First Week Is In The Books

1:40:03 time, 17.17 miles, 911.3kcal burned, resistance level 4, average speed 10.30MPH, average pulse 135, left leg trained for 50 revs.

I wanted to see what the machine would do when the timer maxed out. I want to see the decimal point on the calorie counter disappear next with 1000 or more Kcal burned.

I found that my knees are fine when I have the machine up for a longer leg. I was using my Stamina 15-4800R with two adjustment holes exposed. I now use it with two. Funny thing is I used it like that the first time. I think I wanted to make things easier in that Monkeyette and I wouldn't have two different settings. Now, it looks like she's considering using my setting if she can.

She just tried it as I'm typing this. She prefers it.

High Five

1:06:28 workout length, 11.4 miles, about 10.28MPH average speed, 607.3 kcal burned, 160 bpm average heart rate, resistance level 4, right one-legged training 35 revs.

Knee was being strange again after I got up wrong today at work. I think I will be wearing my knee brace at work for a time. Sometimes I wish I could use a wheelchair for a while to save my knees. I'm up and around a lot at work and sometimes that means bending down or kneeling. Regardless, I'm just that much closer to my goals.

I realized something today. Round numbers are my enemy. I tend to push extra to make a round number and get too worn out doing that to continue the next day. I'm not going for round numbers with any of this. It's all based on round minimums, but never will match up in every way. I prefer that.

My minimums are: A one hour workout, 10 miles per hour, 600 calories. Due to the variability of pretty much everything, I will never make those match because there's no way to get my counter to show 600kcal on my display after an hour at 10MPH since the computer doesn't take resistance level into account and there are only four levels to that anyway. To add an extra bit of noise, I always one-leg train after reaching at least 600kcal.

Due to the fact that my distance varies even a little bit, I don't track round number milestones while I'm training and never will. I know whether or not I will hit a milestone during my workout, but since I calculate after the workout I don't know exactly how long I have to go until the next one. This way, my mind is off of the workout to a large extent and I find myself in the "where did the time go?" situation a lot. Timing everything to the second is no way to live.

Connect Four

1:13:34 time, 12.4 miles, 658.5kcal burned, average heart rate 160, Resistance Level 4.

I bounced back from the knee weirdness last night and even managed to one-leg for 35 strokes on that knee. The butt numbness I had is going away. It's being replaced by a feeling more like I'm carrying wallets in both back pockets. I remember this. Muscle is being built.

I don't feel drained after this workout the way I have before. I think it's partially due to the fact I had a good dinner of pulled slow-cooked chicken breast over white rice. You've got to feed yourself.

My heart rate was lower this time because I took it easy a bit. I don't think I've made that huge of an improvement in cardiac condition in such a short time, but only time will tell.

The Morning After

After last night's workout, my left knee was being weird. I've had this before when I used to work heavy labor. I was sent to the doctor and had it X-rayed. Nothing was found. I was fine a day later and didn't have any problems since then. There was never any pain either time.

This morning, I had no issues at all. My knee actually felt better than it ever has after a workout.

It looks like growing pains of a sort. I used to get this when I was a kid. I know I need Ibuprofen to keep any swelling down so I don't start tearing things inside. I didn't do that when I was young. I just stopped moving when it would come up.

Third Time's A Charm

Another one's in the books. 1:06:34 time, 11.6 miles, 618.4kcal and an average heart rate of 165 at resistance level 4. I was playing through the pain again tonight. Not because on anything with the legs, but because my butt was going numb again.

I recovered quickly again. I have a feeling I'm already seeing improvements. Not much just yet, but it will show after a month of this.

I'm up to 34.58 miles toward my goal.

I really need to fix the butt pain thing. Although I did have a fan blowing on me this time so that helped.

On a Roll

Hey, two day in a row. This is new.

I noticed today that I immediately had some burn going. I did my workout at resistance level 4 again despite the pain. The workout was more difficult than yesterday, but that's expected.

My workout lasted for 1:08:31, I went 11.48 miles and burned 608Kcal. Nice. I used my real heart rate monitor this time and held the lower 170s for most of the workout. I'm sure I averaged 170.

I was reading today about heart rate, wondering why my max is higher than it should be for my age. I guess time will tell. I did see that it's a problem when your heart rate takes a long time to drop back to normal.

I dropped back to 113bpm within three minutes. It's not an official reading or anything. I'll be tracking a lot of stuff in future posts.

Bicycle! Bicycle!

At home, we have an elliptical trainer, a Total Gym and some freeweights. total investment: $60. Now, for another $25, we have a recumbent exercise bike.

I just spent an hour on it.

605kcal, 11.5mi at resistance level 4 for most of it with a Vo2 Max sprint at the end. Lasted less than a minute there, but that's fine for a beginner. I can do this again, easy.

Now I have a headache and I'm a little loopy. Nice.