Tuesday, July 5:

9:31 for 2,000 meters rowing on the Concept 2
60 minutes arm & shoulders routine
60 minutes spin class


I watched the other P90X disc that I got on eBay, #10 Back and Biceps. This one is equally intimidating, but for different reasons. Not the dumbbell moves so much as the various kinds of pullups. I am thinking desperately that maybe I could do this in the gym using the Gravitron.

I see there is no getting around doing pushups & pullups if I want to work on my upper body. I'm going to have to mentally talk myself through any lingering trauma from gym classes in middle school & high school.

What makes this series bearable: Tony Horton is really quite funny, though he has that low-body-fat death's head face.

Also, by the end of the video I have opinions about the other people in the class demonstrating moves. I make up little stories about their lives in my head. In this disc, I really, really liked the looks of the guy with the resistance bands. His hair looked great even when he got really sweat-soaked. The girl, Katie, was squeaky & irritating. The guy in the back is always the biggest & always a little too pumped for my tastes.

Jessica, I am so sorry about your latest misbehaving tendon. I was thinking after reading of your latest travail that you remind me of the Roman shade in my bedroom. (And how is that, you ask?) It's gorgeous & custom-made & custom-installed & articulated & I was so happy with it & then the stupid pull-string snapped & now it kind of hangs there like a half-opened fan. The string being analogous with your various tendon issues. And I keep calling & calling the place that made it, to try to get someone in here to fix it. (Ideally during my week off.) And they keep giving me the runaround. Yeah, it's kind of like that. You need steroids & I need a shade re-strung & re-hung.

Doesn't your DH see the difference? How I admire him, hairy chest & all, for getting through all those discs. Doing pullups & pushups. Yech.

Wednesday, July 6:

45 minute spin class
30 minute Pilates mat class


Beware my spin instructor when she's just back from a weekend at the shore. She shares a rental with people who smoke & drink a lot, and she returns a bit disgusted with their indulgence & also not pleased with the food she's had to eat, just a little, to be polite, as she brings a lot of her own for her visit & tries to cook while there. She returns from the shore determined to purge her system. Which means she whups our butts in class.

Also beware of any spin instructor who starts the class reminiscing about a particular food that she ate the night before. Particularly if she starts going in a sort of food porn mode. Because she is also gonna whup some butt. Another spin instructor of mine comes in on Sundays going on about the cake she's had the night before & then I know we're gonna be living in a World of Hurt.

July 6: no real exercise to speak of. Traveled (airplane) to see dd for a few days. We did some walking in a pretty park/ garden but I wouldn't count it as true exercise.

July 7: tried out dd's NordicTrack. It was hard! Dd isn't using the AC in her apartment to try to save money and it is hot in her apartment making the workout harder!

30 minutes NordicTrack with various intervals and inclines.

Totals:
6 days
496 minutes

Thursday, July 7:

60 minutes arc trainer, hill intervals, resistance at nine
60 minutes Pilates class


The Pilates Wars are in full swing. Two weeks running, our garrulous, charismatic Thursday night instructor hasn't been able to make it to class at the last minute. I'm thinking she may be out of a job now.

ETA: Today I discovered I've been quoting Walter Sobchak in "The Big Lebowski" incorrectly. It's not, "You're living in a world of hurt." It's "You're entering a world of pain."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrykk7E_2i0

Friday, July 8:

60 minutes elliptical, half backward, resistance at 9
60 minute yoga class

Usually, I do weights on Fridays, but I decided to take a yoga class that is scheduled during my working hours. I'm trying to sit with my decision not to do weights -- to replace, rather than add. I must confess, it makes me profoundly uneasy, but this is supposed to be part of my feigning flexibility until I actually learn it.

I have yet (in my entire life) to do a full body pushup that starts with arms extended, dips down to the floor, and comes up again. I can do some feeble variations on parts of those but clapping your hands in between pushups - . I would need to visit the ER after trying.

I can never get my darn *rse up off the floor. I can do several hundred pushups on my hands and knees, and even almost a hundred with my hands holding weights placed on the floor.

Yoga is pretty easy for me 'cause I've been doing it for so darn long - 35 years now. I hung out with some hippies back in the day and they "turned me on" to it when I was a wee thing. I never did it for the inner peace/meditative stuff but to be able to stand with legs together and straight, bend at the waist, and put my palms flat on the floor without effort. Great conversation continuer at parties (particularly when everyone else has had a couple of pops).

Time to walk the biggest dog (who is getting some sort of machine (C-pap?? to wear while he sleeps). I must perfect my Darth Vader impression before it comes - - I am sooo mean!

Good evening all. TGIF! Tomorrow Lafayette!

Dagmar

Saturday, July 9:

60 minutes spin class with weight intervals
60 minutes Pilates class


After a fitful night's sleep, for no good reason except maybe having an iced coffee after 4 PM yesterday, I felt tired walking to the gym. Then paradoxically had an energetic but relaxed spin class. Also I am happy because the Pilates instructor liked my frosted blue toenails.

I feel like a little girl who is thrilled because her mother dabbed pink polish on her finger nails & who keeps looking at them, admiring them & wondering over them.

When I was fat, I was afraid to be a girly-girl & became rather matter-of-fact, somewhat asexual & looked askance at girly-girls. ("I hate pink. I hate princesses. Grow up. Be serious. There's more to life ....") Thus my fixation on girly-girl details as I try them out for myself. And also my making peace with my daring to have spent money on someone doing something that I should be able to do for myself. Girly-girls expect to waited on. They use the word "splurge."

But this girly-girl also wants to bang out consecutive pushups like a guy.

Sunday, July 10:

10 minutes on Stairmaster, aerobic setting, resistance at six
60 minutes weights, trying a new back & biceps routine
45 minute spin class


Today I tried a new lifting routine, which left me squinting at the notes I'd taken on the P90X back & biceps routine. Some of my notes need more detail. I am using the Cybex gravitron machine for the pullup sequences. I think this workout was not as good as my arm & shoulder routine, but it's my very first attempt at a new sequence, so I'm trying not to be too hard on myself about this.

July 8: 30 minutes NordicTrack
July 9: 30 minutes NordicTrack
July 10: 30 minutes NordicTrack

Excited to be back home to get back into my normal routine again.

Totals:
9 days
586 minutes

Monday, July 11:

60 minutes arc trainer, intervals, resistance at nine
60 minutes circuit training class

In this class, I bench-pressed a 60-lb barbell for 16 reps, thinking it was 50 lbs., which is my usual, & wondering why it felt so very difficult. So it's time to move up to 60 lbs. in my regular lifting routine. This is much better than five months ago, when a 40-lb barbell felt pretty heavy.

July 11: 65 minutes Boot Camp
Unfortunately it sounds like the gym is replacing this class with the ever popular Zumba. Even though the class has been packed, the Zumba classes have been overcrowded. I and many of the members stayed after to write notes to the gym manager.

Totals:
10 days
651 minutes

7/6: 20 min pilates
7/9: long dog walk, 37 min 7.8 mile bike ride
7/12: 45 min pilates

July 12:
65 minutes Body Pump class (mostly weight lifting-- oh my do I have sore arms?!?)

Totals:
11 days
716 minutes

Tuesday, July 12:

10 minutes warmup on the Stairmaster, resistance at 7, aerobic setting
60 minutes arms & shoulders
60 minute endurance spin class

I got some slight happiness this morning from wearing my George Romero "Dawn of the Dead" t-shirt -- which I got in the Zombie Museum at the famous mall in Pittsburgh -- to lift weights.

ETA: There is a Facebook page for People Who Hate Katie in the P90X video. Who knew? I don't hate her, but I did say in my July 5th post that her voice was squeaky & irritating. And if you watch a video repeatedly small things in it start to jump out at you.

Wednesday, July 13:

45 minute spin class, with weights
30 minutes Pilates mat routine


Last night & this morning, spin class warmup had this funny song called "Tonight Tonight" which I have just Googled & discovered is by a group called Hot Chelle Rae. I like the slacker guy singing. I like how he says, "Whatever." I need to look up the lyrics.