A couple more workouts down!

I forgot to blog my last workout which I think was Wednesday. I did 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical then did Stage 1 Workout A4 of the New Rules of Lifting for Women then finished up with the Precor stretch trainer. After that workout I didn't feel any knee pain.

Thursday I took my daughter to parent/child swimming lessons. I try to run around in the water as much as possible, so it's actually a bit of a workout for me, too.

Today, I went and did 20 minute intervals on the Precor AMT 100i, which is some cross between an elliptical and a stair stepper. You can vary your stride length. I'm not sure what to think about that. It was fine on my knee, though. I felt like I was getting resistance training along with the aerobic side of things. After completing that, I went and did Stage 1 Workout B4 of NRoLfW. I felt a bit self conscious because there were some guys who could life me along with my weighted barbell there, but I had on a Podrunner podcast and focused on that instead of my self-consciousness! Before loading up my barbell for the deadlift, I had to unload the barbell that someone had left loaded. Annoying, but not only that, it had a lot of weight on it! It even had 45# weights on. Then I go an put my wimpy total of 35# on the 45# bar. Oh, well. I never claimed to be able to lift a lot! After the first set of deadlifts, I could already feel my lower back muscles rebelling. So, I expect tomorrow and the next day to be pretty sore! The overhead presses will probably make themselves known again, but they did go a bit better. I'm using 15# dumbells for those.

I was able to up the weights on the deadlift, lat pulldown, and swissball crunch today. That's good. Especially since I'm not lifting three times a week like I would like.

If I ever doubted that weightlifting could get my heartrate up, I don't now. I often hit 175bpm with rests being around 135bpm-145bpm. So, I definitely get some cardiovascular conditioning in when doing heavy weights. I think previously, I did see this, but not as much. I don't think I was pushing myself quite as much. This book tries to use large muscle groups, so you are working a lot of muscles as once.

After the weights, I decided to give the treadmill a try again. I'm kind of feeling my knee afterwards, now, so I'm wondering if that was a bad idea. I told myself to just get on and do a mile as fast as I could. This was after over an hour of working out already. So, I hopped on and set the treadmill at 6.5mph. WAY fast for me. It wasn't long before I had to start dropping the speed. I wanted to not have my heart rate go much over 180bpm. I kept dropping it until I found that 5.2mph kept my heart rate right at 180bpm. I didn't think I'd make it to a mile, so I changed my goal to 10 minutes total. I kept looking at the time, swearing it was counting up rather than down. (It starts at 60 minutes when you begin.) When I neared 10 minutes and hadn't died yet, I decided to run without looking at the time and attempt to finish off the mile. The next time I looked down, I was at 0.96 miles, so of course I finished the mile. I did it in 11:15. Not great, but I was pre-worn out and the initial kick did not help things. I'm hoping that didn't do my knee in. I think I'll ice it tonight.

Had another post-lifting scoup of whey protein in some Fage fat-free plain Greek yogurt. I reallllly like that. But then, the Fage yogurt tastes so decadent anyway. The only problem is it is sooo rich feeling, and I really needed water. The yogurt doesn't wet your mouth.

It seems that my gym got its water problems straightened out. The water used to be horrible, but this time, I either was so thirsty I didn't care, or they finally have city water. It tastes good and isn't tinted now! Yippee! One bottle of water wasn't enough for me today, so I risked the yucky water and was pleasantly surprized.

Well, off to finish with a stretch and some ice on the knee. Keep moving!