hittin' the treadmill

After the only exercise I got today was hauling Rowan up the toboggan hill (aka Beacon Hill) five or six times, I decided that since I was all clever and made coq au vin for dinner, which just sat in the oven for 3 hours, I could go to Crystal Pool with Stirling and Rowan for Rowan's swimming lesson, and do half an hour on the treadmill and then not feel bad about missing my run. I no longer feel like a wussie for not running outside, it's about -10C and there's more than 10 cm of snow on the ground, and people here do really half-assed jobs of shoveling their sidewalks so they're actually worse than if they didn't bother.

So I did day 2, week 6 on the treadmill, which is 10 min run, 3 min walk, 10 min run. Except I forgot that you can adjust the incline on those puppies, which I should have done, because it was waaaay too easy, so I just kept running (upping the speed to entertain myself) until the staff started yelling that the pool was closed. (not at me, just generally. apparently there is no PA system there) After I got off the treadmill my breathing was back to normal instantly so I don't think I was working all that hard, although the heart rate monitor on it said 160 - briefly - just after I stopped. Then it dropped really rapidly down to 150, 140... I dunno if it was just making up its mind or reflecting my amazingly awesome cardio recovery. I am guessing the former.

Anyway, it was fun for a change. The snow is supposed to stick around for a few days so I may have to hunt down another treadmill on Tuesday and this time I will remember the incline, and maybe push myself a little more. Tuesday's run is a straight 25 minute jobbie - which reminds me, I have to discipline the iPod because it crapped out on me today. I am starting to understand why my neighbour was so eager to give it to me for free - apparently it needs a complete wipe and reinstall of everything. I don't even actually like running outside with it, it makes me feel vulnerable and I think some of the songs I have make me run too fast and I get tired before I'm done. Plus, there is enough to keep me entertained and distracted outside. But on a treadmill, the tunes are good.

Also, I think I am going to give this blog a bit of a hiatus until the new year, since I am heading into crazy-busy holiday time and I am not going to attempt any progressions on any of my exercises, just to do a few pushups occasionally and run when I can to avoid backsliding. I am sure I will cook up some sort of new year's resolutions and then the blog will be all about that. I'm sure you can hardly wait.

wussie

All right, I am officially now a soft southerner. Snowflakes started falling this afternoon and I totally bailed out of my run and walked the dog around the block. She wasn't complaining, mind you - she being a soft southern dog herself.

But I did at least ATTEMPT a run yesterday. It was right after dinner, and I doubled over with cramps 10 minutes in, but at least I tried.

meh.

I was down all of about half a pound this week. And my body fat % was back up to 37% (I think the scale WAS lying to me a little bit last week). I am tempted to stuff the scale into the closet and not weigh myself until after the holidays when I'm prepared to do a couple weeks of hard-core low-carb. I haven't eaten anything starchy or sugary, it's just going to be a slow process, I know that, and maybe weighing myself every week isn't the best thing. Although, it's not like it's going to de-motivate me, so we'll see.

And also in crappy news, my right foot is really sore. I fear it is due to my indulgent wearing of my nice boots - with a heel - to a party last night. I went for a long walk this morning but by the end of it my foot was pretty achy so I opted out of the run I'd planned and rode my bike around and to the craft fair instead. I did my pushups, too - and just barely managed the last set, but you know, that was 120 pushups, I think I can whine a little about the last bit.

Hopefully my foot will be better tomorrow and I will be able to go for a run. At least I feel healthy otherwise (knock on wood).

one hundred pushups

Today I did 100 pushups in the span of about 20 minutes. Yay! and Ow!

Also, I managed the 20-minute run at the end of the couch-to-5K week 5, and I didn't even feel like dying at the end! The last minute was hard, but I did it. Next week gets back to shorter stretches with walks in between, but the total running time goes up steadily over the next few weeks and by Christmas - I think - I should be really running a real 5K.

How in the world did people get fit before they had the internet telling them how many pushups to do and how long to run for???

stronger

I've felt crappy for the past couple of days - some sinus thing, I think - and I bailed on Marci for going to Esquimalt Rec centre yesterday. She went anyway, and it turned out that she's having similar sinus things so I felt like a bit of a tool for bailing.

So I made a point of hauling out the pilates dvd in the afternoon and I did it, and felt better, then I did my pushups - Week 5! - and struggled through the first couple of sets then my muscles adjusted, or something, and I knocked off 27 in my last set - for a total of 93 pushups within the span of about an hour. Maybe an hour and a half... Rowan woke up after my first set and then I forgot I was doing pushups for a while, but then I did the last bits fairly close together. I am getting close to the point where I can DO 100 pushups in a certain time frame - probably half an hour is doable, maybe even 15 minutes, and I can foresee a time when the full 100 pushups in one set is not unachievable. The plan was also to do a bunch of squats but that just didn't happen.

Today is turning out to be a very difficult child day so I think by about 4:30 I will be more than ready to toss her next door and go for a run. My next scheduled run is 20 minutes non-stop, which worries me a little bit but I think I can do it.