Oh! My Treadmill!

Yesterday I donated blood at lunch, which if you know me personally, you'll know is a huge feat. I try and try and try to donate and generally have too low of an iron count, so the fact that I did it is amazing to me! And I saved some lives. Of course, donating meant that there wasn't any workout for the day. I think it's an okay trade-off.

This morning Drew and I had the same alarm clock problem as Monday. What is wrong with us? Why can't we just get ourselves up and out of the bed? I think it is the weather. I'm not a fan of leaving a nice warm bed to head out into the cold. Ick.

That meant that I had to hit the gym after work again today. I'll be honest, I have not been into cardio recently. I don't mind doing the weight lifting, but I just don't really feel like doing the cardio. I know that part of it is that I have a plan for the weight lifting and I'm left to my own devices with the cardio. I do much better with a plan and for the moment I sort-of feel like I'm drifting around and not really doing much of anything.

I told myself that I'd do the weight lifting for today and then I'd do three miles on the treadmill. I wouldn't care how long it took or be worried about speed, but that I wouldn't leave the treadmill until I was done with the three miles. I even took along some support in the form of podcasts of "This American Life" to listen to on my iPod.

After a 10:35 minute walking warm-up on the treadmill (0.70 miles), I did the weight lifting with no issues. I didn't want to push it too much since my vein in my left arm is a little weird from yesterday's blood donation and the last thing I wanted was some sort of weird complication. I figured better safe than sorry and lifting 5 or 10 less pounds wasn't going to be the end of the world. This is what I did:

Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
Lat Pulldown: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 60 lbs
Leg Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 90 lbs
Dumbbell Pullovers: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Curls: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 25 lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 15 lbs
Crunches: 2 sets of 15 reps

So, the one thing I haven't mentioned is that I can't always do these exercises in the order that they're listed here, which is how they are in the book. Mostly depends on what is open at that particular time at the gym. There are also very few weight benches in the free-weight area, which complicates things. The last two times, I've felt like once I get a bench, I should do all of the exercises that require one before I relinquish it.

Today, that meant that I did the dumbbell bench presses followed by the shoulder presses. First, that was the heaviest that I've lifted for the shoulder presses, but I was paranoid about getting up and getting a different weight and losing my bench, so I did the best I could, but my arms were exhausted by the end of the shoulder sets. I was lucky I got to 8 reps on the second set. Exhausting!

After the weight lifting, I had to head over to the treadmill to live up to my promise to myself. I started out by walking for 0.25 miles at 4.0 to warm-up a little bit. Then I increased the speed to 5.5 and just took it slow and steady. I played around with the speed a little bit and finally got frustrated with the whole thing and put a towel over the machine so that I couldn't see the miles ticking by.

While I was running, the manager came up onto the treadmill next to mine and put a notice up about how the machine was broken and that it'd be fixed next week. I happened to mention that I noticed that two other treadmills were out (they were opposite of where I was running). That prompted a lot of standing around and talking for a while. Then the worst thing ever happened! A worker was doing something with the power plugs for the treadmills, trying to get the broken ones to work, I'm assuming, when he unplugged my treadmill! What? I had a towel over it! I don't really know how far I got! I had a personal goal!

I will say that I had peeked a minute or two before this tragedy happened and I was at 2.7 miles, but I'm unsure if I made it to 3.0 miles like I had planned. Once power was restored to my machine, I tried to run again, but I was so mad that I just gave up. Looking back on it now, it seems silly, but in the heat of the moment, I just felt so frustrated that I couldn't talk myself into running anymore. The worst part was that until that moment, I actually wasn't hating it like I have been recently. This is probably just proof that I shouldn't rely on machinery for my run and I should get myself outside into this cooler weather and run a path where I know the mileage. I'm going to try to remember that.

Weight Lifting
Time: 24:53
Calories: 169
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 121

Treadmill Running
Distance: 2.70 miles (?)
Time: 30:50 (from my HR monitor)
Pace: 11:25/mile
Calories: 386
Maximum HR: 188
Average HR: 168