Training With The Stars!

I hit the gym this morning at about 8:15 which is more or less the usual time.  I was a bit hurried today as I was supposed to take delivery of some outdoor furniture for our house between 9:00 am and 12:00 noon today.  I wanted to be home at 9:00 in case the delivery people arrived then, however I decided to stick with the full workout and run the risk of being a little late.  As it happened I was back at home by 9:20 and there was no sign of the movers.

I did the usual routine this morning, but I have discovered a couple of things that will assist me in future.  Firstly, I have sorted out which cross training machine I have to get on, and how to deal with the resistance level.  Today I worked out on level 10 and it was fine.  The first machine I got on must have been broken or not operating properly.  I did my 15 minutes and at the end of that I had a sweat on and had done 260 calories worth of workout, which was a bit above the usual.

Next up was the treadmill of course.  Today the second thing I discovered is that there are machines further away from the TVs which I usually watch that do not appear to be limited to 20 minutes for the duration of the workout, with the 5 minute warm down.  As such I was able to reduce it from the initial 30 minutes it displayed to the 25 I am supposed to do.  This is a good thing to know as I will be trying to up the amount of time I am on the treadmill soon.  I went for the entire time at 5.5 for 3 minutes, and then 6.5 for two minutes.  It worked well and I ended up with a calorie count of 270.  I felt good and took off home just after 9:00 as I wanted to get back as soon as possible.

I had been expecting some pain after the workout yesterday, however I am pleased to report that there was none.  My knee plays up a bit, but it never feels like anything serious so I just soldier on and it seems to be better than it was at the beginning of my new lifestyle.

As I was struggling away on the treadmill I noticed a couple of large men walking in front of me with South African Springbok training gear on.  Initially I thought that perhaps they were fans, but then I took a second look and noticed that one of them was the captain of the national Springbok Rugby Team, John Smit.  It was interesting to see these guys up close, having only seen them on TV before (including while they were at the gym – I did notice they were watching themselves on TV while warming up on the cycles).  They were big guys, but not outlandishly huge like they look on TV.  I didn’t bother them by wishing them luck with the game this weekend, but was surprised that they would be staying in my neighbourhood in the lead up to the test match against the Wallabies this weekend.  We’re a fair distance out of town, and there is nothing special about this part of the city in terms of rugby as far as I know.  It would be interesting to know why they are out here.  I guess that I am training with the rich and famous now!

This morning at the gym I made a decision to keep a more accurate record of my cardio sessions so that I can record how I am progressing during my training.  I plan to start this tomorrow, and initially I will have to take a notebook with me to the gym to record the data the machine gives me to take home and record in some fashion on my PC.  I’d like to post this data too so that you can all have a look and see how I am getting on.  Who knows, you might even find it useful.  So check this blog out again tomorrow and you’ll see if I have been able to either find an existing document somewhere else on the net, or if I have been able to create one myself.

The green tea is currently going down nicely and I am set for a day constructing my outdoor furniture.  Hopefully it won’t take long, but I can sense that I will have to head down to the shopping mall to get some tools.  I also have bookcase to build so I might make a start on that this afternoon as well.  Given that I am feeling so good I may take an afternoon walk as well to help in further reducing the weight, and increasing my fitness.  I’ll let you all know if I do.  Until then, go hard in the fight against phat!