Thursday, May 19:

60 minutes elliptical, half backward, resistance at 8, at random intervals, on one of the newest machines in the gym, and so the resistance is tighter & oh, boy, when that thing hit 12 ...
60 minutes Pilates class


Michele, on Tuesdays I'll do weights in the morning, then go back in the evening for a 7:30 PM spin class. I got into this habit because I like that particular spin class -- I like the instructor & I see friends there who take it. But before spin class, in the evenings, the free weight section is full of guys who just got off from work. It was hard to get a bench, and I felt self-conscious & unsure of myself. In the mornings, though, the guys who come in to use the free weights are retired & concerned more about their health & maintaining mobility & etc. as they age. I felt okay working out beside them. That's what started my Tuesday habit.

Otherwise, on the other days, I'm there for two consecutive hours, or however long it takes.

BTW, oh, Lord, with that woman passing out ... I would have been flashing back to that sweat lodge incident in Arizona back in October 2009, where three people died. Yeah, stay hydrated. Really hydrated.

But I know how that could happen. In exercise classes, I'm used to feeling great discomfort, and having to get beyond that feeling & keep going. I'm used to obeying the teacher, and trying to do the exercise as correctly as possible. I do also try to listen to my own body, and do modifications, and sip water, but I totally understand why someone could push themselves further, convincing themselves that pain & real physical distress were really discomfort. "Pain is weakness leaving the body" is sometimes not true. Pain can be something telling you to stop whatever you're doing because it's not good for you or you're not doing it right. But differentiating between the two can be challenging.

Friday, May 20:

10 minutes warmup rowing on the Concept 2, resistance at five, which generally gets me a bit past 2,000 meters
60 minutes weights
45 minutes elliptical, dropped the resistance to six, half backward. This thing had wonky action on it, like a loose pedal or something. It just wasn't smooth. The gym's director said she knew about it. I saw her walking around with an assistant who had a clipboard, telling him about the machines. I always think that, in a gym, that's a good sign. When a gym starts having too much broken equipment in it that takes too long to be repaired, that's a bad sign.

I saw the physio on Tuesday. She is a very nice woman who understood what I was talking about and told me (and there is a good example of understatement coming up) that there was room for improvement. :) Beneath her niceness lies a very tough customer indeed. She's my kind of person. She gave me some excellent exercises which are very hard, take up rather a lot of time, and wear me out. It feels as though my full-time job is now to retrain a few of my mind-muscle pathways. I am so pleased. I can't do all of the exercises at present but I'm building up. Unless I die first but I think that's unlikely. I'm already walking better.

And I'm staying hydrated! Crikey, Michele. Please take care out there and carry a bottle of water at all times.

Saef - I agree that gymn staff with clipboards are good. The vital next step is the mechanic with the spanner and the WD40.

I always stay hydrated! When I do Bikram I bring TWO large water bottles-- one frozen-- I drink the first one during class and the frozen one when I finish.

May 19: 50 minutes Zumba

Totals:
15 days
1035 minutes

May 20: 60 minutes elliptical

Totals:
16 days
1095 minutes

Saturday a.m. About an hour of physio-prescribed exercises. I'm getting better at them.

Saturday p.m. The DB (who was 11 on Thursday) has just coached me round his cross-country course in a squally, warmish, drizzly wind. He pronounced my performance as 'pretty good' and 'better than some people in my school'. :o We're going to train together regularly now: XC, 100m and who knows what. This is assuming I haven't jumped the gun as far as my injury is concerned. (I couldn't resist the lure of running outside with a coach who loves me.)

Saturday, May 21:

45 minutes elliptical, random intervals, resistance at 8, half backward
60 minutes Pilates mat class

The young new guy who manned the front desk at my gym on Friday & handled (ineptly) the reservation system for spin classes on the computer caused great mayhem this morning. The very popular Saturday spin class was oversubscribed by five people. I was one of those five.

Now, I know that I went up to the desk at around 6:30 AM yesterday morning & requested a bike, and the guy stared intently into the computer screen, typed something & nodded, but we still don't know what happened after that.

Anyway, I voluntarily gave up my bike & went home to replace my bike shoes with regular sneakers, and got on a machine instead. The gym's manager was very apologetic.

I tend not to be flexible; I'm trying to work on that. This was an opportunity to do so. Also, I don't like the grating sounds that New Yorkers make when they are full of righteous indignation about losing their places in a queue.

Sunday, May 22:

10 minutes rowing on the Concept 2 for warmup, again just past 2,000 meters
60 minutes weights
45 minute spin class

"My dear athlete mother"
 

Is a new salutation from the DB, following yesterday's cross-country exploit. I have accepted it graciously, just as I accept "mighty parent person". Doesn't mean I'm not paying attention though!

It took an hour and a half to crank out the physio's exercises and I can feel them. I am also very tired and eating like a horse which happens when I change exercise routine. I think I'll have a day off tomorrow as I need some energy for the rest of my life.

Good work on flexibility, saef. I struggle with it too as I am very flexible, up to a point, and Then I'm Not.

May 21: 50 minutes spin class and 90 minutes Bikram Yoga
May 22: 60 minutes elliptical

Totals:
18 days
1295 minutes

Monday, May 23:

45 minute spin class
30 minute Pilats mat routine on my own

While stretching on my mat, after exercise, I tried to do a 4-stretch on my back. But when I drew up my left leg & started to turn it, the muscle in my calf suddenly seized up into an epic cramp. The weird thing was, since I was in the mirrored studio at the gym, I was able to see an actual knot appear in my calf -- a very visible bump pushing outward underneath the skin. I made myself pull my heel down in a stretch, and I've been stretching ever since. I have a very sore place on my calf now. It's tender but mostly I've got a psychological fear of the cramp returning. I keep stretching & rubbing. I've drunk water, decaffeinated tea, I've had a banana & some dry-roasted almonds. Walking feels good but of course, I've got to work, so I can only pace around my desk so much. I need to google "charlie horse" & see what more is recommended.

Hey, can I join in? Boy did I NOT feel like dragging my fanny to the gym tonight. Even on the treadmill it was no fun-- I never hit that point where it started to feel good. Only ran for twenty minutes. I always think I burn more calories when I really don't feel like working out but do it anyway.

Of course you can join in, ubergirl. :welcome3: It's good to see you over here.

An hour of physio exercises. I can tell you, they make me tired. I hope to go walking this evening, whilst the DB plays cricket. This depends on the weather, really, as we've had some very heavy rain recently.

saef, I'm no expert, but maybe you need to drink more than water while you're doing all that exercise--I'm thinking something like Gatorade G2 or G3. Muscle cramps like that are often a temporary electrolyte imbalance due to working out hard and sweating them away.

Jay

Tuesday, May 24:

10 minutes rowing on the Concept 2 as a warmup, a little past 2,000 meters
60 minutes weights

60 minute spin class in the evening

Walking back from the gym this evening, feeling unusually low in spirits -- worrying over work & whether I've done enough, which I must report in my spreadsheet at the end of the month; not completely happy with my mother's visit, as I'm trying to balance work, gym & spending time with her -- and I was taken out of myself for a moment by a heavenly smell. Something piercing & a bit smoky, like an incense. It turned out to be wisteria on the side of a building. Finally, for a moment it felt like summer.