Picked up some Runner's High

Although Monday was some what motivating when I figured out I could jog without having chest pains and shortness of breath, it didn't really motivate me too much for Tuesday or Wednesday. The constant need to look at the timer and decide when to stop and start was a little annoying and yes some what boring. It seems to have the same feeling as if you were on the treadmill running and you were counting down the minutes to when you can stop and step off the treadmill without feeling guilty.

Tuesday I was suppose to give running a chance again on the treadmill but of course I had a better excuse....watch a couple TV shows until I felt too lazy to go because a treadmill just sounded boring. Then Tuesday night my fiance and I were suppose to try out racquetball to encourage more cardio in a fun and competitive way but after waiting 10 minutes at the front desk of LA Fitness with no employee present and then finally being told that they have no equipment that can be borrowed so that we can use the racquetball courts at the gym...well it became less motivating to come back and try to get some cardio in. 

I would think the goal of losing weight would help motivate people to workout and be consistent, but just thinking about that as my only goal brought misery very quickly. It seemed like an empty goal. The only way to really test it is to jump on one of those scales and watch the numbers go higher...and torture yourself on not eating yet again another little cupcake you baked a couple days earlier. In my mind, losing weight as a goal alone inspired some short term planning but no motivated execution. After playing basketball in college and completing 2 marathons, it became clear that I needed an actual goal I am use to shooting for and that has proven in the history to work. The type of goal needed to be some type of competition hence the attempt to play racquetball at a place that has the courts but not the equipment (yes it's irritating in paying so much for a gym that doesn't have the equipment compared to other gyms). 

Finding the lack of motivation annoying and adding to my already negative spiral of depression about weight gain, I agreed with my finance that we will do cardio and weights 3 times a week and the rest of the days we can workout if we feel like it. It seemed like a good idea since it's less time you have to go to the gym and since you're already there doing some strength training, why not jump on the treadmill for 20 minutes as a nice warm up? So tonight we started our new arrangement of 20 minutes of cardio and 1/2 hour + or - for strength training.

This brings me to the title of the post, runner's high. Instead of walking and jogging in combination during my time on the treadmill, I decided to warm up for 5 minutes and then jog the rest of the time. This would allow me to test my lungs now and also not feel like I am always watching the clock. When I reached the running part and I didn't feel chest pain or shortness of breath I increased the pace from 15 minutes to 14 minutes per mile. The ability to just run and feel this good....amazing! It felt like a runner's high. My mind was enjoying the run along with an escape into my random thoughts bouncing around in my head. The occasional glance at this TV show on the screen in front of me was quite entertaining as well -- "I survived a Japanese Game Show". Of course when I was watching they were doing a obstacle course that entailed two treadmill type walk ways and moving circular discs in the middle and contestants have to carry the most panda bear stuff animals as possible to the other side. And since they were tripping over themselves, I started to sway on the treadmill as I watched. As a clumsy fool I caught the none moving part of my own treadmill but caught myself from falling on my ass. Obviously my coordination isn't that great these days. haha

So I jogged for a good 15 minutes and then we went on to our strength training routine. This was now a new workout -- workout B in the book (and yes it did take a lot of creativity to name these workouts apparently =P) . Here's below the workout:

1. Deadlifts (which were replaced with RDLs -- Romanian Dead Lifts) 2 x 15

(Was feeling it in the back so, we moved to halfies on the Dead Lift part to get form)

2. a. Dumbbell shoulder press -2 x 15 -- 10lbs/1st set | 15lbs/2nd set

  b. Wide-grip lat pulldown- 2 x 15 -- 60lbs

3. a. Lunge - 2 x 15 -- BW/1st set| 5lbs/2nd set

b. Swiss-ball crunch --2 x 8

Again it seems like a short list, but it gets everything working and you sweating. I am sure I will be feeling it tomorrow. With all that work, we drank our protein shake to help recovery.

So on to tomorrow's workout. We decided to not workout on Thursday's nights, but since it felt so awesome to be able to run without the fear of somehow having clots stuck in your lungs and feeling pain whenever you just breath....it seriously feels like a fresh start has been laid out in front of me. Just today's workout has provided a new goal...to reach back to a 10 minute pace like I ran for the 2 marathons in the past. I would write that it may seem like a small deed to be able to breath without pain, but with the year of fear behind me with such experience of pain when breathing and the panics that occur when you can't tell if you are getting enough oxygen in your lungs...it feels like a blessing to have this chance at regularity. I have been waiting over a year to be able to feel the ease of breathing coming back to me physically and psychologically...this is probably the motivation I really needed when I started this workout scheme. It's easy to forget what I once had valued more than anything in my life the ability to breath as easily as I do now, but since I have the ability to do so it is hard to remember on a consistent basis that this luxury of living was almost gone from me. I intend to keep it as the main motivator of my workouts.

Now it feels like I am on the right track of workouts and motivation. Cheers to the upcoming days. =)