Operation 204 - Chapter 42

Happy Thursday!

This is another two-fer update as I am going to tell you about Monday's Absolution class and today's run. I also have some good news, but I'll get to that later.

Monday's class was interesting. The class that I attended was held at a different location of World Health than I normally go to. I usually work out at the City Centre location, but the Absolution class there doesn't fit my schedule. So, I found a class that does. Monday night's at 7:30 at the location on 50th Street and 137th Avenue. It is relatively new and used to be a Club Fit before the merger.

Anyway, as this was a newer location I thought that this gym would be a nice place. Yeah, it really wasn't. It was small, cramped, and seemed to be full of "juice monkeys". Ah well, at least I was there for my class. The class right before mine was a Zumba class which is a new take on aerobics. It involves high energy dancing to a driving beat. It looks like the people there were having fun. Anyway, as soon as that class was over, we could get in for the Absolution class. However, the downside to immediately following a Zumba class is that the room smelled like a hockey locker room. So, at this point I am not having high hopes for the class. I am not enjoying the location, the room, or anything.

So, our instructor comes in, introduces herself and tells us about the class. Here was the surprise for me. The class focuses on the core, of course. It does this by having us do various exercises. Each exercise lasts for 1 minute. The class lasts for 36 minutes and there are no breaks at all. Oh crap. As Karissa will tell you, I enjoy my rest time in between exercises. This was essentially a 36 minute superset.

I don't remember all of the exercises that we did, but a short list of what I do remember consists of crunches, crunches with a twist, reverse crunches, wide leg crunches where we had to reach for the opposite heel, reverse crunches with a leg extension, a held crunch while scissor kicking, a side crunch while also lifting the legs, a superman starfish move, and a few others. All I know is that after a certain point in time, my body was just in pain. It was the toughest class I have ever taken - and that includes my time when I took Mathematical Economics during my undergrad degree. But, the 36 minutes did fly by and by the end, I felt good. I plan on taking the class again next week. It will be a new set of exercises so I am looking forward to it.

That takes me to today's run. Today was one of those days where I had zero energy at the end of the day. I really didn't want to go to the gym at all, but I forced myself to go there. I can tell you right now, that there was something telling me not to go. I get there, get signed in, and head to the locker room. I enter my code to open the door and it doesn't work. I try it again, still no chance. So, I try a third time and same result. I head back to the desk and the girls up there say "not again" and check my file. It seems that they gave me a new entry code and didn't tell me. I take the new code and in I go.

I get to my locker, dial the combination and the lock won't open. I try it again. Nope. Again. Nope. I head back to the desk and they check my combination to make sure I am using the correct one. I head back into the locker room to try again, same result. Finally the locker room attendant opens the lock with his master key and I take it to the front desk to try it. They can't unlock it either so I had to get a new lock. So now I need to remember a new entry code and a new locker combination. I was sure that at this point in time, the world was telling me not to work out.

So, I said screw the world, and I went to the treadmill! Again, I set it up for 60 minutes at 5 mph and away I went. Here are the numbers from today's run.

Elapsed Time: 70 minutes
Calories: 923
Distance: 5.38 miles
Distance Climbed: 271 feet
Average Speed: 4.61 mph
Average Pace: 13:00 / mile
Average Heart Rate: 152 bpm

Once I get a few more data points I will graph them to see my progress.

Anyway, the run today was tough. As I said earlier, I didn't want to be there, but I made sure that I finished it anyway. I fought for every mile that I ran and it was tough. No pain this time, but my breathing was a bit more laboured than usual. The last 15 minutes was really tough, but I dug deep and made sure that I completed the hour. I feel really good now for doing the run and the body feels pretty good too. I made sure that I stretched well before running and I think that helped.

So now to the good news. I reached my goal of 204 pounds. I really didn't think that it was possible when I started my plan, but here I am. 39 pounds lighter than the beginning of my workouts and 41 pounds lighter than my high weight of 245. I am quite proud of myself for getting here, but now I need to set a new goal. Now that I am here, I believe that I can do better. So, my new goal is going to be 195 pounds. I haven't been there since high school so I am going to do my best to get there.

The reason for this new weight goal is that I still have a few pounds of fat that I want to get rid of. If I keep working out and eating well then I know that I can do it. At the rate I am going, I expect to have my goal reached sometime in March, but they say the last 10 pounds are the toughest. Wish me luck.

See you tomorrow. I work with Karissa then, so I am sure she has created some new version of hell for me! Going to have to change the name of my chapters now too.