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
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Off my rythm
I did not go to the gym today. I did not go to the gym yesterday. But I swear I will go tomorrow. I'm just having a very hard time getting back into the rythm of life here in the city again.
I did do my push ups today. I'm on day one of week four. It was challenging, but I managed to do 25 for my final set, so I guess I wasn't that wiped out by it. I'm happy that I seem to be keeping pace with the program, despite my one week truancy from all the things I normally do that I deem "working out"
I'm still trying to catch up on everything I missed while I was away, but I swear I'll catch up on everyones blogs as quick as possible.
-Meg
I did do my push ups today. I'm on day one of week four. It was challenging, but I managed to do 25 for my final set, so I guess I wasn't that wiped out by it. I'm happy that I seem to be keeping pace with the program, despite my one week truancy from all the things I normally do that I deem "working out"
I'm still trying to catch up on everything I missed while I was away, but I swear I'll catch up on everyones blogs as quick as possible.
-Meg
Monday, July 14, 2008
Back in the Big City
The vacation is over, and I'm back to the daily routine.
Exercise wise, the vacation did not go as planned. Family obligations took over my good intentions and Kayaks were not available for rent as we had hoped. We did do a lot of walking, and ran twice.
The first day we ran, I felt my body as heavier than ever before. We ran for a good long while before I needed my first walk break. I had forgotten my watch so I'm not sur exactly how long. We walked and ran (more walking than running) for the rest of the 3.6 miles, out and back through the woods, a long the paved road across the island.
I felt the run the next day. I didn't expect the ache across my ribs. We didn't do much moving at all that day. The day after that was spent doing a lot of running around and getting stuff done.
The second day we ran, I did much better at first. We ran for a full ten minutes, and got way farther than the first time. We later measured it out on the trip odomoter in the car, and we had ran for a full mile. We ran/walked the rest of the loop, and then on the way back, I had the inspired Idea to sprint across one of the bridges. About halfway across the bridge I felt this sharp pain on the inside of my hip. Every step shot pain from the inside of my hip to the outside of my hip, and down the inside of my leg. We walked the rest of the way back, and by the time we got home I was limping to favor my hip.
Two days and a lot of Advil later the pain was gone, and I'm still not sure what I did, but it resulted in me not getting a whole lot more exercise over the rest of the trip.
I finished off week three of the Hundred push up Challenge, but completely dropped the ball on even starting week four. So, I'm going to start week four tonight, when we hit the gym.
I'm convinced running is a better workout than the elliptical machine now, and I'm also equally convinced that I am not in good enough shape to be a runner yet. I'm going to start easing running into my routine, hopefully by the end of the summer I'll be able to do some running in Central Park before it gets cold.
I weighed myself this morning to see how I had done, since I had completely stopped watching what I ate while in Maine, and found that I hadn't done horribly. Not great, but no the disaster I was expecting.
Weight: 160 (up from 158.7)
Body Fat %: 32.9 (up from 32.6)
Now that I'm back in the City, I'm getting back to the routine. We'll see if the Holiday Weight Gain goes away ^_^
-Meg
Exercise wise, the vacation did not go as planned. Family obligations took over my good intentions and Kayaks were not available for rent as we had hoped. We did do a lot of walking, and ran twice.
The first day we ran, I felt my body as heavier than ever before. We ran for a good long while before I needed my first walk break. I had forgotten my watch so I'm not sur exactly how long. We walked and ran (more walking than running) for the rest of the 3.6 miles, out and back through the woods, a long the paved road across the island.
I felt the run the next day. I didn't expect the ache across my ribs. We didn't do much moving at all that day. The day after that was spent doing a lot of running around and getting stuff done.
The second day we ran, I did much better at first. We ran for a full ten minutes, and got way farther than the first time. We later measured it out on the trip odomoter in the car, and we had ran for a full mile. We ran/walked the rest of the loop, and then on the way back, I had the inspired Idea to sprint across one of the bridges. About halfway across the bridge I felt this sharp pain on the inside of my hip. Every step shot pain from the inside of my hip to the outside of my hip, and down the inside of my leg. We walked the rest of the way back, and by the time we got home I was limping to favor my hip.
Two days and a lot of Advil later the pain was gone, and I'm still not sure what I did, but it resulted in me not getting a whole lot more exercise over the rest of the trip.
I finished off week three of the Hundred push up Challenge, but completely dropped the ball on even starting week four. So, I'm going to start week four tonight, when we hit the gym.
I'm convinced running is a better workout than the elliptical machine now, and I'm also equally convinced that I am not in good enough shape to be a runner yet. I'm going to start easing running into my routine, hopefully by the end of the summer I'll be able to do some running in Central Park before it gets cold.
I weighed myself this morning to see how I had done, since I had completely stopped watching what I ate while in Maine, and found that I hadn't done horribly. Not great, but no the disaster I was expecting.
Weight: 160 (up from 158.7)
Body Fat %: 32.9 (up from 32.6)
Now that I'm back in the City, I'm getting back to the routine. We'll see if the Holiday Weight Gain goes away ^_^
-Meg
Thursday, July 3, 2008
mobile posting
Just a quick post to log that I did my pushups today, but not much else. I also ate badly, so today is a minus day. But the gym kit is packed and ready to go to Maine. Running here I come!
-Meg
-Meg
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Perception is 9/10 of reality
Going back to yesterday I think tokaiangel made a really good point. I think it's just that I generally feel like rubbish right around now and it makes everything feel like so much more work. I also feel like I've gained a thousand pounds. I feel puffy and sluggish. My pants don't fit quite right and I swear I have a pudgy belly that wasn't there last week. The scale however begs to differ. It swears up and down that I have in fact *lost* weight, and my Body Fat % is holding steady. So maybe it really is all in my mind....
Today I did an *actual* work out, beating my time on the elliptical again, doing the 3 miles in 28:45. At the 30 minute mark I had gone 3.15 miles. Woot. The really cool thing? I did it all on a higher resistance level than I normally use. I never dropped it below 7, and when I did my "sprints" I was pumping it up to 10 for the full minute. I did mostly legs for my strength training today, since arms was yesterday, and I plan to go tomorrow as well. Reverse Lunges, Side Squats, and Calf Raises. Ab work was the "sensei mark special", sideways sit ups and bicycle crunches. I'm steadily increasing the number of crunches/sit ups I do per set as well. These are all good things.
I kinda wimped out on the second half of my cardio though, I just couldn't keep up the pace, so I compromised and pumped the resistance up to 10 and just slogged away at a slower pace. But I did manage to keep at it for the full 30 minutes, so I think I deserve a gold star for effort ^_^
-Meg
Today I did an *actual* work out, beating my time on the elliptical again, doing the 3 miles in 28:45. At the 30 minute mark I had gone 3.15 miles. Woot. The really cool thing? I did it all on a higher resistance level than I normally use. I never dropped it below 7, and when I did my "sprints" I was pumping it up to 10 for the full minute. I did mostly legs for my strength training today, since arms was yesterday, and I plan to go tomorrow as well. Reverse Lunges, Side Squats, and Calf Raises. Ab work was the "sensei mark special", sideways sit ups and bicycle crunches. I'm steadily increasing the number of crunches/sit ups I do per set as well. These are all good things.
I kinda wimped out on the second half of my cardio though, I just couldn't keep up the pace, so I compromised and pumped the resistance up to 10 and just slogged away at a slower pace. But I did manage to keep at it for the full 30 minutes, so I think I deserve a gold star for effort ^_^
-Meg
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Bonus Post
Since I updated before I left for the gym this morning, you get a bonus post today.
I totally wussed out on my workout today. I was short on time and did what I could before I ran out... but it was way short of my normal routine
Also, this is my 'female issues' week, and I swear that it affects my workouts. Things seem so much harder. I wonder if there are any studies out there about this phenomenon.
Anyways, so I did a measly 15 minutes on the elliptical machine. Yes, I pushed hard for those 15 but still, it's like half of half of a work out.
I did my set for the Hundred Push Up Challenge, and I was feeling it towards the end set. I only managed to do the minimum of 20 for the "max set". Although I did feel like if I rested I could have eked out a few more sets...
I only did minimal weights, one set of kickbacks with 10 lb weights, two sets of these "hammer curl/lifts" with 10 lb weights and some lunges. I only did the "sensei mark specials" for my abs, and then I was out of time.
So I'm going to hit the gym again tomorow since I was so miserably wussy today.
-Meg
I totally wussed out on my workout today. I was short on time and did what I could before I ran out... but it was way short of my normal routine
Also, this is my 'female issues' week, and I swear that it affects my workouts. Things seem so much harder. I wonder if there are any studies out there about this phenomenon.
Anyways, so I did a measly 15 minutes on the elliptical machine. Yes, I pushed hard for those 15 but still, it's like half of half of a work out.
I did my set for the Hundred Push Up Challenge, and I was feeling it towards the end set. I only managed to do the minimum of 20 for the "max set". Although I did feel like if I rested I could have eked out a few more sets...
I only did minimal weights, one set of kickbacks with 10 lb weights, two sets of these "hammer curl/lifts" with 10 lb weights and some lunges. I only did the "sensei mark specials" for my abs, and then I was out of time.
So I'm going to hit the gym again tomorow since I was so miserably wussy today.
-Meg
Vacation (not so)Fitness
Ok I've been MIA, and I'm going to be breezing through and out again soon. This is "Vacation Month" for me, a Quick trip up to the hometown for the S.O.'s High School reunion is behind me and a week and a half vacation trip up to Maine is looming at the end of the week. But I have a plan! While I'm in Maine I will be keeping a paper journal, and I will transcribe my Maine-y adventures in fitness when I get back.
Meanwhile, in One Hundred Push ups news, I managed to make myself do my pushups for the third day of the second week on Saturday in my parents living room (with my mother watching), and did the exhaustion test this morning. (although I think i go easy on myself in these exhaustion tests....) I did 25 strait.
Now, anyone else doing this challenge, can you tell me if I'm doing this right? I count my exhaustion test as, as many pushups as I can do with good form without stopping to rest. Is this the right way? Or am I selling myself short?
Saturday I also managed to make myself do 25 minutes on my parents elliptical machine of doom (tm) my normal sets of crunches (25 sensei mark specials, 10 sideways crunches on each side, then I did an extra set of 50 on the exercise ball they had just for fun), and a mini arm workout with 8 lb weights (cause that was all they had). The best part? I got to jump in the pool afterwards ^_^
So yeah it was a mini workout, but it counts. Unfortunately, now I'm all off schedule for this week, and we're leaving for Maine on Friday, so I've only got two good gym days available this week (I really do have to take a day off in between gym trips for my own sanity.)
The S.O. and I have been brainstorming ways to get exercise once we're up in Maine. So far we're renting Kayaks and going swimming, and I'm looking at having to face my mortal fitness enemy - Running. Any Running tips will be appreciated. Since I suck at it and will most likely hurt myself doing it.
-Meg
Meanwhile, in One Hundred Push ups news, I managed to make myself do my pushups for the third day of the second week on Saturday in my parents living room (with my mother watching), and did the exhaustion test this morning. (although I think i go easy on myself in these exhaustion tests....) I did 25 strait.
Now, anyone else doing this challenge, can you tell me if I'm doing this right? I count my exhaustion test as, as many pushups as I can do with good form without stopping to rest. Is this the right way? Or am I selling myself short?
Saturday I also managed to make myself do 25 minutes on my parents elliptical machine of doom (tm) my normal sets of crunches (25 sensei mark specials, 10 sideways crunches on each side, then I did an extra set of 50 on the exercise ball they had just for fun), and a mini arm workout with 8 lb weights (cause that was all they had). The best part? I got to jump in the pool afterwards ^_^
So yeah it was a mini workout, but it counts. Unfortunately, now I'm all off schedule for this week, and we're leaving for Maine on Friday, so I've only got two good gym days available this week (I really do have to take a day off in between gym trips for my own sanity.)
The S.O. and I have been brainstorming ways to get exercise once we're up in Maine. So far we're renting Kayaks and going swimming, and I'm looking at having to face my mortal fitness enemy - Running. Any Running tips will be appreciated. Since I suck at it and will most likely hurt myself doing it.
-Meg
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