New Cardio Routine

Late last night I checked my e-mail and found that I had received the new cardio routine from the trainer. I checked it out and it actually looked quite daunting. I have posted it on the fighting phat web site, and you can download it by clicking here if you like. Chief among my concerns was that for the first time I was being asked to walk in excess of 8km/ph, which is faster than I have ever walked. Frankly, I didn't think that I could do it, and this morning I thought "Why would I walk it?".

It seems to me that the main point is to go faster. The trainer has had me running as part of my workouts with her, and sometimes during those sessions I have been running for a few minutes at a time carrying weights - perhaps I am supposed to begin running as part of this workout as well? I decided before I took off for the gym this morning that if walking at that pace was not possible, then I should not be afraid to start running.

I got to the gym and felt great. My MP3 player was on a favourite part of its cycle for me and some good tunes were raising my morale for the workout! I made the most of it and got underway. The warm up cycle of the workout seemed to last a long time, and I might move to speed things up more quickly as I think the trainer is preparing the workouts for me on the basis that I am getting on the machine cold. This is not the case as I walk to the gym and do so at a fairly good pace to warm myself up.

That said, I found the rest of the workout great. I ran when it got over 7.5km/ph, and I ran well. I was able to keep good form while running, and avoid a lot of the heavy crashing that can cause injury. I am pleased to say that nothing hurt, and I felt quite proud to finally be able to run and not have to worry about breaking the machine! I was right, once the pace goes up to running speed the calories just fly by! You can download the latest version of my spreadsheet tracking my progress here. Today I broke through the 600 calorie mark and ended up with a total of 695 calories, meaning that I may start to aim for 700 calories per session with this workout. I even managed to clear 3km in one 25 minute session, my best result to date distance wise.

I got off the treadmill feeling great about what I had achieved this morning, and still feeling like it wasn't quite enough. I decided to do some additional weights, only a few light sets on some areas that I wanted to do some extra work on. I did some chest press, pull downs, and shoulder press. I finished off with three sets of 15 crunches on the Swiss Ball and I felt every one of them. I must have been doing something right because my abs were really burning at the end of each set so hopefully this marks the day that I can do crunches properly.

I got home and scoffed some oatmeal followed by yogurt. I'm feeling good, the weather is great, and the afternoon has just started! I got some wholemeal bread on the way home, so pastrami sandwhiches are the go for lunch today. I'm looking forward to it, and will tear into those soon! Let's hope I feel this good again tomorrow and can put in a big effort at the gym again!