- Today’s schedule:
- Bike Ride (13 miles, about 1 ¾ hours)
- Circuit Training (1 hour)
- 1-on-1 Training Session (1 hour)
- Cardio/Fat Burning (1-hour)
- Stretching (1 hour)
- The Dunking
It was a chilly morning but I was prepared, even with bike shorts. Schuyler was our trainer this time and took us south down the Pacific Coast. This was a much more difficult ride. There were several hills (I thought I was gonna die!) and the bike path had more ruts and small potholes in it; also the wind was against me on the first part of the trip and near the end of it. Once again I prayed to God to either stop the wind or push me from behind to get through that wind or even up the hills. The beach along this route, towards Manhattan Beach, is not quite as pretty, and OMGawd!!!...we passed this RV parking camp and the smell from the septic tanks was UNBEARABLE! Here I am working on my breathing and I take a big gulp of nasty air that smelled like ASS! GROOOOOOSSSSS! And then I had to pass it again to return. Anyway, I was alone again for most of this ride, which was OK; you can’t really get lost if you stay on the bike path. I stopped a couple of times as needed to catch my breath and drink some water (but NOT anywhere near that RV park). We returned to the office and once again (and this time I have an odometer to prove it) we did a 13-mile round trip. The full trip is about 18 miles; I am confident that I will do that entire trip sooner than later.
Speaking of confidence…mine was soaring high today. I believe it was a combination of getting good sleep, listening to my body and giving it a rest, and reading your messages of support, inspiration, and motivation. I had a good group circuit workout, with Schuyler again. We did 2-minutes of cardio, 2-minutes of upper body work, and 2-minutes of lower body work. Then this was repeated over and over until we reached an hour, and at the very end we sprinted as fast as we could on the cardio machine. I’m still not running but I walked very fast on the treadmill for that little bit. I felt good afterwards….tired, of course, but good. Michael Swain, you’re right about those endorphins! I think they finally kicked in. Despite being tired I couldn’t wait for my next workout to begin.
But first we had a “nutrition tasting” with Karen. She heard about this vegetable and fruit smoothie on Oprah, I think. I can’t remember all the ingredients (but we’re getting the recipe!), but it had fresh spinach, fresh parsley, cucumbers, lime juice, lemon juice, apples, natural sweetener (like Agave Syrup or Stevia), celery, apple juice, and probably a couple of other ingredients. This was all blended together into a bright green smoothie. It was DELICIOUS. And I swear it was so full of vitamins that it gave me energy for the rest of the afternoon. Once I get the recipe I’ll post it. You must try it! PLUS, I thought it would be good with some vodka in it, hee hee! It could be like a Healthy Martini!
Next up was 1-on-1 training with Marco. It turns out there was a scheduling mix up and Amber was scheduled to be my trainer, too. So they shared me. Now, why can’t two single men fight over me like that, hmmmm? Amber is gorgeous (but I like boys) and Marco is married. Anyway, I had 30 minutes with Marco and 30 minutes with Amber. They know that I want to concentrate on fat-burning and my stomach/hips/butt area, so that’s what we did. And not one of the exercises used any weight equipment. Rather, with Marco we used a thick “rubber band” around my ankles and did some exercises on the floor. Baby, I felt that burn!! And then Amber worked with me with the most simple lifts and stretches, but let me tell you, they didn’t burn any less (are you listening, Carmichael? I know what you mean by Body on Fire now!). Following this hour which seemed to FLY by, I had to do 60 minutes of cardio. The gym was mostly empty because the more advanced campers were doing a hike or the bike/hike/bike. I’m sure I’ll be doing those at some point. The hike involves climbing up a mountain…maybe Santa Monica Mountain? I’ll ask about that tomorrow. It’s a lot of work though; you can tell when the campers return and they’re all breathless. Anyway, I enjoyed having the gym mostly to myself. I finally figured out how to change the channels on the TV on the treadmill (OK, nobody be a smart-ass, alright? It involves pointing the remote to some satellite boxes somewhere, and you have to hope that you have the right remote and are pointing at the right box; it’s not like it’s right there on the treadmill, y’know) and so was able to walk about 40 minutes non-stop in my fat-burning zone (i.e., heart rate between 106 – 123; my cardio zone is 123 – 139; I’m working to get that higher!). I also hopped on the recumbent stationary bike to give my knees a bit of a rest (from load-bearing). Again…I was tired but felt awesome.
My final workout was meant to be Boot Camp in the Gym but due to another scheduling mixup, Amber went ahead and gave about 8 or 9 of us a really good stretching session. As I’ve said before, I’m very flexible, but there are some stretches I’ve never done before and they hurt, baby (but in a good way); in fact I think one of the stretches might have cured my recurring cramp in my left butt muscle ;-). I’m continuing to feel great and confident and can’t wait to get dunked.
Get DUNKED, not get DRUNK, you silly people! We get “dunked” in order to measure the body fat percentage versus the lean mass percentage. The dunk tank is a giant tub with warm water (thankfully!). In it is a metal frame that is roughly 5ft long and 2 ft wide. This is suspended on a weight scale that kind of looks like one of those weight scales that you see in the produce section of a grocery store. Fat weighs less than muscle, so the fat in the body basically “floats” to the top and this is what gets measured (it’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it). One wears a swimsuit to get measured, and with elbows tucked in close to the sides, one holds onto the front bar and also to the back bar of the frame with just the tips of the toes (literally!). Then, the person being measured must completely submerge him/herself and exhale every bit of air out of the lungs so that the muscle weight sinks the body, and then the scale measures the body fat in grams (don’t ask me how…I don’t know!). It can be a bit of a scary experience if you panic because you think you’re going to drown; you have to exhale and then stay underwater with no breath for several seconds. For best results, the process has to be done 3-5 times so that the person administering the test can be sure that he or she achieved the best possible measurement. Arleigh, who usually administers the test, said that I was easy to measure because I got rid of all the air, I didn’t fidget around, and I wasn’t fearful and thus stayed underwater long enough. So…that’s another thing at which I’m talented…voluntarily drowning myself! ;-) The dunk is usually done once every two weeks, but since I had lost so few pounds but many inches, I think they wanted to assure me that I was indeed losing body fat and building muscle. And that is what the test results revealed…I had lost body fat but gained a little bit more muscle. That made me feel a lot better about the previous day’s weigh-in…but by this time I had stopped being upset about that. I am certain the fatigue just got to every inch of my mind and body.
After this test I dried off, dressed, and headed home on my bike. Monday through Thursday are long days…they always start at 8am and end at either 5, 6, or 7pm. Today was a 6pm day. Yesterday, if I HAD stayed, would have been a 7pm day. And tomorrow is going to be a 7pm day. But as you can see from the schedules that I’ve posted, we’re not working out the entire time, however at a minimum I’m putting in 5-6 hours on those days with breaks for massages, nutrition meetings, counseling meetings, meals, or motivational speeches in between. Fridays, Saturdays, and especially Sundays are shorter days. Tomorrow I have only 4 workouts, BUT, they are the Beach Walk (which zapped me of all of my energy yesterday), swimming (more chance to fat-burn), soccer drills (omigosh, I might have to run!), and the “Cardio Movie.” I’m guessing this is every Thursday, and this is when we hop on a treadmill, bike, elliptical, or whatever, and watch a movie on a big screen while burning calories. It’s looking like bad weather tomorrow....it will be cold and wet, the worst combination! I have a poncho for weather like this. And I’m wondering if this means we won’t be able to swim. The pool is heated and I guess as long as there’s no lightning, they’ll let us swim. We shall see!
I was reminded of the song “Brand New Day” from “The Wiz” today. It’s a very uplifting, joyful song; years ago in Dance Team Camp, we started every day with an aerobic dance routine to that song (the whole camp of all the many dance teams’ members). It would put me in a great mood. Today felt like that…I can’t remember all the words or even the dance routine to that song, but I sure do wish I could ‘cause I would have danced to it on my own. Today felt like a “brand new day.” Hah…now that I think about it, we ALSO did a second dance aerobic routine to “Work That Body” by Diana Ross (or was it “Let’s Get Physical” by Olivia Newton-John?) and I remember enjoying that, too. Hmmm, I wonder if Amber might give us some dance aerobics in the near future (Amber, are you listening?).
As always, thanks for your support and encouragement. You know what I love about our notes and messages to each other? When I write them, MOST of you are already in bed or close to it (not the West Coasters, of course!), so you write your messages in the morning. When I read them around 6 or 7am my time, it’s already 9 or 10am your time and you’re into your day, but I’m just getting started and your messages are such a nice bonus to start MY day. It means the world to me.
Much love to all, and have a great Thursday!
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