Broadcasting your workouts

Although it's not the last day of the month till tomorrow, today is the last day of the July Journey to Splits Blogilates challenge.  For 30 days we stretched various parts of our legs every day, and each day we do a new stretch in addition to the basic 5.  And theoretically by the end of the month we would be able to (or getting closer to) do a standing split.

Well, I did my last split stretch yesterday and I can confidently say that I still cannot do a standing split.  But my hips are much closer to the ground on my side splits and I can almost do a forward split, so the month-long work was not in vain.  And for the most part I was able to successfully do my stretches every day and managed to take a semi-respectable selfie of that day's new pose.  And after a month, looking back on my Instagram history, I have to say it was quite impressive.

This is the first time I did something this public.  It's one thing to blab random thoughts and report progress on this blog about my various running, yoga-ing, and other exercises, but it's quite another to take a picture of yourself doing some stretching pose, post on social media, everyday, for a month.  I had a lot of insecurities, about how I look, about how I look while stretching, about my surroundings (I have a very small and messy apartment), about what I wear, everything.  Initially I took pictures in public places like the gym, then I switched to fancy photoshopping apps and went on a PS diarrhea.  Then I just thought, you know what, screw it, and ended up doing a basic blurring of the background and called it a day.  Many pictures had my face in it, and in some of them I really didn't look very appealing.

But the feedback was amazing.  From the very first picture I posted accepting the challenge I got "likes" from many popsters (other people who also follow the blogilates workout).  I returned their kindness with my own likes of other random people on Instagram, and a few of us started following each other and my feed began to be flooded with other people's stretches and other workouts.  Every day after I post my pictures I will receive about 20-30 likes, which is not many compared to some other people but considering that I only opened an account for this occasion and only had three real life friends on Instragram (for this purpose) it was a pretty good response I think.  And I got slightly more traffic on this blog after putting the web address on my profile.  Occasionally I got comments and felt very flattered, but this form of quiet camaraderie and support is perfect for me.  It's partly what keeps me going forward and I'm very thankful for those who cared.

And now this month is coming to an end.  There's a short plank challenge for the beginning of next month that I think I will do but didn't seem very interested or very well put together.  But after this month, with the new gym classes I'm taking and this everyday goal I try to achieve, I think I've gotten into a good momentum to keeping going forward, doing workouts and stretches every day, just to keep myself moving if anything else.

Here's to another great month!

Exercise Diary: Morning Mumble Grumble

5am: beep beep beep, beep beep beep....

snooze

5:10 am: beep beep beep, beep beep beep...

snooze

5:20 am

Up, wash, chow down a banana, surf the web, change.  Oh look it's almost 5:50, time to go.

This has been my routine for the past 2 days.

So far so good.

So for the past 2 week I had been very afraid of running.  I get really tired in the afternoons, and although I bring all my running gears with me to work I end up lugging everything back at the end of the day unused.  I make excuses: I was hungry, I was sleepy, I was tired, I felt sluggish, it's too hot out.

I think I've been afraid.  Afraid of the out-of-breathness around mile 2, afraid of the return of my plantar fasciitis, afraid of being famished and exhausted after my runs and order take out instead of cooking, and the general sluggishness afterwards that usually make up my post-run evenings.

All in all I had not been running a lot for the past two weeks.  But I did do a bunch of other stuff.  There was a hiking trip over graduation weekend, regular weekly yoga classes, and last weekend I did a group yoga thing with two of my friends who sort of got into weight losing and fitness.  And now I'm taking these two gym classes this term that make me get up obscenely early in the morning and make me seriously sweat out some major toxins.

And it's been good.  My abs are protesting, my body felt looser.  Tonight while I was walking I could feel that my shoulders are not even, with the right one higher than the left.  So I consciously tilted my body while walking and surprisingly that felt good.  Maybe I should look up on proper posture and standing, and maybe that will cure my weird and problematic right foot.

I've also activated a new Instagram account to participate in this month's blogilates challenge of doing a split in 30 days.

Above are the stretches.  We do #1-5 everyday, and starting day 6 we add the pose corresponding to the number of the day in addition to 1-5.  The whole thing takes about 10 minutes to do every day and theoretically at the end of the month we will be able to do a split (don't know about the standing split, balance is a whole other issue for me).  And as proof of our commitment we are to upload a picture of ourselves everyday on Instagram for a chance to win stuff every week.  I have a feeling that while the stretches will only take 10 minutes, taking the perfect selfie (which will involve a lot of timed capture, perfect camera and body positioning, and a lot of pain in the tush) for Instagram will take maybe an hour and half.  So we will see.  I've already tried to do a selfie today and truth be told, while the stretches felt great I look stupid (and fat) when captured on camera.  Maybe some people are meant to exercise in secret and who who are not don't really need to exercise that much.

Anyway, any exercise is better than no exercise and if I can become more fit (and hopefully slimmer) by the end of summer I will be the happiest glutton in the world.  I also need to re-think about this whole running thing.  I told myself that all the yoga and strength training are done to make me a better runner, but now I'm not so sure.  The whole point of any exercise is to make me healthier.  Although I probably won't give up running altogether, maybe it will take second or third place at least for the time being.  Is that so bad?  Or am I just impulsively flaunting myself over something new and again not making a commitment in anything?  I don't know and I need to think about this.  In the mean time, I will be very disappointed if either the number on my scale does not drop or I don't lose a few pant sizes.  I'm not drowning myself in sweat at 6am for nothing.

Exercise Diary: Being afraid

Today was the first time I went back running after my first road run of the year.  That road run was hard, in that my legs were sore for days afterwards that made me feel like I had not done any running at all since I stopping running outside last year.

The weather never got warm enough to run outside again but I had not done any running otherwise.  Life happened and I used that as an excuse to not go.  I was sleep deprived so every day when I got home all I wanted to do was take a nap.  Last week I was overwhelmed with work stuff that I decided to focus on my diet instead of spending hours after work going to the gym.  I did manage to shake off a few stubborn pounds by eating very little in the evenings and very early.  I told myself that if I feel lighter I would have an easier time exercising.

My parens came 2 weeks ago and brought a bunch of stuff that I didn't get to take with me when I got back from my winter vacation.  With two more suitcases in my room I no longer had space to roll out my yoga mat so I didn't do any other exercises either besides running.

All of this was fueled by the fact that even when I had the time and energy to go to the gym and run a few miles, I was afraid that I would get tired, or that it was take up too much time before and after (like now; I got home before 10 and now it's 10:40 and I still haven't showered or changed).  It's not just putting on my gym clothes and go running.  It's making sure that I'm not too full or too hungry before I go, the stretching and doing other exercise videos after coming home, the writing of the blog, and the constant debate of whether I should eat something because on the one hand I feel that I deserve food after exercise but on the other hand I really don't deserve that much food.  It's not like I ran a marathon or something.

Life finally went back to normal for a bit.  On Friday we assembled the graded exams which took up a lot of my time last week.  I had a very relaxed and unproductive weekend which made me slightly guilty but at the same time absolutely happy.  I ate way too much over the weekend because of an awesome shopping trip to Trader Joe's, and all of these culminated to my determination and actual execution of going to the gym.  I wasn't very hard on myself and only did 2 miles.  I stopped because my legs were tired.  They felt tight and sore and I thought I would allow myself some time to get back into the load I was doing before.  After coming home I did Cassey Ho's new squat challenge video which was a very intense few minutes but felt absolute heaven.  I need to clear out my room so I could have enough space to do other videos later but hopefully today was a nice beginning of getting back into my old workout routine.  It's almost May and this month has gone so quickly in so many ways while being so slow in other, but I don't think I will see a significant change in my body shape when I'm ready to take a new picture of myself.  I'm not terribly worried, but I would like to change faster.

Exercise Diary: Setbacks

What I did today:

• 4 miles on the treadmill
• The only thing I was proud of was that I stayed on the treadmill till I hit the 4-mile mark.  I walked twice in between, and I was just really tired the while time.  My foot was hurting by mile 2, and that made me wary of going any faster.  I'm not sure what it was, I can only attribute it to a general decline in fitness.
• first half of the Ballet Beautiful swam arms series
• I thought it makes a lot of sense that on running days I would also work on my arms so my legs don't suffer too much.  But I neglected the fact that I did the same video yesterday and I was feeling its effect all day today.  I managed to work through the first half of the video before calling it a day.  I could go on if I wanted, but I didn't want to.  I would probably feel very sorry tomorrow if I did.
• Ballet Beautiful Out Thigh
• To make up for the incomplete of the first video I decided to look for another BB workout to make up for it.  I picked this one since it was short and the targeted outer thigh didn't seem too bad.  And it wasn't.  I mean, my legs were feeling both like lead and on fire when I worked on each, and I needed prolonged stretching after each set so I don't cramp, but after the workout I don't feel my legs so much anymore.  It's not like I can't walk or anything. 
• Blogilates Quick Ab workout
• After all that I felt that I really should work on my abs for a bit since I've been neglecting this area.  Mostly because it's hard and I can't do crunches or whatever you do for very long.  There are so many ab videos on Blogilates that I ended up just picking a random one, which despite being a 10 minute video was actually very short, since it only had two moves and worked to a 3:14-long song.  I still couldn't do it the whole way through and had to take breaks in between and didn't even bother to pause the video.  I'm feeling my abs and I think that's enough for the day.

About this time last month I stood in front of my full-length mirror in my gym clothes and took a picture of myself.  I had great ambition and hope that in one month, combining running and doing Blogilates workout and a modified diet I would change my weight and body shape somewhat, and I would document my progress.  I didn't expect to be all lean and skinny after just one month, but I did the same thing in front of the mirror today (not the same gym clothes though), and I don't think I saw any changes.  If anything I think I may look even bigger and wider than last month.  I don't think my weight had changed.  I would like to think that I had lost a pound or two but it's not very noticeable.  I think given some more time the changes will become more apparent, but this has been a very disappointing month.  I'm still adjusting.  And I feel there was progress.  But there's no proof.  Oh well.  I guess it's a good thing that winters are so long here; I still have some time before I no longer have my jacket to cover up my body of shame.  

Exercise Diary: Making it up as I go along

I'm still feeling the effect of my butt workout from yesterday.  The glute muscles themselves weren't really effected as much as I would have liked, but the leg muscles around my butt are very sore.  And because I'm a sucker for quick results, I'm thinking maybe I should incorporate some of this Ballet Beautiful workout into my routine as well, since they provide a longer, more gradual workout that make you feel really tired at the end but does not make you want to kill yourself (not as much) during the process.  It's just long and repetitive, like a slow long run day.  But mostly I'm tempted by the quick and really obvious results that everyone raving about.  Since there are only about 5 or 6 videos available online (each targeting a different area of the body) I feel that I could incorporate them into my routine, rather than completely having them replacing my old stuff.

That, of course, has its own dangers.  One of the things I like about Blogilates is that Cassey gives you a calendar at the beginning of each month, charting out what you need to do every day.  Or in my case, a beginner's workout calendar.  Not that I had successfully followed it for an entire month, nor have I done everything it asked for, but at least it gave me an objective list of workout that I should be able to complete and often time that pushes me to a limit I would not otherwise go.  That's my point.  If I start making my own list I would either become too complacent, or too ambitious, and neither is really good.

But that's what we are going to do anyway.  Today I had no specific plan as to what videos I should do.  It's not a running day, and I've given up the hope to get my butt to the gym for an elliptical session since it's never enough motivation to get up dressed up and head out of the door.  So instead I just started with a video, and another, until I was properly sweating, and a reasonable amount of time has gone by.  In this case, about 40 minutes.  If I spend 40 minutes on the treadmill I would probably run 2.8 miles.  And I think that's pretty good for my first improv workout day.

In those 40 minutes I completed:
Ballet Beautiful: Ab workout for a slim waistline
  Since I worked quite a bit on my butt yesterday, and I am doing the April arms challenge, I thought a nice ab workout would be nice.  And it was only 7 minutes, so I had hoped that it would be short but intense.  Well, it was short.  And I don't know if I'm just not doing the moves right, or whatever, I didn't really feel my abs burning.  Rather my upper thighs got a heavy dose and were hurting by the end.  Not a very satisfying workout; I didn't even break a sweat or lost control with my breathing.  Maybe I'll stick with Blogilates for the abs, but I'll wait and see how intense the legs and hips video is.  Those are usually pretty intense.
Ballet Beautiful: Strong&Sexy Swan Arms Workout
  I broke my own taboo and did an arm video next.  I already did my arms challenge for today and really didn't feel a thing.  I knew this video was going to be good since my friend had done it before and said it was brutal.  It's long too, about 17 minutes.  And she filled the entire 17 minutes with endless swan arms and its variations.  It was brutal.  My arms felt like lead by the end of the workout and I assume I will feel them quite acutely tomorrow.  But it's about an hour after I did the arms video and my arms no longer feel like lead.  I can feel every muscles, as all of them got a proper workout, but so far no horrific sore like that Blogilates video I did last week (1 minute of half cobra push-up + 1 minute of triangle push-up can make the back of your arms hurt for a week and I'm not kidding).  But overall very satisfying and will definitely do it again, maybe on running days.
Blogilates 10 min butt lift challenge
  Broke my taboo again.  This is part of the April 1 workout, which was all about butts and hips.  I thought, why not.  It's evident that I'm not going to follow everything on the calendar, and I might as well start with 4/1 again even though it's already 4/5 (how time flies already).  This video was made a few months back as part of the 30-day butt challenge, and therefore I was familiar with all the moves.  It was intense, especially after the workout I already had yesterday.  I was able to do most of the video except the very end when Cassey totally surprised me after the bridge pose and added the single leg bridges.  If I wasn't tired out I would attempt to make it to the end, but I just couldn't.  So I didn't.  For me it was more like a 9 minute butt lift challenge.  But whatever.
Blogiates Hips Butt&Thighs Super Shaper Workout
  It's also part of the 4/1 list.  There were two other bubble butt workout but I just couldn't.  This one had some other components that the workout targeted so I thought why not.  And it did.  Lots of leg circles and lifts and tapping the front and back and doing side planks (which I cannot do).  Also some back leg lift for butt.  Nothing to difficult to do (except the side planks) and my butt is seriously hurting now.  I was going to go for the full hour but after this I thought it was enough for a day.

The shower afterwards was really nice.

So that wasn't too bad.  I think using time instead of sets and reps and things to-do works much better, and I really should have known since it was applicable to running as well.  We'll just have to see how it will go during the weekend when shit again hits the fan and life spins into crazy mode.

Exercise Diary: what a day

Spring is finally here!  Need proof? Mud.  I actually stole the last bit off of a board somewhere on campus.  But it's true.  It's been raining all day today and we've moved on to snowy to muddy.  Not my favorite part of spring but I did go to the gym today with no heavy jacket or outer pants so...

So much happened today in terms of everything fitness.  So far today I've drunk about 3 liters of fluids (coffee and water) and still counting (I'll try to get down 3 14-oz mugs of tea before bedtime), which I've been doing all week but today I actually rigorously counted and timed my fluid intake.  My diet, however, fell short by about a mile since I ate nothing but spaghettios  all day (breakfast and lunch).  They are homemade and they were make this morning so at least there was no preservatives and they are fresh, but in terms of nutrition... well, telling yourself it's got protein from milk and cheese and veggie from the tomato sauce can only go so far.  Plus I way over ate and basically spent the whole working day today doing everything I could, short of self-induced vomiting, to get all this carb and fat out.  This included standing all day, walking around as much as possible, drinking a lot of water afterwards, and even doing squats while I was in the dark room developing some film for my experiments.

The good news is, I did manage to get some of it out before going to the gym.  I wasn't worried about feeling bloated or full while I run, but I just don't want to carry any extra weight if I can.

I also found these fat burning pills I bought way back when, that if you take them about an hour before your workout, they help increasing the amount of fat you burn.  They got good reviews when I bought them who-knows-when, and I figured that since I had some left I might as well take them before I go running.

I think part of its mechanism is to induce water loss right before your workout, and somehow quench your thirst during the workout, and I still haven't figured out if it does anything to you afterwards.  I don't feel that my belly or thighs getting extra warm or anything so I don't know if there are more fat being burnt, but the whole water loss at the beginning was unsettling.  I had thought I just drank too much water during the day and therefore I had to go to the bathroom more but what happened before I had to leave for the gym was unsettling.  I was afraid that I wouldn't last even a mile on the treadmill before I had to go again but thankfully somehow by the time I got on the treadmill my body went into no-i-don't-need-anymore-water-but-i-also-don't-need-to-get-rid-of-any mode.

So that was all weird, but my run today was fantastic.  I still weighed more than I did yesterday when I got on the treadmill (still lots of people today and the cardio machines were dangerously full but there was one for me and that was all it mattered), but my 4-mile run felt great.  The speed I usually run at felt easy and effortless, and I could just go on and on.  The only thing that bothered me was my right foot as I sped up, but I managed to stay at 5 mph for about 10 minutes before I forced myself to slow down as my run was approaching an end.  I really think I am getting better.

Watched an entire episode of Makers series on PBS on the women's movement.  It was the first of a two-parter (I think, there may be more than 2 parts so who knows), and it ended gloomily as the Equal Rights Amendment failed to be passed in the 70s and abortion clinics suffered severe harassment till today, but the show was narrated by Meryl Streep and ended on a promising note.  The second part advertised things like gay women's rights (featuring Ellen Degeneres) and some other exciting but now-forgotten topic I can't recall, so I think I'll actually go search for it on the PBS website and finish watching the two-parter.  But it was a remarkable show and at various points I found myself to be very emotional and almost cried, all while running of course.  It was weird.  But I guess after all the LOLs while watching various cop shows and sit-coms it's time for some opposite emotions.

After I got home I buckled down and did the Day 10 beginners pop pilates workout from Blogilates.  It consisted of some ab workout, bubble butt workout (which I also did on my own on Tuesday and was still feeling it), and a stretching video.  I also added a new arm workout that was part of new video Monday.  That video only had five moves and 1 minute each for each move, so it seemed easy (and short), but by the time I finished doing the arm circles and arm spears (which were too bad) and triangle and cobra push-ups (really really bad) I had absolutely no strength for alternating plank push-ups, as my arms started to involuntarily crashing down onto the floor.  So it was only a 4-minute workout for me.  My arms still hurt a lot and I had trouble pointing and clicking the right window on my computer screen afterwards.

Now I'm done.  Yay and it felt really good too.  Plus I'm feeling hungry as much carb-heavy lunch has finally passed through my colon.  No carbs tonight.  Okay maybe a little but definitely no spaghettios and no heavy dairy stuff mixed in.  Maybe some soba noodles.  Mmm.

Exercise Diary: tight and tired

Day 2 of pre-8pm gym adventure.  The gym was again packed.  And I somehow ended up running next to the same old man as yesterday, although I wasn't on the same treadmill.  In fact, I was on the treadmill next to the one I was on yesterday, which incidentally was the treadmill the old man was using yesterday.  I realized today that even though he ran intervals, he ran way harder and longer than I could ever do since his intervals were for 1 mile and he did like a bizillian of them.

Sadly, the only reason why I was on the treadmill next to the one I used yesterday was because yesterday's treadmill was broken.  I don't think I'm the one who broke it, but it's still sad and weird to know that just a day ago I was using it and it was fine.  Incidentally the now-broken treadmill also used to be my favorite, until I kept not able to use it and subsequently realized that all the treadmills, except for the really bad ones, are pretty much the same.

One of the result of running next to a broken treadmill was that I got to watch countless number of people getting on it, trying to start it, failing, and moving on to another treadmill or another piece of machinery.  It's kind of funny that neither I nor the girl on the other side of the broken treadmill bothered to warn them, and as far as I know no one had reported it broken to the front desk.  I didn't bother since I couldn't really talk, and also since I had been one of those people who jabbed the touch pad without success, I thought it would be fun to watch other people doing it too.

Watched almost an entire episode of Rizzoli and Isles during my run today.  Too bad I didn't get to find out what happened in the end.  But since I don't even remember what the episode was about now I guess it wasn't a great big loss.

Oh, and I also somehow had the belief that I had to do 3 miles instead of the planned 2.5, that I struggled the last half-mile for no reason.

I don't know how it happened.  Somehow during mile 1.5 I told myself that I was half way done and never realized until after I was done how silly I had been.  My Nike+ was also being bitchy.  Somehow now it thinks I'm running slower than before, after countless times I had to re-calibrate it for over-calculating my speed.  I think it may have to do with the way I moved my legs.  I tried to slow and lengthen my stride as I got faster to control the number of time my feet had to hit the ground, and since my Nike+ iPod uses a sensor on my foot that measures the speed and length of one's stride, I guess I could appear to be going slower than usual.  Except I think the sensor should be smarter than that.  I don't know, I hope I don't have to get a new sensor before switching to an iPhone.  Not that an iPhone would be great to use on a treadmill, but evidently the Nike+running app on iPhone allows you to input your workouts manually, so you will still have a record of your runs on Nike without having the app doing any work.  I wonder if I could do that on the webpage when I move on to my GPS watch.  So far I haven't figured out how.

Anyhoo, today's run was... brutal.  I had a banana before going and I didn't feel hungry or anything during the run, and it was a short run, but I just felt so tired and it was such a struggle.  I should not run the day after a long run, even if the long run was only 5 miles.  My legs were tight from the very beginning.  In fact they were tight all day today, and I could feel the muscles as I walked up and down the stairs.  They weren't sore, they were just tight, and you are aware of them.  Now they are sore, even after stretching and all that.  And the thighs are particularly bad since I think I used my thighs a lot to pull my feet up since the run today really ruined my right foot.  The plantar fasciitis was really acting up, right after I slowed down after my speedier pulses.  It got even worse during my cool down walk, and I really hope I can still walk tomorrow.  I also wanted to use more of my upper body to take some of the pressure away from the legs, but I didn't know how.  I tried to breathe from the core, and all it did was made me spit a lot.  I tried to tighten the core and lift my torso a bit but all that did was giving me tight shoulders.  I know strong abs help with running, but since I still don't have strong abs what am I supposed to do?

But somehow I still manage to finish my run, half a mile more than planned no less.  I didn't stop to walk or anything, and I really hope I either burned more fat than usual or strengthen my thigh muscles some what.  I went home and did two blogilates videos, one on the glute and the other on the arms.  I also resumed my thigh and butt challenge moves, Day 13 of the 30-day workout, on the 25th of this month.  Oh well, better start again some time.  It's really starting to get warmer out (I went to the gym today in my capris, a fleece and a wind breaker, it was that warm), and before I know it I will be running outside with my t-shirt and capris, and I really need to get serious about this weight loss thing.  I realize that now I'm not really trying to use running as a way to lose weight, but rather I'm trying to lose weight so I can run better.  Not just to lose weight, but also to build my muscles.  I like running, and I like to run long and far.  It would be great if I can actually be good at it.  I have marathon goals, goddammit.

Exercise Diary: Delayed Feedback

I've recently taken up recording my workouts as soon as I finish them so I develop the habit of writing about them/ recording them promptly.  But now I think maybe waiting for a bit before writing about them may give me more time to feel about the aftereffects of these workout.

For example, I did my Day 8 Beginner's pilates workout yesterday, and right afterwards I felt good that I managed to squeeze some exercises into my long Wednesday.  But before I went to bed and was brushing my teeth, I could distinctly feel my glutes hurting.  I knew why it was hurting, but I was surprised that it hurt that much.  It was the result of the bridge exercises I did as part of the total body workout video.  The move starts out like a regular bridge you would do in yoga classes, but instead of staying in bridge form you move your hips and back up and down and touch the mat with your tailbone.  I have tried this before and never felt the true effect.  The trick is to squeeze your butt cheeks real tight when you lift back up into the bridge form.  According to the video you pretend there's a penny you are clenching between your butt cheeks.  I don't think I was squeezing that hard, since as big as my butt is I couldn't quite manage to pull my cheeks in that closely.  But the effect was real and my butt was hurting all day today too.

So that was a pleasant surprise and I hope one day I will have cute bubble butt too.

I chose to do my long run (4.5 miles) today since I'm not sure if I will even have time to run this weekend.  Going to Boston on Saturday, which I already knew, and apparently now I'm going cross country skiing with my friend on Sunday, which I just found out today.  On Tuesday on our way to yoga class, as I watched two guys jogging past our car in shorts,  I absent-mindedly said that it's a shame that I never went cross country skiing this year and it's already getting warm.  So my friend came by today and basically forced me to clear my Sunday so she could drive us up to Bretton Woods, which is like more than an hour away from where we are, so we could go cross country skiing.  I was pleasantly surprised, and somewhat overwhelmed, but also worried that I won't get to do my weekend run.  I fear that I will be way too tired to do a long run afterwards, but I thought if I still have the energy to get my butt to the gym after skiing I should at least treat myself with a shorter run.  So long run today, which also meant no pilates.  It's late and I'm tired, and I still have other stuff to do before going to bed.

Don't know how I will feel tomorrow but the run didn't really tire me out in terms of the cardio.  I was doing pretty slowly so I could keep running the whole time, which I did.  My foot was hurting for like the second half of the run.  My Nike+ failed at one point so now it's congratulating me on running twice in one day.  My breathing got hard during the last half-mile so that wasn't too bad.  I watched an episode of the Middle and two episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel-air which was pleasantly nostalgic.  And the gym was empty (every treadmill was vacant when I got there) during finals week and it's kind of sweet.  But I do have to remember to pay attend to interim hours and the new schedule come next term.

So all in all a pretty good workout day.

Exercise Diary: Got tired/ lazy yesterday, will not let that be a slippery slope

First of all, whoever binge-read my blog yesterday, thanks very much!  I don't advertise my blog much since I don't really put all my heart in it, but rather just use it as a place to record all my workouts and other random thoughts.  But to the few who do visit, thank you~

I got lazy yesterday (Tuesday) in that I skipped my thigh and butt challenges as well as my Day 8 beginner's workout.  I woke up Tuesday morning absolutely exhausted and sore, and just the though of doing lunges and kicks make my body ache.

I did end up going to yoga though, so it wasn't a completely waste of a day.  I have to say, last week's workout already has such a pronounced effect.  My crescent lunges were much stronger and stable, my standing splits and worrier IIIs were effortless.  I just felt that I could do the whole class with less effort, but because I was stronger I could push myself more so I got a better workout at the same time.

But because of that I was so exhausted when I got home.  And hungry.  I had a banana before going to class and that totally got burned away during the first 20 minutes because I was famished when I got home that I didn't feel like doing anymore exercises.  And after looking at the calendar, which said that Day 8 consists of a total body workout video, a cardio video, and a lower back stretch video, I died of exhaustion just by looking at the list.  So I made instant noodles, showered, and called it a day.  Totally unproductive for the rest of the night and even though I went to yoga class I felt like a failure.

Couldn't fall asleep last night despite going to bed early.  Woke up early today to make lunch and go to my friend's PhD thesis defense so I scratched the morning challenge routine.  Was tired the whole day since I opted to not take any coffee this morning, which was a big mistake.

But after getting home at 11pm I still managed to make up the challenges and rolled out my yoga mat.  It turned out that the workouts weren't so bad.  I cheated a little bit on my cardio workout since I couldn't jump around too much without shaking the while building, but other than that I did most other moves faithfully.  I felt that I had done the total body workout video before but parts of it felt foreign.  It was total body too, I got to work my abs, my butt, my back and my arms.  Not sure if I will feel all of them tomorrow but I was hurting while doing it.

So all my pilates workouts have been pushed back a day.  Which I guess is fine as long as I keep going more regularly afterwards.  And I have to remind myself that just because I skipped out on the pilates calendar doesn't mean that I didn't exercise hard.

Exercise Diary: Total Body Workout

Other than the fact that Nike+ needs to seriously get its shit together, today has been a great day workout-wise.  Granted Nike+ is currently undergoing a scheduled site maintenance (and hopefully it will sync my runs properly after it's done), at least last time (that I know of) they did it discreetly  in the middle of the night instead of in the evening when plenty of people are still getting their runs in.  Seriously, yeesh.

I read some post somewhere that in order to burn more fat (which I really need to do), it is better if you do you weights and other general anaerobic exercises first, to burn off all the sugars you ingested before your workout, and then move on to your cardio so you are tapping into your fat supply more.  It sounds like a pretty reasonable strategy so that's what I tried today.  I did my Day 6 of beginner's pilate workout, which consists of 7 minutes of the most tiring warm-up I've ever done, 6 minutes of some intense arm workout (felt great though, and no push-ups involved!), and a killing 5-minute ab workout which is bonus for today since the video was emailed to me as part of the Blogilates newsletter.  None of the moves (there were 5) were particularly hard or foreign, and you would think that doing each for a minute, and doing abs for 5 minutes total wasn't going to be that big of deal.  But I absolutely died after 2.5 minutes and totally cheated after that.  Still tried to do the best I could but it wasn't much.  That's what I like about Cassey and her workout though.  I felt stronger every day, and I could clearly feel the benefit during my runs, and she is very good at encouraging and motivating you to push through, but just as you are beginning to feel good about yourself she makes you humble again by challenging you with something that just absolutely crushes your body, so you don't get too cocky.  I like that.  I need that.

Today's run.  Well.  I'm definitely happier that the weather is finally getting warmer.  I saw at least 5 people running outside today in the 10 minutes I stood there waiting for the bus.  This is the second night in a row that I walked to the gym with only my capris and no outer leg cover.  I didn't even bother with a scarf or a hat tonight.  I think as soon as the ground becomes dry I will venture an outdoor run.  But in the mean time I will stick to the gym.

Today I tried a different running strategy that would keep me more entertained.  I did 10 minutes on a low speed, 8 minutes one button faster, 6 minute at the next speed, etc.  I managed my 2 miles (I know, it's so not a big deal) quite easily, and Everybody Loves Raymond and Julie and Julia (does anyone else still remember that it's actually two stories in one movie?  I totally forgot that Amy Adams was playing Julie and got quite disappointed that they had to cut away from Meryl) kept me very entertained.  I found Everybody Loves Raymond, which I watched only ~10 minutes of, especially funny tonight, probably because I was already releasing endorphins before starting my run.

But I really need to burn for fat to make myself weigh less.  As I got to 5 mi/hr, which really is not a lot, my plantar fasciitis really acted up, quite suddenly too.  My foot is still hurting and I think it will persist for some time.  My foot does that every time I start to run fast(er).  Whenever I persist at the higher speed it would eventually go away until I slowed down or slowed to a walk.  But as my weekly milage goes up this will really be a problem in the future.  More stretching I guess.

Overall all a great day.  Now if only I could just buck up and do my laundry my day would be truly complete.

Exercise Diary: No excuses

I had planned to do my 2-miler today since I had nothing else on after work.  After I finished dinner, which I ate too much, I just sat there feeling and seeing the little mountain in front of me that we call a stomach and felt extremely sleepy.  And I just wanted to go to bed early and convert my dinner into fat.  I was telling a friend that I didn't want to go to the gym tonight because it's too cold out and I was too tired.

She didn't really comment, but paraphrased some of my outlooks back to me.  One of which was, do what you have set out to do and don't make any excuses.  And that hit me.  I do have that expectation for others, in that I get annoyed when people become lazy and make excuses for themselves.  And I realized that I was doing the same thing to myself.  I didn't really have an excuse to not go to the gym.  I had enough time to wait for my dinner to digest a bit, and I have a jacket and scarf and hat to ward off the cold.  The only thing I did not have was an excuse.

So I stood around for half an hour, put my gym clothes on, and went to the gym.  And I'm glad that I got my run out of the way, even though it felt long again.  What else is new.

The run felt long but not painful.  I think I had a hard time because I felt heavy, and therefore it felt like more work.  But all the pain I had before were gone.  I attribute this solely to all the Blogilates exercises I did for the past few days.  I did the day 3 beginner's total body workout after I got home from my run, and I swear I'm going to finish the 30 day calendar and then some.  I could already feel my muscles strengthening, heck I have been feeling them for days now.  My knees did not hurt probably because of all the leg muscles I worked.  My belly felt flabby because I could at the same time feel all the ab muscles I had worked on, which made all the fat felt even more prominent and unnecessary.  I breathed better and more controlled.  I wasn't as tired (even though it was only two miles).  And I didn't feel as terrible as I sped up during mile 2.  I have finally understood the benefit of cross training, and I now believe that cross training and muscle building are not only good for breaking the monotonous running routine but absolutely necessary for becoming a better runner.

So thank you Cassey, and please keep pushing me.  I'm only on Day 3 and it's already done me a world of wonders.

Exercise Diary: Blogilates beginners Day 2

No running today since I usually get home late on Wednesday nights.  But after I got home tonight I did manage to put on my gym shorts and roll out my yoga mat for my Day 2 ab workout.

I followed the two videos on Cassey's Day 2 page, and I think this is the first time i really sweated on my mat at home.  If we keep up like this i will need to buy some disinfecting yoga mat wipes for home.

The two videos brought about 30 minutes of workout, and I have to say, I really feel the time flew by even as I was crushed by the workout.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm used to 75-minute yoga classes now, or if Cassey is just a really great trainer (probably both), but I was glad and almost sad at the end of the videos.  Also the fact that Cassey likes to talk about random things during the harder reps made it a lot more interesting and tolerable.  It kind of reminded me of running with my friend; I could never talk during the runs and she would entertain me by telling me random stories.

I have to say that I definitely cheated during the workout because I simply could not continue during parts of the video.  I'm sorry but I just couldn't control muscle fatigue.  Also my abs got weaker and weaker and I couldn't help but used more of my neck to barely keep my shoulders off the ground during some of these crunches.  I think it is one of the reasons why people still get neck pains despite the trainer repeatedly telling them to pull their shoulders up with their stomach.  Sometimes we just can't do it.  I guess it just happens less often with the more experienced and stronger people because they could afford to lift up without using their necks.  The others will just have to be careful to not hurt ourselves.

But one thing for sure, my abs will definitely be hurting tomorrow.  Heck, they are hurting already.  Fun workout though.  Can't wait for tomorrow's bubble butt exercises.

Exercise Diary: Yoga Tuesday, and maybe even pilate with Blogilate?

So my coworkers and I managed to push though our afternoon drowsiness and hunger and got our butts and yoga mats to the 5pm class for the second Tuesday in a row.  I know going to yoga once a week is so not a big deal but it's still a tradition we do not alway keep.

Class today was exhilarating and very sweaty.  The room was stuffy and very warm and I got extra sweaty today, and wasn't smelling too good.  I did switch to a new deodorant that does not use aluminum ions to plug your sweat pores to block perspiration, but since i was sweating all over I don't think it's the deodorant's fault.  My thighs got a thorough workout since we did extra chair poses today, and my athletic capris definitely need washing afterwards.

And recently I noticed that Cassey from Blogilate is doing a 30-day thigh slimming challenge for this month.  I got curious and clicked in and the moves looked fun and the reps didn't sound too bad so I saved the calendar and am now on Day 2 of the challenge.  And of course then I saw the entire workout calendar for March and realized that it's only and addition to an already very full daily exercising plan. I ended up subscribing to the blog so I could get the password to view the workout plan in detail and realize that I can never do all these in addition to my weekly running schedule and you know, life.  So I ditched the March plan and downloaded the beginner's workout instead.

It looks like a very reasonable beginner's pilate workout plan and for each day there is an accompanying video with Cassey beautifully demonstrating exactly what you need to do.  Other than having to move my laptop around to get a clear view of what I'm supposed to be doing while lying down, the videos (at least the Day 1 and Day 2 ones) are very clear and helpful.  This morning I woke up deciding that I would do the day 1 whole body workout, but I was unsure after I came back from yoga.  I ready had a good workout, I thought.  But not doing it bothered me, and merely sitting around and watching the video (to see what I would have to do) didn't really satisfy me.  So finally I cleared enough floor space in my apartment and rolled out my yoga mat.

Well the one thing I can say right now, about 20 minutes after finishing the video, is that the 28-minute workout flew by and wasn't painful to go through at all.  My thighs and knees, on the other hand, are telling a different story.  The thigh workout was great but brutal, to the point that I wasn't just having muscle fatigue, I think I also got cramps and had to stop a few time.  I think I will feel the effect tomorrow but now I felt I had accomplished something quite wonderful.  The last part of the video called for some arm work out.  I have no upper body strength so it was hard, but it was harder since we are doing all the moves on our knees and since I had no arm strength all of my weight was on my knees and they weren't happy.  I don't think there is a way to work on your knees other than strengthening the muscles around it so they will take away most of the pressure.  And maybe losing a few more pounds would also alleviate the pressure.  But for now I think I either need to put towels underneath or invest in some kneepads so I don't seriously screwing them up.  And also to be a real woman and do some real push-ups to build my arm strength instead of killing my knees doing modified poses.

But all in all it was a great first day of a cool pilate workout.  I really think it's the complementary exercise I need for my running.