Running vs. Elipticalling

Today was my first real day back at the gym. I've been putting off going back to the gym because I was afraid of what I would find when I got there. How weak had I gotten in my time off? The fact that I have not gained a ton of weight since leaving helps, but really, that could just be loss of muscle right?

I decided to fool myself today instead of facing the issue head on. Instead of my normal two 30 minute sessions on the elliptical machines, I decided to take a page from my workout adventures in Maine, and do my first half on the treadmill. Now I reasoned with myself, saying that I had been gone a while, and need to ease back into this. So I granted myself a reprieve and decided I would only run for ten minutes, since that was what I had been able to do while in Maine. I took a couple minutes to walk on the treadmill to warm up and slowly worked the belt up faster to a comfortable jogging pace. I upped the incline a bit and occasionally, as I got comfortable, upped the speed by tiny increments. I almost made it to a mile.

I did my strength and some stretching, arm work and squats, a bunch of sit ups, and holding the plank position as long as I could.

Then I jumped on an elliptical machine for the second half of the workout (well more than half as I only did 15 minutes total on the treadmill including warm up and cool down) and noticed something. Running on a treadmill is MUCH HARDER than working on the elliptical machine. I have to go MUCH faster on the elliptical machine to feel like I'm working as hard as I am on the treadmill.

So my workout has forever changed now. I'm going to work my way up to half an hour on the treadmill, half an hour on the elliptical. I'm only keeping the elliptical for now because I have really messed up knees, and I need to be nice to them.

Hopefully by next week I'll feel fully back into the groove. I still feel decidedly un-groovy.

-Meg