so hard to tell. But I do know that I'm tired of reminding myself of that line from a Jewel song: "...looked like a potato stuffed into jeans." Boo!