Metric Madness (Day 10)

My cousin, after receiving several annoying text messages from me while she was trying to mold minds and the future of our country, confirmed she did not receive her heart monitor strap. I'm writing this at the end of my Sucky Tuesday so this is just a perfect ending to a crappy day. She's gonna call the place that shipped it and hopefully they'll make it right. If not, I will. She also informs me that she has some friends of hers reading my blog (waves to friends) and that I might even be inspiring some of them!

Eh? Are they reading the right blog? This is a cautionary tale!

I only feel a slight amount of guilt when I ask others to read my blog. As long as I can convince myself someone is reading this I'll continue to go to the gym. But yes, it's true, I'm a blog pimp though I receive no money. The reason I mention this is I was telling my father about my trials in the realm of exercise asking him to read my blog and he was full of compassion!

I was relating my recent trip to the grocery store and how I was considering celery which amused me, king of the Oreo Double Stuffs (my son is poised to take my mantle if he hasn't already usurped me).

"You can't have celery its full of sodium!"

Now I am on blood pressure medication (sigh) and it runs around 140/90 at the moment (and yes my two doctors I am minding my sodium intake - if you're reading this!) but I've got this 'come on' expression on my face while I listen to him. My dad REALLY has to mind his intake and has given up as much salt as he can so he's aware of sodium the way I'm aware of peanuts (allergy).

Dad continues, "Carrots are OK..." and I hear my mom in the background saying, "And broccoli!" Dad and I both chuckle and he says, "I wasn't even going to mention that." My loathing of broccoli and asparagus is well documented.

Dad goes on in a cheerful manner effectively telling me that I might as well remove all pleasure from my palate, "If it tastes good then it's bad for you!" We both laugh, but I get the impression he wasn't really joking.

I'm thinking, "So I suffer with this exercise so that I can live longer eating stuff I don't enjoy?" Alanis Morissett wafts through my head, "It really is ironic, dontcha think?!"

On another front I've picked out my 'prize' if I go the distance with the new improved me. It's down at the bottom of the sidebar, but I must practice with the same vigor I'm currently working out if I'm to actually purchase such a trifle. My wife has a distressingly valid point, "It should be something you actually will use!" to which my daughter rejoined, "Like a new laptop!" I've always had this dream of actually playing the guitar - it just comes down to doing it, my traditional downfall, I wonder if I will.

I'm gonna bug the gym trainer about the status of my workout program. I'm a project manager, its what I'm paid to do, she'll understand.

Got up at 5:10 today threw on my exercise gear and went into the gym. I opt for the elliptical thing since it's a 32min workout and I feel worked out at the end of it. Not like that noise on the bike yesterday. I'm starting to eye the treadmill and the stair machine ("A real butt kicker!!!" I'm told by my fellow masochists) since I'm getting kinda bored with these two I'm currently doing. Though the sweat factor the elliptical introduces is nice.

I drop my sweats and notice that I'm now standing in my tighty-whities. Giggle, forgot my shorts so I do the workout in my sweat pants. I'm becoming increasingly adept at feigning this expression that I know what I'm doing in the gym.

I'm experimenting more with the Garmin 305. I pushed the lap button - how cool is that? Here's lap one of the workout:


Lap2 - the cool down:


The overall workout:


Andddddd theeennnnnn I discovered that I can move the columns around on the metrics Garmin's software has - this is more 'me' then their default:


Sigh, I just reread this thing wincing at the graphs and charts. If this isn't a cry for help well then... oh yeah, you're here to watch... enjoying yourselves? I am :-)