Wednesday Workout Update - Dork Edition

First things first: See this awesome new graphic right over here?->

Tina, of Fat Girl Dives In, made this for me! She is in advertising (and in fact has recently started her own business), and was so nice to create this for me when I asked her - in fact, she had it ready blazingly fast! Thank you, Tina - it's a great commemoration of Blogger Run Day™ which as you all know I hereby declared in this post. There are a lot of bloggers who will be running in various events on March 7th and I wanted to celebrate us! If you are doing a run, or are committing to run on Sunday, March 7th, let me know in the comments and I'll add you to the list.

Regarding my post yesterday, I have to say that I was nervous about actually hitting "publish" on it. And now, I'm blown away by all of the comments - you guys are truly amazing and have made me feel so good. I'm touched that several of you even listed YOUR starting and current weights...this blogging weight-loss community is such a wonderful thing to be a part of and I am so grateful to have you all in my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

OK, on to the Wednesday Workout Update...

I am happy to report that this was simply a normal week with Brad and Linda - we worked out hard, and I am feeling it, but am not questioning why am I putting myself through this, as I was last Wednesday evening...so that's good! We did a "Machine of Destiny" workout on Monday, where the person on the machine - in this case, the leg press - controlled how long everyone else had to do their workouts by how quickly they finished the leg press. I was up first - which I like, because my legs were not worn out by the other exercises. I had to do 100 leg presses at 225 pounds, which went well until I hit 40...then my legs started to shake and it got a little tough. But I did it in six minutes which is a decent enough time for me. Of course, we had the same workout on Tuesday afternoon (I am the only person in that group who works out on Monday, so lucky me, I got to repeat it <----just a little sarcasm there) - but at least I only had to do 75 reps, and the weight was lower, although Brad provided resistance on the last ten. Um, thanks, Brad?

I have been running on the weekends and ran all by myself on Saturday (big step for me) for 30 minutes, without stopping! I covered about 2.5 miles, which makes me feel pretty confident that I can do the 5K in under 45 minutes. I ran in a park, and a dad with a little kid called "good job!" to me as I ran by, which made me feel less alone. On Sunday, I met up with Jeri for a run, but I didn't last as long before having to stop and walk. I'm finding that when I run two days in a row, I don't have nearly the endurance on the second day. I guess I have to build up to that? Or should I run every other day? What say you, fellow runners?

*****Warning - Dork Alert*****

So I finally decided to join the 21st century and not only create a playlist on my iPod Touch, but actually go for a run with it! What inspired me was a comment left on this post - a new blogger, Swimming it Off said that my bruised knees reminded her of this song, and I have to say that I loved it - I felt all "rah rah go girls, we rock!" when I heard it. So one download and several fits and starts later, I had my mixtape playlist. Now, I've never run with headphones and music, but since I was going by myself, which was a huge step for me, I thought I might run longer with some distraction. I was set: my mother had just mailed me a cute little expandable runner's belt thingie that holds everything from ID to a cell phone and more, including my iPod. I got all geared up, and had to laugh at myself as karma once again came back to bite me when I strapped the runner's belt on...you see, I remember teasing Hotch Potchery when she bought a belt that held several bottles of water, so she could stay hydrated on her runs. When will I ever learn?!?

Anyway, I started my music and took off running, only to hear a beep and then have the song change. With.every.step. What the hell?! I stopped and couldn't figure out how to make it keep playing - I even tried holding it in my hand, but every time I shook it, the darn song changed! Very frustrating...I ended up leaving it behind and took off for my run sans music or partner (what a sad lonely figure I made). Once I got home I emailed my technical staff sons and was informed that the "shake and shuffle" feature was turned on, and all I needed to do was to turn it off...and I believe the word "dork" was bandied about. Yeah, I felt like a dork, but really, how was I to know? OK, you all can stop laughing now!