Tried something different...

Yeah, it's been a couple days.  I know, I'm a loser =(

Thursday was the 4th (duh!) and then yesterday I just never got around to it.

But, today I got my jiggly butt to the gym.  I was LIVID to see someone on my machine again!  The nerve!!  So I thought I would just get on "my" treadmill, and wouldn't you know it...someone was on that, too!!  ARGH!!

So, I decided to suck it up and just get on a different elliptical machine.  It was actually closer to the TV that I wanted to watch, anyway, so I figured, what the hell! 

Well, guess what.  The damn sound didn't work!  I even tried the machine next to it.  Nope, no sound for the channel I wanted to watch.  Poop.  I told the girl at the desk, who said she had just reset it that morning, and she'd do it again. 

In the meantime, I moved down to the middle of the gym, to the other TV set to HGTV, and got on the treadmill in front of it.  Yep, you guessed it...NO SOUND!  I assumed the problem was with the machine, but it was with the TVs.  Luckily about 5 minutes into my workout, someone reset them. 

Ok, back to the workout.  I decided to try and do something different on the treadmill.  There's a setting that says "fitness test" that I had been wanting to explore.  I figured, since I can't really watch the show I wanted, why not try it.  The test is only 5 minutes long.  However, I'm going to ask one of the trainers next week about doing it again.  You set your own speed, which I thought was weird, and I don't think I set it high enough.  I don't even understand the "results" that scrolled across the screen when the 5 minutes was up, but the last thing that scrolled was "low."  I assume that means my "score" was low.  Who knows!

By the time I finished the test, the TV was fixed, so I tuned into HGTV and got busy.  I decided to try another new setting on the treadmill.  There's a program called "fat burning" that has my name all over it!  But, again, you set your own speed.  I set it higher this time, but I wasn't really sure if it was "right."  You also set your own target heart rate.  I had NO idea what to put.  I'm going to figure it out after I finish here.  I know that when I first started at the gym, the trainer had me use a worksheet to figure out my target heart rate for fat burning, and if I remember correctly, it was 145.  However, your weight is used in the "formula."  Well, since I joined the gym, I've lost about 25 lbs., so I guess that's not accurate anymore.  Like I said, I'm going to look it up in a minute.

This program basically keeps you in the fat burning zone, based on your heart rate.  However, this program uses incline to keep your heart rate where it needs to be.  Well, my lazy ass has never used the incline feature on the treadmill,  Cuz, DUH!  It's harder!! 

It wasn't awful, but it was work.  And, my back was killing me about half-way through.  But, I finished the 65 minutes, no problem. 

But, I was still feeling guilty about not doing any running today.  My SIL and I made plans to go for a run tomorrow, since we're doing our next 5k in less than a month.  (Yikes!)  But, I planned to run on the treadmill today.  So, I decided to try and run a little. 

By now, my legs were a little wobbly, since I had already done 70 minutes of serious walking.  I thought I could handle 15 minutes (which was perfect, since there was 15 minutes left of the episode I was watching of House Crashers!)  Yeah, well, 15 minutes of RUNNING was not gonna happen. =(

I ran for 3 minutes, then walked for 1, then ran for 3, etc. until the 15 minutes was up.  There was a 3 minutes "cool down" time, so I ran for the first minute, then walked the rest.  I was going to run the whole thing, but the machine automatically slows down during the cool down, and it was hard to even WALK that slow, let alone run.

By the time I got off the treadmill, my legs were like noodles.  I didn't do any machines today.  Worse yet, I didn't get a massage today!  The machine wasn't working when I was there on Wednesday, and it still hasn't been fixed.  Grrr!  The control screen doesn't work, so there's no way to change the settings.  I tried the lowest setting on Wednesday when I was there, but it was awful.  It just felt like I had bugs crawling on me.  I hope they get it fixed Monday.

All together, I did 88 minutes on the treadmill.  Not too shabby, right?

Here are the numbers:

Fitness Test
I didn't think to check calories burned, so I don't know =(
.25 miles
5 minutes

Fat Burning Walk
585 calories (now THAT'S what I'm talking about.  Guess I should make more use of that incline, huh?)
3.66 miles
65 minutes

Jog/Walk
182 calories
1.24 miles
18 minutes

Today's Total
767 calories (+ whatever from test)
4.90 miles
88 minutes

2013 Jogging/Walking Totals
22.15 miles