Never 2 Late 2 Chase the Dream (it's better than liposuction)

[climban]

Really Karla, congratulations on your workouts! Looks like this trainer likes to make you suffer! You certainly deserve some days off to let your body heal a bit. Enjoy it and let those muscles grow!

[fengshway]

wow karla, I wanna be you when I grow up. someday I aspire to dial in my nutrition like you do and kick ass in the gym like you do. I have to do it on my terms, though, I have always been a turtle sort instead of dramatic changes all at once.

[kfisherx]

Originally Posted by fengshway

wow karla, I wanna be you when I grow up. someday I aspire to dial in my nutrition like you do and kick ass in the gym like you do. I have to do it on my terms, though, I have always been a turtle sort instead of dramatic changes all at once.

We all have to go our own pace. There are lots of wrong ways but no right way to do this for every person.

[kfisherx]

Today was a day of rest... Well not entirely. Every now and then the rainy Pacific NW has a few days of brilliant winter sunshine. Today was one of those days with Temps reaching 65 degrees. Spring came out hard today and it made a big dilema for me. Whatever shall I do? Do I run or bike or take a hike or.....?? I finally decided on a bike ride and then decided to take my tour bike to the very hilly lake. So I did a 20 mile very slow ride today (11.5 mph average) on extremely hilly terrain. It was wonderful. I found myself for the whole 2 hours (I stopped quite a bit for pictures and all) giving thanks for my health and my new strength. The scenery was spectacular. Mt St Helens was clearly visiable on my ride (see pic) and the air was crisp cool and clean.

Just over 2 years ago I was old. I look back today on pictures from that time period and I look so much older then I do today. My weight was up more than 40 pounds from today and my body was loosing strength as well as flexibility. At some level I knew that I was getting old but I had resigned myself to this fate.

I decided to try to loose some weight and subsequently I bought a bicycle. This was my first bicycle as an adult. Today I remembered my first ride down the steep hill from my house with that bicycle. I was terrified. I held my breath, rode the brakes and held back tears of fear. That ride was nothing short of awful and I was so pissed at myself for getting old. My whole body hurt and every peddle forward felt like it would kill me.

Today my body felt strong and with that strength come courage. I peddled down the hills reaching top speeds of over 30 mph several times. I felt at one with my bike and the world. The work felt good and I reflected on how today I am many years younger then I was back then. It occurred to me then that it isn't really age that makes us old at all but rather apathy and unawareness.

[nutbar]

Oh, man, I'm so jealous. I wish there was someplace safe to ride around here (or that I even had a bike to take out LOL). Sounds like a beautiful ride in many ways!!

[dillytl]

Gorgeous photo!! And I LOVE this statement: It occurred to me then that it isn't really age that makes us old at all but rather apathy and unawareness.

[kfisherx]

Diane... Portland is known for its bike friendliness. If you drive through Portland city limits on any warm day you will see as many bikes as cars. Even in the rain and cold there are still a lot of bikes. It is as much like Europe as any place I have ever been. In town there are bike paths that span the city and all over the country side. There are streets designated for bikes. Out in the country there is this one bike path that is 42 miles round trip, mostly level and is a PAVED bike path through the woods. It is amazing. I have become such a biker since 2 years ago that I now have two bikes. One is a racing (very fast) road bike that is also very delicate. The other is the one you see here. It is a tour/cyclo bike and can go off-road. I chose this one today because it has a triplecrank and allows me to go into some amazing slow gears for those big hills.

Tracy: It is a very happy realization because it empowers me to embrace even more my health and my life in my senior years. I actually thought about Mahler and how fit he is in his age and of course this old woman I once saw who had the body of a Godess and the spring of youth in her steps. Like all things in life, how we spend our later years is a matter of choice. If I had continued to just accept my body and the extra pounds and the lack of flexibility my quality of life would already be much poorer. I am ever grateful for my new awareness and drive to be the most I can be.

[dillytl]

Originally Posted by kfisherx

Tracy: It is a very happy realization because it empowers me to embrace even more my health and my life in my senior years. I actually thought about Mahler and how fit he is in his age and of course this old woman I once saw who had the body of a Godess and the spring of youth in her steps. Like all things in life, how we spend our later years is a matter of choice. If I had continued to just accept my body and the extra pounds and the lack of flexibility my quality of life would already be much poorer. I am ever grateful for my new awareness and drive to be the most I can be.

I totally agree that it's up to us!! I have a grandmother who just turned 97 in January - she still lives in her own home by herself! Good genes apparently run in my family, so if she is any indication of my longevity, I need to make sure I take good care of myself and keep myself in good shape if I'm gonna be around as long as she has been! I REFUSE to be one of those little old ladies that can barely get from point A to point B and shuffle and hunch over when they walk. I want to make sure I still have that spring in my step when I'm in my 90's!!!!

CONGRATS to you on achieving that awareness, and even more so for taking the steps to do something AWESOME for yourself!!

[Willie]

Karla,
This weather is beatiful, isn't it? Unfortunately I'm inside furiously grading papers, but I'm breaking a sweat just sitting next to the window!

I've been thinking a lot lately about what "no rowing" means to me, and decided that it means I should finally take the plunge and buy myself a big-girl bike. Your post is highly motivating! I'm even thinking about doing the STP this summer.

Your day sounds fabulous!

[kfisherx]

Kate I did not start biking seriously until I was unable to run due to my hamstring injury. I spent about 7 months like that and another 5 in rehab where running was very restricted. I am glad now that I got into biking in such a serious way as it gives me yet another option for cardio. Since getting bikes that fit me I enjoy it almost as much as a good run and sometimes even more.

So I forgot. You are in the PNW too aren't you? I think you are way up in the cold north though. I was in Seattle on Sat at a concert. I do love that city too.

[Willie]

Originally Posted by kfisherx

Kate I did not start biking seriously until I was unable to run due to my hamstring injury. I spent about 7 months like that and another 5 in rehab where running was very restricted. I am glad now that I got into biking in such a serious way as it gives me yet another option for cardio. Since getting bikes that fit me I enjoy it almost as much as a good run and sometimes even more.

So I forgot. You are in the PNW too aren't you? I think you are way up in the cold north though. I was in Seattle on Sat at a concert. I do love that city too.

Yes, I'm in Seattle... and the major downside I see, living here, is our distinct lack of a POWELL'S bookstore. We went there a few months ago and spent $300! On books!

[kfisherx]

Today was trainer day and it was weird. I got there early because I wanted to get in a good tready run before the workout. (I know I should do cardio after but timewise it works out before only so...) Anyway I ended up doing a nice 2 mile run at a decent pace. I slowed it down to a walk to get the heart rate down for the lifting when I hear a knock at the window. I look up and my trainer is outside in shorts and telling me to come out.

I grab my coat and go outside. He then informs me it is run day. So we take off and do 2 miles up into the hillside and 2 miles back down. So all total I did a 6 mile run today. I am sort of bugged about this. I do not want to run. I want to lift and more importantly I want to bulk. My trainer informed me that this is a reward day and that this one little run was not going to kill all my work for bulking. I was hoping that somewhere on the run we would stop and do HIT work or something but we really did nothing more than run.

It was fun 'cause I love to run but I am still a bit bugged. He will have to explain to me exactly how this session is helping me to reach my goals at our next session.

Anyway... After work today I did go to the gym and did a few little things he told me to do.

Ab Superset 3x15
hanging leg raises
bosu crunches
V-ups

Calf raises
1x15 90lbs
1x15 115lbs
1x12 160lbs

farmer's walk
2x20 sec 120lbs
1x20 sec 130lbs (this is really cool 'cause it is also my body weight)

[Kirjava]

Nice work on the calf raises!
It can be really annoying when an expert you've hired doesn't seem to be "getting" it. This is a totally different world, but I felt the same way when I went to get my haircut and left with my hairdresser clearly not understanding my goals of looking good. LOL

I hope at your next session he'll clarify things for you. One thing for sure is that trainers are NOT cheap! I've been to ones that didn't really understand my goals, for sure. It can be frustrating.

[stingo]

Well if nothing else it changed things up a bit to keep your body guessing. Sounds like you wanted run though, since you got there early to do that.

[kfisherx]

I am pissed off this morning. For the first time in weeks I am down weight from the previous day on the scale. It is only .4 lbs but still it is a lot. For the past 4 weeks I have gained nearly a lb (.7) a week while loosing body fat. Do you know how hard that is for someone my size. Today I am down. Some of it is certainly water but that 2 hour bike ride on Sunday followed by that run yesterday most certainly lent to this as well. I was going to get a gainer in before bedtime and did not do it. I definately should have.

Oh well. I sent an email to the trainer. We are going to talk about this and get things squared away. I know he did it because he thought it would be a nice break for me but I don't want a break. More imporatantly I am not paying his ass to be a jogging partner. I realize that some of his clients need that but hell, I did a 16-mile run all by myself just a month ago just because it was a nice day and I felt like a run. He knows very well that if he wants to me to run he merely has to open up the start gate and I will run. The difference is I will run harder and in a nicer environment.

This is the first time though that I have been displeased so I am not going to fire him. Good trainers are hard to find and so far he has been very good. I know he thought he was doing me some good. It was a case (I think) of good initiative but bad judgement.

[Willie]

Originally Posted by kfisherx