Last Friday I met my personal trainer who decided that she wanted to change my routine by having me alternate between weights-and-cardio days with pure cardio days.
To make it interesting, my cardio only days feature 35 minutes of stationary bicycling (something new for me) and 35 minutes of the Vario machine that’s like an elliptical machine.
Now my first day of cardio only was yesterday – Monday – and I did it in the late afternoon.
Usually, after lifting weights, I decide that I can actually do a lot of the cardio – always doing at least 50 minutes, often deciding to do more like 70 or 75 minutes. I find that once I am on the elliptical machine and have my feet in motion, I am only stopped because I run out of water or because I need to go to the bathroom. Or because I get bored – so it really depends upon my frame of mind.
The longest I’ve gone on the cardio equipment is 95 minutes long: Lady Gaga CD length, to be honest.
So without lifting weights I thought to myself, “I bet I can do a lot more cardio on a pure cardio day” – and as I sat my (still) fat ass down on the stationary bicycle, my first thought was that 35 minutes of this ought to be a snap and that I should be able to do an hour, no problem.
A mere 5 minutes later, drenched in sweat, I was having an internal monologue that went something like this:
You can do this. You’re already one-seventh of the way through it. It’s not that long: it’s only 35 minutes. Keep pedaling. Don’t slow down. You can do it. Don’t give up. DO IT YOU FOOL! Remember, you used to do hour-long spinning classes back when you lived in Bloomington. Only 34 and a half minutes to go…
Once I finished all 35 minutes, I dragged my sorry self off of the machine and made my way over to the elliptical machine.
I had no illusions.
I was doing only 35 minutes.
Hey, you will make it. That really sounds great that your fitness trainer bothers about you! 🙂
does your fitness trainer also give some diet advice to complement your work out?
btw..currently my fitness training is limited to daily jog to Napoleon stein and back. Gives me about 3.5 to 4 Kms, depending on the route that I use. In that sense, I am only getting cardio you see…got to do something about weights though. Somehow Jena’s fitness studios do not impress me.
She’s refrained from diet advice, so far — that’s probably next. However I’m trying to work on that myself 🙂 Not too successfully I think…
I cannot do running — I just cannot motivate myself to do it — on the street I get bored and start walking, and on a treadmill… well, it just doesn’t interest me. And my trainer is a runner…
Today I did do all of the spinning — although I had to change half way through because the first stationary bike I chose had an incredibly uncomfortable seat. Once I switched bikes, I only struggled due to time and exhaustion, not because my ass hurt.
Good for you for sticking it out the full 35 minutes. Usually my internal monologues never make me continue. I’m too weak mentally. I’m trying to change that by really pushing myself to stick out a cardio routine. We’ll see how that goes.
The internal monologue is key — although I find that about half way through I slow to a crawl. I’ve actually set myself a pseudo-goal of doing about 3km every ten minutes — I have no idea if 3km every ten minutes is a real world number, but it works on the machine I use.
Although I missed the mark today…