I am Stubborn

Summary:

Tuesday - I was planning to go to the gym at 8pm. Didn't happen.
Wednesday - Bike, 25 minutes (kick ass level 4 people!), back and biceps.
Thursday - c25k Week 4/Day 5, being stubborn pays off, chest and triceps.

Details:

I was not planning to take a day off from the gym on Tuesday. I couldn't squeeze the gym in before the kids went to bed and come 8 o'clock, after a lot of wrestling and playing with the babies I was done. I've been pondering the 6 days a week schedule I've been on and thinking maybe it's time to go down to 5 days a week. So I used that as reason to not go.

Wednesday I was back at it and hit the ground running. Well, it was the bike so I hit the pedals pedaling? Anyway, I got on the bike for my 25 minutes of random, level 4. The course it gave me was brutal. It was almost all level 5s and 7s for intensity. There were literally only 2 bars that weren't. I put my mind to it and I did it. I even kept up my RPMs. I was definitely sweating a lot, even getting a few looks. Keep moving, people, nothing to see here. Anyway, I got off the bike feeling triumphant.

This was my first day with the new back and biceps routine. I liked most all of it. I was definitely challenged. The hardest things were the bent barbell row and the single arm bicep curls. I will definitely notice improvement when these get a little easier. Finished up with 5 minutes on the stair climber and then a good stretch. Burned 541 calories in an hour - that's not bad!

Today, Thursday, was a c25k day. I was optimistic that with my rest day on Tuesday the run would come easier. Not so. This was the hardest day yet. During the first 3 minute and then 5 minute runs my legs hurt in the back, kinda above my ankles, like reverse shin splints or something. And I was breathing hard. My heart rate shot up to the high point early on. I gave myself permission to quit halfway through if I needed to. But you know those traits that are mostly not good but sometimes come in handy and can be good? I am stubborn. Mostly this is irritating for my mother, and husband, and friends - and probably even my kids too - but today it paid off. I stuck with that darned week 4 plan and I did it. I had to take it 1 minute, sometimes 30 seconds, at a time, but I did it.

I didn't end up needing to repeat Week 3 but I'm 85% sure I'm going to repeat Week 4. I'm just not near ready for more. Week 5 is a serious jump up too (I'll have to read up on how I handled this last time), with week 5/day 3 being a 20 minute run. Week 4 is sounding more repeatable already. Ok, I just spent WAY too long reading old blog posts from 2008 when I was doing c25k before. The gist of it is I sort of followed the plan for Week 5, which looks like this:

Day 1: Warmup, jog 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes, jog 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes, jog 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes, Cooldown.

Day 2: Warmup, jog 8 minutes, walk 5 minutes, jog 8 minutes, Cooldown. Whoa! 8 minutes?! But wait, apparently that ain't nothin'

Day 3: Warmup, jog 20 minutes, Cooldown

We'll see what I do this time. All I know is I'm hanging on to Week 4 for a bit longer. After c25k I did chest and triceps. I do a modified pushup on the Smith machine and decided it was time to lower the bar. They were harder but doable. I feel good about this, Ken was telling me it's time for me to start doing regular pushups and this is a move in that direction. My workout was a challenge overall but I felt good about it. I think I might not be getting enough to fuel my workouts though. More on that next time. Night all!