In a heartbeat

I went exercising with Ben today. I wanted to do an hour, but only did a half hour.

I weighed myself first--170. Grrrr face.

I was on the elliptical and did, officially, 2.25 mi in 30:30. Not awesome, but not too bad, either. Really, that's about as good as I did at cross country when I first started doing it in high school. Granted, running on an elliptical and running on a cross country course are hardly comparable, but I did it nonetheless.

Ben was worried about me pushing myself too hard. First of all, it was noticeably warm in the fitness room at the gym. Considering we're all in there sweating while exercising anyway, I'd consider that a poor choice on the part of the staff. Second of all, I was challenging myself. I first challenged myself to run 100 meters at a half sprint in 30 seconds or less, 5 minutes into the workout. Unfortunately, I apparently cannot do math and exercise at the same time because I kept thinking 100 meters was the same as .10 miles. I realized my error and started fixing my calculations. I finally figured out that 100 meters was actually .0625 miles, which made .10 miles 160 meters. So, I really ran 160 meters in 30 seconds or less. Once I figured out the correct measurement, I tried to do .25 miles (400 meters) in 75 seconds. Yeah, that didn't happen. I did get it in 90 seconds, though. My last challenge to myself was at the end of the workout where I tried to do .125 miles (200 meters) in 45 seconds. That didn't happen, either, but it was close. I did .10 in 45 seconds.

Anyway, in the last two times I was challenging myself, I was running at probably 3/4 sprint. Not an all-out zombie apocalypse sprint....more like a chasing a Triumph player through the woods sprint (some of you will appreciate that reference). It, naturally, raised my heart rate. I have a high resting heart rate as it is--anywhere from mid-90s to 120s. When I started the workout, my heart rate was 161. The highest it got was 192. I was hydrating myself and being cognizant of my limits, as well as taking it really slowly after each increased speed. I knew I was spent after 30 minutes, so we called it a day. Hopefully my feet will forgive me, but they are still sore on the top where my nerve problem is, so that's probably asking too much.

Tomorrow is another day toward my goal of feeling better about myself. I think today was a good start.