The road to Hell is paved with treadmills and ellipiticals....

So today was day 2 at the work place gym – I went at lunchtime though. I made sure I drank a lot more water than usual last night and did some yoga stretching when I woke up. Today was elliptical day. I did 3.2 km in 25 min which is faster than my average running pace, as expected.

My ankles were still really stiff though but aren’t when I’m walking/standing normally – I wonder if using the elliptical/treadmill puts them in a different angle than running/walking naturally? I’m going to run outside this weekend so I can check that theory.


I truly, truly hate the treadmill and elliptical.

It is incredibly boring.

I never would have stuck with running if I had started with that rather than outside. I have good music and I can even watch TV, but it is still INCREDIBLY boring and the minutes seem to go by so slowly. At least walking on the treadmill I can read and that makes the time go by faster. I keep telling myself, like every SINGLE second, that this is just to get through Winter. The other problem is that I run much slower on the treadmill; I think I’m afraid of falling off. When I set it to my normal pace it seems way too fast and I feel like I can’t keep up. Now even outside, I run slow, so the treadmill is even slower – snails might be passing me at this rate. I’m better on the elliptical and my plan is to alternate the treadmill and elliptical to save my knees so I can do something every day. There’s also some kind of scary weight machine and a whole rack of dumbbells, if I can figure out what to do with them, I might give it a shot sometime.

The good thing that I will usually have the whole gym to myself so I can do whatever I want, look as ridiculous as I want and take as long as I want to shower – keeping in mind I have about 55 minutes to workout, shower, blow dry my hair and get dressed in the mornings and only about 40 min at lunch (where I have to change twice). But it’s better than nothing which is what I had been doing for the last few weeks. I do miss my running clinic though. I wanted to try lunch time just to see if it was feasible and it’s not really enough time but if for some reason, I can’t make the morning, at least I know I can squeeze in 20-25 minutes. I have a pair of shoes and a set of workout clothes here so if I don’t bring them one day, I’m still covered. I’m really trying to make this work and not have an “out”.

Food is so – so, I have awesome days and then days where I go back to wheat/dairy. Sugar is pretty much under control but although wheat and dairy aren’t triggers the same way sugar is, they still leave me feeling lethargic, bloated and heavy. Weight wise, I’m fluctuating in a 5lb range 192-197 – which is far too close to 200 for my liking. Fall is my most challenging time of year for so many reasons and I normally fall off the wagon big time – this year I am hanging on which is an improvement over the last few years at this time.

I have put some plans in motion for the next six months and I need to be patient and wait and see which ones come to fruition before I can make some major life decisions so right now I’m just trying to make the best of what I can with what is available to me in all areas of my life.