Treadmill Racing and Sad News.

I went to Nth Degree on Wednesday and the class was pretty small.  About five minutes before class, it appeared that the class would only be half full.  This means everyone would start on the treadmills and no one would start on the floor (the weight training portion).  I looked up and down the treadmills and was disappointed.  You see, I always want to workout next to someone faster and stronger than me.  It motivates me and I try to keep up with them.  I usually know who is faster, and I didn't see any of the usuals at class.

Then classmate #11 came in.  I don't know his name, but he's a guy (many are faster than me- but not all) and he is a good 10-15 years younger. BINGO.  I'd run with him before and I knew he was fast.  But what to do?  If I leave my treadmill, will he take my spot and leave me to do the floor workout alone?

I decided to put it all out there.  "I'll work out with you, ok?".  He looked glad to not be alone, but I didn't want the poor kid to thing some woman in her late 30's was hot for him.  "Your fast", I said matter of factly. "I'll be faster if I work out next to you".  He seemed to understand and seemed a little relieved.

It was a smart decision.  We flew through the workout at "sprinter" speeds.  Nth Degree instructions give three speeds, "walker", "runner" and "sprinter".  I started as a "Walker Plus".  I moved on to a "Runner"  then a "Runner Plus".  I'm now a Sprinter.  I'm barely a sprinter, but still, I'm a sprinter.This is a huge deal to me.

I also liked working out with this kid because he lifts heavy, as do I.  It really is so much more enjoyable to work out near someone who is also pushing themselves, and this was certainly the case.

Our usual dinner plans for Wednesday fell through, so we headed to a favorite local brewery.  The one that we go to every Thursday.  So of course, several members of the staff stopped by to say "You know today's Wednesday, right?.  Yeah, yeah, ha, ha.

I ordered the secret Boca Burger (it's not on the menu) with broccoli and a chipotle mayo.  I ate the sandwich open faced with a little of the mayo.  Yum.  We also ordered a pitcher of something dark.  I think it was a porter.  Absent the beer, it was under 300 calories.

I was off of work on Thursday, but sent the kids to daycare.  This was so I could work on painting the dressers and work table for my craft room.  I was busy from sun up to sun down.  Boot camp was canceled because most of the people couldn't make it.  Between spring break and  it being opening day for the Detroit Tigers, only Jenny and I could have gone.  We talked about working out together, but it was kind of chilly. In the end, I skipped my workout all together.

This was not smart, since Thursday is another night at the Brewery.  We met our neighbors there and they gave us some terrible news.  They are moving.

To some people, this would be unfortunate news.  To us, it's devastating.  They are some of our dearest, closet friends.  We had always hoped our boys would grow up together and continue being best friends.

We can't blame them at all.  They have been given an amazing opportunity, a great Northern Michigan town, a great job, great schools- their dream life. So are sad, but very happy for them.  We pushed aside our disappointment and focused on being happy for our friends.  We spent the evening talking about vacations we will take together this summer and when we will go and visit.

All this talk meant more beer.  A total of four pitchers for four adults.  How on earth did that happen?

Friday morning came way too fast.  I got on the scale and was 2 pounds heavier than the morning before.  great. Not entirely surprising, since I exceeded my daily caloric intake by 50%.

I did the work thing- it was a half day so that's good.  Tom was off and daycare was closed, so he was home with the boys.  After I got home, we had an opportunity to work on the paining some more.  The fat quarter of fabric also arrived.  The colors are all a match. Phew!

Here's a before picture.  I have to find an after...

I think we pretty much are done with the painting.  Now we have to do the poly and let it all dry.  I'm pretty pleased with how everything looks so far.

I planned to do 5 miles of fartleks, but could not think of a 5 mile route that I wanted to run.  I decided to break it up a bit.  I warmed up for a half mile and then did fartleks for another .75 mile, until I arrived at the local track.  There I did 2.5 miles of straights and curves (hard on straight-aways, easy on turns).  I wrapped that up and ran home at a "tempo" run pace.

Our middle school track is pretty crappy.

I stayed in lane 3 to avoid the potholes.  I had to take a picture of it for Tommy, since his favorite number, like all 3 year-olds that I have ever met, is 3.

For the straights and curves, my heart rate got to 160/161 for the straights and I made sure it stayed above 140 for the curve. This workout burned just over 500 calories for 5 miles.

The run itself was great, but there were a few distractions.  First, I am absolutely done and finished with headphones.  They drove me nuts.  Second, I lost my Lululemon headband.  Serves me right for spending $16.00 on a headband.  I retraced my steps and it was gone.  Someone else is now sporting a used headband. Enjoy your new find thief and may someone choke you with it. 

Afterwards, we hung out with the neighbors again.  We had cocktails and ordered pizza.  I don't even want to think about how many calories I went over. Still, it was a great night. Here's Mackie on Jenny's lap.  He just adores her! And boy does he need a hair cut!

It was a gorgeous evening, so I couldn't help but take a ton of pictures.  Mack was trying on Jenny's gardening gloves.

 Tom even got out his guitar.He needs a haircut too!

 Tommy was trying out his new shades. Oh, and yeah- haircut needed.

 And finally, Mack kicking back in the bed of the play truck.

I took a bunch of pictures of the neighbors too, but keep forgetting (or am to embarrassed) to ask if it's alright to post them.     I asked- here they are:

Week One, part 2.

I'm sorry I am just returning! I feel weird saying sorry, because that would mean someone is out there- and it tuns out, someone is.;  I actually got some "views".  No comments though, which I think is a good thing!I'm not ready to fully accept that others read this!!


It's now Friday and things are going pretty well. Let's recap my week so far:


Monday,  I headed to the gym.  I didn't have as much time there as I had wanted.  This is sad, since I had three hours of free time, yet spent only 1 hour working out.  The other two were spent watching Justified.  I am watching it via Netflix and just finished Season 1.  I love it- but that's a whole other blog (not really, I barely do this one!).


As I was saying, I worked out for an hour Monday.  It wasn't one of my better workouts.  I planned to do a 10000 meter interval workout on the rowing machine and was aiming for 600 calories.  I did row a 10K, I did do it in under an hour and I did intervals but I just couldn't get my heart rate up.  The strap on my left foot kept coming off, weird men kept coming near me and I just could not get in the groove, so to speak (as if I speak like that, oh well).  I burned 450 calories in 50 minutes.  If I had more time, I would have gone on the elliptical or ran for a bit, but I promised my my husband I'd go get the kids.


(Which reminds me, don't I need to come up with some clever and endearing nicknames for said husband and kids? Yeah, good luck with that...)


It wasn't a terrible workout, but  I certainly felt like I had more in me, I just couldn't get there with the rowing machine.  I'm not giving up on it though.  I think next Monday I will start with a 1.5 mile run on the treadmill to get warmed up and get my heart rate up, then try to row 700 meters in 40 min.  Well see what kind of "burn" that gets me. I will take some notes and come up with a share-able workout.


On a good note, I liked my new gloves.  A few days prior I had done 5000 on the rowing machine and been rewarded with some pretty nasty blisters.  I covered them with New Skin and picked up some gloves. This time went much better- no new blisters.


Tuesday was much, much better.  I started with a 5:15 am strength training class. It was great.  The instructor found that perfect balance- she kept our heart rates up high enough to burn calories, yet not so high that we had to reduce weights or had crappy form.  My HRM said that I burned 430 calories in 45 minutes.  I have to be a little suspect of that, as it seems so high.  Then again, my HRM is not known for being too high- so I'm taking the 430!  Later that day I took the kids to the gym.  I put them in the kid care and headed for the treadmills.


I had a rocky start, as my HRM was going crazy! It kept saying my heart rate was like 220, before I started.  Initially I was up front.  I get there, wipe down the machine (I finally realized that wiping down the machine after I work out only protects those who use it after me. It does nothing for ME! Now I wipe it down before AND after! Genius, I know.). I set down my water bottle.  I adjust my ipod, arm strap and earbuds. My towel is just so.  I begin. And then I see 220.  What the....


I begin reaching up my shirt, trying to adjust the chest strap without flashing my raisin like midriff at my fellow gym goers.  I think it's all set.  I start again. Re-adjust my ear buds.  Start running and BAM 230.
I fidget, push buttons, adjust straps and so on.  No luck.


I become convinced that it interference with from the tv right above me.  I get all of my crap and head to the opposite corner.  I start my rituals all over and sure enough- 220.  Are.You. Kidding. Me?


I stop and approach one of the staff members, who looks at me like I am crazy. No, no one has ever complained of interference with their HRM.  Really. No one? Ever? Now, I don't believe this, though I do find some solace in the fact that she looks me up and down and says, "no, your heart rate is not 220 (see , I can't be completely crazy)  Could it be from someone else?".


Of course I had considered this from the start, but had quickly dismissed it.  I humored her. We looked around at the other four people there.  Now let me say, I have no issue with older people and I love seeing them at the gym, but I have to say the other four people at the Y that Tuesday morning at 10 am were all, yes, ALL over 70 and I don't think any had broken a sweat.


"Yeah, maybe" was my response.  Internally I cursed her, then I cursed Polar and vowed to buy a Garmin.  I accepted that I'd have to rely on the unreliable results from the machine and if my HRM was junk, I may as well move back to where I started.


I gather my stuff and perform my rituals again (though I skip wiping down the machine this time, screw germs!). I have now managed to waste about 20 minutes and everyone in the place thinks I am certifiable.  At least I still had 90 minutes till the child care people came looking for me to force my kids back on me.


Turns out, I didn't need 90 minutes, just 50.  I had a great run.  I did 5.5 miles. Yes, that statement deserves it very own sentence. Be glad I didn't give each word it's own sentence.  It's a really big deal for me.  The first 3.5 were classic intervals with incline for most of it (2-3)( I'll try to insert a chart later.)  Then I eliminated the incline for the last 1.5 miles and worked on endurance speed by going between 7 and 8.3 (ok, it wasn't really speedy, but it was fast for me).


I felt great and probably could have gone another couple of miles, but that's how I usually end up getting injured, so I stopped it there.  I burned apx 600 calories, which sounded about right when you take into account that most of it was done on an incline.


So- Tuesday was a success- over 1000 calories!


Wednesday was pretty good.  I went to "the Class" at 6 am and burned 450 calories.  That was with increased speeds and weights.  I think my body is getting too comfortable with this workout.  I used to burn 500-550 calories just a few weeks ago.  I'm really beginning to think that the price increase is a blessing.


Although I had an extra 450 calories to eat and ate pretty well during the day, I ended up going over by about 400 calories! I had dinner and drinks at a friend's and one piece of pizza and one bread stick were 420 calories.  Add my drinks and there you have it.  I just cannot get over how many calories were in that small piece of pizza and tiny bread stick.  I used to eat 3 x that in one sitting- that would exceed my base calories for the entire day!  I love pizza, but I'm not sure it's worth it.  I think I'm going to have to work on a home made version....


Thursday was exciting. Myself and a few girlfriends hired a personal trainer to do a "bootcamp" at our houses.  Our first bootcamp was Thursday afternoon.  I was a bit worried that I would not burn enough calories, being that we'd probably waste a lot of time getting to know eachother and figuring things out- and this turned out to be the case.  Fortunately I went to the gym that morning and tested out some of my interval workout plan.  At they gym, I ran 5 miles and burned 450 calories.  Good thing, since I only burned 150 with the trainer. 


I not only wanted to burn off some of the calories from the day before, but we go to a local Brewery every Thursday.  This means I needed a cushion so I could have a couple of beers.  While I didn't make much of a dent in Wednesday's calorie deficit, I didn't go over on Thursday.  That includes the TWO mini cupcakes I had for my son's "pretend Birthday" at preschool. Unlike the pizza the day before, these were worth it.  They were from a cupcake bakery in my town called cup.cake.  I don't know if you say "cup cake" or "cup dot cake". I forgot to ask. It really doesn't matter- however you say it, they are amazing.We got these one's and chocolate ones. 

This brings me to today, which is Friday.  I have been fighting a cold for a few days and this morning I was feeling pretty crummy.  I also had a crummy day at work.  In the past, this would mean I'd go home and sleep- or go shop (it is payday, after all). I might take a little nap or I might run to the store, but I WILL workout.


Now I have to decide what kind of workout to do. This is the plan: 20 minute interval workout on the elliptical and then 40 on the treadmill.  I know if I start on the treadmill, I won't ever switch to the elliptical (I don't like it very much) and my legs really don't need 60 minutes of running.