The past few days have been so hard and I’m not sure why. I think I’m getting to the “burn out” point. Where changes aren’t occurring fast enough or drastic enough and I’m not feeling worn out from my exercising, and trying to push myself beyond that point seems to be so hard.
I’ve been doing so well, and I’m going to keep going strong, but I’m not going to sugar coat the struggles. It’s getting hard. I have to push beyond what I’ve become comfortable doing and do much harder exercising to wear myself out. Twenty-five to thirty minutes on the elliptical has become too easy. I have to move beyond that. I have to develop new exercise routines to shock my muscles and get them to work as hard as they did when I started this journey.
Today I decided to run up and down the stairwells at work. The building is four stories tall, and has a stairwell on each side of the building. My plan was to run up the left stairwell, four flights, then across the fourth floor (which is empty right now while they remodel it) and then down the right side, back up the right side, and across the fourth floor and down again.
It seemed completely easy and doable in my head. I anticipated jogging up and down those stairs easily and with no muss or fuss. But it was so hard. I ran up the first four flights and my leg muscles were screaming at me in pain and frustration. I tried jogging across the fourth floor, but I ended up walking. I got to the second stairwell and going down those stairs was so hard. I was going quite slowly. Then back up was a painful trudge in which I really just wanted to sit down and forget the whole thing. But I pressed on and got to the top. I walked back across the fourth floor and down the left stairwell.
I decided some fresh air might rejuvenate my leg muscles and let me catch my breath. I walked around the building, enjoying the sweet smell of spring and the sun’s shine sinking toward the horizon. I decided to try the whole routine again. But I got up to the third floor and it just hurt too badly. I was miserable. I went back down to the first floor and made my way to the gym, to try and work on my arms for a bit.
I checked my phone for the time and was so sad to see I had only been at it for about 10 minutes, when my goal is to work out for at least 30 minutes. But going up and down four flights of stairs, twice, in ten minutes isn’t something to take lightly, but I didn’t feel worked out. I felt achy, sweaty, and not euphoric, as I usually do. Usually, with the kicking in of endorphins, I feel like I can fly. Not today. Today I just felt like curling into a ball and sleeping.
I wandered around the gym, doing random amounts of reps on random machines. I lifted some weights, I tried to do inclined sit-ups (not easy) and even jumped on a different elliptical machine than I’m used to… I couldn’t get into a groove. I’m starting to see why people pay big money for personal trainers. I just wander around aimlessly, knowing I don’t want to do my usual routine on the elliptical, but having no idea what else to do… so I feel cheated out of the good workout I usually get.
Tomorrow, I will definitely go for a walk before work, maybe do a jog if I can get up the energy and if the weather is nice, and then do a workout DVD here at work. The Biggest Loser Cardio DVD always gets me sweating and my heart pumping and I feel great after doing it. I’m also going to research some new exercise routines using the machines available to me here at work.
I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions. I’m only on Week Four, I’m not giving up now! I’ve done so well, and there’s so much more I will accomplish, I just have to push!
Day Twenty-Three Stats
Wake Up: 12:30 PM
Breakfast: none
Lunch: Pierogies with salsa
Snack: Special K bar
Exercise: Ran up four flights of stairs, down four flights, up four flights, down four flights, one lap around building, several reps on arm machines, bike, elliptical, inclined sit-ups
Dinner: Two tuna fish sandwiches on wheat bread, apple sauce
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