Dry Run

The dry run went off will all the precision of a North Korea rocket launch. The abort was called at 10PM last night when I climbed into bed thinking this is the last day that I can sleep in so I opted for that. Tomorrow should be fun. Here's the plan:

1. Get everything ready tonight - clothes, computer, all packed and ready to go
2. Be at the gym at 6AM dressed for the workout
3. Workout
4. Go to work
5. Try not to nap at work

As most of you know, children are infringing with ever increasing activities. Except for Tuesdays (currently) I'm usually involved with something after work.

Today we had church and I had a conversation with 'TomS' on the phone, he foolishly left a voicemail on the cell. We're not really cell phone people, ya know? So I didn't even know about it until this morning. Tom is embarking on a different regime that I hope he'll share with us in this blog. I've granted him authorship access for that very purpose. After that I headed to the gym.

I opt for the bike again not feeling manly enough for the elliptical thingy but cowboy up a bit and set it for fat burn, forty-five minutes at level six. My game plan, if you can call it a 'plan' when you don't know what you're doing, is to run my heart rate up to zone 3.5ish (Aerobic, Cardio Training/Endurance) before going into zone four (Anaerobic, Hard Core Training) for the final ten minutes or so. What I'm thinking without any knowledge what-so-ever is that I'm getting in shape to get in shape. After a week I'm starting to feel that I can go for awhile on these devices and that the point is to get your heart into a certain zone and hold it there for awhile. I have no idea if that's true or not and this blog is becoming a testimony to my intelligence.

Here's today's graph:



There was some drama on the bike. I'm becoming far too casual with the equipment. I have my little water bottle which is the one they used when the US Cycling Team was sponsored by the US Postal System, an oxymoron that's always made me smile.

Around fifteen minutes into the ordeal I can feel my muscles finally warm up and the pores finally open and I start to get sweaty, and thirsty. I take a swig of cool, cool water and reach back to put it in the holder and it falls on the floor!

I have thirty minutes to go and for some stupid reason I will not stop the bike to pick it up, nor will I ask for help and believe you me no one will help me! The etiquette of this gym (and others) is that everyone is in their own circle of hell and don't want to chat or socialize. Conversation consists of, "Hi Bill, how are you doing?" while simultaneously blowing by me not listening to the reply already focused on getting whatever it is over with!

I eye the water bottle, so close, so far. My lips are already chaffing from the arid air and soon will split. My mouth is dry, cotton mouth, my throat is parched! Succor, dear lord make it rain! I occupy my time making sure I'm hanging out in zone 3.5 and fantasizing that I'm lost in the desert, to stop is to die. I don't want to fill some buzzard's belly!

With twelve minutes left I make my move and push into zone four and hold that for about eleven minutes. After the cool down I hop off the bike and drain the water bottle.

Now sauna time! I set it to 'simmer' for thirty minutes and hop in. I love how the heat just seeps in and after a bit the pores open and the sweat flows. I ponder a conversation I had with my wife and daughter in the car.

"You mean you sit in the sauna NAKED?!"

"Well we sit on towels, we're not barbarians you know."

"Ewwwwwwwwwww!"

Girls, go figure.