May 16, 2011. Yesterday was rough. Woke up filled with a head ready to explode, thank you children and hubby for sharing your cold germs! Fannnnnntastic. Spent the day on our couch. Just me, Criminal Minds Marathon, tissues and various over the counter congestion relievers. It's amazing I wasn't seeing dancing hippos with tutus. I was making some wicked combos of Benadryl, Tylenol Cold and Advil Congestion Relief. I knew today was the kick off day of my first phase of training and I wanted to get as close to 'healthy' as I could.
Woke up this morning feeling somewhat better. At least I didn't want to rip my face off to relieve any pressure so I took that as a promising sign. Got the boys ready for school and packed up my gym bag. I'm not a 'regular' at the gym so my gym bag is probably considered kinda sad by a gym rat. A bottle of water (hydrate hydrate!), my mp3 player and a hand towel. But really, what else could I really need? Dropped the older 2 boys at school and let the youngest, Ben, know that we were going to the gym. His response, "Finally!". Oh the honesty of children... Ben then went on a 10 minute discussion of how at the gym I work out and get skinny while he gets to play with all of his friends. I was informed that I was not to come back to soon and disrupt his social time. Oookay boss.
Arrived at our local Y. I go to the Copper Basin YMCA. A very nice facility, way better than the old one we attended in Illinois. Very clean, equipment is in excellent shape. No funky gym smell. That smell of stale sweat and socks that have been forgotten in lockers years ago that usually inhabits a gym. After dropping off the royal king of social butterflies in the kids room I headed to the equipment room. Now according to my program my first day is supposed to be cross training. Any type of exercise, my choice. So I though I would start off with the elliptical which I find is easiest on my knees and hips. I found one and climbed up on it. I do this carefully, one time I went to get on an elliptical and the darned thing moved and I almost fell off of it. So now I have a paranoia that I'm going to step on and then oh so gracefully fall off the other side and never be able to return to the gym out of humiliation. So I do very carefully get on the elliptical...First thing is putting the water bottle in the holder, check. Then I pull out my mp3 and press the on button. Nothing. Oh come on. I then start pushing all the buttons thinking I had just forgotten which was the on button (trust me, it happens when you have chemo brain). Still nothing. Not a blip. After 2 minutes of desperate mp3 squeezing of buttons I come to the realization that my first work out will be sans music. This sucks. I really enjoy blocking out the sounds of the people around me and it also prevents people from striking up a conversation with me. Yeah, I've got issues with people. That's a whole other blog trust me. So I suck it up, shove the defunct player in my bag and grudgingly get back on the elliptical. At least I have a machine in front of a t.v. so I can feign complete absorption into the program in front of me. Oh crap, it's Fox News...
15 teeth grinding minutes later I'm sweaty and had completed .80 of a mile. Not bad considering I'm congested and it's the first time in the gym in lets just say several months. I'm also thoroughly convinced that Fox News is nothing more than a tabloid with really stupid reporters. Though I did enjoy listening to the lady in front of me do her acapella rendition of Usher "My Boo" while biking. If it was American Idol I think she would have made it to at least the final 5.
Next was weights. I use the machines and not free weights, I don't trust my hand grip to be able to safely keep a secure hold on free weights. I alternated machines for my arms, legs, back, and abs. On my first machine I heard the grunts of what I thought was a man doing free weights. But there was no one over there. I moved to the second machine and still heard what was becoming slightly erotic moaning coming from somewhere in the gym. Hmmm see this is why I need my mp3. Third machine I really look around to see this lady on a machine working her biceps. This woman would make Linda Hamilton in Terminator look like a wispy twig. She had muscles. Her muscles had muscles. And apparently she really really gets enjoyment out of pumping ridiculous amounts of iron. Really. That was the source of the moaning. She moved along and finished and silence refilled the gym. I made a mental note to be sure to spend extra time wiping down that piece of equipment once I got to it....
45 minutes later I was done with my work out. I did enough to break a sweat and I felt that lovely ooey gooey warmth that runs down the muscle when you do work it. Day one down. I picked up two class schedules to keep my cross training days interesting. I cross train 3 times a week and then running 3 times as well. I saw an aqua aerobics class that looked like fun while I was working out. So I think next Monday that will be my workout. Wednesday is my next cross train day this week and I'm going to try something called ABS-olution with Trish. I picked up Mr.Social Butterfly and apparently it was an acceptable time for him to end his reign in the kids room. I'm now charging my mp3 player in hopes that tomorrows first run will be to my tunes. Otherwise I won't be able to drown out my wheezing...
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