- Monday’s Workouts:
- 30-minute cardio
- 1-on-1 session (1 hr)
- Spinning (1 hr)
- Santa Monica Stairs – 167 of ‘em (6 ascents, 1 hr)
- Went home sick ;-(
- Tuesday’s Workouts:
- Beach Walk/Run (45 minutes, 2 ½ miles)
- Weigh-in
- 30-minute Abs/Core class
- Swimming (1 hr, 64 laps = 1 mile, no fins!)
- 1-on-1 session (1 hr)
- Bike ride (2 hrs, 18 miles)
Monday was a rather uneventful day, although it started with me not having had hardly any sleep. This made all the training sessions a bit more difficult. Climbing the Santa Monica Stairs was even more difficult. Before heading there I forgot to consume a protein shake, and thus between the hunger and fatigue my body was not having any of it. During the 5th ascent, my arms and legs felt weak and shaky, so I added a vitamin/electrolyte supplement to my water, and that helped me to complete a 6th ascent. So far that’s my best and that’s what I did last week, too. I’m still not sure if I finish on a Monday or Tuesday so I either have one or two Stairs workouts left. My quadriceps get very tired from doing them, but at least my muscles aren’t too sore. I stretch at the bottom and top of the stairs and this has helped to prevent the tight calf and thigh muscles the next day. When we returned to the gym I started to warm up on the treadmill in advance of the next training session, but I didn’t feel well. After resting a few minutes, I decided to head home. It turns out that hunger and fatigue really got the best of me ‘cause after I had a full meal I instantly started feeling better, and then I dozed on the sofa, which helped. Later I took sleeping pills to get me to sleep, and I believe I was out by 11:30pm. FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY I did NOT awake at 4:30am as I have been doing for the last six weeks. When I awoke, it was 6:00am!!!! I was absolutely thrilled. Isn’t it funny what small things can make you happy? I was just so relieved to have had more than six straight hours of sleep for a change. It made for a good start for Tuesday, too, and I was even looking forward to my weigh-in.
But first, as we usually do on Tuesdays, it was time for the beach walk/run. As I was feeling well-rested for the first time in what felt like forever, I was determined to jog a lot more today. And I did. After a 5-minute warmup, I jogged for 10 minutes without stopping, walked for another 2 minutes, then jogged another 10 minutes without stopping, walked for about 5 minutes, and then jogged all the way back to the van for 15 minutes without stopping. FIFTEEN MINUTES! If you know me well, you know that I would have sworn that I would never, ever do anything like that! During that final 15 minutes, though, I became a LITTLE deflated when this couple PASSED me and they were just walking with big strides. Hah hah…I run like a turtle!! Have you ever seen a cartoon of the Rabbit vs The Hare? Actually, I’m a huge Bugs Bunny fan and there’s an old episode of Bugs racing with a turtle. I run exactly like that turtle ;-) Anyway, I didn’t let it get me down; it actually amused me more than anything. And when I reached the van, I was very, very pleased with my efforts. Now…I have three more scheduled beach walk/runs so my goal is to jog the whole round trip before I leave. Perhaps I’ll try just jogging all the way to the pier on Thursday and work my way to that round trip. And, please…don’t think I’m gonna be ready for a marathon or triathlon, OK, so please don’t be trying to convince me to come jogging with you! Not yet. I gotta warm up to it first. Just ‘cause I’m DOING it doesn’t mean I LIKE it, y’know ;-)
So, after feeling very pleased with myself for jogging for 35 minutes, I was anxious to get measured. WELL, so much for THAT! Only two pounds!! TWO pounds. After all this hard work! And I DID NOT CHEAT AT THE CONCERTS!!! I lost just under three inches, too. Geez. HOW am I going to make my goal? I still have 13 pounds to lose in 13 days. Oh well…I didn’t complain about it and I went on with my day. I did the last half of Schuyler’s Abs/Core class and then did Marco’s Abs/Core class as scheduled. After this was our usual swimming workout. Since I stopped using the exercise fins, I’ve not been able to complete more than 52 or 54 laps. Today, I was going to do my darndest to get to 64 laps, which is a mile. Instead of using flippers, I did use these webbed gloves that give extra resistance against the water (thus working my triceps, which still need some work). You know what? I stepped into the pool and just attacked it. 10 laps warmup (which means I stopped between each lap). Then 10 laps freestyle without stopping (i.e., I used the flip-turn to keep going). Then 10 laps backstroke without stopping (I did something like a flip-turn for these!) Then 12 laps using arms only. Then 12 laps freestyle and backstroke. Only 10 more! I did it. And all within the hour. I was so happy with myself! My goal now is to do 20 laps at a time without stopping. We’ll see on Thursday!
After lunch I was originally scheduled for a 1-on-1 session with Marco, however we have a camper here, Pat, in his early 50s, who’s in the Army National Guard, had come home from Iraq for a few weeks and decided to attend the fitness camp for two of those weeks because he’s going BACK to Iraq next week. He has to meet some fitness requirements and requested that Marco help him, so they asked me to switch with Eric for my session. This was OK with me, of course, not only because I support the military, but also ‘cause I love working out 1-on-1 with Eric. Eric is TOUGH but reasonable, and always challenging. Eric is also helping me to get that yoga ball balance mastered. As I had just swam a mile and been doing some running and was going to do a bike ride later, Eric concentrated on glutes and stability. One of the significant improvements that I’ve made is my stability and core. This is what keeps you upright, keeps you balanced, and helps your posture (among other benefits). I can stretch and I can balance. So, to give that strength a workout, Eric had me stand on one foot on the Bosu ball, hold onto some straps weighted down with nearly 300 lbs, and then squat down on the one foot while the free leg was outstretched behind me. Holy mackerel, I felt that in my glute muscles BIGTIME. (But I liked it!) I had to do that on both legs, of course. Wheeeew! You’d think that I could use my arms to pull myself up, but the Bosu ball forces you to use all of your core to balance and thus the leg muscles work overtime to balance AND push up from the squat; I only used my arms for balance. Wow. We finished the workout with the yoga ball balance. I managed to balance on knees only, but admittedly my legs were tired so I wasn’t able to hold it for a minute as I had done before. We’ll just keep working on it. I still have thirteen days to master the “Aquaman” pose, which is one knee down with the opposing hand down and the free hand and free leg extended. I’m gonna have to practice this at home some more on my own yoga ball.
Following ALL OF THAT (the jogging/walking, swimming, abs/core, and 1-on-1 session) I still had a BIKE RIDE to do. I was doing this 1-on-1 with Claire, who is usually our counselor. Claire, however, is a bit of a Wonder Woman ‘cause besides listening to our troubles all week long she also runs marathons, shows horses, cycles, climbs dunes, and probably leaps tall buildings in a single bound (oh, no, that’s SuperGirl, isn’t it?). OK, Claire probably flies an invisible airplane and can dodge bullets with magic wrist guards. Anyway, we decided to take the southern bike route to Manhattan Beach because as before, I thought the northern, Venice Beach route might be crowded with pedestrians. We had two hours, and the goal was to get to Manhattan Beach and back. The time passed very quickly as we chatted most of the way and Claire kept me at a good pace. USUALLY I have to stop just to stretch or catch my breath, but we kept going and when we reached Manhattan Beach, 9 miles from the start, we turned the bikes around without stopping. So, that means when we finally reached the first traffic signal on the return to the gym, we had biked for two hours without stopping. Man, I’m tired!
Before heading home I stretched for about half an hour; biking does a number on my knees so stretching the quadriceps helps to relieve that. So do ice packs, which I’ve had on my knees for the required 30 minutes ;-) I have another bike ride on Wednesday so I want to be sure my knees will be OK. I wanted to hurry home, too, to get ready to watch the Biggest Loser Finale. As it starts here on the West Coast, it will have already ended on the East Coast and in Bermuda, so don’t tell me how it ends! I’m typing this as I’m watching. The transformations of the contestants who were booted off the ranch have been amazing. Wow, Kristin looks fantastic! I loved seeing Sione and Phillipe doing the Haka (War Chant) ‘cause in Bermuda we’ve seen the New Zealand All Blacks do it every year at the Rugby Classic (my favorite week of the year in Bermuda, baby!). As for the final contestants, I’d love to see Tara win (I can totally relate to her) but will not be disappointed if Mike wins. I’m going to sign off now so that I can watch without distraction. Hope you all have a great Wednesday. I think mine will be pretty good ‘cause I have yoga, a bike ride, and a massage scheduled tomorrow (besides two other workouts and a nutrition meeting). Oh, and by the way…..THANK YOU for all your compliments! Gee whiz, you really know how to make a girl blush!
No comments:
Post a Comment