I should probably take a recovery day sometime soon. I thought I'd miss a day or two while in Florida, but it turns out I got in a run every day. So, it's been a while since I had a down day.
I don't think I'm overtraining, yet, but we'll see. Other than running, my muscles are getting plenty of recovery time from the weight workouts.
Next week, I'll be increasing my daily distance from 3.8 miles to about 4.8. I might plan a recovery day once a week when I do that. I'm tempted to try and run faster, but my heart rate is right at the top part of the range I should be shooting for right now. Speed is built on a foundation of endurance, and endurance is built by long slow distance. I've got the "slow" part, now I need to add the "long" part.
If I did 5 miles, 6 days a week, that'd be a weekly total of 30 miles per week. That's a respectable distance for anybody to cover and is more than what is required for basic general fitness. After a few months of that, I may look into a marathon training program, but enough of that for now.
I really want a rowing machine to give me a 2nd workout (actually a 3rd, if you include weight training), but I'm skint at the moment. Might be able to get it next month, though.
Some muscle groups are best hit by weight-training. (Biceps and pecs come to mind.) Others are easy to train with exercises that hit multiple groups. Rowing machine would mean I wouldn't have to do certain back exercises and I'd already have worked out my quads and glutes. Running hits the hamstrings. (And should I decide I am a masochist, I could get a glute-ham-developer bench... you have to see the insanity to believe it.) A few calf raises, and I wouldn't need a leg day at the gym at all.
I'd also sort of like a spinning bike to park in front of the TV, too. Of course, I could use my recumbent bike for a 2nd workout. I might do that, too. It's in the office at work. I may use the living room in my house as a workout room in addition to the Rock Band video game room it is, now.
Diet-wise, I've tweaked it recently by adding flax seeds. Supposedly, you're supposed to add them to your diet gradually. I'm doing about 2 teaspoons a day and will keep adding until I'm up to maybe 2 tablespoons. I've found the easiest way to eat them is just to take a spoonful in my mouth and then drink a glass of water.
My main purpose with the flax seeds is to try and lower my cholesterol.
I hot a new low after my run today. Came in at 193 lbs. Granted, it was after the run and before I rehydrated. However, that's pretty much how I used to weigh myself last time I got in shape, too. Over a long enough period of time, you can detect a trend. I'm getting close to breaking into the 180s for the first time in a decade. That should be pretty exciting.
I'll be re-evaluating my fitness and diet program once I'm down in the mid 180s. That's nearly 10 pounds away, though. Not sure if I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, or whether I'll join a crossfit gym, or perhaps train for a marathon. That can all wait. Right now, my goal is to vastly improve my performance on the Navy fitness test.
I've maxed the push-ups before. Crunches will be a challenge, but I am working out abs for the first time pretty much in my life. The run would take a lot of work. I'd basically have to run six minute mile pace for a mile and a half. I'm not sure I was ever that fast, and it may be out of my reach, but we'll see.
The battery on my old heart rate monitor died, and I just ordered another one. They're pretty cheap. You can usually get a new watch and chest strap for the cost of a replacement chest strap.
So far, really, I can't complain about how the new fitness routine is going. It's been a little over 5 weeks and I'm halfway to my weight-loss goal. If I can make similar progress over the next 5 weeks, life will really be good.
No comments:
Post a Comment