Exercise Goals for 2009

OK, I will if you will.

On Saturday the gym was mobbed. For 2009 I resolve to get in shape!
The benches were all taken, so Clive and I moved on to the row machine. Clive
is still doing a relatively low weight, but his form is getting better and he looked
like he was handling it well. He'll go up 10 next time. I set the machine to 125
and pulled two pretty good sets. I did a third set at 130 but only got 5 reps.

There was bench free when we finished, so we did bench presses next. This is
my target exercise for the year. I want to be able to bench press my weight
3x10. I did 2 sets of 10 at 145. I felt good, so I tried 155 for my third set and
managed 7 reps. I'm going to start at 155 next time.

We did cable pull-downs, military press with dumbbells, dips on a machine,
and reverse curls with dumbbells. Clive's attention wandered in and out,
but on the whole he put in a pretty good effort. We did abs on the machine,
and finished off with ten minutes on the ellipticals.

Good for you, George!

Friday I walked twice the stairs to the 6th floor up and down, as I knew I wouldn't have time to exercise later on. Yesterday I was under the weather
(hot desert winds here), but today, I'll get 30 min of elliptical done - plus
tons of ironing *sigh*

I was right. My arms were in agony on Thursday - and whatever that is between the thumb and the pointer finger.

Walked a bit on Thursday and Friday. Walked longer and with more oomph yesterday and today. Set, the dogs and I went down to the beach today. Set walked a bit, then sat. I took the dogs down to the ice/water edge, wandered more, wandered back. It was a good little aerobic workout down there. Nice and sunny, if a bit slippery.

Did some snow-shoveling Sunday.
Looking forward to a run today.

The mob hit my gym today. Last week wasn't so bad.

Did 2.25 miles of intervals (quarter-mile increments, walked first and walked last, ran 1 mile total). Tried to push myself with the running, went pretty fast (upper 6's, like 6.8).

Soz, can I assume that 6.8 is miles per hour?
I usually think in minute-mile pace.
For example, if I ran at that speed, I'd say I was running 8:50 miles.

Miles per hour, yep.

What's your usual pace?

45 min. total body workout. 45-55 reps per exercise.

Gymmed, concentrated on arms.

Got 30 min at the elliptical in, and walked to the 6th floor again. For some
reason, it felt very strenuous today and when I reached the fifth floor, I became
a real heavy breather.

Dance class tonight. 1.5 hours of stretching, dancing, shimmy drills, arm work.

I'll sleep well tonight.

Found one set of stairs at work - they don't go all the way to the ground floor - they're sort of decorative stairs between floors in the office - but I used them (and will continue to use them) to get to the floors they do access. Still looking for the stairs that go to the ground floor - and outside.

I went to a class at the gym today. A friend has been telling me about this great Ball Fusion class - they use those big exercise balls for lots of different things. Well they changed it up today. Now it's a Cardio Fusion class. (Where do they get these names?) It was 35 minutes of Step class using hand weights (I like Step, but haven't had a class in months) followed by 15 minutes of sitting/rolling around on the ball. The teacher wanted us all to stay for her Pilates class after, but I was whupped.

I'm all over the place.
On a 4-mile run of average effort, about 9:30.
On an interval run with good effort on the fast parts, an average pace of about
9:00. I have no way of measuring the pace at different parts of the run. I just
take the total time and divide by the distance.
On a tempo run with good effort throughout, also about 9:00.
When I'm lollygagging, over 10:00.

It's sad to note that when I ran the Ocean State Marathon in 1983, my
average pace for 26 miles was faster than my current average pace for four
miles.

I have yet to run two continuous miles at any speed, so don't "sad to note" me... I'm going at about 5 mph (I guess that's a 12-minute mile -- ptooey) until I actually get to the 2-mile mark, then will start going faster. Maybe this week...

Gymmed today. Did the recumbent bicycle for 20 minutes, then weights and exercise ball for 20 minutes. (I do ball crunches -- sit-ups on the exercise balls.) I've noticed some definite improvements in that department -- I'm supposed to do three sets of fifteen but that was NOT happening at first, now I'm able to do do three sets of ten without passing out, will try a dozen/ set next. Also need to increase the weight for chest press/ row/ shoulder exercises that I do on Tuesdays, they were too easy today.

Sounds too painful to even contemplate.

Stayed up late last night and got up late this morning. Almost talked myself out of mall walking but then, got my head on straight. Did 1.5 miles. Caught a rabbit, a much younger woman in little leggings and a t-shirt. Not an inch of excess flesh on her. Why she was even in there with us was beyond me but I made her my target and kept up with her. She cut a few corners tho' and I sensed that she was conscious of me too. Ha!

Yay progress!

I'm trying to run and bicycle more this year. I've pushed myself up to 6 miles a day on the bike and running 3 times a week.

I've been doing situps and push-ups at home, I add one on every day. Right now it's 4 sets of 20 each, tomorrow, 4 sets of 20 and 1 at the end, and so on...

Cycloptichorn

Is that a great feeling, or what?

ehbeth, there must be a fire escape (stairs) in your building, and everyone
should know where they are in case of an emergency. So keep looking for them!
With all the dancing, doesn't that strain your feet too much?
----

I did 15 min of weight training, and 30 min interval on the treadmill. When I first started, I walked 5 min and jogged 1 minute. Now I am up to 3 min. running and my goal is to run the entire 30 minutes one day.... preferably by the end of 2009 if not sooner.