Bad Math

For some reason I have a really hard time doing simple math while running.  On Monday I went to the gym and warmed up on the treadmill for a few minutes.  I had Week 7/Day 2 run ahead of me, 25 minutes.  I am pretty much done running on the treadmill I think.  I headed out the door, saw my heartrate monitor said I had been working out for 7 minutes and tried to add half my run (~13 minutes) to 7 minutes so I would know when to turn around. I was supposed to run until my watch said 20 minutes, turn around and then run until my watch said 32.  Somehow, during the run I screwed up the math and thought I had to run until my watch said 37 minutes.  All those numbers are making me dizzy.

Bottom line, I ran 30 minutes. 30 minutes!  It was a damn slow 30 minutes but ask me if I care.  I don't.  I started to feel tired during the last few minutes and that's when I figured out what happened.  I took my garmin with me because I wanted to see my exact distance and pace but the battery was dead.  Next time.  After my run I did back and biceps along with some core work.  I was running out of time so I could only do 2.5 minutes on the stairs, instead of 5.  I recently read an article that suggested that if you're running out of time, don't worry about the clock, just go harder.  I probably should have tried to push even harder than 50spm (steps per minute). 

Today, Tuesday, I started with 25 minutes on the bike at level 6.  It's supposed to be the "random" setting but since I upped to level 6 it always looks like a hill routine.  I'm so sensitive to the psychology of these things and something about the predictable route makes it harder for me.  Hopefully, when I go up to level 7, it will start being truly random again.  But that won't be for a while.  Level 6 kicked my ass today.  I was counting the seconds for the last "hill" to be over.

After the bike I did chest and triceps.  The trainer I'd met with suggested I should be doing regular pushups instead of the modified ones I do. To his credit I think his aim is to encourage me, "I know you're strong enough."  But if I do regular ones I could maybe do 3 or 4.  As it is I do 3 sets of 10 of the modified ones (as in 30, a far cry from 3-4).  Today there were a couple of really fit women in my age range and they were really inspiring me.  Then one of them uses a bench to do what?  Modified pushups.  Thank you!  Later the other woman got up after doing core work, winced, and rubber her lower back.  Reminded me that we all have our challenges.  Thank goodness they don't read this blog, it almost sounds like I was staring at them.

Well, that's it.  I've worked out Sun, Mon and Tue of this week so tomorrow is a rest day.  Though it's my day home with the kids so I don't know how much "rest" I'll be getting.  Then I'm planning to hit the gym Thur and Fri so I can take Saturday off because...

On Sunday I'm doing a 25 mile bike ride.  It's accidentally symbolic because it's the same ride I did in 2008 when I was getting into cycling.  Only thing is, I was about 17 pounds lighter than I am now.  But that's ok, it's part cycling, part wine tasting, who cares how much I weigh, right?

By the time I was near the end of my run I'd somehow