Fitness accountability thread?

[Annie]

I actually slept pretty decent last night. Only woke up a couple of times but fell right back to sleep. Working out HARD helps a bunch with my insomnia. Sometimes my best sleep is TWO days after a hard workout, which I find REALLY weird but I never claimed to be "right". Lol

Went to the park and walked a lap with Mrs. Oldkar, the stopped by the gym and did an hour of this program on the bike called "Rolling Hills", which is just another name for some kind of medieval torture device, I'm sure. It changes resistance every 60 seconds and I am drenched by the time I'm done with an hour. It's actually my favorite of all the programs I've tried so far.

Then I did a half hour on the row machine. I had some stuff to do so I called it a morning. Might go back this evening. Just kinda depends on how my day goes ... because I really wanted to do an hour of rowing. That is both the blessing and the curse of the gym being only blocks from your house. Lol

 

[Annie]

@Commander Keen, dude, the humidity is worse today than it was yesterday ...

I hope you survive your run! Today it is gonna SUCK the life outta ya.

 

[Commander Keen]

@Annie today is a rest day! I thought about making up a few miles I missed due to thunderstorms, but decided to leave this as a cut back week instead.
The middle of the week looks to include a small cold front, which will be nice.

 

[Annie]

@Annie today is a rest day! I thought about making up a few miles I missed due to thunderstorms, but decided to leave this as a cut back week instead.
The middle of the week looks to include a small cold front, which will be nice.

Haha! You timed that JUST RIGHT!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the cooler weather ... most of my workouts are in the gym now -- I swear I don't think my tendonitis is EVER gonna straighten up. Any walking over about two miles, or standing around for any length of time and the damned thing swells up like a toad, aches like all git out and will collapse under me if I don't wear a brace -- so I guess for the foreseeable future I'm gonna have to stay with the stationary bike and the rowing machine for cardio.

Still, the humidity kills me when I go to the park and walk. Thank goodness I'm only doing that on Saturdays and Sundays right now. (Monday is my rest day so I can travel around the state and visit friends ... except for when I go see the FGs in Lawton. Then it's on that Wednesday.)

 

[Annie]

Well, so much for that rest day. I slept so good last night and felt so good that I went and did some cardio bright and early this morning. Now I'm sitting here burning off my 4 hours with my "buddy", the bone stimulator. God, I'll be glad when I don't have to wear this thing anymore. 2 hours and 38 more minutes to go ...

 

[Commander Keen]

10.5 miles this morning. I ran easy instead of doing the workout I had planned due to the 80° temp at 5:15 this morning (I'll do the workout tomorrow). I felt really good and didn't notice the heat so I should have just done the workout like I planned.

 

[Commander Keen]

11 miles today. And they sucked! Way hot and humid. I cut the workout part of my run from 8 miles to 4, and took a nice laydown for a few minutes after those 4 miles just to rest.

Then I get home to find that the torsion spring on DW's side of the garage is busted, so there's that. I hope everyone else's day is going better!

 

[Annie]

Good for you ... yeah the humidity is kicking my ass, too. I HATE that sticky feeling ... And I dunno about you but I feel like I can't catch my breathe sometimes when I'm outside working out in this kind of weather.

Argh ... serious question -- can you do too much cardio?? I did a half hour with the trainer this morning (I loathe those ****ing bear crawls, btw ...), then did 15 minutes on the rowing machine to cool off and stretch my upper back out. I felt pretty good so I thought "Ehhh, I'll do a half hour of cardio on the bike -- I'm needing to kick my average heart rate up a bit on my hour ride so what the heck, let see what can do ...

I've started gauging my rides less by miles and "how I feel" and more by my average heart rate while riding and my resting heart rate in the evenings. I'm still not strong enough to gauge my muscle strength by anything but "man, I'm not sore, I need to do more" and "**** me, I might have overdone it yesterday" ... lol

Anyway, I wound up spending an hour and half on the bike, AHR was 147 (which is actually a little higher than what it has been in the last week -- I've been "stuck" at 145.

Anyway, I don't feel bad, but I caught myself on the way home wondering if I could get another hour in on the bike this evening after I get done talking to the tattoo guy about some work I want done.

Too much?? Okay as long as I feel good?? (I suspect the benadryl, and 3 full nights of sleep, which I haven't had since right after my surgery in May are the reasons for me feeling so energetic. It is amazing what a few good nights' sleep in a row can do for you. I'm kinda hoping that this working out thing will eventually take the place of the benadryl -- which I'd really like to stop depending on for sleep -- but it beats the heck outta prescription Rxs, so I'll stick with it as a necessary evil for a while.

 

[Commander Keen]

@Annie

I think you're fine picking up the cardio as long as you feel up to it. Keeping track of your resting HR is a great step; if mine goes up by 4-5 bpm for a couple days I usually take it as a sign I need an extra easy day, or even a day off.

I obviously didn't start where I'm at now, but I have averaged running ~65 miles a week the last 6 weeks (since training for fall races began), and ~50 mpw for the year. It's about 75-90 minutes on weekdays, with 2+ hours one weekend day.

The vast majority of my running is very easy (<80% of max HR, or <70% of heart rate reserve), with maybe 20% harder than that. FWIW, heart rate reserve is my preferred method of tracking HR during exercise.

Keeping the intensity fairly low most of the time is the key to volume with cardio (and most other things).

 

[Annie]

@Commander Keen ok, thanks a LOT!! It seems like EVERYTHING I read on how to best handle this journey is conflicting. It's driving my OCD crazy because I don't do well when I plateau and I feel one coming ...

Chelsie (my personal trainer) and I were talking this morning and I'm thinking that I may take the last few days of this month as a "break" and then start back up.

I worked out hard (for a fat chick) for that first RNG I signed up for and then wound up not doing anything for most of the month before because of my headaches. I didn't get to shoot that match because I was taking too much medication for me to feel comfortable (safe) shooting that day but I was amazed at how well I handled the heat. I'm still amazed at how people ***** about that road -- that was the most enjoyable part of the course for me both times I've walked it with friends.

I'm 30 pounds lighter now than I was back then and feel good but I still don't have the upper body strength I need to manhandle a bike if I dump it and I'm not riding until I have that. It's kinda like shooting. I'll clear my own jams, thanks very much, and if I wind up laying my bike down for any reason I'll pick the ***** back up myself. For me it's just a matter of honor. I'm no man's ***** ...

I can hardly wait until I'm another 20 pounds lighter. Because I'm not sinking money into gear I won't be able to wear in another 6 months. Right now the only place I'm not losing weight is my head ... so I guess I could go helmet shopping ... lol