BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures

Fitness updates

Weights:
Doing pretty well; I've upped the weight of some exercises. Today I did:

Deltoid (Side): 45lb barbell upright row (2 sets X 6 reps)
Back (General): 40lb barbell bent-over row (2X6)
Trapezius (Upper): 45lb barbell shrug (2X6)
Deltoid (Rear): 40lb barbell rear delt row (2X6)
Biceps: 35lb barbell curl (2X6)
Brachialis: 10lb dumbbell preacher curl (2X10)
Brachioradialis: 10lb dumbbell hammer curl (2X8)
Wrist flexors: 10lb dumbbell wrist curl (2X10)
Wrist extensors: 8lb dumbell reverse wrist curl (2X10)

I may lower the weight on the bent-over row and the rear delt row, though. I'm not convinced my form was very good -- I have a suspicion that I was just sort of bending over and flailing. ;)

This weekend is the annual Wind Dancers Pacific Rally, and it's in Petaluma -- apparently the arm-wrestling capital of the world. I've been told there will be arm-wrestling contests, so I'm really psyched to find out how I do against the other gals. There are a couple of them who obviously work out and can probably whup my ass, but I think I'll be able to hold my own. Hammer curls, hammer curls, hammer curls! ;)

Cardio:
Jumping rope is going well. I'm enjoying the DVD of tricks, etc., even though the Token Famous People who hoot and holler along with the instructor are a little scary. The man is so toned that his pecs jiggle when he jumps. They jiggle a lot. Peter walked in on me doing the DVD the other night and was like "please don't ever end up looking like that creepy guy."

Running isn't going that well at all. No side stitches tonight (thanks for the tips -- exhaling more forcefully definitely helped!), but once again my calves hurt so much that I couldn't keep jogging. It's really frustrating because my heart rate isn't getting up high enough. I'm trying to drink enough water both before and during my jogs, and I'm stretching -- anyone have any tips? It's the lower half of my calves, below the gastrocnemius. It feels like a muscular pain, but....what's down there? The soleus?

I bicycled for a whopping 2 miles last night, and it was harder than I expected. The first mile was uphill, but not even really noticeably so, and it was depressingly difficult. Ah well. The route was to/from a class I'm taking, so maybe next week it'll be a tiny bit easier.

A decent jog today

I upped the length of my jog slightly today, to 1.3 miles. I'm happy to report that while I still can't do 60 sec walk/60 sec jog repeated over the entire time (~25 minutes), I can do it for about half the distance. ;) Have I mentioned that I suck at running? *laughs* But it's improving...verrrrryyyy sllloowwwwlllyy but surely.

It seems like There's Always Something preventing my jogs from being really good. The last jog, it was my calves cramping up; this time, I got a side stitch. Both times I wanted to keep jogging (as opposed to switching back to walking-only), but whatever it was just hurt too much. Sigh. Hopefully that'll stop happening as my body gets more and more used to jogging. *fingers crossed*

I keep trying to remember that six weeks ago, I couldn't even jog to the end of the block without my chest hurting and getting winded, so even just being able to jog for 60 straight seconds is an improvement. Perspective, perspective, perspective!

I need to remember to up my weights tomorrow. It just now occurred to me that I did three sets of "going through the motions" today.

A successful jog :)

I've always hated running/jogging -- it makes my legs hurt and my lungs hurt and it's boring and blah blah whine waaaaaah. Unfortunately, it's good for me. So I've been forcing myself to jog three times a week.

Anyway, last night I upped my walk/jog ratio to "walk for 90 seconds, jog for 60 seconds" (I'd been doing 90/30). I had to go back to 90/30 about halfway through the 25-minute jog, but that's OK.

The really amazing thing to me was that, in very brief spurts during those 60 second jogs, my life did not utterly suck. Again, the moments were fleeting, but there actually existed moments in which I was comfortable, nothing hurt, and the jogging was fun. Woah!

Very encouraging. :)

Oh, and I added a couple of "starting out" articles to the fitness page -- a bare-bones summary, and a longer "carolyn's blathering again" version. :)

Fitness for Bikers

I added a new section to bluepoof.com -- fitness for bikers.

It's pretty sparse so far, but includes my basic weightlifting routine for motorcycling. The exercises all link to ExRx.net now, but I'd like to eventually supplement the page with pictures of myself doing the lifting.

Let me know if you've got any additional suggestions!

Assembling a home gym

Peter and I went to Sears today, "just to look", and ended up with a pretty nice start to a home gym. We were a little concerned that said gym would end up costing a million bazillion dollars, because I was pretty dead set on free weights, and he wanted a machine.

(decent article on machines vs. free weights)

Fortunately, Sears came through for us by having almost all of last year's everything on UberSale.

My new toys:

• Weider Pro 235 weight bench
  
• Weider 100-lb weight set, including:
  
  • 1 standard-size barbell bar
    
  • 2 standard-size dumbbell bars
    
  • 6 2.5-lb weight plates
    
  • 4 5-lb weight plates
    
  • 4 10-lb weight plates
    
  
  
• 3 pairs of spring-loaded collars (I didn't like the collars that came with the weight set)
  

Peter's new toy:

• Weider home gym, whose model number I don't know offhand
  

I ended up getting 25% off the weight bench and 40% off the weight set. After some discussion with me and negotiation with the Sears guy, Peter took the Weider home gym floor model and got an impressive 60% off the price.

We brought the weight bench home today but have yet to set it up. The weights had to be ordered, and will be in on Friday. Peter goes back to Sears later this week to help disassemble the floor model and hope they can track down a service manual for it (for reassembly).

Woo! The best part is that we actually sort of have room for all of this stuff...luckily neither of us has a problem with a weight machine in the kitchen.

Walk Away the Pounds

I'm working at home today, and needed something to get my ass up off the couch -- I should get my desk set up at home, as it's just too easy to flop on the couch with my laptop and then not move for hours at a time. Good for the code; bad for the body.

Last time I was at Target, I picked up Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds 2-Pack. I'd heard decent things about it, and it was on sale, so there ya go.

The first DVD includes a 1-mile and 2-mile walk; the second DVD has a 3-mile walk. Judging from the times on the DVD, each mile takes about 15 minutes.

At any rate, I did the 2-mile workout, and was suitably impressed. It's a pretty good intermediate workout -- increasing the range of motion and using 5-lb dumbbells (they recommend 2-lb) got my heart rate up pretty nicely. Next time I may try the 1-mile walk with 8-lb dumbbells (or the 3-mile walk with the 5's).

I wouldn't really say that it's a complete upper body workout, but using the dumbbells while walking is a nice addition. It was enough of a teaser that I got out the 8-lb weights after doing the walk and did a few more dumbbell lifts. That made me happier.

New Category

I added a new category, Fitness, to the blog.

For new readers, and those who need a refresher course, here's why I think fitness is 100% motorcycle-related.

I didn't have much time to work out tonight, as I have to leave...well, pretty much now...to go to the monthly Women on Wheels meeting. I did get a full arm/shoulder weight routine in, though.