Talk about your exercise experience today

[alexri]

If Ms. Gemme realllly wants Mr. Alex to get into the details of why he believes Jillian Michaels is just a marketing machine, he will.

Mr. Alex is a non-cheater. When walking on a high degree incline, he holds on to the treadmill so he does not fall. In real life, he does not hold onto the road when in a race.

Though I did really enjoy the Gemme underwear flash from yesterday. And I was laughing the pony treadmill runner too for a bit until I saw her speed and how much faster she was running than I was.

So... today was a quick 10K at the local city park to break in the new racing shoes, which are very different than anything I've ever used before. I found my "rub/chafe" spots. Good to know.

I'm at a 50/50 decision of signing up for a half marathon tomorrow. I haven't done one since May and it would only be my fifth this year. It's local and a lot of friends are going it so I figure it's cheaper than going to one that's a far drive away and it calms my I-miss-racing feelings for a little bit. Plus it would make me feel better about the victory donuts I may have.

[wahya]

I haven't been able to walk for 4 days now because I made a video of myself doing some crazy dancing to make someone laugh. and I fell and bruised my hip pretty bad. and re- aggravated my lower back pain.

[nycfem]

Yesterday my aunt Mary was in town from Ohio. We walked twice around the Central Park reservoir (3 miles). We saw a large, plump raccoon in the same place both laps, animatedly pawing around at leaves or whatever. I said, "What a big raccoon!" My aunt said, "Yes, very prosperous." That struck me as kind of quaint and funny.

[tygr_grrl]

Right now the only exercise I'm getting is running to keep pace with life, and its a bit hectic. Grateful I had a week long hot yoga retreat, plus swimming and fun with family the week before. I am so looking forward to getting home and back into my normal routine!

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to start training for the MS150 bike ride in August. One hundred fifty miles in two days by bicycle...it is my favorite route in Northern NM.

[Venus007]

I have been sort of phoning it in on my walks. I am bored and have started to procrastinate walking. Therefore I invented a new game today to keep me entertained, I avoid the track or the path and most importantly stick to the shade. I try to see how far I can get by only walking in the shade, I have found stuff in the park I had no idea was there. Best discovery today a big ole butterfly bush near a giant rock, by the creek, butterflies, dragon flies shady rock, I stayed there for a little while.

I was goin up and down hills, climbing inclines, navigating tricky terrain and generally working much harder while having much more fun on my walk than ever before, oh and I got on the swings for awhile because there was one in the shade, hah!

[Gemme]

Today was AWESOMMMMME!

I spent about an hour and 40ish minutes at the gym from walking in the door to walking out.

The workout itself was really good but what makes today's workout so AWESOMMMME (must be said loudly and in a sing song voice drawing out the 'some') was that I learned something, oh yes I did. I exercised not only my muscles and my mind (because it's mostly mental anyway) but I exercised my self-control and it worked out very well for me. I also exercised practicing protecting my boundaries, even from myself, because if I can't honor my own boundaries...how can I expect others to?



Let me elaborate:

I started on the treadmill for a couple of reasons. I typically do it because it's a nice and easy warm up and because, frankly, it's my favorite piece of cardio equipment.

I was doing pretty well, chugging along using the random program (again, my favorite) at the level 1 setting because I'm just getting back into things. I don't want to do too much too soon. That's how I typically injure myself and/or lose motivation. I was doing my interval runs between 5.2 and 6.2 mph because, well, that's what my finger stopped at when I was pushing the button. So, I'm going along and I notice that my feet feel weird. No, not my feet....I actually had a conversation with myself about this as it was progressing (No worries, it was purely inside my head! No alarming the other worker outters.) After a second, I realized what it was. I had just grabbed the first socks I could in the drawer and I wound up putting on those low suckers with hardly any cuff to it and now the slippery things were sliding down my feet, leaving my heels rubbing against my shoes. My heels are super sensitive and it would not be long at all before I'd have a couple of nice, bubbly blisters if I didn't do something about it soon.

Easy enough fix, right? Just stop and readjust them, right? Um, not so easy. I was really grooving in my workout and I have a numbers thing. I can end a workout at 25 minutes or 30 minutes but I'll be hard pressed to end it at 18 minutes or 22 minutes. Yes, yes...I know, but we all have our idiosyncrasies, don't we? So, because of my numbers thing and because I was doing so well with the workout and feeling really strong and into it, I continued until I got to an acceptable time and then I ended the program, calculated my stats (again, a numbers thing combined with a control thing) and took my shoes off and pulled the socks so far up my heels they looked like crew socks from the back. Let's see those slip down again! Hrmph!

Round two!

So, I hop back onto T17 (because that's my treadmill's name) and start 'er up again. Why? Why not move to a different machine or go play with weights? Because when I'm grooving in a workout, it's best to stick with what I'm doing. My focus gets fractured when I switch it up when I'm in the zone. So, T17 and I go at it again and we're really feeling one another. This time I upped my level to 3 but kept with the random program because it's not boring because...you guessed it!...it's random! Since I was still warm from the first leg of my workout, I started harder and faster and this is where my lessons really began to come into play.

A few years ago, I tweaked my knee bad. Not enough for MRIs or surgery but enough to really effin hurt for a very long time and to basically bring my workouts involving that leg at all to a standstill. I do NOT want to do that again. Some lessons I need to work through a few times before it sticks. That is not one of those. So, I'm usually really on top of not doing too much too soon and really staying connected mentally to my body as I work out. I used to zone out mentally and get lost in the music or scenery, etc but that's how I bypassed several warning signs with my knee. Focus is key!

So I set a personal boundary for myself at that time. I will increase intensity or I will increase speed but I will not increase both simultaneously. Nope, not gonna do it. Prime example: I will not break into a run if my incline is more than 1.0. Will not. It stresses my knees and I start to get worried about what could happen. I don't need that mentality when I'm trying to get my groove on. Total downer, I say.

T17 and I were getting along marvelously. Incline goes up, I slow down to a speedy walk. Incline goes down and I choose whether to run. Mostly, I opted to go for it. I was in the zone! For my second leg, I opted to stick with the exact same speed on my runs. 6.8 mph. Some of my intervals were only 45 seconds and some were almost 2 minutes but I didn't count them (progress for me!). I just enjoyed them. When I began to feel too winded, I slowed down.

One time, T17 got sneaky on me. The incline went down to .4 and I got my run on for a minute or so and suddenly it felt a lot harder. I looked down at the screen and T17 had jacked that stuff up well over 1.0 waaaay sooner than the other switches had happened. Part of me reeeeeeally wanted to keep running. It was harder but I didn't feel winded yet. BUT I had a discussion with myself (again, silently as not to scare folks) and worked it out. I slowed down and honored my own boundary. After all, I created it to protect myself. Even if it means protecting me from me.

There were a few times when the old competitive me crept up and I had to exercise some restraint. After all, this was....technically....only my third official workout since starting back. I need to be the tortoise, not the hare.

That's the path, you know. First, be the tortoise. Then, be the hare. Finally, be the eagle and flyyyyyyy!

All in all, it was a lovely workout. Two rounds on the treadmill followed by ab time on the incline bench with a medicine ball and some stretching on the mat.

Good day!

[alexri]

While Ms. Gemme was being AAAAWWWEEESSOOOMMMMEEE on the treadmill, I was out at the city park doing loops. I stopped at 8 miles. I overslept this morning and missed the race I wanted to do so I did some miles on my own. I heard from friends that the race was not that good anyway. The end.

(Nowhere near as great of a story. I'm hungry).

[Cowboi]

Went to the gym with a new attitude this morning!!! I feel like im about to explode... Had a kick ass back and bi workout. I love the pump. I can feel the endorphin opioid peptides raging through my veins!!!!

[Gemme]

My workouts are coming along nicely.

Today I got up and traipsed into the gym and it wasn't too crowded at all. Nice.

I started with my trusty treadmill (under the giant fan, of course), moved to the elliptical then recumbent bike then back to the treadmill and then moved on to the ab coaster (holy crap, that works!), the ab cruncher and the stretching mat with a medicine ball. Abs and stretching finished about 10 minutes later and I was headed out the door.

During my time there, I noticed a couple of regulars and I tried to make a note of when they were there to see if they kept a regular routine or were more like me.

I thought of Jennifer when I was on the elliptical. And I wondered if she saw her regular, Jill, today.

[nycfem]

Today I walked 7.5 miles in Central Park (5 times around the reservoir). It was a beautiful day. Right when I was feeling super thirsty a family walked by me with bottles of water for sale, 1 for a dollar. The little boy was really trying to make a sell. He said, "The water doesn't look cold but it is. And it's a dollar less than if you buy it from one of the snack stands." Then, as if trying to sell me the whole park, he said, "Just look out at this lake. It's one of the most beautiful in the world." I agreed and happily paid my dollar.

[Gemme]

That sounds like a dollar well spent!

My gymercise was cut a bit short today in lieu of working with Alex on his race project, but I did get in some intense circuit training as well as a little time on the treadmill. My arms and shoulders are feeling it especially.

This was followed by 5 hours of stuffing bags and folding bags and stuffing boxes and moving boxes, bags and stuff around. A looootttttttttttttt of bending over and lifting. My back felt like jelly for a little bit there but isn't tender any more, than goodness.

It's made for a lovely day filled with meeting some nice, new to me people and doing something for myself as well as helping for a good cause.

Good day!

[DapperButch]

* Ok, so I did 12 hours of yard work in the last two days. 7 hours yesterday and 5 hours today. It did include carrying 150 red bricks by hand (twice). Does this count?

* TF and I walked (ok, more like sauntered), around our college alma mater this evening. But, then I had ice cream.

* = 15 minute walk with Dad tonight, 15 minute brisk pace on his treadmill.

Yes, my has his own personal treadmill. Shut up.

[Gemme]

It totally counts, Dapper, but you lose a point for the puppy treadmill. lol

I will say that it's a fantastic idea for when the pup has extra energy but doesn't need to go and the weather's bad. I bet you gloat a little when that happens.

Today was as low key as I could get. Just me and treadmill for 75 minutes. No running. Some random inclining up to 5.0 and variable mph up to 3.0 though.

My shoulders, chest and arms are still sooooo sore from yesterday's workout and the other stuff that that immediately took anything weightbearing off the table as well as anything with handles, like the ellipticals and arcs.

I've pushed myself for the past 4 consecutive days because I know that the next 5 are going to be very difficult for me to get anything remarkable done, so this will be my "recovery" week I guess since anything I can squeeze in will be short and probably not too intense.

It's a beautiful sunshiney day. Heat's up. Humidity is a little bit too. It's a good day to work out, come home, do some chores and hang with the cat. I might take a cue from him and nap a little bit.

20-60mins walking every day seems to have done the trick and helped disappear that creeping middle age spread [All 8lbs of it!]

[nycfem]

I'm on my weeklong break in between working the regular school year and working summer school, so it's a great week for working out. Today I did an hour on the Arc Trainer (hill interval program), followed by an hour of floor exercises and weight lifting. I thought about walking in the park afterwards but it was so hot and humid, I decided to try on various sandals at the Ugg store instead .

[Hollylane]

I worked on my arms doing interval weight training, during 2 breaks and a lunch. I could not believe what that did for my endorphins, and I'm a little concerned about getting my ass to sleep tonight.

Tomorrow, interval cardio training....

[prettyboyreg]

Today was abs day...I'm already sore. Tommorow it is really going to hurt. A few weeks and I'm going to have my six pack I've always wanted...

[Glenn]

My exercise experience today consisted of shoveling, lifting, rolling, and unloading, 4 garbage containers of wet sand that was caving in the pavement, over the main water pipe, at the front of the house. It was hot, and I was drenched, but it was a great workout! I smiled and said Hi to four women walking in bikinis on their way to the beach(usually I'm shy).They smiled back at me, and said Hi, and then looked back at me, and smiled again*I guess its true what they said here that theirs something about a sweat- drenched butch.*

[Cowboi]

Had to work late this afternoon. I didnt want to go to the gym at the busy time of the day. So I have been flipping the ol tractor tire, that is almost as tall as me... had a dayem good workout. Strength, and cardio all in one!!

[MissItalianDiva]

An hour on the elliptical
An hour jogging
and 350 squats..which probably means I am going to be feeling it in the morning