Oh It's On

I am back in Grand Junction and I can't believe the weather. I mean you can actually run at 5 p.m. and not take a chance with your life. I walked out of the hotel in the mornings to a wonderful 57 degrees instead of 80 (with humidity). I didn't know that places like this existed in the middle of June.

This trip is a little different for me since I'm staying at a new hotel (the Doubletree) and it does boast a couple of exercise improvements over the Courtyard Marriot (normal place I stay). One of the big differences is the gym; Doubletree has an actually nice gym with new equiptment. Each machine is fit with its own individual TV and there are more machines available. The other notice of difference is that there is an actual running trail within the hotel grounds whereas Courtyard has it outside of the hotel, next door.

I got out of work early since my training was done, took care of an errand on the phone, and then headed to the gym (it was still early). I did some quick stretches, turned to a channel that I liked (Seinfeld where Elaine's alter ego, Susie is created), and started walking at 3.0 mph with an incline of 1. Whenever I start to run on a treadmill, I notice that it gives you a certain time period that they are expecting you to run and mine was 1 hour. I decided that I would attempt running/walking for the full hour. I walked to 0.25 miles and then increased the speed to 5.0 mph. I ran (and felt good, too) until 1.10 miles on the actual treadmill distance). I decreased speed to 3.0 mph so I could walk until I reached 1.25 miles. I increased the speed to 5.0 mph and then somewhere around 1.45, I increased it again to 5.5 mph before I had to stop at 1.60 miles to walk. I did this for the rest of the time: walk 0.25 miles, run 0.25 miles. Whenever I ran, I started with 5.0 mph and always increased it to 5.5 mph for the last tenth of the mile. I did the last mile walking at 3.0 mph.

I also want to point out that I watched The Looney Tunes Show, which was hilarious. A tasmanian devil escapes the zoo and ends up becoming a dog called Poochie for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (yeah, they live together) and it had all these characters from lots of Looney Tunes stuff. I noticed that the guy running in the gym kept looking at me everytime I burst out laughing. Then, that ended and it turned to some weird animation of Wil E. Coyote (my favorite super genious since he has the best first name EVER). I had to change it to South Park in which they were playing the You Got Served episode. Hence, the title, because they say that throughout to denote that the dance off is on. So, I felt it was appropriate.

My goals were to run 3 miles and work on running/walking for a certain amount of time (in this case, 1 hour) instead of actual miles . I accomplished both of these goals. I ran a total of 2 miles (2.15 miles exactly) and walked the rest until 1 hour was reached. I ran/walked a total of 3.80 miles and burned 372 calories. Yes, that's right, I did 3.80 miles in 1 hour. When was the last time I did that? Or really ran that much?

However, my euphoria of exercise accomplishment didn't last too long, because I saw the scale and decided to see what my weight was "just for fun." It's more like "just for torture." And naturally, my weight was 150 lbs. This hit home, because I was at 137 lbs when I got sidelined with my ankle injury back in October. And to add insult to injury, I have also dealt with some serious emotional stress since January that caused me to eat anything sweet like cakes, cookies, ice cream, etc. So that coupled with not being able to exercise at full strength, it's fair to say that I've gained some weight. Now, I'm no Jabba the Hut (which I was well on my way), because I have had sporadic exercising since then (i.e., physical therapy and small amounts of running before my car accident) and I started eating better when I noticed that my skin started expanding and rolling over my jeans. So, 150 lbs is actually pretty good considering, but it explains why I'm having trouble fitting in my pants. And I'm tired of not fitting in my jeans.

Okay, got off on a tangent...right, back to the exercise stuff. I'm still happy that I did that much exercise yesterday, including doing 2 sets of 25 squats that morning. And speaking of morning, I worked out this morning, as well. I should probably write about it in tomorrow's post (planning to run that trail outside after work), but just in case I have another bodily injury on my way home from work (yes, I knocked on wood), I'm writing it now before I forget. It's no secret that I can't breathe in this state and has caused many a sleepless nights. I'm always up super early and I have seen this yoga lady on PBS at 5:30 a.m. (wasn't sure if she was on at 5 a.m. and she wasn't). So, I decided to do some stretching this morning. I missed the first 10 minutes, but I still got a great deal in with this lady since she moves fast. She's an ex ballerina and a great deal of the stretches were doing them ballet style. It felt so good. I can't wait to do this tomorrow morning. Afterwards, I did 2 sets of 25 squats, 50 front crunches, 30 side crunches (each side), and 20 situps.

All in all, I got my motivation finally to get my arse in shape and it was that stupid scale in the Doubletree hotel gym. So, it's on...