I’ve decided that Christmas is evil. All the chocolate, sugar, saturated fat, empty calories in drinks like hot chocolate and wassail (if you don’t know what this is, you should!). Despite indulging a little bit, I want to try to focus on fitness.
Because of my nervousness about my heart, I am not going to run farther than 4 or 5 miles at a time until I see the cardiologist. I figure, instead of throwing a pity party about not going on 11+ mile canyon runs with Aaron, I’m going to do cross-training, and do it right.
Today I ran 2 miles on the treadmill, mainly doing intervals and not running slower than a 10:00/mile. My fastest pace was 7:30. I was sweating! And with the lack of decent fans at the gym my face was probably beat red. Then I got on the bike for 15 minutes and rode about 3.5 miles, including some “hills”. That felt great, although my backside was sore from riding yesterday. I tried the rower today, a new machine in my repertoire. It’s a full-body workout! I did that for 10 minutes for a total workout time of 45 minutes.
My goal for my gym sessions is to sweat, get my heart rate up (definitely pushed my max today!), and feel the burn. My goal is not necessarily to lose weight. I need to get that pesky number out of my head (and it’s not even a bad number!). I should focus on what my body can do and the ways I can encourage myself to get stronger.
I want to start lifting free weights… but here’s the thing. The weight room scares me. It’s visible just as you walk into the gym on post and it’s all these buff, or not-so-buff, soldiers looking all mean and strong and stuff. I guess I’m worried I’ll have bad form or not know what I’m doing. I really hate taking advice from people I don’t know. Any advice from my trustworthy readers would be great! 🙂
So, total this week so far I’ve done 16 miles. I figure if I am “allowed” to run after I see the doctor, then keeping up my cardio will help me get back into it without too much trouble!
What are you doing to stay healthy and fit this Christmas?
mercies per mile 
Just found your blog and I’m excited to read more! I’m realizing this Holiday Season that it’s time to get my body back in shape…so I’m starting slow, blogging about it, etc. I used to work out a lot and I, too, hated using free weights. In fact, a few years ago I used to refer to the weight area of the gym as the “boy side.” It’s such an intimidating place to be, especially when loads of buff people are working out, making stuff off in their workout logs, etc! But, I really liked using a lot of the machines that where near the free weights, and the more I went to the “boy side” the more comfortable and daring I got. I say just go for it! 🙂