get in shape

I had fallen asleep at about 4:30 (I had been trying to stay up to watch the sunrise, but got too tired)... Then I woke up at 7-8 because of a HUGE pain in my calve muscles. It was just so sudden and quick that I actually shouted (not loud..but the “Argh!” kind). And I was kicking my leg out and rolling around the bed and holding onto my leg. I stood up finally and stomped it a few times on the ground and it went away. I fell back asleep… Then when I DID wake up (completely) later in the day, my calve muscles were really sore and stiff.

I think they had gotten like this because I didn’t exercise yesterday (nor today) and it gave time for my leg muscles to rest. On Thursday and Friday, I did a total of about 22 miles by ellipticaling. So, just stopping and resting all of a sudden, i think it was just a shock to the muscles.

The soreness and stiffness was…pleasing… but the muscle-in-a-knot feeling wasn’t all too favorable. So, I guess the lesson learned is… it IS good to have resting-days.

Being 17 and all… 153-ish pounds with a 5’7-ish-height…

I plan on, for a week starting today, to elliptical 10 (or atleast 10) miles each day. (Today I did 12 miles because I felt a bit guilty about the DQ blizzard I had). Then next thursday, bike for a week for 2-3 hours each day. THEN THE WEEK AFTER THAT, alternate the two different exercises every-other day. THEN the week after that… Well… I’ve got no clue.

Too much? Or… A good amount?

See, I’ve got this week long trip to florida with a bunch of others close to my age (half I know, half I don’t) in about 4 weeks. Then this winter sometime, a trip to some hopefully-exotic place. Then off to Peru in June… Then I plan on joining some branch of the military as soon as I can after it.

So, I figure… Best to get in shape now.

Having to increase the amount and intensity to get that same “in shape” feeling. Or sore feeling the next day.
Such as:
Last summer, towards the middle, I could ride bike for 2-3 hours…if the heat-wave was not on… like every-so-often. Those rides would take me quite a distance, too. The middle of last summer was like—my highest peak.

NOW, it’s still just spring, and I can easily already pass last summer’s amazement-of-myself, so it doesn’t feel as achieving. Last weekend, I went on a 15-20(or more) mile bikeride for 3 hours. Last summer, I don’t think I could’ve gotten CLOSE to 20 miles in 3 hours. Also, with riding bike, I kinda now feel like I’ve just seen so much already that it kinda feels like it’s lost the…motivation?

Like, I ride on country roads and just make big miles-long loops back to my house. I suppose I could try to find a backway to this one local lake (swimming in the summer. quite a distnace on the other side of town/outskirts of town borders). Or try find backways to other towns (Because I don’t want to ride alongside the highway).

(te-he. copy and pasted from my ‘lose weight’ entry)

So today, we actually hit a 40 in the weather. It was awfully lovely seeing how we had a type of a blizzard last weekend, as well as a weaker one (but still a lot of snow) the weekend before. Today, when I got out of class and was driving home, I thought: Wow, a lot of snow’s melted!
And I was considering going on a bike-ride or taking my dogs on a walk… but then I got home and I felt tired and had a bad headache on the account of me staying up late last night and waking up early to do some classwork—and last night was to take notes for a test today on a unit I had no idea of had to do (which actually paid off, ‘cuz I Aced it!) BUT, I’m getting sidetracked.
Mainly… Since spring is here, it’s regenerated and boosted motivation to keep on with that exercising and getting in shapin-ing. Plus it’s decent outside. So ‘ELLO to the soon-to-be Bikerides in the country side now, walking in the muddy woods, walking dogs, and spending more time outside.
Welcome back, Springy-spring, missed you quite a bit! (and if it snows again, I swear to god I will…do something not good but I don’t know what it is yet because it’s so bad!)

More oppurtunites for exercising. Plus I had wanted to start running/ jogging outside, too…so…it all works out nicely. I’ve really missed biking around the country side, finding new roads to ride on, new things to look at—nearly getting lost a few times… I’m happy I can do it again, but… I’m probably going to have to build up the “stamina”(if I’m using the right word correctly?) to ride long distances… Hate BUILDING up to it. Atleast I’ll be able to tell i’m getting into shape, though.

Well I’ve got pretty good legs. They carry me well. Walking, biking (not so much lately, but…tis not the weather to do it), running, ellipticalling, etc-ing. Yeah. Good muscles. It’s the upper-body strength that is lame. Because I have none. I can’t do push up or pull ups and lifting weights is always a ego-kicking…

So, for me, I think getting in shape would be being able to balance out the POWER OF THE LEGS and ze arms. I’d feel AWESOME if I could do pull-ups and push ups and whatnot. Not having freakishly large muscles, just some nice muscle, y’know?

We’ll say… just being able to do 15 decent push-ups(?) and 5 decent pull-ups/chin-ups(?) as in shape. Or whenever I just FEEL in shape. Whatever comes first. I’m not too picky.

(Though a nice stomach/abs would be nice as well! Santa didn’t bring THOSE this x-mas. Jerk.)

...Then i’ll have run at least 1 hour every day for one week. Seven days. Yeah. I remember back when it was a challenge to run (jog, whatever) for 30 minutes. And doing THAT was only, maybe, once a week.

I had decided to run for an hour each night after feeling horrible about Christmas (and every day since…about a week before Thanksgiving). The third day was hard to encourage myself to keep jogging/running on the trendmill, but I just thought “Hey, this is just the three day hump. It’ll get better after this.” Actually, It was more like the four day hump. BUT, I’m happy that I did it.

Yeah. It was worth it. Though…it’s not over yet… Still have to push for tomorrow…

In the summer, when the heatwave wasn’t killer, I’d go on like… 2-3 hour long bikerides on the country roads around my house/ local lake/ into town. Sometimes on a not-so-hot afternoon, most times in the evening when the temperatures dropped, or (rarely—I think just a few times) I went bike-riding in the morning. The sunny-ness. The weather. The sounds of birds, crickets, frogs,etc. I don’t really miss the ticks, though. Hate them.

I miss seeing the sights…Skies of blues and fields of green,y’know? (deer, too!)Swamps and ponds and lakes and—trying to bikeride on some trails in the woods (until seeing signs about trespassing on private land). Taking breaks in cemeteries, sitting under the trees and looking out at the headstones (it was very relaxing- is that weird?) and trying to find the oldest headstone in the cemetary… That one day I was almost sure I got lost on some back, dirt roads… Or making up some daily adventure to go on while on a bike ride rest—exploring an abandoned barn, house, walking in the woods without a path.

Miss when I’d be in town and then big grey clouds would come and rumble, so I would pedal hard to get back home (which is in the country), but always taking the long way home no matter the weather.

Now it’s in the lower forties-lower thirties (Which is odd for this time of the year, actually…considering how most other years the temperate would probably range anywhere from 30- negative 30.) And the daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter. On weekdays, I leave when the sun is just beginning to come up and I get home about 20 minutes or less before the sun sets.

BUT—on the other hand… I run A LOT more than I did in the summer. And I’m now elliptical-ling since I’m not the type to venture outside in the winter (I easily understand why bears hibernate).

So it’s like a pro and con. Con= sure, I’m not seeing much of ‘nature’ and her finest and most lush right now… But I’m expanding my exercising-horizons and…whatnot.

Jogged on the trendmill for an hour last night. A new self-record. 60 whole minutes and… like… 18 seconds!

I was thinking… Maybe I should try to do this once a week from now on?

Then I was thinking… I can build up and then start jogging/running for distance… and then work on speed?

I was thinking of trying for distance/speed in the spring/summer time or something because I can’t measure distance/speed on my trendmill because THAT thing is broken. And I’m not going to run outside because it’s winter. and cold. and snowing.

But yeah… yeah.

eliptical. that’s what i bought myself. I plopped it infront of the TV… and find a show/ movie to watch while I do it.
I USUALLY go for an hour. Few times less than an hour… quite a few times over an hour.

It’s getting better.

Not to where I’d like to be, but I’m better in shape then I had been.

I went on a campus tour yesterday, and as a part of it, we walked up the campus’s biggest hill. I lead me classmates up it… and THEN up the steps near the top of the hill, going two at a time so that I was the first one up. I had been breathing sorta—hard, but not panting. Not a lot of hard, rapid breaths like my classmates. Then they kept saying how bad the hill was and how they thought we should sit to take a break and all of that. How they needed to catch their breath. A couple of them, after getting back on the bus, said that their legs were sore. I turned to a friend and said, “Oh, come ON. It was a big hill, but it wasn’t THAT bad. It didn’t even bother me, really.”

So I noticied some ‘get in shape’ with that. All of that trend-mill running/jogging must’ve helped.