Weigh In #53

Week loss/gain: +0.5 lb
Total loss: -67.25 lbs

Biking, running, & weights...what a day.

Biked about 3.5 miles.

Ran for 25 mins. Which turned out to be about 1.8 miles. New milestone!!! I also walked for about 10 min (5 to warm up & 5 to cool down) but I don't really count those much anymore, since it is my running I'm focusing on right now.

I did about 20-30 min of ab work and arm & leg weights.

At the gym my average heart rate was 158 (according to my heart rate monitor), which, when I put it into the online "calories burned calculator" that I use & it came out to be 781 calories burned. Yipee! And that wasn't even counting the bike riding. I forgot to reset my monitor every time I got on my bike.

So, needless to say, it was a pretty productive day, physically. :)

C25K: Running Update

I haven't run in over 3 weeks until today & I made it 20 min. WhooHoo!

I had to drop my speed down (from 4.8 to 4.5 mph) a bit because my heart rate was getting up there (180's) but I still did it. Getting the endurance thing down is my first priority, speed will come later (at least that is what I keep telling myself).

I wanted to go 25 min but the last 2 min of the 20 was a killer & my legs started to feel weird so I decided not to push it too hard on my first day back. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

My goal is to get to the point that a 10 min mile is fairly easy (& maybe a 6 min mile when I really push myself, but that is years down the road). Right now I'm running about a 13 min mile.

Running is still such a dramatic process for me. I have to cheer myself along ever single second. I argue with myself the entire time:

Shoulder devil: "Just walk for a couple of seconds."
Shoulder angel: "No, you can do it, that would be cheating."
Shoulder devil: "Ooo, your heart rate is getting a bit high, maybe you should take a breather. You could have a heart attack."
Shoulder angel: "Are you nuts, you're fine, just keep pushing. Just think, you can go home & brag when you hit the 20 min mark."
Me: "Lord, you're going to have to pull me through this workout."
Jesus: "I'm right here next to you. Keep going!"
Me: lip syncing the lyrics to whatever song is playing on my mp3

And such is my inner conversation. Most people would think I was nuts if they could be in my head for just a few seconds. Maybe I am. ;)

Tomorrow, the goal is to bike up to the gym, try to run again, & then bike to the assisted living place that my grandmother is staying in now. It is about 1.5 miles to the gym from my place & about 0.25 mile from the gym to the assisted living place, then about another 1.5 miles back to my place. It forms kind of a triangle.

This will be a bit more of a challenge than it sounds, though. I have not been on a bike in over 10 years. I'll try to get some footage of me doing it but just staying erect on the bike may be more of a challenge than I think it will be.

No Apologies

Ok, I started to apologize for not posting much this week but I had a conversation a few weeks ago with some friends & we talked about when writing in journals/diaries/blogs we would miss a few days/weeks & then write all these apologies. I told them that I had promised myself a while back ago that I would not apologize anymore about doing that. I do this for myself (if other people get something out of it then that is a bonus) & if I can't work it in or have some reason I don't post then it's okay. I'm not going to keep apologizing to myself. I'll just get back on it & try to do better in the future. So, now, on to other stuff...

I didn't go to the gym yesterday because I really needed to clean my house. I cleaned for like 4 or 5 hrs & took something like 3 medium sized boxes & 5 large trash bags of trash to the dumpster. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous. A lot of it was some stuff that I have been meaning to take to the dumpster for a while (old DVD players, stacks of old magazines, boxes & large mailing envelops from packages I had received, etc) that I just don't feel would be right to expect the curb side pickup guy to lug to the dumpster. I don't think it was as good of a work out as I usually do but I did sweat so I know I burned a few calories.

I went to the gym & worked out with my trainer this morning but afterward (& even during), I was feeling really weak & drained. I'm not sure what that is all about; I hope I'm not coming down with something. But I just could not bring myself to get on the elliptical.

Speaking of elliptical, one day this week I had just completed 20 min on the elliptical & was trying to figure out if I wanted to do another 15 -20 min on it or what. I looked down at the stationary bikes & decided I would try to do 5 min on it. I know 5 min doesn't sound long but I tried back in April & it really hurt my knees & was very uncomfortable with my big-o belly. Well, I ended up doing about 17 min. I was so happy. My knees did feel a little pressure but not bad &, belly-wise, everything was fine. Not to mention, that 15 min flew by. Now, I feel like an old woman on that bike (mainly because that's the only people who use it) but I'm thinking about getting a bike for myself for Christmas & I want to kind of get the actions down. I would also like to start trying the Spin classes out soon (maybe once I'm under 200). As some of you know I use to ride bikes all the time when I was a kid but I haven't ridden one in about 10 yrs so I probably need the practice.

One of the guys at work is big into biking & I was asking him about it the other day. He told me that the cities around DFW hold city rides every Saturday between the months of April to October (I think that's right). When I told him I was thinking about getting a bike at Christmas he was like, "But then you'll have to wait until spring." This is true but I'll probably need that time before I feel comfortable riding a bike for the 20 - 30 + miles that they do.