So after yesterday's rest day I'm back on the equipment. Today:

Treadmill:
Speed:     2 mph
Incline:     3 degrees
Time:       60 minutes
Distance:  2 miles

Calories:  414

Bike:
Interval Training
Speed:     14 mph (avg)
Level:       2 - 8

Time:       30 minutes
Distance:  7 miles

Calories:  182

Exercising

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Exercising

Sometime in late May, Marilyn started using our recumbent exercise bike, which had been sitting idle for quite a while. Finally, on June 4th, I was shamed into climbing aboard too.

I started off using one of the bike's built-in programs, the "Pikes Peak." This starts off at low resistance (I started at level 2) and builds up gradually to level seven -- the sprint to the top, I suspect -- and then tapers gradually back down to the starting level for a cool-down. I biked for 20 minutes and was pretty well wiped out at the end. This shows the sad state of non-fitness I had deteriorated into.

Nevertheless I persisted. By Friday I was up to 30 minutes, had lost four pounds, and discovered that my newly-purchased, very tight around the waist, shorts were fitting better. Huzzah!

I continued this routine until the 14th. All the while, Marilyn was doing 20 minutes of manual intervals, starting at level 1 for a minute, level 3 for a minute, level 5 for a minute, level 7 for a minute, and then starting over at level 1. This way she was doing 5 intervals and a cool-down. Marilyn was enthusiastic about the intervals because her heart doctor had told her he had read up on it and it was supposed to work better than other forms of training.

In the meantime, I also found myself on the treadmill on the 9th, walking at first at the slow pace of 1.5 mph. I accidentally pushed 2 mph to speed up from 1 mph and almost had to break into a trot. Back to 1.5 mph (I found I could increase and decrease by 1/10 mph) I did walk a mile in 40 minutes. Never gonna win any races, but I was moving. I didn't walk at all the following week, but I did continue on the bike, working up to 30 minutes.

Well, Marilyn enthused so much about her interval work that on the 14th I graphed out 20-minute and 30-minute interval workouts, and, leaving Pike's Peak behind, began doing the 30-minute interval workout on the bike, beginning at level 2, then 3, 5, 7, and back to 2. Let it be known that level 7 for a minute is not easy!

This worked out so well, that on the 16th I added 1 mile (40 minutes) on the treadmill, followed by the interval workout on the bike.

On the 21st, I started pushing up the speed of the treadmill, doing a little over a mile and a third in 45 minutes.

The next breakthrough came on July 3rd, when I set the treadmill at 2 mph. Whereas before I felt like I was about to fly off the back of the machine, now, three weeks later, it was a comfortable stroll. Ah, progress!

So, since the 3rd, my (pretty much) daily routine is 45 minutes (1.5 miles) on the treadmill, followed by 30 minutes (ca. 6.7-7.1 miles) of intervals on the bike. This works out to ca. 480 calories. Weighing after this morning's workout, I've lost 10 pounds, the improvement in my energy level is amazing, and I think my workouts helped me bear with the heat and feel comfortable during our recent A/C outage.

I'll try to post my daily results from now on.

Sunday is a day of rest, as scripture provides.