Personal Trainer and W2D3

So I joined LA Fitness on Tuesday and with that comes a free fitness assessment with a personal trainer. Now, obviously I know I'm not super fit, super thin, super muscular, etc. But wow. How depressing. I already knew my weight since I weigh myself weekly, but my body fat percentage was...embarrassingly high. I honestly thought with my healthy habit changes this year it would have gone down some. But no.

The experience was kind of expected. I met with a woman who was sweet and fit, but sort of already had an idea of what she wanted to do with me. She listened to my goals and expectations, and what I would want out of a personal trainer. I told her I'm planning to run a half-marathon in October, that I have a training schedule already, running 3x/week, yoga at least once. And that I would like to incorporate light weight lifting (not pushing so I don't overexert or injure myself). The weight lifting is what I would really need the personal trainer for, since I've never done it before. I like running, and plan to do that, walking, and yoga as my cross-training.

...And then we went through a sort of cross section of different cardio exercises I could try. I didn't enjoy them, and I was annoyed to spend an hour in the gym and never touch the weights.

Then she went through the sales pitch about cost, and I told her I wasn't interested just yet, due to the fact that I'm paying for two gyms for the next 33 days, it's not really in my budget, and I'll be out of town for a significant portion of the month. She asked her supervisor to join us, and that's when I started getting frustrated. Not because of the sales pitch - I was expecting that, and truth be told, I really do want a personal trainer during my half training, so knowing the costs will help me budget. I was frustrated because all the supervisor would talk about was the significance of the strength training and that my cardio plan wasn't enough to decrease my body fat. They weren't listening. Obviously I know strength training is important - that's the ONLY reason I want a personal trainer. I spent over an hour NOT doing strength training, and then another 30 minutes being told I need to strength train. And I still don't know how to use the machines properly. Awesome.

I will say that the cardio we did was a good workout, so I counted that as my W2D3 cross training instead of walking. I didn't get home until 9:00 (my appointment was at 6:30), and by then I was starving and Eric was on his way home.

Tonight is back to running - 2 miles. Woohoo. I'm in a bad mood today, so hopefully that will help.

The End and W2D2

It started with a simple inquiry: does Planet Fitness offer yoga classes? (The answer is no.) Eric's cousin and uncle, whom I consider pretty awesome people to hang with, are members of Planet Fitness, a decent chain of gyms with a significantly reduced membership fee. Currently, I pay $80/month at my gym, but I've found it harder and harder to justify over the last few months. I've started running outside more and more, and I barely make it to yoga. I'm not a fan of the other classes that I've tried, so I only go to the gym maybe 2-3 times per month.

So I looked around, put some feelers out on Facebook, and came to the conclusion that the newest LA Fitness a few miles from my house is actually a good option. It has plenty of equipment, and most of the same perks as my current gym. The only true downside is that I won't be able to take Laurie's yoga class anymore. It's a significant downside, to be sure, since I would also get to see Nicole on those days, but the wallet wants what the wallet wants, and the wallet wants some relief.

So I'm a member of LA Fitness now. We'll see how it goes. I have a fitness evaluation tonight - not psyched for it.

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W2D2 called for yoga.



So, yeah. My Vista Yoga pass actually expires next month, so I should probably get on that. Like this week.

Tonight calls for a 2 mile walk. Sounds like J-dog is getting the exercise he so richly needs (and...deserves...bad mommy).

W1 Recap and W2D1

I've already posted about most of my workouts here, here, and here. I took Thursday and Friday as rest days. Eric and I headed up to Cashiers Friday afternoon, and we were running late so I couldn't get the run in that I was hoping for (but it wasn't on the schedule anyway, so it's probably for the best).

Saturday, Kate and I went for a walk to the waterfalls close to the house. It was a pretty easy/nice walk, but I have issues putting one foot in front of the other and ended up tripping over a root, planting my right knee firmly into a rock on the side of the trail. We finished the hike, but when we got home, I knew that was probably the end of my outdoor activities for the weekend. My knee had started to swell, and I had some sharp pains whenever I moved it for the first couple of hours. Everyone else ended up going for a hike to Whiteside Mountain later in the day, but my knee was killing me just trying to make it up the stairs, so I was out, sadly. By Sunday most of the pain was gone, but it was still pretty sore, so skipped out on another hike. We ended up leaving pretty early yesterday, which was a bummer.

I had a great time over the weekend, but I'm really sad to have missed out on all of the hiking. Boo.

So that was my week. 4.5 miles of running, one day of yoga, and a treacherous walk. Not too bad, but definitely hoping for better luck this week.

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W2D1 Recap: I was up this morning by 7:15, but farted around the house for an hour before I got out on my run. The temp right now is only 73 degrees, but humidity is (also) 73%. It was a rough run. I was mildly hungover, mildly dehydrated, not smart enough to eat breakfast, my calves were incredibly tight and my knee was feeling very wonky and unstable - but no pain. 2.6 miles, 33 mins, 12:43 pace. Those are definitely pretty average numbers for me, but it felt much harder. I'm icing my knee now, hoping to stave off any soreness later.

Schedule calls for yoga tomorrow and walking on Wednesday before another run on Thursday. I'm down with that.

This just happened.

Training Plan: W1D3

Don't get excited. Just because I updated about D1 AND D2, and now I'm blogging about D3 DOES NOT MEAN I WILL BE A DAILY BLOGGER ALL CAPS OMG.

Because I can't handle that kind of pressure, clearly.

But anyway. So today was day 3, which meant a 2.5 mile easy run. I decided to mix up my route and run through the neighborhood. INSANE HILLS. Well, normal hills I'm used to and then 2 INSANE hills. RunKeeper said it was 2.46 miles at a 12:57 min/mile. But DailyMile said it was 2.54 miles at a 12:33 min/mile.

Now it's time to rest up. Possible yoga or hiking over the weekend and then the real training begins!