Quick post before I turn out the light. I've been in the garden for a few days, sorting out the border and cutting hedges. I'm doing 20 mins on, 20 mins off in an attempt not to overdo it.

Saef, I've missed your news about the new gymn. Is this the one with the hopeless person who didn't turn up? A gymn to which you gave, graciously, the benefit of the doubt? Or is it somewhere else which has emerged out of the early morning mist?

Good work, everyone! Breath! Stretch!

Oct. 15: after working a million hours (felt like) at the book fair, I had to be up at 4 am to work my second job. I tried to go to the gym-- got as far as my gym clothes and shoes on, my water packed, and gave up. Just couldn't drag myself there.

Oct. 16: hopefully can get back on schedule! today-- 90 minutes Bikram Yoga. It was an interesting class because since I started these classes 6 months ago, I am always in the middle row in class (there are three rows). Like most people, I stay in a similar spot each class. Today the instructor asked if anyone was new in their first 2 weeks and the woman in front of me raised her hand. The instructor asked me to switch with her because they don't want newbies in the front-- she said that the "experienced" students need to be in front to lead the others. I was right next to the instructor with the mirror in front of me. I was so self conscious trying to do everything just right. This instructor is a real stickler for form and she corrected me multiple times (to be fair--- she corrected most people). It was exceptionally hot and I was just dripping, plus trying so hard to do everything just right-- I was even more exhausted afterwards!

Totals:
12 days
822 minutes

Birchie, yes, it's the gym where the "trainer"* never showed up for my orientation at 10 AM on a Sunday, and no one ever called to explain. After giving them several days, I called to complain. (I had the devil of a time trying to find out where the franchise's main office was. They kept claiming they were local but really seem to have come out of Ohio.) Two days after I complained, someone else called & offered to show me the place. He made a sale almost right away, after offering an apology, mostly because the price was decent and I was drooling over all the new equipment and the full slate of classes, particularly the 5:45 AM & evening spin classes, which are harder to come by around here than where I used to live. Also I saw some pretty seriously fit-looking people on the machines and in the free weight section. Turns out the local professional hockey team trains there, though I've been unable to identify any individual hockey players for certain. (I do not follow this sport.) The spin classes are full of runners, and on Friday they are all talking about the races they plan to run, and then, on Monday, what the races were like. They do marathons & half-marathons & so I shared nothing about my recent goal of cracking 30 minutes on a 5K.

Monday, Oct. 17

45 minute spin class, with some serious resistance going, and the instructor complimenting me on doing really good with the resistance today. The instructor ran a half-marathon on Saturday, then ran six miles on Sunday in a local marathon, trying to encourage flagging friends.

I'm mentally contrasting the spin class members here (which include some muscular large males) with the Russian mafia wife in my downstate Pilates class, who seems to run a tanning salon as a hobby. It's a different type of gym goer here most definitely.


* These are really fit-looking salesmen, rather than people who are knowledgeable about fitness, exercise or gyms. They have formica desks in one section of the gym & it looks like a shady boiler room stock or real estate sales operation, like in "Glengarry Glenn Ross."

10/15: 40 min doggie powerwalk
10/16: 30 min bike ride, 15 min dog walk
10/17: 30 min doggie powerwalk

Also on Monday, Oct. 17:

1 hour beginning Kripalu yoga class, with the class starting to learn inversions

Oct. 17: My 60 minute body pump class was changed to a 30 min. body pump class followed by (I think it was called) CRX for 30 minutes which used bands for resistance and was mainly core work.

Totals:
13 days
882 minutes

Oct. 18: 60 minutes elliptical

Totals:
14 days
942 minutes

Tuesday, Oct. 18:

I'd much rather go to the gym first thing in the morning, almost entirely for the psychological relief of having done one good thing for myself before the day's onslaught begins. Tuesday was one relentless barrage of emails from which I hardly looked up till nearly 6 PM. Then dinner. Then gym. And the gym was jampacked at 6:30 PM, and the weight section was all guys, and me with my little five-, eight-, 10- and 12-pound weights, trying to get a bench, then moving off to the tiny corner under the stairs where I'd placed my mat and pushup handles.

20 minutes warmup, aerobic setting, resistance at five, on the Stairmaster stepper
60 minutes triceps, shoulders and biceps routine, the one with the pushup intervals. Finally, I am getting better at doing pushups. But I feel self-conscious about doing them in front of all those large, very fit guys. As self-conscious as I felt when first visiting a gym when I was fat.
40 minutes Stairmaster stepper, aerobic, resistance upped to six, and this was difficult & tiring, though the movements are small.

Tried something new yesterday. Have read descriptions of lunge-walking and decided to give it a try in the small park where I take my remaining creaky girl. I did 4 sets of 15 lunge-walk steps (if that makes sense)

Wow! Very tiring and my whole butt aches today. I think I'll try it again when it's not pouring rain so probably Friday.

Dagmar

Wednesday, Oct. 19:

45 minute spin class
60 minute beginner Kripalu yoga class

My back and shoulders are still sore from yesterday's workout. I felt fine when I woke up but it set in as the day went on.

Oct. 19: 30 minutes boot camp
30 minutes Core/bands class

Totals:
15 days
1002 minutes

Thursday, Oct. 20:

About 10:33 rowing on the Concept 2 to reach 2,000 meters, a very humbling number, which demonstrates to me how one has to stay in practice with this to stay up to speed. But everyone who's ever been on a crew team and has gotten up before dawn to practice knows this already: It takes constant practice.
45 minutes arm & shoulders routine, which is feeling like an old friend, and I'm debating doing the whole routine twice, rather than once, which is what Tony Horton tells people to do on the P90X video.
45 minutes Alpine climb at resistance of eight on the stationary bike

Behind again!

10/18: 30 mins pilates "total body bangin' workout"
10/19: 30 mins stationary bike, hill program level 6

Jessica, I want to do a Total Body Banging Workout too!

But mostly I am wondering, does the workout bang your body, that is, beat you up till you're wiped out, or does your body end up being bangin' as a result of the workout, that is, very bang-able ... I'd better not go any further with that verb or adjective.

Friday, Oct. 21:

45 minute spin class, and yesterday's aches are working themselves out. But I feel like a zombie from lack of sleep last night.

Thank you, saef. That's enough now.

Gymn this morning. It's going OK and I'm making progress but I still woke up with a stiff back.