Busy Tuesday.....

Today I met with my "trainer" from the YMCA. We talked a lot about my metabolic testing on the bike and about on the treadmill ( future test). I got a lot of questions answered and am very excited for what's to come. I hope to retest the bike on Sunday afternoon-I only have to fast 3 hours for this one. YES! After I do the treadmill test ( hopefully next week), Ryan will come up with lots of useful info for me to use for training. I will have new HR parameters for the bike ( most likely--he thinks I was nervous/anxious during the first test/TOM/ allergies) lots of factors might have swayed my results and he expects ( knock on wood), that my new results will be improved. We talked a lot longer than I expected so I was unable to get any running miles in. Booo! I have 0 miles for the week thus far. With that being said ( or written) I cannot believe it's only Tuesday! I have plenty of time to get in 11 miles. I better.

Today was also the last meeting for my new moms group! They were a fun group ( they grew on me!) and they will be missed!

I taught Cardio Sculpt at 4:15 today. It was good.
Dumbbell swings
plank + knee in's
squat thrusts
jumping jacks with body bar
abs on the ball
and a whole bunch of other stuff!

90 minute spin endurance was the last stop of the day.
I lent out my HR monitor to a fear friend so I felt lost during class! haha...I still survived and I would bet that I actually stayed in my Zone........

Now it's 11:45 PM and I am wide awake. The Spin class is over at 8:45 PM. I am wired.

Saturday- I met my goal. Woohoo!

Saturday- Woohooo I ran. I actually ran over 2 miles and I did it outside. I made my goal of 10 miles this week- I actually ran 10.2 but who's counting? ( me, that's who). I tried to stay within my Zone 2 HR zone. The only this is this is my cycling heart rate zone, so I am guessing that will be different from my running zones. I was running very slowly, but honestly it felt comfortable and doable. I think if I ran much faster I would have gotten discouraged and might have not met my goal. Sad, but true. I know how my mind works!

It was a brisk day for sure. The weather was in the 40's which I usually enjoy, but I also am usually accustomed to running in it by now. Not so much these days. IT was my first time outdoors for a run (read: without my daughter ) in months. I wore long Nike dri-fit loose pants and a long sleeve technical top with my cotton gloves. I felt very comfortable with this ensemble. My hands, of course were freezing, but I knew that would happen.
I ran a 10:27 pace. I really hope I can keep it up and get my pace up, all the while sticking with this Heart Rate training stuff. It's very fascinating to me for some reason!

I hope to do a nice recovery workout for at least 45 minutes...I am shooting for 60 minutes, but not sure that will happen. I also plan on my yoga at 4 pm. If I make it, this will be the 3rd week in a row. It's a great way for me to (kind of) de-stress and get ready for an active week ahead!

The rest of the week!

Thursday~ Active Recovery and weight training. I needed the recovery. I was pooped!!! I tried to lift weights before the cardio session. It did not go so well. I got though this circuit:

3 x10
Lat pull down
Biceps Curls

(3) 30 second planks with 15 second rest between.

3x10

Shoulder press
Squats

planks again.

So as you can see, this was not much of a full body routine, but I am glad I just did something. My legs were so fatigued!

I did my cardio on the elliptical (duh) and walked on an incline for about 15 minutes to finish it off. Whew. That's all for Thursday!

Friday~
Zone 3 Heart Rate for 1 hour. My Zone is 154-167. I averaged 158 for the duration. I started on the treadmill and ran 2 miles! It's been awhile. I then hopped on the elliptical and then finished off on the treadmill again and ran 1.5 miles. It was hard in the beginning and then the feeling past and I was in my groove. It felt pretty awesome--especially when I was done!

Late that night I had to teach Spin- I kept my HR in Zone 3 ( 142-154) with a 149 average knowing I had a nice long recovery on tap for Saturday.

Saturday- Active Recovery for 80 minutes! Mission Accomplished! 80 minutes on the spin bike with an average Heart Rate of 138. Aaaaah! I am sure my body needed this. I am not good at taking a whole day off without doing anything so active recovery is right up my alley!

Sunday is to by my day off from activity..and it might be. Or I will try to go to a yoga class to help this aching body.
All in all this has been a great week. I can't wait to see how next week goes.

Epic FAIL. Lessons Learned ( I think).

Today's plan for my "new" training. Epic FAIL! I had very good intentions of doing my 120 minutes of straight cardio. Yup, 2 hours. The plan was to have a heart rate of 148-154 for 2 minutes and 1 minute of 167-168 for 2 hours! I am not sure if I am not used to the 5 am workouts anymore (horrible excuse), or that I could not work hard enough on the elliptical to get my HR up in time. I think I figured this out on Monday, but I just had to be sure.
First up: elliptical. I lasted 15 minutes.
Next up: Step Mill. I lasted 6 minutes.
3rd round: Treadmill. I lasted 8 minutes.
4th try: Elliptical (different model than the first) 15 -20 minutes ish.
5th try: Spin Bike! FINALLY. The last 45 ish mintues I kind of did the right workout.

So frustrating. I now know that:
#1 if the Spin room is occupied- I have to push myself on a different machine--no matter what.
#2 2 hours of this workout on the spin bike is going to suck.
#3 I will do it next week. Whatever it takes. That's how I roll.
I figured that this week and this new training will be me figuring stuff out and that next week will be the real deal. I like to make my own rules as you can see. I also plan on getting my eats in gear next week as well. If I want this HR thing to work I also have to fuel appropriately. I am burning a minimum of 500 cals ( that's my low estimation) a day through exercise. Today for example it was about 900 give or take a few. That's a lot and not normal for me. So I need to fuel the right way ( cookies = not the right way--dangit). I have not felt too hungry, but I can already see some changes in my body and it's only been since Monday. It's mostly water I know that, but still. I don't want to be a skinny chick with no energy. Not good.
Sooooo, after that lesson on HR and pushing myself I had to venture back to the gym to teach my Spin class. It went well, and I was not as pooped out as I thought I would be. Probably mental. I am pooped now. I am also very sore from my first personal training session. I hope to do it again on Monday. I am on my own for weights tomorrow though.....hope I am not as sore and tired. Off to FUEL ( homemade pizza night). Yum. * picture of Miles--he must be pooped too......or he just likes to sleep in the hallway at night.

Monday-Spin, Weights, elliptical. Tuesday-Active recovery and yoga-yup, yoga!

Monday- Race Day Spin today...... I used a repeat class and revamped it a bit. New music and a few new moves and viola. New class. I used my new HR parameters as well. I like having something that makes sense finally!

Totally Toned was next on the list. I usually sit it out after race day and today was no exception! It was a fun class to instruct, I was able to incorporate the exercise stability balls in today's class for some variety. I hope to do this more often this session. Lots of laughs were had!

So that was my classes for the day. With my new training I am not to count my class instruction as a true workout. Awesome.

I headed back to the gym after getting the girl from school to weight train with Ryan. It was a lot of fun. Not overly difficult, but I am not complaining. I have not lifted in months (regularly).

He had me throwing an 8 lb. medicine ball overhead--let it bounce no more than 1 time and then do it again for about 8 passes. Walking lunges with medicine ball rotation, 1 leg squats, 1 leg hamstring curls with the stability ball, push ups, pull-ups, jumping lunges, BOSU push ups + burpee, TRX rows and, and, and. Whew. Oh, we ended with core. I loathe working my core, but I know it will only make running as well as cycling and just about every physical activity easier!

After that torture, it was time to torture myself with my first prescribed workout- It was called Threshold 3. I had 5 minutes of intervals for 60 minutes total. I thought for sure I would stop at 15 minutes in. By minute 25 I found my groove and there was no stopping me now until that darn elliptical said 60:00complete! Ugh. It was pretty hard. Thankfully, I only have to have my heart rate up super high ( 167-168) for 1 minute. It took me about 35 seconds to get it up that high ( I was at 154 at the time). So I need to work on that next time- I was not working hard enough apparently. Gah!

That brings me to today (Tuesday!). My active recovery day! Yay! I got up at dark thirty to hit the elliptical again. My goal was to keep my heart rate between 132-142 for 60 minutes. Mission complete! I averaged 137 beats per minute for the duration. I don't get bored surprisingly. I think it's because I am constantly looking at my Heart Rate monitor --time pretty much flies by that way.

Once at home I actually did some yoga/stretching for a whole 45 minutes! Let's see if I can continue this. Twice a week would be ideal, but I will shoot for once a week for now.

I will be instructing my New Mom's class in a few hours, but I think it will be mostly a cardio day for them on the machines and track and core work and stretching is the plan so far. Well, that depends on if we have a tornado!

Race Day Spin......

Monday- Today was Race Day in Spin class. I always tell the participants to take it easy on Sunday and to give it their all on Monday race day. I never follow that advice myself. Until this time! What a difference! I usually workout on Sunday and possibly run a few miles before Spin on Monday. Well, this time I took Sunday off and slept in ( well 7:30 AM) on Monday morning. I did not plan either of those event, but it happens.
This may have been one of my best performances at a race day yet. Close to it. I was able to push myself to the brink and back! My heart rate was high and steady at times and I was able to take it even higher from there. That usually does not happen too often for me. My Garmin says that my avg. heart rate was 153-- that's included in the warm up and cool down AND the 7 minutes after class that I forgot to shut my watch off. So I wonder what it really was....most likely higher than 153 bpm.
Also different this time was the actual ride. I had more flats then hill climbs and I made a point to tell my class that. I think that mentally for non bikers ( not me anymore!!) it's hard to really push yourself on the flat road when you are used to recovering here. Not the case today. My class was rockin' it today!
Today started a new 8 week session for Totally Toned. I have a a bunch of new faces in class. I did the whole workout today too! haha..so there is 1 full body weight workout for me.
Let's see class consisted of the following exercises-- we did a lot of reps with light weights, pulses and so on.

Plie squats (and regular squats)
lat raises (and front raises)
lunges (and more lunges!)
Leg lift series ( lots)
Abs ( about 200 ish)
stretching

I hope I did not scare the new peeps away!