studying on the stairmill

35 mins stairmill

Abs, upper body, etc. The usual.

I have an exam tomorrow night, so I studied while doing the cardio portion of the workout. It was a good use of time, I think.

bread garden smoothie

50 mins stairmill, steady pace
10 mins treadmill at 9.2 min/mile
5 min walking cooldown

Then I stretched for about five minutes and bought a smoothie from Bread Garden as my reward. I felt pretty good this morning.

As an addendum to yesterday's post about calories, the stairmill actually registered me as having burned 500 calories in those 50 minutes, so it is about equal to what the elliptical says after all. Nonetheless, I'm still skeptical about the calories burned. The New York Times published an article yesterday comparing the different cardio machines at the gym - it seems the elliptical trainer comes out on top.

I also carb-loaded yesterday at Shalin Noodles (not intentionally - my gluttony got away on me), so I figure I'm due up for a couple of long cardio days, today being the first.

calorie counters are silly

40 mins elliptical trainer

Triceps, biceps, shoulders, abs, lunges, and some other arm stuff for muscles that I don't know the name of.

The elliptical trainer is a weird machine. I never really feel like I get an intense or hard workout when I use one, but it always measures a huge number of calories burned. I know these electronic machines can't calculate very well the amount of calories you burn, but the machines aren't even comparable. The elliptical calorie counter showed me as having burned close to 600 calories in 40 minutes! Yet when I do the stairmill for the same amount of time and work my ass off to the point of almost puking, my calorie burn is registered as much lower, which, frankly, just can't be accurate. I don't usually pay much attention to the calorie burn anyway, but this is something that has always bothered me about workout machines.

heart attack on the bike

60 mins stationary bike, hill intervals, level 8

As usual, I almost didn't make it to the gym, but I managed to convince myself and ended up on the stationary bike for an hour doing hill intervals. I pushed myself really hard, so hard that at one point I thought I was having a heart attack, but then realized it was just the soreness from the chest presses I did yesterday. I worked to keep my RPM at certain levels depending on how steep the hill was and it was tough to hold over each minute-long interval. I was working at approximately 85-90% exertion for each hill (probably 95% for the last two) and then keeping it pretty cruisey on the recovery. I kept pushing on the hills by imagining I was sprinting for the finish in a race and letting up would mean losing. I beat Lance Armstrong to the line every time.

By the end of the workout, my shirt was almost translucent from sweat.

Next year, I want to do some road racing competitively.

annoying book

15 mins stairmill (to warm up)

Then about an hour of weights for the upper body, lunges, and ab work.

I was planning on making it a cardio day after a weekend of feasting, but then I got on the stairmill with my book, and found myself bored by the book and annoyed by the fact that I had to hold it open in place. Since I find it difficult to do a long cardio session without proper reading material (i.e. magazines or hardcover books that stay open without my help), I focused on weights today, which felt good. I can see why weight training could be addictive over time.

I think Cold-FX works as my cold symptoms, while still lingering somewhat, did not become worse and I am well on my way to total recovery.

Cold-FX effects

55 mins stairmill - 30 mins at a steady pace, 25 minutes of intervals (2 mins high speed, 2 mins lower speed).

I was absolutely soaked in sweat when I finished. It was awesome. I then spent 10 minutes stretching properly as my legs are sore from squats yesterday and my stretching routine has been completely non-existent over the past while. I wish I enjoyed yoga, but it's just way too slow and I don't think Pilates improves flexibility.

I think this Cold-FX stuff works, as my cold doesn't seem to be getting worse. The medication (which is basically just ginseng, although it is unclear what the active ingredient actually is) has the side effect of making me extremely hyper. I had several people comment on it yesterday.

weights only

10 mins elliptical (just as a warm-up)

Then weights for the upper body, squats, and ab work. I am definitely seeing some definition in my arms from weight training over the last three weeks. I didn't expect it to happen this fast! These muscles are going to disappear during my month away, but when I get back - arms of steel!

I also have this semi-cold sitting in my head so I wanted to take it fairly easy at the gym. I bought some Cold-FX last night to see if it would help warding off the cold, or at least alleviating symptoms. Apparently, Don Cherry swears by it (not that I would take his advice on anything), and there has been some recent scientific evidence published about its efficacy, but I am a skeptic. It was on sale, though, so I bought some. I will report on my own very unscientific, non-generalizable results in a few days.

Tomorrow is going to be a long tough cardio day.

a cold strikes!

45 mins stationary bike, hill training

Then abs on the ball and with the medicine ball.

I was right, though, I am getting a cold so I took it pretty easy today. It's that damn swim and bike ride with a wet head that did this to me! This sucks as I have been building up my fitness for the trip to Ecuador and trekking at high elevation. I will now have to take it easy as departure looms. Still, better to get sick now than on the trip itself. And as long as it remains a head cold, I figure I can still go to the gym. I always think of the "neck check" for exercising when sick - if sickness is above the neck, exercise is okay (even good), but if it is below the neck (e.g. in the lungs), it's better to take it easy. So far, mine is only above the neck, so I'm still good to go!

Butternut squash for dinner tonight.

confessions of an economic hit man

35 mins Stairmill
shoulders, biceps, triceps, upper back

I was feeling a bit sick this morning, as if I might be coming down with a cold. I pretty much passed out at 10:30 pm last night and slept straight through. This morning I struggled out of bed and down to the gym, and once I got going I felt better.

Also, reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

family swim

Rode the bike out to UBC pool this morning for a brief swim. It's a pretty steep long hill out there so the ride itself was a workout. Then I just did some lengths - front crawl, back crawl, breastroke, and kick lengths with the board. The pool on Sunday mornings is nice because the lanes are totally empty, the kids are in the deep end jumping off the diving boards or in the kiddie pool. Then I rode home, after stopping for coffee and a muffin at Bean Around the World. I like the feeling of total body tiredness I get from swimming.

saturday spinning

45 mins random hills on the stationary bike
10 mins treadmill

Then biceps, abs, upper back.

Very high heart rate on the bike. I started slow, so I put the level up but I was probably a bit too ambitious and ended up having to push pretty hard. It was a hard workout, but good.

short workout

30 mins hills on the bike
Assorted upper body weights

It was a short workout today, only at the gym for an hour. I definitely need to get some structure into my upper body exercises in terms of consistent weight and reps etc. In January I'm going to get a personal trainer to get me going.

Also, I love doing hills on the bike. I like getting out of the seat and pushing hard, and seeing sweat puddling on the floor around me. I'm disgusting, I know.

flexing biceps

50 mins on the elliptical, level 8, reverse intervals
abs on the ball

Just another cardio day for me.

Flexed my biceps last night - they're definitely showing some improvement.

to eat dinner!

Rode my bike to my aunt's house for dinner tonight - 35 minutes there into a stupid cold headwind. I had to grit my teeth to keep going because I was hating it so much, but then I was more than halfway there and it would have been just as stupid to turn back as to forge on. Then I rode 25 ecstatic slick black nighttime backstreets minutes back. Very lovely, and speckled with streetlight.

feeling fat

35 min Stairmill, fairly decent pace. It is definitely getting easier to go at a higher level than even two weeks ago.

Then a bunch of upper body strengthening - biceps, abs, shoulders, triceps, etc.

Also, I am feeling fat today. This is so lame because I am not even slightly fat. Nonetheless, it is how I feel today when looking in the mirror. Also, I got on the scale at the gym and the number keeps increasing. Scott says its muscle, but I don't think I would have gained 4lbs of muscle in less than a week. At the same time, after going to the gym seven days in a row last week, it seems unlikely that I would have gained 4 lbs of fat either. I am so lame sometimes.

Now that I've reinforced the bad, I better pick something I like about my body. I choose my legs! They are a bit short, but lean and muscled! I admired them in the mirror this morning as I was doing crunches on the balance ball. That is when I think they look best.

boot camp

Couldn't drag myself to the gym, so did my one and only workout video - Boot Camp. It's an okay video, but it definitely isn't the kind of hard workout to which I am accustomed. At least I did something, right?

Also, my calves are extremely sore, the kind that makes it difficult to walk down stairs. I think it's from all the hopping I did at Saturday's step aerobics class.

seven days in a row!

Pam's step aerobics class - 1hr 15min. All cardio.

Fun class, good music, haven't been to her morning class in a couple of months because of school, so it was nice to be back. Very very cardio-focused.

lovin' the bike

30 min stationary bike

Then, assorted abs, shoulders, back, triceps, biceps. Also did a bunch of squats and lunges.

My wrist was bothering me a bit today when I was doing the pull-downs. I'm hoping it won't persist. I'm so proud of myself for sticking to my goal of going to the gym every morning this week!

I'm loving the stationary bike these days - it's a much better workout than I supposed. I have to push myself though, as it could be easy to just sit there, cycle lightly and pretend that that it is a workout.

Also, I looked in the mirror last night and flexed my arms - is it possible to have a small improvement in definition in only a week?

40 min stair escalator, fairly easy pace
25 min random hills on stationary bike, went hard and dripped sweat

Read this week's Macleans!

write turns

bike to/fro gym
30 min stair escalator

abs, triceps, shoulders, biceps, pull-downs, and lunges

Reading Write Turns: New Directions in Canadian Fiction, a collection of short stories by Canadian authors.

Update (10:oopm): Went ice skating for about half an hour, which wasn't quite a workout, but was fun and active. I want to try women's hockey now!

cardio day

30 min elliptical
30 min hills on the stationary bike

I never thought it would be possible to get a good workout on the stationary bike but the hill course definitely had my heart racing and the sweat dripping. Today was a good cardio day.

Finished the Jane Austen Book Club.