Weights?

I've been debating on if I should starting lifting weights. It seems that people get great results by lifting weights. When I was a teen I remember having to do weight lifting for gym class. I really liked it then. I remember how the coach was impressed by how much I was able to lift with my legs.

When I went to college I lifted weights with the boys. It was fun but schedules and motivations got in the way and I never lifted a dumbbell again. That was over 10 years ago. Now that I've been doing the elliptical for 5 weeks now I think it's time I start lifting again. I'm a bit sheepish about it though. There is a weight lifting area in the gym but it's users are usually really young and fit men. I feel a bit put off. My own self judging makes me imagine what they could be thinking of me. It sucks really. It sucks that I'll let what a stranger may or may not be thinking of me get in my way. It shouldn't.

I'm going to give it a try. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays are going to be my lifting days. I'll do the elliptical on Tuesday and Thursdays. I'll start next week. My friend suggested I do full body lifting, that way if it won't be a big deal if I skip a day. One set of 10-12 reps. I'm all for that. Get in. Burn. Get out. I don't want to stay they longer than I have too. I have a womens lifting book. It tells you want lifts help which parts of the body. I'll be taking a look at that today to get any idea of which exercises I'll should be doing.

I'm afraid of it getting boring and slowing down my already slow progress. Who knows, maybe this will be good for me?

CROP walk 2013

Last week I found out my church was participating in the local CROP walk. I thought it would be a good way to socialize and add in some extra exercise. I had been looking forward to it all week...mostly because it was a great opportunity to get started on a new audio book.

There were two options for the walk. The main walk was for 5 miles and there was a shorter option of 3.4 miles. I was a bit reluctant at first. I knew I could pull off the 3.4 miles, I mean I walk about 2 miles on Saturday and Sundays when at home, what's another 1.4 miles? But the 5 mile....it was like a mountain I wanted to climb. I figured I'd do it in about 2 hours, this is a walk after all and I had been pulling off 2 miles in about an hour. Plus, I am far from being at a point to jog much less run anything. So a goal of 5 miles in 2 hours sounded good.

I made sure I had a bit more carbs in the morning, packed my protein shake and a banana for afterwards, got my water bottle filled, my audio book ready on my phone and I was off. At first I was doing a decent pace, I didn't want to get tired too soon and then put myself in a situation where I would turn for the 3.4 mile rather than finish the 5 mile walk. About after a while I felt the need to jog. I can't explain it, it's like I was not walking fast enough to satisfy some need I was feeling. So I started to jog. Nothing crazy, it was a very light jog. When I got tired of jogging I walked again. I started alternating, jogging then walking when I felt the need to relax. I paced my water bottle so I wouldn't run out of fluid, luckily there were a couple of CROP walk stops along the route where I got to refill my bottle. I think when I got to the last mile I stopped alternating and just walked.

I finished the walk in 1 hour and 30 minutes. I'm actually very proud of myself, I didn't think I would shave 30 minutes off my goal. I am now proud to say I survived CROP walk 2013.

Since I was doing the walk on Sunday I thought I'd take a break today from working out. I figured my legs would be too sore to work out. I actually woke up not as sore as I thought I would be and decided to continue with my daily routine of working out on the elliptical.

When I got to the walking track where I warm up there were two girls right by the elliptical I use. I like using it because it's on it's own in the walking track which is always at least almost empty. Well these two girls are there and I'm thinking to myself..."great, how long have they been there? are they going to use the machine or just lean on it for the whole hour?" I was a bit annoyed but kept doing my normal warm up laps hoping they would leave my corner of the walking track. I finished my warm up laps and they were still there. I had no choice but to get on the "other" elliptical in the other corner of the lap which I'm not used to. I've used it before, I don't like it. I got on it and just kept watching them....one doing jumping jacks while the other just sat on my machine. Finally after a few minutes, they were gone and I got to use the machine! I was happy and was able to do 30 minutes on a 9 resistance. I did get a tired a little sooner but I did it.