First day back to the gym

I jumped out of bed this morning at 5:30 AM and headed to the gym with every intention of biking the 13.1 miles each of the biggest loser contestants rode this past week.  I wanted to see how quickly I could do it.  I think the first team finished in just under an hour, and others were closer (or beyond) the 2 hour mark.

I was determined to be faster than the first place team, naturally.  I'm not sure why I thought it would be so much easier for me than it would be for them.  After all, I haven't worked out regularly in a while, and with my knee injury and recovering from pneumonia, it would stand to reason I'm not at my peak physical condition right now.

I started off pedaling what I thought was a pretty good pace, but I realized that I would never finish under an hour at that pace, so I quickly went much faster - as fast as my legs could physically go, and that had me at the 4 minute mile mark...on a bike.  I don't think that's very good.  I'm looking forward to the spring when I can bike out in the real world.  Maybe Darcy and I can take a long weekend somewhere south of here where there is no snow to go biking sooner, rather than later. 

I quickly realized I had forgotten to use my inhaler before starting, and my lungs had some trouble warming up.  If I got worse, I would have just gone to the locker room to get it, but I didn't want to stop if I didn't have to, so I kept going.  All the fluid in my chest was loosening up, and I started coughing a lot, but after a few minutes, it settled down a bit.

I was riding and riding and riding, and on my way to finish the 13.1 miles at about the 50 minute mark, if I kept the pace up.  It was harder at first, but the longer I went, the easier it got.  Around the 4 mile mark, my hip started to bother me quite a bit.  I've been doing exercises with it in physical therapy, so it was tender to begin with.  My PT told me to use the exercise bike, but the second I start to feel pain, I have to stop.  Pain will set my injury back, and we don't want that.  I figured, it was pain in my hip, so it didn't matter that much, so I kept going.

At the five mile mark, my knee started hurting, and my hip was really hurting at that point.  I tried adjusting my position into several different ways, but no luck.  I had to stop.  I ended up biking 5.5 miles in 21 minutes.  Depending on what source you look at, I burned quite a few calories in that short amount of time.  I'm a big girl, so biking at that pace is quite a calorie burner.

I came home and iced my hip and my knee for 10 minutes each.  I'm going to talk to my PT about my challenge when I see her next on Monday.  I'm hoping she has some tips because I want to do the 13.1 miles asap...but not at the cost of an injury.

Working out in the AM really gets your heart pumping.  It's a nice wake up.  I'm going to try to do morning workouts for now, to see how that goes.  I'd like to try swimming tonight, as long as my knee and hip aren't still sore then.  We'll see how it goes.

3 days of the Biggest Loser challenge have been completed.  We are on day 4 today.  I've been averaging 600-700 calories per day, because I just had my fill and I hadn't been exercising, but today I'm going to try to eat some soft "real" foods, and increase my food intake a bit.  I made some lean, low fat tuna for lunch, so I'll have that plain, possibly with a few whole grain crackers.  For breakfast, I'm sticking with the shake I've been having, and I'm not sure what the plan is for dinner yet.

I hope Tuesday's weigh in is a good one!