Personal training

This morning I was at the gym at 6 am for my pt session. I was pleased it was today and not tomorrow. The overnight minimum for today was forecast to be 1 degree and ended up being 4. The forecast for tomorrow morning is -4. I don't think I'll be going outside for a run. In fact, the thought of heading to the gym before work sounds a bit challenging. Thank goodness I still have those exercise DVD's, just in case I wimp out.

We finished off my new weights program today. Leanne had me using this awesome bar for my triceps and biceps work. It is bent and looks quite intimidating. The clips to hold on the weights are enormous spring loaded clamps. Leanne loaded it up and I pleaded for immediate clemency. She then took the weight back to something manageable and started me off on the triceps exercise. I did really well during the first set of reps - I could whinge and moan for Australia. Funnily enough, the second set were better. The biceps exercise looked easy, but the bent bar added a whole new angle to it that made it a lot harder than I expected.

There seems to be this operation they give personal trainers before they start working with clients. I'm not sure if they have their hearts removed or if they just bypass the sensitivity centre in their brains but the operation is clearly effective. How do I know? Leanne was smiling as she told me my arms were going to hurt tomorrow.

We then went on to abs exercises. I've been doing these on the floor for a while, so I was surprised to get one standing up. That one involves standing on one leg and doing a sideways crunch. Then I was on my hands and knees and lifting my leg to the side and then backwards. This one requires a bit of pace. The last one had me sweating. It was a double crunch. Leanne assures me that I'll feel the pain in my abs tomorrow as well.

I thought about doing the rest of my program after my pt session, but I decided to save that for another day. I rationalised this by telling myself that abs work was meant to be done last. Instead, I hit the treadmill for a while. I did the aerobics training program for 20 mins at 6 km/h on level 8. Even though I'm so much fitter now, I found it hard work. My heart rate was up at 139, which is high for me when walking on the treadmill. I was surprised that I struggled, as I used to do this one a lot. I checked back through my earlier entries in the blog to discover that I mainly did this session at level 6. That's why it felt harder today.

Tomorrow I want to exercise in the morning, as I'm going out to dinner with a couple of friends. I had a run planned, but that will depend on whether or not I can face going outside into the cold. On Saturday, I'm due to go for a bike ride. We're planning to ride around the lake, which should be interesting.