Tag: fitness

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Peloton Classes

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As a sort of Christmas bonus, my husband’s boss gave him a Peloton bike and class membership. I’ll admit, I wasn’t enthusiastic about this, and thought that if the man had ever seen our tiny home he might have realized what an impractical gift this was. At the same time, it was also wildly generous, as anyone who has priced those bikes might attest. My husband accepted in this spirit, and found a place for it in the family room (where I had hoped to put a small sofa, but alas, it was not to be).

Since it was in such a prominent position in our home, and since it was all paid for, of course I gave it a try. The first few rides were hard on rear, but my Google research assured me that this would go away after a few more rides, so I keep on, and Google was right. I thought – hoped? – it might be a good cross-training exercise for me to do on the days I wasn’t jogging as I worked through the Couch to 5K program, and I think it has been very good for that.

The classes are all challenging for me, even the beginner ones, but I’m seeing progress as I keep on going. The instructors are fun, and I’m finding a few favorites. I also recently discovered their online classes for things other than using the bike. I guess they also make a treadmill, that we don’t have, but I can do the classes on the treadmills at the gym using my phone. They also have outdoor running and walking classes I can listen to on my phone, and well as yoga, meditation, and some strength classes.

Since I’ve finished the Couch to 5K program, I’ve liked having the treadmill and outdoor running classes to guide me along sine I’m not really sure what to do for my jogging now. I can’t usually keep up with the paces they are using, but since they aren’t live classes, and no one can see me or know how slow I’m going, I just do what I can, the best I can manage, and it’s been fun. They throw in general running/jogging tips that are great for me since I’m such a noob to the jogging thing and don’t really know much.

They also have ‘achievements’ the program keeps track of like, how many classes you’ve taken, how many days in a row you’ve exercised, how many miles you’ve ridden the bike, and that sort of thing. I’ve maybe gotten a bit obsessed with my daily streak. It goes up to 60 days, and I’ve been determined to make it there. I actually don’t have that far to go. Thank goodness, it will count any class you do. When I was sick last week, I just took a meditation class (and fell asleep – oops, maybe I need more work there too). Tonight, I was so sore from my jog this morning, and trip to the gym for weights, that I didn’t think I could handle riding the bike tonight, so I did a 10 min yoga class, and my streak is safe.

We never would have had the money to consider buying something like this for ourselves. Is it worth the cost though? Since we didn’t pay the cost, it’s hard for me to say. It’s pretty darn nice to have though. I’m very attached to the thing for someone who was resistant to letting in the house in the first place.

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Slow Recovery

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I’m back up and around and functional after getting sick last week. I’m doing just about everything normally again, except running. I still have a deep, moderately painful cough that’s lingering. You probably know the type. I don’t think my lungs can handle a run right now since they could barely handle it healthy. I am back to walking though, and each day gets a little better so I plan to start up the C25K very soon.

I’ve reads that if the C25K program is interrupted for illness or injury, or anything really, you need to back up the same amount of time you were out for. So if you’re sick a week, you back up a week in the program from where you left off and start up again there. I was 2/3 of the way through week 2 when I got sick and that was 11 days ago. By my math, I should start the program over again from the beginning. Part of me thinks, “Darn it! I’m tired of starting over.”, but another part thing, “Phew. I didn’t feel good this round. I probably need more time in the early weeks anyway.”

I also started doing more of an isometric exercise for my abs when both my doctor and a very fitness knowledgeable co-worker recommended the same thing to me in the same day. The hope is it will do a better job of strengthening my abused abs more safely than what I was trying before. Haven’t been doing it long enough to have any results to report, but it does hurt much less, so there’s that.

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Couch to 5 K Week 2 Day 1

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I almost didn’t advance myself to week 2, since week 1 was so much harder than I had expected it to be. Yet by the time I talked myself into getting out there at all, I felt like I might as well go all the way and go on to the next scheduled run. As usual with these things, I’m glad I did.

The week 2 run was still harder than I feel like it should have been considering how many times I’ve done this program before. I’m still disappointed how much strength and stamina I’ve lost. I try to be kind to myself, remembering that it isn’t as though I just stopped working out for a year and am getting back into it. I was incredibly ill that year. In the not too distant past, I could have died from what I went through last year. It’s really a statement to the wonder of modern medicine that, while last year was crappy, and I went through some non-enjoyable stuff, I was never really worried that my life was in danger. Maybe I should have been.

Still, starting from scratch to get in shape, when I did all this work before is frustrating. But what else is there to do? Not get  back in shape? That’s the other option, right? That won’t work for me, so here we go. Again.

I had my annual check up with my doctor today. I was surprised that he said he’d like to see me lose 10 to 20 pounds. I’d like to see me lose 50 to 60 pounds, so his advice feels like a piece of cake. Maybe that’s a bad simile for weight loss. It feels do-able. I can handle that.

So tonight it’s a walk and ab work (going to do ab work every day to deal with the lumpy tummy problem) and tomorrow C2 5K week 2 day 2!

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Couch to 5K Time Again.

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I started up the Couch to 5K running program yet again. This time I’m starting nowhere near NaNoWriMo! Not that it matters.

It was both harder, and not as bad as I thought it might be to get started again. So far, after the first two runs, I am much more winded after the running segments than I thought I’d be. On day 1, the minute of running felt so long. Too long. But today, only the second run, the minute was very do-able. Still I was breathing hard after even that short bit of running. All I can do is keep going, and trust that I’ll get better. If I need to, I’ll do each week twice, but I’ll keep going.

I maybe started a little too soon after being sick, as I’ve fallen into bad coughing attacks at the end of the runs, although today wasn’t as bad as last Thursday. One has to start somewhere though.

The part that was better than I’d hoped was my pace. That’s something that has improved very slowly, over many circuits through this running program. I always think that when I start the program over, I’ll have to start as slow as I did the previous time, but that’s something that seems to carry forward for me even through periods of not running. Unless this app isn’t accurate, which is possible, I don’t think I’ve ever managed a 10:28 pace so early in the program. I suspect as I do longer running intervals that will slow down since it will be harder to maintain lover longer periods. I remember, not all that long ago, thinking how if I could only get up to 12 min/mile, I would feel like I was doing well. 
I guess that’s part of the fun of this process. It’s always a little different, but I always get better. 

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Late Night Yoga

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My husband mentioned that he thought trying out some yoga with me might be good for him. I grabbed that comment and ran with it, getting him to agree to do yoga with me every night for a month (at least). I’m surprised he doesn’t seem to yet regret that promise, but last night, I kinda did.

It was late, I was tired, and SO not in the mood to pull the yoga mat out. But we did our video, and I’m glad. My painful abdominal muscle problem is still a problem in that when I try to do poses or moves that focus just on the abdominals, it hurts like a knife to the gut. On the bright side, we are on day five or six now and I haven’t had any of the cramping or pain at other times of day. So, is that improvement?

I’m supposed to make an appointment with my doctor for my yearly check up (they have left me messages, I really need to call back to get that scheduled – note to self) and I plan to ask about this.

The other night at the end of the video, laying in shavasana I rubbed my tired belly muscles. Then pushed at them to massage a little. That’s when I noticed that when I push in most places on my abdomen I can feel the muscles under the fat as a firm barrier. At my ostomy scar site, I just keep pushing in. There is nothing firm that I hit. I felt like I was poking my liver. Now, when I do this standing up, there is some firmness at the ostomy site too, so there must be some muscle there, but wow was it creepy at first.

I assumed the problems I was having was just dealing with scar tissue, now I’m wondering if there is more atrophy there or some such. Maybe I’m making ideas up, I don’t know. Could that be a thing? Well, I guess that’s on the list of questions for the doc as well.

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Ab Strengthening Setback

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As a follow up to my post a few days ago regarding my search for ab exercises that wouldn’t hurt all my abdominal scars – I guess I’m back to looking.

I must have strained or otherwise done something bad because I have found myself in significant abdominal pain for the past several days. All my ab muscles hurt, all over. Otherwise I might have been concerned there was a medical problem. At times on Friday, I was near tears with the pain. Yesterday was a little better, but only a little. Today is much better, and no longer feels like something is seriously wrong – now my abs feel like an overworked sore muscle.

This is a frustrating setback because of how little I was actually doing with my exercises. There really isn’t all that much I can cut back on. Do three reps of the pathetically easy exercises instead of six? Seriously, that’s about all I could handle doing in the first place. Will doing less even be enough to start building up any strength at all?

Grrrr.

Perhaps tomorrow I will hunt up a yoga routine that includes some ab work and try the ab specific exercises again in a few days. Now I’m not only out of shape and wimpy, I’m scared too.

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Getting Back in Shape – Abs Edition

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The pounds have flown back on since my ileostomy reversal. Some of that I expected – the weight I lost from being very, very sick for example. That was not healthy weight loss and I didn’t expect it to stick. But then, I admit, I let the holidays carry me along their happy cookie filled journey without a struggle. That’s showing up now in clothes that are a little snug, and a heavy sleepiness that hits me in the afternoons the way it hasn’t in a long time.

So it would be time for me to get back on my healthy eating, regular exercise bandwagon even if it wan’t the time of year for that sort of thing. I’ve been at it a few days now, and am already feeling better. The snug clothing part will take a little longer.

One struggle has been abdominal exercises. I’ve never had ‘abs of steel’, or even abs of anything remotely tough. Since the reversal though, any abdominal exercises I try hurt the scars (mainly the huge one where the actual stoma was, but even a little at the colon incision site). If you have an ab exercise you love, this is the place to share it. I’d love to try out some new exercises since I’m just not up for crunches yet.

A friend posted a workout video on Facebook that included a couple ab moves that were merely uncomfortable, not painful, so that’s what I’m doing for now, but I’d love to see what else is out there.

Happy New Year all – here’s to a healthy and happy 2017!

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Health Check In

Kara Hartz1 Comment

So I promised to check in with a little accountability on my quest for better health.

Our scale broke during our move, so I can’t comment about any weight loss (but if I had to put money on it, I’d say there isn’t any loss to comment on anyway). I confess my eating habits have been pretty awful. I’m still juggling too many activities, especially too many that happen around dinner time, so I’m frequently not home to cook real food. That should be changing in the coming weeks, but I know if could put more effort into being more prepared too. It’s just exhausting. That’s my only excuse.

On the exercising front, things are in better shape (pun intended.) My oldest daughter and I have begun the couch to 5 k program. We just ran day 4 today. This is the second time into the program for me, and I’m excited to be doing it again. I have never been an athletic person, so running 3 miles straight was such a huge accomplishment for me. I am SO looking forward to that feeling again. We may go slower in the program than I did before. My kiddo is still little, and I want this to be fun for her, and I don’t want to push too fast. My youngest even ran the first day with us, but I knew she couldn’t keep going beyond that. As tough as she is, that’s a ton of work for those tiny little legs. But thanks to the wonders of Craigslist, I got a used running stroller for super cheap. It was only partly for her. Mainly it was a way to keep me from having excuse to skip a running day. No need wait around until someone else is free to stay home with her.

So the goals for the coming month are to keep on schedule with our runs, and to fit in more home cooking. Wish me luck!