Friday Funk - Push It Day Five

I didn't feel much up to 'Pushing It' today, more like 'Puking It.' BLEH

I got through it though, with a little trainer help. I was whining about doing seven minutes on the stair-climber until he drew a forty-five and waved it in the general direction of my knee. FINE! I mounted that awful beast and was soon lost in a sea of sweat, and pain. I came off it humming the Stones Paint It Black,

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black

Oh yeah, this is gonna be a GREAT day... then the endorphins kicked in and I felt a little better.

As I told you yesterday my trainer sent in her suggestions for great workout songs. If you glance over to the right you'll see where I've started collecting the suggestions. I've started using links to YouTube to find the tunes so you can get a feel for them but in my trainer's case I couldn't find some of them, for example (I'm gonna be) 500 miles! remix - so I just tossed up what I could find. In this case not remixed, lol. I just took a shot on Distant Soundz... Timbaland I had to use iTunes.

• Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
• We are the Champions - Queen
• Jump - Van Halen
• Kickstart My Heart - Motley Crue
• Everybody's Free (this is a good end of workout song - just before the cool-down) -Rozalla
• Release - Timbaland
• Cuz I Can - Pink
• (I'm Gonna Be) 500 miles! (remix) - The Proclaimers
• Feedback - Janet Jackson
• Time After Time - Distant Soundz

Have a great Friday! I see there's talk of a Friday Fun Run, I agree with one person's comment, "... until then, I think I’ll wait for spring like weather and dry pavement." In my case because I'm a pansy! There I said it, anyone care to disagree? :-)

Cracks in the Seams of Self-Confidence - Push It day four

Pushing it is hard work - thought you would want to know.

I need to write about my daughter, but I'm under serious time constraints here from pushing it.

Yesterday I got an email from NoNeed, her full name is No Need for an Assessment but my typing skills aren't up to that challenge.

NoNeed writes:

Okay, I'm feeling sorry for you because no one is giving you any feedback on your request.

I think pretty much any AC-DC song is just great during a workout, and I really don't like AC-DC any other time. I guess I can relate to Angus's screaming better while I'm in pain myself. Their driving beat really gets you going. Try jumping rope to Thunderstruck sometime and see what I mean. Van Halen is okay too, and I would never listen to them otherwise.

Well the thought of me jumping rope is pretty funny, NoNeed obviously hasn't seen my attempts at lunges, ballerina that I am. Still, what the heck, I might as well try jumping rope sometime, maybe my daughter can teach me, and why not to Thunderstruck? I couldn't find the song on iTunes but I bet I can at the library.

I hope to receive more pity emails from my loyal and faithful readers!

Thanks NoNeed!!!

Today I did forty-five minutes of intervals on the treadmill at a work pace of 3.8 5% incline, rest of 3 1.5% incline. I was timing it so that I could take this fifteen minute Abs course that my trainer offered at seven and feeling pretty full of myself. I finished up about fifteen minutes before class, stretch and wander around feeling sort of bored. The high-light song being Blister in the Sun by The Violent Femmes since I was on the treadmill.

When I'm out walking I strut my stuff yeah I'm so strung out

I walk into the gym and catch the TOSRVs performing unnatural acts with lunges, doing them opposite from the way I do on-step db lunges so that they can drop their knee even further!

Concerned I flee to my trainer, I never pass on an opportunity to rat someone out, "You would not BELIEVE what's going on in the gym!"

I describe the horrors I witnessed, trailing off at my trainers bored stare...

She replies, "Yes I know, I designed those routines for them."

I wander off, trying not to run screaming at what horrors await if I continue to exercise.

The ABS class is offered every Tues/Thurs from 7-7:15am. It's billed as, "Drop in on a short break or during your workout for a great 15 minute abs session."

I'm so full of myself, so filled with arrogance that I'm certain I can go fifteen minutes, no problem. Somewhere around the five minute mark I just want to take my ball and go home! My first heads up that there was going to be trouble was the folk strolling into the gym with big rubber balls and mats. The TOSRVs were there and a FNG (what am I saying? I'm a FNG! Well he's new to me) and about five minutes late or so TireTosser strolls in too. And then me, oh boy.

I'm going to have to attempt the course a few more times before I can adequately explain how seriously tough those fifteen minutes are and the inventive things my trainer has one do with those big rubber balls (technical term is 'Fitness Ball' I believe).

One of the things you're suppose to do with the fitness ball is lay on your back, hold it between your ankles, lift it up so that your legs are straight and perpendicular with your body and then do things with it that strengthen your abs. Tossing it over your head across the gym when it slips out from your ankles and running after it giggling is not part of the routine!

When instructed to sit on the ball at about the 45 degree mark and lay back on it, having it shoot out from under your butt while flopping on the floor like a fish while the rest of the class giggles and your instructor asks, "Are you OK Bill?!" is not part of the routine.

When I finally mastered that and laid back I could do nothing. I simply didn't have the strength to do what the trainer was asking.

With about five minutes to go I bagged it and just sat on my ball watching the big kids play, feeling kinda sulky about it but also realizing if I continue to 'push it' or at least show up next Tuesday, I might do a little better.

Wanna know a secret? My belt went in a notch - it's a precarious situation an ebb and flow kind of thing, lets see if I can keep it there :-)

As I close I just received a list of songs from my trainer, I'll post them tomorrow and start the sidebar for them.

The Third Day of Pushing It.

Hmmm, the title of this post might get me an interview with the law...

MacArthur Park by Richard Harris stands as the greatest workout song of all time! There I said it... oh for cryin' out loud! If I could reach through the monitor I would give you SUCH a pinch! I see you guys rocking out to... something, WHAT IS IT?! What is your current fave when you're suffering on a machine or just trying to get through it?

"I don't understand why you wont try avocados, they're completely bland!

"That's what you said about potatoes!"

That recent conversation between my wife and daughter flits through my mind as I ponder last Friday's bout of email madness. First it was the Friday Fun Run and now its something called Conquer a BILLY BLANK TAE-BO Challenge TAPE. I'm reading the email exchange feeling a lot like the first time I tried to watch a cricket match. Everyone seems to know the rules but me.

Whatever it is, it will kick my butt and be fun with all the folk about. However I'm having the mental conversation, "Really Bill I don't understand why you wont try medicine ball volleyball, it's completely fun!"

"That's what you said about fire-jogging!"

I'm gonna have to man up, but 1PM on a Friday will make for interesting scheduling for yours truly. I'm having parallel conversations with my son, "Go out for cross country!"

"I'm a terrible runner."

I stare at him, "You've never tried, so how do you know?"

Unfortunately this is the month of 'Push It' (three days in and looking already like a kinda sucky month - I'm giving SERIOUS thought to making March the month of excessive drinking) so I will try these new things and attempt to get my son to try by example. He's an avid reader of this blog (I love that!) and enjoys my adventures in exercise. Now don't get me wrong, (queue the proud papa music) he's one smart, tough kid, a wrestler. He recently had a Herbst Appliance installed in his mouth. I've never had an appliance installed in my mouth! Apparently it's painful and he's having trouble eating but he bears this with a dignity that I find touching. I wish I could help him but all my wife and I can do is cheer him on and ask him if he wants an Aleve, he never asks for one.

I want him (and myself) to move beyond conjecture into practical knowledge. I can't really say how awful or wonderful a Friday Fun Run is until I actually try it. Plus I'm dying to blog it, but I will wait for the weather to break.

Today was a total body push it - bleh. I upped all times on the machines to seven minutes (max allowed for this workout, too bad, so sad) and started getting through it. I think I'm doing better on the lunges which means I probably have to drag my trainer out, I'm obviously doing something wrong. There was mild drama with the treadmill, so it's lap four on the metrics. I forgot what I was suppose to do already wishing it was Thursday and I was past the machine that shall not be named - sigh.

And then... The Dreaded One! You know what? I did it! mmhmm. I think the IV helped. I did seven minutes on the stair climber at level five, which is something like 12,478 floors climbed or one lap on the stairs at a Friday Fun Run.

I stagger off that insult to all that is virtuous and wheeze the breeze with a trainer. He's checking on me which I appreciate to no end. His biggest concern is burn out, he wants my suffering to last for decades not a few namby pamby months - that's for wimps!

Tomorrow, my routine on the balance beam, or treadmill depending on your perspective. I wonder how I'll 'push it' on that puppy?

Nibbling on endorphins and hoping you are too!

Push It - Day Two

Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin stands as the greatest workout song of all time. There I said it, care to disagree? Too bad she died a few days after recording it from a heroin overdose. The soulful, bluesy way she belts those lyrics out gets me going. It was all I could do NOT to sing while hammering out a happy pace on the elliptical.

Well after twenty four hours of 'pushing it' I can report back it pretty much blows, but I'm not ready to give up yet.

Today I decided to go for 144bpm (71% MaxHR) for 45 minutes. I ended up going an hour with an average of 145bpm! I'm pretty pleased with that, after a certain point it seems to get easy, that would be the hour mark for me.

Of course there was drama.

If you look at the heart chart it occurs at about the 58 minute mark where you see a dip in the HR before it starts climbing due to my RAGE! I'm plodding along figuring with two minutes to go that this is a done deal and I'm looking for stats... how many strides have I've taken?

I reach over to punch the stat button to move it off of miles to strides and hit the 'Reset' button. Suddenly my legs are swinging wildly going from level eleven to one and the machine has lost all stats.

CNTL-Z, CNTL-Z There is no 'undo'!

Darn it!

...

$#%&&@*!!^&#@%%%######!!!

The stream of profanity that slewed through my mind would have melted your eyebrows clean off.

After getting the machine set back up I finish out my two minutes or so and storm straight for the showers. I feel a bit better ("He got better") now. Off to push it in other arenas - Have a great day! Me? I'm hoping to meet the engineer who designed that elliptical :-)

The Month of Push It

Push It by Garbage stands as the greatest workout song of all time. There I said it, care to disagree? Having Shirley Manson (no relation to Charles or Marilyn) whisper in my ear like some demented Scottish dominatrix trainer,

C'mon push it, you can do it
C'mon prove it, nothing to it
C'mon use it, let's get through it
C'mon push it, you can do it

Motivates me to no end.

What's my point?... where did I put it... I really should start writing this stuff down instead of making it up on the fly... Oh yeah, the song comes on yesterday when I was on the bike and I started thinking (sorry wife), "You know the Chinese have the year of the Ox right now so I think I'm going to make February the month of pushing it."

I do my best thinking when my brain is oxygen starved. So I have no plan and began to implement it today on Total Body Monday! I up the minutes on the machines across the board, and do the other exercises with increased determination. The stair climber jacked my HR up to 160bpm having me hang in the 158-160 range for about two minutes and I stagger off that bad boy feeling pretty pukey.

I'm going to try and push it at the gym, at work, and particularly at home.

I will most likely crash and burn, flaming across the sky like at butterball turkey screaming, "Weeeeeee!!!"

So what. At least I tried, well that's still a BIG TBD. I could hop on this blog tomorrow and declare with equal zeal, "February is the Month of Lethargy and Indifference."

Wanna watch?

Push it, make the beats go harder!

Sunday Stroll

Well my wife, seeing the break in the weather opts for an afternoon walk. She suggests, proposes, puts forward, recommends, counsels and encourages us hoping to get a walking mate to tag along. Seven minutes into her PowerPoint presentation on The Afternoon Walk and Why You Should DO IT! my son and I breath a collective sigh of resignation and raise our hands.

I hook up the Garmin because the device just fascinates me, plus it uh counts towards my hopefully shrinking waistline. I get more data like calories from it too when I'm outside. When we get back I upload the data to Motionbased.com, check it out:
Can ANYONE explain to me how we walked a loop returning to our starting point all DOWNHILL??? (The green line on the chart indicates elevation) I'm not sure how to interpret the data. Any help?

When we get home my wife presents me with a jug of low sodium V8.

::glares at Marathon Man::

Tea and yoga are not far behind I suppose.

First of February

My need to go into the gym remains unsated, though I went to bed late I still got up at about 6:30am and headed in. I'm old. I'm starting to wonder IF I can sleep till seven.

Marathon Man arrives about the same time and for some bizarre reason I head out to the bike with no heart monitor on and a towel. A towel? Well not JUST a towel (thank God!) I mean one in my hand. After giving some thought to hiding it behind the bike like I meant to bring it in, I groan inwardly and head back to the lockers to correct these gaffes.

The Garmin has become something of a trap, well not a trap, but I feel like it's proof that I did something, mostly to myself. Plus the charts are just plain nifty!

As I walk past Marathon Man, already on the treadmill, he tells me it would be fine with him if I put on the classical radio station. I shudder, it's far too soon to be reliving that experience. I'm envious of how he can be at a pretty serious run AND watch TV at the same time without suddenly veering off and flipping over a side rail.

I hop onto a recombinant and select my old pal 'fat burner' - I'm still dissatisfied with my weight even though I know intellectually I have done well; there's this lingering angsty feeling of discontent. It'll pass. I set it for level seven, thirty five minutes and go!

I want to be in bike riding shape by April so I'm working on my bike legs during the 'me' time of the weekends. I'm going to start doing additional work on the core here soon. I'll tell you a few of my upcoming bike goals, things I must accomplish before the end of summer. The first is getting the stupid water bottle out of the stoopid cage without stopping the bike or having a wreck. I managed it once at the end of last summer and was so proud of myself! I was crawling and grunting so attractively trying to reach down for it... hmmmm better put a little more effort into those stretches. The second is to ride with my hands off the handlebars of course. I use to be able to do that back when I was ten but have lost the ability. The third you already know - do like a twenty mile ride in comfort not being followed by some vulture EMT which is just embarrassing.

I work up a nice sweat and head to the showers. A bit later Marathon Man comes in, he's telling me that he's gained weight between yesterday and today. I ask if that's a good thing or not, the training for marathons a mystery to yours truly. He says it just happens, he told me that he gained something like two pounds during the marathon - I figure it was just his cells clinging to yummy oxygen, unwilling to let it go.

I mention that I'm thinking of weighing once a month and he tells me he use to do it once a week.

"Did it help?"

"Yeah, every Monday so I wouldn't over eat during the weekend."

I might try that. I intuitively feel a month is too long in the dark. As I'm heading out to the car it hits me what Marathon Man was trying to tell me. Effectively it boils down to this, keep on it and don't give up and handle inevitable setbacks.

Recumbinant bike - fat burner - level 7 - 35mins

Just got back from seeing OSU wrestle Minnesota with my son. Cool beans, now looking like one of those dudes, there's a goal :-)