June 23: 60 minutes Hip Hop class

Totals:
22 days
1441 minutes

Catchup...
6/16: dumbbell circuit, stationary bike, yoga
6/17: yoga
6/18: running
6/19: dumbbell circuit, stationary bike, yoga
6/20: cut the grass
6/21: dumbbell circuit, stationary bike, yoga
6/22: running, yoga
6/23: dumbbell circuit, stationary bike, yoga
6/24: yoga

Saef, the stairmaster works your muscles a little bit differently. It's always good to change up your routine, and I figure if it's hard for you to do it then if you do it more and get better you'll be improving your overall fitness.

And I'm only sort of back . . . My knees hurt yesterday and it may be because of the 15 mins on the bike the day before. Not sure though. I tried to do a little bit of exercise this morning anyway . . .

Friday 6/24:
3x10 squats, no weight, alternating with
3x10 calf raises, no weight

Hoping for a swim this weekend. So for I don't think the new med is helping much. Maybe a little bit. The problem is that I know that my tendons are inflamed. Everything hurts because of the inflamed tendons. The medication (Lyrica) is designed to reduce the amount that your nerves are firing. This acts as a pain reliever because the pain nerves aren't firing as much. It's indended use originally was as an anti-seizure medication (in which case obviously you need to calm down some nerves), and its second use is as a fibromyalgia treatment. Fibromyalgia is thought to be a result of overactive nerves, so it makes sense there too. However, I don't think my nerves are overactive. They're acting just fine; my tendons are the problem. So the medication will still have somewhat of a pain relieving affect just due to the nature of what it does, but it doesn't solve the problem.

In any case I'm thinking that this med probably won't help very much over the next three weeks until I see the doctor again, so when I see him again I might ask him to consider trying another short course of steroids to try to get rid of the inflammation. I know steroids are nasty drugs, but over the past six months I had a one week course of steroids and spent many weeks on multiple non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (I think I've been on pretty much all of them), and the steroids were the only thing that helped at all.

Okay, rant over. I think I'll call and see if they got my bloodwork back yet.

June 24: 60 minutes Spin class-- forgot my spinning shoes at home but the class was still good.

Totals:
23 days
1501 minutes

Jessica This is grim for you.

Saef, this area borders the mountains. I've met a number of climbers and guides on the stairmaster. They think it's very good. One doesn't just go up one step at a time, she goes up two at a time, and sometimes sideways. Oh yes. I think we probably have room for improvement.

Physio day for me. She says I'm improving and has given me some harder exercises. It's still hard to fit it all in. I don't feel as though I've exercised 'properly' in weeks.

Shannon is certainly no shirker. (Say that three times fast.) When enumerated like that in a single post, that is a formidable schedule of activity.

Michele, on one occasion I went to the gym shoeless (as far as bike shoes go) thinking I'd been shut out of spin class, after forgetting to reserve a bike early & being placed very low on the wait list. But then a lot of people blew off the class. So unexpectedly I ended up with a bike. I had to wear my regular sneakers. They felt enormous strapped into the pedals, like clown shoes. I hated sprinting. I commend you for going through with it anyway.

Jessica, damn girl. Haven't I told you how much you inspired me when I first tremblingly entered this thread to record my elliptical time, or whatever? You were doing bricks, for God's sake. You are a triathlete. And will be again, once they get your meds right, whether that be those annoying steroids or something else. I read so much about athletes overcoming & going back to their sport. I am sure this will be true for you.

Friday, June 24:

9:42 rowing on the Concept 2 to get in my 2,000 meters. (I should row to 2011, as I get a grim amusement over how quickly I can row through my lifetime to-date.)
60 minutes weights
45 minutes on the StairMaster, on aerobic setting, just set at three, because I'm still exploring this thing.


I wanted to make sure to finish my bout with the StairMaster with something left over. Ten minutes away from the end, I bumped it up to four, and finally to five. And stayed on it for a five-minute cool-down afterward at one (which doesn't count, so I haven't added it). I think I can set it higher. Jessica, you're right, it is working slightly different muscles. I felt it at first in my knees, and then, after I adjusted my balance, in my hip flexors & my butt. The outer part of my upper thighs stopped feeling odd after a while. The thing was timing the steps. I did find a rhythm; that helped. I wish my inner ear debacle had not left me with compromised balance. If I flick my gaze away for even a moment, the rhythm changes & my foot steps on the step a bit too long or gets stubbed. I want to get better at this machine. Birchie, I do see the benefit for climbing, but I'm not going sideways or two at a time anytime soon.

This Friday night, the gym was busier than the last time that I found myself there. Maybe because we were having a curious soft continuous rain, almost like mist. Again, men working the weights outnumbered the women. I was the only woman in that section for much of my time there, till the end, when a model came in & started using some very light weights. (Models apparently don't want much definition in their arms. Probably it messes with the fit of sleeves on the clothes they are being paid to show off.) Then she put them down & went back to her endless treadmill walking. You know, I envy models in magazines until I see them in real life & accept that it's clearly genetic & there is no way I can WILL MYSELF into looking like that. (I'd need to be stretched like chewing gum.)

Saturday, June 25:

60 minute spin class, with weight intervals
60 minute Pilates class


Our spin instructor was relentless this morning. Maybe it was the presence of two large guys on bikes. This class is usually entirely female, or with two or three token males. I've noticed that when a big guy takes a class -- one of the guys who obviously spends a lot of time with weights -- she pushes us all harder than usual, maybe so the guy won't walk off acting as though it was nothing, really. Or maybe it was because she herself went out & had a few drinks the night before. I have heard spin instructors relate in detail the fabulous dinners or desserts or drinks of the night before & they then seem determined to burn it all out, to purge their systems through a hard workout. Whatever it was, the class was relentless. I did not have much left for Pilates. At one point when we were on our hands & knees, doing various-angled kicks for our butt muscles, I thought my arms might not hold up. But I made it. And this afternoon, I'm tired & I so don't want to get my apartment cleaned. But I need to, with a guest coming on Monday afternoon for two nights & two mornings.

June 25: 60 minutes Spin class (with my shoes and favorite instructor). I was going to stay for boot camp but decided I was wiped out and took Dewey to the dog park again instead.

Totals:
24 days
1561 minutes

Thanks Saef!

I actually have some exercise to post for once!

Saturday:
35 min super-easy pace bike ride (I accompanied DH on his 4 mile run, so I was biking at his running pace)

Sunday:
32 min bike ride, 6.7 miles

We'll see if I regret it tomorrow.

Sunday, June 26:

2,000 meters rowed on the Concept 2 at 9:38, my best time yet.
60 minutes weights
45 minute spin class

Tired again today after class, though not wiped out, like yesterday. I sat on my patio with the Sunday Times & life was good.

June 26: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga

Totals:
25 days
1651 minutes

Monday, June 27:

45 minute spin class, with weight intervals
30 minutes Pilates mat work, on my own


At 6 AM on a Monday, just one bike in spin class was empty. What is it about spin that inspires a cult-like adherence? This was my third day in a row on a bike. I'll be glad for a break tomorrow on one of the cardio machines instead.

How I wish I could run. Even when I'm walking back to my apartment after two hours at the gym, if a runner passes me by on his or her way to the park & its long path, I feel that person is doing real exercise while I just finished passing some time indoors in a sweaty manner.

But I can't run, because my feet get injured & my joints ache.

Low-impact is the name of the game for me.

It sucks to get older.

Tuesday, June 28:

10 minutes warmup on Stairmaster at aerobic setting, level 5
60 minutes weights
45 minutes elliptical, half backward, random intervals, resistance at 8


I didn't sleep well with my house guest over. So I wasn't very alert at the gym this morning. Also I seem to have scratched my cornea the other day & it bothered me all night.

Agh! saef, get thee to an ophthalmologist! Scratched cornea is not good...

Jay

June 27: took the day off due to donating blood and a very sore lower back.

June 28: 60 minutes class that is a combo of weights and cardio.

Totals:
26 days
1711 minutes