Pool running and Weights session

This morning I went pool running. It was the first time I'd done any proper exercise since Sunday. Because of the rest everything felt really good, as though all my little niggles were no longer there. I felt absolutely great in the water.

We are covering the half lap a lot faster now and I feel as though I'm working a lot harder. My arms weren't as tired today. I must be getting used to the water resistance. Today's session was 5 min warm up, 8 x 2:30 hard with 0:30 easy breaks in between, followed by a 5 min cool down and stretching.

I hadn't done any exercise since Sunday, partly because of travelling to Melbourne and partly because my left knee was sore. I had planned to do a 10.5 km run around Kororoit Creek on Tuesday morning, but I decided to skip it when my knee was hurting when I woke up. I think that wearing heels at work hasn't helped, so I've cut that right back (sorry, Style Consultant). I'll have to go shopping on the weekend for some less daggy comfortable shoes. I'll keep the heels there for the meetings where I want to create an impression.

This evening I was at the gym, which has reopened after being refurbished. It was interesting to see what they have done, but I was disappointed to learn that belly dancing was only available during lunchtime. As I work out of town I can't get to lunchtime classes. I'm glad I didn't rush out to buy the tinkling scarf. I do have a couple of belly dancing dvd's though, so I'll have to give them a go again. Hmm, maybe I can buy the bling anyway.

I reorganised my PT, as Krissi is leaving the gym. I've booked in with Julia, who I met this evening. She looks so young! I've seen her with her clients but I haven't really formed a strong impression of her. I guess I'll know what she's like soon enough. It was hard getting a session at a time that suited me. I've ended up with a Thursday evening for now. I'll see if I can get it changed to Monday.

The grapevine is working overtime at the moment, and I'm not at all sure what to expect from the gym now. I'm not going to discuss all the details here in my blog as it's in the public arena. It's certainly a hot topic of conversation. I was glad to see that they didn't have dozens of people in the classes that replaced Body Attack and Belly Dancing. In fact there were only three people in Body Combat and two in Body Pump. If there'd been a huge turnout then I would have felt that I had to be more understanding of the fact that they keep taking away classes that I enjoy because there's only half a dozen of us going, like Body Jam.

On the positive side, the new cardio equipment is rather impressive. I tried out a treadmill tonight, with a 10 minute warm up run. (Individual tv's for the treadmills haven't arrived as yet, so this is a limited review.) It felt really good underfoot. Because the belt is so new there was a scraping sound like sandpaper when I was running. I expect that will disappear with time. Once I have the earphones in to listen to the tv I won't notice it. I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor and so the machine kept beeping at me to have my heart rate measured, which was a little annoying. It adjusted the speed down because my HR was too high, so I switched the program to cardio instead of fat-burning. That was a smooth transition, which is an improvement on having to start again when you decide to change programs. Once my HR was in the right range it was then going to adjust the elevation to keep it there, but as I kept taking my hands off the sensors it didn't actually do that. It will be interesting to see what it does when I'm wearing my HRM. At the end of the 10 mins the machine took me through a 3 minute cool down, adjusting the speed each minute.

I wasn't going very fast as it was just a warmup for my weights session and I didn't want to put too much strain on my knee. Afterwards, my knee felt fine. (It's tired now, but still fine.) I headed off to do lunges on the Smith machine, but there was no mirror on the wall. (Mirrors are coming.) I didn't like to do the lunges without being able to watch how my knee was tracking, so I went to the leg press machine instead. I had to unload a 20 kg weight as I'm only pressing 60 kg. (Lots of asides tonight. I'm constantly amazed by the weights some people press!) People never seem to unload this machine. I made sure I bent my knees and it was easy enough to do. I did three sets of reps. On the second and third I did the set with the halfway presses. It's much easier when Krissi has her hand there as a guide for me to know how far to press.

After this I went over to the leg extension machine. I started with my weaker leg at 16 kg, expecting to struggle, but I handled the first set of reps really well. I thought about putting the weight up but I decided to add a third set instead. The second set was easy too, but I was starting to feel it by the end of the third set. Chest presses were next and I did the warm up set of 15 presses at 10 kg. I added in the toss, which made the last few reps hard. I then did five pushups. At least I didn't collapse at the start, but I didn't push myself to do any more than five. I managed to get through the second set of 10 presses at 15 kg. The last few were a struggle. I only got through 5 in the third set. It's very different without Krissi there to push me.

The biceps and the triceps exercises went well. I skipped the dura disc as I figured my leg had done enough and there wasn't a rail to use for the band. I conveniently ignored the fact that I could have put the band around the Smith machine. I also skipped abs exercises. I thought about doing them, but I just didn't feel like it. I wandered off to the supermarket after the gym, bought healthy food, and then made a chicken salad for dinner. That's got to be good for me.

I don't think I'll be doing much more pool running. There's a good reason for that. Sally doesn't have stress fractures. She has something she can't pronounce. It's an inflammation of the sheath around the bone. She's got orthotics, is getting remedial massage, etc etc and, best of all, she's going to be able to do the Group Outdoor Fitness Challenge with us. That starts on 20th November, so we've only got one more week of pool running. I've really enjoyed it. Now all I have to do is translate it into swimming!