New Workout Program

So, the decision about buying a personal training package at my gym has been made for me.  The trainer I had a consult with (Paige) texted all her clients the other day and informed us all that 24 HR Fitness is doing away with the “starter package” of three 50-minute sessions for $130.  Which means the cheapest option they’ll have is the five 50-minute sessions for $360.  No thanks.  So, I talked to my friend and co-worker, Tilsa, when I got to work Tuesday afternoon and asked her if she still had that trainer’s information that she used to go to about a year ago.  She said that yes she did and, actually, if I wanted to do a free buddy session with her in a few weeks after she finishes up her “cop school” that I could.  Heck yea I wanna do a free buddy session!  If his prices are the same as they were before, then I can get 10 or 12 sessions for $240…or something like that.  It may be slightly more, but it’s waaaaaaaaaay cheaper than what 24 is asking for.  So, I’m excited for that.

After I got done talking to Tilsa, the day shift supervisor asked me if I wanted to pick up some overtime for the next schedule (runs from 10/13 thru 11/9).  Of course I do!  I ended up picking up 8 shifts of overtime for that time frame.  AWESOME!!!  I will definitely have to do some rearranging with my workouts, but I’ll make it work.  My tempo runs (BTG runs) will probably end up getting cut or added to my longer runs.  For instance, I’ll do the tempo run, do my gym workout and then go for my longer run afterward.  That way, I’m doing 2 days’ worth of workouts in one day.  which also means I’ll have to make sure I get up no later than 6am on those days so I have MORE than enough time to get everything done.

More good news…I picked up a double shift at work on Tuesday.  That is good.  I now have enough on my end of month check to pay off the payday advance I took out the other day.  Whew!  Of course, that means more rearranging with my run schedule.  That 5 mile make up run I said I was going to do this Saturday…I’ll be doing that on Sunday instead.  Then, I’ll probably run twice on Monday.  I’ll do my tempo run in the morning and my long run in the evening. 

I STILL cannot stop thinking about the fact that I’m 36% body fat.  I know, I know.  I shouldn’t dwell on it…but I am.  I know I need to change things up, but I’m not sure what or how.  Going to Tilsa’s personal trainer will be one step in the direction I need to go for that.  I need to mix things up and that is definitely a good way to do it.  I think I’m also going to find a good book or two on nutrition so I can “revamp” my eating habits and what foods I’m eating.  Something I’m thinking of doing to help with that is maybe joining Weight Watchers again.  I’m not sure though.  I would like the support of the community that is available on there and the points system is a tool this is proven to be quite effective in weight loss.  And, believe me, with all my running I’d earn hella activity points!  But, I just don’t know.  I think I’d want to go to actual meetings…and that costs extra…I think.  I’ll have to check into it and do a lot of thinking before making the decision of whether to go back or not.  It might just be the motivation I need that if I don’t stick to my planned foods…or planned point allotment…for each day that I’m basically wasting my monthly membership fees on top of cheating myself. 

I also need to mix things up with my running too.  I need to vary the distances and speeds I’m running more than I have been.  That’s why I want to apply Paige’s training program to my run schedule for next month.  I think it will do me a lot of good to do all that variety and switching around.  Speaking of, I picked up that program she made up for me this morning from the gym.  I was super tired from only getting 5-5.5 hours of sleep each day for the past 2 days, so I just stayed in bed until after 10 and didn’t do my 2 miles and gym workout this morning.  I have postponed it until tomorrow.  I looked over the program and I like what I see.  Like I said previously, I’ve already committed myself to this month’s run schedule, so I won’t be applying this program to my workouts until the beginning of next month.  But, I do fully intend to do so.  I’m realizing I’m a little burnt out with all the long runs I’ve been doing and this program she put together for me limits me to no more than 30 minutes of running except for once a week where I’ll do a double digit long run.  If I do this for 1 or 2 months, that will be a nice change of pace for me and may even kick my weight loss back into gear.

I will integrate her strength training workouts into my current ones.  Actually, I will modify my current workouts and add her exercises to them to make up completely new workout routines.  I’ll work on that between now and the end of the month.  I think I’ll come up with 2 sets of workouts.  One set will be a heavy weight set worth of workouts and the second will be a moderate weight set of workouts.  I’ll do like 4 sets of 6 reps for the heavy weight and 3 sets of either 12 or 15 reps for the moderate weight.  Then, I can just flip back and forth week to week between the two…so heavy one week, moderate the next, then heavy the week after that, etc.

Since I worked those 2 shifts of overtime this week and then was super tired today, that’s 2 days of workouts I have to make up…well, actually 3 because I have that 5 miles left over from Sunday still to do.  This is how the next few days are going to look for my running and workout schedule:

10/11 – 2 BTG

10/12 – 8
10/13 – 5
10/14 – 3 BTG + 7 in the evening
10/15 – 14

Something else I want to adjust is how I’m eating.  I want to buy a book or two on eating for weight loss and sports nutrition.  If I could afford to go to a nutritionist, or if my insurance would cover visits to one, then I would go that route…but I can’t and I’m pretty sure they don’t…so I won’t be going.  I want to have a more varied daily diet, maybe eating different foods every day and not just at dinner time like I do right now.  So, that’s something else I want to work on between now and the end of the month.

Even though she didn’t put it in the program for me to do, I want to do some additional cardio that is not running…like bicycling, whether I’m riding my bike outside on the road, riding my bike in my living room on the trak stand, or I’m taking a spin class at the gym.  I also would like to start doing my Zumba game on my Xbox 360 every now and then as well.  And maybe I’ll give swimming laps another try.  Even if I have to stop and catch my breath after only 2 laps…every 2 laps…until I’ve done a full 20 or 30 minutes.  And I can add these cardio sessions to the days where I’m doing the 30 minute runs.  OH!  Speaking of those 30 minute runs, she wants me to do a 3:1 ratio of running to walking.  She also wants me to do the 3:1’s on my longer runs before I start to fatigue…so, I guess when my pace starts to slow down after about 3-4 miles, I will start the 3:1’s.  I just have to keep up the pace when I’m walking and make it sort of a power walk.

She put together 2 weights routines for me.  The first one looks like this:

Box jumps 10-8-6
Step ups 15-15-15 (she wants me to push through my heels on this)
Lunges on Arix 12-12-12 (I’m not sure what an Arix is…I’m guessing it’s a Smith machine, I will have to ask her)

Front squats to overhead press w/30# 12-12-12

The second one looks like this:

Single leg hamstring curls w/30# 15 reps
Jump squats 15 reps
Bent over rows 15 reps
Bridge on ball 15 reps

For the single leg hamstring curls, she has said to do them as slow as possible for the up AND the down.  On the jump squats she wrote the instruction of jumping from a wide stance to a narrow stance and back and forth for the 15 reps.  I need to ask her if the second routine is only supposed to be one set of 15 reps for all exercises or if she just forgot to write in the additional sets.

On a completely unrelated note, my co-worker that had the “incident” a few months ago came into work today to talk to our supervisor.  I almost didn’t recognize him because he’s grown a beard!  And he’s lost about 25 pounds as a result of having his jaw wired shut and because he hasn’t been able to work out.  He said it’s mostly muscle loss.  He has a cleft in his lower lip now, but other than that, he looks great.  It was soooooo awesome to see him!  I had a dream about him the other night that he was back at work.  And he will be in a couple weeks!!!  YAY!

I’ve been off work for the previous 3 weeks and just came back this week to work.  The elevator in the parking garage apparently broke over the weekend and hasn’t been working all week.  So, I’ve had to walk up and down the stairs before and after work.  Not that I’m really complaining all that much, except that at night when I’m done with work, the last thing I want to do is walk up 5 flights of stairs.  But, they fixed it today, so that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

My eating over the past few days has been meh.  Yesterday I ate according to plan…except for eating a few cake balls that a friend of mine gave me the other day.  So far today, I have replicated yesterday’s eating according to plan.  Seeing as how I’m basically broke until I get paid again on Monday, I don’t see that changing.  Tomorrow, we’re having a going away spread for one of our co-workers who is leaving the jail to go work patrol.  So, I won’t be eating according to plan tomorrow.  I haven’t bought what I’m going to bring yet, I’m thinking a pie of some sort that I can buy before work and doesn’t need to be cooked or anything…just taken out of the container and served.  I’ll probably stop at the store and buy it on my way to the gym so it can thaw in the car while I’m working out.  A cheesecake sounds good to me.  Or a chocolate cream pie maybe.  I know there will be some sort of chicken…and queso and chips.  Other than that, I have no idea what people are bringing for the spread.  But it will be good.