No Pain! No Gain!

The pain is here. It arrived promptly and loudly this morning.  I plan on pushing my way through it though.  I'm trying to live the mantra of "No Pain! No Gain!" - within reason, of course. Anyone who knows me knows I whine - a lot - when I'm in pain...so let's not get stupid here.

Yesterday I had a date. A date with a treadmill. 

Me and the treadmill spent 30 quality minutes together. We walked hand in hand at a clip of about 3.2mph. Which may not seem like a lot for some of you long legged, fast walkers. But for a short leg meander - er, 3.2 miles for 25 minutes got my heart a pumpin (5 minute cool down made the total 30 minutes).

My plan was to do 10 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes treadmill - twice.  I get bored on machines and so if I switch them up I don't get nearly as bored. 20 minutes on ONE machine seems like a lifetime to me. But I can do almost anything for 10 minutes - almost. The Plan B for me was to do 30 minutes on the treadmill - as a project manager I always have a plan B. 

When I got to the gym a local high school rowing team was working out.  ALL the elliptical were being used by teeny bopper girls and one boy.  So I stepped onto the treadmill and started. Waiting. Watching for an opportunity to hop on an elliptical.  15 minutes later the teens departed.  I was in the middle of a pretty good song so I figured I'd just finish the song and hop on the elliptical for 15 minutes.

Bad choice. 

I didn't realize there were TWO groups of teens. So as one teen left, another group all boys and one girl, came and took over the elliptical.  So much for the original plan.

By this time I was 20 minutes into my walking, so I decided to stay.  I did spy a Car and Road magazine on the shelf next to me that had a kick ass Mustang on the cover. I hopped off the treadmill quickly and picked up the mag.  I can't read and walk at the same time, so I just looked at the pictures.

Before I knew it the timer was going off. Time to slow it down a bit.

I felt GREAT after the walk. I stretched while I was still warm and downed a glass of water. 

I know everyone is concerned that I might be hitting the working out too hard.  Thank you for your concern, but really I feel good. I do know my limits and I'm keeping my heart rate in the rate zone.  If something starts hurting during a work out, I stop.  So again, thanks for your concerns, and just know that I'm being careful.

Getting up this morning I was sure I'd be sore. I got shin cramps last night. Holy Moly those things hurt.  Time to go buy some more Hanna Montana cream (Arnica Montana is what it's really called).  I googled "shin stretches" last night and proceeded to do 30 minutes stretching. It did hurt like the dickens.  At one point the shin would cramp, I'd start stretching that and the calf would cramp.  Ick.

Tonight I'm going to try my 10 elliptical and 10 treadmill again.  Tomorrow's a weigh in.  I stepped on the scale this morning out of curiosity and did not like what I saw.  It frustrated me momentarily.  First off I have no idea how accurate this 30 year old scale is. And secondly, if no weight is lost this week I can at least know that I've started to create some pretty good habits and I'm okay with that.  Though I'm sure I've lost a pound or two. At least. Maybe. Please?

This weekend we're expecting some snow here in the Great Northwest. I am planning a photography outting tomorrow to get caught up on my assignments for the two photography classes I'm currently taking.  One assignment is a treasure hunt and I'm so digging the themes:

• Your feet in the grass
• Sun (yah right)
• Clouds
• Paint Chips
• An adventure
• Your morning coffee
• a riot of color
• a mess
• a brightly colored Popsicle (not likely in the winter but we'll see)
• laughter
• someone you love
• someone with a cape (I love this one.)

 I doubt I'll get them all, but I'm gonna at least give it the old college try.

Sunday is Sunday dinner and my free day. I'm still going to try to thin down the meal a bit, and it's good for me to know that real food and cooking is in my future.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone.