King of Pain

I've been feeling like the King of Pain a few times recently. A little over a week ago I used, for the first time, the Cyclo-Core workout that I purchased years ago. Graeme Street kicked my butt! And my quads. It was really more my quads. I could barely walk down stairs for the better part of a week. The worst part is that I had only done part of the first third of the workout that morning. Ouch. I did try the program again last Saturday and fared significantly better. I got through two of the three sections of the workout, and was still able to walk normally afterward.

Well, during this time I have continued to regularly utilize the NordicTrack for my morning workouts. This has become a critical part of my weight loss regimen, especially since the stationary trainer for my bike broke last year. Well, the NordicTrack has adjustable resistance, and I have been slowly increasing that resistance over the past month or so.

Let me tie these last two thoughts together. This morning I did a little over 2 km on the NordicTrack on the higher resistance levels and was feeling some muscle burn after that, but I then proceeded to use my ABslide, then go into some of the exercises from Cyclo-Core. By the end of that 25 minute workout, I knew that I'd done something. I could still do stairs okay (thank goodness), but could feel a bunch of muscles from my arms, legs, and core.

The payoff of all of this? I was down to 87.1 kg when I weighed in right after that workout! Woohoo! Only 7 km to my goal weight. Could it be that I will finally achieve the resolution that I've been chasing for the last four years? Probably not by the end of this year, but most likely by next Spring. How would it be to actually start a cycling season without the extra 10 kg of Winter storage? Hopefully I'll be able to know and share that feeling.

Use It or Lose It

Im not really familiar with the Motley Crue song that titles this post, but I think that I would have titled it Use It and Lose It. At least that's what is happening with my off-season exercise. I am using some tools that I've had for some time, but not used well, and I'm losing weight as I rediscover them.

I've been using the NordicTrack. That's been good for me. Not only does it keep my legs up for the coming cycling season, but it works my upper body for some waterskiing strength. It's amazing what 15-18 minutes in the morning, burning 200 kilocalories before breakfast can do for weight lost.

Then today I pulled out a video that I had ordered years ago, then filed under "Failed Resolutions". That video is Graeme Street's Cyclo-Core. I attempted to complete one of the workouts after my 15 minutes of NordicTrack. I was able to do about half of the squats, half of the push-ups, and 2/3 of the other exercises.

Then, I weighed in. I was below 87 kilos. That's down from over 93 kilos earlier this year, and over 92 kilos earlier this month. I felt pretty good about that. I continued to feel pretty good until I tried walking up the stairs to my office. From that point on, my legs have felt like jelly all day.

I don't know if I can repeat that tomorrow, but I'll be up doing some sort of exercise before work. It's feeling good to get back to some regular exercise, even if it's not biking.