A Fine Line

Has it really been a week since my last post? Well, I have a pretty decent excuse. My laptop is on the fritz. The screen stopped working. To protect the innocent, nothing more will be said about that. My other excuse is that I've been busy as all get-out. My lists are growing longer and all I want to do is get some sleep!

To that end, this will be a quick post as it's already 10:45pm and I RSVPd as a strong maybe on an 8am run tomorrow morning. Truth is, I could sum my week up in as little as four words:

Food, ugh.
Exercise, yes!

That about does it. By way of example, tonight I had a bowl of cereal for dinner. Followed by an entire Costco sized bagel with cream cheese, then a small granola bar, and now some chocolate. Guess I should change my RSVP  on tomorrow's run to definitely. Eh, exercise has never been a means to atone for my eating, why start now?

Yes, exercise...in that department, I'm feeling better and better. I didn't get into the gym last week until Thursday. For whatever reason the thought of my normal cardio routine sounded dreadful so I pulled an old trick out of the bag. I call it machine-hopping, 10 minutes on the upright bike followed by 15 minutes on the treadmill. Technically I did 15:16 on the treadmill because I was this:close to 1.5 miles and couldn't stop running. I ran at 5.5-6.5 mph and felt damn good about my achievement. After that I did a set of pushups, squats and some shoulder raises and called it quits.

Then Friday came. Cue the dramatic music. I was in a bad mood. Bad. The holiday weekend was looming and I had few plans to speak of and, well, life. So when I got to the gym after work I just wanted to crush it. Crush what, you say? My bad mood. I still couldn't face a straight 25 minutes of anything so I started with 15 minutes on the elliptical (I always forget how hard you can work on those things if you push yourself) followed by a 1-mile treadmill run in 9:55 (yes, I was pushing for sub-10).

After the cardio I decided to dive, head first, into chest, triceps and core. It was either a gutsy decision reflective of my will and determination - or just plain stupid. The jury is still out. In any case, that's often a fine line anyway, right? I started with pushups. I used to do three sets of 20, 15, and 12 reps. Guess how many I did? You guessed it, 20, 15, 12. I wrote myself a little note to commemorate the moment.

I planked and twisted and pressed my way through the remainder of my routine. In the end, I couldn't quite do all the reps of my triceps stuff, those little muscles just gave out. But I kept going back to at least make an effort for every set. And when my abs were screaming at me to stop, I finally listened and did.

Other notes on my workout log that day are, "Owie" (as in, ouch) and "Go easy, M" but "You kick ASS!!!" is my favorite. The bummer is, despite all that my mood was still in the dumps when I left. Now that is unusual.

Riding home from the gym earlier this evening

Add to that, my abs are threatening to never do another crunch as long as I live. But remember, I said, Exercise, yes! Today my mom showed up earlier than I was expecting so I took the opportunity to sneak off to the gym. I rode my bike the 2.8 miles to the gym. Ah, the wind in my hair while my legs power me down the road - nothing else like it. Once at the gym I took it easy, not even logging my workout. I focused on back and biceps and even foolishly tried to do a plank (took me only 10 seconds before I realized my mistake). But I was able to do side crunches so some part of my core muscles are still intact. I told you, a fine line. I rode back home happy to have done something in the body building department.

Now it's 11:15 so I'll close by telling you that in addition to the above we've also been here there and everywhere this weekend. For people with few plans we managed to keep things moving. We had a pizza/movie night at a friends, a playdate at our house, a Lego outing and a pool party (it was a touch too windy for me to get in the water). It's been a lot of fun and a lot of work. Thankfully today was low-key. Tomorrow I'm taking the kids for their first-ever run event! It's a "youth track race" that starts with the (parent-accompanied) toddler dash up to 12-year olds. So cool! I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

Oh snap! Just remembered I also did this last week:

That's me getting a PFT, pulmonary function test. Interesting results, which I'll have to tell you about another day but can summarize by saying my lung functions are normal but still not. I'll say more about that next time. That's it from me!

PS - I'm 147 pounds. Two pounds over my goal weight. Sure hope I rise in time for that run tomorrow morning. 'Night all!