Maintainers Moving in November
 

It's November. I don't know where all you 3FC members and lurkers are, but here in the northeastern U.S., it's a subtly beautiful month, all earthy, weathered and distressed-looking, with the countryside full of browns and grays and taupes and tans, looking like a rabbit's winter coat, the way the variegated hairs range from black to white.

November is better-known as a gateway to winter, and for its holidays, but I have learned to love it for what it is.

But I also want to celebrate its silly side. And it really is silly. Everyone in the U.S. has to eat a few mouthfuls of this bird by the end of the month, or they're considered kinda "off" by the rest of mainstream.

http://fmturf.org/images/turkey_running_scared_1_.jpg


So whether you choose to eat the bird, or whether the bird is irrelevant, because you aren't in the U.S. or have managed to dodge the mandate to partake in our national communion ...

Let's keep running for our lives, like this turkey. Not literally running, but moving, staying active, for the sake of our health and for our sanity, and to stay in touch with our bodies.

Tuesday, Nov. 1:

20 minutes on Stairmaster stepper, resistance at five, as a warmup
60 minutes chest and shoulders routine, the one with a pushup, and now I also lie on a bench and do some presses with an unloaded barbell. I have ambitions.
45 minutes on recumbent bike, resistance at nine, to take some weight off my feet.

Happy November!

November 1:
60 minutes elliptical

Totals:
1 day
60 minutes

Wednesday, Nov. 2:

45 minute spin class, just about full, though they've brought in more bikes. This young instructor is getting quite a following.


And I'm full of guilt because of not going to yoga yesterday or today, when I could have. I wanted to finish a work project today. I worked late because I took off part of the morning to have my root canal temporary filling removed & replaced with a permanent one. Also I took my iron window guards to a shop that restores automobiles. The guy was enthusiastic about my offbeat project. His mother was an antique dealer. He has used his shop and tools to work on things for his wife. He will get the guards sandblasted for me and will repaint them. I'm excited that this project is going to work out.

November 2:
30 minutes Boot Camp
30 minutes CX (core and band work)

Totals:
2 days
120 minutes

Saef - good news about the window guards project!

Yesterday the SO and I mended the shed roof. It's tucked against the field drystone wall so there was a lot of careful climbing and reaching. Hammering is also very good for the triceps. As I'm not ambidextrous, though, I can only feel it in the right triceps. (NB Must look up how to recruit each of the three different heads - ceps - of this muscle.) I can feel it in my hamstrings and my shoulders.

Gymn today to work on my bottom.

Thursday, Nov. 3:

About 7:10 minutes to row 1,500 meters on the Concept 2, as a warmup. I burned myself out through sheer vanity, because there was a guy rowing next to me and I wanted not to seem like a weakling. So I had nothing left to get through the last 500 meters.
60 minutes back & biceps routine, using the Gravitron for some of it
45 minutes on recumbent bike, resistance at nine, hill intervals, which didn't make me sweat as hard as steady resistance.

Today was actually a legs day. I stretched my calves well and could do the downward dog with heels on the floor for 25 seconds. That's a very good sign for me that I'm making progress.

I've just burnt myself out pure and simple, saef, and have had trouble getting through the rest of the day. Did this guy have the potential to be in The Movie Of Your Recent Life?

I always read Gravy Train when you mention the Gravitron. (I have no idea what it is.) I think, "Good, saef deserves a bit of a break. She works hard. It's time for her to get some money for old rope." Then I realise it does not quite compute.

Michele, those pics you posted a while ago were very impressive. I know how hard you work to look like that. I still don't want to do bikram yoga though!

Birchie, the Gravitron is a machine that enables you to do assisted pullups. I don't understand the physics of it, but I know how to do the math. Take away from your weight whatever weight it's set at, and the remainder is what you are actually lifting.

Here's a video demonstrating the Stairmaster Gravitron, which is the one I like, because you stand upright on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CrZK...eature=related

This is one the few videos that I could find with that brand of Gravitron. There are a lot more of the Nautilus Gravitron, which you have to kneel on to use.

Friday, Nov. 4:

45 minute spin class, with the teacher who pushes us to use heavy resistance -- at what she calls "the push point" -- again doing tabatas with us.

And I had my same feeling of amateurishness afterward, looking at the marathoners and the triathlete guy in the front row.

Also I have missed all opportunities to take yoga classes this week, after Monday night. Thinking back, I believe I felt embarrassed at yoga that night -- an un-yoga-like feeling. We had to stand with one foot at a right angle to the other, twist and look over our hands. And I had trouble doing this. I kept falling over. There were 70-year-old women in class who could do this, but not me. I do not know if it is psychological or has to do with my poor physical sense of balance as a result of being mostly deaf in my left ear and having lost my inner ear equilibrium as a result. (Most probably the latter, combined with a bit of the former.) Anyway, I do want to go back to yoga but keep missing classes. I am resisting psychologically.

Saturday, Nov. 5:

60 minutes on the Cybex arc trainer, hands free, resistance at eight and hill intervals. Again, quite a workout.
60 minute beginner yoga class. I went back to the yoga studio. All is forgiven. Even if I wobble during the crane pose and only get my foot up to my calf in tree. I was able to quiet my mind more during corpse pose, at the end. It was beautifully sunny for November and I could feel the sun on my face and closed eyelids and for a moment there was a bit of silence. Very brief. But now I know what it feels like, the absence of thinking, and it's a good feeling.

Sunday, Nov. 6:

A little bit more than 10 minutes rowing on the Concept 2, and I was able to get to 2,000 meters. At one point I fell into a pretty steady rhythm that seemed to eat up meters and was comfortable. I want that to happen again. I may start recording my time again. I have not been doing that, to put less pressure on myself.
About 45 minutes arm and shoulders routine.
45 minutes on the arc trainer, interval 2, resistance at eight
60 minute yoga class, with an instructor I hadn't had before, a sardonic blonde with excellent taste in classic soul music, which was the soundtrack for class. (Maybe a tad too much Sade mixed in with the old school stuff.) There's this standing half-moon pose that I have trouble with. Anything balanced on one foot, I start wobbling at, filled with self-doubt. ("Oh my GOD, I have to BALANCE! And I CAN'T BALANCE" ... which is self-fulfilling, because I tighten up and no, I can't balance.") I kept moving, despite wobbles. This is really athletic yoga. I prefer the yoga studio's version, which is meditative & about breath and, at the beginner's level, at getting the poses absolutely right rather than keeping up the flow.

Saturday, Nov. 7th:

45 minute spin class, heavy resistance, and one burly guy was missing. There was much talk about him. "He's a machine," they kept saying. Last month, he'd been competing in something that I kept hearing as Conan. You know, as in Conan the Barbarian. Finally I realized they were speaking of Hawaii, and meant Kona. Which is apparently a major triathlon. So I wasn't wrong when I felt like the athletic talent in the class was quite strong.

60 minute Kripalu yoga class. Again, this was difficult for me. I cannot sit back on my hams and keep my feet flat. In fact, I can't sit that way for long at all. In a short time, I'm in actual pain from doing that. This class is an exercise in humility.

Hi maintainers,
Rabbit hopping by here just to report that I'm well, not up to your levels of exercise, but still hanging around. And I want to share with probabely the one woman that I know who will appreciate this specific nsv: birch, i actually got myself an electric chaisaw and am already halfway through my 5m3 of firewood for the winter. Something strangely satisfying in chopping wood to little bits with a chainsaw.

Why, thank you!:o:carrot::hug:

Nov. 3: 60 minutes elliptical (?)-- I'll have to check my calendar at home to verify! I know I exercised but I can't remember what I did.

Nov. 4: At Disneyland-- just walking

Nov. 5: At Disneyland-- just walking

Nov. 6: 60 min. elliptical

Nov. 7: 30 min. body pump, 30 minutes CX core/bands class

Totals:
5 days
300 minutes

Yes, chainsawing through a couple cords of wood and walking around Disney World definitely count as movement. Both sound a lot more fun or at least useful than some of my recent trips to the gym.

Tuesday, November 8:

20 minutes on the Stairmaster stepper, resistance at six, warmup, feeling like a plodder next to the treadmill runners who were chatting while putting in their mileage
60 minutes shoulders, chest and triceps, with me putting 5-lb discs on the weights on the bench and getting in a couple reps. I need to look up how heavy these bars are, as I've no idea how much I am bench-pressing.
40 minutes recumbent bike, resistance at eight steadily through the whole time


60 minutes beginner Kripalu yoga class, where we are learning to do sequences, which I imagine is in preparation for vinyasa. I had a better class than yesterday and last Monday, which is all one can hope for.

Rabbit! What wonderful news! Well done, you. You've got the safety goggles and gloves, haven't you? And serious boots, steel toe-capped for preference? Don't want you to end up at the vet! 5m3 sounds a good amount. We've got about 8m3 stacked which the SO thinks will see us through (it's our main source of heat) but I think will only last to February. I think you've got central heating too, haven't you?

Gymn on Monday left me exhausted so a rest day today. Back at it tomorrow.

Saef, we have some rather serious athletes at our gymn too. Mountain guides, rock climbers and a few competitive body builders. These last don't find it easy to walk because their brawn seems to get in the way. And then there are the fire fighters and the police. I feel for you and I also admire you because you are sweating it out with them.

Welcome back, Michele! I haven't been here either as I've been stacking wood, painting the shed and mending its roof.

Nov. 8: 60 min elliptical

Totals:
6 days
360 minutes

Wednesday, Nov. 9th:

45 minute spin class, with the instructor who ups the resistance and does tabatas. There were four new people in the class, trying it out, so she called out instructions for the "regulars" and for the new people. Apparently I've become one of the "regulars." This felt good and helped me understand that while I'm not a triathlete in training, I'm not a complete newbie, either.

Today was meant to be a gymn day but I've hurt my knee. Let's say I've pulled a ligament. I think it started on the crosstrainer last week and it's specially annoying as this is the knee whose tracking I've been training for weeks. So a day off today and an opportunity to wear my sports knee support! It's now mid-afternoon and it's feeling lots better. I'd have a rest day tomorrow as well but the SO and I have to go to the Roman/mediaeval/Tudor/you name your historical period city. I am in urgent need of a warm and waterproof winter coat; he has to get his specs sorted out. We go alone, dear friends, without our DB. A romantic interlude.

Nov. 9: 60 minutes (30 min. boot camp/ 30 min CX)

Totals:
7 days
420 minutes

Thursday, Nov. 10th:

20 minutes warmup on Stairmaster stepper, aerobic intervals, resistance at six. And yes, it does warm me up. I drip sweat by the end.
60 minutes back and shoulders routine. I think I can feel myself getting stronger & better at pulling 70 lbs on the lateral pulldown machine.
40 minutes recumbent bike, resistance at eight and then at seven

Friday, Nov. 11th:

45 minute spin class, not as intense as the other instructor's class, but still a good workout in its own way. Interesting to see how many who don't have to work on Veteran's Day opting to sleep in, or having gone away on a three-day weekend, as the gym was decidedly emptier than usual this morning. My company doesn't acknowledge this holiday, though.

Saturday, Nov. 12:

60 minutes arc trainer, intervals, resistance at eight. This is the equivalent of my "long run" day apparently.
60 minutes beginning yoga class, with another gifted instructor. I haven't had a bad one yet at the yoga center, but a few are particularly brilliant, and this was one of them.

Nov. 10: 60 minutes Zumba

Nov. 11: 54 minutes elliptical

Nov. 12: 60 minutes elliptical

Totals:
10 days
594 minutes

Sunday, Nov. 13:

Just over 10 minutes rowing on the Concept 2 to get to just over 2,000 yards, as a warmup
45 minutes arm and shoulders workout
45 minutes arc trainer, hill intervals, resistance at eight
60 minute yoga class, sort of getting into vinyasa flow, in which I relearned again about my inflexible hips and also about the limits of my torso and arms. I feel so compact and chunky in this class. What one gym teacher used to call a "shot putter." This is not the long slender feminine ideal. But I feel that ideal is just simply not my body type.

Nov. 13: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga (first time in 2 weeks-- felt great!-- need to find more time to fit this in)

Totals:
11 days
684 minutes

I have been busy lately so I was slacking off posting on this thread, but I had to post to let you guys know that I went to the pool yesterday for the first time in a couple months and managed to make it a whole mile, in about 48 minutes. I was exhausted afterwards, but I'm glad I did it!

Well done, Jessica! Once for going to the pool and once for swimming a whole mile! Not a bad way to spend 48 minutes, in my view!

I went to the gymn this morning and did legs. I'm also exhausted but it's not my turn to make the tea so I'm resting. I think the let's call it a pulled ligament is healing.

Jessica!!!!!! I am doing a happy dance here for you!!!!

"Exhausted" is good, so long as it's not "hurting," as in re-injury or pain.

Your perseverance inspires me. You make me want to return to Pilates -- and I know that I will, though yoga is my great interest right now.

Hello Maintainers,
I am so pleased to have something to post :)

Thursday 2 mile run
Friday 2.8 mile run
Monday 5:35a (!) spin class

Woot, Kitty!!!
Ok, now I'm inspired by all of you too!!!
Will get my not-so-little bootie moving on a run this afternoon. Still can't lift heavy things for a bit longer.

Monday, Nov. 14:

45 minute spin class, as always, a serious workout with tabata intervals
60 minutes beginning Kripalu yoga class, with the teacher adjusting my shoulderstand. I find it hard to straighten out my body upward. I need to do this against a wall.

Nov. 14: 30 minutes body pump, 30 minutes CX core training

Totals:
12 days
744 minutes

Tuesday, Nov. 15:

20 minutes on Stairmaster stepper, aerobic intervals, resistance at six, as a warmup
60 minutes arm, shoulders & chest routine, with me getting better at the pushups
40 minutes recumbent bike, manual setting, resistance at eight

I need to remember that this is the morning where four other women are in the weight area, for a change. Using the machines mostly, not the free weights, but it evens out the distribution of the genders. The two guys with notebooks are there also. And toward the end, the long-haired, blond cadaverous-looking guy -- skinny like an 80s rock star -- in jeans and a leather belt shows up to lift his sets.

Thanks guys! Of course, my arms are a bit sore from the swim. :) But the good kind of sore.

And after being so motivated after Sunday, my schedule went crazy at work and I haven't managed to make it to the gym at my scheduled time the past two days. I'm hoping I can get in at 4:30 today before going home but we'll see. Today's lunchtime workout was cancelled due to someone being sick and I had to take over for some stuff they were supposed to do, but at least it involved walking to our second building and back so that's some exercise...

It was rough, but I persevered :)

spin class; with that ungodly wake up of 5:15a

so much sweating-- boy, that part of it feels really good :ebike:

Wednesday, Nov. 16:

45 minute spin class, with me feeling disappointed in myself because the instructor said, at one point, we were supposed to be standing and barely able to peddle, and I did not put the resistance on anywhere near that high, though I could have. A missed opportunity for a challenge.
60 minute beginner yoga class, where I brought my friend, because the studio is letting you do that for a $5 drop-in fee. Having her there was a bit distracting: I kept wondering if she liked it, if she got anything out of it, and trying to see the class through her eyes. I did get away from that, at moments. Yoga is so mental. Well, any exercise is really mental.

Kitty, my spin class starts at 5:45 AM, and I've got to drive a little to get to it, so I wake up at 4 AM on spin class days. I sympathize with you. In addition to a reliable clock radio, it helps to have a cat that's gotten used to going out or being fed as soon as one wakes up, and so jumps on the bed and walks all over one's body at the wakeup hour.

Thursday, Nov. 17:

20 minutes Stairmaster stepper, aerobic setting, resistance at six, as warmup
60 minutes back & biceps routine
40 minutes recumbent bike, manually set to be consistent at resistance of 8