Gym-tastic week

3 hard gyms this week, one run and one swim. Pretty good going compared with the last few weeks. Feeling very "used" right now (just got back from today's 70 minute gymming about an hour ago and had a nice hot bath since). What's annoying is that the 89p chocolate Yazoo from the local corner shops is £1.30 at the cafe in the local gym. Cheeky or what? Could really do with a nap now though...

This week:-
Exercise count: 5
Exercise time: 03:42
Exercise kcals: 2,131

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 150
Exercise time: 82:30
Exercise kcals: 45,723

Meh

I've been being good. Weights 3x a week last week and this week, staying under maintenance a tiny bit last week and lots this week and I'm slightly heavier than I was 2 weeks ago. I am officially sulking about this as It's Not Fair.

I can do pressups now too, almost proper ones - just not going down quite as far as a 90° bend in the elbow. I did 5/8/8 yesterday in my weights routine.

Weekly round up

Numbers numbers numbers... I'm starting to wonder what happens when my total exercise time goes over 99:59:59 as there aren't any more digits on the watch to display 3 digit hours. 80 hours in 5 months so I should find out some time in January.

Weekly numbers:-
Exercise count: 5
Exercise time: 03:08
Exercise kcals: 1,819


Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 146
Exercise time: 79:37
Exercise kcals: 44,307

Went for it a bit hard

There's a branch of my new gym about a mile from the house (well, actually there are two, but...) and I decided to give it a go. Initially the plan was to go for a swim, but I wanted to gym a bit first. Ended up doing 50 minutes of weights, then only 15 minutes of swimming, but a total of 650kcals of exercise (560 after taking off background, bleh). And lo, I was ravenously hungry. So having had muesli with a banana for breakfast, there was chocolate milk on the way back from the gym, followed by a bacon stuffed bagel, then the craving/eyes-bigger-than-belly really kicked in and we had potato wedges and pizza for dinner, with beer. 500kcals over maintenance. Not too bad had it been only the once this week, but... it happened once already this week on Wednesday. Once, I have pretty much no problem with, but twice... not happy about it.

I just seem to get unmanageably hungry after a hard gym session and choose things that are way too big. I could have stopped after the potato wedges last night, had none of the pizza and been satisfied, but nooo... I crammed the 1/2 (medium) pizza in as well. Lack of self-control to the max. And this morning I'm paying for it in weight (transient I know, but still I will suffer later in the week for it) and muscular ache that is stopping me from going for a swim (I swam the day after a hard gym session earlier this week and oh boy did it hurt afterwards, I can't swim gently it seems and I get competitive if there's someone else in the pool). So. No exercise today to even slightly make up for yesterday.

I'd made it down to 66.7kg earlier in the week but now I'm up to 68.2kg. I'd stayed under 68 since the beginning of the month so I'm pretty annoyed with myself now. Not in my happy range, dammit. Gonna have to put in the effort next week to keep things sensible.

Bugger me, -another- good exercise day!

THREE in a row now! I really didn't want to do anything today; waaay too tired still and a bit hungover as well. It took a bit of effort but I forced myself down to the gym. 50 minutes of routine later (including a 5 minute chat with one of the trainers) and 435kcals burned, biceps feel weird, legs were good for 8kg dumb bells on the lunges though which was good seeing as I've not done heavy weighted lunges in a while.

Did go a bit nuts with the overhead tricep thingies on the Swiss ball and picked a 9kg medicine ball for those. That exposed the same weakness/problem with my right arm as the dumbbell flyes did the other week. My left arm just goes funny and can't take any load at all at a certain point. I think I'll bring it up with my new trainer when I take one on at the new gym in January (I still have a December session with my old trainer at the old gym). My left shoulder certainly looks weird when doing side shoulder raises so that may be related. Definitely worth a check out.

Good exercise days

Two of them in a row. 450kcals of weights yesterday and 285 in swimming today; it's so nice having a swimming pool 2 minutes from my desk! I do have a bit of back ache though... worse after swimming. So I think I need to be a bit more careful with form on the squats and presses, and with the assisted chin-ups. My triceps are loving the new mixed-up routines though... getting really firm and defined!

I really really must not swim in that pool without goggles though. I look like something out of a horror film at the moment!

Undeserved loss

Having not been particularly good for the last couple of weeks, I've -still- managed to lose a bit more fat. I'm trying not to let that affect my willpower and get even slacker.

Last week's exercise was low again, 1 training session (new routine etc.), 2 weights sessions and a medium run. The second weights session utterly ruined me though, so I took a lot of rest in the latter part of the week. My arms and back were still aching yesterday and my shoulder still aches today; 5 days later! Anyhoo, the overall result is bulging biceps and triceps and a little bit of weight loss. I'm not complaining, but I'm certainly going to take it a bit easier this afternoon in the gym.

Here are the numbers...

Last week:-
Exercise Count: 4
Exercise Time: 02:32
Exercise Calories: 1,335

Totals since 15th June 2009:-

Exercise Count: 140
Exercise Time: 75:40
Exercise Calories: 41,773

Ow.

So this 'ere new gym is very nice. Definitely. Better looked after, cleaner, stuff is tidied up very frequently, there are towels and bathrobes and the trainers plentiful and helpful. Showers are lovely and the toiletries veeery nice.

All of that is well and good, but if you're not familiar with the machines, it's a bit daunting. Still. I have the cross-trainers (these ones - http://www.technogym.com/gb/viewdoc.asp?co_id=2728&target=commercial - which have a much bigger vertical travel than I'm used to and a shorter horizontal travel, so it's a very different action to the ones in the old gym) sussed now and the rowers are the same as the ones at the old gym. The assisted chin-ups/dips machine, however is not one to kneel on *cough* (thanks to a trainer for pointing out it's for standing on - I did wonder why the travel was so short!) So caught up in the new assisted chip-ups/dips machine was I that I got overly keen and set the weight to 35kg (last time I used 40kg and remember this machine assists against your bodyweight so lower weights are harder). My arms are now made of jelly.

New routine

....and I don't like it. I loved the last one. This one is just icky.

Warm up - 1km on the rower

Ski lunges - 6kg dumb bells - 3x12
Straght arm pulldown/tricep pushdown combo - 20kg - 3x12 + 3x12
Bosu single-leg bridges - 3x12
Dumbell flyes/push up combo - 6kg - 3x12 + 3x12
Bent-over cable row with reverse grip - 25kg - 3x12
Crunches on decline bench - 3x12
Roman Chair crunch - 3x12
Swiss ball oblique crunches - 3x12

Cool down - 10 minutes on cross trainer, 8 at L8 12kph, 1 at L4 10kph, 1 at L1 10kph

Numbers and figures

I've lost 16cm since my last PT session. More than usual. That's surprisingly not all that pleasing and I'm not sure why. Body fat is down 0.5% to 27.1% now. Slowly slowly going down. I may well be putting in the exercise (though not so much the last two weeks) but I'm definitely not in kcal deficit by 500kcal per day so I'm not on target by any stretch of the imagination. The thing is, I'm not in a hurry. As long as things are going down even slowly, I'm content.

I'll go better once I move to a closer gym to work. Soon soon.

Last week's numbers:-
Exercise Count: 4
Exercise Time: 02:18
Exercise kcals: 1,431

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 137
Exercise Time: 73:43
Exercise kcals: 40,625

Fame! I'm gonna live forever. Or something.

I got vox popped yesterday lunchtime by City A.M.. About M&S selling branded goods. Didn't actually expect to end up in print, but there you go. I wasn't in town today so didn't see a copy of what they say I said.

Today I was interviewed by The Daily Mirror (please don't spit at me!) about my "success story". It was a bit odd and the journo was extremely hyper. Lord knows what he's going to write, but I'm getting a draft before it gets printed towards the end of the year. The photographer is coming next weekend to take some snaps as well. Cue frantic "I have NOTHING to WEAR!" panic. And "OMG the STATE of the HOUSE!". Thankfully, kittens will be arriving in the afternoon to soothe and fill me with "awwww!". I so want copies of the photos, whatever happens.

Ran a bit today, just as it got dark, in mostly new gear. New capri trousers (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/run/8/Ronhill_Ladies_Aspiration_Powerlite_Capri/5360045993/), the same make and style as the other two pairs I have and the same size but these new ones are horribly loose at the knee sleeve bit. Not sure I'm happy with them. New socks (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/run/8/Ronhill_Ladies_Cushion_Socks_3_For_2/5360038625/ and yes, if you order one of these you get 3 pairs of socks *cough*) are -lush- as are the new trainers (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/run/8/Nike_Ladies_Zoom_Structure_Triax_Plus_12_Shoes_SS09/5360043531/) which are Nike+ footpod compatible so when that arrives I will be playing with it ad nauseam. New undies too (http://www.sweatybetty.com/shop-by-department/sweat/underwear/all_sports_shorts.asp), specifically for getting sweaty in and they are also rather lovely so I shall be getting more to avoid the serious cold arse problem I get when running in less than 20C.

Boring numbers

Nothing to see here today, just some totals and stuff. We did go for a run on Sunday though, 10.3km in heavy rain (not a problem, I like running in the rain) but it was also very windy in places and that made it quite tough going. An hour and a minute running time with a couple of road-crossing stops, averaging out at 10.1kph including the stops. Not bad overall.

Low exercise count for the week last week, but then it was birthday zone, so. This week will be limited as well due to working from home on a day I'd usually do weights and the gym still being too far from the office to be comfortable going for cardio work on the alternate days. Bit of a bugger when I see my trainer on Monday for a measure and new routine. I really wish HR would get the info from the closer gym about corporate discounts, but the gym are insisting that she goes for a visist and to be honest she's too busy for that so it's stalemate at the moment by the looks of it.

Last week:-
Exercise count: 3
Exercise time: 02:30
Exercise kcals: 1,550

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 130
Exercise time: 70:33
Exercise kcals: 38,878