30 min elliptical
(30 min walk home in the evening)

Then a bunch of weights and squats. I'm looking forward to building strength and muscle tone in my upper body. I am a total wimp right now.

I think I need to construct a proper workout plan and follow it, but that will wait until our return in January. For now, I just want to get my basic overall fitness level back up, and perhaps sculpt these shoulders a bit more. I am quite proud of myself for figuring out the machines at the gym - I have always been somewhat intimidated by weight machines.

Walked home very briskly from the BCIT downtown campus after school. Gorgeous night - fireworks everywhere.

40 min stair escalator
10 min treadmill
5 min cooldown
various weights (upper body)

Jane Austen Book Club

Escalator treadmill - 40 min
Treadmill - 5 min cooldown
Shoulders, biceps, lats, upper back, abs

Felt good this morning, but it was tough as usual to drag ourselves out of bed. Mornings are harder than they used to be for me, and the time thing annoyed me again as well, as I wanted to do some squats but didn't have time.

The title of this post is the name of the book I was reading during the cardio portion of my workout.

in the rain

Finally, I went to the gym tonight and it felt very good. I did my usual stairclimber escalator thing, probably for about fifty minutes at a fairly hard pace. Either I'm getting fitter, or I'm stronger in the evenings. Whatever the case, it was a pretty hard dripping workout, plus I added 10 minutes of treadmill running at 6.5. I have to watch my knees though so that is about as long as I can go without fear of busting a kneecap.

Then I did some really frickin' hard abs on the ball, plus the balancing the ball on my legs thing (I may explain it some day), then stretched. It felt really good to stretch, which is something I should do more but don't have time for when I go in the mornings. It's a bit of a tradeoff, with my wanting to get my workout in before going to work, but not having the time to complete all the parts of the workout that I want (or should). In the evening I can just stay and stay.

Anyway, a good evening. Plus I rode there and back, with what felt like a gale force wind blowing in my face on the way home. And rain.

bah

Three days of not working out and eating a lot. I've been studying for exams, which explains it. Tuesday I'm back on the wagon!

By the way, this is not normal for me - I'm generally doing some kind of hard workout four times a week at minimum.

macleans

I was feeling pretty gross yesterday, as I went to sleep instead of going to the gym, and ate a lot of "bad for you" type foods. Working in an office is always an exercise in self-control, of which I have little, as there is always someone bringing in cookies or pushing chocolate.

This morning, Scott and I woke up and headed to the gym. I did 60 minutes on the Escalator stair thing and read Macleans magazine front to back. My cardio capacity has gone down since the end of August, as I'm doing a lower level on the machine and feeling winded earlier. I've got to get these long cardio workouts back into my routine to build up that capacity. I then did abs on the balance ball, packed it in and came home.

I talked to an ergonomist at work yesterday, and he suggested that if I go to the gym five days a week, which I mostly do, I can still satisfy my cardio addiction while getting in the weights. His suggestion is to do an hour or more of cardio twice a week, then three times a week do only 30-40 minutes of cardio, plus weights the rest of the time. I'm going to try it out. That means tomorrow I only get a half hour of cardio and then weights. I think I'm going to set myeslf a goal of having cut arms by the wedding next August.

dragged out of bed

I pretty much had to drag myself out of bed this morning to get to the gym. I'm trying really hard to not let myself succumb to the ennui I was suffering for much of September, especially as I want to get myself fit for the December Ecuador trip. It's hard to get moving when it's so dark in the morning, and still dark when I get back home. Plus it was pouring rain. I succumbed to some weakness in that I drove the car there rather than take my bike. This is yet another drawback of finally getting a car. Back when I didn't have one, I still went to the gym and always took my bike, rain or shine, as I had no other options. Now, I have the option of driving which on a morning like today is an easy one to take.

Anyhow, went to the gym, did 35 minutes on the weird stair escalator thing, read a book, then did chest, upper back, lats, biceps, shoulders, and abs. I'm feeling the upper body tonight.

I feel a bit weird about the weight training thing, as I'm a cardio addict. Not getting a full hour of hard cardio in is hard for me to take, but I don't know how else to budget my time.