Fitness blah-g

[threadwalker]

Susan G. Komen Foundation Race for the Cure:
http://race.sfkomen.org/site/TR?px=1055661&pg=personal&fr_id=1010&et=VL-hFP81RCMQVdS1wX9irw..&s_tafId=2862

Count down to Race, Sept 23: 7+ weeks

What a huge motivator. I was right about myself: If I didn't set a new goal, I'd lose my motivation. This is what got my butt off the proverbial sofa and into the gym last night. Trust me, the sofa's summons is strong right now.



Treadmill: 6.5 mph for 20 min, then vary from 6.5 to 6.0. Sprint last minute.
35 min, 3.63 mi, 435 cal

Bike: Start at level 4, but slowly increased to level 8.
30 min, 8+ mi, 230 cal, HR 153

My dance teacher appears to be out of town and her fill-in was not one of my favs. I wanted a grueling work out that would help prep me for Sept 23 and purge some of the slacking I've been doing for 2 weeks, not a night of practicing the basics of shimmy. Therefore, I kept my $15 and went to the gym.

I decided to focus on cardio. I've been in the gym infrequently for 2 weeks (vacation and strept throat), and was very indecisive about which of my fitness menus I should do. After I got on the treadmill, I decided it was newly dubbed "cardio night" and I would be:

1. working on getting comfortable with 5 k since that's the race in September
2. start conditioning myself to do multiple cardio events in a single eve
3. work on building up my cardio endurance.

As a Tuesday workout, this will typically happen before dance class. Dance class usually starts with 45 minutes of pilates that work the abs, legs and glutes. I think the combo of workout and class will work well even though I suspect I won't be able to keep up in pilates portion of dance. No biggie.

Last night: I was really suprised that my internal whine-o-bot didn't kick in while I was on the treadmill. It has been my companion for the first 2-5 minutes for my previous running work outs. Except for a few early sharp pains in my shins (altered my form to make pain go away), it didn't suck, so the whine-o-bot may have been slugging on the sofa and didn't realize I was on the treadmill. I credit this to some of the real road running I've done recently since the treadmill is much much easier than road running. The sprint was interesting - haven't done that in ages. I really stretched out my legs and I pumped it up to 9mph. Not that I could maintain that for longer than the designated 45 seconds, but for those 45 seconds I felt like I was flying. The bike makes my knees sore - I need to alter my form and perhaps raise the seat. And the seat was very uncomfortalbe; I felt like I spent most of the time concentrating on my knees and trying to get my butt comfy.

By the time I was done with the bike, you could have wrung me out. Whew. Soggy, fatigued and pink in the face, but not gasping for breath. Woot. AND I actually did 5k on the treadmill. woot woot. I'm going to see about doing a road run on Sunday and then find a pool to do laps in... we'll see. One hurdle at a time.

Comments

[d-salie.livejournal.com]

How long will Jill be gone? I was thinking of doing a full month in August.

[sassycat8.livejournal.com]

Where do you live? The pool in Campbell is pretty nice. I swim there Friday mornings.

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

I live in Concord and work in Berkeley... Campbell is off my beaten track. But if you know of any pools (or swimmers who can recommend pools) I'm all ears.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

And for the follow-up question -- how was the sleep after that?

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

I took a shower after I got home and started to doze off while wrapped in towel and sitting on edge of tub... I would say the sleep was fairly excellent. Although I started feeling achey yesterday afternoon... and today is achey, too, so it's catching up.