Addicted to Exercise

This morning I headed down to the gym to practice some more on the elliptical trainer. This time, I took a heart rate monitor so I could tell more closely how I was doing. I started out with about the same level of effort I was using Monday, and as I suspected, I was pretty far below even my easy run zone. So, I jacked up the resistance until I hit the bottom of that (about 140 bpm).

When I got about half an hour into it I decided that since I would be close I would try to hit 12000 strides and 1000 calories before the end of the hour. I saw my numbers at half-way and knew I only needed to pick up the pace a little bit. So, I did that, and I got it pretty close, because I could tell about 10 minutes from the end that I would hit both marks with a minute or two to spare.

I did the 5-minute cool-down backwards. That was my first time to move my feet backwards on the device, and I could tell that I was much less smooth than normal. I need to practice that to work out the bouncing.

Today was my first real taste of the elliptical trainer in a few months. I think I can handle this in small doses. I felt okay today, better than some of the days last week, in fact, but I know I need to let this leg thing totally heal. So, I opted for the no-impact workout instead of running the 7-mile loop.

I hopped on the elliptical machine and did that for an hour plus a 5-minute cool down. As usual, I was going for the high score. I watched people on either side of me come and go, and I was spinning a lot faster than they were. I kept myself amused thinking how they must think that going as fast as I am that I would finish before they did! Heh!

Anyway, I racked up over 12000 strides and just under 1000 calories. Until I picked up the pace in the last few minutes, though, I never really was breathing like I would be if I were running. Next time I will be in less of a hurry when I leave so I can remember to grab my heart rate monitor.

Hopefully I will be able to return to normal training soon, but I know I can stay in good shape doing this.

I had a pretty good workout on the elliptical trainer this morning. I decided I was due for some intervals, so my plan was as follows: 20 minute warm-up, then intervals of 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, and 1 with 1 minute rest between each, followed by a 10 minute cool-down. That’s 52 minutes in all.

I am definitely getting better at and more comfortable on the elliptical machine. I started my warm-up, and I had to keep going faster and increasing the resistance just to get my body to get out of a rest state. During these 20 minutes, I experimented a little. Normally I just grip the handles while I use this machine, but today I tried letting go and moving my arms like I was running, since that’s something I need to work on anyway. I would do that for a minute or two at a time and then switch back. I was watching in the mirror beside me for some feedback. One thing that was really obvious was when I was holding on, my body did not move up and down with my strides, but when I let go, there was some up and down motion. This may be a core strength issue. Just like when I run, my two arms do not make the same motion, so if I can figure out how to get it right here it should be good practice.

Anyway, into the intervals! Since I was already going pretty well, I pushed during the intervals harder than I’ve ever gone on the elliptical machine before. It felt great. During the rest minutes, I actually slowed down to a little bit slower than I went during the warm-up. That allowed me to be consistent throughout the whole workout. I did most of the cool-down at the same effort I used inthe warm-up, but I Slowed down considerably in the last couple minutes just to really let everything settle out.

That felt really good. Afterwards, I did three sets of 10 pull-ups and two sets of my leg raise/hold (each leg 30 seconds each of forward, side, and back) exercise. Then it was off to work, where I plotted how I was going to get away early enough to enjoy the nice day that was going on outside today.

I did not feel that worn out after my four hours in the gym yesterday, but I guess it caught up with me. I woke up this morning to find every muscle in my body feeling tired. It was great.

So, I went down to the gym to play on the elliptical trainer. I decided I would use less resistance than yesterday and just try to be consistent the whole time. That went well, but I did speed up quite a bit over the course of the workout. It just came naturally. I stopped after one hour, feeling better than when I arrived.

I did three sets of ten pull-ups, and then I was out of there.

This morning I decided to try some simulated 400s on the elliptical trainer. I did the workout Meghan described a few days ago, which was a 20 minute warm-up, two sets of 6 times 90 seconds on and 30 seconds off with a 2 minute rest between sets, followed by a 10 minute cool-down. In all that adds up to 56 minutes. That definitely held my attention better than just going on there at a constant speed. Next time I try that I think I need to go harder, though. As I got into the second set I could tell I was not going to be tired enough, so I started speeding up. My last couple were the fastest I had the whole time, and I know I could have still done some more.

I know I’m at least elevating my heart rate and burning calories doing this, but I am still concerned that I’m not getting the kind of workout I get when I run. There’s no easy way to tell, though, I guess. My hip is feeling pretty good now, so I am going to see if I can get permission to try running for 5 or 10 minutes in the next couple days to see how that feels.

This evening I did not have as much time, so I decided to hop on the elliptical trainer for half an hour. I went faster than I did yesterday, but still from watching my breathing I do not think I was working all that hard. It was crowded at the gym, so there were only a couple machines available, and the one I got decided to stop keeping score after just a couple minutes. I think I kept my effort pretty much the same the rest of the time, and the display would register some cycles every couple minutes after that, but mostly I was going by feel. Still, that felt pretty good, and I definitely did not feel anything in my hip. My plan for tomorrow is to get to the gym early and do a nice elliptical workout followed by my weight routine.

I am still getting the hang of the elliptical trainer. Today, I again started to have my feet fall asleep after half an hour, but I had been talking to people about it today and decided to shift my feet around a bit, and that helped. I went for 90 minutes total this time. I felt the best during the middle 30 minutes. Somewhere in there I found a stance that felt better than it had been. I felt really strange the last 10 minutes or so. My legs just felt a little shaky. Maybe that’s because this was the first real exercise they’ve had in over a week.

Anyway, it felt really good to sweat and burn a bunch of calories. I still need to figure out the right combination of resistance and speed for that machine, but it’s definitely feeling better. I don’t have the pain in my leg when I do it, so that’s a big plus, too.

So now I have to determine how much of that I need to do to maintain or improve my fitness level over the next couple weeks.