183 Things!

First things first ... the title of this post comes from the fact that this is my 183rd post on this blog. Not a momentous occasion for you, I'm sure, but for me it means that I've now done the same amount of posts on this blog as I did on my old blog. From here on out, it's all new territory in the blogging world for me! And it really seemed like we did 183 things at the gym this morning, so it all works out.

We started out with some swimming. Drew had made himself a reservation at 6:00 this morning. They said that there wasn't enough space in the reservations for both of us to have a spot, but it wasn't a problem. They take reservations for 4 of the 8 available slots. I figured that since we'd be there at 6 on the nose, I could be one of the first people in the pool without an issue. Drew and I snagged our own lane and got down to business.

For me, that meant a combination of aqua jogging and kicking. For Drew, that meant some swimming. I really tried to keep track of how far we went today. I'm thinking somewhere in the 30-40 lengths of the pool range, which would be about 540-720 yards range. I think 40 lengths is a bit on the high end, so it's probably somewhere more around 600 yards total.

Drew does seem to be looking a bit more comfortable in the water, but I don't think he's feeling a lot more comfortable. He was swimming on his own at first and then I had him switch to use a pool buoy and he got a lot more confident once his kick was taken out of the equation. His kick is definitely not his strong suit, so it makes sense that it would help him. I actually think what happens is that he gets a little frantic about making it to the end of the lane and starts kicking harder, which would be helpful if he had a good kick, but all it does is tire him out and then he gets a little panicked about breathing since he's feeling tired. I'm not sure what the solution is to this. I've tried to have him slow down and relax in the water, but I just think that some people might never relax completely.

After our swim (I'm not really sure I can say that it was real swimming ... my hair didn't even get wet under my swim cap), we changed into gym clothes and headed downstairs for some cardio. Drew suggested that we do the stair mill and I was fine with that. I knew I'd have to pick a slower level than I'd probably like to do since I can't really hold on that well (or at least I shouldn't be holding on). I decided to do the Fat Burner, Level 8.

After about 7 minutes, I was ready to lower the level and wimp out, but since I know that won't get me anywhere, I hung in there for the full 30 minutes. I really just concentrated on reading my book and not falling off the machine. Drew tripped a little bit at one point on his stair mill, so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility that someone would fall off!

When our 30 minutes were up, Drew said he wanted to do some lifting. I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to do that too, but I figured what the heck? This is what I ended up doing:

Leg Press:
10 reps @ 135 lbs / 2 x 10 reps @ 180 lbs

Calf Raises:
10 reps @ 135 lbs / 2 x 10 reps @ 180 lbs

Body Weight Circuit:
3 x 10 reps right leg lunges
3 x 10 reps left leg lunges
3 x 15 reps squats

Drew did the leg presses and calf raises as well, but then he did real squats with the bar on his back. I would have liked to have done those, but I don't think I can lift the bar onto or off on my back right now with my left arm and I was too afraid that I'd hurt it if I did something like that, so I opted just to do my body weight circuit. I think it worked out just fine.

We finished up in the weight room and Drew said he was going to do 15 more minutes of cardio. I said I'd do it too if we could use the treadmill. He's on the anti-running-Amy plan, so he was a little skeptical at first. I said I would just walk at a high incline. Which I did, for 10 minutes. I walked at 4.0 or 4.2 at level 9 incline. Turns out that is very boring.

All I wanted to do was run. So you know what? I decided just to go ahead and sprint my little heart out. I put the incline down to 1 and the speed up to 10.0 and just had at it. I think I sprinted for about a minute and then did a little bit of walking, another sprint at 10.0 and then did about a 2 minute walking cool-down. Definitely very satisfying just to get that sprinting under my belt. Reminded me of training for the half-marathon!

We finished up with some stretching and I headed home with a very hungry tummy. Even though I didn't really swim, there is something in the water that just makes me starving, I think. I know I'm not the only person that this happens to ... or am I?

Swimming
Time: 23:20
Distance: ~ 600 yards
Pace: 68:35/mile (we will never discuss this again)
Calories: 117
Maximum HR: 143
Average HR: 111

Stair Mill
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.57 miles (153 floors)
Pace: 11:40/mile
Calories: 285
Maximum HR: 167
Average HR: 154

Weight Lifting
Time: 23:57
Calories: 121
Maximum HR: 152
Average HR: 112

Running/Walking
Time: 15:00
Distance: ~1.25 miles
Pace: 12:00/mile
Calories: 169
Maximum HR: 193
Average HR: 169