Workin’ out

I’ve been doing 30 minutes a day for several weeks now. I have probably missed 2 or 3 days in all of last month, and at least one of those days I made up for it with an extra workout later that week. Generally I meet with my trainer twice a week for 30 minutes of strengthening and toning stuff – he focusses a lot on core muscles, which I think is good. The rest of the week I do minimum 30 minutes cardio, usually on my home treadmill. I alternate between three programs: walking steadily fast, walking up a steady incline at a more moderate pace, and alternating between moderate pace walking and running.

I have improved since I started doing this, although the metrics suggest I’ve gone to utterly pathetic to just kind of pathetic. I’ve never been good at running, so that’s my usual self-test. At the outset, be utterly shot within 2 minutes. So I was alternating 2 minutes run, 3 or 4 recovery, another minute or two running, and so on. By now, though, I can steadily run 5 minutes (a half-mile) – still kind of sad, but at least it’s getting better.  So far, no obvious change in my weight or clothing size, but that’s fine… not really my goal anyway, I just want to be stronger and more fit. I’m in no danger of looking anorexic if I do lose a few pounds – in fact there’s a few outfits I’d love to be able to wear again – but not unhealthy now either so can’t make myself get that worked up about it.  Not when it’s December so Blue Bell is marketing peppermint ice cream, anyway.