Dagmar, for that class you win Best in Show! No contest. That's in honour of the side-stepping move.

June 17: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga

June 18: 30 minutes elliptical
19 minutes stairmaster
30 minute walk to and from the gym

Totals:
17 days
1081 minutes

June 19:

9:50 rowing 2,000 meters on the Concept 2 as warm-up
60 minutes weights
45 minute spin class


Lots of guys in the weight area this morning. Two of them were older gentlemen, whom I'd guess to be recent retirees. Neither has an actual routine. Both will watch me from the recumbent bike for a while (because peddling that has to get boring) & when done, they will walk over to the weight area & grab a weight I've recently abandoned & do an odd number of reps, then wander around & try machines or weights on impulse. There seems to be no method or intent. One of them does that move where you hold a bar in front of you & twist at the waist which I'm thinking is not very effective. Because they tend to do this after staring at me while I go through my routine, I think I have some kind of effect on them -- whether it's inspirational or competitive or an affront to their masculinity, I'm still not sure. The younger guys pretty much ignore me, I believe, except for the usual courtesies of space & sharing. But these two older guys are definitely watching. I should say something to them other than nodding sometime, as I can't quite figure out what their behavior means.

We're all just chimps in a cage together.

June 19: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga (not too crowded today on Father's Day afternoon-- happy my favorite instructor was there. She had broken her wrist roller blading while talking on the cell phone-- duh!)

Totals:
18 days
1171 minutes

saef I believe those two older guys are either ogling you or wanting to ask you for training tips. Maybe both.

Dagmar

Ha! Dagmar, why didn't I think of that? I'm still thinking like a self-critical, vaguely apologetic fat girl. If men are looking at me, I think they're affronted by me or competitive -- the idea that it might be admiration (of some kind or another) doesn't immediately occur to me.

Monday, June 20:

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


Oh, we had a station that was so difficult tonight. Bridge pose with one foot on a small, heavy, hard exercise ball & the other raised straight in the air. We were supposed to lift & drop our hips. Oh my, how that worked my hamstrings, right behind my knee, on the foot that was balancing on the ball.

June 20: 60 minutes Boot Camp

Totals:
19 days
1231 minutes

Michele, why is it that I persist in thinking of a yoga instructors as sort of like a religious acolyte, rather than like a ditz in tight shorts rollerblading while chatting on an iPhone? Okay, so I think in stereotypes like cartoons.

Tuesday, June 21:

11 minutes warmup on the stairmaster, a machine I've never tried before, because the ellipticals & arc trainers were all full & someone was rowing on the Concept 2
60 minutes weights
60 minute Endurance spin with weight intervals

Oh, that Stairmaster. I'd never tried one before. I should have written down the setting that I used, for future reference. I did 46 stories & that thing made me SWEAT. I have to develop a steady gait for it as it seemed that, though I can indeed do it, as far as having the breath for it & the legs, I need to figure out a rhythm & the right foot placement.

June 21: 60 minutes Camp 24 class (kind of a boot camp but more weights)

Totals:
20 days
1291 minutes

That stairmaster is hard! When I was more out of shape, I tried it and could barely do 2 minutes. Now I can do much longer but I sweat too! I put it on aerobic setting (variable) on a setting of 10 usually.

Wednesday, June 22:

45 minutes spin class, with weights
40 minutes Pilates mat routine on my own


I'm squashing fallen mulberries underneath my sneakers while I walk to the gym in the morning. Which got me to thinking of silkworms & why we never had a silk industry in the U.S.., though one of my grandmothers worked in a silk mill in Scranton PA, probably during the 1920s or 1930s. Those coal mining towns had to give the women something to do during the daytime while their men were underground & so they put up a lot of textile factories where you wouldn't think anyone would be spinning silk.

There used to be a silk mill in Florence, Mass., too. My partner's mother used to work there, and they made (among other things) silk stockings.

I think the advent of synthetics played a big part in the closing of the silk mills.

Jay

June 22: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga

Totals:
21 days
1381 minutes

OMG I exercised!

Wed 6/22:
15 mins on the bike trainer

Also Saef, the stairmaster is a killer. Even at my most fit I could only do like level 3 on it.

Jay, thank goodness for synthetics, after all, as I live in them in the gym. I remember when we were advised to wear cotton because it breathes. Yeah, and it stays wet forever.

Jessica, I'm so glad to see you back. I remember reading that your doctor had cleared you for certain activities. What a relief that must be!

Thursday, June 23:

60 minutes elliptical, resistance at eight, half backward
60 minutes Pilates mat class

I kept giving the Stairmaster in the next room sidelong looks. It's there, often uninhabited. Waiting for me. Saying, "Come on, give it another go." Yeah, I kind of want to get on it again. Maybe tomorrow, to use it as a warmup before doing weights. What are the benefits over an elliptical or arc trainer, if any? I'd do it just to change up my routine, though.