Michele, you are absolutely right to take care of yourself. If that means sleeping, rather than exercising, then you were right to sleep. To me,you sound apologetic, and you shouldn't. (I say this as someone who seems to ask too much of herself during hard times & keeps forgetting that can be counterproductive. So I admire when someone else who's like me in this way says, "What I need is sleep, and damn it, I'm going to SLEEP.") Is it possible for you to ask a little less of yourself right now? Your cortisol levels must be through the roof under these working conditions. Isn't it comforting to know that this Book Fair will end? I hope you have some downtime right after this, so you can replenish your stores of energy.

As for me, I have too much to do, and went to the gym to work off some tension that's paralyzing me & leaving me thinking, "I have so much to do, I have so much to do" in an hysterical state rather than sitting down, shutting up & actually DOING it, calmly & with focus.

Friday, 18 March:

15:10 rowing on the Concept 2 for 2,872 meters at 2:39 for 500 meters, 40 s/m, for a projected total of 5,666
60 minutes weights
45 minutes elliptical, half backward, intervals, resistance at 9

I'm in a blissful state. The gym installed a big flat-screen in one of the weight rooms & put on P90X DVD. This is better than hoping to catch the infomercials during my cardio workouts. I hope they run it in a loop forever. I love the industrial loft look, the black & white aesthetic, like Herb Ritts fashion photographs, and all those male bodies on display. They all look like underwear models doing a side job video shoot. [TMI alert ... TMI coming ... If someone has done a porn version of these, where the guy stops exercising because he's distracted by someone attractive, and things start happening, I would buy it. Really.]

March 18: 60 minutes elliptical

Finally finished with the bookfair... it's packed up.. so happy and tired. I still have to do all of the financials and more but at least the books are put away.

Totals:
19 days
913 minutes

Saturday, 19 March:

45 minute spin class
60 Pilates class

How mortifying. When I stood up from the mat in the last five minutes of Pilates class, there was a faint but unmistakable blood stain on it. You better believe I rolled it up fast as soon as we finished stretching. Thank goodness it was my own personal mat. I'm going to try Windexing it. (I confess, I learned that from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding.") No more offbrand tampons for me.

Saef-- I'm sure no one noticed but you! But I understand your mortification!

My exercise today-- so far NONE and I'm ticked! I went to spin with my favorite instructor and couldn't find parking. I realized that wasn't a good sign. It is cold and rainy so all of the outside exercisers that usually take advantage of our beautiful California climate must have come inside. That coupled with a special event the gym was doing and a free bring a guest day brought out the hordes. I finally found parking but the spin class was full (I was still 15 minutes EARLY). I looked for a cardio machine but I hate the crowds and having to wait. I'm going to go back this afternoon after the crowds have hopefully dissipated. On a plus note, I went to Target and Costco and they were both pretty empty as everyone else must have been at the gym or still sleeping! There is something wrong with the picture that I can go to my WW meeting, go to the gym (even briefly), go to Costco and Target, come home and my teenage dd is still in bed!

March 19: second try at the gym today....
15 minutes elliptical
15 minutes stair climber (first time doing this since I lost weight. When I tried it before I could barely make 2 minutes! I was dripping sweat like crazy!)
12 more minutes on a different elliptical
total of 42 minutes for the day

also drove by the bikram yoga place to find it. Now to get up the nerve to try it!

Totals:
17 days
955 minutes

Sunday, 20 March:

15:07 rowing on the Concept 2 doing 2,900 meters exactly at 2:34 for 500/m, a peak of 49 s/m (a new personal record) for a projected total of 5,811 meters
60 minutes weights
45 minute spin class

March 20:
30 minutes elliptical
15 minutes stairmaster

Totals:
18 days
1000 minutes:carrot:

March 17:
- 40 mins walking (10 min walk + 30 min dog walk)
- 15 min UBWO/core (core stuff with swiss ball, push-ups at an angle, band stuff)

March 18:
- 30 min dog walk

March 19:
- two 30-min dog walks

March 20:
- 50 min swim, 2000 yards total (= 1829 meters = 1.14 miles)
- broken down into: 6 laps warmup, 6 laps with hand paddles, 20 laps normal, 4 laps with hand paddles, 2 laps cooldown, 1 lap breaststroke, 1 lap backstroke

Monday, 21 March

45 minutes arc trainer, hill intervals, resistance at 9
60 minutes circuit training class

Analysts from three different time zones were IMing & sending me e-mails on five separate writing jobs simultaneously from 2-5 PM. I had no idea if I'd be able to get out the door. I wanted to scream like a diva at the opera. But I finally made it out the door & got to the gym in time.

Now I feel like a whole different person after working off all that tension: Optimistic, with my day somehow salvaged. I lived through it.

March 21: 65 minutes boot camp

Totals:
19 days
1065 minutes

Tuesday, 22 March:

Got up at 5:15 AM, logged onto the laptop at 6:15 AM & hardly left my chair till 5 PM. I could have worked even longer, but I'd had enough.

I had a lot of adrenalin & stress to work off.

15:07 rowing on the Concept 2 for 3,033 meters at 2:28 for 500 meters, for a peak of 39 s/m, projected total 6,054 meters
60 minutes weights
45 minute spin class

Tried to sign up for 6 AM spin tomorrow & had to be waitlisted. It's suddenly become popular. Who knew? At 6 AM? On Wednesday?

March 22: 23 minutes elliptical
15 minutes stairclimber
5 minutes rowing

Saef-- I see you rowing all of the time so I thought I'd try it. Not real sure what I was doing. Do you have any suggestions for a beginner?

Totals:
20 days
1108 minutes

Michele,

Good for you for rowing. I think it does me good & serves me very well as a warm-up for my sessions with weights.

One thing I do want to caution you about: Watch your form, as you can mess up your neck, shoulders & back if you are not careful.

I don't know what brand of machine you used, but no matter -- the best place to start is the Concept 2 website. The section on training is where you want to go first:

http://concept2.com/us/training/default.asp

Here's a good video series. I should mention I've found YouTube to be a great source of various form & technique demonstrations.

http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_1239_r...exercises.html

Finally, nothing helped me as much as a competitive collegiate rower who was using our gym temporarily. This girl kindly took a few minutes from her gym visit on several occasions to watch me & correct my form. She hasn't been in the gym for a while -- I think she used it during a winter break or something -- but nothing beat that personal coaching. My form is still not really good but it's better than it was.

But if you get tips from someone at the gym, make sure the person knows what he or she is doing. I see some really bad things going on sometimes when people row. Not to bash men -- we have some hard-working serious & thoughtful athletes at my gym, even though it's really not targeting that market -- but I see them set the resistance on the damper as high as it can go & then rock back & forth wildly. I'm always re-setting it at a more reasonable workout level. Also, they don't store the handle correctly when they're done. They keep it stretched out, rather than loose & up in the cage.

Anyway, for today:

Wednesday, 23 March

45 minute spin class
45 minute Pilates mat session on my own

I'd been waitlisted for spin, and was second, so I hung out on the stationary bike upstairs, hoping some people didn't make it for 6 AM spin on a cold & rainy March morning. Sure enough, I got a bike. But missed nearly 10 minutes of class.

The gym has had trouble with oversubscribed spin classes. People sometimes reserve on the answering machine & the workers don't check the machine for messages. (Personally, I never leave a message -- I call till I get a live voice on the line.) Last night, they overbooked by four. This morning, there were three of us waiting, and two of us got bikes.

I hate starting the class late. I hate missing any cardio. I'm weird about getting in my full time. Down to the last damn minute.

Saef, I can't believe your gym's spin classes are so crowded!

March 21:
30 min dog walk

March 22:
about 10 mins core workout at PT

March 23:
- 10 mins stationary bike
- 15 mins of crazy random exercises (included push-ups, bicep curls, arm circles, tricep kickbacks, arm raises, lunges, squats, karate kicks, and punches, like I was doing my own little kickboxing class)
- 5 mins stretching

Saef-- thank you for taking the time to post that for me. I will take some time and read it soon. I didn't know there was so much to the technique.

Today I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time. I was so nervous. I hate trying new things. I loved it! It was amazing. I think I'm going to go tomorrow! I've never sweat so much in my life. I couldn't do everything but I kept up pretty well and felt pretty coordinated and balanced.

March 23: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga

Totals:
21 days
1198 minutes