It's amazing how quickly life changes. Less than three weeks ago, I was stressing about regional meetings and nominating committees, and delegate communications. Then Wednesday, February 10, 2010 happened. At 11:00 a.m., I was called into a meeting room by my supervisor. At 11:30 a.m., I was being escorted to my car by my supervisor. Then events began to unfold rapidly. And now, I find myself living with my parents back in Cornville. The Great Brattleboro Experiment has ended. Now I worry about following around my brother's hired hand to keep him from killing himself or the cows. Frankly, I am more concerned with the cows.
Interestingly enough, as I gathered my things to leave the office, I thought "How am I going to work out?" Thankfully, my parents do have a treadmill. However, I have apparently forgotten how to run or something because when I use it, my feet tend to slip. I would not be surprised if I get a major case of rubber road rash before the weather improves so I can run on asphalt. Yes, there are tarred roads in Cornville. Until then, I will be maintaining a walking workout of 3.0 mph for a half hour or so, so that my legs stay in shape. I hope to be back up to running at least a little bit, but we'll see.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Workout #6: One is done
So I have decided that my Weird Wild Wednesday Workout will probably be a transition between Workout #6 and #7 of the Couch to 5K program. I will attempt to do at least one 3 minute jog. Tonight was not a great workout. I clearly didn't stretch out all of my muscles thoroughly since I experienced a little bit of discomfort in my lower left leg. And I know I've posted this elsewhere but I think it bears repeating. It amazes me how much I look forward to working out, even though I think the entire workout is utter agony.
This coming week will be a small test for me as I head home for an extended weekend. Watching my food intake should not be much of a problem, and as long as the parents' treadmill is in working order, I'll complete the workouts with no trouble either. It's just the concern that I may get off routine. It doesn't sound like much - arguably, missing one workout shouldn't break the bank, should it? But I know me, and I need to adhere to routines strictly in order to maintain them. Besides, the longer and more consistent I am now, the greater the chances of my success down the road.
I've enjoyed being in the "honeymoon phase" of the Gut-B-Gone regimen...the loss of pounds, some clothes being a tad looser, having more energy and just feeling healthier all around. Yet, I'm beginning to see the first little bump in the road. Tonight I thought, am I really going to exercise like this on a regular basis for the rest of my life? Do I really want to do that? There is a part of me that has no interest in working to maintain my health. None whatsoever. That part of me, usually the one that says "GIVE ME THE LITTLE DEBBIE ZEBRA CAKES NOW, BITCH!!" has been spoiled rotten for the last 15 years or so. But I still believe that there is a part of me that is evolving to become assertive enough to say "Look beyond the plate to life you have ignored for far too long." That part of me is going to get through the rough patches. As I think about the battle of MY bulge (a war that's been going on since I was ten years old), I keep implementing the lessons learned from past failures, and I feel wiser and more grounded than I have before.
Okay, the random ramblings are done for tonight. I am tired and relaxing with one of my favorite movies, The Mummy.
This coming week will be a small test for me as I head home for an extended weekend. Watching my food intake should not be much of a problem, and as long as the parents' treadmill is in working order, I'll complete the workouts with no trouble either. It's just the concern that I may get off routine. It doesn't sound like much - arguably, missing one workout shouldn't break the bank, should it? But I know me, and I need to adhere to routines strictly in order to maintain them. Besides, the longer and more consistent I am now, the greater the chances of my success down the road.
I've enjoyed being in the "honeymoon phase" of the Gut-B-Gone regimen...the loss of pounds, some clothes being a tad looser, having more energy and just feeling healthier all around. Yet, I'm beginning to see the first little bump in the road. Tonight I thought, am I really going to exercise like this on a regular basis for the rest of my life? Do I really want to do that? There is a part of me that has no interest in working to maintain my health. None whatsoever. That part of me, usually the one that says "GIVE ME THE LITTLE DEBBIE ZEBRA CAKES NOW, BITCH!!" has been spoiled rotten for the last 15 years or so. But I still believe that there is a part of me that is evolving to become assertive enough to say "Look beyond the plate to life you have ignored for far too long." That part of me is going to get through the rough patches. As I think about the battle of MY bulge (a war that's been going on since I was ten years old), I keep implementing the lessons learned from past failures, and I feel wiser and more grounded than I have before.
Okay, the random ramblings are done for tonight. I am tired and relaxing with one of my favorite movies, The Mummy.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
C25K Workout #5/ SSW #11
Hm, the subject line looks like some sort of engineering code.
It happened again. I get the speed up on the treadmill to blazing 2.7 mph to do my "brisk walk" to warm up. I start feeling a little more tired than usual, but didn't think much of it. I'm rocking out to "Impression That I Get," and start my first jog session, when I look down and see on the monitor....there is a 3% incline. Son of a bitch! I don't run on an incline, thankyouverymuch. Well, not yet. But after I decided to decrease the incline, I felt like I was running downhill.
The rest of the workout was fairly uneventful, although for this evening I was accompanied by one of my coworkers for my entire workout. She opted for the television while she was on another piece of equipment behind me. I enjoyed my tunes. The Dropkick Murphys have definitely helped me push through some tough areas of the routine.
Overall, my greatest success has been on the scale. With the help of old Weight Watchers materials and the workout, I have managed to lose 13 pounds. Yay!
It happened again. I get the speed up on the treadmill to blazing 2.7 mph to do my "brisk walk" to warm up. I start feeling a little more tired than usual, but didn't think much of it. I'm rocking out to "Impression That I Get," and start my first jog session, when I look down and see on the monitor....there is a 3% incline. Son of a bitch! I don't run on an incline, thankyouverymuch. Well, not yet. But after I decided to decrease the incline, I felt like I was running downhill.
The rest of the workout was fairly uneventful, although for this evening I was accompanied by one of my coworkers for my entire workout. She opted for the television while she was on another piece of equipment behind me. I enjoyed my tunes. The Dropkick Murphys have definitely helped me push through some tough areas of the routine.
Overall, my greatest success has been on the scale. With the help of old Weight Watchers materials and the workout, I have managed to lose 13 pounds. Yay!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Workout #4 FOR SURE :)
So I definitely completed Workout #4 without a doubt today. And surprisingly, Weird Wild Workout Wednesday was pretty tame. I even pushed myself a little bit faster on the second jog session, but stuck with my standard 4.0 for the rest of the workout. Hey, if it's good enough perfect GPAs, I say it's good enough for jogging speed.
Interestingly enough, this workout was more sweat than pain, which is a GREAT thing. Plus, at the end of the workout, I felt like I could keep walking for a long time after, and no bizarre loss of movement in the foot/ankle region. So basically...a huge success!
Now, I thought about calling my Sexy Strout Workout #10 the Couch to 5K Workout #5, but I felt it'd be better for me to be 100% honest with myself. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing another two workouts on this level before I push myself up to Week #3 with workout 7. Today I'm celebrating my personal Week #3 and Workout #10. Tonight's good workout really gave me a boost after two days of stressing myself for absolutely no reason while at work.
Interestingly enough, this workout was more sweat than pain, which is a GREAT thing. Plus, at the end of the workout, I felt like I could keep walking for a long time after, and no bizarre loss of movement in the foot/ankle region. So basically...a huge success!
Now, I thought about calling my Sexy Strout Workout #10 the Couch to 5K Workout #5, but I felt it'd be better for me to be 100% honest with myself. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing another two workouts on this level before I push myself up to Week #3 with workout 7. Today I'm celebrating my personal Week #3 and Workout #10. Tonight's good workout really gave me a boost after two days of stressing myself for absolutely no reason while at work.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Workout #5ish
Tonight's workout was similar to Friday's. I'm hesitant to really call it "Workout #5" because even though it is supposed to match the Couch to 5K program, it kinda doesn't. I'm thinking of renaming them Sexy Strout Workouts. And in which case, I might as well renumber them to correspond to my workout schedule. So tonight was Sexy Strout Workout #9.
Anyway, over the weekend, as a reward for some substantial progress in my Gut-Be-Gone regimen, I downloaded some new tunes. It is my way of attempting to divert the brain from the pain. Last week, I had been walking to "We Didn't Start the Fire" (it's stuck in your head again, isn't it K-Fin?), and then I rocked out to some Kanye: "Stronger" and "Gold Digger." However, I started to think "Stronger" - which I usually find empowering - was dragging me down a bit.
So this week, I mixed it up. I started with "Send Me on My Way" for my 2.7 mph walk, and followed that with "You Can Call Me Al." For jogging, even the light 4 mph one I'm doing, I highly recommend Dropkick Murphys, especially "Shipping Up To Boston" and "Tessie." Unless you're a Yankees fan. But if you're a Yankees fan, I don't know if I'm really that interested in helping out your workouts. One of my favorite songs, "Rock and Roll" by Eric Hutchinson fit well, surprisingly, and helped me push through the last 90 second jog I did. I'm still happy that I made myself finish it! Finally, to close things out, I enjoyed some of Finger 11's "Paralyzer."
So somehow, I managed to get through the workout. Well, I may have walked through a jog session at the end, but I'll have to doublecheck the routine. Either way, I completed Sexy Strout Workout #9, that's for sure. While stretching out afterwards, though, I noticed something peculiar. As I stretched and rotated my right foot, I attempted to do the same with my left foot. Could not make it circle. It was like my ankle was locked up or the muscles were so tight, nothing was moving. After about 20 minutes, it seemed to recover, but I'm going to look into it. I'm going to Google "weird ankle/foot/leg function after running/walking" and see what I come up with.
Anyway, over the weekend, as a reward for some substantial progress in my Gut-Be-Gone regimen, I downloaded some new tunes. It is my way of attempting to divert the brain from the pain. Last week, I had been walking to "We Didn't Start the Fire" (it's stuck in your head again, isn't it K-Fin?), and then I rocked out to some Kanye: "Stronger" and "Gold Digger." However, I started to think "Stronger" - which I usually find empowering - was dragging me down a bit.
So this week, I mixed it up. I started with "Send Me on My Way" for my 2.7 mph walk, and followed that with "You Can Call Me Al." For jogging, even the light 4 mph one I'm doing, I highly recommend Dropkick Murphys, especially "Shipping Up To Boston" and "Tessie." Unless you're a Yankees fan. But if you're a Yankees fan, I don't know if I'm really that interested in helping out your workouts. One of my favorite songs, "Rock and Roll" by Eric Hutchinson fit well, surprisingly, and helped me push through the last 90 second jog I did. I'm still happy that I made myself finish it! Finally, to close things out, I enjoyed some of Finger 11's "Paralyzer."
So somehow, I managed to get through the workout. Well, I may have walked through a jog session at the end, but I'll have to doublecheck the routine. Either way, I completed Sexy Strout Workout #9, that's for sure. While stretching out afterwards, though, I noticed something peculiar. As I stretched and rotated my right foot, I attempted to do the same with my left foot. Could not make it circle. It was like my ankle was locked up or the muscles were so tight, nothing was moving. After about 20 minutes, it seemed to recover, but I'm going to look into it. I'm going to Google "weird ankle/foot/leg function after running/walking" and see what I come up with.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Workout #4ish
Usually I do pretty well to blog the evening after I work out, but that didn't happen after my last one. I cut myself some slack though, since as long as I get the blog in before the next workout, I'm still doing so much better with the blogging than I was a few weeks ago.
Friday's workout was surprising. I had been beating myself up about the speed, but as I started out, I remembered some sound advice from K-Fin: go your own speed and stay on the treadmill. After Wednesday's workout, I was unsure if I could maintain my new pace for the length of time scheduled. But once I started jogging, the first round felt easy, like I wasn't really working at working out. Always a great feeling. Also a sign that you're not getting a lot of cardio or muscular benefits. The next round, though, reassured me that I was torturing myself.
At one point, when I was getting tired, I thought "Maybe I should slow down" but then I felt I was going too slow. It's like, once you go fast, you don't go last..........week's workout speed. Kind of amazing. Of course, I also started wondering if maybe the treadmill was some unique, magical treadmill that had me going faster than the speed it says. Okay, "magical" may not be the appropriate word. I think I'm looking for the word "wrong" or "broken."
So I have worked out for over two weeks, and I've been eating less. And now I'm seeing results (11 1/2 pounds - yay!). Results mean rewards, too, so I downloaded some more songs from Amazon. So I'm looking forward to Monday's workout, and seeing how my body feels after a complete Week 2 workout at my faster speed.
Friday's workout was surprising. I had been beating myself up about the speed, but as I started out, I remembered some sound advice from K-Fin: go your own speed and stay on the treadmill. After Wednesday's workout, I was unsure if I could maintain my new pace for the length of time scheduled. But once I started jogging, the first round felt easy, like I wasn't really working at working out. Always a great feeling. Also a sign that you're not getting a lot of cardio or muscular benefits. The next round, though, reassured me that I was torturing myself.
At one point, when I was getting tired, I thought "Maybe I should slow down" but then I felt I was going too slow. It's like, once you go fast, you don't go last..........week's workout speed. Kind of amazing. Of course, I also started wondering if maybe the treadmill was some unique, magical treadmill that had me going faster than the speed it says. Okay, "magical" may not be the appropriate word. I think I'm looking for the word "wrong" or "broken."
So I have worked out for over two weeks, and I've been eating less. And now I'm seeing results (11 1/2 pounds - yay!). Results mean rewards, too, so I downloaded some more songs from Amazon. So I'm looking forward to Monday's workout, and seeing how my body feels after a complete Week 2 workout at my faster speed.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Is it ironic...
...that I celebrate the anniversary of starting regular exercise on Wednesdays, since I apparently HATE finishing workouts and haven't quite done a "regularly-scheduled" workout since I started? My god, was that sentence too long?
So, first of all, I got all discouraged because I went online earlier to check speed of jogging, or average speed, anyway. You know what I found out? Most sources say it is around 7 to 8 miles an hour. Um........ARE YOU BLEEPING KIDDING ME???!?!?!? I am maxing out at 3.6 so anyone "jogging" at 8 mph can - pardon me - kiss my ass.
Once I digested that unfortunate piece of news, I suddenly doubted all that I had done in my previous workouts. In fact, I felt like I hadn't made any progress, and was essentially pre-workout 1. When I made it to the gym (nearly alone; I don't think I have seen one person with the same workout schedule as myself in the last two weeks), I set my "brisk walk" at a faster pace. I was just about ready to start the "jog" when I noticed I had been walking on a 2% incline. What?? Son of a biscuit! I reset that back to 0 right quick.
I commenced to jog for 90 seconds at a speed of four miles per hour. Then, the two minute walk at just under three miles per hour, then the jog, walk, jog, walk, jog, walk, jog....then I walked the rest of my workout. I'm not letting myself feel guilty for what I like to refer to as my "freestyle interpretation" of the schedule since, hey, I was on the treadmill for 25 minutes. There was sweat. There was pain. I say, "mission accomplished."
But it helped knowing the distance a fellow HH covered in her recent workout, and being similar to mine, I thought, you know what? Maybe a 7.5 mph jog is for marathoners only. Or those youth in high school that have not been introduced to the Freshman Fifteen. Or its lesser known yet still popular relative, Freshman Forty. Either way, it's not for me, at least not right now.
So, first of all, I got all discouraged because I went online earlier to check speed of jogging, or average speed, anyway. You know what I found out? Most sources say it is around 7 to 8 miles an hour. Um........ARE YOU BLEEPING KIDDING ME???!?!?!? I am maxing out at 3.6 so anyone "jogging" at 8 mph can - pardon me - kiss my ass.
Once I digested that unfortunate piece of news, I suddenly doubted all that I had done in my previous workouts. In fact, I felt like I hadn't made any progress, and was essentially pre-workout 1. When I made it to the gym (nearly alone; I don't think I have seen one person with the same workout schedule as myself in the last two weeks), I set my "brisk walk" at a faster pace. I was just about ready to start the "jog" when I noticed I had been walking on a 2% incline. What?? Son of a biscuit! I reset that back to 0 right quick.
I commenced to jog for 90 seconds at a speed of four miles per hour. Then, the two minute walk at just under three miles per hour, then the jog, walk, jog, walk, jog, walk, jog....then I walked the rest of my workout. I'm not letting myself feel guilty for what I like to refer to as my "freestyle interpretation" of the schedule since, hey, I was on the treadmill for 25 minutes. There was sweat. There was pain. I say, "mission accomplished."
But it helped knowing the distance a fellow HH covered in her recent workout, and being similar to mine, I thought, you know what? Maybe a 7.5 mph jog is for marathoners only. Or those youth in high school that have not been introduced to the Freshman Fifteen. Or its lesser known yet still popular relative, Freshman Forty. Either way, it's not for me, at least not right now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)