Day 181

This morning was my late arrival day so I got up at my normal time and went jogging. GO ME! 1.5 miles is getting somewhat easier with the quicker pace, but the cooler weather made breathing a bit tough. I am going to have to invest in long sleeved tops and running pants for the cool season.

1st lap - 5:19 min - j
2nd lap - 10:44 min - j
3rd lap - 15: 44 min - j

Then I hit the gym. :) GO ME again! I was able to do 25lbs on the bicep curl and 30 for the row and the shoulder machine. I had to go back to 20 lbs for the vertical bench press and the other shoulder press though. 30 reps on each and my arms were trembling. I am still not 100% sure I am doing them right. Many of them show that you are supposed to be working your back muscles also, but I really only feel it in my arms. The leg machine that curls I did 50 lbs on, but I need help figuring out how to properly adjust that one. The lifting up I can do just fine, but the backwards curl I can't seem to get into the position where I can do it and keep my back against the seat correctly. The leg press and calf lift I did 40 lbs on. I am still failing miserably at any attempts at sit-ups or crunches. Any tips on core/ab excerises I could do would be greatly appreciated. :)

Day 179 - 180

Glee night was Tuesday and last night I had errands to run after work. Also, my event ran long so I didn't get off until 7pm.

Day 178

Today I decided to get back to my training.

1st lap: 5:20 min - j
2nd lap: 10:22 min - j
3rd lap: 15:17 min - j
4th lap: 24:15 min - w

After that I went back to the gym to get back into my new weight lifting routine. I managed to increase my wieght from 20 - 30 lbs for the first two machines. I wasn't able to do that much on the shoulder press though, so I stuck with 20 lbs for that. I increased to 50 lbs for one of the leg machines and went back to 40 lbs for the second leg machine.

Day 171-177 RAD and Retreat

This week was CRAZY for me. Mon. - Thurs. I taught RAD after working my normal day so I didn't get home until between 9:30 - 10pm each night. I got a small amount of physical activity while teaching the techniques, but not enough to really count it as calorie burning. Friday I had to stay late by 2.5 hours for a training, then drove 2.5 hours to the camp grounds at which the Leadership Retreat I helped facilitate was being held. I was there until 3:30pm on Sunday, but with traffic I didn't get home until 6pm. Other than walking back and forth between the bunkhouse and the dining hall a few times, the only physical activity I got over the weekend was the high ropes course. I attempted the rock climbing wall (the easy one) until I got half way up and realized that the hand hold that I was looking for had fallen off the wall. So, with no easy place to go - I switched to the ladder. Once at the top, I seriously considered turning around and going back down. Instead though, I braved the tight rope walk. However, at the crow's nest between the tight rope and the log walk I almost had a total panic attack. The wind was blowing and everytime someone went down the zipline the whole structure vibrated. It took the encouragement of our students and the guy at the top putting his hand on my back and prying me off of the pole to get me to cross the log. Thankfully, the zipline was actually fun. One of our students video taped me going down the zipline. I screamed like a little girl, but I survived!

Day 170

Apparently 1.5 hours is not long enough to wait for your food to settle before jogging. I was attempting to jog 1.5 miles again tonight, but had to stop a quarter of the way through my second lap because I thought I was going to be sick. Not a good feeling. I was able to finish the lap at a decent pace after a few minutes of breathing.

1st lap - 5:16 min - j
2nd lap - 10:22 min - j

After jogging the mile, I decided to go to the gym instead of continueing to jog. I felt like I was dying. I am not sure how it is possible, but I think in only the past five days the amount of food I ate plus the lack of excersise actually set me back several months worth of progress. UGH! Anyways - I did alright at the gym. Arms at 20 lbs and legs at 40 lbs like normal. I also tried doing stomach crunches. I did 100, but I am pretty sure I am not doing them right. My back and neck are killing me, but my stomach doesn't hurt at all. I have got to find someone to teach my how to do a core workout properly.

After the gym, I thought it would be a good idea to attempt my last lap of the 1.5 miles. I promised myself that would be my minimum now that I am working on speed rather than distance. I am not going to be able to work out this upcoming week and wanted to finish at least this one.

I am glad that I did. The time in the gym gave my stomach time to fully settle and knowing that I only had one lap to do, I was able to push myself on speed more than I ever had before. It was awesome: I did my fastest lap ever!!! 4:32 min for .5 miles. This time of course won't make me a track star, but I am happy with it. :)

Day 166 - 169

Eh - I don't even remember my excuses anymore.

Day 165

I guess today is the day that I get back into the routine - or should I say, create a new routine from scratch. Since I have only done this whole combo jogging/gym thing three times, I don't really have a set routine yet. I think what I did tonight should work for a while - I hope ( a circuit with the machines after jogging for 1.5 miles). I still need to at some point incorporate the sit-ups, push-ups, and lounges thing, but that will happen some day.

1st lap - 5:18 min - j
2nd lap - 10:21 min - j
3rd lap - 15:39 min - j

Day 159 - 164

This week has been crazy - I was in a wedding for a friend out of town which took a ton of time, energy, and driving. It was worth it to be there for my sorority sister on her special day, but still ... it totally killed my excersise schedule. Anyways - I will get back to weights asap.

Day 158

Day 3 of my new quicker paced jogging and gym routine - woo hoo. Today hurt though - I am not sure why, but my best guess was the cooler weather made it more difficult to breathe. At least that's my story. In the gym - I am going slow, but steady. With all of the arm machines I am doing 30 reps with 20 lbs and with the leg machines I do 30 reps with 40 lbs. Its a start :) The legs aren't too bad except that one of the machines is not really made for someone my size and I am not sure how to adjust the chair part of it so that I can actually sit with my back against the back of the chair. Oh well - with the arms I am doing alright except that the shoulder press machine doesn't seem to be aligned properly so if I were to fully extend my arms one wouldn't actually be fully extended. I guess that is what I get for using the free gym at my complex instead of getting a membership somewhere that actually cares about the people using the equipment's safety and physical advancement.

1st lap - 5:18 min - j
2nd lap - 10:45 min - j
3rd lap - 16:01 min - j

Day 157

Today I went back to my attempting my new goal: to gain muscle mass and lose body fat. I was told last week that in order to do that I need to lift weights, calastenics, and do sprints. To give myself something to work towards I have set my sites on the Navy Physical Readiness Standards for women my age. Haha - why I think I can reach military standards, I am not sure, but we will see if it works.

I jogged 1.5 miles in a new record time for myself: 15:17 minutes.
1st lap, 5:07 min
2nd lap 10:19min
3rd lap 15:17min

After that I went to the gym in my complex and did 30 reps on each of the machines. With the arm machines I did 20 pounds and with the legs I did 40 pounds. I also did 35 sit-ups with the sit up machine and 15 very bad ones without the machine. I also did a little bit of stretching. I need to work more on the sit-ups and then eventually I need to try to tackle push-ups. My fiance suggests that I get an excersise ball - says it is a better way to do sit-ups. I will have to look into it soon. :)

Day 156

Instead of jogging today, Chrissy and I spent the day walking around at the beach and shopping. Yesterday after the Race we went to the state park to hang out with my parents. We walked a trail that is approximately 1.7 miles long. I am not sure how many miles that we walked at the beach and while shopping, but we figured that we had done enough excerise for the weekend :)

Day 155 - RACE FOR THE CURE :)

The big day is finally here! I must admit it was a bit anti-climactic, but I did achieve all three of my goals: jog the whole 3.1 miles, finish in under 40 minutes, and not be the last person in the jogger group. :) My friend Chrissy from gradschool and my coworker Johanna did it with me. We finihsed in 39.44 minutes. Yeah, I know it was cutting it close - but we were weaving through a crowd of over 30,000 people - most of them moving at a snails pace. Even in the non-competitive jogger group, a majority of people I saw were walking. It was annoying, especially the strollers and dogs I was dodging. We all agree that had we been clear to jog without the human obstacle course we could have done it faster. I could have done it faster, but I had to stop and wait for Chrissy and Johanna to catch up so that I wouldn't lose them in the crowd. Of course, I only really pulled ahead towards the end when Chrissy looked at me and said "We have 2 minutes", so I took off. Regardless of the time though I am VERY proud of myself for accomplishing my goal :) And it was even more fun because I was doing it with my friends, who were also doing their first 5ks :)


I have officially jogged a 5k!!!!!!!

Day 152 - 154

Busy and lazy - no jogging. :(