Day Thirty-Six – An Uneventful Day

Today’s workouts:
• Yoga (1 hr)
• Bike Ride (17 miles, under 2 hrs, another personal best)
• 30-minute cardio
• 1-on-1 session
• Cardio & A Movie

Friends, I’m afraid this day’s report is going to be kind of boring! There is not a whole lot on which to report today. We had yoga with Karen today and it was a great class. I still don’t have some upper body strength necessary to hold a good plank position, but I sure do have flexibility. There was one position, however, that I’m going to have to work on to increase my hip flexibility. You’re on the ground, you tuck one leg in front of you so that the outside of your knee is pressing to the ground and that same leg’s outer ankle is also pressing to the ground. Then you extend your other leg straight behind you with the knee pressed to the ground and the top of your foot pressed to the ground. Ideally you sit off the knee so that you can keep your hips square and press your chest to the ground. It’s a fantastic stretch for your hips and glutes, but….OUCH! However, I’m finding it does help that recurring cramp that I get in my left butt cheek, which has diminished significantly lately.

Back at the gym it was time for the second bike ride of the week. It turns out the skies were perfectly clear and blue (maybe the rain is coming tomorrow?), HOWEVER, there’s a cold front a-comin’, ‘cause it was chilly and windy. Now, I’ve been making it to the end of the bike path in under an hour and my goal was to shave off at least five minutes from Monday’s ride. It was IMPOSSIBLE with the winds pushing against this morning. Just brutal. I could barely get over 8 mph and I couldn’t use more than 4th gear on my bike. As I had nothing scheduled for the next two hours, I was going to get to the end anyway. WELL, Marco is returning from the end with another rider so he lets him go and pushed me towards the end. I was absolutely burned out and my knees were on fire (icing them now!). He pushed and pushed but I had to stop for a drink of water but not much of a break. The wind was mostly at my back this time, but Marco was pushing me to go faster. Man, I was on the highest gear on my bike (7th) and was pedaling as fast as I could, and there was Marco several yards ahead just slowly pedaling as if it was a casual Sunday ride. Aaaaargh. I did everything I could to keep up and it felt as though it was never enough. Nevertheless, thanks to him pushing me, I made it back in 45 minutes – so, that was my very best time for one half of that ride. I went straight home and iced my knees, then showered and put on fresh gym clothes to get me through the rest of the day. I REALLY wanted to stay home and nap. I’m seriously needing a recovery day in which I do nothing but relax.

Back to the gym for a cardio hour which ended up being only half-an-hour as Eric the owner tried to cheer me up about my weight loss. Seriously…I’m very happy with everything about the whole program except for my weight loss. I noticed for tomorrow’s schedule I’m getting dunked again, so perhaps they’re trying to figure out why the pounds from fat weight aren’t coming off. I’m still somewhat feeling that some of this hard work is all for naught. I KNOW IT’S NOT but I can’t help what I feel. I’m just an emotional girl!

I had a good training session with Marco. I thought he’d give my legs a break after that bike ride but nooooooo. First we did some stretching to help my knees recover – turns out you have to stretch your quad muscles to relieve patella tendonitis. Of course I love stretching so I didn’t mind that at all. Then we did some boxing. I jokingly said that I wanted to kick the punching bag, so Marco incorporated that into the workout. I was so happy to do some roundhouse kicks with both legs (not at the same time, silly!); I whacked the heck out of that bag! We also did some jabbing and crossing with crunches in between, all within the first ½ hour. Then he had me doing leg presses with increased weight. Altogether I did 225 leg presses, mostly with 125 lbs. Didn’t do them all at once…there were four sets separated by cardio each time. I actually like doing leg presses and all the other leg machines EXCEPT THE LEG EXTENSIONS because while my thighs are covered in a gazillion inches of fat, deep down in there I know that’s where most of my muscle weight is. Regardless, my legs felt like jelly at the end of it.

Thankfully I had another 1-hour break so I hopped on the internet a bit, relaxed, and had a yummy meal. We had our Cardio & A Movie tonight instead of the usual Thursday night (due to trainers switching schedules). Tonight’s movie was Disney’s “Bedtime Stories” with Adam Sandler. It was cute, I guess. I wasn’t really into it. However, I think it would be worthwhile to rent for young kids. I quite like Adam Sandler but I thought the dialogue was poorly written.

I’m very excited that my Mother arrives tomorrow afternoon. She’ll be joining me on the Dunes on Friday (plus the rest of the day), Boot Camp on Saturday, and the circuit training on Sunday. Mom will be able to validate all of my claims of hard work, yummy meals, and inches lost. We’re going to go out and about on Easter Sunday – perhaps Rodeo Drive! However, there will be no clothes shopping for me yet since I still have nearly 7 weeks to go and thus more pounds and inches to lose. I need to get the laundry finished and fill the fridge with water. Hmmm, I think some of you are getting a 4-day weekend, so enjoy!