Weights session

First of all, thank you so much for the encouraging comments on yesterday's post. I arrived home tonight to read them, and it was lovely to receive them. It made my day. :-)

Tonight I went to the gym to do my weights session. It was a great workout. I've been thinking about what makes one workout great and another so so and I've come to absolutely no conclusions. This one just felt good. I managed to work up quite a sweat and I felt a real sense of achievement at the end of it.

I started off with a 10 minute warmup on the treadmill. I was looking at all the various options and saw a fitness test, so I gave that a go. Well, I'm below average. My VO2 was 29. Now, I've no idea what that means or what average fitness is, but I'll be able to check it again next time I feel the need to be told by a machine that I'm not fit. (I'm not at all upset by that. It's just a measure at a point in time.)

The 5 minute test started off with a warm up, which basically meant a 0 inclination for 1 minute at the speed I'd nominated. I selected the top speed in the range, as it was only 7.3. My heart rate jumped straight up to over 140 and ended up at 160+ after the warm up, when the inclination went to 5. I managed another 2.5 mins before knocking the inclination down to 3. When the next minute clicked over it jumped back up to 5. I lasted another 20 seconds at 5 then finished it off at 3. I was expecting a cool down, but it jumped straight to the "you're below average" commentary. I then dialled up another 5 mins of walking to finish off the warm up. Of course, now I'm going to have to do some research to find out what my VO2 should be. There's so much to learn about running.

I had one of those charmed sessions where every time I wanted a piece of equipment it was available. People were getting off equipment just as I wanted to use it. I basically did the same session as last time, so I won't go into details, apart from saying I managed one more chest press in the third set, I survived for 10 pushups, and I increased the weight on the single leg extensions from 16kg to 18.3kg. Mind you, I seriously considered using the increased weight as a reason for only doing two sets but I managed the third set.

That was something else that had me thinking. My left leg was burning for the last 2 reps in the second set and the last 5 reps in the third set. I was interested to see how my right leg compared. The second set was easy but I felt it for the last 3 reps in the third set. I was pondering this, as I don't think my left leg is that close in strength to my right leg. While I was walking home I remembered that I had to keep turning my abs back on while I did the left leg. I didn't have to do that with the right leg. I think that my left leg was probably recruiting my back muscles to help. At least, that's what I suspect is going on. I'm going to have to remember to ask Krissi about it on Friday. I like to understand what's going on.

I was doing the triceps exercise where you lift a dumbbell up and lower it down behind your head, while you try to keep your elbows in and still. Those recalcitrant elbows keep moving out slightly, no matter how hard I glare at them, although I'm much better at keeping them still. I used to have spaghetti arms but at least I now have an element of control.

Oh, I was doing the stretch for my achilles - the calf stretch where you bend your knee to get the stretch lower down. I must have been doing something right as I actually felt it today.

I still haven't decided about running or Yoga tomorrow so I'm going to get my gear ready for both, just in case. I've a chaotic morning, where I have to be at the pool at 6 am and at home ready to be picked up at 7:15 am. Thank goodness for my deadly treadly, as I'd never be able to manage it without. I had a theory that I'd be able to leave my gear at the gym on the way to the run, but they have removed lockers to put the sauna in, so I think that's a non-starter.

One of the running girls pointed out that the sauna has glass doors and is facing into the change room. I can see that if I do try it out that I'll be aiming for a very quiet time of day. Some of the sights in the change room are disconcerting to say the least. Not that they are anything like what goes on in the pool changing room!