Wiggle Your Big Toe

A Chart! :)

2007-02-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

I'm in training mode for the half-marathon in May and I've been working on increasing my mileage every Saturday when I go out for my 'long' run. I'm still not a very fast runner but I'm trying to be patient and for now I'm focusing on distance rather than speed. Running in the winter doesn't provide optimal conditions by any means either - things like layered clothing, breathing very cold air into your lungs and sidewalks that are treacherous with slush or (even worse) black ice make it very difficult to go fast when your biggest concern is not falling and breaking something.

But after a hellish 6-day work week last week I went out for my run on Saturday evening and despite black ice and Charlotte dying 20 minutes into it, I persevered and ended up running my longest distance yet, a 7.5km run that took me a LONG 53 minutes.

Regardless of the time I've been feeling VERY proud of myself, and this morning I decided to chart my progress to see how I'm doing and this is what my results have produced:

My run on January 1st was my first run (outdoors) in 3 months (which was my recovery time from my surgery), I didn't run the week of January 8 (sick?), did a 4.6km outdoor run on January 15th then, when the weather was nasty, kept it indoors between January 22nd until the 16th where I did a bunch of 5km runs on the treadmill. Took it back outdoors on the 17th where I ran for as long as I could (6.6km, 45 minutes) but seriously overdid it because I ended up with a bad knee (actually felt it start to give out during the run) so when I went out on the weekend I promised myself that I wouldn't increase by more than 10% and while I AIMED at only doing 7.3km, I ended up doing 7.5 which was ok because my knee felt/feels fine.

I bought a neosprene support wrap for my knee on the weekend and I plan on wearing it for my long runs so that I can go the distance and not have to worry about my knee giving out. I'll be wearing it Saturday when I aim for 8.25km, and again for next week when I go for 9km and then the following week when I should (fingers crossed) be up to 10km.

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE running? :)

Re-evaluating, Reobsessing and a Reason to Gloat

2007-02-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging on here as frequently as I thought that I would and fortunately, the reason being is not because I haven't been exercising, the opposite is true in fact, I'm back to exercising like a maniac - so much so that when I was talking to a friend earlier she asked me how many times I worked out today and when I said just once, she referred to me as a slacker. A bit of an exaggeration because it's not like I'm doubling up on my work outs ALL the time, but lately, on Tuesdays, I go to Body Pump in the morning and for a run on my lunch hour and there's been a couple of Thursdays where I went to Body Pump on my lunch and for a run after work. It's a big, big relief to be in my obsessive mode again because after my surgery I was worried that I'd gotten myself into a rut that I wouldn't be able to get myself out of.

But the opposite is true and I'm back to running 3-4 times a week and I've increased my speed on the treadmill to where I can run for 20 minutes at 6.3m/hr where before my surgery I was only running at about 5.6m/hr. Granted I could run much longer at that pace but I've been trying to shave some time off my 5km and tonight I managed to trim 90 seconds which isn't a lot but it's still progress and I've convinced myself to be happy with that. I'm going for a run tomorrow (outdoors if the weather is good, indoors if its not) and I'm going for length this time rather than speed and hope to get in at least 45 minutes of non stop running if not longer.

I was more frustrated returning to Body Pump then to the running though because I had to drop my weights considerably and build myself back up. I upped my weights the other week and then again earlier this week I upped them again, and at first I had worried that I had overdone it because after Tuesday's class I was SO sore but Thursday the instructor told me to stick to it - he said he'd keep an eye on me especially during the chest track and the clean and press which were the two areas that I was really struggling and at the end of class he congratulated me for not giving up despite the extra weight. I insisted that I almost didn't make it but he said that my form was great which is further proof that I can handle the weight so I felt great walking out of the class. It didn't hurt either that other than the instructor, I was lifting the most weight in a room full of about 12 women. I need to figure out what weights I was at before my surgery and compare to where I am now - I think in some areas of my upperbody I'm lifting more but not in lower body mostly because I'm doing so much running that I don't want to overwork my lowerbody too much and risk hurting myself.

I also took note of my fitness goals that I had set for myself on the sidebar last year and realized that I had made substantial progress on them, even surpassing one of my goals, which was a weight goal of 150 (I'm now 148). I hesitated when I changed my weight goal because I don't want to get too obsessive with the scale, but I work best when I have a target in mind so I set it at 140lbs. It's only 8lbs, and like last year, I don't care how long it takes me so if takes a year so be it. I have lost almost 3% of my body fat in the past 3-4 months which is exciting (27% down to 24.3%) and my BMI has lowered too. All very exciting stuff, and very rewarding especially when I'm really starting to notice the difference in my shape and when people tell me I've lost weight/look great now, I actually believe them :P.

My main goal is to be a consistent size 8 I've decided and that's still something that needs work cause I am still wearing some size 10 jeans but they're getting loose too, so soon enough I should hopefully be able to walk into a store and grab a size 8 and have it fit. I did buy a couple of tops this week which were a size medium and that's becoming a lot more common for me which is absolutely exciting.

Maybe (just maybe) I'll get to a point where a size 6 will fit. Now who would have ever thunk that?? :)

Officially Back

2007-01-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

I realized today that it's been exactly 3 months to the day since we did the Run for the Cure which was my last run pre-surgery. The start of a new year and the 8 degree temperature was more than enough to motivate me to pull my runners out of my closet, throw on my ball cap and with Charlotte strapped to my arm, hit the pavement for a run through the neighborhood. Tay and I agreed to take it easy as we ran and we definitely didn't break any of our records in the speed or distance category, but we did manage to run for 20 minutes without stopping and covered almost 3km of familiar territory, part of which was on a slight incline uphill (including the very first 2 minutes or so).

I didn't know what to expect when I laced up my runners and I told myself that if I managed 20 minutes I'd be happy. 20 minutes is 20 minutes, and as Tay said when we got home and were unlacing our runners, we got out there again which is the hard part.

While I have been to Body Pump in the past couple of weeks and am planning on going tomorrow, I knew that I couldn't declare myself officially back until I'd been out for a run.

So there you have it...I'm officially back and am I ever glad to be :).

The Other Side of Happy

2006-10-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Tay and I were talking yesterday afternoon and he expressed some concern over the fact that I've not been myself lately and have been somewhat quiet and withdrawn. It's been a contradiction of how I've been presenting myself on my blog - everything I've posted about my surgery has been mostly positive and upbeat and so he's been concerned.

He had a valid point and it got me thinking - lately, I have been painting a pretty positive picture on my blog about my surgery and the whole experience, but the reality of the experience hasn't been as perhaps as flowery as I've depicted. I haven't lied on my blog, or exaggerated, but I have consciously provided only the good stuff, the stuff that I wanted people to hear - stuff that I thought would make them not worry. So for the most part, while the surgery and my recovery has gone as well as to be expected, there are things about it that sucks, and that have caused me to be not quite myself the past couple of weeks.

1) Not eating properly
2) Not being able to exercise
3) Feeling weak and tired all the time (because of 1 & 2)
4) Being cooped up in the house (because of 3)
5) Struggling to stay still and not being on the go constantly (because of 4)
6) Missing my job, my coworkers, the people at the gym, the CITY (because of 4&5)

In theory, none of these things should have had the impact they've had on me because (as Tay said) I've had plenty of time to prepare for what was to be expected following my surgery and, when it comes down to it, my surgery was an elective one - all of this was, in reality, my decision.

But I don't think there's really any way to prepare for something that basically changes your life and everything you're able to do on a day to day basis. I was trying to explain it to Tay and finally I told him to think about what it feels like to have a cold - for a couple of days you're miserable because you're not yourself - you're weak, you're tired, you don't feel like talking or eating or doing much of anything other than vegging in front of the couch. Then I told him to take those feelings and multiply them by say, 8, and that's been the past couple of weeks for me. I miss eating, I miss exercising, I miss having the option to come and go and I really miss being in the city and being part of the downtown bustle. I miss the adrenaline of facing each day's challenges. It hasn't been easy.

It's all worth it though, I know that much, and I know that after it's over and done with, it's not going to seem that bad when I look back on it. It's why I can be so positive on my other blog because I know this to be true. In fact, I still maintain that if I had too, I would do it all over again, but the second time round, I'd be better prepared for what to expect. In the meantime, the sun is finally shining and it's a crisp fall day - Charlotte is charging and I haven't had a chance to get outside with our new camera so I'm going to dress warm and go for a long walk and hopefully, that will be a step in the right direction to feeling more like myself again.

Back from Fat Camp

2006-10-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

I jokingly said to AL yesterday when she was visiting that I felt like I just got back from fat camp - I didn't think the loss of almost 10lbs would make such a difference but when size 10 jeans are loose on me and my arm and wrist is close to the same size as my very petite (5'2") friend then, well I start to see the difference.

Last night after dinner I wasn't feeling quite right - later in the day I was feeling sleepy and took a nap and after dinner, when I was upstairs brushing my teeth I felt absolutely exhausted. When Tay came up to help me attach fresh elastics in my mouth (oh the joy of being married to me ;), we had to stop numerous times because I was feeling woozy and was scared that I was going to pass out. I kept having to stop and sit with my head between my knees and once the elastics were on, I had to go lay down again.

I knew that when I got on the scale this morning that it wasn't going to be good news and it really wasn't - the scale read 148.5. I've been weighing myself consistently every day this week, trying to monitor my intake and make sure I'm eating enough so the new weight reading meant that I had dropped 2lbs from the 150.5 that I was Friday morning.

The interesting (and good thing?) is that I've also been checking my body fat throughout the week - at the beginning of my sudden, fast weight loss, my body fat rose a couple of %s to about 28. Tay and I assumed that it was because my sudden loss was coming from my muscles (damn! All that work in BP! :), but today when I checked, it was hovering just above 26%. So I don't know - is the fact that my body fat dropping now a good sign? Does it mean that I'm no longer losing muscle but am not losing actually fat? Are my muscles safe again?

Last Days of Disco Exercise

2006-10-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

The last days leading up to my surgery were as I had planned them, I didn't do any additional exercise but still did the things I had planned - the run on Saturday as a prequel to Sunday's Run for the Cure, followed by the Run and then Body Pump on Tuesday morning.

It was sad to be running on Saturday knowing that it was one of my last runs for a couple of months, but the Run Sunday morning was a fabulous send off - it was my first time doing an organized run for charity and if I had to guess, I would say the Run for the Cure was probably the best run I could have picked. It's impossible to describe the feeling of being surrounded by 30,000 people running for one cause - to look ahead and behind and seeing a moving, living street of people doing something so selfless was...just indescribable. Our group of 4 quickly seperated but Geraldine and I made sure that we stayed together - I didn't have any times to beat, or any place that I needed to be so I just ran with my girlfriend and we chatted as we went up one side of the street and down the other. We finished the run in 30 minutes 5 seconds which I was perfectly happy with. As I crossed the finish line, it fleetingly crossed my line that this was the last run for many, many days but it was the perfect send off in so many ways.

Body Pump on Tuesday morning was more to let Instructor B know that she wouldn't be seeing me for 6 weeks or so - I tried to take it easy in the class knowing I shouldn't be overdoing it, but as we nailed down each track, I felt something like despair settling in. I'm amazed at just how much exercising has become such an integral part of my life - it was almost a year ago when I first joined the gym near work, when I finally get back to Body Pump it will be my one year anniversary - if I look back at the changes in my body because of this one class, I'm constantly impressed by just how much stronger and leaner I have become. I've never gotten results from any other class like that one, and pairing it with running seems to be the perfect balance for me. Instructor B made me promise to take it easy, and when I waved my hand and dismissed her concern, she grabbed my arm and said that she was serious - that if I showed up in her class before the six weeks were up, she was going to kick me out. And then she said she knew what I was like, because I was just like her and that was why she was being so firm with me :). I guess she's right :).

It's now been five days since the surgery and the most exercise I've been getting is going up and down the stairs at home. It's almost frightening the changes in my energy levels and how much weight I've lost - I weighed in at 159 the morning of my surgery and yesterday morning the scale read 150.5 - 8.5lbs in 4 days is a little too quickly. Sunday morning was the worst morning of all - Saturday I had been consuming mostly juice and broth and I could feel how weak I was when I woke the next morning and found myself tiring very easily. I've been a little more proactive with my diet since then, making sure to drink smoothies and meal replacement shakes that have all the nutrients that I need. This morning when I weighed myself I was at 150lbs which is better because it means the rate of loss has slowed down some - but it's funny (or scary?), I never expected to crash land into my weight loss goal in quite the manner that I have. I'm trying to be up and moving around as much as I can but even little things like changing the bedding this morning was enough to make me pause and sit on the bed for a while. I never, ever really understood the delicate balance between eating and doing until now - when I think about how I felt sitting on the bed this morning catching my breath and then thinking that it was only a month ago that I could run for 45 minutes and THEN do an hour in Body Pump, it makes me shake my head.

This part, these limitations to my physical self, the changes to the strength and ability that I have has been the hardest to deal with...more so then the surgery itself, the not being able to talk, and all the swelling. It really does suck...but at the same time, it's taught me to appreciate my strengths and abilities...and to not take them for granted.

Running Out of Time

2006-09-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

With all my various pre-surgery appointments and late meetings at work, not to mention a number of work deadlines that I'm racing to meet, working out has taken a bit of a back seat in the past week as I do my best to wrap things up before my surgery next week.

In the past week, I've managed to get in the following workouts:

Friday: 5km Run (w Tay)
Monday: 5km Run (w Tay)
Tuesday: Body Pump
Thursday: 7km Run (w AL)

I probaby shouldn't be too hard on myself for my lack of exercise considering the above schedule is still more than most people do in a typical week and I know that I would have been out last Saturday except we spent the day in Niagara doing a wine 'tour' with some friends. Yesterdays run with AL was a bit of a juggle - I was in to work at 7am (damn staff shortage!) until 7pm and AL had to be at work at 1, so she came down at 9:30 when my replacement staff showed up and we went for a run in the drizzly cold weather - despite the rain it was a good run (our first run since she got back) and a far run too - we ran from John Street along Queen all the way to Dufferin and then up Dufferin to Dundas where we split off and AL continued on home and I went down Dundas until I reached work. It worked out to about 7.6km total and just over an hour with us only stopping really once at our breakaway point (we chatted a good 10 minutes or more), and I quite enjoyed the solo latter half of my run as I ran through Chinatown, swerving around fruit stands, shuffling old people and men with dollies filled with vegetables.

I've worn my heart rate monitor on my last three runs and it's been a bit frustrating to slow down my pace to keep my heart rate in it's target zone - it's annoying when it starts to beep and annoying to I'm sure to my running partners because I slow my pace down to accomodate my heart rate, but I think it's worth it in the long run because I'd rather train for a marathon and focus on my endurance rather than my speed - and at a steady, regular heart rate, I'll be more physically prepared to go for longer periods of time rather than just getting out there and going fast.

At my surgical appointment this morning I asked about exercising after my surgery and was told no running for at least 2 months and no Body Pump or yoga for 6 weeks. I could almost feel my muscles start to atrophy as she said that, and I felt an almost despair as I thought about hanging up my runners for the next 8 weeks. Tay said after that appointment that I'm going to have to get my diet bang on after my surgery so I don't start losing muscle mass and I agree - I've worked too hard in BP to waste away - and it's bad enough that 2 months of not running is going to set me back considerably and will mean that I might not have enough time to train for the marathon in May (I may have to settle for a half in May and then do the Toronto Marathon in October). Regardless, it's going to be a long 6-8 weeks without exercise and in giving up what I've been loving recently, I will have to rediscover all the non-physical things that I loved before working out became such a priority in my life like reading reading, knitting and computer games - I guess it's back to the land of Sims I go :).

So with time running out and running on a very short supply of energy this week, I need to figure out my last few workouts before my surgery next week. I'd like to get a run in tomorrow and then the CIBC Run for the Cure on Sunday will be my last run I think (still need $35 in pledges to earn the fancy silver and pink shoulder bag that matches my ipod AND my runners, and last minute generous souls can still pledge me here) - and then I'll probaby go to Body Pump Tuesday morning and that will be it :(.

My New Best Friend

2006-09-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

One of my gifts from Tay for my birthday was a Polar Heart Rate Monitor - we've been so busy with TIFF the past week that I haven't had a chance to program it or use it while running, but the other night while making dinner I set everything up and this morning I wore it for the first time when we went for a run.

And oh my god, running will never be the same. As soon as we finished our warmup, I took off running and right away, my watch started to beep because my heartrate skyrocketed (182), so I slowed my pace down and the beeping stopped. As we ran, all I had to do was glance at my wrist to get a reading, and was able to monitor that for the first 20 minutes of our run, my heart rate stayed at a steady 162, occasionally dropping to 159 or raising slightly to 165. In the last 15 minutes of the run, my heart rate rose and the watch beeped at me and when I looked down, my HR was at 175 - which made sense because it was the last half of our run and I was working harder and more tired, so I simply slowed it down a bit and the beeping stopped. By the end of our run we were going pretty slow, but I was still in the 160 range, which is where I wanted to be to burn calories. I couldn't believe how easy the monitor was to use, or how neat it was too simply pass the watch in front of the strap I was wearing around my chest to switch the display to the stopwatch or the time. Genius!

This is my new best friend; her name is Felicia*:

Workout (Cardio)
Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 35 minutes
Walking (Cooldown): 6 minutes

Time: 46 minutes, 26 seconds
Avg. HR: 153
Max HR: 182
Total Distance: 6.14km
Running Distance: 5km

*So named after Canadian Olympic athlete Perdita Felicien who crashed during the first hurdle of the 100 metres final in 2004 and was slaughtered in the news as having "taking down with her an opponent, a gold-medal dream and the spirits of millions of Canadians". I remember that I liked the Canadian flags tatooed on her shoulder and thighs and painted on her fingernails. Even better, I like the idea of if you fall, you just have to get back up.

So This One Time, at Body Pump...

2006-09-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well this morning actually...there were moments where I felt light headed and nauseous. I was puzzled initially until I clued in that I DID lose a unit (one pint which works out to ~580grams) of blood yesterday and my body hadn't quite replenished it yet. So I took it easy during a couple of the tracks (biceps and shoulders) and chatted with the instructor after the class to confirm whether the blood loss had something to do with my struggle during the class. The instructor was a sub for B and she told us at the beginning of class that it was going to be a tough release but did I lower my weights with that advanced warning? Of course not! Anyhow, Sub-Instructor totally confirmed my concerns about having given blood - she said I would especially be affected during weightlifting as the blood goes directly to the muscles and apparently, it takes 24 hours to replenish that much of a blood loss.

So I debated not going to BP next Tuesday since I've got to give another unit on Monday but strategized about it with the Sub-Instructor - we agreed that a) I should do the class but that I should drink Gatorade before and during the class to get sugar in my system, b) I should consider lowering my weights (I only agreed to consider it and c) to be attentive to the symptoms I was experiencing this morning and take a break in between sets if I needed to.

I doubt I will lower my weights because I'm determined to raise my weights in the next week or so, so that when I can get back to BP after my surgery, I can go back to the weights I'm currently doing and it'll be like I was never away.

And that reminds me - I see my surgeon this afternoon - I need to ask her when I can start running and going to body pump again after my surgery - I can accept that running might take a while but BP? I don't use or move my jaw, I bet I can go to BP the day after. (Joking. Sort of. :)

Running Without Charlotte

2006-09-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Walk (Warmup): 3 minutes
Run: 35 minutes / 5km / HR: ~158-164
Walk (Cooldown): 5 minutes

Forgot that Charlotte died on my last run so when I hit the pavement this morning, I was without my usual music. Was running alone too, since Tay's come down with a cold and couldn't join me. I drove downtown, parked at work and figured I'd shower at the gym so when it came time to decide between running outdoors or on the treadmill, the weather, plus the fact that I won't be able to run outdoors much longer, was enough to convince me to hit the pavement. Ran the route I usually run with AL, varying it only a little when I ran up the stairs behind the CN tower and then ran as far as Simcoe when normally we turn up John. It was a little slow running without music but I persisted and ended up doing 35 minutes. Would have done 45 minutes but traffic into the city sucked (even though it was 7am) so I had to cut it short.

I'm loving the variety in my running routine lately - the runs in Missy, through High Park, around downtown TO. Enjoying it while it lasts - I'm worried about running through the winter and I know by the time I recover from my surgery it's going to be dark when I get up and dark when I get home at night - and the darker it is, the colder it'll be. I might have to vary my schedule and double up on runs on the weekend, and maybe try and run during the week on my lunch hour. We'll see how far the temperature has to dip before I give up and take it indoors.

Oh yeah, and I haven't gotten to BP since my bday, I'm SO excited to go tomorrow morning!

Personal Stats from the Blood Clinic Office
Had my first unit of blood taken today as part of preparing for my surgery and she checked me out before she withdrew the blood. My results were as follows:

Iron Level: 141 (Had to be 110 to donate, I'm above average)
Temperature: 37.2
Heart Rate: 87
Blood Pressure: 122/66

The nurse said all my scores were excellent and a good indicator of my overall health. I have no idea what the blood pressure numbers mean, but was surprised my heart rate was close to my RHR considering I was feeling very anxious about giving blood. And I've been taking my iron supplements, which probably explains why my levels were above average.

When I left the blood donor clinic I was feeling like I was buzzing slightly - felt great walking down College and happy that I didn't call any of my numerous coworkers who told me to call if I needed a ride back to work (it was bad enough that one of them insisted on driving me there so I would exert myself walking a few blocks. Sheesh! :)

Tay Meets High Park

2006-09-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Walk (Warmup): 5 minutes
Run: 30 minutes / 5km
Walk (Cooldown): 5 minutes

We had a few hours to kill between TIFF screenings so we headed back to AL's place and even though I just wanted to crash for an hour or so, Tay convinced me to get up and run. Since I'd been promising him a run in High Park and I didn't want to leave AL's on Saturday without him getting to run through the park, I got my butt off the bed and off we went.

It was humid and there were bugs, but once again I loved running in the park and even the ran back along Bloor with the traffice moving slowly alongside us. We did almost 5km, sprinting a couple of times to make traffic lights. I told Tay that I wished I could run that fast all the time and he promised that soon we would.

Haven't been out for more than half an hour lately, which is impeding our progress in our training but with TIFF - there's barely enough to do 30 minutes. Better than nothing, I guess?

Wonder Woman

2006-09-14T23:07:00.001-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Walk (Warmup): 5 minutes
Run: 30 minutes / 5km
Walk (Cooldown): 5 minutes

There were no TIFF screenings for me since I worked a 12 hour day - left work at 11:30 to drop Tay at Ryerson for his noon screening and then just headed back out to Mississauga at that point. As soon as I got home I went for a run (5km), then to the ortho, then to get my health card renewed and then back downtown for a late night meeting. Was home by 9:30, had long enough to shower and dry my hair and then headed back out to pick Tay up from his screening which finished at 11pm.

I was telling people at work about my day and they looked at me like I was crazy - somedays, I really do feel like my childhood idol - in fact, I saw a Wonder Woman t-shirt in a store window on Yonge Street and I've decided that it must be added to my t-shirt collection :).

After a week of not running it felt good to get out there, even though Charlotte died before I could finish my run. I love running this time of year though, with the weather cool and the leaves starting to change. I'm annoyed that I'm going to miss the perfect running month because of my surgery.

Still Exercising, Just Not Blogging

2006-09-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

There's so much going on lately, that blogging has taken a back seat. Here's (to the best of my memory) a summary of exercising the past couple of weeks:

Friday, September 1: Endurance Run (45 minutes, ~6.5 km)
Saturday, September 2: Sprint Run (20 minutes)
Sunday, September 3: N/A
Monday, September 4: Endurance Run (45 minutes, ~ 7km), Golf lesson (1 Hr of Putting)
Tuesday, September 5: Body Pump (1 Hr)
Wednesday, September 6: Endurance Run (45 minutes, 6.6km)
Thursday, September 7: Run (2.5miles in 25 minutes = 10 min/mile), Body Pump (1 Hr)
Friday, September 8: N/A
Saturday, September 9: N/A
Sunday, September 10: Body Pump (1 Hr)
Monday, September 11: N/A
Tuesday, September 12: N/A

Type A Personality?

2006-08-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights...and Swinging)

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am
Driving Range: 6:30pm-7:15pm

The other day when I was talking to Ted and he was recommending to me that I needed to cutback on my weights in order to not bulk up, I gave him this look as if to say WTF? Cut back? And he started to laugh and made a comment about this is where my Type A personality is kicking in and again I looked at him as if to say WTF because a) I only vaguely know anything about personality types and b) I would never have labelled myself as a Type A but he seems to think I am - the words he used to describe me were driven, ambitious, stubborn, motivated etc. etc.

When I got to BP, I thought about what Ted suggested, and considered lowering my weights - there was one track where I did in fact have a lower weight on my bar, but quickly changed it - I found that I didn't want to. Wouldn't accept that I had to go lower because going lower was a stepback, was less than what I knew I could do and so I didn't, but promised myself that I maybe after my surgery, when I was getting back into BP again, that I would lower my weights then.

So I got to wondering if perhaps I am a Type A personality and did some looking online for personality tests and found this one, which gave me the following results:

You Have A Type A- Personality

You are one of the most balanced people around. Motivated and focused, you are good at getting what you want. You rule at success, but success doesn't rule you. When it's playtime, you really know how to kick back. Whether it's hanging out with friends or doing something you love! You live life to the fullest - encorporating the best of both worlds.

Apparently, A- personality's are a little more tolerable then straight A types because they don't project their stress and frustrations onto others like As do. Works for me. I did some more looking online for personality tests and found one that's a little more detailed and it can be found here. My results show me as a ESFP type - the description of this type of personality can be found here. Interesting stuff, and not really workout related, but since I'm currently not blogging at my other blog, I'm including it here ;).

Calorie Intake: 1956*
Calories Burned: 400
Calories Net: 1197

*Since the house is being painted this week and every surface (counter and floor) in the kitchen was occupied, we were forced to grab take out after golf. Ended up getting Swiss Chalet and I was horrified to learn how many calories a quarter chicken with a side ceasar salad had in it. Ridiculous! I'm boycotting Swiss Chalet from now on, the food's hardly good, the smell of the chicken nauseates me and it's definitely not worth 600+ calories.

Coordinated

2006-08-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Workout (Stretch)

BodyFlow: 12:15pm-1:15pm

I wore sandals instead of my usual flipflops to work so grabbed my flipflops that I wear in the shower at the gym as I was throwing yoga clothes in a bag and didn't really realize until I was getting dressed at the gym that my flip flops were the same color yellow as my yoga top. Paired with a pair of black yoga capris and I looked a little too coordinated when I walked into Bodyflow on my lunch hour. Instructor L commented on my matching outfit at the end of the class and I groaned because the last thing I wanted was to look like one of those workout chicks that show up for a class all coordinated.

The outfit did look good..but that's not the point of working out. Really, it's not.

(And no, I won't comment on how much I spend at Lulu Lemon).

Calorie Intake: 1397
Calories Burned: 200
Calories Net: 1197

Exhaustion Sets In / Skinny Jeans

2006-08-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights)

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

I once again dragged myself out of bed at 6 this morning and forced myself to get out the door by 6:30 to make it to BP. Most mornings I don't need much motivation to go to BP but this morning I stood looking out my bedroom window,feeling an overall tiredness that almost propelled me back beneath the covers. I got to the gym early, set up my station and then just sat on my step, staring blankly at the wall while everyone else around me trickled in and set up. I think Instructor B sensed my blah mood as she mostly left me alone, but did call out to me during the clean and press and comment on how serious I was looking. She went on to say that I must be focusing hard, it was obvious by my posture, strong abs, and nice, tight butt that she had apparently been checking out in the mirror. I only managed a slight smile in her direction, and that's when I new that I was REALLY tired - usually comments regarding my butt get me smiling at the very least, but not today.

I dropped my weights for the class and did concentrate more on my form - I chatted with Ted yesterday and despite what J said last week, Ted warned me that all my running combined with increasing my weights might cause me to bulk up and I don't really want that at all - long and lean is what I'm going for, so I took his advice and eased up on the weights and my body, in it's tiredness, was grateful.

I have a late meeting tonight with a bunch of our youth so I dressed casually today, wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a Lulu warm up jacket - but the jeans are a pair of my skinny jeans, which have been hiding in my closet for about a year now. Comments on my butt might not perk me up, but wearing a pair of skinny jeans definitely helps :).

Recovery Run Plus Golf

2006-08-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio and Swinging)

Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 20 minutes / 3.2 km / HR: 150-160ish
Walking (Cooldown): 5 minutes

We dragged ourselves out of bed and agreed on short run since the painters were supposed to be coming at 7- the run seemed easy enough so I was fairly surprised to see my HR creep into the 160s at one point when, for the most part, it was staying steady at the low 150 mark. It could have been just after we finished the hill on our run that it hit 160 but I can't say for sure. My HR monitor is irritating me though, more and more it's becoming a nuisance to get a quick reading.

We also had an hour golf lesson - I teased Roy by showing him my fingernail polish and telling him that I painted them just for him to which he laughed. He said that my swing is improving though sometimes I wiggle too much - like I'm dancing, but the best part is that as I finish my swing, I'm bringing my arms up and pivoting on my right foot like a pro. It actually feels pretty good :).

Calorie Intake: 1759
Calories Burned: 400~
Calorie Net: 1359

Darkness is Creeping Up Fast

2006-08-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

My plan was to get up early, hit the gym and run and do BP but after not getting to bed until after 1 on Saturday, it was 8:30 before I was able to make it out of bed. I could have made it to BP but I didn't feel like leaving the house in a rush - Tay had left to go racing about an hour earlier so instead I languished in having the house to myself. I finally ventured out around 12, planning to run some errands and then hit the gym for a leisurely run on the treadmill (it was +30 out with the humidex - yuck) but for some reason, I couldn't bare to be cooped up indoors on the treadmill, especially knowing that the days of summer are numbered now and before I know it, there'll be days when I have no choice but to be indoors. So I skipped the gym and decided that I'd go out after dinner when the humidity broke.

Tay was pretty wiped from his day of racing and when I invited him to join me, he had to pass. I'd prepared myself for him not being up to it and had planned to run anyway, but the days have suddenly gotten shorter and at 8pm when I glanced out the window while washing up the dinner dishes, I saw that darkness was creeping in fast. I debated going anyway but Tay seemed nervous about me going on what had become such a dark night so I decided not to go, even though I was itching. I promised myself an early night so I could be up for 6 and run then. I can't believe that this seems to be it for the season, it was only last week that Tay and I was running last week at 9pm and there was still light :(.

Calorie Intake: 1520
Calories Burned: 0
Net Calories: 1520

A Little Running, A Litte Swinging and Beer to Finish the Day :)

2006-08-26T07:40:00.001-07:00

Workout (Cardio and Whatever Swinging is Considered)

Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 30 minutes / 5.12 km / HR: 170ish-180ish
Walking (Cooldown): 5 minutes

Went for speed today rather than distance, (I'm going to start considering these days 'sprint' days for lack of a better word and the distance days 'enduro' days) and while we started off fast, we slowed down considerably but still did just over 5km in 30 minutes. I suppose that's my only goal during a sprint is to hit at least 5km in the 30 minutes that we're running, as well as to keep my heart rate up although I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get a reading on my heart when I'm running fast. I don't know if it's because my heart is beating so fast or just because my fingers on the pulse points are less steady, but either way, it's really starting to annoy me. I do know that my HR was higher than normally and probably in the range it should be when we're working harder. Slowed down towards the end of the run because Tay was suffering from some pain in his side but we still managed to hit our target.

I noticed at the end of the run that the sorest part of me was through my abs, and I'm wondering if all the training in BP to constantly keep our core strong is carrying over into my running, in which case, it should definitely work to my advantage and help alleviate any stress on my back.

Driving Range:
45 minutes ~

I promised that I'd practice and so we did - but I'm quickly discovering that learning to swing properly is HARD - there's lots of things to remember all at once and I've never been one to focus on why something works I just want to DO it. It's why I've always been a mediocre pool player because I just don't care about the physics, I just want to hit the ball and sink it in the pocket. I'm trying to not be like that with golf, I do want to understand the different aspects of a swing and why they're important, but honestly, I just want to get that ball flying through the air.

Fruli!
We went by Rogers to pick up some flicks and as we pulled in I spotted the Beer Store and figured if anyplace would carry Fruli (LCBO doesn't) then this would be the place. Went in and sure enough, even though they didn't sell it by the case, they had bottles sitting all nice and cold so I grabbed six and after we got home from the driving range I drank two (and another one after dinner) and ate a bunch of doritos. My drinking beer (even if it is strawberry fruit beer) is definitely out of character for me and I threatened Tay that I might have to put on a wife beater and sit with my pants undone. He asked me if I was also planning on belching and I considered it briefly before primly declining to grant THAT request.

Calorie Intake: 1990
Calories Burned: 400?
Calories Net: 1590

Starting to Burn Out

2006-08-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Definitely in work, but possibly in exercise as well. I'm definitely feeling tired and in a way, am looking forward to my surgery and having at least a week where I won't be allowed to exercise (I figure by week 2 I should be ok to get back to yoga and BP).

Calorie Intake: 1437
Calories Burned: 0
Calories Net: 1437

Our Golf Pro is Named Roy and Wears Black Knee Socks

2006-08-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights and...Swinging?)

Body Pump: 7:30am-8:30am
Chatted with Instructor J after class about my current running schedule and if I should be maybe decreasing my weights (at least the lower body tracks) considering how much running I have been doing. He suggested that I could go lower, but unless I'm doing a crazy, dangerous amount of weight, it's probably not something to worry too much about because the more I do it, the more my body will realize that I need to adjust. He did suggest though that on days when I run and THEN do BP I might want to decrease as my legs will probably need the break. He also recommended that since I'm doing so much lower body work through running that this would be the perfect time to increase my upper body weights so that I'm strengthening both areas. There's a new release in early September, my plan is to increase upper body weights at that point.

Golfing/Swinging: 7:00pm-7:40pm
In an effort to improve his swing and to teach me HOW to swing, Tay has arranged for golf lessons at our local driving range. We spent a little more than half an hour with Roy - I was positioned in front of a tee and told to keep my feet together, my knees slightly bent, my chin out and then given a club to swing back and forth. I was only allowed to half swing and the result was a hammering like motion that sometimes sent the ball arcing off with the rest of the golf balls but mostly sent the ball bouncing along the grass.

Roy referred to me as young lady all night and complimented me on my progress, claiming that a lot of women don't even manage to hit the ball. He also seemed impressed by my determination to keep practicing and kept rolling golf balls my way so that I could hit, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings by telling him that continuous movement was the only way I could ignore the fact that it was cold and I was freezing in my pink golf/polo type shirt and shorts.

I did feel like I learned something however and was comfortable with the club and the way Roy had me swinging. Even went so far as telling Tay that I would join him on the weekend to practice what I learned. I might become a Stepford wife yet :).

Calorie Intake: 2035
Calories Burned: 400
Calories Net: 1635

Kicking and Screaming (Almost)

2006-08-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

Workout (Stretch and Cardio)

BodyFlow: 12:15pm-1:15pm
We did some new poses in BodyFlow that I'd never done before and for most of the class, whenever she optioned an advanced move, I was able to get into it. I'm definitely getting better and better at BodyFlow and the instructor (whom I love, she has this beautiful red curly hair that sometimes falls out of the knot she twists it in) is starting to get to know me which helps. I think it's fantastic that all the instructors are getting to know me and stopping to chat with me after class because it's definitely good motivation - it means that I'm a familiar face and a regular which means I'm being consistent in my workouts :). The cool thing though is when the instructors stop and chat with me it's not usually about the class but more of a socializing thing - both the BP and BF instructors this week had to ask me about my hair and comment on how much they liked it, how much I have, etc. It's almost like having new friends! :)

Running: 9pm-10pm
Walk (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 45 minutes / 6.3km / HR: 152-162
Walking (Cooldown): 7 minutes

By 9pm I was snuggled into the corner of the couch and dozing through the end of the Actor's Studio with running the farthest thing from my mind. Fortunately, while I'm a talker (had talked constantly about running during the day), Tay's a doer and he got me up off the couch and into my workout clothes. I'd been chilly all day and didn't much want to venture out into the cool night air, but I conceded by wearing by running suit (jacket with shorts). I had reservations when we first started to run - my left ankle was bothering me, but 10 minutes into the run I didn't really notice it and 20 minutes in I had all but forgotten about it.

We ran for 45 minutes which worked out to about 6.3km but my heart rate stayed below 170 which is where I wanted it to be (from what I can tell, it capped at 162 which I'm happy with).

Next few days are as follows: BP on Thursday am and then next run (probably Friday am) should be a recovery run - so a slow, steady 30 minute run with maybe a harder run Saturday am and then another recovery run on Sunday, followed perhaps by BP :).

Calorie Intake: 2117
Calories Burned: 550~
Calories Net: 1567

Running = Quality Time

2006-08-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio and Weights)

Cardio
Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running Intervaled with Walking: 55 minutes / HR: Low 170s

Total Distance: 7.4 km

AL and I acknowledged during our run how nice it was to get out and go for a run because of the quality time that we get to spend together. We went out earlier than normal and had more time, so we ended up going farther then we normally would - headed west along Queen until Strachan and then down to the lake. We took longer walking breaks then normal but neither one of us seemed bothered (probably 2 5-minute breaks) because again we were too busy chatting - it was also tough weather to run in, the sun was out and it was hot - probably high 20s at the very least.

I was reading on the Running for Fitness site about various training zones and heart rates and their recommendation is to do at least one long, slow run per week and once a week do a run at a lactate pace (which means you're running faster with a higher heart rate? I guess?) and then to do recovery runs for the days after your long runs and/or fast runs. Tay and I have talked about alternating fast runs with long runs, but I think that's going to mean 1 fast run per week and then 2 long runs and then my other runs (whether they be with AL or on the treadmill) can be recovery runs. It'll take the pressure off to go faster and or longer, and still give us the oxygen needed to chat incessantly with each other. My next scheduled run is Wednesday night with Tay - it'll be a long run so I'll be watching my HR and trying to make sure it doesn't creep above 170.

BodyPump
5:30pm-6:30pm

Instructor B walked into the crowded studio and zereod in on me right away, demanding to know where I've been. I've been missing her morning classes because I've been coming with AL in the evenings and when I said that I was doing Mondays and Wednesdays for a while, B gave me an insulted look. I quickly had to reassure her that her class is much better and that I would be back next week - that seemed to make her happy and we chatted a bit after class. I love it when your instructor is friendly with you - definitely makes the class more enjoyable and makes you feel special :).

Calorie Intake: 2298
Calories Burned: 800
Calories Net: 1498

5.2km in 30 Minutes

2006-08-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Walking(Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 30 minutes / 5.2km / HR: 169-188 (179 Avg)
Walking (Cooldown): 10 minutes

Went for speed rather than distance - when I gave Tay the 30 second warning to start running he wasn't quite ready with his mp3 player but I took off anyway and went fast - tried to see how far I could get before Tay caught me and it wasn't very far at all - maybe 1/2 a km. It's a good thing he wasn't a creepy stalker type guy chasing me down or I'd be left for dead in the field next to where he finally caught up with me :).

My HR was much too high during the entire run - it was high 170s when I was pushing myself, but a couple of times I got it to drop to the low 170s-high 160s. It peaked at 188 when we were approaching an intersection and I wanted to catch the light so we could run on the otherside of the neighborhood and the don't walk sign started to flash just before we hit the sidewalk. We pushed it though and flew through the intersection and I wasn't surprised at all to see that my HR had gone up way too much.

It worked itself out though, and although we were both exhausted when we finished running, we'd managed to do more than 5km in 30 minutes - which was my goal at the beginning of the summer.

I think we're going to start alternating our runs between distance and speed - I run on Tuesday with AL but that's more of a leisurely chat-while-we-run/less-pressure type of deal so Wednesday's run with Tay will be for distance - I think we'll try and do 45 minutes again but at a slower pace.

Calorie Intake: 2231
Calories Burned: 300
Calories Net: 1931

Stupid Humidity

2006-08-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 15 minutes
Walking: 25 minutes

The humidity made the running portion brutal - I couldn't breathe properly and the air was heavy, 15 minutes into the run I'd had enough. I guess I'm getting used to either the cooler weather at night, or the climate inside the gym because runs late in the morning under the sun and with humidity bearing down on you are just not worth it. There's not a lot of fun in running when feeling like you're going to puke makes you want to stop.

We kept walking after we stopped running though, and stayed out for 45 minutes - burned 350 calories (probably because my HR was in a better zone walking then running - I need to work on keeping my HR down when I run) so it wasn't a TOTAL write off, but I still wasn't please that I had to give up so easily.

Calorie Intake: 2172
Calories Burned: 350
Calories Net: 1822

Shopping DOES Burn Calories

2006-08-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

It's a bit of a stretch, but it was a LONG day and an even longer week.

Calorie Intake: 1814
Calories Burned: 200
Calories Net: 1614

Longest, Farthest

2006-08-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 45 minutes / 6.6km / HR: 150-169
Walking (Cooldown): 5 minutes

After working an 11 hour day I still wanted to run when I got home from work so I drank some Gatorade, threw on my running clothes and Tay and I hit the pavement. It was dark by that time and the air was cool - it was a preview of runs to come where pants and long sleeved shirts would be needed. We took a different route then normal and my goal was to just run - I didn't care about speed, nor distance, I was just happy to be out and even though I knew I was running slower than normal, I figured I could make up for it in distance.

We ran the farthest I've ever run outdoors and the longest without stopping - 45 minutes and 6.6 km. My 5km was too slow - at the 30 minute mark we'd only gone 4.5km but I did my best to ignore that - and instead am pleased with myself for breaking my personal records.

Longest, farthest.

Calorie Intake: 2048
Calories Burned: 450
Calories Net: 1598

Blowing Off Steam

2006-08-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

I flew out of a 5pm meeting in probably one of the worst moods AL has seen me in and when she asked if I still wanted to workout, I indicated that I couldn't NOT work out - more than anything I needed to run and go to BP if only to blow off some steam. AL was very quick to agree with me :).

Workout (Cardio and Weights)
Running: 35 minutes? Didn't really track our route or my HR - we just ran and chatted and vented. We didn't purposely stop running at any point except for traffic lights which was good - but it was a bit of a frustrating run though because there were lots of people out on the sidewalks and we had to do a lot of dodging and moving from the sidewalk onto the street and then back up again to avoid people.

BodyPump: 6:30pm-7:30pm
AL and I both decided that we don't much like the instructor that teaches the class - she's not a very strong instructor and wasn't very enthused - her sets were sloppy and she seemed more interested in how she was looking in the mirror than the rest of the class. At the beginning of the class AL mentioned to me that we didn't have to stay for the class if I didn't want to, but I insisted on staying, saying that BP makes me happy. It really does, it's almost been a year since I started going and I STILL love it. Even when the instructors aren't so good.

Calorie Intake: 1799
Calories Burned: 700
Calories Net: 1099

Just Yoga

2006-08-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

And it was only a 30 minute class because the instructor ran late so I only burned around 100 calories, but better than nothing and considering that I doubled up Monday with plans to double up Wednesday, a day with just yoga sounded just fine to me.

Calorie Intake: 1778
Calories Burned: 100
Calories Net: 1678

Going Through Twice the Workout Clothes

2006-08-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio & Weights)

Cardio:
Walk (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 45 minutes / 6.6km / HR: Between 153-173 / Incline 1%/30 minutes, .5%/10 minutes, 0%/ 5minutes / Speed: 5.5/30minutes / 5.3 15 minutes
Walk: 2 minutes

It's interesting - I can run faster outdoors but can run for longer indoors. I would think that I would also be running faster on the treadmill but that's not the case - maybe it's the incline that's affecting my speed in which case, running on a treadmill on an incline should prove to be helpful in the winter when the weather's poor and I can't run. Should keep me prepped during the colder months and help make the transition back intooutdoor running in the spring easier (I'm hoping to get my incline up to a steady 3%?). I think I could be running at a faster speed on the treadmill, because sometimes my front brushes against the handrest on the treadmill, but I'm still thinking my HR is a little too high - I'd like to see it not creep past the low 160s and I figure if I run faster, it's just going to raise my HR so I'll keep taking it slow. Right now (while I'm on the treadmill) I'd rather build up my endurance so I can run longer and maybe I can transfer that training to when I'm running outdoors and use it to pick up my speed. Either way, I've been averaging runs that are 5-6km this week (both indoors and out) which is still my goal to begin my mileage training program at the end of august so I can do the marathon next May.

Weights
Body Pump was HARD after the run - I brought a change of clothes for the class and 10 minutes in my other workout top was drenched. My hair was damp, my face was flushed, I'm sure the rest of the pple in the class think I'm a crazy-workout-gal but I made it through the class and felt super-good afterwards, and maybe only a little sore. Or maybe a lot :). But it still felt good and was definitely challenging. AND I burned 800 calories :).

Calorie Intake: 2241
Calories Burned: ~800
Calories Net: 1441

Fun at the Grocery Store

2006-08-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

After spending a couple of weeks monitoring my food over at fitday, I've been a lot more conscious of the things I eat and the where my excess/lack is in regards to my daily diet. I know with all my running and Body Pump classes I need to be eating more protein, so I spent a lot of time in Loblaws chosing different foods that I could snack on during the week. Stocked up on little flavored tins of tuna (Jody got me curious about them when I was in Hlfx), and some Hershey SmartZone bars (on sale and each one has 15grams of protein) plus bought some more bananas, some frozen yogurt and TWO boxes of cereal (Berry Burst Cheerios and Special K Vanilla Almond). Also bought a bag of baked Tostitos instead of the normal ones I buy, and when I eat them with this really hot 'authentic' mexican salsa I've been favoring, you can hardly tell the chips have very little taste :). Pretzels are another snack alternative, and I bought some kiwi fruit too. I haven't had this much fun in a grocery store in a long time, and now, when I go to the fridge to find something to eat, it's less of a challenge and a lot more fun :).

Workout (Cardio)
Walking (Warmup): 5 minutes
Running: 30 minutes / Distance: 5km / HR: Between 160-180
Walking (Cooldown): 7 minutes

Despite racing all day, Tay joined me for a run after dinner - we went out at 9pm and the temperature was pleasantly comfortable. There's something I love about running at night, when everything's a lot less quiet and there's less cars on the road - more often then not, traffic lights work in your favor and there's less cars when you're running across crosswalks. Tay started to outpace me at the beginning of the run and I debated speeding up to try and keep up but decided to keep my own pace, conscious of the hamstring I pulled a couple of weeks ago by pushing myself too hard. It was a good pace though and I finally signalled to Tay that I was going to stop once we hit the 30 minute mark - I probably could have gone longer but I was getting tired and I knew that I'd be doubling up at the gym again on Monday (as well as having done so on Saturday) so I figured I shouldn't push it. When we got home I mapped out our route on Gmaps and saw that we'd done 6km total, with almost a 5km run (4.89km). I was a little disappointed because I had hoped we'd run farther, but 4.89km in 30 minutes is VERY close to my 5km in 30 minute goal so I'll be happy with that.

Calories Intake: 1723
Calories Burned: 385
Calorie Net: 1338

It's A Very Good Thing That I Doubled Up

2006-08-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

Workout (Running and Weights)
Warmup (Walk): 5 minutes
Running: 20 minutes
Walk: 5 minutes
Running: 20 minutes

It's hard for me to track my stats when I'm out running with AL because we spend so much time chatting that I forget about stats other than for how long we've been running. I think my HR stuck between 160 and 170 which is normal for me lately, and according to Gmaps our route was 5.7 km and can be found here.

AL and I can be such girls when it comes to running, or at least I can be, because I asked AL what she would be wearing to run (the weather was beautiful yesterday, sunny, but the temperature was only at 12 degrees) and AL said that she'd most likely wear shorts but a t-shirt rather than her customary tank. A few minutes after we got off the phone, it rang again, and it was AL informing me that she might be wearing pants instead of shorts - I heard Steve in the background asking her if she was really on the phone with me telling me about the wardrobe change and then AL's reply, which was if she wore pants and I showed up in shorts, that I would absolutely FREAK out. I can admit to having (or had) a bit of a shorts/leg issue and used to HATE wearing shorts mostly because I thought my legs looked short and stubby but now think it was related to wearing too big shorts that didn't fit me properly - I now quite enjoy wearing the new Lulu shorts I bought a couple of weeks ago, but it was a good thing for AL to consider my shortsphobia.

The run was great, the weather was perfect, I felt like we could have kept going (despite having to take a 5 minute break) but we had a BP class to get to, so we cut it short and hit the gym instead.

Tracked my HR during BP and saw that it varied considerably depending on the track that we did - it was anywhere from mid-120s to mid-150s which seems to be a good range to be in. The instructor (J) did another release which was fast paced and more difficult then the release we'd been doing so I sweated through it, which was great - by the end of the class, and including the run, I'd been working out for 2 hours and had burned 850 calories.

Calories Intake: 2977*
Calories Burned: 850
Calorie Net: 2127

*Had friends over for dinner and snacking on bratwurst fried in beer, guacamole and chips and dip PLUS a really big strawberry daiquiri and later a glass of wine maybe had something to do with my high calorie intake ;). Thank god I worked out for two hours and therefore brought my net calories down to just over 2100. The day was still too high though - it's a good thing we don't entertain every night :).

Possible New Strategy

2006-08-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

I decided that I really, really liked doubling up my workout on Wednesday night when I ran and then did BP - the benefits of doubling up were great and the idea of combining two days of working out into one session seemed genius to me - after the class on Wednesday AL and I decided that we'd do the same thing on Saturday morning - so we've made plans to run and then hit BP tomorrow morning.

I spoke with Ted about the idea of doubling up and if he had any cautionary advice to give, but he totally encouraged it - and mentioned something that I didn't consider - if I'm going to run before BP, then my muscles will be nice and warm and I'm less likely to hurt myself during a BP class.

So I have to figure out now how to do the two back to back while still getting in some runs with Tay and AL (who won't always be able to join me for a BP class unfortunately.

Saturday or Sunday is doable, since there's BP classes both mornings and I can run on the treadmill before hand (or maybe AL can meet me before my class and we can run outdoors), and then the other weekend day Tay and I can run. My usual Tuesday or Thursday BP class might a little hard since the class is at 7:30 and I'd have to be on the treadmill by 6:30, which means leaving the house by at least 6 if not a little before. Yikes, might be hard. But I really, really, like those classes so I would hate to give them up. BUT one of the reasons that I like the Tuesday morning BP is because it's instructor B, and I *think* she does both the Tuesday night class and the Thursday night class - definitely the Thursday night class for sure.

So.

I could try doubling up on Tuesday am, and could try doubling up Thursday am with Thursday evening as a back up and then there'd be the weekend option as well.

As of now, I could probably pull off the following and be able to tweak it slightly on the Thursday nights when I have meetings:

Sunday: Run (Outdoors)
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Run (6:30am), BP (7:30am)
Wednesday: Run (Outdoors)
Thursday: Run (6:30am), BP (7:30am)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Run (9:30am), BP (10:30am)

With the option to skip either Thursday or Saturday if I'm tired, something like that should work. Plus it gives me a possible 5-run week which would be ideal AND I would be totally optimizing my BP classes. I'm going to give it a try, starting tomorrow!

(PS. My throat is still sore, so I didn't get to the gym for my run today :( ).

Slacker

2006-08-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

My PLAN was to go for a run with Tay after dinner but my throat/chest had been bothering me all day - I've developed this really dry cough and my throat is scratchy and there were moments during my meeting yesterday where I found it hard to breathe - I wondered if it was the air quality in the building I was in, and I did find it easier to breathe once I got back outside but I'm still coughing and my throat is still sore, so instead of going out for a run at 9 I decide instead to pack my food for the next day, update my fitday journal and get to bed early. I was in bed just after 10 - which is unusual for me during the work week.

Plan instead was to get up at 6:30 and get to the gym for a run before work, but decided that if my throat was still bothering me I wouldn't go - I've read before that you can run if you're congested or simply have a headcold because the running will help loosen all that icky stuff up but that you should be careful about running with a sore throat. Hope it goes away soon.

Calorie Intake: 2119
Calories Burned: 0
Calorie Net: 2119

Validation

2006-08-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio & Weights)

Walking: 5 minutes
Running: 40 minutes / HR: ~170 / Incline: 1%/20min, .5%/10 min / Speed: 5.5/20min, 5.3/10min / Distance: 3.65 miles (5.9km)
Walking(Cooldown): 2 minutes

Body Pump: 6:30pm-7:30pm

My run got off to a slow start when two minutes into my warmup I realized that I was wearing my shorts inside out - I probably should have kept going and not cared but I figured I looked pretty silly so I hopped off the treadmill and run upstairs to turn them rightside out and hopped back on. I've started to set the treadmill on an incline to make it a little bit more comparable to running outdoors - 1% isn't much, but I figure it's a start and I can work my way up. I also ran slower than normal because I knew I would be following my run with a BP class so I didn't want to overdo it - plus I was aiming at running 45 minutes so I was going for distance not speed for this particular run.

It was a tiny bit more challenging to run with the slight incline but 40 minutes was still fairly easy and I only cut my run short cause I was a little late getting on the treadmill and then AL showed up for the BP class so I figured I'd rather spend the extra 5 minutes chatting with her then on the treadmill. Still, in the 40 minutes I ran I did almost 6km, which I was pleased with and my hamstring was only hurting very slightly - I think it's almost better which is good news :).

I really liked the idea of running before BP because it meant two things - I was already fairly warmed up when I started the class and my heart rate was in a higher range so I think as a result I burned more calories - between my run and BP I burned about 800 calories. I was coated in a sheen of sweat for the entire class, but it felt really good after not having worked out since Friday's run in Halifax and as always, BPing with AL is lots of fun because we chat between tracks (actually we chat before class, during class and usually for a long time after class, it's great!). My weights are also good right now - it was difficult when I first increased them, but now, while it's still challenging, it's manageable. It's great!

As for the validation - I complained to AL a couple of weeks ago that I couldn't do tricep pushups no matter how hard I tried and I wondered if it was because of the size of my chest - I thought maybe that could be the reason why I could keep my arms in at my sides and do pushups. AL scoffed at me and doubted that could be the reason, but after we finished our tricep pushups in BP, she mentioned to me that maybe I should be doing tricep dips like another girl in the class was doing because she was comparing our forms I guess and saw that maybe the size of my chest was in fact preventing me from doing the pushups properly.

Of course, she quickly added that she doesn't feel bad for me, but I think she should because honestly, it's not fun (especially when you're running). But I digress.

Calorie Intake: 2145
Calories Burned: ~800
Calories Net: 1345

Good Intentions But Not Much Common Sense

2006-08-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

I had planned to go for a run on Sunday and the Body Bar class on Monday but being out in the sun all day Saturday left me with a very bad sunburn on my back, chest and upper legs. I did put on sunscreen but not until it was MUCH too late (kept getting distracted with my camera), so I spent Sunday and Monday in just a Lulu tank and baggy scrub like pants - went to the beach on Sunday with Tay's family but spent most of the afternoon sleeping under the umbrella minus a few cautious excursions out from beneath it to play with the dogs in the water's edge and a walk up the beach with Tay.

I convinced myself that I could go to BodyBar Monday but Sunday night I realized that with the burn on my back and on my thighs, it was going to be hard to do anything like dead rows, chest presses, or squats. Monday morning when I bailed on the class, Tay asked me if I wanted to try for a run instead and as much as I wanted to go, the thought of putting on my sports bra made me wince from the thought of the pain that it'd inflict.

So Sunday and Monday was a write off because of the burn, with the exception of a 10 minute hike into the woods to the lake, a half hour of swimming/splashing around and then the hike back out. I'd work out today, but after getting up at 5 to fly back from Halifax, and then sitting on the runway for an hour while we waited for a storm to pass and then coming to work very late, and then having to stay late this evening to make up for this morning and then having to rush to a BOD meeting outside the city...I don't see working out happening.

Grrr.

Tomorrow though. For sure.

Has To Count For Something

2006-08-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

We'd made plans to hit the beach Saturday and I had wanted to get up early Saturday morning to go for a run prior but overslept - I don't know if my crazy work/workout schedule had finally caught up to me, or if it was just the somewhat sleepless night from Thursday night but I slept long and hard Friday night and it was 10 am by the time I got up. By 11 the sun was coming out and by 12, a whole crew of us were piled in my mother's mini van to go to the beach.

No run, but climbing over the rocks with the Connor, Alex and Stacy to take photos has to count for something, and diving off the rock into the icy cold Atlantic after the boys called me on my dare has to count too. Plus there was the swimming in the ocean after the boys' tennis ball had gone to far out and of course there was the half and hour or so of dancing that Stacy and I got in when we went downtown later that night.

So rock climbing and swimming equals doing weights, dancing equals cardio and sprawling on the sand under the sun must equal stretching (I did stretch out after all :).

A full day of working out for sure :).

Workout (Cardio)

2006-08-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

Walking: 5 minutes
Running: 30 minutes / Speed: 5.3 / Incline: 1% / HR: 150-160
Cooldown: 5 minutes

Tay and I got up early Friday morning after not landing in Halifax until close to midnight Thursday night and not getting to bed till almost 2 - we met my mother at the gym where she works and by 9:30 we were on the treadmill running. My leg was still bothering me slightly so again I didn't push it, kept it at a slow pace, which kept my heartrate in a good zone and again the 30 minutes was easy to do. Not minding the treadmill so much when there's humidity to contend with - at least with the treadmill as an option I'm not wishing away the summer months. Looking forward to upping the times on my run.

Found out that there was a "Body Bar" class at the gym on Monday, which I've been told is similiar to BP, so made plans to try and make the class with whomever in my family wanted to join me.

Workout (Weights)

2006-08-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

I truly like the morning classes so much better than the lunch hour/evening classes. I had two very long days last week (12 hours both Tuesday and Wednesday) and I was going to have a long day Thursday (flying to Halifax that night) but I wasn't sure how much working out I'd get in while away for the long weekend so I forced myself to get to the gym.

Class was good of course :). Rebecca has been MIA this summer as her work schedule conflicts a bit with the class, so I miss the company during the class, but as I get to know more of the regulars, it's not so bad :).

Workout (Cardio)

2006-08-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

Warmup: 5 minutes
Running: 30 minutes / Speed:5.3 / HR: 150-160
Cooldown: 10 minutes

I was apprehensive getting on the treadmill because of my strained hamstring, but knowing that I should be fine as long as I took it easy, I headed over to the gym for a run between meetings. They all thought I was crazy as I left the office - the heat was making everyone lethargic and we'd all be in a press meeting for the afternoon but I figured if anything, the cold shower after the run would help wake me up at the very least.

Got on the treadmill and set the speed for lower than I normally run (trying lately to keep it at 5.7/5.8 but set it at 5.3) and it wasn't until 20 minutes into the run that I noticed that the treadmill was set at a .6 degree incline - not a lot, but a little. Enough that when I decreased the incline to zero I noticed the difference. My leg was a little sore while I ran but not enough to make me want to stop and I noticed at the end of the 30 minutes how effortless it seemed to go that long. Granted I was only going slightly faster than a jog, but it's the time that counts and it's what impresed me :). I remember before thinking that an hour run seemed impossible, but now that I've managed 40 minutes at least once, and 30 minutes seems easy, 60 minutes definitely seems within reach :).

Workout (Stretch)

2006-08-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

Yoga: 12:10pm - 1:00pm

Looks like I strained my hamstring running Monday night - up through the back of my leg above my knee has been hurting when I walk. Talked to Ted about it today and he said it's not something to worry too much about - I guess pain in the front of your knee or in your groin is when you have to be concerned. I asked him if he thought I'd be okay doing yoga today and going for a run tomorrow and he said as long as I take it easy.

I'm pretty much hating work right now - could easily have used a run around 5pm today but had to prepare for my other meeting, and have a feeling after I sit in on a press conference tomorrow afternoon, I'll be ready to run for sure. The challenge will be taking it easy, which I won't want to do, especially when I know the alternative to getting off the treadmill will be to go back to work for a 6:30 meeting.

Suckage.

Calories Consumed:2112
Calories Burned (During Yoga): ~160
Calories Net: 1957

Workout (Weights)

2006-07-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

BodyPump: 4:30pm-5:30pm

What a disastorous class. My plan was to run but when AL called to see if I'd be up for a BP class, I couldn't say no. So I was prepared to run, not do Body Pump and yes, I have different clothes for Body Pump then running. Problems with the class were as follows:

1) Forgot my socks, worked out without them (Ugh)
2) Didn't bring my gloves, worked out without them; hands feel all callousy (Ugh)
3) Wore shorts (New Lulu Lemon Running shorts) and not my usual pants, which meant that the dead rows were annoying because I'm using to sliding my bar down the legs of my pants not my bare legs (Ugh).
4) Wore my t-shirt and not my running tank/bra because I had just washed the running tank/bra and didn't want to have to wash it again before my next run and was therefore not as comfortable as I would be had I worn say, a Lulu tank.
5) For whatever reason the instructor didn't have a mic, seemed scattered and didn't turn the lights on so we were working out in the dark and (I was) feeling disoriented
6) Not focused and too distracted by work - BP is MUCH better in the morning when I'm barely awake and can focus on only one thing (BP)

Good things about the class?

Getting to hang with AL :).

I also met Tay at the driving range after work and spent 30 minutes or so trying to hit the ball. I'm sore this evening as a result and planning on just going to yoga on my lunch hour tomorrow, but I will have my running clothes with me, so if I'm so inspired, I might squeeze in a run between meetings tomorrow. Possible but not likely.

Oh yeah:

Calories Consumed:1957
Calories Burned (During BP): ~300
Calories Net: 1657

Workout (Cardio)

2006-07-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

Walking: 5 minutes
Running: 15 minutes / 2.5km / HR: 173
Walking: 20 minutes / HR: 137

Total Time: 40 minutes
Distance: 4.87km

I somehow managed to convince Tay to go for a run around 9pm, with the promise that we wouldn't stay out very long, only one running session and a walking warmup and cooldown. We started off at a good pace and despite the temperature (weather network indicated a temp of 33 with the humidex, but it felt relatively cool), I managed to stay just ahead of Tay until 10 minutes or so into our run and then I began to fall behind a little bit. At the 15 minute mark I pulled the plug and said I couldn't do anymore; we slowed down and walked for 20 minutes. Shortly before we got home I began to notice a cramp in my right hip and a slight pain behind my right knee - I made sure to stretch well when we got in, but later, when I was complaining that my legs were sore, Tay tsked me and said that I should have said something about the pace and we could have slowed down. I gave him what I hoped was my best stubborn You're-kidding-me look and then for extra emphasis I declared there was no way I was going to do that.

Competitive much? Maybe just a little :).

Two short runs in a row - I'm hoping to hit the treadmill after work tomorrow for a lengthier run. I'd like to get into running daily, even if 4 or 5 of the 7 runs are shorter, with 2 longer runs, and during my shorter runs I can work on building up my speed.

Calories Consumed: 2113
Calories Burned (During exercise): 271
Calories Net: 1842

Another thing for me to be obsessive about - Fitday.com.

(Though I really could have gone without knowing the truth about avocados.)

Workout (Cardio & Stretch)

2006-07-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Cardio - Running/Walking
WarmUp: 5 minutes
Running: 15 minutes / 2.25km / HR: 183
Walking: 10 minutes / HR:147
Running: 7 minutes /HR: 175
Walking/Cooldown: 10 minutes

Total Time: 47 minutes
Total Distance: 6.8km

This damn humidity is wreaking havoc with my running schedule.

Set the alarm for 7am to get up and out in an effort to avoid the humidity - the night before the forecast had predicted temps around 22 degrees with tolerable humidity. When I checked the temp, it was 22 degrees but the humidex made it feel like 32. That said, our first running segment was much slower than Monday's and the second segment I had to cut short because I seriously felt like I was going to throwup. I'm NOT happy.

Stretch - Yoga
50 minutes (Kathy Smith's New Yoga Basics)

Tay agreed to try yoga and so instead of doing New Yoga Challenge, I switched back to the beginners video and spent an hour giggling as I listened to Tay cursing as he tried to get into various poses. He did well though - I'm sure his downward dog is better than mine - and at the end of the hour, while he might not have felt noticeably more relaxed and focused (I did) he did agree that he would try it again.

(This means going back to Lulu for a yoga mat so I have one for at home! :).

Does Learning to Swing Count?

2006-07-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

In exchange for running with me, Tay decided that in return I should learn to play golf so we went to the driving range after I got home from work so that he could try and teach me how to swing the golf club. We were at the range for probably 45 minutes, long enough for me to go through a large bucket of balls. Holding a golf club was a little awkward and there was lots to remember - I have a checklist in my head now (left arm straight, knees bent, eye on the ball) but I wasn't totally discouraged.

I'm not sure how well I did, or how much exercise it counted as, but I'm quite sure I looked positively athletic in my new Lulu shorts and my yellow tank.

THAT's what exercising is all about, after all - looking good while you do it ;).

Workout (Weights)

2006-07-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

BodyPump: 12pm-1pm

Spent the night at Elisa's so ended up going to the noon hour class rather than my normal morning class. Noticed a BIG difference in the people that go at lunch time compared to morning, especially the really annoying girl who set up right in front of me.

Things to do during BodyPump that will cause me to glare at your back:
-Set up right in front of me, therefore blocking my line of vision and ability to check my form in the mirror in front of the class
-Tap your foot to the music but not in rhythm
-Constantly lift too much weight during every track and then have to decrease during, which is hugely distracting
-Have really bad BO and but make me obsess that it's me and not you (which it wasn't, I kept checking)
-Let the class know that you're friendly with the instructor by chatting constantly with her between tracks, therefore slowing the rest of us down.

Bonus? My new Lulu Lemon top looked great, especially with my weight lifting gloves! :)

Workout (Weights And Cardio)

2006-07-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Body Pump: 7:30am-8:30am
Running: 6:15pm-7:45pm

I was too distracted chatting away with Anna Lee this evening to keep track of our progress but I do know that in the first 15 minutes that we ran, we covered a distance of 1.4 miles, which works out to about 2.26km. It would appear that my pace has definitely improved, despite my feeling a little sore this evening (running last night and BP this morning was a lot on top of my run tonight) and the humidity was up there (+30) so I was impressed that we did so well despite the less then optimal conditions. What impressed me more was the distance we covered - we went down through High Park until we came out at the bottom and I was floored to realize we were on the Queensway. We cut down Colborne Lodge Road to the lake and for the first time ever, we ran along the lake front before cutting back up to Queen and then up Lansdowne. Heather pointed me in the direction of Gmaps Pedometer which is utterly cool and our route is marked out here. We clearly lost track of time while running and chatting and we walked more then I would have liked but I was enjoying both the company and the scenery so I'm focusing less on how much mileage I ran and more on the fact that it was an hour and a half of cardio on a really hot night when I was already tired to begin. If I had to guess, I would say that we ran for at LEAST 45 minutes if not more - maybe an hour of the hour and a half. According to Gmaps we did 5.7 miles (~9.2km) and my pedometer recorded us at 5.85miles so it's pretty close (I was questioning the accuracy of my pedometer).

Definitely a good run - and now that I know about Gmaps, I can start tracking all my runs - this is going to be very cool :).

Workout (Cardio)

2006-07-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Walking: 5 minutes / .30miles
Running: 12 minutes / 1.15 miles (1.85km) / HR: 173
Walking: 8 minutes / HR:137
Running: 12 minutes / 1.05 miles (1.7 km) / HR: 176
Walking: 11 minutes / HR: 137

Total Distance: 3.9 miles (6.3km)
Total Time: 48 minutes

I worked through my lunch hour today so I could leave early and go for a run when I got home - but after sitting in the car (in jeans) for 45 minutes I was too warm to go back out and run so I convinced Tay that we could go after dinner. We didn't end up going out until 9pm and by then, the sun was almost gone and there was a very mild breeze blowing that made the temperature very comfortable.

Tay had hurt himself a few weeks ago so it's been a while since he ran with me - plus I was sick for a week and then I did both my runs indoors last weeks so I told him that we'd run for as long as he was able and we'd stop whenever he said the word. As soon as we took off running I noticed a considerable distance in my pace - it would appear that running on the treadmill last week has helped me to increase my stride and in the past, when Tay has ran with me, my pace has always been too slow for him so he's always gone ahead a short ways whereas tonight, I seemed to keep just ahead of him - he agreed with me during our walking segment that I'm definitely much faster, and my the first time when I've been running I felt very strong and very confident.

We did two 12 minute running segments which was fine with me and it was nice to run in the dark with a partner (I've always been a little nervous about running at night by myself). I didn't want to really push myself because I've got a big workout day planned tomorrow - Body Pump at 7:30, a run with AL at 5pm and then we're going to Body Flow at 6:30pm. I think with all of that, I just might be able to take Wednesday off. We'll see :).

Workout (Stretch)

2006-07-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

BodyFlow: 11:30am-12:30am

Woke up this morning to sore muscles that I never knew existed so headed downtown with Laura in the morning thinking that an hour of Body Flow might help.

For whatever reason there was lots of traffic on the Gardner so I was late for the class but I snuck in anyway - got there right at the end of sun salutations which is my favorite part but it was still good to stretch through the rest of the class.

We've learned a move in class where we're supposed to sit cross legged with our feet on the floor in front of us, take a deep breath, and with our hands face down on the floor beside us, we support ourselves on our arms and lift our butts from the floor. That's not the difficult part - once we've accomplished that, we're supposed to lift our legs and feet off the floor as well so that the only part of us touching the ground are our palms.

I can get my butt off the floor but the rest of me? Not a chance, at least not yet.

Workout (Weights and Other Stuff)

2006-07-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Body Pump: 10:30am-11:30am
Paddle Boating: 4:15pm-5:00pm
Kayaking: 5:00pm-5:45pm

My original plan had been to get up early and run before hitting Body Pump at Laura's gym with her, but being out the night before until 2am and then up until 3am doing laundry meant I was sleeping as long as I possibly could because I knew the day was going to be long and the night even longer.

Probably a good thing that I didn't run because I took Laura with me to the club picnic after Body Pump and after we grabbed some food, we wandered down to the lake where after learning that the kayaks were already rented out we decided to go out in the paddle boats. 45 minutes after constant pedaling we returned to the beach and found the kayaks returned, so we asked if we could take the kayaks out for the last 15 minutes of our paid hour. 15 minutes turned into 45 minutes and when I finally climbed onto shore, both my legs and my arms hurt in ways that they hadn't hurt in a very long time.

I LOVED kayaking though - was surprised at how easy it was to learn and how much fun it is. Laura told me that she kayaks on the lakefront every Friday night - she got started when her and a friend of hers took a private lesson. When Laura and I were out on the lake we talked about planning a weekend in the fall where we'd do a guided kayaking tour along some river - I think I'm going to look into taking a lesson so that can happen :).

If I Could Have, I Would Have

2006-07-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

But my body was begging for a day off, so I listened.

Workout (Weights)

2006-07-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Body Pump: 5:30pm-6:30pm

I think I maybe overdid the working out this week and was possibly not fully recovered from my cold because Body Pump was brutal. I can't remember the last time I found a Body Pump class so hard, or when I sweated so much. I was constantly wiping my face down and I drank half a litre of water and half a litre of Gatorade during the hour class. AL joined me for the class and of course she barely broke a sweat - can I just say how frustrating it is to workout with someone who doesn't sweat and finishes the class looking the way she started whereas when I finish, I look like I've been through the wringer? :). (And I just finished having this conversation with Steve who fully agrees with me, so there's no use in AL getting all indignant ;).

I noticed in BP that Instructor B kept calling out to me on how to adjust my form - I'm guessing because I upped my weights that it was throwing off my form a bit and so everytime she said something I did my best to correct - by the 4th or 5th time I was trying to convince myself that it was good that she was watching me and that she just wanted me to be doing it properly so that I didn't hurt myself, and not feel like I was getting picked on becaues I didn't notice her calling out to anyone else. Maybe it was because I was lifting SO much weight (more than the dude next to me) that she wanted to keep an eye on me as a precaution. That must be it ;).

Regardless the class was really hard and I was REALLY sore afterwards that I need a day off and I won't be working out again until Saturday morning when I'm hoping to go for a run before I head downtown to meet Laura for Body Pump at her gym. I'm going to try and run for 40 minutes again, this time outside. How exciting! :)

Workout (Stretch and Cardio)

2006-07-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

BodyFlow: 12:10pm-1:10pm

Walking (Warmup) : 5 minutes
Running: 40 minutes
Walking (Cooldown) : 5 minutes

When did 15 minutes become 40?

I was too sore from BodyPump yesterday to go for a run this morning but I brought my running clothes with me to work thinking I might get in a run after work. After a very long, very boring meeting that ran late and therefore kept me at my desk well after 5 preparing for another meeting tomorrow morning, I seriously debated whether or not to run. My head was hurting, my butt and thighs still hurt when I walked, I was tired and I'm still sniffling (yes, over a week later). Earlier in the day I thought I would be able to run outdoors because there was a nice breeze but by 5 the humidity was building so I knew if I was going to run it was going to be at the gym. Finally I convinced myself to hit the treadmill and promised myself that even if I only did 15 minutes it was better than nothing and that I'd allow myself to go home at the 15 minute mark.

My motivation going to the gym was next to none - realizing I forgot my lock was almost enough to send me back to my car and on my way home. Didn't help either when I got on the treadmill and discovered that a) I forgot by heart rate watch, and b) Charlotte's battery was dead - it took every ounce of me not to get off the treadmill. I pitched the Ipod into my bag though, plugged my headphones into the gym's music system and tried not to get discouraged when, at 2 minutes into my run I wanted to stop.

I told myself to just run until I couldn't run anymore. And then a funny thing happened. At the 15 minute mark, I realized I wanted to do 5 more. At the 20 minute mark, I figured I'd go for 25 and I did. At the 25 minute market, I was too close to 30 to give up and once I hit 30 I figured I could do just 5 more, and I did. And at the 35 minute mark I realized I'd never ran for longer than 35 so I pushed it a bit more and 5 minutes later I was at 40.

40 minutes of running without stopping, for a total of 6km.

In order to start training for the marathon next May, I need to be able to run 5-6km 3-4 times a week by the end of August. It's not even the end of July and I've hit the 6km mark. To say I'm excited is an understatement :).

I'm looking forward to getting back outdoors, and am hoping for an early morning run Friday morning with Tay. I have plans to go to BP with AL tomorrow evening after work despite the fact that I'm still sore from Body Pump yesterday, plus BodyFlow today was a new release so the positions were tough, and after that run tonight all I can think about is how I thought my butt and thighs hurt BEFORE I hit the gym. I'm tired, I'm still headachy and I hurt but it's all irrelevant because I think I've had one of my best runs EVER.

Workout (Weights)

2006-07-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Body Pump: 7:30am-8:30am

I don't listen very well.

I said last night that I wasn't going to up any of my weights but I get to class and what did I do? I increased my weights for half of the tracks we do:

Squats: 15kg to 17kg (37.5lbs)
Back and Hamstrings: 12 kg to 14 kg (31lbs)
Triceps: 7 kg to 9kg (20lbs)
Lunges: 14kg to 15kg (33lbs)

My weights are getting to a point where, when I increase and am loading up my bar, I feel apprehensive about whether or not I'm going to be able to lift it - like when I was increasing for the back and hamstrings track I initially loaded up 15kg and got scared by the heft of it and panicked and switched the plates around. It meant that I only took off a kg but it seemed more manageable and it was probably better that I did reduce it because it was definitely a struggle. I find this 'fear' a little silly because I've been very cautious about my progress and making sure that my increases are gradual - a jump in 1-2kgs is not a lot, but I'm reacting like I'm suddenly lifting 10 times the amount of weight - but maybe that makes sense because my muscles should be reacting that way to more weight regardless of how much it is.

The instructors keep telling us that when you can get through a track and it's not a struggle, that's when you should increase, and when you do increase, it should suddenly become so much more difficult. Definitely true, I fought my way through all the tracks I increased for, and found the lunges so hard that I thought I was going to throw up following them. The instructor this morning pointed out that lunges are much harder to do than squats because you really only use the one leg (if you're doing them properly, you use the other leg as a hinge). I never thought of it that way, but it makes sense so after hearing that I didn't load up my bar as much as I did for squats.

BUT can I say (for the record) that I was lunging with more weight than anyone else in the room this morning (even the instructor) as most people lunged without their weight on their shoulders but instead with their bars held vertically in front of them for support? The instructor said that lunges are great for the butt and hips(?) or thighs(?), and I can believe it - it's hurting to walk today and I haven't felt that way in quite sometime.

The new release was pretty good - I always love the days when they do a new release because there's so much excitement - they were playing music before the class while we set up so it increased the anticipation - it was kind of like that excitement you feel when you're waiting for a concert to start :). There's always more then one instructor on stage during a new release which is kind of fun but personally I prefer Instructor B over them all so when she let her cohost take over it wasn't as good but new releases only happen every few months so I can deal. Most of the music I didn't recognize but really liked some of it and I was pretty excited when I found out that Love Shack was the song for the chest presses :).

Can't wait for Body Pump on Thursday AND the temp tomorrow is supposed to be only 17 which is downright chilly, so it looks like I'll be able to run outdoors before work.

Can you tell that I'm excited to be back to working out? ;)

Workout (Cardio)

2006-07-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Walk: 5 minutes, speed: 3.5
Running: 15 minutes, speed:5.8, HR: 171
Walking: 5 minutes, speed: 3.5, HR: 145
Running: 10 minutes, speed:5.6, HR?
Walking (Cooldown): 10 minutes, speed: 3.5-2.5, HR: 145

Total Distance: 3.4miles / 5.5km

Didn't leave the house this morning at 6:30 as planned but instead left at 8:30am which meant no morning run, which meant I got to sit in my very warm office all day (it would appear that my AC isn't blowing cold air but instead is just blowing air that is barely cool), which meant I got to go to the gym at 5pm which was quite possibly the hottest time of the day and also the time of the day that everyone else went so there was lots of warm bodies heating the place up.

I don't care, but people who workout when the humidex makes it feel like 41 outside are nuts, and I will gladly lump myself into that category. My running clothes, when I took them off, were drenched.

That said, my run was disappointing, the longest distance I could pull was 15 minutes but I did increase my speed slightly. Managed another 10 minute run after a 5 minute break but it was brutal and I stopped when I did because I thought I would die I was so warm. Ugh. There's a reason I like to work out in the mornings, and it's not just because the 5pmers seem to be a little chaotic-crazy.

It's new release week at the gym, which means new Body Pump tomorrow morning - I signed up before I left the gym - there was already 18 pple on the list - which is a lot for a class that usually gets 6-8 people. I honestly CAN NOT wait to do the release. Can't wait to hear the new music and do some of the new moves. I usually try and up my weights during a new release but since I was off sick for a week, I think I might maintain for this week and try upping them next week.

Weekly Workout Summary

2006-07-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

Monday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 6:30am)

And...that's it. 1/7.

Goddamn stupid @#$%ing cold.

I did'nt run yesterday and I wanted to try and get to Body Pump today, but after having a discussion that I had with Tay last night, I decided to give myself until tomorrow morning before I hit the gym again.

We talked mostly about my determination to push myself when I'm sick - he thinks that I need to just slow down and take care of myself when I'm sick (and give my body the rest it needs to get better), whereas, like I proved last week, I think that a cold shouldn't really slow me down and even on my sickest days, I was trying to get to the gym. Positive thinking type thing, I guess, which didn't really work for me last week because here it is, almost a week later and I'm still sniffling.

I was trying to figure out my motivation behind this stubborn attitude of mine - why, when I'm obviously not well, do I still try to maintain my exercise routine that is a challenge even when I'm in the best of health? I know that a huge part of it is that I have been really enjoying working out lately (more so now than ever before - I realize now that the key to success is to find forms of exercise that you love - for me, it's running, Body Pump and yoga) and that I feel SO much better when I'm exercising constantly (both physically and mentally - no exercise in a week? I feel lethargic and heavy). But I also know how hard it is for me to get into a routine and for that routine to stick - so as much as possible, I try not to deviate from it because once I get momentum going, I can ride it for a pretty long time. If I stop (get sick, go on holidays, let work bog me down) then it takes me that much longer to get back into it.

I know that I need to take care of myself - and I can accept that one of the reasons I might have gotten sick in the first place is because I've been under some stress and pushing myself a lot (through work AND exercise) and I probably need to eat better - Tay tells me constantly that I'm not eating enough so I'm going to try and refocus and take better care of myself - I'm definitely hoping that the trip to Halifax next month will be a good chance to decompress and recover (though I AM bringing my running shoes :P).

As for now, this cold has had me for 7 days, and I'll give it the rest of the day and one more night's sleep - but come tomorrow morning I'm hitting the gym at 7am (figure I should take it easy and treadmill it - controlled climate, less impact on the body) and I'm going to run my little heart out.

Enough.

2006-07-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Cold or not cold, I am meeting Anna Lee bright and early tomorrow morning for a run in her neighborhood. I don't care if we only run 5 minutes, or if I'm coughing and sneezing the entire time. This is my fourth day without a workout, and quite frankly, I've had enough.

So there, you stupid, stupid cold.

Grrrr.

2006-07-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am back at work today - not really feeling 100% but I have a late meeting tonight that I need to attend so here I am. I woke up just before 6 feeling remarkably better, I debated going to BP but then decided if I felt that good then, then I would feel so much better if I slept another hour and I could definitely go to BP at lunch.

Wrong.

Woke up at 7 and felt worse. Took some Tylenol Cold and it's helped me make it this far into the day, but I've still had periods where I've been extremely hot (once this morning when I all but growled at Tay as I was getting ready for work) and another at my desk sitting next to the AC which is on full blast.

Still sniffling, still coughing but I STILL brought my gym bag with me and was still debating going to Body Pump at noon until Tay convinced me otherwise. It's the fear of delaying my recovery and delaying getting me back to the gym that's keeping me away.

*Sigh*

This Cold Is So Kicking My Ass

2006-07-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

I told Tay between sniffles last night that if I felt the tiniest bit better this morning that I was going to take my stuff downtown and hit the treadmill. I'd read somewhere that you shouldn't run with a sore throat but that you could if you were stuffed up because running helps loosen all that yucky stuff and helps your body expel it faster. Tay suggested that I was crazy - he said that I'm sick and that my body needs to conserve it's strength to get well, not to do 5km on the treadmill. While I had to agree with him, I was convinced that my cold was progressing and that by this morning, my cold would have progressed past the sore throat part and all that I would be left with would be stuffiness and some soreness. Positive thinking right?

Anyhow, I woke up this morning feeling yet again like I'd be hit by a mac truck, still sore throat, still stuffed up, headachy and sore and so warm that I wonder if I haven't been running a fever off and on during the night. I debated long and hard going into work (yeah, I had given up on the idea of a morning run, but I was trying to use BodyFlow at lunch as a lure) and finally decided that I couldn't do it. I was too miserable, besides which, why risk passing my cold onto my coworkers?

So I'm home and I haven't worked out since Monday and it sucks. I'm going to work tomorrow and you'd better believe that if I don't get up for BP in the morning, I'm going on my lunch hour at the very least.

Stupid cold.

I'm Not As Crazy As I Thought

2006-07-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

I went to bed at my normal time last night, fully planning on going to Body Pump in the morning - my bags were packed and my clothes were freshly washed and hanging up to dry. It didn't matter that I was feeling like crap, I was going to Body Pump even if it killed me. My alarm went off at 6 this morning, I got up and slowly began trying to put myself together - and at about 6:20, reality hit - I was in no shape to drive downtown, much less go to Body Pump, much less go to work afterwards. So I went back to bed and slept for another 6 hours and after getting 13 hours sleep I feel like I could go for at least another 6.

I'm still mad that I missed Body Pump though. Stupid sore throat. It better be gone by tomorrow. Or else. :)

Update

2006-07-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

-I spoke to Ted today regarding my running and when I should start worrying about increasing my pace/speeding up and he told me after I was able to run for an hour without stopping. At first I groaned at how long that would take and then I realized I'm already over halfway there!

-At around 2pm this afternoon my throat started getting sore and by 4pm all my concentration was gone and I was staring blankly at my computer screen. Despite feeling unwell, I mentioned to Tay that I'm going to start to bring extra clothes with me because if I had had them, I so would've been going to Body Pump at 4:30 to get my mind off my impending cold.

-At 6pm I was walking over to meet a friend who was giving me a ride home and as I walked in the cool summer air, I found myself thinking that it was the PERFECT weather for a run. Until it struck me that I'd already ran today and I didn't need to run AGAIN.

-I'm beginning to wonder if an addiction to exercise can be a BAD thing.

Workout (Running/Walking)

2006-07-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Walk: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes/1.46km/HR: 161
Walk:5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes/1.51km/HR: 158
Walk: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes/1.54km/HR: 167

Total Distance: 7.65km

Temperature: 20 degrees with 88% humidity

The humidity at 6:30am this morning was brutal and I'm concerned that it's going to be an issue - as much as I love running outdoors, I have a feeling that on really humid days, I'm going to have to take it back indoors. Tay made it through 2/3rds of our run this morning and while I stuck it out the full hour, my goal had been to try and increase my pace during the 3 10-minute intervals. (I don't know if it makes sense to do that during shorting running intervals rather than trying to increase my pace during my 5km+ runs, or if I should even be worrying about increasing my pace at this point and should instead just be worried about distance (ie. building up my kms). Regardless, as hard as I tried it was very difficult to increase my pace and I doubt that any increase was substantial enough but I was definitely pushing myself. So hard that when I got home, I was once again covered in sweat (the back of my running tank was soaked through) and I felt seriously on the verge of throwing up and that feeling stayed with me for at least an hour.

I had known from checking the weather last night that there was a chance that it would be raining this morning so I had my gym bag packed with work clothes so that if I did wake up and it was raining, I could throw my bag in the car, come downtown and just run at the gym. After this morning's run and it's level of difficulty and lack of results, I'm wishing I had done that anyway. From now on (especially weekdays) I'm going to have a contingency plan (my bags packed) in case I wake up and the humidity is brutal (I know now that 88% is insufferable). In that case, it's the treadmill. Has to be.

At the same time, I'm wondering if I shouldn't be running on the treadmill at least once a week anyway, and using that run to focus on my pace. It's a lot easier just to punch in the speed I want to run on the treadmill rather than trying to force myself to do it outside and not knowing if I'm actually increasing or not. I might try it Wednesday and see how it goes.

Weekly Workout Summary

2006-07-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday: N/A
Monday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 8:30am)
Tuesday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am), Cardio (Running, 5pm)
Wednesday: Stretch (BodyFlow, 12pm)
Thursday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am)
Friday: Cardio (Running, 6:30am)
Saturday: Cardio (Running, 8am), Weights (Body Pump, 10:30am)

Total Days Working Out: 6/7
Cardio Days: 4
Weight Days: 3
Stretch Days: 1

Wasn't too surprised to wake up this morning and not be up for a run considering the a) late night with Anna Lee last night (Going to bed at 3 and getting up at 8 is not conductive to exercise) and b) considering that I went for both a run (my farthest length run yet) and Body Pump yesterday morning. Late yesterday I felt a bit of soreness in my right knee and wondered if I hadn't done something to it (and I doubt that wearing sandals with a 2" stiletto heel downtown helped my knee much either ;) but when I woke up this morning the soreness was gone. The only thing that's sore today is my shoulders - I'm wondering if that's because when I got home from Body Pump yesterday I forced myself to do some pushups on my toes just to prove that I could do them ;). For the record, I managed 5.

Workout (Cardio AND Weights)

2006-07-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

Running: 8:15am-9:00am

Body Pump: 10:30am-11:30am

When Anna Lee and I were making plans to work out today, I had originally suggested to her that we go for a run and then hit Body Pump together. She thought about it for a bit and then passed on the running and we decided just to do Body Pump.

When I woke up this morning, I was feeling pretty good and despite knowing that I was going to Body Pump, I found myself wanting to run as well. I knew that I didn't need to run because I'd done enough (I'd ran 3 times this week already plus did 2 Body Pumps and a Body Flow and was preparing for a thirdy Body Pump) but I wanted too. Really badly. So I threw on my running clothes and promised myself that I would only go out for a short run, and when I got tired, I'd come home. I was out for 45 minutes, and of those 45, I ran 35 minutes without stopping. What's more exciting is that I ran 3.3 miles without stopping which works out to 5.3km. I am SO excited by exceeding my 5km goal and couldn't wait to tell Anna Lee who wasn't overly surprised. She laughed at me and observed that I shouldn't be shocked because she knew that I could do it and it's true, I suppose I know this, but still. I'm very excited.

Goodlife is currently having a summer class promotion (friends of members can buy a package of 10 classes for $20 which is a crazy good deal) so when Anna Lee and I went upstairs for Body Pump I was absolutely shocked by the number of people that had turned out for the class. I counted 22 people in the room, but they were still cramming more people in after I counted - crazy considering that when I go at 7:30 in the morning there's usually maybe 6 or 7 of us. There was lots of energy in the room and while Anna Lee and I couldn't set up next to each other, I could see her in the mirror and was of course impressed by the amounts of weights she chose to put on her bar - it was her first class in over a year but she's been doing weights steadily at the gym - and I have to admit that she SO kicked my ass, especially on the legs track. I didn't begrudge her outlifting me though because she's in great shape and it's the result of her working really hard, but I have to admit that I was VERY jealous when I saw her doing her pushups on her toes rather than her knees, which is how I have to do them.

Renu has mentioned wanting to try Body Pump with me - I was going to invite her to this class but I had a feeling the room would be packed and I didn't want her to be outside her comfort zone but I can't wait to have her join me for BP and anyone else that's interested in picking up one of those summer pkgs. And Anna Lee's allowed to come back even though she does her pushups on her toes :).

Workout (Cardio)

2006-07-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Running: 20 minutes
Walking: 10 minutes?
Running: 10 minutes

Spent the night at Anna Lee's last night and at 6am she was poking her head into her office to inquire as to whether or not I would be interesting in going for a run. I mumbled something vaguely commital to her and then something about 5 minutes and to which she cheerily responded that she would go get ready. I stumbled bleary-eyed out of the room after her second wakeup call and was greeted by not just one morning person but TWO - Steve too was already up and as I made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth, the two of them started to dance in the living room. I felt compelled to explain to the two of them that I don't talk to anyone usually until after an hour after I get up and then, as if to prove my point, I fell silent.

By the time we hit the pavement though, I was reasonably more awake and certainly more talkative. The weather was perfect this morning, a cool 14 degrees which was fortunate as I had planned originally to run at the gym and had brought pants, and it was only towards the end of my run that I started to warm up. We ran along Parkside almost to the lake and then looped back through various side streets. I wasn't wearing my watch this morning (or my pedometer) so I couldn't track my progress and when we stopped, I was disappointed that we had only ran for 20 minutes or so. Anna Lee consoled me by reassuring me that I'd not gotten much sleep the previous night. Regardless, some is better than none and I plan on getting out again tomorrow morning which will mean I hit my 4x a week mark - and if i can stay out longer then an hour, I might just achieve my 4x1hr weekly goal (currently at 2.5 hours or so).

Workout (Weights)

2006-07-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

After only about 3 hours sleep, I still somehow managed to get my butt out of bed for Body Pump which is a little crazy considering they also offer BP on Thursdays at noon and again at 5:30. But I couldn't sleep so up I went - had a late start leaving the house and traffic was a little heavy on the way in, so I was a little late (missed the cooldown).

I was working out next to the only guy in the class (other than Instructor J) and I couldn't help but notice as I was loading up my weights for the squat track that I was piling on more weight then he was - in fact, my weight load was twice as much. Out of curiousity I kept my eye on him for the rest of the class and found that I kept outlifting him with the exception of biceps and tricps where we were equal. But during the shoulder track? We started out with the same weight but then dude had to drop to a lower weight. I'm certainly not judging him, and I know that he's not a regular (he comes when his schedule allows it) but he's a pretty big guy so the fact that I was lifting more than him? You KNOW I basked in it :).

Workout (Stretch)

2006-07-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

BodyFlow: 12:10-1:10pm

I have been noticing that my flexibility is increasing and I am able to get much further into a lot of the yoga positions that I have before. I don't know if it's a result of my muscles lengthening from all the running and body pump that I've been doing, but I can definitely twist myself into positions that I was unable to do before. I'm really liking Body Flow because of the combination of yoga and pilates - yoga works your core (abs) regardless, but the pilates part kicks ass because it's hard and it HURTS but I can feel it working and I'm getting much better at them so this can only mean really good things for my abs :).

I caught a glimpse of myself during the tai chi part of the class as we were moving from one move to the other and I was a little startled, partly because of how I looked (even I can start seeing the difference in my physical form) but also because of how fluid my movement seemed to be - I have never been a graceful person but to see me moving so smoothly was a bit jarring and also very satisfying. I made fun of the tai chi portion when I first started BodyFlow, but now I'm starting to see the benefits...I'm liking it quite a bit.

Workout (Weights & Cardio)

2006-07-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

Running: 5pm-6pm

Body Pump was good today - I'm adjusting to the extra weight during my tracks and think that by the time the new release is out (in a couple of weeks) I might be ready to increase again. At least for the leg tracks. I love the new releases because it's all new moves and it mixes things up, and you work your muscle groups in different ways.

I've been having a bit of trouble with triceps - with the presses and our curls - the key is to keep your elbows in as much as possible so that you're isolating your triceps but it's hard, and sometimes, my elbows will start to creep wider apart than they should. I brought one of those circular rubber resistance bands to class and slipped it around my wrists while I did my triceps - it certainly helped to keep my wrists in the proper position so I'm going to keep using it until I don't need it anymore to maintain good form. I think next class though I'm going to slip it around my elbows because that might be more beneficial.

When I was in the locker room later that day (after my run with AL, see below) I overheard a couple of girls talking about their workout routines and the different classes they take. One girl mentioned that she LOVES bodyflow and that she's tried Body Pump, but that it's just too "intense".

Intense. Really? ;).

Running - I was CONVINCED we were crazy when we went out for our run because it was extremely hot and extremely humid, but I have to come to terms with the fact that I have hooked up with a running buddy that is borderline crazy, so enough said, and off we went :). We did the same route as last time, and I called it quits at 32 minutes (AFTER running up both sets of stairs in behind skydome). I checked my pedometer at the 32 minute mark and we had done 2.90 miles which works out to about 4.67km which is about the same as what we had done Saturday - sure it took us a minute longer, but downtown running is much different in that you have to a) run around people and b) deal with constant traffic lights so considering these factors (and the heat) I think we were probably faster than when we ran on Saturday. All told we were out for about 45 minutes and did almost 6.5 km - I hope next time we go out we can stay out longer and go farther! I'm loving it!

(And nobody reads this, but in case you're curious about AL, her blog is here.)

Workout (Cardio)

2006-07-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

Walk: 5 minutes/.48km
Run: 30 minutes/4.62km/HR:183
Walk:10 minutes/1.1km/HR:153
Run: 10 minutes/1.46km/HR:173
Walk: 5 minutes/.52km

Total Distance: 8.2km

Temperature: Avg 24, 33 w Humidex

The past few mornings that I've woken up and the humidex has crept the temperature up above 30, I've always forfeited my run with the reasoning that it'd be crazy to go out. This morning I got up around 8:30 (after sleeping just over 5 hrs) to find the humidex had already brought the temperature up to 31. I debated going back to bed but then forced myself out by remembering some of the brutal conditions that I trained in last summer for my duathlon - there were some nights I'd be out running before dark when the humidex easily put the temperature at 38-40 so I forced myself to put on my running clothes and get out there.

I did a similiar run as I did Saturday with AL and the good news is that I maintained the same pace mostly, which is good. My heart rate was a little high at the end of my running segments (both the 30 minute one and the 10 minute one) but for the 30 minute one I was pushing myself because I'd really like to see me accomplish a 30min-5km average by the end of the summer. By the time I got home I was coated in a sheen of sweat and ready to die, that's how hot I was. And yet, I need to do some banking and pick up a couple of things at the drug store so I suggested to Tay if he wanted to get out on our bikes that would be fine with me (Tay hasn't been able to run with me the past couple of times I've went - injured himself some how and his being sick hasn't help) so yeah, I'm ready to go back out. Woo!

New Runners
I've been told that runners have a street life of about 6 mths for people that work out on a regular basis - I've been alternating my two pairs of runners for well over a year now, so I decided that I needed to get a new pair to get me through the summer and fall and then maybe in the winter I can get runners that would hold up to winter running. In the past I've had to avoid Nikes because they were too narrow for my wide foot and so I used to wear Adidas (plus my sister worked at Adidas and my last two pairs of sneakers cost $20 each with her discount) but the other week I found a pair of Nike that I liked. I had to insist, however, that the Nike swirl be pale pink however, so they're not exactly as show below (think more girlish ;).

Weekly Workout Summary

2006-07-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday: N/A (Vegas)
Monday: N/A (Vegas)
Tuesday: N/A (Flight=Barely any sleep=Rough Day at Work
Wednesday: (Sick/Jetlagged?)
Thursday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am)
Friday: N/A
Saturday: Carido (Running, 10am)

Total Days Working Out: 2/7

Damn Vegas for interfering with my workout schedule!! ;)

Workout (Cardio)

2006-07-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Running: 31 minutes, 4.65km
Walking: 10 minutes, 1.00km
Running: 15 minutes, 2.35km

Joined Anna Lee for a run downtown in her neighborhood - ran from her condo over to High Park and through the park past the zoo animals (a bit of different scenery for me on a run! :). I didn't really pay attention to my watch or my pedometer when I was running - we were too busy chatting - and it wasn't until I was starting to get winded that I looked down to see the time and discovered that a half an hour had past.

So what's great about these runs with Anna Lee is I'm forgetting about my 3 intervals of 10-12 minutes each and doing just one big interval, which is what I need to work towards when I start training for the marathon. On this run our longest distance was 4.65km, not too far off from the 5-6km that I need to be steadily running in order to train. Of course, I've read that a runner should average 5km in 30 minutes and we're still over that (and I'm thinking that AL has slowed her pace down a bit to match mine which is cool of her) so as soon as we start picking up the pace a bit, we should be in good form.

Total run time? Approximately an hour (I didn't record any warmup)
Total distance? 8km

2006-06-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights)
BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

I had a chat with Instructor B about my frustration with the slow progress in increasing my upper body weights in comparison to my lower body and she pointed out what should have been obvious to me (especially since Tay and I spent Monday afternoon at the Bodies exhibition at Tropicana looking at various cross sections of the human body, which included the various muscle groups) - that the muscles in your legs are considerably larger than the much smaller muscles that make up the muscles in your arms. She pointed to her biceps and triceps and then to her thighs and then asked me if I really thought that I could expect the tiny arm muscles to lift the same amount of weight as the lower.

And I replied no, THAT made sense but that I really wanted my upper body to make as much progress as my lower body has been - and just as fast. Again B was patient with me, explaining that smaller muscles aren't going to progress as fast as big muscles because they just don't have the same strength and power behind them. Her lecture convinced me to give my upperbody muscles a break, and to take it a little easy. So biceps and triceps got off easy. Chest and shoudlers not so much - in fact, after the shoulder track I wanted to puke but as Instructor J has told me, wanting to puke during a workout means you're working EXTRA hard.

Oh yeah, and we did lots of pushups during the shoulder track, and guess what? I'm starting to LIKE pushups - now if only I could do them on my toes instead of just on my knees like I've been doing :).

2006-06-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

Weekly Workout Summary
Sunday: N/A
Monday: Cardio (Running, Treadmill, 1pm)
Tuesday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am), Running (5:00pm)
Wednesday: Stretch (Body Flow, 12pm), Minor Cardio (9:00pm)
Thursday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am)
Friday: N/A
Saturday: N/A

Total Days Working Out: 4/7

Damn Vegas for interfering with my workout schedule!! ;)

2006-06-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights)
BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

I don't know if I'm hitting the wall, or just burning myself out (with both work and exercise) but Body Pump was ridiculous. I was fine during my lower body tracks but I totally wussed out during chest, biceps and shoulders. I had to take breaks during chest and biceps AND had to lower my weights during shoulders. I felt like a total wuss during class and it didn't make a difference to me that for a lot of the class I had the most weights on my bar (other than Instructor J, who is male and of course would be lifting more than me - the rest of the class was all women). I wonder if maybe I've upped my upper weights too prematurely, but I don't think so, because if I drop back down to a lighter weight then it's not difficult for me - so maybe it's not an entirely bad thing that I'm having to pause during the sets - it just means that I am challenging myself, which is good. I think. But ouch, it was tough - especially when J made us do pushups AFTER we did our bench presses AND he made us do tricep dips AFTER we did the tricep curls. UGH. AND we had to do pushups during shoulders too. Maybe it's no wonder that I wussed out.

2006-06-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
The weather was quite nice for most of the day and since I didn't get out for my run in the morning (after working out twice Tuesday AND being at work until 10pm I figured I would sleep in a bit) so Tay and I went out on our bikes after dinner. It definitely wasn't really a cardio workout - we biked to Rogers and back and spend probably 20 minutes in Rogers going through the previously viewed) but it was probably 15 minutes there and 15 minutes back, pedaling most of the way. Doesn't probably count for cardio, but it was nice to get out - even though Tay made me wear my helmet and I felt like a geek biking through Suburbia wearing it ;).

2006-06-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights & Stretch)

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

Running: 5pm-5:30pm

Body Pump was tough in some areas and not too tough in others, but I left feeling pretty exhausted (in a good way). I've increased my weight through the chest track and while it's still difficult, it's not as hard when I first increased. I've increased for the squats and lunges track and supposedly, nobody likes those tracks because they're so hard, but I have a much easier time doing those tracks then shoulders, triceps and biceps. Maybe my lower body is a lot stronger than my upper body, or maybe it's just how we're built as females - everyone is always telling me that women's upper body strength is not as strong as their lower body.

I've checked my spreadsheet that I use to track my progress in Body Pump and in some areas I have tripled my weights (squats, lunges) and in other areas I have more than doubled (back & hamstrings, shoulders and chest) but it's those pesky arms (triceps and biceps) where I haven't progressed much. I suppose it's not entirely a bad thing since I don't want big bulky arms anyway, but when the rest of me is progressing and getting stronger, I can't help but get frustrated when another part of me isn't cooperating.

Running - My pal Anna Lee came by work before my meeting last night - she's been wanting to hook up for a run for a while and the evenings where I don't work late I just want to go home, so she suggested that we go one night before one of my meetings started. We had both worked out in the morning with weights (plus AL did 30 minutes on the bike) but the temperature was perfect last night (22 degrees at 5pm) so we threw on our runners and hit the busy streets of Toronto. Neither of us wore a watch and I left my pedometer at home, so we didn't really have any idea how long or how far we ran but when I left work later that night I checked the odometer on the car and did a rought guesstimate of the distance and it looks like covered about 6km, and it would appear that about 5km of that was running. I would say that we were out for about 45 minutes (5 minute warmup and 10 minute cool down) and the only time we stopped during our run was at the traffic lights (well, I stopped, AL ran on the spot). As we were finishing our run AL realized all of a sudden that I don't usually run my 30 minutes all at once (I do (3) 10 minute segments) and she was instantly apologetic but I was ecstatic because I ran for as long as I did and we seemed to find a pretty good pace that suited us both. We even tackled the stairs in behind the skydome, running up BOTH flights. It was a great run, I'm already looking forward to the next time we go out :).

2006-06-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

Workout* (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes, .48km
Run: 18 minutes,2.65km
Walk: 9 minutes, .88km
Run: 18 minutes, 2.65km
Cooldown: 10minutes, .82km

Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes

Distance : 7.48km~

Workout Time: 1pm-2pm

*Treadmill

Didn't sleep well last night so opted for an extra hour of sleep instead of getting up to run - planned instead to run on the treadmill on my lunch. Pretty hot outdoors today, so inside the gym was a little warmer than normal, kind of dreaded getting on the treadmill but did so anyway. I still find it much easier to run on the treadmill then outdoors so upped my running to (2) 18 minutes segments - each one worked out to about 2.65km. Hard workout though - my hair was pretty damp by the time I got off the treadmill, always a good sign that I've been working hard.

2006-06-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

Weekly Workout Summary
Sunday: Cardio (Running/Walking, Biking, 10am)
Monday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 6:30am)
Tuesday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am), Stretch (Yoga, 12pm)
Wednesday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 6:30am)
Thursday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am)
Friday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 9:00am)
Saturday: N/A

Total Days Working Out: 6/7

Took the Saturday off as scheduled and set the alarm for 8am this morning, fully planning on getting up and getting in my run before it warmed up outside - except when I woke up I could feel by how warm it was in the room that I was too late and it was already hot outside. Got up to check the temperature and went right back to bed; it was already 24 degrees, 30 with the humidex and I just didn't have it in me to go out in the heat to run.

2006-06-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: ~130
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 162
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: ~130
Run: 10 minutes, HR: ~169
Cooldown: 5 minutes

Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes

Distance : 7.75km~

Workout Time: 9:00am-10:00am

Weather
Sunny and warm - 20 degrees~?

Sixth day of working out and it was a tough one to get through. Both Tay and I were struggling with the heat and a couple of times I mentioned cutting back on the cardio but we pushed through and completed our hour with all three ten minute segments. Was utterly exhausted by the end however. Ugh.

2006-06-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights)
BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

I can NOT stop eating.

Today, I had a slimfast shake before Body Pump and then after Body Pump I went and got a sausage and egg McMuffin from McDonald's (protein and carbs, right? ;). Then, less than an hour later, I was into the strawberries and pineapple I had brought with me to have during the day. Around 1 I went out with Rebecca to get a sandwhich at the Sandwhich Box (New favorite: roastbeef, portobello mushrooms, jalepeno-havarti cheese and hot mustard) and THEN, at 3:30, one of the staff had leftover pizza and so into the lunch room I went to eat 4 wings, half a slice of pizza and a two-bite brownie. And I've just now finised a Coke Zero.

I also have leftover penne with alfredo sauce for my dinner, AND I told Tay to take the package of bratwurst from the freezer and I would make bratwurst and beer when I get home from my meeting tonight.

It's out of control.

However, I went through the same thing on Tuesday, but Monday and Wednesday not so much. So I'm thinking there's a correlation between Body Pump and what I need to eat and my cardio days where I don't seem to eat quite so much (I'd say half in fact). Or maybe, I eat more often Body Pump days but eat smaller meals and on cardio days I less often but bigger meals?

(And Body Pump KILLED today, except the bicep track because the instructor was like, oh this is a hard track, reduce your weights so I did, and the entire time I was like, um? Not hard at all? So back up I go for biceps next week :).

ALSO - while chatting online with Jody today, she said that her stepson referred to me as skinny today. As in:

[16:15] Jods: He said, (while we were talking about sizes, etc.. 'you and Stacy are the same and Tawny is a bit smaller - she's small'

What a GREAT kid :).

2006-06-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 127
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 135
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 163
Cooldown: 5 minutes

Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes

Distance : 7.25km~

Workout Time: 6:30am-7:30am

Weather
Sunny, but cool - 14 degrees~

I almost didn't get up to run this morning - these 12 hour days with BP before hand are killing me, and all I wanted to do was sleep that extra hour. Before I went to bed I asked Tay if he wanted to get up and come with me because when I went Monday without waking him he seemed quite disappointed (now that he has sneakers, he's eager to get going :). He said to wake him, so the first time my alarm went off (5:30) I asked him and he mumbled a lot. When 6:15 came, I told him I probably wasn't going to go, that I'd go after work or tomorrow on lunch (double up with BP in the morning). Tay somehow convinced me to go though, so by 6:45 we were out hitting the pavement.

I was curious to see how far I've been running during my 10 minutes segments - I haven't been running at my usual speed because I want to keep my heartrate in it's optimal zone, but this morning I tracked each segment with my pedometer and it would appear that I'm very consistent with my pace - each 10 minute segment came in at 1.5km (1.48 to be accurate). I don't know if being able to keep a steady, consisten pace is good or not, or if I should be pushing myself during one or two of the segments and recovering during another. I'm sure a steady consistent pace is good for long distance running which brings me to my thoughts on running a marathon next year.

After checking out the Mississauga Marathon dates for 2007, I did some research online regarding training for a marathon and found the following site (www.marathontraining.com), which has LOTS of useful information, including two different training programs. The first program is designed to get you running an average of 25 miles (or 40km) a week (total). Once you're at that point, you can begin the actual training for your marathon, which is the second program.

The first program is the Mileage Build-Up portion where you build your base, and takes about 19 weeks. To start this program, you need to be able to run between 5km & 6.5km four times per week.

The second program is the Marathon Training Schedule portion where you actually train for the marathon and start doing long runs one day a week that vary anywhere from 10-23 miles (23-37km). This program is pretty intensive - I expect some of those long runs are pretty brutal at the beginning, and this training program takes 18 weeks, with the 18th week being the week you run the marathon.

All told, it's about 37 weeks of intense, dedicated training - 9 months of training for an event that will last less than 4 or 5 hours.

I'm thinking I want to do it.

I plotted the training schedules on a spreadsheet yesterday, using the Mississauga Marathon as a target date which means that I have to be ready to begin the Mileage Build-Up progam the week of August 27th. Following that program, I would be starting the Marathon Training Schedule the week of January 7, 2007.

This means I have until the end of August to get myself up to running between 5km & 6.5km four times a week. Right nowI'm averaging 4.5 km but in 3 segments, so over the next three months I need to build up my running times so that I'm running longer and farther. I've no doubt that by the end of the summer I can get to those target runs.

One thing I have to consider though is that my jaw surgery is happening in early October, so I need to consider how much time I will have to take off to recover, and if that means I need to start the Mileage BuildUp program sooner than August 27th - maybe 2 weeks recovery time, so maybe I need to plan to begin the program by August 13th? Which gives me about 2 months to get up to speed. It can definitely be done.

I'm excited. It eases my disappointment about not having a duathlon available to me in the fall, and a marathon is something that I've never, ever thought I would consider much less attempt but in the last few months I'd been thinking about it and then promising myself that I would do that for my 35th birthday. But whatever, why wait? My body is stronger and in better shape now then it will probably be in 4 years, so I should use it to my advantage and just do it.

Yeah... I think I will :).

Anyone want to join me? :)

2006-06-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights & Stretch)

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

Yoga: 12:10pm-1:00pm

Umm...Oww?

I've been wanting to increase my weights in Body Pump and while I knew I wasn't ready to increase all of them, I did for lower body as well as the chest track. Prior to today, I was doing 30.8lbs during squats and lunges, today, I threw on an extra Kg which brought my weight up to 33lbs. During the chest track, I added 2Kgs to my bar, which brought my weight up to 20lbs, and it HURT. I struggled with the track, had a bit of a hard time keeping up, but where I needed to I rested and it seemed to help. They're always saying in Body Pump to not be scared to challenge yourself which is the reason I increased, but I didn't anticipate that it would be so hard.

Yoga is going to feel REALLY good when I go at lunch time.

And yeah..I'm an idiot. Got the dates confused on that duathlon that I was thinking about doing in October. The day was correct, as was the month, but got the year wrong. Yup - 2005, not 2006. Idiot! :) It's back to the drawing board - I could do the same duathlon that I did last year (The women's Weight Watchers event) but it's on my birthday, and I think this year I'd rather be celebrating then going to bed early - plus, Tay has hesitantly been entertaining duathlon talks with me, so that prevents him from trying. I'm going to check the HSBC site again but I'm worried that there wouldn't be enough training time for an event in August.

Hrmm..I just found a duathlon in Alliston mid-September but then Tay pointed out that it's the last weekend of TIFF - we're cutting back on TIFF a bit this year (ie. not taking the week off work) but we're still going to try and go evenings and weekends. Hrmm. Maybe no duathlon this year - maybe I'll just continue with my running and train for the Mississauga Marathon next May??

2006-06-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes, HR: 120
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 152
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 126
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 135
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 140
Cooldown: 5 minutes, HR: 120

Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes

Distance : 7.25km~

Workout Time: 6:30am-7:30am

Weather
COLD!

I don't know if it's because I ate so much on the weekend, or if it's two days of cardio in a row, but for some reason, I am STARVING today. I just finished my lunch (a chicken fajita, leftover from dinner last night) and all I can think about is the guacamole I've packed for my afternoon snack. I'm drinking lots of water, hoping it will curb the hunger, but so far, no luck. I'm guessing that my morning snack of watermelon was not filling enough, so now that the watermelon is gone, I need to rethink my morning snack (I bought pineapple and strawberries yesterday for my fruit for the week). Tuesdays and Thursdays are Body Pump so I always try and pack protein for my morning snack and I stocked up on a lot of cheese at the grocery store as well. Not craving sweets so much anymore as I am meat and cheese, which is good, but still.. I don't know how I'm going to get through the end of today with just the guacamole. (Though...I DO have some popcorn in my desk so..maybe guac now and popcorn later :).

Tay bought some runners on the weekend, which is exciting because it means he's serious about wanting to run with me. So far, we've designated Sundays and Wednesdays as our days to run together - and we're incorporating finishing our run with a bike ride as well so if I decide to do the duathalon in October, that will help (Tay's I think considering it, and I think now Caius is too). I went out this morning alone and debated increasing my running intervals (3 12 minutes rather than 3 10 minutes), but I decided to hold off another week and see if Tay might be ready to increase with me. Of course, on Sundays and Wednesdays we can still do 3x10 but maybe Mondays (and possibly Fridays - Step is under review ;) I can do 3x12. 3x12 would mean the following:

5 minute warmup
12 minute run
7 minute walk
12 minute run
7 minute walk
12 minute run
5 minute cooldown

Shouldn't be a problem :).

2006-06-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

Weekly Workout Summary
Sunday: Cardio (Running/Walking, Biking, 10am)
Monday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 6:30am)
Tuesday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am), Stretch (Yoga, 12pm)
Wednesday: Cardio (6:30am), Stretch (Body Flow, 1:15pm)
Thursday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am)
Friday: N/A
Saturday: N/A

Total Days Working Out: 5/7

Lost no pounds this week - in fact, think I probably gained two pounds but I can't really complain since I spent early Friday evening in the whirlpool drinking copious amounts of bright blue raspberry martinis, ate a very late dinner at the Keg (10pm is a little late for mushrooms stuffed with crab and cream cheese, ceasar salad, prime rib and a rather large strawberry daquiri) and then spent Saturday afternoon at five different wineries sampling a couple of ounces of wine at each place. It's amazing that I don't weigh more after the weekend I had :). I was very much looking forward to running this morning (food guilt is a great motivator) and am looking forward to getting out tomorrow.

Good news? I bought a couple of tops on Thursday and they were all size Medium. I haven't worn a size Medium top in quite a long time. I've decreased in size in most areas of my body, I'm hoping that my chest is next - I would love to drop a size through there. Just like in school, a C would be so much better than a D :).

2006-06-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)

Warmup: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes, ~ 151
Walk: 10 minutes ~120
Run: 10 minutes, HR ~159

Distance: 4.5km ~

Biking: 20 minutes, HR ~145
Cool Down: 5 minutes

Total Cardio: 60min

2006-06-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights & Stretch)

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

Tracked my heart rate in Body Pump - it's staying between 135 and 145, depending on the track and the muscle group. Higher during lower body I think, and drops a bit during upper body.

2006-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio & Stretch)

BodyFlow: 1 Hr, 1:15pm-2:15pm

Warmup: 5 minutes, HR: 120 (Avg)
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 135 (Avg)
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 163
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 135 (Avg)
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Cooldown: 5 minutes, HR: 120 (Avg)

Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes

Distance : 7.5 km~

Workout Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm~

Weather
Sunny & warm but with a nice breeze, 24 degrees approximately?

I actually got to leave work early today and Tay joined me for my cardio - he was a little sore after coming out with me on Sunday but he was up for it yesterday so off we went. On Sunday, we did 2 10 minute running segments (intervaled with walking) and then biked; today we did my normal cardio routine which is 3 10 minute running segments. Poor Tay, it was a little hard on him, he still doesn't have proper runners, nor has he had much experience with running, whereas I've been working on my running for the past year and a half - not to mention that I take pretty short strides when I run, so it was challenging for him to match my stride. He made it though, through the entire hour, all 3 segments, and kept his heart rate in a good range. I'm quite proud of him and very excited that I've had a running partner two times this weelk :).

Managed to keep my heart rate down for the most part during the run - it did peak during my second running segment at 163, but I managed to bring it down for the remainder, so I was pleased about that.

My jaw surgery isn't till October now, so I have been giving some thought to duathalons - there's one in September (my birthday) and another in October so I might decide to do them. Going to think a bit more though, and probably blog about it more extensively one of these days. But the thought of training? Ugh :).

2006-06-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights & Stretch)

BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

Yoga: 12:10pm-1:00pm

In Body Pump today, Instructor B commented on my form during the lunge track - said I was looking great. Keeping good form during lunges can be difficult, particularily when you're balancing 30lbs of weight on your shoulders. I have to seriously focus on a spot on the floor in front of me while I'm doing my lunges because if I don't, my concentration is off and I wobble a bit. But there I was focusing, and sweating, and lunging and B told me I looked great. She also was really chatty with me in the changing room after class, chiming in on the conversation that I was having Rebecca and then, as we were all getting ready to leave, she mentioned that we should go for drinks one night so she could see my photos from Europe. Laura told me once to make nice with your BP instructor because then you start to get preferential treatment - I guess they start keeping an eye on you, making sure your form is correct, that you're increasing your weights appropriately, etc. I guess going for drinks is considered making nice :).

2006-06-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes, HR: 120
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 151
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 120-135~
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 151
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 135 ~
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 145
Cooldown: 5 minutes, HR: 120-135~

Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes

Distance : 7km~

Workout Time: 7:00am-8:00am

Weather
Cloudy, cool, 15-20 degrees approximately

Heart Rate
Had an easier time keeping my heart rate down. Not sure if it was the weather (less humidity, less heat) or if it was because Charlotte was too lazy to come on my run with me (meaning, ipod needed charging) so I was forced to drag my old MP3 player out with me. I've been spoiled by Charlotte, Lloyd is a dinosaur - it's a RCA Lyra, bought for me by Tay probably 5+ years ago when MP3 players were still a new thing (the player cost a LOT, I had to bribe him with 5 years of driveway snow shovelling to get it -- which, I of course, never really honored :P.) Anyway, I had last loaded up Lloyd back around Christmas when Charlotte went to Vegas with Tay and Lloyd came to Halifax with me. The tricky thing was compiling a good mix in 30 songs or less - I needed plane music, gym music, music for if my family were driving me crazy and I just wanted to plug my ears ;). Anyhow, there was a lot of Esthero on there which was surprisingly soothing to run too and quite possibly a factor in helping to keep my heart rate down. And the old-day Michael Jackson stuff was good for the walking segments as it helped keep my heart rate from dropping too low. Regardless, it was a good workout, successful in regards to staying in my reccommended zone :).

2006-06-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Weekly Workout Summary
Sunday: Body Pump (am), Body Flow (am)
Monday: Cardio (Running/Walking, 6:30am)
Tuesday: Stretch (Yoga 12pm)
Wednesday: Cardio(6:30am), Stretch (Body Flow, 1:15pm)
Thursday: Weights (Body Pump, 7:30am)
Friday: Cardio (Step class, 12:10pm)
Saturday: N/A

Total Days Working Out: 6/7 (If you include Tuesday's Yoga, otherwise, 5/7).

Lbs Lost?
3

2006-06-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes, ~ 159
Walk: 10 minutes ~120
Run: 10 minutes, HR ~173
Walk: 5 minutes

Distance: 4.5km ~

Biking: 20 minutes, HR ~145

Total Cardio: 60min

Took Saturday off from working out - it was rainy and cold and so slept most of the day either curled up in bed or on the couch. Sunday morning I got up to go out for my run and Tay decided to join me - we compromised since he's not a runner, and did 40 minutes of my walking/running routine and then went out for 20 minutes or so on our bikes. I've never been a strong biker, even during my duathalon last summer I just winged it, but it was good to be out riding with Tay and have him explain to me about the different gears, and when I should be shifting up or down.

My original plan was to do 4 days of cardio and 3 days of Body Pump, but I think I need to eliminate one of the Body Pumps until I get used to all this cardio - so I'm skipping Body Pump on Sundays but will still do yoga so that I get a second day of yoga in there.

2006-06-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Body Step - 12:10pm-1:10pm

I still hate step, but I sweat to the point where my hair and clothes are soaking, so...I guess it's worth it.

But still..Ugh :).

Having a Personal Trainer at Work Could Have Its Perks
After Body Step, Rebecca and I returned to work, weary and sore, and as we were defiantly and rebelliously standing waiting for the elevator, Ted came out of the daycare and greeted us enthusiastically, for he knew that we had gone to class and he's all about motivating people to exercise. Until he heard the elevator doors slide open, and saw us begin to move towards the elevator. He ran across the lobby, yelling that we were not taking the elevator and I insisted that I was and hurtled myself in. I could hear him coming from inside the elevator, telling another staff to not let the doors close and then, just as the doors began to slide shut, he threw himself in, demanding that I get out of the elevator. I refused, latching onto the railing but that didn't work, he simply peeled my fingers free and dragged me (almost kicking and screaming) from the elevator and then marched me up the stairs.

For those that are wondering, it's 1.5 flights of stairs ;).

2006-06-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights)
BodyPump: 7:30am-8:30am

I upped my weights back to where I was pre-Europe (except for lunges, by the end of the class I was feeling pretty worn out so I stuck with 12kg rather than the 14kg I did during the squat track) and I don't know if it was the weights, or the climate in the room, or if we were just doing a really hard release, but by the end of the squat track, I was dripping sweat. And there's something oddly rewarding about looking down at the hardwood floor and knowing that the drops of water around you is sweat. It's an accomplishment of sorts :).

Noticing a definite change in my body as well - seeing a lot more definition then ever before, particularily through my shoulders and through my stomach. I remember before when I would do crunches and I'd be dismayed by the way my stomach would pouch as I did them, and now, when I'm crunching, that pouch is no longer there. Still far off from ever wearing a bikini, but there's definitely less stomach and I'm quite liking the flatness beneath my pants lately :).

2006-05-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio & Stretch)
Warmup: 5 minutes, HR: 130 (Avg)
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 159
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 145 (Avg)
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 163
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 145 (Avg)
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 153
Cooldown: 10 minutes, HR: 130 (Avg)
Total Cardio Workout: 60 minutes
Distance : 7km~

Workout Time: 6:30am-7:30am~

Weather
Hazy, not much sun, 20 degrees approximately

BodyFlow: 1 Hr, 1:15pm-2:15pm

Ted told me the other day to really watch my heartrate during my cardio and to try and keep it from creeping up as high as it's been going, which he acknowledged would be hard to do with the temperatures in TO what they've been this past week. Keeping my heart rate down means not pushing myself the way that I have been while running, so it means running slower, which you would think I would prefer but I don't because then I don't run as far. Ted keeps telling me it's not about how far I run right now, but for how long and eventually, as I get in better shape and my heart can handle more exertion, then I will be able to run faster while keeping my heart rate in the range it needs to be in for optimal results. It's pretty exciting to have a PT as part of our staff - but I think pretty soon he's going to start invoicing me if I don't stop showing up in his office with 'just one more question' :).

Tried on some of my capris from last summer, ones that definitely weren't fitting and imagine my excitement when not only did they fit, but they were a little lose! The interesting thing is that I bought these pants when I was 10lbs (or more) less than what I am now, which means that since I weigh more now, that weight is coming from the muscles that I must be building in Body Pump. AND, when Rebecca and I were walking up the stairs to Body Flow this afternoon, Rebecca was behind me on the stairs and she made a comment about my butt looking really good. YES! :)

Body Pump tomorrow morning which I'm looking forward to (since I missed Tuesday - poor Rebecca who went thinking I would be there and set up my step and all my weights), and then Step on Friday which I'm sorta-kinda-maybe looking forward too.

I wonder what other clothes I'll fit into by the end of the summer?

2006-05-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Workout (Stretch Only)
Yoga: 12:00pm-1:00pm

The plan was to go to Body Pump at 7:30am, Rebecca was even there and got me setup but I went to bed too late the night before and when the alarm went off at 6am I couldn't get up and go. I wanted too, but I couldn't - it was the kind of exhausted weariness that makes you nauseous. In fact, I knew I had to work until 9 so I decided to stay in bed until 10:30 and made it to work just in time to get to yoga at noon.

Not a lot of exercise, but better than nothing :).

2006-05-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes, HR: 130
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 160
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 145
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 160
Walk: 10 minutes, HR: 145
Run: 10 minutes, HR: 163
Cooldown: 10 minutes, HR: 131

Total Cardio Workout: 65 minutes

Distance : 8km~

Workout Time: 6:30am-7:30am~

WeatherSunny, 20 degrees approximately

I won't think about that scoop of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy that I had today.

I will think about Body Pump first thing tomorrow morning, and yoga on my lunch hour.

2006-05-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Weekly Workout Summary
Sunday: N/A
Monday: N/A
Tuesday: Body Pump (am), Yoga (Lunch)
Wednesday: Cardio (20 minute run, 3km)
Thursday: Body Pump (am)
Friday: Cardio (Step class)
Saturday: Cardio (65 min, Run/Walk Combo, 8km)

Total Days Working Out: 5/7

2006-05-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Workout (Weights & Stretch)
BodyPump (9:30-10:30)
BodyFlow (10:30-11:30)

Total Workout Time: 2 Hours

Average Heartrate (During BodyPump): Mid-140s

BodyPump was challenging today - I'm thinking it's because I'm pushing myself and did more cardio in the past two days than I often do in a week. I decided to stay for the BodyFlow class afterwards - I'd never tried it before because I usually prefer to do just yoga whereas BF is a combination of Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates. I felt silly doing the Tai Chi, felt like a pro doing the yoga, and struggled a bit with the Pilates (it really hurt, but in a good way!)

2006-05-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Workout (Cardio)
Warmup: 5 minutes
Run: 10 minutes
Walk: 10 minutes
Run: 10 minutes
Walk: 10 minutes
Run: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 10 minutes

Total Cardio Workout: 65 minutes

Distance : 8km~

HeartRate
Heart rate ranged between 133 and 172 - 173 is probably a little high, but I only hit that level at the peak of my running stages, right before I dropped to a walk. During my walking intervals I was averaging in the 140-150 range.

Workout Time
11:30am-12:30am~

Weather
Sunny, 20 degrees approximately