I've been trying not to get too burned out on doing any one thing every single time I go to the gym. I'm hoping that this makes me want to go more often since there will be more of a variety. I'd like to do some spinning one of these times, but with our current gym still in the remodeling process, that's not the easiest thing to arrange at the moment, but I'm keeping my eye out for when it gets better!
Since I had run and stair-milled yesterday, I decided to get my elliptical on tonight. It wasn't that exciting. I read my book and tried to push myself harder than usual. Mostly I do this by making the resistance really high while doing intervals of varying resistance. I have to say that it's a little disheartening when I feel like I'm working really hard, but going slowly because of the higher resistance to look over at the people next to me who are going really fast, but only at resistance level 1. I like to tell myself that my workout is harder than theirs, but I'm not sure that's true. I only think that the varying levels of resistance keep me from dying of boredom on the elliptical.
After the elliptical, I decided that I'd venture to the weight room and do some weight lifting on my own. Normally I'd wait until I was with Drew, just because I like it better when he's there, but since he's traveling for work, I was left to my own devices tonight. However, I did most of the same things that we did on Saturday together, except I threw in a seated row because I actually really like that lift and I've been wanting to do it for a while now.
I was a little nervous while doing the arm curls alternating with the jumps because another guy had put his water bottle and towel on the jumping box while he was using the cable machine. So, I had to ask him to move it in order to get my jumps in. I'm sure he thought that no one would use the box, so I can't be too upset, but is it really that hard to just keep your things on or beside the piece of equipment you're actually using?
The worst part was that when I was doing my first round of jumps I noticed in the mirror that I was wearing my shirt inside out. Sigh. I was wearing a shirt I don't even like and the fact that I didn't even notice when putting it on that it was inside out made me like it even less. Might be time to just go ahead and get rid of that one?
I felt pretty good doing the bench presses. I didn't want to add too much weight since I didn't have a spotter, so I just used the bar. By the third set, I was really feeling it and could barely get 6 reps out. All in all, not the worst weight workout in the world for doing it on my own, I think.
Stand up shoulder presses
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm
Arm curls
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm
Jumps
3 x 10 (short box)
Bench Press
2 x 10 @ 45 lbs
6 @ 45 lbs
Seated row
10 @ 40 lbs
10 @ 50 lbs
10 @ 60 lbs
So, I realized that I haven't mentioned how the weight-loss is going, even though I've been doing a lot of talking about the workouts. This past Saturday I weighed in and had lost just about 5 pounds from my max weight, so I've got just over 10 pounds to lose to meet my goal weight by April. I have to say that I've been doing a really good job of eating right and making good decisions, with the small exception of having splurged on Saturday night. But, truly, one night out of the month isn't going to make or break me. Plus, it was tons of fun and totally worth it. In an ideal world, I'd work out 6 days a week, but it truth it's been more like 5 days a week. Which I'll take. Even on days where I don't work out, I still seem to have a calorie deficit for the day, so I think I'm still on the right track. Hopefully as long as I stick with it, the rest of this weight will come off!
Elliptical
Time: 34:58
Distance: 3.00 miles
Calories: 262
Weight Lifting
Time: 16:29
Calories: 100
Showing posts with label Elliptical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elliptical. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
One-Legged Jumping Super Star!
This morning I went to the gymnasium with Drew. We had a lot of stuff to get accomplished today, so we got to the gym pretty much right when they opened at 8. I started off on the Elliptical as a warm-up. After that, we went to the weight room and did some weight lifting.
I wanted to try to redeem myself after last week when I dropped the bar on the bench press and my trusty spotter saved the day. I think I definitely did that today. I even managed to go up 5 pounds from last week. The 1.5 reps is because I did the first one all on my own and then Drew said that he thought I could get one more. I brought the bar about half-way down and realized that there was no way, so I pushed it back up on my own, so it was really only half a rep. Anything is better than dropping the bar, right?
Bench press
10 @ 65 lbs
5 @ 75 lbs
1.5 @ 90 lbs
Butterfly
10 @ 60 lbs
6 @ 60 lbs
8 @ 70 lbs
Stand up shoulder presses
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm
Arm curls
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm
Jumps
10 x 3 (short box)
I actually did the jumps while alternating the arm curls. It was a really good way to keep my heart rate up. However, as I've mentioned before, I'm really NOT a good jumper. Or, more specifically, I'm not a good two-legged jumper. As Drew said, "You're a one-legged jumping super star!". Which is sort-of true. I'm just missing some sort of balance or something that makes me able to be good at jumping with two legs, but I gave it my best effort!
After that I finished up with a run on the treadmill. Between the frigid temperatures and the snow we keep getting here, it seems almost impossible to run outdoors (at least to me). My hat is off to those of you who are doing it! I decided that in the spirit of keeping up with this speedy 5K plan, I should do some pick-ups during today's run.
I ran the first half-mile at 5.4 (11 minute pace) and then bumped it up to 7.5 (8 minute pace) for the next 0.25 miles. I then went back to my slower pace to recover. I ended up doing a total of 4 pick-ups throughout the run. Two of them were at 7.5 (8 minute pace) and two were at 8.5 (7 minute pace). All four pick-ups were for 0.25 miles. It wasn't always easy, but I'm pretty proud of myself for hanging in there! I ended up doing the 3.1 miles in 29:20 and then walked for another minute to cool down.
I know I need to get some longer runs in, too, but the thought of doing them on the treadmill is slightly daunting/boring/annoying, so I'm holding out for better weather...
Elliptical
Time: 33:59
Distance: 2.80 miles
Calories: 269
Weight Lifting
Time: 26:43
Calories: 148
Running
Time: 30:58
Distance: 3.20 miles
Calories: 307
I wanted to try to redeem myself after last week when I dropped the bar on the bench press and my trusty spotter saved the day. I think I definitely did that today. I even managed to go up 5 pounds from last week. The 1.5 reps is because I did the first one all on my own and then Drew said that he thought I could get one more. I brought the bar about half-way down and realized that there was no way, so I pushed it back up on my own, so it was really only half a rep. Anything is better than dropping the bar, right?
Bench press
10 @ 65 lbs
5 @ 75 lbs
1.5 @ 90 lbs
Butterfly
10 @ 60 lbs
6 @ 60 lbs
8 @ 70 lbs
Stand up shoulder presses
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm
Arm curls
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm
Jumps
10 x 3 (short box)
I actually did the jumps while alternating the arm curls. It was a really good way to keep my heart rate up. However, as I've mentioned before, I'm really NOT a good jumper. Or, more specifically, I'm not a good two-legged jumper. As Drew said, "You're a one-legged jumping super star!". Which is sort-of true. I'm just missing some sort of balance or something that makes me able to be good at jumping with two legs, but I gave it my best effort!
After that I finished up with a run on the treadmill. Between the frigid temperatures and the snow we keep getting here, it seems almost impossible to run outdoors (at least to me). My hat is off to those of you who are doing it! I decided that in the spirit of keeping up with this speedy 5K plan, I should do some pick-ups during today's run.
I ran the first half-mile at 5.4 (11 minute pace) and then bumped it up to 7.5 (8 minute pace) for the next 0.25 miles. I then went back to my slower pace to recover. I ended up doing a total of 4 pick-ups throughout the run. Two of them were at 7.5 (8 minute pace) and two were at 8.5 (7 minute pace). All four pick-ups were for 0.25 miles. It wasn't always easy, but I'm pretty proud of myself for hanging in there! I ended up doing the 3.1 miles in 29:20 and then walked for another minute to cool down.
I know I need to get some longer runs in, too, but the thought of doing them on the treadmill is slightly daunting/boring/annoying, so I'm holding out for better weather...
Elliptical
Time: 33:59
Distance: 2.80 miles
Calories: 269
Weight Lifting
Time: 26:43
Calories: 148
Running
Time: 30:58
Distance: 3.20 miles
Calories: 307
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Gym, Gym, Gym
That's all I ever do anymore, I think. Well, that's not really true. But it's all I seem to be doing in terms of working out. I'm not the biggest fan of the gym, but if going there will help me reach my weight loss goal by April, I'm going to keep on going. Of course, I'm secretly hoping the weather will magically get more spring-like, but I don't think that's really going to happen anytime soon.
Tonight I went to the gym after work. I did what is quickly becoming my fall-back routine there. But that's okay because I don't hate it (or at least I don't hate it yet). It lets me read my book while I'm there and I'm all in favor of more reading time in my life. I read a lot (even outside of the gym) and if you're really curious about what I'm reading, I could start posting it here, but I don't give book recommendations because they make me nervous. I mean, how do I know what kind of books you like to read?
So, at the gym today, I did 30 minutes on the stair mill followed by 20ish minutes on the elliptical. I tried to hang on for as long as I could on the elliptical, but truthfully, I was hungry and wanted to get home and make myself some dinner. I forced myself to stay on until my heart rate monitor said I had burned 200 calories during that part of the workout, which I thought was a good compromise. A lot easier than a time goal, I think.
I've noticed that I actually don't mind going to the gym after work. Even if it is more crowded then. However, I don't really like getting home later and still having to figure out some sort of dinner. I also feel even less motivated than usual the next morning to get up and go to the gym in the morning, so it's like some sort of really bad cycle I've got myself on. I know I should just suck it up and get up earlier. I'm a work in progress, what can I say?
Stair Mill
Time: 30:57
Distance: 2.95 miles
Calories: 265
Elliptical
Time: 24:40
Distance: 2.20 miles
Calories: 200
Tonight I went to the gym after work. I did what is quickly becoming my fall-back routine there. But that's okay because I don't hate it (or at least I don't hate it yet). It lets me read my book while I'm there and I'm all in favor of more reading time in my life. I read a lot (even outside of the gym) and if you're really curious about what I'm reading, I could start posting it here, but I don't give book recommendations because they make me nervous. I mean, how do I know what kind of books you like to read?
So, at the gym today, I did 30 minutes on the stair mill followed by 20ish minutes on the elliptical. I tried to hang on for as long as I could on the elliptical, but truthfully, I was hungry and wanted to get home and make myself some dinner. I forced myself to stay on until my heart rate monitor said I had burned 200 calories during that part of the workout, which I thought was a good compromise. A lot easier than a time goal, I think.
I've noticed that I actually don't mind going to the gym after work. Even if it is more crowded then. However, I don't really like getting home later and still having to figure out some sort of dinner. I also feel even less motivated than usual the next morning to get up and go to the gym in the morning, so it's like some sort of really bad cycle I've got myself on. I know I should just suck it up and get up earlier. I'm a work in progress, what can I say?
Stair Mill
Time: 30:57
Distance: 2.95 miles
Calories: 265
Elliptical
Time: 24:40
Distance: 2.20 miles
Calories: 200
Thursday, January 13, 2011
7 Days
Today marks one week of counting calories and starting to be more regular in my workouts. I have to come clean and say that today's blog post title was brought to you by this video:
I don't know if I've seen any difference on the scale yet. I'm waiting until tomorrow to weigh myself. I'm feeling more in the groove, so even if there isn't any loss, I'm just going to keep going with everything as I have been.
Yesterday after work I headed to the gym to do some more cardio. My left calf was still a little iffy from last weekend (I think that today it finally feels back to 100%), so I decided to skip running again and just go for the "other" types of cardio. I ended up doing a half an hour on the stair mill and a half an hour on the elliptical. I definitely burn more calories on the stair mill, but I'm not sure I could stand doing that for more than 30 minutes.
I ended up going to the gym on the ground floor of the building that I work in. The gym I belong to has branches all over the city and with the membership that I have, I can go to all of them. I'm pretty sure my membership is up in March and I've really been toying with the idea of switching gyms. And then something like yesterday happens and I remember how nice it is to be able to go to the gym anywhere I want. It's really something to consider. It's just so gosh-darn expensive! Being healthy should be cheaper!
This morning I had pilates with Nicole. Pilates is not a huge calorie burner (not shocking), but I really like it. A lot. It is sort-of fun because I never really know what Nicole will throw at me on any given day. This morning we sort-of had to shuffle around the studio because there was a very full house, but it worked out just fine.
We started out on the reformer using a foam roller, but not in the typical way. I was laying on top of the foam roller and then had to balance on that while doing some other exercises. There was a moment where I was sure I was going to roll off the reformer, but I guess my ab muscles caught me, because I was fine!
We ended up working on the tower and I realized today that Nicole has a thing for my hamstrings. As in, she likes to torture them. Or maybe she's trying to make up for the fact that I tortured them myself while marathon training. Either way, they definitely get a lot more (and better) stretching on these pilates days than they do on a regular day. It's both good and ouchy at the same time.
I've got one more day of waking up early before work and then three days in a row when I can get up as I please! Hooray for long weekends! I'm just a little too excited about this one coming up. I'm planning on trying out running again tomorrow and also doing some more weight lifting. Last Saturday when I did some weight lifting, I had to use the plate-loaded machines instead of free weights and I was doing the chest press at 80 or 90 pounds. I really don't think I could do that on the bench press, but I might want to test it out just to see if I could do it once (or maybe even twice!).
Stair Mill & Elliptical
Time: 1:00:42
SM Distance: 2.80 miles
Elliptical Distance: 2.50 miles
Calories: 500
Max HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 158 (75%)
Pilates
Time: 54:00
Calories: 115
Max HR: 118 (56%)
Average HR: 90 (42%)
I don't know if I've seen any difference on the scale yet. I'm waiting until tomorrow to weigh myself. I'm feeling more in the groove, so even if there isn't any loss, I'm just going to keep going with everything as I have been.
Yesterday after work I headed to the gym to do some more cardio. My left calf was still a little iffy from last weekend (I think that today it finally feels back to 100%), so I decided to skip running again and just go for the "other" types of cardio. I ended up doing a half an hour on the stair mill and a half an hour on the elliptical. I definitely burn more calories on the stair mill, but I'm not sure I could stand doing that for more than 30 minutes.
I ended up going to the gym on the ground floor of the building that I work in. The gym I belong to has branches all over the city and with the membership that I have, I can go to all of them. I'm pretty sure my membership is up in March and I've really been toying with the idea of switching gyms. And then something like yesterday happens and I remember how nice it is to be able to go to the gym anywhere I want. It's really something to consider. It's just so gosh-darn expensive! Being healthy should be cheaper!
This morning I had pilates with Nicole. Pilates is not a huge calorie burner (not shocking), but I really like it. A lot. It is sort-of fun because I never really know what Nicole will throw at me on any given day. This morning we sort-of had to shuffle around the studio because there was a very full house, but it worked out just fine.
We started out on the reformer using a foam roller, but not in the typical way. I was laying on top of the foam roller and then had to balance on that while doing some other exercises. There was a moment where I was sure I was going to roll off the reformer, but I guess my ab muscles caught me, because I was fine!
We ended up working on the tower and I realized today that Nicole has a thing for my hamstrings. As in, she likes to torture them. Or maybe she's trying to make up for the fact that I tortured them myself while marathon training. Either way, they definitely get a lot more (and better) stretching on these pilates days than they do on a regular day. It's both good and ouchy at the same time.
I've got one more day of waking up early before work and then three days in a row when I can get up as I please! Hooray for long weekends! I'm just a little too excited about this one coming up. I'm planning on trying out running again tomorrow and also doing some more weight lifting. Last Saturday when I did some weight lifting, I had to use the plate-loaded machines instead of free weights and I was doing the chest press at 80 or 90 pounds. I really don't think I could do that on the bench press, but I might want to test it out just to see if I could do it once (or maybe even twice!).
Stair Mill & Elliptical
Time: 1:00:42
SM Distance: 2.80 miles
Elliptical Distance: 2.50 miles
Calories: 500
Max HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 158 (75%)
Pilates
Time: 54:00
Calories: 115
Max HR: 118 (56%)
Average HR: 90 (42%)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Being Hardcore
I might not have been keeping you perfectly up-to-date on my workouts, but I can assure you that they're getting done and I'm actually glad to be back at it. I'm sticking with my plan of working out 6 days a week and having one rest day. I've also been working on keeping my eating in check, which is a little bit easier when you're not on an extended vacation at Drew's mom and dad's house where they keep feeding you delicious food all the time!
I've decided to try to keep up my new (and slightly improved) eating habits until April. My goal between now and then is to lose 15 pounds. Or, technically, 12, since I think I'm already down 3. In April we're going to San Francisco and going to the Giants opening day and then on to wine country for 5 days and I want to be able to do wine tastings and eat yummy vacation food without worrying about anything else!
I'm eating probably 85-90% of what I was eating a week ago, but this time I'm counting calories (using Daily Burn). I've used a couple of Basal Metabolic Calculators to figure out that my BMR is probably somewhere around 1475 calories a day, so my calorie goal is to eat more than that and is somewhere in the 1500-1700 range each day. I've successfully done this for the past 4 days and I have no reason to think that today would be any different. I don't feel like I've denied myself anything, I just don't need to eat as often as I was when I was training for a marathon and I got sort-of used to the extra food!
The good news for me is that I eat pretty well no matter what. Now I'll just be a bit more tempted to cook at home (which, if you saw our counter space, you'd wonder how anything was possible) and have leftovers for lunch than I will to go grab something at the myriad of options within a 2 minute range from my desk. But, that will be good for my wallet as well!
Drew and I have called what we're doing (because he's in on this, too) until April "being hardcore". This involves me actually getting up and going to the gym, which is a huge change of pace for me over the last month or so. I think I'm doing pretty well so far. Here's the quick breakdowns of all the workouts:
Saturday, January 8
Drew and I went to our "old" gym. It's the one I was used to going to and it has a pool, which is nice, since not all gyms in NYC have one. However, it's been undergoing renovations for the past couple months, so we haven't been going there (or, really, I should say that Drew hasn't been going there). I wanted to go and see how everything looked. It seems like they're still about a month away from being completely done, but it's looking pretty nice so far. Of course, I should mention that the equipment hasn't changed and Drew managed to break a treadmill while we were there, so it looks fancier, but I'm not entirely sure it is fancier.
I started out on the elliptical to warm-up before heading to the treadmill. I only did two miles on the treadmill before going to do some weight-lifting. I feel like these gym workouts are a little scattered because I don't do any one thing for very long, but if this is what it's going to take to get me to keep going, so be it. I finished up the weight lifting with some ab work before going back to the treadmill for another round of cardio. I was going to try to do some intervals on the treadmill the second time around, but after the first one, I felt really pukey. I could have lived through that if I hadn't gotten a big side stitch. I took that as a sign that I should ease back into this whole thing and so I spent 15 minutes doing some stretching and more ab work. All in all, a pretty good workout for the first day of being "hardcore".
Sunday, January 9
In my original plan, I had wanted to run three days a week, so I figured I might as well start now! I've got this Speedy 5K plan in my head for March and I thought that I'd try to incorporate a little speed work into my run today since it hadn't worked out so well the day before. I put on lots of warm clothes and a hat and gloves and my new Garmin and headed out the door to the Westside Path.
Wow. It's cold out there in January. Luckily, it didn't take me too long to warm-up. I ran two miles down to Chelsea Piers and then turned around and headed back home. I figured that my muscles were probably warmer now so I could try to run a faster mile for mile three. And I totally did! It was pretty hard, though. I also think I need to change some of the settings on my Garmin because right now I have the auto pause feature for when I'm totally stopped. I had to stop a couple times today to blow my nose and I noticed that each time, it took at least 10 seconds to register that I'd stopped. I can't really blame it, I'll just change some setting and then I'll feel better about my times not being skewed by nose blowing or stopping for a traffic light. But, I can include these fancy mile splits for the very first time:
Mile 1: 10:17
Mile 2: 10:28
Mile 3: 9:36
Mile 4: 11:02
Mile 4-4.10: 1:14
Monday, January 10
Rest day! Mondays are going to be my "normal" rest day, so I figured I should just go ahead and get into the routine early!
Tuesday, January 11
This morning I managed to get up and out of bed, even though Drew said "you could just go after work", but I wanted to make sure my workout was done and over with. My left calf muscle has been a little sore, which I'm sure is the result of running too fast (oops). That meant that I wouldn't be doing any running today. Instead, I did 30 minutes on the stair mill and 30 minutes on the elliptical. Not a riveting workout, but a workout nonetheless. And I feel great about it. Mostly I felt great that I'm still sticking with it. It's a lot easier to get up and go to the gym at 9 or 10 on the weekend than it is before 6 on a weekday!
Tomorrow it will likely have to be after work unless we end up with another huge snow accumulation in NYC tonight/tomorrow morning. I am planning on a dentist appointment at 8 am before work and since the gym doesn't open until 6 and there should be a lot of snow on the ground, which would make working out outdoors dangerous, I think I'll stick with the after work option!
Saturday
Elliptical: 15:25 / 1.25 miles / 145 calories / 179 max HR (84%) / 172 avg HR (81%)
Running (Treadmill): 20:49 / 2.00 miles / 200 calories / 198 max HR (93%) / 180 avg HR (85%)
Weight Lifting: 22:24 / 155 calories / 166 max HR (78%) / 143 avg HR (67%)
Running (Treadmill) 2: 10:00 / 1.00 mile / 93 calories / 181 max HR (85%) / 172 avg HR (81%)
Sunday
Running: 42:37 / 10:23 pace / 481 calories / 192 max HR / 173 avg HR
Tuesday
Stair Mill: 30:48 / 2.53 miles / 245 calories / 166 max HR (78%) / 155 avg HR (73%)
Elliptical: 31:40 / 2.75 miles / 270 calories / 172 max HR (81%) / 162 avg HR (76%)
I've decided to try to keep up my new (and slightly improved) eating habits until April. My goal between now and then is to lose 15 pounds. Or, technically, 12, since I think I'm already down 3. In April we're going to San Francisco and going to the Giants opening day and then on to wine country for 5 days and I want to be able to do wine tastings and eat yummy vacation food without worrying about anything else!
I'm eating probably 85-90% of what I was eating a week ago, but this time I'm counting calories (using Daily Burn). I've used a couple of Basal Metabolic Calculators to figure out that my BMR is probably somewhere around 1475 calories a day, so my calorie goal is to eat more than that and is somewhere in the 1500-1700 range each day. I've successfully done this for the past 4 days and I have no reason to think that today would be any different. I don't feel like I've denied myself anything, I just don't need to eat as often as I was when I was training for a marathon and I got sort-of used to the extra food!
The good news for me is that I eat pretty well no matter what. Now I'll just be a bit more tempted to cook at home (which, if you saw our counter space, you'd wonder how anything was possible) and have leftovers for lunch than I will to go grab something at the myriad of options within a 2 minute range from my desk. But, that will be good for my wallet as well!
Drew and I have called what we're doing (because he's in on this, too) until April "being hardcore". This involves me actually getting up and going to the gym, which is a huge change of pace for me over the last month or so. I think I'm doing pretty well so far. Here's the quick breakdowns of all the workouts:
Saturday, January 8
Drew and I went to our "old" gym. It's the one I was used to going to and it has a pool, which is nice, since not all gyms in NYC have one. However, it's been undergoing renovations for the past couple months, so we haven't been going there (or, really, I should say that Drew hasn't been going there). I wanted to go and see how everything looked. It seems like they're still about a month away from being completely done, but it's looking pretty nice so far. Of course, I should mention that the equipment hasn't changed and Drew managed to break a treadmill while we were there, so it looks fancier, but I'm not entirely sure it is fancier.
I started out on the elliptical to warm-up before heading to the treadmill. I only did two miles on the treadmill before going to do some weight-lifting. I feel like these gym workouts are a little scattered because I don't do any one thing for very long, but if this is what it's going to take to get me to keep going, so be it. I finished up the weight lifting with some ab work before going back to the treadmill for another round of cardio. I was going to try to do some intervals on the treadmill the second time around, but after the first one, I felt really pukey. I could have lived through that if I hadn't gotten a big side stitch. I took that as a sign that I should ease back into this whole thing and so I spent 15 minutes doing some stretching and more ab work. All in all, a pretty good workout for the first day of being "hardcore".
Sunday, January 9
In my original plan, I had wanted to run three days a week, so I figured I might as well start now! I've got this Speedy 5K plan in my head for March and I thought that I'd try to incorporate a little speed work into my run today since it hadn't worked out so well the day before. I put on lots of warm clothes and a hat and gloves and my new Garmin and headed out the door to the Westside Path.
Wow. It's cold out there in January. Luckily, it didn't take me too long to warm-up. I ran two miles down to Chelsea Piers and then turned around and headed back home. I figured that my muscles were probably warmer now so I could try to run a faster mile for mile three. And I totally did! It was pretty hard, though. I also think I need to change some of the settings on my Garmin because right now I have the auto pause feature for when I'm totally stopped. I had to stop a couple times today to blow my nose and I noticed that each time, it took at least 10 seconds to register that I'd stopped. I can't really blame it, I'll just change some setting and then I'll feel better about my times not being skewed by nose blowing or stopping for a traffic light. But, I can include these fancy mile splits for the very first time:
Mile 1: 10:17
Mile 2: 10:28
Mile 3: 9:36
Mile 4: 11:02
Mile 4-4.10: 1:14
Monday, January 10
Rest day! Mondays are going to be my "normal" rest day, so I figured I should just go ahead and get into the routine early!
Tuesday, January 11
This morning I managed to get up and out of bed, even though Drew said "you could just go after work", but I wanted to make sure my workout was done and over with. My left calf muscle has been a little sore, which I'm sure is the result of running too fast (oops). That meant that I wouldn't be doing any running today. Instead, I did 30 minutes on the stair mill and 30 minutes on the elliptical. Not a riveting workout, but a workout nonetheless. And I feel great about it. Mostly I felt great that I'm still sticking with it. It's a lot easier to get up and go to the gym at 9 or 10 on the weekend than it is before 6 on a weekday!
Tomorrow it will likely have to be after work unless we end up with another huge snow accumulation in NYC tonight/tomorrow morning. I am planning on a dentist appointment at 8 am before work and since the gym doesn't open until 6 and there should be a lot of snow on the ground, which would make working out outdoors dangerous, I think I'll stick with the after work option!
Saturday
Elliptical: 15:25 / 1.25 miles / 145 calories / 179 max HR (84%) / 172 avg HR (81%)
Running (Treadmill): 20:49 / 2.00 miles / 200 calories / 198 max HR (93%) / 180 avg HR (85%)
Weight Lifting: 22:24 / 155 calories / 166 max HR (78%) / 143 avg HR (67%)
Running (Treadmill) 2: 10:00 / 1.00 mile / 93 calories / 181 max HR (85%) / 172 avg HR (81%)
Sunday
Running: 42:37 / 10:23 pace / 481 calories / 192 max HR / 173 avg HR
Tuesday
Stair Mill: 30:48 / 2.53 miles / 245 calories / 166 max HR (78%) / 155 avg HR (73%)
Elliptical: 31:40 / 2.75 miles / 270 calories / 172 max HR (81%) / 162 avg HR (76%)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
We Made A Mistake
Yesterday morning I woke up, ate a bar, and went back to bed. Today, however, I woke up, ate a bar, and headed to the gym. Laura and I planned to use one of our fitness passes and try out the Bally's gym. She said that she really needed to ride a bike and I figured that any reason to get me to a gym was a good one, so we agreed to meet this morning.
Except that she told me that she was running late and then had a few issues that prevented her from getting to the gym for quite a while, so I just did my workout on my own. When I was first signing in, the guy at the front desk said that the locker room was in one direction and the pool was in another direction. Ugh. Pool? And then he said the magic words "hot tub"! Double ugh. So, now, because it didn't say on our fitness pass that there was a pool and I didn't go to the website to double check, we've now potentially wasted a pass with a hot tub!
The pool actually looked nicer than the one at my regular NYSC. Or, I guess I should say that it appeared to be 25 yards instead of 18 yards, which made it look a lot better in my mind. The rest of the gym looked a little run-down. All of the cardio equipment looked a little bit older than at NYSC and at NYSC there are individual TVs at each machine. This Bally's only had TVs scattered around the gym. I don't really watch TV at the gym, so it wasn't really a factor for me.
I started out on the stair mill. I figured I'd give it a shot and see how it worked. The downside of older equipment is that there isn't a spot to set your iPod on the equipment, so I had to hold onto it myself. (Actually, I happened to be wearing tri shorts, so I was able to stick it in my side pocket). I picked a random hill climb setting on the stair mill and off I went climbing stairs. I was able to do okay - I did have to turn the level down one so that I wouldn't have to hold on with my left arm. And then, all of a sudden, the machine stopped after 5 minutes and said, "Goal Attained!" I figured that was a sign that I should go and do something else.
There were a bunch of recumbent bikes right near the entrance, so I thought I'd do that while I waited for Laura to appear. I set the timer for 30 minutes and was off to pedal my heart out. I didn't see any bikes that had straps on the pedals, which is a negative in my book. I also didn't see any spin bikes, which would be another negative if I was going to switch gyms permanently. The one thing I really noticed while I was biking today is that this gym seems to run a little hot. Or maybe most gyms do. I'm just more used to having a bit of a breeze from being outdoors I guess. Nothing too exciting to report on the bike front. I sat, I pedaled, after 30 minutes, I got up and walked around a bit.
I looked at the hot tub longingly and then decided I'd do the elliptical until Laura got there. It was also near the front, so I was able to see when she arrived. I waited until I had done 5 minutes on the elliptical and then went off in search of her in the locker room. I showed her the pool and hot tub and then I headed home to shower and get ready for work and she did a workout of her own on a different cardio bike, I believe.
I'm hopeful that Laura and I will be able to meet up either later this week or early next week in order to check out the pool and hot tub situation at this Bally's. Even though I can't swim, Jon suggested water jogging. Not ideal, but I hadn't really thought of it before, so if we go back, maybe I'll give it a shot!
Stair Mill
Time: 5:00
Distance: 0.41 miles
Calories: 49
Maximum HR: 177
Average HR: 171
Cardio Bike
Time: 30:00
Distance: 10.80 miles
Pace: 21.6 MPH
Calories: 278
Maximum HR: 160
Average HR: 152
Elliptical
Time: 5:00
Distance: 0.45 miles
Calories: 45
Maximum HR: 160
Average HR: 149
Except that she told me that she was running late and then had a few issues that prevented her from getting to the gym for quite a while, so I just did my workout on my own. When I was first signing in, the guy at the front desk said that the locker room was in one direction and the pool was in another direction. Ugh. Pool? And then he said the magic words "hot tub"! Double ugh. So, now, because it didn't say on our fitness pass that there was a pool and I didn't go to the website to double check, we've now potentially wasted a pass with a hot tub!
The pool actually looked nicer than the one at my regular NYSC. Or, I guess I should say that it appeared to be 25 yards instead of 18 yards, which made it look a lot better in my mind. The rest of the gym looked a little run-down. All of the cardio equipment looked a little bit older than at NYSC and at NYSC there are individual TVs at each machine. This Bally's only had TVs scattered around the gym. I don't really watch TV at the gym, so it wasn't really a factor for me.
I started out on the stair mill. I figured I'd give it a shot and see how it worked. The downside of older equipment is that there isn't a spot to set your iPod on the equipment, so I had to hold onto it myself. (Actually, I happened to be wearing tri shorts, so I was able to stick it in my side pocket). I picked a random hill climb setting on the stair mill and off I went climbing stairs. I was able to do okay - I did have to turn the level down one so that I wouldn't have to hold on with my left arm. And then, all of a sudden, the machine stopped after 5 minutes and said, "Goal Attained!" I figured that was a sign that I should go and do something else.
There were a bunch of recumbent bikes right near the entrance, so I thought I'd do that while I waited for Laura to appear. I set the timer for 30 minutes and was off to pedal my heart out. I didn't see any bikes that had straps on the pedals, which is a negative in my book. I also didn't see any spin bikes, which would be another negative if I was going to switch gyms permanently. The one thing I really noticed while I was biking today is that this gym seems to run a little hot. Or maybe most gyms do. I'm just more used to having a bit of a breeze from being outdoors I guess. Nothing too exciting to report on the bike front. I sat, I pedaled, after 30 minutes, I got up and walked around a bit.
I looked at the hot tub longingly and then decided I'd do the elliptical until Laura got there. It was also near the front, so I was able to see when she arrived. I waited until I had done 5 minutes on the elliptical and then went off in search of her in the locker room. I showed her the pool and hot tub and then I headed home to shower and get ready for work and she did a workout of her own on a different cardio bike, I believe.
I'm hopeful that Laura and I will be able to meet up either later this week or early next week in order to check out the pool and hot tub situation at this Bally's. Even though I can't swim, Jon suggested water jogging. Not ideal, but I hadn't really thought of it before, so if we go back, maybe I'll give it a shot!
Stair Mill
Time: 5:00
Distance: 0.41 miles
Calories: 49
Maximum HR: 177
Average HR: 171
Cardio Bike
Time: 30:00
Distance: 10.80 miles
Pace: 21.6 MPH
Calories: 278
Maximum HR: 160
Average HR: 152
Elliptical
Time: 5:00
Distance: 0.45 miles
Calories: 45
Maximum HR: 160
Average HR: 149
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Cookies, Flight Delays & Working Out
Well, I've once again been a really bad blogger, which means that what I've really been is a bad exerciser! Oops. I'm chalking it all up to the holidays. I'm planning on starting fresh after the new year. I'm guessing that the majority of Americans are also thinking that exact same thing, but I really mean it. Otherwise I'm going to be really sorry when I can't finish my half-marathon in March!
I spent the weekend in Wisconsin with Drew's mom and sister making Christmas Cookies. It really was a two-day baking marathon and we made all sorts of goodies. I'd try to explain it to you, but the best way to do so is probably just to show some pictures:
Pfefferneusse, Chocolate-Covered Oreos, Bird's Nests, Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Melting Moments (in the foreground), Snowballs (in the background) plus a 20 pound bag of powdered sugar!
Cutout cookies (waiting to be frosted), Candy Canes, Raisin-Filled Sugar Cookies
Gingerbread (there were many more not pictured!)
Cutout Cookies Decorated & Frosted
And, we made even more cookies than are pictured here. I think that there were about 10 different kinds of cookies, plus the candy and chocolate-covered things that we made and Chex Mix! It was a really fun weekend of mostly girl time. And then I got to bring lots of goodies home with me!
The only bad thing that I can really say about the weekend is that I checked before I left for the airport and saw that my plane was on time. However, when I got there, I discovered that my plane was delayed for 4 hours, so since I was there an hour early for my original flight, I had 5 hours to wait around the airport. That meant that I didn't get home until after 3 AM on Monday morning.
Needless to say, my plans of working out on Monday morning went right out the window and I actually slept in on Monday and got to work late as a result of my late plane Sunday night. I briefly considered going to the gym Monday night, but I was so tired in the afternoon and pretty much went home, had dinner and fell asleep, that it probably really was better for me in the long run just to get the rest.
That meant that this morning I had to get back on track! And I actually did get up and go to the gymnasium. I'm starting Week 11 of my weight lifting book. This week is about doing three sets in a row (with 30 seconds rest between sets) and then three minutes rest between each exercise. It was a total body workout, so it didn't focus on one specific muscle group. I think that those are my favorite. I feel a little sore all over when I do these workouts, but am not having trouble lifting my arms (for instance!). The goal reps today was 10 in each set, but the book said that you may have trouble reaching 10 in the third set because your muscles will be fatigued. This was today's workout:
Barbell Squats: 2 sets of 10 reps @ 95 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 95 lbs
Lunges (Right Leg): 1 set of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Lunges (Left Leg): 1 set of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Lat Pulldown (Wide Grip): 3 sets of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 6 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
During the right leg lunges, I noticed that my knee was feeling a little sore, so I decided to cut the third set short. I think I could have struggled to finish the set (as I had to do on the left leg), but it seemed wisest not to push it if I could notice the soreness. The dumbbell bench presses went a lot better than the last time I did them and could only do a couple (although that was at 25 pounds, not 20).
After the weight lifting, I went over and just stood and stared at the cardio equipment for a few minutes. This was similar to when I open the closet door and just stand there and stare until I figure out what I'm going to wear that day. Finally, I decided to settle for the elliptical. Last time I used it, I wasn't that into it, but I decided that I would try harder this time.
I did the interval setting on the elliptical machine for about 30 minutes. Whatever the 'factory' setting was for the intervals, I bumped both of them up pretty high, so it was definitely a tough workout and I was sweating by the end, which I was happy about.
After the weight lifting and the cardio, I headed over to the stretching area. I stretched for a while and then tortured myself and did 100 crunches. My weight lifting didn't incorporate any ab work today and I figured if I'm going to be indulging in all of these cookies that I helped to bake, I should try to keep my tummy looking good! I did the crunches in five sets of 20 to make it more manageable and gave myself about 30-45 seconds rest between each set.
Drew and I are flying to Wisconsin tomorrow night to stay with his family for the Christmas holiday. We're both hoping to workout while we're there, but I'm not sure I'll have time to blog, so there might just be one big update after the fact.
Weight Lifting
Time: 29:11
Calories: 204
Maximum HR: 167
Average HR: 126
Elliptical
Time: 30:45
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace: 12:18/mile
Calories: 317
Maximum HR: 163
Average HR: 155
I spent the weekend in Wisconsin with Drew's mom and sister making Christmas Cookies. It really was a two-day baking marathon and we made all sorts of goodies. I'd try to explain it to you, but the best way to do so is probably just to show some pictures:
Pfefferneusse, Chocolate-Covered Oreos, Bird's Nests, Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Melting Moments (in the foreground), Snowballs (in the background) plus a 20 pound bag of powdered sugar!
Cutout cookies (waiting to be frosted), Candy Canes, Raisin-Filled Sugar Cookies
Gingerbread (there were many more not pictured!)
Cutout Cookies Decorated & FrostedAnd, we made even more cookies than are pictured here. I think that there were about 10 different kinds of cookies, plus the candy and chocolate-covered things that we made and Chex Mix! It was a really fun weekend of mostly girl time. And then I got to bring lots of goodies home with me!
The only bad thing that I can really say about the weekend is that I checked before I left for the airport and saw that my plane was on time. However, when I got there, I discovered that my plane was delayed for 4 hours, so since I was there an hour early for my original flight, I had 5 hours to wait around the airport. That meant that I didn't get home until after 3 AM on Monday morning.
Needless to say, my plans of working out on Monday morning went right out the window and I actually slept in on Monday and got to work late as a result of my late plane Sunday night. I briefly considered going to the gym Monday night, but I was so tired in the afternoon and pretty much went home, had dinner and fell asleep, that it probably really was better for me in the long run just to get the rest.
That meant that this morning I had to get back on track! And I actually did get up and go to the gymnasium. I'm starting Week 11 of my weight lifting book. This week is about doing three sets in a row (with 30 seconds rest between sets) and then three minutes rest between each exercise. It was a total body workout, so it didn't focus on one specific muscle group. I think that those are my favorite. I feel a little sore all over when I do these workouts, but am not having trouble lifting my arms (for instance!). The goal reps today was 10 in each set, but the book said that you may have trouble reaching 10 in the third set because your muscles will be fatigued. This was today's workout:
Barbell Squats: 2 sets of 10 reps @ 95 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 95 lbs
Lunges (Right Leg): 1 set of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Lunges (Left Leg): 1 set of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Lat Pulldown (Wide Grip): 3 sets of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 6 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
During the right leg lunges, I noticed that my knee was feeling a little sore, so I decided to cut the third set short. I think I could have struggled to finish the set (as I had to do on the left leg), but it seemed wisest not to push it if I could notice the soreness. The dumbbell bench presses went a lot better than the last time I did them and could only do a couple (although that was at 25 pounds, not 20).
After the weight lifting, I went over and just stood and stared at the cardio equipment for a few minutes. This was similar to when I open the closet door and just stand there and stare until I figure out what I'm going to wear that day. Finally, I decided to settle for the elliptical. Last time I used it, I wasn't that into it, but I decided that I would try harder this time.
I did the interval setting on the elliptical machine for about 30 minutes. Whatever the 'factory' setting was for the intervals, I bumped both of them up pretty high, so it was definitely a tough workout and I was sweating by the end, which I was happy about.
After the weight lifting and the cardio, I headed over to the stretching area. I stretched for a while and then tortured myself and did 100 crunches. My weight lifting didn't incorporate any ab work today and I figured if I'm going to be indulging in all of these cookies that I helped to bake, I should try to keep my tummy looking good! I did the crunches in five sets of 20 to make it more manageable and gave myself about 30-45 seconds rest between each set.
Drew and I are flying to Wisconsin tomorrow night to stay with his family for the Christmas holiday. We're both hoping to workout while we're there, but I'm not sure I'll have time to blog, so there might just be one big update after the fact.
Weight Lifting
Time: 29:11
Calories: 204
Maximum HR: 167
Average HR: 126
Elliptical
Time: 30:45
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace: 12:18/mile
Calories: 317
Maximum HR: 163
Average HR: 155
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Back On The Upper East Side
Earlier this week, Drew had asked me if I'd like to come along with him when he met with his personal trainer. The original plan was to meet Friday morning. When I got home from the gym last night, I found out that the plan had changed and that we'd actually be meeting with the trainer, Billy, this morning. The only bummer about this plan (regardless of what day it was) is that we had to meet Billy at Drew's old gym on the Upper East Side. Since we had to meet Billy at 6 AM this morning, I said that we weren't getting up any earlier than we had to and we'd be taking a cab to get to the gym.
We got to the gym and stuffed our stuff into the locker room and when we met upstairs to do a little cardio before Billy got there, Drew told me that he had just gotten a text from Billy, who had a "minor catastrophe" at home and was running late. So, that meant that we had some time to kill. Luckily, we had brought our work clothes with us, so it didn't really matter if Billy was on time or not since we could just go straight from the gym to work.
Drew said we had about a half an hour to kill, so he jumped on the arc trainer. I really wanted to use the stair mill, but Drew said he didn't want to be exhausted from them, so I listened to what he had to say and did the elliptical machine. Except that really wasn't what I wanted to do. And I wasn't putting any effort into the whole thing. So, after 14 minutes of lack-luster elliptical, Nature was calling. I took care of that and decided to spend the next 16 minutes on the stairs. So much better! I was sweaty and happy!
Billy got there around 6:30 and rounded us up and took us to the weight room. Right away he had us grab some dumbbells. I got a 15 pounder and a 20 pounder. He had me start by setting both on the ground and then picking one up and lifting it over my head, setting it down and switching to the other dumbbell and doing the same thing. I did 15 of those with each arm.
Then I switched to the cable machine (which I hate). This exercise wasn't so bad though. All I had to do was pull the handle that was attached to the cable, while rotating my torso (similar to punching someone). I did 15 of those with each arm at 27.5 lbs.
Then I went back to the dumbbells for round two, but Billy bumped up the weight to 15 lbs and 25 lbs. Let me tell you, it makes a lot of difference those extra 5 pounds on the heavier dumbbell. I did 15 more of those with each arm. And then went back to the cable machine for round two at 32 lbs (15 reps per arm).
Then he had us lift up the Squat Machine with our arms (feet on the floor) 15 times. I did it with no weight, but Drew had to do it with weight, which just seemed mean. I also wasn't able to keep my feet on the floor the whole time. I had to jump up onto the platform to make it easier on myself (and keep my arms from failing).
We alternated that exercise with some modified pull-ups. We used the Smith Machine. Our feet were up on a workout bench at the end of the machine and we had to lift ourselves up 15 times. My arms were pretty much screaming at me already by this point. Then, of course, we had to do the Squat Machine thing again 15 times and the Smith Machine pull-ups 15 times. On the second round of Smith Machine pull-ups, I had to put my feet on the floor at the end in order to complete my 15 reps.
Then there was a quick breather while we walked from one area of the gym to another. We went into more of a stretching area and Billy had us get into plank position and just hold it for a few seconds. Then he had us alternate between plank position on our hands and plank position on our elbows. Ugh. That pretty much sucks. I couldn't even tell you how many times we did that. I think it was about 15 times the first time, but then we had to do some more later on, so I'd guess that we did that 20 times in total.
This is where things get a little fuzzy for me because I wasn't really in a position where I could write things down. I know that we did 25 real sit-ups. Turns out that I'm not very good at those. Billy had to hold my feet down. I am really good at crunches, though! We also did 5 push-ups.
And then we had to do this horrible thing involving a ball. I got really frustrated during this part. The point of it was that we were in plank position and we had to get our hands up onto the ball and then back off the ball. I thought that we were supposed to be able to get our hands up at the same time, which just wasn't working for me. I sort-of wanted to lean back and "jump" onto the ball with my hands, but that didn't seem very smart. I had a really hard time doing this right. After I had gotten it down a couple of times, Billy said that we couldn't leave until I had done it two more times properly.
So, I did the first one and rolled the ball to Drew. Then I put my knee down on the ground for a second. Billy asked Drew if I was doing it right and Drew said that I did put my leg down. Of course, that meant that we had to do even more of these dumb ball exercises. Even though I put my leg down after I was done with my part and had rolled the ball back! Ugh! I wasn't a very happy camper at that point.
Luckily, that was it. Billy had another client at 7, so we only had him for a short while. Of course, I forgot to press start on my watch right when we started training with Billy, so that's why my stats are a little off below.
After that, we still had about an hour until we had to hit the showers, so Drew asked if I wanted to do a fartlek run with him on the treadmill. The answer was really no, but instead I said yes.
But, on the way there, we saw the computerized bikes that they had at that gym and decided that we really needed to try them out. They were Expresso bikes. Um, can you just say awesome bikes? I'm pretty sure I've seen these before on Brie's blog and was super jealous when I saw them there.
They're really nice. They have gears that you have to change, the handle bars move, the seat isn't horrible, you can clip in (although I didn't have my bike shoes with me). I'd give it an A+ as far as bike equipment at a gymnasium and I fully intend on asking my regular gymnasium why they don't have one (or two!).
I chose a "Challenging" workout for us that was called "Wicked Workout". That should have been a dead giveaway right there. There were some serious hills in that baby! The highest % grade that we saw was 49%! Try climbing that in real life. Drew said he didn't really know anything about % grade or why it's done as a percentage, but I think that this article does a good job explaining it.
The riding was really fun (despite the fact that I spent a good deal of time muttering under my breath about the hills). It was fun because you had to try to stay on the road and I could see Drew ahead of me. I also really liked it because I tried to catch up to the other riders and then crash into them. It didn't really seem to have any effect on my riding or theirs, but it was a great source of entertainment for me!
The only really negative thing that I'd have to say about this bike is that the downhills were nothing like real life. You had no credit for the momentum you'd have if you were really going down a steep hill. But, I guess if I wanted it to be real, I'd don a bunch of cold-weather gear and ride my bike outside. The other negative thing was that Drew was way faster than me. He finished about 13 minutes before I did. I wasn't overly excited that he was that much faster than me, but I still had a really good time riding bikes with him.
In total this morning, I burned exactly 1000 recorded calories at the gym! I'm pretty sure that might be a new record for the gymnasium! I also think that it was probably more than that since I cheated myself out of a few minutes of working out with Billy, but I'm really happy with that total and all the effort that I put in this morning. I'm going to be out of town this weekend and I have almost no expectation that I'll be working out (in fact, I'll be making Christmas cookies, and lots of them), so I'm trying to compensate for that now. This was a really good start!
Elliptical & Stair Mill
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.75 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 272
Maximum HR: 165
Average HR: 144
Training with Billy
Time: 22:10
Calories: 215
Maximum HR: 175
Average HR: 149
Expresso Spin Bike
Time: 47:10
Distance: 7.93 miles
Pace: 10.1 MPH (average)
Calories: 513
Maximum HR: 204*
Average HR: 160
*This heart rate is 100% wrong. When I was starting my watch for the bike riding, I looked down and it flashed on 204 and then immediately went to 118. So something was wrong for a second there (or I have some sort of heart flutter/murmur). But, since it says it on my watch and I don't have the actual number, I'm just going to record it anyway.
We got to the gym and stuffed our stuff into the locker room and when we met upstairs to do a little cardio before Billy got there, Drew told me that he had just gotten a text from Billy, who had a "minor catastrophe" at home and was running late. So, that meant that we had some time to kill. Luckily, we had brought our work clothes with us, so it didn't really matter if Billy was on time or not since we could just go straight from the gym to work.
Drew said we had about a half an hour to kill, so he jumped on the arc trainer. I really wanted to use the stair mill, but Drew said he didn't want to be exhausted from them, so I listened to what he had to say and did the elliptical machine. Except that really wasn't what I wanted to do. And I wasn't putting any effort into the whole thing. So, after 14 minutes of lack-luster elliptical, Nature was calling. I took care of that and decided to spend the next 16 minutes on the stairs. So much better! I was sweaty and happy!
Billy got there around 6:30 and rounded us up and took us to the weight room. Right away he had us grab some dumbbells. I got a 15 pounder and a 20 pounder. He had me start by setting both on the ground and then picking one up and lifting it over my head, setting it down and switching to the other dumbbell and doing the same thing. I did 15 of those with each arm.
Then I switched to the cable machine (which I hate). This exercise wasn't so bad though. All I had to do was pull the handle that was attached to the cable, while rotating my torso (similar to punching someone). I did 15 of those with each arm at 27.5 lbs.
Then I went back to the dumbbells for round two, but Billy bumped up the weight to 15 lbs and 25 lbs. Let me tell you, it makes a lot of difference those extra 5 pounds on the heavier dumbbell. I did 15 more of those with each arm. And then went back to the cable machine for round two at 32 lbs (15 reps per arm).
Then he had us lift up the Squat Machine with our arms (feet on the floor) 15 times. I did it with no weight, but Drew had to do it with weight, which just seemed mean. I also wasn't able to keep my feet on the floor the whole time. I had to jump up onto the platform to make it easier on myself (and keep my arms from failing).
We alternated that exercise with some modified pull-ups. We used the Smith Machine. Our feet were up on a workout bench at the end of the machine and we had to lift ourselves up 15 times. My arms were pretty much screaming at me already by this point. Then, of course, we had to do the Squat Machine thing again 15 times and the Smith Machine pull-ups 15 times. On the second round of Smith Machine pull-ups, I had to put my feet on the floor at the end in order to complete my 15 reps.
Then there was a quick breather while we walked from one area of the gym to another. We went into more of a stretching area and Billy had us get into plank position and just hold it for a few seconds. Then he had us alternate between plank position on our hands and plank position on our elbows. Ugh. That pretty much sucks. I couldn't even tell you how many times we did that. I think it was about 15 times the first time, but then we had to do some more later on, so I'd guess that we did that 20 times in total.
This is where things get a little fuzzy for me because I wasn't really in a position where I could write things down. I know that we did 25 real sit-ups. Turns out that I'm not very good at those. Billy had to hold my feet down. I am really good at crunches, though! We also did 5 push-ups.
And then we had to do this horrible thing involving a ball. I got really frustrated during this part. The point of it was that we were in plank position and we had to get our hands up onto the ball and then back off the ball. I thought that we were supposed to be able to get our hands up at the same time, which just wasn't working for me. I sort-of wanted to lean back and "jump" onto the ball with my hands, but that didn't seem very smart. I had a really hard time doing this right. After I had gotten it down a couple of times, Billy said that we couldn't leave until I had done it two more times properly.
So, I did the first one and rolled the ball to Drew. Then I put my knee down on the ground for a second. Billy asked Drew if I was doing it right and Drew said that I did put my leg down. Of course, that meant that we had to do even more of these dumb ball exercises. Even though I put my leg down after I was done with my part and had rolled the ball back! Ugh! I wasn't a very happy camper at that point.
Luckily, that was it. Billy had another client at 7, so we only had him for a short while. Of course, I forgot to press start on my watch right when we started training with Billy, so that's why my stats are a little off below.
After that, we still had about an hour until we had to hit the showers, so Drew asked if I wanted to do a fartlek run with him on the treadmill. The answer was really no, but instead I said yes.
But, on the way there, we saw the computerized bikes that they had at that gym and decided that we really needed to try them out. They were Expresso bikes. Um, can you just say awesome bikes? I'm pretty sure I've seen these before on Brie's blog and was super jealous when I saw them there.
They're really nice. They have gears that you have to change, the handle bars move, the seat isn't horrible, you can clip in (although I didn't have my bike shoes with me). I'd give it an A+ as far as bike equipment at a gymnasium and I fully intend on asking my regular gymnasium why they don't have one (or two!).
I chose a "Challenging" workout for us that was called "Wicked Workout". That should have been a dead giveaway right there. There were some serious hills in that baby! The highest % grade that we saw was 49%! Try climbing that in real life. Drew said he didn't really know anything about % grade or why it's done as a percentage, but I think that this article does a good job explaining it.
The riding was really fun (despite the fact that I spent a good deal of time muttering under my breath about the hills). It was fun because you had to try to stay on the road and I could see Drew ahead of me. I also really liked it because I tried to catch up to the other riders and then crash into them. It didn't really seem to have any effect on my riding or theirs, but it was a great source of entertainment for me!
The only really negative thing that I'd have to say about this bike is that the downhills were nothing like real life. You had no credit for the momentum you'd have if you were really going down a steep hill. But, I guess if I wanted it to be real, I'd don a bunch of cold-weather gear and ride my bike outside. The other negative thing was that Drew was way faster than me. He finished about 13 minutes before I did. I wasn't overly excited that he was that much faster than me, but I still had a really good time riding bikes with him.
In total this morning, I burned exactly 1000 recorded calories at the gym! I'm pretty sure that might be a new record for the gymnasium! I also think that it was probably more than that since I cheated myself out of a few minutes of working out with Billy, but I'm really happy with that total and all the effort that I put in this morning. I'm going to be out of town this weekend and I have almost no expectation that I'll be working out (in fact, I'll be making Christmas cookies, and lots of them), so I'm trying to compensate for that now. This was a really good start!
Elliptical & Stair Mill
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.75 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 272
Maximum HR: 165
Average HR: 144
Training with Billy
Time: 22:10
Calories: 215
Maximum HR: 175
Average HR: 149
Expresso Spin Bike
Time: 47:10
Distance: 7.93 miles
Pace: 10.1 MPH (average)
Calories: 513
Maximum HR: 204*
Average HR: 160
*This heart rate is 100% wrong. When I was starting my watch for the bike riding, I looked down and it flashed on 204 and then immediately went to 118. So something was wrong for a second there (or I have some sort of heart flutter/murmur). But, since it says it on my watch and I don't have the actual number, I'm just going to record it anyway.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday After Work
This morning the alarm went off and Drew got up and I didn't. I did, however, pack a bag so that I could go to the gym after work today. Which is what I did. I really wasn't feeling it when I got there and my legs are a little tired after yesterday's run and weight lifting (no big surprise). So, I decided to do some fake running (a.k.a. the elliptical machine).
I picked some sort of interval program and just started moving my legs. I mostly concentrated on reading my book instead of concentrating on my workout. I forgot to bring my watch and HR monitor strap, so I don't have any fancy data today. That meant that I had to remember my distance and time. Frankly, the reason I stopped when I did was that it was a perfect trifecta. I had finished a chapter of my book and the miles and minutes were both even. Seemed like the best reason to get off the machine that I could think of.
I finished up with some stretching and headed home for dinner. I definitely don't love going to the gym at night, but since I wasn't lifting, it really wasn't too bad today since I just got on my machine and stayed there the whole time.
Elliptical
Time: 38:40
Distance: 3.10 miles
Pace: 12:28/mile
I picked some sort of interval program and just started moving my legs. I mostly concentrated on reading my book instead of concentrating on my workout. I forgot to bring my watch and HR monitor strap, so I don't have any fancy data today. That meant that I had to remember my distance and time. Frankly, the reason I stopped when I did was that it was a perfect trifecta. I had finished a chapter of my book and the miles and minutes were both even. Seemed like the best reason to get off the machine that I could think of.
I finished up with some stretching and headed home for dinner. I definitely don't love going to the gym at night, but since I wasn't lifting, it really wasn't too bad today since I just got on my machine and stayed there the whole time.
Elliptical
Time: 38:40
Distance: 3.10 miles
Pace: 12:28/mile
Friday, December 4, 2009
Muscle Up!
As you can see by my lack of blogging, I've had a rough few days. Tuesday I had every intention of getting up early and going running with Terrier, but when I woke up and saw that it was 30 something outside and realized that I needed the sleep, I couldn't force myself up and out of bed. Wednesday I never really had any hope of working out since I had to be at work at 6:30 in the morning and that was too early for me to ever try to workout before. Yesterday I set my alarm, but I think I was wiped out from the extra work I've been doing at my real job and it just wasn't happening either. All day yesterday I felt like I had a black cloud hanging over me because I hadn't worked out. I was really feeling down in the dumps about it. I didn't even take three whole days off after my triathlon for Pete's sake!
Of course, the only cure for this is to get back to the gym and keep working out. So, that's just what I did this morning. Drew got up early to come along with me and he even lifted weights with me too! Today was supposed to be a leg lifting day according to the plan, but in honor of the fact that I have a 10K to run on Sunday, I decided that it might not be a good idea to do that, so I swapped the remaining two workouts for the week. Instead of legs, we did back, biceps & abs.
This was the workout:
Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 25 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 30 lbs
Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 1 set of 15 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
Dumbbell Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 9/10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 3 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Barbell Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 40 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 45 lbs
Reverse Crunches: 1 set of 12 reps / 1 set of 10 reps / 1 set of 8 reps
The pullovers and the pulldowns were just fine. The curls is where it started to get really hard. On the second set of dumbbell curls, I was struggling. Drew told me that I should "muscle up" and use my whole body to get the dumbbell up. So, instead of standing still, I sort of swung my arm back in order to get it to go forward. I'm sure that's not the best form in the entire world, but as he pointed out, if you need to move or lift something heavy in real life, you're not going to be standing still to do so.
The last set of dumbbell curls was impossible. I tried to lift it once and I just wrote "FAIL" in my book. I couldn't do it. But, Drew told me that if I muscled up, I could. And I did! I did three of them. Not a huge success, but still good for my growing muscles. Drew had to help me with the barbell curls too. I was really lucky he was there with me, because he definitely pushed me more than I would have pushed myself.
After the weight lifting, I did some 'fake running', which is what I like to think the elliptical is. Mostly, I really wanted to read my book and the elliptical is a really good way to do so. Drew did the elliptical with me, so we just did our whole workout together. Well, he stayed at the gym and did more cardio, but I had to get home and get to work early. I'm just glad that I'm back into the swing of things. Next week might be more of the same with going to work early, but I'm really going to try to stick with the workouts better!
Weight Lifting
Time: 57:08
Calories: 342
Maximum HR: 154
Average HR: 117
Elliptical
Time: 32:42
Distance: 2.85 miles
Pace: 11:28/mile
Calories: 311
Maximum HR: 159
Average HR: 147
Of course, the only cure for this is to get back to the gym and keep working out. So, that's just what I did this morning. Drew got up early to come along with me and he even lifted weights with me too! Today was supposed to be a leg lifting day according to the plan, but in honor of the fact that I have a 10K to run on Sunday, I decided that it might not be a good idea to do that, so I swapped the remaining two workouts for the week. Instead of legs, we did back, biceps & abs.
This was the workout:
Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 25 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 30 lbs
Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 1 set of 15 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
Dumbbell Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 9/10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 3 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Barbell Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 40 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 45 lbs
Reverse Crunches: 1 set of 12 reps / 1 set of 10 reps / 1 set of 8 reps
The pullovers and the pulldowns were just fine. The curls is where it started to get really hard. On the second set of dumbbell curls, I was struggling. Drew told me that I should "muscle up" and use my whole body to get the dumbbell up. So, instead of standing still, I sort of swung my arm back in order to get it to go forward. I'm sure that's not the best form in the entire world, but as he pointed out, if you need to move or lift something heavy in real life, you're not going to be standing still to do so.
The last set of dumbbell curls was impossible. I tried to lift it once and I just wrote "FAIL" in my book. I couldn't do it. But, Drew told me that if I muscled up, I could. And I did! I did three of them. Not a huge success, but still good for my growing muscles. Drew had to help me with the barbell curls too. I was really lucky he was there with me, because he definitely pushed me more than I would have pushed myself.
After the weight lifting, I did some 'fake running', which is what I like to think the elliptical is. Mostly, I really wanted to read my book and the elliptical is a really good way to do so. Drew did the elliptical with me, so we just did our whole workout together. Well, he stayed at the gym and did more cardio, but I had to get home and get to work early. I'm just glad that I'm back into the swing of things. Next week might be more of the same with going to work early, but I'm really going to try to stick with the workouts better!
Weight Lifting
Time: 57:08
Calories: 342
Maximum HR: 154
Average HR: 117
Elliptical
Time: 32:42
Distance: 2.85 miles
Pace: 11:28/mile
Calories: 311
Maximum HR: 159
Average HR: 147
Monday, November 16, 2009
I Hope You Get Really Sweaty
This morning Drew and I headed off to the gymnasium like usual. Before we left, his sister said, "I hope you get really sweaty today!" I'm back to three non-consecutive days of weight lifting, so all I was going for was the cardio. We got to the gym right when it opened (at 6 AM) and were the first people inside. That meant free reign over the machines. I decided to head straight for the stair mill.
If there ever was a sweat inducing machine, this is it. I did intervals on Level 10 for 30 minutes and my gym towel was soaking wet by the end. I had to trade it in for a fresh one when I was done and I almost never do that. I didn't think a half an hour was enough cardio for one day, but it was enough on the stair mill. So, I finished up on the stair mill and headed over to the elliptical machine. I did one of the gluteal programs on the elliptical, which isn't one that I normally do. I'm not really sure I know what the difference is anyway, other than this one keeps you at a really high incline level the vast majority of the time. I tried to keep the resistance pretty high as well, although I did take a break for a few minutes in the middle and lowered it down.
Once again, I finished up with some stretching. No foam rolling today. My abs are still sore when I laugh, so I guess those crunches from yesterday are working their magic. I'm also slowly starting to realize that I have a 10K to run on December 6 and that perhaps I should start running more often for the next week or two. I have my regular Terrier run tomorrow, but I'm thinking that maybe I should be running two or three times a week anyway in preparation for my half-marathon in March. So many things to think about and plan for!
Stair Mill
Time: 30:08
Distance: 2.92 miles (140 floors)
Pace: 10:19/mile
Calories: 339
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 161
Elliptical
Time: 33:10
Distance: 2.70 miles
Pace: 12:17/mile
Calories: 331
Maximum HR: 156
Average HR: 149
If there ever was a sweat inducing machine, this is it. I did intervals on Level 10 for 30 minutes and my gym towel was soaking wet by the end. I had to trade it in for a fresh one when I was done and I almost never do that. I didn't think a half an hour was enough cardio for one day, but it was enough on the stair mill. So, I finished up on the stair mill and headed over to the elliptical machine. I did one of the gluteal programs on the elliptical, which isn't one that I normally do. I'm not really sure I know what the difference is anyway, other than this one keeps you at a really high incline level the vast majority of the time. I tried to keep the resistance pretty high as well, although I did take a break for a few minutes in the middle and lowered it down.
Once again, I finished up with some stretching. No foam rolling today. My abs are still sore when I laugh, so I guess those crunches from yesterday are working their magic. I'm also slowly starting to realize that I have a 10K to run on December 6 and that perhaps I should start running more often for the next week or two. I have my regular Terrier run tomorrow, but I'm thinking that maybe I should be running two or three times a week anyway in preparation for my half-marathon in March. So many things to think about and plan for!
Stair Mill
Time: 30:08
Distance: 2.92 miles (140 floors)
Pace: 10:19/mile
Calories: 339
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 161
Elliptical
Time: 33:10
Distance: 2.70 miles
Pace: 12:17/mile
Calories: 331
Maximum HR: 156
Average HR: 149
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Power of 10
This morning it was back to the regular gymnasium for me. I had to finish up my last weight lifting workout for this week and then I figured I would so some low-impact cardio. I have to say that I have just been so tired this week (as in my muscles are all just tired) and I figured that a day of taking it easy would be good for me.
The weight lifting workout was another day of Super Sets. I did a quick 5 minute walking warm-up on the treadmill in order to warm-up and also read about what was in store for me workout wise today. As soon as I saw that crunches were first, I knew I was in for trouble.
This was today's workout:
A) Reverse Crunches: 1 set of 5 reps
B) Crunches: 1 set of 10 reps
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 25 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 25 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 3 sets of 10 reps @ 50 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
B) Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 30 lbs
The crunches were impossible. And I really mean that. I could barely do the ones that I did. I really did a number last Satuday on my abs. It apparently was much worse than I originally thought. I knew that it took me several days to be able to laugh without wincing in pain, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that I still wouldn't be able to do crunches. I definitely wanted to do them, but it just wasn't happening.
I took that as a sign that maybe my body just needed a bit of an easier day with the weights. I didn't really make a conscious decision to do sets of 10 reps, it mostly just worked out that way, and there were a couple of times where I was struggling to get 10 reps done, but it just seemed like I couldn't lose the pattern by the end of the workout.
The underhand lat pulldowns were done on the cable machine, which I mostly hate. A guy came while I was doing my last Super Set with the first lat pulldowns and I talked him into letting me finish up, but I didn't think he'd be so keen on me doing three more sets too. So, instead I set up the cable machine. The lat pulldowns weren't the easiest thing to do on that machine because I had to squat while doing the exercise, so it made my legs tired too. But, I got them done. It wasn't quite at the weight I had been lifting before, but I think that mostly was a function of the equipment I was using.
After the weight lifting, I headed over to the elliptical for some easy cardio. I was definitely sweating by the end of it. I used one of the machines that gives me a better mileage result. I don't know if that's cheating or not, but I noticed that a lot of the elliptical machines in our gym have stationary handles. I used to really like those machines, but I've recently changed ways and now think that the ones with handles are better, which is what I used this morning.
Weight Lifting
Time: 27:11
Calories: 164
Maximum HR: 152
Average HR: 116
Elliptical
Time: 30:24
Distance: 2.60 miles
Pace: 11:41/mile
Calories: 287
Maximum HR: 161
Average HR: 144
The weight lifting workout was another day of Super Sets. I did a quick 5 minute walking warm-up on the treadmill in order to warm-up and also read about what was in store for me workout wise today. As soon as I saw that crunches were first, I knew I was in for trouble.
This was today's workout:
A) Reverse Crunches: 1 set of 5 reps
B) Crunches: 1 set of 10 reps
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 25 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 70 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 25 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 3 sets of 10 reps @ 50 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
B) Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 30 lbs
The crunches were impossible. And I really mean that. I could barely do the ones that I did. I really did a number last Satuday on my abs. It apparently was much worse than I originally thought. I knew that it took me several days to be able to laugh without wincing in pain, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that I still wouldn't be able to do crunches. I definitely wanted to do them, but it just wasn't happening.
I took that as a sign that maybe my body just needed a bit of an easier day with the weights. I didn't really make a conscious decision to do sets of 10 reps, it mostly just worked out that way, and there were a couple of times where I was struggling to get 10 reps done, but it just seemed like I couldn't lose the pattern by the end of the workout.
The underhand lat pulldowns were done on the cable machine, which I mostly hate. A guy came while I was doing my last Super Set with the first lat pulldowns and I talked him into letting me finish up, but I didn't think he'd be so keen on me doing three more sets too. So, instead I set up the cable machine. The lat pulldowns weren't the easiest thing to do on that machine because I had to squat while doing the exercise, so it made my legs tired too. But, I got them done. It wasn't quite at the weight I had been lifting before, but I think that mostly was a function of the equipment I was using.
After the weight lifting, I headed over to the elliptical for some easy cardio. I was definitely sweating by the end of it. I used one of the machines that gives me a better mileage result. I don't know if that's cheating or not, but I noticed that a lot of the elliptical machines in our gym have stationary handles. I used to really like those machines, but I've recently changed ways and now think that the ones with handles are better, which is what I used this morning.
Weight Lifting
Time: 27:11
Calories: 164
Maximum HR: 152
Average HR: 116
Elliptical
Time: 30:24
Distance: 2.60 miles
Pace: 11:41/mile
Calories: 287
Maximum HR: 161
Average HR: 144
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Super Sets Are Hard To Do
Last night Drew was at the World Series game, so he didn't get home until pretty late. That meant that he didn't feel like getting up this morning to head to the gym and I wasn't too sad to keep sleeping either. Which meant a visit to the gym after work for me! I packed a bag so that I could go straight from work without going home after work to change. It seems like I would be much less likely to talk myself out of going if I did that.
I'm pretty sure I've griped about how busy the gym is after work, but today seemed even worse than usual. I needed to do my third weight lifting workout of Week 5, which is still Super Sets. One look around the weight room told me that Super Sets weren't really going to be possible tonight, which means that not only are they normally hard to do, they were impossible to do tonight.
So, this is what the workout was supposed to look like:
A) Leg Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 50 lbs
B) Leg Press: 1 set of 15 reps @ 115 lbs / 2 sets of 10 reps @ 115 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 20 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown: 2 sets of 12 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 70 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Squats: 3 sets of 12 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
B) Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 60 lbs
*****
A) Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
B) Ab Bench Crunches: 1 set of 20 reps / 2 sets of 15 reps
What I did instead of Super Sets was I did all of the Leg Curls, etc. in a row, resting only 20 seconds between sets. I figured that 20 seconds was pretty close to the time it would have taken me to walk from one machine to the other anyway and it definitely wasn't really enough recovery time. The only set that I was able to do properly was the Squats and Leg Extensions. Except for the fact that the Squats were supposed to be Barbell Squats instead of Dumbbell, but Drew still hasn't had a chance to show me exactly how to use all that equipment, so I still think that what I did was more than okay as a substitute.
After my weight lifting, I ate half of a Luna bar to get a little protein in and have a bit of a snack to tide me over for the rest of my workout. I then hit the cardio equipment. I figured I'd read my magazine and do the elliptical machine. There was not a lot of choice in elliptical machines, so I used one that I've used before but it isn't really my favorite.
I quickly realized why it's not my favorite. It's because that even though I was doing a pretty hard hill level and I was going at a really decent stride pace, I wasn't going anywhere. A while ago, I used the same machine and had the same results. It doesn't make any sense why on some elliptical machines I can average somewhere around a 10 minute mile and on this machine, I average about a 30 minute mile. I know that this might be silly of me, but I'm going to go ahead and stop using this machine unless absolutely necessary.
Weight Lifting
Time: 36:05
Calories: 239
Maximum HR: 161
Average HR: 121
Elliptical
Time: 35:00
Distance: 1.15 miles
Pace: 30:26/mile
Calories: 326
Maximum HR: 161
Average HR: 144
I'm pretty sure I've griped about how busy the gym is after work, but today seemed even worse than usual. I needed to do my third weight lifting workout of Week 5, which is still Super Sets. One look around the weight room told me that Super Sets weren't really going to be possible tonight, which means that not only are they normally hard to do, they were impossible to do tonight.
So, this is what the workout was supposed to look like:
A) Leg Curls: 1 set of 12 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 50 lbs / 1 set of 6 reps @ 50 lbs
B) Leg Press: 1 set of 15 reps @ 115 lbs / 2 sets of 10 reps @ 115 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 20 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs
B) Lat Pulldown: 2 sets of 12 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 70 lbs
*****
A) Dumbbell Squats: 3 sets of 12 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
B) Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 60 lbs
*****
A) Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
B) Ab Bench Crunches: 1 set of 20 reps / 2 sets of 15 reps
What I did instead of Super Sets was I did all of the Leg Curls, etc. in a row, resting only 20 seconds between sets. I figured that 20 seconds was pretty close to the time it would have taken me to walk from one machine to the other anyway and it definitely wasn't really enough recovery time. The only set that I was able to do properly was the Squats and Leg Extensions. Except for the fact that the Squats were supposed to be Barbell Squats instead of Dumbbell, but Drew still hasn't had a chance to show me exactly how to use all that equipment, so I still think that what I did was more than okay as a substitute.
After my weight lifting, I ate half of a Luna bar to get a little protein in and have a bit of a snack to tide me over for the rest of my workout. I then hit the cardio equipment. I figured I'd read my magazine and do the elliptical machine. There was not a lot of choice in elliptical machines, so I used one that I've used before but it isn't really my favorite.
I quickly realized why it's not my favorite. It's because that even though I was doing a pretty hard hill level and I was going at a really decent stride pace, I wasn't going anywhere. A while ago, I used the same machine and had the same results. It doesn't make any sense why on some elliptical machines I can average somewhere around a 10 minute mile and on this machine, I average about a 30 minute mile. I know that this might be silly of me, but I'm going to go ahead and stop using this machine unless absolutely necessary.
Weight Lifting
Time: 36:05
Calories: 239
Maximum HR: 161
Average HR: 121
Elliptical
Time: 35:00
Distance: 1.15 miles
Pace: 30:26/mile
Calories: 326
Maximum HR: 161
Average HR: 144
Sunday, November 1, 2009
New Shirt, New Shoes, New Service?
This morning was a bit of a repeat of yesterday. We slept in again and then headed to the gym for another long session of working out. This probably makes up for the fact that we skipped out on the gym on both Thursday and Friday! Plus, it's just a really great way to start off the week. I know I'm going to have to get into the habit sooner than I'd like of getting in longer workouts, so I figure I might as well squeeze them in whenever I can.
I do need to back up for a minute. Yesterday afternoon Drew and I went to the NYC Marathon Expo in the hopes of scoring some free samples of energy bars, drinks, etc. However, all we did was spend money. There were hardly any free samples, which was pretty much the exact opposite of the NYC Triathlon Expo that we went to over the summer. I guess we now know not to waste our time with the Marathon. So, we left with some new socks for Drew (I got one pair too), running gloves for both of us, two new technical shirts for me, and one free coconut water each. Here's our booty:
I colored in the "M" in Mizuno on my running gloves so that we could tell them apart easily. The gloves were originally $20 and we got them for $5 each. I got both shirts for 50% off, so even though we were hoping for a bunch of free stuff, we still got great deals on the stuff that we did get. I had really been wanting some new running gloves and Drew asked if we really needed fancy ones or if we could just get by with cheap ones. However, reading Brie's blog about her recent run with the cheapie gloves, I think I'm hoping that these will be a bit more breathable and worth the extra couple of bucks.
So, long story short, of course I had to try out one of my new shirts at the gymnasium today! I chose the one on the left. I actually really liked it although the sides are completely see-through, which is sort-of funny to me. Kind of like a sexy workout top!
I also took my bike shoes to the gym with me for the first time today. Obviously the shoes aren't new, but taking them to the gym was a new thing for me. I have been wanting to see for some time if they would clip into the spin bike clips. And they do! That meant that I had to give the computerized spin bike another shot today.
For the new service, I decided to do one of the spin class programs and see how that went. I put in all the relevant data (weight, age, etc.) and started. The only thing I apparently forgot to set was the level. I realized that I was on Level 7 (out of 10). Yesterday when I was messing around I did Level 4, which I thought was a bit of a challenge, so I really wasn't sure I was going to make it through 30 minutes on Level 7.
I did the "Race Day" program, which I actually really liked. There were lots of hills to climb (some seated and some standing). I just pedaled as hard as I could. The one thing that I still don't love about this machine is that when I'm standing it will pick up my heart rate monitor but when I'm seated it must be too far from the sensor, so it doesn't. When I looked at my stats, it looked a bit like I had been shocked by a defibrulator since my heart rate was at zero for quite a while and then would jump up once I was standing.
I will say that I think the shoes actually made it more enjoyable. Wearing the cages over my feet just isn't that great once you've been wearing cycling shoes and I'd 100% recommend wearing these shoes instead. Even though I was a little nervous that I'd forget one of my pairs of shoes at the gym, it's probably worth the worrying.
After the bike, I did some stretching and foam rolling. I tried to roll out my hamstring and I'm still working on foam rolling my shins. It is interesting to me how much easier it is on my shins. It is still not comfortable, but it's not painful like it was before when it made me want to yell out curse words. Then I decided that I would do some more cardio and I hit the elliptical machine.
While I was at the gym today, I was watching the NYC Marathon, which was sort-of inspirational. I decided to do an hour on the elliptical but after about 40 minutes I had really had enough. But I figured if I could watch all of those people on TV running 26.2 miles, I could hang in there for another 20. So, I did. I'm really glad that I did. The thing about working out is that it's not always 100% enjoyable, but I'm always really happy that I got up and did it. Although I do believe in listening to my body, but sometimes when I'm still half alseep, I'm not really recognizing that I'll feel better in the end.
I finished up with some more streching before heading home to start my day. Drew and I had some errands we wanted to run and we also decided to go and get lunch downtown on our way to the errands. I decided that I wanted to wear my heart rate monitor and just see how many calories I burned while not working out. I know that this isn't a perfect test and I do plan on wearing it again on a work day where I'm mostly sitting throughout the day, but I thought this would be a good weekend estimate.
It turns out that I burned 230.4 calories per hour, which I actually think is pretty good, given that I didn't do any cardio. The spike in my heart rate came right at the end of the test period when I was carrying about 20 cans of fruit up the steps from the subway. I'm not going to lie, I definitely slowed down when I reached the top of the steps. I think my legs were a little tired from earlier today! I'm now really curious to see what a regular work day looks like in terms of calorie burning, so stay tuned for that!
Computerized Spin Bike
Time: 33:08
Distance: 11.50 miles
Pace: 20.82 MPH
Calories: 393
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 163
Elliptical
Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 5.50 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 635
Maximum HR: 170
Average HR: 155
5 Hours Non-Workout Calorie Counting
Time: 5:00:02
Calories: 1152
Average Calories: 230.4/hour
Maximum HR: 153
Average HR: 101
I do need to back up for a minute. Yesterday afternoon Drew and I went to the NYC Marathon Expo in the hopes of scoring some free samples of energy bars, drinks, etc. However, all we did was spend money. There were hardly any free samples, which was pretty much the exact opposite of the NYC Triathlon Expo that we went to over the summer. I guess we now know not to waste our time with the Marathon. So, we left with some new socks for Drew (I got one pair too), running gloves for both of us, two new technical shirts for me, and one free coconut water each. Here's our booty:
I colored in the "M" in Mizuno on my running gloves so that we could tell them apart easily. The gloves were originally $20 and we got them for $5 each. I got both shirts for 50% off, so even though we were hoping for a bunch of free stuff, we still got great deals on the stuff that we did get. I had really been wanting some new running gloves and Drew asked if we really needed fancy ones or if we could just get by with cheap ones. However, reading Brie's blog about her recent run with the cheapie gloves, I think I'm hoping that these will be a bit more breathable and worth the extra couple of bucks.
So, long story short, of course I had to try out one of my new shirts at the gymnasium today! I chose the one on the left. I actually really liked it although the sides are completely see-through, which is sort-of funny to me. Kind of like a sexy workout top!
I also took my bike shoes to the gym with me for the first time today. Obviously the shoes aren't new, but taking them to the gym was a new thing for me. I have been wanting to see for some time if they would clip into the spin bike clips. And they do! That meant that I had to give the computerized spin bike another shot today.
For the new service, I decided to do one of the spin class programs and see how that went. I put in all the relevant data (weight, age, etc.) and started. The only thing I apparently forgot to set was the level. I realized that I was on Level 7 (out of 10). Yesterday when I was messing around I did Level 4, which I thought was a bit of a challenge, so I really wasn't sure I was going to make it through 30 minutes on Level 7.
I did the "Race Day" program, which I actually really liked. There were lots of hills to climb (some seated and some standing). I just pedaled as hard as I could. The one thing that I still don't love about this machine is that when I'm standing it will pick up my heart rate monitor but when I'm seated it must be too far from the sensor, so it doesn't. When I looked at my stats, it looked a bit like I had been shocked by a defibrulator since my heart rate was at zero for quite a while and then would jump up once I was standing.
I will say that I think the shoes actually made it more enjoyable. Wearing the cages over my feet just isn't that great once you've been wearing cycling shoes and I'd 100% recommend wearing these shoes instead. Even though I was a little nervous that I'd forget one of my pairs of shoes at the gym, it's probably worth the worrying.
After the bike, I did some stretching and foam rolling. I tried to roll out my hamstring and I'm still working on foam rolling my shins. It is interesting to me how much easier it is on my shins. It is still not comfortable, but it's not painful like it was before when it made me want to yell out curse words. Then I decided that I would do some more cardio and I hit the elliptical machine.
While I was at the gym today, I was watching the NYC Marathon, which was sort-of inspirational. I decided to do an hour on the elliptical but after about 40 minutes I had really had enough. But I figured if I could watch all of those people on TV running 26.2 miles, I could hang in there for another 20. So, I did. I'm really glad that I did. The thing about working out is that it's not always 100% enjoyable, but I'm always really happy that I got up and did it. Although I do believe in listening to my body, but sometimes when I'm still half alseep, I'm not really recognizing that I'll feel better in the end.
I finished up with some more streching before heading home to start my day. Drew and I had some errands we wanted to run and we also decided to go and get lunch downtown on our way to the errands. I decided that I wanted to wear my heart rate monitor and just see how many calories I burned while not working out. I know that this isn't a perfect test and I do plan on wearing it again on a work day where I'm mostly sitting throughout the day, but I thought this would be a good weekend estimate.
It turns out that I burned 230.4 calories per hour, which I actually think is pretty good, given that I didn't do any cardio. The spike in my heart rate came right at the end of the test period when I was carrying about 20 cans of fruit up the steps from the subway. I'm not going to lie, I definitely slowed down when I reached the top of the steps. I think my legs were a little tired from earlier today! I'm now really curious to see what a regular work day looks like in terms of calorie burning, so stay tuned for that!
Computerized Spin Bike
Time: 33:08
Distance: 11.50 miles
Pace: 20.82 MPH
Calories: 393
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 163
Elliptical
Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 5.50 miles
Pace: 10:54/mile
Calories: 635
Maximum HR: 170
Average HR: 155
5 Hours Non-Workout Calorie Counting
Time: 5:00:02
Calories: 1152
Average Calories: 230.4/hour
Maximum HR: 153
Average HR: 101
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Forgetful Day At The Gym
This morning Drew and I got up and headed off to the gymnasium. Somehow, this is all becoming a bit routine. However, I'm actually really glad that we have each other to push the other to get up and out of bed. This morning I think that Drew wasn't exactly happy to wake up, but once we were walking to the gym, he said that he was glad that he had gotten up and was going. He's going to the World Series games tonight and tomorrow, so I'm not sure if he'll be too tired to go the rest of the week.
He had to leave for work a little bit early today, so we each did our own thing. I did a quick warm-up on the treadmill and then headed to the weight room. My hamstrings are a little bit tight (mainly my left one). I think it's mostly from the leg curls on Monday. Drew said that he'd like to think it was from the deadlifts, but since it's really mostly my left leg that is tight/hurt, he agrees that it's most likely from the leg curls. I thought that made the most sense because I sort-of knew when I was doing it that it was going to be bad the next day. I'm hoping that by tomorrow it'll be back to normal.
This was today's workout:
Leg Extensions: 1 set of 14 reps @ 60 lbs / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 65 lbs
Dumbbell Squats: 1 set of 15 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm) / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Flys: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Curls: 2 sets of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
I knew right away that the leg extensions were going to be hard because of the aforementioned hamstring issue. Straightening out my left leg isn't easy at the moment and that made the exercise even more difficult. I think if my legs had been more rested I could have done a heavier weight, but that was all I was capable of today.
The dumbbell squats were actually supposed to be barbell squats, but I felt like I needed Drew's help in order to figure out how to do that and I couldn't find the neck support that I wanted to use, so I just figured that doing dumbbell squats would be similar enough for today.
The rest of the workout was pretty straight forward. The crunches, however, were supposed to be reverse crunches, but I couldn't really find the right kind of bench to use and my legs were so tired I wasn't sure that I could lift them up in the air. In the book it said to do 3 sets of 10 reverse crunches, so I did 3 sets of 20 regular crunches. In my mind, that makes up for it.
After I was done with the weight lifting, I headed over to do some cardio. I realized when I was leaving the weight lifting area that I had somehow lost my sack with my (reading) book and my water bottle. Turns out I left it at the treadmill that I did my warm-up on. I grabbed that and headed to the elliptical machines. I did a 30 minute cross-country workout that really wasn't that hard at all.
After finishing up the elliptical, I headed over to the stretching area. I did some foam rolling on my hamstrings to try and loosen them up a bit. I also did some rolling on my shins. Holy cow, did they feel 100 times better than the first few times that I did this. I guess it's working! After some stretching, I headed home for the day. When I got there, I realized that I left my water bottle on the elliptical machine! I'm usually not so forgetful like that. I'm going to blame the early hour of the morning and perhaps not enough sleep last night. Luckily, I called when I got home and they were going to check on my water bottle so I should be able to pick it up after work. It's not anything special, I just hate to lose things that I actually use.
Weight Lifting
Time: 34:10
Calories: 184
Maximum HR: 143
Average HR: 112
Elliptical
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace:
Calories: 261
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 138
He had to leave for work a little bit early today, so we each did our own thing. I did a quick warm-up on the treadmill and then headed to the weight room. My hamstrings are a little bit tight (mainly my left one). I think it's mostly from the leg curls on Monday. Drew said that he'd like to think it was from the deadlifts, but since it's really mostly my left leg that is tight/hurt, he agrees that it's most likely from the leg curls. I thought that made the most sense because I sort-of knew when I was doing it that it was going to be bad the next day. I'm hoping that by tomorrow it'll be back to normal.
This was today's workout:
Leg Extensions: 1 set of 14 reps @ 60 lbs / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 65 lbs
Dumbbell Squats: 1 set of 15 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm) / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 8 reps @ 20 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Flys: 3 sets of 10 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm)
Dumbbell Curls: 2 sets of 12 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm) / 1 set of 10 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps
I knew right away that the leg extensions were going to be hard because of the aforementioned hamstring issue. Straightening out my left leg isn't easy at the moment and that made the exercise even more difficult. I think if my legs had been more rested I could have done a heavier weight, but that was all I was capable of today.
The dumbbell squats were actually supposed to be barbell squats, but I felt like I needed Drew's help in order to figure out how to do that and I couldn't find the neck support that I wanted to use, so I just figured that doing dumbbell squats would be similar enough for today.
The rest of the workout was pretty straight forward. The crunches, however, were supposed to be reverse crunches, but I couldn't really find the right kind of bench to use and my legs were so tired I wasn't sure that I could lift them up in the air. In the book it said to do 3 sets of 10 reverse crunches, so I did 3 sets of 20 regular crunches. In my mind, that makes up for it.
After I was done with the weight lifting, I headed over to do some cardio. I realized when I was leaving the weight lifting area that I had somehow lost my sack with my (reading) book and my water bottle. Turns out I left it at the treadmill that I did my warm-up on. I grabbed that and headed to the elliptical machines. I did a 30 minute cross-country workout that really wasn't that hard at all.
After finishing up the elliptical, I headed over to the stretching area. I did some foam rolling on my hamstrings to try and loosen them up a bit. I also did some rolling on my shins. Holy cow, did they feel 100 times better than the first few times that I did this. I guess it's working! After some stretching, I headed home for the day. When I got there, I realized that I left my water bottle on the elliptical machine! I'm usually not so forgetful like that. I'm going to blame the early hour of the morning and perhaps not enough sleep last night. Luckily, I called when I got home and they were going to check on my water bottle so I should be able to pick it up after work. It's not anything special, I just hate to lose things that I actually use.
Weight Lifting
Time: 34:10
Calories: 184
Maximum HR: 143
Average HR: 112
Elliptical
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.50 miles
Pace:
Calories: 261
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 138
Monday, October 26, 2009
New Shoelaces
One of the errands that I didn't mention from yesterday was that Drew and I ran into Jack Rabbit just to take a quick look around and I picked up some new shoelaces! I had been complaining about wearing my regular shoelaces in my new sneakers but I'm not quite ready to give up on my old shoes (as they are good for days where I'm not running or the weather is bad), so I got myself a second pair of fancy bungee shoelaces! I wasted no time last night lacing them up for this morning. Here they are in all their glory:
I got to test them out for the first time at the gym this morning. I didn't have a ton of time at the gym today as I needed to be at work early, but Drew said that he would help me with my lifting today as there were a couple of new exercises included and one said that it would recommend having a spotter if available.
This was the workout:
Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 1 set of 12 reps at 70 lbs / 2 sets of 10 reps @ 80 lbs
Deadlifts: 1 set of 20 reps @ 45 lbs / 1 set of 25 reps @ 45 lbs / 1 set of 20 reps @ 55 lbs
Leg Curls (Right Leg): 1 set of 12 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 35 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 35 lbs
Leg Curls (Left Leg): 1 set of 10 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 35 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 35 lbs
Calf Raises: 1 set of 15 reps @ 125 lbs / 1 set of 20 reps @ 125 lbs / 1 set of 18 reps @ 135 lbs
Barbell Shoulder Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 35 lbs / 2 sets of 10 reps @ 35 lbs
The lat pulldowns were fine, except that the bar that was there is the kind with the little metal bumps that makes your hand hurt from holding it. I'm wondering if perhaps I should get some of those weight lifting gloves? Except that I think that they're a little ridiculous and that I should just toughen up.
The deadlifts were another one that didn't go too well. I read the instructions in the book, watched Drew do them, had him tell me what to do, and I still am 99% certain that I wasn't doing them correctly. All it felt like I was doing was lifting a heavy bar up and down. And it really wasn't that hard. I quit doing them when I reached 20 or 25 reps because it clearly wasn't working that well since I was getting such a high rep number. Drew said that he was really surprised that I'd have to go to failure on a new exercise and I sort-of agree. I had no idea what weight to start with (the book does give guidelines, but it's not a guarantee) and that really meant that I really couldn't figure out what weight would give me failure after 10 reps.
The rest of the weight lifting was fine. I actually was pretty close to Drew on the calf raises, which I was excited about. He was lifting 150 lbs and I did 135. Secretly I really wanted to put some more on and see if I could do 150 too. Maybe next time I'll just see. The barbell shoulder presses were pretty hard. Drew had to help me with the last two reps on the third set. I do feel like my muscles are doing better and lifting more weight than they were 4 weeks ago, so I think the book is working!
After the weight lifting, which took a little longer than I was anticipating, I really didn't have too long to do cardio. I just did a quick mile on the elliptical before heading to the stretching area and then heading home for a shower and an earlier day at the office!
Weight Lifting
Time: 47:37
Calories: 284
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 116
Elliptical
Time: 11:15
Distance: 1.00 mile
Pace: 11:15/mile
Calories: 119
Maximum HR: 162
Average HR: 150
I got to test them out for the first time at the gym this morning. I didn't have a ton of time at the gym today as I needed to be at work early, but Drew said that he would help me with my lifting today as there were a couple of new exercises included and one said that it would recommend having a spotter if available.
This was the workout:
Lat Pulldown (Underhand): 1 set of 12 reps at 70 lbs / 2 sets of 10 reps @ 80 lbs
Deadlifts: 1 set of 20 reps @ 45 lbs / 1 set of 25 reps @ 45 lbs / 1 set of 20 reps @ 55 lbs
Leg Curls (Right Leg): 1 set of 12 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 10 reps @ 35 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 35 lbs
Leg Curls (Left Leg): 1 set of 10 reps @ 30 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 35 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 35 lbs
Calf Raises: 1 set of 15 reps @ 125 lbs / 1 set of 20 reps @ 125 lbs / 1 set of 18 reps @ 135 lbs
Barbell Shoulder Press: 1 set of 12 reps @ 35 lbs / 2 sets of 10 reps @ 35 lbs
The lat pulldowns were fine, except that the bar that was there is the kind with the little metal bumps that makes your hand hurt from holding it. I'm wondering if perhaps I should get some of those weight lifting gloves? Except that I think that they're a little ridiculous and that I should just toughen up.
The deadlifts were another one that didn't go too well. I read the instructions in the book, watched Drew do them, had him tell me what to do, and I still am 99% certain that I wasn't doing them correctly. All it felt like I was doing was lifting a heavy bar up and down. And it really wasn't that hard. I quit doing them when I reached 20 or 25 reps because it clearly wasn't working that well since I was getting such a high rep number. Drew said that he was really surprised that I'd have to go to failure on a new exercise and I sort-of agree. I had no idea what weight to start with (the book does give guidelines, but it's not a guarantee) and that really meant that I really couldn't figure out what weight would give me failure after 10 reps.
The rest of the weight lifting was fine. I actually was pretty close to Drew on the calf raises, which I was excited about. He was lifting 150 lbs and I did 135. Secretly I really wanted to put some more on and see if I could do 150 too. Maybe next time I'll just see. The barbell shoulder presses were pretty hard. Drew had to help me with the last two reps on the third set. I do feel like my muscles are doing better and lifting more weight than they were 4 weeks ago, so I think the book is working!
After the weight lifting, which took a little longer than I was anticipating, I really didn't have too long to do cardio. I just did a quick mile on the elliptical before heading to the stretching area and then heading home for a shower and an earlier day at the office!
Weight Lifting
Time: 47:37
Calories: 284
Maximum HR: 149
Average HR: 116
Elliptical
Time: 11:15
Distance: 1.00 mile
Pace: 11:15/mile
Calories: 119
Maximum HR: 162
Average HR: 150
Monday, October 19, 2009
Reading And Not Running
Today Drew and I were guilty of sleeping in this morning, which meant only one thing. That I'd have to workout after work. I actually always feel bad falling back asleep in the morning because I know that then the fact that I haven't worked out will be hanging over my head all day long. Luckily, I seem to be able to guilt myself into going to the gymnasium in the evening, so it's working out okay so far. I'd still rather get it done in the morning.
Drew left work really early today and headed to the gym. I headed home when I was done with work and changed quickly and then got myself to the gym. He was just finishing up his lifting and was about to do a second session of cardio, so we headed over to check out the machinery. I decided that the treadmill has left me really frustrated recently, so I avoided it today. Plus, Drew finally finished the new Dan Brown book, so I was anxious to start reading it, which I can't do while running.
We got elliptical machines next to each other and chatted about our days and read our books. We were on different machines, even though they were both Precor machines. I did the "cross country" setting and Drew did the "variety" setting. He then pushed up the resistance and the cross ramp to the maximum, so he didn't have too much variety. I really like going really hard for a while and then having an easier setting as a little break for my legs. It totally gives me something to strive for.
We finished up with some quick stretching. I think we were both anxious to get home and have dinner that we sort-of rushed through. My hamstrings are tighter than usual from my leg curls from yesterday and rushing through the stretching didn't help matters any. I'll try to make up for it later. I've been wanting to do more yoga and I'm thinking that I'm really going to commit myself to doing it more next week. Something to look forward to!
Time: 45:00
Distance: 4.74
Pace: 9:24/mile
Calories: 494*
*The calories for today are from the elliptical machine. I forgot to wear my HR monitor again, so I'm just going to use these numbers even though it's probably a little skewed.
Drew left work really early today and headed to the gym. I headed home when I was done with work and changed quickly and then got myself to the gym. He was just finishing up his lifting and was about to do a second session of cardio, so we headed over to check out the machinery. I decided that the treadmill has left me really frustrated recently, so I avoided it today. Plus, Drew finally finished the new Dan Brown book, so I was anxious to start reading it, which I can't do while running.
We got elliptical machines next to each other and chatted about our days and read our books. We were on different machines, even though they were both Precor machines. I did the "cross country" setting and Drew did the "variety" setting. He then pushed up the resistance and the cross ramp to the maximum, so he didn't have too much variety. I really like going really hard for a while and then having an easier setting as a little break for my legs. It totally gives me something to strive for.
We finished up with some quick stretching. I think we were both anxious to get home and have dinner that we sort-of rushed through. My hamstrings are tighter than usual from my leg curls from yesterday and rushing through the stretching didn't help matters any. I'll try to make up for it later. I've been wanting to do more yoga and I'm thinking that I'm really going to commit myself to doing it more next week. Something to look forward to!
Time: 45:00
Distance: 4.74
Pace: 9:24/mile
Calories: 494*
*The calories for today are from the elliptical machine. I forgot to wear my HR monitor again, so I'm just going to use these numbers even though it's probably a little skewed.
Friday, October 16, 2009
You're Wearing Those?
This morning I met Laura for a workout. Originally we were going to swim together, but she has some sort of swimming thing tonight, so she asked if we could ride cardio bikes instead. As an added incentive, we thought that we'd go back to the Battery Park City gym and cap off the workout with a session in their hot tub. In theory, this did not sound like the worst plan we've ever made. When I was getting ready this morning and putting on my biking shorts, Drew looked at me and asked, "You're wearing those?" I was so confused. Why wouldn't I wear biking shorts to ride a bike? Then he remembered that I was riding bikes instead of swimming and then it didn't seem so silly to him.
In actuality, it was 38 degrees when I left the house and it was raining. I walked to the subway, rode the subway for 20 minutes downtown and then walked 15 minutes to the gym (of course, it's still raining). I got there and Laura said that she'd meet me in the cardio area. I headed to see what we were dealing with since we hadn't checked out the cardio equipment during our last visit. Now, the reason for this biking session is because Laura has stress fractures in both her legs and can't run right now. So, because the bike was a critical part of this workout, I had called the gym yesterday to ask if they had bikes. They said yes. Then they told me that we couldn't take a class, but we could ride bikes. I assumed that meant that we couldn't take a spinning class, but I wasn't really sure what kind of bikes that meant that they had.
Um, it meant that they had a laughable selection of bikes. By selection, I mean that there were two. One was upright, more like a regular bicycle and the other was where you're seated (in an actual seat), where your legs are out in front of you. And the second bike, where your legs are in front of you had no foot straps for the pedals. I took one look at that bike and knew that I wasn't in the mood for that, so instead I decided to do the elliptical machine.
Now might be a good time to mention the tickers to the right of my blog. I definitely stole them from Kathy because I think that they're a really good way to keep track of mileage. Of course, Drew pointed out to me the other day that there is something wrong with the bike ticker because it seems to be stuck on zero. That's because I'm lame and haven't ridden my bike since the triathlon. It's also because right after the triathlon, Mother Nature decided that it would now be winter on the East Coast, and I'm too chicken to ride outside. Of course, that number could have gone up this morning, but it was not to be.
But, I killed it on the elliptical. Made me wonder what happened the last time I did it that I was going so slowly. I did the "variety" setting, so every minute or so it would change resistance on me. It went to easy as 2 and as high as 18. I gotta tell you, anything over 12 really slowed me down, but I think it was a good workout overall. I was definitely sweaty by the end of it.
When we were done with our cardiovascular activity, we headed down to the locker room to get ready for the hot tub. Laura wondered if we shouldn't take a cool shower, but we decided just to go and get in. The hot tub was not very hot. That might be a bit of an understatement. It was 92 degrees. That is NOT hot tub hot. After doing some Google research, it appears as though 102 degrees is the accepted temperature for hot tubs. I'd think anything warmer than your body temperature would be best. The last time we were there, it was really hot and wonderful and this time, not so great.
Even though we didn't have the best ending to our workout and we had to walk the 15 minutes back to the subway in 38 degree weather, at least it wasn't raining on the way back. I'm not sure I'd want to trek all the way down there again just to do cardio and have the hot tub ending be disappointing again, but we do have one more visit, so I might be willing to give it one more shot as long as we called first to make sure the hot tub was hot enough!!
Elliptical
Distance: 4.00 miles
Time: 42:58
Pace: 10:44/mile
Calories: 525
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 161
In actuality, it was 38 degrees when I left the house and it was raining. I walked to the subway, rode the subway for 20 minutes downtown and then walked 15 minutes to the gym (of course, it's still raining). I got there and Laura said that she'd meet me in the cardio area. I headed to see what we were dealing with since we hadn't checked out the cardio equipment during our last visit. Now, the reason for this biking session is because Laura has stress fractures in both her legs and can't run right now. So, because the bike was a critical part of this workout, I had called the gym yesterday to ask if they had bikes. They said yes. Then they told me that we couldn't take a class, but we could ride bikes. I assumed that meant that we couldn't take a spinning class, but I wasn't really sure what kind of bikes that meant that they had.
Um, it meant that they had a laughable selection of bikes. By selection, I mean that there were two. One was upright, more like a regular bicycle and the other was where you're seated (in an actual seat), where your legs are out in front of you. And the second bike, where your legs are in front of you had no foot straps for the pedals. I took one look at that bike and knew that I wasn't in the mood for that, so instead I decided to do the elliptical machine.
Now might be a good time to mention the tickers to the right of my blog. I definitely stole them from Kathy because I think that they're a really good way to keep track of mileage. Of course, Drew pointed out to me the other day that there is something wrong with the bike ticker because it seems to be stuck on zero. That's because I'm lame and haven't ridden my bike since the triathlon. It's also because right after the triathlon, Mother Nature decided that it would now be winter on the East Coast, and I'm too chicken to ride outside. Of course, that number could have gone up this morning, but it was not to be.
But, I killed it on the elliptical. Made me wonder what happened the last time I did it that I was going so slowly. I did the "variety" setting, so every minute or so it would change resistance on me. It went to easy as 2 and as high as 18. I gotta tell you, anything over 12 really slowed me down, but I think it was a good workout overall. I was definitely sweaty by the end of it.
When we were done with our cardiovascular activity, we headed down to the locker room to get ready for the hot tub. Laura wondered if we shouldn't take a cool shower, but we decided just to go and get in. The hot tub was not very hot. That might be a bit of an understatement. It was 92 degrees. That is NOT hot tub hot. After doing some Google research, it appears as though 102 degrees is the accepted temperature for hot tubs. I'd think anything warmer than your body temperature would be best. The last time we were there, it was really hot and wonderful and this time, not so great.
Even though we didn't have the best ending to our workout and we had to walk the 15 minutes back to the subway in 38 degree weather, at least it wasn't raining on the way back. I'm not sure I'd want to trek all the way down there again just to do cardio and have the hot tub ending be disappointing again, but we do have one more visit, so I might be willing to give it one more shot as long as we called first to make sure the hot tub was hot enough!!
Elliptical
Distance: 4.00 miles
Time: 42:58
Pace: 10:44/mile
Calories: 525
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 161
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
It's A Little Distressing
This morning I was determined to get back into the swing of things by going to the gymnasium. Although, to be honest, when the alarm went off, I wasn't so sure of that decision. However, I got up and headed off to workout with Drew.
We did a quick 5 minutes on the treadmill as a warm-up. I just jogged slowly at speed 5.5 on the treadmill in order to wake-up my muscles before I made them lift a bunch of heavy things. We then headed over to the weight room and I did the same workout that I had done over the weekend.
Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
Lat Pulldown (wide grip): 1 set of 15 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 60 lbs
Leg Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 90 lbs
Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 15 reps @ 15 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Curls: 1 set of 20 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 25 lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm)
Crunches: 2 sets of 15 reps
I felt a lot better with the workout today than I had on Saturday. I think part of that was that I knew what the exercises were this time around. Drew suggested that I try to make "Day 1" of each week of this plan over the weekend so that I have a little bit more time to figure things out.
After doing the lifting for today, we headed over to do some cardio. I asked Drew what he was going to do and he said the Arc Trainer. I just do not see the appeal of that machine. But, when I told him that I was going to do the Elliptical, he said that he'd join me! So, we found two machines side-by-side and went on our ways. I did a random hill setting on level 8, which, if I'm honest, was mostly pretty easy. It didn't prevent me from working up a sweat though! I will tell you that it's a little distressing to work out for 30 minutes and only go 1.04 miles when you're not swimming.
I also have been contemplating joining New York Road Runners and then signing up for some of their shorter races over the winter. I'm hoping that will give me some motivation to keep running and also help me out in advance of my half-marathon in March!
Warm-Up
Distance: 0.44 Miles
Time: 5:00
Pace: 11:21/mile
Calories: 52
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 153
Weight Lifting
Time: 32:38
Calories: 232
Maximum HR: 152
Average HR: 124
Elliptical
Distance: 1.04 Miles
Time: 30:00
Pace: 28:50/mile
Calories: 284
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 153
We did a quick 5 minutes on the treadmill as a warm-up. I just jogged slowly at speed 5.5 on the treadmill in order to wake-up my muscles before I made them lift a bunch of heavy things. We then headed over to the weight room and I did the same workout that I had done over the weekend.
Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 15 lbs (per arm)
Lat Pulldown (wide grip): 1 set of 15 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 12 reps @ 60 lbs
Leg Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 90 lbs
Dumbbell Pullovers: 1 set of 15 reps @ 15 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Curls: 1 set of 20 reps @ 20 lbs / 1 set of 15 reps @ 25 lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 2 sets of 15 reps @ 10 lbs (per arm)
Crunches: 2 sets of 15 reps
I felt a lot better with the workout today than I had on Saturday. I think part of that was that I knew what the exercises were this time around. Drew suggested that I try to make "Day 1" of each week of this plan over the weekend so that I have a little bit more time to figure things out.
After doing the lifting for today, we headed over to do some cardio. I asked Drew what he was going to do and he said the Arc Trainer. I just do not see the appeal of that machine. But, when I told him that I was going to do the Elliptical, he said that he'd join me! So, we found two machines side-by-side and went on our ways. I did a random hill setting on level 8, which, if I'm honest, was mostly pretty easy. It didn't prevent me from working up a sweat though! I will tell you that it's a little distressing to work out for 30 minutes and only go 1.04 miles when you're not swimming.
I also have been contemplating joining New York Road Runners and then signing up for some of their shorter races over the winter. I'm hoping that will give me some motivation to keep running and also help me out in advance of my half-marathon in March!
Warm-Up
Distance: 0.44 Miles
Time: 5:00
Pace: 11:21/mile
Calories: 52
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 153
Weight Lifting
Time: 32:38
Calories: 232
Maximum HR: 152
Average HR: 124
Elliptical
Distance: 1.04 Miles
Time: 30:00
Pace: 28:50/mile
Calories: 284
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 153
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